INDIA, 1751-1764
Arcot--Plassey--Condore--Masulipatam--Badara--Wandewash--Pondicherry
--Buxar.
The names at the head of the chapter commemorate a number of
long-forgotten Indian campaigns, waged against desperate odds and
extending over many years. The Colar Goldfields, Dindigul Cigars,
and the Nundy Droog Mine are names of pleasant memories to the
fortunate shareholders in those concerns. Little did soldier
or sepoy think that those fields on which he shed his blood in
order to maintain British supremacy in India would thus become
familiarized to British speculators. For us, their successors, it
is humiliating to feel that the heroic forging of the link which
connects them with the military history of our Empire should have
been long since forgotten. A few words in retrospect are necessary.
In the year 1600 a charter was granted by Parliament to the East
India Company, and within ten years factories had been established
at Surat, to the north of Bombay, and Petapolam, to the north of
Madras. We were not the first-comers in the field, for both Dutch
and Portuguese had been for many years engaged in commerce with the
East. In 1612 our first troubles arose with the Portuguese, whom we
defeated at Surat, and since then no question of their supremacy
has arisen. Fifty years later the French had firmly established
themselves at Masulipatam and Pondicherry, on the south-east
coast, as well as at Chandernagore, a few miles above Calcutta,
and for the next 150 years the rivalry between France and England
was the cause of much strife. The policy of the French was to stand
well in with the native rulers, to organize their armies on a
European model, and so, with their aid, to drive the English out of
India.
At the commencement of the eighteenth century Calcutta, Bombay, and
Madras were our chief centres, the former with factories stretching
to Patna, in the northwest. The influence of the Governor of
Bombay extended from the settlement at Ahmedabad, in the north,
to Calicut, on the west or Malabar coast, whilst Madras had under
its rule all factories on the eastern coast from Vizagapatam to
Cuddalore. The British East India Company of those days boasted of
but little Government support; the French company was fast becoming
a military rather than a commercial force. In 1750 the French had
driven us out of Madras, and were virtually rulers of Southern
India, and the bulk of our forces were besieged in Trichinopoly.
Fortunately for England, even in her darkest hour a man has arisen
to cope with and surmount her difficulties. Amongst the writers
or clerks in the employ of the factory at Madras was one Robert
Clive. He, with rare prescience, argued that, as the bulk of the
French forces, aided by their ally, the ruler of the Carnatic,
were employed in the reduction of Trichinopoly, therefore Arcot,
the capital of the Carnatic, in all probability lay unguarded. Mr.
Saunders, the Governor of Madras, cordially supported the plan
advocated by the young writer, which was to carry the war into the
enemy's country, and to seize Arcot, the capital, by a _coup de
main_.
[Illustration: ROBERT, LORD CLIVE.
To face page 50.]
ARCOT, AUGUST 31, 1751.
This honour is alone borne by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the
lineal descendants of the gallant band of Englishmen in the service
of the East India Company at Madras, who in the year 1751, under
the incomparable Clive, laid the foundation of our Indian Empire.
In those days Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, was a city of
about 100,000 inhabitants, dominated by a fort almost in ruins. It
lies some sixty miles south-west of Madras, and Clive determined
not only to effect the relief of Trichinopoly, then besieged by
the French, but also to strike at French supremacy by seizing the
capital of their most powerful ally, the Sovereign of the Carnatic.
He left Madras on September 6, 1751, in command of a small force of
200 Englishmen and 300 sepoys, with but three field-guns. Of his
officers, eight in number, four, like him, were "writers" in the
Company's factory. Five days later Clive had thrown himself into
the half-ruined fort of Arcot, which had been hastily evacuated by
its garrison, mounted the guns, which had been abandoned, repaired
the defences, and made every preparation for a siege. A month later
the siege commenced in earnest, 10,000 trained troops of the Nawab,
aided by 300 French, drawing a close cordon round the fort, whilst
a siege-train directed by Frenchmen opened fire on its walls.
