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BAIRD, (the Right
Honourable, General Sir) DAVID, a distinguished commander during
the wars of the French Revolution, was the second surviving son of
William Baird, Esq., heir, by settlement, of his second cousin Sir John
Baird, of Newbyth, Bart. He entered the army, December 16, 1772, as an
ensign in the 2nd foot, joined the regiment at Gibraltar, April 1773,
and returned to Britain in 1776. Having been promoted to a lieutenancy
in 1778, he immediately after obtained a company in the 73rd, a regiment
then just raised by Lord Macleod, with which he sailed for India, and
arrived at Madras, January 1780.
This young regiment was
here at once ushered into the trying and hazardous scenes of the war
against Hyder Ally, whom the English company had provoked by a shameful
breach of faith into a hostility that threatened to overwhelm it. In
July 1780, while the company, exclusive of Lord Macleod’s regiment,
had only about 5,000 men under arms, Hyder burst into the
Carnatic with an army of 100,000 men, disciplined and commanded by
French officers, and laid siege to Arcot, the capital of the only native
prince friendly to the British. Sir Hector Munro, commander-in-chief of
the Company’s troops, set out to relieve this city on the 25th of
August, expecting to be joined on the 30th, by a large detachment then
in the northern circars under Colonel Baillie. On learning this
movement, Hyder left Arcot, and threw himself in the way of Colonel
Baillie. In order to favour, if possible, the approach of this
officer, Sir Hector Munro, on the 5th of September, changed his
position a little, and advanced two miles on the Trepassore road, which
brought him within a short distance from the enemy. Hyder then detached
his brother-in-law, Meer Saib, with 8,000 horse, to attack Colonel
Baillie, and afterwards an additional force of 6,000 infantry, 18,000
cavalry, and 12 pieces of cannon, under his son, the celebrated Tippoo.
He at the same time made demonstrations on his front, to keep up the
attention of Sir Hector and the main army. Baillie, though commanding no
more than 2,000 Sepoys and a few European companies, gained a complete
victory over the immense force sent against him, but at the same time
sent word to Sir Hector, that, unless provision were made for
accomplishing a junction, he must certainly be cut off. The
commander-in-chief held a council of war, when it was determined at all
hazards to send a reinforcement, for the purpose of achieving the relief
of this gallant officer. A small force was selected, consisting
principally of the grenadier and infantry companies of Lord Macleod’s
regiment, which, having received strict injunctions as to the necessity
of a secret and expeditious march, set off towards Colonel Baillie’s
position, under the command of Colonel Fletcher and Captain Baird. Hyder
Ally had secret intelligence of this movement, and sent a detachment to
cut it off; but Colonel Fletcher and Captain Baird, having fortunately
conceived some suspicion of their guides, suddenly altered their line of
march, and were thereby enabled to gain their point. Hyder was
determined that Colonel Baillie, with his friends, should not advance so
safely to the main army. He therefore, with the most consummate ability,
and under his own personal inspection, prepared an ambuscade at a
particular pass through which they would have to march. This part of the
road, he had occupied and enfiladed with several batteries of cannon,
behind which lay large bodies of his best foot, while he himself, with
almost his whole force, was ready to support the attack. While these
real dispositions were made, a cloud of irregular cavalry was employed
in several motions on the side of Conjeveram, in order to divert the
attention of the English camp.
The morning of the 10th
of September had scarcely dawned, when the silent and expectant enemy
perceived Colonel Baillie’s little army advancing into the very toils
planted to receive it. The ambuscade reserved their fire with admirable
coolness and self-command, till the unhappy English were in the midst of
them. The army marched in column. On a sudden, while in a narrow defile,
a battery of twelve guns poured a storm of grape-shot into their right
flank. The English faced about; another battery immediately opened on
their rear. They had no alternative, therefore, but to advance; other
batteries met them here likewise, and in less than half an hour,
57 pieces of cannon were so brought to bear on them as to penetrate into
every part of the British line. By seven o’clock in the morning, the
enemy poured down upon them in thousands, and every Englishman in
the army was engaged. Captain Baird, at the head of his grenadiers,
fought with the greatest heroism. Surrounded and attacked on all sides
by 25,000 cavalry, by 30 regiments of Sepoy infantry, besides Hyder Ally’s
European corps, and a numerous artillery playing upon them from all
quarters within grape-shot distance, yet this heroic column stood firm
and undaunted, alternately facing their enemies on every side of attack.
