Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c51.s7: § 7. De Boigne's Corps—its organisation fully described, its efficiency accounted for
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c51.s7
- Language
- English
§ 7. De Boigne's Corps—its organisation fully described, its efficiency accounted for
v4.c51.s7.1
We possess the most correct description of the strength and organisation of De Boigne's corps, in an official note prepared for the Governor-General Sir John Shore in Nov. 1793, and printed by me in the *Poona Residency Correspondence* series, Vol. i. pp. 392-397.
v4.c51.s7.2
At that time the corps contained two brigades of regular infantry. Each brigade had ten battalions of which six were armed with muskets (*i.e.*, flintlocks.) and called Telingās, and four with matchlocks, called Najibs (an inferior class, composed of Pathans, dressed in the Persian style.) Eight companies, each of 68 men (namely 52 privates, 12 officers, two bandsmen and two *bhistis*) formed a battalion, which by adding 23 members of the staff (namely 10 officers, one surgeon, two clerks, three couriers, one *bhisti* major, five musket-stock makers and one *pandit*) gave a total strength of 567 men. Besides these, twenty-four recruits under four officers were attached to each battalion like apprentices, but they did not count in actions. (They drew two annas a day until incorporated in the rank and file at Rs. 5 a month.)
v4.c51.s7.3
Each battalion had two European officers, namely a Captain on Rs. 400 and a lieutenant on Rs. 200, and one European sergeant-Major on Rs. 60. The highest Indian officer was the subahdar on Rs. 40 a month.
v4.c51.s7.4
To each brigade, 1,000 Ruhelas were attached, in order to spare the regular troops the exertion of attacking hills, fortified villages, &c. They were called the *Ali-ghol*.
v4.c51.s7.5
The cavalry was made up of two distinct bodies: (i) the Guard Regiment or Regulars and (ii) the horsemen attached to each brigade.
v4.c51.s7.6
The Regiment of Regular Cavalry was mounted on good horses which were the property of De Boigne (almost exclusively of the bay colour, and each worth, on an average, from three to four hundred rupees—Twining 276.) It was a choice corps, magnificently equipped and mounted in imitation of the famous and costly Bengal Cavalry of the East India Company, and it really formed the guard of De Boigne for ceremonial occasions. This Regiment was made up of 300 men and officers, sub-divided into four *risālas* of four platoons each. By adding 75 irregular horse for skirmishing and 32 gunners for the four galloper guns attached to it, the full strength of the corps was raised to 407 men and horses. De Boigne, when leaving India, sold this cavalry regiment and its horses and equipment to the British for Rs. 1,60,000. [*P.R.C.* viii. 203.]
v4.c51.s7.7
To each brigade of infantry were attached two *risālas* of regular horse (150 men and officers) and 50 irregulars composed of the bravest and best mounted men for skirmishing, reconnoitring, &c. These were all *silahdārs*, *i.e.*, they had to provide and feed their own horses, for a higher pay (double for the officers and treble for the troopers) than the Guard Regiment. No European was employed in the cavalry.
v4.c51.s7.8
De Boigne's genius was best shown in the creation of his artillery and supply services, and his foresight in this field may excite our admiration even today. No other campoo had even a tenth of his efficient arrangement.
v4.c51.s7.9
Each infantry battalion had five guns attached to it, making a total of 100 field pieces for the 20 battalions of the two brigades. Four galloper guns (three pounders) were attached to the Regiment of Cavalry. In addition there was the great Park of Artillery with an establishment of a thousand men. The ammunition carried into the field was provided on a liberal scale unknown elsewhere in India, namely 45 rounds of grape and 12 shells for each howitzer, 400 rounds for each three-pounder and 300 rounds for each six-pounder field-piece. Each gun was drawn by eight bullocks, and its tumbril by 12 bullocks. The gallopers were drawn each by two horses. Eight mounted gunners worked a galloper; it was *never* unlimbered, so as to be ready for firing without a moment's delay. Four camels carried 240 rounds in all for each galloper.
v4.c51.s7.10
His army service branch was fully organized: Each battalion had two camels to carry 8 large bell-tents, principally intended for the sick; two other camels carried the tents of the *Golāndāzes*, *Khalāsis*, &c. attached to the guns, and 16 camels the sepoys' baggage,—a total of 20 camels; also two hackery carts to carry the arms of the sick, the tools of the sappers and wood-cutters, the foraging ropes, &c.
v4.c51.s7.11
In the campaign in Rajputana, camels carried large leather-bags full of water into the field for refreshing his soldiers. The Marathas had no such arrangement, and Holkar's troops at Lakheri suffered unspeakable agonies for this neglect.
v4.c51.s7.12
De Boigne's consideration for his soldiers was unapproached by any Indian prince. "Every officer and soldier when wounded, received a certain present, in proportion to his wound, from 15 days to 3 or 4 months' pay, without any stoppage of pay during the time of his cure. The disabled of his army had a pension for life to the amount of half their pay, and lands besides; and the relations of the killed and of those who died of their wounds, got the property of the deceased." (L. F. Smith, as quoted in Atkinson, ii. 113.)
