A British force besieged the Dutch-controlled port of Negapatam, the capital of Dutch Coromandel, on the eastern coast of India, which capitulated after the fortification's walls were breached.

While many British troops were occupied with fighting Hyder Ali's armies as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War, and General Eyre Coote was opposed to offensive actions against the Dutch, Lord Macartney, the governor of Madras, was able to raise more than 4,000 troops and secure the assistance of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes to defeat the larger Dutch and Mysorean defence force.

[1] He made strong initial gains, with his troops occasionally threatening the main British outpost of Madras on the east coast.

[5] Van Vlissingen, when he learned of the war, immediately negotiated an alliance with Hyder, which was agreed on 29 July (although it was not formally ratified until 4 September).

The Dutch 600 returned to Negapatam in late September with 2,100 Mysoreans, and established a defensive line outside the city's walls,[6] which were also defended by a mixed army composed mostly of local sepoys, along with some European and Malay troops.

Lord Macartney secured the services of Hector Munro, who was preparing to retire to England, and was able to convince Colonel John Braithwaite, whose troops were active to the south of Madras, to release his men for action against the Dutch outposts.

Braithwaite, who had been recently wounded, sent men under Colonel Eccles Nixon toward Negapatam,[7] while Munro's force was carried there by the fleet of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.

That night, the Dutch made a sortie in an attempt to disrupt the works, but the battery of eight cannon was completed the next day, and opened fire on 7 November, doing significant damage to the town's northern walls.