The Generals

Chapter 47

The army advanced along the Baramahal valley, which led west from Amboor. The floor of the valley was wide and flat and dotted with small low-rising groves of trees, or topes, so that the army made good progress. Arthur’s column marched on the left, three miles from Harris. In between the two forces sprawled the vast train of brinjarris, the families of the sepoys and merchants and traders of all kinds.With them lumbered strings of bullocks, horses, camels, mules and here and there the grey swaying masses of elephants. A huge cloud of dust rose up in the wake of this host, announcing the approach of the army for a great distance. Each day they covered ten miles before camping for the night. Then the merchants moved through the tent lines selling curried tripe, sop, and boiled sausages to the hungry soldiers.

In the morning the sepoys used straw to light the morning fires, and fuelled the fires with cow dung that filled the air with its rich cloying odour. The shrill chatter of the women camp followers rose up on all sides as they hurriedly prepared a morning meal for their families, and then packed their belongings for the day’s trek to the next camp.

Arthur regarded the apparent chaos of the camp with a degree of tolerance, since the writ of British military discipline extended only to the 33rd Foot and the six Company sepoy battalions. The rest were native levies with their own customs. The men of the 33rd were enjoying the status of being the elite formation in such a large force and marched with a swagger that pleased their colonel greatly. When the time came to fight they would inspire the other battalions and the Nizam’s men to hold their places in the line.

When they reached the Ryacotta pass the wagons and guns ascended the slope on the road prepared for them by Harris’s engineers, while the infantry and camp followers climbed over the broken ground on either side. Once through the eastern ghats the army was in the territory of Mysore and at once small groups of enemy horsemen began to shadow the columns. Tipoo’s strategy was apparent the moment the army approached Kellamungallam. A huge pall of smoke hung over the remains of the city. Vast swaths of buildings had been burned and the defences pulled down or blown up. Beyond the city the route before General Harris’s army had been torched.

‘Tipoo has clearly decided to pull his soldiers back to defend Seringapatam,’ General Harris concluded, as he addressed his senior officers once the army had camped a short distance from the charred ruins of Kellamungallam.‘He aims to lure us through his lands, denying us forage on the way, in the hope that we will fail to lay siege to his capital for long enough to take it, just as Cornwallis failed the last time a British army attempted to defeat Mysore.’

Baird interrupted. ‘And what will make our attempt succeed where Cornwallis failed, sir?’

‘I was coming to that. Or rather, I was about to ask Colonel Wellesley to outline the progress of the campaign from this point, since he and his staff were largely responsible for the plan. Colonel?’

‘Thank you, sir.’ Arthur stood up and paused a moment to collect his thoughts before he spoke. It still felt strange to be addressing a gathering of senior officers, most of whom were his superiors and older and more experienced than he was. Yet he did not doubt himself, since every possible contingency had been considered when the campaign was still in its planning stage. He cleared his throat. ‘Tipoo knows that he would be defeated if he risked a pitched battle against us. So he has adopted the strategy of trying to starve our draught animals. I’ve spoken to the brinjarri chiefs and they assure me that their bullocks can eat a wide variety of grasses and plants.Tipoo’s men cannot possibly destroy all edible matter growing in our path. Nevertheless, they will eventually restrict the supply. Therefore, I have advised the general that, if forage runs short, the army will be obliged to move outside the corridor of land that Tipoo’s men have burned. Meanwhile, in order to prevent our forage parties from venturing off the cleared land, we can expect Tipoo’s cavalry to launch harassing attacks from now on. Your men will need to take the necessary precautions once we leave Kellamungallam. The ground favours the enemy. It is flat and open for the most part, with scattered groves of trees for cover.We will need to keep our wits about us as we close on Seringapatam.’

‘Thank you, Colonel.’ General Harris gestured to him to resume his seat. ‘From now on, gentlemen, the enemy will be surrounding us. It is our duty to make sure we do not present him with the smallest opportunity to wreck our enterprise.’

The advance continued steadily through Mysore, over the ground that Tipoo’s men had burned, until late in the month, when Harris ordered the army to turn south-west and make directly for Seringapatam.Within a few miles they moved out of the belt of destruction and into country where there was abundant forage. The sudden change in direction threw off the harassing parties of enemy horsemen and it was two days before they were sighted again. After their early losses the enemy kept their distance and made no attempt to close with Arthur’s column.There was no sign of any of Tipoo’s infantry or artillery and it seemed to Arthur that these must be waiting in the enemy capital to repulse the British army when it finally laid siege to the city.