Macaulay, in his brilliant essay on Lord Clive, has borne eloquent
testimony to the heroism both of the leader and the led (I have not
the space to dwell on the details of the siege)--how the sepoys,
with starvation staring them in the face, brought their rations of
rice to their English comrades, with the remark that the water in
which it was boiled was sustenance enough for them; and how, after
being beleaguered for fifty days, in which he had lost one-third
of his force, Clive repelled a final assault, and was enabled to
assume the offensive against his disheartened and discomfited foes.
Arcot was a prelude to a campaign in which many gallant actions
were fought--actions long since forgotten, and which are unrecorded
on our colours. Trichinopoly and Covrepauk are no less worthy of
emblazonment than Reshire or Koosh-ab. But, alas! no connection
can now be traced between the sepoys who fought under Clive and
the regiments of our native army, whilst the identity of the First
Madras Europeans has for a whole generation been hidden under the
title of "Royal Dublin Fusiliers."
Little by little public interest was now being centred on India.
The desperate efforts of France to gain an ascendancy in the
Peninsula of Hindoostan, and the gallant endeavour of the servants
of the East India Company to thwart those efforts, had at last
aroused our Ministers to the value of Indian commerce, and to the
necessity of affording military assistance in the shape of trained
regiments to the "Honourable Company of Merchants trading to the
East." In 1754 a first step was made in this direction, and in that
year the 39th Regiment (now the 1st Dorsets) landed in Madras,
and, in memory of their connection with our early struggles in
India, have been permitted to bear on their colours the legend
"Primus in Indis." The following year a truce was signed between
France and England, thus putting an end to active hostilities. No
steps, however, were neglected by either party in order to secure a
paramount influence with native rulers. In this, however, we were
less successful than our rivals.
PLASSEY, JUNE 23, 1757.
The following regiments are entitled to bear this battle honour:
The Dorsetshire Regiment.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Just as in the South of India the rulers of the Carnatic and of
Mysore were the bitter foes of the English settlement at Madras,
so at Calcutta we had against us Surajah Dowlah, the ruler
of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa--a nominal Viceroy of the Mogul
Emperor--straining every nerve to wrest from us the territories
on which our factories were built. The tragedy of the Black Hole
of Calcutta is familiar to every schoolboy. Fortunate indeed for
England was it that, when the news of the fall of Calcutta reached
Fort St. George an English fleet, under Admiral Watson, was lying
in Madras Roads, and that men of action sat in the Madras Council.
Two hundred Europeans were at once despatched to the Hooghly, and
a force of 2,500 men hastily organized, consisting of 250 men of
the 39th Regiment (1st Dorsets), 700 Madras Europeans, and 1,500
sepoys, for their support. This force was under the joint command
of Admiral Watson and Robert Clive. Calcutta was relieved; and
as war with France had again broken out, it was determined--now
that all pressure on the part of Surajah Dowlah was removed--to
attack the French settlement at Chandernagore. The fleet sailed
up the Hooghly, and on March 23 the British flag was flying over
the French fortress. I have been unable to ascertain the losses of
Clive's troops on this occasion. Those of the Royal Navy amounted
to 4 officers and 46 men killed, 9 officers and 156 men wounded.
In the burial-ground of St. John's Church, Calcutta, may yet be
seen two monuments recording thus daring feat of arms and of superb
seamanship--the one raised in memory of the Admiral, the other of a
midshipman. The former reads:
HERE LIES INTERRED THE BODY OF
CHARLES WATSON, ESQ.,
VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE,
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF HIS MAJESTY'S
NAVAL FORCES IN THE EAST INDIES,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 16TH DAY OF AUGUST, 1757,
IN THE 44TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Gheria taken, February 13th, 1756.
Calcutta freed, January 11th, 1757.
Chandernagore taken, March 23rd, 1757.
Exegit monumentum ore perennius.
On the boy's tomb is inscribed:
HERE LYES THE BODY OF
WILLIAM SPEKE,
AGED 16, SON OF HENRY SPEKE, ESQ.,
CAPTAIN OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP _KENT_.
HE LOST HIS LEG AND LIFE IN THAT SHIP
AT THE CAPTURE OF FORT ORLEANS,
THE 24TH MARCH, ANNO 1757.
