Osprey - Men-at-Arms 453 - Armies of the East India Company 1750-1850.pdf

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Men-at-Arms
OSPREY
PUBLISHING
Armies of the East India
Company 1 7 5 0 - 1 8 5 0
S t u a r t Reid • Illustrated by G e r r y Embleton
STUART REID was born
in Aberdeen in 1954 and
is married with one son.
He has worked as a librarian
and a professional soldier and
his main focus of interest lies
in the 18th and 19th centuries.
His interest stems from having
ancestors who served in the
British Army and the East India
Company and who fought at
Culloden, Bunker Hill and even
in the Texas Revolution. His
previous works for Osprey
include highly acclaimed
titles on King George's Army
1740-93 (Men-at-Arms 285,
289 and 292) and the British
Redcoat 1740-1815 (Warrior
19 and 20).
CONTENTS
BACKGROUND
CHRONOLOGY
THE EARLY YEARS
• Madras - Bengal - Bombay
3
4
5
CROWN AND COMPANY
7
• The Cornwallis reorganization plan, 1780s - officers' grievances,
1790s - Europeanization of the officer corps
• The Great Mutiny
GERRY EMBLETON has
been a leading illustrator
and researcher of historical
costume since the 1970s,
and has illustrated and
written Osprey titles on
a wide range of subjects
over more than 2 0 years.
He is an internationally
respected authority on
15th and 18th century
costumes in particular.
He lives in Switzerland,
where since 1988 he has
also become well known
for designing and creating
life-size historical figures
for museums.
EUROPEAN INFANTRY
• The battalions, 1748-62
• Uniforms
13
NATIVE INFANTRY
• Battalions and uniforms: Bengal - Madras - Bombay
• The Sepoy Line, 1845
17
CAVALRY
• Madras - Bengal - Bombay
23
ARTILLERY & ENGINEERS
PLATE COMMENTARIES
INDEX
37
42
48
Men-at-Arms • 453
Armies of the East India
Company 1750–1850
Stuar t Reid
•
Illustrated by Gerr y Embleton
Series editor
Mar tin Windrow
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Osprey Publishing,
Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 0PH, UK
443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA
Email: info@ospreypublishing.com
© 2009 Osprey Publishing Ltd.
A r t i s t ’s N o t e
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the colour
plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. All reproduction
copyright whatsoever is retained by the Publishers. All enquiries should be
addressed to:
www.gerryembleton.com
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.
ISBN: 978 184603 460 2
e-book ISBN: 978 1 84908 096 5
Editor: Martin Windrow
Design: Melissa Orrom Swan, Oxford
Index by Sandra Shotter
Originated by United Graphic Pte Ltd
Printed in China through World Print Ltd.
09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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is available from the British Library
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OPPOSITE
Robert Clive (1725–74 ) was sent out to
Madras as an 18-year-old Company ‘writer’ or clerk,
but was commissioned an ensign in the EIC forces in
1746 after escaping the French-led capture of Madras
by Dupleix. While he was more of a diplomat than a
soldier, his undoubted boldness and resolution were
the key to his early victories and the EIC’s conquest of
Bengal. If Stringer Lawrence was responsible for turning
the Company’s European units into proper soldiers, it was
Clive who was the father of the
sepoy
army. As well as
bringing him a peerage, his abilities were recognized by
the rare grant of a regular British Army commission as
well as his EIC commission, and this portrait by Dance
depicts him in the uniform of a British lieutenant-general.
(Unless otherwise credited, all illustrations are from the
author’s collection)
ARMIES OF THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY 1750–1850
BACKGROUND
T
he United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East
Indies, more familiarly known as the Honourable East India
Company – or even ‘John Company’ – was the first and arguably the
greatest multi-national corporation the world has ever seen. It was
originally engaged in the spice trade of South-East Asia and the East
Indies, but by the beginning of the 18th century the main focus of its
activities had shifted to the Indian subcontinent, where it maintained
three rather precarious toe-holds: at Madras, at Bombay, and at the
mouth of the Hugli river in Bengal. Each was governed more or less
independently by a council or ‘presidency’ of the leading merchants, and
under the Company’s royal charter each jealously maintained its own tiny
military establishment, whose sole purpose was to defend the Company’s
‘factories’ – fortified trading posts – from casual brigandage, piracy, or
equally weak European rivals.
However, in 1746 commercial rivalry between the East India Company
and the French
Compagnie des Indes
turned into outright war, in a reflection
of the two home nations’ participation in the War of the Austrian
Succession on the European mainland and its extension to North America.
Both organizations became ever more deeply involved in local politics as
they enlisted, bribed and manipulated allies among the Indian rulers. In
the end the Company not only emerged from the struggle
victorious, but had consolidated and expanded its original
modest landholdings to such an extent that it became a
territorial and political power in its own right. In the process
the unreliable rabble of mercenaries in its service had grown
into a formidable army, which by the end of the 18th century
was far bigger than that maintained by most European states.
CHRONOLOGY
Original charter granted to East India
Company
1698
Charter granted to New East India Company
1702
Agreement to merge as United Company of
Merchants Trading to the East Indies
1746
Madras captured by French
Sept–Oct 1751
Capture and successful defence of Arcot,
capital of French-allied Nawab of the Carnatic,
by Robert Clive of EIC Madras presidency
1600
3

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