Siege of Cuddalore (1748)

Last updated

Siege of Cuddalore (1748)
Part of War of the Austrian Succession
Date17 June 1748
Location
Result British victory
Belligerents
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg  Great Britain Royal Standard of the King of France.svg  France
Commanders and leaders
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg Stringer Lawrence Royal Standard of the King of France.svg Mahé de La Bourdonnais
Royal Standard of the King of France.svg Joseph Dupleix
Strength
400 men 800 Europeans
1,000 natives
Casualties and losses
light heavy

The siege of Cuddalore was a battle during the War of the Austrian Succession on 17 June 1748.

After a British raiding squadron left for Madras, Joseph François Dupleix decided to make another attack on Cuddalore, where the British had taken refuge after the fall of Madras. He was assisted by Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais. Commanding a force of 800 Europeans and 1,000 Indian sepoys, Dupleix marched from Pondicherry and arrived on the hills at Bandapolam, three miles from Cuddalore, on the morning of 17 June. Planning to take the town by surprise, Dupleix stopped until night. Forewarned of the advance, major Lawrence Stringer (who had arrived in India in January 1748 to command the East India Company's forces and had formed the first regular Company battalion on the Coromandel coast) managed to thwart this attempt with a force of no more than 400 men by removing the garrison and taking away the guns to Fort St. David, to make the French believe the British were unable to hold it.

When night arrived, however, Stringer led his men and guns back into Cuddalore, so that when the French attacked on the stroke of midnight and tried to put their scaling ladders against the town walls they were met with such a hail of musket-fire and gunshot that their advance was stopped dead. In the ensuing panic, the French made a hasty retreat to Pondicherry, with notable losses.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Clive</span> British military officer (1725–1774)

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive,, also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company (EIC) rule in Bengal. He began as a writer for the EIC in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal, Clive was guaranteed a jagir of £30,000 per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India in January 1767 he had a fortune of £180,000 which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph François Dupleix</span> Governor-General of French India from 1742 to 1754

Joseph Marquis Dupleix was Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Plassey</span> 1757 battle between Nawab of Bengal and British East India Company

The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. Robert Clive was paid £1 million by the Jagat Seth family – a rich Indian family business group – to defeat Siraj-ud-Daulah. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in chief who was also paid by the Jagat Seths. The battle helped the British East India Company take control of Bengal in 1772. Over the next hundred years, they continued to expand their control over vast territories in the rest of the Indian subcontinent, including Burma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French India</span> Former French colony

French India, formally the Établissements français dans l'Inde, was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were de facto incorporated into the Republic of India in 1950 and 1954. The enclaves were Pondichéry, Karikal, Yanam on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast and Chandernagor in Bengal. The French also possessed several loges inside other towns, but after 1816, the British denied all French claims to these, which were not reoccupied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Anglo-Mysore War</span> War in south India from 1780 to 1784

The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in the American Revolutionary War influenced Anglo-Mysorean hostilities in India. The great majority of soldiers on the company side were raised, trained, paid and commanded by the company, not the British government. However, the company's operations were also bolstered by Crown troops sent from Great Britain, and by troops from Hanover, which was also ruled by Great Britain's King George III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stringer Lawrence</span> British military officer

Major-General Stringer Lawrence was a British military officer who served as the first Commander-in-Chief of Fort William from 1748 to 1754.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnatic wars</span> 18th century wars between the French and the British

The Carnatic wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. The first Carnatic wars were fought between 1740 and 1748.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santhome</span> Neighbourhood in Chennai District, Tamil Nadu, India

Santhome is a locality in Mylapore in Chennai city in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anwaruddin Khan</span> Nawab of Arcot in south India (1672–1749)

Anwaruddin Khan, also known as Muhammad Anwaruddin, was the first Nawab of Arcot. He belonged to a family of Qannauji Sheikhs. He was a major figure during the first two Carnatic Wars. He was also Subedar of Thatta from 1721–1733.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France–Myanmar relations</span> Bilateral relations

France-Myanmar relations are the bilateral relations between Myanmar and France. Relations began in the early 18th century, as the French East India Company was attempting to extend its influence into Southeast Asia. France has an embassy in Yangon and Myanmar has an embassy in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Madras</span> Part of Seven Years War

Madras, held by the British, was besieged between December 1758 and February 1759 by French forces under the command of Comte de Lally during the Seven Years' War. The British garrison was able to hold out until it was relieved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Madras</span> Battle of the War of the Austrian Succession

The Battle of Madras or Fall of Madras took place in September 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a French force attacked and captured the city of Madras from its British garrison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Pondicherry (1778)</span> Part of the American Revolutionary War

The Siege of Pondicherry was the first military action on the Indian subcontinent following the declaration of war between Great Britain and France in the American Revolutionary War. A British force besieged the French-controlled port of Pondicherry in August 1778, which capitulated after ten weeks of siege.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franco-Indian Alliances</span> 18th-century alliances between France and parts of India

Various Franco-Indian Alliances were formed between France and various Indian kingdoms from the 18th century to the ascent of Napoleon. Following the alliances of Dupleix, a formal alliance was formed between by King Louis XVI during the American Revolutionary War in an attempt to oust the British East India Company from the Indian subcontinent. Later, numerous proposals of alliance were made by Tipu Sultan, leading to the dispatch of a French fleet of volunteers to help him, and even motivating an effort by Napoleon to make a junction with the Kingdom of Mysore through his 1798 campaign in Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre André de Suffren</span> French admiral (1729–1788)

Admiral comte Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, bailli de Suffren, Château de Saint-Cannat) was a French Navy officer and admiral. Beginning his career during the War of the Austrian Succession, he fought in the Seven Years' War, where he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Lagos. Promoted to captain in 1772, he was one of the aids of Admiral d'Estaing during the Naval battles of the American Revolutionary War, notably taking part in the Siege of Savannah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Carnatic War</span> 1740–1748 war in India

The First Carnatic War (1740–1748) was the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this conflict the British and French East India Companies vied with each other on land for control of their respective trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and Cuddalore, while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in southern India under the command of French Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix in the Second Carnatic War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Trichinopoly (1751–1752)</span> 1751-52 siege of Trichinopoly during the Second Carnatic War

The siege of Trichinopoly (1751–1752) was conducted by Chanda Sahib, who had been recognized as the Nawab of the Carnatic by representatives of the French East India Company, against the fortress town of Tiruchirappalli, held by Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 6 July 1746</span> 1746 naval battle

The action of 6 July 1746 was an inconclusive naval engagement between the British and French fleets during the War of the Austrian Succession.

The Battle of Adyar took place on 24 October 1746. The battle was between the French East India Company men and Nawab of Arcot forces over the St. George Fort, which was held by the French. It was part of the First Carnatic War between the English and the French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Pondicherry (1748)</span> British military operation of the First Carnatic War

The siege of Pondicherry was conducted by British forces against a French East India Company garrison under the command of Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix at the Indian port of Pondicherry. The British siege strategy, conducted with inexperience in siege tactics by Admiral Edward Boscawen, was lifted with the arrival of monsoon rains, on 27 October 1748. The siege was the last major action of the First Carnatic War, as the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession is sometimes known.