The first battalion, under Lord Macleod, embarked for the East Indies in January 1779, and arrived in Madras Roads on the 20th of January 1780. The second battalion, under the command of the Honourable Lieut.-Colonel George Mackenzie, brother of Lord Macleod, was sent to Gibraltar, where it landed two days before the arrival of the first battalion at Madras.
The second battalion formed part of the garrison of Gibraltar during the siege, which lasted upwards of three years. In this, the only service in which it was engaged, the battalion had 30 privates killed and 7 sergeants, and 121 rank and file wounded. In May 1783 it returned to England, and was reduced at Stirling in October following. The officers who were regimentally senior in rank had liberty granted to join the first battalion in India.
The first battalion joined the army under Major-General Sir Hector Munro, and assembled at St Thomas’s Mount, near Madras, in July 1780. This force amounted to 5209 men, and, with the exception of one battalion of the Company’s European troops and the Grenadiers of another and 800 Highlanders, consisted of native troops.
This young and untried regiment had scarcely arrived in India, when Hyder Ali, forcing his way through the Ghauts, at the head of 100,000 men, burst like a mountain torrent into the Carnatic. He had interposed his vast army between that of the British, commanded by Sir Hector Monro, and a smaller force, under the command of Colonel Baillie, which were endeavouring to form a junction. The latter having, though victorious, sustained a serious loss in an engagement with Hyder Ali’s troops, sent to the commander an account of his difficult position, stating that, from the loss he had sustained and his total want of provisions, he was equally unable to advance or remain in his then situation. With the advice of a council of war, Sir Hector judged the only course was to endeavour to aid Colonel Baillie, with such a reinforcement as would enable him to push forward in defiance of the enemy. The detachment selected for this enterprise consisted of about 1,000 men under Colonel Fletcher; and its main force was composed of the grenadier and infantry companies of Lord Macleod’s regiment, commanded by Captain Baird. Hyder Ali having gained intelligence of this movement, sent a strong body to cut them off on their way, but, by adopting a long circuitous route, and marching by night, they at length safely effected a junction with Colonel Baillie. With the most consummate skill, however, Hyder, determining that they should never return, prepared an ambuscade, into which, early on the morning of the 10th of September, they unwarily advanced. The enemy, with admirable coolness and self-command, reserved their fire till the unhappy British were in the very midst of them. The army under the command of Colonels Baillie and Fletcher, and Captain Baird, marched in column. On a sudden, whilst in a narrow defile, a battery of twelve guns opened upon them, and, loaded with grape-shot, poured in upon their right flank. The British faced about; another battery opened immediately upon their rear. They had no choice therefore, but to advance; other batteries met them here likewise, and in less than half an hour fifty-seven pieces of cannon, brought to bear on them at all points, penetrated into every part of the British line. By seven o’clock in the morning, the enemy poured down upon them in thousands: Captain Baird and his grenadiers fought with the greatest heroism. Surrounded and attacked on all sides, by 25,000 cavalry, by thirty regiments of Sepoy infantry, besides Hyder’s European corps, and a numerous artillery playing upon them from all quarters, within grape shot distance, yet did this gallant column stand firm and undaunted, alternately facing their enemies on every side of attack. The French officers in Hyder’s camp beheld with astonishment the British Grenadiers, under Captain Baird’s command, performing their evolutions in the midst of all the tumult and extreme peril, with as much precision, coolness, and steadiness, as if upon a parade ground. The little army, so unexpectedly assailed, had only ten pieces of cannon, but these made such havoc amongst the enemy, that after a doubtful contest of three hours, from six in the morning till nine, victory began to declare for the British. The flower of the Mysore cavalry, after many bloody repulses, were at length entirely defeated, with great slaughter, and the right wing, composed of Hyder’s best forces, was thrown into disorder. Hyder himself was about to give orders for retreat, and the French officer who directed the artillery began to draw it off, when an unforeseen and unavoidable disaster occurred, which totally changed the fortune of the day. By some unhappy accident the tumbrils which contained the ammunition suddenly blew up in the centre of the British lines. One whole face of their column was thus entirely laid open, and their artillery overturned and destroyed. The destruction of men was great, but the total loss of their ammunition was still more fatal to the survivors. Tippoo Saib, the son of Hyder, instantly seized the moment of advantage, and without waiting for orders, fell with the utmost rapidity, at the head of the Mogul and Carnatic horse, into the broken square, which had not had time to recover its form and order. This attack by the enemy’s