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diff --git a/old/7afgh10.txt b/old/7afgh10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b95e720 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7afgh10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9294 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, by Archibald Forbes + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 + +Author: Archibald Forbes + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8428] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +[Illustration: Sir Frederick Roberts] + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND 1878-80 + +by ARCHIBALD FORBES + +With Portraits and Plans + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + +PART I.--THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR + +CHAP. + + I.--PRELIMINARY + + II.--THE MARCH TO CABUL + + III.--THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + IV.--THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + V.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END + + VI.--THE ROAD TO RUIN + + VII.--THE CATASTROPHE + +VIII.--THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + + IX.--RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + + +PART II.--THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + I.--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + + II.--THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + III.--THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + + IV.--THE DECEMBER STORM + + V.--ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + + VI.--AHMED KHEL + + VII.--THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +VIII.--MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + + IX.--THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + * * * * * + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS + + PORTRAIT OF SIR FREDERICK ROBERTS _Frontispiece_ + + PLAN OF CABUL, THE CANTONMENT + + PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE POLLOCK + + PORTRAIT OF SIR LOUIS CAVAGNARI AND SIRDARS + + PLAN OF CABUL SHOWING THE ACTIONS, DEC. 11-14 + + PLAN OF ACTION, AHMED KHEL + + PORTRAIT OF THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF MAIWAND + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF CANDAHAR + +_The Portraits of Sir G. Pollock and Sir F. Roberts are engraved by +permission of Messrs Henry Graves & Co._ + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS + + + + +PART I: _THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR_ + + + + +CHAPTER I: PRELIMINARY + +Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished +what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian +army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between +Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression. + +By a treaty, concluded between England and Persia in 1814, the former +state bound itself, in case of the invasion of Persia by any European +nation, to aid the Shah either with troops from India or by the payment +of an annual subsidy in support of his war expenses. It was a dangerous +engagement, even with the _caveat_ rendering the undertaking inoperative +if such invasion should be provoked by Persia. During the fierce struggle +of 1825-7, between Abbas Meerza and the Russian General Paskevitch, +England refrained from supporting Persia either with men or with money, +and when prostrate Persia was in financial extremities because of the war +indemnity which the treaty of Turkmanchai imposed upon her, England took +advantage of her needs by purchasing the cancellation of the inconvenient +obligation at the cheap cost of about L300,000. It was the natural result +of this transaction that English influence with the Persian Court should +sensibly decline, and it was not less natural that in conscious weakness +Persia should fall under the domination of Russian influence. + +Futteh Ali, the old Shah of Persia, died in 1834, and was succeeded by +his grandson Prince Mahomed Meerza, a young man who inherited much of the +ambition of his gallant father Abbas Meerza. His especial aspiration, +industriously stimulated by his Russian advisers, urged him to the +enterprise of conquering the independent principality of Herat, on the +western border of Afghanistan. Herat was the only remnant of Afghan +territory that still remained to a member of the legitimate royal house. +Its ruler was Shah Kamran, son of that Mahmoud Shah who, after ousting +his brother Shah Soojah from the throne of Cabul, had himself been driven +from that elevation, and had retired to the minor principality of Herat. +The young Shah of Persia was not destitute of justification for his +designs on Herat. That this was so was frankly admitted by Mr Ellis, the +British envoy to his Court, who wrote to his Government that the Shah had +fair claim to the sovereignty of Afghanistan as far as Ghuznee, and that +Kamran's conduct in occupying part of the Persian province of Seistan had +given the Shah 'a full justification for commencing hostilities against +Herat.' + +The serious phase of the situation for England and India was that Russian +influence was behind Persia in this hostile action against Herat. Mr +Ellis pointed out that in the then existing state of relations between +Persia and Russia, the progress of the former in Afghanistan was +tantamount to the advancement of the latter. But unfortunately there +remained valid an article in the treaty of 1814 to the effect that, in +case of war between the Afghans and the Persians, the English Government +should not interfere with either party unless when called on by both to +mediate. In vain did Ellis and his successor M'Neill remonstrate with the +Persian monarch against the Herat expedition. An appeal to St Petersburg, +on the part of Great Britain, produced merely an evasive reply. How +diplomatic disquietude had become intensified may be inferred from this, +that whereas in April 1836 Ellis wrote of Persia as a Russian first +parallel of attack against India, Lord Auckland, then Governor-General of +India, directed M'Neill, in the early part of 1837, to urge the Shah to +abandon his enterprise, on the ground that he (the Governor-General) +'must view with umbrage and displeasure schemes of interference and +conquest on our western frontier.' + +The Shah, unmoved by the representations of the British envoy, marched on +Herat, and the siege was opened on November 23d, 1837. Durand, a capable +critic, declares that the strength of the place, the resolution of the +besiegers, the skill of their Russian military advisers, and the +gallantry of the besieged, were alike objects of much exaggeration. 'The +siege was from first to last thoroughly ill-conducted, and the defence, +in reality not better managed, owed its _eclat_ to Persian ignorance, +timidity and supineness. The advice of Pottinger, the gallant English +officer who assisted the defence, was seldom asked, and still more seldom +taken; and no one spoke more plainly of the conduct of both besieged and +besiegers than did Pottinger himself.' M'Neill effected nothing definite +during a long stay in the Persian camp before Herat, the counteracting +influence of the Russian envoy being too strong with the Shah; and the +British representative, weary of continual slights, at length quitted the +Persian camp completely foiled. After six days' bombardment, the Persians +and their Russian auxiliaries delivered an assault in force on June 23d, +1838. It failed, with heavy loss, and the dispirited Shah determined on +raising the siege. His resolution was quickened by the arrival of Colonel +Stoddart in his camp, with the information that a military force from +Bombay, supported by ships of war, had landed on the island of Karrack in +the Persian Gulf, and with the peremptory ultimatum to the Shah that he +must retire from Herat at once. Lord Palmerston, in ordering this +diversion in the Gulf, had thought himself justified by circumstances in +overriding the clear and precise terms of an article in a treaty to which +England had on several occasions engaged to adhere. As for the Shah, he +appears to have been relieved by the ultimatum. On the 9th September he +mounted his horse and rode away from Herat. The siege had lasted nine and +a half months. To-day, half a century after Simonich the Russian envoy +followed Mahomed Shah from battered but unconquered Herat, that city is +still an Afghan place of arms. + +Shah Soojah-ool Moolk, a grandson of the illustrious Ahmed Shah, reigned +in Afghanistan from 1803 till 1809. His youth had been full of trouble +and vicissitude. He had been a wanderer, on the verge of starvation, a +pedlar and a bandit, who raised money by plundering caravans. His courage +was lightly reputed, and it was as a mere creature of circumstance that +he reached the throne. His reign was perturbed, and in 1809 he was a +fugitive and an exile. Runjeet Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, +defrauded him of the famous Koh-i-noor, which is now the most precious of +the crown jewels of England, and plundered and imprisoned the fallen man. +Shah Soojah at length escaped from Lahore. After further misfortunes he +at length reached the British frontier station of Loodianah, and in 1816 +became a pensioner of the East India Company. + +After the downfall of Shah Soojah, Afghanistan for many years was a prey +to anarchy. At length in 1826, Dost Mahomed succeeded in making himself +supreme at Cabul, and this masterful man thenceforward held sway until +his death in 1863, uninterruptedly save during the three years of the +British occupation. Dost Mahomed was neither kith nor kin to the +legitimate dynasty which he displaced. His father Poyndah Khan was an +able statesman and gallant soldier. He left twenty-one sons, of whom +Futteh Khan was the eldest, and Dost Mahomed one of the youngest. Futteh +Khan was the Warwick of Afghanistan, but the Afghan 'Kingmaker' had no +Barnet as the closing scene of his chequered life. Falling into hostile +hands, he was blinded and scalped. Refusing to betray his brothers, he +was leisurely cut to pieces by the order and in the presence of the +monarch whom he had made. His young brother Dost Mahomed undertook to +avenge his death. After years of varied fortunes the Dost had worsted all +his enemies, and in 1826 he became the ruler of Cabul. Throughout his +long reign Dost Mahomed was a strong and wise ruler. His youth had been +neglected and dissolute. His education was defective, and he had been +addicted to wine. Once seated on the throne, the reformation of our Henry +Fifth was not more thorough than was that of Dost Mahomed. He taught +himself to read and write, studied the Koran, became scrupulously +abstemious, assiduous in affairs, no longer truculent but courteous. He +is said to have made a public acknowledgment of the errors of his +previous life, and a firm profession of reformation; nor did his after +life belie the pledges to which he committed himself. There was a fine +rugged honesty in his nature, and a streak of genuine chivalry; +notwithstanding the despite he suffered at our hands, he had a real +regard for the English, and his loyalty to us was broken only by his +armed support of the Sikhs in the second Punjaub war. + +The fallen Shah Soojah, from his asylum in Loodianah, was continually +intriguing for his restoration. His schemes were long inoperative, and it +was not until 1832 that certain arrangements were entered into between +him and the Maharaja Runjeet Singh. To an application on Shah Soojah's +part for countenance and pecuniary aid, the Anglo-Indian Government +replied that to afford him assistance would be inconsistent with the +policy of neutrality which the Government had imposed on itself; but it +unwisely contributed financially toward his undertaking by granting him +four months' pension in advance. Sixteen thousand rupees formed a scant +war fund with which to attempt the recovery of a throne, but the Shah +started on his errand in February 1833. After a successful contest with +the Ameers of Scinde, he marched on Candahar, and besieged that fortress. +Candahar was in extremity when Dost Mahomed, hurrying from Cabul, +relieved it, and joining forces with its defenders, he defeated and +routed Shah Soojah, who fled precipitately, leaving behind him his +artillery and camp equipage, During the Dost's absence in the south, +Runjeet Singh's troops crossed the Attock, occupied the Afghan province +of Peshawur, and drove the Afghans into the Khyber Pass. No subsequent +efforts on Dost Mahomed's part availed to expel the Sikhs from Peshawur, +and suspicious of British connivance with Runjeet Singh's successful +aggression, he took into consideration the policy of fortifying himself +by a counter alliance with Persia. As for Shah Soojah, he had crept back +to his refuge at Loodianah. + +Lord Auckland succeeded Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General of +India in March 1836. In reply to Dost Mahomed's letter of congratulation, +his lordship wrote: 'You are aware that it is not the practice of the +British Government to interfere with the affairs of other independent +states;' an abstention which Lord Auckland was soon to violate. He had +brought from England the feeling of disquietude in regard to the designs +of Persia and Russia which the communications of our envoy in Persia had +fostered in the Home Government, but it would appear that he was wholly +undecided what line of action to pursue. 'Swayed,' says Durand, 'by the +vague apprehensions of a remote danger entertained by others rather than +himself,' he despatched to Afghanistan Captain Burnes on a nominally +commercial mission, which, in fact, was one of political discovery, but +without definite instructions. Burnes, an able but rash and ambitious +man, reached Cabul in September 1837, two months before the Persian army +began the siege of Herat. He had a strong prepossession in favour of the +Dost, whose guest he had already been in 1832, and the policy he favoured +was not the revival of the legitimate dynasty in the person of Shah +Soojah, but the attachment of Dost Mahomed to British interests by +strengthening his throne and affording him British countenance. + +Burnes sanguinely believed that he had arrived at Cabul in the nick of +time, for an envoy from the Shah of Persia was already at Candahar, +bearing presents and assurances of support. The Dost made no concealment +to Burnes of his approaches to Persia and Russia, in despair of British +good offices, and being hungry for assistance from any source to meet the +encroachments of the Sikhs, he professed himself ready to abandon his +negotiations with the western powers if he were given reason to expect +countenance and assistance at the hands of the Anglo-Indian Government. +Burnes communicated to his Government those friendly proposals, +supporting them by his own strong representations, and meanwhile, carried +away by enthusiasm, he exceeded his powers by making efforts to dissuade +the Candahar chiefs from the Persian alliance, and by offering to support +them with money to enable them to make head against the offensive, by +which Persia would probably seek to revenge the rejection of her +overtures. For this unauthorised excess of zeal Burnes was severely +reprimanded by his Government, and was directed to retract his offers to +the Candahar chiefs. The situation of Burnes in relation to the Dost was +presently complicated by the arrival at Cabul of a Russian officer +claiming to be an envoy from the Czar, whose credentials, however, were +regarded as dubious, and who, if that circumstance has the least weight, +was on his return to Russia utterly repudiated by Count Nesselrode. The +Dost took small account of this emissary, continuing to assure Burnes +that he cared for no connection except with the English, and Burnes +professed to his Government his fullest confidences in the sincerity of +those declarations. But the tone of Lord Auckland's reply, addressed to +the Dost, was so dictatorial and supercilious as to indicate the writer's +intention that it should give offence. It had that effect, and Burnes' +mission at once became hopeless. Yet, as a last resort, Dost Mahomed +lowered his pride so far as to write to the Governor-General imploring +him 'to remedy the grievances of the Afghans, and afford them some little +encouragement and power.' The pathetic representation had no effect. The +Russian envoy, who was profuse in his promises of everything which the +Dost was most anxious to obtain, was received into favour and treated +with distinction, and on his return journey he effected a treaty with the +Candahar chiefs, which was presently ratified by the Russian minister at +the Persian Court. Burnes, fallen into discredit at Cabul, quitted that +place in August 1838. He had not been discreet, but it was not his +indiscretion that brought about the failure of his mission. A nefarious +transaction, which Kaye denounces with the passion of a just indignation, +connects itself with Burnes' negotiations with the Dost; his official +correspondence was unscrupulously mutilated and garbled in the published +Blue Book with deliberate purpose to deceive the British public. + +Burnes had failed because, since he had quitted India for Cabul, Lord +Auckland's policy had gradually altered. Lord Auckland had landed in +India in the character of a man of peace. That, so late as April 1837, he +had no design of obstructing the existing situation in Afghanistan is +proved by his written statement of that date, that 'the British +Government had resolved decidedly to discourage the prosecution by the +ex-king Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, so long as he may remain under our +protection, of further schemes of hostility against the chiefs now in +power in Cabul and Candahar.' Yet, in the following June, he concluded a +treaty which sent Shah Soojah to Cabul, escorted by British bayonets. Of +this inconsistency no explanation presents itself. It was a far cry from +our frontier on the Sutlej to Herat in the confines of Central Asia--a +distance of more than 1200 miles, over some of the most arduous marching +ground in the known world. No doubt the Anglo-Indian Government was +justified in being somewhat concerned by the facts that a Persian army, +backed by Russian volunteers and Russian roubles, was besieging Herat, +and that Persian and Russian emissaries were at work in Afghanistan. Both +phenomena were rather of the 'bogey' character; how much so to-day shows +when the Afghan frontier is still beyond Herat, and when a descendant of +Dost Mahomed still sits in the Cabul _musnid_. But neither England nor +India scrupled to make the Karrack counter-threat which arrested the +siege of Herat; and the obvious policy as regarded Afghanistan was to +watch the results of the intrigues which were on foot, to ignore them +should they come to nothing, as was probable, to counteract them by +familiar methods if serious consequences should seem impending. Our +alliance with Runjeet Singh was solid, and the quarrel between Dost +Mahomed and him concerning the Peshawur province was notoriously easy of +arrangement. + +On whose memory rests the dark shadow of responsibility for the first +Afghan war? The late Lord Broughton, who, when Sir John Cam Hobhouse, was +President of the Board of Control from 1835 to 1841, declared before a +House of Commons Committee, in 1851, 'The Afghan war was done by myself; +entirely without the privity of the Board of Directors.' The meaning of +that declaration, of course, was that it was the British Government of +the day which was responsible, acting through its member charged with the +control of Indian affairs; and further, that the directorate of the East +India Company was accorded no voice in the matter. But this utterance was +materially qualified by Sir J. C. Hobhouse's statement in the House of +Commons in 1842, that his despatch indicating the policy to be adopted, +and that written by Lord Auckland, informing him that the expedition had +already been undertaken, had crossed each other on the way. + +It would be tedious to detail how Lord Auckland, under evil counsel, +gradually boxed the compass from peace to war. The scheme of action +embodied in the treaty which, in the early summer of 1838, was concluded +between the Anglo-Indian Government, Runjeet Singh, and Shah Soojah, was +that Shah Soojah, with a force officered from an Indian army, and paid by +British money, possessing also the goodwill and support of the Maharaja +of the Punjaub, should attempt the recovery of his throne without any +stiffening of British bayonets at his back. Then it was urged, and the +representation was indeed accepted, that the Shah would need the buttress +afforded by English troops, and that a couple of regiments only would +suffice to afford this prestige. But Sir Harry Fane, the +Commander-in-Chief, judiciously interposed his veto on the despatch of a +handful of British soldiers on so distant and hazardous an expedition. +Finally, the Governor-General, committed already to a mistaken line of +policy, and urged forward by those about him, took the unfortunate +resolution to gather together an Anglo-Indian army, and to send it, with +the ill-omened Shah Soojah on its shoulders, into the unknown and distant +wilds of Afghanistan. This action determined on, it was in accordance +with the Anglo-Indian fitness of things that the Governor-General should +promulgate a justificatory manifesto. Of this composition it is +unnecessary to say more than to quote Durand's observation that in it +'the words "justice and necessity" were applied in a manner for which +there is fortunately no precedent in the English language,' and Sir Henry +Edwardes' not less trenchant comment that 'the views and conduct of Dost +Mahomed were misrepresented with a hardihood which a Russian statesman +might have envied.' + +All men whose experience gave weight to their words opposed this +'preposterous enterprise.' Mr Elphinstone, who had been the head of a +mission to Cabul thirty years earlier, held that 'if an army was sent up +the passes, and if we could feed it, no doubt we might take Cabul and set +up Shah Soojah; but it was hopeless to maintain him in a poor, cold, +strong and remote country, among so turbulent a people.' Lord William +Bentinck, Lord Auckland's predecessor, denounced the project as an act of +incredible folly. Marquis Wellesley regarded 'this wild expedition into a +distant region of rocks and deserts, of sands and ice and snow,' as an +act of infatuation. The Duke of Wellington pronounced with prophetic +sagacity, that the consequence of once crossing the Indus to settle a +government in Afghanistan would be a perennial march into that country. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE MARCH TO CABUL + +The two main objects of the venturesome offensive movement to which Lord +Auckland had committed himself were, first, the raising of the Persian +siege of Herat if the place should hold out until reached--the recapture +of it if it should have fallen; and, secondly, the establishment of Shah +Soojah on the Afghan throne. The former object was the more pressing, and +time was very precious; but the distances in India are great, the means +of communication in 1838 did not admit of celerity, and the seasons +control the safe prosecution of military operations. Nevertheless, the +concentration of the army at the frontier station of Ferozepore was fully +accomplished toward the end of November. Sir Harry Fane was to be the +military head of the expedition, and he had just right to be proud of the +14,000 carefully selected and well-seasoned troops who constituted his +Bengal contingent. The force consisted of two infantry divisions, of +which the first, commanded by Major-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, +contained three brigades, commanded respectively by Colonels Sale, Nott, +and Dennis, of whom the two former were to attain high distinction within +the borders of Afghanistan. Major-General Duncan commanded the second +infantry division of the two brigades, of which one was commanded by +Colonel Roberts, the gallant father of a gallant son, the other by +Colonel Worsley. The 6000 troops raised for Shah Soojah, who were under +Fane's orders, and were officered from our army in India, had been +recently and hurriedly recruited, and although rapidly improving, were +not yet in a state of high efficiency. The contingent which the Bombay +Presidency was to furnish to the 'Army of the Indus,' and which landed +about the close of the year near the mouth of the Indus, was under the +command of General Sir John Keane, the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay +army. The Bombay force was about 5000 strong. + +Before the concentration at Ferozepore had been completed, Lord Auckland +received official intimation of the retreat of the Persians from before +Herat. With their departure had gone, also, the sole legitimate object of +the expedition; there remained but a project of wanton aggression and +usurpation. The Russo-Persian failure at Herat was scarcely calculated to +maintain in the astute and practical Afghans any hope of fulfilment of +the promises which the western powers had thrown about so lavishly, while +it made clear that, for some time at least to come, the Persians would +not be found dancing again to Russian fiddling. The abandonment of the +siege of Herat rendered the invasion of Afghanistan an aggression +destitute even of pretext. The Governor-General endeavoured to justify +his resolution to persevere in it by putting forth the argument that its +prosecution was required, 'alike in observation of the treaties entered +into with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah as by paramount considerations of +defensive policy.' A remarkable illustration of 'defensive policy' to +take the offensive against a remote country from whose further confines +had faded away foiled aggression, leaving behind nothing but a bitter +consciousness of broken promises! As for the other plea, the tripartite +treaty contained no covenant that we should send a corporal's guard +across our frontier. If Shah Soojah had a powerful following in +Afghanistan, he could regain his throne without our assistance; if he had +no holding there, it was for us a truly discreditable enterprise to foist +him on a recalcitrant people at the point of the bayonet. + +One result of the tidings from Herat was to reduce by a division the +strength of the expeditionary force. Fane, who had never taken kindly to +the project, declined to associate himself with the diminished array that +remained. The command of the Bengal column fell to Sir Willoughby Cotton, +with whom as his aide-de-camp rode that Henry Havelock whose name twenty +years later was to ring through India and England. Duncan's division was +to stand fast at Ferozepore as a support, by which disposition the +strength of the Bengal marching force was cut down to about 9500 fighting +men. After its junction with the Bombay column, the army would be 14,500 +strong, without reckoning the Shah's contingent. There was an interlude +at Ferozepore of reviews and high jinks with the shrewd, debauched old +Runjeet Singh; of which proceedings Havelock in his narrative of the +expedition gives a detailed account, dwelling with extreme disapprobation +on Runjeet's addiction to a 'pet tipple' strong enough to lay out the +hardest drinker in the British camp, but which the old reprobate quaffed +freely without turning a hair. + +At length, on December 10th, 1838, Cotton began the long march which was +not to terminate at Cabul until August 6th of the following year. The +most direct route was across the Punjaub, and up the passes from +Peshawur, but the Governor-General had shrunk from proposing to Runjeet +Singh that the force should march through his territories, thinking it +enough that the Maharaja had permitted Shah Soojah's heir, Prince Timour, +to go by Peshawur to Cabul, had engaged to support him with a Sikh force, +and had agreed to maintain an army of reserve at Peshawur. The chosen +route was by the left bank of the Sutlej to its junction with the Indus, +down the left bank of the Indus to the crossing point at Roree, and from +Sukkur across the Scinde and northern Belooch provinces by the Bolan and +Kojuk passes to Candahar, thence by Khelat-i-Ghilzai and Ghuznee to +Cabul. This was a line excessively circuitous, immensely long, full of +difficulties, and equally disadvantageous as to supplies and +communications. On the way the column would have to effect a junction +with the Bombay force, which at Vikkur was distant 800 miles from +Ferozepore. Of the distance of 850 miles from the latter post to Candahar +the first half to the crossing of the Indus presented no serious +difficulties, but from Sukkur beyond the country was inhospitable and +cruelly rugged. It needed little military knowledge to realise how more +and yet more precarious would become the communications as the chain +lengthened, to discern that from Ferozepore to the Indus they would be at +the mercy of the Sikhs, and to comprehend this also, that a single +serious check, in or beyond the passes, would involve all but inevitable +ruin. + +Shah Soojah and his levies moved independently some marches in advance of +Cotton. The Dooranee monarch-elect had already crossed the Indus, and was +encamped at Shikarpore, when he was joined by Mr William Hay Macnaghten, +of the Company's Civil Service, the high functionary who had been +gazetted as 'Envoy and Minister on the part of the Government of India at +the Court of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk.' Durand pronounces the selection an +unhappy one, 'for Macnaghten, long accustomed to irresponsible office, +inexperienced in men, and ignorant of the country and people of +Afghanistan, was, though an erudite Arabic scholar, neither practised in +the field of Asiatic intrigue nor a man of action. His ambition was, +however, great, and the expedition, holding out the promise of +distinction and honours, had met with his strenuous advocacy.' Macnaghten +was one of the three men who chiefly inspired Lord Auckland with the +policy to which he had committed himself. He was the negotiator of the +tripartite treaty. He was now on his way toward a region wherein he was +to concern himself in strange adventures, the outcome of which was to +darken his reputation, consign him to a sudden cruel death, bring awful +ruin on the enterprise he had fostered, and inflict incalculable damage +on British prestige in India. + +Marching through Bhawulpore and Northern Scinde, without noteworthy +incident save heavy losses of draught cattle, Cotton's army reached +Roree, the point at which the Indus was to be crossed, in the third week +of January 1839. Here a delay was encountered. The Scinde Ameers were, +with reason, angered by the unjust and exacting terms which Pottinger had +been instructed to enforce on them. They had been virtually independent +of Afghanistan for nearly half a century; there was now masterfully +demanded of them quarter of a million sterling in name of back tribute, +and this in the face of the fact that they held a solemn release by Shah +Soojah of all past and future claims. When they demurred to this, and to +other exactions, they were peremptorily told that 'neither the ready +power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action, +was wanting if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety +and integrity of the Anglo-Indian empire and frontier.' + +It was little wonder that the Ameers were reluctant to fall in with terms +advanced so arrogantly. Keane marched up the right bank of the Indus to +within a couple of marches of Hyderabad, and having heard of the +rejection by the Ameers of Pottinger's terms, and of the gathering of +some 20,000 armed Belooches about the capital, he called for the +co-operation of part of the Bengal column in a movement on Hyderabad. +Cotton started on his march down the left bank, on January Jeth, with +5600 men. Under menaces so ominous the unfortunate Ameers succumbed. +Cotton returned to Roree; the Bengal column crossed the Indus, and on +February 20th its headquarters reached Shikarpore. Ten days later, +Cotton, leading the advance, was in Dadur, at the foot of the Bolan Pass, +having suffered heavily in transport animals almost from the start. +Supplies were scarce in a region so barren, but with a month's partial +food on his beasts of burden he quitted Dadur March 10th, got safely, if +toilsomely, through the Bolan, and on 26th reached Quetta, where he was +to halt for orders. Shah Soojah and Keane followed, their troops +suffering not a little from scarcity of supplies and loss of animals. + +Keane's error in detaining Cotton at Quetta until he should arrive proved +itself in the semi-starvation to which the troops of the Bengal column +were reduced. The Khan of Khelat, whether from disaffection or inability, +left unfulfilled his promise to supply grain, and the result of the +quarrel which Burnes picked with him was that he shunned coming in and +paying homage to Shah Soojah, for which default he was to suffer cruel +and unjustifiable ruin. The sepoys were put on half, the camp followers +on quarter rations, and the force for eleven days had been idly consuming +the waning supplies, when at length, on April 6th, Keane came into camp, +having already formally assumed the command of the whole army, and made +certain alterations in its organisation and subsidiary commands. There +still remained to be traversed 147 miles before Candahar should be +reached, and the dreaded Kojuk Pass had still to be penetrated. + +Keane was a soldier who had gained a reputation for courage in Egypt and +the Peninsula. He was indebted to the acuteness of his engineer and the +valour of his troops, for the peerage conferred on him for Ghuznee, and +it cannot be said that during his command in Afghanistan he disclosed any +marked military aptitude. But he had sufficient perception to recognise +that he had brought the Bengal column to the verge of starvation in +Quetta, and sufficient common sense to discern that, since if it remained +there it would soon starve outright, the best thing to be done was to +push it forward with all possible speed into a region where food should +be procurable. Acting on this reasoning, he marched the day after his +arrival. Cotton, while lying in Quetta, had not taken the trouble to +reconnoitre the passes in advance, far less to make a practicable road +through the Kojuk defile if that should prove the best route. The +resolution taken to march through it, two days were spent in making the +pass possible for wheels; and from the 13th to the 21st the column was +engaged in overcoming the obstacles it presented, losing in the task, +besides, much baggage, supplies, transport and ordnance stores. Further +back in the Bolan Willshire with the Bombay column was faring worse; he +was plundered severely by tribal marauders. + +By May 4th the main body of the army was encamped in the plain of +Candahar. From the Kojuk, Shah Soojah and his contingent had led the +advance toward the southern capital of the dominions from the throne of +which he had been cast down thirty years before. The Candahar chiefs had +meditated a night attack on his raw troops, but Macnaghten's intrigues +and bribes had wrought defection in their camp; and while Kohun-dil-Khan +and his brothers were in flight to Girishk on the Helmund, the infamous +Hadji Khan Kakur led the venal herd of turncoat sycophants to the feet of +the claimant who came backed by the British gold, which Macnaghten was +scattering abroad with lavish hand. Shah Soojah recovered from his +trepidation, hurried forward in advance of his troops, and entered +Candahar on April 24th. His reception was cold. The influential chiefs +stood aloof, abiding the signs of the times; the populace of Candahar +stood silent and lowering. Nor did the sullenness abate when the presence +of a large army with its followers promptly raised the price of grain, to +the great distress of the poor. The ceremony of the solemn recognition of +the Shah, held close to the scene of his defeat in 1834, Havelock +describes as an imposing pageant, with homagings and royal salutes, +parade of troops and presentation of _nuzzurs_; but the arena set apart +for the inhabitants was empty, spite of Eastern love for a _tamasha_, and +the display of enthusiasm was confined to the immediate retainers of His +Majesty. + +The Shah was eager for the pursuit of the fugitive chiefs; but the troops +were jaded and sickly, the cavalry were partially dismounted, and what +horses remained were feeble skeletons. The transport animals needed +grazing and rest, and their loss of numbers to be made good. The crops +were not yet ripe, and provisions were scant and dear. When, on May 9th, +Sale marched toward Girishk, his detachment carried half rations, and his +handful of regular cavalry was all that two regiments could furnish. +Reaching Girishk, he found that the chiefs had fled toward Seistan, and +leaving a regiment of the Shah's contingent in occupation, he returned to +Candahar. + +Macnaghten professed the belief, and perhaps may have deluded himself +into it, that Candahar had received the Shah with enthusiasm. He was +sanguine that the march to Cabul would be unopposed, and he urged on +Keane, who was wholly dependent on the Envoy for political information, +to move forward at once, lightening the difficulties of the march by +leaving the Bombay troops at Candahar. But Keane declined, on the advice +of Thomson, his chief engineer, who asked significantly whether he had +found the information given him by the political department in any single +instance correct. Food prospects, however, did not improve at Candahar, +and leaving a strong garrison there as well, curious to say, as the siege +train which with arduous labour had been brought up the passes, Keane +began the march to Cabul on June 27th. He had supplies only sufficient to +carry his army thither on half rations. Macnaghten had lavished money so +freely that the treasury chest was all but empty. How the Afghans +regarded the invasion was evinced by condign slaughter of our stragglers. + +As the army advanced up the valley of the Turnuk, the climate became more +temperate, the harvest was later, and the troops improved in health and +spirit. Concentrating his forces, Keane reached Ghuznee on July 21st. The +reconnaissance he made proved that fortress occupied in force. The +outposts driven in, and a close inspection made, the works were found +stronger than had been represented, and its regular reduction was out of +the question without the battering train which Keane had allowed himself +to be persuaded into leaving behind. A wall some 70 feet high and a wet +ditch in its front made mining and escalade alike impracticable. Thomson, +however, noticed that the road and bridge to the Cabul gate were intact. +He obtained trustworthy information that up to a recent date, while all +the other gates had been built up, the Cabul gate had not been so dealt +with. As he watched, a horseman was seen to enter by it. This was +conclusive. The ground within 400 yards of the gate offered good +artillery positions. Thomson therefore reported that although the +operation was full of risk, and success if attained must cost dear, yet +in the absence of a less hazardous method of reduction there offered a +fair chance of success in an attempt to blow open the Cabul gate, and +then carry the place by a _coup de main_. Keane was precluded from the +alternative of masking the place and continuing his advance by the all +but total exhaustion of his supplies, which the capture of Ghuznee would +replenish, and he therefore resolved on an assault by the Cabul gate. + +During the 21st July the army circled round the place, and camped to the +north of it on the Cabul road. The following day was spent in +preparations, and in defeating an attack made on the Shah's contingent by +several thousand Ghilzai tribesmen of the adjacent hill country. In the +gusty darkness of the early morning of the 23d the field artillery was +placed in battery on the heights opposite the northern face of the +fortress. The 13th regiment was extended in skirmishing order in the +gardens under the wall of this face, and a detachment of sepoys was +detailed to make a false attack on the eastern face. Near the centre of +the northern face was the Cabul gate, in front of which lay waiting for +the signal, a storming party consisting of the light companies of the +four European regiments, under command of Colonel Dennie of the 13th. The +main column consisted of two European regiments and the support of a +third, the whole commanded by Brigadier Sale; the native regiments +constituted the reserve. All those dispositions were completed by three +A.M., and, favoured by the noise of the wind and the darkness, without +alarming the garrison. + +Punctually at this hour the little party of engineers charged with the +task of blowing in the gate started forward on the hazardous errand. +Captain Peat of the Bombay Engineers was in command. Durand, a young +lieutenant of Bengal Engineers, who was later to attain high distinction, +was entrusted with the service of heading the explosion party. The +latter, leading the party, had advanced unmolested to within 150 yards of +the works, when a challenge, a shot and a shout gave intimation of his +detection. A musketry fire was promptly opened by the garrison from the +battlements, and blue lights illuminated the approach to the gate, but in +the fortunate absence of fire from the lower works the bridge was safely +crossed, and Peat with his handful of linesmen halted in a sallyport to +cover the explosion operation. Durand advanced to the gate, his sappers +piled their powder bags against it and withdrew; Durand and his sergeant +uncoiled the hose, ignited the quick-match under a rain from the +battlements of bullets and miscellaneous missiles, and then retired to +cover out of reach of the explosion. + +At the sound of the first shot from the battlements, Keane's cannon had +opened their fire. The skirmishers in the gardens engaged in a brisk +fusillade. The rattle of Hay's musketry was heard from the east. The +garrison was alert in its reply. The northern ramparts became a sheet of +flame, and everywhere the cannonade and musketry fire waxed in noise and +volume. Suddenly, as the day was beginning to dawn, a dull, heavy sound +was heard by the head of the waiting column, scarce audible elsewhere +because of the boisterous wind and the din of the firing. A pillar of +black smoke shot up from where had been the Afghan gate, now shattered by +the 300 pounds of gunpowder which Durand had exploded against it. The +signal to the storming party was to be the 'advance' sounded by the +bugler who accompanied Peat. But the bugler had been shot through the +head. Durand could not find Peat. Going back through the bullets to the +nearest party of infantry, he experienced some delay, but at last the +column was apprised that all was right, the 'advance' was sounded, Dennie +and his stormers sped forward, and Sale followed at the head of the main +column. + +After a temporary check to the latter, because of a misconception, it +pushed on in close support of Dennie. That gallant soldier and his +gallant followers had rushed into the smoking and gloomy archway to find +themselves met hand to hand by the Afghan defenders, who had recovered +from their surprise. Nothing could be distinctly seen in the narrow +gorge, but the clash of sword blade against bayonet was heard on every +side. The stormers had to grope their way between the yet standing walls +in a dusk which the glimmer of the blue light only made more perplexing. +But some elbow room was gradually gained, and then, since there was +neither time nor space for methodic street fighting, each loaded section +gave its volley and then made way for the next, which, crowding to the +front, poured a deadly discharge at half pistol-shot into the densely +crowded defenders. Thus the storming party won steadily its way, till at +length Dennie and his leading files discerned over the heads of their +opponents a patch of blue sky and a twinkling star or two, and with a +final charge found themselves within the place. + +A body of fierce Afghan swordsmen projected themselves into the interval +between the storming party and the main column. Sale, at the head of the +latter, was cut down by a tulwar stroke in the face; in the effort of his +blow the assailant fell with the assailed, and they rolled together among +the shattered timbers of the gate. Sale, wounded again on the ground, and +faint with loss of blood, called to one of his officers for assistance. +Kershaw ran the Afghan through the body with his sword; but he still +struggled with the Brigadier. At length in the grapple Sale got +uppermost, and then he dealt his adversary a sabre cut which cleft him +from crown to eyebrows. There was much confused fighting within the +place, for the Afghan garrison made furious rallies again and again; but +the citadel was found open and undefended, and by sunrise British banners +were waving above its battlements Hyder Khan, the Governor of Ghuznee, +one of the sons of Dost Mahomed, was found concealed in a house in the +town and taken prisoner. The British loss amounted to about 200 killed +and wounded, that of the garrison, which was estimated at from 3000 to +4000 strong, was over 500 killed. The number of wounded was not +ascertained; of prisoners taken in arms there were about 1600. The booty +consisted of numerous horses, camels and mules, ordnance and military +weapons of various descriptions, and a vast quantity of supplies of all +kinds. + +Keane, having garrisoned Ghuznee, and left there his sick and wounded, +resumed on July 30th his march on Cabul. Within twenty-four hours after +the event Dost Mahomed heard of the fall of Ghuznee. Possessed of the +adverse intelligence, the Dost gathered his chiefs, received their facile +assurances of fidelity, sent his brother the Nawaub Jubbar Khan to ask +what terms Shah Soojah and his British allies were prepared to offer him, +and recalled from Jellalabad his son Akbar Khan, with all the force he +could muster there. The Dost's emissary to the allied camp was informed +that 'an honourable asylum' in British India was at the service of his +brother; an offer which Jubbar Khan declined in his name without thanks. +Before he left to share the fortunes of the Dost, the Sirdar is reported +to have asked Macnaghten, 'If Shah Soojah is really our king, what need +has he of your army and name? You have brought him here,' he continued, +'with your money and arms. Well, leave him now with us Afghans, and let +him rule us if he can.' When Jubbar Khan returned to Cabul with his +sombre message, the Dost, having been joined by Akbar Khan, concentrated +his army, and found himself at the head of 13,000 men, with thirty guns; +but he mournfully realised that he could lean no reliance on the +constancy and courage of his adherents. Nevertheless, he marched out +along the Ghuznee road, and drew up his force at Urgundeh, where he +commanded the most direct line of retreat toward the western hill country +of Bamian, in case his people would not fight, or should they fight, if +they were beaten. + +There was no fight in his following; scarcely, indeed, was there a loyal +supporter among all those who had eaten his salt for years. There was +true manhood in this chief whom we were replacing by an effete puppet. +The Dost, Koran in hand, rode among his perfidious troops, and conjured +them in the name of God and the Prophet not to dishonour themselves by +transferring their allegiance to one who had filled Afghanistan with +infidels and blasphemers. 'If,' he continued, 'you are resolved to be +traitors to me, at least enable me to die with honour. Support the +brother of Futteh Khan in one last charge against these Feringhee dogs. +In that charge he will fall; then go and make your own terms with Shah +Soojah.' The high-souled appeal inspired no worthy response; but one is +loth to credit the testimony of the soldier-of-fortune Harlan that his +guards forsook the Dost, and that the rabble of troops plundered his +pavilion, snatched from under him the pillows of his divan, seized his +prayer carpet, and finally hacked into pieces the tent and its +appurtenances. On the evening of August 2d the hapless man shook the dust +of the camp of traitors from his feet, and rode away toward Bamian, his +son Akbar Khan, with a handful of resolute men, covering the retreat of +his father and his family. Tidings of the flight of Dost Mahomed reached +Keane on the 3d, at Sheikabad, where he had halted to concentrate; and +Outram volunteered to head a pursuing party, to consist of some British +officers as volunteers, some cavalry and some Afghan horse. Hadji Khan +Kakur, the earliest traitor of his race, undertook to act as guide. This +man's devices of delay defeated Outram's fiery energy, perhaps in deceit, +perhaps because he regarded it as lacking discretion. For Akbar Khan made +a long halt on the crown of the pass, waiting to check any endeavour to +press closely on his fugitive father, and it would have gone hard with +Outram, with a few fagged horsemen at his back, if Hadji Khan had allowed +him to overtake the resolute young Afghan chief. As Keane moved forward, +there fell to him the guns which the Dost had left in the Urgundeh +position. On August 6th he encamped close to Cabul; and on the following +day Shah Soojah made his public entry into the capital which he had last +seen thirty years previously. After so many years of vicissitude, +adventure and intrigue, he was again on the throne of his ancestors, but +placed there by the bayonets of the Government whose creature he was, an +insult to the nation whom he had the insolence to call his people. + +The entry, nevertheless, was a goodly spectacle enough. Shah Soojah, +dazzling in coronet, jewelled girdle and bracelets, but with no +Koh-i-noor now glittering on his forehead, bestrode a white charger, +whose equipments gleamed with gold. By his side rode Macnaghten and +Burnes; in the pageant were the principal officers of the British army. +Sabres flashed in front of the procession, bayonets sparkled in its rear, +as it wended its way through the great bazaar which Pollock was to +destroy three years later, and along the tortuous street to the gate of +the Balla Hissar. But neither the monarch nor his pageant kindled the +enthusiasm in the Cabulees. There was no voice of welcome; the citizens +did not care to trouble themselves so much as to make him a salaam, and +they stared at the European strangers harder than at his restored +majesty. There was a touch of pathos in the burst of eagerness to which +the old man gave way as he reached the palace, ran through the gardens, +visited the apartments, and commented on the neglect everywhere apparent. +Shah Soojah was rather a poor creature, but he was by no means altogether +destitute of good points, and far worse men than he were actors in the +strange historical episode of which he was the figurehead. He was humane +for an Afghan; he never was proved to have been untrue to us; he must +have had some courage of a kind else he would never have remained in +Cabul when our people left it, in the all but full assurance of the fate +which presently overtook him as a matter of course. Havelock thus +portrays him: 'A stout person of the middle height, his chin covered with +a long thick and neatly trimmed beard, dyed black to conceal the +encroachments of time. His manner toward the English is gentle, calm and +dignified, without haughtiness, but his own subjects have invariably +complained of his reception of them as cold and repulsive, even to +rudeness. His complexion is darker than that of the generality of +Afghans, and his features, if not decidedly handsome, are not the reverse +of pleasing; but the expression of his countenance would betray to a +skilful physiognomist that mixture of timidity and duplicity so often +observable in the character of the higher order of men in Southern Asia.' + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Sir John Kaye, in his picturesque if diffuse history of the first Afghan +war, lays it down that, in seating Shah Soojah on the Cabul throne, 'the +British Government had done all that it had undertaken to do,' and Durand +argues that, having accomplished this, 'the British army could have then +been withdrawn with the honour and fame of entire success.' The facts +apparently do not justify the reasoning of either writer. In the Simla +manifesto, in which Lord Auckland embodied the rationale of his policy, +he expressed the confident hope 'that the Shah will be speedily replaced +on his throne by his own subjects and adherents, and when once he shall +be received in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +established, the British army will be withdrawn.' The Shah had been +indeed restored to his throne, but by British bayonets, not by 'his own +subjects and adherents.' It could not seriously be maintained that he was +secure in power, or that the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +were established when British troops were holding Candahar, Ghuznee and +Cabul, the only three positions where the Shah was nominally paramount, +when the fugitive Dost was still within its borders, when intrigue and +disaffection were seething in every valley and on every hill-side, and +when the principality of Herat maintained a contemptuous independence. +Macnaghten might avow himself convinced of the popularity of the Shah, +and believe or strive to believe that the Afghans had received the puppet +king `with feelings nearly amounting to adoration,' but he did not +venture to support the conviction he avowed by advocating that the Shah +should be abandoned to his adoring subjects. Lord Auckland's policy was +gravely and radically erroneous, but it had a definite object, and that +object certainly was not a futile march to Cabul and back, dropping +incidentally by the wayside the aspirant to a throne whom he had himself +put forward, and leaving him to take his chance among a truculent and +adverse population. Thus early, in all probability, Lord Auckland was +disillusioned of the expectation that the effective restoration of Shah +Soojah would be of light and easy accomplishment, but at least he could +not afford to have the enterprise a _coup manque_ when as yet it was +little beyond its inception. + +The cost of the expedition was already, however, a strain, and the troops +engaged in it were needed in India. Lord Auckland intimated to Macnaghten +his expectation that a strong brigade would suffice to hold Afghanistan +in conjunction with the Shah's contingent, and his desire that the rest +of the army of the Indus should at once return to India. Macnaghten, on +the other hand, in spite of his avowal of the Shah's popularity, was +anxious to retain in Afghanistan a large body of troops. He meditated +strange enterprises, and proposed that Keane should support his project +of sending a force toward Bokhara to give check to a Russian column which +Pottinger at Herat had heard was assembling at Orenburg, with Khiva for +its objective. Keane derided the proposal, and Macnaghten reluctantly +abandoned it, but he demanded of Lord Auckland with success, the +retention in Afghanistan of the Bengal division of the army. In the +middle of September General Willshire marched with the Bombay column, +with orders, on his way to the Indus to pay a hostile visit to Khelat, +and punish its khan for the 'disloyalty' with which he had been charged, +a commission which the British officer fulfilled with a skill and +thoroughness that could be admired with less reservation had the +aggression on the gallant Mehrab been less wanton. A month later Keane +started for India by the Khyber route, which Wade had opened without +serious resistance when in August and September he escorted through the +passes Prince Timour, Shah Soojah's heir-apparent. During the temporary +absence of Cotton, who accompanied Keane, Nott had the command at +Candahar, Sale at and about Cabul, and the troops were quartered in those +capitals, and in Jellalabad, Ghuznee, Charikar and Bamian. The Shah and +the Envoy wintered in the milder climate of Jellalabad, and Burnes was in +political charge of the capital and its vicinity. + +It was a prophetic utterance that the accomplishment of our military +succession would mark but the commencement of our real difficulties in +Afghanistan. In theory and in name Shah Soojah was an independent +monarch; it was, indeed, only in virtue of his proving himself able to +rule independently that he could justify his claim to rule at all. But +that he was independent was a contradiction in terms while British troops +studded the country, and while the real powers of sovereignty were +exercised by Macnaghten. Certain functions, it is true, the latter did +permit the nominal monarch to exercise. While debarred from a voice in +measures of external policy, and not allowed to sway the lines of conduct +to be adopted toward independent or revolting tribes, the Shah was +allowed to concern himself with the administration of justice, and in his +hands were the settlement, collection and appropriation of the revenue of +those portions of the kingdom from which any revenue could be exacted. He +was allowed to appoint as his minister of state, the companion of his +exile, old Moolla Shikore, who had lost both his memory and his ears, but +who had sufficient faculty left to hate the English, to oppress the +people, to be corrupt and venal beyond all conception, and to appoint +subordinates as flagitious as himself. 'Bad ministers,' wrote Burnes, +'are in every government solid ground for unpopularity; and I doubt if +ever a king had a worse set than has Shah Soojah.' The oppressed people +appealed to the British functionaries, who remonstrated with the +minister, and the minister punished the people for appealing to the +British functionaries. The Shah was free to confer grants of land on his +creatures, but when the holders resisted, he was unable to enforce his +will since he was not allowed to employ soldiers; and the odium of the +forcible confiscation ultimately fell on Macnaghten, who alone had the +ordering of expeditions, and who could not see the Shah belittled by +non-fulfilment of his requisitions. + +Justice sold by venal judges, oppression and corruption rampant in every +department of internal administration, it was no wonder that nobles and +people alike resented the inflictions under whose sting they writhed. +They were accustomed to a certain amount of oppression; Dost Mahomed had +chastised them with whips, but Shah Soojah, whom the English had brought, +was chastising them with scorpions. And they felt his yoke the more +bitterly because, with the shrewd acuteness of the race, they recognised +the really servile condition of this new king. They fretted, too, under +the sharp bit of the British political agents who were strewn about the +country, in the execution of a miserable and futile policy, and whose +lives, in a few instances, did not maintain the good name of their +country. Dost Mahomed had maintained his sway by politic management of +the chiefs, and through them of the tribes. Macnaghten would have done +well to impress on Shah Soojah the wisdom of pursuing the same tactics. +There was, it is true, the alternative of destroying the power of the +barons, but that policy involved a stubborn and doubtful struggle, and +prolonged occupation of the country by British troops in great strength. +Macnaghten professed our occupation of Afghanistan to be temporary; yet +he was clearly adventuring on the rash experiment of weakening the nobles +when he set about the enlistment of local tribal levies, who, paid from +the Royal treasury and commanded by British officers, were expected to be +staunch to the Shah, and useful in curbing the powers of the chiefs. The +latter, of course, were alienated and resentful, and the levies, imbued +with the Afghan attribute of fickleness, proved for the most part +undisciplined and faithless. + +The winter of 1839-40 passed without much noteworthy incident. The winter +climate of Afghanistan is severe, and the Afghan, in ordinary +circumstances, is among the hibernating animals. But down in the Khyber, +in October, the tribes gave some trouble. They were dissatisfied with the +amount of annual black-mail paid them for the right of way through their +passes. When the Shah was a fugitive thirty years previously, they had +concealed and protected him; and mindful of their kindly services, he had +promised them, unknown to Macnaghten, the augmentation of their subsidy +to the old scale from which it had gradually dwindled. Wade, returning +from Cabul, did not bring them the assurances they expected, whereupon +they rose and concentrated and invested Ali Musjid, a fort which they +regarded as the key of their gloomy defile. Mackeson, the Peshawur +political officer, threw provisions and ammunition into Ali Musjid, but +the force, on its return march, was attacked by the hillmen, the Sikhs +being routed, and the sepoys incurring loss of men and transport. The +emboldened Khyberees now turned on Ali Musjid in earnest; but the +garrison was strengthened, and the place was held until a couple of +regiments marched down from Jellalabad, and were preparing to attack the +hillmen, when it was announced that Mackeson had made a compact with the +chiefs for the payment of an annual subsidy which they considered +adequate. + +Afghanistan fifty years ago, and the same is in a measure true of it +to-day, was rather a bundle of provinces, some of which owned scarcely a +nominal allegiance to the ruler in Cabul, than a concrete state. Herat +and Candahar were wholly independent, the Ghilzai tribes inhabiting the +wide tracts from the Suliman ranges westward beyond the road through +Ghuznee, between Candahar and Cabul, and northward into the rugged +country between Cabul and Jellalabad, acknowledged no other authority +than that of their own chiefs. The Ghilzais are agriculturists, +shepherds, and robbers; they are constantly engaged in internal feuds; +they are jealous of their wild independence, and through the centuries +have abated little of their untamed ferocity. They had rejected +Macnaghten's advances, and had attacked Shah Soojah's camp on the day +before the fall of Ghuznee. Outram, in reprisal, had promptly raided part +of their country. Later, the winter had restrained them from activity, +but they broke out again in the spring. In May Captain Anderson, marching +from Candahar with a mixed force about 1200 strong, was offered battle +near Jazee, in the Turnuk, by some 2000 Ghilzai horse and foot. +Andersen's guns told heavily among the Ghilzai horsemen, who, impatient +of the fire, made a spirited dash on his left flank. Grape and musketry +checked them; but they rallied, and twice charged home on the bayonets +before they withdrew, leaving 200 of their number dead on the ground. +Nott sent a detachment to occupy the fortress of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, +between Candahar and Ghuznee, thus rendering the communications more +secure; and later, Macnaghten bribed the chiefs by an annual subsidy of +L600 to abstain from infesting the highways. The terms were cheap, for +the Ghilzai tribes mustered some 40,000 fighting men. + +Shah Soojah and the Envoy returned from Jellalabad to Cabul in April +1840. A couple of regiments had wintered not uncomfortably in the Balla +Hissar. That fortress was then the key of Cabul, and while our troops +remained in Afghanistan it should not have been left ungarrisoned a +single hour. The soldiers did their best to impress on Macnaghten the +all-importance of the position. But the Shah objected to its continued +occupation, and Macnaghten weakly yielded. Cotton, who had returned to +the chief military command in Afghanistan, made no remonstrance; the +Balla Hissar was evacuated, and the troops were quartered in cantonments +built in an utterly defenceless position on the plain north of Cabul, a +position whose environs were cumbered with walled gardens, and commanded +by adjacent high ground, and by native forts which were neither +demolished nor occupied. The troops, now in permanent and regularly +constructed quarters, ceased to be an expeditionary force, and became +substantially an army of occupation. The officers sent for their wives to +inhabit with them the bungalows in which they had settled down. Lady +Macnaghten, in the spacious mission residence which stood apart in its +own grounds, presided over the society of the cantonments, which had all +the cheery surroundings of the half-settled, half-nomadic life of our +military people in the East. There were the 'coffee house' after the +morning ride, the gathering round the bandstand in the evening, the +impromptu dance, and the _burra khana_ occasionally in the larger houses. +A racecourse had been laid out, and there were 'sky' races and more +formal meetings. And so 'as in the days that were before the flood, they +were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, and knew +not until the flood came, and took them all away.' + +Macnaghten engaged himself in a welter of internal and external intrigue, +his mood swinging from singular complacency to a disquietude that +sometimes approached despondency. It had come to be forced on him, in +spite of his intermittent optimism, that the Government was a government +of sentry-boxes, and that Afghanistan was not governed so much as +garrisoned. The utter failure of the winter march attempted by +Peroffski's Russian column across the frozen steppes on Khiva was a +relief to him; but the state of affairs in Herat was a constant trouble +and anxiety. Major Todd had been sent there as political agent, to make a +treaty with Shah Kamran, and to superintend the repair and improvement of +the fortifications of the city. Kamran was plenteously subsidised; he +took Macnaghten's lakhs, but furtively maintained close relations with +Persia. Detecting the double-dealing, Macnaghten urged on Lord Auckland +the annexation of Herat to Shah Soojah's dominions, but was instructed to +condone Kamran's duplicity, and try to bribe him higher. Kamran by no +means objected to this policy, and, while continuing his intrigues with +Persia, cheerfully accepted the money, arms and ammunition which +Macnaghten supplied him with so profusely as to cause remonstrance on the +part of the financial authorities in Calcutta. The Commander-in-Chief was +strong enough to counteract the pressure which Macnaghten brought to bear +on Lord Auckland in favour of an expedition against Herat, which his +lordship at length finally negatived, to the great disgust of the Envoy, +who wrote of the conduct of his chief as 'drivelling beyond contempt,' +and 'sighed for a Wellesley or a Hastings.' The ultimate result of +Macnaghten's negotiations with Shah Kamran was Major Todd's withdrawal +from Herat. Todd had suspended the monthly subsidy, to the great wrath of +Kamran's rapacious and treacherous minister Yar Mahomed, who made a +peremptory demand for increased advances, and refused Todd's stipulation +that a British force should be admitted into Herat. Todd's action in +quitting Herat was severely censured by his superiors, and he was +relegated to regimental duty. Perhaps he acted somewhat rashly, but he +had not been kept well informed; for instance, he had been unaware that +Persia had become our friend, and had engaged to cease relations with +Shah Kamran--an important arrangement of which he certainly should have +been cognisant. Macnaghten had squandered more gold on Herat than the +fee-simple of the principality was worth, and to no purpose; he left that +state just as he found it, treacherous, insolent, greedy and independent. + +The precariousness of the long lines of