Third Anglo-Mysore War
In November 1791 Cornwallis ordered that French shipping be intercepted and searched for contraband. The British and French were not at war but the French were openly aiding the Tippoo Sahib in his war against the British. Cornwallis detached Captain Richard Strachan in HMS Phoenix to intercept the French frigate Résolue and two French merchant ships that were heading for the French held port of Mangalore. The subsequent battle of Tellicherry saw Phoenix capture and search all of the vessels. The local French commander, was outraged and sent word back to France. The French authorities were too busy with internal upheaval to pay the incident much notice. He played a role in the war with and helped to reduce Pondicherry in August 1793. Cornwallis took the frigate HMS Minerva as his flagship, and commanded a small flotilla that included three East Indiamen - Triton, Princess Charlotte, and Calcutta (1795). Cornwallis's promotion to rear-admiral dates from 1 February 1793; on 4 July 1794 he became vice-admiral. He remained in India until 1794.
Read more about this topic: William Cornwallis
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“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.... A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice—is often the means of their regeneration.”
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