cavalry being immediately seconded by the French corps, and by the first line of infantry, determined at once the fate of our unfortunate army. After successive prodigies of valour, the brave Sepoys were almost to a man cut to pieces. Colonels Baillie and Fletcher, assisted by Captain Baird, made one more desperate effort. They rallied the Europeans, and, under the fire of the whole immense artillery of the enemy, gained a little eminence, and formed themselves into a new square. In this form did this intrepid band, though totally without ammunition, the officers fighting only with their swords and the soldiers with their bayonets, resist and repulse the myriads of the enemy in thirteen different attacks; until at length, incapable of withstanding the successive torrents of fresh troops which were continually pouring upon them, they were fairly borne down and trampled upon, many of them still continuing to fight under the very legs of the horses and elephants. To save the lives of the few brave men who survived, Colonel Baillie had displayed his handkerchief on his sword, as a flag of truce; quarter was promised, but no sooner had the troops laid down their arms than they were attacked with savage fury by the enemy. By the humane interference, however, of the French officers in Hyder’s service, many lives were saved. Colonel Fletcher was slain on the field. Colonel Baillie, severely wounded, and several other officers, with two hundred Europeans, were made prisoners. When brought into the presence of Hyder, he, with true Asiatic barbarism, received them with the most insolent triumph. The British officers, with a spirit worthy of their country, retorted with an indignant coolness and contempt. “Your son will inform you,” said Colonel Baillie, “that you owe the victory to our disaster, rather than to our defeat.” Hyder angrily ordered them from his presence, and commanded them instantly to prison. Captain Baird had received two sabre-wounds on his head, a ball in his thigh, and a pike-wound in his arm. He lay a long time on the field of battle, narrowly escaping death from some of the more ferocious of the Mysore cavalry, who traversed the field spearing the wounded, and at last being unable to reach the force under Munro, he was obliged to surrender to the enemy.
Sir David Baird, from a painting by Raeburn.
The result of this battle was the immediate retreat of the main army under Sir Hector Munro to Madras. Colonel Baillie, Captain Baird, and five other British officers were marched to one of Hyder’s nearest forts, and afterwards removed to Seringapatam, where they were joined by others of their captive countrymen, and subjected to a most horrible and protracted imprisonment. It was commonly believed in Scotland that Captain Baird was chained by the leg to another man; and Sir Walter Scott, writing in May 1821 to his son, then a cornet of dragoons, with his regiment in Ireland, when Sir David was commander of the forces there, says, “I remember a story that when report came to Europe that Tippoo’s prisoners (of whom Baird was one) were chained together two and two, his mother said, ‘God pity the poor lad that’s chained to our Davie!’” She knew him to be active, spirited and daring, and probably thought that he would make some desperate effort to escape. But it was not the case that he was chained to another. On the 10th of May all the prisoners had been put in irons except Captain Baird; this indignity he was not subjected to till the 10th of November following. “When they were about,” says his biographer, “to put the irons on Captain Baird, who was completely disabled in his right leg, in which the wound was still open, and whence the ball had just then been extracted, his friend Captain Lucas, who spoke the language perfectly, sprang forward, and represented in very strong terms to the Myar the barbarity of fettering him while in such a dreadful state, and assured him that death would be the inevitable termination of Captain Baird’s sufferings if the intention were persisted in. The Myar replied that the Circar had sent as many pairs of irons as there were prisoners, and they must be put on. Captain Lucas then offered to wear two sets himself, in order to save his friend. This noble act of generosity moved the compassion even of the Myar, who said he would send to the Kellidar, (commander of the fort,) to open the book of fate. He did so, and when the messenger returned, he said the book had been opened, and Captain Baird’s fate was good; and the irons were in consequence not put on at that time. Could they really have looked into the volume of futurity, Baird would undoubtedly have been the last man to be spared.”[392] Each pair of irons was nine pounds weight. Captain Lucas died in prison. Captain Baird lived to revenge the sufferings which he and his fellow-prisoners endured by the glorious conquest of Seringapatam on the 4th of May, 1799.
Some time after the battle of Conjeveram, Lord Macleod took ship for England, having, it is said, differed in opinion with General Munro on the subject of his movements, particularly those preceding Colonel Baillie’s disaster. He was succeeded in the command of the 73d by Colonel James Crawford, who, with the regiment now reduced to 500 men, joined the army under Sir Eyre Coote on the morning of the 1st of July 1781, when about to attack the enemy at Porto Novo.