The Battle of Assaye

The Battle of Assaye

Wellesley, after a notable part in the Mysore Wars, had for some time planned the inevitable incursion into the Mahratta Confederacy. His extensive intelligence network provided him with full descriptions of the countryside, towns and fortifications he would encounter. Based on this information Wellesley gave his brother a report setting out how the campaign would develop, advising that it be fought during the monsoon so that the flooding rivers would hinder the fast moving Mahratta light horse.

In the event, the Mahratta army of Sindhia and Berar - the force Wellesley had to deal with in this section of the war; General Lake fighting with Holkar’s army in the area of Delhi in the North - encumbered itself with a substantial force of infantry, severely restricting its mobility.
In March 1803 Wellesley crossed into the Confederacy from Mysore and marched on Poona, where he restored the Peshwa to his principality. A second force under Colonel Stevenson crossed the border from Hyderabad and concerned itself with protecting Hyderabad from any incursion.

Wellesley, with his British and Madras native regiments, pursued the Mahratta army to the North East, acting in concert with, but separate from, Stephenson’s force. On 23rd August 1803 Wellesley reached Naulniah, where information came in that the Mahratta army was just six miles distant and about to move off. Numbers of Mahratta horsemen forced Wellesley to conduct his reconnaissance of the Mahratta position with the whole of his cavalry brigade. Wellesley came up with the Mahratta army and found that, far from withdrawing, the Mahrattas were in position behind the Kaitna, a steep-banked river presenting a formidable obstacle. They were clearly ready to do battle; 30,000 horsemen massed on the right with 12,000 infantry in 16 battalions trained and led by French officers, in lines interspersed with 100 guns, to the left. Without hesitation Wellesley resolved to attack.

Wellesley’s force comprised 4 cavalry regiments; HM 19th Light Dragoons and 3 Madras native regiments; 7 infantry regiments; HM 74th and 78th regiments of Highlanders and 5 Madras native regiments; with a force of irregular cavalry from Mysore; 6,500 men and 22 guns in all.
Wellesley moved with the cavalry brigade up the river, until he identified a point beyond the left flank of the Mahratta position where villages on each bank indicated a passable ford.

As the main body came up Wellesley directed his infantry across the ford to attack the Mahratta flank accompanied by four 12 pounder guns. Welleley’s infantry formed up in two lines on the far bank, with the British regiments on the outside flanks, the 74th opposite Assaye, the 10th Madras Native Infantry in the centre of the first line and the 4th and 12th Madras Native Infantry in the second.

The 19th Light Dragoons and the 3 Madras cavalry regiments formed the reserve. The Mysore cavalry remained on the near bank of the Kaitna.Once Wellesley’s intentions were recognised the Mahratta commanders moved their army, establishing a new line across the isthmus formed by the Kaitna and Juah rivers, their left flank now resting on the village of Assaye.

The Mahratta guns subjected the Highlanders and Madrassis to a heavy fire as they marched to the river, crossed the ford and advanced to the attack, the fire being particularly heavy from Assaye against the 74th Highlanders, advancing behind a screen of skirmishers from the 2nd and 8th Madras Native Infantry (Wellesley later described the fire from the Mahratta guns as the heaviest that had been known in India). Wellesley in his dispatch after the battle stated that the 74th veered to the right in support of the skirmishers, opening up a gap between the 74th and 10th Madras Native Infantry.

At some point in the advance the British/Madrassi line came up to an extended ridge, at which the advance paused before continuing the attack.

In its advance on Assaye, the 74th came near to being annihilated, the Mahratta light cavalry swarming forward through the remnants of the regiment and the gap to its left. The 19th Light Dragoons and 4th Madras Native Cavalry charged up from the rear, driving the Mahratta horse back through the British line and continued their attack into the main Mahratta position.

On the British left, where the artillery fire was less heavy, the 78th Highlanders and Madras Native Infantry stormed the Mahratta line and pushed on, the French officers commanding the Mahratta battalions in the front line apparently abandoning their soldiers and riding for the rear, causing the collapse of a number of these battalions.

The practice for Mahratta gunners, on being overrun, was to feign death under their guns, wait for the enemy to pass and resume fire, now into the rear of the attackers. This they did, catching the British and Madras regiments in the rear with a renewed bombardment. The 78th turned back and with the 7th Madras Native Cavalry retook the guns after a determined fight with the gunners. This time care was taken to ensure that those apparently dead were so.

The success of Wellesley’s attack, in spite of the heavy losses to the 74th, caused the Mahratta army to break up and retreat to the North East, pursued for a limited distance by the 19th Light Dragoons and the Madras cavalry regiments, and abandoning 98 guns on the battlefield. Stevenson’s Hyderabad force took up the pursuit.

Casualties: Mahratta casualties are said to have been around 5,000. The Anglo-Indian force suffered 22 officers and 386 men killed and 57 officers and 1,526 men wounded. The 74th suffered around 400 casualties out of a strength of 500. It is said that every one of the 74th’s officers became casualties in the battle, 11 being killed. The commanding officer of the 19th Light Dragoons, Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Maxwell, who also commanded the cavalry brigade was killed. One third of Wellesley’s force became casualties in the battle.

Follow-up:
Colonel Stevenson pursued the defeated Mahratta army, taking the fortress of Asirgarh, until peace was negotiated in mid-November 1803. The final phase of the Second Mahratta War broke out the same month, with the Mahrattas finally defeated in 1818 at the end of the Third Mahratta War, thereby assuring the British position in Central India. Wellesley’s older brother, Lord Mornington, the Governor General of Bengal, was ecstatic at the news of the victory.

Assaye was seen as a decisive battle in the establishment of British influence and power in Central India and established Wellesley’s reputation in India.

Regimental anecdotes and traditions:
• In later life the Duke of Wellington, when asked which was his hardest fought battle, said “Assaye”.
• Colonel Wellesley had two horses killed under him in the battle and his orderly, riding at this side, was decapitated by a cannon shot. Every officer on his staff lost one or two horses.
• Wellesley is reported to have said before the Battle of Assaye “If I do not give battle to the enemy there will be nothing left for me but to hang myself from my tent pole.”
• Following the battle the 74th was known as, “the Assaye Regiment”.
• With almost all the 74th’s officers casualties, Quartermaster James Grant joined the ranks of the regiment from his post with the ammunition at the rear and assisted the one remaining, but wounded, officer, Major Swinton, in leading the regiment for the remainder of the battle. At the annual parade in commemoration of the battle, the Assaye colour was carried by the quartermaster, in memory of the actions of James Grant.
• The Governor General awarded special colours to the three British regiments; the 74th and 78th Highlanders and the 19th Light Dragoons, and to the Madras regiments. The 74th, the 2nd Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry from 1882, trooped its colour every year on the anniversary of Assaye. There is no record that the 78th made any such use of their colour. Following the battle, each regiment that fought in the battle was awarded an elephant as its badge.

References:
• Fortescue’s History of the British Army.

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