Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s11: § 6. Marquess Wellesley's plan of war matured beforehand
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s11
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§ 6. Marquess Wellesley's plan of war matured beforehand
v4.c56.s11.1
For the coming war, everything had been foreseen and provided for by the Governor-General and his staff of highly gifted assistants with marvellous speed and efficiency. On the military side his plan was to distribute the Bengal, Madras and Bombay armies in such a way "as should enable a general and combined attack to be made as nearly as possible at the same time, on the united army of Sindhia and the Raja of Berar in the Deccan, on Perron's establishment in the Doab, and on every assailable part of the dominions of those princes in all quarters of Hindustan."* The decisive sectors were the Doab, where Perron had to be crushed, and the Deccan where Daulat Rao and Raghuji Bhonslé were present in person. Generals Lake and Arthur Wellesley, who respectively commanded these two Northern and Southern main armies, were given by the Governor-General full instructions beforehand and invested with plenary powers to conduct the military operations and all diplomatic negotiations and settlements necessary for the fulfilment of the main object. General Lake being within nine days' postal communication with Calcutta, Marquess Wellesley had discussed the British policy and plans to the minutest detail with him and wisely yielded to the soldier's view that the first task of the British army must be the destruction of Perron's forces and not the securing of the blind old Emperor's person and capital to which the Governor-General had at first wished to give priority. General Arthur Wellesley being three times as distant from Calcutta as Lake, and communication with him being very likely to be interrupted by enemy action, the Marquess had invested him with almost dictatorial authority for war and peace within his own sphere. Thus no loophole was left for delay or indecision in the operations by any need of referring to a distant superior authority.
v4.c56.s11.2
∗ "Never before in Hindustan, and seldom even in the most renowned military nations of Europe, have so many separate armies been supplied and equipped for actual service, within the short period of four months, and with such admirable arrangement set in motion at the same time, from points so distant. . . . On the plains of Delhi and amidst the mountains of the Deccan, on the shores of Cuttack and on those of Gujrat, the banners of England were to be at once displayed." As. An. Reg. for 1803, p. 37-39.
v4.c56.s11.3
Lord Wellesley's original plan was to strike early and conclude the war before rainy season started (in July.) For this his arrangements were completed and the various British divisions posted near their points of attack, fully supplied with provisions and transport, and made ready for prompt action, during the months of March to June 1803. But Daulat Rao spun the negotiations with Resident Collins, and the Marquess, too, delayed showing his mailed fist, as he clung to a faint hope that war might not after all be necessary and that Sindhia would see reason and enter into the general system of protective subsidiary alliances on which Wellesley had set his heart. That hope finally faded away on 1st August 1803, when Sindhia gave Collins a declaration of war. The news of the rupture of peace reached the Governor-General in Calcutta on the 28th of that month, and the war-machine so carefully prepared by the English was at once started.