Beatson, Alexander: A view of the origin and conducts of the war with Tippoo Sultaun: comprising a narrative of the operations of the army under the command of Lieutenant George Harris, and of the Siege of Seringapatam (London, 1800)

OF THE WAR WITH TIPPOO SULTAUN. 12()
prehended the right attack would have received great annoyance,
fortunately made no resistance. Those stupendous works were
abandoned; the right attack succeeded in getting possession of
them, and of the whole of the southern ramparts ; and within less
than an hour, arrived upon the eastern face of the iort.
The defence from the west cavalier, behind the breach, was
confined to one or two discharges of grape, just as the assault
began. The breaching batteries of eleven guns, six howitzers in
the advanced parallel, the four-gun battery, and the four guns in
the mill battery, all bearing upon this part of the fort, supported
by ten guns on the north side of the river, most completely enfi-
lading the western ramparts, having kept up a brisk fire for some
time before the assault, will easily account for the small resistance
made by those who attempted to defend them.
Under so powerful a fire, the approach of the Sultaun's troops
to these ramparts was to them extremely hazardous, particularly
from the south side of the fort; and when arrived upon the western
face, the danger increased, for there was no security against the
enfilading fire, except in small holes dug upon the rampart, or
behind two or three miserable traverses which had been constructed
during the siege, where the enemy lay concealed, until our troops
entered the bed of the river.
So entirely abandoned was the inner or second rampart, and
the cavalier, that a small party of only eight or ten men of his
Majesty's 12th regiment, crossing a in the inner ditch,
a little to the right of the breach, got possession of the west
cavalier.

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