Journals of the Sieges Carried on by the Madras Army in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lake, Journals of the Sieges of the Madras Army in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819, with Observations on the System, according to which Such Observations have usually been conducted in India, and a Statement of the Improvements that appear necessary. With an Atlas of explanatory plates, London: Kingsbury, Parbury & Allen; and John Murray, 1825

x + 255 p., With 22 plates, maps and plans (4 folding), 1 with dispositions hand-coloured (Nagpoor), all engraved by Neele & Son; full leather bound with gilt text at the spine
19.9 x 12.7 cm

A Primary Record of Post-Mysore Warfare: The Madras Army’s Siege Operations during the Pindari and Maratha Campaigns (1817–19)

Lieut.-Colonel Edward Lake’s Journals of the Sieges Carried on by the Madras Army is one of the most significant printed military documents of the early nineteenth century, chronicling the major siege operations undertaken in the Deccan and Central India during the concluding phases of the Pindari War and the Third Anglo-Maratha conflict. Published in 1825, this authoritative volume synthesises Lake’s detailed field journals with a series of engraved plans and maps that record the tactical, logistical, and engineering dimensions of British military action under the Madras Presidency.

The sieges documented—including the operations at Talnar, Asseerghur, Copul, and various fortified hill posts—represent the final dismantling of Maratha and Pindari strongholds and the consolidation of East India Company authority across vast tracts of the interior. Lake, a seasoned officer and accomplished military observer, presents not only a descriptive narrative of campaigns but also an analytical account of siegecraft as practised in India in the early nineteenth century. His text discusses the construction of batteries, breaching operations, storming parties, and the employment of artillery within challenging terrains that differed markedly from European theatres of war.

The accompanying maps and plans are among the most valuable components of the work. Executed with precision and clarity, they show fort layouts, contours, glacis, curtain walls, and artillery placements, as well as the disposition of attacking forces. These plates bridge the transition between the ad hoc mapping of eighteenth-century campaigns and the more scientifically grounded surveys that characterised the Great Trigonometrical Survey era. For historians of military cartography, they provide a rare visual archive of the Company’s engineering practices and strategic priorities in the years immediately following its triumph over Mysore.

Lake’s Journals also document a pivotal political moment: the end of Maratha sovereignty and the absorption of the last pockets of resistance into an expanding colonial state. The work circulated widely within military circles and among administrators, serving as both a practical manual of siege operations and a retrospective justification of British intervention. Its blend of narrative detail, technical illustration, and authoritative vantage point has ensured the volume’s enduring importance for scholars of colonial warfare, the Madras Army, and early nineteenth-century Indian fortifications.

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