INDIA, 1751-1764

Arcot—Plassey—Condore—Masulipatam—Badara—Wandewash—Pondicherry—Buxar.

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The names at the head of the chapter commemorate a number of long-forgotten Indian campaigns, waged against desperate odds and extending over many years. The Colar Goldfields, Dindigul Cigars, and the Nundy Droog Mine are names of pleasant memories to the fortunate shareholders in those concerns. Little did soldier or sepoy think that those fields on which he shed his blood in order to maintain British supremacy in India would thus become familiarized to British speculators. For us, their successors, it is humiliating to feel that the heroic forging of the link which connects them with the military history of our Empire should have been long since forgotten. A few words in retrospect are necessary.

In the year 1600 a charter was granted by Parliament to the East India Company, and within ten years factories had been established at Surat, to the north of Bombay, and Petapolam, to the north of Madras. We were not the first-comers in the field, for both Dutch and Portuguese had been for many years engaged in commerce with the East. In 1612 our first troubles arose with the Portuguese, whom we defeated at Surat, and since then no question of their supremacy has arisen. Fifty years later the French had firmly established themselves at Masulipatam and Pondicherry, on the south-east coast, as well as at Chandernagore, a few miles above Calcutta, and for the next 150 years the rivalry between France and England was the cause of much strife. The policy of the French was to stand well in with the native rulers, to organize their armies on a European model, and so, with their aid, to drive the English out of India.

At the commencement of the eighteenth century Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were our chief centres, the former with factories stretching to Patna, in the northwest. The influence of the Governor of Bombay extended from the settlement at Ahmedabad, in the north, to Calicut, on the west or Malabar coast, whilst Madras had under its rule all factories on the eastern coast from Vizagapatam to Cuddalore. The British East India Company of those days boasted of but little Government support; the French company was fast becoming a military rather than a commercial force. In 1750 the French had driven us out of Madras, and were virtually rulers of Southern India, and the bulk of our forces were besieged in Trichinopoly. Fortunately for England, even in her darkest hour a man has arisen to cope with and surmount her difficulties. Amongst the writers or clerks in the employ of the factory at Madras was one Robert Clive. He, with rare prescience, argued that, as the bulk of the French forces, aided by their ally, the ruler of the Carnatic, were employed in the reduction of Trichinopoly, therefore Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, in all probability lay unguarded. Mr. Saunders, the Governor of Madras, cordially supported the plan advocated by the young writer, which was to carry the war into the enemy's country, and to seize Arcot, the capital, by a coup de main.

Arcot, August 31, 1751.

This honour is alone borne by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the lineal descendants of the gallant band of Englishmen in the service of the East India Company at Madras, who in the year 1751, under the incomparable Clive, laid the foundation of our Indian Empire. In those days Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, was a city of about 100,000 inhabitants, dominated by a fort almost in ruins. It lies some sixty miles south-west of Madras, and Clive determined not only to effect the relief of Trichinopoly, then besieged by the French, but also to strike at French supremacy by seizing the capital of their most powerful ally, the Sovereign of the Carnatic. He left Madras on September 6, 1751, in command of a small force of 200 Englishmen and 300 sepoys, with but three field-guns. Of his officers, eight in number, four, like him, were "writers" in the Company's factory. Five days later Clive had thrown himself into the half-ruined fort of Arcot, which had been hastily evacuated by its garrison, mounted the guns, which had been abandoned, repaired the defences, and made every preparation for a siege. A month later the siege commenced in earnest, 10,000 trained troops of the Nawab, aided by 300 French, drawing a close cordon round the fort, whilst a siege-train directed by Frenchmen opened fire on its walls. Macaulay, in his brilliant essay on Lord Clive, has borne eloquent testimony to the heroism both of the leader and the led (I have not the space to dwell on the details of the siege)—how the sepoys, with starvation staring them in the face, brought their rations of rice to their English comrades, with the remark that the water in which it was boiled was sustenance enough for them; and how, after being beleaguered for fifty days, in which he had lost one-third of his force, Clive repelled a final assault, and was enabled to assume the offensive against his disheartened and discomfited foes.

Arcot was a prelude to a campaign in which many gallant actions were fought—actions long since forgotten, and which are unrecorded on our colours. Trichinopoly and Covrepauk are no less worthy of emblazonment than Reshire or Koosh-ab. But, alas! no connection can now be traced between the sepoys who fought under Clive and the regiments of our native army, whilst the identity of the First Madras Europeans has for a whole generation been hidden under the title of "Royal Dublin Fusiliers."

