Last Years in India
(1803-5)
“_Time is everything in military operations._”
WELLINGTON.
Bhonsla Rájá now became the immediate object of Wellesley’s attention.
While proceeding in quest of him the General received envoys from
Sindhia requesting an armistice. This was granted on the 23rd November
1803, the principal condition imposed by Wellesley being that the
enemy’s army should retire forty miles east of Ellichpúr. This clause
was not fulfilled, the cavalry of the wily Sindhia encamping at
Sersooly, some four miles from the position occupied by Manoo Bappoo,
brother of the Rájá, ready for immediate co-operation. Having again
united their divisions, Wellesley and Stevenson pushed towards them. “A
confused mass” about two miles beyond Sersooly proved to be the enemy’s
armies on the march. A little later the General made out “a long line
of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, regularly drawn up on the plains
of Argaum, immediately in front of that village.”
“Although late in the day,” says Wellesley in describing the events
of the 29th November, “I immediately determined to attack this army.
Accordingly, I 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 left by the 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. Sindhia’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 corps. Their line extended above five miles, having in their rear
the village and extensive gardens and enclosure of Argaum; and in their
front a plain, which, however, was much cut by watercourses, etc.
“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 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. Sindhia’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 38 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 Marhattá cavalry, in
order to secure as many advantages from this victory as can be gained,
and complete the enemy’s confusion.... The troops conducted themselves
with their usual bravery....”
One of the bravest deeds performed during the battle of Argaum was
that of Lieutenant Langlands, of the 74th. Wounded in the fleshy
part of the leg by a spear, he promptly pulled out the weapon and
thrust it through the body of the Arab who had thrown it. A Sepoy who
witnessed this extraordinary display of self-possession, forgetting all
discipline, rushed from the ranks and patted the young officer on the
back, yelling in his native tongue, “Well done, sir; very well done!”
Wellesley next marched on the mountain fort of Gawilghur, strongly
garrisoned by the Rájá’s troops. This defence consisted of an outer and
inner fort, the former protected by strongly-built walls, and the whole
by ramparts and towers. Admittance was gained only by three gates, all
extremely difficult of access by an invading army owing to the roads
leading to them. That to the south, communicating with the inner fort,
was long and steep, and could only be negotiated on foot; the second
was exposed to the guns mounted on the west side and was extremely
narrow and scarped by rock; the third, or north gate, communicated with
the village. Wellesley chose the last as being the most practicable for
his purpose, although he did not blind his eyes to the fact that “the
difficulty and labour of moving ordnance and stores from Labada would
be very great.”
From the 7th December, when the corps under Wellesley and Stevenson
marched from Ellichpúr by different routes, till the 12th, “on which
Colonel Stevenson broke ground near Labada, the troops in his division
went through a series of laborious services, such as I never before
witnessed, with the utmost cheerfulness and perseverance. The heavy
ordnance and stores were dragged by hand over mountains, and through
ravines, for nearly the whole distance, by roads which it had been
previously necessary for the troops to make for themselves.”
On the night of the 12th, Stevenson erected two batteries in front of
the north face of the fort, and Wellesley one on the mountain, “under
the southern gate.” Although firing was begun on the following morning,
the breaches in the walls of the outer fort were not sufficiently
large for practical purposes until the 14th. Next day, while the
storming party was getting to work, Wellesley made two attacks from
the southward so as to draw the enemy’s fire upon himself as much as
possible. The north-west gate was carried, and a detachment entered
without difficulty. Captain Campbell, with the light infantry of the
94th, then succeeded in fixing ladders against the wall of the inner
fort. They “escaladed the wall, opened the gate for the storming party,
and the fort was shortly in our possession.” In a later communication
Wellesley mentions that he never knew a place taken by storm which
was so little plundered, “and it is but doing justice to the corps to
declare that in an hour after having stormed that large place, they
marched out with as much regularity as if they had been only passing
through it.”
Bhonsla Rájá had already sent his vakeel[18] to sue for peace. This
was granted by his ceding to the Company the province of Cuttack, with
the district of Balasore, and dismissing the European officers who
had played so important a part in the drilling of his army. Sindhia
also “began to be a little alarmed respecting his own situation,” and
shortly afterwards concluded hostilities, handing over all the country
between the Jumna and the Ganges, and several important fortresses.