communications between British +India and the army in Afghanistan--a source of danger which from the +first had disquieted cautious soldiers--was making itself seriously felt, +and constituted for Macnaghten another cause of solicitude. Old Runjeet +Singh, a faithful if not disinterested ally, had died on June 27th, 1839, +the day on which Keane marched out from Candahar. The breath was scarcely +out of the old reprobate when the Punjaub began to drift into anarchy. So +far as the Sikh share in it was concerned, the tripartite treaty +threatened to become a dead letter. The Lahore Durbar had not adequately +fulfilled the undertaking to support Prince Timour's advance by the +Khyber, nor was it duly regarding the obligation to maintain a force on +the Peshawur frontier of the Punjaub. But those things were trivial in +comparison with the growing reluctance manifested freely, to accord to +our troops and convoys permission to traverse the Punjaub on the march to +and from Cabul. The Anglo-Indian Government sent Mr Clerk to Lahore to +settle the question as to the thoroughfare. He had instructions to be +firm, and the Sikhs did not challenge Mr Clerk's stipulation that the +Anglo-Indian Government must have unmolested right of way through the +Punjaub, while he undertook to restrict the use of it as much as +possible. This arrangement by no means satisfied the exacting Macnaghten, +and he continued to worry himself by foreseeing all sorts of troublous +contingencies unless measures were adopted for 'macadamising' the road +through the Punjaub. + +The summer of 1840 did not pass without serious interruptions to the +British communications between Candahar and the Indus; nor without +unexpected and ominous disasters before they were restored. General +Willshire, with the returning Bombay column, had in the previous November +stormed Mehrab Khan's ill-manned and worse armed fort of Khelat, and the +Khan, disdaining to yield, had fallen in the hopeless struggle. His son +Nusseer Khan had been put aside in favour of a collateral pretender, and +became an active and dangerous malcontent. All Northern Beloochistan fell +into a state of anarchy. A detachment of sepoys escorting supplies was +cut to pieces in one of the passes. Quetta was attacked with great +resolution by Nusseer Khan, but was opportunely relieved by a force sent +from another post. Nusseer made himself master of Khelat, and there fell +into his cruel hands Lieutenant Loveday, the British political officer +stationed there, whom he treated with great barbarity, and finally +murdered. A British detachment under Colonel Clibborn, was defeated by +the Beloochees with heavy loss, and compelled to retreat. Nusseer Khan, +descending into the low country of Cutch, assaulted the important post of +Dadur, but was repulsed, and taking refuge in the hills, was routed by +Colonel Marshall with a force from Kotree, whereupon he became a skulking +fugitive. Nott marched down from Candahar with a strong force, occupied +Khelat, and fully re-established communications with the line of the +Indus, while fresh troops moved forward into Upper Scinde, and thence +gradually advancing to Quetta and Candahar, materially strengthened the +British position in Southern Afghanistan. + +Dost Mahomed, after his flight from Cabul in 1839, had soon left the +hospitable refuge afforded him in Khooloom, a territory west of the +Hindoo Koosh beyond Bamian, and had gone to Bokhara on the treacherous +invitation of its Ameer, who threw him into captivity. The Dost's family +remained at Khooloom, in the charge of his brother Jubbar Khan. The +advance of British forces beyond Bamian to Syghan and Bajgah, induced +that Sirdar to commit himself and the ladies to British protection. Dr +Lord, Macnaghten's political officer in the Bamian district, was a rash +although well-meaning man. The errors he had committed since the opening +of spring had occasioned disasters to the troops whose dispositions he +controlled, and had incited the neighbouring hill tribes to active +disaffection. In July Dost Mahomed made his escape from Bokhara, hurried +to Khooloom, found its ruler and the tribes full of zeal for his cause, +and rapidly grew in strength. Lord found it was time to call in his +advance posts and concentrate at Bamian, losing in the operation an +Afghan regiment which deserted to the Dost. Macnaghten reinforced Bamian, +and sent Colonel Dennie to command there. On September 18th Dennie moved +out with two guns and 800 men against the Dost's advance parties raiding +in an adjacent valley. Those detachments driven back, Dennie suddenly +found himself opposed to the irregular mass of Oosbeg horse and foot +which constituted the army of the Dost. Mackenzie's cannon fire shook the +undisciplined horde, the infantry pressed in to close quarters, and soon +the nondescript host of the Dost was in panic flight, with Dennie's +cavalry in eager pursuit. The Dost escaped with difficulty, with the loss +of his entire personal equipment. He was once more a fugitive, and the +Wali of Khooloom promptly submitted himself to the victors, and pledged +himself to aid and harbour the broken chief no more. Macnaghten had been +a prey to apprehension while the Dost's attitude was threatening; he was +now in a glow of joy and hope. + +But the Envoy's elation was short-lived. Dost Mahomed was yet to cause +him much solicitude. Defeated in Bamian, he was ready for another attempt +in the Kohistan country to the north of Cabul. Disaffection was rife +everywhere throughout the kingdom, but it was perhaps most rife in the +Kohistan, which was seething with intrigues in favour of Dost Mahomed, +while the local chiefs were intensely exasperated by the exactions of the +Shah's revenue collectors. Macnaghten summoned the chiefs to Cabul. They +came, they did homage to the Shah and swore allegiance to him; they went +away from the capital pledging each other to his overthrow, and jeering +at the scantiness of the force they had seen at Cabul. Intercepted +letters disclosed their schemes, and in the end of September Sale, with a +considerable force, marched out to chastise the disaffected Kohistanees. +The fort of Tootundurrah fell without resistance. Julgah, however, the +next fort assailed, stubbornly held out, and officers and men fell in the +unsuccessful attempt to storm it. In three weeks Sale marched to and fro +through the Kohistan, pursuing will-o'-the-wisp rumours as to the +whereabouts of the Dost, destroying forts on the course of his weary +pilgrimage, and subjected occasionally to night attacks. + +Meanwhile, in the belief that Dost Mahomed was close to Cabul, and +mournfully conscious that the capital and surrounding country were ripe +for a rising, Macnaghten had relapsed into nervousness, and was a prey to +gloomy forebodings. The troops at Bamian were urgently recalled. Cannon +were mounted on the Balla Hissar to overawe the city, the concentration +of the troops in the fortress was under consideration, and men were +talking of preparing for a siege. How Macnaghten's English nature was +undergoing deterioration under the strain of events is shown by his +writing of the Dost: 'Would it be justifiable to set a price on this +fellow's head?' How his perceptions were warped was further evinced by +his talking of 'showing no mercy to the man who has been the author of +all the evil now distracting the country,' and by his complaining of Sale +and Burnes that, 'with 2000 good infantry, they are sitting down before a +fortified place, and are afraid to attack it.' + +Learning that for certain the Dost had crossed the Hindoo Koosh from +Nijrao into the Kohistan, Sale, who had been reinforced, sent out +reconnaissances which ascertained that he was in the Purwan Durrah +valley, stretching down from the Hindoo Koosh to the Gorebund river; and +the British force marched thither on 2d November. As the village was +neared, the Dost's people were seen evacuating it and the adjacent forts, +and making for the hills. Sale's cavalry was some distance in advance of +the infantry of the advance guard, but time was precious. Anderson's +horse went to the left, to cut off retreat down the Gorebund valley. +Fraser took his two squadrons of Bengal cavalry to the right, advanced +along the foothills, and gained the head of the valley. He was too late +to intercept a small body of Afghan horsemen, who were already climbing +the upland; but badly mounted as the latter were, he could pursue them +with effect. But it seemed that the Afghans preferred to fight rather +than be pursued. The Dost himself was in command of the little party, and +the Dost was a man whose nature was to fight, not to run. He wheeled his +handful so that his horsemen faced Fraser's troop down there below them. +Then the Dost pointed to his banner, bared his head, called on his +supporters in the name of God and the Prophet to follow him against the +unbelievers, and led them down the slope. + +Fraser had formed up his troopers when recall orders reached him. Joyous +that the situation entitled him to disobey them, he gave instead the word +to charge. As the Afghans came down at no great pace, they fired +occasionally; either because of the bullets, or because of an access of +pusillanimity, Fraser's troopers broke and fled ignominiously. The +British gentlemen charged home unsupported. Broadfoot, Crispin and Lord +were slain; Ponsonby, severely wounded and his reins cut, was carried out +of the _melee_ by his charger; Fraser, covered with blood and wounds, +broke through his assailants, and brought to Sale his report of the +disgrace of his troopers. After a sharp pursuit of the poltroons, the +Dost and his followers leisurely quitted the field. + +Burnes wrote to the Envoy--he was a soldier, but he was also a +'political,' and political employ seemed often in Afghanistan to +deteriorate the attribute of soldierhood--that there was no alternative +for the force but to fall back on Cabul, and entreated Macnaghten to +order immediate concentration of all the troops. This letter Macnaghten +received the day after the disaster in the Kohistan, when he was taking +his afternoon ride in the Cabul plain. His heart must have been very +heavy as he rode, when suddenly a horseman galloped up to him and +announced that the Ameer was approaching. 'What Ameer?' asked Macnaghten. +'Dost Mahomed Khan,' was the reply, and sure enough there was the Dost +close at hand. Dismounting, this Afghan prince and gentleman saluted the +Envoy, and offered him his sword, which Macnaghten declined to take. Dost +and Envoy rode into Cabul together, and such was the impression the +former made on the latter that Macnaghten, who a month before had +permitted himself to think of putting a price on 'the fellow's' head, +begged now of the Governor-General 'that the Dost be treated more +handsomely than was Shah Soojah, who had no claim on us.' And then +followed a strange confession for the man to make who made the tripartite +treaty, and approved the Simla manifesto: 'We had no hand in depriving +the Shah of his kingdom, _whereas we ejected the Dost, who never offended +us, in support of our policy, of which he was the victim_.' + +Durand regards Dost Mahomed's surrender as 'evincing a strange +pusillanimity.' This opprobrious judgment appears unjustified. No doubt +he was weary of the fugitive life he had been leading, but to pronounce +him afraid that the Kohistanees or any other Afghans would betray him is +to ignore the fact that he had been for months among people who might, +any hour of any day, have betrayed him if they had chosen. Nobler motives +than those ascribed to him by Durand may be supposed to have actuated a +man of his simple and lofty nature. He had given the arbitrament of war a +trial, and had realised that in that way he could make no head against +us. He might, indeed, have continued the futile struggle, but he was the +sort of man to recognise the selfishness of that persistency which would +involve ruin and death to the devoted people who would not desert his +cause while he claimed to have a cause. When historians write of Afghan +treachery and guile, it seems to have escaped their perception that +Afghan treachery was but a phase of Afghan patriotism, of an unscrupulous +character, doubtless, according to our notions, but nevertheless +practical in its methods, and not wholly unsuccessful in its results. It +may have been a higher and purer patriotism that moved Dost Mahomed to +cease, by his surrender, from being an obstacle to the tranquillisation +of the country of which he had been the ruler. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Dost Mahomed remained for a few days in the British cantonments on the +Cabul plain, an honoured guest rather than a prisoner. His soldierly +frankness, his bearing at once manly and courteous, his honest liking for +and trust in our race, notwithstanding the experiences which he had +undergone, won universal respect and cordiality. Officers who stood aloof +from Shah Soojah vied with each other in evincing to Dost Mahomed their +sympathy with him in his fallen fortunes. Shah Soojah would not see the +man whom he had ingloriously supplanted, on the pretext that he 'could +not bring himself to show common civility to such a villain.' How +Macnaghten's feeling in regard to the two men had altered is disclosed by +his comment on this refusal. 'It is well,' he wrote, 'as the Dost must +have suffered much humiliation in being subjected to such an ordeal.' + +In the middle of November 1840 the Dost began his journey toward British +India, accompanied by Sir Willoughby Cotton, who was finally quitting +Afghanistan, and under the escort of a considerable British force which +had completed its tour of duty in Afghanistan. Sale succeeded Cotton in +temporary divisional command pending the arrival of the latter's +successor. About the middle of December Shah Soojah and his Court, +accompanied by the British Envoy, arrived at Jellalabad for the winter, +Burnes remaining at Cabul in political charge. + +Macnaghten was mentally so constituted as to be continually alternating +between high elation and the depths of despondency; discerning to-day +ominous indications of ruin in an incident of no account, and to-morrow +scorning imperiously to recognise danger in the fierce rising of a +province. It may almost be said that each letter of his to Lord Auckland +was of a different tone from the one which had preceded it. Burnes, who +was nominally Macnaghten's chief lieutenant, with more self-restraint, +had much the same temperament. Kaye writes of him: 'Sometimes sanguine, +sometimes despondent, sometimes confident, sometimes credulous, Burnes +gave to fleeting impressions all the importance and seeming permanency of +settled convictions, and imbued surrounding objects with the colours of +his own varying mind.' But if Burnes had been a discreet and steadfast +man, he could have exercised no influence on the autocratic Macnaghten, +since between the two men there was neither sympathy nor confidence. +Burnes had, indeed, no specific duties of any kind; in his own words, he +was in 'the most nondescript situation.' Macnaghten gave him no +responsibility, and while Burnes waited for the promised reversion of the +office of envoy, he chiefly employed himself in writing long memorials on +the situation and prospects of affairs, on which Macnaghten's marginal +comments were brusque, and occasionally contemptuous. The resolute and +clear-headed Pottinger, who, if the opportunity had been given him, might +have buttressed and steadied Macnaghten, was relegated to provincial +service. Throughout his career in Afghanistan the Envoy could not look +for much advice from the successive commanders of the Cabul force, even +if he had cared to commune with them. Keane, indeed, did save him from +the perpetration of one folly. But Cotton appears to have been a +respectable nonentity. Sale was a stout, honest soldier, who was not +fortunate on the only occasion which called him outside of his restricted +_metier_. Poor Elphinstone was an object for pity rather than for +censure. + +It happened fortunately, in the impending misfortunes, that two men of +stable temperament and lucid perception were in authority at Candahar. +General Nott was a grand old Indian officer, in whom there was no guile, +but a good deal of temper. He was not supple, and he had the habit of +speaking his mind with great directness, a propensity which accounted, +perhaps, for the repeated supersessions he had undergone. A clearheaded, +shrewd man, he was disgusted with very many things which he recognised as +unworthy in the conduct of the affairs of Afghanistan, and he was not the +man to choose mild phrases in giving vent to his convictions. He had in +full measure that chronic dislike which the Indian commander in the field +nourishes to the political officer who is imposed on him by the +authorities, and who controls his measures and trammels his actions. +Nott's 'political,' who, the sole survivor of the men who were prominent +during this unhappy period, still lives among us esteemed and revered, +was certainly the ablest officer of the unpopular department to which he +belonged; and how cool was Henry Rawlinson's temper is evinced in his +ability to live in amity with the rugged and outspoken chief who +addressed him in such a philippic as the following--words all the more +trenchant because he to whom they were addressed must have realised how +intrinsically true they were:-- + +'I have no right to interfere with the affairs of this country, and I +never do so. But in reference to that part of your note where you speak +of political influence, I will candidly tell you that these are not times +for mere ceremony, and that under present circumstances, and at a +distance of 2000 miles from the seat of the supreme Government, I throw +responsibility to the wind, and tell you that in my opinion you have not +had for some time past, nor have you at present, one particle of +political influence in this country.' + +Nott steadily laboured to maintain the _morale_ and discipline of his +troops, and thus watching the flowing tide of misrule and embroilment, he +calmly made the best preparations in his power to meet the storm the sure +and early outbreak of which his clear discernment prognosticated. + +Shah Soojah's viceroy at Candahar was his heir-apparent Prince Timour. +The Dooranee chiefs of Western Afghanistan had not unnaturally expected +favours and influence under the rule of the Dooranee monarch; and while +in Candahar before proceeding to Cabul, and still uncertain of what might +occur there, Shah Soojah had been lavish of his promises. The chiefs had +anticipated that they would be called around the vice-throne of Prince +Timour; but Shah Soojah made the same error as that into which Louis +XVIII. fell on his restoration. He constituted his Court of the men who +had shared his Loodianah exile. The counsellors who went to Candahar with +Timour were returned _emigres_, in whom fitness for duty counted less +than the qualification of companionship in exile. Those people had come +back to Afghanistan poor; now they made haste to be rich by acts of +oppressive injustice, in the exaction of revenue from the people, and by +intercepting from the Dooranee chiefs the flow of royal bounty to which +they had looked forward. + +Uktar Khan was prominent among the Dooranee noblemen, and he had the +double grievance of having been disappointed of the headship of the +Zemindawar province on the western bank of the Helmund, and having been +evilly entreated by the minions of Prince Timour. He had raised his clan +and routed a force under a royalist follower, when Nott sent a detachment +against him. Uktar Khan had crossed the Helmund into Zemindawar, when +Farrington attacked him, and, after a brisk fight, routed and pursued +him. The action was fought on January 3, 1841, in the very dead of +winter; the intensity of the cold dispersed Uktar's levies, and +Farrington returned to Candahar. + +In reply to Macnaghten's demand for information regarding the origin of +this outbreak, Rawlinson wrote him some home truths which were very +distasteful. Rawlinson warned his chief earnestly of the danger which +threatened the false position of the British in Afghanistan. He pointed +out how cruel must be the revenue exactions which enabled Prince Timour's +courtiers to absorb great sums. He expressed his suspicion that Shah +Soojah had countenanced Uktar Khan's rising, and spoke of intrigues of +dark and dangerous character. Macnaghten scouted Rawlinson's warning, and +instructed him that 'it will make the consideration of all questions more +simple if you will hereafter take for granted that as regards us "the +king can do no wrong."' However, he and the Shah did remove from Candahar +the Vakeel and his clique of obnoxious persons, who had been grinding the +faces of the people; and the Envoy allowed himself to hope that this +measure would restore order to the province of Candahar. + +The hope was vain, the evil lay deeper; disaffection to the Shah and +hatred to the British power were becoming intensified from day to day, +and the aspiration for relief was swelling into a passion. In the days +before our advent there had been venality and corruption in public +places--occasionally, likely enough, as Macnaghten asserted, to an extent +all but incredible. But exaction so sweeping could have occurred only in +regions under complete domination; and in Afghanistan, even to this day, +there are few regions wholly in this condition. When the yoke became +over-weighty, a people of a nature so intractable knew how to resent +oppression and oppose exaction. But now the tax gatherer swaggered over +the land, and the people had to endure him, for at his back were the +soldiers of the Feringhees and the levies of the Shah. The latter were +paid by assignments on the revenues of specified districts; as the levies +constituted a standing army of some size, the contributions demanded were +heavier and more permanent than in bygone times. Macnaghten, aware of the +discontent engendered by the system of assignments, desired to alter it. +But the Shah's needs were pressing; the Anglo-Indian treasury was +strained already by the expenditure in Afghanistan; and it was not easy +in a period of turmoil and rebellion to carry out the amendment of a +fiscal system. That, since the surrender of the Dost, there had been no +serious rising in Northern or Eastern Afghanistan, sufficed to make +Macnaghten an optimist of the moment. He had come by this time to a +reluctant admission of the fact against which he had set his face so +long, that Shah Soojah was unpopular. 'He has incurred,' he wrote, 'the +odium that attaches to him from his alliance with us'; but the Envoy +would not admit that our position in Afghanistan was a false one, in that +we were maintaining by our bayonets, against the will of the Afghans, a +sovereign whom they detested. 'It would,' he pleaded, 'be an act of +downright dishonesty to desert His Majesty before he has found the means +of taking root in the soil to which we have transplanted him.' While he +wrote, Macnaghten must have experienced a sudden thrill of optimism or of +self-delusion, for he continued: 'All things considered, the present +tranquillity of this country is to my mind perfectly miraculous. Already +our presence has been infinitely beneficial in allaying animosities and +in pointing out abuses.' If it had been the case that the country was +tranquil, his adjective would have been singularly appropriate, but not +precisely in the sense he meant to convey. + +But there was no tranquillity, miraculous or otherwise. While Macnaghten +was writing the letter which has just been quoted, Brigadier Shelton, +who, about the New Year, had reached Jellalabad with a brigade from +British India in relief of the force which was withdrawing with Cotton, +was contending with an outbreak of the wild and lawless clans of the +Khyber. When Macnaghten wrote, he had already received intelligence of +the collapse of his projects in Herat, and that Major Todd, who had been +his representative there, judging it imperative to break up the mission +of which he was the head, had abruptly quitted that city, and was on his +way to Candahar. Mischief was simmering in the Zemindawar country. The +Ghilzai tribes of the region between Candahar and Ghuznee had accepted a +subsidy to remain quiet, but the indomitable independence of this wild +and fierce race was not to be tamed by bribes, and the spirit of +hostility was manifesting itself so truculently that a British garrison +had been placed in Khelat-i-Ghilzai, right in the heart of the disturbed +territory. This warning and defensive measure the tribes had regarded +with angry jealousy; but it was not until a rash 'political' had directed +the unprovoked assault and capture of a Ghilzai fort that the tribes +passionately flew to arms, bent on contesting the occupation of their +rugged country. Colonel Wymer was sent from Candahar with a force, +escorting a convoy of stores intended for the equipment of +Khelat-i-Ghilzai. The tribes who had been loosely beleaguering that place +marched down the Turnuk upon Wymer, and on May 19th attacked him with +great impetuosity, under the command of a principal chief who was known +as the 'Gooroo.' Wymer, in the protection of his convoy, had to stand on +the defensive. The Ghilzais, regardless of the grape which tore through +their masses, fell on sword in hand, and with an intuitive tactical +perception struck Wymer simultaneously in front and flank. His sepoys had +to change their dispositions, and the Ghilzais took the opportunity of +their momentary dislocation to charge right home. They were met firmly by +the bayonet, but again and again the hillmen renewed their attacks; and +it was not till after five hours of hard fighting which cost them heavy +loss, that at length, in the darkness, they suddenly drew off. Had they +been Swiss peasants defending their mountains, or Poles struggling +against the ferocious tyranny of Russia, their gallant effort might have +excited praise and sympathy. Had they been Soudanese, a statesman might +have spoken of them as a people 'rightly struggling to be free'; as it +was, the Envoy vituperated them as 'a parcel of ragamuffins,' and Wymer's +sepoys were held to have 'covered themselves with glory.' Macnaghten +proceeded to encourage a sense of honour among the tribes by proposing +the transfer to another chief, on condition of his seizing and delivering +over the inconvenient 'Gooroo,' of the share of subsidy of which the +latter had been in receipt. + +While this creditable transaction was under consideration, Uktar Khan was +again making himself very unpleasant; so much so that Macnaghten was +authorising Rawlinson to offer a reward of 10,000 rupees for his capture, +which accomplished, Rawlinson was instructed to 'hang the villain as high +as Haman.' The gallows was not built, however, on which Uktar was to +hang, although that chief sustained two severe defeats at the hands of +troops sent from Candahar, and had to become a fugitive. The Ghilzais, +who had gathered again after their defeat under the 'Gooroo,' had made +little stand against the detachment which Colonel Chambers led out from +Candahar, and they were again temporarily dispersed. The 'Gooroo' himself +was in our hands. If the disaffection was in no degree diminished, the +active ebullitions of it were assuredly quelled for the time. It was +true, to be sure, that Akbar Khan, the fierce and resolute son of Dost +Mahomed, had refused the Envoy's overtures to come in, and was wandering +and plotting in Khooloom, quite ready to fulfil Macnaghten's prophetic +apprehension that 'the fellow will be after some mischief should the +opportunity present itself'; that the Dooranees were still defiant; that +an insurgent force was out in the Dehrawat; and that the tameless chief +Akram Khan was being blown from a gun by the cruel and feeble Timour. But +unquestionably there was a comparative although short-lived lull in the +overt hostility of the Afghan peoples against Shah Soojah and his foreign +supporters; and Macnaghten characteristically announced that 'the country +was quiet from Dan to Beersheba.' To one of his correspondents he wrote: +'From Mookoor to the Khyber Pass, all is content and tranquillity; and +wherever we Europeans go, we are received with respect, attention and +welcome. I think our prospects are most cheering; and with the materials +we have there ought to be little or no difficulty in the management of +the country. The people are perfect children, and they should be treated +as such. If we put one naughty boy in the corner, the rest will be +terrified.' + +General Nott at Candahar, who 'never interfered in the government of the +country,' but regarded the situation with shrewd, clear-headed common +sense, differed utterly from the Envoy's view. The stout old soldier did +not squander his fire; it was a close volley he discharged in the +following words: 'The conduct of the thousand and one politicals has +ruined our cause, and bared the throat of every European in this country +to the sword and knife of the revengeful Afghan and bloody Belooch; and +unless several regiments be quickly sent, not a man will be left to +describe the fate of his comrades. Nothing will ever make the Afghans +submit to the hated Shah Soojah, who is most certainly as great a +scoundrel as ever lived.' + +Nott's conclusions were in the main justified by after events, but the +correctness of his premiss may be questioned. That the conduct of some of +the political officers intensified the rancour of the Afghans is +unhappily true, but the hate of our domination, and of the puppet thrust +upon them by us, seems to have found its origin in a deeper feeling. The +patriotism of a savage race is marked by features repulsive to civilised +communities, but through the ruthless cruelty of the indiscriminate +massacre, the treachery of the stealthy stab, and the lightly broken +pledges, there may shine out the noblest virtue that a virile people can +possess. A semi-barbarian nation whose manhood pours out its blood like +water in stubborn resistance against an alien yoke, may be pardoned for +many acts shocking to civilised communities which have not known the +bitterness of stern and masterful subjugation. + + + + +CHAPTER V: THE BEGINNING OF THE END + +The deceptive quietude of Afghanistan which followed the sharp lessons +administered to the Dooranees and the Ghilzais was not seriously +disturbed during the month of September 1841, and Macnaghten was in a +full glow of cheerfulness. His services had been recognised by his +appointment to the dignified and lucrative post of Governor of the Bombay +Presidency, and he was looking forward to an early departure for a less +harassing and tumultuous sphere of action than that in which he had been +labouring for two troubled years. The belief that he would leave behind +him a quiescent Afghanistan, and Shah Soojah firmly established on its +throne, was the complement, to a proud and zealous man, of the +satisfaction which his promotion afforded. + +One distasteful task he had to perform before he should go. The Home +Government had become seriously disquieted by the condition of affairs in +Afghanistan. The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, the channel +through which the ministry communicated with the Governor-General, had +expressed great concern at the heavy burden imposed on the Indian +finances by the cost of the maintenance of the British force in +Afghanistan, and by the lavish expenditure of the administration which +Macnaghten directed. The Anglo-Indian Government was urgently required to +review with great earnestness the question of its future policy in regard +to Afghanistan, and to consider gravely whether an enterprise at once so +costly and so unsatisfactory in results should not be frankly abandoned. +Lord Auckland was alive to the difficulties and embarrassments which +encompassed the position beyond the Indus, but he was loth to admit that +the policy of which he had been the author, and in which the Home +Government had abetted him so eagerly, was an utter failure. He and his +advisers finally decided in favour of the continued occupation of +Afghanistan; and since the Indian treasury was empty, and the annual +charge of that occupation was not less than a million and a quarter +sterling, recourse was had to a loan, Macnaghten was pressed to effect +economies in the administration, and he was specially enjoined to cut +down the subsidies which were paid to Afghan chiefs as bribes to keep +them quiet. Macnaghten had objected to this retrenchment, pointing out +that the stipends to the chiefs were simply compensation for the +abandonment by them of their immemorial practice of highway robbery, but +he yielded to pressure, called to Cabul the chiefs in its vicinity, and +informed them that thenceforth their subsidies would be reduced. The +chiefs strongly remonstrated, but without effect, and they then formed a +confederacy of rebellion. The Ghilzai chiefs were the first to act. +Quitting Cabul, they occupied the passes between the capital and +Jellalabad, and entirely intercepted the communications with India by the +Khyber route. + +Macnaghten did not take alarm at this significant demonstration, +regarding the outbreak merely as 'provoking,' and writing to Rawlinson +that 'the rascals would be well trounced for their pains.' Yet warnings +of gathering danger were rife, which but for his mood of optimism should +have struck home to his apprehension. Pottinger had come down from the +Kohistan, where he was acting as political officer, bent on impressing on +him that a general rising of that region was certain unless strong +measures of prevention were resorted to. For some time before the actual +outbreak of the Ghilzais, the Afghan hatred to our people had been +showing itself with exceptional openness and bitterness. Europeans and +camp followers had been murdered, but the sinister evidences of growing +danger had been regarded merely as ebullitions of private rancour. Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, had moved forward from Khooloom into the Bamian +country, and there was little doubt that he was fomenting the +disaffection of the Ghilzai chiefs, with some of whom this indomitable +man, who in his intense hatred of the English intruders had resolutely +rejected all offers of accommodation, and preferred the life of a +homeless exile to the forfeiture of his independence, was closely +connected by marriage. + +The time was approaching when Sale's brigade was to quit Cabul on its +return journey to India. Macnaghten seems to have originally intended to +accompany this force, for he wrote that he 'hoped to settle the hash of +the Ghilzais on the way down, if not before.' The rising, however, spread +so widely and so rapidly that immediate action was judged necessary, and +on October 9th Colonel Monteath marched towards the passes with his own +regiment, the 35th Native Infantry, some artillery and cavalry details, +and a detachment of Broadfoot's sappers. + +How able, resolute, and high-souled a man was George Broadfoot, the +course of this narrative will later disclose. He was one of three gallant +brothers, all of whom died sword in hand. The corps of sappers which he +commanded was a remarkable body--a strange medley of Hindustanees, +Goorkhas, and Afghan tribesmen of divers regions. Many were desperate and +intractable characters, but Broadfoot, with mingled strength and +kindness, moulded his heterogeneous recruits into skilful, obedient and +disciplined soldiers. Broadfoot's description of his endeavours to learn +something of the nature of the duties expected of him in the expedition +for which he had been detailed, and to obtain such equipment as those +duties might require, throws a melancholy light on the deteriorated state +of affairs among our people at this period, and on the relations between +the military and civilian authorities. + +Broadfoot went for information, in the first instance, to Colonel +Monteath, who could give him no orders, having received none himself. +Monteath declined to apply for details as to the expedition, as he knew +'these people' (the authorities) too well; he was quite aware of the +danger of going on service in the dark, but explained that it was not the +custom of the military authorities at Cabul to consult or even instruct +the commanders of expeditions. Broadfoot then went to the General. +Cotton's successor in the chief military command in Afghanistan was poor +General Elphinstone, a most gallant soldier, but with no experience of +Indian warfare, and utterly ignorant of the Afghans and of Afghanistan. +Wrecked in body and impaired in mind by physical ailments and +infirmities, he had lost all faculty of energy, and such mind as remained +to him was swayed by the opinion of the person with whom he had last +spoken. The poor gentleman was so exhausted by the exertion of getting +out of bed, and being helped into his visiting-room, that it was not for +half-an-hour, and after several ineffectual efforts, that he could attend +to business. He knew nothing of the nature of the service on which +Monteath was ordered, could give Broadfoot no orders, and was unwilling +to refer to the Envoy on a matter which should have been left to him to +arrange. He complained bitterly of the way in which he was reduced to a +cypher--'degraded from a general to the "Lord-Lieutenant's head +constable."' Broadfoot went from the General to the Envoy, who 'was +peevish,' and denounced the General as fidgety. He declared the enemy to +be contemptible, and that as for Broadfoot and his sappers, twenty men +with pickaxes were enough; all they were wanted for was to pick stones +from under the gun wheels. When Broadfoot represented the inconvenience +with which imperfect information as to the objects of the expedition was +fraught, Macnaghten lost his temper, and told Broadfoot that, if he +thought Monteath's movement likely to bring on an attack, 'he need not +go, he was not wanted'; whereupon Broadfoot declined to listen to such +language, and made his bow. Returning to the General, whom he found 'lost +and perplexed,' he was told to follow his own judgment as to what +quantity of tools he should take. The Adjutant-General came in, and 'this +officer, after abusing the Envoy, spoke to the General with an +imperiousness and disrespect, and to me, a stranger, with an insolence it +was painful to see the influence of on the General. His advice to his +chief was to have nothing to say to Macnaghten, to me, or to the sappers, +saying Monteath had men enough, and needed neither sappers nor tools.' At +parting the poor old man said to Broadfoot: 'If you go out, for God's +sake clear the passes quickly, that I may get away; for if anything were +to turn up, I am unfit for it, done up in body and mind.' This was the +man whom Lord Auckland had appointed to the most responsible and arduous +command at his disposal, and this not in ignorance of General +Elphinstone's disqualifications for active service, but in the fullest +knowledge of them! + +Monteath's camp at Bootkhak, the first halting-place on the Jellalabad +road, was sharply attacked on the night of the 9th, and the assailants, +many of whom were the armed retainers of chiefs living in Cabul sent out +specially to take part in the attack, although unsuccessful, inflicted on +Monteath considerable loss. Next day Sale, with H.M.'s 13th, joined +Monteath, and on the 13th he forced the long and dangerous ravine of the +Khoord Cabul with sharp fighting, but no very serious loss, although Sale +himself was wounded, and had to relinquish the active command to Colonel +Dennie. Monteath encamped in the valley beyond the pass, and Sale, with +the 13th, returned without opposition to Bootkhak, there to await +reinforcements and transports. In his isolated position Monteath remained +unmolested until the night of the 17th, when he repulsed a Ghilzai attack +made in considerable strength, and aided by the treachery of 'friendly' +Afghans who had been admitted into his camp; but he had many casualties, +and lost a number of camels. On the 20th Sale, reinforced by troops +returned from the Zurmut expedition, moved forward on Monteath, and on +the 22d pushed on to the Tezeen valley, meeting with no opposition either +on the steep summit of the Huft Kotul or in the deep narrow ravine +opening into the valley. The Ghilzais were in force around the mouth of +the defile, but a few cannon-shots broke them up. The advance guard +pursued with over-rashness; the Ghilzais rallied, in the skirmish which +ensued an officer and several men were killed, and the retirement of our +people unfortunately degenerated into precipitate flight, with the +Ghilzais in hot pursuit. The 13th, to which the fugitive detachment +mainly belonged, now consisted mainly of young soldiers, whose constancy +was impaired by this untoward occurrence. + +Macnaghten had furnished Sale with a force which, in good heart and +vigorously commanded, was strong enough to have effected great things. +The Ghilzai chief of Tezeen possessed a strong fort full of supplies, +which Dennie was about to attack, when the wily Afghan sent to Major +Macgregor, the political officer accompanying Sale, a tender of +submission. Macgregor fell into the snare, desired Sale to countermand +the attack, and entered into negotiations. In doing so he committed a +fatal error, and he exceeded his instructions in the concessions which he +made. Macnaghten, it was true, had left matters greatly to Macgregor's +discretion; and if 'the rebels were very humble,' the Envoy was not +disposed to be too hard upon them. But one of his firm stipulations was +that the defences of Khoda Buxsh's fort must be demolished, and that Gool +Mahomed Khan 'should have nothing but war.' Both injunctions were +disregarded by Macgregor, who, with unimportant exceptions, surrendered +all along the line. The Ghilzais claimed and obtained the restoration of +their original subsidies; a sum was handed to them to enable them to +raise the tribes in order to keep clear the passes; Khoda Buxsh held his +fort, and sold the supplies it contained to Sale's commissary at a fine +price. Every item of the arrangement was dead in favour of the Ghilzais, +and contributory to their devices. Sale, continuing his march, would be +separated further and further from the now diminished force in Cabul, and +by the feigned submission the chiefs had made they had escaped the +permanent establishment of a strong detachment in their midst at Tezeen. + +Macnaghten, discontented though he was with the sweeping concessions +which Macgregor had granted to the Ghilzais, put the best face he could +on the completed transaction, and allowed himself to believe that a +stable settlement had been effected. On the 26th Sale continued his +march, having made up his baggage animals at the expense of the 37th +Native Infantry, which, with half of the sappers and three guns of the +mountain train, he sent back to Kubbar-i-Jubbar, there to halt in a +dangerously helpless situation until transport should be sent down from +Cabul. His march as far as Kutti Sung was unmolested. Mistrusting the +good faith of his new-made allies, he shunned the usual route through the +Purwan Durrah by taking the mountain road to the south of that defile, +and thus reached the Jugdulluk valley with little opposition, baulking +the dispositions of the Ghilzais, who, expecting him to traverse the +Purwan Durrah, were massed about the southern end of the defile, ready to +fall on the column when committed to the tortuous gorge. + +From the Jugdulluk camping ground there is a steep and winding ascent of +three miles, commanded until near the summit by heights on either side. +Sale's main body had attained the crest with trivial loss, having +detached parties by the way to ascend to suitable flanking positions, and +hold those until the long train of slow-moving baggage should have +passed, when they were to fall in and come on with the rear-guard. The +dispositions would have been successful but that on reaching the crest +the main body, instead of halting there for the rear to close up, hurried +down the reverse slope, leaving baggage, detachments, and rear-guard to +endure the attacks which the Ghilzais promptly delivered, pressing +fiercely on the rear, and firing down from either side on the confused +mass in the trough below. The flanking detachments had relinquished their +posts in panic, and hurried forward in confusion to get out of the pass. +The rear-guard was in disorder, when Broadfoot, with a few officers and +some of his sappers, valiantly checked the onslaught, but the crest was +not crossed until upwards of 120 men had fallen, the wounded among whom +had to be abandoned with the dead. On October 30th Sale's force reached +Gundamuk without further molestation, and halted there temporarily to +await orders. During the halt melancholy rumours filtered down the passes +from the capital, and later came confirmation of the evil tidings from +the Envoy, and orders from Elphinstone directing the immediate return of +the brigade to Cabul, if the safety of its sick and wounded could be +assured. Sale called a council of war, which pronounced, although not +unanimously, against a return to Cabul; and it was resolved instead to +march on to Jellalabad, which was regarded as an eligible _point d'appui_ +on which a relieving force might move up and a retiring force might move +down. Accordingly on November 11th the brigade quitted Gundamuk, and +hurried down rather precipitately, and with some fighting by the way, to +Jellalabad, which was occupied on the 14th. + +Some members of the Gundamuk council of war, foremost among whom was +Broadfoot, argued vigorously in favour of the return march to Cabul. +Havelock, who was with Sale as a staff-officer, strongly urged the +further retreat into Jellalabad. Others, again, advocated the middle +course of continuing to hold Gundamuk. It may be said that a daring +general would have fought his way back to Cabul, that a prudent general +would have remained at Gundamuk, and that the occupation of Jellalabad +was the expedient of a weak general. That a well-led march on Cabul was +feasible, although it might have been difficult and bloody, cannot be +questioned, and the advent of such men as Broadfoot and Havelock would +have done much toward rekindling confidence and stimulating the +restoration of soldierly virtue, alike in the military authorities and in +the rank and file of the Cabul force. At Gundamuk, again, the brigade, +well able to maintain its position there, would have made its influence +felt all through the Ghilzai country and as far as Cabul. The evacuation +of that capital decided on, it would have been in a position to give the +hand to the retiring army, and so to avert at least the worst disasters +of the retreat. The retirement on Jellalabad, in the terse language of +Durand, 'served no conceivable purpose except to betray weakness, and +still further to encourage revolt.' + +While Sale was struggling through the passes on his way to Gundamuk, our +people at Cabul were enjoying unwonted quietude. Casual entries in Lady +Sale's journal, during the later days of October, afford clear evidence +how utterly unconscious were they of the close gathering of the storm +that so soon was to break upon them. Her husband had written to her from +Tezeen that his wound was fast healing, and that the chiefs were +extremely polite. She complains of the interruption of the mails owing to +the Ghilzai outbreak, but comforts herself with the anticipation of their +arrival in a day or two. She was to leave Cabul for India in a few days, +along with the Macnaghtens and General Elphinstone, and her diary +expresses an undernote of regret at having to leave the snug house in the +cantonments which Sale had built on his own plan, the excellent kitchen +garden in which her warrior husband, in the intervals of his soldiering +duties, grew fine crops of peas, potatoes, cauliflowers and artichokes, +and the parterres of flowers which she herself cultivated, and which were +the admiration of the Afghan gentlemen who came to pay their morning +calls. + +[Illustration: CABUL the CANTONMENT _and the_ Surrounding COUNTRY.] + +The defencelessness of the position at Cabul had long engaged the +solicitude of men who were no alarmists. Engineer officer after engineer +officer had unavailingly and a half from the cantonments, with the Cabul +river intervening. With Shelton's troops and those in the cantonments +General Elphinstone had at his disposition, apart from the Shah's +contingent, four infantry regiments, two batteries of artillery, three +companies of sappers, a regiment of cavalry, and some irregular horse--a +force fully equipped and in good order. In the Balla Hissar Shah Soojah +had a considerable, if rather mixed, body of military and several guns. + +The rising of the 2d November may not have been the result of a fully +organised plan. There are indications that it was premature, and that the +revolt in force would have been postponed until after the expected +departure of the Envoy and the General with all the troops except +Shelton's brigade, but for an irrepressible burst of personal rancour +against Burnes. Durand holds, however, that the malcontents acted on the +belief that to kill Burnes and sack the Treasury was to inaugurate the +insurrection with an imposing success. Be this as it may, a truculent mob +early in the morning of November 2d assailed Burnes' house. He at first +regarded the outbreak as a casual riot, and wrote to Macnaghten to that +effect. Having harangued the throng without effect, he and his brother, +along with William Broadfoot his secretary, prepared for defence. +Broadfoot was soon killed, and a little later Burnes and his brother were +hacked to pieces in the garden behind the house. The Treasury was sacked; +the sepoys who had guarded it and Burnes' house were massacred, and both +buildings were fired; the armed mob swelled in numbers, and soon the +whole city was in a roar of tumult. + +Prompt and vigorous military action would no doubt have crushed the +insurrection, at least for the time. But the indifference, vacillation +and delay of the British authorities greatly encouraged its rapid +development. Macnaghten at first 'did not think much of it.' Shelton was +ordered into the Balla Hissar, countermanded, a second time ordered, and +again instructed to halt for orders. At last the Envoy himself despatched +him, with the loose order to act on his own judgment in communication +with the Shah. Shelton marched into the Balla Hissar with part of his +force, and the rest of it was moved into the cantonments. When the +Brigadier went to the Shah, that potentate demanded to know who sent him, +and what he had come for. But the Shah, to do him justice, had himself +taken action. Informed that Burnes was attacked and the city in revolt, +he had ordered Campbell's regiment of his own levies and a couple of guns +to march to his assistance. Campbell recklessly attempted to push his way +through the heart of the city, instead of reaching Burnes' house by a +circuitous but opener route, and after some sharp street fighting in +which he lost heavily, he was driven back, unable to penetrate to the +scene of plunder and butchery. Shelton remained inactive in the Balla +Hissar until Campbell was reported beaten and retreating, when he took +some feeble measures to cover the retreat of the fugitives, who, however, +abandoned their guns outside the fortress. The day was allowed to pass +without anything further being done, except the despatch of an urgent +recall to Major Griffiths, whom Sale had left at Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and +that good soldier, having fought every step of the way through the +passes, brought in his detachment in unbroken order and without loss of +baggage, notwithstanding his weakness in transport. Shelton, reinforced +in the Balla Hissar, maintained an intermittent and ineffectual fire on +the city. Urgent orders were despatched to Sale, recalling him and his +brigade--orders with which, as has been mentioned, Sale did not +comply--and also to Nott, at Candahar, begging him to send a brigade to +Cabul. In compliance with this requisition, Maclaren's brigade +immediately started from Candahar, but soon returned owing to the +inclemency of the weather. + +Captain Mackenzie was in charge of a fort containing the Shah's +commissariat stores; this fort was on the outskirts of a suburb of Cabul, +and was fiercely attacked on the 2d. For two days Mackenzie maintained +his post with unwearying constancy. His garrison was short of water and +of ammunition, and the fort was crowded with women and children, but he +held on resolutely until the night of the 3d. No assistance was sent, no +notice, indeed, of any kind was taken of him; his garrison was +discouraged by heavy loss, and by the mines which the enemy were pushing +forward. At length, when the gate of the fort had been fired, and his +wounded were dying for lack of medical aid, he evacuated the fort, and +fought his way gallantly into cantonments, bringing in his wounded and +the women and children. With this solitary exception the Afghans had +nowhere encountered resistance, and the strange passiveness of our people +encouraged them to act with vigour. From the enclosed space of the Shah +Bagh, and the adjacent forts of Mahmood Khan and Mahomed Shereef, they +were threatening the Commissariat fort, hindering access to it, and +besetting the south-western flank of the cantonments. A young officer +commanded the hundred sepoys garrisoning the Commissariat fort; he +reported himself in danger of being cut off, and Elphinstone gave orders +that he and his garrison should be brought off, and the fort and its +contents abandoned. Several efforts to accomplish the withdrawal were +thwarted by the Afghan flanking fire, with the loss of several officers +and many men. The commissary officer urged on the General the disastrous +consequences which the abandonment of the fort would entail, containing +as it did all the stores, adding that in cantonments there were only two +days' supplies, without prospect of procuring any more. Orders were then +sent to Warren to hold out to the last extremity; which instructions he +denied having received. Early in the morning of the 5th troops were +preparing to attack the Afghan fort and reinforce the Commissariat fort, +when Warren and his garrison reached the cantonments. The gate of the +Commissariat fort had been fired, but the enemy had not effected an +entrance, yet Warren and his people had evacuated the fort through a hole +cut in its wall. Thus, with scarcely a struggle to save it, was this +vital fort allowed to fall into the enemy's hands, and thenceforward our +unfortunate people were to be reduced to precarious and scanty sources +for their food. + +From the 5th to the 9th November there was a good deal of desultory +fighting, in the course of which, after one failure, Mahomed Shereef's +fort was stormed by a detachment of our people, under the command of +Major Griffiths; but this success had little influence on the threatening +attitude maintained by the Afghans. On the 9th, owing to the mental and +physical weakness of poor General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton was +summoned into cantonments from the Balla Hissar, bringing with him part +of the garrison with which he had been holding the latter post. The hopes +entertained that Shelton would display vigour, and restore the confidence +of the troops, were not realised. He from the first had no belief in the +ability of the occupants of the cantonment to maintain their position, +and he never ceased to urge prompt retreat on Jellalabad. From the purely +military point of view he was probably right; the Duke of Wellington +shared his opinion when he said in the House of Lords: 'After the first +few days, particularly after the negotiations at Cabul had commenced, it +became hopeless for General Elphinstone to maintain his position.' +Shelton's situation was unquestionably a very uncomfortable one, for +Elphinstone, broken as he was, yet allowed his second in command no +freedom of action, and was testily pertinacious of his prerogative of +command. If in Shelton, who after his manner was a strong man, there had +been combined with his resolution some tact and temper, he might have +exercised a beneficial influence. As it was he became sullen and +despondent, and retired behind an 'uncommunicative and disheartening +reserve.' Brave as he was, he seems to have lacked the inspiration which +alone could reinvigorate the drooping spirit of the troops. In a word, +though he probably was, in army language, a 'good duty soldier,' he +certainly was nothing more. And something more was needed then. + +Action on Shelton's part became necessary the day after he came into +cantonments. The Afghans occupied all the forts on the plain between the +Seah Sung heights and the cantonments, and from the nearest of them, the +Rikabashee fort, poured in a heavy fire at close range, which the return +artillery fire could not quell. On Macnaghten's urgent requisition the +General ordered out a strong force, under Shelton, to storm the obnoxious +fort. Captain Bellew missed the gate, and blew open merely a narrow +wicket, but the storming party obeyed the signal to advance. Through a +heavy fire the leaders reached the wicket, and forced their way in, +followed by a few soldiers. The garrison of the fort hastily evacuated +it, and all seemed well, when a sudden stampede ensued--the handful +which, led by Colonel Mackrell of the 44th and Lieutenant Bird of the +Shah's force, had already entered the fort, remaining inside it. The +runaway troops were rallied with difficulty by Shelton and the +subordinate officers, but a call for volunteers from the European +regiment was responded to but by one solitary Scottish private. After a +second advance, and a second retreat--a retreat made notwithstanding +strong artillery and musketry support--Shelton's efforts brought his +people forward yet again, and this time the fort was occupied in force. +Of those who had previously entered it but two survivors were found. The +Afghans, re-entering the fort, had hacked Mackrell to pieces and +slaughtered the men who tried to escape by the wicket. Lieutenant Bird +and a sepoy, from a stable the door of which they had barricaded with +logs of wood, had fended off their assailants by a steady and deadly +fire, and when they were rescued by the entrance of the troops they had +to clamber out over a pile of thirty dead Afghans whom the bullets of the +two men had struck down. + +It had come to our people in those gloomy days, to regard as a 'triumph' +a combat in which they were not actually worsted; and even of such +dubious successes the last occurred on November 13, when the Afghans, +after having pressed our infantry down the slopes of the Behmaroo ridge, +were driven back by artillery fire, and forced by a cavalry charge to +retreat further, leaving behind them a couple of guns from which they had +been sending missiles into the cantonments. One of those guns was brought +in without difficulty, but the other the Afghans covered with their +jezail fire. The Envoy had sent a message of entreaty that 'the triumph +of the day' should be completed by its capture. Major Scott of the 44th +made appeal on appeal, ineffectually, to the soldierly feelings of his +men, and while they would not move the sepoys could not be induced to +advance. At length Eyre spiked the piece as a precautionary measure, and +finally some men of the Shah's infantry succeeded in bringing in the +prize. The return march of the troops into cantonments in the dark, was +rendered disorderly by the close pressure of the Afghans, who, firing +incessantly, pursued the broken soldiery up to the entrance gate. + +On the depressed garrison of the Cabul cantonments tidings of disaster +further afield had been pouring in apace. Soon after the outbreak of the +rising, it was known that Lieutenant Maule, commanding the Kohistanee +regiment at Kurdurrah, had been cut to pieces, with his adjutant and +sergeant-major, by the men of his own corps; and on November 6th +intelligence had come in that the Goorkha regiment stationed at Charikar +in the Kohistan, where Major Pottinger was Resident, was in dangerous +case, and that Codrington, its commandant, and some of his officers had +already fallen. And now, on the 15th, there rode wearily into cantonments +two wounded men, who believed themselves the only British survivors of +the Charikar force. Pottinger was wounded in the leg, Haughton, the +adjutant of the Goorkha corps, had lost his right hand, and his head hung +forward on his breast, half severed from his body by a great tulwar +slash. Of the miserable story which it fell to Pottinger to tell only the +briefest summary can be given. His residence was at Lughmanee, a few +miles from the Charikar cantonments, when early in the month a number of +chiefs of the Kohistan and the Nijrao country assembled to discuss with +him the terms on which they would reopen the communications with Cabul. +Those chiefs proved treacherous, slew Rattray, Pottinger's assistant, and +besieged Pottinger in Lughmanee. Finding his position untenable, he +withdrew to Charikar under cover of night. On the morning of the 5th the +Afghans assailed the cantonments. Pottinger was wounded, Codrington was +killed, and the Goorkhas were driven into the barracks. Haughton, who +succeeded to the command of the regiment, made sortie on sortie, but was +finally driven in, and the enemy renewed their assaults in augmented +strength. Thenceforward the position was all but hopeless. On the 10th +the last scant remains of water was distributed. Efforts to procure water +by sorties on the nights of the 11th and 12th were not successful, and +the corps fell into disorganisation because of losses, hardships, +exhaustion, hunger and thirst. Pottinger and Haughton agreed that there +was no prospect of saving even a remnant of the regiment unless by a +retreat to Cabul, which, however, was clearly possible only in the case +of the stronger men, unencumbered with women and children, of whom, +unfortunately, there was a great number in the garrison. On the afternoon +of the 13th Haughton was cut down by a treacherous native officer of the +artillery, who then rushed out of the gate, followed by all the gunners +and most of the Mahommedans of the garrison. In the midst of the chaos of +disorganisation, Dr Grant amputated Haughton's hand, dressed his other +wounds, and then spiked all the guns. When it was dark, the garrison +moved out, Pottinger leading the advance, Dr Grant the main body, and +Ensign Rose the rear-guard. From the beginning of the march, discipline +was all but entirely in abeyance; on reaching the first stream, the last +remains of control were lost, and the force was rapidly disintegrating. +Pottinger and Haughton, the latter only just able to keep the saddle, +pushed on toward Cabul, rested in a ravine during the day, evaded the +partisan detachment sent out from Cabul to intercept them, rode through +sleeping Cabul in the small hours of the morning, and after being pursued +and fired upon in the outskirts of the city, finally attained the +cantonments. It was afterwards learned that a portion of the regiment had +struggled on to within twenty miles from Cabul, gallantly headed by young +Rose and Dr Grant. Then the remnant was destroyed. Rose was killed, after +despatching four Afghans with his own hand. Dr Grant, escaping the +massacre, held on until within three miles of the cantonments, when he +too was killed. + +Macnaghten was naturally much depressed by the news communicated by +Pottinger, and realised that the Afghan masses already encompassing the +position on the Cabul plain would certainly be increased by bands from +the Kohistan and Nijrao, flushed already with their Charikar success. He +sided strongly with the large party among the officers who were +advocating the measure of abandoning the cantonments altogether, and +moving the force now quartered there to the safer and more commanding +position in the Balla Hissar. The military chiefs opposed the project, +and propounded a variety of objections to it, none of which were without +weight, yet all of which might have been overcome by energy and proper +dispositions. Shelton, however, was opposed to the scheme, since if +carried out it would avert or postpone the accomplishment of his policy +of retreat on Jellalabad; Elphinstone was against it in the inertia of +debility, and the project gradually came to be regarded as abandoned. +Another project, that of driving the Afghans from Mahmood Khan's fort, +commanding the direct road between the cantonments and the Balla Hissar, +and of occupying it with a British force, was so far advanced that the +time for the attempt was fixed, and the storming party actually warned, +when some petty objection intervened and the enterprise was abandoned, +never to be revived. + +The rising was not three days old when already Elphinstone had lost +heart. On the 5th he had written to Macnaghten suggesting that the latter +should 'consider what chance there is of making terms,' and since then he +had been repeatedly pressing on the Envoy the 'hopelessness of further +resistance.' Macnaghten, vacillating as he was, yet had more pith in his +nature than was left in the debilitated old general. He wrote to +Elphinstone on the 18th recommending, not very strenuously, the policy of +holding out where they were as long as possible, and indeed throughout +the winter, if subsistence could be obtained. He pointed out that in the +cantonments, which he believed to be impregnable, there were at least the +essentials of wood and water. Arguing that a retreat on Jellalabad must +be most disastrous, and was to be avoided except in the last extremity, +he nevertheless ended somewhat inconsistently by leaving to the military +authorities, if in eight or ten days there should appear no prospect of +an improvement of the situation, the decision whether it would be wiser +to attempt a retreat or to withdraw from the cantonments into the Balla +Hissar. + +Far from improving, the situation was speedily to become all but +hopeless. The village of Behmaroo, built on the north-eastern slope of +the ridge of the same name bounding the plain on the north-west, lay +about half a mile due north of the cantonments, part of which some of the +houses on the upper slope commanded. From this village, after the loss of +the Commissariat fort, our people had been drawing supplies. On the +morning of the 22d the Afghans were seen moving in force from Cabul +toward Behmaroo, obviously with intent to occupy the village, and so +deprive the occupants of the cantonments of the resource it had been +affording them. A detachment under Major Swayne, sent out to forestall +this occupation, found Behmaroo already in the possession of a body of +Kohistanees, who had so blocked the approaches that Swayne did not +consider himself justified in attempting the fulfilment of his orders to +storm the place; and he contented himself with maintaining all day an +ineffectual musketry fire on it. A diversion in his favour by a gun +supported by cavalry had no result save that of casualties to the gunners +and troopers; reinforcements brought out by Shelton effected nothing, and +in the evening the troops were recalled. On this ill-fated day Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's fierce and implacable son, arrived in Cabul, and the +evil influence on the British fortunes which he exerted immediately made +itself felt, for the events of the following day were to bring about a +crisis in the fate of our ill-starred people. + +Recognising the mischief wrought by the hostile occupation of our only +source of supplies, the Envoy strongly urged the immediate despatch of a +strong force to occupy the Behmaroo ridge, and dislodge from the village +its Kohistanee garrison. Shelton opposed the measure, urging the +dispirited state of the troops, their fatigue from constant defensive +duty, and their weakened physique because of poor and scanty rations. He +was overruled, and before daybreak of the 23d a force under his command, +consisting of five companies of the 44th, twelve companies of native +infantry, some cavalry, and one horse-artillery gun, was in position on +the north-eastern extremity of the ridge overhanging the village. The gun +opened fire on the village with grape, and after a short resistance the +greater part of its garrison quitted it. The storming party intrusted to +Major Swayne did not, however, act, and was withdrawn. Leaving a +detachment on the knoll above the village, Shelton moved his force along +the upland to a position near the gorge intersecting the ridge, forming +his infantry into two squares, with the cavalry in rear. The further hill +beyond the gorge was crowded with hostile Afghans from Cabul, and the +long-range fire of their jezails across the dividing depression, carried +execution into the squares which Shelton had inexplicably formed as if to +furnish his foes with a target which they could not miss. The muskets of +his men could not retaliate, and the skirmishers he threw forward to the +brow of his hill could not endure the Afghan fire. Shelton's single gun +maintained a hot and telling fire on the Afghan masses on the opposite +hill, and baulked an attempt against his right flank made by the Afghan +cavalry swarming in the outer plain; but when its vent became too hot for +the gunners to serve it, the dullest comprehension became alive to the +folly of sending a single gun into the field. + +Shelton's men, falling fast though they were, and faint with fatigue and +thirst, yet had endured for hours a fusillade to which they could not +reply, when a body of Afghan fanatics suddenly sprang up out of the +gorge, swept back with their fire the few skirmishers who had been still +holding the brow of the hill, and planted their flag within thirty yards +of the front of the nearer of the squares. Shelton offered a large reward +to the man who should bring it in, but there was no response. In a +passion of soldierly wrath, the veteran commanded a bayonet charge; not a +man sprang forward at the summons which British soldiers are wont to +welcome with cheers. The cowed infantry remained supine, when their +officers darted forward and threw stones into the faces of the enemy; the +troopers heard but obeyed not that trumpet-call to 'Charge!' which so +rarely fails to thrill the cavalryman with the rapture of the fray. The +gunners only, men of that noble force the Company's Horse-Artillery, +quitted themselves valiantly. They stood to their piece to the bitter +end. Two of them were killed beside it, another was severely wounded, a +fourth, refusing to run, took refuge under the gun, and miraculously +escaped death. But the gallant example of the artillerymen in their front +did not hearten the infantrymen of the leading square. The panic spread +among them, and they broke and fled. Fortunately they were not pursued. +The rear square stood fast, and the officers by great exertion succeeded +in rallying the fugitives under the cover it afforded. The news that a +principal chief, Abdoolah Khan, had been severely wounded in the plain +gave pause to the offensive vigour of the Afghans, and the assailants +fell back, abandoning the gun, but carrying off the limber and gun-team. +Our people reoccupied the position, the gun recommenced its fire, and if +the cavalry and infantry could have been persuaded to take the offensive +the battle might have been retrieved. But they remained passive. The +reinforced Afghans renewed their long-range fire with terrible effect; +most of the gunners had fallen, and the Brigadier, recognising the +growing unsteadiness of his command and the imminent danger of capture to +which the solitary gun was again exposed, ordered a retirement on the +detachment left near Behmaroo and the limbering up of the gun, to which a +second limber had been sent out from the cantonments. The movement was +scarcely begun when a rush of fanatic Afghans completely broke the +square, and all order and discipline then disappeared. A regular rout set +in down the hill toward cantonments, the fugitives disregarding the +efforts of the officers to rally them, and the enemy in full pursuit, the +Afghan cavalry making ghastly slaughter among the panic-stricken +runaways. The detachment near Behmaroo attempted to fall back in orderly +fashion, but the reinforced garrison of the village swept out upon it, +surrounded it, broke it up, and threw it into utter rout with the loss of +a large proportion of its strength, one whole company being all but +annihilated. It seemed as if pursued and pursuers would enter the +cantonments together so closely were they commingled; but the fire from +the ramparts and an opportune charge of horse arrested the pursuit. Yet +Eyre reckons as the chief reason why all the British force that had gone +out to battle was not destroyed, the fact that a leading Afghan chief +forced his men to spare the fugitives, and ultimately halted and withdrew +his people when the opportunity for wholesale slaughter lay open to them. +Most of the wounded were left on the field, where they were miserably cut +to pieces; and the gun, which had been overturned in the attempt of the +drivers to gallop down the face of the hill, finally passed into the +possession of the Afghans. Shelton's dispositions as a commander could +not well have been worse; his bearing as a soldier, although undaunted, +imparted to his hapless troops nothing of inspiration. The obstinacy with +which he held the hill after the impossibility of even partial success +must have been patent to him, was universally condemned. It need scarcely +be added that his loss was very severe. + +No more fighting was possible. What, then, was to be done? Elphinstone +and Shelton were at one in opposing removal into the Balla Hissar. +Macnaghten, to whom Shah Soojah had communicated his urgent +recommendation of that measure as the only expedient which could secure +the safety of the British troops, fell in with the views of the military +authorities. There came to him a letter from Osman Khan, the chief who +had called off his adherents on the previous day from pursuing the +fugitives fleeing into cantonments. Osman wrote that, if his troops had +followed up their successes, the loss of the cantonments and the +destruction of the British force were inevitable; but, he continued, that +it was not the wish of the chiefs to proceed to such extremities, their +sole desire being that our people should quietly evacuate the country, +leaving the Afghan sirdars to govern it according to their own customs, +and with a king of their own choosing. In communicating this letter to +General Elphinstone, Sir William asked for the latter's opinion on the +military possibility, or the reverse, of the retention of the British +position in Afghanistan. Elphinstone, in reply, enumerated sundry reasons +which led him to the conclusion which he stated, that 'it is not feasible +any longer to maintain our position in this country, and that you ought +to avail yourself of the offer to negotiate which has been made to you.