Originally, Colonelganj was a small village known as Sakrora. In 1780, the king of Oudh State dispatched a British force, led by one Major Byng, to the area to subdue local rulers across the Gogra and bring them back under the nazims of Gonda and Bahraich. The British made an encampment at Sakrora and maintained it for 8 years. A few years later, in 1802, another British force under one Colonel Fooks reoccupied the old encampment at Sakrora. When a bazaar sprang up, it was named Colonelganj in his honour. The new encampment at Colonelganj lasted until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when it was abandoned.