At Ponanee the command was assumed by Lieutenant-Colonel Macleod. The effective force was reduced by sickness to 380 Europeans, and 2200 English and Travancore sepoys, and in this situation the British commander found himself surrounded by 10,000 cavalry and 14,000 infantry, including two corps of Europeans, under the French General Lally. Colonel Macleod attempted to improve by art the defences of a position strong by nature, but before his works were completed, General Lally made a spirited attack on the post on the morning of the 29th of November, at the head of the European troops: after a warm contest he was repulsed.
The conduct of the Highlanders, against whom Lally directed his chief attack, is thus noticed in the general orders issued on the occasion:—“The intrepidity with which Major Campbell and the Highlanders repeatedly charged the enemy, was most honourable to their character.” In this affair the 42nd had 3 sergeants and 19 rank and file killed, and Major John Campbell, Captains Colin Campbell and Thomas Dalyell, Lieutenant Charles Sutherland, 2 sergeants, and 31 rank and file wounded.
After this service, Colonel Macleod with his battalion embarked for Bombay, and joined the army under Brigadier-General Matthews at Cundapoor, on the 9th of January 1793. On the 23rd General Matthews moved forward to attack Bednoor, from which the Sultan drew most of his supplies for his army. General Matthews was greatly harassed on his march by flying parties of the enemy, and in crossing the mountains was much impeded by the nature of the country, and by a succession of field-works erected on the face of these mountains. On the 26th of February, the 42nd, led by Colonel Macleod, and followed by a corps of sepoys, attacked these positions with the bayonet, and were in the breastwork before the enemy were aware of it. Four hundred of the enemy were bayonetted, and the rest were pursued to the walls of the fort. Seven forts were attacked and taken in this manner in succession. The principal redoubt, distinguished by the appellation of Hyder Gurh, situated on the summit of the highest ghaut or precipice, presented a more formidable appearance. It had a dry ditch in front, mounted with twenty pieces of cannon, and might have offered considerable resistance to the advance of the army, if well defended; but the loss of their seven batteries had so terrified the enemy, that they abandoned their last and strongest position in the course of the night, leaving behind them eight thousand stand of new arms, and a considerable quantity of powder, shot, and military stores. The army took possession of Bednoor the following day, but this triumph was of short duration, as the enemy soon recaptured the place, and took General Matthews and the greater part of his army prisoners.
Meanwhile the other companies were employed with a detachment under Major Campbell, in an enterprise against the fort of Anantapoor, which was attacked and carried on the 15th of February with little loss. Major Campbell returned his thanks to the troops for their spirited behaviour on this occasion, “and his particular acknowledgments to Captain Dalyell, and the officers and men of the flank companies of the 42nd regiment, who headed the storm.” As the Highlanders on this occasion had trusted more to their fire than to the bayonet, the major strongly recommended to them in future never to fire a shot when the bayonet could be used.
The Highlanders remained at Anantapoor till the end of February, when they were sent under Major Campbell to occupy Carrical and Morebedery. They remained in these two small forts till the 12th of April, when they were marched first to Goorspoor and thence to Mangalore. Here the command of the troops, in consequence of the absence of Lieutenant-Colonels Macleod and Humberston devolved upon Major Campbell, now promoted to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. General Matthews having been suspended, Colonel Macleod, now promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, was appointed to succeed him.
Encouraged by the recapture of Bednoor, Tippoo detached a considerable force towards Mangalore, but it was attacked and defeated by Colonel Campbell, on the 6th of May. Little loss was sustained on either side, but the enemy left all their guns. The Highlanders had 7 privates killed, and Captain William Stewart and 16 rank and file wounded.
Tippoo, having now no force in the field to oppose him, advanced upon Mangalore with his whole army, consisting of 90,000 men, besides a corps of European infantry from the Isle of France, a troop of dismounted French cavalry from the Mauritius, and Lally’s corps of Europeans and natives. This immense force was supported by eighty pieces of cannon. The garrison of Mangalore was in a very sickly state, there being only 21 sergeants, 12 drummers, and 210 rank and file of king’s troops, and 1500 natives fit for duty.
With the exception of a strong outpost about a mile from Mangalore, the place was completely invested by the Sultan’s army about the middle of May. The defence of the outpost was intrusted to some sepoys, but they were obliged to abandon it on the 23rd. The siege was now prosecuted with vigour, and many attacks were made, but the garrison, though suffering the severest privations, repulsed every attempt. Having succeeded at length in making large breaches in the walls, and reducing some parts of them to a mass of ruins, the enemy repeatedly attempted to enter the breaches and storm the place; but they were uniformly forced to retire, sustaining a greater loss by every successive attack. On the 20th of July a cessation of hostilities was agreed to, but on the 23rd the enemy violated the truce by springing a mine. Hostilities were then resumed, and continued till the 29th, when a regular armistice was entered into. Brigadier-General Macleod anchored in the bay on the 17th of August, with a small convoy of provisions and a reinforcement of troops; but on learning the terms of the armistice, the general, from a feeling of honour, ordered the ships back to Tellicherry, to the great disappointment of the half-famished garrison. Two reinforcements which arrived off the coast successively on the 22nd of November, and the last day of December, also returned to the places whence they had come.
About this time, in consequence of the peace with France, Colonel Cossigny, the French commander, withdrew his troops, to the great displeasure of the Sultan, who encouraged the French soldiers to desert and join his standard. Some of them accordingly deserted, but Colonel Cossigny having recovered part of them, indicated his dissatisfaction with Tippoo’s conduct, by ordering them to be shot in presence of two persons sent by the Sultan to intercede for their lives.
The misery of the garrison was now extreme. Nearly one-half of the troops had been carried off, and one-half of the survivors were in the hospital. The sepoys in particular were so exhausted that many of them dropped down in the act of shouldering their firelocks, whilst others became totally blind. Despairing of aid, and obliged to eat horses, frogs, dogs, crows, cat-fish, black grain, &c., the officers resolved, in a council of war, to surrender the place. The terms, which were highly honourable to the garrison, were acceded to by the Sultan, and the capitulation was signed on the 30th of January 1784, after a siege of nearly nine months. In the defence of Mangalore, the Highlanders had Captain Dalyell, Lieutenants Macpherson, Mackenzie, and Mackintyre, 1 piper and 18 soldiers killed; and Captains William Stewart, Robert John Napier, and Lieutenants Murray, Robertson, and Welsh, 3 sergeants, 1 piper, and 47 rank and file wounded. The corps also lost Mr Dennis the acting chaplain, who was shot in the forehead by a matchlock ball whilst standing behind a breastwork of sand-bags, and looking at the enemy through a small aperture.