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<small>'''''Main article: [[3rd Mysore War]]'''''</small>
The first occasion upon which the 19th took the field was in the war with Tippoo, the Sultan of Mysore in 1790. [[Tipu Sultan]] was the son of [[Hyder Ali]], an old enemy of the Company, who had originally risen from a very humble position, seized the Kingdom of Mysore and set up a powerful Muslim state on the frontier of the Madras Presidency. Both father and son were in constantly recurring warfare with the English, and in 1789 Tippoo invaded the territory of the Raja of Travancore whom the English were bound by treaty to protect. Taking advantage of the presence of an incapable Governor of Madras who was unwilling to fight, Tippoo ravaged the country of Travancore, with great brutality, and it was not until 1790 that [[Charles Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]], having removed the Governor and replaced him by General Medows, was in a position to advance against him '''[http://www.rmtvip.jp/rmt/fno.html 聖境伝説 rmt]'''.
Tippoo's army was a formidable instrument of war. He had early recognised the superiority of western methods of military discipline, and by means of employing European officers to train his men, he had created a force which he hoped would be able to crush the power of England in India. His Infantry and Artillery were tolerably good, and he possessed vast numbers of cavalry which "though they were quite unable to meet and repel the combined charge of British Cavalry, as irregulars were excellent; alike dangerous to an enemy from their rapid movement - the audacity with which their sudden assault was made - and the celerity when repulsed with which their retreat was effected" (Maxwell).
