[Sidenote: 1756.]
[Sidenote: Aug. 26.]
[Sidenote: 1757.]
[Sidenote: June.]
It might have seemed that, with the recall of Dupleix and the
dismissal of Bussy from the court of Salabad Jung, French
ascendency in India was already shaken to its foundations. Such,
however, was very far from the fact. On the news of Bussy's
withdrawal the French governors both at Pondicherry and at
Masulipatam had sent him reinforcements, which he contrived by
rare skill and daring to join to his own troops, and to use so
effectively that within three months of his dismissal he was
re-established at Hyderabad with all his former titles, dignities,
and honours. For the rest of the year he was fully occupied in the
reassertion of his position at the Viceroy's court and of French
influence in the Northern Sirkars, those provinces on the eastern
seaboard which, as will be remembered, should by the treaty of
1755 have been restored to their native owners. The most dangerous
enemy of the British, therefore, though not removed, was fully
employed over his own affairs during the year 1756. No sooner was
he free, however, than he was once again busy in mischief, reducing
Vizagapatam and the British factories on the Godavery, until new
intrigues at the Court of the Viceroy recalled him hurriedly to
Hyderabad.
[Sidenote: May.]
Still farther south, at Trichinopoly, matters remained for a
time comparatively quiet. Major Caillaud, who commanded the
garrison of the city, had received strict orders to abstain from
all hostilities; while the French, though still in occupation
of Seringham, had been so much weakened by the detachment of
reinforcements for the help of Bussy, that until December 1756
they ceased to be formidable. In the following February, however,
the dread of French intrigue at Madura and Tinnevelly had forced
Caillaud to lead an expedition to both of these districts; and
in April the necessity for collecting the revenues of the Nabob
Mohammed Ali led the authorities at Madras to send a further
expedition to Nellore on the river Pennar. This latter enterprise
was unsuccessful, but has a distinct interest of its own for that
it was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Forde of the Thirty-ninth
Foot, an officer who was soon to win for his name a place beside
those of Clive and Lawrence. In this his first command, however,
he failed; and the French, though they had received orders to
attempt nothing before the arrival of reinforcements, could not
resist the temptation to take the field while the forces of
Madras were divided between two points so remote as Tinnevelly
and Nellore. M. d'Auteuil therefore seized the moment to collect
four thousand men, one-fourth of them Europeans, together with a
train of siege-artillery, and on the 14th of May appeared with this
force before Trichinopoly. The position of the British garrison
was never more critical during the whole course of the war than
at this moment. The best of the troops were absent with Caillaud;
and Captain Joseph Smith, who was left in command, had but seven
hundred Sepoys and less than two hundred English with which to
hold the fortifications and to guard five hundred French prisoners
who were still within the walls. D'Auteuil, thinking to capture
Trichinopoly at small cost, tried to scare Smith into surrender
by bombardment and by incessant petty attacks, but Smith was not
easily frightened and held his ground until the 25th. Then Caillaud
appeared, having hastened back with all speed from Madura, and by
extreme skill and perseverance passed his force by night unnoticed
through the midst of the French camp into the city. D'Auteuil
thereupon retired to Pondicherry, and Trichinopoly was once more in
safety.
[Sidenote: Sept.]
Meanwhile the authorities at Madras had initiated a diversion
in favour of Trichinopoly, to which the French answered by
reprisals in kind; but the operations were of little interest
or significance. In September a French squadron arrived which
disembarked one thousand regular troops; but even after the
arrival of this reinforcement the enemy's movements were of small
importance. Indeed their inactivity at this period was no less
surprising than welcome to the British, for the Presidency of
Madras, in the face of their superior numbers, had been obliged
to withdraw all its troops into garrison and to stand strictly
on the defensive. The secret of the French forbearance was that
the Governor of Pondicherry, having received positive orders
from France to await the arrival of further succours, was fain
to content himself with the reduction of a few of the outlying
forts of the Carnatic. Thus the campaign of 1757 closed with the
advantage to the French of the capture of Chittapett, a post thirty
miles south of Arcot, and to the British of the acquisition of
Madura.
[Sidenote: 1758.]
[Sidenote: April.]
The year 1758 opened far more seriously for the British. At
daybreak on the 28th of April a fleet of twelve sail was seen
standing into the roadstead of Fort St. David and was presently
recognised to be French. This was the long-expected armament on
which the French had built all their hopes for the expulsion of
the British from India, and it had consumed nearly twelve months
in its passage. It had left Brest originally in March 1757 and had
been driven back by foul weather. Then two line-of-battle ships had
been taken from it for service in Canadian waters, and the squadron
had waited till May for their place to be supplied by two French
East Indiamen fitted out as ships of war. Then the Admiral, d'Aché,
for all that a British fleet was hurrying after him, loitered on
the voyage to Mauritius, and on leaving that island selected a
course which kept him three months on his passage to Coromandel.
At last, however, the squadron arrived in the roadstead of Fort
St. David, having lost by that time between three and four hundred
men through sickness. It carried on board Lally's regiment of
infantry and fifty European artillerymen, together with Count Lally
himself, who had been appointed to the supreme command of the
French in India. Lally de Tollendal, or to give him his real name,
O'Mullally of Tullindally (for he was of Irish extraction), was an
officer who had been of the Irish brigade in the French service,
and who enjoyed the credit of having suggested that movement of
the artillery which had shattered the British column to defeat at
Fontenoy. How far this training would avail him in India remained
still to be seen.
[Sidenote: April 29.]
