FIRST SOJOURN OF THE 17TH IN INDIA, 1808–1823--THE PINDARI WAR
[Sidenote: 1807.]
The army evacuated the Plata in November. The Seventeenth was driven
by stress of weather into Cork Harbour, and thus spent their second
consecutive Christmas Day on shipboard. [Sidenote: 1808.] Leaving Cork
early in January it sailed to Portsmouth, disembarked on the 17th,
and joined the depôt troop at Chichester, where it remained for six
weeks dismounted under orders for the East Indies. Every man who asked
for a furlough within a hundred miles of London obtained it; and this
was well, for there were not many of them that saw their homes again.
Still, though the furlough was extended to the 20th February, every
man, with the exception of one detained by sickness, was present at the
expiration of the term. Moreover, though the men had money in their
pockets, having arrears of pay due to them on their return, there was
not a single case of misconduct at Chichester; and that meant a great
deal in these hard-drinking days. The men had gone through much since
they were last in England--147 days at sea in miserable transports,
most of the time within the tropics; then a campaign with plenty of
hardships and very little glory, wherein their horses were taken from
them just when they could have been most useful; then a two months’
passage home in bad weather, and the mortification of landing as part
of an unsuccessful army, and unsuccessful through no fault of its own.
Finally it was under orders to sail in six weeks to the East Indies, a
very deadly quarter to Europeans in those days.
[Sidenote: 1808.]
The Mayor and Corporation of Chichester could not understand how a
regiment in such circumstances could spend £3000 in the town in six
weeks without a single instance of misbehaviour, [Sidenote: 29th Feb.]
and went so far as to express their thanks to the Seventeenth for its
exemplary conduct.
A few days later the regiment embarked at Portsmouth, 800 strong,
under the command of Major Cotton; Lieutenant-Colonel Evan Lloyd being
detained to give evidence on General Whitelocke’s court-martial. On the
1st of June it arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, [Sidenote: 4th June.]
where it found one of its old colonels, Major-General H. G. Grey, and
was inspected by him. From the Cape the regiment sailed for Calcutta.
As it was approaching the Hugli one of the transports, the _Hugh
Inglis_, was set on fire by the carelessness of a petty officer, but
the fire was extinguished without serious damage. Next day the three
topmasts were carried away by a squall, and swept fourteen or fifteen
men overboard with them, of whom, however, all but one were saved. The
Seventeenth has gone through a good many adventures at sea between
gales, founderings, fires, and service as marines.
On the 25th August the regiment was disembarked at Calcutta, 790 men
strong, and did garrison duty in Fort William until December; during
which time Major Cotton, the regimental quartermaster, and sixty-two
non-commissioned officers and men, fell sick and died--a melancholy
opening to its first term of Indian service. [Sidenote: 1809.]In the
following year it was placed on the Bombay establishment, and sailing
from Calcutta arrived at Bombay on the 1st February. From thence it was
moved up to its destined quarters at Surat on the Tapti River, some two
hundred miles north of Bombay. Two galloping guns worked by its own men
were added, as was usual, to the establishment; and by a concurrence of
testimony the regiment was excellently mounted.
Early in 1810 the Seventeenth was employed on a rather curious service.
At the end of 1809 there was a sudden rising of religious fanatics in
Mandavi under the leadership of a man named Mean Abdul Rahman, who
killed the vizier of Mandavi, and put the rajah to flight. [Sidenote:
1809.] The leader then sent a message to the English Resident, ordering
him to accept Mohammedanism or fight. He added that he was come down
to earth in the bodies of four great men, Adam, Jesus, Ahmad and
Mean Abdul Rahman, and concluded with a request for three hundred
rupees. Absurd as the matter sounds, it soon assumed a serious aspect.