v4.c51.s7.13
At Firuzabad De Boigne established his arsenal for making muskets. His gun-foundries were in charge of Sangster, originally a Scottish watch-maker who possessed great mechanical talent and had obtained the command of René Madec's corps, after it was sold to the Rana of Gohad; in 1784 he passed into Sindhia's service on the submission of the Rana.
v4.c51.s7.14
“Sangster was a Scotchman. . . . In the work of casting cannon and manufacturing small arms, he was an expert. The cannon he turned out could compare with the best the (E.I.) Company manufactured, whilst his muskets, produced at a cost of ten rupees each, were excellent in every respect, . . . superior to anything then in the hands of the native Powers, and almost equal in finish and durability to weapons made in Europe. De Boigne at first appointed him to the charge of the arsenal at Agra. . . . In process of time other arsenals and magazines were established at Mathura, Delhi, Gwalior, Kalpi and Gohad, of all of which he had the superintendence. (Twining mentions his musket factory at Firuzabad also, and the Chambery Mémoire of De Boigne, cannon foundries at Hodal and Palwal.) The cannon-balls were cast at Gwalior, where there were very fine iron mines; and gunpowder was manufactured at Agra, the saltpetre and sulphur being imported from Bikanir.” (H. Compton, 47 and 387. Twining, 187.)
v4.c51.s7.15
In the last decade of the 18th century the fire-power of the campoo was greatly increased by the constant drilling of the sepoys by De Boigne and his European officers and the use of brass screw-guns, devised and cast by European engineers, which excited the admiration of Wellington. That general wrote after his victory at Assaye, “We have got more than 90 guns, seventy of which are the finest brass ordnance I have ever seen.” The ordnance captured from Sindhia’s northern army after the battle of Delhi (11 Sep. 1803) are thus described—“The iron guns are of European manufacture; the brass guns, mortars and howitzers have been cast in India (at Mathurā, Ujjain, &c.), but the whole are evidently from the design and execution of an European artist. The workmanship is of as high a finish as any in the (E.I.) Company’s arsenal. . . . The whole of the pieces are furnished with well-made elevating screws; some are of the latest French improvement. . . . The (gun-) carriages are strong and good; some are neatly made according to the French pattern." (Wellington's *Suppl. Despatches*, iv. 180; *Wellesley Despatches*, iii. 668.)
v4.c51.s7.16
In the armament of our indigenous armies there was nothing approaching these guns in the rapidity, volume and devastating effect of their grape-firing.
v4.c51.s7.17
§ 8. De Boigne's service-history under Sindhia
v4.c51.s7.18
We can trace the growth of De Boigne's corps and of his military fiefs, with full details and exact dates, from the Marathi despatches and Persian news-letters, and thus correct the many errors found in the English and French books on that general, particularly Herbert Compton's *Particular Account of the European Military Adventurers in India*. De Boigne (Le borgne de Boigne) first joined Sindhia's army as an officer of his General Apā Khandé Rao at the end of 1784, and first saw service in the Bundelkhand campaign of that chief (1785). Along with Apā Khandé Rao he came to Sindhia's camp before Lālsot on 26th June 1787, at the head of two battalions of trained sepoys (1,300 bayonets in all.) He and his men fought for Mahādji most loyally during the reverses that followed the Lālsot campaign for a year. But on 17th June 1788 the tide turned. De Boigne's two battalions and one of Lesteneau greatly assisted in Sindhia's decisive victory over Mirzā Ismail Beg outside Agra on that day.
v4.c51.s7.19
Lesteneau was an older soldier than De Boigne and with a longer Indian experience gained in the armies of Najaf Khan and the Jat Rajah. While pursuing Ghulām Qādir (in December 1788) he captured that Ruhelā's saddle-bags stuffed with looted jewels, and on returning to Agra he drew his soldiers' pay from Sindhia but escaped to Europe with all that cash and his jewellery* (early in 1789).
v4.c51.s7.20
∗ Lesteneau (spelt also Loustenau and Lestineau) reappears in 1813 in the circle of Lady Hester Stanhope in Syria, as "a strange ragged individual, with grizzly uncombed hair, and wild burning eyes", who sponged on Lady Hester by persuading her that he was a religious mystic, a raving prophet with mad eyes, foretelling the doom of Europe. The Gallic cock crowed very much indeed in giving the following history of his life :—"A Bearnais adventurer, he had left home to seek adven-
v4.c51.s7.21
His deserted sepoys broke out in mutiny for their eight months' arrears of pay. Mahādji, by the advice of De Boigne compounded their claims for one-half in cash, and disbanded the battalion. But the officers were retained, and the best of the privates were re-enlisted by De Boigne to form a new battalion.
