they were encamped, to another road leading to the same place, Lord Cornwallis resolved to attempt, by a night march, to turn the enemy's left flank, and, by gaining his rear before daylight, cut off the retreat of his main body to the capital. To effect this object, six European regiments, twelve battalions of native infantry, with three field-pieces, one European and three native regiments of cavalry, were ordered to be in readiness to march at eleven o'clock on the night of the 13th of May, leaving their pickets and camp guards behind, and their tents standing. Nizam Ali's cavalry were to follow in the morning; but the order was not to be communicated till the moment of moving, lest the plan should be frustrated by treachery.
The ground occupied by the Anglo-Indian Army was intersected by ruined villages, inclosures, and deep ravines; and from this cause much time was lost in forming the troops in the prescribed order of march. Before they moved a terrific storm arose, and the march was performed under a deluge of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning of the most awful character. Exhausted by fatigue, scared by the lightning, and benumbed by the chilling effects of the rain, the cattle could scarcely be made to move; and the night, except when temporarily irradiated by the vivid flashes, being impenetrably dark, several regiments lost their way, and portions of the British force were moving in almost every variety of direction. Repeated halts thus became necessary; and on one of these occasions Lord Cornwallis found himself with no more than one company and one gun. A staff-officer who made the discovery that the General had thus outmarched the greater part of his force, or had become in some other way separated from them, attempted to find the column by tracing, with the aid of the lightning, the marks of the gun-carriage-wheels; but the tracks, though so recently made, had been completely obliterated by the unceasing torrents of rain, and he narrowly escaped riding into the enemy's encampments.
