Third Anglo - Mysore War The Third Anglo – Mysore War ( 1789 – 92 ) was a war in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the East India Company and its allies , including the Maratha Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad . It was the third of four Anglo – Mysore Wars . Background . Tipu Sultan , the ruler of Kingdom of Mysore , and his father Hyder Ali before him , had previously fought twice with the forces of the British East India Company . The First Anglo - Mysore War , fought in the 1760s , had ended inconclusively , with treaty provisions including promises of mutual assistance in future conflicts . British failure to support Mysore in conflicts with the Maratha Empire and other actions supportive of Mysore ' s enemies led Hyder to develop a dislike for the British . After the British took the French - controlled port of Mahé in 1779 , Hyder , who had been receiving military supplies through that port and had placed it under his protection , opened the Second Anglo – Mysore War . This war also ended somewhat inconclusively in 1784 with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore . Tipu , who gained control of Mysore after his father ' s death in December 1782 , maintained an implacable hatred of the British , and declared not long after signing the 1784 treaty that he intended to continue battle with them given the opportunity . He refused to free British prisoners taken during the war , one of the conditions of the treaty . Tipu Sultan further strengthened his alliances with Ali Raja Bibi Junumabe II and the Muslim Mappila community , thus expanding the Sultanate of Mysore ' s sphere of influence . British General Charles , 2nd Earl Cornwallis became the Governor - General of India and Commander - in - Chief for the East India Company in 1786 . While he formally abrogated agreements with the Marathas and Hyderabad that violated terms of the 1784 treaty , he sought informally to gain their support and that of the Nizam of Hyderabad , or at least their neutrality , in the event of conflict with Mysore . Events leading to war . In 1788 the company gained control of the Circar of Guntur , the southernmost of the Northern Circars , which the company had acquired under earlier agreements with the Nizam . In exchange , the company provided the Nizam with two battalions of company troops . Both of these acts placed British troops closer to Mysore , but also guaranteed the Nizam would support the British in the event of conflict . The kingdom of Travancore had been a target of Tipu for acquisition or conquest since the end of the previous war . Indirect attempts to take over the kingdom had failed in 1788 , and Archibald Campbell , the Madras president at the time , had warned Tipu that an attack on Travancore would be treated as a declaration of war on the company . The rajah of Travancore also angered Tipu by extending fortifications along the border with Mysore into territory claimed by Mysore , and by purchasing from the Dutch East India Company two forts in the Kingdom of Cochin , a state paying tribute to Tipu Sultan . In 1789 Tipu Sultan sent forces onto the Malabar Coast to put down a rebellion . Many people fled to Travancore and Cochin , a state paying tribute to Tipu , in the wake of his advance . To follow them , Tipu began , in the fall of 1789 to build up troops at Coimbatore in preparation for an assault on the Nedumkotta , a fortified line of defence built by Dharma Raja of Travancore to protect his domain . Cornwallis , observing this buildup , reiterated to Campbell ' s successor , John Holland , that an attack on Travancore should be considered a declaration of war , and met with a strong British response . Tipu , aware that Holland was not the experienced military officer that Campbell was , and that he did not have the close relationship that Campbell and Cornwallis had ( both had served in North America in the American War of Independence ) , probably decided that this was an opportune time to attack . Early campaigns . On 29 December 1789 , Tipu marched 14 , 000 troops from Coimbatore and attacked the Nedumkotta . The first phase was an embarrassing defeat for Tipu , when the defenders inflicted severe losses on the Tipu ' s forces and drove them back . While the Mysorean forces and their allies regrouped , Governor Holland , much to Cornwallis ' dismay , engaged in negotiations with Tipu rather than mobilising the military . Cornwallis was on the brink of going to Madras to take command when he received word that Holland ' s replacement , General William Medows was about to arrive . Medows forcibly removed Holland , and set about planning operations against Tipu while building