The siege of Cuddalore was a battle during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's ...

on 17 June 1748. After a British raiding squadron left for Madras,

Joseph François Dupleix Joseph Marquis Dupleix (23 January 1697 – 10 November 1763) was Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive. Biography Dupleix was born in Landrecies, on January 23, 1697. His father, François Dupleix, a wealthy ''fermier gé ...

decided to make another attack on

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

, where the British had taken refuge after the fall of Madras. He was assisted by

Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais Bertrand-François Mahé, comte de La Bourdonnais (11 February 169910 November 1753) was a French naval officer and colonial administrator, in the service of the French East India Company. Biography La Bourdonnais entered the service of the Fren ...

. Commanding a force of 800 Europeans and 1,000 Indian sepoys, Dupleix marched from

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

and arrived on the hills at Bandapolam, three miles from Cuddalore, on the morning of 17 June. Planning to take the town by surprise, Dupleix stopped until night. Forewarned of the advance, major Lawrence Stringer (who had arrived in India in January 1748 to command the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

's forces and had formed the first regular Company battalion on the

Coromandel coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

) managed to thwart this attempt with a force of no more than 400 men by removing the garrison and taking away the guns to

Fort St. David Fort St David, now in ruins, was a British fort near the town of Cuddalore, a hundred miles south of Chennai on the Coromandel Coast of India. It is located near silver beach without any maintenance. It was named for the patron saint of Wales b ...

, to make the French believe the British were unable to hold it. When night arrived, however, Stringer led his men and guns back into Cuddalore, so that when the French attacked on the stroke of midnight and tried to put their scaling ladders against the town walls they were met with such a hail of musket-fire and gunshot that their advance was stopped dead. In the ensuing panic, the French made a hasty retreat to Pondicherry, with notable losses.

Sources

*William Freke Williams, William Cooke Stafford, ''England’s Battles by Sea and Land : History of England’s campaigns in India and China ; and of the Indian mutiny, 1857-1859'', vol. 3, London ; New York, Printing and publishing company, 1863, p. 33-37. Sieges involving France Battles involving Great Britain Conflicts in 1748 1748 in India First Carnatic War {{France-battle-stub