These happenings did not relieve Wellesley from active service.
Several bands of freebooters, “the terror of the country,” consisting
mainly of fugitive soldiers from the defeated armies, were carrying
on lawless practices in the West Deccan. After crossing the Godavery,
he and some of his troops marched many weary miles along bad roads,
often at accelerated speed, in order to attack them, only to find
that the enemy had received intelligence of their approach, probably
from a traitor in Wellesley’s own ranks. With set purpose the General
continued to follow where the marauders led, and eventually broke up
the bands, securing the whole of their guns, ammunition, and baggage,
thus depriving them of their means of warfare: “they have lost every
thing which could enable them to subsist when collected.” Wellesley
afterwards asserted that his chase of the freebooters was the greatest
march he ever made.
Towards the end of May 1804 Wellesley received instructions from the
Governor-General to break up the army in the Deccan, the task of
running to earth Holkar, the sole remaining enemy of the confederacy,
being given to Lake. In the following month he relinquished his
command, and after a short visit to Calcutta returned to Seringapatam.
He had already requested that he might be allowed to leave India “when
circumstances will permit it,” and the Commander-in-Chief had given him
the necessary permission. He was dissatisfied because he had not been
promoted since he became Major-General, “and I think that there appears
a prospect of service in Europe, in which I should be more likely to
get forward.” In addition, he was suffering from rheumatism, “for which
living in a tent during another monsoon is not a very good remedy.” He
sailed for the Homeland on the 10th March 1805, after six years of hard
work, and still harder fighting, in the interests of British rule in
India.
The following contemporary pen-portrait of “the Sepoy General,”
sketched for us by Captain Sherer, will enable us to visualize him as
he appeared at this time:
“General Wellesley was a little above the middle height, well limbed,
and muscular; with little incumbrance of flesh beyond that which
gives shape and manliness to the outline of the figure; with a firm
tread, an erect carriage, a countenance strongly patrician, both in
feature, profile, and expression, and an appearance remarkable and
distinguished: few could approach him on any duty, or on any subject
requiring his serious attention, without being sensible of a something
strange and penetrating in his clear light eye. Nothing could be more
simple and straightforward than the matter of what he uttered; nor did
he ever in his life affect any peculiarity or pomp of manner, or rise
to any coarse, weak loudness in his tone of voice. It was not so that
he gave expression to excited feeling.”
To what extent did the Governor-General influence his brother’s career
in India? First of all we must understand the position of the Marquis
Wellesley. It was naturally one of tremendous power and responsibility.
The glamour attached to the post was sufficiently evident to the
general public. There it ended, for it was glitter rather than gold to
its holder. The Directors of the East India Company, ever on the side
of rigid economy and large dividends, expressly forbade the costly
system of conquest and annexation, yet this was necessarily the sheet
anchor of Wellesley’s policy, as former chapters have shown. When
pacific measures were tried and failed, it would have been disastrous
to continue them. As it usually took over three months[19] for a
communication from India to reach England, it follows that the same
period was necessary for a reply. The consequences of indecision on
the part of the Viceroy, of waiting for advice from home in matters
requiring urgency, were therefore fraught with dire peril. On the
other hand, if he showed too despotic tendencies he ran a grave risk
of incurring displeasure. Indeed, this is exactly what happened, for
Lord Wellesley was recalled in 1805 and censured by the Court of
Proprietors. When, after thirty years, it became evident that his
administration had been wise and not foolish, that he had carried
out what would have had to be done eventually to establish British
influence, the Directors relented and voted him a grant of £20,000.
Fortunately there was “a barrier state” in London between the
Governor-General and the Directors in the person of the President of
the Board of Control, the said Board consisting of Cabinet Ministers.
This position had been occupied since July 1802 by Lord Castlereagh,
who, on taking office, found that Wellesley had come to the conclusion
that resignation was better than humiliation. He did much to smooth
over the difficulties, and from that time until Wellesley’s return to
England Castlereagh loyally supported the Viceroy on every possible
occasion. For instance, when the reduction of the Indian establishment
to 10,000 troops was seriously mooted by the Directors and the Cabinet
at home, notwithstanding the threatening attitude of the Marhattá
confederacy, it was largely due to Castlereagh’s support of Lord
Wellesley’s demands that so absurd a policy was prevented.
