Wellington's First Command: The Political and Military Campaign Against Dhoondiah Vagh, February–September 1800

Abstract

Wellington's first independent command has been seen as a short, but intense, ‘baptism of fire’ in which the young Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wellesley commanded a small force against the insurgent, or ‘freebooter’, Dhoondiah Vagh. New evidence presented here, however, demonstrates that the three-month military campaign was preceded by several months of political negotiation and intelligence gathering designed to isolate Dhoondiah and starve him of sanctuary, support and sustenance. As a result, the campaign was much more complex than previously thought, and demonstrates important lessons about British imperial expansion in the region at the beginning of the nineteenth century, on the nature of British authority in India, and on the opening stages of the military career of the future Duke of Wellington.

British Assessments of Tipu Sultan’s Hill Forts in Northern Mysore, South India, 1802

“…For example, the British assumed command of Chittledroog in mid-1799 and stationed a small garrison there. Its stores were supplemented in 1800 when it served as a depot and forward base during the hunt for the freebooter Dhoondia Waugh (see Davies 2010). Additional supplies also began to trickle into the fort by late summer of 1802 in anticipation of the build-up for war against the Marathas.…”