Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/128

 cannon; but these were so excellently served, that they made great havoc amongst the enemy. At length, after a dubious contest of three hours, (from six in the morning till nine,) victory began to declare for the English; 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, and began to give way. Hyder himself was about to give the orders for retreat, and the French officer who directed the artillery began to draw it off.

At this moment of exultation and triumph, when British valour was just about to reap that safety which it had so well fought for, there occurred an unlucky accident, which entirely altered the fortune of the day. The tumbrils containing the ammunition suddenly blew up, with two dreadful explosions, in the centre of the British line. The whole face of their column was 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, a worthy son of his martial father, instantly saw and 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 yet time in any degree 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 made one more desperate effort; they rallied the Europeans, and, under the fire of the whole artillery of the enemy, gained a little eminence and formed themselves into a square. In this form, did this invincible band, though totally without ammunition, the officers fighting only with their swords, and the soldiers with their bare bayonets, resist and repulse 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.

Out of about 4,000 Sepoys and 800 Europeans who had commenced this engagement, only about 200 of the latter survived. Colonel Fletcher was among the slain, and Captain Baird had wounds in four places. When he and Colonel Baillie, with other captive officers, were taken before Hyder Ally, the latter gentleman said to the barbarous chief, "Your son will inform you, 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. The slaughter among the Mysore troops was very great, amounting, it is said, to three times the whole British army. When Sir Hector Munroe learned the unhappy fate of his detachment, he found it necessary to retreat to Madras.

Captain Baird, with the officers, remained in a dungeon in one of Hyder's forts for three days and a half; he was chained by the leg to another prisoner, as much of the slaughter in Hyder's army was attributed to the grenadiers. At length, in July 1784, he was released, and joined his regiment at Arcot. In 1787, he removed with his regiment (now styled the 71st) to Bombay, and returned to Madras next year. On the 5th of June 1789, he received the majority of the 71st, and in October obtained leave of absence, and returned to Britain. In 1791, he returned as lieutenant-colonel of the 71st, and joined the army under the marquis Cornwallis. As commander of a brigade of Sepoys, he was present at the attack of a number of Droogs, or hill-forts, and at the siege of Seringapatam, in 1791 and 1792; and likewise at the storming of Tippoo