After brief periods of command at Corfu, Dover, and Shorncliffe, Barnard was appointed to the staff in Bengal, and reached Umballa, to take over the Sirhind division, towards the end of April 1857, when rumours of impending unrest were gathering fast. On 10 May occurred the outbreaks at Meerut and Delhi, the vague tidings of which reaching Umballa were at once sent on by Barnard, and gave the first warning of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 to the commander-in-chief, General George Anson, then at Simla. Upon Anson's death at Kurnaul a fortnight later, Barnard received in charge the scanty force available for the movement against Delhi, and at its head he struck a heavy blow at the mutineers, at the Battle of Badli-ki-Serai, on 8 June following, taking up his position on the ridge commanding the north-west front of the city of Delhi the same evening, and laying siege to the city.