On the 12th of August the army moved from Oussoor, and on the 23d arrived at Bayeur. About this period Major Gowdie, of the Honorable East India Company’s Service, was detached with some troops for the reduction of the strong hill fort of _Nundydroog_, which it was found required regular approaches.
The flank companies of the thirty-sixth and SEVENTY-FIRST regiments, under the command of Captain Robertson, of the latter corps, marched on the 17th of October to join the detachment under Major Gowdie, and, upon their arrival, were immediately placed in the last parallel.
On the 18th of October, General the Earl Cornwallis, with the whole army, made a movement towards _Nundydroog_, and in the evening of that day the troops were told off for an assault upon the two breaches, which had been pronounced practicable. The attacks commenced at eleven o’clock at night, the grenadiers assaulting the right breach, and the light companies the left. The forlorn hope of the right attack consisted of twenty grenadiers, volunteers from the thirty-sixth and SEVENTY-FIRST, led by Lieutenant Hugh Mackenzie of the SEVENTY-FIRST, formerly paymaster of the regiment. The same number of light infantry, headed by Lieutenant Lewis Moore, of the SEVENTY-FIRST, formed the left attack. The grenadier company of the regiment, in support, was commanded by Lieutenant James Duncan; the light company, by Lieutenant Kenneth Mackenzie; the whole under Captain Robertson’s orders, as before stated.
Captain Robert Burne supported, with the thirty-sixth grenadiers, the right attack, and Captain William Hartley, with the light company of that regiment, the left attack; Major-General Medows, as usual, animating the whole with his presence.
Both breaches were carried without much resistance from the enemy, and the gateway of the inner wall being soon secured, the fort fell into the possession of the British. Many of the enemy were killed, and several, in attempting to escape, were dashed to pieces over the precipices. It was an additional source of gratification, that this important service had been achieved without the loss of a British soldier.
In a few days subsequently to the fall of Nundydroog, the army retraced its route to Bangalore.