May 4th 1799 saw the storming of Seringapatam, leading to the defeat of Sultan Tippoo of Mysore, India.
Sir David Baird (1757-1829) was born in East Lothian. Serving as a captain in India, Baird was wounded and captured at the Battle of Polilur in 1780, where a British force of 4,000 was defeated and almost totally destroyed. He was taken to Seringapatam and imprisoned for four years in awful conditions. Once free, Baird avenged himself in the 4th Mysore War: Major-General Baird, as he had become, commanded the victorious British assault on Seringapatam. In fact he was given this role because of his treatment there, to the annoyance and exclusion of Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington.
