For the first three months of the year 1782, the army of Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote was kept in a state of inactivity at St. Thomas’s Mount, where it would appear the Government of the presidency, apprehensive for its own safety, had detained this force, while a judicious movement to Porto Novo might have prevented the junction of the forces under Tippoo Saib with the strong reinforcement of French troops that had arrived from Europe on board the fleet of Admiral Suffrein, or at all events have prevented the loss of Permacoil and Cuddalore.
At length Sir Eyre Coote, having been reinforced by the Seventy-eighth, afterwards the Seventy-second regiment, recently arrived from England, was permitted to put the army in movement. In the beginning of April he marched in a southerly direction by Carangooly and Wandewash towards the enemy, encamped upon the Red Hills of Pondicherry. The object, which the Commander-in-chief appeared to have in view, was to separate the French and Mysorean troops, and he manœuvred accordingly between Chitaput and Arnee, until Hyder Ali, apprehensive for the safety of the latter place, where he had established magazines, made a rapid movement on the 2d of June, so as to overtake and attack the rear-guard of the British, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel John Elphinston[14], of the _Seventy-third_, who maintained his ground with great spirit and intrepidity until the line had completed its formation. The troops were ordered to advance immediately upon the enemy’s guns, the action became very warm, and the foe was soon forced across the river of _Arnee_, and in the pursuit several tumbrils were taken by the Honorable Captain James Lindsay, of the battalion. This gallant and intelligent officer, perceiving an enemy’s battalion endeavouring to extricate the tumbrils in the bed of the river, dashed forward at the head of his grenadier company, supported by the remainder of the corps under Major George Mackenzie’s command, and, quickly dispersing all opposed to his progress, took possession of his prize. This movement of the _Seventy-third_ was supported on the left by a battalion of Bengal Sepoys, who had captured one of the enemy’s guns, and both corps, equally animated by success, pushed on, driving the enemy before them as long as pursuit was prudent.