Siege of Seringapatam (1799)

Siege

Seringapatam was besieged by the British forces on 5 April 1799. The River Cauvery, which flowed around the city of Seringapatam, was at its lowest level of the year and could be forded by infantry, if an assault commenced before the monsoon. When letters were exchanged with Tipu, it seemed that he was playing for time. He requested two persons to be sent to him for discussions and also stated that he was preoccupied with hunting expeditions. Tipu Sultan's Chief Minister, Mir Sadiq, is alleged to have been bought over by the British.

The breach

The Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, planned the opening of a breach in the walls of Seringapatam. The location of the breach, as noted by Beatson, the author of an account of the Fourth Mysore War, was 'in the west curtain, a little to the right of the flank of the north-west bastion. This being the old rampart appeared weaker than the new.' The Mysorean defence succeeded in preventing the establishment of a battery on the north side of the River Cauvery on 22 April 1799. However, by 1 May, working at night, the British had completed their southern batteries and brought them up to the wall. At sunrise on 2 May, the batteries of the 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad succeeded in opening a practical breach in the outer wall. In addition, the mines that were laid under the breach were hit by artillery and blew up prematurely.

The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, an implacable enemy of Tipu Sultan: twenty years earlier, he had been held captive for 44 months. The storming troops, including men of the 73rd and 74th regiments, clambered up the breach and fought their way along the ramparts.

On the night of 3 May some officers crossed over to the glacis, examined the breach and the manner of attacking the fort. It was probably on this occasion that it was arranged between the English officers and Mir Sadiq that the assault should take place at midday.

Storming of Seringapatam

The assault was to begin at 1:00 p.m. to coincide with the hottest part of the day when the defenders would be taking refreshment. Led by two forlorn hopes, two columns would advance upon the defences around the breach, then wheel right and left to take over the fortifications. A third reserve column, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, would deploy as required to provide support where needed.

At 11:00 a.m., on 4 May 1799, the British troops were briefed and whisky and a biscuit issued to the European soldiers, before the signal to attack was given. The forlorn-hopes, numbering seventy-six men, led the charge. The columns quickly formed, were ordered to fix bayonets, and began to move forward.

As the hour approached, Mir Sadiq withdrew the troops stationed at the breach under the pretext of distributing their pay. There was no one to protest against such a measure. Sayyid Abdul Ghaffar, who was very loyal to the Sultan, was killed by a cannon ball. Immediately after the Sayyid was killed, the traitors made a signal from the fort holding out a white handkerchief to the English troops who were assembled in the trenches, waiting for such a signal.

The storming party dashed across the River Cauvery in water four feet deep, with covering fire from British batteries, and within 16 minutes had scaled the ramparts and swept aside the defenders quickly. The British follow-up columns turned right and left, sweeping along the inside of the walls until they met on the far side of the city. A number of French attempted to make a rally at the Southern rampart but to no avail. They were trapped and were forced to surrender which included ten officers and Chapuis himself.

Death of Tipu

The column that rounded the northwest corner of the outer wall was immediately involved in a serious fight with a group of Mysorean warriors under a fat officer, which defended every traverse. The officer was observed to be discharging hunting weapons loaded and passed to him by servants. After the fall of the city, in the gathering dusk, some of the British officers went to look for the body of Tipu Sultan. He was identified as the fat officer who had fired hunting weapons at the attackers, and his body was found in a choked tunnel-like passage near the Water Gate.

Benjamin Sydenham described the body as:

wounded a little above the right ear, and the ball lodged in the left cheek, he had also three wounds in the body, he was in stature about 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) and not very fair, he was rather corpulent, had a short neck and high shoulders, but his wrists and ankles were small and delicate.

He had large full eyes, with small arched eyebrows and very small whiskers. His appearance denoted him to be above the Common Stamp. And his countenance expressed a mixture of haughtiness and resolution. He was dressed in a fine white linen jacket, chintz drawers, a crimson cloth round his waist with a red silk belt and pouch across his body and head.

He had lost his turban and there were no weapons of defence about him.

Aftermath

The French contingent had all but surrendered once the battle was over, the rest were holed up in the palace, and even amidst the chaos that followed, they were spared from being killed, given their uniforms and ethnicity. As they were commissioned by the government of France they were to be either sent to England or back to France. Chapuis ended up spending two years in a Prison hulk off Portsmouth.

Legacy

All members of the British-led forces who took part in the siege were awarded a medal by the Governor-General of India.

Two cannon captured by the British during the battle are displayed at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, now standing in front of the officers' mess. Tipu's Tiger, an automaton now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, was captured at Seringapatam.

Much of the site of the battle is still intact including the ramparts, the Water Gate where the Tipu Sultan's body was found, the area where the British prisoners were held, and the site of the destroyed palace.

Around 80 men of the Swiss ‘de Meuron Regiment’, who fell during the siege, and their family members are buried in the Garrison Cemetery, Seringapatam.

Depictions

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.

The siege and subsequent looting are depicted in Tania James's 2023 novel Loot.

Memorial