The rise of Wellington

Front matter

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LIBR

THE

Introduction

WHEN the proposal for a series of republications in book form of some of the more important articles and short stories appearing in the pages of the Pall Mall Magazine was first made to us by Mr. R. B. Marston, we accepted it without hesitation, perceiving at once that an admirable medium would thus be provided by which much valuable literary matter might be made known to an even wider circle of the public than the readers of the periodical of which we have the conduct. Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley’s graphic and analytical papers on the “Decline and Fall of Napoleon,’ which constitute the first volume of the PALL MALL MAGAZINE LIBRARY, achieved, as we are able to say from personal knowledge, a very remarkable success not only in England and America, but on the Continent; especially in Paris, where they were translated and published in book form. Much the same may be said with regard to General Lord Roberts’ valuable and instructive articles on the “Rise of Wellington,” which found vill INTRODUCTION.

especial favour with military readers in all branches of the Service, and we have reason to think that the collection of these into a single and handy volume will meet with the general approval of military men, and might form a valuable text-book for military students. The articles commenced by Viscount. Wolseley and continued by Lord Roberts are now being followed in the pages of the Pall Mall Magazine by Lieut.-General Sir Evelyn Wood's papers on “Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign,” and we hope from time to time to be able to secure other able military writers as contributors to deal with subjects having an equal historical interest. We conclude by saying that the Publishers have our hearty sympathy and will have our lively co-operation in the publication of the PALL MALL MAGAZINE LIBRARY, and so far as lies in our power we shall endeavour to assist them in making each successive volume such as to entitle it to a foremost place in the literature of the day.

FREDERICK HAMILTON.

DOUGLAS STRAIGHT.

Editors Pall Mall Magazine.

18, CHARING CROSS ROAD.

March, 1895.

GENERAL SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY, K.P. frontispiece.

TIPPOO SULTAN . : 3 : : ; : :

PLAN OF THE ATTACK UPON THE NORTH WEST ANGLE OF SERINGAPATAM

LorD HarRIS

GENERAL LAKE . ;

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ASSAYE : : d

BATTLE OF ASSAYE . : : : To face page

MAJOR-GENERAL BAIRD

SIR HEwW DALRYMPLE : 4

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL THE HON. JOHN HOPE

COLONEL GEORGE MURRAY

SIR JOHN MOORE ‘ ‘ :

BATTLE OF TALAVERA : : : To face page

MAJOR-GENERAL BERESFORD

LORD CASTLEREAGH . ; : ; ‘ ;

PLAN OF MASSENA’S RETREAT. COMBAT OF SABUGAL, 1811 ; : . : é : :

THE STORMING OF BADAJOZ - : To face page

GENERAL LORD HILL, G.C.B. .

PAGE x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE PLAN OF THE PASSAGE OF THE NIVE. . BATTLE OF

ST. PIERRE .

. ; . aos MAP OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL . : : . hee WELLINGTON. é : : : ‘ ‘ . vitae ENGLAND’S HOPE, 1815 ‘ 4 ; To face page 128 H.R.H. FREDERICK, DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY, F.-M., COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF : ° . « 142 FIELD-MARSHAL VON BLUCHER . : ih Tae - 145 PLAN OF THE FIELD OF WATERLOO . : ; . ee THE MARQUESS OF ANGLESEY . é ; . 1a

FACSIMILE OF PORTION OF DESPATCH WRITTEN FROM WATERLOO TO LORD BATHURST THE DAY AFTER THE BATTLE. : 5 ; : : - 167, 168 NAPOLEON’S FLIGHT FROM WATERLOO 70 face fage . 176 NAPOLEON . ; ; ; : : ‘ ¢ «. S87

THE forest WELLINGTON.

** The foremost quality in a general is that he shall have a cool head, which receives just impressions of things ; which is never confused, nor allows itself to be dazzled or thrown off its balance by good or bad news.”—N APOLEON.

Chapter I

THE military career of Wellington naturally divides itself into three periods—the Indian period, the Peninsular period, and the period during which he commanded the Allied Forces in the Netherlands, terminating in the battle of Waterloo. I propose, therefore, in three chapters, relating in turn to each of these periods, briefly to describe the principal incidents of this great soldier’s life, and to show how the experience he gained first in the East, and afterwards in South-Western Europe, so developed his natural | B talents and administrative capacity that he was finally able to meet and overthrow the French Emperor, whose genius for war had up to that date been regarded as absolutely unrivalled.

