On the 23d of November Lieutenant John Mackenzie, of the second battalion, was dangerously wounded by the enemy’s cannonade.
At the opening of the campaign of 1783, Tippoo Saib encamped his army upon the plains of Arnee, where he was joined by a strong detachment of French auxiliaries from Cuddalore.
Major-General Stuart put the British army in movement, having first in view the demolition of the useless fortresses of Wandewash and Carangooly. He arrived at the latter place on the 6th of February, and, leaving there all heavy baggage and encumbrances, proceeded lightly equipped towards Wandewash, the works of which were accordingly destroyed. The army then returned to Carangooly, which experienced the same fate as Wandewash, and on the 23d of February arrived at Poonamallee.
Meanwhile, the siege of Gibraltar had terminated, hostilities having ceased in February 1783, in consequence of the preliminaries of the treaties between Great Britain, France, and Spain having been signed at Versailles on the 20th of the preceding month. The second battalion during the siege was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable George Mackenzie.
Notwithstanding private information having been received from respectable sources, overland, of a peace having been concluded between Great Britain and the other belligerent powers in Europe, still the Madras Government was determined to persevere in its original plans for the attack of _Cuddalore_. With this view, Major-General Stuart put the army in movement on the 21st of April, marching by brigades in a southerly direction. Major-General Stuart’s army consisted of the present SEVENTY-FIRST and Seventy-second regiments, the 101st regiment, a considerable body of native troops, and a detachment of Hanoverians under Colonel Wangenheim. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Elphinston, of the first battalion of the regiment, took the lead, with the fifth brigade, to the command of which he had been appointed, in consideration of his distinguished conduct and important services in the field.
Lieut.-Colonel James Stuart, of the Seventy-eighth Highlanders (the present Seventy-second regiment), commanded the first or European brigade, of which the first battalion of the _Seventy-third_ (now the SEVENTY-FIRST) regiment formed part, and which amounted to sixteen hundred men.