The Battle Of Machilipatnam

I have been reading this extensive history of bandar,(so kind of my uncle to have sent it)...and was amazed by this account of the battle of Machilipatnam...I was born and bred at bandar (except for few years when i stayed with my parents on their job) and never have heard of this...Feels kind of unreal that a fierce war was waged on the peaceful streets of bandar that i knew so well .


It was the year 1759, the 6 Th march......A 500 member strong English army men and about 2000 strong Sepoy's,under the leadership of colonel.Fort have advanced up to the town of machilipatnam and lay a seize to the fort therein occupied by the french... It was a do or die situation not only for the soldiers themselves but a desperate attempt by the British to wrest out a position of dominance in the south Indian political scene..Though the the french had been rather late entrants on the Indian stage,(they came after the English)they could gain the confidences of the Golconda nawaabs,Bobbili rajahs,cleverly played their cards well among the warring local kings with the suavity of the charming gaulle, and at the time of the aforesaid moment,were holding a sway over 600 miles of coastal belt from SRIKAKULAM to nellore and slightly further up....

Now the English had their chance....colonel.Bussei,who was at Golconda, and ...instrumental in carving out the rise of the french power, fell out of favour with Count De Lally, the new governor general, and was peremptorily summoned to Madras..colonel Morassin,who was holding the machilipatnam fort too was ordered to present himself at Madras leaving their domain vulnerable in their absence......Ananda Gajapathy, the Raja of Vijayanagaram,who was for long against the bobbili rajas and their hand in glove comrades, the french, seized on this opportunity and sent a secret invitation to Robert Clive in calcutta,asking him to utilise the situation on hand to push their own agenda...He volunteered to help with funds too.

Could Clive refuse this? In the last week of september,1758,a contingent of the above said 500 Englishmen and 2000 sepoys embarked at the Visakhapatnam port and had a decisive battle at Kondur, near rajahmundry where they defeated the french and it"s allies....From there they started advancing towards machilipatnam, while a smaller segment deviated to KANUKOLLU , captured the fort and rejoined the troops later......

Meanwhile, the french ,kept track of the opponent movements,and stationed a battalion at ELUR (along the route) to intercept them midway....Also,SALABJUNG of Golconda got wind of this ,and started for VIJAYAWADA in defence of his allies, the french. with a 35,000 strong infantry.......

In Madras,the governor ,count De Lally ,on a delayed rethinking,realised his folly and sent col.morassin to machilipatnam,on a fleet of two ships...col.canfrances,who was in charge of the fort and Till then,staying in the town due to water shortage , went back to the fort and started the necessary fortifications..

It took nearly a full one month of facing off for the both parties..Ensconced in the den, the french held fort....they were waiting tensely for the reinforcements...Backwaters of the sea guarded them from rear in the south, while the strong mud walls of the fort and the eleven turrets of the fort were strengthened by granite from Puligadda that took a great deal of shelling by the cannons of the English......

So, that was the situation col.Fort found himself in, on the outskirts of the town and it looked quite grim for him and his troops...The initial euphoria of the strategy was replaced by changed circumstances.....the Ananda gajapathy took fright on hearing about the movements of Salabjung and marched back...He made peace with the Golconda army,and even refused to fund the English,as he promised before...The sepoys became restive and on march,i9 th,openly threatened to revolt if they were not paid their dues...The English found themselves really checkmated...They could not go back since the french awaited them at Elur..could not sidetrack as the salabjung would be moving in that direction, nor can they flee to the sea since Morassin would be coming after them. and they had only one ship at their command.....The supplies in the camp were sufficient for just two days,,,,and to make matters worse, a storm deluged their camp in mire and dust....


It goes to Fort"s credit(whoever and whatever person he was) as a commander,he rallied his troops,..promised them the booty,if they captured the fort and led by example...After two days of intense battle, finally the English were able to enter the fort....on April,7 Th.....They imprisoned the Frenchmen and hastily packed them away on the ship...


No one could come to the rescue of the french after this dramatic turn of events..The fleet that was to have come from Pondichery could not make it in time...They were late and had to chase the English ship which carried the captive french colonel and comrades...Salabjung, who marched into Sultannagaram near the outskirts of MTM, had to go back as he got news that a brother of his was
proceeding to Golcond....It was quite possible, he could be trying his hand at a coup...So, he made a treaty with Fort and ceded the Machilipatnam, Konda palli,Nizampatnam and parts of circar and hastened back to his seat...


The aftermath of the seize was one of the worst cases of war crimes of the British army.....For days together the drunken Englishmen went on a spree of looting, plunder,murder arson and rape...and remained a blot on the British army...

Such was the dramatic turn of events ,beneficial to some and not so beneficial for some....The effort that Dupleis,Bussie,put in to make the french power strong went into ashes at the bandar fort,giving the English supremacy over the coast,and proved a death knell for the french imperialistic ambitions...well...It might be not quite accurate to call it as their imperialistic designs....In 1750,none of the foreign traders (dutch,English, french)were likely to have aspired to occupy India..But to protect their business interests they had to deal with the regional politics, and no wonder they had to bark up one or other trees..Seen impartially, i find it difficult to be judgemental about History...

And that was the fall out of THE MACHILIPATNAM BATTLE...strengthening the English ,paving way for an empire later....

Ref:Machilipatna charithra