Arthur Wellesley, the fourth son of the first Earl of Mornington, was born in 1769, and was educated first at a private school in Chelsea, and subsequently for a short time at Eton, whence he was removed toa military college at Angers, in France, presided over by an engineer officer, the Marquis of Pignerol. Being looked upon as the dunce of the family, and described by his mother as being “food for powder and nothing more,” it was determined, according to the custom of those days, to provide him with a livelihood in the army, and at the age of seventeen he obtained an ensigncy in the 41st Foot. His family interest being powerful, he was rapidly promoted, becoming a lieutenant after nine months’ service as ensign, a captain after three-and-a-half years’ service as lieutenant, a major after less than two years’ service as captain, a lieutenant-colonel after five months’ service as major, and a colonel at the age of twenty-seven, after less than three years’ service as lieutenant-colonel. He was attached to the cavalry as well as the infantry, being transferred from the 41st Foot to the 12th Light Dragoons, thence to the

76th Foot, the 18th Light Dragoons, and finally to the 33rd Foot, of which he obtained the command in 1793.

While stationed at home he sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Trim, and was also for some time aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

In 1794 he accompanied his regiment to Antwerp, where it joined the force under the command of the Duke of York, and took part in the movement on Breda, and the engagement at Boxtel, a village on the river Dommel. On this occasion Lieutenant- Colonel Wellesley behaved with conspicuous judgment and gallantry—so much so, in fact, that he attracted the favourable notice of General Dundas, who afterwards entrusted him with the duty of covering the retreat of the British army. This retreat was conducted under great difficulties by Count Walmoden, a Hanoverian general, to whom the Duke of York had handed over his command; and after suffering the most grievous hardships and privations during the winter of 1794-95, the troops reached Bremen and re-embarked for England early in 1795. This first experience of field service was, no doubt, extremely valuable to Wellington in after years. It must have taught him that soldiers even of the best

B 2 quality, well drilled, disciplined and equipped, cannot hope to be successful unless proper arrangements are made for their supply and transport; and unless those who direct the operations have formed some definite plan of action, and have sufficient zeal and professional knowledge to carry it out. If the French generals had taken full advantage of the opportunities: which the incapacity of the English and German commanders threw in their way, the British force must have been annihilated. As it was, Wellington considered it “a marvel that any one belonging to the force escaped.”

On its return to England Lieutenant-Colonel Wellesley’s regiment was quartered at Warley, while he proceeded on leave to Ireland. Apparently disgusted at. the mismanagement of the troops employed in the Low Countries, he made up his mind to leave the army, and in June 1795 applied to Lord Camden, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, for a civil post under the Irish Government. He wrote: “You will probably be surprised at my desiring a civil instead of a military office. It is certainly a departure from the line which I prefer ; but I see the manner in which the military offices are filled, and I don't wish to ask you for that which I know you cannot give me.” This application was unsuccessful ;:

THE INDIAN PERIOD. 5 and in the autumn of the same year Wellesley’s - regiment was ordered to join in an expedition directed against the French settlements in the West Indies. The ships in which the troops embarked were driven back by stress of weather to Spithead, and the proposed operations being abandoned, the 33rd Foot was landed and quartered at Poole. A few months later the regiment was ordered to India, and arrived in Calcutta in February 1797. Shortly after Colonel Wellesley had reached India, the Governor-General, Sir John Shore, offered him the command of an expedition which was intended for the capture of Manilla; and, all the necessary arrangements being complete, the troops embarked and proceeded as far as Penang. Owing, however, to apprehensions of danger within India itself, the force was recalled, and Colonel Wellesley returned to Calcutta, whence he started early in 1798 on a visit to Lord Hobart, the Governor of Madras. Two months later Lord Mornington, Wellesley’s eldest brother, replaced Sir John Shore as Governor-General, and at once took into consideration the critical state of affairs in Mysore, where Tippoo Sultan, the son of Hyder Ali, continued his late father’s fanatical animosity towards the English, and had allied himself with the French Republic, hoping for its aid in attacking the East India Company’s possessions in Southern India.

