Clive, with a force of 200 Europeans and 300 Se-
poys... The garrison, 1,100 strong, offered no
resistance, but marched out on Clive’s approach.
In the course of the autumn Arcot was belea-
guered by an army of 10,000 Indians and 150
French under Chunda Sahib, the French nomi-
nee for the Nawabship of Arcot. Against this
overwhelming force, Clive, whose garrison had
been reduced by sickness to 120 Europeans and
less than 200 Sepoys, held out for seven weeks,
until the approach of a Marantha army forced
Chunda Sahib to raise the siege. The garrison
had 45 Europeans and 30 Sepoys killed. French
advance in India was checked.Because the French had to move their troops to
Arcot to head off the siege there, their siege of the Brit-
ish-held town of Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirappalli) was
lifted, making Clive’s victory all the more important. As
Bruce indicates, his triumphs helped end any chance the
French had to conquer the British in India.
In 1753, Clive returned to England, where he was
feted as a hero. He returned to India three years later,
this time as governor of Fort Saint David near Madras.
There, he assembled a large force against the nawab of
Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula or Suraj-ud-Dowlah (?–1757),
who was challenging British rule in India and who had
captured Calcutta. (It was here that the famed “Black
Hole of Calcutta” outrage against British citizens was
committed.) Clive marched his troops to Calcutta and,
in a stunning victory (January 1757), he recaptured the
city and forced the Nawab to flee. Clive chased him to
Plassey in West Bengal state, and the battle that took
place there on 23 June 1757 was one of the most deci-
sive in the history of India. In a letter to the archbishop
of Canterbury, as well as one to William Pitt, later the
prime minister, Clive wrote of the clash:
The 22nd, in the evening, we crossed the river,
and landing on the island, marched straight for
Plassey Grove, where we arrived by one in the
morning.
At daybreak we discovered the Nawab’s army
moving towards us, consisting, as we since found,
of about fifteen thousand horse and thirty-five
thousand foot, with upwards of forty pieces of
cannon. They approached apace, and by six began
to attack with a number of heavy cannon, sup-
ported by the whole army, and continued to playon us very briskly for several hours, during which
our situation was of the utmost service to us, being
lodged in a large grove with good mud banks. To
succeed in an attempt on their cannon was next
to impossible, as they were planted in a manner
round us, and at considerable distances from each
other. We therefore remained quiet in our post.
About noon the enemy drew off their artil-
lery, and retired to their camp. We immediately
sent a detachment, accompanied by two field-
pieces, to take possession of a tank with high
banks, which was advanced about three hun-
dred yards above our grove, and from which the
enemy had considerably annoyed us with some
cannon managed by Frenchmen. This motion
brought them out a second time; but on find-
ing them make no great effort to dislodge us, we
proceeded to take possession of one or two more
eminences lying very near an angle of their camp.
They made several attempts to bring out their
cannon, but our advance field-pieces played so
warmly and so well upon them that they were
always driven back. Their horse exposing them-
selves a good deal on this occasion, many of them
were killed, and among the rest four or five of-
ficers of the first distinction, by which the whole
army being visibly dispirited and thrown into
some confusion, we were encouraged to storm
both the eminence and the angle of their camp,
which were carried at the same instant, with little
or no loss. On this a general rout ensued; and
we pursued the enemy six miles, passing upwards
of forty pieces of cannon they had abandoned,
with an infinite number of carriages filled with
baggage of all kinds. It is computed there are
killed of the enemy about five hundred. Our loss
amounted to only twenty-two killed and fifty
wounded, and those chiefly sepoys.The nawab, Suraj-ud-Dowlah, fled to Rajmahal,
where he was taken captive by followers of his uncle and
leading commander, Mir Jafar Ali Khan, who had gone
over to the British. By the order of Jafar Ali Khan, the
nawab was put to death on 4 July 1757 at his capital at
Murshidabad. Jafar Ali Khan was installed by the Brit-
ish as the new nawab, and Clive became the governor
of Bengal.
Clive’s work in India was not through. He led a
victory over the Dutch at Biderra (November 1759), clive, RobeRt clive, bARon