Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c58.s8: § 11. Assaye—end of the battle
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c58.s8
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§ 11. Assaye—end of the battle
v4.c58.s8.1
Wellesley’s battalions at last marched in force upon the Maratha reserve in front of Assaye, but the campoo did not wait for the attack ; the men crossed the Juah behind them and retreated in good order.
v4.c58.s8.2
All this time there were many dispersed knots of the enemy’s artillery-men and infantry in the field behind Wellesley. That General therefore turned a full circle from the Juah and marched southwards mopping up these enemy pockets by hard fighting and taking possession of their guns. And then the battle ended about sunset, after three hours of strenuous fighting. The last action of the day was an abortive charge of the 19th upon Pohlmann’s unbroken column, which was not pressed home, as Maxwell fell down shot dead just before the moment of impact and his men retired in confusion. Pohlmann marched away from the field with his force intact. Raghuji Bhonslé had fled away very early without striking one blow. Daulat Rao Sindhia too had taken to flight, but after delivering one attack on the 74th. His diwān Jādo Bhāskar had fallen fighting in the Juah nālā, and sixteen hundred dead warriors strewed the plain or choked the ravine as silent witnesses of the future Duke of Wellington’s first victory.*
v4.c58.s8.3
But there was no pursuit. Throughout the day, the British cavalry had been employed to do the work of infantry and again and again to attack unbroken formations without any fire support. Men and horses had been worked off their feet, after a twenty mile ride to the field without rest or food, before going into action.
v4.c58.s8.4
∗ 198 Europeans and 230 Telingas killed on the English side; 1200 sepoys, mostly Purbias, with one or two hundred Marathas by race killed on Sindhia’s side. The wounded were three or four times as many. With Jādo Rao, Ananda Rao Nimbālkar also fell. Kharé, xiv. 6749.
v4.c58.s8.5
Thus ended the battle of Assaye. "Success was only gained by the most extraordinary exertions on the part of every man in the field . . . Every man, British or native, played his part with superlative gallantry. First and foremost, Wellesley himself was throughout, in the hottest of the fray, calm, cool, and collected as if at a field day. Two horses were killed under him; of his staff eight out of ten sustained wounds to themselves or their horses . . . The Sepoys showed not less bravery; and Wellesley confessed that they astonished him." [Fortescue, V. 32.]
v4.c58.s8.6
But the loss of the British was heavy, amounting to 644 Europeans and 940 Indians killed, wounded and missing. The 74th Highlanders had 401 men out of a total strength of 565 as their casualty. The two sepoy battalions on the right between them had 402 casualties. The cavalry brigade suffered 200 men and 715 horses in killed, wounded and missing. The Sindhian army left 1200 dead on the field, nearly all of them of the same race as the E. I. Co.'s Bengal Army sepoys,—and the wounded must have been four times as many. Sindhia's regular infantrymen fought well, and were described by Wellesley as the best troops in India next to the Company's sepoys. But they fought with the artillery only, as the British General repeatedly noticed. Their cavalry disgraced itself. The victors captured 120 guns in the field and the pursuit.