The siege of Ahmednagar was the first battle of the

Second Anglo-Maratha War Second Anglo-Maratha War (from 1803 –1805) was a large conflict within the Maratha Confederacy, Maratha Empire involving the British East India Company. It resulted in major loss of territory for the Marathas, including regions around Delhi a ...

fought between the

Maratha Confederacy The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former. ...

and the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. When he determined that a long defensive war would ruin his army, Wellesley decided to act boldly to defeat the numerically larger force of the Marathas. With the logistic assembly of his army complete (24,000 men in total) he gave the order to break camp and attack the nearest Maratha fort on 8 August 1803. Wellesley's first move was to take the walled

Pettah of Ahmednagar In 1803 the Pettah of Ahmednagar, 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, abou ...

(town adjacent to the fort) by

escalade Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders. Escalade was a prominent feature of sieges in ancient and medieval warfare. Although no longer common in modern warfare, escalade technologies are still deve ...

, on the same day (the 8 August). The

Ahmednagar Fort The Ahmednagar Fort (''Ahmadnagar Qila'') is located close to the Bhingar Nala near Ahmednagar in Maharashtra state western India. It was the headquarters of the Ahmednagar Sultanate. In 1803, it was taken by the British during the Second Ang ...

surrendered on 12 August after an infantry attack had exploited an artillery-made breach in the wall. With the pettah and fort now in British control Wellesley was able to extend control southwards to the river

Godavari The Godavari (, �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga River and drains the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakeshwar, Nashik, Maharash ...

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmednagar, Battle of Conflicts in 1803 1803 in India Battles of the Second Anglo-Maratha War Battles involving the Maratha Empire Sieges involving the British East India Company History of the Corps of Engineers (Indian Army) August 1803