A History of the Mahrattas v2.c37.63

v2.c37.63

The division under Colonel Hartley were for upwards of a month engaged in daily skirmishes; a great deal of their ammunition was expended, and the sick, many of whom were wounded, amounted to six hundred, which, with his detachments, reduced his number to little more than two thousand effective men. Having heard that the enemy intended to throw succours into Bassein and cut off his communication with that place, it being no longer possible to cover the country, Colonel (Dec. 8.) Hartley judiciously moved to Titwalla on the 8th of December, from thence he continued his march towards Doogaur, nine miles east of Bassein. The Bombay Government, over-anxious to recover the revenue, disapproved of his quitting the neighbourhood of the Bhore Ghaut, but they were not fully aware of the strength of the Mahratta army, or the experience and enterprise of the principal commander, Ramchundur Gunnesh. Finding that the precautions of Goddard had effectually prevented an attempt to succour Bassein, the Mahrattas had determined to make amends for its loss by the destruction of the covering army. On the 10th December, their united force, amounting in horse and foot to upwards of twenty thousand men, thrice attacked the Bombay division in front and rear, but were each time steadily repulsed. Five thousand of their horse made a spirited charge on the left of Hartley’s line, but they were so well received that no impression was made, and the troops sustained but little loss, having only eighteen killed or wounded; two, however, were officers, Lieutenants Drew and Cooper. On the ensuing day the attack was renewed, the horse (Dec. 11.) did not charge, but the Mahratta guns did considerable execution, and the division lost Lieutenants Cowan and Peirson, with upwards of one hundred men; the troops, however, though weakened and harassed during a period of nearly six weeks’ constant fighting, behaved most gallantly, and ‘their conduct,’ says Colonel Hartley, in his spirited but modest dispatches, ‘only confirms me in the high opinion I shall ever have of them.’