Major General Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, won the Battle of Assaye on 23 September 18032 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. With a much smaller army he crossed the Kaitna river at an unguarded ford3 and attacked the combined Maratha forces of Scindia and Berar, capturing their guns at heavy cost to his own men. Wellesley reportedly called it the best thing he ever did in the way of fighting2.
Twelve years before Waterloo, a 34-year-old general named Arthur Wellesley found the main Maratha army camped along a river in central India. Outnumbered several times over, he attacked at once, in a battle that came closer to disaster, and cost him more men for its size, than almost any other he fought.
The Maratha war
By 1803 the Maratha Confederacy was the greatest remaining Indian power4 that could challenge the East India Company. When war broke out, Wellesley led one of the Company's armies against the forces of Daulat Rao Scindia and the Raja of Berar, whose armies included infantry trained by European officers and a powerful artillery train.
An army found by surprise
On 23 September Wellesley came upon the combined Maratha army, far larger than his own, drawn up behind the Kaitna river near the village of Assaye. Rather than wait for his second column to join him, he decided to attack the same day.
The ford on the Kaitna
Wellesley guessed, from two villages facing each other across the river3, that there must be a ford between them. He marched his army across it and onto the narrow ground between the Kaitna and the Juah rivers, forcing the Marathas to turn their whole line to face him3.
The guns of Assaye
The Maratha artillery was well served and tore into the British and sepoy lines. The picquets and the 74th Highlanders veered toward Assaye village5 and were badly cut up. But the infantry pressed home with the bayonet and took the guns, and cavalry charges completed the victory. Wellesley had two horses killed under him3, and more than a third of the roughly 4,500 men he engaged were killed or wounded.
Why Assaye mattered
Assaye broke the main Maratha field army and helped the Company win the war, bringing large parts of central India under its control. For Wellesley it was a making of his reputation. In later life he reportedly called it the best thing he ever did in the way of fighting, and the bloodiest for its numbers he ever saw6.