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI: THE ROAD TO RUIN + +As the result of the military disaster of November 23d, and of the +representations of the General, recorded in the last chapter, Macnaghten, +with whatever reluctance, permitted himself to entertain proposals for an +arrangement made by the Afghan leaders. From the beginning of the +outbreak, while urging on the military authorities to exert themselves in +putting down the revolt, he had been engaged in tortuous and dangerous +intrigues, with the object of sowing discord among the Afghan chiefs, and +thus weakening the league of hostility against Shah Soojah and his +British supporters. In the conduct of these intrigues he used the +services of Mohun Lal, who had been one of Burnes' assistants, and who, +having escaped the fate of his chief, had found refuge in the city +residence of a Kuzzilbash chief. Mohun Lal was a fitting agent for the +sort of work prescribed to him, and he burrowed and suborned with +assiduity, and not altogether without success. But it is unhappily true +that he was commissioned to carry out a darker enterprise, the removal by +assassination of certain of the more virulently hostile among the Afghan +leaders. The incident is the blackest of the many discreditable +transactions which chequer the inner political history of this melancholy +chapter of our annals. It is unfortunately certain that Lieutenant John +Conolly, Macnaghten's kinsman and his confidential representative with +Shah Soojah, authorised Mohun Lal, in writing, to compass the taking off +of prominent Afghan leaders. In a letter to Mohun Lal, of 5th November, +Conolly wrote: 'I promise 10,000 rupees for the head of each rebel +chief.' Again, on the 11th, he wrote: 'There is a man called Hadji Ali, +who might be induced by a bribe to try and bring in the heads of one or +two of the Mufsids. Endeavour to let him know that 10,000 rupees will be +given for each head, or even 15,000 rupees.' Two chiefs certainly did die +under suspicious circumstances, and in each case the blood-money was +claimed. It was refused by Mohun Lal on the plea that the stipulation +that the heads of the dead Afghans should be brought in was not +fulfilled. + +Whether Macnaghten inspired those nefarious machinations, whether indeed +he was actively aware of them, are questions which, in the absence of +conclusive evidence, may judiciously be left unanswered. There is extant +a letter from him to Mohun Lal, written December 1st, which has the +following passage: 'I am sorry to find from your letter of last night +that you should have supposed it was ever my object to encourage +assassination. The rebels are very wicked men, but we must not take +unlawful means to destroy them.' And later he is reported to have +informed an Afghan deputation that, 'as a British functionary, nothing +would induce him to pay a price for blood.' Durand holds that it was the +belief on the part of the Afghan chiefs that the British Envoy had set a +price on their heads which destroyed all confidence in Macnaghten's good +faith, and which was Akbar Khan's chief incentive to his murder. + +The terms proffered on November 25th by an Afghan deputation were so +humiliating that Macnaghten peremptorily rejected them; and the threat of +immediate hostilities unless our people promptly surrendered their arms +and withdrew was not carried out. A period of inaction strangely ensued, +which on the Afghan side was a treacherous lull, but which Macnaghten, +hoping against hope that some turn in our favour might yet occur, +regarded with complacency. The chiefs, aware that winter was approaching +with added hardship to the forlorn garrison, temporarily desisted from +urging negotiations. But the British military authorities, with troops +living from hand to mouth on precarious half rations, and with transport +cattle dying fast of starvation, kept urging the Envoy to activity in +making terms, if absolute starvation was to be averted. Futile projects +were discussed between Envoy and General, only to be put aside. As the +dreary days of inaction and depletion passed, the deterioration of +military spirit among our people manifested itself more and more plainly. +British soldiers stolidly watched the Afghans destroying our bridge +across the Cabul river, within a quarter of a mile from cantonments. +Scared by the threat of an assault, which, in the scornful words of brave +Lady Sale, a child with a stick might have repulsed, the garrison of the +Mahomed Shereef fort abandoned it in a panic, the white soldiers of the +44th showing the example of pusillanimity to the sepoys whom their +cowardice demoralised. Next day the detachment of the 44th which had +guarded an exposed position had to be withdrawn, ceding the post of +honour to the stauncher sepoys. The camp followers were living on +carrion; the commissaries reported but four days' provisions in store, +and their inability to procure any more supplies. At length on December +8th the four senior military officers informed the Envoy that it was +imperatively necessary he should negotiate a retreat, on the best terms +he could obtain. + +Macnaghten had to bring himself to recognise that the alternatives were +negotiation or starvation, and on the 11th December, with a draft treaty +in his hand, he met the principal Afghan chiefs on the river side between +the cantonments and the city. After the introductory palavers, Macnaghten +read the proposed treaty, whose purport was as follows: that the British +should evacuate Afghanistan forthwith unmolested, furnished with supplies +and accompanied by hostages, on their march to India; that the Dost, his +family, and other Afghan political exiles, should be allowed to return to +their country; that Shah Soojah should have the option of remaining at +Cabul or going down to India; that amnesty should be accorded to all +adherents of Shah Soojah and his British allies; that all prisoners +should be released; and that perpetual friendship and mutual good offices +should thenceforth endure between the British and the Afghans. + +Akbar Khan made demur to some of the provisions, but was overruled, and +the main stipulations of the treaty were agreed to by the chiefs. The +conference broke up with the understanding that the British troops should +evacuate cantonments within three days, and that meanwhile provisions +should be sent in for their use. The treaty was simply a virtual +capitulation all along the line; but the inherent falseness of our +position, the incapacity of the military chiefs, and the debased spirit +of the troops, consequent partly on low rations but mainly because of the +utter absence of competent and vigorous leadership such as a Broadfoot or +a Havelock would have supplied, enforced on the reluctant Envoy +conditions humiliating beyond previous parallel in the history of our +nation. + +From the outset the Afghan chiefs defaulted from their promise of sending +in supplies, but some grain was brought into cantonments by the troops, +whose evacuation of the Balla Hissar on the 13th was effected under +humiliating circumstances. The Afghans demanded the surrender of the +forts in British occupation in the vicinity of the cantonments. The +requisition was complied with, and the Magazine fort furnished the enemy +with both arms and ammunition. + +The three stipulated days passed away, and still the British force +remained motionless in the cantonments. Macnaghten was bent on +procrastination, and circumstances seemed to favour a policy which to all +but himself was inexplicable. By the treaty, Shah Soojah was in effect +committed to withdraw to India, but soon after its acceptance the chiefs +had invited him to remain in Cabul as king, on the stipulation that he +should give his daughters in marriage to leaders of the malcontents. +After considerable deliberation, the Shah had consented to remain on the +condition named, but a few days later he withdrew his acceptance. His +vacillation increased the suspicions of the chiefs, and they demanded the +immediate evacuation of the cantonments, refusing to furnish provisions +until that was done. Meanwhile they sent in no transport animals, +although large sums had been handed over for their purchase. Our people +were still immobile, and already, on the 18th, there had occurred a fall +of snow several inches deep. + +The Envoy was engaged in strange and dubious intrigues, and since the +Afghans were not fulfilling their share of the treaty obligations, he +appears to have regarded himself as no longer bound by its conditions, +and free to try to obtain better terms from other sources, in pursuit of +which purpose he was expending money in a variety of directions. The dark +and unscrupulous Mohun Lal was his confidant and instrument. Akbar Khan +and the chiefs of his party had become aware of Macnaghten's +machinations, and they laid a snare for him into which he fell with open +eyes. Emissaries were sent to him with the sinister proposals that the +British should remain in Afghanistan until the spring, when they were to +withdraw as of their own accord; that the head of Ameenoolla Khan, one of +the most powerful and obnoxious of the rebel leaders, should be presented +to the Envoy in return for a stipulated sum of money; and that for all +those services the British Government should requite Akbar Khan with a +present of thirty lakhs of rupees, and an annual pension of four lakhs. +Macnaghten refused peremptorily the proffer of Ameenoolla's head, but did +not reject co-operation in that chiefs capture by a dubious device in +which British troops were to participate; he did not hesitate to accept +the general terms of the proposals; and he consented to hold a conference +with Akbar Khan on the following day to carry into effect the projected +measures. + +On the morning of the 23d the deceived and doomed man, accompanied by his +staff-officers, Lawrence, Trevor and Mackenzie, rode out from cantonments +to keep the fateful tryst on the bank of the Cabul river. His manner was +'distracted and hurried.' When he told Lawrence of the nature of the +affair on which he was going, that shrewd officer immediately warned him +that it was a plot against him. 'A plot!' he replied hastily, 'let me +alone for that; trust me for that!' and Lawrence desisted from useless +expostulation. Poor old Elphinstone had scented treachery; but the Envoy +had closed his mouth with the impatient words: 'I understand these things +better than you!' As he rode out, he admitted the danger of the +enterprise, but argued that if it succeeded it was worth all risks. 'At +all events,' he ended, 'let the loss be what it may, I would rather die a +hundred deaths than live the last six weeks over again.' The escort +halted, and the four British gentlemen advanced to the place of +rendezvous, whither came presently Akbar Khan and his party. Akbar began +the conference by asking the Envoy if he was ready to carry out the +proposals presented to him overnight. 'Why not?' was Sir William's short +reply. A number of Afghans, armed to the teeth, had gradually formed a +circle around the informal durbar. Lawrence and Mackenzie pointed out +this environment to some of the chiefs, who affected to drive off the +intruders with their whips; but Akbar observed that it did not matter, as +they 'were all in the secret.' 'Suddenly,' wrote Mackenzie, 'I heard +Akbar call out, "Begeer! begeer!" ("Seize! seize!") and turning round I +saw him grasp the Envoy's left hand with an expression on his face of the +most diabolical ferocity. I think it was Sultan Jan who laid hold of the +Envoy's right hand. They dragged him in a stooping posture down the +hillock, the only words I heard poor Sir William utter being, "Az barae +Khooda" ("For God's sake"). I saw his face, however, and it was full of +horror and astonishment.' Neither Mackenzie nor Lawrence, the surviving +companions of the Envoy, witnessed the actual end. 'Whether,' writes +Kaye, 'he died on the spot, or whether he was slain by the infuriated +ghazees, is not very clearly known; but the fanatics threw themselves on +the prostrate body and hacked it with their knives.' There is no doubt +that the head of the unfortunate Macnaghten was paraded in triumph +through the streets of Cabul, and that the mangled trunk, after being +dragged about the city, was hung up in the great bazaar. Of the three +officers who accompanied the Envoy to the conference, Trevor was +massacred, Lawrence and Mackenzie were saved with difficulty by friendly +chiefs, and brought into the city, where they and Captain Skinner joined +the hostages, Captains Connolly and Airey, under the safe roof of the +venerable Mahomed Zemaun Khan. + +That Akbar and the confederate chiefs spread a snare for the Envoy is +plain, and that they regarded his acceptance of their deceitful proposals +as a proof of his faithlessness to the treaty obligations to which he had +bound himself. It was no element in their reasoning that since they had +not regarded the treaty the British functionary might without breach of +faith hold that it did not bind him. But it is improbable that the murder +of Macnaghten was actually included in their scheme of action. Their +intention seems to have been to seize him as a hostage, with intent thus +to secure the evacuation of Afghanistan and the restoration of Dost +Mahomed. The ill-fated Envoy's expressions on his way to the rendezvous +indicate his unhinged state of mind. He went forth to sure treachery; +Akbar's gust of sudden fury converted the planned abduction into savage +murder, and his abrupt pistol bullet baulked the more wily and less +ruthless project which had probably been devised in cold blood. + +The escort brought back into cantonments tidings that the Envoy had been +seized. The garrison got under arms, and remained passive throughout the +day. The defences were manned at night, in the apprehension that the +noise and disturbance in the city portended an assault; but that clamour +was caused by the mustering of the Afghans in expectation that the +British would attack the city, bent on vengeance on the murderers of the +Envoy. Action of that nature was, however, wholly absent from the +prostrate minds of the military chiefs. On the following afternoon +Captain Lawrence transmitted certain overtures from the chiefs, as the +result of a conference held by them, when, notwithstanding severe +comments on the conduct of the Envoy, professions were made of sincere +regret for his death. With certain alterations and additions, the treaty +drawn up by Macnaghten was taken by the chiefs as the basis for the +negotiations which they desired to renew. Major Pottinger, as now the +senior 'political' with the force, was called on by General Elphinstone +to undertake the task of conducting negotiations with the Afghan leaders. +The high-souled Pottinger rose at the summons from the sickbed to which +he had been confined ever since his wonderful escape from Charikar, and +accepted the thankless and distasteful duty. It is not necessary to +recount the details of negotiations, every article and every stage of +which display the arrogance of the men who knew themselves masters of the +situation, and reveal not less the degrading humiliation to which was +submitting itself a strong brigade of British troops, whose arms were +still in the soldiers' hands, and over whose ranks hung banners blazoned +with victories that shall be memorable down the ages. On the sombre and +cheerless Christmas Day Pottinger rose in the council of men who wore +swords, and remonstrated with soldierly vigour and powerful argument +against the degrading terms which the chiefs had contumeliously thrown to +them. He produced letters from Jellalabad and Peshawur giving information +of reinforcements on the way from India, and urging the maintenance of +resistance. He argued that to conclude a treaty with the Afghans would be +a fatal error, and suggested two alternative courses which offered a +prospect of saving their honour and part of the army--the occupation of +the Balla Hissar, which was the preferable measure, or the abandonment of +camp, baggage, and encumbrances, and forcing a retreat down the passes. +The council--Pottinger must have written sarcastically when he termed it +a 'council of war'--unanimously decided that to remain in Cabul and to +force a retreat were alike impracticable, and that nothing remained but +the endeavour to release the army by agreeing to the conditions offered +by the enemy. 'Under these circumstances,' in the words of Pottinger, 'as +the Major-General coincided with the officers of the council, and refused +to attempt occupying the Balla Hissar, and as his second in command +declared that impracticable, I considered it my duty, notwithstanding my +repugnance to and disapproval of the measure, to yield, and attempt to +carry on a negotiation.' + +This Pottinger accordingly did. The first demand with which he had to +comply was to give bills for the great sums promised by the Envoy to the +chiefs for their services in furthering and supporting his treaty. This +imposition had to be submitted to, since the Afghans stopped the supplies +until the extortion was complied with. The next concession required was +the surrender of the artillery of the force, with the exception of six +field and three mule guns; and the military chiefs endured this +humiliation, against which even the demoralised soldiery chafed. Then the +demand for hostages had to be complied with, and four officers were sent +on to join the two hostages already in Afghan hands. The chiefs had +demanded four married hostages, with their wives and children, and a +circular was sent round offering to volunteers the inducement of a large +stipend; but the sentiment of repulsion was too strong to be overcome by +the bribe. The sick and wounded who could not bear the march were sent +into the city in accordance with an article of the treaty, two surgeons +accompanying their patients. + +The treaty, ratified by the leading chiefs and sent into cantonments on +New Year's Day 1842, provided that the British troops, within twenty-four +hours after receiving transport, and under the protection of certain +chiefs and an adequate escort, should begin their march of evacuation, +the Jellalabad garrison moving down to Peshawur in advance; that the six +hostages left in Cabul should be well treated, and liberated on the +arrival at Peshawur of Dost Mahomed; the sick and wounded left behind to +be at liberty to return to India on their recovery; all small arms and +ordnance stores in the cantonment magazine to be made over to the Afghans +'as a token of friendship,' on which account also, they were to have all +the British cannon except as above mentioned; the Afghans to escort the +Ghuznee garrison in safety to Peshawur; and a further stipulation was +that the British troops in Candahar and Western Afghanistan were to +resign the territories occupied by them and start quickly for India, +provisioned and protected from molestation by the way. + +Severe and humiliating as were those terms, they were not obtained +without difficulty. The terms put forward in the earlier drafts of the +treaty were yet more exacting, and the tone of the demands was abrupt, +contemptuous, and insulting. Pottinger had to plead, to entreat, to be +abject; to beg the masterful Afghans 'not to overpower the weak with +sufferings'; 'to be good enough to excuse the women from the suffering' +of remaining as hostages; and to entreat them 'not to forget kindness' +shown by us in former days. One blushes not for but with the gallant +Pottinger, loyally carrying out the miserable duty put upon him. The +shame was not his; it lay on the council of superior officers, who +overruled his remonstrances, and ground his face into the dust. + +Our people were made to pass under the yoke every hour of their wretched +lives during those last winter days in the Cabul cantonments. The +fanatics and the common folk of the city and its environs swarmed around +our petty ramparts, with their foul sneers and their blackguard taunts, +hurled with impunity from where they stood at the muzzles of the loaded +guns which the gunners were forbidden to fire. Officers and rank and file +were in a condition of smouldering fury, but no act of reprisal or +retribution was permitted. If the present was one continuous misery, the +future lowered yet more gloomily. It was of common knowledge as well in +the cantonments as in the city, that the engagements made by the chiefs +were not worth the paper on which they had been written, and that +treachery was being concerted against the force on its impending travail +through the passes. It was told by a chief to one of the officers who was +his friend, that Akbar Khan had sworn to have in his possession the +British ladies as security for the safe restoration of his own family and +relatives, and, strange forecast to be fulfilled almost to the very +letter, had vowed to annihilate every soldier of the British army with +the exception of one man, who should reach Jellalabad to tell the story +of the massacre of all his comrades. Pottinger was well aware how +desperate was the situation of the hapless people on whose behalf he had +bent so low his proud soul. Mohun Lal warned him of the treachery the +chiefs were plotting, and assured him that unless their sons should +accompany the army as hostages, it would be attacked on the march. Day +after day the departure was delayed, on the pretext that the chiefs had +not completed their preparations for the safe conduct of the force and +its encumbrances. Day after day the snow was falling with a quiet, +ruthless persistency. The bitter night frosts were destroying the sepoys +and the camp followers, their vitality weakened by semi-starvation and by +the lack of firewood which had long distressed them. At length on January +5th, Sturt the engineer officer got his instructions to throw down into +the ditch a section of the eastern rampart, and so furnish a freer exit +than the gates could afford. The supply of transport was inadequate, +provisions were scant, and the escort promised by the chiefs was not +forthcoming. Pottinger advised waiting yet a little longer, until +supplies and escort should arrive; but for once the military chiefs were +set against the policy of delay, and firm orders were issued that the +cantonments should be evacuated on the following day. + +Shah Soojah remained in Cabul. The resolution became him better than +anything else we know of the unfortunate man. It may be he reasoned that +he had a chance for life by remaining in the Balla Hissar, and that from +what he knew, there was no chance of life for anyone participating in the +fateful march. He behaved fairly by the British authorities, sending more +than one solemn warning pressing on them the occupation of the Balla +Hissar. And there was some dignity in his appeal to Brigadier Anquetil, +who commanded his own contingent, 'if it were well to forsake him in the +hour of need, and to deprive him of the aid of that force which he had +hitherto been taught to regard as his own?' + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE CATASTROPHE + +The ill-omened evacuation by our doomed people of the cantonments wherein +for two months they had undergone every extremity of humiliation and +contumely, was begun on the dreary winter morning of January 6th, 1842. +Snow lay deep on plain and hill-side; the cruel cold, penetrating through +the warmest clothing, bit fiercely into the debilitated and thinly clad +frames of the sepoys and the great horde of camp followers. The military +force which marched out of cantonments consisted of about 4500 armed men, +of whom about 690 were Europeans, 2840 native soldiers on foot, and 970 +native cavalrymen. The gallant troop of Company's Horse-Artillery marched +out with its full complement of six guns, to which, with three pieces of +the mountain train, the artillery arm of the departing force was +restricted by the degrading terms imposed by the Afghan chiefs. In good +heart and resolutely commanded, a body of disciplined troops thus +constituted, and of a fighting strength so respectable, might have been +trusted not only to hold its own against Afghan onslaught, but if +necessary to take the offensive with success. But alas, the heart of the +hapless force had gone to water, its discipline was a wreck, its chiefs +were feeble and apathetic; its steps were dogged by the incubus of some +12,000 camp followers, with a great company of women and children. The +awful fate brooded over its forlorn banners of expiating by its utter +annihilation, the wretched folly and sinister prosecution of the +enterprise whose deserved failure was to be branded yet deeper on the +gloomiest page of our national history, by the impending catastrophe of +which the dark shadow already lay upon the blighted column. + +The advance began to move out from cantonments at nine A.M. The march was +delayed at the river by the non-completion of the temporary bridge, and +the whole of the advance was not across until after noon. The main body +under Shelton, which was accompanied by the ladies, invalids, and sick, +slowly followed. It as well as the advance was disorganised from the +first by the throngs of camp followers with the baggage, who could not be +prevented from mixing themselves up with the troops. The Afghans occupied +the cantonments as portion after portion was evacuated by our people, +rending the air with their exulting cries, and committing every kind of +atrocity. It was late in the afternoon before the long train of camels +following the main body had cleared the cantonments; and meanwhile the +rear-guard was massed outside, in the space between the rampart and the +canal, among the chaos of already abandoned baggage. It was exposed there +to a vicious jezail fire poured into it by the Afghans, who abandoned the +pleasures of plunder and arson for the yet greater joy of slaughtering +the Feringhees. When the rear-guard moved away in the twilight, an +officer and fifty men were left dead in the snow, the victims of the +Afghan fire from the rampart of the cantonment; and owing to casualties +in the gun teams it had been found necessary to spike and abandon two of +the horse-artillery guns. + +The rear-guard, cut into from behind by the pestilent ghazees, found its +route encumbered with heaps of abandoned baggage around which swarmed +Afghan plunderers. Other Afghans, greedier for blood than for booty, were +hacking and slaying among the numberless sepoys and camp followers who +had dropped out of the column, and were lying or sitting on the wayside +in apathetic despair, waiting for death and careless whether it came to +them by knife or by cold. Babes lay on the snow abandoned by their +mothers, themselves prostrate and dying a few hundred yards further on. +It was not until two o'clock of the following morning that the rear-guard +reached the straggling and chaotic bivouac in which its comrades lay in +the snow at the end of the first short march of six miles. Its weary +progress had been illuminated by the conflagration raging in the +cantonments, which had been fired by the Afghan fanatics, rabid to erase +every relic of the detested unbelievers. + +It was a night of bitter cold. Out in the open among the snow, soldiers +and camp followers, foodless, fireless, and shelterless, froze to death +in numbers, and numbers more were frost-bitten. The cheery morning noise +of ordinary camp life was unheard in the mournful bivouac. Captain +Lawrence outlines a melancholy picture. 'The silence of the men betrayed +their despair and torpor. In the morning I found lying close to me, +stiff, cold, and quite dead, in full regimentals, with his sword drawn in +his hand, an old grey-haired conductor named Macgregor, who, utterly +exhausted, had lain down there silently to die.' Already defection had +set in. One of the Shah's infantry regiments and his detachment of +sappers and miners had deserted bodily, partly during the march of the +previous day, partly in the course of the night. + +No orders were given out, no bugle sounded the march, on the morning of +the 7th. The column heaved itself forward sluggishly, a mere mob of +soldiers, camp followers and cattle, destitute of any semblance of order +or discipline. Quite half the sepoys were already unfit for duty; in +hundreds they drifted in among the non-combatants and increased the +confusion. The advance of the previous day was now the rear-guard. After +plundering the abandoned baggage, the Afghans set to harassing the +rear-guard, whose progress was delayed by the disorderly multitude +blocking the road in front. The three mountain guns, temporarily +separated from the infantry, were captured by a sudden Afghan rush. In +vain Anquetil strove to rouse the 44th to make an effort for their +recapture. Green was more successful with his handful of artillerymen, +who followed him and the Brigadier and spiked the pieces, but being +unsupported were compelled a second time to abandon them. On this march +it became necessary also, from the exhaustion of their teams, to spike +and abandon two more of the horse-artillery guns; so that there now +remained with the force only a couple of six-pounders. While the +rear-guard was in action, a body of Afghan horse charged on the flank, +right into the heart of the baggage column, swept away much plunder, and +spread confusion and dismay far and wide. The rear of the column would +probably have been entirely cut off, but that reinforcements from the +advance under Shelton pushed back the enemy, and by crowning the lateral +heights kept open the thoroughfare. At Bootkhak was found Akbar Khan, who +professed to have been commissioned to escort the force to Jellalabad, +and who blamed our people for having marched out prematurely from the +cantonments. He insisted on the halt of the column at Bootkhak until the +following morning, when he would provide supplies, but he demanded an +immediate subsidy of 15,000 rupees, and that Pottinger, Lawrence and +Mackenzie should be given up to him as hostages that the force would not +march beyond Tezeen until tidings should arrive that Sale had evacuated +Jellalabad. Those officers by the General's instructions joined the +Afghan chief on the following morning, and Akbar's financial requisition +was obsequiously fulfilled. After two days' marching our people, who had +brought out with them provisions for but five and a half days, expecting +within that time to reach Jellalabad, were only ten miles forward on +their march. + +Another night passed, with its train of horrors--starvation, cold, +exhaustion, death. Lady Sale relates that scarcely any of the baggage now +remained; that there was no food for man or beast; that snow lay a foot +deep on the ground; that even water from the adjacent stream was +difficult to obtain, as the carriers were fired on in fetching it; and +that she thought herself fortunate in being sheltered in a small tent in +which 'we slept nine, all touching each other.' Daylight brought merely a +more bitter realisation of utter misery. Eyre expresses his wonderment at +the effect of two nights' exposure to the frost in disorganising the +force. 'It had so nipped even the strongest men as to completely +prostrate their powers and incapacitate them for service; even the +cavalry, who suffered less than the rest, were obliged to be lifted on +their horses.' In fact, only a few hundred serviceable men remained. At +the sound of hostile fire the living struggled to their feet from their +lairs in the snow, stiffened with cold, all but unable to move or hold a +weapon, leaving many of their more fortunate comrades stark in death. A +turmoil of confusion reigned. The Afghans were firing into the rear of +the mass, and there was a wild rush of camp followers to the front, who +stripped the baggage cattle of their loads and carried the animals off, +leaving the ground strewn with ammunition, treasure, plate, and other +property. The ladies were no longer carried in litters and palanquins, +for their bearers were mostly dead; they sat in the bullet fire packed +into panniers slung on camels, invalids as some of them were--one poor +lady with her baby only five days old. Mess stores were being recklessly +distributed, and Lady Sale honestly acknowledges that, as she sat on her +horse in the cold, she felt very grateful for a tumbler of sherry, which +at any other time would have made her 'very unladylike,' but which now +merely warmed her. Cups full of sherry were drunk by young children +without in the least affecting their heads, so strong on them was the +hold of the cold. + +It was not until noon that the living mass of men and animals was once +more in motion. The troops were in utter disorganisation; the baggage was +mixed up with the advance guard; the camp followers were pushing ahead in +precipitate panic. The task before the wretched congeries of people was +to thread the stupendous gorge of the Khoord Cabul pass--a defile about +five miles long, hemmed in on either hand by steeply scarped hills. Down +the bottom of the ravine dashed a mountain torrent, whose edges were +lined with thick layers of ice, on which had formed glacier-like masses +of snow. The 'Jaws of Death' were barely entered when the slaughter +began. With the advance rode several Afghan chiefs, whose followers, by +their command, shouted to the Ghilzais lining the heights to hold their +fire, but the tribesmen gave no heed to the mandate. Lady Sale rode with +the chiefs. The Ghilzai fire at fifty yards was close and deadly. The men +of the advance fell fast. Lady Sale had a bullet in her arm, and three +more through her dress. But the weight of the hostile fire fell on the +main column, the baggage escort, and the rear-guard. Some of the ladies, +who mostly were on camels which were led with the column, had strange +adventures. On one camel was quite a group. In one of its panniers were +Mrs Boyd and her little son, in the other Mrs Mainwaring, with her own +infant and Mrs Anderson's eldest child. The camel fell, shot. A +Hindustanee trooper took up Mrs Boyd _en croupe_, and carried her through +in safety; another horseman behind whom her son rode, was killed, and the +boy fell into Afghan hands. The Anderson girl shared the same fate. Mrs +Mainwaring, with her baby in her arms, attempted to mount a baggage pony, +but the load upset, and she pursued her way on foot. An Afghan horseman +rode at her, threatened her with his sword, and tried to drag away the +shawl in which she carried her child. She was rescued by a sepoy +grenadier, who shot the Afghan dead, and then conducted the poor lady +along the pass through the dead and dying, through, also, the close fire +which struck down people near to her, almost to the exit of the pass, +when a bullet killed the chivalrous sepoy, and Mrs Mainwaring had to +continue her tramp to the bivouac alone. + +A very fierce attack was made on the rear-guard, consisting of the 44th. +In the narrow throat of the pass the regiment was compelled to halt by a +block in front, and in this stationary position suffered severely. A +flanking fire told heavily on the handful of European infantry. The +belated stragglers masked their fire, and at length the soldiers fell +back, firing volleys indiscriminately into the stragglers and the +Afghans. Near the exit of the pass a commanding position was maintained +by some detachments which still held together, strengthened by the only +gun now remaining, the last but one having been abandoned in the gorge. +Under cover of this stand the rear of the mass gradually drifted forward +while the Afghan pursuit was checked, and at length all the surviving +force reached the camping ground. There had been left dead in the pass +about 500 soldiers and over 2500 camp followers. + +Akbar and the chiefs, taking the hostages with them, rode forward on the +track of the retreating force. Akbar professed that his object was to +stop the firing, but Mackenzie writes that Pottinger said to him: +'Mackenzie, remember if I am killed that I heard Akbar Khan shout "Slay +them!" in Pushtoo, although in Persian he called out to stop the firing.' +The hostages had to be hidden away from the ferocious ghazees among rocks +in the ravine until near evening, when in passing through the region of +the heaviest slaughter they 'came upon one sight of horror after another. +All the bodies were stripped. There were children cut in two. Hindustanee +women as well as men--some frozen to death, some literally chopped to +pieces, many with their throats cut from ear to ear.' + +Snow fell all night on the unfortunates gathered tentless on the Khoord +Cabul camping ground. On the morning of the 9th the confused and +disorderly march was resumed, but after a mile had been traversed a halt +for the day was ordered at the instance of Akbar Khan, who sent into camp +by Captain Skinner a proposal that the ladies and children, with whose +deplorable condition he professed with apparent sincerity to sympathise, +should be made over to his protection, and that the married officers +should accompany their wives; he pledging himself to preserve the party +from further hardships and dangers, and afford its members safe escort +through the passes in rear of the force. The General had little faith in +the Sirdar, but he was fain to give his consent to an arrangement which +promised alleviation to the wretchedness of the ladies, scarce any of +whom had tasted a meal since leaving Cabul. Some, still weak from +childbirth, were nursing infants only a few days old; other poor +creatures were momentarily apprehending the pangs of motherhood. There +were invalids whose only attire, as they rode in the camel panniers or +shivered on the snow, was the nightdresses they wore when leaving the +cantonments in their palanquins, and none possessed anything save the +clothes on their backs. It is not surprising, then, that dark and +doubtful as was the future to which they were consigning themselves, the +ladies preferred its risks and chances to the awful certainties which lay +before the doomed column. The Afghan chief had cunningly made it a +condition of his proffer that the husbands should accompany their wives, +and if there was a struggle in the breasts of the former between public +and private duties, the General humanely decided the issue by ordering +them to share the fortunes of their families. + +Akbar Khan sent in no supplies, and the march was resumed on the morning +of the both by a force attenuated by starvation, cold, and despair, +diminished further by extensive desertion. After much exertion the +advance, consisting of all that remained of the 44th, the solitary gun, +and a detachment of cavalry, forced a passage to the front through the +rabble of camp followers, and marched unmolested for about two miles +until the Tunghee Tariki was reached, a deep gorge not more than ten feet +wide. Men fell fast in the horrid defile, struck down by the Afghan fire +from the heights; but the pass, if narrow, was short, and the advance +having struggled through it moved on to the halting-place at +Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and waited there for the arrival of the main body. But +that body was never to emerge from out the shambles in the narrow throat +of the Tunghee Tariki. The advance was to learn from the few stragglers +who reached it the ghastly truth that it now was all that remained of the +strong brigade which four days before had marched out from the Cabul +cantonments. The slaughter from the Afghan fire had blocked the gorge +with dead and dying. The Ghilzai tribesmen, at the turn into the pen at +the other end of which was the blocked gorge, had closed up fiercely. +Then the steep slopes suddenly swarmed with Afghans rushing sword in hand +down to the work of butchery, and the massacre stinted not while living +victims remained. The rear-guard regiment of sepoys was exterminated, +save for two or three desperately wounded officers who contrived to reach +the advance. + +The remnant of the army consisted now of about seventy files of the 44th, +about 100 troopers, and a detachment of horse-artillery with a single +gun. The General sent to Akbar Khan to remonstrate with him on the attack +he had allowed to be made after having guaranteed that the force should +meet with no further molestation. Akbar protested his regret, and pleaded +his inability to control the wild Ghilzai hillmen, over whom, in their +lust for blood and plunder, their own chiefs had lost all control; but he +was willing to guarantee the safe conduct to Jellalabad of the European +officers and men if they would lay down their arms and commit themselves +wholly into his hands. This sinister proposal the General refused, and +the march was continued, led in disorder by the remnant of the camp +followers. In the steep descent from the Huft Kotul into the Tezeen +ravine, the soldiers following the rabble at some distance, came suddenly +on a fresh butchery. The Afghans had suddenly fallen on the confused +throng, and the descent was covered with dead and dying. + +During the march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar to the Tezeen valley Shelton's +dogged valour had mainly saved the force from destruction. With a few +staunch soldiers of his own regiment, the one-armed veteran, restored now +to his proper _metier_ of stubborn fighting man, had covered the rear and +repelled the Ghilzai assaults with persevering energy and dauntless +fortitude. And he it was who now suggested, since Akbar Khan still held +to his stipulation that the force should lay down its arms, that a +resolute effort should be made to press on to Jugdulluk by a rapid night +march of four-and-twenty miles, in the hope of clearing the passes in +that vicinity before the enemy should have time to occupy them. + +That the attempt would prove successful was doubtful, since the force was +already exhausted; but it was the last chance, and Shelton's suggestion +was adopted. In the early moonlight the march silently began, an ill omen +marking the start in the shape of the forced abandonment of the last gun. +Fatal delay occurred between Seh Baba and Kutti Sung because of a panic +among the camp followers, who, scared by a few shots, drifted backwards +and forwards in a mass, retarding the progress of the column and for the +time entirely arresting the advance of Shelton's and his rear-guard. The +force could not close up until the morning, ten miles short of Jugdulluk, +and already the Afghans were swarming on every adjacent height. All the +way down the broken slope to Jugdulluk the little column trudged through +the gauntlet of jezail fire which lined the road with dead and wounded. +Shelton and his rear-guard handful performed wonders, again and again +fending off with close fire and levelled bayonets the fierce rushes of +Ghilzais charging sword in hand. The harassed advance reached Jugdulluk +in the afternoon of the 11th, and took post behind some ruins on a height +by the roadside, the surviving officers forming line in support of the +gallant rear-guard struggling forward through its environment of +assailants. As Shelton and his brave fellows burst through the cordon +they were greeted by cheers from the knoll. But there was no rest for the +exhausted people, for the Afghans promptly occupied commanding positions +whence they maintained a fire from which the ruins afforded but scant +protection. To men parched with thirst the stream at the foot of their +knoll was but a tantalising aggravation, for to attempt to reach it was +certain death. The snow they devoured only increased their sufferings, +and but little stay was afforded by the raw flesh of a few gun bullocks. +Throughout the day volley after volley was poured down upon the weary +band by the inexorable enemy. Frequent sallies were made, and the heights +were cleared, but the positions were soon reoccupied and the ruthless +fire was renewed. + +Captain Skinner, summoned by Akbar, brought back a message that General +Elphinstone should visit him to take part in a conference, and that +Brigadier Shelton and Captain Johnson should be given over as hostages +for the evacuation of Jellalabad. Compliance was held to be imperative, +and the temporary command was entrusted to Brigadier Anquetil. Akbar was +extremely hospitable to his compulsory guests; but he insisted on +including the General among his hostages, and was not moved by +Elphinstone's representations that he would prefer death to the disgrace +of being separated from his command in its time of peril. The Ghilzai +chiefs came into conference burning with hatred against the British, and +revelling in the anticipated delights of slaughtering them. Akbar seemed +sincere in his effort to conciliate them, but was long unsuccessful. +Their hatred seemed indeed stronger than their greed; but at length +toward nightfall Akbar announced that pacific arrangements had been +accepted by the tribes, and that what remained of the force should be +allowed to march unmolested to Jellalabad. + +How futile was the compact, if indeed there was any compact, was soon +revealed. The day among the ruins on the knoll had passed in dark and +cruel suspense--in hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, in the presence of +frequent death; and as the evening fell, in anguish and all but utter +despair. As darkness set in the conviction enforced itself that to remain +longer in the accursed place was madness; and the little band, leaving +behind perforce the sick and wounded, marched out, resolute to push +through or die fighting. In the valley the only molestation at first was +a desultory fire from the camping Ghilzais, who were rather taken by +surprise, but soon became wide awake to their opportunities. Some hurried +forward to occupy the pass rising from the valley to the Jugdulluk crest; +others, hanging on the rear and flanks of the column encumbered with its +fatal incubus of camp followers, mixed among the unarmed throng with +their deadly knives, and killed and plundered with the dexterity of long +practice. Throughout the tedious march up the steeply rising defile a +spattering fire came from the rocks and ridges flanking the track, all +but blocked by the surging concourse of miserable followers. The advance +had to employ cruel measures to force its way through the chaos toward +the crest. As it is approached from the Jugdulluk direction the flanking +elevations recede and merge in the transverse ridge, which is crowned by +a low-cut abrupt rocky upheaval, worn down somewhat where the road passes +over the crest by the friction of traffic. Just here the tribesmen had +constructed a formidable abattis of prickly brushwood, which stretched +athwart the road, and dammed back the fugitives in the shallow oval basin +between the termination of the ravine and the summit of the ridge. In +this trap were caught our hapless people and the swarm of their native +followers, and now the end was very near. From behind the barrier, and +around the lip of the great trap, the hillmen fired their hardest into +the seething mass of soldiers and followers writhing in the awful Gehenna +on which the calm moon shone down. On the edges of this whirlpool of +death the fell Ghilzais were stabbing and hacking with the ferocious +industry inspired by thirst for blood and lust for plunder. It is among +the characteristics of our diverse-natured race to die game, and even to +thrill with a strange fierce joy when hope of escape from death has all +but passed away and there remains only to sell life at the highest +possible premium of exchange. Among our people, face to face with death +on the rocky Jugdulluk, officers and soldiers alike fought with cool +deadly rancour. The brigadier and the private engaged in the same fierce +_melee_, fought side by side, and fell side by side. Stalwart Captain +Dodgin of the 44th slew five Afghans before he fell. Captain Nicholl of +the horse-artillery, gunless now, rallied to him the few staunch gunners +who were all that remained to him of his noble and historic troop, and +led them on to share with him a heroic death. + +All did not perish on the rugged summit of the Jugdulluk. The barrier was +finally broken through, and a scant remnant of the force wrought out its +escape from the slaughter-pit. Small detachments, harassed by sudden +onslaughts, and delayed by reluctance to desert wounded comrades, were +trudging in the darkness down the long slope to the Soorkhab. The morning +of the 13th dawned near Gundamuk on the straggling group of some twenty +officers and forty-five European soldiers. Its march arrested by sharp +attacks, the little band moved aside to occupy a defensive position on an +adjacent hillock. A local sirdar invited the senior officer to consult +with him as to a pacific arrangement, and while Major Griffiths was +absent on this errand there was a temporary suspension of hostilities. +The Afghans meanwhile swarmed around the detachment with a pretence of +friendship, but presently attempts were made to snatch from the soldiers +their arms. This conduct was sternly resented, and the Afghans were +forced back. They ascended an adjacent elevation and set themselves to +the work of deliberately picking off officer after officer, man after +man. The few rounds remaining in the pouches of the soldiers were soon +exhausted, but the detachment stood fast, and calmly awaited the +inevitable end. Rush after rush was driven back from its steadfast front, +but at last, nearly all being killed or wounded, a final onset of the +enemy, sword in hand, terminated the struggle, and completed the dismal +tragedy. Captain Souter of the 44th, with three or four privates all of +whom as well as himself were wounded, was spared and carried into +captivity; he saved the colours of his regiment, which he had tied round +his waist before leaving Jugdulluk. A group of mounted officers had +pushed forward as soon as they had cleared the barrier on the crest. Six +only reached Futtehabad in safety. There they were treacherously offered +food, and while they halted a few moments to eat two were cut down. Of +the four who rode away three were overtaken and killed within four miles +of Jellalabad; one officer alone survived to reach that haven of refuge. + +The ladies, the married officers, and the original hostages, followed +Akbar Khan down the passes toward Jugdulluk, pursuing the line of retreat +strewn with its ghastly tokens of slaughter, and recognising almost at +every step the bodies of friends and comrades. At Jugdulluk they found +General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton, and Captain Johnson, and learned +the fate which had overtaken the marching force. On the following day +Akbar quitted Jugdulluk with his hostages and the ladies, all of whom +were virtually prisoners, and rode away through the mountains in a +northerly direction. On the fourth day the fort of Budiabad in the +Lughman valley was reached, where Akbar left the prisoners while he went +to attempt the reduction of Jellalabad. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + +Sale's brigade, retreating from Gundamuk, reached Jellalabad on the 12th +November 1841. An investigation into the state of the fortifications of +that place showed them, in their existing condition, to be incapable of +resisting a vigorous assault. But it was resolved to occupy the place, +and to Captain George Broadfoot, as garrison engineer, was committed the +duty of making it defensible. This assuredly was no light task. The +enciente was far too extensive for the slender garrison, and its tracing +was radically bad. The ramparts were so dilapidated that in places they +were scarcely discernible, and the ruins strewn over what should have +been the glacis afforded near cover to assailants, whose attitude was +already so threatening as to hinder the beginning of repairing +operations. Their fire swept the defences, and their braves capered +derisively to the strains of a bagpipe on the adjacent rocky elevation, +which thenceforth went by the name of 'Piper's Hill.' A sortie on the +15th cleared the environs of the troublesome Afghans, supplies began to +come in, and Broad-foot was free to set his sappers to the task of +repairing the fortifications, in which work the entrenching tools he had +wrenched from the Cabul stores proved invaluable. How greatly Sale had +erred in shutting up his force in Jellalabad was promptly demonstrated. +The connecting posts of Gundamuk and Peshbolak had to be evacuated; and +thus, from Jumrood at the foot of the Khyber up to Cabul, there remained +no intermediate post in British possession with the solitary exception of +Jellalabad, and communications were entirely interrupted except through +the medium of furtive messengers. + +The Jellalabad garrison was left unmolested for nearly a fortnight, and +the repairs were well advanced when on the 29th the Afghans came down, +invested the place, and pushed their skirmishers close up to the walls. +On December 1st Colonel Dennie headed a sortie, which worsted the +besiegers with considerable slaughter and drove them from the vicinity. +Bad news came at intervals from Cabul, and at the new year arrived a +melancholy letter from Pottinger, confirming the rumours already rife of +the murder of the Envoy, and of the virtual capitulation to which the +Cabul force had submitted. A week later an official communication was +received from Cabul, signed by General Elphinstone and Major Pottinger, +formally announcing the convention which the Cabul force had entered into +with the chiefs, and ordering the garrison of Jellalabad forthwith to +evacuate that post and retire to Peshawur, leaving behind with 'the new +Governor,' an Afghan chief who was the bearer of the humiliating missive, +the fortress guns and such stores and baggage as there lacked transport +to remove. The council of war summoned by Sale was unanimous in favour of +non-compliance with this mandate. Broadfoot urged with vigour that an +order by a superior who was no longer a free agent and who issued it +under duress, could impose no obligation of obedience. Sale pronounced +himself untrammelled by a convention forced from people 'with knives at +their throats,' and was resolute in the expression of his determination +to hold Jellalabad unless ordered by the Government to withdraw. + +More and more ominous tidings poured in from Cabul. A letter received on +January both reported the Cabul force to be still in the cantonments, +living utterly at the mercy of the Afghans; another arriving on the 12th +told of the abandonment of the cantonments and the beginning of the +march, but that the forlorn wayfarers were lingering in detention at +Bootkhak, halted in their misery by the orders of Akbar Khan. Those +communications in a measure prepared the people in Jellalabad for +disaster, but not for the awful catastrophe of which Dr Brydon had to +tell, when in the afternoon of the 13th the lone man, whose approach to +the fortress Lady Butler's painting so pathetically depicts, rode through +the Cabul gate of Jellalabad. Dr Brydon was covered with cuts and +contusions, and was utterly exhausted. His first few hasty sentences +extinguished all hope in the hearts of the listeners regarding their +Cabul comrades and friends. + +There was naturally great excitement in Jellalabad, but no panic. The +working parties were called in, the assembly was sounded, the gates were +closed, the walls were lined, and the batteries were manned; for it was +believed for the moment that the enemy were in full pursuit of fugitives +following in Brydon's track. The situation impressed Broadfoot with the +conviction that a crisis had come in the fortunes of the Jellalabad +garrison. He thought it his duty to lay before the General the conditions +of the critical moment which he believed to have arrived, pointing out to +him that the imperative alternatives were that he should either firmly +resolve on the defence of Jellalabad to the last extremity, or that he +should make up his mind to a retreat that very night, while as yet +retreat was practicable. Sale decided on holding on to the place, and +immediately announced to the Commander-in-Chief his resolve to persevere +in a determined defence, relying on the promise of the earliest possible +relief. + +Because of the defection of his Sikh auxiliaries and the +faint-heartedness of his sepoys, Wild's efforts to cross the threshold of +the Khyber had failed, and with the tidings of his failure there came to +Sale the information that the effort for his relief must be indefinitely +postponed. It may be assumed that this intimation weakened in some degree +the General's expressed resolution to hold Jellalabad with determination, +and it is not to be denied that this resolution was in a measure +conditional on the not unwarranted expectation of early relief. Neither +he nor his adviser Macgregor appears to have realised how incumbent on +the garrison of Jellalabad it was to hold out to the last extremity, +irrespective of consequences to itself, unless it should receive a +peremptory recall from higher authority; or to have recognised the +glorious opportunity presented of inspiriting by its staunch constancy +and high-souled self-abnegation a weak government staggering under a +burden of calamity. Than Sale no braver soldier ever wore sword, but a +man may delight to head a forlorn hope and yet lack nerve to carry with +high heart a load of responsibility; nor was Macgregor so constituted as +to animate his chief to noble emprise. Fast on the heels of the gloomy +tidings from the Khyber mouth there came to them from Shah Soojah, who +was still the nominal sovereign at Cabul, a curt peremptory letter +obviously written under compulsion, of which the following were the +terms: 'Your people have concluded a treaty with us; you are still in +Jellalabad; what are your intentions? Tell us quickly.' + +Sale summoned a council of war, which assembled at his quarters on +January 27th. Its proceedings were recorded, and the documents laid +before it were preserved by Captain Henry Havelock in his capacity as +Sale's staff-officer. Record and papers were reclaimed from Havelock's +custody by General Sale before the evacuation of Afghanistan, and had +been long lost to sight. They have recently been deposited among the +records of the India Office, but not before their latest non-official +possessor had published some extracts from them. It is to be hoped that +the more important documents may be given to the public in full, since +passages from documents, whether intentionally or not, may be so +extracted as to be misleading. Broadfoot, who had been a member of the +council of war, and who was apparently aware of the suppression of the +official records, wrote in 1843 a detailed narrative of its proceedings +while his recollection of them was still fresh, and this narrative he +sent to Havelock, desiring him to note 'any points erroneously stated, +distinguishing between what you may merely not remember and what you know +I am mistaken in.' Havelock, who was a loyal and ardent admirer of +General Sale, having sparsely annotated Broadfoot's narrative, returned +it with the statement that he had compared it with memoranda still in his +possession, and that he considered that it 'contributes a fair and +correct statement of that which occurred.' The officers comprising the +council to whom Sale and Macgregor addressed themselves were Colonel +Dennie of the 13th, Colonel Monteath of the 35th N.I., Captains Backhouse +and Abbott of the artillery, Captain Oldfield commanding the cavalry, and +Captain Broadfoot the garrison engineer. The following is a summary of +the proceedings, as recorded by Broadfoot and authenticated by Havelock. + +After a few formal words from General Sale, he called on Macgregor to +submit a matter on which that political officer and himself were agreed. +Macgregor then described the situation from the point of view of Sale and +himself, and expressed their united conviction that nothing was to be +hoped for from the Government. Reserving his own liberty of action, he +sought the opinion of the officers on offers received from Akbar Khan to +treat for the evacuation of Afghanistan, and he laid before them a draft +answer to Shah Soojah's curt letter, professing the readiness of the +garrison to evacuate Jellalabad on his requisition, since it was held +only for him, but naming certain conditions: the exchange of hostages, +the restoration of British prisoners and hostages in exchange for the +Afghan hostages on arrival of the force at Peshawur, escort thither 'in +safety and honour,' with arms, colours, and guns, and adequate assistance +of supplies and transport. Both Sale and Macgregor frankly owned that +they were resolved to yield, and negotiate for safe retreat. + +Great excitement from the first had pervaded the assemblage, and when +Macgregor had finished his statement Broadfoot arose in his wrath. He +declined to believe that the Government had abandoned the Jellalabad +garrison to its fate, and there was a general outburst of indignation +when Sale produced a letter carrying that significance. Broadfoot waxed +so warm in his remonstrances against the proposed action that an +adjournment was agreed to. Next day Sale and Macgregor urged that it was +impossible to hold out much longer, that later retreat would be +impracticable, and that the scheme they proposed was safe and honourable. +Broadfoot denounced it as disgraceful, contended that they could hold +Jellalabad indefinitely--'could colonise if they liked'--and retreat at +discretion. He denied that the place was held for Shah Soojah, and +challenged their right to surrender the post unless by Government order. +Hostages he proclaimed worthless while the Afghans held heavier pledges +of ours in the shape of prisoners and hostages. He denounced as +disgraceful the giving of hostages on our part. Monteath's remark that +nobody would go as a hostage roused Oldfield to express himself tersely +but pointedly on the subject. 