For four days the army marched towards Seringapatam, along a road hemmed in by dense jungle interspersed with flat country thickly dotted with clumps of trees. As his column advanced Arthur was constantly on the watch for signs of the enemy. This was the kind of country where Tipoo’s men could hold up the British army with ease. Long enough to prevent them from reaching and taking Seringapatam before the monsoon season struck. But there were no ambushes, no attacks of any kind, and the army continued its march without interruption until it approached the large village of Malavalley late one afternoon.

The jungle had given way to land that was largely clear of trees. Arthur was riding near the head of his column when he heard the dull thud of distant guns, and a moment later a divot of earth flew into the air some distance beyond his foremost troops. Spurring Diomed forward he drew out his telescope and trained it on the low hills on the far side of Malavalley.The puffs of smoke that hung in the still air gave away the enemy artillery positions. As Arthur turned his attention to the enemy guns he saw dense formations of infantry on the slope below the guns and, on the top of the hill, the unmistakable shapes of elephants.

He lowered his telescope and pulled out his pocket watch. If Tipoo’s forces stood their ground there was still time to attack them before the day was out. He turned to his small group of staff officers. ‘Lieutenant Beaumont!’

‘Sir?’

‘Ride to General Harris and tell him that I have sighted the enemy. He may have reports of the sighting from his own men by the time you arrive, but tell him that I respectfully suggest that we attack the enemy at once, before they withdraw under cover of night.’

While he waited for a response Arthur quickly gave orders for his men to prepare for battle. The 33rd Foot and the six sepoy battalions marched forward and deployed in company columns facing the hills where the enemy waited, occasionally chancing a long shot from some of their heaviest guns.The Nizam’s infantry units formed up to the left of the 33rd and the cavalry took up their position on the flanks. As he watched them manoeuvre Arthur prayed that General Harris would seize the chance to attack the enemy. Given that there were only a few hours of light left in which to fight a pitched battle, it was possible that Harris might wait until dawn, by which time the enemy could easily have melted away.

The army was just completing its deployment when General Harris rode up.

‘Wellesley!’ He smiled as he greeted his subordinate, then gestured to the men drawn up on either side.‘You’re a step ahead of me. I got your message and my men are forming to your right. Baird’s brigade will be closest to you. I had thought to camp for the night and tackle them tomorrow. But, as we have the enemy in sight, it would be foolish not to give him a thrashing.’

Arthur felt a surge of relief at his superior’s words, and nodded. ‘Very well, sir. What are your plans?’

‘Nothing clever. No need to do much more than let good training and stout hearts have their way. We’ll advance on the ridge and take it. The cavalry will screen our flanks and keep Tipoo’s rascals at bay with those galloper guns you allocated to our lads.’

‘Very good, sir.’

‘All right then, Wellesley. I’ll be off to take up position in the centre. As soon as you hear our guns fire, you can begin to advance. Don’t waste any time. We have to force the enemy to fight before they lose their nerve.’

Once the general had gone, Arthur and Fitzroy rode up and down the line to make sure that the men were properly spaced. Almost at once there was the crack of a light gun away to the right.

Fitzroy muttered, ‘Bloody hell, that was quick. If it was the signal, that is.’

Arthur glanced to the right and saw that Baird’s brigade had started forward. ‘Well, if it wasn’t the signal, it is now.’ He filled his lungs and called out, ‘Fix bayonets!’

The men neatly reached for their bayonets, drew them out and slotted them on to the ends of their muskets. Back in Europe bayonets would only be fixed once it was clear that any exchange of fire was over. But here in Mysore, where the enemy cavalry could appear and disappear in an instant, Arthur decided that his men might only have the chance to fire once before they were charged.

‘The line will advance, at the quick step!’

The men advanced as one, weapons resting on their shoulders as they stamped through the calf-high grass towards the ridge. Once again, Arthur rode down the line and returned to the 33rd, delighted to see that they had pulled ahead of Baird’s brigade. Up ahead of them the men of Tipoo’s army were chanting their war cries, and brandishing their weapons. The artillery on the hill continued to fire, and as the gap narrowed they drew first blood as a ball ricocheted off the hard-baked soil and ploughed through a file of men on the flank of Baird’s brigade. Arthur tore his eyes away from the mangled bodies sprawling on the ground and looked ahead to calculate the point at which he would order his men to deploy into a firing line as they closed on the enemy. There was a slight fold in the ground three hundred yards from the nearest enemy unit and as soon as the 33rd reached it Arthur shouted the order to form line. At once the regiment slowed and the rear companies doubled obliquely to the left and forward to catch up with the right flank until, in a matter of minutes, the whole regiment was in a line, two men deep. The sepoy battalions formed up on the left, in echelon, as the 33rd continued forwards.

