Battle of Chinsurah

Battle of Chinsurah
Part of the Seven Years' War

A 1787 painting of Chinsurah by William Hodges
Date25 November 1759
Location22°54′N 88°23′E / 22.90°N 88.39°E / 22.90; 88.39
Result British victory
Belligerents

 Great Britain

Nawab of Bengal
Dutch East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Francis Forde
Charles Wilson
Mir Jafar
Jean-Baptiste Roussel  Surrendered
Strength
300 European infantrymen
800 sepoys
50 European cavalrymen
200 Indian cavalrymen
3 warships
100 Bengali cavalrymen
150 Europeans (garrison)
300 sepoys (garrison)
700 Europeans (reinforcements)
800 Malays (reinforcements)
7 warships
Casualties and losses
Unknown 320 killed
300 wounded
550 captured
6 warships captured
1 warship grounded
Chinsurah is located in West Bengal
Chinsurah
Chinsurah
Location within West Bengal
Chinsurah is located in India
Chinsurah
Chinsurah
Chinsurah (India)

The Battle of Chinsurah, also known as the Battle of Biderra or the Battle of Hoogly, was a military engagement which took place on 25 November 1759 near Chinsurah (then a Dutch outpost) during the Seven Years' War. It took place between a force of British troops mainly of the British East India Company and a force of the Dutch East India Company which had been invited by the Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar to help him expel the British and establish themselves as the leading commercial company in Bengal.

Despite the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic not formally being at war, the Dutch advanced up the Hooghly River. They met a mixed force of British and Indian troops at Chinsurah, fifty kilometres outside Calcutta. The British, under Colonel Francis Forde, defeated the Dutch, forcing them to withdraw. The British engaged and defeated the ships the Dutch used to deliver the troops in a separate naval battle on 24 November.[1]

  1. ^ Spectrum Modern History Of India, Rajiv Ahir, page 41.