DEFENCE OF CORYGAUM. 1st. January, 1818.
Reading edition
This eminent service was confined to the Company’s troops. The Peishwah having advanced towards Poonah, Colonel Burr, commanding in that city, requested a reinforcement from Seroor; accordingly Captain Staunton, of the second battalion 1st regiment of Bombay Native Infantry, was despatched with that corps, barely six hundred strong, a few Madras artillery, with two six-pounders, and about three hundred auxiliary horse. The Peishwah’s army, estimated at twenty thousand horse and about eight thousand infantry, were encamped on the right bank of the Beemah, above the village of Corygaum. Captain Staunton, upon coming in sight of this overwhelming force, on the 1st. of January, immediately moved upon Corygaum, and had scarcely succeeded in reaching the village, when he was attacked by three divisions of infantry, supported by immense bodies of horse, and two pieces of artillery. The enemy obtained immediate possession of the strongest posts of the village; and the remaining position was most obstinately contested from noon until nine at night, after a fatiguing march of twenty-eight miles. Ultimately the enemy was forced to abandon the village, after sustaining great loss. During the night of the 2nd., the detachment returned unmolested to Seroor, which was reached at nine o’clock on the following morning, without having partaken of any refreshment since the evening of the 31st. of December. Nearly all the wounded were brought in, and both the gun and the colours of the regiment were preserved.[15]
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