Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

The authoritative map of the Siege of Cuddalore (1783), a seminal event of the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

This excellent battle plan depicts the height of action during the Siege of Cuddalore in June 1783, a key event of the Second Anglo-Mysore War, which pitted Britain against an alliance of France and Mysore, as part of the grander global contest of the American Revolutionary War.

Cuddalore and nearby Fort St. David had been a major British base on the Coromandel Coast since 1690. While the war in India had gone well for the British overall (in sharp contrast to the global situation), in 1782, the French captured Cuddalore.

In the spring of 1783, the British dispatched as sizable army under General James Stuart, consisting of over 11,000 troops to retake the town, which was defended by a Franco-Mysorean force under the Marquis de Bussy-Chastelnau and Sayed Sahib.

As shown on the map, Stuart’s forces mounted a series of inconclusive attacks on Cuddalore as part of a siege that lasted over three weeks. However, suddenly, on June 30, 1783, news arrived that Britain and France had agreed to end the war between them (although Britain and Mysore remained at war). The events at Cuddalore were significant in that it represented the last time that France seriously challenged British power in India.