v4.c51.s7.22
Throughout the year 1789, Mahādji was heavily involved in financial difficulties. He was over head and ears in debt, and owed 34 months' salary to his Deccani troops. When, therefore, De Boigne asked for funds to expand his three battalions into a brigade, Mahādji refused, and the Savoyard General, unable to maintain his corps on mere credit, gave up Sindhia's service and retired to Lucknow, where he engaged in a profitable trade along with his friend Claud Martin. From March to August Mahādji's affairs were in confusion owing to his long illness followed by his quarrel with Ali Bahādur and Tukoji Holkar. But in the early winter of that year, he was fully recovered, and a rupture with Mirzā Ismail Beg and in consequence of it a renewal of war with the Mirzā's pay-masters, the Rajahs of Jaipur and Marwar, loomed nearer and nearer. So, Mahādji sent an agent to De Boigne begging him to return to his service and raise a full brigade on his own terms. De Boigne agreed, and promptly reached Mahādji's camp, (October 1789.) He set himself to enlisting men and officers, providing their arms and uniforms, and establishing an arsenal and cannon-foundry of his own. The three old battalions—two of his own and the third mainly made up of
v4.c51.s7.23
ture in the East. . . The Rajah (Sindhia) gave him the command of a regiment. His victories over the English (!!!) were so spectacular that in a few years he had become one of the wealthiest and most venerated men in the country. Pigeon-blood rubies and enormous diamonds were showered on him by a grateful Rajah. But in spite of being offered the pick of the Rajah's concubines, he married a French girl, who bore him several children, and as soon as they were old enough to travel, he returned to France, after an absence of 18 years, where he lost his all in the Revolution and speculations. On the way back to India, he fell seriously ill at Acre and the disease affected his brain. In 1820, his son, an ex-officer of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, came to Syria in search of his old father and became Lady Hester's lover. J. Haslip, Lady Hester Stanhope, Ch. 20 & 23.
v4.c51.s7.24
Lesteneau’s disbanded men—formed the nucleus of this brigade, and eight more battalions were composed of new recruits from the Doab and Oudh territory.* Five months of constant drilling by their European officers, often under De Boigne’s own eyes, turned them into first-class soldiers, and when they were sent to Rajputana under Gopāl Bhāu, they won the astonishing victories of Patan (20th June) and Mertā (10th September 1790.)
v4.c51.s7.25
After these unquestionable successes, De Boigne’s command was increased by adding a second brigade, and for their maintenance a military fief of the value of 12 lakhs of Rupees was granted to him by Sindhia as from the imperial Government. The grant is reported in a Marathi letter of 23rd August 1791, and it included Bāh-Panāhat in the Agra district and Jālesar (then attached to the Mathurā, but later to the Agra district.) *DY.* ii. 27, *HP.* 570.
v4.c51.s7.26
Still later, after his victory over Holkar at Lakheri (1st June 1793), De Boigne was commissioned to raise a third brigade, and his personal emoluments were more than doubled. So in July 1793, he was given a fresh military fief made up of 52 parganahs and worth 27 lakhs of Rupees a year, absorbing his first and smaller fief. The annual expense of the two brigades was 18 lakhs of Rupees.†
v4.c51.s7.27
† DY. ii. 95, 96, 101. Probably Hāpur and Garh-Muktesar were also included, as is hinted in DY. ii.
v4.c51.s7.28
His estate now consisted of two large areas, one in the central Doāb with Koil (Aligarh) for its headquarters, and another in Mewāt (Gurgaon district.) The following mahals are specially named—Firuzābād, Hathrās, Khurjā, and Koil (all in the Doāb) and Palwal, Hodal and Sohnā (all in the Gurgaon district.)
v4.c51.s7.29
∗ W. Palmer, the British Resident in Sindhia’s camp, on 28th January 1790, reported, “The corps formed by Mr. D. B. consists of nearly 5,000 sepoys and 350 Indostany horse” (PRC. i. No. 257). Nana Fadnis’s agent in Sindhia’s camp, reported early in March, “De Boigne has newly formed a campoo of eleven battalions.” (HP. No. 570). The number of battalions was evidently increased to 13 before the battle of Merta. Full history in Kālē Akh.
v4.c51.s7.30
⁶⁶ He held Jālesar in 1794, acc. to DY. ii.
v4.c51.s7.31
⁸⁵ PRC. i. No. 283 and 284. Atkinson, ii.
v4.c51.s7.32
¹¹⁴ Compton, 277. Martineau, p.
v4.c51.s7.33
¹⁵² The annual cost of a brigade was Rs. 6,72,000 when serving in Hindustan, and half as much again (as bātā) when serving south of the Chambal, which would raise it to ten lakhs. Besides this, De Boigne enjoyed a personal jāgir of Rs. 1,20,500 a year on both sides of the Jamunā.
v4.c51.s7.34
Perron raised a fourth brigade at the end of 1801 and a fifth in 1802. His total revenue collection in 1802 reached 80 lakhs of Rupees a year, the Doab mahals alone yielding 75 lakhs. At the moment of his submission to the English (Sep. 1803), he had under him 5 brigades, formed by 40 battalions of 700 men each, 5,000 cavalry, and 6,240 men in the artillery,—a total of 39,000 souls.