Siege of Negapatam

Last updated

Siege of Negapatam
Part of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
and the Second Anglo-Mysore War
Portrait of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.jpg
A portrait of Edward Hughes
Date21 October – 11 November 1781
Location
Negapatam, then a Dutch colony in India
Result British victory
Belligerents
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg  Great Britain Statenvlag.svg  Dutch Republic
Flag of Mysore.svg Sultanate of Mysore
Commanders and leaders
Hector Munro
Edward Hughes 		Statenvlag.svg Reynier van Vlissingen
Flag of Mysore.svg Hyder Ali
Strength
4,000 troops

6,100 Dutch colonial troops

  • 600 Dutch
  • 5,500 Indian sepoys
2,100 Mysorean troops
Casualties and losses
Light Unknown killed/wounded
thousands captured

The siege of Negapatam was the first major offensive military action on the Indian subcontinent following the arrival of news that war had been declared between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, beginning the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. A British force besieged the Dutch-controlled port of Negapatam, the capital of Dutch Coromandel, on the eastern coast of India, which capitulated after the fortification's walls were breached. The Dutch garrison consisted of 500 European troops, 5,500 local troops, and 2,000 troops of Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore.

Contents

While many British troops were occupied with fighting Hyder Ali's armies as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War, and General Eyre Coote was opposed to offensive actions against the Dutch, Lord Macartney, the governor of Madras, was able to raise more than 4,000 troops and secure the assistance of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes to defeat the larger Dutch and Mysorean defence force.

Background

Following French entry into the American War of Independence in 1778, Great Britain had moved rapidly to gain control over French colonial outposts in India. Their seizure of the French port of Mahé on the west coast in 1779 prompted Hyder Ali, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, who claimed the port to be under his protection, to open the Second Anglo-Mysore War against British holdings in southern India. [1] He made strong initial gains, with his troops occasionally threatening the main British outpost of Madras on the east coast. By the start of the 1781 monsoon season, the British and Mysoreans were at an uneasy stalemate.

In December 1780 Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic, citing Dutch trafficking in arms in support of the French and American rebels as one of the reasons. While this news reached some of the Dutch colonial governors in India early in 1781, it did not reach Governor Reynier van Vlissingen at the main outpost of Negapatam until rumors of war became widespread, and Iman Willem Falck, the governor of Trincomalee, notified him in June of the war declaration. [2]

The relationship among the Dutch at Negapatam, the British, and the Mysoreans was at the time quite fluid. Hyder's forces had been raiding villages near Negapatam early in 1781, and van Vlissingen, in an attempt to collect damages from Hyder, had instead been forced to pay ransom to release the envoys he had sent to Hyder's camp at Tanjore after Hyder not only refused to release them, but also made verbal threats concerning the Dutch outposts at Pulicat and Sadras. [3] Van Vlissingen had received offers of assistance from General Eyre Coote, the British commander at Madras during these negotiations. [4]

In the summer of 1781, Lord Macartney arrived to take over as governor of Madras, brought news to the British outpost of the new war, and mobilised British troops to gain control over Dutch possessions in India and Ceylon. [5] Van Vlissingen, when he learned of the war, immediately negotiated an alliance with Hyder, which was agreed on 29 July (although it was not formally ratified until 4 September). [2]

Prelude

Van Vlissingen at first sent 600 men, as well as gunpowder and ammunition, to Hyder's camp at Tanjore in early August 1781. However, the rising threat of a British move against Negapatam prompted the allies to instead consider building up its defences. The Dutch 600 returned to Negapatam in late September with 2,100 Mysoreans, and established a defensive line outside the city's walls, [6] which were also defended by a mixed army composed mostly of local sepoys, along with some European and Malay troops.

Most of the British forces on India's east coast were occupied by Hyder's actions, and General Coote was not agreeable to releasing significant forces from that effort. Lord Macartney secured the services of Hector Munro, who was preparing to retire to England, and was able to convince Colonel John Braithwaite, whose troops were active to the south of Madras, to release his men for action against the Dutch outposts. Braithwaite, who had been recently wounded, sent men under Colonel Eccles Nixon toward Negapatam, [7] while Munro's force was carried there by the fleet of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. On 20 October Nixon seized the Dutch outpost at Karikal, and the next day took control of Nagore, a Dutch outpost that had been under Hyder's control. That same day Hughes's fleet arrived and delivered Munro and his army. [6]

Siege

Munro's first moves were attempts by relatively small detachments to gain control over some of the redoubts on the outer lines of defence. On 27 and 28 October two such attacks against a redoubt on the west side of the line were repulsed. After sending one of Hughes's ships to reconnoiter the defences to the east, a third attack on a redoubt there succeeded on 30 October. [8] According to Dutch reports, this battle resulted in most of the Mysorean cavalry fleeing the scene, and most of the remaining Dutch forces withdrew within the town's walls. [9]

From that point Munro began digging siege trenches on 1 November, and construction of a forward battery began on 5 November. That night, the Dutch made a sortie in an attempt to disrupt the works, but the battery of eight cannon was completed the next day, and opened fire on 7 November, doing significant damage to the town's northern walls. [10] A second Dutch sally on 10 November also failed to disrupt the siege.

