The Siege of Seringapatam 1799

I have recently taken to reading Bernard Cornwell's Richard Shape novels. In his first novel, Sharpe's Tiger the main character Private Sharpe serving in the Kings Army in India takes part in the Siege of Seringapatam. Following finishing the book - I opted to do some research on the battle that was the main focus of the novel.

The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultan by Henry Singleton

The Siege of Seringapatam in 1799 was the second siege of the great fortress city by the British Red Coats - the first occurred in 1792. In 1799, after several years of the Tipu Sultan's rule, the British decided that it was time to replace him as the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore - and the siege ended the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, which had been waging for a year, and was the final of the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

The Tipu Sultan believed that with Napoleon's landing in Egypt in 1798 would lead to France challenging British rule in India. The Tipu had several French officers in his service, and believed that if he could defeat the British and their allies, he would be welcomed by Napoleon for making his conquering of India easier. Colonel Arthur Wellseley (later the 1st Duke of Wellington) had other ideas, and marched his Army towards Seringapatam to end the Tipu's rule.

When the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War broke out, the British assembled in to large armies under General George Harris, with troops from the British East India Company, and local Indian Sepoys - mainly supplied by the Nizam of Hyderabad. The two forces together numbered some 50,000 Infantry and cavalry. They faced a fortified city with the Tipu's forces numbering 30,000 - largely diminished following the third Anglo-Mysore War.

Although outnumbered the Tipu had planned to massacre the British troops when they breached the walls of Seringapatam. During the siege of 1792, the British breached the North-West Wall and captured the city. Harris and Wellseley planned to breach the same part of the walls, as it had been poorly rebuilt - not knowing the Tipu had planted a large mine beneath the wall, and built a secondary wall behind the first. The Tipu planned to ignite the mine when the British breached the exterior wall, and got themselves trapped between the two walls.

Over night on May 1st, the British established their batteries and began their breach on May 2nd at Sunrise. The batteries of Hyderabad opened a practical breach in the outer wall early in the morning hours, and they were lucky enough that one of their artillery rounds struck the mine beneath the wall, causing it to detonate prematurely.

On May 4th in the mid afternoon- the British 73rd and 74th Highland Regiments climbed the breach and the ramparts attacking the city - and the Tipu's forces quickly surrendered to the fearsome Scottish troops. The British attacked during the hottest hour of the day - as it caught the Tipu's forces re-hydrating. Within 16 minutes of assaulting the great city - the British had complete control of the city - and the Tipu was found dead in the Water Gate - having been shot several times.

Two of the Tipu's cannons which were caputured during the battle are now displayed at the Royal Military College in Sandhurt, and the Tipu's Tiger - an automaton was captured and is now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Add captionTipu's Tiger in the V&A Museum, London showing the prostrate European being attacked

Remembering History - The Siege of Seringapatam 1799

Most Decisive Battles of World History

This is a working List - based on a course given by Professor Gregory S. Aldrete (University of Wisconsin). I have added several battles that I believe should be on this list - Before I get to work - I want you opinion if anything else should be included?

- 1274 BCE - Kadesh - The Greatest Chariot Battle
- 479 BCE - Plataea - Greece Wins it's Freedom
- 331 BCE - Gaugamela - Alexander's Genius
- 197 BCE - Cynoscephalae - Legion Vs. Phalanx
- 31 BCE - Actium  Birth of the Roman Empire
- 260-110 BCE - China Struggles for Unification
- 636 - Yarmouk & Al-Qadisiyyah - Islam Triumphs
- 751 - Talas & 1192  - Tarain - Islam into Asia
- 1066 - Hastings - Williams Conquers England
- 1187 - Hattin - Crusader Desert Disaster
- 1260 - Ain Jalut - Can the Mogols Be Stopped?
- 1410 Tannenberg - Cataclysm of Knights
- Frigidus, Badr, Diu - Obscure Turning Points
- 1521 - Tenochtitlan - Aztecs Vs. Conquistadors
- 1532 - Cajamarca - Inca Vs. Conquistadors
- 1522- Rhodes - The Ottomans expel the Knights
- 1526 & 1556 -  Panipat - Babur & Akbar in India
- 1565 - Malta - The Knights Defeat the Ottomans
- 1571 - Lepanto - Last Gasp of the Galleys - Knights Crush the Ottoman Fleet
- 1592 - Sacheon - Yi's Might Turtle Ship
- 1600 - Skigahara - Samurai Showdown
- 1683 - Vienna  - the Great Ottoman Siege
- 1709 - Poltava - Sweden's Fall, Russia's Rise
- 1759 - Quebec - Battle for North America
- 1776 - Trenton - The Revolution's Darkest Hour
- 1781 - Yorktown - The French and Americans join forces to defeat Britain
- 1805 - Trafalgar - Nelson Thwarts Napoleon
- 1807 - Copenhagen - The British Bomb the Danes into Submission
- 1813 - Leipzig - The Grand Coalition
- 1824 - Aycucho - South American Independence
- 1836 - San Jacinto - Mexico's Big Loss
- 1862 - Antietam - The Civil War's Bloodiest Day
- 1866 - Koniggratz - Bismark Molds Germany
- 1905 - Tsushima - Japan Humiliates Russia
- 1914 - Marne - Paris is Saved
- 1916 - Jutland - largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in WW1
- 1939 - Khalkhin Gol - Sowing the Seeds of WW2
- 1939-45 - Battle of the Atlantic - Germany forced into Submission
- 1942 - Midway- Four Minutes that Changed Everything
- 1942 - Stalingrad - Hitler's Ambitions are Crushed