up troops at Trichinopoly . Medows ' campaign , 1790 . It was May before Medows was prepared to march . In the meantime , Tipu had renewed his attack on Travancore , and successfully breached the Nedumkotta line in late April 1790 , despite the heavy losses inflicted by the Tranvancorean army . British forces in Travancore were too few to withstand the assault , and withdrew to the Ayacotta fortress and the Travancorean army made a strategic retreat to the further bank of the Periyar river and prepared to contest the crossing of the river . The monsoon rains prevented the Mysorean army from fording the river and as Tipu received the news that the British campaign from Madras began to take shape as a significant threat , he retreated from Travancore . The plan of attack developed by Medows called for a two - pronged attack , with the main thrust against the Coimbatore district and a diversionary thrust into Mysore from the northeast . Cornwallis was unhappy with this plan , due in part to the lateness of the season ( combat being much more difficult during the monsoon season ) , and the lengthy supply lines from Madras that the plan entailed . However , he was willing to give Medows the opportunity for independent command . Medows moved out of Trichinopoly in late May . Hampered by weather and equipment problems , his progress was slow . He met little resistance , as Tipu had withdrawn his main forces to the Mysore highlands . On 21 July Medows entered Coimbatore unopposed , after having taken some of the smaller fortifications in the district by either abandonment or the immediate surrender of the garrison . His only opposition consisted of 4 , 000 cavalry under Sayed Sahib that Tipu had detached to observe and harass his operations ; most of these were eventually driven across the Bhavani River by Medows ' cavalry . Further strong points in the district fell , with Palghat and Dindigul requiring significant action to capture . Although the campaign was successful in gaining complete control of the Coimbatore district , Medows had to divide his forces to hold it , with the largest detachments at Coimbatore , Palghat , and Sathyamangalam . The attack from Bengal , and a third from Bombay , were late in getting started when Tipu made his counterattack . Tipu ' s counterattack . On 2 September , Tipu left Srirangapatnam at the head of a 40 , 000 - man army . Descending the mountain passes beginning on 9 September , he began to move toward Sathyamangalam . While the 2 , 800 - man garrison there withstood an initial assault from Tipu ' s force on 13 September , Captain John Floyd , the garrison commander , opted to withdraw . Under cover of night , they crossed the Bhavani and headed for Coimbatore . Tipu , slowed by heavy rains , sent 15 , 000 cavalry in pursuit . These eventually caught up and captured much of Floyd ' s baggage train , and continued to pursue the weary garrison . That evening , the full force of Tipu ' s army fell upon them as they camped at Cheyoor . A desperate stand by the infantry repulsed repeated assaults , and only the arrival of reinforcements sent by Medows rescued them . Tipu then embarked on a campaign of harassing the British supply and communications , while screening the movements of his main force . In early November he successfully misled Medows , moving much of his army north to attack the smaller Bengal force . This force , about 9 , 000 men led by Colonel Maxwell , had reached Kaveripattinam and strongly fortified his position . Unable to penetrate the defences , Tipu withdrew to the south on 14 November after learning that Medows was on his trail again . Medows and Maxwell joined forces on 17 November , and pursued Tipu , who had decided to make a move toward Trichinopoly . Unable to do more than pillage the town before Medows arrived , Tipu then moved on to rampage through the Carnatic , destroying towns and seizing supplies as he went . He ended up at the French outpost at Pondicherry , where he attempted to interest the French in supporting his efforts against the British . As France was then in the early stages of its Revolution , these efforts were entirely unsuccessful . Medows at this point moved toward Madras , where he turned over command of his army to Lord Cornwallis . Allied advances . During the summer of 1790 , a Maratha army of some 30 , 000 under the command of Purseram Bhow , accompanied by a detachment of British troops from Bombay , began marching toward Mysore . The first several Mysorean outposts surrendered in the face of the large army , and it made steady if slow progress until it reached Darwar in September . The fort was weakly and indifferently besieged for 29 weeks , with the