Lally's instructions from Versailles directed him first to
besiege Fort St. David; and accordingly he himself sailed at once
with three ships from that roadstead to Pondicherry to give the
necessary orders, while the rest of the fleet worked down two
miles to southward and dropped anchor off Cuddalore. But now the
consequences of the long protraction of Admiral d'Aché's voyage
began to reveal themselves. Commodore Stevens, who had left England
with his squadron three months after him, had reached Madras five
weeks before him, and joining with Admiral Pocock's squadron in
the Hooghly had sailed with it on the 17th of April to intercept
d'Aché. Pocock having missed the French squadron on his voyage
south bore up to the northward, and on the morning of the 29th came
in sight of it at its moorings before Cuddalore. D'Aché at once
weighed anchor and stood out to sea; but owing to the heavy sailing
of some of the English vessels it was not until the afternoon that
Pocock could engage him, with seven ships against nine. The action
that ensued though indecisive was decidedly to the disadvantage of
the French. They lost six hundred men killed and wounded, while
one of their ships of the line was so badly damaged that she was
perforce run ashore and abandoned. The British ships lost little
over a hundred men, though on the other hand their rigging was
so much cut up that they were unable to pursue the enemy. Pocock
therefore returned to Madras to refit, while the French fleet
anchored some twenty miles north of Pondicherry in the roadstead of
Alumparva.
[Sidenote: April 30.]
[Sidenote: May 1.]
[Sidenote: May 6.]
On the self-same day, under the energetic impulse of Lally, a
thousand Europeans and as many French Sepoys under Count d'Estaing
arrived before Fort St. David from Pondicherry and exchanged shots
with the garrison. On the morrow M. de Soupire joined d'Estaing
with additional troops and with siege-guns, and on the 1st of May
appeared Lally himself, who immediately detached a force under
d'Estaing against Cuddalore. The defences of this town were slight
and the garrison consisted of five companies of Sepoys only, which
were encumbered by the custody of fifty French prisoners. The fort
accordingly capitulated on the 4th of May, on condition that the
garrison should retire to Fort St. David with its arms, and that
the French prisoners should be transported to neutral ground in the
south until the fate of Fort St. David should be decided. Two days
later d'Aché's squadron anchored again before Fort St. David and
landed the troops from on board; and on the 15th the French began
the erection of their first battery for the siege.
[Sidenote: May 28.]
[Sidenote: June 2.]
Lally had now the considerable force of twenty-five hundred
Europeans and about the same number of Sepoys assembled before
the town; but his difficulties none the less were very great. The
authorities at Pondicherry were disloyal to him; the military
chest was absolutely empty; and, long though his arrival had
been expected, no preparation had been made for his transport
and supplies. In his impatience for action, for he dreaded the
return of Pocock from Madras, he had hurried the first detachment
forward to Cuddalore without any transport or supplies whatever,
with the result that the troops had been obliged to plunder the
suburbs for food. Now, since no other means seemed open to him,
he took the still more fatal step of impressing the natives for
the work of carriage, without respect to custom, prejudice, or
caste. For the moment, however, he was successful. The defences of
Fort St. David were respectable, but the garrison was too weak in
numbers to man them properly, and the quality of the troops was
remarkably poor. The Sepoys numbered about sixteen hundred and
the Europeans about six hundred; but of the latter less than half
were effective, while two hundred and fifty out of the whole were
sailors, recently landed from the frigates and most defective in
discipline. Major Polier, who was in command, made the mistake of
attempting to defend several outworks with an inadequate force,
instead of destroying them and retiring into the main fortress.
Lally was therefore able to drive the defenders from these outworks
piecemeal; and his success sufficed to scare nearly the whole of
the Sepoys into desertion. A ray of hope came for a moment to
the garrison with the news that Pocock's squadron had arrived at
Pondicherry on its way from Madras, and that the French sailors had
mutinied, refusing to put to sea until their wages were paid. But
Lally, always energetic, contrived to find the necessary funds,
and d'Aché set sail in time to prevent any communication between
the fleet and Fort St. David. Finally the fort, though not yet
breached, capitulated on the 2nd of June, and Lally's first great
object was gained.
[Sidenote: June 7.]
The fall of Fort St. David gave great alarm at Madras, and with
reason, for the defence had been discreditably feeble. Polier
had formerly proved himself in repeated actions to be a gallant
soldier; but making all allowance for the defects of his garrison,
his conduct was not such as was to be expected from a countryman of
Caillaud and a brother officer of Clive, Lawrence, and Kilpatrick.
Moreover, Lally was not a man to be content with a single success.
On the very day of the surrender he detached a force under
d'Estaing against Devicotah, which was perforce abandoned by the
British at his approach; and there was every reason to fear that
his energy would now be bent towards the capture of Madras. The
government therefore called in all its scattered garrisons in the
Carnatic, maintaining only that of Trichinopoly, and concentrated
them in Madras; thus adding two hundred and fifty Europeans and
twenty-five hundred Sepoys to the strength of that city. On this
same day Lally returned to Pondicherry with his army from Fort
St. David and made triumphant entry. _Te Deum_ was sung, and
thanksgiving was followed by banquets and festivities--all at a
time when the public treasury was empty.
[Sidenote: June 18.]
In fact, however Lally might long for it, there was no possibility
for him yet to attack Madras. D'Aché, declaring that his duty
summoned him to cruise off the coast of Ceylon, would not spare
the fleet to aid in the enterprise against the seat of British
power in the Carnatic, and actually sailed for the south on the 4th
of June. For a march overland upon Madras Lally's army required
equipment; and equipment meant money, which the authorities at
Pondicherry averred that they could not supply. Acting therefore on
the advice of a Jesuit priest, Lally resolved to march into Tanjore
and to extort the cash which he needed from the Rajah. The civil
authorities in alarm recalled d'Aché to protect Pondicherry, and
on the day following his arrival Lally ordered out sixteen hundred
European troops and a still larger number of Sepoys and started
with them for the south.
[Sidenote: June 25.]
