Capture of Gawilghur

The Capture of Gawilghur fort in western India by British East India Company forces under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley on 15 December 1803 during the Second Anglo-Maratha War was the culminating act in the defeat of the forces of Raghoji II Bhonsle, Rajah of Berar.

[a][1] At the time, Gawilghur was considered unassailable and the defenders believed they could hold the mountain fortress regardless of whatever the British Army threw at it.

After the bombardment commenced on 12 December, the assault on the 14th might have been doomed to failure in the narrow passageways of the Inner Fort had it not been for the bravery of an officer of the 94th.

Captain Campbell and his Light Company made a "daring ascent ...on the seemingly impossible southern face."

Lady Elizabeth Longford, in her book Wellington, the Years of the Sword, quotes Jac Weller whose opinion of Gawilghur was that 'three reasonably effective troops of Boy Scouts armed with rocks could have kept out several times their number of professional soldiers'.