garrison finally surrendering on 3 April 1791 . The army then continued to advance , reaching the Tungabhadra River in early May . A second army , consisting of 25 , 000 cavalry and 5 , 000 infantry under the command of Hurry Punt assisted by a detachment of British soldiers from the Madras army , left Poona in January 1791 , eventually reaching Kurnool without significant opposition . Hurry Punt went to confer with the Nizam , who had not crossed into Mysore in fear that Tipu ' s large army would overwhelm his before it could be joined to that of one of the other allies . On receiving word that Cornwallis had captured Bangalore and was moving toward the Mysorean capital , Srirangapatnam , Hurry Punt moved out from Kurnool , and made junction with Cornwallis on 28 May . The Nizam ' s army , led by Mahabat Jung , advanced to Koppal , which they besieged in October 1790 . Poor - quality cannons impeded the conduct of the siege , which was not successfully concluded until April 1791 . British take the Malabar coast . British forces succeeded in taking control of the Malabar coast late in 1790 . One force under Colonel Hartley gained a decisive victory at Calicut in December , while a second under Robert Abercromby routed the Mysoreans at Cannanore a few days later . First advance on Seringapatam . Cornwallis ' first goal was to take the strong point of Bangalore , which would provide a base for future operations against Seringapatam . He hoped that this would stimulate the allies to step up their activity . Anticipating that Tipu would engage in a scorched - earth campaign in the highlands of Mysore , he made significant arrangements for provisions . To assist in the hauling of supplies and heavy armaments he also retained a significant number of elephants . Cornwallis took over the main British army at Vellore on 29 January 1791 . A week later he marched west , as if to pass through the Eastern Ghats at that point . This prompted Tipu to abandon Pondicherry and make haste for Bangalore , where he perceived his harem to be at some risk . Although Tipu placed defences on some of the passes , Cornwallis , after a number of feints , turned sharply north , and crossed the mountains at the Muglee Pass on 21 February against no opposition . He then continued to advance , against virtually no resistance , until he was very nearly before the gates of Bangalore on 5 March . Tipu had fortified the city and supplied the garrison , but he stayed with his main force on the outskirts of the British positions as Cornwallis began siege operations . After six weeks of siege , in which the British had to repeatedly beat off attacks and skirmishes from Tipu , they successfully stormed the citadel . After securing Bangalore , Cornwallis turned his army north to meet a supply caravan and to effect a junction with the Nizam ' s army , which took place on 12 April about north of Bangalore . Turning back toward Bangalore , Cornwallis found the Nizam ' s men to be noticeably unhelpful . He had hoped that the addition of native cavalry to the army would assist in offsetting Tipu ' s advantage in that quarter , but the Nizam ' s men , commanded by Teige Wunt , were interested in plunder and in living off the army ' s supplies instead of foraging and scouting against Tipu . The British then embarked on a series of operations to secure most of the area around Bangalore before moving on to Seringapatam . When Cornwallis was seeking a ford at which to cross the Cauvery River , Tipu offered him battle at a ford near the village of Arakere . In the ensuing battle on 15 May , Cornwallis flanked Tipu ' s position and drove him to retreat behind Seringapatam ' s walls . Since the Marathan forces were apparently not nearby , and it seemed unlikely that Abercromby would arrive with the Malabar forces , and his army was on the verge of starvation , Cornwallis then made the difficult decision on 22 May to destroy his siege train and retreat . Only three days later , the Maratha army arrived , Tipu having successfully prevented most of its messengers from reaching Cornwallis before then . Cornwallis ' retreat to Bangalore exposed the Coimbatore district to Tipu ' s forces . On 11 June , 2 , 000 Mysorean forces laid siege to Coimbatore . Lieutenant Chalmers , the garrison commander , ignored orders from Cornwallis to withdraw if attacked in force , and chose to fight , in spite of having less than 300 men and inferior gunpowder . His defence was spirited , and reinforcements from Palgautcherry prompted him to sortie and successfully take the defenders ' supply train in August . Eight thousand more Mysoreans then arrived , but Chalmers held out until 6 November . In violation of