Dutch requests to Hyder Ali for reinforcements had been made. On 28 October Hyder had sent another detachment of troops toward Negapatam. These reached Kuttur, about one day's march west of Negapatam, on 8 November, and van Vlissingen urged them to attack the British. However, they were reluctant to do so, given the large number of British troops, and asked Hyder for additional troops from Tanjore. These arrived on 10 November, but Munro seized the initiative and attacked the Mysoreans before they were prepared for battle, forcing them to retreat. A third wave of Mysorean reinforcements neared Negapatam on 13 November, only to learn the town had already surrendered. [9]

Van Vlissingen held a council of war after the failed sally on the night of 10 November, in which it was revealed that the town had but one day's supply of gunpowder left; the council voted for surrender, and raised the white flag the next day. [9]

Aftermath

Negotiations over the terms of capitulation were finalized on 12 November and the garrison surrendered that day. [9] The Dutch held an inquiry into the defeat, which highlighted unusual behavior by van Vlissingen during the siege: he had claimed illness during the later stages of the siege and may have been in some way responsible for the rather abrupt shortage of gunpowder. [11]

Britain went on to capture Trincomalee on Ceylon [12] and other Dutch possessions in India. The British returned them all to the Dutch, except for Negapatam, after the war ended in 1784.

Munro had the Fyrish Monument constructed in Easter Ross in Scotland to represent the gate of Negapatam.

Notes

  1. ↑ Cust, p. 222
  2. 1 2 Lohuizen, p. 115
  3. ↑ Lohuizen, pp. 113-114
  4. ↑ Lohuizen, p. 112
  5. ↑ Cust, p. 303
  6. 1 2 Lohuizen, p. 116
  7. ↑ Vibert, p. 162
  8. ↑ Vibert, pp. 162-163
  9. 1 2 3 4 Lohuizen, p. 117
  10. ↑ Vibert, p. 163
  11. ↑ Lohuizen, p. 118
  12. ↑ Nicolas, pp. 123–124

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyder Ali</span> First Sultan and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore

Hyder Ali was the Sultan and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's rulers. Rising to the post of Dalavayi (commander-in-chief) to Krishnaraja Wodeyar II, he came to dominate the titular monarch and the Mysore government. He became the de facto ruler, King of Mysore as Sarvadhikari by 1761. During intermittent conflicts against the East India Company during the First and Second Anglo–Mysore Wars, Hyder Ali was the military leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eyre Coote (East India Company officer)</span> British Army general (1726–1783)

Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, KB was an Anglo-Irish military officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1780. He is best known for his many years of service with the British Army in India. His victory at the Battle of Wandiwash is considered a decisive turning point in the struggle for control in India between Britain and France. He was known by his sepoy troops as Coote Bahadur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Pollilur (1780)</span> Battle of the Second Anglo-Mysore War

The Battle of Pollilur, also known as the Battle of Polilore or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India, as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. It was fought between an army commanded by King Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore, and a British East India Company force led by William Baillie. The EIC force suffered a high number of casualties before surrendering. It was the worst loss the East India Company suffered on the subcontinent until Chillianwala. Benoît de Boigne, a French officer in the service of 6th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry, wrote, "There is not in India an example of a similar defeat".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Sadras</span> Naval battle between a British fleet and a French fleet during the Anglo-French War

The Battle of Sadras was the first of five largely indecisive naval battles fought between a British fleet and a French fleet off the east coast of India during the Anglo-French War. Fought on 17 February 1782 near present-day Kalpakkam, the battle was tactically indecisive, but the British fleet suffered the most damage. Under Suffren's protection, French troop transports were able to land at Porto Novo, present-day Parangipettai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Anglo-Mysore War</span> War in south India from 1780 to 1784

The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in the American Revolutionary War influenced Anglo-Mysorean hostilities in India. The great majority of soldiers on the company side were raised, trained, paid and commanded by the company, not the British government. However, the company's operations were also bolstered by Crown troops sent from Great Britain, and by troops from Hanover, which was also ruled by Great Britain's King George III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Anglo-Mysore War</span> Conflict in India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company

The First Anglo-Mysore War (1767–1769) was a conflict in India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the East India Company. The war was instigated in part by the machinations of Asaf Jah II, the Nizam of Hyderabad, who sought to divert the company's resources from attempts to gain control over the Northern Circars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Mysore Wars</span> Conflicts mainly between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company (late 1700s)

