eyewitness account

The first edition of Henry Oakes' (1756-1827) eyewitness account describing the treatment of prisoners following the capitulation of the British garrison at Bednore in 1783.

Oakes was adjutant-general of the East India Company forces who surrendered to the army of Tipu Sultan during the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-1784). His account relates the harsh treatment meted out to the soldiers and followers of the British camp, which included 'seizing those who had lately suffered amputation, by the stumps, and [leaving] them in that painful wretched condition upon the bare ground, entirely exposed to the heat of the sun' (p.5)

Interestingly, the publisher goes some way to redress the imbalance of Oakes' narrative, reproducing the letter from Lieutenant John Sheen to his father dated 2nd May 1784 which describes the brutal British capture of the fort at Annampore earlier in the year. Instructed to give no quarter, the young officer recalls how 'four hundred beautiful women [were] either killed or wounded with the bayonet, expiring in one anothers arms, while the private soldiers were committing every kind of outrage'. Viewed in this light, the treatment of Oakes and his fellow soldiers is seen as 'retaliation for the various enormities committed by the troops of the Company' (pp.77-78), and readers are left to make up their own minds in apportioning blame and sympathy for the dead.

First edition; 8vo (21 x 13 cm); National Army Museum stamps and annotations to endpapers and lower margin of p.31, lacking half title, minor spotting, light marginal damp staining, relevant article from the Observer dated 26th January 1800 tipped in to head of p.93; later marbled paper wrappers, cloth label with MS shelf-marks to foot of upper panel, rubbed and creased with surface loss to spine; [3], vi-vii, [1], 93, [1] pp.

Pickett 1497; ESTC T111563.