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Lieutenant Richard Bayly
(12th Regiment):
Description of the Assault on 4 May 1799
"... After a month's continual fighting and hardships, a breach was
reported practicable on the 3rd of May, and the following day was
appointed for the storm. Towards evening the troops selected on this
interesting occasion moved slowly down to the trenches, under the
command of Baird. For nights and days had the troops suffered from
excess of fatigue, up to their knees in water, and exposed to the
fierce rays of the sun, fired at and rocketted from every direction,
and subjected to continual alarms. We were, therefore, all rejoiced at
the speedy prospect of a glorious termination to our incessant
sufferings, advancing with all that animation and buoyant spirit so
characteristic of British soldiers on the eve of a brilliant
attack. At one o'clock p.m., on the 4th inst., Baird, taking out his
watch, exclaimed: "The time has expired!" and leaped on the parapet of
the trenches, exclaiming in a loud voice: "Now, my brave boys, follow
me!" The enemy were at this moment quietly intent on their culinary
preparations for dinner, and we experienced little loss, until we were
floundering on the rocky bed of the river, when the men began to fall
fast. All who were wounded were inevitably drowned in a second
afterwards. One step the water scarcely covered the foot; the next we
were plunged headlong into an abyss of fathoms deep. Thus scrambling
over, the column at length reached the ascent of the breach, where
numerous flankers who had preceded us were lying stretched on their
backs, killed and wounded, some of the gallant officers waving their
swords and cheering our men on. We dashed forward, and the top of the
breach was soon crowned by our intrepid lads, and the British flag
hoisted. But this was for a moment only. A sudden, sweeping fire from
the inner wall came like a lightning blast, and exterminated the living
mass. Others crowded from behind, and again the flag was planted. At
this time General Baird was discovered on the ramparts. On observing a
deep, dry, rocky ditch of sixty feet deep, and an inner wall covered
with the troops of the enemy, he exclaimed: "Good God! I did not
expect this!" His presence of mind did not desert him; he gave his
directions in those cool, decided terms that a great man in the hour
of danger and emergency knows so intuitively how to assume, and we
were soon charging to the right and left of the breach along the
ramparts of the outer wall. In the left attack, Tippoo was himself
defending the traverses with the best and bravest of his troops. This
impediment caused a sudden halt, but my gallant friend Woodhall
impetuously rushed down a rugged confined pathway into the ditch, and
ascended the second or inner wall, by an equally difficult road,
mounted to the summit, followed by his company, the Light Infantry of
the 12th. Ere he attained a footing, he had clasped a tuft of grass
with his left hand, and was on the point of surmouinting the
difficulty, when a fierce Mussulman, with a curved, glittering
scimitar, made a stroke at his head, which completely cut the bearskin
from his helmet, without further injury. Woodhall retaliated,
separating the calf of the fellow's leg from the bone. He fell, and the
gallant Light Bob was on the rampart in a moment, surrounded by a
host of the enemy, whom, with the assistance of his company, he soon
drove before him, thus relieving General Baird and his column on the
outer wall from the destructive fire from the interior rampart, thereby
saving hundreds of lives. How far this deviation from orders can be
justified may be subject for discussion, but a brave man does not
often reflect on consequences, when assured that an energetic movement
on his part will probably ensure a certain victory and the preservation
of a multitude of his fellow-soldiers. Tippoo finding his troops fired
on from the inner ramparts, hastened to the Sallyport. Here Woodhall
and his men were already in the interior of the town, prepared for the
recontre, and a sharp firing ensued. The gateway was filled to
the very top of the arch with dead and dying. The column under Baird
had pursued the flying enemy to the Sallyport, and whilst Woodhall was
bayoneting and firing in the front, they were also attacked in the
rear. The body of Tippoo was afterwards amongst this promiscuous heap
of slain. Neither Woodhall nor his men obtained a single article of
plunder on the occasion, but a private of the 74th Regiment secured a
very valuable armlet, which was sold to Doctor Mein of that corps for a
few hundred rupees. It was ultimately discovered to be worth seventy or
eighty thousand pounds. The doctor purchased the man's discharge, and
settled him in Scotland on £100 pension per annum. The fortress now
became one wild scene of plunder and confusion, but poor Woodhall and
his men were appointed to extinguish the flames of some burning houses
in the vicinity of the grand magazine of gunpowder, which, had it
ignited, would have blown the whole garrison, friends and foes, into
the air. He performed this arduous duty effectually, and although first
in the town, his company were the only part of the regiment who did not
reap any pecuniary reward for such daring heroism. The rest of the
troops had filled their muskets, caps, and pockets with zechins,
pagodas, rupees, and ingots of gold. One of our grenadiers, by name
Platt, deposited in my hands, to the amount of fifteen hundred pounds'
worth of the precious metals, which in six months afterwards he had
dissipated in drinking, horse-racing, cock-fighting, and gambling.
Tranquillity was scarcely restored in the Fort, when the honourable
Colonel Wellesley was sent in to take the command, to the great dismay
and indignation of General Baird, who had felicitated himself on the
certain command of this acquisition of his gallantry; but he was
superseded, and at once delivered over to Wellesley the important
fortress of Seringapatam to his future guidance, who next day hung up
eighteen poor Sepoys, found in the act of plunder, contrary to his
orders..."
Source:
Bayly, R. Diary of Colonel Bayly 12th Regiment :1796-1803. London: Army and
Navy Co-Operative Society, 1896 pp. 92-94.
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