The Sultan and the Star-Spangled Banner
Mysore’s rockets did more than terrify the British. They may have helped America win its independence.
In the spring of 1782, men walked the streets of Philadelphia chanting the name of an Indian king who lived over 8,000 miles away. His name was Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore, a city many Americans couldn’t place on a map. Yet, the name was painted across the stern of a small sailboat headed for war. Lieutenant Joshua Barney, 23, even recruited his crew with a poem:
Come, all ye lads that know no fear,
To wealth and honor we will steer
In the Hyder Ali privateer, Commanded by brave Barney.
A fearful heart betrays a knave…
Success to the Hyder-Ally.
On April 8, Barney took the Hyder Ally down the mouth of Delaware Bay and ran into a British squadron. What followed was 26 minutes of fighting against a British vessel with more guns and men. But when the smoke cleared, the British ship was in ruins and its officers were dead or down. Philadelphia erupted in celebration and ballads.
To see why a Mysorean ruler mattered to colonial-era Americans, you have to understand the story of the Tiger of Mysore and the kingdom that made him — and how two revolutions across continents were connected in spirit and aim.