Mr. Laurens, late President of the American Congress, having been captured in his passage to Holland by the British, papers were found on him showing that a treaty of alliance was on the point of conclusion between the Americans and the States General. Great Britain in consequence declared war against Holland on the 20th of December, and thus became engaged with a fourth enemy, exclusive of the hostile powers in India.
1781.
1st bat.
Upon the 17th of January 1781, the army being re-assembled, took the field under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote, K.B., Commander-in-Chief in India. At this period the strength of the first battalion did not exceed five hundred men. Hyder Ali was then in the Tanjore country, committing every species of outrage and devastation.
On the 1st of June, 1781, Colonel Lord Macleod received the local rank of Major-General in the East Indies. In June Sir Eyre Coote moved the army along the coast southerly, towards Cuddalore, where his out-posts were attacked by Tippoo Saib, who was repulsed. The British commander afterwards marched his whole force to Chillumborem, upon the Coleroon, where the enemy had a large magazine of grain.
The pagoda was attacked by the piquets under the command of Captain John Shaw, of the first battalion, but the detachment was repulsed, and that officer wounded.
Hyder Ali, being apprehensive for the safety of Chillumborem, moved his army in the direction of that place from Tanjore and Trichinopoly, while Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote, with the view of obtaining supplies from the shipping, proceeded towards Cuddalore. Hyder, by forced marches and manœuvres, had nearly surrounded the British on the plains of Porto Novo, about two days’ march to the southward of Cuddalore.
At four o’clock in the morning of the 1st of July, Sir Eyre Coote put his army of about 8,000 men in movement, while that of the enemy, computed at 100,000, was observed to range itself in order of battle.
The army of Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote formed on the plain in two lines; the first battalion was commanded by Colonel James Craufurd[10] (Lord Macleod having returned to England), and had its station in the first line under the orders of Major General Sir Hector Munro. Major General James Stuart commanded the second line. The action commenced by an advanced movement of the English troops, and the contest was sustained with great spirit by both parties until night, when the firing ceased, and the British remained masters of the field.
The veteran chief, Sir Eyre Coote, was so well pleased with the conduct of the battalion upon this occasion that he was heard to exclaim, addressing himself in the heat of the battle to one of the pipers, “Well done, my brave fellow, you shall have silver pipes when the battle is over!” The general did not forget his promise, and in addition to a general order expressive of his sense of the gallantry and steadiness of the battalion in the battle of Porto Novo, he presented a handsome pair of silver pipes (value one hundred pagodas[11]) to the corps, upon which was engraved a suitable inscription; this he desired might be preserved as a lasting monument of his approbation of its conduct in that battle, the result of which enabled Sir Eyre Coote to reach Cuddalore, the point of destination, on the 4th of July.
Shortly afterwards the army was moved to St. Thomas’s Mount.