Journals of the sieges of the Madras army in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819. With an atlas1825 |
Common terms and phrases
14th Regt angle Army assault Asseerghur attack ATTACK.-The Battalion battering train Belgaum Bengal besiegers Bombay breaching battery Brigadier-General bund Captain carried CHAP Colonel Commanding commenced Companies constructed Corps counterscarp cover Deckan defence detachment distance ditch ditto Division Doveton East effect eighteen-pounders employed enemy enemy's enfilading Engineer Department Engineer Officers escalade Europeans faussebray feet fire Five-and-a-half-inch flank formed Fortress Forts front gabions Garrison gate gateway glacis guns hill Hill Forts Horse Artillery Horse Brigade howitzers inclosure India Khandesh Lieut.-Colonel Lieutenant Lieutenant-Colonel Light Cavalry lodgment Madras Madras Artillery Madras Engineers Madras Pioneers Mahratta Malligaum March matchlocks mortar mortar battery Nagpoor Native Infantry night North o'clock occupied opened operations outer parapet Peishwah Pettah Pioneers Rajdeir rampart Regiment of Native Regt revetment river rock Sappers and Miners scarp Sepoys shot siege six-pounders South side storming party surrender tion towers trenches Trimbuck troops twelve-pounders wall wounded yards
Popular passages
Page 1 - Journal of the Sieges of the Madras Army in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819; with Observations on the System according to which such Operations have usually been conducted in India, and a Statement of the Improvements that appear necessary.
Page 192 - ... grenadiers, supported by Captain Currie with his light infantry, mounted the breach before the enemy had recovered from their consternation, while Lieutenant George Hampton, bounding so far ahead of his men as to be nearly cut off, carried with his flank companies the enemy's works to the right. Ten minutes after the explosion the inner fort was carried, and in the course of an hour the whole of the works were in the hands of the assailants. Two hundred of the enemy fled from the gate of the...
Page 191 - ... Engineer was mortally wounded. On the 25th the sap had reached the crest of the glacis, where a six-pounder battery was established and two mortars were brought into it. On that night the Engineer commenced his mine, which was completed on the 29th. The day of the 30th was employed in battering, and in the evening the breaches assumed a very respectable appearance. Shells and grape were thrown into them during the night. On the 31st, the breaches being reported practicable, orders were issued...
Page 188 - ... retired, and was pursued some miles by Lieutenant Sutherland and a party of Reformed Horse, but owing to the darkness of the night he effected a safe retreat. On the 20th a party from the garrison made a sortie, driving in the working party and destroying a small portion of the works, but the guard of the trenches obliged them to retire.
Page 188 - Howaji, with a party of horse, to surprise our camp from the rear, but the sentries being on the alert, the piquets soon turned out, and after a little firing, he retired ; and was pursued some miles by Lieutenant Sutherland, and a party of reformed horse, — but owing to the darkness of the night, he effected a safe retreat. On the 20th a party from the garrison made a sortie, driving in the working party and destroying a little of our work, but the guard of the trenches obliged them to retire.
Page iii - Memoir of the Operations of the British Army in India during the Mahratta War of 1817, 1818 and 1819 by Lieut.
Page 109 - Thirty hill-fortresses, each of which might have defied the whole Anglo-Indian army, fell in the course of a few weeks ; and this vast Mahratta empire, which had overshadowed the East, and before which the star of the Mogul had become pale, was annihilated.' After the siege of Asseerghur the armies of the three presidencies returned to their several stations and cantonments in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay ; and the regions which had been crossed and recrossed, and traversed in all directions by immense...
Page 164 - Baugh, to a ravine on the left of the attack, to enable the working parties to arrive under cover. " As the approaches are to be carried up a ravine, exposed to a direct fire in front, and a flanking fire on each side, it becomes an object of the first importance to knock off the defences CHAP, of the flanks, and to prevent the enemy from rolling down stones.
Page 165 - To distract the enemy's attention from the real point of attack, it is advisable that, the evening previous to constructing the batteries, possession should be taken of the lower works on the pettah side, and a battery constructed to play upon the gateways. ' ' By these means the garrison will be deprived of all hopes of escape, and their uncertainty as to the true point of attack will weaken their efforts to oppose us. " On the same principle, I recommend that the south-east face should be breached...
Page 176 - Sindiah would be very angry with him;" and on being answered that, "he had just cause" he said, " Yes, he will reproach me much for having fought so badly with so fine a Fort, he will say I ought to have died.