Having punished the French for their refusal to afford assistance
to our beleaguered countrymen and countrywomen in Calcutta, Clive
now determined to march against the Nawab Surajah Dowlah. On June
13, having received fresh reinforcements on this occasion from
Bombay, he left Chandernagore at the head of 3,000 men, with ten
guns. Of these about 1,000 were English--the 39th Foot, under Major
Eyre Coote, some gunners of the Royal Artillery who had accompanied
the 39th from England, and detachments of the Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay European regiments. The Englishmen were conveyed in boats up
the Hooghly; the sepoys marched along the banks. On June 23 Clive
found himself face to face with Surajah Dowlah's army at Plassey, a
town on the River Hooghly, about 100 miles due north of Calcutta.
The odds were hopelessly unequal--Clive with 3,000 men and ten
light field-guns on the one side; Surajah Dowlah with 55,000 men,
of whom 15,000 were cavalry, and fifty guns of all calibres on
the other. Had Englishmen ever been in the habit of counting the
odds, the Indian Empire would never have been ours. Neither Clive
nor Coote were men to quail before difficulties. From eight until
eleven our infantry lay motionless, the field-guns only maintaining
an unequal duel with the more numerous artillery of the enemy,
which were being served--and very badly served--by some Frenchmen
in the service of the Nawab. Plassey was the foundation-stone of
British supremacy in Bengal, as Arcot was in Madras; yet the
fight was, from the soldier's standpoint, a very hollow one. Dawn
broke with the odds immeasurably in favour of the Mogul host. At
sunset that host was in full retreat, and yet our total losses were
but 11 English and 13 sepoys killed, the wounded being 22 and 21
respectively. Such was the price we paid for the establishment of
British rule over what is known as the Province of Bengal.
CASUALTIES AT PLASSEY.
+------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Royal Navy | - | 1 | - | 2 |
|Royal Artillery | 1 | 2 | 6 | 10 |
|39th Dorset | 1 | - | 1 | 4 |
|Royal Munster Fusiliers | - | 1 | 1 | 2 |
|1st R. Dublin Fusiliers | - | - | 1 | 3 |
|2nd R. Dublins | - | - | - | 1 |
|Bengal sepoys | - | - | 9 | 11 |
|Madras sepoys | - | - | 4 | 10 |
+------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
CONDORE, DECEMBER 9, 1758.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
In the course of this year there was incessant fighting between our
troops in Madras and the French and their allies; but the value of
India was now becoming more thoroughly appreciated by the Cabinet,
and a second regiment, then numbered the 79th, was sent out to
Madras, under Colonel William Draper. The French, on their part,
were not behindhand. The Count Lally and Admiral d'Ache arrived,
with close on 3,000 French troops, and the British forts at
Cuddalore and St. David were captured. Matters were looking serious
indeed in Southern India, when Clive, still in Calcutta, determined
to make a diversion. Eyre Coote, the Major of the 39th, who had
shown such gallantry at Plassey, was in England busily employed in
raising a regiment for service in India, and so was not available;
but Clive detached Major Forde, of the 39th, with detachments of
his own regiment and of the 1st Bengal Europeans (now the Munster
Fusiliers), barely numbering 600 men, and some 2,000 sepoys, down
the coast to Vizagapatam, which was being threatened by a French
force, under Conflans. Despite the odds against him--for the French
army outnumbered his by at least three to one--Forde pushed on,
finally meeting Conflans near the mouth of the Godavery River.
CASUALTIES AT CONDORE.
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiment._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+-------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Royal Munster Fusiliers | | | | |
| (1st Bengal Europeans) | 1 | 4 | 15 | 29 |
+-------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
There has been a long-standing dispute as to whether this
honour can be rightly claimed by the Dublin Fusiliers as the
representatives of the Madras and Bombay regiments which were
sent to assist Clive in 1757. It appears certain that the
men from Madras and Bombay were incorporated with the Bengal
European Regiment in April, 1758, and that none but Bengal troops
accompanied Forde to Vizagapatam. The India Office has therefore
given its decision in favour of the Munsters for both Condore and
Masulipatam.
MASULIPATAM, APRIL 8, 1759.
This honour is borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers alone. In spite
of many obstacles thrown in his way after the action of Condore
by our native allies, Forde determined to follow up Conflans.
