Battle of Ooscota

Battle of Ooscota
Part of the First Anglo-Mysore War
Date 22–23 August 1768 Location Hoskote, India 13°04′N77°48′E / 13.07°N 77.8°E / 13.07; 77.8 Result Maratha victory
Belligerents
Maratha Confederacy	Kingdom of Mysore
Commanders and leaders
Murari Rao	Hyder Ali
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
18 killed or wounded	500 killed or wounded

Battle of Ooscota (or Ooscata) was a military engagement fought during the First Anglo-Mysore War, in which the Marathas intervened to aid the British, and in an attempt to reclaim territories previously lost to Mysore. ^[1]

Background

The British under Colonel Donald Campbell, and the Maratha Empire forces under Murari Rao Ghorpade were under march, and they encamped near Ooscata. The British contingent invited the Maratha to encamp within their defensive lines, but due to the illness of Mohammed Ali, the Nawab of Arcot, Rao declined, and they threw up their own picket a short distance away. Meanwhile, Hyder Ali was nearby and decided to attack the Maratha forces in the night.

Battle

The Mysorean cavalry attacked behind Hyder Ali's war elephants, which successfully ambushed the Maratha defenders, breaking through the camp’s defenses. Rao instructed his cavalrymen to remain unmounted, so that his forces could bring down any mounted troops; knowing them to be enemy. In the chaos, Rao's state elephant broke loose, and wielding its chain as a weapon, threw back the cavalry in the face of the supporting infantry. Disheartened, the Mysorean troops retreated, with a loss of some 500 troops compared to the Maratha losses of just 18.

As the British had been alerted and were advancing to relieve the Maratha, Hyder Ali decided against further attacks.

The British lost Cambell's aide de camp , Gee who had ridden to the Maratha camp to investigate, and been shot down under Rao's blanket orders to kill mounted men. ^[2]

References

1. T. B. Harbottle, George Bruce (1979). Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles (second ed.). Granada. p. 188. ISBN   0-246-11103-8.
2. Mark Wilks (1869). Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, Etc. Higginbotham and Company. pp. 341–342.