'I for one,' he exclaimed in great +agitation, 'will fight here to the last drop of my blood, but I plainly +declare that I will never be a hostage, and I am surprised that anyone +should propose such a thing, or regard an Afghan's word as worth +anything.' The resolution to treat for the abandonment of Jellalabad was +carried, Oldfield only voting with Broadfoot against it, but the +stipulations: regarding hostages were omitted. Broadfoot continued to +press modifications of the conditions set out in the proposed reply, +pleading, but in vain, that the restoration of the prisoners in Afghan +hands before departure of the garrison should be insisted on; and that +since evacuation was resolved on, it should at least be conducted as a +military operation, and not degradingly under escort. Then, and little +wonder, he objected to expressions in the draft letter as too abject, and +he was successful in procuring the alteration of them. The letter was +written out, signed by Macgregor, and despatched to Cabul. It was agreed +that those members of the council who chose to do should record in +writing the reasons for their votes, and this was done by Dennie, +Monteath, Abbott, and Broadfoot. + +Broadfoot, pending an answer from Cabul, set the garrison to work in +digging a ditch round the fortifications. The reply from the Shah, to the +effect 'If you are sincere in offers, let all the chief gentlemen affix +their seals,' was laid before the reassembled council on February 12th. +The implied imputation on the good faith of British officers might well +have stung to indignation the meekest; but the council's opinion was +taken as to the expediency of complying with the derogatory request made +by the Shah, as well as of a stipulation--a modification of what +Broadfoot had originally urged in vain--for the surrender of all +prisoners, hostages, sick, and wounded under detention in Afghanistan, on +the arrival at Peshawur of the Jellalabad brigade. The members of +council, who in the long interval since the previous meeting had been +gradually regaining their self-respect and mental equipoise, unanimously +declined to accept the proposals tendered them by their commanding +officer and his political ally; and a letter written by Monteath was +accepted, which 'was not a continuation of the negotiation.' + +Thus ended the deliberations of the memorable council of war, whose +eleventh hour resolve to 'hold the fort' mainly averted the ruin of +British prestige in India and throughout the regions bordering on our +Eastern Empire; and the credit of its final decision to repudiate the +humiliating proposals of Sale and Macgregor belongs to George Broadfoot, +who was firmly though silently backed by Havelock. The day after that +decision was formulated a letter came from Peshawur informing the +garrison that every effort would be made for its relief; and thenceforth +there was no more talk of surrender, nor was the courage of the little +brigade impaired even when the earthquake of February 19th shook the +newly repaired fortifications into wreck. Broadfoot's vehement energy +infected the troops, and by the end of the month the parapets were +entirely restored, the bastions repaired, and every battery +re-established. + +After the council of war had rejected the proposals laid before it, a +decision which in effect involved the maintenance of the defence to the +last extremity, nearly two months passed without the occurrence of any +important event, except the speedily retrieved misfortune of the +earthquake of February 19th. The close investment of the place by Akbar +Khan thwarted the efforts of the foraging parties to obtain much needed +supplies. Those efforts were not vigorous, for Sale, aware of his +garrison's poverty of ammunition, was bent on a passive defence, and +steadily refused his consent to vigorous sorties. The policy may have had +its abstract merits, but it was certainly unsatisfactory in this respect, +that perseverance in it involved the unpleasantness of apparently +inevitable starvation. General Pollock had arrived in Peshawur, and was +making energetic efforts to get his force in order for the accomplishment +of the relief of Jellalabad. But he foresaw serious delays, and so late +as the middle of March was still unable to specify with any definiteness +the probable date of his arrival at that place. The European troops in +Jellalabad would be out of meat rations early in April, and Havelock's +calculation was that the grain, on which mainly subsisted the native +soldiers, who had been on half rations since the new year, would be +exhausted before the middle of that month. Sale modified his policy of +inactivity when he learned that the blockading Afghans were attempting to +drive a mine under a salient of the defences, and Dennie on March 11th +led out a sally, destroyed the works, and thrust back Akbar's +encroachments. The general lack of vigour, however, on the garrison's +part emboldened the Afghans so much that they actually grazed their +flocks of sheep within 600 yards of the walls. This was too impudent, and +the General consented to a raid, which resulted in the acquisition of +some 500 sheep, an invaluable addition to the commissariat resources. It +is worth recording that the native regiment gave up its share of the +sheep to the soldiers of the 13th, on the ground that Europeans needed +animal food more than did natives of India. + +On April 6th the Afghan leader fired a salute in triumph for a +supposititious repulse of Pollock in the Khyber. In regard to what then +happened there is a strange conflict of testimony. General Sale, in a +private letter written six weeks later, states: 'I made my arrangements +with Macgregor to sally the next day, provided we did not hear that +Pollock had forced the pass.' Akbar's salutes, and the information of +spies that Pollock had fallen back, 'made us look very grave--our case +desperate, our provisions nearly out, and no relief at hand. I therefore +decided to play a bold stroke to relieve ourselves, and give courage to +Pollock's force in case of success. If we failed in thrashing Akbar, we +would have left our bones on the field.' Abbott's diary of April 5th and +6th records that spies reported that Pollock had been repulsed at Ali +Musjid, and that the heads of three of his officers had been sent in to +Akbar, whereupon 'all the commanding officers waited on the General, +beseeching him to attack Akbar instantly. The 13th and the battery got +all ready for work, but the old General was obstinate, and refused to +act.' Backhouse's diary (April 6th) mentions that Pollock having been +reported repulsed, and Akbar having fired a salute, the officers +commanding corps and detachments went in a body and proposed to the +General to attack Akbar instantly, but without success. 'Immediately the +matter was broached, the General set his face against anything of the +kind, and disagreed about every point--insisted that the enemy had 5000 +or 6000 men in camp, and were too strong for us; and then, the next +minute, that it was no use going out as we couldn't punish them, as they +_wouldn't stand_; and concluding with usual excuse for inactivity, "It +isn't our game." Words ran precious high....' + +Whether spontaneously or under pressure, General Sale must have ordered a +sortie in force; for at dawn of the 7th three infantry columns marched +out by the Cabul gate, the right commanded by Havelock, the centre by +Dennie, the left by Monteath, General Sale being in command of the whole +force. Akbar, reputed about 5000 strong, was in formation in front of his +camp about three miles west of Jellalabad, his left flank resting on the +river, with an advanced post of 300 men in the 'patched up' fort about +midway between his camp and Jellalabad. The prescribed tactics were to +march straight on the enemy, with which Monteath and Havelock complied; +but Dennie, whether with or without orders is a matter in dispute, +diverged to assail the 'patched up' fort. The outer defences were +carried, gallant old Dennie riding at the head of his men to receive his +death wound. In vain did the guns for which Sale had sent batter at the +inner keep, and the General abandoning the attempt to reduce it, led on +in person the centre column. Meanwhile Havelock and Monteath had been +moving steadily forward, until halted by orders when considerably +advanced. Havelock had to form square once and again against the Afghan +horsemen, who, however, did not dare to charge home. The artillery came +to the front at the gallop, and poured shot and shell into Akbar's mass. +The three columns, now abreast of each other, deployed into line, and +moving forward at the double in the teeth of the Afghan musketry fire, +swept the enemy clean out of his position, capturing his artillery, +firing his camp, and putting him to utter rout. Akbar, by seven o'clock +in the April morning, had been signally beaten in the open field by the +troops he had boasted of blockading in the fortress. + +The garrison of Jellalabad had thus wrought out its own relief. +Thenceforth it experienced neither annoyance nor scarcity. Pollock +arrived a fortnight after the dashing sally which had given the garrison +deliverance, and the head of his column was played into its camp on the +Jellalabad plain by the band of the 13th, to the significant tune 'Oh, +but ye've been lang o'coming.' The magniloquent Ellenborough dubbed +Sale's brigade 'the Illustrious Garrison,' and if the expression is +overstrained, its conduct was without question eminently creditable. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + +It was little wonder that the unexpected tidings of the Cabul outbreak, +and the later shock of the catastrophe in the passes, should have +temporarily unnerved the Governor-General. But Lord Auckland rallied his +energies with creditable promptitude. His successor was on the voyage +out, and in the remnant of his term that remained he could not do more +than make dispositions which his successor might find of service. Every +soldier of the 'Army of Retribution' was despatched to the frontier +during Lord Auckland's rule. Lord Auckland appointed to the command of +the troops which he was sending forward a quiet, steadfast, experienced +officer of the artillery arm, who had fought under Lake at Deig and +Bhurtpore, and during his forty years of honest service had soldiered +steadily from the precipices of Nepaul to the rice-swamps of the +Irrawaddy. Pollock was essentially the fitting man for the service that +lay before him, characterised as he was by strong sense, shrewd sagacity, +calm firmness, and self-command. When his superior devolved on him an +undue onus of responsibility he was to prove himself thoroughly equal to +the occasion, and the sedate, balanced man murmured not, but probably was +rather amused when he saw a maker of phrases essaying to deck himself in +his laurels. There were many things in Lord Auckland's Indian career of +which it behoved him to repent, but it must go to his credit that he gave +Pollock high command, and that he could honestly proclaim, as he made his +preparations to quit the great possession whose future his policy had +endangered, that he had contributed toward the retrieval of the crisis by +promptly furthering 'such operations as might be required for the +maintenance of the honour and interests of the British Government.' + +Brigadier Wild reached Peshawur with a brigade of four sepoy regiments +just before the new year. He was destitute of artillery, his sepoys were +in poor heart, and the Sikh contingent was utterly untrustworthy. To +force the Khyber seemed hopeless. Wild, however, made the attempt +energetically enough. But the Sikhs mutinied, expelled their officers, +and marched back to Peshawur; Wild's sepoys, behaving badly, were driven +back with loss from the mouth of the pass, and Wild himself was wounded. +When Pollock reached Peshawur on February 6th, 1842, he found half of +Wild's brigade sick in hospital, and the whole of it in a state of utter +demoralisation. A second brigade commanded by Brigadier-General +McCaskill, had accompanied Pollock, the sepoys of which promptly fell +under the evil influence of Wild's dispirited and disaffected regiments. +Pollock had to resist the pressing appeals for speedy relief made to him +from Jellalabad, and patiently to devote weeks and months to the +restoration of the morale and discipline of the disheartened sepoys of +his command, and to the reinvigoration of their physique. By kindness +combined with firmness he was able gradually to inspire them with perfect +trust and faith in him, and when in the end of March there reached him a +third brigade, comprising British cavalry and horse-artillery, ordered +forward by Lord Auckland on receipt of tidings of the destruction of the +Cabul force, he felt himself at length justified in advancing with +confidence. + +[Illustration: Sir George Pollock] + +Before daylight on the morning of April 5th Pollock's army about 8000 +strong, consisting of eight infantry regiments, three cavalry corps, a +troop and two batteries of artillery, and a mountain train, marched from +the Jumrood camping ground into the portals of the Khyber. Pollock's +scheme of operations was perfect in conception and complete in detail. +His main column, with strong advance and rear-guards, was to pursue the +usual road through the pass. It was flanked on each side by a chain of +infantry detachments, whose assigned duty was to crown the heights and +sweep them clear of assailants in advance of the head of the central +column. The Afreedi hill men had blocked the throat of the pass by a +formidable barrier, behind which they were gathered in force, waiting for +the opportunity which was never to come to them. For the main body of +Pollock's force serenely halted, while the flanking columns, breaking +into skirmishing order, hurried in the grey dawn along the slopes and +heights, dislodging the Afreedi pickets as they advanced, driving them +before them with resolute impetuosity, and pushing forward so far as to +take in reverse with their concentrated fire the great barrier and its +defenders. The clansmen, recognising the frustration of their devices, +deserted the position in its rear, and rushed tumultuously away to crags +and sungahs where knife and jezail might still be plied. The centre +column then advanced unmolested to the deserted barricade, through which +the sappers soon cleared a thoroughfare. The guns swept with shrapnel the +hill-sides in front, the flanking detachments pushed steadily further and +yet further forward, chasing and slaying the fugitive hillmen; and the +Duke of Wellington's observation was that morning fully made good, that +he had never heard that our troops were not equal, as well in their +personal activity as in their arms, to contend with and overcome any +natives of hills whatever.' The whole British force, in its order of +three columns, the centre in the bed of the hollow, the wings on the +flanking ridges, steadily if slowly moved on in the assured consciousness +of victory. It was sunset before the rear-guard was in camp under the +reoccupied Ali Musjid. The Sikh troops who were to keep open Pollock's +communications with Peshawur moved simultaneously on Ali Musjid by a more +circuitous route. + +While Pollock was halted opposite the throat of the Khyber waiting for +the demolition of the Afreedi barricade, the ill-starred Shah Soojah was +being murdered, on his way from the Balla Hissar of Cabul to review on +the Siah Sung slopes the reinforcements which Akbar Khan was clamouring +that he should lead down to aid that Sirdar in reducing Jellalabad before +relief should arrive. Ever since the outbreak of November Shah Soojah had +led a dog's life. He had reigned in Cabul, but he had not ruled. The +Sirdars dunned him for money, and jeered at his protestations of poverty. +It is not so much a matter of surprise that he should have been murdered +as that, feeble, rich, and loathed, he should have been let live so long. +It does not seem worth while to discuss the vexed question whether or not +he was faithful to his British allies. He was certainly entitled to argue +that he owed us nothing, since what we did in regard to him was nakedly +for our own purposes. Shah Soojah's second son Futteh Jung had himself +proclaimed his father's successor. The vicissitudes of his short reign +need not be narrated. While Pollock was gathering his brigades at +Gundamuk in the beginning of the following September, a forlorn Afghan, +in dirty and tattered rags, rode into his camp. This scarecrow was Futteh +Jung, who, unable to endure longer his sham kingship and the ominous +tyranny of Akbar Khan, had fled from Cabul in disguise to beg a refuge in +the British camp. + +Pollock's march from Ali Musjid to Jellalabad was slow, but almost +unmolested. He found, in his own words, 'the fortress strong, the +garrison healthy; and except for wine and beer, better off than we are.' +One principal object of his commission had been accomplished; he had +relieved the garrison of Jellalabad, and was in a position to ensure its +safe withdrawal. But his commission gave him a considerable discretion, +and a great company of his countrymen and countrywomen were still in +Afghan durance. The calm pulsed, resolute commander had views of his own +as to his duty, and he determined in his patient, steadfast way to tarry +a while on the Jellalabad plain, in the hope that the course of events +might play into his hands. + +Maclaren's brigade, which in the beginning of November 1841 General +Elphinstone had instructed General Nott to despatch with all speed to +Cabul, returned to Candahar early in December. Nott in despatching it had +deferred reluctantly to superior authority, and probably Maclaren not +sorry to have in the snowfall a pretext for retracing his steps. Atta +Mahomed Khan, sent from Cabul to foment mischief in the Candahar regions, +had gathered to his banner a considerable force. General Nott quietly +waited until the Sirdar, at the head of some 10,000 men, came within five +miles of Candahar, and then he crushed him after twenty minutes' +fighting. The fugitives found refuge in the camp of the disaffected +Dooranee chiefs, whose leader Meerza Ahmed was sedulously trying to +tamper with Nott's native troops, severe weather hindering the General +from attacking him. Near the end of February there reached Nott a letter +two months old from Elphinstone and Pottinger, ordering him to evacuate +Candahar and retire to India, in pursuance of the convention into which +they had entered. The Dooranee chiefs astutely urged that Shah Soojah, no +longer supported by British bayonets, was now ruling in Cabul, as an +argument in favour of Nott's withdrawal. Nott's answer was brief: 'I will +not treat with any person whatever for the retirement of the British +troops from Afghanistan, until I have received instructions from the +Supreme Government'--a blunt sentence in curious contrast to the missive +which Sale and Macgregor laid before the Jellalabad council of war. When +presently there came a communication from Government intimating that the +continued occupation of Candahar was regarded as conducive to the +interest of the state, Nott and Rawlinson were in a position to +congratulate themselves on having anticipated the wishes of their +superiors. The situation, however, became so menacing that early in March +its Afghan inhabitants were expelled from the city of Candahar to the +last soul; and then Nott, leaving a garrison in the place, took the field +in force. The old soldier, wary as he was, became the victim of Meerza's +wily strategy. As he advanced, the Afghans retired, skirmishing +assiduously. Leaving Nott in the Turnuk valley, they doubled back on +Candahar, and in the early darkness of the night of the 10th March they +furiously assailed the city gates. They fired one of the gates, and the +swarming ghazees tore down with fury its blazing planks and the red-hot +ironwork. The garrison behaved valiantly. Inside the burning gate they +piled up a rampart of grain bags, on which they trained a couple of guns +loaded with case. For three hours after the gate fell did the fanatics +hurl assault after assault on the interior barricade. They were terribly +critical hours, but the garrison prevailed, and at midnight, with a loss +of many hundreds, the obstinate assailants sullenly drew off. Nott, +although urgently summoned, was unable to reach Candahar until the 12th. + +Candahar was fortunately preserved, but at the end of March the +unpleasant tidings came that Ghuznee, which British valour had carried by +storm three years before, had now reverted into Afghan possession. The +siege had lasted for nearly three and a half months. In mid-December the +besiegers occupied the city in force, introduced by the citizens through +a subterranean way; and the garrison, consisting chiefly of a regiment of +sepoys, withdrew into the citadel. The bitter winter and the scant +rations took the heart out of the natives of the warm and fertile Indian +plains; but nevertheless it was not until March 6th that the garrison, +under pledge of being escorted to Peshawur with colours, arms, and +baggage, marched out. The unfortunates would have done better to have +died a soldierly death, with arms in their hands and the glow of fighting +in their hearts. As the event was, faith with them was broken, and save +for a few officers who were made prisoners, most were slaughtered, or +perished in a vain attempt to escape. + +During his long isolation Nott's resources had been seriously depleted, +and he had ordered up from Scinde a brigade, escorting much needed +treasure, ammunition, and medicines. Brigadier England was entrusted with +the command of this force, whose assemblage at Quetta was expected about +the end of March. Pending its gathering England had moved out toward the +entrance of the Kojuk Pass, where he met with a sharp and far from +creditable repulse, and fell back on Quetta miserably disheartened, +suggesting in his abjectness that Nott should abandon Candahar and retire +on him. The stout old soldier at Candahar waxed wroth at the limpness of +his subordinate, and addressed to England a biting letter, ordering +peremptorily the latter's prompt advance to Candahar, engaging to +dry-nurse him through the Kojuk by a brigade sent down from Candahar for +the purpose, and remarking sarcastically, 'I am well aware that war +cannot be made without loss; but yet perhaps British troops can oppose +Asiatic armies without defeat.' Thus exhorted England moved, to find his +march through the Kojuk protected by Wymer's sepoys from Candahar, who +had crowned the lateral heights before he ventured into the pass; and he +reached Candahar without maltreatment on the 10th May, bringing to Nott +the much needed supplies which rendered that resolute man equal to any +enterprise. + +It remained, however, to be seen whether any enterprise was to be +permitted to him and to his brother commander lying in camp on the +Jellalabad plain. Lord Ellenborough, the successor of Lord Auckland, had +struck a firm if somewhat inexplicit note in his earliest manifesto, +dated March 13th. A single sentence will indicate its tenor: 'Whatever +course we may hereafter take must rest solely on military considerations, +and hence in the first instance regard to the safety of our detached +garrisons in Afghanistan; to the security of our troops now in the field +from unnecessary risks; and finally, to the re-establishment of our +military reputation by the infliction upon the Afghans of some signal and +decisive blow.' Those were brave words, if only they had been adhered to. +But six weeks later his lordship was ordering Nott to evacuate Candahar +and fall back on Quetta, until the season should permit further +retirement to the Indus; and instructing Pollock, through the +Commander-in-Chief, to withdraw without delay every British soldier from +Jellalabad to Peshawur, except under certain specified eventualities, +none of which were in course of occurrence. Pollock temporised, holding +on to his advanced position by the plea of inability to retire for want +of transport, claiming mildly to find discretionary powers in the +Government instructions, and cautiously arguing in favour of an advance +by a few marches to a region where better climate was to be found, and +whence he might bring to bear stronger pressure for the liberation of the +prisoners. Nott was a narrower man than Pollock. When he got his orders +he regarded them as strictly binding, no matter how unpalatable the +injunctions. 'I shall not lose a moment,' he wrote, 'in making +arrangements to carry out my orders, without turning to the right or the +left, and without inquiring into the reasons for the measures enjoined, +whatever our own opinions or wishes may be.' He reluctantly began +preparations for withdrawal. Carriage was ordered up from Quetta, and a +brigade was despatched to withdraw the garrison of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and +to destroy the fort which Craigie had so long and valiantly defended. + +It would be tedious to detail the vacillations, the obscurities, and the +tortuosities of Lord Ellenborough's successive communications to his two +Generals in Afghanistan. Pollock had been permitted to remain about +Jellalabad until the autumn should bring cooler marching weather. Nott +had been detained at Candahar by the necessity for crushing menacing +bodies of tribal levies, but as July waned his preparations for +withdrawal were all but complete. On the 4th of that month Lord +Ellenborough wrote to him, reiterating injunctions for his withdrawal +from Afghanistan, but permitting him the alternatives of retiring by the +direct route along his line of communications over Quetta and Sukkur, or +of boxing the compass by the curiously circuitous 'retirement' _via_ +Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad. Pollock, for his part, was permitted, if +he thought proper, to advance on Cabul in order to facilitate Nott's +withdrawal, if the latter should elect to 'retreat' by the circuitous +route which has just been described. + +One does not care to characterise the 'heads I win, tails you lose' +policy of a Governor-General who thus shuffled off his responsibility +upon two soldiers who previously had been sedulously restricted within +narrow if varying limits. Their relief from those trammels set them free, +and it was their joy to accept the devolved responsibility, and to act +with soldierly initiative and vigour. The chief credit of the qualified +yet substantial triumph over official hesitation certainly belongs to +Pollock, who gently yet firmly forced the hand of the Governor-General, +while Nott's merit was limited to a ready acceptance of the +responsibility of a proffered option. A letter from Nott intimating his +determination to retire by way of Cabul and Jellalabad reached Pollock in +the middle of August, who immediately advanced from Jellalabad; and his +troops having concentrated at Gundamuk, he marched from that position on +7th September, his second division, commanded by M'Caskill, following +next day. Pollock was woefully short of transport, and therefore was +compelled to leave some troops behind at Gundamuk, and even then could +carry only half the complement of tentage. But his soldiers, who carried +in their haversacks seven days' provisions, would gladly have marched +without any baggage at all, and the chief himself was eager to hurry +forward, for Nott had written that he expected to reach Cabul on 15th +September, and Pollock was burning to be there first. In the Jugdulluk +Pass, on the 8th, he found the Ghilzais in considerable force on the +heights. Regardless of a heavy artillery fire they stood their ground, +and so galled Pollock's troops with sharp discharges from their jezails +that it became necessary to send infantry against them. They were +dislodged from the mountain they had occupied by a portion of the +Jellalabad brigade, led by gallant old General Sale, who had his usual +luck in the shape of a wound. + +This Jugdulluk fighting was, however, little more than a skirmish, and +Pollock's people were to experience more severe opposition before they +should emerge from the passes on to the Cabul plain. On the morning of +the 13th the concentrated force had quitted its camp in the Tezeen +valley, and had committed itself without due precaution to the passage of +the ravine beyond, when the Afghan levies with which Akbar Khan had +manned the flanking heights, opened their fire. The Sirdar had been +dissuaded by Captain Troup, one of his prisoners, from attempting futile +negotiations, and advised not to squander lives in useless opposition. +Akbar had replied that he was too deeply committed to recede, and that +his people were bent on fighting. They were not baulked in the +aspiration, which assuredly their opponents shared with at least equal +zeal. Pollock's advance-guard was about the middle of the defile, when +the enemy were suddenly discovered blocking the pass in front, and +holding the heights which Pollock's light troops should have crowned in +advance of the column. Akbar's force was calculated to be about 15,000 +strong, and the Afghans fought resolutely against the British regiments +which forced their way up the heights on the right and left. The ghazees +dashed down to meet the red soldiers halfway, and up among the precipices +there were many hand-to-hand encounters, in which the sword and the +bayonet fought out the issue. The Afghans made their last stand on the +rocky summit of the Huft Kotul; but from this commanding position they +were finally driven by Broadfoot's bloodthirsty little Goorkhas, who, +hillmen themselves from their birth, chased the Afghans from crag to +crag, using their fell kookeries as they pursued. It was Akbar Khan's +last effort, and the quelling of it cost Pollock the trivial loss of +thirty-two killed and 130 wounded. There was no more opposition, and it +was well for the Afghans, for the awful spectacles presented in the +Khoord Cabul Pass traversed on the following day, kindled in Pollock's +soldiers a white heat of fury. 'The bodies,' wrote Backhouse in his +unpublished diary, 'lay in heaps of fifties and hundreds, our gun wheels +crushing the bones of our late comrades at every yard for four or five +miles; indeed, the whole march from Gundamuk to Cabul may be said to have +been over the bodies of the massacred army.' Pollock marched unmolested +to Cabul on the 15th, and camped on the old racecourse to the east of the +city. + +Nott, in evacuating Candahar, divided his force into two portions, the +weaker of which General England took back to India by Quetta and Sukkur, +while on August 9th Nott himself, with two European battalions, the +'beautiful sepoy regiments' of which he had a right to be proud, and his +field guns, marched away from Candahar, his face set towards Cabul. His +march was uneventful until about midway between Khelat-i-Ghilzai and +Ghuznee, when on the 28th the cavalry, unsupported and badly handled in a +stupid and unauthorised foray, lost severely in officers and men, took to +flight in panic, and so gave no little encouragement to the enemy hanging +on Nott's flank. Two days later Shumshoodeen, the Afghan leader, drew up +some 10,000 men in order of battle on high ground left of the British +camp. Nott attacked with vigour, advancing to turn the Afghan left. In +reprisal the enemy threw their strength on his left, supporting their +jezail fire with artillery, whereupon Nott changed front to the left, +deployed, and then charged. The Afghans did not wait for close quarters, +and Nott was no more seriously molested. Reaching the vicinity of Ghuznee +on September 5th, he cleared away the hordes hanging on the heights which +encircle the place. During the night the Afghans evacuated Ghuznee. Soon +after daylight the British flag was waving from the citadel. Having +fulfilled Lord Ellenborough's ridiculous order to carry away from the +tomb of Sultan Mahmoud in the environs of Ghuznee, the supposititious +gates of Somnath, a once famous Hindoo shrine in the Bombay province of +Kattiawar, Nott marched onward unmolested till within a couple of marches +of Cabul, when near Maidan he had some stubborn fighting with an Afghan +force which tried ineffectually to block his way. On the 17th he marched +into camp four miles west of Cabul, whence he could discern, not with +entire complacency, the British ensign already flying from the Balla +Hissar, for Pollock had won the race to Cabul by a couple of days. + +For months there had been negotiations for the release of the British +prisoners whom Akbar Khan had kept in durance ever since they came into +his hands in the course of the disastrous retreat from Cabul in January, +but they had been unsuccessful, and now it was known that the unfortunate +company of officers, women, and children, had been carried off westward +into the hill country of Bamian. Nott's officers, as the Candahar column +was nearing Cabul, had more than once urged him to detach a brigade in +the direction of Bamian in the hope of effecting a rescue of the +prisoners, but he had steadily refused, leaning obstinately on the +absence from the instructions sent him by Government of any permission to +engage in the enterprise of attempting their release. He was not less +brusque in the intimation of his declinature when Pollock gave him the +opportunity to send a force in support of Sir Richmond Shakespear, whom, +with a detachment of Kuzzilbash horse, Pollock had already despatched on +the mission of attempting the liberation of the prisoners. The narrow old +soldier argued doggedly that Government 'had thrown the prisoners +overboard.' Why, then, should he concern himself with their rescue? If +his superior officer should give him a firm order, of course he would +obey, but he would obey under protest. Pollock disdained to impose so +enviable a duty on a recalcitrant man, and committed to Sale the +honourable and welcome service--all the more welcome to that officer +because his wife and daughter were among the captives. At the head of his +Jellalabad brigade, he was to push forward by forced marches on the track +of Shakespear and his horsemen. + +The strange and bitter experiences of the captives, from that miserable +January Sabbath day on which they passed under the 'protection' of Akbar +Khan until the mid-September noon when Shakespear galloped into their +midst, are recorded in full and interesting detail in Lady Sale's +journal, in Vincent Eyre's _Captivity_, and in Colin Mackenzie's +biography published under the title of _Storms and Sunshine of a +Soldier's Life_. Here it is possible only briefly to summarise the chief +incidents of the captivity. The unanimous testimony of the released +prisoners was to the effect that Akbar Khan, violent, bloody, and +passionate man though he was, behaved toward them with kindness and a +certain rude chivalry. They remained for nearly three months at Budiabad, +living in great squalor and discomfort. For the whole party there were +but five rooms, each of which was occupied by from five to ten officers +and ladies, the few soldiers and non-commissioned officers, who were +mostly wounded, being quartered in sheds and cellars. Mackenzie drily +remarks that the hardships of the common lot, and the close intimacy of +prison life, brought into full relief good and evil qualities; +'conventional polish was a good deal rubbed off and replaced by a +plainness of speech quite unheard of in good society.' Ladies and +gentlemen were necessitated to occupy the same room during the night, but +the men 'cleared out' early in the morning, leaving the ladies to +themselves. The dirt and vermin of their habitation were abominably +offensive to people to whom scrupulous cleanliness was a second nature. +But the captives were allowed to take exercise within a limited range; +they had among them a few books, and an old newspaper occasionally came +on to them from Jellalabad, with which place a fitful correspondence in +cypher was surreptitiously maintained. They had a few packs of playing +cards; they made for themselves backgammon and draught-boards, and when +in good spirits they sometimes played hopscotch and blindman's-buff with +the children of the party. The Sundays were always kept scrupulously, +Lawrence and Mackenzie conducting the service in turn. + +The earthquake which shook down the fortifications of Jellalabad brought +their rickety fort about the ears of the captives. Several escaped +narrowly with their lives when walls and roofs yawned and crumbled, and +all had to turn out and sleep in the courtyard, where they suffered from +cold and saturating dews. After the defeat of Akbar by the Jellalabad +garrison on April 7th, there was keen expectation that Sale would march +to their rescue, but he came not, and there were rumours among the guards +of their impending massacre in revenge for the crushing reverse Akbar had +experienced. Presently, however, Mahomed Shah Khan, Akbar's lieutenant, +arrived full of courtesy and reassurance, but with the unwelcome +intimation that the prisoners must prepare themselves to leave Budiabad +at once, and move to a greater distance from Jellalabad and their +friends. For some preparation was not a difficult task. 'All my worldly +goods,' wrote Captain Johnson, 'might be stowed away in a towel.' Others +who possessed heavier impedimenta, were lightened of the encumbrance by +the Ghilzai Sirdar, who plundered indiscriminately. The European soldiers +were left behind at Budiabad, and the band of ladies and gentlemen +started on the afternoon of April 10th, in utter ignorance of their +destination, under the escort of a strong band of Afghans. At the ford +across the Cabul river the cavalcade found Akbar Khan wounded, haggard, +and dejected, seated in a palanquin, which, weak as he was, he gave up to +Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, who were ill. A couple of days were spent at +Tezeen among the melancholy relics of the January slaughter, whence most +of the party were carried several miles further into the southern +mountains to the village of Zandeh, while General Elphinstone, whose end +was fast approaching, remained in the Tezeen valley with Pottinger, +Mackenzie, Eyre, and one or two others. On the evening of April 23d the +poor General was finally released from suffering of mind and body. Akbar, +who when too late had offered to free him, sent the body down to +Jellalabad under a guard, and accompanied by Moore the General's soldier +servant; and Elphinstone lies with Colonel Dennie and the dead of the +defence of Jellalabad in their nameless graves in a waste place within +the walls of that place. Toward the end of May the captives were moved up +the passes to the vicinity of Cabul, where Akbar Khan was now gradually +attaining the ascendant. Prince Futteh Jung, however, still held out in +the Balla Hissar, and intermittent firing was heard as the weary +_cortege_ of prisoners reached a fort about three miles short of Cabul, +which the ladies of the proprietor's zenana had evacuated in their +favour. Here they lived if not in contentment at least in considerable +comfort and amenity. They had the privacy of a delightful garden, and +enjoyed the freedom of bathing in the adjacent river. After the strife +between Akbar Khan and Futteh Jung ceased they were even permitted to +exchange visits with their countrymen, the hostages quartered on the +Balla Hissar. They were able to obtain money from the Cabul usurers, and +thus to supply themselves with suitable clothing and additions to their +rations, and their mails from India and Jellalabad were forwarded to them +without hindrance. The summer months were passed in captivity, but it was +no longer for them a captivity of squalor and wretchedness. Life was a +good deal better worth living in the pleasant garden house on the bank of +the Logur than it had been in the noisome squalor of Budiabad and the +vermin-infested huddlement of Zandeh. But they still-lived under the long +strain of anxiety and apprehension, for none of them knew what the morrow +might bring forth. While residing in the pleasant quarters in the Logur +valley the captives of the passes were joined by nine officers, who were +the captives of Ghuznee. After the capitulation the latter had been +treated with cruel harshness, shut up in one small room, and debarred +from fresh air and exercise. Colonel Palmer, indeed, had undergone the +barbarity of torture in the endeavour to force him to disclose the +whereabouts of treasure which he was suspected of having buried. + +Akbar had full and timely intimation of the mutual intention of the +British generals at Jellalabad and Candahar to march on Cabul, and did +not fail to recognise of what value to him in extremity might be his +continued possession of the prisoners. They had been warned of their +probable deportation to the remote and rugged Bamian; and the toilsome +journey thither was begun on the evening of August 25th. A couple of +ailing families alone, with a surgeon in charge of them, were allowed to +remain behind; all the others, hale and sick, had to travel, the former +on horseback, the latter carried in camel panniers. The escort consisted +of an irregular regiment of Afghan infantry commanded by one Saleh +Mahomed Khan, who when a subadar serving in one of the Shah's Afghan +regiments had deserted to Dost Mahomed. The wayfarers, female as well as +male, wore the Afghan costume, in order that they might attract as little +notice as possible. + +Bamian was reached on September 3d, where the wretchedness of the +quarters contrasted vividly with the amenity of those left behind on the +Cabul plain. But the wretchedness of Bamian was not to be long endured. +An intimacy had been struck up between Captain Johnson and Saleh Mahomed, +and the latter cautiously hinted that a reward and a pension might induce +him to carry his charges into the British camp. On September 11th there +was a private meeting between the Afghan commandant and three British +officers, Pottinger, Johnson, and Lawrence. Saleh Mahomed intimated the +receipt of instructions from the Sirdar to carry the prisoners over the +Hindoo Koosh into Khooloom, and leave them there to seeming hopeless +captivity. But on the other hand a messenger had reached Saleh from Mohun +Lal with the assurance that General Pollock, if he restored the +prisoners, would ensure him a reward of 20,000 rupees, and a life pension +of 12,000 rupees a year. Saleh Mahomed demanded and received a guarantee +from the British officers; and the captives bound themselves to make good +from their own resources their redemption money. The Afghan ex-Subadar +proved himself honest; the captives were captives no longer, and they +proceeded to assert themselves in the masterful British manner. They +hoisted the national flag; Pottinger became once again the high-handed +'political,' and ordered the local chiefs to come to his durbar and +receive dresses of honour. Their fort was put into a state of defence, +and a store of provisions was gathered in case of a siege. But in +mid-September came the tidings that Akbar had been defeated at Tezeen, +and had fled no one knew whither, whereupon the self-emancipated party +set out on the march to Cabul. At noon of the 17th they passed into the +safe guardianship of Shakespear and his horsemen. Three days later, +within a march of Cabul, there was reached the column which Sale had +taken out, and on September 21st Pollock greeted the company of men and +women whose rescue had been wrought out by his cool, strong +steadfastness. + +Little more remains to be told. There was an Afghan force still in arms +at Istalif, a beautiful village of the inveterately hostile Kohistanees; +a division marched to attack it, carried the place by assault, burnt part +of it, and severely smote the garrison. Utter destruction was the fate of +Charikar, the capital of the Kohistan, where Codrington's Goorkha +regiment had been destroyed. Pollock determined to 'set a mark' on Cabul +to commemorate the retribution which the British had exacted. He spared +the Balla Hissar, and abstained from laying the city in ruins, contenting +himself with the destruction of the principal bazaar, through which the +heads of Macnaghten and Burnes had been paraded, and in which their +mangled bodies had been exposed. Prince Futteh Jung, tired of his +vicissitudes in the character of an Afghan monarch, ceded what of a +throne he possessed to another puppet of his race, and gladly accompanied +the British armies to India. Other waifs of the wreck of a nefarious and +disastrous enterprise, among them old Zemaun Khan, who had been our +friend throughout, and the family of the ill-fated Shah Soojah, were well +content to return to the exile which afforded safety and quietude. There +also accompanied the march of the humane Pollock a great number of the +mutilated and crippled camp followers of Elphinstone's army who had +escaped with their lives from its destruction. On the 12th of October the +forces of Pollock and of Nott turned their backs on Cabul, which no +British army was again to see for nearly forty years, and set out on +their march down the passes. Jellalabad and Ali Musjid were partially +destroyed in passing. Pollock's division reached Peshawur without loss, +thanks to the precautions of its chief; but with M'Caskill and Nott the +indomitable Afghans had the last word, cutting off their stragglers, +capturing their baggage, and in the final skirmish killing and wounding +some sixty men of Nott's command. + +Of the bombastic and grotesque paeans of triumph emitted by Lord +Ellenborough, whose head had been turned by a success to which he had but +scantly contributed, nothing need now be said, nor of the garish pageant +with which he received the armies as they re-entered British territory at +Ferozepore. As they passed down through the Punjaub, Dost Mahomed passed +up on his way to reoccupy the position from which he had been driven. And +so ended the first Afghan war, a period of history in which no redeeming +features are perceptible except the defence of Jellalabad, the dogged +firmness of Nott, and Pollock's noble and successful constancy of +purpose. Beyond this effulgence there spreads a sombre welter of +misrepresentation and unscrupulousness, intrigue, moral deterioration, +and dishonour unspeakable. + + + + +PART II: THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + + + +CHAPTER I: THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + +A brief period of peace intervened between the ratification of the treaty +of Gundamuk on May 30th, 1879, and the renewal of hostilities consequent +on the massacre at Cabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the whole _entourage_ +of the mission of which he was the head. There was nothing identical or +even similar in the motives of the two campaigns, and regarded purely on +principle they might be regarded as two distinct wars, rather than as +successive campaigns of one and the same war. But the interval between +them was so short that the ink of the signatures to the treaty of +Gundamuk may be said to have been scarcely dry when the murder of the +British Envoy tore that document into bloody shreds; and it seems the +simplest and most convenient method to designate the two years of +hostilities from November 1878 to September 1880, as the 'second Afghan +war,' notwithstanding the three months' interval of peace in the summer +of 1879. + +Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and after a long struggle his son Shere Ali +possessed himself of the throne bequeathed to him by his father. The +relations between Shere Ali and the successive Viceroys of India were +friendly, although not close. The consistent aim of the British policy +was to maintain Afghanistan in the position of a strong, friendly, and +independent state, prepared in certain contingencies to co-operate in +keeping at a distance foreign intrigue or aggression; and while this +object was promoted by donations of money and arms, to abstain from +interference in the internal affairs of the country, while according a +friendly recognition to the successive occupants of its throne, without +undertaking indefinite liabilities in their interest. The aim, in a word, +was to utilise Afghanistan as a 'buffer' state between the northwestern +frontier of British India and Russian advances from the direction of +Central Asia. Shere Ali was never a very comfortable ally; he was of a +saturnine and suspicious nature, and he seems also to have had an +overweening sense of the value of the position of Afghanistan, interposed +between two great powers profoundly jealous one of the other. He did not +succeed with Lord Northbrook in an attempt to work on that Viceroy by +playing off the bogey of Russian aggression; and as the consequence of +this failure he allowed himself to display marked evidences of +disaffected feeling. Cognisance was taken of this 'attitude of extreme +reserve,' and early in 1876 Lord Lytton arrived in India charged with +instructions to break away from the policy designated as that of +'masterly inactivity,' and to initiate a new basis of relations with +Afghanistan and its Ameer. + +Lord Lytton's instructions directed him to despatch without delay a +mission to Cabul, whose errand would be to require of the Ameer the +acceptance of a permanent Resident and free access to the frontier +positions of Afghanistan on the part of British officers, who should have +opportunity of conferring with the Ameer on matters of common interest +with 'becoming attention to their friendly councils.' Those were demands +notoriously obnoxious to the Afghan monarch and the Afghan people. +Compliance with them involved sacrifice of independence, and the Afghan +loathing of Feringhee officials in their midst had been fiercely evinced +in the long bloody struggle and awful catastrophe recorded in earlier +pages of this volume. Probably the Ameer, had he desired, would not have +dared to concede such demands on any terms, no matter how full of +advantage. But the terms which Lord Lytton was instructed to tender as an +equivalent were strangely meagre. The Ameer was to receive a money gift, +and a precarious stipend regarding which the new Viceroy was to 'deem it +inconvenient to commit his government to any permanent pecuniary +obligation.' The desiderated recognition of Abdoolah Jan as Shere Ali's +successor was promised with the qualifying reservation that the promise +'did not imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of +the state.' The guarantee against foreign aggression was vague and +indefinite, and the Government of India reserved to itself entire +'freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the +obligation of material support.' + +The Ameer replied to the notice that a mission was about to proceed to +Cabul by a courteous declinature to receive an Envoy, assigning several +specious reasons. He was quite satisfied with the existing friendly +relations, and desired no change in them; he could not guarantee the +safety of the Envoy and his people; if he admitted a British mission, he +would have no excuse for refusing to receive a Russian one. An intimation +was conveyed to the Ameer that if he should persist in his refusal to +receive the mission, the Viceroy would have no other alternative than to +regard Afghanistan as a state which had 'voluntarily isolated itself from +the alliance and support of the British Government.' The Ameer arranged +that the Vakeel of the Indian Government should visit Simla, carrying +with him full explanations, and charged to lay before the Viceroy sundry +grievances which were distressing Shere Ali. That functionary took back +to Cabul certain minor concessions, but conveyed the message also that +those concessions were contingent on the Ameer's acceptance of British +officers about his frontiers, and that it would be of no avail to send an +Envoy to the conference at Peshawur for which sanction was given, unless +he were commissioned to agree to this condition as the fundamental basis +of a treaty. Before the Vakeel quitted Simla he had to listen to a +truculent address from Lord Lytton, in the course of which Shere Ali's +position was genially likened to that of 'an earthen pipkin between two +iron pots.' Before Sir Lewis Pelly and the Ameer's representative met at +Peshawur in January 1877, Shere Ali had not unnaturally been perturbed by +the permanent occupation of Quetta, on the southern verge of his +dominions, as indicating, along with other military dispositions, an +intended invasion. The Peshawur conference, which from the first had +little promise, dragged on unsatisfactorily until terminated by the death +of the Ameer's representative, whereupon Sir Lewis Pelly was recalled by +Lord Lytton, notwithstanding the latter's cognisance that Shere Ali was +despatching to Peshawur a fresh Envoy authorised to assent to all the +British demands. The justification advanced by Lord Lytton for this +procedure was the discovery purported to have been made by Sir Lewis +Pelly that the Ameer was intriguing with General Kaufmann at Tashkend. +Since Shere Ali was an independent monarch, it was no crime on his part +to enter into negotiations with another power than Great Britain, +although if the worried and distracted man did so the charge of folly may +be laid to him, since the Russians were pretty certain to betray him +after having made a cat's-paw of him, and since in applying to them he +involved himself in the risk of hostile action on the part of the +British. The wisdom of Lord Lytton's conduct is not apparent. The +truculent policy of which he was the instrument was admittedly on the +point of triumphing; and events curiously falsified his short-sighted +anticipation of the unlikelihood, because of the Russo-Turkish war then +impending, of any _rapprochement_ between the Ameer and the Russian +authorities in Central Asia. The Viceroy withdrew his Vakeel from Cabul, +and in the recognition of the Ameer's attitude of 'isolation and scarcely +veiled hostility' Lord Salisbury authorised Lord Lytton to protect the +British frontier by such measures as circumstances should render +expedient, 'without regard to the wishes of the Ameer or the interests of +his dynasty.' Lord Lytton took no measures, expedient or otherwise, in +the direction indicated by Lord Salisbury; the Ameer, as if he had been a +petted boy consigned to the corner, was abandoned to his sullen +'isolation,' and the Russians adroitly used him to involve us in a war +which lasted two years, cost us the lives of many valiant men, caused us +to incur an expenditure of many millions, and left our relations with +Afghanistan in all essential respects in the same condition as Lord +Lytton found them when he reached India with the 'new policy' in his +pocket. + +If the Russians could execute as thoroughly as they can plan skilfully, +there would be hardly any limit to their conquests. When England was +mobilising her forces after the treaty of San Stefano, and ordering into +the Mediterranean a division of sepoys drawn from the three presidencies +of her Indian Empire, Russia for her part was concerting an important +diversion in the direction of the north-western frontier of that great +possession. But for the opportune conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, the +question as to the ability of sepoy troops stiffened by British regiments +to cope with the mixed levies of the Tzar might have been tried out on +stricken fields between the Oxus and the Indus. When Gortschakoff +returned from Berlin to St Petersburg with his version of 'Peace with +Honour'--Bessarabia and Batoum thrown in--Kaufmann had to countermand the +concentration of troops that had been in progress on the northern +frontier of Afghanistan. But the Indian division was still much in +evidence in the Mediterranean, its tents now gleaming on the brown slopes +of Malta, now crowning the upland of Larnaca and nestling among the +foliage of Kyrenea. Kaufmann astutely retorted on this demonstration by +despatching, not indeed an expedition, but an embassy to Cabul; and when +Stolietoff, the gallant defender of the Schipka Pass, rode into the Balla +Hissar on August 11th, 1878, Shere Ali received him with every token of +cordiality and regard. + +No other course was now open to Her Majesty's Government than to insist +on the reception at Cabul of a British mission. The gallant veteran +officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, known to be held in regard by the Ameer, +was named as Envoy, and an emissary was sent to Cabul in advance with +information of the date fixed for the setting out of the mission. Shere +Ali was greatly perplexed, and begged for more time. 