The President of the Board of Control never interfered in the matter
of patronage, knowing full well that the Governor-General on the spot
was better able to recognize merit for the special requirements of the
service than a man thousands of miles away. This brings us back to our
proper subject.
We have noted how Lord Mornington discerned the opportunity awaiting
his brother in India, and how that brother reciprocated when the former
was diffident in the matter of accepting the chief official post there.
It is true that Wellesley was made Governor of Seringapatam over the
head of Baird, his senior officer, but whether this appointment was due
to the fact that Mornington influenced General Harris in the matter of
his choice is not sufficiently evident. There is a strong suspicion
that it was,[20] because Arthur Wellesley had only served as commander
of the reserve, whereas Baird was the leader of the assault, and as
such military tradition unquestionably favoured his appointment.
Again, in the matter of the Batavian expedition, the Governor-General
offered Wellesley the appointment as military commander: “The King
has given me the power of selecting the persons who are to conduct
this expedition; ... and a conscientious sense of duty induces me
to think that you are the most fit person to be selected for that
service, provided you can safely be spared from Mysore for the period
of the expedition....” In Mornington’s opinion, “the expedition will
be very advantageous to the naval and military commanders.” On the
other hand, we know that when the project was abandoned for a diversion
on the coasts of the Red Sea, he superseded his brother. One wonders
what would have happened when Wellesley set off for Bombay without
instructions, had he not been closely related to the Governor-General.
The Marquis certainly did not minimize Arthur’s successes to those at
home. Writing to Addington, then Speaker of the House of Commons, in
October 1800, he says, “My brother Arthur has distinguished himself
most brilliantly in an expedition against an insurgent, who had
collected a great force of predatory cavalry--the wreck of Tippú’s
army.” Three years later, when Addington was Prime Minister, he again
drew attention to his brother’s achievements, as follows:--
“My public duty will not permit me to be silent respecting
Major-General Wellesley. His march from Mysore to Poona, his able
conduct of the measures adopted for restoring the Peishwah, for
conciliating the feudatory Mahratta chiefs who maintained their
allegiance to the Peishwah, for preserving the dominions of the
Nizám, and our interests at Hyderabad, combined with his sieges of
Ahmednuggur, Burrampur, and Asseerghur, his glorious and splendid
victories at Assaye and on the plains of Argaum, with the entire ruin
of Sindhia’s French troops and powerful artillery in the Deccan,
must place the name of General Wellesley among the most bright and
distinguished characters that have adorned the military history of
the British power in India. He is now employed in reducing the main
fortress of Perar, and in negotiating, with the utmost judgment and
skill, the conditions of peace. I leave his merits to your justice, and
to the judgment of his King and country. The pride and honour of being
allied by the nearest ties of blood to such an officer cannot absolve
me from the obligations of my public station, as the representative
of the supreme civil and military authority in India; and I cannot,
therefore, omit this testimony to the merits of General Wellesley
without a positive violation of my duty.”[21]
Whatever may be thought of such glowing praise from a brother on the
score of good taste, it evidently achieved its purpose, for before he
left India, Arthur Wellesley was appointed an extra Knight Companion of
the Bath and received the thanks of the King and Parliament.
Earl Roberts,[22] in summing up this phase of the future Duke’s career,
remarks: “On his arrival in India he found himself in a country where
in almost every matter the power and influence of the Governor-General
were supreme, and the Governor-General being his brother, he was
quickly placed in a position of responsibility, which gave him the
opportunity of developing his talents as a soldier and statesman in
the best of all schools--the school of practice. It cannot be denied
that in early life Wellington owed much to family influence,[23] and
to a system of promotion which would now be stigmatized as jobbery.
On the other hand, he took full advantage of every chance that was
thrown in his way, and by his industry and capacity fully justified the
exceptional favour with which he was treated.”
With this conclusion the present writer heartily agrees; whatever Sir
Arthur gained from his relative’s assistance was amply repaid in his
achievements. British India owes much to the brothers Wellesley.