artillery in the arsenal and in the camp should be delivered up. General Doveton, suspecting mischief, if not from the treachery of the Rajah, from the desperation of the Arabs. and the other mercenaries, instead of sending a party to take possession of the guns, advanced his whole line by open column of companies. The arsenal, wherein were thirty-six guns, was taken without resistance; but as Doveton proceeded towards the Rajah's gardens a heavy fire of artillery was opened upon his front and right flank. Through the General's prudence and foresight he was not unprepared for this attack: his cavalry and horse artillery were with him; and, while his infantry charged in front, they made a detour, and got on the flank of the enemy. In less than an hour all the batteries were carried, and seventy-five more guns, mortars, and howitzers, were in our hands: the Arabs and all who had stayed to fight were put to flight, and the camp was also taken, with forty elephants and all Apa Saheb's camp equipage. But the fire of the fierce Arabs had cost us in killed and wounded 39 British and 102 native soldiers. Part of the Arab infantry fled into the city, and occupied the fort, within which were the Rajah's palaces and other strong buildings; and they maintained themselves with such desperation that it was not until the 30th of December that they could be driven out. Doveton's siege artillery had not come up, and in an attempt to storm the fort through an insufficient breach, he lost 90 killed and 179 wounded, including one officer among the killed and two among the Wounded. With the departure of these daring Arabs resistance ceased; the Rajah and all his country were at our feet. The fate of Apa Saheb remained in suspense for a few months.*

In the mean while the Pindarree forces, though not yet annihilated, had been shattered and scattered in spite of all the extensive combinations made to support them as the great vanguard of the Mahrattas. The Marquis of Hastings, commander-in-chief as well as governor-general, had resolved to take the field and to direct the main operations of the campaign in person. His preparations were all on a gigantic scale. The army of the Bengal presidency, com• H. T. Prinsep. "History of Political and Military Transactions,

&c."

manded by the Governor-General in person, and called the "Grand Army," counted 40,000 fighting men. The Madras troops, which took the field under the designation of the "Army of the Deccan," numbered 70,400 fighting men. A part of the Bombay army was put in motion from the side of Guzerat, to co-operate in the general objects of the campaign; and, after the rupture with the Peishwa, another division of the Bombay army was employed in reducing that prince's fortresses in the Konkan. Counting the irregular cavalry supplied by the allies or dependents of the Company, the whole force brought into the field must have exceeded 130,000 men; and of these forces above 13,000 were British soldiers. No such army had ever yet marched under our colours in India. It was not possible to estimate the varying force of all our enemies; but it may be roughly stated that the Mahratta confederacy had 130,000 horse, 80,000 foot, and 580 guns, while the different fragments that remained of their Pindarree allies would form a total of about 15,000. But it was not the number of these undisciplined barbarians that was to be taken into consideration: it was the very extensive-the indefinable field of the war, the number and strength of the fortresses in Central India, in the Konkan, and elsewhere, the facilities which the Mahrattas possessed for making flying marches, and for embar rassing the movements of our columns by lighting up the flames of war at nearly the same moment and at many and distant points, that demanded the employment of a large force and of great forethought.

CORREGAUM.

A. D. 1818. January 1

EVEN after the brilliant combats at Nagpoor, the war continued to spread, and other native princes and potentates, more or less openly, entered into it or supported our numerous enemies in the field.

While the forces under the Marquis of Hastings, and the divisions under Hislop, Malcolm, Marshall, Keir, Adams, and other officers, were chasing the Pindarrees from moor and mountain, valley and jungle, or reducing the forts in Malwa, Brigadier-General Smith, who had been reinforced at Poonah, prepared for an active pursuit of Bajee Rao, the fugitive Peishwa, who had flitted hither and thither like an ignis fatuus. Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, having organized a police and a provisional administration for the city of Poonah, accompanied General Smith's division, which began its march at the end of November. Gokla, one of the Peishwa's evil advisers, but one of his bravest officers, attempted to defend a ghaut leading to the high land where the Kistna has its source, and where the Peishwa had found a refuge and a rallying point; but the Mahratta was beaten, and the pass was cleared by the British with great ease. No fighting, but rapid and most wearying marches ensued, the Peishwa's army flying in a sort of zigzag, and the Peishwa himself always keeping in advance of his main body. At last the Mahratta succeeded in getting round Smith's division; and then, passing between Poonah and Seroor, he moved northward as far as Wuttoor, on the road to Nassik. Here he was joined by his long-lost favourite Trimbukjee, who brought with him a considerable reinforcement of horse and foot. Trimbukjee had collected these forces in various directions, but a good part of them appear to have been Pindarrees. But for the good fights made in front of the Residency at Nagpoor, and

