ARGAUM.

A. D. 1803. November 29.

SCINDIAH entreated for and obtained a truce from General Wellesley at the beginning of November; but his powerful ally, the Rajah of Berar, would not negociate, and still kept the field; and when the English commander, after one of the most extraordinary marches upon record, came up with this rajah in the plains of Argaum, about twenty miles north of the Poorna river, he found Scindiah's numerous cavalry drawn up with him-no uncommon instance of the faith with which these Indian chiefs observed truces and treaties. The plain fact was, they were never to be trusted. The only security to our Indian empire lay in absolute conquest.

The force of General Wellesley and that serving under Colonel Stevenson had been separated above three months by a distance of three hundred miles. To deal with the Rajah of Berar a junction of these forces was indispensable; and the junction was effected in a manner which will for ever confer honour on our great captain and excite the admiration of military men-and, most, of those who have served in India and know the difficulties of the country and the oppressiveness of the climate. In his despatch to government General Wellesley modestly says, it was very fortunate that, after so long a separation he should have been enabled to join Colonel Stevenson in the very morning of the day on which the engagement at Argaum took place, and that in order to enable him to join, the colonel had not been obliged to halt more than one day. But such things are not brought about by fortune; they proceeded from science, discipline, and the vast improvements in the means of transport, in the commissariat, and in every department of the service, which were all suggested by the genius of the great commander,

or had been introduced since his first appearance in India. He said himself, at the time, “But the operations of this war have afforded numerous instances of improvement in our means of communication, of obtaining intelligence, and above all, of movement. Marches such as we have made in this war were never known or thought of before." In moving to join Stevenson, he had never marched less than between seventeen and twenty miles a day. The day on which the battle of Argaum was fought the troops had marched twentysix miles! And this day, to use the general's own words, "was a very hot day."

Shortly after our people had halted bodies of horse appeared in their front. Our Mysore cavalry were sent out to skirmish; and when the general went out to push forward the piquets of the infantry to support the Mysore cavalry, and to take up the ground of encampment, he perceived distinctly a long line of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, regularly drawn up on the plains of Argaum, immediately in front of the village of that name, and about six miles from Paterly, the place at which he intended to encamp.

Although it was late in the day, and the men were fatigued with their long march, Wellesley immediately determined to attack this army. Accordingly, he marched on in one column, the British cavalry leading in a direction nearly parallel to that of the enemy's line; covering the rear and the left by the native Mogul and Mysore cavalry.

*

"The enemy's infantry and guns were in the left of their centre, with a body of cavalry on their left. Scindiah's army, consisting of one very heavy body of cavalry, was on the right, having upon its right a body of Pindarries and other light troops. Their line extended above five miles, having in their rear the village and extensive gardens and enclosures of Argaum; and in their front a plain, which, however, was much cut by watercourses, &c.

"I formed the army in two lines; the infantry in the first, the cavalry in the second, and supporting the right; and the Mogul and Mysore cavalry the left, nearly parallel to that of the enemy; with the right rather advanced in order to press

*It appears from the despatch, and from the deputy adjutantgeneral's return of the killed and wounded, that the British cavalry consisted only of his Majesty's 19th Light Dragoons.

upon the enemy's left. Some little time elapsed before the lines could be formed, owing to a part of the infantry of my division which led the column having got into some confusion. When formed, the whole advanced in the greatest order; the 74th and 78th regiments were attacked by a large body (supposed to be Persians), and all these were destroyed. Scindiah's cavalry charged the 1st battalion 6th regiment, which was on the left of our line, and were repulsed; and their whole line retired in disorder before our troops, leaving in our hands thirty-eight pieces of cannon, and all their

ammunition.

"The British cavalry then pursued them for several miles, destroyed great numbers, and took many elephants and camels and much baggage. The Mogul and Mysore cavalry also pursued the fugitives, and did them great mischief. Some of the latter are still following them; and I have sent out this morning all of the Mysore, Mogul, and Mahratta cavalry, in order to secure as many advantages from this victory as can be gained, and complete the enemy's confusion.

"For the reasons stated in the commencement of this letter, the action did not commence till late in the day; and unfortunately sufficient daylight did not remain to do all that I could have wished; but the cavalry continued their pursuit by moonlight, and all the troops were under arms till a late hour in the night."

