The unprovided state in which the army in advance had been left, is an instance how ill the machinery of the Military Board had worked. A divided responsibility produced its never-failing result. No one member feeling it his particular duty to provide for the contingencies which might occur, the whole was left to chance, and the nearest magazine, on which the brigades at Cawnpoor and Futteygurh were dependent, was Chunar. Had there been one head to the Ordnance department, this would not have happened. In this instance, from Zeman Shah retiring, no harm occurred, but far from taking warning and being better provided for the future, we shall find that when, in 1805, Lord Lake sat down before Bhurtpoor, there was the same want of equipment, and that time it resulted in our lamentable failure. While one portion of the regiment was in the field on the northern frontier, another was called on to form part of the army against Tippoo Sultan, whose proceedings had latterly been of so hostile a nature, that self-defence forced the British Government to curb his ambitious and dangerous designs. The army was collected from all the presidencies. Bengal furnished three battalions of native volunteers and four companies of European artillery, with their lascars (eight companies) attached.[42] One of these companies (5th company 2nd battalion) was taken from Ceylon; another (3rd company 1st battalion) had been despatched with Lieutenant-Colonel Errskine’s force to Ganjam the preceding year, and thence to Hyderabad; and the two remaining ones, the 1st and 2nd of the 3rd battalion, sailed under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Montague towards the end of the year, and reached Madras in January, 1799. The army under Lieutenant-General Harris was put in motion on the 3rd February, and entered Mysore on the 5th March. The artillery of the right wing, with which was the battering-train, consisting of four 24–pounders, thirty 18–pounders, eight 12–pounders, two brass 8–inch and eight 5½ mortars, was under Lieutenant-Colonel Montague’s command. On the 6th March the right brigade, under Colonel Montresor, was attacked at Seedaseer, but Tippoo’s troops were driven off. On the 27th the grand army was attacked at Malavelly, but the loss was trifling, and on the 5th April the army encamped before Seringapatam, on which night and the following day the outposts of the army were engaged, in which action Lieutenant Brooke, of the artillery, was wounded. Tippoo made no further attempts, but retired within the fort, against which approaches and batteries were commenced and carried on, the S.W. angle being the point selected for attack. Batteries were thrown up on both sides the river; and on the 4th May, the breach being practicable, the place was stormed.