Siege of Negapatam

The Siege of Negapatam was the first offensive military action on the Indian subcontinent following the arrival of news that was had been declared between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, an offshoot of the American War of Independence. A British force besieged the Dutch-controlled port of Negapatam on the eastern coast of India, which capitulated after the fortification's walls were breached. The Dutch garrison consisted of 500 European troops, 5,500 local troops, and 2,000 troops of Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore.

Britain went on to capture Trincomalee and other Dutch possessions in India, all of which were returned to the Dutch after the war in 1784, with the exception of Negapatam.

Siege of Negapatam
British defeat Mysoris

Siege was laid to this place October 21, 1781, by a British force, 4,000 strong, under Colonel Braithwaite. The garrison, partly Dutch and partly Mysore troops, though 8,000 in number, did not wait for a bombardment, but surrendered November 3.