[Sidenote: 1810.] The news of the rising reached Surat on the 10th
January, and the people at once flocked out from the city to join the
new prophet. The Mohammedans in general began to assume a threatening
attitude, and attacked the Hindoos with the cry of “Deen.” In fact
there were the elements of a troublesome disturbance, which in the
judgment of the Resident required to be suppressed at once. Accordingly
four troops of the Seventeenth, under Major Supple, and some infantry
were called out and marched off to the village of Boodham, where the
prophet and the most devoted of his followers were assembled. The
Seventeenth outmarched the infantry, and came up with the fanatics at
daybreak on the morning of the 19th January on the plain outside the
village. The fanatics were summoned to surrender and give up their
leader; but they replied with shouts of defiance. A feint attack was
then made to intimidate them; but they simply threw up clouds of dust
in the horses’ faces and dared the Seventeenth to the combat. Then
the regiment attacked in earnest, and there ensued what the Resident
called a “furious engagement.” The fanatics were armed with spears
and small hatchets attached to bamboo shafts, twelve or fourteen feet
long, with which they could inflict severe wounds; and they fought
like demons. If the Seventeenth had had lances in these days they
might have made short work of them; but, as things were, the fighting
lasted for some time. It was not until 200 of the fanatics lay dead
on the field that the bulk of them dispersed and fled to the village,
where, still undefeated, they renewed the fight against the infantry
and artillery. Finally the Seventeenth set fire to the village and
put an end to the affair; and the leader of the fanatics, having been
wounded in the first action, was captured by the infantry. [Sidenote:
1810.]Of the Seventeenth, one corporal and two privates were killed;
all the officers, several privates and many of the horses were wounded.
Lieutenant Adams’ helmet was cut to pieces on his head.
In this same year a detachment of the Seventeenth, under Lieutenant
Johnson, accompanied Brigadier-General Sir John Malcolm on his mission
to Persia. On its return in December this detachment brought with
it a letter from Sir John to the Colonel, in which the former went
out of his way to express his high opinion not only of Mr. Johnson,
but of the non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Willock and Corporals
Carrigan and Batson, who were with him. It is remarkable to note that
non-commissioned officers of the Seventeenth, employed with small
detachments, have never failed from the first to command the admiration
of all strange officers whom it has been their duty to serve. A curious
memorial of this escort was found in the ruins of Persepolis by an
officer of the regiment (Lieutenant Anstruther Thomson, now Captain
Anstruther) while travelling in 1888. Scratched on one of the lions at
the head of the main stairway are the death’s head and cross-bones with
the motto, and beneath it the name “Serg^{t.} Rob^{t.} Willock”; and on
the wall of Xerxes’ house is cut the name of “P^{te.} M. Cloyne, 17 L.
D^{S.} 1810.”
Before we quit this year we must add two small extracts (copied from
the _Calcutta Gazette_) from the Dress Regulations, which gives us
a faint glimpse of the transition through which the British Army was
passing:--
_10th October._--Clubs and queues are abolished in all
ranks from this date, and the hair is in future to be cut close
to the neck. No powder is to be worn on duty.
This is the first beginning of the short hair, which now particularly
distinguishes a soldier. Old as the queues were, the whole Army was
delighted to be rid of them, though there were antique officers that
regretted them to the end. [Sidenote: 1810.] At the beginning of the
great war with France the War Office, which was decidedly negligent in
the matter of feeding the troops in Flanders, never failed to send them
shiploads of leathern queues.
_8th November._--Scale epaulettes are to be worn
exclusively by officers of cavalry.
No shoulders have seen more vicissitudes of adornment than those of the
British officer.
[Sidenote: 1811.]
In December of the following year the regiment left Surat for new
cantonments at Ruttapore, near Kaira, in the northern division
of Guzerat. [Sidenote: 1812.] On the 1st of January following
Lieutenant-Colonel Evan Lloyd was promoted to be Major-General, and
retired from the command. He was the last of the officers then doing
duty with the regiment who had served with it in the American War.
His successor was the Hon. Lincoln Stanhope, who came from the 16th
Lancers, and was blamed by his brother officers in that corps, not
without justice, for preferring “an arduous campaign in Bond Street”
to duty with his regiment in the Peninsula. None the less he did good
service enough with the Seventeenth.