the agreed terms of surrender Chalmers and his men were taken prisoner . Second advance on Seringapatam . Following the allied retreat to Bangalore , the armies of Purseram Bhow and Teige Wunt left the grand army to pursue territorial gains in Mysore ' s northern territories . Purseram Bhow , desirous of recapturing the Bednore district that Tipu ' s father Hyder had taken in an earlier war , captured Hooly Honore and Shimoga , although British forces attached to his army did much of the necessary work . Only the threatened arrival of a detachment from Tipu ' s army prevented him from laying siege to Bednore itself . Bhow did not return to the grand army until after peace negotiations began at Seringapatam . Whereas the earl ' s younger brother , Commodore William Cornwallis , was engaged in the naval Battle of Tellicherry , Charles spent the remainder of 1791 securing his supply lines to Madras . To this end he laid siege to Nundydroog in November and Savendroog in December , both of which fell after unexpectedly modest efforts . He also ordered a massive supply operation to ensure that adequate supplies and pay for his army and those of the allies would be available . Spies were sent to infiltrate Tipu ' s camps , and he began to receive more reliable reports of the latter ' s troop strengths and disposition . The relations between Cornwallis and the allies were difficult . The Marathan military leaders , Purseram Bhow and Hurry Punt , had to be bribed to stay with the army , and Cornwallis reported the Hyderabadi forces to be more of a hindrance than a help ; one British observer wrote that they were a " disorderly rabble " and " not very creditable to the state of military discipline at Hyderabad . " On 25 January , Cornwallis moved from Savendroog toward Seringapatam , while Abercromby again advanced from the Malabar coast . While Tipu ' s men harassed the column , they did not impede its progress . Cornwallis established a chain of outposts to protect the supply line from Bangalore . When the massive army reached the plains before Seringapatam on 5 February , Tipu ' s began showering the force with rockets . Cornwallis responded with a night - time attack to dislodge Tipu from his lines . After a somewhat confused battle , Tipu ' s forces were flanked , and he retreated into the city , and Cornwallis began siege operations . On 12 February Abercromby arrived with the Bombay army , and the noose began to tighten around Tipu . By 23 February , Tipu began making overtures for peace talks , and hostilities were suspended the next day when he agreed to preliminary terms . Peace . Among the preliminary terms that Cornwallis insisted on was the Tipu surrender two of his sons as hostages as a guarantee for his execution of the agreed terms . On 26 February his two young sons were formally delivered to Cornwallis amid great ceremony and gun salutes by both sides . Cornwallis , who was not interested in significantly extending the company ' s territory , or in turning most of Mysore over to the Mahrattas and Hyderabad , negotiated a division of one half of Mysorean territory , to be divided by the allies , in which the company ' s acquisition would improve its defences . He later wrote , " If we had taken Seringapatam and killed Tippoo , [ . . . ] we must either have given that capital to the Marattas ( a dangerous boon ) or have set up some miserable pageant of our own , to be supported by the Company ' s troops and treasures , and to be plundered by its servants . " The territories taken deprived Mysore of much of its coastline ; Mysore was also obligated to pay some of the allied war costs . On 18 March 1792 Tipu agreed to the terms and signed the Treaty of Seringapatam , ending hostilities . Consequences . The war resulted in a sharp curtailment of Mysore ' s borders to the advantage of the Mahrattas , the Nizam of Hyderabad , and the Madras Presidency . The districts of Malabar , Salem , Bellary and Anantapur were ceded to the Madras Presidency . A fourth and final war was fought between the British and Mysore in 1799 , in which Seringapatam was taken , and Tipu was killed in its defence . The victors , rather than partitioning the country , forced Tipu ' s family into exile and restored control of Mysore to the Wodeyars . One notable military advance championed by Tipu Sultan was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades , called " kushoons " , in the army . The weapons used by the kushoons sufficiently impressed the British during the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars to inspire William Congreve to develop Congreve rocket s . Cornwallis was raised to the title of Marquess for his actions in the war .