'It is not proper,' +he protested, 'to use pressure in this way; it will tend to a complete +rupture.' But Sir Neville Chamberlain was satisfied that the Ameer was +trifling with the Indian Government; and he had certain information that +the Ameer, his Ministers, and the Afghan outpost officers, had stated +plainly that, if necessary, the advance of the mission would be arrested +by force. This was what in effect happened when on September 21st Major +Cavagnari rode forward to the Afghan post in the Khyber Pass. The officer +who courteously stopped him assured him that he had orders to oppose by +force the progress of Sir Neville and his mission, so Cavagnari shook +hands with the Afghan major and rode back to Peshawur. + +The Viceroy sought permission to declare war immediately, notwithstanding +his condition of unpreparedness; but the Home Government directed him +instead to require in temperate language an apology and the acceptance of +a permanent mission, presenting at the same time the ultimatum that if a +satisfactory reply should not be received on or before the 20th November +hostilities would immediately commence. Meanwhile military preparations +were actively pushed forward. The scheme of operations was as follows: +three columns of invasion were to move simultaneously, one through the +Khyber Pass to Dakka, another through the Kuram valley, south of the +Khyber, with the Peiwar Pass as its objective, and a third from Quetta +into the Pisheen valley, to march forward to Candahar after reinforcement +by a division from Mooltan. To General Sir Sam Browne was assigned the +command of the Khyber column, consisting of about 10,000 men, with thirty +guns; to General Roberts the command of the Kuram valley column, of about +5,500 men, with twenty-four guns; and to General Biddulph the command of +the Quetta force, numbering some 6000 men, with eighteen guns. When +General Donald Stewart should bring up from Mooltan the division which +was being concentrated there, he was to command the whole southern force +moving on Candahar. The reserve division gathering at Hassan Abdul and +commanded by General Maude, would support the Khyber force; another +reserve division massing at Sukkur under General Primrose, would act in +support of the Candahar force; and a contingent contributed by the Sikh +Feudatory States and commanded by Colonel Watson, was to do duty on the +Kurum line of communication. The Generals commanding columns were to act +independently of each other, taking instructions direct from Army and +Government headquarters. + +No answer to the ultimatum was received from the Ameer, and on the +morning of November 21st Sir Sam Browne crossed the Afghan frontier and +moved up the Khyber on Ali Musjid with his third and fourth brigades and +the guns. Overnight he had detached Macpherson's and Tytler's brigades +with the commission to turn the Ali Musjid position by a circuitous +march, the former charged to descend into the Khyber Pass in rear of the +fortress, and block the escape of its garrison; the latter instructed to +find, if possible, a position on the Rhotas heights on the proper left of +the fortress from which a flank attack might be delivered. About noon Sir +Sam reached the Shagai ridge and came under a brisk fire from the guns of +Ali Musjid, to which his heavy cannon and Manderson's horse-battery +replied with good results. The Afghan position, which was very strong, +stretched right athwart the valley from an entrenched line on the right +to the Rhotas summit on the extreme left. The artillery duel lasted about +two hours, and then Sir Sam determined to advance, on the expectation +that the turning brigades had reached their respective objectives. He +himself moved forward on the right upland; on the opposite side of the +Khyber stream Appleyard led the advance of his brigade against the Afghan +right. No co-operation on the part of the turning brigades had made +itself manifest up till dusk; the right brigade had been brought to a +halt in face of a precipitous cliff crowned by the enemy, and it was +wisely judged that to press the frontal attack further in the meantime +would involve a useless loss of life. Sir Sam therefore halted, and sent +word to Appleyard to stay for the night his further advance, merely +holding the ridge which he had already carried. But before this order +reached him Appleyard was sharply engaged with the enemy in their +entrenched position, and in the fighting which occurred before the +retirement was effected two officers were killed, a third wounded, and a +good many casualties occurred among the rank and file of the native +detachments gallantly assailing the Afghan entrenchments. + +Early next morning offensive operations were about to be resumed, when a +young officer of the 9th Lancers brought intelligence that the Afghan +garrison had fled under cover of night, whereupon the fort was promptly +occupied. The turning brigades had been delayed by the difficult country +encountered, but detachments from both had reached Kata Kustia in time to +capture several hundred fugitives of the Ali Musjid garrison. The mass of +it, however--its total strength was about 4000 men--effected a retreat by +the Peshbolak track from the right of the entrenched position. Sir Sam +Browne's advance to Dakka was made without molestation, and on 20th +December he encamped on the plain of Jellalabad, where he remained +throughout the winter, Maude's reserve division keeping open his +communications through the Khyber Pass. The hill tribes, true to their +nature, gave great annoyance by their continual raids, and several +punitive expeditions were sent against them from time to time, but seldom +with decisive results. The tribesmen for the most part carried off into +the hills their moveable effects, and the destruction of their petty +forts apparently gave them little concern. For the most part they +maintained their irreconcilable attitude, hanging on the flanks of our +detachments on their return march through the lateral passes to their +camps, and inflicting irritating if not very severe losses. Occasionally +they thought proper to make nominal submission with tongue in cheek, +breaking out again when opportunity or temptation presented itself. +Detailed description of those raids and counter-raids would be very +tedious reading. It was when starting to co-operate in one of those +necessary but tantalising expeditions that a number of troopers of the +10th Hussars were drowned in a treacherous ford of the Cabul river near +Jellalabad. + +General Roberts, to whom the conduct of operations in the Kuram district +had been entrusted, crossed the frontier on November 21st, and marched up +the valley with great expedition. The inhabitants evinced friendliness, +bringing in live stock and provisions for sale. Reaching Habib Killa on +the morning of the 28th, he received a report that the Afghan force which +he knew to be opposed to him had abandoned its guns on the hither side of +the Peiwar Kotul, and was retreating in confusion over that summit. +Roberts promptly pushed forward in two columns. Building on the erroneous +information that the enemy were in a hollow trying to withdraw their +guns--in reality they were already in their entrenched position on the +summit of the Kotul--he ordered Cobbe's (the left) column to turn the +right of the supposed Afghan position, and debar the enemy from the +Kotul, while the other column (Thelwall's) was ordered to attack in +front, the object being to have the enemy between two fires. Cobbe's +leading regiment near the village of Turrai found its advance blocked by +precipices, and a withdrawal was ordered, the advantage having been +attained of forcing the enemy to disclose the position which he was +holding. Further reconnaissances proved that the Afghan line of defence +extended along the crest of a lofty and broken mountainous range from the +Spingawai summit on the left to the Peiwar Kotul on the right centre, the +right itself resting on commanding elevations a mile further south. The +position had a front in all of about four miles. It was afterwards +ascertained to have been held by about 3500 regulars and a large number +of tribal irregulars. General Roberts' force numbered about 3100 men. + +His scheme of operations he explained to his commanding officers on the +evening of December 1st. With the bulk of the force he himself was to +make a circuitous night march by his right on the Spingawai Kotul, with +the object of turning that position and taking the main Afghan position +on the Peiwar Kotul in reverse; while Brigadier Cobbe, with whom were to +remain the 8th (Queen's) and 5th Punjaub Infantry regiments, a cavalry +regiment and six guns, was instructed to assail the enemy's centre when +the result of the flank attack on his left should have made itself +apparent. + +The turning column, whose advance the General led in person, consisted of +the 29th N. I. (leading), 5th Goorkhas, and a mountain battery, all under +Colonel Gordon's command; followed by a wing of the 72d Highlanders, 2d +Punjaub Infantry, and 23d Pioneers, with four guns on elephants, under +Brigadier Thelwall. The arduous march began at ten P.M. Trending at first +rearward to the Peiwar village, the course followed was then to the +proper right, up the rugged and steep Spingawai ravine. In the darkness +part of Thelwall's force lost its way, and disappeared from ken. Further +on a couple of shots were fired by disaffected Pathans in the ranks of +the 29th N. I. That regiment was promptly deprived of the lead, which was +taken by the Goorkha regiment, and the column toiled on by a track +described by General Roberts as 'nothing but a mass of stones, heaped +into ridges and furrowed into deep hollows by the action of the water.' +Day had not broken when the head of the column reached the foot of the +steep ascent to the Spingawai Kotul. The Goorkhas and the 72d rushed +forward on the first stockade. It was carried without a pause save to +bayonet the defenders, and stockade after stockade was swept over in +rapid and brilliant succession. In half-an-hour General Roberts was in +full possession of the Spingawai defences, and the Afghan left flank was +not only turned but driven in. Cobbe was ordered by signal to co-operate +by pressing on his frontal attack; and Roberts himself hurried forward on +his enterprise of rolling up the Afghan left and shaking its centre. But +this proved no easy task. The Afghans made a good defence, and gave +ground reluctantly. They made a resolute stand on the further side of a +narrow deep-cut ravine, to dislodge them from which effort after effort +was ineffectually made. The General then determined to desist from +pressing this line of attack, and to make a second turning movement by +which he hoped to reach the rear of the Afghan centre. He led the 72d +wing, three native regiments, and ten guns, in a direction which should +enable him to threaten the line of the Afghan retreat. Brigadier Cobbe +since morning had been steadily although slowly climbing toward the front +of the Peiwar Kotul position. After an artillery duel which lasted for +three hours the Afghan fire was partially quelled; Cobbe's infantry +pushed on and up from ridge to ridge, and at length they reached a crest +within 800 yards of the guns on the Kotul, whence their rifle fire +compelled the Afghan gunners to abandon their batteries. Meanwhile +Roberts' second turning movement was developing, and the defenders of the +Kotul placed between two fires and their line of retreat compromised, +began to waver. Brigadier Cobbe had been wounded, but Colonel Drew led +forward his gallant youngsters of the 8th, and after toilsome climbing +they entered the Afghan position, which its defenders had just abandoned, +leaving many dead, eighteen guns, and a vast accumulation of stores and +ammunition. Colonel H. Gough pursued with his cavalry, and possessed +himself of several more guns which the Afghans had relinquished in their +precipitate flight. The decisive success of the Peiwar Kotul combat had +not cost heavily; the British losses were twenty-one killed and +seventy-two wounded. + +His sick and wounded sent back to Fort Kuram, General Roberts advanced to +Ali Khel, and thence made a reconnaissance forward to the Shutargurdan +Pass, whose summit is distant from Cabul little more than fifty miles. +Its height is great--upwards of 11,200 feet--but it was regarded as not +presenting serious obstacles to the advance by this route of a force from +the Kuram valley moving on Cabul. A misfortune befell the baggage guard +on one of the marches in the trans-Peiwar region when Captains Goad and +Powell lost their lives in a tribal onslaught. The somewhat chequered +experiences of General Roberts in the Khost valley need not be told in +detail. After some fighting and more marching he withdrew from that +turbulent region altogether, abjuring its pestilent tribesmen and all +their works. The Kuram force wintered in excellent health spite of the +rigorous climate, and toward the end of March 1879 its forward +concentration about Ali Kheyl was ordered, which was virtually +accomplished before the snow had melted from the passes in the later +weeks of April. Adequate transport had been got together and supplies +accumulated; Colonel Watson's contingent was occupying the posts along +the valley; and General Roberts was in full readiness promptly to obey +the orders to advance which he had been led to expect, and on which his +brother-general Sir Sam Browne had already acted to some extent. + +The march on Candahar of the two divisions under the command of General +Stewart had the character, for the most part, of a military promenade. +The tramp across the deserts of Northern Beloochistan was arduous; the +Bolan, the Gwaga, and the Kojuk passes had to be surmounted, and the +distances which both Biddulph and Stewart had to traverse were immensely +in excess of those covered by either of the forces operating from the +north-western frontier line. But uneventful marches, however long and +toilsome, do not call for detailed description. Stewart rode into +Candahar on January 8th, 1879, and the troops as they arrived encamped on +the adjacent plain. The Governor and most of his officials, together with +the Afghan cavalry, had fled toward Herat; the Deputy-Governor remained +to hand over the city to General Stewart. For commissariat reasons one +division under Stewart presently moved by the Cabul road on +Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which was found empty, the Afghan garrison having +evacuated it. Simultaneously with Stewart's departure from Candahar +Biddulph marched out a column westward toward the Helmund, remaining in +that region until the third week in February. On its return march to +Candahar the rear-guard had a sharp skirmish at Khushk-i-Nakhud with +Alizai tribesmen, of whom 163 were left dead on the field. Soon after the +return of Stewart and Biddulph to Candahar, orders arrived that the +former should retain in Candahar, Quetta, and Pishin a strong division of +all arms, sending back to India the remainder of his command under +Biddulph--the march to be made by the previously unexplored Thal-Chotiali +route to the eastward of the Pisheen valley. + +Before Sir Sam Browne moved forward from Jellalabad to Gundamuk he had +been able to report to the Viceroy the death of Shere Ali. That +unfortunate man had seen with despair the departure on December 10th of +the last Russian from Cabul--sure token that he need hope for nothing +from Kaufmann or the Tzar. His chiefs unanimous that further resistance +by him was hopeless, he released his son Yakoub Khan from his long harsh +imprisonment, constituted him Regent, and then followed the Russian +mission in the direction of Tashkend. Kaufmann would not so much as allow +him to cross the frontier, and after a painful illness Shere Ali died on +February 21st, 1879, near Balkh in northern Afghanistan. He was a man who +deserved a better fate than that which befell him. His aspiration was to +maintain the independence of the kingdom which he ruled with justice if +also with masterfulness, and he could not brook the degradation of +subjection. But, unfortunately for him, he was the 'earthen pipkin' which +the 'iron pot' found inconvenient. There had been plenty of manhood +originally in his son and successor Yakoub Khan, but much of that +attribute had withered in him during the long cruel imprisonment to which +he had been subjected by his father. Shere Ali's death made him nominal +master of Afghanistan, but the vigour of his youth-time no longer +characterised him. He reigned but did not rule, and how precarious was +his position was evidenced by the defection of many leading chiefs who +came into the English camps and were ready to make terms. + +After the flight of Shere Ali some correspondence had passed between +Yakoub Khan and Major Cavagnari, but the former had not expressed any +willingness for the re-establishment of friendly relations. In February +of his own accord he made overtures for a reconciliation, and soon after +intimated the death of his father and his own accession to the Afghan +throne. Major Cavagnari, acting on the Viceroy's authorisation, wrote to +the new sovereign stating the terms on which the Anglo-Indian Government +was prepared to engage in negotiations for peace. Yakoub temporised for +some time, but influenced by the growing defection of the Sirdars from +his cause, as well as by the forward movements of the forces commanded by +Browne and Roberts, he intimated his intention of visiting Gundamuk in +order to discuss matters in personal conference with Major Cavagnari. A +fortnight later he was on his way down the passes. + +Instructions had been given by the Viceroy that Yakoub Khan should be +received in the British camp with all honour and distinction. When his +approach was announced on May 8th, Cavagnari and a number of British +officers rode out to meet him; when he reached the camp, a royal salute +greeted him, a guard of honour presented arms, and Sir Sam Browne and his +staff gave him a ceremonious welcome. Cavagnari had full powers to +represent his Government in the pending negotiations, as to the terms of +which he had received from the Viceroy detailed instructions. The Ameer +and his General-in-Chief, Daoud Shah, came to the conference attired in +Russian uniforms. The negotiations were tedious, for the Ameer, his +Minister, and his General made difficulties with a somewhat elaborate +stupidity, but Cavagnari as a diplomatist possessed the gift of being at +once patient and firm; and at length on May 26th the treaty of peace was +signed, and formally ratified by the Viceroy four days later. By the +treaty of Gundamuk Afghanistan was deprived for the time of its +traditional character of a 'buffer state,' and its Ameer became virtually +a feudatory of the British Crown. He was no longer an independent prince; +although his titular rank and a nominal sovereignty remained to him, his +position under its articles was to be analogous to that of the mediatised +princes of the German Empire. The treaty vested in the British Government +the control of the external relations of Afghanistan. The Ameer consented +to the residence of British Agents within his dominions, guaranteeing +their safety and honourable treatment, while the British Government +undertook that its representatives should not interfere with the internal +administration of the country. The districts of Pisheen, Kuram, and Sibi +were ceded to the British Government along with the permanent control of +the Khyber and Michnai passes, and of the mountain tribes inhabiting the +vicinity of those passes; all other Afghan territory in British +occupation was to be restored. The obligations to which the treaty +committed the British Government were that it should support the Ameer +against foreign aggression with arms, money, or troops at its discretion, +and that it should pay to him and his successor an annual subsidy of +L60,000. Commercial relations between India and Afghanistan were to be +protected and encouraged; a telegraph line between Cabul and the Kuram +was forthwith to be constructed; and the Ameer was to proclaim an amnesty +relieving all and sundry of his subjects from punishment for services +rendered to the British during the war. + +That the treaty of Gundamuk involved our Indian Empire in serious +responsibilities is obvious, and those responsibilities were the more +serious that they were vague and indefinite, yet none the less binding on +this account. It is probable that its provisions, if they had remained in +force, would have been found in the long run injurious to the interests +of British India. For that realm Afghanistan has the value that its +ruggedness presents exceptional obstacles to the march through it of +hostile armies having the Indian frontier for their objective, and this +further and yet more important value that the Afghans by nature are frank +and impartial Ishmaelites, their hands against all foreigners alike, no +matter of what nationality. If this character be impaired, what virtue +the Afghan has in our eyes is lost. In his implacable passion for +independence, in his fierce intolerance of the Feringhee intruder, he +fulfils in relation to our Indian frontier a kindred office to that +served by abattis, _cheveux de frise,_ and wire entanglements in front of +a military position. The short-lived treaty, for which the sanguine Mr +Stanhope claimed that it had gained for England 'a friendly, an +independent, and a strong Afghanistan,' may now be chiefly remembered +because of the circumstance that it gave effect for the moment to Lord +Beaconsfield's 'scientific frontier.' + +The withdrawal of the two northern forces to positions within the new +frontier began immediately on the ratification of the treaty of Gundamuk, +the evacuation of Candahar being postponed for sanitary reasons until +autumn. The march of Sir Sam Browne's force from the breezy upland of +Gundamuk down the passes to Peshawur, made as it was in the fierce heat +of midsummer through a region of bad name for insalubrity, and pervaded +also by virulent cholera, was a ghastly journey. That melancholy +pilgrimage, every halting-place in whose course was marked by graves, and +from which the living emerged 'gaunt and haggard, marching with a +listless air, their clothing stiff with dried perspiration, their faces +thick with a mud of dust and sweat through which their red bloodshot eyes +looked forth, many suffering from heat prostration,' dwells in the memory +of British India as the 'death march,' and its horrors have been +recounted in vivid and pathetic words by Surgeon-Major Evatt, one of the +few medical officers whom, participating in it, it did not kill. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + +There were many who mistrusted the stability of the treaty of Gundamuk. +Perhaps in his heart Sir Louis Cavagnari may have had his misgivings, for +he was gifted with shrewd insight, and no man knew the Afghan nature +better; but outwardly, in his quiet, resolute manner, he professed the +fullest confidence. Cavagnari was a remarkable man. Italian and Irish +blood commingled in his veins. Both strains carry the attributes of +vivacity and restlessness, but Cavagnari to the superficial observer +appeared as phlegmatic as he was habitually taciturn. This sententious +imperturbability was only on the surface; whether it was a natural +characteristic or an acquired manner is not easy to decide. Below the +surface of measured reticent composure there lay a temperament of ardent +enthusiasm, and not less ardent ambition. In subtlety he was a match for +the wiliest Oriental, whom face to face he dominated with a placid +dauntless masterfulness that was all his own. The wild hill tribes among +whom he went about escortless, carrying his life continually in his hand, +recognised the complex strength of his personal sway, and feared at once +and loved the quiet, firm man, the flash of whose eye was sometimes +ominous, but who could cow the fiercest hillman without losing a tittle +of his cool composure. + +[Illustration: _From a Photograph by Bourne & Shepherd: Sir Louis +Cavagnari and Sirdars_] + +Cavagnari had negotiated the treaty of Gundamuk, the real importance of +which consisted in the Afghan acceptance of a British Resident at Cabul. +The honour, the duty, and the danger naturally fell to him of being the +first occupant of a post created mainly by his own mingled tact and +strength. Many of his friends regarded him in the light of the leader of +a forlorn hope, and probably Cavagnari recognised with perfect clearness +the risks which encompassed his embassy; but apart from mayhap a little +added gravity in his leave-takings when he quitted Simla, he gave no +sign. It was not a very imposing mission at whose head he rode into the +Balla Hissar of Cabul on July 24th, 1879. His companions were his +secretary, Mr William Jenkins, a young Scotsman of the Punjaub Civil +Service, Dr Ambrose Kelly, the medical officer of the embassy, and the +gallant, stalwart young Lieutenant W. R. P. Hamilton, V.C., commanding +the modest escort of seventy-five soldiers of the Guides. It was held +that an escort so scanty was sufficient, since the Ameer had pledged +himself personally for the safety and protection of the mission. The +Envoy was received with high honour, and conducted to the roomy quarters +in the Balla Hissar which had been prepared as the Residency, within easy +distance of the Ameer's palace. Unquestionably the mission was welcome +neither to the Afghan ruler nor to the people, but Cavagnari, writing to +the Viceroy, made the best of things. The arrival at the adjacent Sherpur +cantonments of the Herat regiments in the beginning of August was +extremely unfortunate for the mission. Those troops had been inspired by +their commander Ayoub Khan with intense hatred to the English, and they +marched through the Cabul streets shouting objurgations against the +British Envoy, and picking quarrels with the soldiers of his escort. A +pensioned sepoy who had learned that the Afghan troops had been ordered +to abuse the Eltchi, warned Cavagnari of the danger signals. Cavagnari's +calm remark was, 'Dogs that bark don't bite.' The old soldier earnestly +urged, 'But these dogs do bite, and there is danger.' 'Well,' said +Cavagnari, 'they can only kill the handful of us here, and our death will +be avenged.' The days passed, and it seemed that Cavagnari's diagnosis of +the situation was the accurate one. The last words of his last message to +the Viceroy, despatched on September 2d, were 'All well.' The writer of +those words was a dead man, and his mission had perished with him, almost +as soon as the cheerful message borne along the telegraph wires reached +its destination. + +In the morning of September 3d some Afghan regiments paraded without arms +in the Balla Hissar to receive their pay. An instalment was paid, but the +soldiers clamoured for arrears due. The demand was refused, a riot began, +and the shout rose that the British Eltchi might prove a free-handed +paymaster. There was a rush toward the Residency, and while some of the +Afghan soldiers resorted to stone-throwing, others ran for arms to their +quarters, and looted the Arsenal in the upper Balla Hissar. The Residency +gates had been closed on the first alarm, and fire was promptly opened on +the rabble. The place was never intended for defence, commanded as it was +at close range from the higher level of the Arsenal, whence a heavy +continuous fire was from the first poured down. The mob of the city in +their thousands hurried to co-operate with the mutinied soldiers and +share in the spoils of the sack, so that the Residency was soon besieged. +As soon as the outbreak manifested itself Cavagnari had sent a message to +the Ameer, and the communication admittedly reached the latter's hands. +He had more than 2000 troops in the Balla Hissar, still at least +nominally loyal; he had guaranteed the protection of the mission, and it +behoved him to do what in him lay to fulfil his pledge. But the Ameer sat +supine in his palace, doing no more than send his General-in-Chief Daoud +Shah to remonstrate with the insurgents. Daoud Shah went on the errand, +but it is questionable whether he showed any energy, or indeed desired +that the besiegers should desist. It was claimed by and for him that he +was maltreated and indeed wounded by the mob, and it appears that he did +ride into the throng and was forcibly dismounted. He might perhaps have +exerted himself with greater determination if he had received more +specific orders from his master the Ameer. That feeble or treacherous +prince never stirred. To the frequent urgent messages sent him by +Lieutenant Hamilton, he replied vaguely: 'As God wills; I am making +preparations.' Meanwhile the little garrison maintained with gallant +staunchness hour after hour the all but hopeless defence.' While the +fighting was going on,' reported the pensioner who had previously warned +Cavagnari, 'I myself saw the four European officers charge out at the +head of some twenty-five of the garrison; they drove away a party holding +some broken ground. When chased, the Afghan soldiers ran like sheep +before a wolf. Later, another sally was made by a detachment, with but +three officers at their head. Cavagnari was not with them this time. A +third sally was made with only two officers leading, Hamilton and +Jenkins; and the last of the sallies was made by a Sikh Jemadar bravely +leading. No more sallies were made after this.' About noon the gates were +forced, and the Residency building was fired; but the defenders long +maintained their position on the roof and in a detached building. At +length the fire did its work, the walls and roof fell in, and soon the +fell deed was consummated by the slaughter of the last survivors of the +ill-fated garrison. Hamilton was said to have died sword in hand in a +final desperate charge. Tidings of the massacre were carried with great +speed to Massy's outposts in the Kuram valley. The news reached Simla by +telegraph early on the morning of the 5th. The authorities there rallied +from the shock with fine purposeful promptitude, and within a few hours a +telegram was on its way to General Massy's headquarters at Ali Khel +instructing him to occupy the crest of the Shutargurdan Pass with two +infantry regiments and a mountain battery, which force was to entrench +itself there and await orders. + +The policy of which Lord Lytton was the figurehead had come down with a +bloody crash, and the 'masterly inactivity' of wise John Lawrence stood +vindicated in the eyes of Europe and of Asia. But if his policy had gone +to water, the Viceroy, although he was soon to default from the constancy +of his purpose, saw for the present clear before him the duty that now in +its stead lay upon him of inflicting summary punishment on a people who +had ruthlessly violated the sacred immunity from harm that shields alike +among civilised and barbarous communities the person and suite of an +ambassador accepted under the provisions of a deliberate treaty. Burnes +and Macnaghten had met their fate because they had gone to Cabul the +supporters of a detested intruder and the unwelcome representatives of a +hated power. But Cavagnari had been slaughtered notwithstanding that he +dwelt in the Balla Hissar Residency in virtue of a solemn treaty between +the Empress of India and the Ameer of Afghanistan, notwithstanding that +the latter had guaranteed him safety and protection, notwithstanding that +Britain and Afghanistan had ratified a pledge of mutual friendship and +reciprocal good offices. Lord Lytton recognised, at least for the moment, +that no consideration of present expediency or of ulterior policy could +intervene to deter him from the urgent imperative duty which now suddenly +confronted him. The task, it was true, was beset with difficulties and +dangers. The forces on the north-western frontier had been reduced to a +peace footing, and the transport for economical reasons had been severely +cut down. The bitter Afghan winter season was approaching, during which +military operations could be conducted only under extremely arduous +conditions, and when the line of communications would be liable to +serious interruptions, The available troops for a prompt offensive did +not amount to more than 6500 men all told, and it was apparent that many +circumstances might postpone their reinforcement. + +When men are in earnest, difficulties and dangers are recognised only to +be coped with and overcome. When the Simla council of war broke up on the +afternoon of September 5th the plan of campaign had been settled, and the +leader of the enterprise had been chosen. Sir Frederick Roberts was +already deservedly esteemed one of the most brilliant soldiers of the +British army. He had fought with distinction all through the Great +Mutiny, earning the Victoria Cross and rapid promotion; he had served in +the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, and been chosen by Napier to carry home +his final despatches; and he had worthily shared in the toil, fighting, +and honours of the Umbeyla and Looshai expeditions. In his command of the +Kuram field force during the winter of 1878-9 he had proved himself a +skilful, resolute, and vigorous leader. The officers and men who served +under him believed in him enthusiastically, and, what with soldiers is +the convincing assurance of whole-souled confidence, they had bestowed on +him an affectionate nickname--they knew him among themselves as 'little +Bobs.' His administrative capacity he had proved in the post of +Quartermaster-General in India. Ripe in experience of war, Roberts at the +age of forty-seven was in the full vigour of manhood, alert in mind, and +of tough and enduring physique. He was a very junior Major-General, but +even among his seniors the conviction was general that Lord Lytton the +Viceroy, and Sir F. Haines the Commander-in-Chief, acted wisely in +entrusting to him the most active command in the impending campaign. + +Our retention of the Kuram valley was to prove very useful in the +emergency which had suddenly occurred. Its occupation enabled Massy to +seize and hold the Shutargurdan, and the force in the valley was to +constitute the nucleus of the little army of invasion and retribution to +the command of which Sir Frederick Roberts was appointed. The apex at the +Shutargurdan of the salient angle into Afghanistan which our possession +of the Kuram valley furnished was within little more than fifty miles of +Cabul, whereas the distance of that city from Lundi Kotul, our advanced +position at the head of the Khyber Pass, was about 140 miles, and the +route exceptionally difficult. Roberts' column of invasion was to consist +of a cavalry brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Dunham-Massy, and of +two infantry brigades, the first commanded by Brigadier-General +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General Baker, three batteries of +artillery, a company of sappers and miners, and two Gatling guns. The +Kuram valley between the Shutargurdan and the base was to be garrisoned +adequately by a force about 4000 strong, in protection of Roberts' +communications by that line until snow should close it, by which time it +was anticipated that communication by the Khyber-Jellalabad-Gundamuk line +would be opened up, for gaining and maintaining which a force of about +6600 men was to be detailed under the command of Major-General Bright, +which was to furnish a movable column to establish communications onward +to Cabul. A strong reserve force was to be gathered between Peshawur and +Rawal Pindi under the command of Major-General Ross, to move forward as +occasion might require, in the south-west Sir Donald Stewart was to +recall to Candahar his troops, which, having begun their march toward +India, were now mainly echeloned along the route to Quetta, when that +General would have about 9000 men at his disposition to dominate the +Candahar province, reoccupy Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and threaten Ghuznee, his +communications with the Indus being kept open by a brigade of Bombay +troops commanded by Brigadier-General Phayre. + +Sir Frederick Roberts left Simla on ET September along with Colonel +Charles Macgregor, C.B., the brilliant and daring soldier whom he had +chosen as chief of staff, and travelling night and day they reached Ali +Khel on the 12th. The transport and supply difficulty had to be promptly +met, and this was effected only by making a clean sweep of all the +resources of the Peshawur district, greatly but unavoidably to the +hindrance of the advance of the Khyber column, and by procuring carriage +and supplies from the friendly tribes of the Kuram. Notwithstanding the +most strenuous exertions it was not until the 1st October that Roberts' +little army, having crossed the Shutargurdan by detachments, was +rendezvoused at and about the village of Kushi in the Logur plain, within +forty-eight miles of Cabul. Some sharp skirmishes had been fought as the +troops traversed the rugged ground between Ali Khel and the Shutargurdan, +but the losses were trivial, although the General himself had a narrow +escape. A couple of regiments and four guns under the command of Colonel +Money were left in an entrenched camp to hold the Shutargurdan. + +The massacre of the British mission had no sooner been perpetrated than +Yakoub Khan found himself in a very bad way. The Cabul Sirdars sided with +the disaffected soldiery, and urged the Ameer to raise his banner for a +_jehad_ or religious war, a measure for which he had no nerve. Nor had he +the nerve to remain in Cabul until Roberts should camp under the Balla +Hissar and demand of him an account of the stewardship he had undertaken +on behalf of the ill-fated Cavagnari. What reasons actuated the anxious +and bewildered man cannot precisely be known; whether he was simply +solicitous for his own wretched skin, whether he acted from a wish to +save Cabul from destruction, or whether he hoped that his entreaties for +delay might stay the British advance until the tribesmen should gather to +bar the road to the capital. He resolved to fly from Cabul, and commit +himself to the protection of General Roberts and his army. The day before +General Roberts arrived at Kushi the Ameer presented himself in Baker's +camp, accompanied by his eldest son and some of his Sirdars, among whom +was Daoud Shah the Commander-in-Chief of his army. Sir Frederick on his +arrival at Kushi paid a formal visit to the Ameer, which the latter +returned the same afternoon and took occasion to plead that the General +should delay his advance. The reply was that not even for a single day +would Sir Frederick defer his march on Cabul. The Ameer remained in camp, +his personal safety carefully protected, but under a species of +honourable surveillance, until it should be ascertained judicially +whether or not he was implicated in the massacre of the mission. + +Yakoub had intimated his intention of presenting himself in the British +camp some days in advance of his arrival, and as telegraphic +communication with headquarters was open, his acceptance in the character +of an honoured guest was presumably in accordance with instructions from +Simla. The man who had made himself personally responsible for the safety +of Cavagnari's mission was a strange guest with an army whose avowed +errand was to exact retribution for the crime of its destruction. It +might seem not unreasonable to expect that, as an indispensable +preliminary to his entertainment, he should have at least afforded some +_prima facie_ evidence that he had been zealous to avert the fate which +had befallen the mission, and stern in the punishment of an atrocity +which touched him so nearly. But instead, he was taken on trust so fully +that Afghans resisting the British advance were not so much regarded as +enemies resisting an invasion and as constructive vindicators of the +massacre, as they were held traitors to their sovereign harbouring in the +British camp. + +On the morning of October 2d the whole force marched from Kushi toward +Cabul, temporarily cutting loose from communication with the +Shutargurdan, to avoid diminishing the strength of the column by leaving +detachments to keep the road open. All told, Roberts' army was the +reverse of a mighty host. Its strength was little greater than that of a +Prussian brigade on a war footing. Its fate was in its own hands, for +befall it what might it could hope for no timely reinforcement. It was a +mere detachment marching against a nation of fighting men plentifully +supplied with artillery, no longer shooting laboriously with jezails, but +carrying arms of precision equal or little inferior to those in the hands +of our own soldiery. But the men, Europeans and Easterns, hillmen of +Scotland and hillmen of Nepaul, plainmen of Hampshire and plainmen of the +Punjaub, strode along buoyant with confidence and with health, believing +in their leader, in their discipline, in themselves. Of varied race, no +soldier who followed Roberts but came of fighting stock; ever blithely +rejoicing in the combat, one and all burned for the strife now before +them with more than wonted ardour, because of the opportunity it promised +to exact vengeance for a deed of foul treachery. + +The soldiers had not long to wait for the first fight of the campaign. On +the afternoon of the 5th Baker's brigade, with most of the cavalry and +artillery, and with the 92d Highlanders belonging to Macpherson's +brigade, camped on the plain to the south of the village of Charasiah, +Macpherson remaining one march in rear to escort the convoy of ammunition +and stores. North of Charasiah rises a semicircular curtain of hills +ascending in three successive tiers, the most distant and loftiest range +closing in the horizon and shutting out the view of Cabul, distant only +about eleven miles. The leftward projection of the curtain, as one looks +northward, comes down into the plain almost as far as and somewhat to the +left of Charasiah, dividing the valley of Charasiah from the outer plain +of Chardeh. To the right front of Charasiah, distant from it about three +miles, the range is cleft by the rugged and narrow Sung-i-Nawishta Pass, +through which run the Logur river and the direct road to Cabul by Beni +Hissar. Information had been received that the Afghans were determined on +a resolute attempt to prevent the British force from reaching Cabul, and +the position beyond Charasiah seemed so tempting that it was regarded as +surprising that cavalry reconnaissances sent forward on three distinct +roads detected no evidences of any large hostile gathering. + +But next morning 'showed another sight.' At dawn on the 6th General +Roberts, anxious to secure the Sung-i-Nawishta Pass and to render the +track through it passable for guns, sent forward his pioneer battalion +with a wing of the 92d and two mountain guns. That detachment had gone +out no great distance when the spectacle before it gave it pause. From +the Sung-i-Nawishta defile, both sides of which were held, the +semicircular sweep of the hill-crests was crowned by an Afghan host in +great strength and regular formation. According to subsequent information +no fewer than thirteen regiments of the Afghan regular army took part in +the combat, as well as large contingents of irregular fighting men from +Cabul and the adjoining villages, while the British camp was threatened +from the heights on either side by formidable bodies of tribesmen, to +thwart whose obviously intended attack on it a considerable force had to +be retained. The dispositions of the Afghan commander Nek Mahomed Khan +were made with some tactical skill. The Sung-i-Nawishta Pass itself, the +heights on either side, and a low detached eminence further forward, were +strongly held by Afghan infantry; in the mouth of the pass were four +Armstrong guns, and on the flanking height twelve mountain guns were in +position. The projecting spur toward Charasiah which was the extreme +right of the Afghan position, was held in force, whence an effective fire +would bear on the left flank of a force advancing to a direct attack on +the pass. But Roberts was not the man to play into the hands of the +Afghan tactician. He humoured his conception so far as to send forward on +his right toward the pass, a small detachment of all arms under Major +White of the 92d, with instructions to maintain a threatening attitude in +that direction, and to seize the opportunity to co-operate with the +flanking movement entrusted to General Baker as soon as its development +should have shaken the constancy of the enemy. To Baker with about 2000 +infantry and four guns, was assigned the task of attacking the Afghan +right on the projecting spur and ridge, forcing back and dispersing that +flank; and then, having reached the right of the Afghan main position on +the farthest and loftiest range, he was to wheel to his right and sweep +its defenders from the chain of summits. + +Baker moved out toward his left front against the eminences held by the +Afghan right wing, which Nek Mahomed, having discerned the character of +Roberts' tactics, was now reinforcing with great activity. The 72d +Highlanders led the attack, supported vigorously by the 5th Goorkhas and +the 5th Punjaub Infantry. The resistance of the Afghans was stubborn, +especially opposite our extreme left, whence from behind their sungahs on +a steep hill they poured a heavy fire on the assailants. A yet heavier +fire came from a detached knoll on Baker's right, which the artillery +fire gradually beat down. The Afghans continued to hold the advanced +ridge constituting their first position until two o'clock, when a direct +attack, accompanied by a double flanking fire, compelled their +withdrawal. They, however, fell back only to an intermediate loftier +position about 700 yards in rear of the ridge from which they had been +driven. Approached by successive rushes under cover-of artillery fire, +they were then attacked vigorously and fell back in confusion. No rally +was permitted them, and by three o'clock the whole Afghan right was +shattered and in full flight along the edge of the Chardeh valley. Baker +unfortunately had no cavalry, else the fugitives would have suffered +severely. But the rout of the Afghan right had decided the fortune of the +day. Its defenders were already dribbling away from the main position +when Baker, wheeling to his right, marched along the lofty crest, rolling +up and sweeping away the Afghan defence as he moved toward the +Sung-i-Nawishta gorge. That defile had already been entered by the +cavalry of White's detachment, supported by some infantry. While Baker +had been turning the Afghan right, White and his little force had been +distinguishing themselves not a little. After an artillery preparation +the detached hill had been won as the result of a hand-to-hand struggle. +Later had fallen into the hands of White's people all the Afghan guns, +and the heights to the immediate right and left of the gorge had been +carried, the defenders driven away, and the pass opened up. But the +progress through it of the cavalry was arrested by a strongly garrisoned +fort completely commanding the road. On this fort Baker directed his +artillery fire, at the same time sending down two infantry regiments to +clear away the remnants of the Afghan army still lingering in the pass. +This accomplished, the fighting ceased. It had been a satisfactory day. +Less than half of Roberts' force had been engaged, and this mere brigade +had routed the army of Cabul and captured the whole of the artillery it +had brought into the field. The Afghan loss was estimated at about 300 +killed. The British loss was twenty killed and sixty-seven wounded. On +the night of the combat part of Baker's troops bivouacked beyond the +Sung-i-Nawishta, and on the following day the whole division passed the +defile and camped at Beni Hissar, within sight of the Balla Hissar and +the lofty ridge overhanging Cabul. + +On the afternoon of the 7th a violent explosion was heard in the Beni +Hissar camp from the direction of the Sherpur cantonment north of Cabul, +near the site of the British cantonments of 1839-41. Next morning +information came in that the Sherpur magazine had been blown up, and that +the cantonment had been abandoned by the Afghan regiments which had +garrisoned that vast unfinished structure. General Massy led out part of +his brigade on a reconnaissance, and took possession of the deserted +Sherpur cantonment, and of the seventy-five pieces of ordnance parked +within the walls. Massy had observed from the Siah Sung heights that the +Asmai heights, overhanging the Cabul suburb of Deh Afghan, were held by a +large body of Afghan soldiery, a force, it was afterwards learned, +composed of the remnants of the regiments defeated at Charasiah, three +fresh regiments from the Kohistan, and the rabble of the city and +adjacent villages, having a total strength of nearly 3000 men, with +twelve guns, under the leadership of Mahomed Jan, who later was to figure +prominently as the ablest of our Afghan enemies. Massy heliographed his +information to General Roberts, who sent Baker with a force to drive the +enemy from the heights; and Massy was instructed to pass through a gap in +the ridge and gain the Chardeh valley, where he might find opportunity to +intercept the Afghan retreat toward the west. Massy pierced the ridge at +the village of Aushar, and disposed his troops on the roads crossing the +Chardeh valley. Meanwhile Baker found the ascent of the Sher Derwaza +heights so steep that the afternoon was far spent before his guns came +into action, and it was still later before part of his infantry effected +their descent into the Chardeh valley. Reinforcements necessary to enable +him to act did not reach him until dusk, when it would have been folly to +commit himself to an attack. A night patrol ascertained that the Afghans +had evacuated the position under cover of darkness, leaving behind their +guns and camp equipage. On the 9th the divisional camp moved forward to +the Siah Sung heights, a mile eastward from the Balla Hissar, and there +it was joined by Baker, and by Massy, who on his way to camp led his +wearied troopers through the city of Cabul without mishap or insult. The +Goorkha regiment was detached to hold the ridge commanding the Balla +Hissar, and a cavalry regiment was quartered in the Sherpur cantonment to +protect it from the ravages of the villagers. + +A melancholy interest attaches to the visit paid by Sir Frederick Roberts +to the Balla Hissar on the 11th. Through the dirt and squalor of the +lower portion he ascended the narrow lane leading to the ruin which a few +weeks earlier had been the British Residency. The commander of the +avenging army looked with sorrowful eyes on the scene of heroism and +slaughter, on the smoke-blackened walls, the blood splashes on the +whitewashed walls, the still smouldering debris, the half-burned skulls +and bones in the blood-dabbled chamber where apparently the final +struggle had been fought out. He stood in the great breach in the +quarters of the Guides where the gate had been blown in after the last of +the sorties made by the gallant Hamilton, and lingered in the tattered +wreck of poor Cavagnari's drawing-room, its walls dinted with +bullet-pits, its floor and walls brutally defiled. Next day he made a +formal entry into the Balla Hissar, his road lined with his staunch +troops, a royal salute greeting the banner of Britain as it rose on the +tall flagstaff above the gateway. He held a Durbar in the 'Audience +Chamber' in the garden of the Ameer's palace; in front and in flank of +him the pushing throng of obsequious Sirdars of Cabul arrayed in all the +colours of the rainbow; behind them, standing immobile at attention, the +guard of British infantry with fixed bayonets which the soldiers longed +to use. The General read the mild proclamation announcing the disarmament +of the Cabulese and the punishment of fine which was laid upon the city, +but which never was exacted. And then he summarily dismissed the Sirdars, +three only, the Mustaphi, Yahuja Khan the Ameer's father-in-law, and +Zakariah Khan his brother, being desired to remain. Their smug +complacency was suddenly changed into dismay when they were abruptly told +that they were prisoners. + +Another ceremonial progress the General had to perform. On the 13th he +marched through the streets of Cabul at the head of his little army, the +bazaars and dead walls echoing to the music of the bands and the wild +scream of the bagpipes. In the Afghan quarter no salaams greeted the +conquering Feringhees, and scowling faces frowned on the spectacle from +windows and side-streets. Three days later occurred an event which might +have been a great catastrophe. Captain Shafto of the ordnance was +conducting an examination into the contents of the arsenal in the upper +Balla Hissar, and had already discovered millions of cartridges, and +about 150,000 lbs. of gunpowder. Daoud Shah, however, expressed his +belief that at least a million pounds were in store. Captain Shafto, a +very cautious man, was pursuing his researches; the Goorkhas were +quartered in the upper Balla Hissar near the magazine shed, and the 67th +occupied the Ameer's garden lower down. On the 16th a dull report was +heard in the Siah Sung camp, followed immediately by the rising above the +Balla Hissar of a huge column of grey smoke, which as it drifted away +disclosed flashes of flame and sudden jets of smoke telling of repeated +gunpowder explosions. The 67th, powdered with dust, escaped all but +scathless; but the Goorkha regiment had been heavily smitten. Twelve poor +fellows were killed, and seven wounded; among the former were five +principal Goorkha officers. + +The Balla Hissar was promptly evacuated. Occasional explosions occurred +for several days, the heaviest of those on the afternoon of the 16th, +which threw on the city a great shower of stones, beams, and bullets. By +a jet of stones blown out through the Balla Hissar gate four Afghans were +killed, and two sowars and an Afghan badly hurt. Captain Shafto's body +and the remains of the Goorkhas were found later, and buried; and the +determination was formed to have no more to do with the Balla Hissar, but +to occupy the Sherpur cantonment. Meanwhile General Hugh Gough was +despatched with a small force of all arms to escort to Cabul Money's +gallant garrison of the Shutargurdan, and to close for the winter the +line of communication _via_ the Kuram valley. Colonel Money had undergone +with fine soldierly spirit and action not a few turbulent experiences +since Roberts had left him and his Sikhs on the lofty crest of the +Shutargurdan. The truculent Ghilzais gave him no peace; his method of +dealing with them was for the most part with the bayonet point. The last +attempt on him was made by a horde of Ghilzais some 17,000 strong, who +completely invested his camp, and after the civility of requesting him to +surrender, a compliment which he answered by bullets, made a close and +determined attack on his position. This was on the 18th October; on the +following day Gough heliographed his arrival at Kushi, whereupon Money +took the offensive with vigour and scattered to the winds his Ghilzai +assailants. On 30th October the Shutargurdan position was evacuated, and +on the 3d November the Cabul force received the welcome accession of +headquarters and two squadrons 9th Lancers, Money's 3d Sikhs, and four +mountain guns. + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + +Sir Frederick Roberts had been hurried forward on Cabul charged with the +duty of avenging the perpetration of a foul and treacherous crime, 'which +had brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan nation.' The scriptural +injunction to turn the other cheek to the smiter has not yet become a +canon of international law or practice; and the anti-climax to an +expedition engaged in with so stern a purpose, of a nominal disarmament +and a petty fine never exacted, is self-evident. Our nation is given to +walk in the path of precedent; and in this juncture the authorities had +to their hand the most apposite of precedents. Pollock, by destroying the +Char bazaar in which had been exposed the mangled remains of Burnes and +Macnaghten, set a 'mark' on Cabul the memory of which had lasted for +decades. Cavagnari and his people had been slaughtered in the Balla +Hissar, and their bones were still mingled with the smouldering ruins of +the Residency. Wise men discerned that the destruction of the fortress +followed by a homeward march as swift yet as measured as had been the +march of invasion, could not but have made a deep and lasting impression +on the Afghans; while the complications, humiliations, and expense of the +long futile occupation would have been obviated. Other counsels +prevailed. To discover, in a nation virtually accessory as a whole after +the fact to the slaughter of the mission, the men on whom lay the +suspicion of having been the instigators and the perpetrators of the +cruel deed, to accord them a fair trial, and to send to the gallows those +on whose hands was found the blood of the massacred mission, was held a +more befitting and not less telling course of retributive action than to +raze the Balla Hissar and sow its site with salt. Skilfully and patiently +evidence was gathered, and submitted to the Military Commission which +General Roberts had appointed. This tribunal took cognisance of crimes +nominally of two classes. It tried men who were accused of having been +concerned in the destruction of the British mission, and those charged +with treason in having offered armed resistance to the British troops +acting in support of the Ameer, who had put himself under their +protection. Of the five prisoners first tried, condemned, and duly +hanged, two were signal criminals. One of them, the Kotwal or Mayor of +Cabul, was proved to have superintended the contumelious throwing of the +bodies of the slaughtered Guides of the mission escort into the ditch of +the Balla Hissar. Another was proved to have carried away from the +wrecked Residency a head believed to have been Cavagnari's, and to have +exhibited it on the ridge above the city. The other three and many of +those who were subsequently executed, suffered for the crime of 'treason' +against Yakoub Khan. Probably there was no Afghan who did not approve of +the slaughter of the Envoy, and who would not in his heart have rejoiced +at the annihilation of the British force; but it seems strange law and +stranger justice to hang men for 'treason' against a Sovereign who had +gone over to the enemy. On the curious expedient of temporarily governing +in the name of an Ameer who had deserted his post to save his skin, +comment would be superfluous. Executions continued; few, however, of the +mutinous sepoys who actually took part in the wanton attack on the +British Residency had been secured, and it was judged expedient that +efforts should be made to capture and punish those against whom there was +evidence of that crime, in the shape of the muster-rolls of the regiments +now in the possession of the military authorities. It was known that many +of the disbanded and fugitive soldiers had returned to their homes in the +villages around Cabul, and early in November General Baker took out a +force and suddenly encircled the village of Indikee, on the edge of the +Chardeh valley--a village reported full of Afghan sepoys. A number of men +were brought out by the scared headmen and handed over, answering to +their names called over from a list carried by Baker; and other villages +in the vicinity yielded a considerable harvest of disbanded soldiers. +Before the Commission the prisoners made no attempt to conceal their +names, or deny the regiments to which they had belonged; and forty-nine +of them were found guilty and hanged, nearly all of whom belonged to the +regiments that had assailed the Residency. + +On 12th November Sir Frederick Roberts proclaimed an amnesty in favour of +all who had fought against the British troops, on condition that they +should surrender their arms and return to their homes; but exempted from +the benefit were all concerned in the attack on the Residency. The +amnesty was well timed, although most people would have preferred that +fewer sepoys and more Sirdars should have been hanged. + +Our relations with the Ameer during the earlier part of his residence in +the British camp were not a little peculiar. Nominally he was our guest, +and a certain freedom was accorded to him and his retinue. There was no +doubt that the Sirdars of the Ameer's suite grossly abused their +privileges. Whether with Yakoub Khan's cognisance or not, they authorised +the use of his name by the insurgent leaders. Nek Mahomed, the insurgent +commander at Charasiah, was actually in the tents of the Ameer on the +evening before the fight. To all appearance our operations continued to +have for their ultimate object the restoration of Yakoub Khan to his +throne. Our administrative measures were carried on in his name. The +hostile Afghans we designated as rebels against his rule; and his +authority was proclaimed as the justification of much of our conduct. But +the situation gradually became intolerable to Yakoub Khan. He was a guest +in the British camp, but he was also in a species of custody. Should our +arms reinstate him, he could not hope to hold his throne. His harassed +perplexity came to a crisis on the morning of the 12th October, the day +of General Roberts' durbar in the Balla Hissar, which he had been desired +to attend. What he specifically apprehended is unknown; what he did was +to tell General Roberts, with great excitement, that he would not go to +the durbar, that his life was too miserable for long endurance, that he +would rather be a grass-cutter in the British camp than remain Ameer of +Afghanistan. He was firmly resolved to resign the throne, and begged that +he might be allowed to do so at once. General Roberts explained that the +acceptance of his resignation rested not with him but with the Viceroy, +pending whose decision matters, the General desired, should remain as +they were, affairs continuing to be conducted in the Ameer's name as +before. To this the Ameer consented; his tents were moved to the vicinity +of General Roberts' headquarters, and a somewhat closer surveillance over +him was maintained. + +Secrecy meanwhile was preserved until the Viceroy's reply should arrive. +The nature of that reply was intimated by the proclamation which General +Roberts issued on the 28th October. It announced that the Ameer had of +his own free will abdicated his throne and left Afghanistan without a +government. 'The British Government,' the proclamation continued, 'now +commands that all Afghan authorities, chiefs, and sirdars, do continue +their functions in maintaining order ... The British Government, after +consultation with the principal sirdars, tribal chiefs, and others +representing the interests and wishes of the various provinces and +cities, will declare its will as to the future permanent arrangements to +be made for the good government of the people.' + +This _ad interim_ assumption of the rulership of Afghanistan may have +been adopted as the only policy which afforded even a remote possibility +of tranquillity. But it was essentially a policy of speculative +makeshift. The retributive and punitive object of the swift march on +Cabul can scarcely be regarded as having been fulfilled by the execution +of a number of subordinate participants and accessories in the +destruction of the mission and by the voluntary abdication of Yakoub +Khan. That the Afghan 'authorities, chiefs, and sirdars,' would obey the +command to 'maintain order' issued by the leader of a few thousand +hostile troops, masters of little more than the ground on which they were +encamped, experience and common sense seemed alike to render improbable. +The Afghans subordinated their internal quarrels to their common hatred +of the masterful foreigners, and the desperate fighting of December +proved how fiercely they were in earnest. + +Yakoub Khan had been regarded as merely a weak and unfortunate man, but +the shadows gradually darkened around him until at length he came to be a +man under grave suspicion. General Roberts became satisfied from the +results of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, that the attack on +the Residency, if not actually instigated by him, might at least have +been checked by active exertion on his part. Information was obtained +which convinced the General that the ex-Ameer was contemplating a flight +toward Turkestan, and it was considered necessary to place him in close +confinement. He remained a close prisoner until December 1st. On the +early morning of that day he was brought out from his tent, and after +taking farewell of the General and his staff, started on his journey to +Peshawur, surrounded by a strong escort. If the hill tribes along his +route had cared enough about him to attempt his rescue, the speed with +which he travelled afforded them no time to gather for that purpose. + +During those uneventful October and November days, when the little army +commanded by General Roberts lay in its breezy camp on the Siah Sung +heights, there was no little temptation for the unprofessional reader of +the telegraphic information in the newspapers to hold cheap those +reputedly formidable Afghans, whose resistance a single sharp skirmish +had seemingly scattered to the winds, and who were now apparently +accepting without active remonstrance the dominance of the few thousand +British bayonets glittering there serenely over against the once +turbulent but now tamed hill capital. One may be certain that the shrewd +and careful soldier who commanded that scant array did not permit himself +to share in the facile optimism whether on the part of a government or of +the casual reader of complacent telegrams. It was true that the +Government of India had put or was putting some 30,000 soldiers into the +field on the apparent errand of prosecuting an Afghan war. But what +availed Roberts this host of fighting men when he had to realise that, +befall him what might in the immediate or near future, not a man of it +was available to strengthen or to succour him? The quietude of those cool +October days was very pleasant, but the chief knew well how precarious +and deceitful was the calm. For the present the Afghan unanimity of +hostility was affected in a measure by the fact that the Ameer, who had +still a party, was voluntarily in the British camp. But when Yakoub's +abdication should be announced, he knew the Afghan nature too well to +doubt that the tribal blood-feuds would be soldered for the time, that +Dooranee and Barakzai would strike hands, that Afghan regulars and Afghan +irregulars would rally under the same standards, and that the fierce +shouts of 'Deen! deen!' would resound on hill-top and in plain. Cut loose +from any base, with slowly dwindling strength, with waning stock of +ammunition, it was his part to hold his ground here for the winter, he +and his staunch soldiers, a firm rock in the midst of those surging +Afghan billows that were certain to rise around him. Not only would he +withstand them, but he would meet them, for this bold man knew the value +in dealing with Afghans of a resolute and vigorous offensive. But it +behoved him above all things to make timely choice of his winter quarters +where he should collect his supplies and house his troops and the +followers. After careful deliberation the Sherpur cantonment was +selected. It was overlarge for easy defence, but hard work, careful +engineering, and steadfast courage would redeem that evil. And Sherpur +had the great advantage that besides being in a measure a ready-made +defensive position, it had shelter for all the European troops and most +of the native soldiery, and that it would accommodate also the horses of +the cavalry, the transport animals, and all the needful supplies and +stores. + +An Afghan of the Afghans, Shere Ali nevertheless had curiously failed to +discern that the warlike strength of the nation which he ruled lay in its +intuitive aptitude for irregular fighting; and he had industriously set +himself to the effort of warping the combative genius of his people and +of constituting Afghanistan a military power of the regular and +disciplined type. He had created a large standing army the soldiery of +which wore uniforms, underwent regular drill, obeyed words of command, +and carried arms of precision. He had devoted great pains to the +manufacture of a formidable artillery, and what with presents from the +British Government and the imitative skill of native artificers he was +possessed at the outbreak of hostilities of several hundred cannon. His +artisans were skillful enough to turn out in large numbers very fair +rifled small-arms, which they copied from British models; and in the +Balla Hissar magazine were found by our people vast quantities of +gunpowder and of admirable cartridges of local manufacture. There were +many reasons why the Cabul division of Shere Ali's army should be +quartered apart from his turbulent and refractory capital, and why its +cantonment should take the form of a permanent fortified camp, in which +his soldiers might be isolated from Cabul intrigues, while its proximity +to the capital should constitute a standing menace to the conspirators of +the city. His original design apparently was to enclose the Behmaroo +heights within the walls of his cantonment, and thus form a great +fortified square upon the heights in the centre of which should rise a +strong citadel dominating the plain in every direction. The Sherpur +cantonment as found by Roberts consisted of a fortified enciente, +enclosing on two sides a great open space in the shape of a parallelogram +lying along the southern base of the Behmaroo heights. When the British +troops took possession, only the west and south faces of the enciente +were completed; although not long built those were already in bad repair, +and the explosion of the great magazine when the Afghan troops abandoned +the cantonment had wrecked a section of the western face. The eastern +face had been little more than traced, and the northern side had no +artificial protection, but was closed in by the Behmaroo heights, whose +centre was cleft by a broad and deep gorge. The design of the enciente +was peculiar. There was a thick and high exterior wall of mud, with a +banquette for infantry protected by a parapet. Inside this wall was a dry +ditch forty feet wide, on the inner brink of which was the long range of +barrack-rooms. Along the interior front of the barrack-rooms was a +verandah faced with arches supported by pillars, its continuity broken +occasionally by broad staircases conducting to the roof of the barracks, +which afforded a second line of defence. The closing in of the verandah +would of course give additional barrack accommodation, but there were +quarters in the barrack-rooms for at least all the European troops. In +the southern face of the enciente were three gateways, and in the centre +of the western face there was a fourth, each gate covered adequately by a +curtain. Between each gate were semicircular bastions for guns. In the +interior there was space to manoeuvre a division of all arms. There was a +copious supply of water, and if the aspect of the great cantonment was +grim because of the absence of trees and the utter barrenness of the +enclosed space, this aesthetic consideration went for little against its +manifest advantages as snug and defensible winter quarters. Shere Ali had +indeed been all unconsciously a friend in need to the British force +wintering in the heart of that unfortunate potentate's dominions. Human +nature is perverse and exacting, and there were those who objurgated his +memory because he had constructed his cantonment a few sizes too large to +be comfortably defended by Sir Frederick Roberts' little force. But this +was manifestly unreasonable; and in serious truth the Sherpur cantonment +was a real godsend to our people. Supplies of all kinds were steadily +being accumulated there, and the woodwork of the houses in the Balla +Hissar was being carried to Sherpur for use as firewood. On the last day +of October the force quitted the Siah Sung position and took possession +of Sherpur, which had undergone a rigorous process of fumigation and +cleansing. The change was distinctly for the better. The force was +compacted, and the routine military duties were appreciably lightened +since there were needed merely piquets on the Behmaroo heights and +sentries on the gates; the little army was healthy, temperate, and in +excellent case in all respects. + +The dispositions for field service made at the outset of the campaign by +the military authorities have already been detailed. Regarded simply as +dispositions they left nothing to be desired, and certainly Sir Frederick +Roberts' force had been organised and equipped with a fair amount of +expedition. But it was apparent that the equipment of that body of 6500 +men--and that equipment by no means of an adequate character, had +exhausted for the time the resources of the Government as regarded +transport and supplies. Promptitude of advance on the part of the force +to which had been assigned the line of invasion by the Khyber-Jellalabad +route, was of scarcely less moment than the rapidity of the stroke which +Roberts was commissioned to deliver. The former's was a treble duty. One +of its tasks was to open up and maintain Roberts' communications with +India, so that the closing of the Shutargurdan should not leave him +isolated. Another duty resting on the Khyber force was to constitute for +Roberts a ready and convenient reserve, on which he might draw when his +occasions demanded. No man could tell how soon after the commencement of +his invasion that necessity might arise; it was a prime _raison d'etre_ +of the Khyber force to be in a position to give him the hand when he +should intimate a need for support. Yet again, its presence in the passes +dominantly thrusting forward, would have the effect of retaining the +eastern tribes within their own borders, and hindering them from joining +an offensive combination against the little force with which Roberts was +to strike at Cabul. But delay on delay marked the mobilisation and +advance of the troops operating in the Khyber line. There was no lack of +earnestness anywhere; the eagerness to push on was universal from the +commander to the corporal. But the barren hills and rugged passes could +furnish no supplies; the base had to furnish everything, and there was +nothing at the base, neither any accumulation of supplies nor means to +transport supplies if they had been accumulated. Weeks elapsed before the +organisation of the force approached completion, and it was only by a +desperate struggle that General Charles Gough's little brigade received +by the end of September equipment sufficient to enable that officer to +advance by short marches. Roberts was holding his durbar in the Balla +Hissar of Cabul on the day that the head of Gough's advance reached +Jellalabad. No man can associate the idea of dawdling with Jenkins and +his Guides, yet the Guides reaching Jellalabad on October 12th were not +at Gundamuk until the 23d, and Gundamuk is but thirty miles beyond +Jellalabad. The anti-climax for the time of General Bright's exertions +occurred on November 6th. On that day he with Gough's brigade reached so +far Cabulward as Kutti Sung, two marches beyond Gundamuk. There he met +General Macpherson of Roberts' force, who had marched down from Cabul +with his brigade on the errand of opening communications with the head of +the Khyber column. The two brigades had touch of each other for the +period of an interview between the Generals, and then they fell apart and +the momentary union of communication was disrupted. General Bright had to +fall back toward Gundamuk for lack of supplies. The breach continued open +only for a few days, and then it was closed, not from down country but +from up country. Roberts, surveying the rugged country to the east of +Cabul, had discerned that the hill road toward Jugdulluk by Luttabund, +was at once opener and shorter than the customary tortuous and overhung +route through the Khoord Cabul Pass and by Tezeen. The pioneers were set +to work to improve the former. The Luttabund road became the habitual +route along which, from Cabul downwards, were posted detachments +maintaining the communications of the Cabul force with the Khyber column +and India. Nearly simultaneous with this accomplishment was the +accordance to Sir Frederick Roberts of the local rank of +Lieutenant-General, a promotion which placed him in command of all the +troops in Eastern Afghanistan down to Jumrood, and enabled him to order +up reinforcements from the Khyber column at his discretion, a power he +refrained from exercising until the moment of urgent need was impending. + +After his interview at Kutti Sung with General Bright, Macpherson, before +returning to Cabul, made a short reconnaissance north of the Cabul river +toward the Lughman valley and into the Tagao country inhabited by the +fanatic tribe of the Safis. From his camp at Naghloo a foraging party, +consisting of a company of the 67th escorting a number of camels and +mules, moved westward toward a village near the junction of the Panjshir +and Cabul rivers, there to obtain supplies of grain and forage. The +little detachment on its march was suddenly met by the fire of about 1000 +Sari tribesmen. Captain Poole, observing that the tribesmen were moving +to cut him off, withdrew his party through a defile in his rear, and +taking cover under the river bank maintained a steady fire while the +camels were being retired. The Safis were extremely bold and they too +shot very straight. Captain Poole was severely wounded and of his handful +of fifty-six men eight were either killed or wounded, but their comrades +resolutely held their position until reinforcements came out from the +camp. The Safis, who retired with dogged reluctance, were not finally +routed until attacked by British infantry in front and flank. After they +broke the cavalry pursued them for six miles, doing severe execution; the +dead of the 67th were recovered, but the poor fellows had been mutilated +almost past recognition. General Macpherson returned to Sherpur on the +20th November, having left a strong garrison temporarily at Luttabund to +strengthen communications and open out effectually the new route +eastward. + +General Roberts, with all his exertions, had been unable to accumulate +sufficient winter of grain for his native troops and forage for his +cavalry and baggage animals. Agents had been purchasing supplies in the +fertile district of Maidan, distant from Cabul about twenty-five miles in +the Ghuznee direction, but the local people lacked carriage to convey +their stocks into camp, and it was necessary that the supplies should be +brought in by the transport of the force. The country toward Ghuznee was +reported to be in a state of disquiet, and a strong body of troops was +detailed under the command of General Baker for the protection of the +transport. This force marched out from Sherpur on November 21st, and next +day camped on the edge of the pleasant Maidan plain. Baker encountered +great difficulties in collecting supplies. The villages readily gave in +their tribute of grain and forage, but evinced extreme reluctance to +furnish the additional quantities which our necessities forced us to +requisition. With the villagers it was not a question of money; the +supplies for which Baker's commissaries demanded money in hand +constituted their provision for the winter season. But the stern maxim of +war is that soldiers must live although villagers starve, and this much +may be said in our favour that we are the only nation in the world which, +when compelled to resort to forced requisitions, invariably pays in hard +cash and not in promissory notes. Baker's ready-money tariff was far +higher than the current rates, but nevertheless he had to resort to +strong measures. In one instance he was defied outright. A certain +Bahadur Khan inhabiting a remote valley in the Bamian direction, refused +to sell any portion of his great store of grain and forage, and declined +to comply with a summons to present himself in Baker's camp. It was known +that he was under the influence of the aged fanatic Moulla the +Mushk-i-Alum, who was engaged in fomenting a tribal rising, and it was +reported that he was affording protection to a number of the fugitive +sepoys of the ex-Ameer's army. A political officer with two squadrons of +cavalry was sent to bring into camp the recalcitrant Bahadur Khan. His +fort and village were found prepared for a stubborn defence. Received +with a heavy fire from a large body of men while swarms of hostile +tribesmen showed themselves on the adjacent hills, the horsemen had to +withdraw. It was judged necessary to punish the contumacious chief and to +disperse the tribal gathering before it should make more head, and Baker +led out a strong detachment in light marching order. There was no +fighting, and the only enemies seen were a few tribesmen, who drew off +into the hills as the head of Baker's column approached. Fort, villages, +and valley were found utterly deserted. There were no means to carry away +the forage and grain found in the houses, so the villages belonging to +Bahadur Khan were destroyed by fire. Their inhabitants found refuge in +the surrounding villages, and there was absolutely no foundation for the +statements which appeared in English papers to the effect that old men, +women, and children were turned out to die in the snow. In the words of +Mr Hensman, a correspondent who accompanied the column: 'There were no +old men, women, and children, and there was no snow.' British officers +cannot be supposed to have found pleasure, on the verge of the bitter +Afghan winter, in the destruction of the hovels and the winter stores of +food belonging to a number of miserable villagers; but experience has +proved that only by such stern measures is there any possibility of +cowing the rancour of Afghan tribesmen. No elation can accompany an +operation so pitiless, and the plea of stern necessity must be advanced +alike and accepted with a shudder. Of the necessity of some such form of +reprisals an example is afforded in an experience which befell General +Baker a few days later in this same Maidan region. He visited the village +of Beni-Badam with a small cavalry escort. The villagers with every +demonstration of friendliness entertained the officers and men with milk +and fruit, and provided corn and forage for their horses. There were only +old men in the village with the women and children, but no treachery was +suspected until suddenly two large bodies of armed men were seen hurrying +to cut off the retreat, and it was only by hard fighting that the General +with his escort succeeded in escaping from the snare. Next day he +destroyed the village. Baker probably acted on general principles, but +had he cared for precedents he would have found them in the conduct of +the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. He remained in the Maidan +district until the transport of the army had brought into Sherpur all the +supplies which he had succeeded in obtaining in that region, and then +returned to the cantonment. + +By the terms of the proclamation which he issued on the 28th October Sir +Frederick Roberts was announced as the dominant authority for the time +being in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan. He occupied this position just +as far as and no further than he could make it good. And he could make it +good only over a very circumscribed area. Even more than had been true of +Shah Soojah's government forty years previously was it true of Roberts' +government now that it was a government of sentry-boxes. He was firm +master of the Sherpur cantonment. General Hills, his nominee, held a +somewhat precarious sway in Cabul in the capacity of its Governor, +maintaining his position there in virtue of the bayonets of his military +guard, the support of the adjacent Sherpur, and the waiting attitude of +the populace of the capital. East of Cabul the domination of Britain was +represented by a series of fortified posts studding the road to Gundamuk, +whence to Jumrood the occupation was closer, although not wholly +undisturbed. When a column marched out from Sherpur the British power was +dominant only within the area of its fire zone. The stretch of road it +vacated as it moved on ceased to be territory over which the British held +dominion. This narrowly restricted nature of his actual sway Sir +Frederick Roberts could not but recognise, but how with a force of 7000 +men all told was it possible for him to enlarge its borders? One +expedient suggested itself which could not indeed extend the area of his +real power, but which might have the effect, to use a now familiar +expression, of widening the sphere of his influence. From among the +Sirdars who had regarded it as their interest to cast in their lot with +the British, he selected four to represent him in the capacity of +governors of provinces which his bayonets were not long enough to reach. +The experiment made it disagreeably plain that the people of the +provinces to which he had deputed governors were utterly indisposed to +have anything to do either with them or with him. The governors went in +no state, they had no great sums to disburse, they were protected by no +armed escorts, and they were regarded by the natives much as the Southern +states of the American Union after the Civil War regarded the 'carpet +bag' governors whom the North imposed upon them. The Logur Governor was +treated with utter contempt. The Kohistanees despitefully used Shahbaz +Khan, and when a brother of Yakoub Khan was sent to use his influence in +favour of the worried and threatened governor, he was reviled as a +'Kafir' and a 'Feringhee,' and ordered peremptorily back to Sherpur if he +had any regard for his life. Sirdar Wali Mahomed, the governor-nominate +to the remote Turkestan, found pretext after pretext for delaying to +proceed to take up his functions, and had never quitted the British camp. +When Baker returned from Maidan he reported that he had left the district +peaceful in charge of the governor whom he had installed, the venerable +and amiable Hassan Khan. Baker's rear-guard was scarcely clear of the +valley when a mob of tribesmen and sepoys attacked the fort in which the +old Sirdar was residing, shot him through the head, and then hacked his +body to pieces. It was too clear that governors unsupported by bayonets, +and whose only weapons were tact and persuasiveness, were at an extreme +discount in the condition which Afghanistan presented in the end of +November and the beginning of December. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE DECEMBER STORM + +The invader of Afghanistan may count as inevitable a national rising +against him, but the Afghans are a people so immersed in tribal quarrels +and domestic blood feuds that the period of the outbreak is curiously +uncertain. The British force which placed Shah Soojah on the throne and +supported him there, was in Afghanistan for more than two years before +the waves of the national tempest rose around it. The national +combination against Roberts' occupation was breaking its strength against +the Sherpur defences while as yet the Cabul field force had not been +within sight of the capital for more than two months. There seems no +relation between opportunity and the period of the inevitable outburst. +If in November 1841 the Cabul Sirdars had restrained themselves for a few +days longer two more regiments would have been following on Sale's track, +and the British force in the cantonments would have been proportionately +attenuated. Roberts might have been assailed with better chance of +success when his force was dispersed between the Siah Sung camp, the +Balla Hissar, and Sherpur, than when concentrated in the strong defensive +position against which the Afghans beat in vain. Perhaps the rising +ripened faster in 1879 than in 1841 because in the former period no +Macnaghten fomented intrigues and scattered gold. Perhaps Shere Ali's +military innovations may have instilled into the masses of his time some +rough lessons in the art and practice of speedy mobilisation. The +crowning disgrace of 1842 was that a trained army of regular soldiers +should have been annihilated by a few thousand hillmen, among whom there +was no symptom either of real valour or of good leadership. To Roberts +and his force attaches the credit of having defeated the persistent and +desperate efforts of levies at least ten times superior in numbers, well +armed, far from undisciplined, courageous beyond all experience of Afghan +nature, and under the guidance of a leader who had some conception of +strategy, and who certainly was no mean tactician. + +In the Afghan idiosyncrasy there is a considerable strain of practical +philosophy. The blood of the massacred mission was not dry when it was +recognised in Cabul that stern retribution would inevitably follow. Well, +said the Afghans among themselves, what must be must be, for they are all +fatalists. The seniors recalled the memory of the retribution Pollock +exacted--how he came, destroyed Istalif, set a 'mark' on Cabul by sending +the great bazaar in fragments into the air, and then departed. This time +Istalif was not compromised; if Roberts Sahib should be determined to +blow up the Char Chowk again, why, that infliction must be endured. It +had been rebuilt after Pollock Sahib's engineers had worked their will on +it; it could be rebuilt a second time when Roberts Sahib should have +turned his back on the city, as pray God and the Prophet he might do with +no more delay than Pollock Sahib had made out yonder on the Logur plain. +So after a trial of Roberts' mettle at Charasiah, and finding the testing +sample not quite to their taste, the Afghans fell into an attitude of +expectancy, and were mightily relieved by his proclamation read at the +Balla Hissar durbar of October 12th. After a reasonable amount of hanging +and the exaction of the fine laid on the city, it was assumed that he +would no doubt depart so as to get home to India before the winter snows +should block the passes. But the expected did not happen. The British +General established a British Governor in Cabul who had a heavy hand, and +policed the place in a fashion that stirred a lurid fury in the bosoms of +haughty Sirdars who had been wont to do what seemed good in their own +eyes. He engaged in the sacrilegious work of dismantling the Balla +Hissar, the historic fortress of the nation, within whose walls were the +royal palace and the residences of the principal nobles. Those were +bitter things, but they could be borne if they were mere temporary +inflictions, and if the hated Feringhees would but take themselves away +soon. But that hope was shattered by the proclamation of October 28th, +when the abdication of the Ameer was intimated and the British _raj_ in +Afghanistan was announced. Yes, that pestilent _zabardasti_ little +General, who would not follow the example of good old Pollock Sahib, and +who held Yakoub Khan and sundry of his Sirdars in close imprisonment in +his camp, had now the insolence to proclaim himself virtually the Ameer +of Afghanistan! Far from showing symptom of budging, he was sending out +his governors into the provinces, he was gathering tribute in kind, and +he had taken possession of Shere Ali's monumental cantonment, under the +shadow of the Behmaroo heights on which Afghan warriors of a past +generation had slaughtered the Feringhee soldiers as if they had been +sheep; and it was the Feringhee General's cantonment now, which he was +cunningly strengthening as if he meant to make it his permanent fortress. + +Yakoub Khan had gained little personal popularity during his brief and +troubled reign, but he was an Afghan and a Mahomedan; and his deportation +to India, followed shortly afterwards by that of his three Ministers, +intensified the rancour of his countrymen and co-religionists against the +handful of presumptuous foreigners who arrogantly claimed to sway the +destinies of Afghanistan. _Cherchez la femme_ is the keynote among +Western peoples of an investigation into the origin of most troubles and +strifes; the watchword of the student of the springs of great popular +outbursts among Eastern nations must be _Cherchez les pretres_. The Peter +the Hermit of Afghanistan was the old Mushk-i-Alum, the fanatic Chief +Moulla of Ghuznee. This aged enthusiast went to and fro among the tribes +proclaiming the sacred duty of a _Jehad_ or religious war against the +unbelieving invaders, stimulating the pious passions of the followers of +the Prophet by fervent appeals, enjoining the chiefs to merge their +intestine strifes in the common universal effort to crush the foreign +invaders of the Afghan soil. The female relatives of the abdicated Ameer +fomented the rising by appeals to popular sympathy, and by the more +practical argument of lavish distribution of treasure. The flame spread, +tribesmen and disbanded soldiers sprang to arms, the banner of the +Prophet was unfurled, and the nation heaved with the impulse of +fanaticism. Musa Khan, the boy heir of Yakoub, was in the hands of the +Mushk-i-Alum, and the combination of fighting tribes found a competent +leader in Mahomed Jan, a Warduk general of proved courage and capacity. +The plan of campaign was comprehensive and well devised. The contingent +from the country to the south of the capital, from Logur, Zurmat, and the +Mangal and Jadran districts, was to seize that section of the Cabul ridge +extending from Charasiah northward to the cleft through which flows the +Cabul river. The northern contingent from the Kohistan and Kohdaman was +to occupy the Asmai heights and the hills further to the north-west; +while the troops from the Maidan and Warduk territories, led by Mahomed +Jan in person, were to come in from the westward across the Chardeh +valley, take possession of Cabul, and rally to their banners the +disaffected population of the capital and the surrounding villages. The +concentration of the three bodies effected, the capital and the ridge +against which it leans occupied, the next step would be the investment of +the Sherpur cantonment, preparatory to an assault upon it in force. + +The British general through his spies had information of those projects. +To allow the projected concentration to be effected would involve serious +disadvantages, and both experience and temperament enjoined on Roberts +the offensive. The Logur contingent was regarded as not of much account, +and might be headed back by a threat. Mahomed Jan's force, which was +reckoned some 5000 strong, needed to be handled with greater vigour. Meer +Butcha and his Kohistanees were less formidable, and might be dealt with +incidentally. Roberts took a measure of wise precaution in telegraphing +to Colonel Jenkins on the 7th December to march his Guides (cavalry and +infantry) from Jugdulluk to Sherpur. + +On the 8th General Macpherson was sent out toward the west with a column +consisting of 1300 bayonets, three squadrons, and eight guns. Following +the Ghuznee road across the Chardeh valley, he was to march to Urgundeh, +in the vicinity of which place it was expected that he would find Mahomed +Jan's levies, which he was to attack and drive backward on Maidan, taking +care to prevent their retreat to the westward in the direction of Bamian. +On the following day General Baker marched out with a force made up of +900 infantrymen, two and a half squadrons, and four guns, with +instructions to march southward toward the Logur valley, deal with the +tribal gathering there, then bend sharply in a south-westerly direction +and take up a position across the Ghuznee road in the Maidan valley on +the line of retreat which it was hoped that Macpherson would succeed in +enforcing on Mahomed Jan. In that case the Afghan leader would find +himself between two fires, and would be punished so severely as to render +it unlikely that he would give further trouble. To afford time for Baker +to reach the position assigned to him Macpherson remained halted during +the 9th at Aushar, a village just beyond the debouche of the Nanuchee +Pass, at the north-western extremity of the Asmai heights. On that day a +cavalry reconnaissance discovered that the Kohistanee levies in +considerable strength had already gathered about Karez Meer, some ten +miles north-west of Cabul, and that masses of Afghans presumably +belonging to the force of Mahomed Jan were moving northward in the +Kohistan direction, apparently with the object of joining Meer Butcha's +gathering at Karez. It was imperative that the latter should be dispersed +before the junction could be effected, and Sir Frederick Roberts had no +option but to order Macpherson to alter his line of advance and move +against the Kohistanees. Necessary as was this divergence from the +original plan of operation, it had the effect of sending to wreck the +combined movement from which so much was hoped, and of bringing about a +very critical situation. If Lockhart's reconnaissance had been made a day +earlier, Macpherson might probably have utilised to good purpose by +dispersing the Kohistanees, the day which as it was he spent halted at +Aushar. He might have accomplished that object equally well if, instead +of the cavalry reconnaissance made by Lockhart, Macpherson himself had +been instructed to devote the 9th to a reconnaissance in force in the +direction of Karez Meer. + +[Illustration: Map of Cabul and surroundings.] + +The country being held unsuited for the action of wheeled artillery and +cavalry, Macpherson left his details of those arms at Aushar, and marched +on the morning of the 10th on Karez with his infantry and mountain guns. +As his troops crowned the Surkh Kotul they saw before them an imposing +spectacle. The whole terrain around Karez swarmed with masses of armed +tribesmen, whose banners were flying on every hillock. Down in the +Pughman valley to the left rear, were discerned bodies of the hostile +contingent from the west, between which and the Kohistanees no junction +had fortunately as yet been made. Macpherson's dispositions were simple. +His mountain guns shelled with effect the Kohistanee tribesmen, and then +he moved forward from the Surkh Kotul in three columns. His skirmishers +drove back the forward stragglers, and then the main columns advancing at +the double swept the disordered masses before them, and forced them +rearward into their intrenched position in front of the Karez village. +There the resistance was half-hearted. After a brief artillery +preparation the columns carried the position with a rush, and the +Kohistanees were routed with heavy loss. Meer Butcha and his Kohistanees +well beaten, Macpherson camped for the night near Karez. Baker had +reached his assigned position in the Maidan valley, and there seemed a +fair prospect that the operation against Mahomed Jan as originally +designed might be carried out notwithstanding the interruption to its +prosecution which had been found necessary. For there was good reason to +believe that the Afghan commander and his force, whose strength was +estimated at about 5000 men, were in the vicinity of Urgundeh, about +midway between Macpherson at Karez and Baker in the Maidan valley. If +Mahomed Jan would be so complaisant as to remain where he was until +Macpherson could reach him, then Roberts' strategy would have a +triumphant issue, and the Warduk general and his followers might be +relegated to the category of negligable quantities. + +Orders were sent to Macpherson to march as early as possible on the +morning of the 11th, follow up the enemy who had been observed retiring +toward the west and south, and endeavour to drive them down toward +General Baker. He was further informed that the cavalry and +horse-artillery which he had left at Aushar would leave that village at +nine A.M. under the command of Brigadier-General Massy, and would cross +the Chardeh valley by the Urgundeh road, on which he was directed to join +them on his march. The specific instructions given to General Massy were +as follows: 'To advance from Aushar by the road leading directly from the +city of Cabul toward Urgundeh and Ghuznee' (the main Ghuznee road), 'to +proceed cautiously and quietly feeling for the enemy, to communicate with +General Macpherson, and to act in conformity with that officer's +movements, but on no account to commit himself to an action until General +Macpherson had engaged the enemy.' + +Macpherson marched at eight A.M., moving in a south-westerly direction +toward Urgundeh by a direct track in rear of the range of hills bounding +the western edge of the Chardeh valley. To the point at which it was +probable that he and Massy should meet he had considerably further to +travel than had the latter from the Aushar camp, and Macpherson's force +consisted of infantry while that of Massy was cavalry and +horse-artillery. Massy left Aushar at nine A.M. in consideration of the +shorter distance he had to traverse, and he headed for Killa Kazee, a +village near the foothills of the western ridge about four miles from +Aushar as the crow flies. He did not comply with the letter of his +instructions to follow the Ghuznee road because of the wide detour +marching by it would have involved, but instead made his way straight +across country. That he should have done this was unfortunate, since the +time he thus gained threw him forward into a position involving danger in +advance of any possible co-operation on the part of Macpherson, who was +still far away from the point of intended junction while Massy was +comparatively near it. Massy's force consisted of two squadrons 9th +Lancers and a troop of 14th Bengal Lancers, escorting four +horse-artillery guns. He had detached a troop of 9th Lancers to endeavour +to open communication with Macpherson, in compliance with his +instructions. As he approached Killa Kazee, Captain Gough commanding the +troop of 9th Lancers forming the advance guard, sent back word that the +hills on either side of the Ghuznee road some distance beyond the village +were occupied by the enemy in considerable force. Massy, in his +unsupported condition and destitute of any information as to Macpherson's +whereabouts, would have shown discretion by halting on receipt of this +intelligence pending further developments. But he probably believed that +the Afghans flanking the road were casual tribesmen from the adjacent +villages who were unlikely to make any stand, and he determined to move +on. + +What he presently saw gave him pause. A great mass of Afghans some 2000 +strong were forming across the Ghuznee road. From the hills to right and +left broad streams of armed men were pouring down the hillslopes and +forming on the plain. The surprise was complete, the situation full of +perplexity. That gathering host in Massy's front could be none other than +Mahomed Jan's entire force. So far from being in retreat southward and +westward, so far from waiting supinely about Urgundeh until Macpherson as +per programme should drive it on to the muzzles of Baker's Martinis, here +it was inside our guard, in possession of the interior line, its front +facing toward turbulent Cabul and depleted Sherpur, with no obstruction +in its path save this handful of lancers and these four guns! Massy's +orders, it was true, were to act in conformity with Macpherson's +movements, and on no account to commit himself to an action until that +officer had engaged the enemy. Yes, but could the framer of those orders +have anticipated the possibility of such a position as that in which +Massy now found himself? There was no Macpherson within ken of the +perplexed cavalryman, nor the vaguest indication of his movements. The +enemy had doubled on that stout and shrewd soldier; it was clear that for +the moment he was not within striking distance of his foe, whether on +flank or on rear. No course of action presented itself to Massy that was +not fraught with grave contingencies. If he should keep to the letter of +his orders, the Afghan host might be in Cabul in a couple of hours. +Should he retire slowly, striving to retard the Afghan advance by his +cannon fire and by the threatening demonstrations of his cavalry, the +enemy might follow him up so vigorously as to be beyond Macpherson's +reach when that officer should make good his point in the direction of +Urgundeh. If on the other hand he should show a bold front, and departing +from his orders in the urgent crisis face to face with which he found +himself should strain every nerve to 'hold' the Afghan masses in their +present position, there was the possibility that, at whatever sacrifice +to himself and his little force, he might save the situation and gain +time for Macpherson to come up and strike Mahomed Jan on flank and in +rear. + +For better or for worse Massy committed himself to the rasher enterprise, +and opened fire on the swiftly growing Afghan masses. The first range was +held not sufficiently effective, and in the hope by closer fire of +deterring the enemy from effecting the formation they were attempting, +the guns were advanced to the shorter ranges of 2500 and 2000 yards. The +shells did execution, but contrary to precedent did not daunt the +Afghans. They made good their formation under the shell fire. Mahomed +Jan's force had been estimated of about 5000 strong; according to Massy's +estimate it proved to be double that number. The array was well led; it +never wavered, but came steadily on with waving banners and loud shouts. +The guns had to be retired; they came into action again, but owing to the +rapidity of the Afghan advance at shorter range than before. The carbine +fire of thirty dismounted lancers 'had no appreciable effect.' The +outlook was already ominous when at this moment Sir Frederick Roberts +came on the scene. As was his wont, he acted with decision. The action, +it was clear to him, could not be maintained against odds so overwhelming +and in ground so unfavourable. He immediately ordered Massy to retire +slowly, to search for a road by which the guns could be withdrawn, and to +watch for an opportunity to execute a charge under cover of which the +guns might be extricated. He despatched an aide-de-camp in quest of +Macpherson, with an order directing that officer to wheel to his left +into the Chardeh valley and hurry to Massy's assistance; and he ordered +General Hills to gallop to Sherpur and warn General Hugh Gough, who had +charge in the cantonment, to be on the alert, and also to send out at +speed a wing of the 72d to the village of Deh Mazung, in the throat of +the gorge of the Cabul river, which the Highlanders were to hold to +extremity. + +The enemy were coming on, the guns were in imminent danger, and the +moment had come for the action of the cavalry. The gallant Cleland gave +the word to his lancers and led them straight for the centre of the +Afghan line, the troop of Bengal Lancers following in support. Gough, +away on the Afghan left, saw his chief charging and he eagerly +'conformed,' crushing in on the enemy's flank at the head of his troop. +'Self-sacrifice' the Germans hold the duty of cavalry; and there have +been few forlorner hopes than the errand on which on this ill-starred day +our 200 troopers rode into the heart of 10,000 Afghans flushed with +unwonted good fortune. Through the dust-cloud of the charge were visible +the flashes of the Afghan volleys and the sheen of the British lance +heads as they came down to the 'engage.' There was a short interval of +suspense, the stour and bicker of the _melee_ faintly heard, but +invisible behind the bank of smoke and dust. Then from out the cloud of +battle riderless horses came galloping back, followed by broken groups of +troopers. Gallantly led home, the charge had failed--what other result +could have been expected? Its career had been blocked by sheer weight of +opposing numbers. Sixteen troopers had been killed, seven were wounded, +two officers had been slain in the hand-to-hand strife. Cleland came out +with a sword cut and a bullet wound. Captain Stewart Mackenzie had been +crushed under his fallen horse, but distinguished himself greatly, and +brought the regiment out of action. As the dust settled it was apparent +that the charge had merely encouraged the enemy, who as they steadily +pressed on in good order, were waving their banners in triumph and +brandishing their tulwars and knives. The fire from the Sniders and +Enfields of their marksmen was well directed and deliberate. While +Cleland's broken troopers were being rallied two guns were brought into +action, protected in a measure by Gough's troop and the detachment of +Bengal Lancers, which had not suffered much in the charge. But the +Afghans came on so ardently that there was no alternative but prompt +retreat. One gun had to be spiked and abandoned, Lieutenant Hardy of the +Horse Artillery remaining by it until surrounded and killed. Some 500 +yards further back, near the village of Baghwana, the three remaining +guns stuck fast in a deep watercourse. At General Roberts' instance a +second charge was attempted, to give time for their extrication; but it +made no head, so that the guns had to be abandoned, and the gunners and +drivers with their teams accompanied the retirement of the cavalry. Some +fugitives both of cavalry and artillery hurried to the shelter of the +cantonment somewhat precipitately; but the great majority of Massy's +people behaved well, rallying without hesitation and constituting the +steady and soldierly little body with which Roberts, retiring on Deh +Mazung as slowly as possible to give time for the Highlanders from +Sherpur to reach that all-important point, strove to delay the Afghan +advance. This in a measure was accomplished by the dismounted fire of the +troopers, and the retirement was distinguished by the steady coolness +displayed by Cough's men and Neville's Bengal Lancers. Deh Mazung was +reached, but no Highlanders had as yet reached that place. The carbines +of the cavalrymen were promptly utilised from the cover the village +afforded; but they could not have availed to stay the Afghan rush. There +was a short interval of extreme anxiety until the 200 men of the 72d, +Brownlow leading them, became visible advancing at the double through the +gorge. 'It was literally touch and go who should reach the village first, +the Highlanders or the Afghans,' who were streaming toward it 'like ants +on a hill,' but the men of the 72d swept in, and swarming to the house +tops soon checked with their breechloaders the advancing tide. After +half-an-hour of futile effort the Afghans saw fit to abandon the attempt +to force the gorge, and inclining to their right they occupied the +Takht-i-Shah summit, the slopes of the Sher Derwaza heights, and the +villages in the south-eastern section of the Chardeh valley. + +Macpherson, marching from the Surkh Kotul toward Urgundeh, had observed +parties of Afghans crossing his front in the direction of the Chardeh +valley, and when the sound reached him of Massy's artillery fire he +wheeled to his left through a break in the hills opening into the Chardeh +valley, and approached the scene of the discomfiture of Massy's force. +This he did at 12.30 P.M., four and a half hours after leaving the Surkh +Kotul. As the length of his march was about ten miles, it may be assumed +that he encountered difficulties in the rugged track by which he moved, +for Macpherson was not the man to linger by the way when there was the +prospect of a fight. Had it been possible for him to have marched two +hours earlier than he did--and his orders were to march as early as +possible--his doing so would have made all the difference in the world to +Massy, and could scarcely have failed to change the face of the day. He +did not discover the lost guns, but he struck the Afghan rear, which was +speedily broken and dispersed by the 67th and 3d Sikhs. Macpherson's +intention to spend the night at Killa Kazee was changed by the receipt of +an order from General Roberts calling him in to Deh Mazung, where he +arrived about nightfall. Sir Frederick Roberts then returned to Sherpur, +for the defence of which General Hugh Gough had made the best +dispositions in his power, and the slender garrison of which was to +receive in the course of the night an invaluable accession in the shape +of the Guides, 900 strong, whom Jenkins had brought up by forced marches +from Jugdulluk. + +The misfortunes of the day were in a measure retrieved by a well-timed, +ready-witted, and gallant action on the part of that brilliant and +lamented soldier Colonel Macgregor. A wing of the 72d had been called out +to hold the gorge of the Cabul river, but the Nanuchee Pass, through +which led the direct road from the scene of the combat to Sherpur, +remained open; and there was a time when the Afghan army was heading in +its direction. Macgregor had hurried to the open pass in time to rally +about him a number of Massy's people, who had lost their officers and +were making their way confusedly toward the refuge of Sherpur. Remaining +in possession of this important point until all danger was over, he +noticed that the ground about Bagwana, where the guns had been abandoned, +was not held by the enemy, and there seemed to him that the opportunity +to recover them presented itself. Taking with him a detachment of lancers +and artillerymen, he rode out and met with no molestation beyond a few +shots from villagers. From Macpherson's baggage guard, met as it crossed +the valley toward Sherpur, he requisitioned sixty infantrymen who entered +and held Bagwana, and covered him and the gunners during the long and +arduous struggle to extricate the guns from their lair in the deep and +rugged watercourse. This was at length accomplished, scratch teams were +improvised, and the guns, which were uninjured although the ammunition +boxes had been emptied, were brought into the cantonment to the general +joy. + +The result of the day's operations left General Baker momentarily +belated. But on the morning of the 11th that officer, finding that no +Afghans were being driven down upon him in accordance with the programme, +quitted the Maidan country and marched northward toward Urgundeh. An +attack on his baggage and rearguard was foiled; but as he reached his +camping ground for the night at Urgundeh the Afghans were found in +possession of the gorge opening into the Chardeh valley, through which +ran his road to Cabul. They were dislodged by a dashing attack of part of +the g2d Highlanders led by Lieutenant Scott Napier. It was not until the +morning of the 12th that Baker was informed by heliograph from Sherpur of +the occurrences of the previous day, and received directions to return to +the cantonment without delay. In the course of a few hours he was inside +Sherpur, notwithstanding that his march had been constantly molested by +attacks on his rear-guard. + +The casualties of the 11th had been after all not very serious. All told +they amounted to thirty men killed and forty-four wounded; fifty-one +horses killed and sixteen wounded. But the Afghans were naturally elated +by the success they had unquestionably achieved; the national rising had +been inaugurated by a distinct triumph, the news of which would bring +into the field incalculable swarms of fierce and fanatical partisans. It +was clear that Mahomed Jan had a quick eye for opportunities, and some +skill in handling men. That he could recognise the keypoint of a position +and act boldly and promptly on that recognition, his tactics of the 11th +made abundantly obvious, and his commanding position on the morning of +the 12th still further demonstrated his tactical ability. _L'audace, +encore l'audace, et toujours l'audace_ is the game to be played by the +commander of disciplined troops against Asiatic levies, and no man was +more sensible of this than the gallant soldier who now from the bastion +of Sherpur could see the Afghan standards waving on the summit of the +Takht-i-Shah. Indeed he was impressed so thoroughly by the force of the +maxim as to allow himself to hope that some 560 soldiers, of whom about +one-third were Europeans, backed by a couple of mountain guns, would be +able to carry by assault the lofty peak, strongly held by resolute +Afghans in protected positions, supported by several thousands of their +fellows lying out of sight until an attack should develop itself, to meet +which they were at hand to reinforce the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah. +From the gorge of the Cabul river there runs due south to near Charasiah +a lofty and rugged range, the highest point of which, the Takht-i-Shah, +is about midway from either extremity. From this main ridge there project +eastward at right angles two lateral spurs. The shorter and more +northerly of those runs down to the Balla Hissar, the longer and more +southerly obtruding itself into the plain as far as the village of Beni +Hissar. This latter spur quits the main ridge no great distance south of +the Takht-i-Shah peak, and on the 12th the Afghan reserves were massed in +rear of the peak, both on the main ridge and on this spur. The steep +faces of the mountain were strewn with great smooth boulders and jagged +masses of rock; the ascent, everywhere laborious, was complicated in +places by sheer scarps, and those formidable impediments were made still +more difficult by frequent sungahs, strong stone curtains behind which +the defenders lay safe or fired with a minimum of exposure. On the summit +was a great natural cavity which had been made bomb proof by art, and +further cover was afforded by caves and lines of rock. The most northerly +portion of the ridge described is known as the Sher Derwaza heights, +which Macpherson had occupied on the morning of the 12th, and his brigade +it was which furnished the little force already mentioned as charged to +attempt the task of storming the Takht-i-Shah. + +For several hours Morgan's two mountain guns industriously shelled that +peak, and then the infantry made their effort. The Afghans fought +stubbornly in defence of a lower hill they held in advance of the +Takht-i-Shah, but after a hard struggle they had to abandon it to +Macpherson's resolute men. But the exertions of the latter to ascend the +peak were baulked by its rugged steepness and the fire of the Afghans +holding the sungahs on its face. Sir Frederick Roberts had to recognise +that the direct attack by so weak a force unaided by a diversion, could +not succeed, and he ordered further efforts to be deferred. The +casualties of the abortive attempt included three officers, one of whom, +Major Cook, V.C. of the Goorkhas, than whom the British army contained no +better soldier, died of his wound. Macpherson was directed to hold the +ground he had won, including the lower advanced hill, and was informed +that on the following morning he was to expect the co-operation of +General Baker from the direction of Beni Hissar. + +The lesson of the result of attempting impossibilities had been taken to +heart, and the force which Baker led out on the morning of the 13th was +exceptionally strong, consisting as it did of the 92d Highlanders and +Guides infantry, a wing of the 3d Sikhs, a cavalry regiment, and eight +guns. Marching in the direction of the lateral spur extending from the +main ridge eastward to Beni Hissar, Baker observed that large masses of +the enemy were quitting the plain villages about Beni Hissar in which +they had taken shelter for the night, and were hurrying to gain the +summit of the spur which constituted the defensive position of the Afghan +reserve. Baker's _coup d'oeil_ was quick and true. By gaining the centre +of the spur he would cut in two the Afghan line along its summit, and so +isolate and neutralise the section of it from the centre to the Beni +Hissar extremity, toward which section the reinforcements from the plain +villages were climbing. But to accomplish this shrewd stroke it was +necessary that he should act with promptitude and energy. His guns opened +fire on the summit. The Sikhs, extended athwart the plain, protected his +right flank. His cavalry on the left cut into the bodies of Afghans +hurrying to ascend the eastern extremity of the spur. With noble +emulation the Highlanders and the Guides sprang up the rugged slope, +their faces set towards the centre of the summit line. Major White, who +already had earned many laurels in the campaign, led on his Highlanders; +the Guides, burning to make the most of their first opportunity to +distinguish themselves, followed eagerly the gallant chief who had so +often led them to victory on other fields. Lieutenant Forbes, a young +officer of the 92d heading the advance of his regiment, reached the +summit accompanied only by his colour-sergeant. A band of ghazees rushed +on the pair and the sergeant fell. As Forbes stood covering his body he +was overpowered and slain. The sudden catastrophe staggered for a moment +the soldiers following their officer, but Lieutenant Dick Cunyngham +rallied them immediately and led them forward at speed. For his conduct +on this occasion Cunyngham received the Victoria Cross. + +With rolling volleys Highlanders and Guides reached and won the summit. +The Afghans momentarily clung to the position, but the British fire swept +them away and the bayonets disposed of the ghazees, who fought and died +in defence of their standards. The severance of the Afghan line was +complete. A detachment was left to maintain the isolation of some 2000 of +the enemy who had been cut off; and then swinging to their right Baker's +regiments swept along the summit of the spur toward the main ridge and +the Takht-i-Shah, the Highlanders leading. As they advanced they rolled +up the Afghan line and a panic set in among the enemy, who sought safety +in flight. Assailed from both sides, for Macpherson's men from the +conical hill were passing up the north side of the peak, and shaken by +the steady fire of the mountain guns, the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah +evacuated the position. Baker's soldiers toiled vigorously upward toward +the peak, keen for the honour of winning it; but the credit of that +achievement justly fell to their comrades of Macpherson's command, who +had striven so valiantly to earn it the day before, and who had gained +possession of the peak and the Afghan standards flying on its summit, a +few minutes before the arrival of White's Highlanders and Jenkins' +Guides. As the midday gun was fired in the cantonment the flash of the +heliograph from the peak told that the Takht-i-Shah was won. + +While Baker was sweeping the spur and climbing the lofty peak of the main +ridge, his reserve, which remained in the plain, was in sharp action +against masses of assailants from the city and other bodies from the +villages about Beni Hissar. Those were beaten off by the 3d Sikhs and +Baker's flanks were thus cleared, but the resolute Afghans, bent on +interfering with his return march, surged away in the direction of the +Siah Sung ridge and gathered thereon in considerable strength. The guns +of Sherpur shelled them smartly, but they held their ground; and Massy +went out to disperse them with the cavalry. The Afghans showed unwonted +resolution, confronting the cavalry with extraordinary steadiness in +regular formation and withholding their fire until the troopers were +close upon them. But the horsemen were not to be denied. Captains Butson +and Chisholme led their squadrons against the Afghan flanks, and the +troopers of the 9th avenged the mishap which had befallen that gallant +regiment two days before, riding through and through the hostile masses +and scattering them over the plain. But in the charge Butson was killed, +Chisholme and Trower were wounded; the sergeant-major and three men were +killed and seven were wounded. Brilliant charges were delivered by the +other cavalry detachments, and the Siah Sung heights were ultimately +cleared. The Guides' cavalry attacked, defeated, and pursued for a long +distance a body of Kohistanees marching from the north-east apparently +with intent to join Mahomed Jan. The casualties of the day were sixteen +killed and forty-five wounded; not a heavy loss considering the amount of +hard fighting. The Afghans were estimated to have lost in killed alone +from 200 to 300 men. + +The operations of the day were unquestionably successful so far as they +went, but the actual results attained scarcely warranted the anticipation +that the Afghans would acknowledge themselves defeated by breaking up +their combination and dispersing to their homes. It was true that they +had been defeated, but they had fought with unprecedented stubbornness +and gave little evidence of being cowed. Throughout the day the villages +around Cabul had evinced a rancorous hostility which had a marked +significance. Not less significant was the participation in the fighting +of the day on the part of the population of Cabul. As Baker was returning +to Sherpur in the evening he had been fired upon from the Balla Hissar, +and his flanking parties had found ambushes of armed Afghans among the +willows between the city and the cantonment. But for the skill and +courage of the non-commissioned officer in charge a convoy of wounded on +its way to Sherpur would certainly have been destroyed. But there was a +stronger argument than any of those indications, significant as they were +of the unbroken spirit of the Afghans, telling against the probability +that the operations of the day would have the effect of putting down the +national rising. The hordes which had gathered to the banners of the +Mushk-i-Alum and Mahomed Jan combined with the fanaticism of the _jehad_ +a fine secular greed for plunder. Was it likely that they would scatter +resignedly, leaving untouched the rich booty of the city that had been +almost within arm's-length as they looked down on it from the peak of the +Takht-i-Shah, and whose minarets they were within sight of on the spur +and in the villages of Beni-Hissar? Was that ever likely? And was it not +made more and yet more unlikely when on the afternoon of the 13th +Macpherson, acting on orders, moved his camp to the Balla Hissar heights, +evacuating Deh Mazung and leaving open to the enemy the road into the +city through the Cabul gorge? The following morning was to show how +promptly and how freely the Afghans had taken advantage of the access to +the capital thus afforded them. It must never be forgotten that at this +time our people in Afghanistan held no more territory than the actual +ground they stood upon and the terrain swept by their fire. No +trustworthy intelligence from outside that region was procurable; and of +this there can be no clearer evidence than that the General was under the +belief that the enemy had been 'foiled in their western and southern +operations.' + +The morning of the 14th effectually dispelled the optimistic +anticipations indulged in overnight. At daybreak a large body of Afghans, +with many standards, were discerned on a hill about a mile northward of +the Asmai ridge, from which and from the Kohistan road they were moving +on to the crest of that ridge. They were joined there by several +thousands coming up the slopes from out the village of Deh Afghan, the +northern suburb of Cabul. It was estimated that there were about 8000 men +in position along the summit of the ridge, and occupying also a low +conical hill beyond its north-western termination. The array of Afghans +displayed itself within a mile of the west face of the Sherpur +cantonment, and formed a menace which could not be brooked. To General +Baker was entrusted the task of dislodging the enemy from the threatening +position, and there was assigned to him for this purpose a force +consisting of about 1200 bayonets, eight guns, and a regiment of native +cavalry. His first object was to gain possession of the conical hill +already mentioned, and thus debar the Afghan force on the Asmai heights +from receiving accessions either from the masses on the hill further +north or by the Kohistan road. Under cover of the artillery fire the +Highlanders and Guides occupied this conical hill after a short conflict. +A detachment was left to hold it and then Colonel Jenkins, who commanded +the attack, set about the arduous task of storming from the northward the +formidable position of the Asmai heights. The assault was led by +Brownlow's staunch Highlanders, supported on the right by the Guides +operating on the enemy's flank; and the Afghan position was heavily +shelled by four of Baker's guns, and by four more in action near the +south-western corner of the Sherpur cantonment. Macpherson from his +position on the Balla Hissar hill aided the attack by the fire of his +guns, and also by despatching two companies of the 67th to cross the +Cabul gorge and operate against the enemy's left rear. + +In the face of a heavy fire the Highlanders and Guides climbed with great +speed and steadiness the rugged hillside leading upward to the Afghan +breastwork on the northern edge of the summit. Their approach and the +crushing shrapnel fire from the guns near Sherpur had caused numerous +Afghans to move downward from the position toward Deh Afghan, heavily +smitten as they went; but the ghazees in the breastworks made a strenuous +resistance and died under their banners as the Highlanders carried the +defences with a rush. The crest, about a quarter of a mile long, was +traversed under heavy fire and the southern breastwork on the peak was +approached. It was strong and strongly held, but a cross fire was brought +to bear on its garrison, and then the frontal attack led by a +lance-corporal of the 72d was delivered. After a hand-to-hand grapple in +which Highlanders and Guides were freely cut and slashed by the knives of +the ghazees, the position, which was found full of dead, was carried, but +with considerable loss. The whole summit of the Asmai heights was now in +British possession, and everything seemed auspicious. The Afghans +streaming down from the heights toward the city were being lacerated by +shell fire and musketry fire as they descended. When they took refuge in +Deh Afghan that suburb was heavily shelled, and it was gradually +evacuated. + +Scarcely had Jenkins won the summit of the Asmai ridge when the fortune +of the day was suddenly overcast; indeed while he was still engaged in +the attainment of that object premonitory indications of serious mischief +were unexpectedly presenting themselves. A vast host of Afghans described +as numbering from 15,000 to 20,000, debouched into the Chardeh valley +from the direction of Indikee, and were moving northwards, apparently +with the object of forming a junction with the masses occupying the hills +to the north-west of the Asmai heights. About the same time cavalry +scouting in the Chardeh valley brought in the information that large +parties of hostile infantry and cavalry were hurrying across the valley +in the direction of the conical hill the defence of which had been +entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Clark with 120 Highlanders and Guides. +Recognising Clark's weakness, General Baker had judiciously reinforced +that officer with four mountain guns and 100 bayonets. The guns opened +fire on the Afghan bodies marching from the Killa Kazee direction, and +drove them out of range. But they coalesced with the host advancing from +Indikee, and the vast mass of Afghans, facing to the right, struck the +whole range of the British position from near the Cabul gorge on the +south to and beyond the conical hill on the north. The most vulnerable +point was the section at and about that eminence, and the necessity for +supplying Clark with further reinforcements became urgently manifest. +Baker sent up a second detachment, and 200 Sikhs came out from Sherpur at +the double. But the Afghans, creeping stealthily in great numbers up the +slope from out the Chardeh valley, had the shorter distance to travel, +and were beforehand with the reinforcements. Their tactics were on a par +with their resolution. The left of their attack grasped and held a knoll +north of the conical hill, and from this position of vantage brought a +cross fire to bear on Clark's detachment. As their direct attack +developed itself it encountered from the conical hill a heavy rifle fire, +and shells at short range tore through the loose rush of ghazees, but the +fanatics sped on and up without wavering. As they gathered behind a mound +for the final onslaught, Captain Spens of the 72d with a handful of his +Highlanders went out on the forlorn hope of dislodging them. A rush was +made on him; he was overpowered and slaughtered after a desperate +resistance, and the Afghan charge swept up the hill-side. In momentary +panic the defenders gave ground, carrying downhill with them the +reinforcement of Punjaubees which Captain Hall was bringing up. Two of +the mountain guns were lost, but there was a rally at the foot of the +hill under cover of which the other two were extricated. The Afghans +refrained from descending into the plain, and directed their efforts +toward cutting off the occupants of the position on the Asmai summit. +They ascended by two distinct directions. One body from the conical hill +followed the route taken by Jenkins in the morning; another scaled a spur +trending downward to the Chardeh valley from the southern extremity of +the Asmai ridge. + +It was estimated that the Afghan strength disclosed this day did not fall +short of 40,000 men; and General Roberts was reluctantly compelled to +abandon for the time any further offensive efforts. His reasons, stated +with perfect frankness, may best be given in his own words. 'Up to this +time,' he wrote, 'I had no reason to apprehend that the Afghans were in +sufficient force to cope successfully with disciplined troops, but the +resolute and determined manner in which the conical hill had been +recaptured, and the information sent to me by Brigadier-General +Macpherson that large masses of the enemy were still advancing from the +north, south, and west, made it evident that the numbers combined against +us were too overwhelming to admit of my comparatively small force meeting +them. I therefore determined to withdraw from all isolated positions, and +to concentrate the whole force at Sherpur, thus securing the safety of +our large cantonment, and avoiding what had now become a useless +sacrifice of life.' The orders issued to Generals Baker and Macpherson to +retire into the cantonment were executed with skill and steadiness. +Jenkins' evacuation of the Asmai position was conspicuously adroit. When +the order to quit reached that able officer, Major Stockwell of the 72d +was out with a small detachment, maintaining a hot fire on the Afghan +bodies ascending by the southern spur from the Chardeh valley. He fell +back with great deliberation, and when he rejoined the retirement down +the hill face looking toward Sherpur was leisurely proceeded with, the +hostile advance from, the northern side being held in check by the fire +of covering parties from Jenkins' left flank. General Macpherson's +retirement was masterly. Flanking his march through the Cabul gorge with +two companies of the 67th who stalled off a rush of ghazees from the +Asmai crest, he continued his march through the suburb of Deh Afghan, his +baggage in front under a strong guard. Some few shots were exchanged +before the suburb was cleared, but the casualties were few and presently +the brigade entered the cantonment. General Baker continued to hold a +covering position with part of his force, until the troops from the +heights and Macpherson's command had made good their retirement, and he +was the last to withdraw. By dusk the whole force was safely concentrated +within the cantonment, and the period of the defensive had begun. The +casualties of the day were serious; thirty-five killed, and 107 wounded. +During the week of fighting the little force had lost somewhat heavily; +the killed numbered eighty-three, the wounded 192. Eight officers were +killed, twelve were wounded. + + + + +CHAPTER V: ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + +Although overlarge for its garrison, the Sherpur cantonment had many of +the features of a strong defensive position. On the southern and western +faces the massive and continuous enciente made it impregnable against any +force unprovided with siege artillery. But on the eastern face the wall +had been built to the elevation only of seven feet, and at either end of +the Behmaroo heights, which constituted the northern line of defence, +there were open gaps which had to be made good. The space between the +north-western bastion and the heights was closed by an entrenchment +supported by a 'laager' of Afghan gun-carriages and limbers, the ground +in front strengthened by abattis and wire entanglements, beyond which a +village flanking the northern and western faces was occupied as a +detached post. The open space on the north-eastern angle was similarly +fortified; the village of Behmaroo was loopholed, and outlying buildings +to the front were placed in a state of defence. The unfinished eastern +wall was heightened by logs built up in tiers, and its front was covered +with abattis, a tower and garden outside being occupied by a detachment. +A series of block houses had been built along the crest of the Behmaroo +heights supporting a continuous entrenchment, gun emplacements made in +the line of defence, and the gorge dividing the heights strongly +fortified against an attack from the northern plain. The enciente was +divided into sections to each of which was assigned a commanding officer +with a specified detail of troops; and a strong reserve of European +infantry was under the command of Brigadier-General Baker, ready at short +notice to reinforce any threatened point. It was presumably owing to the +absorption of the troops in fighting, collecting supplies, and providing +winter shelter, that when the concentration within Sherpur became +suddenly necessary the defences of the position were still seriously +defective; and throughout the period of investment the force was +unremittingly engaged in the task of strengthening them. Nor had the +military precaution been taken of razing the villages and enclosures +within the fire zone of the enciente, and they remained to afford cover +to the enemy during the period of investment. + +Before the enemy cut the telegraph wire in the early morning of the 15th +Sir Frederick Roberts had informed the authorities in India of his +situation and of his need for reinforcements; and he had also ordered up +General Charles Gough's brigade without loss of time. Gough was already +at Jugdulluk when he received the order calling him to Cabul, but he had +to wait for reinforcements and supplies, and the tribesmen were +threatening his position and the line of communication in rear of it. He +did not move forward until the 21st. On the following day he reached +Luttabund, whence he took on with him the garrison of that post, but +although his march was unmolested it was not until the 24th that he +reached Sherpur, a day too late to participate in repelling the assault +on the cantonment. + +While General Roberts' force was busily engaged in making good the +defences of Sherpur, the Afghans refrained from attempting to back their +success on the Asmai heights by an assault on the defensive position +which seemed to invite an attack. During the first two days of their +possession of the city they were enjoying the fruits of their occupation +in their own turbulent manner. Roberts' spies reported them busily +engaged in sacking the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters, in looting and +wrecking the houses of chiefs and townsfolk who had shown friendliness to +the British, and in quarrelling among themselves over the spoils. +Requisitioning was in full force. The old Moulla Mushk-i-Alum was the +temporary successor of General Hills in the office of Governor of Cabul; +and spite of his ninety years he threw extraordinary energy into the work +of arousing fanaticism and rallying to Cabul the fighting men of the +surrounding country. The _jehad_ of which he had been the chief +instigator had certainly attained unexampled dimensions, and although it +was not in the nature of things that every Afghan who carried arms should +be inspired with religious fanaticism to such a pitch as to be utterly +reckless of his life, swarms of fierce ghazees made formidable the levies +which Mahomed Jan commanded. + +On the 17th and 18th the Afghans made ostentatious demonstrations against +Sherpur, but those were never formidable, although they made themselves +troublesome with some perseverance during the daytime, consistently +refraining from night attacks, which was remarkable since ordinarily they +are much addicted to the _chapao_. There never was any investment of +Sherpur, or indeed any approximation to investment. Cavalry +reconnaissances constantly went out, and piquets and videttes were +habitually on external duty; infantry detachments sallied forth whenever +occasion demanded to dislodge the assailants from points occupied by them +in inconvenient proximity to the defences. The Afghan offensive was not +dangerous, but annoying and wearying. It was indeed pushed with some +resolution on the 18th, when several thousand men poured out of the city, +and skirmished forward under cover of the gardens and enclosures on the +plain between Cabul and Sherpur, in the direction of the southern front +and the south-western bastions. The Afghans are admirable skirmishers, +and from their close cover kept up for hours a brisk fire on the soldiers +lining the Sherpur defences, but with singularly little effect. The +return rifle fire was for the most part restricted to volleys directed on +those of the enemy who offered a sure mark by exposing themselves; and +shell fire was chiefly used to drive the Afghan skirmishers from their +cover in the gardens and enclosures. Some of those, notwithstanding, were +able to get within 400 yards of the enciente, but could make no further +headway. On the morning of the 19th it was found that in the night the +enemy had occupied the Meer Akhor fort, a few hundred yards beyond the +eastern face, and close to the Residency compound of the old cantonments +of 1839-42. The fire from this fort was annoying, and General Baker went +out on the errand of destroying it, with 800 bayonets, two mountain guns, +and a party of sappers. As the fort was being approached through the +dense mist a sudden volley from it struck down several men, and +Lieutenant Montenaro of the mountain battery was mortally wounded. The +fort was heavily shelled from the south-eastern bastion; its garrison +evacuated it, and it was blown up. + +Mahomed Jan and his coadjutors could hardly flatter themselves that as +yet they had made any impression on the steadfast defence which the +British force was maintaining in the Sherpur cantonment. The Afghan +leader had tried force in vain; he knew the history of that strange +period in the winter of 1841 during which Afghan truculence and audacity +had withered the spirit of a British force not much less numerically +strong than the little army now calmly withstanding him. Things had not +gone very well with that little army of late, possibly its constancy +might have been impaired, and its chief might be willing, as had been +Elphinstone and the Eltchi, to listen to terms. Anyhow there could be no +harm in making a proffer based on the old lines. So the Afghan leader +proposed to General Roberts, apparently in all seriousness, that the +British army should forthwith evacuate Afghanistan, encountering no +molestation in its march; that the British General before departing +should engage that Yakoub Khan should return to Afghanistan as its Ameer; +and that there should be left behind two officers of distinction as +hostages for the faithful fulfilment of the contract. 'We have a lakh of +men; they are like wolves eager to rush on their prey! We cannot much +longer control them!'