The march was one long succession of blunders and misfortunes. The
harsh measures employed towards the natives on the advance to Fort
St. David had alienated every man of them from taking service with
the army; so the force started without transport. Gross excesses
committed by the French troops in plundering the country drove the
villagers to hide away all their cattle; hence neither transport
nor supplies were to be obtained on the march. The soldiers were
therefore of necessity turned loose to find provisions as best
they might, and their discipline, already seriously impaired, went
rapidly from bad to worse. When they entered Devicotah they had
not tasted food for twelve hours; and finding that only rice in
the husk awaited them there, they set fire to the huts within the
fort and went near to kindling the magazines. It was not until
they reached Carical, after traversing fully a hundred miles, that
the troops at last received a real meal. Fresh follies marked the
progress of the march. The town of Nagore was seized and its ransom
farmed out to the captain of the French hussars, a corps which had
only recently arrived in India and had distinguished itself above
all others by violence and pillage. Ammunition again, for even this
was not carried with the army, was extorted by force from the Dutch
settlements of Negapatam and Tranquebar. Finally, two pagodas of
peculiar sanctity were plundered, though to no advantage, and the
Brahmins were blown from the muzzles of guns. Lally's difficulties
were doubtless great, and his methods were those honoured and to
be honoured by his countrymen in many a campaign past and future;
but it is hard to understand how a man calling himself a soldier
could deliberately have led from three to four thousand men for
a distance of a hundred miles from his base without making the
slightest provision for its subsistence, or the least effort to
maintain its discipline.
[Sidenote: August.]
[Sidenote: Aug. 18.]
Lally's sins soon found him out. On his arrival at Carical seven
thousand Tanjorines under the Rajah's general, Monacjee, advanced
to Trivalore to oppose him; and this force was soon afterwards
swelled not only by native allies but by five hundred British
Sepoys and ten English gunners, who had been lent by Caillaud
from Trichinopoly. Monacjee fell back before Lally step by step
to the city of Tanjore, but his cavalry never ceased to harass
the French foraging-parties, to drive off the cattle which they
had collected, and to intercept supplies. Some days were spent in
fruitless negotiation, and on the 2nd of August Lally's batteries
opened fire on the city; whereupon Caillaud immediately sent to the
Rajah a further reinforcement of five hundred of his best Sepoys.
On the 8th disquieting intelligence reached Lally of the defeat of
a French squadron by the British, and of a British occupation of
Carical, the only port from which his army, already much distressed
by want of stores and ammunition, could possibly be relieved. On
the 10th, having with difficulty repelled a sortie of the garrison,
he raised the siege and retreated towards Carical, leaving three
heavy guns behind him. Instantly the Tanjorines were after him,
hovering about him on every side during his march, swooping down on
stragglers and cutting off supplies. The sufferings of the French
troops were frightful. It was only with the greatest difficulty
that Lally brought them through to Carical, to find on his arrival
that the British fleet was anchored at the mouth of the river.
[Sidenote: Aug. 28.]
[Sidenote: Sept.]
For on the 2nd of August Pocock had again engaged d'Aché, though
with inferior numbers, and after an action of two hours had so
battered the French squadron that it had crowded all sail to
escape and taken refuge under the guns of Pondicherry. Moreover,
d'Aché was so much disheartened that he not only refused to meet
the British again, but announced his intention of returning to
Mauritius. Lally had received intimation of this resolve during his
retreat to Carical, and had despatched Count d'Estaing to d'Aché
to protest against it. On arriving with his army at Pondicherry
from Carical he repeated his remonstrances, but in vain. D'Aché had
secured thirty thousand pounds by illegal capture of certain Dutch
ships in Pondicherry roads, and this he was content to leave with
his colleagues; but he was resolute as to his departure from the
coast, and on the 2nd of September he sailed away.
[Sidenote: Oct. 4.]
Whatever Lally's indignation against d'Aché for this desertion,
it must be confessed that his operations had been little more
successful than the Admiral's. He had injured both the health and
the discipline of his troops by the raid into Tanjore, and had
failed to extract more than a trifling sum from the Rajah. The
money taken by d'Aché, however, furnished him with sufficient funds
to initiate preparations for a march on Madras; and since the
British had seized the opportunity of his own absence to recapture
some of the scattered forts in the Carnatic, he despatched three
several expeditions to Trinomalee, Carangooly, and Trivatore
to clear the way to Arcot, ordering them to concentrate about
thirty-five miles south-east of Arcot, at Wandewash. The several
columns having done their work, he joined the united force in
person at Wandewash and marched with it on Arcot, which having no
British garrison surrendered without resistance. There now remained
but two posts in the occupation of the British between him and
Madras, Conjeveram on the direct road from Arcot to Madras, and
Chingleput on the river Paliar, neither of them strongly garrisoned
and both therefore easy of capture. Failing, however, to appreciate
the importance of these two forts, and finding that his stock of
ready money was exhausted, Lally sent his troops into cantonments,
and returned to Pondicherry to collect funds. Thereby he threw away
his last chance of worsting the British in India.
[Sidenote: Sept. 14.]
The authorities at Madras accepted his successes in the Carnatic
as the inevitable consequence of the fall of Fort St. David, and
were therefore little dismayed. Nevertheless the situation had been
apprehended to be serious; and early in August appeal had been made
to Bengal for assistance. It was refused. Clive was not indifferent
to the peril of the sister Presidency, but he had matured designs
of his own for a diversion in favour of the Carnatic, which, as
shall presently be seen, was brilliantly executed. Madras being
thus thrown on her own resources, the authorities resolved at the
end of August to recall Caillaud and all the European troops from
Trichinopoly, and to leave Captain Joseph Smith in charge of that
city with two thousand Sepoys only. After some inevitable delay
Caillaud embarked at Negapatam, and on the 25th of September
arrived safely with one hundred and eighty men at Madras. A few
days before, a still more welcome reinforcement had been received
in the shape of Colonel Draper's regiment,[342] eight hundred
and fifty strong, with Draper himself, lately an officer of the
First Guards, in command. Such an accession of strength made it
possible to profit by Lally's omission to capture Chingleput.