Arthur felt a surge of pride as he watched. The years of training and nurturing his men were paying off handsomely. There had been skirmishes before but this was their first pitched battle as part of an army, and suddenly he felt a thrill of pleasure and excitement that he had never experienced before. All those years of playing at being a soldier, and being painfully aware of it, fell away from him and at last Arthur truly felt that he belonged in uniform and that this was his calling.

There was a great roar from the crest of the hill and Arthur instantly abandoned his reverie as he saw a large mass of Tipoo’s men, perhaps as many as three thousand, surge forward down the slope, directly towards the men of the 33rd Foot.This was it then, he realised. The moment for which he had been preparing his men, and himself. The redcoats did not hesitate for an instant when they saw the wave of enemy warriors rushing towards them. Arthur was about to shout some words of encouragement to his men, but realised that none were needed.They knew their profession well enough to be above the influence of platitudes and homilies.Any words he offered would only be taken as a sign of his nervousness. Arthur smiled. He had no nerves, no fear in the slightest, just a desire to see the job done and done well.

The two sides closed on each other, andTipoo’s men came on with a heedless courage that Arthur could only admire. When they were no more than a hundred yards away Arthur reined Diomed in and shouted an order, straining his voice to be heard above the din of the charging enemy.

‘33rd! Halt! Make ready!’

On they came, now close enough for Arthur to make out individual features in the faces of the men gathering speed as they sprinted to close the distance with the thin line of redcoats.

‘Present!’

The glittering steel of the long barrels and the wicked spikes of the bayonets swept out towards the enemy. The lines were staggered so that the entire regiment would fire its volley as one. Just over sixty yards away the first of Tipoo’s soldiers missed a step as they eyed the wall of foreshortened musket barrels, and flinched before the imminent hail of lead shot.

‘Fire!’

The fizz from the priming pans was swallowed up in a great crash as flame stabbed from every musket in the regiment. Above the smoke, standing in his stirrups, Arthur saw the entire front of the enemy charge collapse as scores of men tumbled to the ground, or reeled back under the impact of the musket balls. So crushing was this first volley that the bodies of the dead and wounded formed a solid obstacle that stopped the charge in its tracks. More men slammed into the backs of those who had been forced to halt and knocked many more to the ground, in piles of tangled, struggling limbs.

‘Face front! . . . Advance!’

Arthur’s regiment marched forward, in step, towards the enemy, still trying to recover from the terrible effects of the volley fired at point-blank range. Now the relentless approach of the redcoats behind their gleaming bayonets proved to be too much for the nerves of the men who just a moment earlier had been charging towards the British line with such reckless exhilaration. Individuals, and then small groups, turned away and began to thrust back through the ranks of their comrades, fleeing up the slope. The sudden collapse in fighting spirit spread through the enemy like a wave and the entire formation broke and ran, many abandoning their weapons, and leaving their wounded comrades to their fate.

Arthur was about to order his men to charge when a pounding of hooves made him look to his right. Charging across the face of the slope was a brigade of cavalry from Harris’s column. Dragoons. Their sabres were out and flashing brilliantly in the sun as they charged home, tearing through Tipoo’s broken infantry and cutting them to pieces as they hacked and slashed at the men streaming up the hill.

‘33rd! Halt!’

With his regiment stilled, the rest of the units in the line caught up and took up their position on the flank. As the last of the cavalry continued the pursuit up the hill, Arthur turned his attention to the right flank. Baird’s brigade was still advancing and had pulled a short distance ahead of Arthur’s line.The centre regiment of the brigade, the King’s 74th Foot, was at the front of the line and as Arthur watched it broke into a trot as it neared the crest of the hill. Arthur frowned. The commander of the regiment was bound to get a roasting from Baird for letting his men disrupt the formation. Already, the tall figure of the brigade’s commander was visible galloping his mount forward to catch up with the 74th. But before Baird could reach them, the crest of the hill above was suddenly filled with horsemen as they poured forward, charging straight at the 74th. The regiment halted as one and just had time to loose off one volley before they were struck by the swarm of enemy cavalry. Arthur could just make out Baird as he reined in and took charge of his errant regiment. As the flanking regiments came forward they too were forced to halt and engage the enemy cavalry. The sounds of pistol and musket fire crackled across the slope of the hill and then Arthur saw that, behind the cavalry, a column of infantry had appeared. While their cavalry attacked the 74th they would have the chance to approach Baird’s infantry without coming under fire.Then it would be a question of hand to hand fighting in which the enemy would have a good chance of carrying off a victory against Baird’s men.

Arthur turned back to his regiment.‘The 33rd will advance at the double!’