The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company, Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Travancore, and the Kingdom of Hyderabad on the other. Hyder Ali and his succeeding son Tipu fought the wars on four fronts: with the British attacking from the west, south and east and the Nizam's forces attacking from the north. The fourth war resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu, and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of the East India Company, which took control of much of the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Anglo-Mysore War</span> Conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the English East India Company and its allies

The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Confederacy, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Anglo-Mysore Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Negapatam (1782)</span> Naval battle in 1782

The Battle of Negapatam was the third in a series of battles fought between a British fleet, under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and a French fleet, under the Bailli de Suffren, off the coast of India during the American Revolutionary War. The battle was fought on 6 July 1782. Though the battle was indecisive, Suffren was stopped in his goal by Hughes and withdrew to Cuddalore, while the British remained in control of Negapatam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Trincomalee</span> Battle fought between a British fleet and a French fleet off the coast of Trincomalee

The Battle of Trincomalee was fought between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes and a French fleet under the Bailli de Suffren off the coast of Trincomalee, then Ceylon, on 3 September 1782. It was the fourth in a series of battles fought between the two fleets off the coast of the Indian subcontinent during the American Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnatic wars</span> 18th century wars between the French and the British

The Carnatic wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. The first Carnatic wars were fought between 1740 and 1748.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Stuart (East India Company officer, died 1793)</span>

Major-General James Stuart was a British Army officer who served in various conflicts in India during the 18th century. His service in the East India Company was marked by his conflict with Lord Pigot, the governor of Madras; Stuart's arrest of the latter in 1776 resulted in his suspension as commander-in-chief, and he was not vindicated until 1780. He later fought in the Second Anglo-Mysore War, but was suspended from command in 1782 by Lord Macartney, an action that provoked a duel between the two men. Stuart was a younger brother of the lawyer and politician Andrew Stuart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah</span> Nawab of Carnatic and Arcort (1717–1795)

Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, or Muhammed Ali, Wallajah, was the Nawab of the Carnatic from 1749 until his death in 1795. He declared himself Nawab in 1749. This position was disputed between Wallajah and Chanda Sahib. In 1752, after several clashes, Chanda Sahib's forces and his French allies were expelled from Arcot, officially declaring Wallajah as Nawab on 26 August 1765. His reign was recognised by Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.

The Treaty of Mangalore was signed between Tipu Sultan and the British East India Company on 11 March 1784. It was signed in Mangalore and brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Trincomalee</span> 1782 battle in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

The Capture of Trincomalee on 11 January 1782 was the second major engagement between Great Britain and the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies after the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. After capturing Negapatam, the major Dutch outpost in India, a British force assaulted the Dutch-controlled port of Trincomalee on the eastern coast of Ceylon, and successfully stormed Fort Fredrick and Fort Ostenburg to gain control of the city and the port. In gaining control of the port, they also captured the vessels there at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Nedumkotta</span> Historical Event

The Battle of Nedumkotta took place between December 1789 and May 1790, and was a reason for the opening of hostilities in the Third Anglo-Mysore War. This battle was fought between Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore and Dharma Raja, Maharaja of Travancore. Mysore army attacked the fortified line in Thrissur district at the Travancore border known as the Nedumkotta. The Mysore army was successfully repulsed by the Travancore army under the leadership of Raja Kesavadas, Dewan of Travancore.

The Siege of Tellicherry was a military embargo that happened in Thalassery. The Commander in Chief of the Mysore Calicut Province, Sirdar Ali, took siege of the British Military Barrack of Thalassery for 18 months. They British and the local administrators were blockaded within Thalassery by land as well as by sea. It was during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. The siege continued until reinforcements from Bombay under the command of Major Abington attacked the Mysore army and defeated them. Major Abington then moved south, capturing Calicut. The Siege of Tellicherry led to the fall of strongholds of the First Mysore conquest, led by Hyder Ali. Even though laterTipu Sultan came from Mysore to reinstate the conquered area to previous status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mysorean invasion of Malabar</span>

The Mysorean invasion of Malabar (1766–1792) was the military invasion of the Malabar region of Kerala, including the territories of the Zamorin of Calicut, by the then-de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, Hyder Ali. After the invasion, the Kingdom of Cochin to the south of Malabar became a tributary state of Mysore.

John Whitehill was an East India Company officer who was twice as Governor of Madras on a temporary basis in 1777 and 1780.

The siege of Tanjore was a series of battles fought between forces of the British East India Company, the Arcot State and the Rajah of Tanjore. The sieges took place after Thuljaji, the Rajah of Tanjore, provided fewer levies and money than the British had required him to and invaded lands claimed by the Arcot State.

References

10°46′34.73″N79°50′22.94″E / 10.7763139°N 79.8397056°E / 10.7763139; 79.8397056

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.