Memoir Of The Operations Of The British Army In India During The Mahratta War Of 1817-1819

MEMOIR OF THK OPERATIONS OF THE BRITISH ARMY INDIA, THE MAHRATTA WAR OF 1817, 1818, 1819. ILI. lSTKATED BY MAPS AND TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS. I V. LIEUT.-COLONEL VALENTINE BLACKKH, COMPANION OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH, AKll QtJARTFKMASTLR-GENERAt OF THE ARMY OF FORT ST. GEORGE. LONDON PRINTED FOR BLACK, KINGSBURY, PARBURV, AND AUEV, tE A DE XII ALL-STREET, PHINITD BY S. AN1 R. liLNfLFY, rT VI Rl LT, SATISBURY SQUARE, T. ONJK1N. THE OFFICERS BRITISH ARMY IN INDIA. FELLOW SOLDIERS, THE original object of Dedications, to gain currency for a Work under the patronage of some powerful name, forms no part of the motive with which I address you. Your decision on sub jects of Literature will not be admitted by the Public, as infallible though you are the best judges of the truth of the facts, and justness of the opinions, which are introduced in the following pages. A lively interest in your Fame, a grateful attachment to our com mon Service, and a sincere Friendship tor many of you, conspire in prompting me to offer you this Memoir. I am anxious that your merits and services may ever be exhibited to the public iew and though I do not pretend to the credit of being actuated solely by this desire, it forms an important part of my motives. I assert thi. s with u confidence, the sincerity of which, I trust, the freedom of my language throughout this work will testify. Candour of speech is, or ought to be, a characteristic of our profession I have therefore, without hesi tation, treated of your merits and deficiencies, as they have appeared to me, with an impartiality which will, I hope, be received as the highest compliment. vi DEDICATION. You have done your duty in war, by bringing it toa successful termination. It behoves you now to acquit yourselves equally well in peace. The proper motives of a Soldier are Patriotism and Love of Fame. Of these excitements, neither can have any valuable operation, without constant and attentive study of the Military Profession. The objects abounding in this pursuit cannot here be enlarged on with propriety yet, I may be permitted to remark, that an interval of peace is the fittest time for reflecting upon them, as, during active service, there is little leisure for more than observation. Such ardour of im provement will correct those imperfections, of which you have your share and will render you still more worthy of a better history of your exploits than you have now before you. That you will never have a more zealous historian, I may venture to aflirm and with assurances of the just pride I feel, in belonging to the same Army with yourselves, I remain Your most devoted and faithful Comrade, VALENTINE BLACKER, PREFACE. AN AufHOR who offers himself for the first time to the Public is usually occupied in anxiously considering the most effectual method of avoiding their severity, and securing the protection of their indulgence. In pursuance of this design, some place all their confidence in the no velty of their subject or, if it has already been discussed, in their ad ditional information, and the new lights in which facts are exposed. Should no one, however, have described the same events, they consider themselves imperiously called on to rescue from total oblivion a subject which all others have abandoned. They wish, indeed, that an abler pen had undertaken the task, and plead an evident necessity, to secure a lenient judgment.Should an author pursue the profession of arim, he may even consent to term himself an unlettered soldier, with the probable expectation of being allowed to possess, instead of the know ledge of books, a familiarity with scenes of life, the most important to States from their result., and moist interesting to individuals from their vicissitudes and dangers...