The British infantry advanced to meet
them with the bayonet, and drove them back with heavy loss. They
rallied, and returned to the attack again and again, but were as often
repulsed; continuing their attacks, however, until daylight, when Lord
Cornwallis, discovering at last the position of General Meadows,
joined him on Carrygut Hill.
When day broke, the commanders of the two armies were able to estimate
the results of the night's operations. On the English side, the only
positions gained were the works on Carrygut Hill, the redoubt at the
northwest corner of the hedge, another redoubt captured by the centre
column, and the positions occupied by the force under Colonels Stuart
and Knox, at the eastern end of the island.
The sultan found that his army was much reduced in strength, no less
than twenty-three thousand men being killed, wounded, or missing. Of
these, the missing were vastly the most numerous, for ten thousand
Chelahs, young Hindoos whom Tippoo had carried off in his raids, and
forced to become soldiers, and, nominally, Mohammedans, had taken
advantage of the confusion, and marched away with their arms to the
Forest of Coorg.
Tippoo made several determined efforts to drive Colonel Stuart's force
off the island, and to recapture the redoubts, but was repulsed with
such heavy loss that he abandoned the attempt altogether, evacuated
the other redoubts, and brought his whole army across on to the
island.
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