Little by little public interest was now being centred on India. The desperate efforts of France to gain an ascendancy in the Peninsula of Hindoostan, and the gallant endeavour of the servants of the East India Company to thwart those efforts, had at last aroused our Ministers to the value of Indian commerce, and to the necessity of affording military assistance in the shape of trained regiments to the "Honourable Company of Merchants trading to the East." In 1754 a first step was made in this direction, and in that year the 39th Regiment (now the 1st Dorsets) landed in Madras, and, in memory of their connection with our early struggles in India, have been permitted to bear on their colours the legend "Primus in Indis." The following year a truce was signed between France and England, thus putting an end to active hostilities. No steps, however, were neglected by either party in order to secure a paramount influence with native rulers. In this, however, we were less successful than our rivals.

Plassey, June 23, 1757.

The following regiments are entitled to bear this battle honour:

The Dorsetshire Regiment.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Just as in the South of India the rulers of the Carnatic and of Mysore were the bitter foes of the English settlement at Madras, so at Calcutta we had against us Surajah Dowlah, the ruler of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa—a nominal Viceroy of the Mogul Emperor—straining every nerve to wrest from us the territories on which our factories were built. The tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta is familiar to every schoolboy. Fortunate indeed for England was it that, when the news of the fall of Calcutta reached Fort St. George an English fleet, under Admiral Watson, was lying in Madras Roads, and that men of action sat in the Madras Council. Two hundred Europeans were at once despatched to the Hooghly, and a force of 2,500 men hastily organized, consisting of 250 men of the 39th Regiment (1st Dorsets), 700 Madras Europeans, and 1,500 sepoys, for their support. This force was under the joint command of Admiral Watson and Robert Clive. Calcutta was relieved; and as war with France had again broken out, it was determined—now that all pressure on the part of Surajah Dowlah was removed—to attack the French settlement at Chandernagore. The fleet sailed up the Hooghly, and on March 23 the British flag was flying over the French fortress. I have been unable to ascertain the losses of Clive's troops on this occasion. Those of the Royal Navy amounted to 4 officers and 46 men killed, 9 officers and 156 men wounded. In the burial-ground of St. John's Church, Calcutta, may yet be seen two monuments recording thus daring feat of arms and of superb seamanship—the one raised in memory of the Admiral, the other of a midshipman. The former reads:

Here lies interred the Body of
CHARLES WATSON, Esq.,
Vice-Admiral of the White,
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's
Naval Forces in the East Indies,
Who departed this Life the 16th Day of August, 1757,
In the 44th Year of his Age.
Gheria taken, February 13th, 1756.
Calcutta freed, January 11th, 1757.
Chandernagore taken, March 23rd, 1757.
Exegit monumentum ore perennius. On the boy's tomb is inscribed:

Here lyes the Body of
WILLIAM SPEKE,
Aged 16, Son of Henry Speke, Esq.,
Captain of His Majesty's Ship Kent.
He lost his Leg and Life in that Ship
At the Capture of Fort Orleans,
The 24th March, Anno 1757.

Having punished the French for their refusal to afford assistance to our beleaguered countrymen and countrywomen in Calcutta, Clive now determined to march against the Nawab Surajah Dowlah. On June 13, having received fresh reinforcements on this occasion from Bombay, he left Chandernagore at the head of 3,000 men, with ten guns. Of these about 1,000 were English—the 39th Foot, under Major Eyre Coote, some gunners of the Royal Artillery who had accompanied the 39th from England, and detachments of the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay European regiments. The Englishmen were conveyed in boats up the Hooghly; the sepoys marched along the banks. On June 23 Clive found himself face to face with Surajah Dowlah's army at Plassey, a town on the River Hooghly, about 100 miles due north of Calcutta. The odds were hopelessly unequal—Clive with 3,000 men and ten light field-guns on the one side; Surajah Dowlah with 55,000 men, of whom 15,000 were cavalry, and fifty guns of all calibres on the other. Had Englishmen ever been in the habit of counting the odds, the Indian Empire would never have been ours. Neither Clive nor Coote were men to quail before difficulties. From eight until eleven our infantry lay motionless, the field-guns only maintaining an unequal duel with the more numerous artillery of the enemy, which were being served—and very badly served—by some Frenchmen in the service of the Nawab. Plassey was the foundation-stone of British supremacy in Bengal, as Arcot was in Madras; yet the fight was, from the soldier's standpoint, a very hollow one. Dawn broke with the odds immeasurably in favour of the Mogul host. At sunset that host was in full retreat, and yet our total losses were but 11 English and 13 sepoys killed, the wounded being 22 and 21 respectively. Such was the price we paid for the establishment of British rule over what is known as the Province of Bengal.

