The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11.70

c11.70

It was the interest of the Maratha to elude his foe, to keep out of the range of his death-scattering cannon, to ravage his country, to cut off his supplies, and to exhaust and worry him by an incessant war of attrition. These tactics were successful against Egerton and Goddard when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Maharashtra through the Bhore Ghat. These tactics, when pursued by Jaswant Rao Holkar, caused Col. Monson much more trouble than the English generals ever suffered from the regular army of Daulat Rao Sindhia. But neither Sindhia nor Bhonsla could execute the rapid marches, the quick evolutions, the unexpected surprises in company with their artillery and musketry laden trained infantry, and their army succumbed to the superior artillery and superior generalship of Lake and Wellesley. Trained battalions had made Mahadaji the master of Delhi and Agra, and trained battalions led his nephew to his doom and reduced him to the position of a humble feudatory of the British Government.