--such were said to have been the terms of a message +intended to disturb the equanimity of the British commander. Meer Butcha +and his Kohistanees, again, were not to all appearance anxious for the +restoration of Yakoub. They professed themselves content to accept our +staunch friend Wali Mahomed as Ameer, if only the British army would be +good enough to march home promptly and leave to Afghans the +administration of Afghan affairs. It was not likely that a man of +Roberts' nature would demean himself to take any notice of such +overtures. For the moment circumstances had enforced on him the wisdom of +accepting the defensive attitude, but he knew himself, nevertheless, the +virtual master of the situation. He had but one serious anxiety--the +apprehension lest the Afghans should not harden their hearts to deliver +an assault on his position. + +That apprehension was not long to give him concern. On the 20th, as a +menace against the southern face of Sherpur, the enemy took strong +possession of the Mahomed Shereef fort, stormed so gallantly by Colonel +Griffiths on 6th November 1841; and they maintained themselves there +during the two following days in face of the fire of siege guns mounted +on the bastions of the enciente. On the 21st and 22d large numbers of +Afghans quitted the city, and passing eastward behind the Siah Sung +heights, took possession in great force of the forts and villages outside +the eastern face of Sherpur. On the 22d a spy brought in the intelligence +that Mahomed Jan and his brother-chiefs had resolved to assault the +cantonment early on the following morning, and the spy was able to +communicate the plan of attack. The 2000 men holding the King's Garden +and the Mahomed Shereef fort had been equipped with scaling ladders, and +were to make a false attack which might become a real one, against the +western section of the southern front. The principal assault, however, +was to be made against the eastern face of the Behmaroo +village--unquestionably the weakest part of the defensive position. The +23d was the last day of the Mohurrum--the great Mahomedan religious +festival, when fanaticism would be at its height; and further to +stimulate that incentive to valour, the Mushk-i-Alum would himself kindle +the beacon fire on the Asmai height which was to be the signal to the +faithful to rush to the assault. + +The information proved perfectly accurate. All night long the shouts and +chants of the Afghans filled the air. Purposeful silence reigned +throughout the cantonment. In the darkness the soldiers mustered and +quietly fell into their places; the officers commanding sections of the +defence made their dispositions; the reserves were silently standing to +their arms. Every eye was toward the Asmai heights, shrouded still in the +gloom of the night. A long tongue of flame shot up into the air, blazed +brilliantly for a few moments, and then waned. At the signal a fierce +fire opened from the broken ground before one of the gateways of the +southern face, the flashes indicating that the marksmen were plying their +rifles within 200 yards of the enciente. The bullets sped harmlessly over +the defenders sheltered behind the parapet, and in the dusk of the dawn +reprisals were not attempted. But this outburst of powder-burning against +the southern face was a mere incident; what men listened and watched for +was the development of the true assault on the eastern end of the great +parallelogram. The section commanders there were General Hugh Gough in +charge of the eastern end of the Behmaroo heights, and Colonel Jenkins +from the village down to the Native Hospital and beyond to the bastion at +the south-eastern corner. The troops engaged were the Guides from the +ridge down to Behmaroo village and beyond to the Native Hospital, in +which were 100 men of the 28th Punjaub Infantry, and between the Hospital +and the corner bastion the 67th, reinforced by two companies of 92d +Highlanders from the reserve, which later sent to the defence of the +eastern face additional contributions of men and guns. 'From beyond +Behmaroo and the eastern trenches and walls,' writes Mr Hensman, 'came a +roar of voices so loud and menacing that it seemed as if an army fifty +thousand strong was charging down on our thin line of men. Led by their +ghazees, the main body of Afghans hidden in the villages and orchards on +the east side of Sherpur had rushed out in one dense mob, and were +filling the air with their shouts of "Allah-il-Allah." The roar surged +forward as their line advanced, but it was answered by such a roll of +musketry that it was drowned for the moment, and then merged into the +general din which told us that our men with Martinis and Sniders were +holding their own against the attacking force.' When the first attack +thus graphically described was made the morning was still so dark and +misty that the outlook from the trenches was restricted, and the order to +the troops was to hold their fire till the assailants should be +distinctly visible. The detachment of the 28th opened fire somewhat +prematurely, and presently the Guides holding Behmaroo and the trenches +on the slopes followed the example, and sweeping with their fire the +terrain in front of them broke the force of the attack while its leaders +were still several hundred yards away. Between the Hospital and the +corner bastion the men of the 67th and 92d awaited with impassive +discipline the word of permission to begin firing. From out the mist at +length emerged dense masses of men, some of whom were brandishing swords +and knives, while others loaded and fired while hurrying forward. The +order to fire was not given until the leading ghazees were within eighty +yards, and the mass of assailants not more distant than 200 yards. +Heavily struck then by volley on volley, they recoiled but soon gathered +courage to come on again; and for several hours there was sharp fighting, +repeated efforts being made to carry the low eastern wall. So resolute +were the Afghans that more than once they reached the abattis, but each +time were driven back with heavy loss. About ten o'clock there was a lull +and it seemed that the attacking force was owning the frustration of its +attempts, but an hour later there was a partial recrudescence of the +fighting and the assailants once more came on. The attack, however, was +not pushed with much vigour and was soon beaten down, but the Afghans +still maintained a threatening attitude and the fire from the defences +was ineffectual to dislodge them. The General resolved to take their +positions in flank, and with this intent sent out into the open through +the gorge in the Behmaroo heights, four field guns escorted by a cavalry +regiment. Bending to the right, the guns came into action on the right +flank of the Afghans, and the counter-stroke had immediate effect. The +enemy wavered and soon were in full retreat. The Kohistanee contingent, +some 5000 strong, cut loose and marched away northward, with obvious +recognition that the game was up. The fugitives were scourged with +artillery and rifle fire, and Massy led out the cavalry, swept the plain, +and drove the lingering Afghans from the slopes of Siah Sung. The false +attack on the southern face from the King's Garden and the Mahomed +Shereef fort never made any head. Those positions were steadily shelled +until late in the afternoon, when they were finally evacuated, and by +nightfall all the villages and enclosures between Sherpur and Cabul were +entirely deserted. Some of those had been destroyed by sappers from the +garrison during the afternoon, in the course of which operation two +gallant engineer officers, Captain Dundas and Lieutenant Nugent, were +unfortunately killed by the premature explosion of a mine. + +Mahomed Jan had been as good as his word; he had delivered his stroke +against Sherpur, and that stroke had utterly failed. With its failure +came promptly the collapse of the national rising. Before daybreak of the +24th the formidable combination which had included all the fighting +elements of North-Eastern Afghanistan, and under whose banners it was +believed that more than 100,000 armed men had mustered, was no more. Not +only had it broken up; it had disappeared. Neither in the city, nor in +the adjacent villages, nor on the surrounding heights, was a man to be +seen. So hurried had been the Afghan dispersal that the dead lay unburied +where they had fallen. His nine days on the defensive had cost General +Roberts singularly little in casualties; his losses were eighteen killed +and sixty-eight wounded. The enemy's loss from first to last of the +rising was reckoned to be not under 3000. + +On the 24th the cavalry rode far and fast in pursuit of the fugitives, +but they overtook none, such haste had the fleeing Afghans made. On the +same day Cabul and the Balla Hissar were reoccupied, and General Hills +resumed his functions as military governor of the city. Cabul had the +aspect of having undergone a sack at the hands of the enemy; the bazaars +were broken up and deserted and the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters had +been relentlessly wrecked. Sir Frederick Roberts lost no time in +despatching a column to, the Kohistan to punish Meer Butcha by destroying +that chief's forts and villages, and to ascertain whether the tribesmen +of the district had dispersed to their homes. This was found to be the +case, and the column returned after having been out five days. After +making a few examples the General issued a proclamation of amnesty, +excluding therefrom only five of the principal leaders and fomentors of +the recent rising, and stipulating that the tribesmen should send +representatives to Sherpur to receive explanations regarding the +dispositions contemplated for the government of the country. This policy +of conciliation bore good fruit; and a durbar was held on January 9th, +1880, at which were present about 200 sirdars, chiefs, and headmen from +the Kohistan, Logur, and the Ghilzai country. Rewards were presented to +those chiefs who had remained friendly; the General received the salaams +of the assembled sirdars and then addressed them in a firm but +conciliatory speech. + +The country remained still in a disturbed state, but there was little +likelihood of a second general rising. General Roberts was resolved, +however, to be thoroughly prepared to cope with that contingency should +it occur. Sherpur was encircled by a military road, and all cover and +obstructions for the space of 1000 yards outside the enciente were swept +away. Another road was constructed from Behmaroo village to the Siah Sung +heights and yet another from the south-eastern gateway direct to the +Balla Hissar, on both of which there were bridges across the Cabul river. +Along the northern face of Cabul from Deh Afghan to the Balla Hissar, a +road broad enough for guns was made, and another broad road cut through +the lower Balla Hissar. Another military road was built through the Cabul +gorge to the main Ghuznee and Bamian road in the Chardeh valley. Strong +forts were built on the Asmai and Sher Derwaza heights and on the spur +above the Balla Hissar, which, well garrisoned and supplied adequately +with provisions, water, and ammunition, would enable Cabul as well as +Sherpur to be held. The latter was greatly strengthened, the eastern +point of the Behmaroo heights being converted into something like a +regular fortress. Later, in March, when the Cabul force had increased to +a strength of about 11,500 men and twenty-six guns, the command was +formed into two divisions, of which the first remained under the +Lieutenant-General, the second being commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The line of communications was in charge of Major-General Bright, +and Brigadier-General Hugh Gough was the cavalry commander in succession +to Brigadier-General Massy. On the 2d of May, Sir Donald Stewart arriving +at Cabul from Candahar, took over the chief command in North-Eastern +Afghanistan from Sir Frederick Roberts. Sir Donald's march from Candahar, +which was an eventful one, is dealt with in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI: AHMED KHEL + +While Sir Frederick Roberts had been fighting hard in North-Eastern +Afghanistan, Sir Donald Stewart had been experiencing comparative +tranquillity in his Candahar command. As soon as the news reached him of +the destruction of Cavagnari's mission he had promptly concentrated his +troops, and so early as the third week of September (1879) he was in a +position to carry out his orders to create a diversion in aid of Roberts' +advance on Cabul by making a demonstration in the direction of Ghuznee +and placing a garrison in Khelat-i-Ghilzai. No subsequent movements of +importance were undertaken in Southern Afghanistan during the winter, and +the province enjoyed almost unbroken quietude. In Herat, however, +disturbance was rife. Ayoub Khan, the brother of Yakoub Khan, had +returned from exile and made good his footing in Herat, of which formerly +he had been conjoint governor with Yakoub. In December he began a hostile +advance on Candahar, but a conflict broke out between the Cabul and Herat +troops under his command, and he abandoned for the time his projected +expedition. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT AHMED KHEL. 20 Miles from GHUZNEE. 19th. April +1880.] + +In the end of March Sir Donald Stewart began the march toward Cabul which +orders from India had prescribed. He left behind him in Candahar the +Bombay division of his force under the command of Major-General Primrose, +whose line of communication with the Indus valley was to be kept open by +Phayre's brigade, and took with him on the northward march the Bengal +division, consisting of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade. The +first infantry brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Barter, the +second by Brigadier-General Hughes, and the cavalry brigade, which +divisional headquarters accompanied, by Brigadier-General Palliser. +Khelat-i-Ghilzai was reached on 6th April; the Bengal portion of its +garrison joined the division and the advance was resumed on the following +day. Until Shahjui, the limit of the Candahar province, the march was +uneventful; but beyond that place extreme difficulties were experienced +in procuring supplies, for the villages were found deserted and the +inhabitants had carried off, destroyed, or hidden their stores of grain. +The force was embarrassed by a horde of Hazaras, who swarmed in wild +irregularity on its flanks, plundering and burning with great +vindictiveness, eager to wreak vengeance on their Afghan foes. And it had +another although more distant companionship, in the shape of several +thousand hostile tribesmen and ghazees, whose fanaticism their moullas +had been assiduously inciting, and who marched day by day parallel with +the British right flank along the foothills at a distance of about eight +miles. Their attitude was threatening but it was not thought wise to +meddle with them, since their retreat over the hills could not well be +cut off, and since the policy of non-interference would tend to encourage +them to venture on a battle. The soundness of this reasoning was soon to +be made manifest. + +On the night of April 18th the division was encamped at Mushaki, about +thirty miles south of Ghuznee. The spies that evening brought in the +information that the enemy had resolved on fighting on the following +morning, and that the position they intended to take up was the summit of +a low spur of the Gul Koh mountain ridge, bounding on the west the valley +followed by the road. This spur was said to project in a north-easterly +direction toward the Ghuznee river, gradually sinking into the plain. +During a great part of its length it flanked and overhung the road, but +near where it merged into the plain the road passed over it by a low +saddle at a point about six miles beyond Mushaki. At dawn of the 19th the +column moved off, Palliser leading the advance, which Sir Donald Stewart +accompanied, Hughes commanding the centre, Barter bringing up the rear +and protecting the baggage. An hour later the enemy were visible in great +strength about three miles in advance, presenting the aspect of a vast +body formed up on the spur and on the saddle crossed by the road, and +thus threatening Stewart at once in front and on both flanks. The British +general at once made his dispositions. His guns were on the road in +column of route. The three infantry regiments of Hughes' brigade came up +to the left of and in line with the leading battery, the cavalry took +ground on the plain on its right, and a reserve was formed consisting of +an infantry regiment, two companies sappers and miners, and the General's +escort of a troop and two companies. Orders were sent back to Barter to +send forward without delay half the infantry of his brigade. In the +formation described the force resumed its advance until within striking +distance. Then the two batteries came into action on either side of the +road; the horse-battery on the right, the flat ground to its right being +covered by the 2d Punjaub Cavalry; the field-battery on the left. Sir +Donald Stewart's proper front thus consisted of the field and +horse-batteries with their supports, but since it was apparent that the +greatest strength of the enemy was on the higher ground flanking his +left, it behoved him to show a front in that direction also, and for this +purpose he utilised Hughes' three infantry regiments, of which the 59th +was on the right, the 2d Sikhs in the centre, and the 3d Goorkhas on the +left. Part of the reserve infantry was sent to make good the interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. + +The guns had no sooner come into action than the enemy in great masses +showed themselves on spur and saddle and plain, bent seemingly on an +attempt to envelop the position held by the British. 'Suddenly,' writes +Hensmen, 'a commotion was observed in the most advanced lines of the +opposing army; the moullas could be seen haranguing the irregular host +with frantic energy, the beating of the tom-toms was redoubled, and then +as if by magic waves on waves of men--ghazees of the most desperate +type--poured down upon the plain, and rushed upon General Stewart's +force. The main body of the Afghan army remained upon the hill to watch +the ghazees in their reckless onslaught, and take advantage of any +success they might gain. The fanaticism of the 3000 or 4000 men who made +this desperate charge has perhaps never been equalled; they had 500 or +600 yards to cover before they could come to close quarters, and yet they +made nothing of the distance. Nearly all were well armed with tulwars, +knives, and pistols. Some carried rifles and matchlocks, while a few--and +those must have been resolute fanatics indeed--had simply pikes made of +bayonets, or pieces of sharpened iron fastened on long shafts. Their +attack broke with greatest violence on our flanks. On our left flank the +19th Bengal Lancers were still moving into position when the ghazees +rushed in among them. In an instant they were hidden in the cloud of dust +and smoke, and then they galloped toward the right rear, and struck into +the reserve in rear of the Lieutenant-General and his staff. All was +confusion for a moment; the ammunition mules were stampeded, and with the +riderless horses of the lancers killed or wounded in the _melee_, dashed +into the headquarter staff. The ghazees had continued their onward rush, +and were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with our infantry. Some of them +penetrated to within twenty yards of the knoll on which the staff were +watching the action, and so critical was the moment that Sir Donald +Stewart and every man of his staff drew their swords and prepared for +self-defence.' The hurried retirement of the lancers had left the left +flank bare. It was turned by the fierce rush of the fanatics, who were +actually in rear of the leftward infantry regiment and in the heart of +the British position. The Goorkhas had been thrown into momentary +confusion, but their colonel promptly formed them into rallying squares, +whose fire mowed down the ghazees and arrested the headlong vehemence of +their turning movement. But it was not the British left only which was +temporarily compromised by the furious onslaught of the fanatics. Their +enveloping charge broke down the defence of the weakly-manned interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. The +detachments holding that interval were forced back, righting hand-to-hand +as the sheer weight of the assault compelled them to give ground; the +59th, in its effort to throw back its right to cover the interval and +protect the guns, was thrown into confusion and gave ground; and the +guns, their case shot exhausted and the Afghans within a few yards of +their muzzles, had to be retired. The onslaught on the right front of the +horse-battery was delivered with great determination, but was held at bay +and finally crushed by the repeated charges of the 2d Punjaub cavalry. + +Every man of the reserves was hurried into the fighting line; the +soldiers were steadied by the energetic efforts of their officers and +settled down to a steady and continuous fire from their breechloaders; +the guns poured their shells into the hostile masses; and the fire of the +forty-pounders on the left effectually arrested the attempt of the Afghan +horse to move round that flank. The hard-fought combat lasted for an +hour; at ten o'clock the 'cease fire' sounded, and the British victory +was signal. The enemy was dispersing in full flight, and the cavalry was +chasing the fugitives across the plain on the right. How reckless had +been the whirlwind charges of the ghazees was evidenced by the +extraordinary number of their dead whose corpses strewed the battlefield. +In no previous conflict between our troops and the Afghans had the latter +suffered nearly so heavily. More than 1000 dead were counted on the +field, and many bodies were carried away; on a moderate computation their +total loss must have been between 2000 and 3000, and that in an estimated +strength of from 12,000 to 15,000. The casualties of the British force +were seventeen killed and 124 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds. +The injuries consisted almost wholly of sword slashes and knife stabs +received in hand-to-hand encounters. The pursuit was soon recalled, but +the Hazaras took up the chase with ardour and in the rancour of vengeance +slew and spared not. + +Sir Donald Stewart tarried on the field only long enough to bury his dead +and have his wounded attended to; and soon after noon his force resumed +its march. Ghuznee was reached on the 21st, where there was a halt of +three days. It had been reported that the indomitable Mushk-i-Alum was +raising the tribesmen of Zurmut and Shilgur to avenge the defeat of Ahmed +Khel, and a cavalry reconnaissance made on the 22d had found a gathering +of 2000 or 3000 men about the villages of Urzoo and Shalez, six miles +south-east of Ghuznee. On the morning of the 23d a strong column +commanded by Brigadier-General Palliser moved on the villages, which were +found occupied in considerable force. They were too solidly built to be +much injured by artillery fire, and the Afghans lay close in the shelter +they afforded. Palliser hesitated to commit his infantry to an attack. +Sir Donald Stewart having arrived, ordered the infantry to carry the +villages without delay, and the affair was soon over, the tribesmen +suffering severely from the rifle fire as they evacuated the villages, +and later in the pursuit made by the cavalry and horse-artillery. On the +following day the march toward Cabul was resumed. + +On the 16th April Major-General Ross had been despatched from Cabul by +Sir Frederick Roberts on the mission of joining hands with Stewart's +division. On the 20th Ross opened heliographic communication with Sir +Donald, and was informed of the latter's victory at Ahmed Khel. But the +junction of the two forces was not accomplished until the 27th; and in +the interval the force commanded by General Ross had received +considerable annoyance at the hands of tribal levies gathered by local +chiefs. The tribesmen interfered with the roadmaking operations of his +sappers in the vicinity of Sheikabad, and some fighting occurred in very +rugged country on the 23d. Trivial loss was experienced by his command, +but the demonstrations of the tribesmen evinced with what inveterate +determination, notwithstanding so many severe lessons, the Afghans +persisted in their refusal to admit themselves conquered. Driven away +with severe loss on the 25th, those indomitable hillmen and villagers +were back again on the following morning on the overhanging ridges; nor +were they dispersed by the 'resources of civilised warfare' until more of +them had paid with their lives the penalty of their obstinate hostility. +On the 28th, at Sheikabad, Sir Donald Stewart took leave of the division +which he had led from Candahar, and proceeded to Cabul with General Ross' +force to assume the chief command in North-Eastern Afghanistan. His +division turned aside into the Logur valley, where it remained at until +the final concentration about Cabul in anticipation of the evacuation. By +the reinforcement brought by Stewart the Cabul field force was increased +to a strength of about 18,000 men. + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +The occupation of Afghanistan by the British troops had been prolonged +far beyond the period originally intended by the authorities. But the +strain of that occupation was great, and although it had to be maintained +until there should be found a ruler strong enough to hold his own after +the evacuation, the decision was definitely arrived at to withdraw from +the country before the setting in of another winter. Mr Lepel Griffin, a +distinguished member of the political department of the Indian Civil +Service, reached Cabul on 20th March, his mission being to further the +selection and acceptance of a capable ruler to be left in possession. The +task was no easy one. There was little promise in any of the Barakzai +pretenders who were in Afghanistan, and in the address which Mr Griffin +addressed in Durbar to a number of sirdars and chiefs in the middle of +April, he preserved a tone at once haughty and enigmatical. One thing he +definitely announced, the Viceroy's decision that Yakoub Khan was not to +return to Afghanistan. The State was to be dismembered. As to the future +of Herat the speaker made no allusion; but the province of Candahar was +to be separated from Cabul and placed under an independent Barakzai +prince. No decision could for the present be given in regard to the +choice of an Ameer to rule over Cabul. The Government desired to nominate +an Ameer strong enough to govern his people and steadfast in his +friendship to the British; if those qualifications could be secured the +Government was willing and anxious to recognise the wish of the Afghan +people, and nominate an Ameer of their choice. + +But in effect the choice, so far as the English were concerned, had been +already virtually made. On the 14th of March Lord Lytton had telegraphed +to the Secretary of State advocating the 'early public recognition of +Abdurrahman as legitimate heir of Dost Mahomed, and the despatch of a +deputation of sirdars, with British concurrence, to offer him the throne, +as sole means of saving the country from anarchy'; and the Minister had +promptly replied authorising the nomination of Abdurrahman, should he be +found 'acceptable to the country and would be contented with Northern +Afghanistan.' Abdurrahman had known strange vicissitudes. He was the +eldest grandson of the old Dost; his father was Afzul Khan, the elder +brother of Shere Ali. After the death of the Dost he had been an exile in +Bokhara, but he returned to Balkh, of which province his father had been +Governor until removed by Shere Ali, made good his footing there, and +having done so advanced on Cabul, taking advantage of Shere Ali's absence +at Candahar. The capital opened its gates to him in March 1866; he fought +a successful battle with Shere Ali at Sheikabad, occupied Ghuznee, and +proclaimed his father Ameer. Those were triumphs, but soon the wheel came +round full circle. Afzul had but a short life as Ameer, and Abdurrahman +had to retire to Afghan Turkestan. Yakoub, then full of vigour and +enterprise, defeated him at Bamian and restored his father Shere Ali to +the throne in the winter of 1868. Abdurrahman then once more found +himself an exile. In 1870, after much wandering, he reached Tashkend, +where General Kaufmann gave him permission to reside, and obtained for +him from the Czar a pension of 25,000 roubles per annum. Petrosvky, a +Russian writer who professed to be intimate with him during his period of +exile, wrote of him that, 'To get square some day with the English and +Shere Ali was Abdurrahman's most cherished thought, his dominant, +never-failing passion.' His hatred of Shere Ali, his family, and +supporters, was intelligible and natural enough, but why he should have +entertained a bitter grudge against the English is not very apparent; and +there has been no overt manifestation of its existence since he became +Ameer. To Mr Eugene Schuyler, who had an interview with him at Tashkend, +he expressed his conviction that with L50,000 wherewith to raise and +equip an army he could attain his legitimate position as Ameer of +Afghanistan. Resolutely bent on an effort to accomplish this purpose, he +was living penuriously and saving the greater part of his pension, and he +hinted that he might have Russian assistance in the prosecution of his +endeavour. The selection of a man of such antecedents and associations as +the ruler of a 'buffer' state in friendly relations with British India +was perhaps the greatest leap in the dark on record. Abdurrahman came +straight from the position of a Russian pensionary; in moving on +Afghanistan he obeyed Russian instructions; his Tashkend patrons had +furnished him with a modest equipment of arms and money, the value of +which he undertook to repay if successful. It is of course possible that +those functionaries of a notoriously simple and ingenuous government +started and equipped him in pure friendly good nature, although they had +previously consistently deterred him. But there was not a circumstance in +connection with Abdurrahman that was not suspicious. Three distinct +hypotheses seem to present themselves in relation to this selection as +our nominee; that Lord Lytton had extraordinary, almost indeed +preternatural foresight and sagacity; that he was extremely fortunate in +his leap in the dark; that he desired to bring to the naked _reductio ad +absurdum_ the 'buffer state' policy. When Abdurrahman began his movement +is uncertain. So early as the middle of January it was reported at +Sherpur that he had left Tashkend, and was probably already on the Afghan +side of the Oxus. In a letter of February 17th Mr Hensman speaks of him +as being in Badakshan, where his wife's kinsmen were in power, and +describes him as having a following of 2000 or 3000 Turcoman horsemen and +possessed according to native report of twelve lakhs of rupees. On the +17th of March Lord Lytton telegraphed to the Secretary of State that he +was in possession of 'authentic intelligence that the Sirdar was in +Afghan Turkestan, having lately arrived there from Badakshan.' + +[Illustration: The Ameer Abdurrahman.] + +It was regarded of urgent importance to ascertain definitely the +disposition of Abdurrahman, and whether he was disposed to throw in his +lot with the British Government, and accept the position of its nominee +in Northern Afghanistan. The agent selected by Mr Griffin to open +preliminary negotiations was a certain Mohamed Surwar, Ghilzai, who had +been all his life in the confidential service of the Sirdar's family. +Surwar was the bearer of a formal and colourless letter by way simply of +authentication; but he also carried full and explicit verbal +instructions. He was directed to inform the Sirdar that since he had +entered Afghan Turkestan and occupied places there by force of arms, it +was essential for him to declare with what object he had come, and +whether actuated by friendly or hostile feelings toward the British +Government, which for its part had no ill-feeling toward him because of +his long residence within the Russian Empire and his notoriously close +relations with that power. That the British Government was able to +benefit him very largely in comparison with that of Russia; and that +wisdom and self interest alike suggested that he should at once open a +friendly correspondence with the British officers in Cabul. That his +opportunity was now come, and that the British Government was disposed to +treat him with every consideration and to consider most favourably any +representations he might make. It had no intention of annexing the +country, and only desired to see a strong and friendly chief established +at Cabul; and that consequently the present communication was made solely +in Abdurrahman's own interest, and not in that of the British Government. +He was desired to send a reply by Surwar, and later to repair to Cabul, +where he should be honourably received. + +Surwar returned to Cabul on 21st April, bringing a reply from Abdurrahman +to Mr Griffin's letter. The tone of the reply was friendly enough, but +somewhat indefinite. In conversation with Surwar as reported by the +latter, Abdurrahman was perfectly frank as to his relations with the +Russians, and his sentiments in regard to them. It had been reported that +he had made his escape clandestinely from Tashkend. Had he cared to stand +well with us at the expense of truth, it would have been his cue to +disclaim all authority or assistance from the Russian Government, to +confirm the current story of his escape, and to profess his anxiety to +cultivate friendly relations with the British in a spirit of opposition +to the power in whose territory he had lived so long virtually as a +prisoner. But neither in writing nor in conversation did he make any +concealment of his friendliness toward the Russians, a feeling which he +clearly regarded as nowise incompatible with friendly relations with the +British Government. 'If,' said he to Surwar, 'the English will in +sincerity befriend me, I have no wish to hide anything from them'; and he +went on to tell how the Russians had forbidden him for years to make any +effort to interfere in Afghan affairs. This prohibition stood until +information reached Tashkend of the deportation of Yakoub Khan to India. +Then it was that General Kaufmann's representative said to him: 'You have +always been anxious to return to your country; the English have removed +Yakoub Khan; the opportunity is favourable; if you wish you are at +liberty to go.' The Russians, continued Abdurrahman, pressed him most +strongly to set out on the enterprise which lay before him. They lent him +33,000 rupees, and arms, ammunition, and supplies; he was bound to the +Russians by no path or promise, but simply by feelings of gratitude. 'I +should never like,' said he, 'to be obliged to fight them. I have eaten +their salt, and was for twelve years dependent on their hospitality.' + +Surwar reported Abdurrahman as in fine health and possessed of great +energy. He had with him a force of about 3000 men, consisting of four +infantry and two cavalry regiments, with twelve guns and some irregulars. +He professed his readiness, in preference to conducting negotiations +through agents, to go himself to Charikar in the Kohistan with an escort, +and there discuss matters with the English officers in person. Surwar +testified that the Sirdar had with him in Turkestan no Russian or Russian +agent, and this was confirmed through other sources. He had sent forward +to ascertain which was the easiest pass across the Hindoo Koosh, but +meanwhile he was to remain at Kondooz until he should hear again from Mr +Griffin. + +While the wary Sirdar waited on events beyond the Hindoo Koosh he was +sending letters to the leading chiefs of the Kohistan and the Cabul +province, desiring them to be ready to support his cause. That he had an +influential party was made clear at a durbar held by Mr Griffin on April +21st, when a considerable gathering of important chiefs united in the +request that Abdurrahman's claim to the Ameership should be favourably +regarded by the British authorities. In pursuance of the negotiations a +mission consisting of three Afghan gentlemen, two of whom belonged to Mr +Griffin's political staff, left Cabul on May 2nd carrying to Abdurrahman +a letter from Mr Griffin intimating that it had been decided to withdraw +the British army from Afghanistan in the course of a few months, and that +the British authorities desired to leave the rulership in capable and +friendly hands; that they were therefore willing to transfer the +Government to him, recognise him as the head of the State, and afford him +facilities and even support in reorganising the Government and +establishing himself in the sovereignty. The mission found the attitude +of Abdurrahman scarcely so satisfactory as had been reported by Surwar, +and its members were virtual prisoners, their tents surrounded by +sentries. Abdurrahman's explanation of this rigour of isolation was that +he could not otherwise ensure the safety of the envoys; but another +construction conveyed to them was that they were kept prisoners that they +might not, by mixing with the people, learn of the presence on the right +bank of the Oxus of a Russian officer with whom Abdurrahman was said to +be in constant communication and on whose advice he acted. Their belief +was that Abdurrahman was entirely under Russian influence; that Mr +Griffin's letter after it had been read in Durbar in the camp was +immediately despatched across the Oxus by means of mounted relays; and +that Russian instructions as to a reply had not been received when they +left Turkestan to return to Cabul. They expressed their belief that the +Sirdar would not accept from British hands Cabul shorn of Candahar. They +had urged him to repeat in the letter they were to carry back to Cabul +the expression of his willingness to meet the British representative at +Charikar which had been contained in his letter sent by Surwar; but he +demurred to committing himself even to this slight extent. The letter +which he sent by way of reply to the weighty communication Mr Griffin had +addressed to him on the part of the Government of India that official +characterised as 'frivolous and empty, and only saved by its special +courtesy of tone from being an impertinence.' + +An Afghan who had sat at Kaufmann's feet, Abdurrahman was not wholly a +guileless man; and the truth probably was that he mistrusted the Greeks +of Simla and the gifts they tendered him with so lavish protestation that +they were entirely for his own interest. There was very little finesse +about the importunity of the British that he should constitute himself +their bridge of extrication, so that they might get out of Afghanistan +without the dangers and discredit of leaving chaos behind them. But +Abdurrahman had come to know himself strong enough to reduce to order +that legacy of chaos if it should be left; and in view of his future +relations with his fellow Afghans he was not solicitous to be beholden to +the foreigners to any embarrassing extent. He knew, too, the wisdom of +'masterly inactivity' in delicate conditions. And, again, he had no +confidence in our pledges. On the 4th of August, the day after the +meeting between him and Mr Griffin at Zimma, the latter wrote: 'They +(Abdurrahman and his advisers) feared greatly our intention was to rid +ourselves of a formidable opponent, and dreaded that if he had come +straight into Cabul he would have been arrested, and deported to India.' + +A Liberal Government was now in office in England, and was urgent for the +speedy evacuation of Afghanistan. Lord Lytton had resigned and had been +succeeded as Viceroy by the Marquis of Ripon. Lieutenant-General Sir +Donald Stewart was in chief command at Cabul. A great number of letters +from Abdurrahman to chiefs and influential persons throughout Afghanistan +were being intercepted, the tone of which was considered objectionable. +He was reported to be in close correspondence with Mahomed Jan, who had +never ceased to be our bitter enemy. The fact that negotiations were in +progress between the British Government and Abdurrahman had become matter +of general knowledge throughout the country, and was occasioning +disquietude and excitement. So clear were held the evidences of what was +termed Abdurrahman's bad faith, but was probably a combination of genuine +mistrust, astute passivity, and shrewd playing for his own hand, that it +became a serious question with the Indian Government on the arrival of +the new Viceroy, whether it was good policy to have anything more to do +with him. It was resolved that before breaking off intercourse the +suggestion of Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin should be adopted, that a +peremptory although still friendly letter, demanding a definite +acceptance or refusal of the proffers made, within four days after the +receipt, should be sent to Abdurrahman, with a detailed explanation of +the arrangements into which we were prepared to enter with regard to him +and the future of Afghanistan. A letter was forwarded from Cabul on 14th +June, in which Mr Griffin informed the Sirdar that since the British +Government admitted no right of interference by foreign powers in +Afghanistan, it was plain that the Cabul ruler could have no political +relations with any foreign power except the English; and if any foreign +power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such +interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Cabul ruler, +then the British Government would be prepared to aid him, if necessary, +to repel it. As regarded limits of the territory, the latter stated that +the whole province of Candahar had been placed under a separate ruler, +except Sibi and Pisheen, which were retained in British possession. +Consequently the British Government was unable to enter into any +negotiations on those points, or in respect to arrangements in regard to +the north-western frontier which were settled by the treaty of Gundamuk. +Subject to those reservations, the British Government was willing that +Abdurrahman should establish over Afghanistan--including Herat when he +should have conquered it--as complete and extensive authority as was +swayed by any previous Ameer. The British Government would exercise no +interference in the internal government of those territories nor would it +demand the acceptance of an English Resident anywhere within Afghanistan, +although for convenience of ordinary friendly intercourse it might be +agreed upon that a Mahommedan Agent of the British Government should be +stationed at Cabul. + +Abdurrahman's reply to this communication was vague and evasive, and was +regarded by Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin as so unsatisfactory that +they represented to the Government of India, not for the first time, +their conviction of the danger of trusting Abdurrahman, the imprudence of +delaying immediate action, and the necessity of breaking off with him and +adopting other means of establishing a government in Cabul before the +impending evacuation. Lord Ripon, however, considered that 'as matters +stood an arrangement with Abdurrahman offered the most advisable +solution, while he doubted whether it would not be found very difficult +to enter into any alternative arrangement.' His Excellency's decision was +justified by the event. Meanwhile, indeed, Abdurrahman had started on +June 28th for the Kohistan. He crossed the Hindoo Koosh and arrived on +July 20th at Charikar, where he was welcomed by a deputation of leading +chiefs, while the old Mushk-i-Alum, who for some time, thanks to Mr +Griffin's influence, had been working in the interests of peace, +intimated on behalf of a number of chiefs assembled in Maidan that they +were ready to accept as Ameer the nominee of the British Government. + +So propitious seemed the situation that it was considered the time had +come for formally acknowledging Abdurrahman as the new Ameer, and also +for fixing approximately the date of the evacuation of Cabul by the +British troops. The ceremony of recognition was enacted in a great durbar +tent within the Sherpur cantonment on the afternoon of July 22d. The +absence of Abdurrahman, and the notorious cause of that absence, +detracted from the intrinsic dignity of the occasion so far as concerned +the British participation in it; nor was the balance restored by the +presence of three members of his suite whom he had delegated to represent +him. A large number of sirdars, chiefs, and maliks were present, some of +whom had fought stoutly against us in December. Sir Donald Stewart, who +presided, explained to the assembled Afghans that their presence and that +of the officers of the British force had been called for in order that +the public recognition by the British Government of the Sirdar +Abdurrahman Khan as Ameer of Cabul should be made known with as much +honour as possible. Then Mr Griffin addressed in Persian a short speech +to the 'sirdars, chiefs, and gentlemen' who constituted his audience. +Having announced the recognition of Abdurrahman by 'the Viceroy of India +and the Government of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Empress,' he +proceeded: 'It is to the Government a source of satisfaction that the +tribes and chiefs have preferred as Ameer a distinguished member of the +Barakzai family, who is a renowned soldier, wise, and experienced. His +sentiments towards the British Government are most friendly; and so long +as his rule shows that he is animated by these sentiments, he cannot fail +to receive the support of the British Government.' Mr Griffin then +intimated that the British armies would shortly withdraw from +Afghanistan; and in his formal farewell there was a certain appropriate +dignity, and a well-earned tribute to the conduct of our soldiers during +their service within the Afghan borders. 'We trust and firmly believe,' +said Mr Griffin, 'that your remembrance of the English will not be +unkindly. We have fought you in the field whenever you have opposed us; +but your religion has in no way been interfered with; the honour of your +women has been respected, and every one has been secure in possession of +his property. Whatever has been necessary for the support of the army has +been liberally paid for. Since I came to Cabul I have been in daily +intercourse with you, but I have never heard an Afghan make a complaint +of the conduct of any soldier, English or native, belonging to Her +Majesty's army.' The durbar was closed by an earnest appeal by Sir Donald +Stewart to all the sirdars and chiefs that they should put aside their +private feuds and unite to support the new Ameer. + +On August 3d Abdurrahman and Mr Griffin at length met, about sixteen +miles north of Cabul. His adherents were still full of excitement and +suspicion; but the Ameer himself was calm, cheerful, and dignified. The +conference between him and Mr Griffin lasted for three hours and was +renewed on the following day. 'He appeared,' wrote Mr Griffin, 'animated +by a sincere desire to be on cordial terms with the British Government, +and although his expectations were larger than the Government was +prepared to satisfy, yet he did not press them with any discourteous +insistence, and the result of the interview may be considered on the +whole to be highly satisfactory.' The tidings of the Maiwand disaster had +reached Sherpur by telegraph, and the Ameer was informed that a necessity +might occur for marching a force from Cabul to Candahar. His reply was +that the tribes might be hostile, but that if no long halts were made by +the way he would have no objections to such a march. In this he showed +his astuteness, since the defeat of Ayoub Khan by a British army would +obviously save him a contest. So willing to be of service on this matter +was he that when the march was decided on he sent influential persons of +his party in advance to arrange with the local maliks to have supplies +collected for the column. The arrangements made with him were that he was +to fall heir to the thirty guns of Shere Ali's manufacture which the +out-marching army was to leave in Sherpur, and was to receive 19-1/2 +lakhs of rupees (L190,500); ten lakhs of which were given as an earnest +of British friendship, and the balance was money belonging to the Afghan +State, which had gone into the commissariat chest and was now restored. +At the Ameer's earnest and repeated request the forts which had been +built around Cabul by the British army, were not destroyed as had been +intended, but were handed over intact to the new Ameer. + +It seemed that Sir Donald Stewart, who was to evacuate Sherpur on the +11th August, would leave Cabul without seeing Abdurrahman. But at the +last moment Mr Griffin succeeded in arranging an interview. It was held +early in the morning of the evacuation, in a tent just outside the +Sherpur cantonment, was quite public, and lasted only for quarter of an +hour. Abdurrahman was frank and cordial. He said that his heart was full +of gratitude to the British, and desired that his best thanks should be +communicated to the Viceroy. At the close of the interview he shook hands +with all 'who cared to wish him good-bye and good luck,' and sent his +principal officer to accompany the General on his first day's march, +which began immediately after the parting with Abdurrahman. Sir Donald +Stewart's march down the passes was accomplished without incident, quite +unmolested by the tribes. Small garrisons were temporarily left in the +Khyber posts, and the war-worn regiments were dispersed through the +stations of North-Western India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + +When in the early spring of 1880 Sir Donald Stewart quitted Candahar with +the Bengal division of his force, he left there the Bombay division, to +the command of which General Primrose acceded, General Phayre assuming +charge of the communications. The province during the early summer was +fairly quiet, but it was known that Ayoub Khan was making hostile +preparations at Herat, although the reports as to his intentions and +movements were long uncertain and conflicting. Shere Ali Khan, who had +been Governor of Candahar during Stewart's residence there, had been +nominated hereditary ruler of the province with the title of 'Wali,' when +it was determined to separate Candahar from North-Eastern Afghanistan. On +June 21st the Wali, who had some days earlier crossed the Helmund and +occupied Girishk with his troops, reported that Ayoub was actually on the +march toward the Candahar frontier, and asked for the support of a +British brigade to enable him to cope with the hostile advance. There was +reason to believe that the Wali's troops were disaffected, and that he +was in no condition to meet Ayoub's army with any likelihood of success. +After Stewart's departure the strength of the British forces at Candahar +was dangerously low--only 4700 of all ranks; but it was important to +thwart Ayoub's offensive movement, and a brigade consisting of a troop of +horse-artillery, six companies of the 66th, two Bombay native infantry +regiments, and 500 native troopers, in all about 2300 strong, under the +command of Brigadier-General Burrows, reached the left bank of the +Helmund on July 11th. On the 13th the Wali's infantry, 2000 strong, +mutinied _en masse_ and marched away up the right bank of the river, +taking with them a battery of smooth bore guns, a present to Shere Ali +Khan from the British Government. His cavalry did not behave quite so +badly, but, not to go into detail, his army no longer existed, and +Burrows' brigade was the only force in the field to resist the advance of +Ayoub Khan, whose regular troops were reported to number 4000 cavalry, +and from 4000 to 5000 infantry exclusive of the 2000 deserters from the +Wali, with thirty guns and an irregular force of uncertain strength. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT MAIWAND. 27th. July 1880.] + +Burrows promptly recaptured from the Wali's infantry the battery they +were carrying off, and punished them severely. The mutineers had removed +or destroyed the supplies which the Wali had accumulated for the use of +the brigade, and General Burrows therefore could no longer remain in the +vicinity of Girishk. The Helmund owing to the dry season was passable +everywhere, so that nothing was to be gained by watching the fords. It +was determined to fall back to Khushk-i-Nakhud, a point distant thirty +miles from Girishk and forty-five from Candahar, where several roads from +the Helmund converged and where supplies were plentiful. At and near +Khushk-i-Nakhud the brigade remained from the 16th until the morning of +the 27th July. While waiting and watching there a despatch from army +headquarters at Simla was communicated to General Burrows from Candahar, +authorising him to attack Ayoub if he thought himself strong enough to +beat him, and informing him that it was considered of the greatest +political importance that the force from Herat should be dispersed and +prevented from moving on toward Ghuznee. Spies brought in news that Ayoub +had reached Girishk, and was distributing his force along the right bank +between that place and Hydrabad. Cavalry patrols failed to find the enemy +until the 21st, when a detachment was encountered in the village of +Sangbur on the northern road about midway between the Helmund and +Khushk-i-Nakhud. Next day that village was found more strongly occupied, +and on the 23d a reconnaissance in force came upon a body of Ayoub's +horsemen in the plain below the Garmao hills, about midway between +Sangbur and Maiwand. + +Those discoveries were tolerably clear indications of Ayoub's intention +to turn Burrows' position by moving along the northern road to Maiwand +and thence pressing on through the Maiwand pass, until at Singiri Ayoub's +army should have interposed itself between the brigade and Candahar. +There was certainly nothing impossible in such an endeavour, since +Maiwand is nearer Candahar than is Khushk-i-Nakhud. Why, in the face of +the information at his disposal and of the precautions enjoined on him to +hinder Ayoub from slipping by him toward Ghuznee through Maiwand and up +the Khakrez valley, General Burrows should have remained so long at +Khushk-i-Nakhud, is not intelligible. He was stirred at length on the +afternoon of the 26th, by the report that 2000 of Yakoub's cavalry and a +large body of his ghazees were in possession of Garmao and Maiwand, and +were to be promptly followed by Ayoub himself with the main body of his +army, his reported intention being to push on through the Maiwand pass +and reach the Urgundab valley in rear of the British brigade. Later in +the day Colonel St John, the political officer, reported to General +Burrows the intelligence which had reached him that the whole of Ayoub's +army was at Sangbur; but credence was not given to the information. + +The somewhat tardy resolution was taken to march to Maiwand on the +morning of the 27th. There was the expectation that the brigade would +arrive at that place before the enemy should have occupied it in force, +and this point made good there might be the opportunity to drive out of +Garmao the body of Yakoub's cavalry reported in possession there. There +was a further reason why Maiwand should be promptly occupied; the brigade +had been obtaining its supplies from that village, and there was still a +quantity of grain in its vicinity to lose which would be unfortunate. The +brigade, now 2600 strong, struck camp on the morning of the 27th. The +march to Maiwand was twelve miles long, and an earlier start than 6.30 +would have been judicious. The soldiers marched fast, but halts from time +to time were necessary to allow the baggage to come up; the hostile state +of the country did not admit of anything being left behind and the column +was encumbered by a great quantity of stores and baggage. At Karezah, +eight miles from Khushk-i-Nakhud and four miles south-west of Maiwand, +information was brought in that the whole of Yakoub's army was close by +on the left front of the brigade, and marching toward Maiwand. The spies +had previously proved themselves so untrustworthy that small heed was +taken of this report; but a little later a cavalry reconnaissance found +large bodies of cavalry moving in the direction indicated and inclining +away toward Garmao as the brigade advanced. A thick haze made it +impossible to discern what force, if any, was being covered by the +cavalry. About ten A.M. the advance guard occupied the village of +Mundabad, about three miles south-west of Maiwand. West of Mundabad, +close to the village, was a broad and deep ravine running north and +south. Beyond this ravine was a wide expanse of level and partially +cultivated plain across which, almost entirely concealed by the haze, +Ayoub's army was marching eastward toward Maiwand village, which covers +the western entrance to the pass of the same name. If General Burrows' +eye could have penetrated that haze, probably he would have considered it +prudent to take up a defensive position, for which Mundabad presented +many advantages. But he was firm in the conviction that the enemy's guns +were not up, notwithstanding the reports of spies to the contrary; he +believed that a favourable opportunity presented itself for taking the +initiative, and he resolved to attack with all possible speed. + +Lieutenant Maclaine of the Horse-Artillery, a gallant young officer who +was soon to meet a melancholy fate, precipitated events in a somewhat +reckless fashion. With the two guns he commanded he crossed the ravine, +galloped across the plain, and opened fire on a body of Afghan cavalry +which had just come within view. General Nuttall, commanding the cavalry +and horse-artillery, failing to recall Maclaine, sent forward in support +of him the four remaining guns of the battery. Those approached to within +800 yards of the two advanced pieces, and Maclaine was directed to fall +back upon the battery pending the arrival of the brigade, which General +Burrows was now sending forward. It crossed the ravine near Mundabad, +advanced on the plain about a mile in a north-westerly direction, and +then formed up. There were several changes in the dispositions; when the +engagement became warm about noon the formation was as follows:--The 66th +foot was on the right, its right flank thrown back to check an attempt +made to turn it by a rush of ghazees springing out of the ravine in the +British front; on the left of the 66th were four companies of Jacob's +Rifles (30th Native Infantry) and a company of sappers, the centre was +occupied by the horse-artillery and smooth bore guns, of which latter, +however, two had been moved to the right flank; on the left of the guns +were the its Grenadiers somewhat refused, and on the extreme left two +companies of Jacob's Rifles. The cavalry was in the rear, engaged in +efforts to prevent the Afghans from taking the British infantry in +reverse. The position was radically faulty, and indeed invited disaster. +Both flanks were _en l'air_ in face of an enemy of greatly superior +strength; almost from the first every rifle was in the fighting line, and +the sole reserve consisted of the two cavalry regiments. The baggage had +followed the brigade across the ravine and was halted about 1000 yards in +rear of the right, inadequately guarded by cavalry detachments. + +For half-an-hour no reply was made to the British shell fire, and an +offensive movement at this time might have resulted in success. But +presently battery after battery was brought into action by the Afghans, +until half-an-hour after noon the fire of thirty guns was concentrated on +the brigade. Under cover of this artillery fire the ghazees from the +ravine charged forward to within 500 yards of the 66th, but the rifle +fire of the British regiment drove them back with heavy loss, and they +recoiled as far as the ravine, whence they maintained a desultory fire. +The enemy's artillery fire was well sustained and effective; the infantry +found some protection from it in lying down, but the artillery and +cavalry remained exposed and suffered severely. An artillery duel was +maintained for two hours, greatly to the disadvantage of the brigade, +which had but twelve guns in action against thirty well-served Afghan +pieces. The prostrate infantry had escaped serious punishment, but by two +P.M. the cavalry had lost fourteen per cent, of the men in the front +line, and 149 horses; the Afghan horsemen had turned both flanks and the +brigade was all but surrounded, while a separate attack was being made on +the baggage. Heat and want of water were telling heavily on the sepoys, +who were further demoralised by the Afghan artillery fire. + +A little later the smooth bore guns had to be withdrawn for want of +ammunition. This was the signal for a general advance of the Afghans. +Their guns were pushed forward with great boldness; their cavalry +streamed round the British left; in the right rear were masses of mounted +and dismounted irregulars who had seized the villages on the British line +of retreat. Swarms of ghazees soon showed themselves threatening the +centre and left; those in front of the 66th were still held in check by +the steady volleys fired by that regiment. At sight of the ghazees, and +cowed by the heavy artillery fire and the loss of their officers, the two +companies of Jacob's Rifles on the left suddenly fell into confusion, and +broke into the ranks of the Grenadiers. That regiment had behaved well +but it caught the infection of demoralisation, the whole left collapsed, +and the sepoys in utter panic, surrounded by and intermingled with the +ghazees, rolled in a great wave upon the right. The artillerymen and +sappers made a gallant stand, fighting the ghazees hand-to-hand with +handspikes and rammers, while the guns poured canister into the advancing +masses. Slade reluctantly limbered up and took his four guns out of +action; Maclaine remained in action until the ghazees were at the muzzles +of his two guns, which fell into the enemy's hands. The torrent of +mingled sepoys and ghazees broke in upon the 66th, and overwhelmed that +regiment. The slaughter of the sepoys was appalling--so utterly cowed +were they that they scarcely attempted to defend themselves, and allowed +themselves without resistance to be dragged out of the ranks and killed. +A cavalry charge was ordered in the direction of the captured guns, but +it failed and the troopers retired in disorder. The infantry, assailed by +hordes of fierce and triumphant ghazees, staggered away to the right, the +66th alone maintaining any show of formation, until the ravine was +crossed, when the broken remnants of the sepoy regiments took to flight +toward the east and the General's efforts to rally them were wholly +unavailing. The 66th with some of the sappers and grenadiers, made a +gallant stand round its colours in an enclosure near the village of Khig. +There Colonel Galbraith and several of his officers were killed, and the +little body of brave men becoming outflanked, continued its retreat, +making stand after stand until most were slain. The Afghans pursued for +about four miles, but were checked by a detachment of rallied cavalry, +and desisted. The fugitives, forming with wounded and baggage a +straggling column upwards of six miles long, crossed the waterless desert +sixteen miles wide, to Hanz-i-Madat, which was reached about midnight and +where water was found. From Asu Khan, where cultivation began, to Kokoran +near Candahar, the retreat was harassed by armed villagers and the troops +had to fight more or less all the way. Officers and men were killed, +Lieutenant Maclaine was taken prisoner, and five of the smooth bore guns +had to be abandoned because of the exhaustion of the teams. About midday +of the 28th the broken remnants of the brigade reached Candahar. When the +casualties were ascertained it became evident how disastrous to the +British arms had been the combat of Maiwand. Out of a total of 2476 +engaged no fewer than 964 were killed. The wounded numbered 167; 331 +followers and 201 horses were killed and seven followers and sixty-eight +horses wounded. Since Chillianwallah the British arms in Asia had not +suffered loss so severe. + +The spirit of the Candahar force suffered materially from the Maiwand +disaster, and it was held that there was no alternative but to accept the +humiliation of a siege within the fortified city. The cantonments were +abandoned, the whole force was withdrawn into Candahar, and was detailed +for duty on the city walls. The effective garrison on the night of the +28th numbered 4360, including the survivors of the Maiwand brigade. So +alert were the Afghans that a cavalry reconnaissance made on the morning +of the 29th, found the cantonments plundered and partly burned and the +vicinity of Candahar swarming with armed men. The whole Afghan population +amounting to about 12,000 persons, were compelled to leave the city, and +then the work of placing it in a state of defence was energetically +undertaken. Buildings and enclosures affording cover too close to the +enciente were razed, communication along the walls was opened up, and gun +platforms were constructed in the more commanding positions. The walls +were both high and thick, but they were considerably dilapidated and +there were gaps and breaks in the bastions and parapet. The weak places +as well as the gates were fronted with abattis, the defects were made +good with sandbags, and wire entanglements and other obstructions were +laid down outside the walls. While this work was in progress the covering +parties were in daily collision with the enemy, and occasional sharp +skirmishes occurred. + +On the 8th August Ayoub opened fire on the citadel from Picquet hill, an +elevation north-westward of the city, and a few days later he brought +guns into action from the villages of Deh Khoja and Deh Khati on the east +and south. This fire, steadily maintained though it was day after day, +had little effect, and the return fire gave good results. It was not easy +to invest the city since on the west and north there was no cover for the +besiegers, but in Deh Khoja on the east there was ample protection for +batteries, and the ground on the south-west was very favourable. Its +advantages were improved so skilfully that it was at one time believed +there was a European engineer in Ayoub's camp. Deh Khoja was +inconveniently near the Cabul gate, and was always full of men. So +menacing was the attitude of the Afghans that a sortie was resolved on +against the village, which was conducted with resolution but resulted in +utter failure. The attempt was made on the morning of the 16th. The +cavalry went out to hinder reinforcements from entering the village from +the eastward. An infantry force 800 strong commanded by Brigadier-General +Brooke and divided into three parties, moved out later covered by a heavy +artillery fire from the city walls. The village was reached, but was so +full of enemies in occupation of the fortress-like houses that it was +found untenable, and the three detachments extricated themselves +separately. In the course of the retirement General Brooke and Captain +Cruickshank were killed. The casualties were very heavy; 106 were killed +and 117 were wounded. + +The tidings of the Maiwand disaster reached Cabul on the 29th July by +telegram from Simla. The intention of the military authorities had +already been intimated that the Cabul force should evacuate Afghanistan +in two separate bodies and by two distinct routes. Sir Donald Stewart was +to march one portion by the Khyber route; the other under Sir Frederick +Roberts was to retire by the Kuram valley, which Watson's division had +been garrisoning since Roberts had crossed the Shutargurdan in September +1879. But the Maiwand news interfered with those arrangements. Stewart +and Roberts concurred in the necessity of retrieving the Maiwand disaster +by the despatch of a division from Cabul. Roberts promptly offered to +lead that division, and as promptly the offer was accepted by Stewart. By +arrangement with the latter Roberts telegraphed to Simla urging that a +force should be despatched from Cabul without delay; and recognising that +the authorities might hesitate to send on this errand troops already +under orders to return to India, he took it on himself to guarantee that +none of the soldiers would demur, providing he was authorised to give the +assurance that after the work in the field was over they would not be +detained in garrison at Candahar. The Viceroy's sanction came on the 3d +August. The constitution and equipment of the force were entrusted to the +two generals; and in reply to questions His Excellency was informed that +Roberts would march on the 8th and expected to reach Candahar on 2d +September. Sir Donald Stewart gave his junior full freedom to select the +troops to accompany him, and placed at his disposal the entire resources +of the army in transport and equipment. It cannot truly be said that it +was the _elite_ of the Cabul field force which constituted the column led +by Roberts in his famous march to Candahar. Of the native infantry +regiments of his own original force which he had mustered eleven months +previously in the Kuram only two followed him to Candahar, the 5th +Goorkhas and 23d Pioneers, and the second mountain battery adhered to him +staunchly, Of his original white troops the 9th Lancers, as ever, were +ready for the march. His senior infantry regiment, the 67th, would fain +have gone, but the good old corps was weak from casualties and sickness, +and the gallant Knowles denied himself in the interests of his men. The +two Highland regiments, the 72d and 92d, had done an infinity of fighting +and marching, but both had received strong drafts, were in fine +condition, and were not to be hindered from following the chief whom, +though not of their northern blood, the stalwart sons of the mist swore +by as one man. + +Sir Frederick Roberts had already represented that it would be impolitic +to require the native regiments to remain absent from India and their +homes for a longer period than two years. In the case of many of the +regiments that term was closely approached, and the men after prolonged +absence and arduous toil needed rest and were longing to rejoin their +families. 