Casualties at Plassey.

Condore, December 9, 1758.

Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

In the course of this year there was incessant fighting between our troops in Madras and the French and their allies; but the value of India was now becoming more thoroughly appreciated by the Cabinet, and a second regiment, then numbered the 79th, was sent out to Madras, under Colonel William Draper. The French, on their part, were not behindhand. The Count Lally and Admiral d'Ache arrived, with close on 3,000 French troops, and the British forts at Cuddalore and St. David were captured. Matters were looking serious indeed in Southern India, when Clive, still in Calcutta, determined to make a diversion. Eyre Coote, the Major of the 39th, who had shown such gallantry at Plassey, was in England busily employed in raising a regiment for service in India, and so was not available; but Clive detached Major Forde, of the 39th, with detachments of his own regiment and of the 1st Bengal Europeans (now the Munster Fusiliers), barely numbering 600 men, and some 2,000 sepoys, down the coast to Vizagapatam, which was being threatened by a French force, under Conflans. Despite the odds against him—for the French army outnumbered his by at least three to one—Forde pushed on, finally meeting Conflans near the mouth of the Godavery River.

Casualties at Condore.

There has been a long-standing dispute as to whether this honour can be rightly claimed by the Dublin Fusiliers as the representatives of the Madras and Bombay regiments which were sent to assist Clive in 1757. It appears certain that the men from Madras and Bombay were incorporated with the Bengal European Regiment in April, 1758, and that none but Bengal troops accompanied Forde to Vizagapatam. The India Office has therefore given its decision in favour of the Munsters for both Condore and Masulipatam.

Masulipatam, April 8, 1759.

This honour is borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers alone. In spite of many obstacles thrown in his way after the action of Condore by our native allies, Forde determined to follow up Conflans. It was not until March 6 that he arrived before Masulipatam, behind the fortifications of which the French were awaiting him. A fortnight was taken up in landing siege-guns from the fleet, which had followed the army down the coast, and a small number of bluejackets were disembarked to aid in the siege. On April 6 Forde learnt that a force of 40,000 natives, under Salabad Jung, was advancing to the relief of Conflans, and he determined on storming at once. His position was full of difficulty: in front a formidable work, with a garrison exceeding his own force in number, his land communications threatened by a Franco-native army 40,000 strong, and an empty treasure-chest. A weaker man would have taken advantage of the presence of the fleet, contented himself with his own marvellous success at Condore, and embarked his little army for Bengal. Not of such stuff was Forde, and fortunate for him and for England that he had with him men of like metal to himself. On April 8 Forde ordered the assault, and by nightfall Conflans, with 3,000 men, had unconditionally surrendered. Salabad Jung, the Viceroy of the Circars Province, now realizing that all power did not belong to the French, entered into a treaty with Forde, by which he ceded to the English eighty miles of coast-line, and entered into an agreement, not merely to dismiss all the French then in his service, but also never again to employ French troops or instructors. Forde was now free to return to Bengal, where his services were soon to be urgently needed.

Casualties incurred during the Operations at Masulipatam, ending with the Action of April 8, 1759.

Badara, November 25, 1759.

An honour borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers only. The crushing defeats inflicted by Forde on Conflans had the effect of restoring our prestige in Madras. But in Bengal Clive was in no very enviable position. The Dutch, who had a settlement at Chinsura, on the Hooghly, had commenced open hostilities, and a Dutch fleet, with a considerable force on board, entered that river. Clive had at his disposal about 300 of the 1st Bengal Europeans, and until the return of Forde from Masulipatam matters at Calcutta were serious. As soon as Forde arrived, Clive, who believed only in the offensive, ordered the victor of Condore to attack the land force, whilst he determined to destroy the Dutch fleet with some armed East Indiamen at his disposal. On November 20 Forde marched to Chandernagore (the French settlement on the Hooghly, some miles above Calcutta), and on the following day moved on to Chinsura—only a few miles distant—where a small detachment of the Dutch were encamped. He was joined here by Knox (a Company's officer who had been under Forde at Condore), with a body of eighty volunteer cavalry, raised from the English residents in Calcutta, and a strong battalion of sepoys. He now learnt that the Dutch force was moving to attack him. Confident of victory, Forde wrote to Clive, asking for permission to forestall them. The story runs that Clive was playing cards when Forde's letter reached him. Laying down his hand, Clive scribbled on the back of the letter: "Dear Forde,—Fight them. I will send you the Order in Council to-morrow." Then, taking up his cards, went on with the game. On November 25 the two forces came into collision. Forde's handful of cavalry converted the check, which the steady fire of Knox's guns had inflicted on the Dutch, into a rout. Practically the entire Dutch force was either killed, wounded, or taken. The Government in Holland repudiated the action of the Governor of their Indian settlements, and paid compensation to the East India Company. But Forde's little fight at Badara is deserving of recognition, not merely because it was a gallant action fought against serious odds, but more especially because it put an end once and for all to all pretensions of the Dutch to supremacy in the East.