The year 1812 brought with it a further change in the clothing. The
cord lacing and the innumerable buttons that had adorned the front
of the jacket were abolished, and another jacket with broad, white
facings, almost as wide as a plastron, was substituted in its stead.
Simultaneously the old helmet disappeared and the felt shako took its
place. The old white breeches and knee-boots were likewise swept away
to make room for French gray overalls, with a double white stripe, and
Wellington boots. These last may perhaps have been introduced rather
earlier than the other changes; the Wellington boot, according to one
authority, having been prescribed for Light Dragoons in 1808. The old
crimson sash of the officer made way for a girdle similar to that worn
at present. White welts to the seams and a small pair of epaulettes,
white for men and silver for officers, completed the transformation.
When the Seventeenth received this new dress it is impossible to say;
and the change is therefore recorded under the year when it was
ordered, though probably not carried into effect until a year or two
later. [Sidenote: 1812.] The fact that the regiment was quartered in
India, of course, made in those days no difference as to the clothing
issued to it, except that white covers were worn over the shakos.
In September there arose a mighty famine in Guzerat, which carried
off thousands of natives. Simultaneously there broke out an epidemic
fever which was as fatal to Europeans as to natives. In the four
months, October 1812 to January 1813, four officers and 73 men of the
Seventeenth were swept off by this fever; yet even this was a small
matter to those who could remember the ravages of yellow fever in the
West Indies.
[Sidenote: 1813 to 1815.]
In the three following years strong detachments of the regiment were
employed in active service, apparently in expeditions against different
hill-tribes. Of the work done I have been unable to discover any
record, such expeditions being too common in the early days of British
rule in India to excite much interest. In December 1815 the regiment
took part in an expedition into the mountains of Cutch, whither no
British troops had hitherto penetrated. On the march they crossed the
Ran of Cutch, which separates Guzerat from the Cutch peninsula, and
being in the advanced guard were the first English soldiers to cross
it. The Ran being, from all accounts, merely a bed of sand which
comparatively lately had been the bottom of a sea, the accounts of the
march and the description of the country filled the Indian newspapers
of the period. The news of Waterloo and of the close of the great war
was exhausted, so a graphic picture of the Ran was welcome.
[Sidenote: 1816.]
The capture of a couple of hill forts, Aujar and Bhooj, soon quieted
Cutch; and the troops then repassed the Ran to put down some local
banditti and disperse some piratical tribes on the coast. The central
nest of these tribes having been taken, the work was done; and
accordingly after the capture of Dwarka, on the coast to the south of
the Gulf of Cutch, the field force was broken up, and the Seventeenth
returned to Ruttapore. The losses of the regiment in the work of those
three years are unrecorded, and, except from disease, were probably not
worth mention.
Before quitting this year we must turn our eyes homeward for a moment,
where rather an interesting matter was going forward. H.R.H. the
Commander-in-Chief, at the opening of 1816, had become bitten with the
notion of forming corps of Lancers in imitation of the Polish Lancers
which had done such good service to the army under Napoleon. The first
idea was to attach a troop of lancers to each cavalry regiment, just as
a small body of riflemen was attached to a regiment of infantry. Lord
Rosslyn offered the 9th Light Dragoons for the experiment, and trained
fifty picked men under the command of Captain Peters. On Saturday, 20th
April, these fifty men were reviewed in the Queen’s Riding-house at
Pimlico, before a few select spectators who were admitted by ticket.
The men were dressed in blue jackets faced with crimson, gray trousers
and blue cloth caps, and carried a lance sixteen feet long with a
pennon of the Union colours. “The opposite extremity of the lance,”
continues our authority, “was confined in a leather socket attached to
the stirrup, and the lance was supported near the centre by a loose
string.” Such is an abridged account of the first parade of Lancers
in England, taken from an extract from the _Sun_ newspaper of
22nd August 1816, and copied into the _Calcutta Gazette_, whence
probably it found its way to the officers’ mess of the Seventeenth.
[Illustration:
_G. Salisbury._ Marching Order. Review Order.
PRIVATES, 1824–1829.]
[Sidenote: 1817.]
