The army rested upon the field of battle, and was again in movement on the 18th of May, and arrived on the 20th at Canambaddy, situated on the Cavery, some miles above Seringapatam. It was now ascertained that the season was too far advanced for undertaking immediately the siege of Tippoo’s capital, and it was determined accordingly to withdraw. The battering train was destroyed; all the ammunition and stores were buried which could not be removed, and on the 26th of May the army marched in the direction of Bangalore.
Before commencing their retreat the soldiers were thanked in orders for their conduct throughout these services, and it was added:—
“So long as there were any hopes of reducing Seringapatam before the commencement of the heavy rains, the Commander-in-Chief thought himself happy in availing himself of their willing services; but the unexpected bad weather for some time experienced having rendered the attack of the enemy’s capital impracticable until the conclusion of the ensuing monsoons, Lord Cornwallis thought he should make an ill return for the zeal and alacrity exhibited by the soldiers, if he desired them to draw the guns and stores back to a magazine, where there remains an ample supply of both, which was captured by their valour; he did not, therefore, hesitate to order the guns, and stores which were not wanted for field service, to be destroyed.”
In the course of this retreat the British were joined by the Mahratta army, under Hurry Punt and Purseram Bhow, consisting of about thirty-two thousand men, chiefly cavalry, and thirty pieces of cannon. Of the approach of this large force the British had been kept in total ignorance by the active manner in which the communications were interrupted by Tippoo’s irregular troops. Captain Little, having under his orders two battalions of Bombay sepoys, joined with the Mahratta army, and the supplies were now abundant.
The army arrived at Bangalore on the 11th of July, and the enemy made no attempt whatever to interrupt the march. By this time the Nizam’s cavalry had become unfit to keep the field, and were allowed to return to their own country. Purseram Bhow also, with a large detachment of the Mahrattas, proceeded into the Sera country; but Hurry Punt, with the remainder, continued attached to the British army. On the 15th of July the whole of the sick and one-half of the tumbrils belonging to the field-pieces were sent into the fort of Bangalore, and the army moved towards Oussoor, where it arrived on the 11th of the following month—the fort at that place being abandoned by the enemy after he had blown up the angles thereof.
On the 12th of August the army moved from Oussoor and on the 23d arrived at Bayeur. About this period Major Gowdie, of the Honorable East India Company’s service, was detached with some troops for the reduction of the strong hill fort of Nundydroog, which it was found required regular approaches. Major Gowdie arrived before the place on the 22d of September.
Nundydroog, the capital of a large and valuable district, was built on the summit of a mountain about one thousand seven hundred feet in height; three-fourths of its circumference were absolutely inaccessible, and the only face on which it could be ascended was protected by two excellent walls and an outwork which covered the gateway, and afforded a formidable flank fire. The foundation for a third wall had been dug, but the Sultan had not been able to have the plan completed.
The flank companies of the Thirty-sixth and Seventy-first regiments, under the command of Captain James Robertson of the latter corps, marched on the 17th of October to join the detachment under Major Gowdie, and, upon their arrival, were immediately placed in the last parallel.
General the Earl Cornwallis, with a view to intimidate the garrison, encamped with the army within four miles of Nundydroog, on the 18th of October, and in the evening of that day the troops were told off for an assault upon the two breaches, which had been pronounced practicable. The attacks commenced at eleven o’clock at night, the grenadiers assaulting the right breach and the light companies the left. The forlorn hope of the right attack consisted of twenty grenadiers, volunteers from the Thirty-sixth and Seventy-first regiments. Captain Robert Burne supported, with the Thirty-sixth grenadiers, the right attack, and Captain William Hartley, with the light company of that regiment, the left attack; Major-General Medows animated the whole with his presence.
The assailants were soon discovered; blue lights immediately illuminated the fort, and a heavy fire opened from the works; this fire was fortunately ill-directed, but the large stones hurled down the hill, and acquiring great velocity as they bounded from the rock in their descent, were extremely formidable. The storming party, however, soon mounted the breaches, and pursuing the enemy closely prevented his barricading the gate of the inner wall. This was forced open, and the troops entered. Captain Robertson, seeing that the place was carried, used every endeavour to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. The flank companies which formed the storming party had two men killed and twenty-eight wounded, the latter principally from bruises by the stones thrown from the rock. The loss during the siege amounted to forty Europeans and eighty sepoys and pioneers, killed and wounded. At this place Lieutenant John Eyre, of the regiment, died of his wounds.