The Story of the British Army

by Charles Cooper King

For a combined movement was organised. Wellesley took charge of the Deccan, Lake that of the Ganges, while other minor columns, under Stevenson, Murray, Campbell, and Harcourt, threatened other points of the Mahratta Confederacy.

The struggle was of no long duration. Wellesley and Stevenson moved in two columns against Scindia, and took Ahmednuggur; but, unable to concentrate in time, only Wellesley’s column was engaged in the battle of Assaye that followed, so that only 4500 British troops were opposed to some 30,000 of the enemy. Disproportionate as the numbers were, the soundest policy was to attack. To stand on the defensive would have been but to increase the enemy’s morale, and to betray a weakness, or rather a hesitation, that with Asiatics is fatal. The battle was short, sanguinary, and successful. The Mahrattas were badly beaten, a hundred guns being captured, but at a loss of some 600 killed, and 1500 wounded.

The 74th and 78th Regiments bore the brunt of the battle, to the success of which the charge of the 19th Light Dragoons largely contributed. Here it was that the general’s quick eye for ground was evidenced. With so small an army, to get protection for the flanks was essential, especially bearing in mind the threatening masses of the enemy’s cavalry. So, through noticing that there were two houses directly opposite to one another on either bank of the river Krishna, he surmised that this indicated a ford, and, crossing there, advanced against the enemy with the flanks of his two lines resting on the river and a tributary stream. He recognised, too, that though weak in numbers and not concentrated, to fight was wiser than retreat, and that in such a terrain a small, determined, well-directed army could act victoriously, if vigorously handled, against an unwieldy mass, which such ground cramped. None the less it was running a grave risk; but his own coolness and steadiness, and, above all, his power of directing a battle, were never more clearly shown.

So the battle was won, and well won, by skill against the brute force of numbers. It was Wellesley’s first battle as a general in command, and with the battle of Argaum which followed, the Mahratta power was completely broken. The war in South-west India was over.

Meanwhile, Lake had not been idle in the northern theatre of war. He had captured Alighur, and had won a brilliant victory at Delhi. His whole force there numbered but 4500 as against 13,000 infantry, 60 guns, and 6000 cavalry, led in many cases by French officers, but the infantry marched up to within eighty yards of the enemy with their “firelocks” at the shoulder, covered by the cavalry, who by a feigned retreat drew the enemy from his entrenchments, and then, wheeling to either flank, exposed the would-be pursuing enemy to the fire of the infantry line, which, having repulsed them, re-formed column for the cavalry to complete the rout. It is a very good illustration of the tactical formation of the time against such adversaries.

Restoring Shah Allum to the throne of the Moguls, Lake speedily followed up his victory by seizing Agra, and then still more decisively defeated Scindia’s army at Laswarree. In the preliminary skirmish the cavalry brigade, composed of the Royal Irish Hussars, the 27th and 29th Dragoons, and the native regiments, showed the greatest gallantry in checking the enemy’s retreat. During a long night march of nearly twenty-five miles, and in the battle itself, the 76th distinguished itself by its coolness and gallantry as throughout the campaign. The fighting in this battle showed more desperate tenacity than in any other previous battle in India. The loss to the British was about one-fifth of a force of some 4000 men, and the enemy stubbornly contested the ground, foot by foot and gun by gun. The operations of the other column had been equally successful, and though Holkar still fought on, the war ceased in 1805, and Cuttack was annexed. During these operations the 8th, 27th, and 29th Light Dragoons, and the 22nd, 65th, 75th, 76th, and 86th regiments had been employed in India. Thus practically terminated Wellesley’s active Indian career; as did that of Lake, not long after, by death.

To both men is largely due the extension of our own Empire by the destruction of those of the Indian princelets. Lake’s bravery, his boldness even to rashness, is everywhere remarkable. On more than one occasion in this very war he had personally led the attacks, as Wellesley had, in his battles, directed them. He “was a man whose influence with his soldiers was unbounded, whose calmness in danger, whose self-reliance, and whose power of commanding confidence have never been surpassed. He had but one way of dealing with the native armies of India, that of moving straight forward, of attacking them wherever he found them. He never was so great as on the battlefield. He could think more clearly under the roar of bullets than in the calmness and quiet of his tent. In this respect he resembled Clive. It was this quality which enabled him to dare the almost impossible. That which in others would have been rash, in Lake was prudent daring.”[56]

Of course in all such cases much depends on the arms and tactical system of the adversary. With most, if not all, of the native levies it seems to have been an axiom to avoid a decisive engagement save in overwhelming numbers; and rather to seek, by retiring before and ravaging the country, to deprive the enemy of supplies, while at the same time his flank and rear were harassed by cavalry masses.

Such seems to have been the tactical method of the armies both Lake and Wellesley had to meet. Of Lake’s own views in the matter there is nothing especially recorded; but of the last-mentioned general it is stated that he gave the following advice to his coadjutor in the Mahratta war:—“Suppose that you determine to have a brush with the enemy, do not attack their positions, because they always take up such as are confoundedly strong and difficult of access, for which the banks of rivers afford them facilities. Do not remain in your own position, however strong it may be, or however well you may have entrenched it; but when you shall hear that they are on the march to attack you, secure your baggage and move out of your camp. You will find them in the common disorder of march; they will not have time to form, which, being but half-disciplined troops, is necessary for them. At all events, you will have the advantage of making the attack on ground which they have not chosen for the battle; a part of their troops only will be engaged, and you will gain an easy victory.”

This was sound advice, and obtained for many years after the writer had returned to Europe, where this “General of Sepoys,” as Napoleon dubbed him, was to see harder work and a different style of fighting than Assaye.