Note 7 — THE MYSORE WAR AND SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM. February to May, 1799.

As the 12th. Foot moved forward, a large body of Mysorean cavalry formed in the shape of a wedge, having an elephant with a howdah on his back in front, appeared advancing to charge the regiment, and the British line halted to receive the attack. Immediately afterwards two other very large bodies of the enemy were discovered in two topes or woods, preparing to support the first charge. Lieutenant-General Harris, seeing the danger which menaced the regiment, placed himself in its rear, frequently repeating the words, ‘Steady, Twelfth!’ ‘Steady, old Twelfth!’ and when the wedge approached within a hundred yards of the line, the Mysoreans discharged their carbines and pistols, but without doing execution. The 12th. remained steady, with their muskets at the recover, until the enemy arrived within about thirty yards, when a well-directed volley, followed by rapid file firing, carried destruction into the enemy’s ranks; a rampart of killed and wounded men and horses lying along the front of the regiment. The rear of the wedge were embarrassed by the killed and wounded in front, and could not continue the charge. The elephant was severely wounded, his conductor killed, and the chiefs on his back had fallen, when, turning round, he directed all his fury on the Mysoreans, overturning everything in his retrograde movement, and producing great havoc with a prodigious chain, which he swayed. A few Mysorean horsemen broke through the regiment, but they were instantly shot in its rear, and the British artillery arriving, and opening its fire, the enemy’s cavalry fell back; at the same time the line advanced, and decided the fate of the day at that part of the field; a distant cannonade, however, indicated that the battle was raging elsewhere.