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1 of 253523 objects
After Charles Becher Young (1816-92)
The Passage of the River Chumbal by the British Indian Army. 1843? published 1850?
Lithograph | RCIN 750906
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A lithograph showing a topographical view over an Indian river landscape. In the middle ground units of the British Army with supplies and baggage trains move from right to left over the flat plain prior to fording the wide river between the plain and the mountains beyond. A fortress is visible on top of the mountain on the left. Lettered below.
This print represents the British army's crossing of the River Chambal en route to Punniar [Panihar, in what is today the state of Madhya Pradesh, India] during the brief Gwalior Campaign of 1843.
The colonial ambitions of the British East India Company had resulted in their defeat of the ruling Marathas of central and northern India in 1818. A ten-year-old Maharaja had been appointed, with British support, as ruler of the state of Gwalior, formerly part of the Maratha confederacy. After the British defeats at Kabul and the Khyber Pass in 1842, the Marathas had seen an opportunity to regain independence with assistance from other princely states, and sought to depose the young Maharaja. When diplomatic negotiations failed, Lord Ellenborough, governor-general of India, directed Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Gough to assemble forces to converge on Gwalior. On 29th December 1843, in two simulaneous battles, at Maharajpur and at Punniar, British East India Company forces defeated the Maratha armies. On 31st December a treaty was signed, and arrangements were made for the occupation of Gwalior fort (probably the edifce represented in the left background of the lithograph).
Charles Becher Young (1816-92) was born in Calcutta and educated at military schools in England. In October 1837 he became a second lieutenant in the Bengal Sappers and Miners, serving the Jhansi field force. He was promoted to first lieutenant in January 1841, and was present at the Battle of Maharajpur during the brief Gwalior campaign of 1843. He served during the Punjab campaign, in charge of building a strategically important bridge at the Battle of Ramnagar in November 1848. As Brevet Captain he served during the Burmese campaign of 1852-3. He became a lieutenant-colonel in January 1860, and colonel in July 1862. His drawings depicting British campaigns were translated into prints, among the most prized of which are his representations of the Punjab campaign of 1848-9. -
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Lithograph
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