It was not until March 6 that he arrived before Masulipatam,
behind the fortifications of which the French were awaiting him.
A fortnight was taken up in landing siege-guns from the fleet,
which had followed the army down the coast, and a small number
of bluejackets were disembarked to aid in the siege. On April 6
Forde learnt that a force of 40,000 natives, under Salabad Jung,
was advancing to the relief of Conflans, and he determined on
storming at once. His position was full of difficulty: in front a
formidable work, with a garrison exceeding his own force in number,
his land communications threatened by a Franco-native army 40,000
strong, and an empty treasure-chest. A weaker man would have taken
advantage of the presence of the fleet, contented himself with his
own marvellous success at Condore, and embarked his little army
for Bengal. Not of such stuff was Forde, and fortunate for him and
for England that he had with him men of like metal to himself.
On April 8 Forde ordered the assault, and by nightfall Conflans,
with 3,000 men, had unconditionally surrendered. Salabad Jung,
the Viceroy of the Circars Province, now realizing that all power
did not belong to the French, entered into a treaty with Forde,
by which he ceded to the English eighty miles of coast-line, and
entered into an agreement, not merely to dismiss all the French
then in his service, but also never again to employ French troops
or instructors. Forde was now free to return to Bengal, where his
services were soon to be urgently needed.
CASUALTIES INCURRED DURING THE OPERATIONS AT MASULIPATAM, ENDING
WITH THE ACTION OF APRIL 8, 1759.
+------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiment._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Royal Munster Fusiliers | 2 | - | 22 | 62 |
+------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
BADARA, NOVEMBER 25, 1759.
An honour borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers only. The crushing
defeats inflicted by Forde on Conflans had the effect of restoring
our prestige in Madras. But in Bengal Clive was in no very
enviable position. The Dutch, who had a settlement at Chinsura, on
the Hooghly, had commenced open hostilities, and a Dutch fleet,
with a considerable force on board, entered that river. Clive
had at his disposal about 300 of the 1st Bengal Europeans, and
until the return of Forde from Masulipatam matters at Calcutta
were serious. As soon as Forde arrived, Clive, who believed only
in the offensive, ordered the victor of Condore to attack the
land force, whilst he determined to destroy the Dutch fleet with
some armed East Indiamen at his disposal. On November 20 Forde
marched to Chandernagore (the French settlement on the Hooghly,
some miles above Calcutta), and on the following day moved on to
Chinsura--only a few miles distant--where a small detachment of
the Dutch were encamped. He was joined here by Knox (a Company's
officer who had been under Forde at Condore), with a body of eighty
volunteer cavalry, raised from the English residents in Calcutta,
and a strong battalion of sepoys. He now learnt that the Dutch
force was moving to attack him. Confident of victory, Forde wrote
to Clive, asking for permission to forestall them. The story runs
that Clive was playing cards when Forde's letter reached him.
Laying down his hand, Clive scribbled on the back of the letter:
"Dear Forde,--Fight them. I will send you the Order in Council
to-morrow." Then, taking up his cards, went on with the game. On
November 25 the two forces came into collision. Forde's handful of
cavalry converted the check, which the steady fire of Knox's guns
had inflicted on the Dutch, into a rout. Practically the entire
Dutch force was either killed, wounded, or taken. The Government
in Holland repudiated the action of the Governor of their Indian
settlements, and paid compensation to the East India Company. But
Forde's little fight at Badara is deserving of recognition, not
merely because it was a gallant action fought against serious odds,
but more especially because it put an end once and for all to all
pretensions of the Dutch to supremacy in the East.
Unfortunately, no records exist showing the casualties we suffered
at the action of Badara.
WANDEWASH, JANUARY 22, 1760.