The new year brought the regiment to more serious service in the
field, namely, the Pindari War. These Pindaris in their early days
had been merely the scavengers of the Mahratta armies; but they had
been increasing in numbers and power in the south of Hindostan and the
north of the Dekhan since 1811. Their most celebrated chiefs were two
men named Kurreem and Cheettoo, who had been captured by Dowlat Rao
Scindiah, but were released by him for a ransom in 1812. The Pindaris
then came out as an independent body, and began incursions on a large
scale. [Sidenote: 1817.] They invaded a country in bands of from one
to four thousand men apiece, which on reaching the frontier broke up
into parties of from two to five hundred. They earned little but their
arms; they were admirably mounted, and thought nothing of marching
fifty or sixty miles in a day. They lived, themselves and their horses,
on plunder, and what they could not carry off they destroyed. In 1812
they were bold and strong enough to cross the Nerbuddha and invade the
territory of the Rajah of Nagpore, and in 1813 they actually set fire
to part of his capital. As they threatened further depredations in the
Gaikwar’s territory, a force of 600 native infantry and three troops
of the Seventeenth were sent to disperse them; and these repressive
measures had a good effect for the time. By 1814 their numbers were
reckoned at 27,000 men, “the best cavalry commanded by natives in
India,” with 24 guns; and in the two following years they became more
and more dangerous and troublesome. Holkar and Scindiah, being afraid
of them, had both made an alliance with them, and encouraged them
secretly. Moreover, the British Government was hampered in any attempt
to put them down by an engagement with Scindiah, which prevented it
from entering into any negotiations with the Rajpoots under Scindiah’s
protection. Unless British troops could follow the Pindaris into
Rajpoot territory it was of no use to advance against them, for the
only way in which the Pindaris could be suppressed was by hunting them
down to a man.
The capture of Bungapore in the Madras Presidency at last brought
matters to a crisis. Lord Moira, the Governor-General, called upon
Scindiah to disown the Pindaris and conclude a treaty with England.
Scindiah signed it cheerfully on the 5th November 1816. That little
farce over, he joined a general conspiracy of the Mahratta powers to
overthrow British rule in India. The Peishwar and the Rajah of Nagpore,
who had also recently signed treaties of alliance with England,
together with Holkar were the principal leaders of the movement. Then
the Governor-General bestirred himself in earnest. [Sidenote: 1817.]
He collected the Bengal, Madras, and Central armies, and fairly
surrounded the whole Pindari country, the Malwa in fact, with 80,000
men. Over and above these a force, under Sir W. Grant Keir, advanced
from Bombay to block up one corner on the Bombay side. It was to this
force that the Seventeenth was attached, joining it at Baroda.
The Baroda force under Sir W. Keir marched on the 6th December. On the
second day’s march the rear-guard was attacked by a body of Bheels--a
race which, though “diminutive and wretched looking,” were “active and
capable of great fatigue,” as befitted a gang of professed thieves
and robbers. They were driven off by a squadron of the Seventeenth
under Colonel Stanhope himself, but at the cost of an officer,
Cornet Marriott, and several men and horses wounded. Sergeant-Major
Hampson received an arrow in the mouth from a Bheel archer. He calmly
plucked the arrow out, drew his pistol, shot the Bheel, and then fell
dead--choked by the flow of blood. This affair won the Seventeenth the
thanks of the General in field orders.
Of the subsequent movements of the Seventeenth in the war I have
found great difficulty, from the impossibility of getting at the
original despatches, in obtaining any knowledge. The great battle
of the campaign was fought against Holkar’s troops at Maheidpore on
the 20th December. The Seventeenth was not present at the action,
though Colonel Stanhope was thanked in orders and despatches for his
service as D.Q.M.G., and though immediately after it the regiment was
ordered off to reinforce Sir J. Malcolm’s division for the pursuit of
Holkar. [Sidenote: 1818.] On the 23rd January 1818 a treaty was make
with Holkar; and the war then resolved itself into a pursuit of the
other members of the conspiracy, and in particular of the Pindaris.
