The Delhi road, running south-westwards from the Begum's Bridge and passing just west of Meerut city, forks a little farther on: one branch turns off sharply to the west to Baghput on the Jumna, the other is the direct road to Delhi on its south-westerly course. The distance to Baghput is about thirty miles: here the Jumna could be crossed by a bridge of boats and on the western bank the traveller could take a road southwards which brought him first to the cantonment of Delhi upon the Ridge and then to the Kashmir Gate in the northern wall of the city, a distance of about twenty miles from the river crossing, making fifty miles altogether from Meerut. By the direct road, the distance from Meerut to Delhi is about thirty-eight miles: the main stages were Begumabad at twelve to thirteen miles; Mooradnagar at eighteen to nineteen miles; and Ghaziuddinnagar (now Ghaziabad) at about twenty-nine miles. Just beyond the last place, the road crossed the Hindan River by a bridge and so came to the eastern end of the Delhi bridge of boats across the Jumna, below the north-eastern corner of the Red Fort (or more accurately of the separate fort of Selimgarh). Across the bridge of boats was the Calcutta Gate in the eastern face of the city wall.

The bulk of the sowars and sepoys who left Meerut at nightfall on 10 May took the direct road to Delhi.