An honour borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
The operations in Southern India had not been characterized by the
same degree of success which had marked Forde's campaign against
Conflans and the Dutch, but in the very month that we won the
action of Badara Eyre Coote disembarked at Madras at the head of
his newly-raised regiment, then numbered the 84th. At the same time
some 300 recruits arrived for the Company's battalions, bringing
the total force at the disposal of the Government of Madras to
four battalions of infantry, 100 English troopers, and eighteen
field-guns. With these Coote determined to resume the offensive,
and on January 22 the two armies met at Wandewash, about 100 miles
south-west of Madras. The forces were fairly equally matched. Hyder
Ali, with his allies, the French, however, had a considerable
preponderance in cavalry. When we reflect on the momentous issue
decided by this and the preceding actions between the French and
ourselves in India, and compare the number of the troops engaged
with those we now mobilize for an Indian frontier campaign, it
seems little short of marvellous that our Indian Empire should have
been built up with such slender means.
The troops engaged, under the command of Eyre Coote, consisted
of Draper's Regiment (then the 79th), his own (the 84th), and
two English battalions in the Company's employ (now the Munster
Fusiliers), 2,000 sepoys, 1,200 Indian cavalry, and one squadron of
English horse, with sixteen guns. The brunt of the fighting fell on
the British regiments, Draper's suffering the most heavily; but our
total casualties--63 killed and 124 wounded--was a small price to
pay for a victory which cost the French 600 killed and wounded and
24 guns.
Step by step Coote now undertook the reduction of all the
French ports in Southern India. Arcot, Trincomalee, and finally
Pondicherry, all fell into our hands, only to be restored, as was
Chandernagore, to the French at the conclusion of peace in 1763--an
act of generous imbecility which necessitated their recapture on
the renewal of the war fifteen years later, at the cost of many
hundred valuable British soldiers.
CASUALTIES AT WANDEWASH.
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+-------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Draper's Regiment (79th) | 3 | 4 | 17 | 66 |
|Coote's Regiment (84th) | 1 | 3 | 13 | 36 |
|Royal Dublin Fusiliers | 1 | 1 | 3 | 29 |
+-------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
PONDICHERRY, 1761, 1778, 1793.
This battle honour is borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (at
that time the 1st Madras European Regiment), and was conferred upon
it by the Governor of Madras in recognition of its services at the
three sieges of that fortress in the years 1761, 1778, and 1793.
The operations were conducted by Sir Eyre Coote, an officer who had
received his early training in the 39th (Dorsets), and who, on that
regiment being recalled to England, undertook, as I have shown, to
raise a battalion for service in India.
This corps, which was numbered the 84th, and which we have already
seen at Wandewash, played an all-important part in the early
campaigns waged in India; but as it was disbanded in the year 1788,
the battle honours it gained are not to be found on the colours of
any existing regiment. Coote laid siege to Pondicherry in the month
of September, 1760, but it was not until the January following that
the Governor surrendered. In accordance with our invariable custom,
the fortress and neighbouring colony were restored to the French on
the conclusion of peace in 1763. The regiments associated with the
Dublin Fusiliers in the Siege of Pondicherry in 1760 were the 79th
(Draper's Regiment), the 84th (Coote's), the 89th (Highlanders),
under Major Hector Munro, and the 96th, under the Hon. G. Monson.
None of these corps survive to bear the battle honour.
In the year 1778, on the renewal of the war with France, the
reduction of Pondicherry once more became a matter of urgent
necessity. On this occasion the Dublin Fusiliers were again to the
fore in their capacity as the 1st Madras European Regiment (two
of its battalions being present). With them were no less than ten
battalions of sepoys. Many of these are still borne on the rolls
of the Madras army. The distinction has not been conferred on the
Indian corps for the operations in 1778; but if the losses suffered
during a successful campaign constitute a claim to a battle
honour, the words "Pondicherry, 1778," may well be accorded to the
regiments who figure in the subjoined list of casualties.
CASUALTIES AT PONDICHERRY, 1778.
