Assaye 1803: Wellesley's Hidden Ford Against Pohlmann's Maratha Guns

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The future Duke of Wellington called Assaye, fought in central India in September 1803, his finest victory. In 1802 the Maratha leader Baji Rao II, ousted in a civil war, turned to the British East India Company, and Arthur Wellesley's brother Lord Mornington, Governor General of India, restored him in exchange for a subsidiary alliance and a permanent British garrison in his capital. Daulat Rao Scindia and the Raja of Berar formed a coalition against it. Wellesley, aged 34, took Ahmednagar and then split his army with Colonel James Stevenson to trap the fast moving Maratha cavalry, planning to reunite near Bokardan on September 24.

On September 23 Wellesley, with about 4,500 men and 17 guns, found the full Maratha camp of at least 50,000 men five miles away, including more than 10,000 European trained infantry under the Hanoverian Anthony Pohlmann and over 100 cannon. Rather than retreat under cavalry pursuit, he attacked. Guessing that two villages facing each other across the Kaitna River meant a ford, he crossed around the enemy flank, but Pohlmann wheeled his whole line 90 degrees to pin the British between two rivers. Bayonet charges and cavalry finally broke the Maratha infantry.

• The British pickets veered toward the fortified village of Assaye, were nearly destroyed, and left the 74th Foot exposed.
• Colonel Patrick Maxwell's dragoons rescued them, and Maxwell was killed.
• Maratha gunners played dead, then turned their cannon on the British from behind, and Wellesley led cavalry to retake the guns, losing two horses.
• The Marathas lost 98 guns and about 6,000 men, while the British suffered nearly 1,600 casualties, over a third of the force.
• Stevenson, misled by his guide, arrived a day late and had the guide hanged.