Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s9.1

v4.c56.s9.1

On the British side, the military preparations for the coming war were worthy of a race that deserves to win an empire, because it provides for everything that can be thought of beforehand and leaves very little to be clumsily improvised under the stress of actual conflict. In Northern India the Commander-in-chief, General Lake, was in the full vigour of body and mind. From his 17th year he had received the best apprenticeship in war by serving close to Frederick the Great, and since then he had gathered experience in a successsion of Continental and American wars. More recently he had proved himself an active and clever leader, by the ruthless energy with which he had crushed the Irish rebels of Vinegar Hill (1798.) After landing in Calcutta on 31 January 1801, he set up his head-quarters at Cawnpur, then the frontier station of the Company's territory, and here he spent the winter of 1802-3 in personally training his men and officers in the new tactics that would ensure success against an enemy like the Marāthas.