Battle of Koregaon
The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January 1818. It was fought between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy. Peshwa Baji Rao II’s 28,000-strong force were on their way to attack the company-held Pune. They were unexpectedly met by an 800-strong Company force that was on its way to reinforce the British troops. The Company troops defended their position for nearly 12 hours.
About Battle of Koregaon in brief
The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January 1818. It was fought between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy. Peshwa Baji Rao II’s 28,000-strong force were on their way to attack the company-held Pune. They were unexpectedly met by an 800-strong Company force that was on its way to reinforce the British troops. The Company troops defended their position for nearly 12 hours. The Peshwa’s troops ultimately withdrew, fearing the imminent arrival of a larger British force. The battle was part of the Third Anglo Maratha war, a series of battles that culminated in the defeat of Peshwa rule and subsequent rule of the Company in nearly all of Western, Central and Southern India. There is a \”victory pillar\” in Koregaan commemorating the battle. The British had subjugated and signed peace treaties with these factions, establishing Residencies at their capitals. By the 1800s, the Marathas were organized into a loose confederacy, with the major constituents being the Peshwan of Pune, the Scindia of Gwalior, the Holkar of Indore, the Gaekwad of Baroda, and the Bhosale of Nagpur. This treaty formally ended the Peshwon’s titular overlordship over other Maratha chiefs, thus officially ending the Maraths’ confederated status.
The attack was directed by Bapu Gokhale, Appa Desai and Trimbakji Dengle. The attackers were supported by a cavalry and two pieces of artillery. The majority of the attackers were Arabs, reputed to be the finest among the Peshwas’s soldiers. Out of these, around 2,000 men were deployed in the action, constantly reinforced during the battle, which lasted for around 12 hours, with a total of around 20,000 soldiers. The company troops dispatched from Shirur comprised 3434 men, including 8 men of Indian origin. This was mostly the troops that Capt. Francis Staunton had raised three months ago with the object of strengthening the defense of Poona that was already under British control. After marching all night and covering a distance of 25 miles, they reached the high ground behind Talegaon Bhima, which was located on the banks of the river Dhamdhere. From there they spotted the Peshwas’ army across the Bhima River, and marched up to the village. After the attack, Peshwa and other chiefs stayed at Phoolsheher near KoreGAon. The titular Maratha Chatrapati, Prap Singh of Satara, also accompanied the Peshwu. The fight was won by the Company troops, who took control of the village on 31 December 1817.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Koregaon published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 03, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