The French officers in Hyder’s camp beheld the scene with
astonishment, which was increased, when, in the midst of all this tumult
and extreme peril, they saw the British grenadiers performing their
evolutions with as much precision, coolness, and steadiness, as if under
the eyes of a commander on a parade.
Colonels Baillie and
Fletcher, and Captain Baird, had only ten pieces of cannon; but these
were so excellently served, that they made great havoc amongst
the enemy. At length, after a dubious contest of three hours (from six
in the morning till nine,) victory began to declare for the English; the
flower of the Mysore cavalry, after many bloody repulses, were at length
entirely defeated with great slaughter, and the right wing, composed of
Hyder’s best forces, was thrown into disorder, and began to
give way. Ryder himself was about to give the orders for retreat,
and the French officer who directed the artillery began to draw it off.
At this moment of
exultation and triumph, when British valour was just about to reap that
safety which it had so well fought for, there occurred an accident,
which entirely altered the fortune of the day. The tumbrils containing
the ammunition suddenly blew up, with two dreadful explosions, in the
centre of the British line. The whole face of their column was laid
open, and their artillery overturned and destroyed. The destruction of
men was great, but the total loss of their ammunition was still
more fatal to the survivors. Tippoo Saib, a worthy son of his martial
father, instantly saw and seized the moment of advantage, and, without
waiting for orders, fell with the utmost rapidity, at the head of the
Mogul and Carnatic horse, into the broken square, which had not yet time
in any degree to recover its form and order. This attack by the enemy’s
cavalry being immediately seconded by the French corps, and by the
firing line of infantry, determined at once the fate of our unfortunate
army. After successive prodigies of valour, the brave Sepoys were almost
to a man cut to pieces.
Colonels Baillie and
Fletcher made one more desperate effort; they rallied the Europeans,
and, under the fire of the whole artillery of the enemy, gained little
eminence and formed themselves into a square. In this form, did this
invincible band, though totally without ammunition, the officers
fighting only with their swords, and the soldiers with their bare
bayonets, resist and repulse the enemy in thirteen different attacks;
until, at length, incapable of withstanding the successive
torrents of fresh troops which were continually pouring upon them, they
were fairly borne down and trampled upon, many of them still continuing
to fight under the very legs of the horses and elephants.
Out of about 4,000 Sepoys
and 800 Europeans who had commenced the engagement, only about 200 of
the latter survived. Colonel Fletcher was among the slain, and Captain
Baird had wounds in four places. When he and Colonel Baillie, with other
captive officers, were taken before Hyder Ally, the latter gentleman
said to the barbarous chief, "Your son will inform you, that you
owe the victory to our disaster, rather than to our defeat." Hyder
angrily ordered them from his presence, and commanded them instantly to
prison. The slaughter among the Mysore troops was very great, amounting,
it is said, to three times the whole British army. When Sir Hector
Munroe learned the unhappy fate of his detachment, he found it necessary
to retreat to Madras.
