At length the case became evidently hopeless; and the Sepoys under Captain Lucas having been broken and dispersed, Colonel Baillie, seeing that further resistance was vain, tied his handkerchief on his sword as a flag of truce, and ordered Captain Baird,[1] who was now second in command, to cease firing. Hyder's officers refused to attend to Colonel Baillie's signal, pointing to the Sepoys who, in their confusion, were still continuing to fire: this, however, being explained, they agreed to give quarter, and Colonel Baillie directed Captain Baird to order his men to ground their arms. The order was of course obeyed; and the instant it was so the enemy's cavalry, commanded by Tippoo Sahib in person, rushed upon the unarmed troops before they could recover themselves, cutting down every man within their reach. "Hyder's young soldiers, in particular," says Colonel Wilks, "amused themselves with fleshing their swords, and exhibiting their skill, on men already most inhumanly mangled, on the sick and wounded in the doolies,[2] and even on women and children, while the lower order of horsemen plundered their victims of the last remnant of clothing." The only humanity exercised was through the exertions of the French officers, Lally and Pimorin.[3]
Nothing remained to relieve the gloom of this ill-fated day but the recollection of the gallant conduct of the defeated corps, the greater part of which perished on the field. Eighty-six British officers were engaged in the conflict: of these thirty-six lay dead upon the field
- ↑ Afterwards General Sir David Baird.
- ↑ A common sort of palanquin.
- ↑ "The last and awful struggle was marked by the clashing of arms and shields, the snorting and kicking of horses, the snapping of spears, the glistening of bloody swords, oaths and imprecations, concluding with the groans and cries of bruised and mutilated men, wounded horses tumbling to the ground upon expiring soldiers, and the hideous roaring of elephants stalking to and fro, and wielding their dreadful chains amongst friends and foes. Such as were saved from the immediate stroke of death were so crowded together that it was with difficulty they could stand; several were in a state of suffocation; while others, from the weight of the dead bodies that had fallen upon them, were fixed to the spot, at the mercy of a furious foe." – Munro's "Operations in India."
trying juncture, sufficient to damp the spirits of the most intrepid, all the camp-followers rushed in confusion through the ranks of every battalion, and in an instant threw the whole into disorder." – Munro's "Operations on the Coromandel Coast."
