Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/446

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422
The War of Coromandel.
Book X.

the other side, entirely embraced the salient angle of the coveredway.

The following day, which was the 26th, the enemy fired most of their shot into the town; and most of their shells, as in the preceding night, into the works of the north front, by which a twentyfour pounder was dismounted on the N. E. bastion, and the casualties from the evening to the evening were five sepoys and one European killed, and 11 wounded, of whom were the Lieutenants Lang, and Little, who lost his left arm. In the succeeding night the enemy widened and raised their work on the crest of the glacis, notwithstanding the constant fire of the defences; and no guards could any longer be kept at the salient angle they had invested, but centries were advanced every quarter of an hour from the blind before the N. E. bastion, to observe whether they were beginning any new works, but discovered none. In the 24 hours to the evening of the 27th, no damage was done to any of the artillery, but five Europeans were killed and five wounded, and one with five Sepoys. The enemy's workmen remained very silent in their trenches through the night.

Three hundred Sepoys were intended to sally before day-break on the 28th, in order to surprize the enemy's battery of two guns to the south of the bar: but marching too late were discerned, and received the fire of the battery before they had crossed the bar, on which they were immediately recalled into the fort. In the morning the enemy began to fire again from the battery near their second crochet, which had remained silent ever since they opened it ineffectually on the 23d, and during this interval they had endeavoured to rectify the erroneous construction of the embrasures, which were intended against the right face of the north ravelin: they had likewise brought up two ten-inch mortars to this battery, with which, and three guns, they commenced their fire; but one of the guns failed at nine o'clock, and another at ten; in the afternoon another, which they were trying in the 4th embrasure, was disabled by a shot from the fort; after which, the cannonade from this battery ceased entirely, but the mortars continued. At noon a party with many