Nonetheless, Dean Mahomet took command, although he never mentioned any of his men or other Indian officers in Travels. Further, he was much shorter (about five feet tall) than the men he commanded, who were selected for their imposing height (closer to six feet).
The irregularity of his appointment may have made Dean Mahomet feel reticent about command of this grenadier company. This appointment, however, violated the Bengal Army's formal regulations for such appointments, since Dean Mahomet lacked the necessary seniority. Local resistance to the depredations of Bengal Army sepoys led to Dean Mahomet's narrow escape from death at the hands of a hostile peasantry.Īfter taking command of his new battalion at Cawnpur, Baker again exercised his patronage by arranging to have Dean Mahomet appointed jemadar (ensign) in one of its elite grenadier companies under his command. He used his newly acquired patronage to appoint Dean Mahomet as market master to supply this detachment by collecting provisions from the territories through which they passed. As Baker marched to Cawnpur, he took command of a detachment of two companies of sepoys and two companies of Europeans (some four hundred men) also going in the same direction. This promotion came despite Baker's recent conviction by court-martial for insubordination, brought against him by his commanding officer-an event which Dean Mahomet refrained from mentioning in Travels. In January 1781, Baker's seniority garnered him a promotion to Captain and command of one of the two sepoy battalions in Major William Roberts's Thirtieth Infantry Regiment in the Second Brigade, then stationed up the Ganges at Cawnpur. With the promotion of his patron, Baker, Dean Mahomet entered a new phase of his career, as an official provisioner and then subaltern officer in the Bengal Army.
Dean Mahomet as Bengal Army Officer (1781–82)
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