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Captain Welsh’s Expedition To Assam

*This hasn’t been prepared by any expert, but by a journalist with some interest in militaryhistory. That’s me! So don’t kill me for this! *

In the twilight years of the 18th century, the Honorable East India Company held sway overmost parts of the country with only two major Indian power centers remaining — the Marathasand Mysore. In the east, Bengal was firmly in British hands and Company Ba hadur wasn’t

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interested in expanding beyond that. But trouble in the Ahom kingdom presented the Companyan opportunity to study the region. It was the Moamariya rebellion.

King Gaurinath Singha, after losing his capital to the rebels, contacted Governor General LordCornwallis and sought his help. The Company vacillated initially, as it was fighting a taxing war

with Tipu Sultan of Mysore. But after the Siege of Srirangapatnam and eventual signing oftreaty in 1792, the Company was once again in a position to concentrate onother affairs. That same year, Captain Thomas Welsh of the Bengal Army was sent to help theKing of Assam with six companies of sepoys (each company having 60 fighting men). Thewhole unit didn’t exceed 550 men and included a small medical corps under Dr John Peter Wade.

The Bengal Army’s first military encounter with the local population happened towards the endof November, 1792. Darrang raja Krishnanarayan had occupied northern Kamrup, includingNorth Guwahati, and several requests by the English to disband his barkandaz army were

ignored. So the Company forces gave battle. After two engagements, the king accepted defeat,expelled barkandazes from his army, and accepted vassalage of the Ahom king.

Barkandazes were Hindustani irregular infantrymen or cavalrymen, who were basically freebooters

By early 1794, Captain Welsh began negotiations with the Moamariyas in upper Assam. Thosefell through and once again, an armed encounter became imminent. The English gave battleonce again, and once again, the militia was no match for the Bengal Army. Gaurinath Singhawas reinstalled as king and the English army retired to Bengal.

*What made the Bengal Army invincible?* Considering the fact that this small detachment had just about 360 fighting men and opposedan enemy several times bigger, it’s really amazing how it could post defeat after defeat on therebels. This hasn’t been studied in depth by scholars; at least the military importance of it hasbeen ignored by many. So, I thought about writing it. Of course, I’m no expert, but I havesome knowledge about battle tactics.

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*Philosophy of war* The Company armies fought in true European fashion when it came to infantry. The HonourableEast India Company, for a long time, didn’t have proper cavalry un its, unlike their counterpartsin the British Army. This was in stark contrast to the Indian armies, which relied totally oncavalry and gave minimum importance to infantry. Ahom army was an exception in this regard.It was probably the only army in the country that had no cavalry arm at all. Assamese hadalways been foot soldiers and brilliant in guerrilla warfare. Despite that, why couldn’t theMoamariyas fight at all with such a small infantry detachment?It goes without saying that the Company’s sepoys were better trained and led. They had betterarms as well. The troops were well drilled and infused with the doggedness that English armiesthroughout the world at different theatres of war have displayed. Whatever be thecircumstances, a British army would never break up and flee; they would hold their ground, nomatter what. It was this superior will to prevail that probably made all the difference.

*English battle strategy* The English believed in fighting as a unit, more or less like the Roman centurions. Theymarched in columns and formed up in line formation in front of the enemy. The firing methodsvaried according to formation.

In a typical line formation, troops would fire their muskets one after the other. So, if it the linehad 60 men, then 60 shots would ring out in a minute, sometimes in less than a minute. Whenthe last man on one side had fired his weapon, the first man on the other end was ready for hisnext shot. This way, constant fire could be maintained. And no man, either on foot or on horse,would find it easy to advance in face of constant gun fire.

In the row formation, troops would form two rows, and the front row would kneel. All gunswould open up at the same time. This tactic was called volley fire. Against a superior force, theEnglish deployed a third tacticby keeping four rows of infantry. After the first two rows had discharged their guns, they wouldfall back and two fresh rows would take their place. This type of formation had anotheradvantage: it could be easily convertedinto a phalanx formation, four-men deep. In case the enemy broke past defences and reachedthe line, the troops would fix bayonets and hold the advance. This was particularly effectiveagainst cavalry charges.

A fourth tactic, the square style of infantry fighting, was used only when there was a cavalrycharge. At Waterloo, at a critical juncture, when the Duke of Wellington moved his troops backin order to protect them from cannonade, Marshall Ney thought the English were retreating. Atonce, the French cavalry charged; but upon reaching the English line, they found that theenemy hadn’t retreated, but formed fighting squares. Napoleon’s elite cavalry was massacred as the English resorted to volley fire (the English weren’t any lucky withtheir cavalry either: earlier in the day, the British had made a cavalry charge, too, with the

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Royal Scots Greys at the helm. This charge broke up as Napoleon matched them with his Polishlancers.).

An infantry square was a reliable form of offensive defence when faced with a cavalry charge. The front line wouldkneel, point their bayonets at the charging enemy, and fire. Horses don’t go over sharp objects.

During the climax of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, which was fought during the Spanish Warof Succession, nine battalions of French infantry tried to hold their line by making an abortivebid of forming infantry squares after General Tallard’s cavalry broke up. However, ColonelBlood’s close artillery fire combined with platoon volley fire cut them down.

Even before t he advent of firearms, military strategists had found out that horses couldn’t jump

over pike formations. At the battles of Falkirk (1298) and Bannockburn (1314), the Scottish pikeformations or schiltrons hadfrustrated English heavy cavalry charges. This evolved into infantry squares in the gunpowderage.

*The weapon that made the difference* By the 1790s, the Company’s troops were provided the Short -land Pattern .75 calibre flintlockmusket and the India pattern (highly accurate) of the same musket. This weapon, popularlyknown as the Brown Bess, was used inthe Napoleonic Wars, too, with great success. Troops in Captain Welsh’s detachment had any of

these two muskets or both. This was a high-performance musket, which was easier to load; infact, it took about aminute (average 43 seconds for three shots) for an expert soldier to fire four rounds.

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Brown bess musket: Weighing a little over 4 kilos and having a barrel length of 39 inches, this was a highly accuratemusket and required minimum maintenance. It also had a high rate of fire (three shots in 43 seconds), making it a

reliable infantry weapon.

In contrast, the Moamariyas were poorly armed and poorly led. They were completely alien toEuropean fighting style. Besides, they didn’t have any firearms w orth the name, barring a fewmatchlocks, which were obsolete andstood no chance against the Brown Bess. The Ahoms themselves didn’t have any muskets.Purnananda Burhagohain was particularly impressed by the British weapons and their drilledinfantry. Most Moamariyas fought with whatever weapon they could find: swords, pikes, pick-axes, spears, and even bamboo sticks. The battles were over even before they began.

In 1794, when Sir John Shore replaced Lord Cornwallis, he recalled the expedition of CaptainWelsh. The team went back with tales of Assam, which helped the Company Bahadur tointervene in its affairs once again in the