Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c58.s2: § 2. Arthur Wellesley's forces and plan of war
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c58.s2
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§ 2. Arthur Wellesley's forces and plan of war
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The force appointed to oppose Sindhia in the Deccan consisted of two divisions ; the first, directly under the supreme commander, Major General Arthur Wellesley, was 11,153 strong, out of whom 2,164 were British and 8,989 were sepoys, the Indian element being a little over four to one. The other division was made up of the Haidarabad Subsidiary Force, under Colonel James Stevenson, subordinate to Wellesley, and contained 9,459 men out of whom the Europeans were only one-tenth (or 890 against 8,569 sepoys.) This latter force had no European cavalry with it, and its strength in regular horse was only 1,022, against Wellesley's 2,172 sabres.* A body of the Nizām's irregular cavalry and rabble infantry under Sakho Rudra followed Wellesley, but more as a distraction than a help, because of their frequent desertion during the campaign. The General complained, "The Nizām's horse are very useless," and again, "The Nizām's troops behave so ill," &c. He was troubled also by treachery (fitur) among their officers. [Gurwood, ed. of 1837, ii. 302, 303. Kharé, xiv. 6693. Sup. D. iv. 173.]
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Arthur Wellesley had thought out a clear plan for fighting the Marathas, in anticipation of the war. He had solved the problem of ensuring the regular supply of food and munitions on which the speed and effectiveness of his troops depended, by trial and error during his long chase of Dhundiā Wāgh in 1800. The essence of his strategy was never to let the Maratha raiders remain undisturbed at any place long enough to plunder it and feed themselves.* This implied that his own troops should be always ready to set out at a moment's notice and drive the enemy about without being compelled to halt anywhere by the lack of provisions. His primary object was to keep his marching troops self-sufficient in respect of their food and stores, while the enemy's predatory horse was weakened by the necessity of living on the country and thus antagonising the local people.
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∗ The above figures are taken from Fortescue's Hist. of Br. Army, v. 15. To arrive at his total this author adds one-eight to the bayonet and sabre strength for "officers, sergeants &c."
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To secure this self-sufficiency, General Wellesley required a fortified depot for his food, munitions, and replacements of transport,—and even cattle fodder,—not far from his marching army, so as to avoid dependence on the base at Haidarabad, 500 miles away, or the one at Bombay, the path from which was most difficult and insecure. The providing of escorts for such long lines of transport would have greatly reduced his fighting strength and the speed of his movements. He solved this problem by capturing Ahmadnagar. With such an impregnable base close behind and his famous Mysore bullocks well fed, he could march 23 miles a day in excellent fighting condition, and thus counter the noted mobility of the Maratha horse. His practically-designed basket-boats (coracles) and pontoons of copper-sheet barrels carried on bullock-carts, enabled him to ferry his army over the rivers and overtake the enemy at will.
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On 8th August, General Wellesley started from his camp at Wālki, eight miles south of Ahmadnagar. Next day after a three hours' assault he captured the walled city lying outside the fort of Ahmadnagar. Three days later he completed his task when he gained possession of that famous fortress itself by opening a severe bombardment and at the same time seducing the garrison by granting them very liberal terms for surrender. In this safe and central base, he planted his main depot and hospital. Then he faced his problem of guarding both the Punā district on his west and the Nizām’s territory on his east and north from the enemy’s raids.*
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∗ Gurwood, ii. 203, 239, 251. Fortescue, Hist. of Br. Army, v. 8, 19. Sup. Desp. iv. 97-98, 73, 109.
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§ 3. Daulat Rao Sindhia's plans and first movements, August 1803
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Daulat Rao had declared war against the English on 1st August, and yet for more than three weeks he made no use of his undoubtedly superior strength. In fact, his counsellors only talked and waited. Their plan was to persuade Jaswant Rao Holkar to join them, after which the three sardārs would march together to Punā with the consent of the Peshwā, and induce him to discharge his English protectors and call a conference of all his feudatories which would restore the Marātha empire to its normal condition as before the death of Tukoji Holkar. This nice scheme depended for its success on two conditions: first, that Jaswant Rao Holkar would heartily join Daulat Rao without being guaranteed the old absolute parity of their two houses, and secondly, that the Peshwā would prefer Jaswant or Daulat Rao to the English as his protectors. The utter hollowness of these hopes was proved by the panic which seized Punā at the mere report that their three highest sardārs intended to visit their master’s capital as loyal servants: the citizens began to arrange for flight to the villages, the English erected sand-bag batteries for defending the approaches to Punā, and the Peshwā contemplated a return “to his former place of asylum”, i.e., Bassein! [Kharé, xiv. 6692.]
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∗ Fortescue, v. 12, 16-18. Sup. Des. iv. 100 (Ahm. had, in June, 1000 sepoys, 1000 Arabs, and 3 French mestizo officers,—outside the fort). "In Ahm. fort there was an Englishman in Sindhia's paltan; he turned traitor and delivered the fort to Wellesley. The qiladar Mallhār Kulkarni of Chambhargonda, made terms to save his own property." "The two battalions in the garrison turned disloyal. The English seduced the artillerymen, hence there was treachery." Kharé, xiv, 6683, 6685. Curious story of the capture of the peth by firing smoke-filled shells. Ibid. 6682.
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Daulat Rao and Raghuji Bhonslé waited and waited for the coming of Jaswant Rao Holkar, which was promised on 30th August; but he never came, and merely sent a force of his predatory horse to join Sindhia, while he himself retired to the north of the Tapti after getting possession of his nephew, the child Khandé Rao II. Thus, the time for striking the first blow was lost.
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Sindhiā was roused out of his stupor by the news that General Wellesley had seized his great arsenal and treasure-house at Ahmadnagar and also hanged the revenue-collector of his ancestral village Jāmgāon. So, he sent a force of 10,000 horse under Gopāl Bhāu, with a large Pindhāri horde to cross the Nizām’s frontier and plunder his district of Aurangabad (c. 18 Aug.). The approach of this force to the Godāvari was a direct threat to Punā. [Kharé, xiv. 6665.]
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Sindhia did not fully show his hand till near the end of this month, when he reached Jālnā with his cavalry only, after leaving his trained battalions beyond the Ajantā pass to follow later. An envoy from Sindhia and Bhonslé reached Punā on 31st August, and delivered to the Peshwā their request that he should dismiss his English protectors, summon all his feudatory nobles to his capital and let this Council of Notables decide how to restore the independent government of the Marātha empire as it was in the good old days. The coming of the envoy threw the Peshwā’s court and the Punā public into consternation. It was only natural to expect that the coming of all the three sardārs with their armies would repeat in a threefold form the horrors of Jaswant Holkar’s invasion of last year, the memory of which was not yet ten months old.
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Wellesley was waiting to receive into Ahmadnagar two very large convoys of money, grain, stores and munitions, which were coming to him from Haidarabad and Mysore for filling his magazines adequately for a long campaign. He had therefore to keep one eye on his left to guard the road to Punā, and another eye on his right to watch the road from Haidarabad to the Godāvari, lest the enemy's myriads of light horse should slip across that river and cut off these convoys. This double-headed threat was countered by Wellesley taking post at Tokā and throwing a pontoon-bridge over the Godāvari there, so as to be able to march to the defence of either of the two regions as soon as it was threatened by the enemy. He advanced from his new base at Ahmadnagar to the Godāvari at Kāyegāon-Tokā, 32 miles upstream of Paithān, on 21st August. Stevenson had been already detached to guard the Nizām's district of Aurangabad, east of the Godāvari.