Historical Record of the Seventy-first Regiment, Highland Light Infantry: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1777, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1852Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Seventy-first Regiment, Highland Light Infantry: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1777, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1852
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 71st (Highland Light Infantry)
Captain Lindsay was afterwards joined by the seventy-fourth
grenadiers, and attempted to drive the enemy from the Pettah, but
could not succeed, from the numbers which poured on him from all
sides. This gallant officer then took post in a redoubt, where
he maintained himself until morning, and then moved to the north
bank of the river, where the firing appeared very heavy. He was
there met by Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel the Honorable John Knox,
of the thirty-sixth regiment, and by Lieut.-Colonel Baird, with
the grenadiers of the fifty-second, and the light company of the
SEVENTY-FIRST, together with some of the troops that composed the
left attack.
During these occurrences the battalion companies of the
fifty-second, SEVENTY-FIRST, and seventy-second regiments forced
their way across the river to the island, overpowering all that
opposed them, when Captain Archdeacon, commanding a battalion
of Bengal Sepoys, being killed, that battalion was thrown into
confusion, falling back upon the SEVENTY-FIRST. Major Stair Park
Dalrymple, wishing to prevent the Sepoys intermingling with his
men, ordered the regiment to oblique to the left, an operation
that by chance brought him in contact with the Sultan’s redoubt,
which was instantly attacked and carried. The charge of the redoubt
was given to Captain Hugh Sibbald, of the SEVENTY-FIRST, with his
company, who on the following morning was killed, nobly defending
it against repeated and desperate attacks from the enemy. The
commander-in-chief, General the Earl Cornwallis, in compliment to
the memory of this officer, had the name of the redoubt changed to
“Sibbald.”
In the evening of the 7th of February three thousand of the enemy’s
horse attacked the British troops on the island, but were repulsed
by the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment and the first Coast Sepoys. In
the course of these operations the regiment had Captain Sibbald
and Lieutenant Daniel Bayne killed; Ensign Duncan Mackenzie was
wounded; about one hundred rank and file were killed and wounded.
The enemy’s loss was very severe, being estimated at 20,000
_hors-de-combat_. Eighty pieces of cannon were taken by the British.
On the 9th of February the army took up its final position for
the siege of _Seringapatam_, and on the 15th Major-General Robert
Abercromby joined with the Bombay force, consisting of the
seventy-third, seventy-fifth, and seventy-seventh regiments,
besides native troops, making a total of about 6,000 men.
The SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, commanded by Major Dalrymple, crossed
the south branch of the Cavery at nine o’clock at night on the 18th
of February, and in two hours after attacked by surprise a camp
of the enemy’s cavalry, of whom great part were slain, and the
remainder dispersed in all directions. This movement was designed
to cover the operation of opening the trenches, which took place at
the same time, within eight hundred yards of the fort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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