+-----------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+-----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Dublin Fus. (two battalions) | 1 | 8 | 45 | 92 |
|Bengal Recruits | 1 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
|62nd Punjabis (Natives) | - | 2 | 17 | 57 |
|67th Punjabis (Natives) | - | 2 | 10 | 37 |
|69th Punjabis (British) | 1 | - | - | - |
|Do. (Natives) | - | 2 | 7 | 36 |
|72nd Punjabis (British) | 1 | 1 | - | - |
|Do. (Natives) | - | 1 | 6 | 43 |
|73rd Carnatic Inf. (British) | - | 1 | 1 | - |
|73rd Carnatic Inf. (Natives) | 1 | - | 6 | 14 |
|74th Punjabis (Natives) | - | - | 21 | 34 |
|75th Carnatic Inf. (British) | 1 | - | - | - |
|Do. (Natives) | - | - | 23 | 44 |
|76th Punjabis (Natives) | - | - | 8 | 29 |
|79th Carnatic Inf. (British) | 1 | 1 | - | - |
|Do. (Natives) | - | 1 | 5 | 12 |
|80th Carnatic Inf. (British) | 1 | 1 | - | - |
|Do. (Natives) | - | 2 | 8 | 35 |
+-----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
NOTE.--The total losses of the Company's troops at Pondicherry
in 1778 were 148 sepoys killed and 482 wounded. For this success
Hector Munro, who commanded, was made a K.B.
The Bengal Recruits alluded to above were a party of recruits on
their way out to join what is now known as the Munster Fusiliers.
They were detained by the Governor of Madras to swell the British
element at the siege, and they well sustained the honour of the
regiment now known as the Royal Munster Fusiliers.
In the year 1793 the reduction of Pondicherry became once more
necessary. The fortress had been captured by Sir Eyre Coote and its
works demolished in 1761. On its restoration to the French, the
place was converted into an exceptionally strong fortification, and
its capture by Sir Hector Munro in 1778 entailed a loss of upwards
of 600 killed and wounded. In 1793 we found that our friends the
French had once more--and very rightly, too--done their utmost to
render the place impregnable, and that a very considerable force
would be necessary for its reduction. Colonel Braithwaite, of the
Madras army, was entrusted with its capture. The force at his
disposal consisted of the following troops:
Cavalry Brigade--Colonel Floyd: 19th Hussars and 4th Madras
Cavalry.
First Infantry Brigade--Colonel Nesbitt: 36th (Worcesters), 52nd
(Oxford Light Infantry), and the battalion companies of the
Dublin Fusiliers.
Second Infantry Brigade--Colonel David Baird: 71st (Highland
Light Infantry), 73rd (Royal Highlanders), and the flank
companies of the two battalions of the Madras European Regiment
(Dublin Fusiliers), under Majors Petrie and Vigors.
Third Infantry Brigade--Colonel Bilcliffe: 61st Pioneers, 62nd
Punjabis, and 63rd Light Infantry.
Fourth Brigade--Colonel Campbell: 66th Punjabis, 67th Punjabis,
and the 8th Madras Infantry, which has ceased to exist.
Fifth Infantry Brigade--Colonel Trent: 69th Pioneers, and the
old 17th and 19th Regiments of Madras Infantry, which have been
merged in other corps.
Sixth Infantry Brigade--Colonel Cuppage: 23rd, 24th, and 25th
Regiments of Madras Infantry.
The artillery consisted of 117 men of the Royal and 731 of the
Madras Artillery, and there were 75 English sappers, together with
that well-tried regiment which has fought so bravely on so many
fields--the Madras Sappers and Miners.
I regret that I have been unable to trace the losses of all the
native regiments; their total casualties amounted to 4 British
officers and 135 native ranks killed and wounded.
CASUALTIES AT PONDICHERRY, 1793.
+------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Royal Artillery | - | 2 | 12 | 17 |
|Roy. Engineers | 1 | 4 | 5 | 18 |
|36th Worcesters | - | - | 5 | 9 |
|52nd Oxford L.I. | 1 | - | 2 | 5 |
|71st Highl. L.I. | - | 1 | 8 | 14 |
|73rd R. Highl. | 3 | - | 7 | 13 |
|Petrie's batt. | - | 1 | 2 | 6 |
|Vigor's batt. | - | 1 | 1 | 3 |
|61st Pioneers | - | - | 2 | 8 |
|62nd Punjabis | 1 | - | 6 | 12 |
|66th Punjabis | - | - | 3 | 5 |
|67th Punjabis | 1 | - | 9 | 16 |
+------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Although no battle honours have been awarded to the Indian
regiments which took part in the operations against Pondicherry in
the years 1778 and 1793, I have been at some pains to give a brief
account of the operations, both of which, with their accompanying
loss of life, might have been avoided had the Home Government
either insisted on the retention of the conquests we had made
in the East, or, were that impracticable, refused to allow the
rebuilding of fortifications in the French settlements in India.
