Anthony Pohlmann was a Hanoverian soldier who served in the armies of the British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 and Daulat Scindia. Pohlmann arrived in India as a sergeant in a Hanoverian regiment serving the East India Company in Madras. He deserted his regiment in 1792 or 1793 and took employment in the army of the Maratha prince, Daulat Scindia. He served under the French mercenary Benoît de Boigne

Benoît de Boigne

Benoît Leborgne , better known as Count Benoît de Boigne or General Count de Boigne, was a military adventurer from the Alps of French Savoy, who made his fortune and name in India...

, who promoted him to captain in 1794. By 1795 he was in command of a battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

 of infantry, serving alongside the Anglo-Indian

Anglo-Indian

Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...

 military adventurer, James Skinner

James Skinner (soldier)

James Skinner CB was an Anglo-Indian military adventurer in India, who became known as Sikandar Sahib later in life, and most known for two cavalry regiments he raised for the British, later known as 1st Skinner's Horse and 3rd Skinner's Horse at Hansi in 1803, which still are a part of the...

. In early 1799, Pierre Cuillier-Perron

Pierre Cuillier-Perron

Pierre Cuillier-Perron , French military adventurer in India, whose name was originally Pierre Cuillier, was born at Luceau near Château-du-Loir in France, the son of a cloth merchant....

 – who superseded de Boigne as the overall commander of Scindia's troops – promoted Pohlmann to colonel and gave him command of Scindia's second brigade

Brigade

A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...

. At the Battle of Assaye

Battle of Assaye

The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company...

 in 1803, Pohlmann effectively commanded all the regular battalions in the Maratha army, after Scindia and the Rajah of Berar

Raghoji II Bhonsle

Raghoji II Bhonsle was the Maratha ruler of the Kingdom of Nagpur in Central India from 1788 to 1816.Raghoji was adopted as an infant by his uncle Janoji to be his chosen heir...

 absented themselves before the battle. Some historians, however, claim that Pohlmann was not present at Assaye, but had been imprisoned for refusing to fight the British. He re-entered service with the East India Company as a lieutenant colonel in 1804.

Fiction

• Anthony Pohlmann is a significant character in Bernard Cornwell
  Bernard Cornwell
  Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
  
  's historical novel Sharpe's Triumph and Sharpe's Trafalgar.