The red line rippled forward, up the hill, a short distance from the struggle engulfing Baird’s brigade. As they advanced Arthur kept glancing to the side, gauging the distance between his men and the desperate melee away to his right. When the 33rd had advanced a quarter of a mile beyond Baird’s formation Arthur halted them and, leaving the light company to protect his flank, he wheeled the rest of the regiment to the right, in a line facing the enemy column hurriedly marching down the slope towards Baird’s brigade.With bayonets fixed there was risk of injury when loading and Arthur knew it was best that it was done before they closed on the enemy.

‘Reload!’

The men grounded their muskets and pulled out fresh cartridges, biting off the end with the ball and holding it in their teeth as they primed the pan and dropped the charge into the muzzle. Then they spat the balls in and rammed the lot home before taking the weapons back in both hands ready to advance again. As soon as the reloading was complete Arthur gave the order to advance, and the regiment moved along the slope towards the column of Tipoo’s infantry, already drawing near to Baird’s men who were still in close formation as they fought off the enemy cavalry. Some of Tipoo’s men closest to the 33rd were shouting and gesticulating towards the new threat but their officers drove them on, knowing that their one chance of achieving some measure of success in the battle lay in charging directly into the ranks of the redcoats.

Arthur hurried his men on at the double, their kit thudding up and down as they trotted forward. He did not halt them until they were no more than seventy yards from the flank of the enemy column and then the familiar sequence of orders rattled out again.

‘Make ready! Present! Fire!’

The volley burst out in a storm of smoke and shot and all along the side of the enemy column men buckled and fell to the ground. The blow stopped their advance dead in its tracks, and at the same time unnerved the enemy cavalry who turned away from Baird’s men at the sound of massed musket fire. At once the redcoats, who had been beleaguered a moment before, let out a shout and surged forwards.

Arthur grabbed the chance at once. ‘33rd! Charge!’

Theatened from two directions the enemy instinctively recoiled, then broke and ran, streaming back up the hill at an angle from the two British formations. The enemy cavalry were heedless of their infantry and ran scores of them down in their bid to escape. Not wishing to repeat the mistake of the 74th, Arthur halted his men, and wheeled them back to the ridge to face any further attacks over the hill. But the battle was over. From his vantage point near the crest Arthur saw that the slopes of the nearby hills were also cleared of the enemy and red-coated battalions were moving forward to secure the ridge above Malavalley, stepping over the bodies of hundreds of Tipoo’s warriors as the daylight began to fade.

Although the enemy had been beaten there was no question of continuing the pursuit into the night. Tipoo still had a strong force of horsemen in the field and General Harris knew it would be folly to attempt a pursuit which would scatter his cavalry in the face of such a danger.As the army and camp followers settled around the large village for the night in a vast square of tents and glittering fires, Arthur, accompanied by Fitzroy, rode over to General Harris’s headquarters to make his report. The 33rd had only lost two men, victims of lucky shots fired from the enemy column they had shattered with their first, close range volley.

‘Did your boys get a chance to take ’em on with the bayonet?’ Harris asked.

‘No, sir.’ Fitzroy smiled. ‘The enemy didn’t quite stand up to that.’

‘Hah!’ Harris grinned with derision. ‘So much for the tiger warriors of Mysore.After today, I doubt that we’ll see much more of them before we reach Seringapatam.’

‘I hope that’s the case, sir,’ Arthur replied.

‘Of course it is. They’ll not dare to chance their arm against massed volleys again, mark my words.’

He clapped Arthur on the shoulder and turned as Major General Baird entered the tent to make his report. He had lost twenty-nine men from his brigade, but Harris was content with the estimated tally of enemy dead accounted for by Baird’s men and did not censure the reckless advance of the King’s 74th. As Harris moved on to the next officer Baird approached Arthur.

‘Good evening, sir.’ Arthur saluted.

‘Wellesley,’ Baird acknowledged in an even tone. He was not smiling and his brow was faintly furrowed as he continued, with evident reluctance, ‘I suppose I should thank you for intervening earlier. The timing of the flank attack was well judged.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

Baird stared at him for a moment, then nodded. ‘Yes, well, I just wanted to express my gratitude, Wellesley. That’s all. Good evening to you. And you, Fitzroy.’

He turned and walked away, back to the cluster of officers from his brigade.

‘Cheerful soul,’ Fitzroy muttered. ‘And so gracious in his appreciation of being rescued.’

‘Baird’s a tough one,’ Arthur replied. ‘It wasn’t easy for him to offer his thanks. He’ll have his chance to prove his worth once we reach Seringapatam.’

‘What makes you think that?’ Fitzroy smiled. ‘After today’s thrashing, I doubt Tipoo and his men will stand their ground a moment after we start firing at them.’

‘Don’t be too sure,’ Arthur replied. ‘Today was just a delaying action. Once we reach Seringapatam Tipoo and his men will defend their city to the death.Then I fear we’ll discover just how dangerous the warriors of Mysore can be.’