Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/215

Rh renew the contest. In this engagement, major Campbell was wounded, but remained in the field till the enemy was defeated. The singular intrepidity and admirable conduct which he displayed throughout the whole of this affair, called forth the warmest encomiums from colonel Macleod, who, in the general orders which he issued on the following day, bore the most flattering testimony to his merits.

The most important service in which major Campbell was engaged, was the siege of Annantpore, which he reduced, and took from the enemy.

In May, 1783, he was appointed by the governor and select committee of Bombay, to the provisional command of the army in the Bidnure country, in absence of colonel Macleod, who was prisoner with the enemy. Soon after major Campbell had assumed the command, Tippoo having got possession of Bidnure, meditated an attack on Mangalore, where major Campbell was stationed; and with this view, and as a preparatory proceeding, he sent a detachment of his army, consisting of about four thousand horse and foot, and some field pieces, in advance. Having been informed of the approach of these troops, major Campbell marched from Mangalore at midnight, on the 6th of May, 1783, with fourteen hundred men, with the intention of surprising them; and in this he was eminently successful. He reached the enemy's camp about day break, attacked them, and instantly put them to the route, capturing four brass field pieces, and one hundred and eighty draught bullocks ; the latter, a singularly valuable prize, as, from the country being in possession of the enemy, cattle was not to be had for the commissariat. The defeat of Tippoo's detachment, however, instead of diverting him from his intended attack on Mangalore, had the effect only of urging him to hasten his proceedings; and on the 19th of May, his vanguard appeared in sight of that place, which by the 23d was regularly invested by an army, computed at not less than one hundred and forty thousand men, accompanied by an hundred pieces of artillery.

Major Campbell's defence of this important fortress against such a prodigious force, is justly reckoned one of the most remarkable achievements that ever distinguished the British arms in India. The garrison under his command consisted only of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three men, and of these not more than two or three hundred were British soldiers, the remainder being seapoys, or native infantry; and they were, besides, in want of almost every accommodation and comfort necessary to enable them to endure a siege. They were short of both provisions and medicine ; and, from the insufficient shelter which the fort afforded, they were exposed to the inclemencies of the monsoon. Notwithstanding all this, however, this little garrison resisted all the efforts of Tippoo, who commanded at the siege in person, till the 2nd of August, two months and a half, when, through the intervention of the envoy from the French court, at Tippoo's Durbar, a cessation of hostilities took place; but a neither side meant, notwithstanding this parley, to give up the contest, the siege was now converted into a blockade; and though the garrison was thus relieved from the danger of casualties by the hand of the enemy, it was not relieved from the miseries of famine, which had now reduced them to the last extremity of distress.

Soon after the cessation of hostilities took place, Tippoo expressed a wish to see major Campbell, whose bravery, though an enemy, he had generosity enough to appreciate. Major Campbell accepted the invitation, and had an audience of the eastern potentate, who received him with much politeness, and paid him many flattering compliments. The major was accompanied by several of his officers on this occasion, and amongst these by two captains of the 42nd, in their full costume ; a sight with which Tippoo was extremely delighted. To each