Napoleon once said, ‘An army travels on its stomach.’ By this, he meant that the problem of keeping an army supplied is a prerequisite for the very existence of the force.
Any large-scale military engagement with the British, who during the 1800s were at the peak of their military power, was nearly impossible to do without their knowledge. Any early warning could derail the plan. Historical accounts of 1857 rarely discuss the logistics, the supply lines, and the economics of waging a war. It is well-known that the cost of fighting the war against the British was enormous. While the military logistics of acquiring and maintaining weapons and ammunition is important to the understanding of how the Indian fought this war, the critical piece is the mystery of the supply line.
Troop movement in the 1850s in India was a long and arduous process and the logistics involved was enormous. Three to five camp followers accompanied each soldier. With this calculation, when two divisions of troops were on the move, the total number of human beings marching exceeded 20,000. In addition, there were thousands of horses, camels, elephants, mules, and bullocks. The elephants would drag the cannons. The bullock carts would transport the soldiers. The camels would be needed to carry the supply of grain for the cavalry and artillery horses. The supply for one day for 8,000 horses would need 200 camels for its conveyance. More camels would be needed to transporting the hospital stores, wines, medicines, quilts, beds, pots pans of all sorts and sizes. In addition, ‘troop stores’ were also transported. These included horse clothing, head and heel ropes, pickets, nose bags and spare shoes. In addition, there was the private baggage for the soldiers and the tents for officers. With this complicated logistics, typical troop movement was about 12-15 miles per day.
As this indicates, the critical part of waging a successful war is to have an elaborate logistics for food for the soldiers and the horses and elephants, if any. In addition, as mentioned above, each soldier was followed by three to five camp followers just to manage the needs of the soldiers including food.
While there are several little things including horse clothing and medicine supplies, the primary need for troops on the move is food, critical for success on the battlefield. A marching army required provisions not just for the soldiers, but feed also for the horses, elephants, bullocks and camels.
Before waging a war against the English, the Indian soldiers, as employees of the East India Company, had access to the full spectrum of support and a functional supply line. Once the Indian soldiers ‘mutinied’, they no longer had access to that infrastructure. All basic needs, including food and other logistics had to be managed. Did they travel with their rations? Did they have access to the camels that would be carrying the rations? For each soldier there were three camp followers, who would take care of the essentials. Did the ‘rebel’ soldiers have any camp followers? What about pots, pans and cooks? Who cooked the food? Did they get access to any the camp equipment before they mutinied, including pots and pans?
A soldier fights a war based on the assumption that the basic things such as food, water and a camp to sleep are taken care of.
Here is a glimpse into the scale of the problem that has been glossed over by most historians. Over 50,000 Indian troops fought in this war. Just for one month, they would have needed nearly 1,500 tons of grains, not including the feed for horses and elephants. Where did the grains come from and more importantly who cooked the food for the soldiers? The EEIC’s army had three camp followers for every soldier. Did the camp followers mutiny as well? How did they carry their grains? Did they have supply lines as elaborate as the English did?
Food was a critical element of this War for the Indian soldiers and this was another very important piece that has been missing in history books. Tatya Tope demonstrated the use of fully functional supply lines in the later phases of the War. However, in the first phase, planning for a fully functional logistics would have impossible task to achieve covertly. Was Tatya able to invent an alternate and fully functional supply lines for his soldiers? Who accounted for that critical piece of supply line logistics?
All these answers are in the mysterious traveling chapatis and red lotuses.
Read Operation Red Lotus to find out more.
No comments:
Post a Comment