The first step to be taken by the Governor-General was to secure the friendship, or at any rate the neutrality, of the Nizam, and for this purpose it was essential to re-establish British influence at that ruler’s court, and induce him to consent to the disbandment of a portion of his troops which had become formidable owing to its being officered by Frenchmen. This precautionary measure was successfully accomplished, and a fresh treaty of alliance was entered into between the Nizam and the Government of India in 1798 ; the French officers in the Nizam’s service were dismissed and sent home; the force to which they belonged was broken up, and a subsidiary force, 6000 strong, under British officers, took its place. While all this was going on Wellesley had been sent with his regiment from Calcutta to Madras, and on ‘his arrival at the capital of the Southern Presidency, he undertook, in communication with Lord Clive, the Governor, and General Harris, the Commander-in- Chief, to organise the commissariat, transport, and ordnance train needed for an advance upon Seringapatam. Feeling that the presence of the Governor- General would stimulate the local authorities to the exertions required to bring the campaign against brother to transfer temporarily the headquarters of the Government of India from Fort William to Fort St; George,

The army of the Carnatic was assembled at Vellore early in 1799, and on February 11th it began its marches towards Seringapatam, being joined a week later by the Hyderabad subsidiary force under British officers, as well as a contingent of the Nizam’s cavalry. The 33rd Foot was attached to this force, which numbered altogether about 16,000 men, and Colonel Wellesley was appointed to its command.

Simultaneously with the advance of the Madras army, a Bombay corps commanded by General Stuart was landed at Cannanore, and moved up the Western Ghauts. to a point named Sedasir, where it was attacked by Tippoo, Tippoo was repulsed with some loss, and retired to the vicinity of Seringapatam, whence, after a short halt, he marched eastward for about twenty miles, and came into contact with General Harris’s troops at Mellavelly. Being there defeated for the second time, he withdrew into _ Seringapatam, in front of which place he threw up a line of field intrenchments. General Harris resolved to make a night attack on these defences, and the operation was entrusted to Colonel Wellesley and

8 THE RISE OF WEELINGTON.

Colonel Shaw. The latter’s attack was successful ; but owing to inadequate reconnaissance, as well as the darkness of the night, and the thickness of the jungle, Wellesley entirely failed in his object, and lost twelve

TIPPOO SULTAN.

grenadiers of the 33rd, whom Tippoo made prisoners and tortured to death by causing nails to be hammered into their skulls. The next morning, however, Tippoo’s intrenchments were carried without difficulty, and shortly afterwards Seringapatam was invested by

= — — te ee

General Harris, who meanwhile had been reinforced by General Stuart’s column. On May 7th, 1799, the city was taken by assault, the command on this occasion being given to Major-General Baird, and the reserve in the trenches being placed in charge of Colonel Wellesley. The garrison fought with remarkable obstinacy, and in the course of the struggle Tippoo Sultan was killed in front of one of the city gates. The treasure captured in Seringapatam was valued at about 41,200,000 sterling, and Colonel Wellesley’s share of it amounted to 47000 in money and £1200 in jewels. Two days after the assault, Colonel Wellesley was ordered to relieve General Baird as Governor of Seringapatam—a favour which, whether he owed it to his own merits, or to his being the brother of the Governor-General, was not unnaturally resented by the officer whom he superseded. After serving on a mixed commission appointed to report on the future government of Tippoo’s dominions, Colonel Wellesley was invested with supreme civil and military control over the province and capital of Mysore, and in this capacity exhibited administrative abilities of a very high order. In May 1800, the Governor-General nominated Colonel Wellesley to the command of an expedition which it was proposed to send to Batavia with a view to inducing the Dutch to cede the eN ae no ¥ 2 aamobuy 149 91 7-9}97) awe 1 Teper a a, LS (WY .LVaVONTU aS ) ES: STONV ISAM BLYON ej]! dodn

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THE-INDIAN PERIOD. II island of Java to the English. This offer he declined after consulting the Governor of Madras. His reason for doing so was that he considered it a more important work to put a stop to the depredations of the noted freebooter, Dhoondiah Waugh, who had been seized and imprisoned by Tippoo, but regaining his liberty on the fall of Seringapatam, had established himself with a large following of about 40,000 men in the Mahratta territory, between Goa and the western frontier of Mysore. A British force was accordingly assembled on the Tumbudra river, and the troops being divided into three columns, a vigorous effort was made to surround the band of marauders, and capture its chief. After a series of long and rapid marches through an arid and difficult country, Wellesley came in contact with the main body of the enemy at Manauli, a small fort about fifty miles east of Belgaum, and after a cavalry skirmish pursued it for a hundred and fifty miles to Konagull on the Tumbudra, where, on September roth, he again attacked with his cavalry. This engagement was decisive, Dhoondiah being killed, and his followers completely broken up and dispersed.