"Pondicherry, 1778 and 1793," might be added with propriety to the
battle honours of regiments which took part in the sieges of those
years.
BUXAR, OCTOBER 23, 1764.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
In the interval between Eyre Coote's victory at Wandewash in
January, 1760, and the Battle of Buxar in October, 1764, our troops
in India had been continuously at war; yet the colours even of
those regiments which still survive, and which were then in the
service of the Company, bear no record of the many stubborn fights,
the by no means inglorious victories achieved over our gallant
foes. In the South, the Government of Madras had been carrying on
campaign after campaign against the trained troops of France and
the scarcely less formidable army of Mysore. In the North, Clive
and his successor had found foemen no less worthy of their steel in
the armies of the Emperor of Delhi and those of the ruler of Oude,
under Surajah Doolah. History--even Greek history--affords no more
striking episodes than those early struggles of our countrymen in
India; and though the names of Beerpore, Sooty, and Oondna Nullah
are forgotten, they deserve to stand side by side with other
well-remembered names that are emblazoned on the colours of the old
Company's regiments. The Battle of Buxar was the final episode in
the long-fought campaign with the ruler of Oude.
Now that the two senior battalions of the old Company's army have
been converted into the Royal Munster and Royal Dublin Fusiliers,
they are the only regiments which bear on their colours a memento
of one of the finest actions ever fought in India. The British
force numbered between 6,000 and 7,000 men, with twenty-eight
guns. It included, besides the two European regiments in the
Company's employ, a composite battalion, just 167 strong, made up
of detachments of the 84th, or Coote's Regiment, and volunteers
from the disbanded 89th Regiment and 90th (Light Infantry); two
companies of Royal Marines, under Captain Wemyss; a handful of
seamen, with a midshipman, working some guns side by side with the
Bengal Artillery; and a small troop of cavalry, the total being
about 1,200 Englishmen. To these must be added 900 Mogul horse and
5,000 sepoys. This little army was under the command of Colonel Sir
Hector Munro, of the 89th Regiment. The two Company's battalions
were inured to Indian warfare, and the men of the 90th (then the
only Light Infantry regiment in the British army), had learned
their lesson at the capture of Belleisle, Martinique, and Havana,
under their brave Colonel, James Stuart, who was destined to add
to the laurels gained at the Moro a great reputation in Southern
India.
The force opposed to Munro was a formidable one. It included eight
battalions trained and commanded by French officers, two batteries
of artillery manned by Europeans, 5,000 Afghan horse, and 40,000
men of Shah Shujah Daulah's own fairly trained army. The battle was
stubbornly contested, but the victory was complete. Our weakness
in cavalry, however, prevented Munro reaping the full benefits of
his success. In addition to the losses of the British contingent,
the sepoy battalions lost 257 killed and 435 wounded. Our trophies
included 137 guns, whilst the enemy left upwards of 2,000 dead on
the field.
CASUALTIES AT BUXAR.
+-----------------------+-----------+-----------+
| |_Officers._| _Men._ |
| _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | K. | W. | K. | W. |
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|R. Munster Fus. | - | 3 | 37 | 58 |
|Composite batt. | 1 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
|Royal Artillery | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|Royal Dublin Fusiliers | - | - | 2 | 3 |
|British cavalry | - | 1 | 2 | 4 |
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Broome, in his admirable "History of the Bengal Army," states
that the two officers who figure in the list of casualties in the
composite battalion both belonged to the 90th Light Infantry. This
is an error. On comparing the names of the officers with the Army
Lists, I am convinced that they belonged to the 96th Regiment, and
that the error has arisen in the transcription by a clerk at the
War or India Office. I have come across many such errors. Perhaps
the most amusing is in the _Gazette_ recording the capture of
Havana in 1762, where the 42nd is referred to in the casualty rolls
as the "42nd Royal Hunters"!