Siege of Bednore

Siege of Bednore
	Part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War
	; Remains of Bednore fort
Date	9 April – 28 April 1783
Location	Bednore (modern day Nagara), India13°49′14″N 75°02′04″E / 13.8205°N 75.0345°E
Result	Mysore victory
Belligerents
Great Britain British East India Company;	Sultanate of Mysore; France
Commanders and leaders
Richard Matthews	Tipu Sultan
Strength
600 Europeans and 1,000 Indian sepoys	2,000 French and 100,000 Mysore troops
Casualties and losses
500	Unknown

The siege of Bednore was a battle of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. The British had captured Bednore (modern day Nagara) and other strongholds in the Malabar coast from Mysore in early 1783, while the Mysore leader, Tipu Sultan, was leading his army on campaign in the Carnatic. The British commander, Brigadier-General Richard Matthews, formed a small garrison of 1,600 men at Bednore and split the remainder of the force into detachments to plunder the surrounding region. Tipu Sultan brought his army of more than 100,000 men west and managed to approach within 6 kilometres (4 mi) of Bednore undetected by 9 April. Matthews deployed his troops in the field outside of Bednore and was swiftly defeated. Matthews abandoned the town and retreated to the fort which was quickly besieged by the Mysore army.

Matthews lost much of his ammunition in the retreat and was short of provisions. Suffering losses from disease, he arranged a ceasefire with the Mysore on 24 April and surrendered on 28 April. The terms of the surrender were generous allowing the garrison to march out with all the honours of war, providing free passage to Bombay and allowing the officers to retain their personal property. However Matthews divided the garrison's treasury, which should have been surrendered, among his officers which outraged the Mysore. Matthews' senior officers were seized and later poisoned and searches recovered the bulk of the missing treasure. The junior officers were marched to Chittledroog and mistreatment resulted in some deaths. Sepoy non-commissioned officers who refused to join the Mysore army were thought, by the British officers, to have been murdered. Surviving prisoners were released in March 1784 under the Treaty of Mangalore.