That post covered a district which, being rich in supplies, would
spare Madras the exhaustion of the stock which had been laid up
for the expected siege; and in view of its importance the troops
at Conjeveram were withdrawn to it, and the garrison gradually
strengthened to a force of one hundred Europeans and twelve
hundred Sepoys. Further, it was determined to hire a contingent of
Mahrattas and of Tanjorines so as to harass the enemy's convoys and
lines of communication during the siege.
[Sidenote: June 13.]
These preparations were well completed some time before Lally
was ready to move. That General was indeed concentrating all the
strength of France for his great effort against Madras, but in
blind pursuance of this object he had removed the most dangerous
enemy of the British from the post in which, of all others, he
would have been most formidable. In plain words, he had recalled
Bussy, with his army, from the court of Salabad Jung and from
the administration of the Deccan. Further, he had ordered him to
entrust the occupation of the Northern Sirkars to M. Conflans, an
officer who was only just arrived from Europe, together with the
smallest possible force that would enable him to maintain it. Bussy
obeyed, but in perplexity and despair; for it was hard for him to
abandon the work at which he had toiled for so long with unwearied
zeal and unvarying success; and it was scarcely to be expected that
he should feel cordially towards this new and impulsive commander
who, whatever his merits, possessed not a quarter of his own
ability. Lally on his side entertained decided antipathy towards
Bussy. He looked upon the French authorities in India generally as
a pack of rogues, wherein he was not far wrong, but in including
Bussy with the common herd he was very far from right. He therefore
treated Bussy's supplications to return to Hyderabad as designed
merely for the thwarting of his own enterprise, and disregarded
them accordingly. The junior officers of the army, with a sounder
appreciation of Bussy's powers, generously petitioned that he might
rank as their superior, to which request Lally, though with no
very good grace, was forced to accede. Thus, for one preliminary
disadvantage, there was little prospect of hearty accord and
co-operation in the French camp. Then there was the deficiency of
funds to be faced, which was only overcome by subscriptions from
the private purses of Lally and other officers; though Bussy,
the wealthiest of all, declined, if Lally is to be believed, to
contribute a farthing. Finally, there were endless troubles over
the matter of transport, for which Lally had no one but himself to
thank; and, what with one embarrassment and another, it was the end
of November before the French troops were fairly on the march for
Madras.
[Sidenote: Dec.]
[Sidenote: Dec. 13.]
Lally's force comprised in all twenty-three hundred Europeans,
both horse and foot, and five thousand Sepoys. The main body
moved from Arcot along the direct road by Conjeveram, and a large
detachment followed the bank of the Paliar upon Chingleput. Lally
in person joined this latter column on the 4th of December, but
having reconnoitred Chingleput decided to leave it in his rear,
and to continue his march northward to Madras. The defending force
collected by the British in that city amounted to seventeen hundred
and fifty Europeans and twenty-two hundred Sepoys, the whole under
command of Colonel Stringer Lawrence. The Colonel drew the greater
part of these troops into the field to watch the French movements,
failing back slowly before them as they advanced; and on the 13th
Lally's entire force encamped in the plain, rather more than a
mile to south-west of Fort St. George. Nearer approach to the fort
was barred by two rivers, the more northerly of them, called the
Triplicane, entering the sea about a thousand yards south of the
glacis; the other, known as the North River, washing the actual
foot of the glacis, but turning from thence abruptly southward
to join the Triplicane and flow with it into the sea. Lally
therefore passed round to the other side of Fort St. George, the
British evacuating the outer posts before him as he advanced, and
established himself in the Black Town on the north-western front
of the fort, and thence along its northern side to the sea. With
his right thus resting on the town and his left on the beach, he
prepared to open the siege of Madras.
[Sidenote: Dec. 14.]
The Black Town was rich, and the French troops, with the
indiscipline now become habitual to them, fell at once to
indiscriminate plunder, with the result that in a short time a
great many of them were reeling drunk. Colonel Draper thereupon
proposed a sortie in force, and the suggestion was approved as
tending to raise the spirit of the garrison. Accordingly, at eleven
o'clock on the following morning, Draper with five hundred men and
two guns marched out from the western ravelin of the fort, and
holding his course westward for some distance turned north into
the streets of the Black Town to attack the French right, while
Major Brereton with another hundred men followed a route parallel
to him, but nearer to the fort, in order to cover his retreat. By
some mistake Draper's black drummers began to beat the Grenadiers'
March directly they entered the town, and so gave the alarm. The
French formed in a cross street to receive the attack, but in the
confusion mistook the line of the British advance and awaited them
at the head of the wrong street, too far to the westward. Draper
therefore came up full on their left flank, poured in a volley,
and bringing up his guns opened fire with grape. In a few minutes
the whole of the French had taken refuge in the adjoining houses,
and Draper, ordering his guns to cease fire, rushed forward to
secure four cannon which the French had brought with them. The
French officer in charge of them offered to surrender both himself
and his guns, when Draper, looking behind him, found that he was
followed by but four men, the rest having, like the enemy, fled for
shelter to the houses. Had the British done their duty Draper's
attack would probably have put an end to the siege then and there;
but as things were, the French, hearing the guns cease, quickly
rallied, and streaming out of the houses in superior numbers opened
a destructive fire. Draper was obliged to abandon the guns and
order a retreat, the French following after him in hot pursuit. His
position was critical, for he could not retire by the route of his
advance, but was obliged to take a road leading to the northern
face of the fort. The way was blocked by a stagnant arm of the
North River with but one bridge; and it lay within the power of
Lally's regiment, on the left of the French position, to reach this
bridge before him and so to cut off his retreat. Bussy, however,
who was in command on the French left, either through jealousy,
or possibly because his men were too much intoxicated to move,
took no advantage of this opportunity. Brereton came up in time
to cover Draper's retreat, and the British re-entered the fort in
safety. They had lost over two hundred men in killed, wounded,
and prisoners in this abortive attack; and though the French had
suffered as great a loss, yet they were victorious whereas the
British were demoralised. Had Lally's regiment done its duty Madras
would probably have fallen in a few days. So ended an episode most
thoroughly discreditable to both parties.