Sir Nicholas Winton - World War Two Humanitarian Revealed 50 years later

Sir Nicholas Winton (Take in Prague in 2007)

While this story first came to being in 1988 and again in 2002 - when it was revealed that now Sir Nicholas Winton was revealed as a humble stock broker from London who helped save hundreds of Jewish children out of then Czechoslovakia prior to the our break of World War Two - it aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday April 27th 2014, and it is more than worth sharing.

Born as Nicholas Wertheim on May 19th 1909 in Hampstead, London to Germany Jewish parents who arrived in London in 1907. The family changed its name to Winton as an effort to integrate into British society. Nicholas not the greatest student in his youth, attending Stowe School, he left before graduating. He got himself a job at the Midland Bank, and began taking nigh courses working towards his qualifications. After a few years Nicholas moved to Hamburg, Germany and began working for Behrens Bank and later Wasserman Bank in Berlin. In 1931, he uprooted again to France, and worked for the Banque Nationale de Credit n Paris, and finished his banking qualifications. He later decided to return to London, where he found work as a stockbroker at the London Stock Exchange.

 With Hitler's rise to power in the German Riech in the mid to late 1930s in Germany, Nicholas began monitoring the news about border closings and the blatant anti-Semitic regime that was taking shape. in early December 1938 as he was about to take a ski trip to Switzerland, he changes his travel plans at the last minute, and travelled instead to Prague and met up with close friend involved in refugee work. That friend was Martin Blake who was attempting to help Jewish refugees who had fled Czechoslovak cities as the German's marched across the boarder. The state of affairs in the refugee camps was deplorable, little food, shelter and heat. This was especially true for the young children.

After seeing the refugee camps, Winton set up an organization in his hotel room in Prague to help families wishing to get their children out of the country. On returning to London, he kept the organization running remotely, working the stock exchange during the day, and the organization at night. The trouble was, politics kept getting in his way. Winton spent time with member of Parliament to get permission to bring Jewish refugees into the country - but the system was too slow. Following the events of Kristallnacht in November 1938, the British House of Commons approved measures to allow refugees under the age of 17 to enter the country - as long as they had somewhere to stay and held enough money to deposit for their return after the war.

Winton still needed to get the children from Prague to London...a long and dangerous voyage that needed to cross Nazi Germany. The shortest distance went From Prague, though Germany, and into the Netherlands, but following the events of Kristallnacht, the Netherlands closed its borders to Jewish refugees. This stalled Winton's plan to use the ferry at Hook of Holland. With the help of London, Winton was able to convince the Dutch government to allow him to cross the borders with refugees. Winton found homes for 669 children, but the House of Commons was extremely slow at issuing the required travel documents - so Winton and his organization used his wealth and connections to basically blackmail quicker speeds. When that did not work - they forged the required documentation. In August 1939, the first train left Prague headed for London with all 669 children aboard. Winton set out getting another 250 children out - the Train was ready to leave on September 1st 1939 - the day World War Two Broke out - all borders were closed to non - military transportation. The 250 children and the parents of almost all the 669 from the original train perished at Auschwitz or the other concentration camps.

Winton did not sit out the war - he joined the Red Cross, served as a medical assistant. By 1940 - he opted to join the RAF on the Administrative and Special Duties Branch. By 1945, he was a War Substantive Flying Officer - training pilots. He retired from the RAF in 1954 with an honorary ran of Flight Lieutenant.

Thus ended his World War Two exploits - he remained quiet on what he accomplished in 1938/39 in Prague on vacation - that was until his late wife - Grete found a scrapbook in 1988 with a list of all the children and their parents names and addresses in them. By sending letters to the addresses - 80 of the children were located in Britain. In 1988 the BBC aired a special called "That's Life!" which Winton was surprised by more than two dozen of those he helped save.

Of those he saved - the most notable are:

• Alfred Dubs (Baron Dubs) 
• Karel Reisz
• Joe Schlesinger 
• Renata Laxova
• Heini Halberstam 

In 1983 - on the Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honor's - Winton was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire  for his work in establishing the Abbeyfield elderly homes in Britain. Then in 2002 - at the New Years Honor's he was knighted in recognition of his work on the Czech Kindertransport. He later met with Queen Elizabeth in Bratislav Slovakia in October of 2008 on her state visit. in 2003, he received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime achievement. 

Today Winton is 104 years old, still living in London on his own - his wife Grete regretfully passed away in 1999. He appeared and spoke of what he accomplished on 60 Minutes on April 27th 2014. 

The full story is available in The Rescue of the Prague Refugees 1938-39 by William Chadwick (2010)

A Memorial of Sir Nicholas Winton at the Prague Main Railway Station was installed in 2009.

