Wellesley's Leadership Traits During the Maratha Battle Research Paper

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Arthur Wellesley who is also known as the Duke of Wellington is considered to be one of Great Britain's greatest military leaders. Wellesley was a conservative and careful general who managed to inspire loyalty and discipline among his troops and he frequently won battles in the most difficult of circumstances. It is because of these characters that Wellesley managed to emerge victorious in many battles, but his major victory was against the Maratha forces at Assaye. It was quite known that the Duke of Wellington was a defensive general and he was well known due to his defensive strategies, but during the battle with the Maratha forces, he employed offensive strategies. This change of tact contributed immensely to his victory because no one expected him to be offensive and he managed to catch the enemies unawares (Harvey, 2008). Although he is viewed as a defensive general, it is said that when he was on the defensive he happened to make many mistakes.

In 1803, Major General Wellesley demonstrated his great leadership abilities by leading his men who consisted of a combined force of about 24,000 British and Hyderabad soldiers onto an overwhelming combat engagement against the Maratha forces who comprised of about 200,000 soldiers. Looking at the number of soldiers that each general had, it is clear that Wellesley was outnumbered, but that was not a deterrent to him because he was a great strategist. He is also credited for always being involved in the battles in that he was a micromanager and he always kept tight control of his troops on the battlefield.

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Wellesley seldom gave his officers much scope for initiative, which ensured that he made decisions all the time down to battery and battalion level. Wellington was overly cautious and very defensive minded, and it is for this reason that he always preferred to deploy his infantry on the reverse slope in order to conceal his infantry. This allowed him to operate with a relatively small army that the enemy was never aware of.

On September 23rd, 1803, Wellesley received intelligence information that there was a substantial enemy force present at Assaye. He rode ahead of his troops to verify the information without fear or hesitation. What Wellesley saw was a 200,000-person Maratha force that was located between Juah and Kaitna rivers. He led the attack against the Maratha forces without waiting for reinforcements. During this battle, the Duke of Wellington demonstrated his ability to take advantage of the enemy by controlling the engagement timing and devising a well-planned attack. Using these strategies, he managed to force the Maratha forces to flee from their position. However, this success came at a great cost to his troops because he lost about 1,500 soldiers. In complete contrast, the Maratha forces lost about 6,000 soldiers. Wellington's success during this battle was a combination of leadership traits, direct action, and basic military tactics. Wellesley employed the principles of "when a falcon strike breaks the body of its prey, it is because….....

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