[Sidenote: 1759.]
[Sidenote: Jan.]
[Sidenote: Feb.]
[Sidenote: Feb. 9.]
[Sidenote: Feb. 17.]
Lally now began the construction of batteries over against the
north and north-western fronts of the fort, from the Black Town
to the sea. Meanwhile Caillaud was despatched to Tanjore to
obtain troops from the Rajah; and Captain Preston, who commanded
the garrison at Chingleput, never ceased to harass the French by
constant petty attacks and threatening of their communications.
At length, on the 2nd of January, the French batteries opened
fire, which they continued throughout the month, but with no very
great effect. The indiscipline which Lally had permitted during
his earlier operations told heavily upon the efficiency of the
besieging force; and everything moved slowly and with friction.
At length, on the 30th of January, a British ship arrived to
hearten the garrison with ammunition and specie, both of which
were sorely needed; and on the 7th of February Caillaud, after
endless difficulties at Tanjore, joined Preston at Chingleput and
increased his force by thirteen hundred Sepoys and two thousand
Tanjorine horse. Though half of the Sepoys and the whole of the
horse were worth little, yet this growth of numbers in his rear,
and the knowledge that Pocock's squadron was on its way from Bombay
to relieve Madras, forced Lally to take strong measures against
Chingleput. Accordingly, on the 9th of February, he detached a
force of nine hundred Europeans, twelve hundred Sepoys and five
hundred native horse, with eight field-pieces, to attack Caillaud
in earnest. The action was hot, and Caillaud only with the greatest
difficulty succeeded in holding his own; but ultimately the French
were repulsed, and Chingleput, that terrible thorn, remained still
rankling in Lally's side. His position was now desperate. Supplies,
money, ammunition, all were failing, and his troops, both native
and European, were melting away by desertion. He had succeeded in
battering a breach in the fort, but his officers were averse to
attempt an assault. Finally, on the 16th the arrival of Pocock's
squadron, at once relieving Madras and threatening Pondicherry,
brought his darling project to an end. By the morning of the 17th
he was in full march for Arcot, leaving fifty-two guns, all his
stores and ammunition, and forty sick and wounded men behind him.
So ended the siege of Madras, the last offensive movement of the
French in India. It had cost the garrison thirty-three officers,
five hundred and eighty Europeans and three hundred Sepoys killed,
wounded and prisoners, while over four hundred more of the Sepoys
had deserted. Happily Pocock's squadron brought reinforcements
which made good the loss of Europeans. The casualties in the
French army remain unknown, but, whether they were considerable
or not, the survivors were at any rate demoralised. Lally
retired with bitter rage in his heart against the authorities at
Pondicherry, to whose apathy and self-seeking he attributed his
failure. Doubtless if they had seconded his efforts loyally and
truly, his difficulties would have been infinitely less, and his
chances of success proportionately greater. But even if the hasty
and masterful temper which estranged them from him be excused,
nothing can palliate his two cardinal errors as a soldier; first,
the omission to secure Chingleput while yet the capture was easy,
and secondly the neglect to enforce discipline among all ranks of
his army. Violence without strength, energy without foresight,
imperiousness without ascendency--such are not the qualities that
go to make a great leader in the field.
[Sidenote: 1758.]
And meanwhile the counterstroke prepared by Clive had fallen
once and was about to fall again with redoubled force. Affairs
in Bengal in the autumn of 1758 stood on no very sure footing.
Meer Jaffier was not wholly resigned to his puppet-hood; but
his nobles were disaffected, his treasury was empty, and he was
threatened on his northern frontier by invasion from Oude; so
he was obliged reluctantly to throw himself upon the protection
of Clive. So unstable a condition of affairs presented no ideal
moment for weakening the small force on which British influence in
those provinces might depend; but Clive, perceiving that Bussy's
withdrawal from Hyderabad gave him a chance to substitute British
for French ascendency at the court of the Deccan, determined at
all hazards to seize it. The ruler of one district of the Northern
Sirkars, the Rajah Anunderaj, had already risen in revolt against
the French, seized Vizagapatam, and appealed to Madras for
assistance. An agent was sent to concert operations with him; and
Clive, making up a force of five hundred European infantry and
artillery, one hundred Lascars and two thousand Sepoys, together
with six field-guns and as many battering pieces, shipped them off
from Calcutta at the end of September. The command was entrusted to
Lieutenant-Colonel Forde.
[Sidenote: Dec.]
[Sidenote: Dec. 9.]
The voyage was protracted by foul weather, and it was not until
the 20th of October that the expedition reached Vizagapatam, from
which it marched to join Anunderaj's troops at Cossimcotah. Here
more delay was caused by the unwillingness of the Rajah to fulfil
his engagement to pay the British troops; but at length on the
1st of December the force advanced and on the 3rd came in sight
of the enemy, who were encamped forty miles north of Rajahmundry
within sight of the fort of Peddapore and astride of the high
road to the south. The French force, which was commanded by M.
Conflans, consisted of five hundred Europeans, six thousand Sepoys
and a quantity of native levies. Forde's army, on his side, had
received the accession of five hundred worthless horse and a
rabble of five thousand foot, chiefly armed with pikes and bows,
which represented the contingent of Anunderaj. On the 6th Forde
advanced along the high road to within four miles of Conflans, but
each officer thought the other too strong to be attacked. Inaction
continued until the 8th, when both commanders simultaneously
framed independent designs for extricating themselves from the
deadlock. Conflans's plan was to send six guns with a sufficient
force to a height which commanded the British camp, and which
Forde had omitted to occupy. Forde, for his part, had decided to
make a detour of three miles to Condore, from which he could turn
Conflans's position and regain the high road to Rajahmundry. At
four o'clock on the morning of the 9th, accordingly, Forde marched
away with his own troops only, while the Rajah's army, which
though warned was unready to move, remained in the camp. Forde
had not proceeded far before he heard the sound of Conflans's
guns in his rear and received piteous messages from the Rajah for
assistance. Turning back he met the Rajah's rabble in full flight
and rallied them; after which the whole force pursued its march and
at eight o'clock arrived at Condore.
