36 Regiment Royal Artillery​

Bloody Assaye

1. The Opening of the Campaign

 

Having crossed the important river Godavery, Wellesley managed to manoeuvre his adversary

Scindiah northwards, away from Hyderabad. On the 20th September 1803 he and his N°2, the

experienced Colonel Stevenson of the British East India Company separated at Bednapur;

Stevenson advancing through a valley some 14 English miles west of Wellesley's line of march.

He and Wellesley had planned to join forces again at a village twelve miles from Bokerdun.

 

In the neighbourhood of this place it was intended to bring the enemy to battle on the 24th September.

But on the 23rd September, with Stevenson not yet emerging from the hills through which his

detachment was supposed to march, Wellesley received intelligence that Scindiah's cavalry had

already escaped him, though there was still time to catch the Maratha infantry in their camp, which

was not 12 miles away, but only 6!

 

2. Throwing the Dice!

 

Wellesley himself made immediately a swift reconnaissance, entailing a circuit of four miles on a

speedy horse: The young general was astonished by what he saw! Instead of infantry alone opposing

him, Scindiah's whole army - first trained by the very gifted Benoît de Boigne, then taken over by his

equally gifted countryman François Perron - was still settled in their camp. This army spread over at least

7 miles of flat, simmering plain, where green parrots, vultures and kites flashed, circled and hovered in the

light above the small shrubs and tangled multicoloured banyans. Thousands and thousands of cavalry

stretched from Bokerdun on the left to merge with impressive amounts of artillery and infantry right in the

centre and around the village of Assaye. The river Kaitna protected their front! This was indeed a

position of considerable strength. François Perron had done his job!

 

Arthur had to think quickly now/ There were still no news of Stevenson, who had probably lost his

way in the mountains. Could Wellesley fight with his total strength of 7000 men of all ranks an army at

least six times stronger? In cavalry alone the Maratha outnumbered him 20:1. Retreat would not only

risk his baggage train but also this weak equilibrium of power established and uniquely based on his

reputation of invincibility! But if he attacked, he would do so with troops, tired from a 24 hours march

through accidented terrain and dazzling heat. Although Wellesley perfectly understood the challenge

( and privately confided to the EIC political agent Montstuart Elphinstone that should he lose this battle,

he would blow out his brains, himself!) he ordered the advance!

 

3. The Crossing of the Kaitna

 

A first crisis came, when Wellesley's small army saw the steep banks leading into the Kaitna

and no bridge or visible ford around. The Indian guides then returned to the general, informing him,

that it was impossible to cross the river; there was one possibility miles upstream only!

Observing his battleground through a telescope, Wellesley who saw below Assaye two villages

on the river's shores, facing each other, decided otherwise: Men would not construct habitations so

close to each other, without a possibility to easily communicate with one another. There was a ford,

whatever his Indian guides said! Arthur followed his own common sense, spurred his horse down the

steep banks and was indeed the first man in the water of the Kaitna..........it hardly touched the

stirrups and belly of his horse.

 

Nevertheless, the period of reflection upon a problematic crossing had given the Marathas on the

other side time to form into a dense line and to strike camp: But( they did not go as far, as to advance

and occupy the ford. But as Arthur's men marched towards the river crossing, they came under hot canon

fire from the adversary. While still in the waters of the Kaitna, the orderly riding to the General's left

and leading his two other horses had his head blown off by a canon ball. His headless trunk remained

for a few moments in the saddle, his terrified horse galloping away with its lifeless rider, scattered

Arthur's staff far and wide: At last another soldier captured the beast and the orderly's lifeless

remains slipped into the water, which thus saw its first blood of this day!

 

4. The Engagement

 

Once across the Kaitna, Arthur calculated that he would be able to profit from the ground. A tributary

of the river, the Juah, flowing parallel but behind Assaye until joining the main stream well below the

village, presented him with a tongue of land of less then a mile, which he could just fill up with his tiny

army. This would deny the Maratha cavalry to overwhelm them with sheer quantity of troopers or with

manoeuvre. As his men came up from the Kaitna, he immediately began to form them into three lines;

infantry in the first two, cavalry as a reserve just behind with his left and right flank to the Kaitna

and the Juah respectively.