page_title: Siege of Seringapatam (1799)
section_title: The breach
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Seringapatam (1799) / The breach
caption_attribution_description: Plan of the attack upon the north-west angle of Seringapatam, 1799.
context_page_description: The Siege of Seringapatam was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British, with the allied Nizam of Hyderabad and Maratha, achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. Tipu Sultan, Mysore's ruler, was killed in the action. The British restored the Wodeyar dynasty to the throne after the victory, but retained indirect control of the kingdom. The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird.
context_section_description: The Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, planned the opening of a breach in the walls of Seringapatam.  The location of the breach, as noted by Beatson, the author of an account of the Fourth Mysore War, was 'in the west curtain, a little to the right of the flank of the north-west bastion. This being the old rampart appeared weaker than the new.'  The Mysorean defence succeeded in preventing the establishment of a battery on the north side of the River Cauvery on 22 April 1799.  However, by 1 May, working at night, the British had completed their southern batteries and brought them up to the wall.  At sunrise on 2 May, the batteries of the Nizam of Hyderabad succeeded in opening a practical breach in the outer wall.  In addition, the mines that were laid under the breach were hit by artillery and blew up prematurely.
  The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, an implacable enemy of Tipu Sultan: twenty years earlier, he had been held captive for 44 months. The storming troops, including men of the 73rd and 74th regiments, clambered up the breach and fought their way along the ramparts.
  On the night of 3 May some officers crossed over to the glacis, examined the breach and the manner of attacking the fort (Lushington, Life of Harris, p. 325). It was probably on this occasion that it was arranged between the English officers and Mir Sadiq that the assault should take place at midday( p. 313).
caption: Plan of the attack on the north-west angle of Seringapatam
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