Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s17: § 5. Battle of Patparganj (Delhi): defeat of Bourquien, 11th September
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s17
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§ 5. Battle of Patparganj (Delhi): defeat of Bourquien, 11th September
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Inspired by the news of his enemy’s confusion, General Lake hurried his advance, and after marching 18 miles in one day, crossed the Hindan rivulet about five miles east of Patparganj, a large village six miles south of Delhi, but on the left bank of the Jamunā. Arrived here at 11 A.M. on the 11th of September, his tired soldiers set to pitching their camp, while their picquets advanced to reconnoitre. It was then suddenly discovered that the Maratha army from Delhi had taken post only a mile and a half from the new British camp.
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Lake advanced with his entire cavalry force of three regiments—the 27th Light Dragoons and two Sepoy regiments—and found the enemy occupyintg a formidable position, on a rising ground, in full force and complete order of battle. Their long line had each flank covered by a swamp, and their rear rested on three high villages from Patparganj in the south-west to Ghāzipur in the north-east. A line of entrenchments mounted with numerous artillery, defended their front, the whole of which was concealed by a high grass jungle.†
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∗ That battle was delivered to Lake on the initiative of the sepoys in Delhi is also the testimony of Pester, who notes in his Diary, “The enemy felt so confident of the effect of their artillery, that it was said their officers could not restrain them, and that they were resolved to decide the contest on the Doab side of the Jamunā.” [War and Sport, 172.] James Skinner, who was present at Aligarh at this time, reported that Sindhia’s troops in Delhi, “finding that Bourquien was as bad as Perron, put him in confinement, and one of the native commandants, named Sarwar Khan, taking the command, twelve battalions crossed the Jamunā” to Patparganj. [Fraser, i. 275.] † The Kāns or Saccharum spontaneum, growing 12 to 15 feet high.
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As the British cavalry came up, the enemy opened a heavy fire which revealed the exact extent of his lines. Lake clung to his position in front of the enemy and called up his infantry and guns from the camp two miles in the rear. They took an hour to arrive, and during this enforced halt the British cavalry suffered heavy losses in men and horses. Lake’s own horse was shot under him.
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The veteran British commander saw that a frontal attack on such a position was impossible. Therefore, making a feint, he ordered his cavalry to retire towards their camp in the rear. This risky manœuvre was carried out with the utmost order and regularity. The enemy, shouting in exultation that the English were beaten, rushed out of their entrenchments. But in the meantime, Lake’s infantry had come up from the camp, his cavalry ceased to fall back, and turning to the right, made room for the infantry, who pressing to the front formed the first line of battle. The cavalry took post in the second line, forty yards to the right rear.
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The entire British force of 4,500 men—of whom only one-third of the cavalry and one-eighth of the infantry were Europeans and the rest Indians,—marched against the enemy in the face of a tremendous fire of round, grape and chain shot from nearly 80 guns. But such was their steadiness that their infantry advanced as if on parade, without taking their muskets from their shoulders, till they came within a hundred paces of the enemy. Then the order to charge was given, the infantry fired a volley, the drums struck up, and amidst the ringing cheers of the troops, they rushed upon the enemy, Lake as usual riding before them. Sindhia’s infantry did not wait to face the bayonets flashing under the noonday sun, but fled away in all directions. The enemy’s first line was captured.
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Then the British infantry stopped, and broke into columns of companies, through the intervals of which the whole body of their cavalry with their galloper guns pressed forward and drove the enemy back to the bank of the Jamunā, where large numbers of the fugitives perished in trying to cross the river. "The Flying Artillery was up, and the river appeared boiling by the fire of grape kept up on those of the enemy who had taken to the river. It was literally, for a time, a stream of blood." [Pester, 167.]
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The pursuit was kept up till sunset, when the field was cleared of all but the dead and the dying and the abandoned artillery and stores of the enemy. Only two battalions of the defeated army managed to escape destruction and rallied at Tapal.
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It was a splendid victory; it completed the work begun at Aligarh by destroying Perron's entire field army. But a heavy price had to be paid for it. The British-Indian force had marched 18 miles, had been under arms for over 16 hours continuously on an intensely hot day,* and fought a far larger army of men holding a strongly prepared position with numerous heavy artillery, to which the British could oppose only light gallopers. The loss of the victors was 47 officers and 414 other ranks, a total of 461 men (out of whom 116 were Europeans), besides 170 horses.