who took no part in the action. After severe fighting Lally
was defeated with a loss of 600 [French] besides Indians,
the British losing 190 only.” (Following the defeat, the
comte de Lally was sent back to France, where he was
executed on 9 May 1766 for his capitulation.)
At the siege of Pondicherry (15 January 1761),
Coote supported Sir William Monson in defeating the
remnants of Lally’s army. For his role in this conflict,
Coote was named commander of the British East India
Company’s offices and forces in Bengal. He returned to
England in 1762 and was granted a jeweled sword from
the company as a gift for his services.
Made a Knight of the Order of the Bath (KB) in
1771, Coote returned to India in 1779 with as a lieuten-
ant general and commander of all British forces in India.
The intrigues of Hyder Ali (also Haider Ali), the com-
mander of the Mysore forces, led Coote to march his
army to Chelambakam, where the Mysore force defeated
the British on 16 June 1781. However, he continued
the hunt to Porto Novo (also Portonovo), where, on 1
July 1781, some 8,500 troops under Coote faced 65,000
fortified Mysoris under Hyder Ali. What appeared to
be the makings of a rout of the British in fact turned
out to be a gallant day for Coote’s forces: While losing
only 306 men, the British inflicted upward of 10,000
casualties on the Mysoris—making Porto Novo one of
the most one-sided victories in military history. Coote
chased Hyder Ali to Pollilur, where again he inflicted a
huge defeat on the Mysoris (27 August 1781). This was
followed up by a third defeat of the Mysore forces at
Sholingarh in September 1781.
Due to declining health, Coote returned to Ma-
dras, where he died on 28 April 1783. His body was
returned to England, where he was buried in the Rock-
burne Church in Hampshire. Lieutenant Colonel Mark
Wiljs, in his early 19th century work Historical Sketches
of the South of India, writes:
Nature had given to Colonel Coote all that na-
ture can confer in the formation of a soldier:
and the regular study of every branch of his
profession, and experience in most of them, had
formed an accomplished officer. A bodily frame
of unusual vigor and activity, and mental energy
always awake, were restrained from excessive ac-
tion by a patience and temper which never al-
lowed the spirit of enterprise to outmarch the
dictates of prudence. Daring valour and cool
reflection strove for the mastery in the compo-sition of this great man. The conception and
execution of his designs equally commanded
the confidence of his officers; and a master at
once of human nature and of the sciences of
war, his rigid discipline was tempered with an
unaffected kindness and consideration for the
wants and even the prejudices of the European
soldiers, and render him the idol of the native
troops.One of Coote’s descendants is General Colin Pow-
ell, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–93)
and secretary of state (2001–05) in the administration of
President George W. Bush. He is descended from Coote,
his great-great-great grandfather, through a liaison of
Coote’s son with a woman in Jamaica.References: Wylly, Harold Carmichael, A Life of Lieutenant-
General Sir Eyre Coote, K.B., compiled by Colonel H. C.
Wylly, C. B., with an introduction by General Sir Charles
Monro, Bart. (Oxford, U.K.: The Clarendon Press, 1922);
Sheppard, Eric William, Coote Bahadur: A Life of Lieu-
tenant-General Sir Eyre Coote (London: W. Laurie, 1956);
Winser, Andrew, “Lieut. General Sir Eyre Coote, 1726–
1783,” The Hatcher Review 2, no. 15 (1983): 218–227;
Bruce, George, “Wandiwash II,” in Collins Dictionary
of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins Publishers,
1995), 265; Wilks, Mark, Historical Sketches of the South
of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor... ,
3 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,
1810–17), I:251–52.Cornwallis, Charles, first marquis and
second earl Cornwallis, Viscount Brome,
Baron Cornwallis of Eye (1738–1805)
British general
Born on 31 December 1738, Charles Cornwallis was the
son of Charles, the first earl Cornwallis. According to
historian and biographer Charles Ross, the family came
from Cornwallys, or Cornwaleys, in Ireland during the
reign of Edward III. One ancestor, Thomas Cornwal-
lis, became the sheriff of London in 1378, and another,
Frederick Cornwallis, fought for Charles I in the Royal-
ist army during the English Civil War. Charles Corn-
wallis was educated at Eton—the most prestigious of
English private schools—and Clare College, Cambridge,
whence he entered the British army as an ensign in the
1st Guards, also known as the Grenadiers. He then wentcoRnwAlliS, chARleS