With the army were also thirty field-pieces and howitzers, together with four battering twenty-four pounders.
The Anglo-Indian army marched to Conjeveram, sixty miles westward of Madras, where it was to be joined by a detachment from the northward, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Baillie.
At this period the Sultan of Mysore was engaged in besieging Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, which was invested by the enemy on the 21st of August. The movement of Sir Hector Munro’s force caused Hyder Ali to raise the siege; he then detached his son, Tippoo Saib, with a large body of horse and foot, amounting to 24,000 men and twelve guns, to intercept Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, whose junction with the main army had been ordered.
In this manœuvre Tippoo Saib succeeded, and Major-General Sir Hector Munro was compelled to detach Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher with a thousand men to reinforce Lieut.-Colonel Baillie. The flank companies of the first battalion of the Seventy-third formed part of this detachment; the grenadier company was commanded by Lieutenant the Honorable John Lindsay, and the light company by Captain, afterwards General the Right Hon. Sir David Baird, Bart. and G.C.B.[7]
On the 6th of September, Lieut.-Colonel Baillie was attacked at Perambaukum by the division under Tippoo Saib, and on the 9th of that month was joined by the detachment under Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher. On the following day they were attacked by Hyder’s whole army, and the officers and men of this ill-fated detachment were either killed, taken, or dispersed.
The following graphic description of this unequal contest with Hyder’s whole army, the division under Tippoo Saib acting in concert, is given by Captain Innes Munro, of the Seventy-third, who published a “Narrative of the Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast from 1780 to 1784:”—
“Lieut.-Colonel Baillie could but make a feeble resistance against so superior a force; but his little band yet gallantly supported a very unequal fire, until their whole ammunition had either been blown up or expended, which of course silenced the British artillery. Hyder’s guns upon this drew nearer and nearer at every discharge, while each shot was attended with certain and deadly effect. Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s detachment, seeing their artillery silenced and remaining inactive while exposed to certain destruction, very naturally became dismayed; which the enemy no sooner perceived than they made a movement for a general charge and advanced on all quarters to a close attack. At this dangerous and trying juncture, sufficient to damp the spirits of the most intrepid, all the camp-followers rushed in confusion through the ranks of every battalion, and in an instant threw the whole into disorder. The black troops, finding themselves in this calamitous situation, relinquished every hope of success; and, notwithstanding the extraordinary exertions of their European officers, were no more to be rallied. But such of the Europeans as had fallen into disorder by this irregularity, quickly united again in compact order, headed by their gallant commander, who was at this time much wounded; and, being joined by all the Sepoy officers, planted themselves upon a rising bank of sand in their vicinity, where they valiantly resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity.
“History cannot produce an instance, for fortitude, cool intrepidity, and desperate resolution, to equal the exploits of this heroic band. In numbers, now reduced to five hundred, they were opposed by no less than one hundred thousand enraged barbarians, who seldom grant quarter. The mind, in the contemplation of such a scene, and such a situation as theirs was, is filled at once with admiration, with astonishment, with horror, and with awe. To behold formidable and impenetrable bodies of horse, of infantry, and of artillery, advancing from all quarters, flashing savage fury, levelling the numberless instruments of slaughter, and darting destruction around, was a scene to appal even something more than the strongest human resolution; but it was beheld by this little band with the most undaunted and immovable firmness. Distinct bodies of horse came on successively to the charge, with strong parties of infantry placed in the intervals, whose fire was discharged in showers; but the deliberate and well-leveled platoons of the British musketry had such a powerful effect as to repulse several different attacks. Like the swelling waves of the ocean, however, when agitated by a storm, fresh columns incessantly poured in upon them with redoubled fury, which at length brought so many to the ground, and weakened their fire so considerably, that they were unable longer to withstand the dreadful and tremendous shock; and the field soon presented a picture of the most inhuman cruelties and unexampled carnage.
“The last and awful struggle was marked by the clashing of arms and shields, the snorting and kicking of horses, the snapping of spears, the glistening of bloody swords, oaths and imprecations; concluding with the groans and cries of bruised and mutilated men, wounded horses tumbling to the ground upon expiring soldiers, and the hideous roaring of elephants, stalking to and fro, and wielding their dreadful chains alike amongst friends and foes.