Unfortunately, owing to a misunderstanding as to the order, the
officer guiding General Meadow's column, instead of taking it to a
point between the northwestern redoubt and the river, led it directly
at the fort. This was stoutly defended, and cost the British eighty
men and eleven officers. Leaving a strong garrison here, the column
advanced, but came upon another redoubt, of even greater strength and
magnitude; and the general, fearing that the delay that would take
place in capturing it would entirely disarrange the plan of the
attack, thought he had better make his way out through the hedge,
march round it to the point where the centre column had entered it,
and so give Lord Cornwallis the support he must need, opposed as he
was to the whole army of Tippoo.
In the meantime, Colonel Maxwell's force had stormed the work on
Carrygut Hill, and had made its way through the hedge; suffering
heavily, as it did so, from the fire of a strong body of the enemy,
concealed in a water course. The head of the centre column, under
General Knox, after cutting its way through the hedge, pushed on with
levelled bayonets, thrust its way through the enemy's infantry, and,
mingling with a mass of fugitives, crossed the main ford close under
the guns of the fort, and took possession of a village, half way
between the town and the fort.
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