In fact the work of the Seventeenth was a foretaste of that which
it was to experience in Central India forty years later; equally
difficult to trace from the rapidity of the movements; equally hard
to recount from the dearth of material and the separation of the
regiment into detachments; above all equally hard on men and horses,
perpetually harassed by long forced marches which led only to more
forced marches for weeks and weeks together. [Sidenote: 1818.] I have
only been able to gather that the men suffered not a little from the
extraordinary changes of temperature, varying from 28½ to 110 degrees
during the march; and that on a few odd occasions their services were
such as to call down the special praise of the divisional commander.
These commendations are the more valuable, inasmuch as petty, though
brilliant actions were very common in Central India during the early
months of 1818.
[Sidenote: 19th Jan.]
The first of these in which we hear of the Seventeenth is an action
at Mundapie, wherein four squadrons of the regiment surprised the
Pindaris, and cut down 100 of them, with the loss of one private
wounded. The gallantry and rapidity of the attack, by the testimony
of the General, alone saved the Seventeenth from heavier casualties.
We hear next of a detachment of the regiment engaged at the capture
of Fort Pallee; [Sidenote: 9th Feb.] and next, at a more important
affair, we find the whole of the Seventeenth fighting against the most
renowned of the Pindari leaders, Cheettoo himself. The action recalls
the history of the detachment which served under Tarleton in Carolina.
[Sidenote: March.]It appears that Colonel Stanhope obtained information
that a large body of Pindaris was within a forced march of him. He
at once sent off a detachment in pursuit, which after a thirty mile
march came upon the enemy, evidently by surprise, and cut down 200 of
them. Cheettoo himself, conspicuous by his dress and black charger,
narrowly escaped capture, and owed his safety only to the speed of
his horse.[11] Captain Adams and Cornet Marriott, who had already
distinguished themselves in the rear-guard action with the Bheels, were
prominent on this occasion, and with the whole detachment received Sir
W. Keir’s thanks in division orders. On the 14th March, when Sir W.
Keir’s force was broken up, two officers of the Seventeenth, Colonel
Stanhope and Captain Thompson, were selected by the General for special
approbation and thanks.
[Sidenote: 1819.]
After a short rest in cantonments the regiment, towards the end of
the year, resumed the chase of the Pindaris. The new year found them
marching into the province of Candeish, excepting a detachment of
eighty-six convalescents who, on their recovery, joined Sir W. Keir’s
force in Cutch. While there it must have experienced the frightful
earthquake of June 1819, which destroyed most of the Cutch towns
and killed thousands of natives. Of the general movements of the
Seventeenth I have been unable to discover anything. It appears that
before the end of the year the regiment was back again in cantonments,
and that it moved up to Cutch again in May following, still engaged at
the old work. [Sidenote: 1820.] Colonel Stanhope was then entrusted
with a force of between five and six thousand men, destined, it was
said, for the invasion of Scinde. After six months’ encampment between
Bhooj and Mandivie, the Seventeenth returned to cantonments, and the
force generally was broken up. Colonel Stanhope, with a few troops
which he had retained, reduced the pirate fort of Dwarka, where Cornet
Marriott (now promoted Lieutenant in the 67th Foot) was mortally
wounded. He was acting as Brigade-Major to Colonel Stanhope at the
time, the Seventeenth not being present at the engagement.
Two more years at the Kaira cantonments brought the regiment to the end
of its first term of Indian service. It marched to Cambay in November,
reached Bombay by water in December, and finally sailed for England
on the 9th January 1823. It had landed at Calcutta, in 1808, 790 men
strong; it had lost in fourteen years, from disease and climatic causes
alone, exclusive of men invalided and killed in action, 26 officers and
796 men; it had received in India 929 men and officers. It went home,
after leaving behind it volunteers for different regiments, under 200
strong of all ranks. Such were the effects of cholera,--for 1818 was
a bad cholera year,--general ignorance of sanitary matters, and of
English clothing in the Indian climate.
[Illustration: GEORGE, LORD BINGHAM
(EARL OF LUCAN)
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL 17TH LIGHT DRAGOONS (LANCERS)
1826–1837]