The general himself was on horseback from six in the morning until twelve at night.

Our loss consisted only of fifteen Europeans killed and 145 wounded, and thirty-one natives killed, 148 wounded, and five missing. The loss of the enemy, particularly in their flight, was very great. The chief who commanded the Rajah of Berar's cavalry was killed, and the chief who commanded Scindiah's was wounded. "If we had had daylight an hour more not a man would have escaped," said the victorious general, who added-"We should have had that time, if my native infantry had not been panic-struck and got into confusion when the cannonade commenced. What do you think of nearly three entire battalions, who behaved so admirably in the battle of Assye, being broke and running off, when the

* Wellington Despatches.

cannonade commenced at Argaum, which was not to be compared to that at Assye? Luckily, I happened to be at no great distance from them, and I was able to rally them and reestablish the battle. If I had not been there, I am convinced we should have lost the day. But as it was, so much time elapsed before I could form them again, that we had not daylight enough for everything that we should certainly have performed."*

The enemy left on the field thirty-eight cannon and all their ammunition; and our troops who led the chase by moonlight took many elephants, camels, horses, and much baggage.

The general warmly applauded the behaviour of his Majesty's 74th and 78th Regiments, and bestowed praise on the native cavalry he had employed in the battle.

66

After the battle of Argaum, Scindiah became only a vagabond in the Deccan," and the still powerful Rajah of Berar was panic-stricken. To deepen the impression he had made, General Wellesley forthwith proceeded to lay siege to Gawil Ghur, one of the strongest fortresses in India, situated on a lofty rock, in a range of rugged mountains between the sources of the rivers Poorna and Taptee. As this volume is devoted not to sieges but to field actions, we will merely add, in honour to the troops, that they went through a series of laborious services, such as nobody with the army had ever witnessed before, and that too with the utmost cheerfulness as well as perseverance; that the heavy ordnance and stores were dragged by hand over mountains and through ravines, for the space of nearly five days, and by roads or paths which it had been previously necessary for the soldiers to make for themselves.

Gawil Ghur was stormed and taken on the 15th of September. On the 17th the Rajah of Berar signed the conditions of peace which Wellesley dictated, ceding to the company the important province of Cuttack, with the district of Balasore, and dismissing all the French or other European officers in his service. On the 30th of December, Scindiah signed a definitive treaty of peace by which he yielded to the Company all the country between the Jumna Wellington Despatches. + Ibid.

and the Ganges, besides numerous rights, privileges, forts, and territories, elsewhere. He also agreed to dismiss his European officers and never to engage any more; and he submitted to the mediation, arbitration, and final decision of the Company in any dispute that might arise between him and his neighbours.

In these campaigns of the year 1803, the total numbers with which Wellesley and Lake had to contend were enormous. Major Thorn, who served in the war, calculates the Mahratta armies brought into the field at 250,000 and the corps organized and disciplined by their French auxiliaries at 40,000 more at the very least. To these must be added swarms of Pindarries and other marauders, who, though not formidable in battle, were most expert in plundering, and always required, whether in camp or on the march, considerable numbers of our men to watch and check them.

It could only be by skilful and rapid movements that the small armies under Lake and Wellesley could make head against all the confederates. But by those movements our troops were multiplied. In all, above 1,000 pieces of cannon were captured in the war, together with ammunition, stores, and treasure in proportion.*

A fresh Mahratta war broke out towards the close of the following year, 1804, which did not end until the beginning of 1806. It was a war, not of battles but of sieges, and as such does not come within our present scope. Our commander was Lake, who for his previous services had been created Lord Lake. It was in this campaign that British troops penetrated for the first time into the Punjaub or country of the five rivers, and encamped on the banks of the Hyphasis, near to the ground where Alexander the Great had halted his Macedonian phalanges.

The great Mahratta chief, Holkar, was brought to as low a condition as Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar; and our Indian empire was both enlarged and strengthened in its frontiers and in its moral influence.

Lord Lake quitted his command in India in February,

* Major Thorn, Memoir of the War in India. Wellington Despatches. Journal of Major-General Sir Jasper Nicholls as quoted by Colonel Gurwood in the Wellington Despatches. "Our Indian Empire."