discuss the captain welsh account of assam
Answers
In the twilight years of the 18th century, the Honorable East India Company held sway over most parts of the country with only two major Indian power centers remaining— the Marathas and Mysore. In the east, Bengal was firmly in British hands and Company Bahadur wasn’t interested in expanding beyond that. But trouble in the Ahom kingdom presented the Company an opportunity to study the region. It was the Moamariya rebellion.
King Gaurinath Singha, after losing his capital to the rebels, contacted Governor General Lord Cornwallis 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 of treaty in 1792, the Company was once again in a position to concentrate on
other affairs. That same year, Captain Thomas Welsh of the Bengal Army was sent to help the King of Assam with six companies of sepoys (each company having 60 fighting men). The whole 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 end of November, 1792. Darrang raja Krishnanarayan had occupied northern Kamrup, including North 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. Those fell through and once again, an armed encounter became imminent. The English gave battle once again, and once again, the militia was no match for the Bengal Army. Gaurinath Singha was 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 opposed an enemy several times bigger, it’s really amazing how it could post defeat after defeat on the rebels. This hasn’t been studied in depth by scholars; at least the military importance of it has been ignored by many. So, I thought about writing it. Of course, I’m no expert, but I have some knowledge about battle tactics.
*Philosophy of war*
The Company armies fought in true European fashion when it came to infantry. The Honourable East India Company, for a long time, didn’t have proper cavalry units, unlike their counterparts in the British Army. This was in stark contrast to the Indian armies, which relied totally on cavalry 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 had always been foot soldiers and brilliant in guerrilla warfare. Despite that, why couldn’t the Moamariyas 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 better arms as well. The troops were well drilled and infused with the doggedness that English armies throughout the world at different theatres of war have displayed. Whatever be the circumstances, a British army would never break up and flee; they would hold their ground, no matter what. It was this superior will to prevail that probably made all the difference.
*The weapon that made the difference*
By the 1790s, the Company’s troops were provided the Short-land Pattern .75 calibre flintlock musket and the India pattern (highly accurate) of the same musket. This weapon, popularly known as the Brown Bess, was used in
the 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; in fact, it took about a
minute (average 43 seconds for three shots) for an expert soldier to fire four rounds.
During the colonial period, Indian Company held a campaign over most of many countries with two major Indian powers. The British struggle of captain welsh formed two rows, which are the front row that would kneel the information. There were gunshots almost everywhere, and this tactic was known as Colley fire. There was also a typical line of data that has troops who fired their muskets in the successions. Finally, there was a maintained constant fire that enabled Assam to remain in power.