Colonel Wellesley had declined the command of the proposed expedition to Batavia when it was first offered him, but on his return to Mysore after Dhoondiah Waugh had been disposed of, he received orders to proceed to Trincomalee, where the force originally intended for the annexation of Java was still being collected. At this period the attention of the Government, both at home and in India, was fixed on Egypt, which had been occupied by the French with the object of converting it intoa base of operations against the British possessions in the East. The idea of annexing Java had not been entirely abandoned, but the Government of India was inclined to think that it might be more advantageous either to capture Mauritius, then a French colony, or to despatch an Indian contingent to the Red Sea, where it might co-operate with the force which was being prepared by the home authorities for the purpose of driving the French out of Egypt. The question was decided by the receipt of a despatch from His Majesty’s Ministers, ordering the Government of India to send 3000 men to Egypt; and Wellesley, who on his arrival at Trincomalee was apprised of this order, at once arranged on his own responsibility for the troops assembled at that port to sail for Bombay, notwithstanding strong remonstrance from the Governor of Ceylon. When called to account for acting in this matter without the sanction of the Governor-General, Wellesley justified himself on the ground that the movement from Trincomalee to Bombay would greatly expedite the arrival of the force at its ultimate destination, Bombay being the only port at which the requisite provisions and stores were obtainable, and where the transports could procure an adequate supply of fresh water before starting on the voyage to Kosseir in the Red Sea.

On reaching Bombay, Colonel Wellesley received the unwelcome news that the Government of India had appointed Major-General Baird to command the expedition, and that his own position would be that of second in command; the Governor-General explaining to him in a very kind letter that the number of troops employed had rendered it necessary to appoint a general officer to the chief command, and ‘giving him the option of returning to Mysore if he ‘objected to serve under General Baird. Wellesley ‘was bitterly disappointed at being, as he conceived, unfairly superseded, though the officer appointed to the command was much senior to himself, and he expressed his indignation in very forcible terms to his brother Henry. Still, he was disinclined to avail himself of the Governor-General’s permission to return to Mysore, and he only did so because a severe attack of illness prevented him from accompanying the expe- ‘dition.

On his recovery, in May 1801, Wellesley resumed the government of Mysore, and for nearly two years occupied himself with the civil and military administration of that province. |

In April 1802, at the age of thirty-three, and after fifteen years’ service, he became a Major-General, his

LORD HARRIS.

promotion having been strongly urged upon His Royal Highness the Duke of York by his brother the Governor-General, who himself two years before had been raised to an Irish marquisate, with the title of the Marquis Wellesley.

About this time the evacuation of Egypt by the French had relieved the Government of India from the fear of external attack, and it seemed a fitting opportunity to extend the influence of the East India Company over the Mahratta confederacy, which at the beginning of the century was extremely powerful, and, if its members had acted in unison, might have seriously endangered our ascendency in the East. The nominal head of the confederacy was the Peshwa, ° Bajee Rao, whose capital was Poona; its principal members were Sindhia, Holkar, the Raja of Berar, and the Gaekwar of Baroda. Of these Sindhia was the most formidable, possessing a numerous army with strong artillery and well-equipped cavalry. In a semi-independent position, but still owing allegiance to Sindhia, there was a force commanded by the French adventurer Perron, numbering 30,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry, with 250 guns. This force, which was to a great extent officered by Frenchmen, occupied the important strongholds of Agra, Delhi, and Aligarh, and dominated the rich country between the Jumna and Ganges. The Raja of Berar was master of a large extent of territory to the north of the Nizam’s dominions, stretching from Cuttack on the east to _Ellichpore on the west. Nagpore was the Raja’s capital, and his army consisted of about 20,000