Remembering History - Remembering the exploits of Sir Nicholas Winton

The Beef Jerky Wars

Although not technically beef jerky, Pemmican, is as close as you are going to get. Pemmican is a mixture of fat and protein (mainly buffalo, but deer, beef or anything else that was available), and is a nutritious food. It is a Cree food used by fur traders to remain nourished during the long treks across the Canadian plains during the turn of the century. It began with the Red River community in what is now Winnipeg Manitoba. The Metis began making it, as it basically lasts 'forever; without going bad. So how does something like Pemmican cause a war? I will show you how.

In 1811, Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk, set up the community of Red River, on a 116,000 Sq miles of land granted to him from the Hudson's Bay Company, in what is now Winnipeg. Douglas had a growing interest in the HBC, and wanted his Red River colony to help block fur trade to the rival North West Company. In 1814, the Governor of Red River, issued a proclamation limiting the number of buffalo that could be slaughtered per season by the local Metis peoples. This proclamation caused the Metis to call for their own sovereign Red River State for the Metis. They continued to ignore the proclamation, and killed more buffalo than they were allowed. They stopped exporting buffalo meat, but continued make it into Pemmican, which was consumed locally and sold to traders passing through the Red River Valley.

In 1815,  the Governor forbade the export of local goods, which included Pemmican. In the process, he confiscated more than 400 pouches of Pemmican belonging to the North West Company. He forced the NWC to then close its trading posts within the limits of the Red River Community, and as a result the Nor'Westerners  and their Metis allies vowed to wage a war against the community. Cuthbert Grant was granted the position of Captain-General of the Metis militia groups and designed a Metis flag for their to-be sovereign state.

With the fear of complete bloodshed, only 13 families remained in the Red River community, the rest had been driven out or left for their safety, and the Governor quickly surrendered.  The numerous Metis militia groups continued to raze farms and burned buildings in the colony to show their anger with the local government.

The Metis demanded that the HBC remove the grants given to the Red River community and allow them free rain to hunt buffalo and remove any laws that limited their local heritage. They made it clear that the Red River Metis identified as a distinctive community and values system.

Many thought the conflict would end, but the war escalated the following year, when the HBC company  burned the NWC's Fort at Gibraltar. As a result Grant, and the Metis waged war against the HBC by attacking the Brandon House, a major HBC trading post, and continued its halt its trade of Pemmican to all traders travelling though its territory.

The HBC finally realised that it needed to end the terror or else it would face further loses to its rich fur trade, met with the Metis and read them a strict proclamation against acts of violence. Grant, refused to accept the proclamation, and shot the HBC Governor. A small arms battle ensued, where the Metis overwhelmingly won. The Pemmican War, was no longer a commercial struggle between two rival fur companies, but it had developed into a guerrilla war.

As an act of retaliation against the Metis, Douglas led a group of mercenaries against the Nor'Westerners and the Metis. He captured Fort William in the process and arrested 15 senior NWC officials, and charged tghen with treason, conspiracy, and murder. This officially ended the war, but the Red River community never became the fur trade enterprise Douglas wanted it to be. In order to avoid a future conflict, the Crown forced the merging of the HBC and NWC in 1921, under the HBC banner.

Remembering History - The Pemmican War

For a recipe on how to make Pemmican, please visit, http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-make-pemmican/#axzz2osn5YgJV

The Treaty of Ryswick - The End of the Nine Years' War

The Nine Years' War, also know by many as the War of the Grand Alliance, was a major conflict fought in the late 17th Century between King Louis XIV of France and a European wide coalition, which was led by the Anglo-Dutch Stadtholder-King Wiliam III, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and many other minor princes in the Holy Roman Empire.

The War itself was main fought in mainland Europe and in its surrounding water ways, but it also spread to Ireland and Scotland, and spread between English and French settlers in the Americas. It is largely classified as the second of Louis XIV's three major wars.

The War was fought between September 1688 and September 1697, and ended with Louis XIV accepting William III of Orange as the King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Treaty of Ryswick officially ended the war. Negotiations started in May. The French wanted it to take place in The Hague, while the Allies wanted it to take place in Delft. They settled on a location in between the two towns, at the Huis ter Nieuburg Palace in Ryswick.

After a few weeks, negotiations had gone nowhere, and many believed the war would continue for years to come. This was when William III of Orange and Louis XIV agreed to let a representative from each party meet in private. Almost as if no conflict every existed, the two drew up terms of an agreement. The only problem was that Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would not agree to all the terms of the Peace Treaty.

Fearing a continued conflict, Spain reluctantly agreed to the terms and three of the four parties signed the Treaty on September 20th. Once the treaty was signed the battlefields went quiet, as the only belligerent power left was the Holy Roman Empire, but they had no enemy left to fight. William III of Orange quietly convinced Leopold to make peace with France, and the Holy Roman Empire signed on to the treaty, just over one month later, on October 30th.

The main basis of the treaty was that all towns and districts taken since the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1679 would be restored, as well as several other territorial sessions.

The Map of Europe Following the Nine Years' War

Remembering History - The Treaty of Ryswick