Lachlan Macquarie: Seringapatam
(near Mysore, Southern India)
The ancient fortress city of Seringapatam (now called Srirangapatna or Srirangapatnam) was the capital for the Muslim rajas of Mysore, Haidar Ali (c. 1722 - 1782) and his eldest son, Tipu Sultan (1753 -1799). It was located on an island in the Cauvery (Kaveri) river approx. 14.5 km. (9 miles) from Mysore and about 120 km. (75 miles) from Bangalore. The name is derived from the ancient Hindu temple of Sri Ranganatha Swami which is located at the western end of the the island. The city became the site of two of the most famous sieges of the Anglo-Mysore Wars (in 1792 and 1799).
The 73rd. Regiment
The 73rd. Regiment was sent into the territory of Mysore on 5 March 1799. It was part of two large military forces that had been assembled to challenge the political and military might of Tipu Sultan. The outcome of the clash would determine who controlled southern India, and, in time, lay the foundations of the British Raj in India.
The British East India Company troops numbered over 20,000 men, of whom approximately 4,000 were Europeans. The 73rd. Regiment was part of the second brigade of this force, under the command of Colonel John Sherbroke (Lieutenant-Colonel of the 33rd. Regiment).
A second force sent by the Nizam of Hyderabad consisted of six battalions of the Company's English-trained sepoys, four battalions of Hyderabad troops under the command of English officers, 10,000 cavalry of varying quality under an English officer, and attached to it the 33rd. Regiment, under the command of Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington). The two combined armies had a total of about 40,000 fighting men, an enormous siege train, and well over 100,000 camp followers.
Tipu's armed forces had been reduced since the loss of half of the kingdom of Mysore in 1792, and probably totalled about 37,000. Tipu knew that without numerical superiority he could not hope to defeat in the field English troops and English-trained sepoys - he planned therefore to fall upon isolated English formations with overwhelming numbers and annihilate them. This would be complemented by a scorched earth policy that destroyed all fodder for the bullocks that were moving the siege artillery and supplies of the attacking British army. The final defence would be to retreat into his heavily fortified citadel of Seringapatam and wait for the onset of the monsoon season.
A third British force of 6,400 men from Bombay had been assembled at Cannanore, on the west coast, under the command of Lieut-General James Stuart. It was instructed to ascend the Western ghats and advance into the province of the Coorg. Lachlan Macquarie, serving at this stage in the 77th. Regiment, was part of this force (known as the Bombay Army), and on 5 March, at Seedaseer near Periapatam (on the frontier of Mysore), came under attack from Mysorean troops under the command of Tipu Sultan himself. After several hours of heavy fighting the Mysorean forces disengaged and retreated with a loss of fifteen hundred dead and wounded.
Three weeks later (on 27 March), the Madras Army, moving towards Seringapatam from the east coast, reached Mallavelli and was soon engaged in battle by Tipu Sultan and his forces. The Mysorean troops suffered heavy casualties, with over 1000 men killed or wounded, and the survivors quickly retreated towards Seringapatam.
The British forces advanced and reached the island city on 5 April, and preparations for a siege commenced immediately. There was a need for haste - for if a breach was not made quickly in the city walls, the imminent arrival of the monsoon would prevent any successful assault on the island city; once the water levels in the Cauvery River rose it would become impossible for the troops to cross and force their way inside.
At dusk, on the 20 April, three columns of British troops (which included ten companies of the 73rd. Regiment) advanced towards an estimated force of 1800 men waiting in the Mysorean entrenchment on the western perimeter of the city. Despite heavy gunfire and rocket attack the British troops suffered only light casualties, while the defenders lost an estimated 250 men killed or wounded.
On the 26 April, Lieutenant James Todd of the 73rd. was wounded, while Lieutenant Archibald John Maclean was wounded the following day. Seringapatam's defences quickly collapsed under the pounding of British and Hyderabad cannons. A breach was reported as being practicable on the 3 May and an assault was ordered for the next day. The 73rd. Regiment was selected to form the right column of the attack, together with the men of the 74th. Regiment, four European flank companies, fourteen sepoy flank companies, and fifty artillerymen. The attack began on 4 May, at about half-past one in the afternoon, during the heat of the day when the defenders would least expect an assault to be mounted. It was led by the Scotsman Major-General David Baird, who, twenty years earlier, had been a prisoner of Tipu Sultan for 44 months. Baird was an implacable foe of Tipu, and unlikely to show any mercy or to order any restraint on the part of his men. The storming party scrambled up the wide breach in two columns, sweeping away the enemy, and then turned right and left along the ramparts. There was fierce fighting, in which Tipu personally took a prominent part.
The city fell within a few hours and Tipu's body was found among the heaps of slain near the Watergate on the northern side of the city - though it was not until nightfall that this discovery was made and there had been great consternation that he might have escaped. He was buried the following day, with great ceremony, in the mausoleum of his father Haidar Ali.
The 73rd. Regiment remained encamped outside Seringapatam until November 1799, when it was selected to garrison the city. It remained at Seringapatam until May 1800, at which stage it was posted for military action against the Polygars on the Malabar coast.
The final decisive defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799 made the British East India Company the paramount power in India.
A full transcript of Lachlan Macquarie's journal of the 1799 campaign is available for consultation on the Seringapatam 1799 Web site.
References:
Historical Record of the Seventy-Third Regiment. Compiled by Richard Cannon. London: Parker, Furnivall & Parker, 1851.
FORREST, Denys. Tiger of Mysore: the life and death of Tipu Sultan. London: Chatto & Windus, 1970.
FORTESQUE, J.W. A History of the British Army Vol.III 1763 - 1793. London: Macmillan, 1911.
HAYTHORNTHWAITE, Philip J.The Colonial Wars Source Book. London:
Arms and Armour Press, 1995.
MOIENUDDIN, Mohammad, Sunset at Srirangapatam: After the Death of Tipu Sultan, Tiger of Mysore. London: Sangam Books. 2000.
MOON, P. The British Conquest and Dominion of India. London: Duckworth, 1989.
Copyright © 2011 Macquarie University. All rights reserved.
