Captain Welshs Expedition To Assam

*This hasnt been prepared by any expert, but by a journalist with some interest in military
history. Thats me! So dont kill me for this!*
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 wasnt
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 didnt exceed 550 men and included
a small medical corps under Dr John Peter Wade.
The Bengal Armys 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, its really amazing how it could post defeat after defeat on the
rebels. This hasnt 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, Im 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, didnt 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 couldnt the
Moamariyas fight at all with such a small infantry detachment?
It goes without saying that the Companys 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.
*English battle strategy*
The English believed in fighting as a unit, more or less like the Roman centurions. They
marched in columns and formed up in line formation in front of the enemy. The firing methods
varied according to formation.
In a typical line formation, troops would fire their muskets one after the other. So, if it the line
had 60 men, then 60 shots would ring out in a minute, sometimes in less than a minute. When
the last man on one side had fired his weapon, the first man on the other end was ready for his
next 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 guns
would open up at the same time. This tactic was called volley fire. Against a superior force, the
English deployed a third tactic
by keeping four rows of infantry. After the first two rows had discharged their guns, they would
fall back and two fresh rows would take their place. This type of formation had another
advantage: it could be easily converted
into a phalanx formation, four-men deep. In case the enemy broke past defences and reached
the line, the troops would fix bayonets and hold the advance. This was particularly effective
against cavalry charges.
A fourth tactic, the square style of infantry fighting, was used only when there was a cavalry
charge. At Waterloo, at a critical juncture, when the Duke of Wellington moved his troops back
in order to protect them from cannonade, Marshall Ney thought the English were retreating. At
once, the French cavalry charged; but upon reaching the English line, they found that the
enemy hadnt retreated, but formed fighting squares. Napoleons elite
cavalry was massacred as the English resorted to volley fire (the English werent any lucky with
their cavalry either: earlier in the day, the British had made a cavalry charge, too, with the
Royal Scots Greys at the helm. This charge broke up as Napoleon matched them with his Polish
lancers.).

An infantry square was a reliable form of offensive defence when faced with a cavalry charge. The front line would
kneel, point their bayonets at the charging enemy, and fire. Horses dont go over sharp objects.
During the climax of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, which was fought during the Spanish War
of Succession, nine battalions of French infantry tried to hold their line by making an abortive
bid of forming infantry squares after General Tallards cavalry broke up. However, Colonel
Bloods close artillery fire combined with platoon volley fire cut them down.
Even before the advent of firearms, military strategists had found out that horses couldnt jump
over pike formations. At the battles of Falkirk (1298) and Bannockburn (1314), the Scottish pike
formations or schiltrons had
frustrated English heavy cavalry charges. This evolved into infantry squares in the gunpowder
age.
*The weapon that made the difference*
By the 1790s, the Companys 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 Welshs 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.

Brown bess musket: Weighing a little over 4 kilos and having a barrel length of 39 inches, this was a highly accurate
musket 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 to
European fighting style. Besides, they didnt have any firearms worth the name, barring a few
matchlocks, which were obsolete and
stood no chance against the Brown Bess. The Ahoms themselves didnt have any muskets.
Purnananda Burhagohain was particularly impressed by the British weapons and their drilled
infantry. 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 Captain
Welsh. The team went back with tales of Assam, which helped the Company Bahadur to
intervene in its affairs once again in the