Gent, the senior engineer officer at the siege. In August he reported on the defences of Seringapatam, with plans and estimates for their improvement.
Ross returned to England in 1802, and on 1 Jan. 1803 retired from the service on a pension. Before leaving India he addressed a letter to the government, urging the requirements of the engineer and public works branch of the service, the necessity for expenditure in order to adequately maintain the defences of fortified places, and the economy which would result from judicious expenditure. He represented Horsham, Sussex, in parliament from 1802 until his death, on 24 Aug. 1804, at Harley Street, Cavendish Square, London. His wife died there on 7 Dec. of the preceding year.
[Royal Engineers' Records; War Office Records; Despatches; Vibart's Military Hist. of the Madras Engineers, London, 1881; Dodwell and Myles's Indian Army Lists; Porter's Hist. of the Corps of Royal Engineers, London, 1889; Munro's Coromandel War, 1784; Dirom's Narrative of the Campaign in India which terminated the war with Tippoo Sultan in 1792, London, 1793; Lake's Sieges of the Madras Army, 1825; Fullarton's Narrative of Operations of the Southern Army, 1788; Gent. Mag. 1804, ii. 885; Beatson's Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultan, 1800; Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs, London, 1804.]
ROSS, ROBERT (1766–1814), major-general, who won Bladensburg, and took Washington, born late in 1766, was the son of Major David Ross of Rosstrevor, an officer who served with distinction in the seven years' war. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of T. Adderley of Innishannon, and half-sister of James Caulfeild, first Earl of Charlemont [q. v.]
He matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, on 11 Oct. 1784, at the age of seventeen, and was commissioned as ensign in the 25th foot on 1 Aug. 1789. He became lieutenant in the 7th fusiliers on 13 July 1791, and captain on 21 April 1795. On 23 Dec. of that year he obtained a majority in the second battalion of the 19th regiment, but the battalion was soon afterwards reduced. After being for some years on half pay, he became major in the 20th foot on 6 Aug. 1799. The regiment was sent to Holland immediately afterwards to form part of the Anglo-Russian army under the Duke of York. Three-fourths of the men were volunteers from the militia; but it was ‘a regiment that never would be beaten,’ and at Krabbendam on 10 Sept. it repulsed a vigorous attack by the central column of Brune's army. This was Ross's first engagement. He was severely wounded, and had no further share in the operations.
In the following year he went with the regiment to Minorca, and helped to persuade the men, who were engaged for service in Europe only, to volunteer for Egypt. The regiment landed in Egypt in July 1801, when Ménou was still holding out in Alexandria; and it distinguished itself on 25 Aug. by storming an outpost with the bayonet only, and repelling the enemy's attempt to recover it. A few days afterwards Ménou capitulated; and at the end of the year the 20th went to Malta.
Ross had been made brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 Jan. 1801 for his service in Holland; but he was still regimental major when he succeeded, in September 1803, to the actual command of the 20th, which was now reduced to one battalion. He exercised the regiment indefatigably: ‘we were repeatedly out for eight hours during the hot weather; frequently crossing the country, scouring the fields over the stone walls, the whole of the regiment acting as light infantry; and the best of the joke was that no other corps in the island was similarly indulged’ (Steevens, Reminiscences, p. 39).
In November 1805 the regiment went to Naples as part of the expedition under Sir James Henry Craig [q. v.], but there was no fighting. Two months afterwards, upon the news of Austerlitz and the approach of the French in force, the expedition withdrew to Sicily. In July 1806 the British troops, now under Sir John Stuart (1761–1815) [q. v.], landed in Calabria, and met the French at Maida. The 20th had been sent up the coast to make a diversion, and disembarked in the bay of St. Euphemia only on the morning of the battle. The French cavalry and skirmishers were turning the British left, when Ross, who had hastened up with his regiment, issued upon them from a wood. He ‘drove the swarm of sharpshooters before him; gave the French cavalry such a volley as sent them off in confusion to the rear; and, passing beyond the left of Cole's brigade, wheeled the 20th to their right, and opened a shattering fire on the enemy's battalions. The effect was decisive. Reynier was completely taken by surprise at the apparition of this fresh assailant; he made but a short and feeble effort to maintain his ground’ (Bunbury, Narrative, p. 247). Stuart, in his general orders, spoke of Ross's action as ‘a prompt display of gallantry and judgment to which the army was most critically indebted.’ Ross received a gold medal for this battle. The 20th took part in the storming of Scylla Castle, and then returned
