The main body of the army, which had been left at Delhi on the 1st November, moved in the direction of Govindhur, and on the 13th attacked the Mahratta army under the walls of Deig, gained a complete victory, and captured 87 guns, all mounted on field-carriages, and fitted with elevating screws and every apparatus; among them were six of the 18–pounders presented to the Mahrattas in 1791, and (which must have been a pleasing circumstance to Colonel Monson, who fell into the command on the death of Major-General Fraser) fourteen of the guns, nine tumbrils, and four casts of those which had been lost in his disastrous campaign.
In this action the artillery lost 4 Europeans and 5 natives killed; 6 Europeans and 19 natives wounded: Captain Butler had a horse killed under him.
Lord Lake followed Holkar from Futtehgurh on the 20th; crossed the Jumna near Muttra, on the 28th; sent on the captured guns to Agra, and ordered out a battering-train, which joining him on the 10th, he moved towards Deig, and on the 13th took up a position. Trenches were opened during the night, and a breach being ready by the 23rd, the place was carried by storm. Captain Raban accompanied the storming party with a detail of artillery to spike the guns, and distinguished himself by the way in which he performed this duty.
Lieutenant Groves, of the artillery, was killed on the 20th December, and Lieutenant T. D. Smith wounded; 100 guns were taken, together with many tumbrils.
The details of this siege, as well as those of Bhurtpoor, Gunnourie, Komona, and Adjegurh, are so fully recorded in that valuable publication the East-India Military Repository, that it would only unnecessarily swell this work, were more than the briefest allusion made, compatible with our object.
For this siege six or eight 18–pounders, four 8–inch and four 5½-inch mortars were all the siege ordnance available.
The insufficient provision of ordnance and stores for siege purposes will henceforth often strike the reader; and the question why—possessed, as Bengal is, of an inland navigation from one extremity of the presidency to the other, offering every facility for a speedy and cheap conveyance of stores—ample materials had not been pushed forward to meet our wants, must continually recur. The suddenness of the campaign cannot be admitted as a valid reason; the war had been deliberately entered on eighteen months before, and it was known that the enemy possessed many strongholds which required battering-trains for their reduction. The first campaign had given us Agra, a place admirably situated for a depôt, with reference to the scene of war, to which an adequate equipment should have been forwarded; but it was not done, and the want was severely felt in the course of this campaign. If ample supplies are not available against a fortified place, and it is absolutely necessary to reduce it, men’s lives must be substituted for shot and shells; in some cases, no doubt, time is most precious, and it may be a matter of calculation whether time or men can best be spared; but when near our own frontier, there can be no excuse for the improvidence which has failed to provide the requisite stores, and by that means to take from the commander the choice between expenditure of his troops or of the munitions of war.
In most we must attribute the blame to the cumbrous and inefficient machinery of the Military Board, in whose province lies the supervision of the magazines; but the Board, composed of many members, becomes a screen for individual responsibility, and this must always be the case until each member is vested with the sole control of the details of his own department, subject only to a discussion in the Board of the general question, that each may have the benefit of his colleagues’ opinions, and be made aware of what is going on in other departments, that all may work in concert.
The opinion above given of the inefficient state of our siege-trains is fully borne out by that recorded by the Marquis of Hastings in his “Summary,” when, speaking of Hattrass, he says, “One of my earliest military cares on arriving in India had been to satisfy myself why we had made so comparatively unfavourable a display in sieges.” The details at once unfolded the cause: it is well known that nothing can be more insignificant than shells thrown with long intervals; and we never brought forward more than four or five mortars where we undertook the capture of a fortified place. Hence the bombardment was futile, so that at last the issue was to be staked on mounting a breach and fighting hand to hand with a soldiery skilful as well as gallant, in defending the prepared intrenchments. This was not the oversight of the Bengal Artillery officers, for no men can be better instructed in the theory, or more careful in the practice of their profession than they are; it was imputable to a false economy on the part of government. The outlay for providing for the transport of mortars, shells, and platforms in due quantity would certainly have been considerable, and it was on that account forborne; the miserable carriages of the country, hired for the purpose, where a military exertion was contemplated, were utterly unequal to the service, and constantly failed under the unusual weight in the deep roads through which they had to pass. Therefore we never sat down before a place of real strength furnished with the means which a proper calculation would have allotted for its reduction.
These remarks have been particularly brought out by studying the details of the attack on Bhurtpoor, which next employed Lord Lake’s army, but which we shall not enter into, referring the reader to the same authority as mentioned when speaking of the siege of Deig, and contenting ourselves with a very concise account of the operations.