Siege of Seringapatam (1799)
The siege of Seringapatam (5 April – 4 May 1799) was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British, with the allied Nizam Ali Khan, 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad and Marathas, achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, among the lesser known allies were the Portuguese in Goa and Damaon.[1] Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler after the death of his father, who had usurped the throne of Mysore, was killed in the action.[2] The British restored the Wodeyar dynasty back to power after the victory through a treaty of subsidiary alliance and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III was crowned the King of Mysore. However, they retained indirect control (British paramountcy) of the kingdom's external affairs.
For the 1792 siege of Seringapatam that ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War, see Siege of Seringapatam (1792).Opposing forces[edit]
The battle consisted of a series of encounters around Seringapatam (the anglicised version of Srirangapatnam) in the months of April and May 1799, between the combined forces of the British East India Company and their allies, numbering over 50,000 soldiers in all, and the soldiers of the Kingdom of Mysore, ruled by Tipu Sultan, numbering up to 30,000. The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War came to an end with the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan in the battle.
When the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War broke out, the British assembled two large columns under General George Harris. The first consisted of over 26,000 British East India Company troops, 4,000 of whom were European while the rest were local Indian sepoys. The second column was supplied by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and consisted of ten battalions and over 16,000 cavalry. Together, the allied force numbered over 50,000 soldiers. Tipu's forces had been depleted by the Third Anglo-Mysore War and the consequent loss of half his kingdom, but he still probably had up to 30,000 soldiers.
The British forces consisted of the following:[3]
The Indian (sepoy) forces consisted of the following:[3][4]
Depictions in literature[edit]
Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone begins with the looting of the jewels removed from Seringapatam in 1799 from Tipu's treasury. The siege was also depicted in H.M Milner's play ""Tippo Saib, Or The Storming of Seringatam" in 1823 at the Royal Colburg Theatre on the South Bank, London. The siege and Tipu's death also received considerable attention in France, as Tipu had been viewed as an ally of the French, with the most prominent being Étienne de Jouy's "Tippo-Saëb,tragédie" which premiered at the Comédie-Française in 1813 with Talma in the lead role.
The Battle of Seringapatam is the main conflict in the novel Sharpe's Tiger, by Bernard Cornwell.
European officers killed in the siege of Seringapatam (1799), Seringapatam
Forces engaged before Seringapatam (1799), Seringapatam
Forces engaged before Seringapatam (1799), Seringapatam
Memorial to the siege of Seringapatam (1799), Seringapatam
Cited sources
Further reading