16 LHE RISE OF WELLINGTON.

disciplined cavalry and 10,000 infantry. Holkar’s possessions lay between those of Sindhia on the east and the Bombay Presidency on the west. His army, composed chiefly of cavalry, and, like Sindhia’s, commanded by French officers, numbered about 80,000 men. Holkar and Sindhia, however, were extremely jealous of each other; and the former, thinking that the latter exercised undue influence at the Peshwa’s court, crossed the Nerbudda in 1802, marched upon Poona, and defeated the combined forces of the Peshwa and Sindhia. Bajee Rao fled from his capital and sought refuge in British territory at Bassein, where he threw himself upon the protection of the East India Company. Taking advantage of this occurrence, the Governor-General at the close of 1802 entered into a treaty with the Peshwa, known as the treaty of Bassein, which stipulated that the British Government should reinstate Bajee Rao at Poona, and guard him against the aggression’ of the rival Mahratta states, while he on his part should be entirely guided in his foreign policy by the Government of India, should employ no Europeans hostile to the British, and should assign tefritory sufficient to meet the cost of a subsidiary force similar to that maintained by the Nizam, and exclusively commanded by British officers. The Governor-General hoped to be able to earry this treaty into effect without provoking the open hostility of the Native States more or less directly concerned. The provisions of the treaty, however, were so opposed to the interests of the principal Mahratta chiefs, especially those of Sindhia and the Raja of Berar, that Lord Wellesley could not but recognise the strong probability of their endeavouring by force or intrigue to recover their ascendency at Poona, or to obtain compensation in some other direction. To guard against such a contingency, the Governor-General determined to mobilise a portion of the army of each Presidency, and so to distribute the troops at his disposal as to bring effective pressure to bear on the states likely to oppose his policy. In November 1802 a force of 19,000 men, drawn from the Madras army, was concentrated at Hurryhur, on the north-west frontier of Mysore, and shortly afterwards orders were given for a division _ from Bombay, about 7000 strong, to be in readiness to operate in the direction of Surat and Broach. A force was collected at Calcutta for the occupation of the province of Cuttack ; and General Lake, the Commander-in-Chief in India, was to be prepared to advance from Cawnpore with 14,000 men against Perron’s army holding Delhi, Agra, and the North-West Provinces. Three reserve corps were also to be formed, for the purpose of covering the possessions of the British and their Allies, Cc

The first of these corps was to hold Poona and support the Peshwa’s authority, the second was to take up a position on the river Kistna for the protection of the Nizam’s territory, and the third was to be established at Mirzapore and Benares for the defence of the Ganges valley. Such a dissemination of force might under other circumstances have led to disaster, but, owing to the mutual jealousy of the Mahratta chiefs, combined action on their part was hardly to be apprehended, and the results of Lord Wellesley’s bold and comprehensive scheme fully answered his expectations.

In February 1803 Major-General Wellesley, who was then at Seringapatam, received instructions to occupy Poona and reinstate Bajee Rao. Proceeding at once to Hurryhur, he assumed command of about 10,600 of the Madras troops assembled at that place ; and the Nizam’s contingent numbering 8400 men, under Colonel Stevenson, was also placed under his orders, and directed to join him on the march. Leaving Hurryhur on March oth, he effected a junction with Stevenson’s troops on April 15th; and three days later he received news that Amrat Rao, whom Holkar had entrusted with the Peshwa’s authority on the latter escaping to Bassein, intended to burn Poona before retiring from that city on the approach of the British force. Wellesley determined, if possible, to save the city from destruction ; and, escorted by a cavalry detachment only 400 strong, he reached Poona by a forced march, in which he covered not less than sixty miles in thirty hours. Amrat Rao was taken by surprise and precipitately withdrew, after sending a submissive message to the British commander ; and Poona was occupied, without opposition, on April 20th. Bajee Rao was replaced on the musnud on May 13th, and the British force remained at his capital for some months, during which General Wellesley organised a pontoon train, repaired his ordnance carriages, provided depéts and magazines for the supply of his troops, and brought his transport and commissariat services into a thoroughly efficient state. In the meantime Holkar had retired to Indore, but Sindhia and the Raja of Berar had assumed a threatening attitude, and collected a large army at Burhanpur, on the river Taptee, near the Nizam’s northern frontier. It became evident from the movement of their troops that, as soon as the rains were over and the rivers fordable, these Mahratta chiefs intended either to invade the Nizam’s territory or to operate against the British in the direction of Poona. Towards the end of June the Governor-General conferred full military C 2 and political powers on General Lake in Northern India and on Major-General Wellesley in the Deccan, and authorised them to take such action with regard to Holkar, Sindhia, and the Berar Raja as might be necessary to maintain the treaty of Bassein and to

GENERAL LAKE.