within the walls of that city, Apa Saheb would have accompanied Trimbukjee with his large army and his desperate Arabs. After he had discovered the direction the Peishwa had taken, and had recruited his own worn-out cattle, General Smith, on the 22nd of September, started again in pursuit. This headlong race to the northward brought Smith close upon the rear of the Mahrattas; but, with the lubricity of eels, they slipped through his fingers, and, making a flank movement behind some hills, they turned suddenly to the south, and retraced their steps towards Poonah. Colonel Burr, who commanded in that city, apprehending an attack, solicited the reinforcement of a battalion from Seroor.

Captain Francis French Staunton," of the Bombay establishment, was forthwith detached from Seroor with about 600 sepoys, 300 auxiliary horse, and two six-pounders. The distance was only two short marches. Staunton began his march from Seroor at eight o'clock in the evening of the 31st of December, and at ten the next morning he reached the heights of Corregaum, about half-way to Poonah, when, looking down upon the plain which lay between him and that city, he saw the whole of the Peishwa's army, estimated at 20,000 horse and several thousand foot. His march to Poonah was intercepted, and he himself was in great danger of being cut off. The brave officer did what the circumstances of the case required: he made a dash at the village of Corregaum (which stood on the heights, and which was composed of a number of stone houses with strong stone walls round the gardens), hoping to gain possession of it before it could be obtained by the enemy. But the Mahrattas, or rather the Arabs, who composed the main body of their infantry, were as near to the village as was Captain Staunton; and as he entered at one side, and took possession of some of the houses, the Arabs entered at the opposite side and took possession of other houses. A terrible struggle ensued, at first between the Company's troops and the Arabs for the possession of the whole of the village, and then between our handful of men and nearly the whole of the Mahratta army. Unfortunately Captain Swanston, who commanded our 300

Subsequently Colonel F. Staunton, C.B.

auxiliary horse, was wounded early in the day, and his weak squadrons could not show themselves in face of the masses of Mahratta cavalry. The enemy, who had been running too fast to carry artillery with him, brought up only two guns; but if there was an equality in this particular arm, their infantry exceeded ours by ten to one. Nevertheless, our admirable sepoys maintained their post, and kept up an incessant fight from the hour of noon till nine in the evening, during which time they had no refreshment, and not even a drop of water to drink. Attack after attack was made under the eye of the Peishwa, who stood, no doubt, at a safe distance, on a neighbouring hill. They had all failed, when Lieutenant Chisholm, the officer of artillery, with most of his men, having been killed at a post near a pagoda, and the European officers having been disabled except three, the Arabs charged and obtained possession of one of our two guns, which was stationed at the pagoda. Our wounded were lying thick round that building, and among them were Assistant-Surgeon Wingate, Captain Swanston, and Lieutenant Connellon. The wild Arabs immediately began to massacre these helpless wounded men, and to mutilate the bodies of the slain. Poor Wingate was literally hacked to pieces, as was the body of Lieutenant Chisholm, the officer of artillery. But the Arabs did not long enjoy their bloody triumph; the three undisabled officers, Captain Staunton, Lieutenant Jones, and Assistant-Surgeon Wylie, though almost exhausted, and with their men fainting from want of water, headed one more charge, the last of the many that were made during the day, recaptured the lost gun, and slaughtered the Arabs in a heap. The charge was utterly desperate, for every man felt that there was nothing between him and victory, except torture and death. On this occasion Lieutenant Pattinson,

*

The medical officers fought just as hard and as bravely as the other officers. With so small a force, and so very few English officers, it was necessary for every man to throw himself into the heat of the fight.

"The medical officers also led on the sepoys to charges with the bayonet, the nature of the contest not admitting of their attending to their professional duties; and, in such a struggle, the presence of a single European was of the utmost consequence, and seemed to inspire the native soldiers with the usual confidence of success."-Division Orders by Brigadier-General Smith, C.B. East Ind. Military Calendar.