With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire

by G. A. Henty

The ships arriving from England brought a commission appointing Monson to the rank of Colonel, with a date prior to that of Colonel Coote; ordering him, however, not to assert his seniority, so long as Coote remained at Madras. Coote, however, considered that it was intended that he should return to Bengal, and so handing over the command to Monson, he went back to Madras.

Colonel Monson at once prepared to attack the hedge, and its redoubts. Leaving sufficient guards for the camp, he advanced at midnight, with his troops divided into two brigades, the one commanded by himself, the other by Major Smith. Major Smith's division was first to attack the enemy, outside the hedge in the village of Oulgarry; and, driving them hence, to carry the Vellenore redoubt, while the main body were to make a sweep round the Red Hill, and come down to the attack of the Valdore redoubt.

Smith, moving to the right of the Oulgarry avenue, attacked that position on the left; and the advance, led by Captain Myers, carried by storm a redoubt in front of the village, and seized four pieces of cannon. Major Smith, heading his grenadiers, then charged the village, tore down all obstacles, and carried the place.

The day had begun to dawn when Colonel Monson approached the Valdore redoubt. But at the last moment, making a mistake in their way, the head of the column halted. At this moment the enemy perceived them, and discharged a twenty-four pounder, loaded with small shot, into the column. Eleven men were killed and twenty-six wounded by this terrible discharge, among the latter Colonel Monson himself, his leg being broken. The grenadiers now rushed furiously to the attack, swarmed round the redoubt and, although several times repulsed, at last forced their way through the embrasures and captured the position.

The defenders of the village of Oulgarry had halted outside the Vellenore redoubt; but, upon hearing the firing to their right, retreated hastily within it. Major Smith pressed them hotly with his brigade, and followed so closely upon their heels that they did not stop to defend the position, but retreated to the town. Major Smith was soon joined by the Highlanders, under Major Scott, who had forced a way through the hedge between the two captured redoubts.

Thus the whole line of the outer defence fell into the hands of the English, with the exception of the Ariangopang redoubt on the left, which was held by the India regiment. Major Gordon, who now took the command, placed the Bombay detachment, of three hundred and fifty men, in the captured redoubts; and encamped the whole of the force in the fields to the right of Oulgarry.

Major Smith advised that at least a thousand men should be left, near at hand, to succour the garrisons of the redoubts; which, being open at the rear, were liable to an attack. Major Gordon foolishly refused to follow his advice, and the same night the French attacked the redoubts. The Bombay troops, however, defended themselves with extreme bravery until assistance arrived.

Three days later the French evacuated and blew up the fort of Ariangopang, which the English were preparing to attack, and the India regiment retired into the town, leaving, however, the usual guard in the Ariangopang redoubt.

Colonel Coote had scarcely arrived at Madras when he received a letter from Colonel Monson, saying that he was likely to be incapacitated by his wound for some months, and requesting that he would resume the command of the army. The authorities of Madras strongly urged Coote to return, representing the extreme importance of the struggle in which they were engaged. He consented, and reached camp on the night of the 20th. He at once ordered the captured redoubts to be fortified, to prevent the enemy again taking the offensive; and erected a strong work, called the North Redoubt, near the seashore and facing the Madras redoubt.

A few days later, on a party of Sepoys approaching the Ariangopang redoubt, the occupants of that place were seized with a panic, abandoned the place, and went into the town. The English had now possession of the whole of the outward defences of Pondicherry, with the exception of the two redoubts by the seashore.