Captain Baird, with the
officers, remained in a dungeon in one of Hyder’s forts for three days
and a half; he was chained by the leg to another prisoner as much of the
slaughter in Hyder’s army was attributed to the grenadiers. At length,
in July 1784, he was released, and joined his regiment at Arcot. In
1787, he removed with his regiment (now styled the 71st) to Bombay, and
returned to Madras next year. On the 5th of June 1789, he received the
majority of the 71st, and in October obtained leave of absence, and
returned to Britain. In 1791, he returned as lieutenant-colonel of the
71st, and joined the army under the marquis Cornwallis. As commander of
a brigade of Sepoys, he was present at the attack of a number of Droogs,
or hill-forts, and at the siege of Seringapatam, in 1791 and 1792; and
likewise at the storming of Tippoo Sultaun’s lines and camps in the
island of Seringapatam. In 1793, he commanded a brigade of Europeans,
and was present at the siege of Pondicherry. He received a colonelcy in
1795. In October 1797, he embarked at Madras with his regiment for
Europe; in December, when he arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, he was
appointed Brigadier-general, and placed on that staff, in command of a
brigade. June 18, 1798, he was appointed Major-general, and returned to
the staff in India. In January 1799, he arrived at Madras, in command of
two regiments of foot, together with the drafts of the 28th
dragoons. May 4, he commanded the storming party at that distinguished
action, the assault of Seringapatam; when, in requital of his brilliant
services, he was presented by the army, through the Commander-in-chief,
with the state sword of Tippoo Sultaun, and also with a dress-sword from
the field-officers serving under his immediate command at the assault.
The eminent merit of
Brigadier-general Baird was now fully known and acknowledged by the
government at home. He was therefore, in 1800, appointed to the command
of an expedition against Batavia, but which was afterwards sent to
Egypt. He landed at Coseir in June, crossed the desert, and, embarking
on the Nile, descended to Grand Cairo; whence he set out for Alexandria,
which he reached a few days before it surrendered to General Hutchinson.
Next year he led the Egyptian Indian army overland to India, where he
was concerned in various military transactions. His services, however,
being soon after superseded by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the
illustrious protector of Europe), he sailed for Britain with his staff,
March 1803, and after a tedious voyage, during which he was taken
prisoner by a French privateer, but afterwards retaken, he arrived in
England in November.
Sir David Baird was
received at the British court with great distinction. In December, he
received the royal permission to wear the Turkish order of the Crescent.
In June, 1804, he received the honour of knighthood; and on the 18th
of August following became a knight companion of the Bath. With the
increased rank of Lieutenant-general, he commanded an expedition which
sailed in October 1805, for the Cape of Good Hope. Landing there,
January 6, 1806, he attacked and beat the Dutch army, and on the 18th
received the surrender of the colony. Being recalled, he arrived in
Britain, April 1807, and was shifted from the colonelcy of the 54th,
which he had held for some years, to that of the 24th, and
placed on the foreign staff under General Lord Cathcart. He commanded a
division at the siege of Copenhagen, where he was twice slightly
wounded; and returned with the army in November.
After a short period of
service in Ireland, Sir David sailed in command of an armament of 10,000
men for Corunna, where he arrived in November 1808, and formed a
junction with the army under General Sir John Moore. He commanded the
first division of that army, and in the battle of Corunna, January 16,
1809, he lost his left arm.
By the death of Sir John
Moore in this action, Sir David succeeded to the chief command, and had
the honour of communicating intelligence of the victory to government.
On this occasion, he received for the fourth time in his life the thanks
of parliament, and, April 13, was created a baronet, with very
honourable armorial bearings allusive to the transactions of his life.
After this period, he never again appeared in active service. In 1810,
he married Miss Preston Campbell, of Ferntower and Lochlane, Perthshire,
by whom he left no issue. In 1814, he was promoted to the rank of
General, and in 1819 became governor of Kinsale in Ireland, and in 1827,
of Fort George in the north of Scotland. This brave veteran died at an
advanced age, August 18, 1829, at his seat of Ferntower in Perthshire.
His lady, who survived him till 1847, erected a monument to his memory
on the top of a romantic hill, named Tom-na-chaistel, (i.e. the hill of
the castle,) in the neighbourhood of Ferntower.
The Life of General, The Right Honouble Sir
David Baird, Bart G.C.B. K.C. &c.
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