Conflans, flattering himself that he had defeated Forde's entire
army, followed him quickly, with the idea of preventing his return
to his former camp; and in his haste to advance allowed his line to
fall into disorder. His European battalion was in his centre, with
thirteen field-pieces distributed on its flanks, while his right
and left wings were composed each of three thousand Sepoys with
some unwieldly native cannon. Forde formed his line in much the
same order. In his centre he posted the British, now represented by
the Hundred-and-First and Hundred-and-Second Foot, with six guns on
their flanks, and his Sepoys, in two divisions each of nine hundred
men, on either wing; and he bade the Rajah's troops keep out of the
way in the rear. He then advanced under a heavy cannonade from the
enemy for some distance before Condore, and halted with his centre
in rear of a field of Indian corn, which entirely concealed the
Europeans, but left the Sepoys uncovered on the plain on either
hand. These Sepoys, being from Bengal, were dressed in scarlet
instead of in the white clothing worn by their brethren in the
hotter climate of the south. The French had never seen the scarlet
except on the bodies of European troops, and Forde was fully aware
of the fact; for he ordered the Sepoys to furl the old-fashioned
Company flags, which they still carried, as also their regimental
colours, that they might be the more easily mistaken for a regular
battalion of British.
In the ardour of their advance the enemy's infantry out-marched
their guns and moved forward without them. Their line, from its
superiority in numbers, far outflanked the British on both wings;
but as it drew nearer, the French battalion in the centre suddenly
inclined to the right towards Forde's left wing of Sepoys. Conflans
had swallowed the bait laid for him by Forde. The French battalion
evidently mistook the Sepoys for Europeans, for before engaging
them it dressed its ranks, and then opened fire by platoons at
a distance of two hundred yards. Long though this range was for
the old musket, the Sepoys seeing Europeans in front and natives
menacing their flank hardly stood to deliver a feeble volley, but
immediately broke, despite all the efforts of Forde, and fled away
pursued by the enemy's horse. Conflans at once detached several
platoons of his Europeans to join in the pursuit; when to his
dismay a second line of scarlet filed steadily up from behind the
Indian corn to the ground whereon the Sepoys had stood, halted and
fronted as coolly as if on parade, and then with equal coolness
opened fire by volleys of divisions from the left.[343] The first
volley brought down half of the French grenadiers, and by the time
that the fifth and last division had pulled trigger the whole of
Conflans's European battalion was broken up, and flying back in
disorder to its guns, half a mile in rear.
Forde, unable to curb the eagerness of his men, allowed them to
pursue in succession of divisions, the left leading; but every
division marched too fast to preserve order excepting the fourth,
which was kept well in hand by Captain Yorke as a rallying-point
in case of mishap. But no mishap was to come. The French rallied
behind their cannon, but had not time to fire more than a round
or two when the British fell upon them, drove them from their
batteries and captured every gun. The Sepoys and native levies
of the French made little or no stand after the defeat of their
Europeans, and the British Sepoys of the right, together with
some rallied fugitives from the left, advanced to join their
victorious comrades. No sooner were they come than Forde made
fresh dispositions, and marched on without losing a moment to
attack Conflans's camp. The remnants of the French battalion,
which were posted in a hollow way before it, made some faint show
of resistance; but seeing the British guns coming forward, turned
to the right about and fled, with the British in hot pursuit.
Many of the fugitives threw down their arms and surrendered; the
rest, together with the remainder of the French army, ran away in
hopeless confusion. Conflans, after sending off his military chest
and four field-guns, jumped on a horse and galloped away, not
stopping except to change horses till he reached Rajahmundry, forty
miles distant. Of his Europeans seventy-six officers and men were
killed, many wounded, and fifty-six taken. Thirty cannon, seven
mortars, and the whole of his baggage and transport were captured.
The British loss amounted to no more than forty Europeans and over
two hundred Sepoys killed and wounded. Had the Rajah's cavalry
been of the slightest value, the losses of the French would have
been far greater; but Forde's promptness in following up his first
success made his victory sufficiently complete. This brilliant
little action marked the rise of yet another great leader among the
British in India.
[Sidenote: Dec. 10.]
[Sidenote: Dec. 11.]
The British battalion being much fatigued was halted after the
engagement in the French camp, but on the same evening Captain Knox
with the right wing of Sepoys was sent forward to Rajahmundry. On
the following day a further reinforcement of Sepoys joined him;
and the French, still under the influence of panic, evacuated
the fort. Knox at once entered it, and turning the guns on to
the fugitives, though far out of range, set them running once
more. Thus Rajahmundry, the gate and barrier of the district of
Vizagapatam, passed into the hands of the British, with all its
artillery, ammunition, and stores. Forde arrived there with the
rest of the army on the 11th, eager to pursue his success by an
advance on Masulipatam. This, the most important town and the
centre of French influence in the province, was doubly important
to the enemy as a base from which they might at any time recover
their lost territory. Forde, however, was in want of money, for
which he had relied on the promises of Anunderaj. The Rajah, as is
the way of his kind, now refused either to supply funds or to set
his rabble in motion to accompany him. At length after six weeks
of negotiation this deplorable potentate was induced, partly by
favourable terms of repayment, partly by a severe fright, to fulfil
his undertaking; but fifty precious days had been lost, and the
French had gained time to recover themselves.
[Sidenote: 1759.]
[Sidenote: Feb.]
[Sidenote: March.]
On the 28th of January Forde resumed his march, and on the 6th of
February occupied Ellore, forty-eight miles north of Masulipatam.
