Throughout the centuries, there have been many different execution methods used across
many different countries. Some of the most brutal include being hanged, drawn and quartered
and in Asia they also used elephants to stomp condemned people to death. Certain places
became synonymous with execution also such as the Tower of London where three Queens
of England were executed on Tower Green losing their heads. But there was a method of execution
that is most well known for being used by British Colonials in India and it was completely
barbaric and would have led to someone being quite literally blown to bits. Blowing from
a gun was where a cannon was used, but on the end of the barrel was someone who was
condemned to death. Join us today as we look at one of History’s most brutal execution
methods. Remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Blowing from a gun it’s believed emerged as a method in the 16th century and it was
used even during the 1900s. It was believed that Portuguese explorer Francisco de Almeida
executed a number of people in 1509 using the method, and other Portuguese explorers
did the same. Francisco Barreto was accused at one time of blowing a number of prisoners
to pieces in Mozambique. It was a barbaric practice in which someone was tied to the
mouth of a cannon which was then fired, usually resulting in someone’s body being completely
destroyed. One account of the practice says, The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with
the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired,
his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly
off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance;
the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown
away altogether, not a vestige being seen.’
As mentioned it was most used and associated with the British who went over to conquer
places such as India, and it was used to execute rebels during rebellions such as the Indian
Rebellion of 1857. The British would execute sepoys who would desert or aid rebellions,
and they used the old Mughal punishment of lowing from a cannon to punish others. In
March 1764, native officer planned to get people to defect to an enemy force and with
this he was blown from a gun in front of his soldiers. More examples continued as the decades
rolled on, and in 1798 a mutiny amongst British Soldiers broke out, and the British executed
one of their own soldiers by blowing them from a canon. This is the only example of
a European being blown from a gun by the British. It was often used alongside other public punishments
such as flogging, and it had a profound effect on those who were summoned to watch the execution.
In 1806, the Vellore Mutiny began with a number of British soldiers and officers being killed
in their sleep, and reprisals resulted with six people being blown from a gun. Further
plots were discovered and further execution using the method was ordered.
But it was mostly used by the British to suppress the Indian Rebellion of 1857. There were a
huge number of executions ordered to put this down and to deter people from rising up, and
accounts of the executions do exist. In a journal, it documented that, ‘On 8 June,
two sepoys from the 35th light Infantry were blown from guns. 10 June, in Ludhiana, Peshawar,
some 40 from the 54th regiment were blown from guns. On 13 June, ten[50] sepoys from
the 45th Regiment at Firozpur were blown from guns, two hanged. The same day, in Ambala,
10 sepoys from the 54th regiment suffered the same fate. The 26th of the same month,
in Aurungabad, 1 was blown from a gun, 1 hanged, and 3 were shot. On 8 July, in Jhelum,
it is assumed that captured rebels would be blown away.
On the 19th, Aurungabad, 1 was blown away, 2 shot. On 5 September, Settara, 6 were blown
away. On 17 September, Multan, 1 was blown away, 121 were summarily executed. On 23 September,
in Karachi, 1 was blown away, 7 were hanged and 20 deported. (The local body count on
court-martialed individuals then came to 4 blown away, 14 hanged, 22 deported and 3 beheadings.)
At the end of October, in Rohilkhand near Agra, 1 was blown away. On 16 November, Bombay,
two sepoys from the 10th regiment were blown away.’ During a few months between May and
September 1857, 523 people were executed by the British in India, and 44 of them were
blown from a gun, with the most common method of execution being firing squad.
There were also accounts that Indian rebels captured British civilians and officers and
blew them from cannons during the rebellion, but this is disputed. The British continued
the brutal practice after the rebellion, and in 1871 had executed 65 Sikh’s by blowing
them from guns. As mentioned it had been used by the Mughals for a long time, and it was
used to punish certain crimes such as abduction and constant thievery. There were a number
of things that often went wrong during the executions also. For example in one execution
in 1857, it was ordered that blank cartridges should be used, but some cannons had been
loaded with grapeshot. This led to a number of spectators and members of the public being
hit by the grapeshot, which caused them to be hit with shrapnel and having to have limbs
amputated. Also some soldiers were not a significant distance backwards, and the British soldiers
were injured by flying pieces of bone and flesh.
There was another incident where a soldier who was to be show fell down just as the shot
went off. This was recorded and an eyewitness stated, ‘One wretched fellow slipped from
the rope by which he was tied to the guns just before the explosion, and his arm was
nearly set on fire. While hanging in his agony under the gun, a sergeant applied a pistol
to his head; and three times the cap snapped, the man each time wincing from the expected
shot. At last, a rifle was fired into the back of his head, and the blood poured out
of the nose and mouth like water from a briskly handled pump. This was the most horrible sight
of all. I have seen death in all its forms, but never anything to equal this man's end.’
As the condemned would be blown to bits, often birds of prey would circle above and would
eat the pieces of flesh that were thrown into the air and also dogs would rush to the scene
to devour the remains of a human who had been blown from a gun.
It was also used in Afghanistan for a while, and was even used as late as the 1920s to
destroy political opponents. During the 1880s, the Emir of Afghanistan was known for executing
5000 people a year, and many of these were done using cannons. The method of execution
was incredibly barbaric and terrible, and it would result in someone just being destroyed
by cannon fire. When comparing methods of execution, blowing from a gun has to be up
there as one of the most dangerous and distressing to have witnessed. The British used it in
India to send a clear message to any possible rebels or deserters to fall into line with
their colonial rule.
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