Unfortunately, no records exist showing the casualties we suffered at the action of Badara.

Wandewash, January 22, 1760.

An honour borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

The operations in Southern India had not been characterized by the same degree of success which had marked Forde's campaign against Conflans and the Dutch, but in the very month that we won the action of Badara Eyre Coote disembarked at Madras at the head of his newly-raised regiment, then numbered the 84th. At the same time some 300 recruits arrived for the Company's battalions, bringing the total force at the disposal of the Government of Madras to four battalions of infantry, 100 English troopers, and eighteen field-guns. With these Coote determined to resume the offensive, and on January 22 the two armies met at Wandewash, about 100 miles south-west of Madras. The forces were fairly equally matched. Hyder Ali, with his allies, the French, however, had a considerable preponderance in cavalry. When we reflect on the momentous issue decided by this and the preceding actions between the French and ourselves in India, and compare the number of the troops engaged with those we now mobilize for an Indian frontier campaign, it seems little short of marvellous that our Indian Empire should have been built up with such slender means.

The troops engaged, under the command of Eyre Coote, consisted of Draper's Regiment (then the 79th), his own (the 84th), and two English battalions in the Company's employ (now the Munster Fusiliers), 2,000 sepoys, 1,200 Indian cavalry, and one squadron of English horse, with sixteen guns. The brunt of the fighting fell on the British regiments, Draper's suffering the most heavily; but our total casualties—63 killed and 124 wounded—was a small price to pay for a victory which cost the French 600 killed and wounded and 24 guns.

Step by step Coote now undertook the reduction of all the French ports in Southern India. Arcot, Trincomalee, and finally Pondicherry, all fell into our hands, only to be restored, as was Chandernagore, to the French at the conclusion of peace in 1763—an act of generous imbecility which necessitated their recapture on the renewal of the war fifteen years later, at the cost of many hundred valuable British soldiers.

Casualties at Wandewash.

Pondicherry, 1761, 1778, 1793.

This battle honour is borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (at that time the 1st Madras European Regiment), and was conferred upon it by the Governor of Madras in recognition of its services at the three sieges of that fortress in the years 1761, 1778, and 1793. The operations were conducted by Sir Eyre Coote, an officer who had received his early training in the 39th (Dorsets), and who, on that regiment being recalled to England, undertook, as I have shown, to raise a battalion for service in India.

This corps, which was numbered the 84th, and which we have already seen at Wandewash, played an all-important part in the early campaigns waged in India; but as it was disbanded in the year 1788, the battle honours it gained are not to be found on the colours of any existing regiment. Coote laid siege to Pondicherry in the month of September, 1760, but it was not until the January following that the Governor surrendered. In accordance with our invariable custom, the fortress and neighbouring colony were restored to the French on the conclusion of peace in 1763. The regiments associated with the Dublin Fusiliers in the Siege of Pondicherry in 1760 were the 79th (Draper's Regiment), the 84th (Coote's), the 89th (Highlanders), under Major Hector Munro, and the 96th, under the Hon. G. Monson. None of these corps survive to bear the battle honour.

In the year 1778, on the renewal of the war with France, the reduction of Pondicherry once more became a matter of urgent necessity. On this occasion the Dublin Fusiliers were again to the fore in their capacity as the 1st Madras European Regiment (two of its battalions being present). With them were no less than ten battalions of sepoys. Many of these are still borne on the rolls of the Madras army. The distinction has not been conferred on the Indian corps for the operations in 1778; but if the losses suffered during a successful campaign constitute a claim to a battle honour, the words "Pondicherry, 1778," may well be accorded to the regiments who figure in the subjoined list of casualties.

Casualties at Pondicherry, 1778.