Here again he was compelled to halt by the dilatoriness of the
Rajah in sending forward supplies; but he was not on that account
idle. Conflans, having got the better of his panic after Condore,
had replaced garrisons in Narsipore and Concal, two outlying
strongholds to the north of Masulipatam, and had organised an army
of observation, consisting of two hundred and fifty Europeans and
two thousand Sepoys, under M. du Rocher. The dispositions of this
latter force were so faulty as to leave Narsipore in isolation,
and Forde lost no time in sending Captain Knox with a detachment
of Sepoys to capture it. The French commander of the post was no
sooner warned of Knox's approach then he evacuated Narsipore and
joined the army of du Rocher. Then came more delay; and it was
the 1st of March before Forde was again able to move. Two days
later Concal was taken, though most gallantly defended by a French
sergeant; and on the 6th Forde came in sight of Masulipatam.
Conflans occupied a strong position before the town, which he might
have held with advantage; but his heart failed him, and he retired
within the fortifications.
[Sidenote: March 7-25.]
[Sidenote: March 27.]
[Sidenote: April 1.]
The defences of Masulipatam had been improved by the French since
their entry into possession in 1751, and now formed an irregular
parallelogram, open on the south side, where a broad estuary
furnished sufficient natural protection, and closed on the three
other sides by mud walls faced with brick and strengthened by
eleven bastions: there was also a wet ditch and a narrow palisaded
space between ditch and parapet, but no glacis. On the landward
side the fort was surrounded everywhere by a heavy swamp, the road
to the town being carried on a causeway to the main gate on the
north-west front. This causeway was covered for a distance of a
hundred and twenty yards from the wall by a parapet ending in a
ravelin, which commanded the whole length of the road. The only
sound ground within reach of the fort was to be found on some
sandhills to east and west of it; of which those on the eastern
side, being within eight hundred yards of the wall, were selected
by Forde for his position. Regular approaches for a formal siege
were out of the question for so small a force, so Forde was fain
to begin the erection of batteries on the sandhills, to play
on the works from thence as best they could. The whole of the
eighteen ensuing days were devoted to the work of construction, the
siege-guns being landed from ships which had followed the movements
of the army along the coast. During this short period it seemed as
though fate had laid itself out to raise every possible obstacle
against Forde's success. No sooner had he invested Masulipatam
than du Rocher's army of observation woke to sudden activity,
and moved round upon Rajahmundry and the British communications
with the north. The officer in charge of that fort, being unable
to make any defence, was obliged to send away to safer custody a
large sum in specie which had been received from Bengal; and thus
Forde's supply of ready money was cut off. Du Rocher then advanced
a little to the northward of Rajahmundry, vowing vengeance against
Anunderaj's country, and so terrified the pusillanimous Rajah
that he declined to employ either his money or his credit for the
service of the British army. Forde was left absolutely penniless.
He had already borrowed all the prize-money of his officers
and even of his men, and knew not whither to turn for cash for
the payment of his troops. The soldiers became apprehensive and
discontented, and on the 19th the whole of the Europeans turned
out with their arms in open mutiny, and threatened to march away.
With great difficulty Forde persuaded them to return; and the men,
once conciliated, went back to work with all their former ardour.
But the batteries had not been completed two days when news arrived
that the Viceroy, Salabad Jung, was arrived at the river Kistnah,
not more than forty miles away, with an army of forty thousand men,
to expel the intruders who had dared to invade the provinces under
his suzerainty. Messengers arrived from him requiring Anunderaj to
quit the British immediately and to repair to his standard; and
the terrified Rajah actually started to return to his own country.
He was only with difficulty recalled by Forde's representations
that his one chance of retreat was to remain with the British. In
the faint hope of gaining time Forde proposed to open negotiations
with Salabad Jung, who to his great relief consented to receive his
emissary and undertook for the present to advance no farther. Here,
therefore, was a respite, though not such as could be counted on
for long endurance.
[Sidenote: April 6.]
Meanwhile, ever since the 25th of March, Forde's batteries had
maintained a hot fire; and, though the damage done to the works by
day had been regularly repaired by the besieged at night, three
of the bastions had been sufficiently ruined to give foothold to
a storming party. But now the weather changed, and on the 5th
of April the southern monsoon broke with a flood of rain that
soaked the morass around the fort to its deepest. On the morrow
the storm ceased, but the day was ushered in by the gloomiest of
tidings for Forde. Salabad Jung was advancing from the Kistnah,
and du Rocher was on the point of junction with him. Finally, on
the same evening, the artillery-officers reported that but two
days ammunition was left for the batteries. Here, therefore,
was the climax. Before Forde was a fortress with a garrison of
greater strength than his own army; behind him was a force which
outnumbered his own by more than ten to one; his communications
were cut, and his ammunition and his funds were exhausted. It was
open to him to embark and retire ignominiously by sea, or to stake
all on a single desperate venture. He chose the bolder course and
resolved to storm the fort.
During the progress of the siege it had been remarked that at the
south-western corner of the fort, adjoining the sound, no ditch had
been constructed; the ground without being a mere waste of mire,
which might well be accounted a more difficult obstacle than any
ditch. Natives, however, had more than once been seen traversing
this quagmire; and Captains Yorke and Knox on making trial of it
found it to be stiff and heavy indeed, but not more than knee-deep.
This, therefore, was a point at which at least a false attack
could be made, and Forde resolved to take advantage of it. Another
point at which a feint might be directed was the ravelin outside
the main gate. The true attack must of necessity be delivered
against the front which had been damaged by the batteries; and
the north-east bastion, known as the Chameleon, was the place
selected. The necessary dispositions were quickly settled. The
Rajah's troops were some of them to guard the camp, and the rest to
make a demonstration against the ravelin. Captain Knox with seven
hundred Sepoys was to conduct the feint attack upon the south-west
angle, and the remainder of the troops were detailed for the true
assault on the Chameleon bastion. The Europeans, who numbered but
three hundred and forty-six, including the gunners, and thirty
sailors borrowed from the ships, were told off into two divisions,
the first under Captain Callendar, the second under Captain Yorke;
while of the seven hundred remaining Sepoys part formed a third
division under Captain Macleane, and the remainder a reserve under
Forde himself. It was ordered that both the true and false attacks
should begin simultaneously at midnight, when the tide would be at
ebb and no more than three feet of water in the ditch; and the last
stroke of the gongs within the fort was to be the signal for the
storming parties to advance.