protect the rights and interests of the Government of India and its Allies. Wellesley at once called upon Sindhia and the Raja of Berar to prove their friendly intentions by withdrawing their troops from Burhanpur to the stations where they were usually quartered. He warned them that should, they decline to do so he would attack them ; and, as a preliminary to decisive action, he moved his force from Poona towards Ahmednagar, a fort and city at that time held by Sindhia. The Mahratta chiefs refused to withdraw unless the British force and the Nizam’s contingent also retired to their ordinary cantonments, Wellesley accordingly declared war, and proceeded to attack Ahmednagar, which after a siege was captured, with slight loss, on the 11th August. The possession of this place greatly facilitated the offensive operations which Wellesley had in view, as it furnished an advanced base covering his main line of communication with Poona and Bombay, guarded the western portion of Hyderabad, and prevented the Mahratta chiefs from receiving any assistance from Southern India. Advancing from Ahmednagar on the 17th August Wellesley crossed the Godavery, and reached Aurungabad on the 24th of the same month; and early in September Stevenson seized Jalna, an important fort on the Mahratta frontier.

On the 21st September Stevenson’s force joined the main body, and arrangements were made to attack the united forces of Sindhia and the Raja of Berar on the 24th. Owing, however, to defective information as to the disposition of the enemy’s troops, Wellesley ordered Stevenson to move by a different road from that taken by the force under his own immediate command, so that on the 23rd he alone encountered the Mahratta army strongly posted behind the river Kaitna, with its left supported by the village of Assaye and its front defended by 128 guns. The Mahrattas numbered 50,000, while Wellesley’s force consisted of 1500 British and about 6500 Native soldiers, with only 17 guns. The troops, cavalry horses, and gun bullocks were greatly fatigued by a march of twenty-four miles; but, after a rapid reconnaissance, Wellesley resolved on what he called “the desperate expedient” of at once attacking the enemy. The Mahrattas were drawn up in a long line with their infantry and artillery on the left and their cavalry on the right, a detachment of the latter being posted in front of the Kaitna in order to observe the movements of the British force. Wellesley decided to engage the left, and to do so he had to march along the enemy’s front and to cross the Kaitna by a ford within easy range of the extreme left of the Mahratta position. On perceiving the object of this movement the French officers in command of the Mahratta infantry and artillery changed front with admirable precision, so as to bring their dine parallel to that of the British infantry.

The ‘latter, after crossing the ford, was drawn up in two lines, supported in rear by the 19th Light Dragoons and the regular Native cavalry, and covered on its left flank by the Mysore and Peshwa’s irregular cavalry. The General’s intention was to push forward his left and thus penetrate the centre of the enemy’s line. By some mistake, however, the officer commanding the piquets, which were upon the right, led immediately up to the village of Assaye, and this advance was followed by the 74th Foot in the second line, which had been ordered to support the piquets. The result was a serious break in both the infantry lines, and severe loss to the piquets and the 74th Regiment. Matters became so critical that the British and Native cavalry had to charge into the Mahratta batteries in order to extricate what was left of their infantry in this part of the field. On the left the 78th Foot and the Sepoy battalions advanced with the utmost gallantry, and, after firing only two rounds, engaged the enemy with the bayonet. The Mahratta infantry at last gave way, abandoning their guns, and our Sepoys pursued the fugitives up to the zw//a or ravine which ran along the rear of the position. A number of Mahratta gunners sheltered themselves beneath their guns, and, as soon as the tide of battle had passed them, they rose up, and, turning their pieces round, began to fire on the rear of the British force. "Wellesley averted this danger i placing himself at the head of the 78th Regiment and the 7th Native Cavalry, and, by a vigorous charge, again made himself master of the enemy’s artillery. This final charge decided the fortune of the day: the Mahrattas broke, and fled in all directions: 1200 of the enemy were killed on the field of battle, and 800 _ more during the pursuit ; and 98 guns, with a large amount of ammunition and stores, were captured, Unfortunately the pursuit was not carried out so promptly and effectually as Wellesley desired, for our regular cavalry had lost its cohesion, owing to the necessity for employing it to extricate the piquets and the 74th Foot in their premature attack on the village of Assaye. On the British side the loss was extremely heavy, amounting in killed and wounded to 43 British officers, 540 non-commissioned officers and soldiers, 36 Native officers, and 1238 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.* Wellesley t himself