The Bengal Recruits alluded to above were a party of recruits on their way out to join what is now known as the Munster Fusiliers. They were detained by the Governor of Madras to swell the British element at the siege, and they well sustained the honour of the regiment now known as the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

In the year 1793 the reduction of Pondicherry became once more necessary. The fortress had been captured by Sir Eyre Coote and its works demolished in 1761. On its restoration to the French, the place was converted into an exceptionally strong fortification, and its capture by Sir Hector Munro in 1778 entailed a loss of upwards of 600 killed and wounded. In 1793 we found that our friends the French had once more—and very rightly, too—done their utmost to render the place impregnable, and that a very considerable force would be necessary for its reduction. Colonel Braithwaite, of the Madras army, was entrusted with its capture. The force at his disposal consisted of the following troops:

The artillery consisted of 117 men of the Royal and 731 of the Madras Artillery, and there were 75 English sappers, together with that well-tried regiment which has fought so bravely on so many fields—the Madras Sappers and Miners.

I regret that I have been unable to trace the losses of all the native regiments; their total casualties amounted to 4 British officers and 135 native ranks killed and wounded.

Casualties at Pondicherry, 1793.

Although no battle honours have been awarded to the Indian regiments which took part in the operations against Pondicherry in the years 1778 and 1793, I have been at some pains to give a brief account of the operations, both of which, with their accompanying loss of life, might have been avoided had the Home Government either insisted on the retention of the conquests we had made in the East, or, were that impracticable, refused to allow the rebuilding of fortifications in the French settlements in India. "Pondicherry, 1778 and 1793," might be added with propriety to the battle honours of regiments which took part in the sieges of those years.

Buxar, October 23, 1764.

Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

In the interval between Eyre Coote's victory at Wandewash in January, 1760, and the Battle of Buxar in October, 1764, our troops in India had been continuously at war; yet the colours even of those regiments which still survive, and which were then in the service of the Company, bear no record of the many stubborn fights, the by no means inglorious victories achieved over our gallant foes. In the South, the Government of Madras had been carrying on campaign after campaign against the trained troops of France and the scarcely less formidable army of Mysore. In the North, Clive and his successor had found foemen no less worthy of their steel in the armies of the Emperor of Delhi and those of the ruler of Oude, under Surajah Doolah. History—even Greek history—affords no more striking episodes than those early struggles of our countrymen in India; and though the names of Beerpore, Sooty, and Oondna Nullah are forgotten, they deserve to stand side by side with other well-remembered names that are emblazoned on the colours of the old Company's regiments. The Battle of Buxar was the final episode in the long-fought campaign with the ruler of Oude.

Now that the two senior battalions of the old Company's army have been converted into the Royal Munster and Royal Dublin Fusiliers, they are the only regiments which bear on their colours a memento of one of the finest actions ever fought in India. The British force numbered between 6,000 and 7,000 men, with twenty-eight guns. It included, besides the two European regiments in the Company's employ, a composite battalion, just 167 strong, made up of detachments of the 84th, or Coote's Regiment, and volunteers from the disbanded 89th Regiment and 90th (Light Infantry); two companies of Royal Marines, under Captain Wemyss; a handful of seamen, with a midshipman, working some guns side by side with the Bengal Artillery; and a small troop of cavalry, the total being about 1,200 Englishmen. To these must be added 900 Mogul horse and 5,000 sepoys. This little army was under the command of Colonel Sir Hector Munro, of the 89th Regiment. The two Company's battalions were inured to Indian warfare, and the men of the 90th (then the only Light Infantry regiment in the British army), had learned their lesson at the capture of Belleisle, Martinique, and Havana, under their brave Colonel, James Stuart, who was destined to add to the laurels gained at the Moro a great reputation in Southern India.

The force opposed to Munro was a formidable one. It included eight battalions trained and commanded by French officers, two batteries of artillery manned by Europeans, 5,000 Afghan horse, and 40,000 men of Shah Shujah Daulah's own fairly trained army. The battle was stubbornly contested, but the victory was complete. Our weakness in cavalry, however, prevented Munro reaping the full benefits of his success. In addition to the losses of the British contingent, the sepoy battalions lost 257 killed and 435 wounded. Our trophies included 137 guns, whilst the enemy left upwards of 2,000 dead on the field.

Casualties at Buxar.

Broome, in his admirable "History of the Bengal Army," states that the two officers who figure in the list of casualties in the composite battalion both belonged to the 90th Light Infantry. This is an error. On comparing the names of the officers with the Army Lists, I am convinced that they belonged to the 96th Regiment, and that the error has arisen in the transcription by a clerk at the War or India Office. I have come across many such errors. Perhaps the most amusing is in the Gazette recording the capture of Havana in 1762, where the 42nd is referred to in the casualty rolls as the "42nd Royal Hunters"!

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