[Sidenote: April 7.]
[Sidenote: April 8.]
All through daylight of the 7th of April the British batteries
maintained a fierce fire, playing impartially upon the three
bastions of the eastern front. At length night came to silence the
guns, and at ten o'clock the troops fell in for the assault. Knox
having the longer distance to traverse was the first to move off,
and his column presently disappeared into the darkness. The minutes
flew by, and the time came for the advance of the European troops;
but Captain Callendar, the leader of the first division, was not
to be found. There was anxious enquiry and search, but the missing
officer could not be discovered; and at length, after a precious
half-hour had been lost, Captain Fischer took his place and the
column marched off without him. The men were still struggling
through the morass towards the Chameleon bastion when the sound
of firing told them that Knox, punctual to a second, had opened
his false attack. Quickening their speed as best they might, they
plunged heavily on, knee-deep in mire over the swamp, waist-deep
in mud and water through the ditch; when, just as Fischer's column
reached the palisade, a sharp fire from the breach and from the
bastions on either hand showed that they were discovered. All
the more eagerly Fischer's men hewed and hacked at the palisade;
while Yorke's division engaged the St. John's bastion to his left
and Macleane the Small-gate bastion to his right. The men fell
fast, but presently the palisades were cleared away, and the
first division swarming up the breach swept the French out of the
Chameleon bastion. Fischer halted for the arrival of Yorke with the
second division, and then the two officers parted, Fischer to the
right to clear the northern, and Yorke to the left to clear the
eastern face of the fort.
Finding a field-gun with its ammunition in the Chameleon bastion,
Yorke at once trained it along the rampart to southward, and
was preparing to follow in the same direction himself, when he
observed a party of French Sepoys advancing between the rampart
and the buildings of the town to reinforce the Chameleon bastion.
Instantly he ran down, and seizing the officer at their head
bade them lay down their arms and surrender. Startled beyond all
thought of resistance they obeyed, and were at once sent back to
the captured bastion; while Yorke, taking the way by which they had
advanced, pressed on against the St. John's bastion. The French
guard, which had sought shelter within the angles from the raking
fire of Yorke's field-gun, fired upon him and struck down not a
few of his men, but surrendered immediately afterwards. They too
were sent back to the Chameleon bastion, where the Sepoys took
charge of them; and Yorke pursued his way to the next bastion
to southward, named the Dutch bastion, where the same scene was
repeated and a fresh consignment of prisoners was sent back to the
custody of the Sepoys. The François bastion, the most southerly of
all, alone remained untaken, and Yorke was eager to prosecute his
success; but now the men hung back. The division had been not a
little thinned by previous losses and by the detachment of guards
for prisoners and for the captured bastions; and the handful of
men that remained with the Captain began to wonder where such work
was going to end. By threats and exhortations Yorke after a time
induced them to follow him; but while passing an expense-magazine
a little way beyond the Dutch bastion, one of the men caught
sight of powder-barrels within it and cried out "A mine, a mine."
Immediately every man rushed back in panic to the Chameleon
bastion; and Yorke was left alone, with his black drummers by his
side vainly beating the Grenadiers' March. Fortunately the guards
in the captured bastions stood fast; and Yorke returning to the
fugitives, who were on the point of leaving the fort, stopped the
panic by threatening death to the first man who attempted to run.
Rallying thirty-six men he went back to complete his work; but the
delay had given the French in the François bastion time to train a
gun upon the line of his advance. Waiting until his party was come
within close range they fired, killed sixteen of them outright and
wounded several more, including Yorke himself, who was brought to
the ground with a ball in each thigh. The survivors picked him up
and carried him off; but with his fall the attack in that quarter
came, for the time, to an end.
Fischer meanwhile had been even more successful on the northern
front. He cleared the two first bastions without difficulty, and on
reaching the third, by the causeway, seized the gate and cut off
the troops in the ravelin from the fort. Captain Callendar, the
missing officer, suddenly appeared, no man knew from whence, in
the middle of the affair, but was instantly shot dead; and Fischer
was still pushing on, when he received orders from Forde to halt.
Conflans throughout the attack had remained by the south front
of the fort, quite at his wits' end, and adding to the general
confusion by a succession of contradictory orders. Knox's attack
distracted him on one side, the Rajah's troops made an unearthly
din by the ravelin, and the true assault on the eastern front
fairly broke his spirits down. At the very moment when Yorke's
men were returning discomfited from the François bastion, he sent
a messenger to Forde, offering to surrender on honourable terms.
Forde was far too shrewd to betray his own weakness. He replied
that he could hear of nothing but surrender at discretion; and
Conflans, concluding his position to be hopeless, acceded. Five
hundred Europeans and two thousand French Sepoys laid down their
arms, and the British were masters of Masulipatam.
So ended this daring and marvellous adventure, with the loss to
the British of but eighty-six Europeans and two hundred Sepoys
killed and wounded. Salabad Jung was within fifteen miles, and du
Rocher even nearer at the time of the assault; but the victory was
sufficient to paralyse them also. The Viceroy quickly consented
to open negotiations, and though he haggled, after the manner of
his race, for a whole month, finally concluded a treaty whereby
he granted to the British eighty miles of the coast, and engaged
himself not only never to entertain French troops again, but even
to compel such as remained to evacuate the Sirkars. Thus not only
was the district secured, but French influence was displaced in
favour of British at the court of Hyderabad. Such were the prizes
gained by the will, resource, and resolution of one man, who had
strength to rend the toils that fate had woven about him just when
they seemed to have closed upon him for ever.