Plassey 1757: Clive of India's Finest Hour

Description

After relatively lowly beginnings as a writer in the East India Company, Robert Clive rose to be perhaps the most important single figure in the history of British involvement in India. At Plassey on 23 June 1757 Clive's 3,500 native and East India Company troops faced an army of 50,000 under the French supported nawab Siraj-ud-daula. Having succeeded in keeping his powder dry in a torrential rainstorm, Clive's guns were able to open a murderous fire on the enemy. Siraj-ud-daula's attack was beaten off and the counter-attack which Clive launched swept the field; with only the French gunners fighting to the last.

Peter Harrington is Curator of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University Library in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. A native of Manchester, England, his research interests include the archaeology of the English Civil War, and artists and war. He has written numerous articles and books.