Pettah of Ahmednagar

In 1803 the Pettah of Ahmednagar,^[a] had forty bastions, or round towers: eight of them were large, with two guns in each; the remainder had only loopholes. There were twelve gates, without any detached works for defence. The walls were of mud, about 10 feet (3.0 m) high without a ditch.^[1]

A gunshot to the east of the pettah was the Fort of Ahmednagar. A small river came from the northward, round the west side of the pettah, and passed to the southward of the fort. A nullah also passed from the northward, between the fort and a town called Bhingar, about a gunshot to the eastward, and joined the river.^[1]

Two nills or covered aqueducts came from the hills, a mile or more to the north, passed through and supplied the pettah and the town, and then went into the fort, either under or through the ditch, into which the waste water fell.^[1]

On 8 August 1803, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, forces under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) stormed and captured the town.^[2]

Wellesley sent forward his stormers against the pettah, having first pointed out to the leaders where they were to fix their ladders. The assault was gallantly led; but within ten minutes five of the officers leading the first attacking party were killed or wounded, the ladders were thrown down and broken; the attack had failed.^[3]

Another attacking party had only two ladders; the rush of the stormers broke down one; but, on the other, the stormers, commanded by Captain Vesey and headed by Lieutenant Colin Campbell, forced their way up. About 150 men had scaled the rampart when a cannon-shot smashed the ladder. The fate of the stormers, now cut off, might have seemed hopeless; but they leaped down the inner side of the wall, forced their way through the streets to the central gate, against which another party of stormers were battering on the outside, opened it, let in their comrades, and the town was won. Wellesley then turned his attention to the nearby fort, which after a cannonade surrendered on terms and the garrison marched out with full military honours.^[3][b] The successful assault carried out with such apparent ease made a strong impression on the Indians. Golka, a Mahratta chief, wrote to a friend shortly after the incident:^[c]

The English, are a strange people, and their general an extraordinary man. They arrive here in the morning, examine the walls, carry them, have killed all the garrison in the place, and have now gone back to breakfast. Who can resist such men as these?

— Golka a Mahratta chief.^[3][5][d]

• Burton, Reginald George (2008), Wellington's Campaigns in India (reprint ed.), Lancer Publishers, p. 56, ISBN 978-0-9796174-6-1
• Duke of Wellington (1859), "Memorandum of the Ahmednuggur Fort", in Wellesley, Arthur Richard (ed.), Supplementary despatches and memoranda of field marshal Arthur duke of Wellington 1797-1819 with a map of India, J. Murray, p. 100
• Staff (1853), "Arthur Duke of Wellington: Invasion of the Mahratta country", The Working man's friend, and family instructor, New, vol. 3, London: John Cassell, pp. 6–7

Attribution

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Fitchett, William Henry (1911), Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852, London: G. Bell, pp. 102–104

• Forrest, George (1901), "The Duke of Wellington", Sepoy generals, Wellington to Roberts, Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood, pp. 67–70
• Welsh, James (1830), "Ahmednugger", Military Reminiscences, from a Journal of nearly forty years' Active Service in the East Indies, vol. 1 (First edition in two volumes ed.), London: Smith, Elder, and Company, pp. 155–165

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