'It was not,' in the words of General Chapman, 'with eager +desire that the honour of marching to Candahar was sought for, and some +commanding officers of experience judged rightly the tempers of their men +when they represented for the General's consideration the claims of the +regiments they commanded to be relieved as soon as possible from field +service.... The enthusiasm which carried Sir Frederick Roberts' force +with exceptional rapidity to Candahar was an after-growth evolved by the +enterprise itself, and came as a response to the unfailing spirit which +animated the leader himself.' The constitution of the force was made +known by the general orders published on 3d August. It consisted of three +batteries of artillery commanded by Colonel Alured Johnson; of a cavalry +brigade of four regiments commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Gough; and +of an infantry division of three brigades commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Herbert +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General T. D. Baker, and the third by +Brigadier-General Charles Macgregor. Colonel Chapman, R.A., who had +served in the same capacity with Sir Donald Stewart, was now Roberts' +chief of staff. The marching out strength of the column was about 10,000 +men, of whom 2835 were Europeans. Speed being an object and since the +column might have to traverse rough ground, no wheeled artillery or +transport accompanied it; the guns were carried on mules, the baggage was +severely cut down, the supplies carried were reduced to a minimum, and +the transport animals, numbering 8590, consisted of mules, ponies, and +donkeys. It was known that the country could supply flour, sheep, and +forage. + +The time specified for the departure of the force from Sherpur was kept +to the day. On the 8th the brigades moved out a short distance into camp, +and on the following morning the march begun in earnest. The distance +from Cabul to Candahar is about 320 miles, and the march naturally +divides itself into three parts; from Cabul to Ghuznee, ninety-eight +miles; from Ghuznee to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, one hundred and thirty-four +miles; and from Khelat-i-Ghilzai to Candahar, eighty-eight miles, Ghuznee +was reached on the seventh day, the daily average being fourteen +miles--excellent work for troops unseasoned to long continuous travel, +tramping steadily in a temperature of from 84 deg. to 92 deg. in the shade. When +possible the force moved on a broad front, the brigades and regiments +leading by rotation, and halts were made at specified intervals. The +'rouse' sounded at 2.45 A.M. and the march began at four; the troops were +generally in camp by two P.M. and the baggage was usually reported all in +by five; but the rearguard had both hard work and long hours. There was +no sign of opposition anywhere, not a single load of baggage was left +behind, comparatively few men fell out foot-sore, and the troops were +steadily increasing in endurance and capacity of rapid and continuous +marching. + +At Ghuznee there was no rest day, and the steadfast dogged march was +resumed on the morning of the 16th. The strain of this day's long tramp +of twenty miles to Yergati was severe, but the men rallied gamely, and +the General by dint of care and expedient was able to keep up the high +pressure. 'The method,' writes General Chapman, 'of such marching as was +now put in practice is not easy to describe; it combined the extreme of +freedom in movement with carefully regulated halts, and the closest +control in every portion of the column; it employed the individual +intelligence of each man composing the masses in motion, and called on +all for exertion in overcoming the difficulties of the march, in bearing +its extraordinary toil, and in aiding the accomplishment of the object in +view.' On the 20th a distance of twenty-one miles was covered--the +longest day's march made; the effort was distressing owing to the heat +and the lack of shade, but it was enforced by the absence of water. There +was no relaxation in the rate of marching, and Khelat-i-Ghilzai was +reached on the eighth day from Ghuznee, showing a daily average of nearly +seventeen miles. + +The 24th was a halt day at Khelat-i-Ghilzai, where Sir Frederick Roberts +received a letter from General Primrose in Candahar, describing the +sortie made on the village of Deh Khoja and giving details of his +situation. It was resolved to evacuate Khelat-i-Ghilzai and take on its +garrison with the column, which on the 25th resumed its march to +Candahar. On his arrival at Tir Andaz on the following day the General +found a letter from Candahar, informing him that at the news of the +approach of the Cabul force Ayoub Khan had withdrawn from his investment +of Candahar, and had shifted his camp to the village of Mazra in the +Urgundab valley, nearly due north of Candahar. On the morning of the 27th +General Hugh Gough was sent forward with two cavalry regiments a distance +of thirty-four miles to Robat, the main column moving on to Khel Akhund, +half way to the former place. Gough was accompanied by Captain Straton +the principal signalling officer of the force, who was successful in +communicating with Candahar, and in the afternoon Colonel St John, Major +Leach, and Major Adam rode out to Robat, bringing the information that +Ayoub Khan was engaged in strengthening his position in the Urgundab +valley, and apparently had the intention to risk the issue of a battle. +On the 28th the whole force was concentrated at Robat; and as it was +desirable that the troops should reach Candahar fresh and ready for +prompt action, the General decided to make the 20th a rest day and divide +the nineteen miles from Robat to Candahar into two short marches. + +The long forced march from Cabul may be regarded as having ended at +Robat. The distance between those two places, 303 miles, had been covered +in twenty days. It is customary in a long march to allow two rest days in +each week, but Roberts had granted his force but a single rest day in the +twenty days of its strenuous march. Including this rest day, the average +daily march was a fraction over fifteen miles. As a feat of marching by a +regular force of 10,000 men encumbered with baggage and followers, this +achievement is unique, and it could have been accomplished only by +thorough organisation and steady vigorous energy. Sir Frederick Roberts +was so fortunate as to encounter no opposition. For this immunity he was +indebted mainly to the stern lessons given to the tribesmen by Sir Donald +Stewart at Ahmed Khel and Urzoo while that resolute soldier was marching +from Candahar to Cabul, and in a measure also to the good offices of the +new Ameer. But it must be remembered that Roberts had no assurance of +exemption from hostile efforts to block his path, and that he marched +ever ready to fight. It will long be remembered how when Roberts had +started on the long swift march, the suspense as to its issue grew and +swelled until the strain became intense. The safety of the garrison of +Candahar was in grave hazard; the British prestige, impaired by the +disaster of Maiwand, was trembling in the balance. The days passed, and +there came no news of Roberts and of the 10,000 men with whom the wise, +daring little chief had cut loose from any base and struck for his goal +through a region of ill repute for fanaticism and bitter hostility. The +pessimists among us held him to be rushing on his ruin. But Roberts +marched light; he lived on what the country supplied; he gave the +tribesmen no time to concentrate against him; and two days in advance of +the time he had set himself he reached Candahar at the head of a force in +full freshness of vigour and burning with zeal for immediate battle. + +While halted at Robat on the 29th Sir Frederick heard from General Phayre +that his division had been retarded in its march by lack of transport, +but that he hoped to have it assembled at Killa Abdoolla on the 28th, and +would be able to move toward Candahar on the 30th. But as Killa Abdoolla +is distant some eight marches from Candahar, it was obvious that General +Phayre could not arrive in time to share in the impending battle. On the +morning of the 31st the Cabul force reached Candahar. Sir Frederick +Roberts, who had been suffering from fever for some days, was able to +leave his dhooly and mount his horse in time to meet General Primrose and +his officers to the east of Deh Khoja. The troops halted and breakfasted +outside the Shikapore gate, while General Roberts entered the city and +paid a visit to the Wali Shere Ali Khan. On his arrival he assumed +command of the troops in Southern Afghanistan; and he remained resting in +the city while the Cabul force marched to its selected camping ground +near the destroyed cantonments on the north-west of Candahar. A few shots +were fired, but the ground was occupied without opposition. Baker's +brigade was on the right, camped in rear of Picquet hill, in the centre +was Macpherson's brigade sheltered in its front by Karez hill, and on the +left among orchards and enclosures was Macgregor's brigade, in rear of +which was the cavalry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + +Although Yakoub Khan had ceased to beleaguer Candahar, he had withdrawn +from that fortress but a very short distance, and the position he had +taken up was of considerable strength. The Urgundab valley is separated +on the north-west from the Candahar plain by a long precipitous spur +trending south-west from the mountainous mass forming the eastern +boundary of the valley further north. Where the spur quits the main +range, due north of the city, the Murcha Pass affords communication +between the Candahar plain and the Urgundab valley. The spur, its summit +serrated by alternate heights and depressions, is again crossed lower +down by an easy pass known as the Babawali Kotul. It is continued beyond +this saddle for about a mile, still maintaining its south-westerly trend, +never losing its precipitous character, and steeply scarped on its +eastern face; and it finally ends in the plain in a steep descent of +several hundred feet. The section of it from the Babawali Kotul to its +south-western termination is known as the Pir Paimal hill, from a village +of that name in the valley near its extremity. Ayoub Khan had made his +camp near the village of Mazra, behind the curtain formed by the spur +described, and about a mile higher up in the valley than the point at +which the spur is crossed by the road over the Babawali Kotul. He was +thus, with that point artificially strengthened and defended by +artillery, well protected against a direct attack from the direction of +Candahar, and was exposed only to the risk of a turning movement round +the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill. Such a movement might be made the +reverse of easy. A force advancing to attempt it must do so exposed to +fire from the commanding summit of the Pir Paimal; around the base of +that elevation there were several plain villages, and an expanse of +enclosed orchards and gardens which strongly held were capable of +stubborn defence. In the valley behind the Pir Paimal hill there was the +lofty detached Kharoti hill, the fire from which would meet in the teeth +a force essaying the turning movement; and the interval between the two +hills, through which was the access to the Mazra camps, was obstructed by +deep irrigation channels whose banks afforded cover for defensive fire, +and could be swept by a cross fire from the hills on either flank. + +[Illustration: Kandahar.] + +Sir Frederick Roberts at a glance had perceived that a direct attack by +the Babawali Kotul must involve very heavy loss, and he resolved on the +alternative of turning the Afghan position. A reconnaissance was made on +the afternoon of the 31st by General Gough, accompanied by Colonel +Chapman. He penetrated to within a short distance of the village of Pir +Paimal, where it was ascertained that the enemy were strongly entrenched, +and where several guns were unmasked. A great deal of valuable +information was obtained before the enemy began to interfere with the +leisurely withdrawal. The cavalry suffered little, but the Sikh infantry +covering the retirement of the reconnaissance were hard pressed by great +masses of Afghan regulars and irregulars. So boldly did the enemy come on +that the third and part of the first brigade came into action, and the +firing did not cease until the evening. The enemy were clearly in the +belief that the reconnaissance was an advance in force which they had +been able to check and indeed drive in, and they were opportunely +audacious in the misapprehension that they had gained a success. The +information brought in decided the General to attack on the following +morning; and having matured his dispositions, he explained them +personally to the commanding officers in the early morning of September +1st. The plan of attack was perfectly simple. The Babawali Kotul was to +be plied with a brisk cannonade and threatened by demonstrations both of +cavalry and infantry; while the first and second brigades, with the third +in reserve, were to turn the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill, force the +enemy's right in the interval between that hill and the Kharoti eminence, +take in reverse the Babawali Kotul, and pressing on up the Urgundab +valley, carry Ayoub Khan's principal camp at Mazra. The Bombay cavalry +brigade was to watch the roads over the Murcha and Babawali Kotuls, +supported by infantry and artillery belonging to General Primrose's +command, part of which was also detailed for the protection of the city; +and to hold the ground from which the Cabul brigades were to advance. +General Gough was to take the cavalry of the Cabul column across the +Urgundab, so as to reach by a wide circuit the anticipated line of the +Afghan retreat. + +Soon after nine A.M. the forty-pounders on the right of Picquet hill +began a vigorous cannonade of the Babawali Kotul, which was sturdily +replied to by the three field-guns the enemy had in battery on that +elevation. It had been early apparent that the Ayoub's army was in great +heart, and apparently meditating an offensive movement had moved out so +far into the plain as to occupy the villages of Mulla Sahibdad opposite +the British right, and Gundigan on the left front of the British left. +Both villages were right in the fair way of Roberts' intended line of +advance; they, the adjacent enclosures, and the interval between the +villages were strongly held, and manifestly the first thing to be done +was to force the enemy back from those advanced positions. Two batteries +opened a heavy shell fire on the Sahibdad village, under cover of which +Macpherson advanced his brigade against it, the 2d Goorkhas and 92d +Highlanders in his first line. Simultaneously Baker moved out to the +assault of Gundigan, clearing the gardens and orchards between him and +that village, and keeping touch as he advanced with the first brigade. + +The shell fire compelled the Afghan occupants of Sahibdad to lie close, +and it was not until they were near the village that Macpherson's two +leading regiments encountered much opposition. It was carried at the +bayonet point after a very stubborn resistance; the place was full of +ghazees who threw their lives away recklessly, and continued to fire on +the British soldiers from houses and cellars after the streets had been +cleared. The 92d lost several men, but the Afghans were severely +punished; it was reported that 200 were killed in this village alone. +While a detachment remained to clear out the village, the brigade under a +heavy fire from the slopes and crest of the Fir Paimal hill moved on in +the direction of that hill's south-western extremity, the progress of the +troops impeded by obstacles in the shape of dry water-cuts, orchards, and +walled enclosures, every yard of which was infested by enemies and had to +be made good by steady fighting. + +While Macpherson was advancing on Sahibdad, Baker's brigade had been +pushing on through complicated lanes and walled enclosures toward the +village of Gundigan. The opposition experienced was very resolute. The +Afghans held their ground behind loopholed walls which had to be carried +by storm, and they did not hesitate to take the offensive by making +vigorous counter-rushes. Baker's two leading regiments were the 72d and +the 2d Sikhs. The left wing of the former supported by the 5th Goorkhas, +the old and tried comrades of the 72d, assailed and took the village. Its +right wing fought its way through the orchards between it and Sahibdad, +in the course of which work it came under a severe enfilading fire from a +loopholed wall which the Sikhs on the right were attempting to turn. +Captain Frome and several men had been struck down and the hot fire had +staggered the Highlanders, when their chief, Colonel Brownlow, came up on +foot. That gallant soldier gave the word for a rush, but immediately fell +mortally wounded. After much hard fighting Baker's brigade got forward +into opener country, but was then exposed to the fire of an Afghan +battery near the extremity of the Pir Paimal spur, and to the attacks of +great bodies of ghazees, which were withstood stoutly by the Sikhs and +driven off by a bayonet attack delivered by the Highlanders. + +The two brigades had accomplished the first part of their task. They were +now in alignment with each other; and the work before them was to +accomplish the turning movement round the steep extremity of the Pir +Paimal ridge. Macpherson's brigade, hugging the face of the elevation, +brought up the left shoulder and having accomplished the turning +movement, swept up the valley and carried the village of Pir Paimal by a +series of rushes. Here, however, Major White commanding the advance of +the 92d, found himself confronted by great masses of the enemy, who +appeared determined to make a resolute stand about their guns which were +in position south-west of the Babawali Kotul. Reinforcements were +observed hurrying up from Ayoub's standing camp at Mazra, and the Afghan +guns on the Kotul had been reversed so that their fire should enfilade +the British advance. Discerning that in such circumstances prompt action +was imperative, Macpherson determined to storm the position without +waiting for reinforcements. The 92d under Major White led the way, +covered by the fire of a field battery and supported by the 5th Goorkhas +and the 23d Pioneers. Springing out of a watercourse at the challenge of +their leader, the Highlanders rushed across the open ground. The Afghans, +sheltered by high banks, fired steadily and well; their riflemen from the +Pir Paimal slopes poured in a sharp cross fire; their guns were well +served. But the Scottish soldiers were not to be denied. Their losses +were severe, but they took the guns at the point of the bayonet, and +valiantly supported by the Goorkhas and pioneers, shattered and dispersed +the mass of Afghans, which was reckoned to have numbered some 8000 men. +No chance was given the enemy to rally. They were headed off from the Pir +Paimal slopes by Macpherson. Baker hustled them out of cover in the +watercourses in the basin on the left, and while one stream of fugitives +poured away across the river, another rolled backward into and through +Ayoub's camp at Mazra. + +While Macpherson had effected his turning movement close under the ridge, +Baker's troops on the left had to make a wider sweep before bringing up +the left shoulder and wheeling into the hollow between the Pir Paimal and +the Kharoti hill. They swept out of their path what opposition they +encountered, and moved up the centre of the hollow, where their commander +halted them until Macpherson's brigade on the right, having accomplished +its more arduous work, should come up and restore the alignment. Baker +had sent Colonel Money with a half battalion away to the left to take +possession of the Kharoti hill, where he found and captured three Afghan +guns. Pressing toward the northern end of the hill, Money to his surprise +found himself in full view of Ayoub's camp, which was then full of men +and in rear of which a line of cavalry was drawn up. Money was too weak +to attack alone and sent to General Baker for reinforcements which, +however, could not be spared him, and the gallant Money had perforce to +remain looking on while the advance of Macpherson and Baker caused the +evacuation of Ayoub's camp and the flight of his cavalry and infantry +toward the Urgundab. But the discovery and capture of five more Afghan +cannon near Babawali village was some consolation for the enforced +inaction. + +Considerable numbers of Ayoub's troops had earlier pushed through the +Babawali Pass, and moved down toward the right front of General Burrows' +Bombay brigade in position about Picquet hill. Having assured himself +that Burrows was able to hold his own, Sir Frederick Roberts ordered +Macgregor to move the third brigade forward toward Pir Paimal village, +whither he himself rode. On his arrival there he found that the first and +second brigades were already quite a mile in advance. The battle really +had already been won but there being no open view to the front General +Ross, who commanded the whole infantry division, had no means of +discerning this result; and anticipating the likelihood that Ayoub's camp +at Mazra would have to be taken by storm, he halted the brigades to +replenish ammunition. This delay gave opportunity for the entire +evacuation of the Afghan camp, which when reached without any further +opposition and entered at one P.M. was found to be deserted. The tents +had been left standing; 'all the rude equipage of a half barbarous army +had been abandoned--the meat in the cooking pots, the bread half kneaded +in the earthen vessels, the bazaar with its _ghee_ pots, dried fruits, +flour, and corn.' Ayoub's great marquee had been precipitately abandoned, +and the fine carpets covering its floor were left. But in the hurry of +their flight the Afghans had found time to illustrate their barbarity by +murdering their prisoner Lieutenant Maclaine, whose body was found near +Ayoub's tent with the throat cut. To this deed Ayoub does not seem to +have been privy. The sepoys who were prisoners with Maclaine testified +that Ayoub fled about eleven o'clock, leaving the prisoners in charge of +the guard with no instructions beyond a verbal order that they were not +to be killed. It was more than an hour later when the guard ordered the +unfortunate officer out of his tent and took his life. + +The victory was complete and Ayoub's army was in full rout. Unfortunately +no cavalry were in hand for a pursuit from the Mazra camp. The scheme for +intercepting the fugitive Afghans by sending the cavalry brigade on a +wide movement across the Urgundab, and striking the line of their +probable retreat toward the Khakrez valley, may have been ingenious in +conception, but in practice did not have the desired effect. But Ayoub +had been decisively beaten. He had lost the whole of his artillery +numbering thirty-two pieces, his camp, an immense quantity of ammunition, +about 1000 men killed; his army was dispersed, and he himself was a +fugitive with a mere handful along with him of the army of 12,000 men +whom he had commanded in the morning. + +The battle of Candahar was an effective finale to the latest of our +Afghan wars, and it is in this sense that it is chiefly memorable. The +gallant men who participated in the winning of it must have been the +first to smile at the epithets of 'glorious' and 'brilliant' which were +lavished on the victory. In truth, if it had not been a victory our arms +would have sustained a grave discredit. The soldiers of Roberts and +Stewart had been accustomed to fight and to conquer against heavy +numerical odds, which were fairly balanced by their discipline and the +superiority of their armament. But in the battle of Candahar the +numerical disparity was non-existent, and Ayoub had immensely the +disadvantage as regarded trained strength. His force according to the +reckoning ascertained by the British general, amounted all told to 12,800 +men. The strength of the British force, not including the detail of +Bombay troops garrisoning Candahar, was over 12,000. But this army 12,000 +strong, consisted entirely of disciplined soldiers of whom over one-fifth +were Europeans. The accepted analysis of Ayoub's army shows it to have +consisted of 4000 regular infantry, 800 regular cavalry, 5000 tribal +irregular infantry of whom an indefinite proportion was no doubt ghazees, +and 3000 irregular horsemen. In artillery strength the two forces were +nearly equal. When it is remembered that Charasiah was won by some 2500 +soldiers of whom only about 800 were Europeans, contending against 10,000 +Afghans in an exceptionally strong position and well provided with +artillery, Sir Frederick Roberts' wise decision to make assurance doubly +sure in dealing with Ayoub at Candahar stands out very strikingly. +Perforce in his battles around Cabul he had taken risks, but because +those adventures had for the most part been successful he was not the man +to weaken the certainty of an all-important issue by refraining from +putting into the field every soldier at his disposal. And he was wisely +cautious in his tactics. That he was strong enough to make a direct +attack by storming the Babawali Kotul and the Pir Paimal hill was clear +in the light of previous experience. But if there was more 'brilliancy' +in a direct attack, there was certain to be heavier loss than would be +incurred in the less dashing turning movement, and Sir Frederick with the +true spirit of a commander chose the more artistic and less bloody method +of earning his victory. It did not cost him dear. His casualties of the +day were thirty-six killed including three officers, and 218 wounded +among whom were nine officers. + +The battle of Candahar brought to a close the latest of our Afghan wars. +Sir Frederick Roberts quitted Candahar on the 9th September, and marched +to Quetta with part of his division. On the 15th October, at Sibi, he +resigned his command, and taking sick leave to England sailed from Bombay +on the 30th October. His year of hard and successful service in +Afghanistan greatly enhanced his reputation as a prompt, skilful, and +enterprising soldier. + + * * * * * + +The Pisheen and Sibi valleys are the sole tangible results remaining to +us of the two campaigns in Afghanistan sketched in the second part of +this volume--campaigns which cost the lives of many gallant men slain in +action or dead of disease, and involved the expenditure of about twenty +millions sterling. Lord Beaconsfield's vaunted 'scientific frontier,' +condemned by a consensus of the best military opinions, was rejected by +the Liberal Government which had recently acceded to power, whose +decision was that both the Khyber Pass and the Kuram valley should be +abandoned. On this subject Sir Frederick Roberts wrote with great +shrewdness: 'We have nothing to fear from Afghanistan, and the best thing +to do is to leave it as much as possible to itself. It may not be very +flattering to our _amour propre_, but I feel sure I am right when I say +that the less the Afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should +Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India +through it, we should have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to +our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime.' +During the winter of 1880-1 the Khyber and the Kuram were evacuated by +the British troops, the charge of keeping open and quiet the former being +entrusted to tribal levies paid by the Indian Government. + +So far, then, as regarded the north-western frontier, the _status quo +ante_ had been fallen back upon. But there was a keen difference of +opinion in regard to the disposition of the salient angle furnished by +Candahar. Throughout the British occupation and the negotiations with +Abdurrahman, the annexation of Candahar had been consistently repudiated. +The intention on our part announced was to separate it from Cabul, and to +place it under the independent rule of a Barakzai prince. Such a prince +had actually been appointed in Shere Ali Khan, and although that +incompetent Sirdar was wise enough to abdicate a position for which he +was not strong enough, this action did not relieve us from our pledges +against annexation. Nevertheless many distinguished men whose opinions +were abstractly entitled to weight, were strongly in favour of our +retention of Candahar. Among those were the late Lord Napier of Magdala, +Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Edward Hamley, Sir Donald Stewart, and Sir +Frederick Roberts. Among the authorities opposed to the occupation of +Candahar were such men as the late Lord Lawrence and General Charles +Gordon, Sir Robert Montgomery, Lord Wolseley, Sir Henry Norman, Sir John +Adye, and Sir Archibald Alison. + +While the professional experts differed and while the 'Candahar debates' +in Parliament were vehement and prolonged, the issue, assuming that +fidelity to pledges was still regarded as a national virtue, was +perfectly clear and simple. In the frank words of Sir Lepel Griffin: 'We +could not have remained in Candahar without a breach of faith.' And he +added with unanswerable force: 'Our withdrawal was in direct accordance +with the reiterated and solemn professions which I had been instructed to +make, and the assurances of the Government of India to the chiefs and +people of Cabul.... The wisdom of the policy of retiring from Candahar +may be a fair matter for argument, but it was one on which both +Governments were agreed. I am convinced that withdrawal, after our public +assurances, was the only practicable policy.' + +Lord Ripon acted on his instructions 'to keep in view the paramount +importance of effecting a withdrawal from Candahar on the earliest +suitable occasion.' The abdication of the Wali Shere Ali Khan cleared the +air to some extent. A British garrison under the command of General Hume +wintered in Candahar. Ayoub Khan was a competitor for the rulership of +the southern province, but he received no encouragement, and after some +negotiation the Ameer Abdurrahman was informed that Candahar was +reincorporated with the kingdom of Afghanistan, and it was intimated to +him that the capital would be given over to the Governor, accompanied by +a suitable military force, whom he should send. On the 1st of April an +Afghan force entered Candahar, followed presently by Mahomed Hassan Khan, +the Governor nominated by the Ameer. General Hume soon after marched out, +and after halting for a time in the Pisheen valley to watch the course of +events in Candahar, he continued his march toward India. The restless +Ayoub did not tamely submit to the arrangement which gave Candahar to +Abdurrahman. Spite of many arduous difficulties, spite of lack of money +and of mutinous troops, he set out toward Candahar in July 1881. Mahomed +Hassan marched against him from Candahar, and a battle was fought at +Maiwand on the anniversary of the defeat of General Burrows on the same +field. Ayoub was the conqueror, and he straightway took possession of the +capital and was for the time ruler of the province. But Abdurrahman, +subsidised with English money and English arms, hurried from Cabul, +encountered Ayoub outside the walls of Candahar, and inflicted on him a +decisive defeat. His flight to Herat was followed up, he sustained a +second reverse there, and took refuge in Persia. Abdurrahman's tenure of +the Cabul sovereignty had been at first extremely precarious; but he +proved a man at once strong, resolute, and politic. In little more than a +year after his accession he was ruler of Shere Ali's Afghanistan; +Candahar and Herat had both come to him, and that without very serious +exertion. He continues to reign quietly, steadfastly, and firmly; and +there never has been any serious friction between him and the Government +of India, whose wise policy is a studied abstinence from interference in +the internal affairs of the Afghan kingdom. + + * * * * * + +INDEX + +A. + +ABDOOLAH JAN, to be Shere Ali's successor. + +ABDURRAHMAN, the Ameer, son of Afzul Khan, the eldest son of Dost +Mahomed, his early career; his connection with Russia; sounded by the +British Government; Sir Lepel Griffin's mission to; enters Afghanistan; +recognised as Ameer; defeats Ayoub Khan; his subsequent reign. + +ADAM, Major. + +ADVE, Sir John, against keeping Candahar. + +AFGHANISTAN, events in, previous to the first Afghan war; 'a bundle of +provinces;' its condition under Abdurrahman. + +AFGHAN WAR, FIRST, the responsibility for; objects of and preparations +for. + +AFGHAN WAR, SECOND, the policy of England leading to; the force employed +in; tangible results to England. + +AFREEDI HILLMEN oppose Pollock. + +AFZUL KHAN, the Ameer, eldest son of Dost Mahomed, and father of +Abdurrahman. + +ARMED KHEL, battle of. + +AIREY, Captain, a hostage. + +AKBAR KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, joins his father with a force; covers +his father's retreat; in Khooloom; among the Ghilzais; in Cabul; +negotiations with Macnaghten; interview with and murder of Macnaghten; +forecast of his intentions; meets the retreating British army at +Bootkhak, his demands; conduct to the fugitives; offers to treat; invests +Jellalabad; resistance to Pollock; treatment of his captives; sends the +body of Elphinstone to Jellalabad. + +AKRAM KHAN put to death by Timour. + +ALI KHEL. + +ALI MUSJID FORT, the, key of the Khyber pass; partially destroyed; Sir +Sam Browne's attack upon. + + +ALISON, Sir Archibald, against keeping Candahar. + +AMEENOOLLA KHAN, an Afghan chief. + +AMEER. See SHERE ALI, YAKOUB KHAN, ABDURRAHMAN, AFZUL KHAN. + +ANDERSON, Captain, skirmish with the Ghilzais. + +ANDERSON, Mrs, her child. + +ANQUETIL, Brigadier, in command of Shah Soojah's contingent; exertions +during the retreat; replaces Shelton in command. + +APPLEYARD, at Sir S. Browne's attack upon Ali Musjid. + +ASMAI HEIGHTS, the, Afghans driven from; reoccupied; beacon on; fortified +by Sir F. Roberts. + +ASU KHAN. + +ATTA MAHOMED KHAN, overcome by General Nott. + +ATTOCK RIVER, the. + +AUCKLAND, Lord; becomes Governor-General of India 1836, his undecided +policy; treatment of Dost Mahomed's appeal; his policy becomes warlike; +treaty with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah; determines to support Shah +Soojah with an army; objects of the expedition; the Simla manifesto; +disagreement with Macnaghten; forbids an expedition against Herat; the +Home Government presses the reconsideration of the Afghan questions; +after the disasters; has the credit of Pollock's appointment. + +AUSHAR; Massy at. + +AYOUB KHAN, brother of Yakoub, in command of Herat regiments; in +possession of Herat; his victory at Maiwand; besieges Cabul; shifts to +Mazra; defeated by Sir F. Roberts; drives Mahomed Hassan out of Candahar, +defeated by Abdurrahman. + +B. + +BABA WALI KOTUL, pass of the; cannonaded; village of. + +BACKHOUSE, Captain, on the council of war at Jellalabad; his diary. + +BADAKSHAN. + +BADIABAD, the fort of, the captives at the. + +BAGHWANA, guns abandoned at; recovered. + +BAHADUR KHAN refuses to furnish forage. + +BAJGAH. + +BAKER, Brigadier-General; battle of Charasiah; pursues the mutinous +sepoys; in the Maidan valley; marches to Sherpur; takes the Takht-i-Shah; +in the attack on the cantonments; takes the Meer Akhor fort; in the Great +March; his position at Candahar, the battle. + +BALKH. + +BALLA HISSAR, the; evacuated; Cavagnari at; Sir F. Roberts at; explosions +in, evacuated; road cut through. + +BAMIAN, hill country of; Abdurrahman defeated by Yakoub Khan at. + +BARAKZAI TRIBE, the. + +BARTER, Brigadier-General, commands the infantry at Ahmed Khel. + +BEACONSFIELD, Lord, 'scientific frontier'. + +BEHMAROO RIDGE; village of. + +BELLEW, Captain, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BELOOCH PROVINCES, the. + +BENI BADAM, Baker treacherously attacked at. + +BENI HISSAR. + +BENTINCK, Lord William; his opinion of the first Afghan expedition. + +BERLIN, Treaty of. + +BHAWULPORE. + +BHURTPORE. + +BIDDULPH, General, in command of the Quetta force. + +BIRD, Lieutenant, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BOKHARA. + +BOLAN PASS, the. + +BOOTKHAK. + +BOYD, Mrs, in the retreat. + +BROADFOOT, Captain George, his sappers; in the Gundamuk council of war; +garrison engineer at Jellalabad; urges Sale to hold the place; his +account of the council of war. + +BROADFOOT, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +BROADFOOT, William, Secretary to Sir A. Burnes, murdered with him. + +BROOKE, Brigadier-General, killed in attack on Deh Khoja. + +BROWNE, Sir Sam, in command of the Khyber column; attack on the Ali +Musjid; reports the death of Shere Ali; receives Yakoub Khan; commands in +'the Death March'. + +BROWNLOW, Colonel, of the 72d Highlanders, in the attack on the +cantonments; killed in the battle of Candahar. + +BROUGHTON, Lord. _See_ SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE. + +BRYDON, Dr, sole survivor of the Khyber disaster. + +BURNES, Sir Alexander, sent by Lord Auckland to Cabul; favourable to Dost +Mahomed, reprimanded by his superiors, leaves Cabul; re-enters with Shah +Soojah; his opinion of Shah Soojah's ministers; advice to Macnaghten; his +character; murdered; revenged. + +BURROWS, Brigadier-General, in the Maiwand disaster; in the battle of +Candahar. + +BUTLER'S, Lady, picture. + +BUTSON, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +C. + +CABUL, PASS OF KHOORD; description of, slaughter in; Pollock's army +marches up. + +CABUL, Shah Soojah ousted from the throne of; Shah Soojah re-enters; +British troops in; Dost Mahomed surrenders at; murder of Burnes at; Shah +Soojah murdered at; Nott arrives at; punished; Cavagnari at; the Sherpur +cantonments, north of; Roberts near; Mahomed Jan plans to take; hostility +of villages round; Mushk-i-Alum governor of; re-occupied by Roberts; +fortifications and communications improved; Sir Lepel Griffin arrives at; +holds a durbar at. + +CAMPBELL, sent by Shah Soojah to assist Burnes, fails. + +CANDAHAR, siege of, by Shah Soojah, relieved by Dost Mahomed; entered by +Shah Soojah and Keane; occupied by British troops; independent province +of; Timour, Shah Soojah's viceroy at; British troops to leave; Nott in; +Afghans beaten off; General Stuart's march on; evacuated; to be separated +from Cabul; Shere Ali Khan governor of; Burrow's army withdrawn into; Sir +F. Roberts marches on; arrives at; battle of; question of retention of; +battle between Abdurrahman and Ayoub Khan at. + +CAVAGNARI, Sir Louis; ineffectual attempt to enter Cabul; correspondence +with Yakoub Khan; at Cabul, his character; the massacre. + +CHAMBERLAIN, Sir Neville, abortive attempt to enter Afghanistan as Envoy. + +CHAMBERS, Colonel, defeats the Ghilzais. + +CHAPMAN, Colonel (now Major-General) E. F., chief of the staff; in the +Great March; reconnaissance before the battle of Candahar. + +CHARASIAH, battle of. + +CHARDEH VALLEY, the. + +CHARIKAR, capital of the Kohistan, troops quartered in; disaster of; +punishment of; Abdurrahman arrives at. + +CHISHOLM, Captain, wounded at the Seah Sung ridge. + +CLARK, Lieutenant-Colonel. + +CLELAND, gallant conduct of. + +CLERK, Mr, demands right of way through the Punjaub. + +CLIBBORN, Colonel, defeated by Beloochees. + +COBBE, leads the attack of the Peiwar Kotul. + +CODRINGTON, commandant of Charikar; killed; revenged. + +COMMISSARIAT FORT, the. + +CONOLLY, Lieutenant John; a hostage. + +COOK, Major, V.C., of the Goorkha regiment, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +COTTON, Sir Willoughby, commands first infantry division; on the march to +Cabul; in chief command in Afghanistan; a respectable nonentity.'. + +CRAIGIE, defence of Khelat-i-Ghilzai. + +CRISPIN, with Eraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +CRUICKSHANK, Captain, killed at the attack on Deh Khoja. + +CUNYNGHAM, Lieutenant Dick, V.C., gallant conduct at the Takht-i-Shah. + +CUTCH. + +D. + +DADUR, in. + +DAKKA. + +DAOUD SHAH, Yakoub Khan's general; accompanies the Ameer to Roberts' +camp. + +DEH-I-AFGHAN, a suburb of Cabul. + +DEH KHATI. + +DEH KHOJA. + +DEH MAZUNG. + +DEHRAWAT. + +DEIG. + +DENNIE, Colonel, of the 13th, at the taking of Ghuznee; in command at +Bamian; replaces Sale in command; heads a sortie from Jellalabad; in the +council of war; commands the centre at the great sortie and is killed. + +DENNIS, Colonel. + +DODGIN, Captain, valour in the retreat. + +DOORANEES, the. + +DOST MAHOMED, origin; early career; asks for terms; forsaken by his +troops; a fugitive; in Bokhara and Khooloom; at Bamian and Kohistan; +surrenders to Macnaghten; sent into British India; to be allowed to +return to Afghanistan; his return to his sovereignty; dies. + +DREW, Colonel, enters the Peiwar Kotul. + +DUNCAN, General. + +DUNDAS, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +DUNHAM-MASSY, Brigadier-General. + +DURAND, on the siege of Herat; on Lord Auckland's manifesto; on +Macnaghten's appointment; at siege of Ghuznee; on the restoration of Shah +Soojah; on Dost Mahomed's surrender; on the retreat on Jellalabad; on +Macnaghten's ill-faith. + +E. + +EDWARDES, Sir Henry, on Lord Auckland's manifesto. + +ELLENBOROUGH, Lord, on Sale's brigade; first manifesto; vacillations; +orders the removal of the gates of Somnath from Sultan Mahmoud's tomb; +reception of the returning armies. + +ELLIS, Mr, British Envoy to Persia. + +ELPHINSTONE, General; succeeds Cotton in chief command; his character and +infirmities; orders Sale to return to Cabul; about to leave India; orders +the abandonment of the Commissariat fort; the Duke of Wellington's +verdict on his position; hopeless; 'scents treachery'; calls upon +Pottinger to open negotiations; in the retreat; consents to hand over the +ladies; and their husbands; refuses Akbar's proposal that the Europeans +should lay down their arms; conference; made a hostage; at Jugdulluk; +death. + +ELPHINSTONE, Mr, on the Afghan expedition. + +ENGLAND, Brigadier, defeated at the Kojuk pass. + +EVATT, Surgeon-Major, on the 'Death March.' + +EYRE, Vincent, opinion on Shelton's defeat at Behmaroo; description of +the sufferings of the retreat; his 'Captivity.'. + +F. + +FANE, Sir Harry, Commander-in-Chief; heads the expedition to Cabul. + +FARRINGTON, routs Uktar Khan at Zemindawar. + +FEROZEPORE. + +FORBES, Lieutenant, of the 92d Highlanders, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +FRASER'S BENGAL CAVALRY at Purwan Durrah. + +FROME, Captain, killed in the battle of Candahar. + +FUTTEHABAD. + +FUTTEH ALI, Shah of Persia. + +FUTTEH JUNG, second son and successor of Shah Soojah; abdicates. + +FUTTEH KHAN, eldest brother of Dost Mahomed, his fate. + +G. + +GALBRAITH, Colonel, killed at Maiwand. + +GARMAO HILLS, the. + +GHAZEES. + +GHILZAIS, the; description of; brave conduct of under the 'Gooroo,'; gain +terms from Macgregor; attack Sale's force; slaughter by, in the Khoord +Cabul; hang on the rear of the retreat; slaughter by, at Jugdulluk; +attack Pollock; harass Money. + +GHIRISHK. + +GHUZNEE. siege of; occupied by British troops; surrendered to the +Afghans; retaken by Nott. + +GOAD, Captain, killed. + +GOOL MAHOMED KHAN. + +GOORKHA REGIMENTS. + +GOOROO, the Ghilzai leader. + +GORDON, Colonel, his command in the attack on the Spingawai and Peiwar +Kotuls. + +GORDON, General Charles, against keeping Candahar. + +GOREBUND RIVER, the. + +GORTSCHAKOFF. + +GOUGH, Captain, with the 9th Lancers; in the charge of December 11th. + +GOUGH, General Charles. + +GOUGH, General Hugh. + +GRANT, Dr, gallant conduct at Charikar. + +GREEN, in the Retreat. + +GRENADIERS, its, the. + +GRIFFIN, Sir Lepel, his mission to arrange for the succession to Yakoub +Khan; on the retention of Candahar. + +GRIFFITHS, Major, gallant march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar; storms Mahomed +Shereef's fort. + +GUIDES, the; in the attack on the Beni-Hissar. + +GUL KOH RIDGE, the. + +GUNDAMUK, Sale's council of war at; final tragedy of the Retreat near; +evacuated; Pollock's troops concentrate at; treaty of 1879; conclusion +of. + +GUNDIGAN. + +GWAGA PASS, the. + +H. + +HABIB KILLA. + +HADJI KHAN KHAKUR. + +HAINES, Sir F., Commander-in-Chief. + +HALL, Captain. + +HAMILTON, Lieutenant W. R. P., V.C., with Cavagnari at Cabul; killed. + +HAMLEY, Sir Edward, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +HANZ-I-MADAT. + +HARDY, Lieutenant, killed. + +HASSAN ABDUL. + +HASSAN KHAN, governor of Maidan, killed. + +HAUGHTON, desperately wounded in the Charikar disaster. + +HAVELOCK, Captain Henry, aide-de-camp to Sir W. Cotton; on Shah Soojah's +reception in Candahar; description of Shah Soojah; staff officer to Sale; +authenticates Broadfoot's account of Sale's council of war at Jellalabad; +in the great sortie from Jellalabad. + +HAY, at the siege of Ghuznee. + +HAZARAS, horde of. + +HELMUND RIVER, the. + +HENSMAN, Mr; on the defence of Sherpur; on the battle of Ahmed Khel; on +Abdurrahman. + +HERAT, Persia and; siege of, by the Persians; independent; Macnaghten +presses for an expedition against; Ayoub Khan in; Ayoub driven from, by +Abdurrahman. + +HIGHLANDERS, the 72d and 92d. + +HILLS, Major-General, governor of Cabul. + +HINDOO KOOSH, the. + +HOBHOUSE, Sir John Cam, Lord Broughton, president of the Board of +Control, claims the responsibility of the first Afghan war in 1851, +contradictory statement in 1842. + +HUFT KOTUL, the; last stand of the Afghans at. + +HUGHES, Brigadier-General, at Ahmed Khel. + +HUME, General. + +HYDERABAD. + +HYDER KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, and governor of Ghuznee, taken prisoner. + +HYDRABAD. + +I. + +INDIAN CONTINGENT in the Mediterranean, the. + +INDIKEE, mutinous sepoys captured in. + +INDUS, the. + +IRRAWADY, the. + +ISTALIF, a Kohistan village destroyed. + +JACOB'S RIFLES (30th Native Infantry) at the Maiwand disaster. + +JADRAN. + +JAZEE, Anderson encounters Ghilzais at. + +JELLALABAD; British troops quartered in; march on resolved upon; Durand's +opinion of; Akbar's conditions for the evacuation of; defence of; Pollock +at; Elphinstone buried at; partially destroyed; Sir S. Browne's camp +near; disaster to the 10th Hussars near. + +JENKINS, Colonel, of the Guides; storms the Asmai heights; adroit +evacuation of Asmai heights. + +JENKINS, William, Secretary to Cavagnari. + +JOHNSON, Captain, in charge of the Treasury at Cabul; hostage; arranges +the redemption of the captives. + +JOHNSON, Colonel Alured, commands the artillery in the Great March. + +JUBBUR KHAN, brother to Dost Mahomed, 28; in charge of Dost Mahomed's +family at Khooloom. + +JUGDULLUK VALLEY, the; retreating column harassed at; slaughter at; +captives arrive at; Pollock engaged with Ghilzais at. + +JULGAH FORT, the, Sale fails to take. + +JUMROOD. + + +K. + +KAMRAN, Shah of Herat. + +KAREZAH. + +KAREZ HILL, the. + +KAREZ MEER. + +KARRACK. + +KATA KUSTIA. + +KATTIAWAR. + +KAUFMANN, General. + +KAYE, Sir John; history of the Afghan war; opinion of Burnes; account of +Macnaghten's murder. + +KEANE, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay army; marches towards +Hyderabad; his character; marches on Cabul; siege of Ghuznee; camp near +Cabul. + +KELLY, Dr Ambrose, with Cavagnari. + +KERSHAW, at siege of Ghuznee. + +KHAKREZ VALLEY, the. + +KHAROTI HILL, the. + +KHEL AKHUND. + +KHELAT; occupied by Nott. + +KHELAT, Khans of. See MEERAB, NUSSEER. + +KHELAT-I-GHILZAI; occupied by Nott; garrisoned; garrison withdrawn; one +of the stages on the Great March. + +KHIG. + +KHIVA. + +KHODA BUXSH. + +KHOOLOOM; Akbar at. + +KHOOLOOM, Wali of. + +KHOST VALLEY, the. + +KHUSHK-I-NAKHUD, skirmish at. + +KHYBER-Jellalabad-Gundamuk route, the. + +KHYBER PASS, the; the clans of; Ghilzais intercept the communication by; +Wild fails to force; Pollock marches through; Cavagnari turned back from; +question of the retention of; evacuated. + +KILLA ABDOOLLA. + +KILLA KAZEE; Massy at. + +KING'S GARDEN, the, at Cabul. + +KNOWLES. + +KOHDAMAN. + +KOH-I-NOOR, the, taken by Runjeet Singh from Shah Soojah. + +KOHISTAN, Dost Mahomed in. + +KOJUK PASS, the; Brigadier England repulsed at. + +KOKORAN. + +KOLUM-DIL-KHAN. + +KOTWAL OF CABUL, the, tried for the massacre of Cavagnari, etc. + +KONDOOZ. + +KOTTREE. + +KUBBAR-I-JUBBAR. + +KURAM VALLEY, the. + +KURDURRAH. + +KUSHI; General Roberts meets Yakoub Khan at. + +KUTTI SUNG. + +L. + +LAHORE, Mr Clerk at. + +LAKE. + +LANCERS, the 9th. + +LANCERS, Bengal, the. + +LAWRENCE, Captain, warns Macnaghten; made prisoner; sends messages from +the chiefs to Elphinstone; description of the retreat; made hostage; in +captivity. + +LAWRENCE, Lord, his 'masterly inactivity;' against keeping Candahar. + +LEACH, Major. + +LOCKHART. + +LOGUR VALLEY, the; plain; river. + +LOODIANAH, Shah Soojah's refuge in. + +LORD, Dr, political officer in the Bamian district; killed at Purwan +Durrah. + +LOVEDAY, Lieutenant, political officer at Khelat, barbarously murdered. + +LUGHMAN VALLEY, the. + +LUGHMANEE, Pottinger besieged in. + +LUNDI KOTUL. + +LUTTABUND. + +LYTTON, Lord, Viceroy, 1876; his instructions; ratifies the treaty of +Gunda-Gundamuk; prepares to revenge Cavagnari; decides that Yakoub Khan +does not return to Afghanistan; recommends Abdurrahman. + +M. + +MACGREGOR, Brigadier-General Charles, C. B., chief of Sir F. Roberts' +staff; recovers the guns at Baghwana; in the Great March; in the battle +of Candahar. + +MACGREGOR, Major, deceived by the Ghilzai chief of Tezeen; Sale's +adviser. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Colin, at the defeat of Dost Mahomed near Bamian; +gallant conduct of; with Macnaghten; a hostage; story of the Retreat. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Stuart, gallant conduct of. + +MACKESON, political officer at Peshawur. + +MACKRELL, Colonel, killed at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +MACLAINE, Lieutenant, of the Horse Artillery, in the Maiwand disaster; +taken prisoner; murdered. + +MACLAREN. + +MACNAGHTEN, Lady; in the Retreat. + +MACNAGHTEN, Sir William Hay, envoy to Shah Soojah, influence with Lord +Auckland; his use of bribery; on the reception of the Shah at Candahar; +enters Cabul with Shah Soojah; convinced of the Shah's popularity; real +sovereign of Afghanistan; his mistakes; relations with the Ghilzais; +consents to the abandonment of the Balla Hissar; relations with Herat; +nervous about the communication; relation with Dost Mahomed; proposes to +put a price on his head; receives his surrender; his peculiar +temperament; his finance; discovers the unpopularity of the Shah; his +conduct to the 'Gooroo' and Ghilzais; appointed Governor of Bombay; +called upon to retrench; his conduct to Elphinstone; despatches Sale; his +quarters at Cabul; demands the reduction of the Rikabashee fort; +depression; negotiation about the Retreat; murdered. + +MACPHERSON, Brigadier-General; in the December operations round Cabul; in +the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +MAHMOOD KHAN, fort of. + +MAHMOUD SHAH, brother of Shah Soojah. + +MAHOMED HASSAN KHAN, Abdurrahman's governor of Candahar, defeated by +Ayoub. + +MAHOMED JAN, a Warduk general, defends the Asmai heights; attacked by +Massy and Macpherson; attack on the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAHOMED MEERZA, Shah of Persia, his ambition, designs on Herat. + +MAHOMED SHAH KHAN, Akbar's lieutenant. + +MAHOMED SHEREEF, fort of. + +MAHOMED SURWAR, agent of Sir Lepel Griffin. + +MAHOMED ZEMAUN KHAN. + +MAIDAN PLAIN, the. + +MAINWARING, Mrs, in the Retreat. + +MAIWAND; disaster at; battle at, between Mahomed Hassan and Ayoub. + +MANDERSON. + +MANGAL. + +MARSHALL, Colonel, routs Nusseer Khan. + +MASSY, Brigadier-General; occupies the Shutargurdan pass; takes +possession of the Sherpur cantonments; in the attack on Mahomed Jan; in +the defence of the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAUDE, General. + +MAULE, Lieutenant. + +MAZRA; Ayoub's camp at, during battle of Candahar. + +M'CASKILL, Brigadier-General, with Pollock; in the last skirmishes. + +MEER AKHOR FORT, the, blown up. + +MEER BUTCHA, a chief of Kohistan. + +MEERZA AHMED, a Dooranee chief. + +MEHRAB, Khan of Khelat. + +MICHNAI PASS, the. + +M'Neill, British Envoy to Persia. + +MOHUN LAL, agent for Macnaghten's 'blood money.' + +MONEY, Colonel, left to hold the Shutargurdan pass; brought out by Gough; +in the battle of Candahar. + +MONTEATH, Colonel, sent against the Ghilzais; in the council of war at +Jellalabad; at the great sortie. + +MONTENARO, Captain, killed at the Meer Akhor fort. + +MONTGOMERY, Sir Robert, against keeping Candahar. + +MOOKOOR. + +MOOLLA SHIKORE, Shah Soojah's minister. + +MOOLTAN. + +MOORE, Elphinstone's servant. + +MORGAN. + +MULLA SAHIBDAD. + +MUNDABAD. + +MURCHA PASS. + +MUSA KHAN, heir of Yakoub Khan. + +MUSHAKI. + +MUSHK-I-ALUM, a Moulla of Ghuznee; his influence; governor of Cabul, +fires the beacon on the Asmai heights. + +MUSTAPHI, the, punished for the Cavagnari massacre. + +N. + +NAGHLOO. + +NANUCHEE PASS, the. + +NAPIER, Lieutenant Scott, of the 92d Highlanders. + +NAPIER, Lord, of Magdala, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +NEK MAHOMED KHAN, Afghan commander at the battle of Charasiah. + +NEPAUL. + +NEVILLE, of the Bengal Lancers. + +NICHOLL, Captain, his heroism in the Retreat. + +NIJRAO. + +NORMAN, Sir Henry, against keeping Candahar. + +NORTHBROOK, Lord, relations with Shere Ali. + +NOTT, General; in command at Candahar; occupies Khelat; his character; +discipline; disagrees with Macnaghten; receives orders from Elphinstone +to evacuate Candahar, refuses to obey; fighting with Meerza Ahmed; his +letter to Brigadier England; Lord Ellenborough repeats orders to evacuate +Candahar, obeys; marches towards Cabul; drives Afghans out of Ghuznee; +refuses to aid in the rescue of the prisoners. + +NUGENT, Lieutenant, killed. + +NUSSEER, Khan of Khelat. + +NUTTALL, General. + +O. + +OLDFIELD, Captain, in the Council of War at Jellalabad. + +ORENBURG. + +OSMAN KHAN. + +OUTRAM pursues Dost Mahomed; raid on the Ghilzais. + +P. + +PALLISER, Brigadier-General. + +PALMER, Colonel, tortured. + +PALMERSTON'S, Lord, ultimatum to Persia. + +PANJSHIR RIVER, the. + +PASKEVITCH, General. + +PATHANS. + +PEAT, Captain, at siege of Ghuznee. + +PEIWAR PASS, the. + +PELLY, Sir Lewis, at the conference of Peshawur. + +PEROFFSKY. + +PERSIA, relations between Great Britain and. + +PESHAWUR. + +PESHBOLAK. + +PETROFFSKY, a Russian writer. + +PHAYRE, Brigadier-General. + +PICQUET HILL, the, attacked by Ayoub Khan. + +PIONEERS, the. + +PISHEEN VALLEY, the; retained by us. + +POLLOCK, General; arrives in Peshawur; at Jellalabad; his qualifications; +his work; the rescue and retribution; contrast between Nott and; arrives +at Cabul; punishment of Cabul. + +PONSONBY, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry in Purwan Durrah. + +POOLE, Captain, wounded. + +POTTINGER, Major, defends Herat against the Persians; warns Macnaghten of +the danger in Kohistan; in the disaster at Charikar; conducts +negotiations for the retreat; a hostage. + +POWELL, Captain, killed. + +POYNDAH KHAN, father to Dost Mahomed. + +PRIMROSE, General; in the battle of Candahar. + +PUNJAUB REGIMENTS. + +PUNJAUB, the. + +PURWAN DURRAH VALLEY, the. + +Q. + +QUETTA; occupied. + +R. + +RATTRAY. + +RAWLINSON, Sir Henry; his warnings to Macnaghten; Macnaghten's orders to, +respecting Uktar Khan; in favour of retaining Candahar. + +RAWUL PINDI. + +RHOTAS HEIGHTS, the. + +RIKABASHEE FORT, the. + +RIPON, Marquis of, Viceroy; in favour of the settlement with Abdurrahman; +sanctions General Roberts' March on Candahar. + +ROBAT, Great March ends at. + +ROBERTS, Colonel. + +ROBERTS, Sir Frederick, in command of the Kuram column; his scheme of +operations; battle of the Peiwar Kotul; his previous career; with the +army of invasion; battle of Charasiah; at Cabul; revenge for Cavagnari; +intercourse with Yakoub Khan; in the Sherpur cantonment; active +operations round Cabul; on the defensive in Sherpur; the Great March on +Candahar; battle of Candahar; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ROREE. + +ROSE, Ensign, in the retreat from Charikar. + +ROSS, Major-General John; in the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +RUNJEET SINGH Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, treatment of Shah Soojah; +occupies Peshawur; death. + +RUSSIA, relations with Persia; policy towards Dost Mahomed; Afghanistan +to be used as a 'buffer state' between British India and; Russo-Turkish +war; relations with Abdurrahman; opinion of Roberts on Afghanistan and. + +S. + +SAFI TRIBE, the, engage Macpherson. + +SALE, Lady, her journal; account of the Retreat; Akbar's kindness to. + +SALE, Sir Robert; at siege of Ghuznee; in command at Cabul; chastises the +Kohistanees; his character; fighting in the Khoord Cabul at Bootkhak; at +Gundamuk; occupies Jellalabad; defence of Jellalabad; fighting with the +Ghilzais at Jugdulluk; ordered to rescue captives. + +SALEH MAHOMED KHAN, arranges the escape of the captives. + +SALISBURY, Lord. + +SANGBUR. + +SCINDE. + +SCOTT, Major. + +SCHUYLER, Mr Eugene, interviews Abdurrahman. + +SEAH SUNG HEIGHTS, the. + +SEH BABA. + +SEISTAN, province of. + +SHAFTO, Captain, killed at the Balla Hissar. + +SHAGAI RIDGE, the. + +SHAH BAGH, the. + +SHAHBAZ KHAN. + +SHAHJUI. + +SHAHLEZ. + +SHAKESPEAR, Sir Richmond. + +SHEIKABAD. + +SHELTON. Brigadier, arrives at Jellalabad; character; at Cabul; receives +contradictory orders from Macnaghten; in the Balla Hissar; takes the +Rikabashee fort; opposes the removal of the troops into the Balla Hissar; +attacks Bemaroo; commands the main body in the Retreat; his dogged +valour; a hostage. + +SHER-DERWAZA HEIGHTS, the. + +SHERE ALI, the Ameer, son of Dost Mahomed, accession and character; +refuses to receive a Resident; negotiations with Lord Lytton; cordial +reception of the Russians, refuses to receive Sir Neville Chamberlain; +death at Balkh; his mistakes. + +SHERE ALI KHAN, Wali of Candahar; abdicates. + +SHERPUR CANTONMENTS, the; description of; operations round; defence of; +durbar at; interview between Sir Donald Stewart and Abdurrahman at. + +SHIKARPORE. + +SHILGUR. + +SHUMSHOODEEN, an Afghan leader. + +SHUTARGURDAN PASS, the. + +SIBI; retained by us. + +SIKHS. + +SIKH FEUDATORY STATES CONTINGENT. + +SIKH REGIMENTS. + +SINGIRI. + +SKINNER, Captain, a hostage. + +SLADE, at the Maiwand disaster. + +SOMNATH, gates of. + +SOOJAH-OOL-MOOLK, Shah; early career; intrigues; Lord Auckland determines +to restore him; his share in the expedition; replaced on the throne, +entry into Cabul; his position; with Macnaghten at Cabul; refuses to see +Dost Mahomed; goes to Jellalabad; his errors; disaffection towards him; +recommends the occupation of the Balla Hissar; stipulations with regard +to; remains in Cabul; letter to Sale at Jellalabad; murdered. + +SOORKHAB. + +SOUTER, Captain, escapes from the slaughter at Gundamuk. + +SPENS, Captain of the 72d Highlanders, killed. + +SPINGAWAI KOTUL, the, attack on, by Roberts. + +STANHOPE, Mr, on the treaty of Gundamuk. + +STEWART, Sir Donald; marches into Candahar; begins his march to Cabul; +battle of Ahmed Khel and Urzoo; continues his march to Cabul; relations +with Abdurrahman; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ST JOHN, Colonel. + +STODDART, Colonel. + +STOLIETOFF, defender of the Schipka pass, received by Shere Ali. + +'STORMS AND SUNSHINE OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE,' by Colin Mackenzie. + +STRATON, Captain. + +SUKKUR. + +SULIMAN MOUNTAINS, the. + +SULTAN JAN. + +SULTAN MAHMOUD, tomb of. + +SUNG-I-NAWISHTA PASS, the. + +SURKH KOTUL, the. + +SUTLEJ RIVER, the. + +SWAYNE, Major. + +SYGHAN. + +T. + +TAGAO. + +TAKHT-I-SHAH PEAK, the. + +TASHKEND, Russians at; Shere Ali at; Abdurrahman at. + +TEZEEN. + +THAL-CHOTIALI. + +THELWALL, Brigadier. + +THOMSON, engineer to Keane. + +TIMOUR, Prince, son of Shah Soojah, supported by Runjeet Singh; Soojah's +viceroy at Candahar; cruelty. + +TIR-ANDAZ. + +TODD, Major, political agent in Herat. + +TOOTUNDURRAH FORT, Sale takes. + +TREVOR, with Macnaghten at his death; murdered. + +TROUP, Captain. + +TUNGHEE TARIKI, gorge of, scene of slaughter. + +TURNUK. + +TURRAI. + +TYTLER. + +U. + +UKTAR KHAN, a discontented Dooranee chief; Macnaghten offers reward for +his head. + +URGUNDAB. + +URGUNDEH. + +URZOO, affair of. + +V. + +VAKEEL, the, obnoxious minister of Shah Soojah. + +VICEROYS, _See_ LORDS W. BENTINCK, AUCKLAND, ELLENBOROUGH, NORTHBROOK, +LYTTON, and the MARQUIS OF RIPON. + +VIKKUR. + +W. + +WADE, escorts Prince Timour by the Khyber route. + +WALI MAHOMED, governor designate of Turkestan. + +WARREN, evacuates the Commissariat fort. + +WATSON, Colonel, in command of the Sikh Feudatory contingent. + +WELLESLEY, the Marquis, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision. + +WELLINGTON, Duke of, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision; on +Elphinstone's position at Cabul; on English troops v. hillmen. + +WHITE, Major, of the 92d Highlanders, at the attack on Beni Hissar; in +the battle of Candahar. + +WILD, Brigadier, attempts to force the Khyber pass. + +WILLSHIRE, General, harassed in the Bolan pass; punishes Khelat. + +WOLSELEY, Lord, against keeping Candahar. + +WORSLEY, Colonel. + +WYMER, Colonel, hard fighting with the Ghilzais. + +Y. + +YAHUJA KHAN. + +YAKOUB KHAN, son of Shere Ali, released and made regent; intercourse with +Sir Sam Browne; question of his complicity in the Cavagnari massacre; +takes refuge in the English camp; a prisoner; the Viceroy's decision +against his return to power. + +YAR MAHOMED, Shah Kamran's minister. + +YERGATI. + +Z. + +ZAKARIAH KHAN, Yakoub's brother. + +ZANDEH, captives carried to. + +ZEMINDAWAR, country of. + +ZIMMA, Abdurrahman and Sir Lepel Griffin at. + +ZURMUT. + + * * * * * + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 +by Archibald Forbes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS *** + +This file should be named 7afgh10.txt or 7afgh10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7afgh11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7afgh10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 + +Author: Archibald Forbes + +Posting Date: September 22, 2014 [EBook #8428] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 9, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Sir Frederick Roberts] + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND 1878-80 + +by ARCHIBALD FORBES + +With Portraits and Plans + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + +PART I.--THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR + +CHAP. + + I.--PRELIMINARY + + II.--THE MARCH TO CABUL + + III.--THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + IV.--THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + V.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END + + VI.--THE ROAD TO RUIN + + VII.--THE CATASTROPHE + +VIII.--THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + + IX.--RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + + +PART II.--THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + I.--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + + II.--THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + III.--THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + + IV.--THE DECEMBER STORM + + V.--ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + + VI.--AHMED KHEL + + VII.--THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +VIII.--MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + + IX.--THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + * * * * * + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS + + PORTRAIT OF SIR FREDERICK ROBERTS _Frontispiece_ + + PLAN OF CABUL, THE CANTONMENT + + PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE POLLOCK + + PORTRAIT OF SIR LOUIS CAVAGNARI AND SIRDARS + + PLAN OF CABUL SHOWING THE ACTIONS, DEC. 11-14 + + PLAN OF ACTION, AHMED KHEL + + PORTRAIT OF THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF MAIWAND + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF CANDAHAR + +_The Portraits of Sir G. Pollock and Sir F. Roberts are engraved by +permission of Messrs Henry Graves & Co._ + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS + + + + +PART I: _THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR_ + + + + +CHAPTER I: PRELIMINARY + +Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished +what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian +army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between +Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression. + +By a treaty, concluded between England and Persia in 1814, the former +state bound itself, in case of the invasion of Persia by any European +nation, to aid the Shah either with troops from India or by the payment +of an annual subsidy in support of his war expenses. It was a dangerous +engagement, even with the _caveat_ rendering the undertaking inoperative +if such invasion should be provoked by Persia. During the fierce struggle +of 1825-7, between Abbas Meerza and the Russian General Paskevitch, +England refrained from supporting Persia either with men or with money, +and when prostrate Persia was in financial extremities because of the war +indemnity which the treaty of Turkmanchai imposed upon her, England took +advantage of her needs by purchasing the cancellation of the inconvenient +obligation at the cheap cost of about £300,000. It was the natural result +of this transaction that English influence with the Persian Court should +sensibly decline, and it was not less natural that in conscious weakness +Persia should fall under the domination of Russian influence. + +Futteh Ali, the old Shah of Persia, died in 1834, and was succeeded by +his grandson Prince Mahomed Meerza, a young man who inherited much of the +ambition of his gallant father Abbas Meerza. His especial aspiration, +industriously stimulated by his Russian advisers, urged him to the +enterprise of conquering the independent principality of Herat, on the +western border of Afghanistan. Herat was the only remnant of Afghan +territory that still remained to a member of the legitimate royal house. +Its ruler was Shah Kamran, son of that Mahmoud Shah who, after ousting +his brother Shah Soojah from the throne of Cabul, had himself been driven +from that elevation, and had retired to the minor principality of Herat. +The young Shah of Persia was not destitute of justification for his +designs on Herat. That this was so was frankly admitted by Mr Ellis, the +British envoy to his Court, who wrote to his Government that the Shah had +fair claim to the sovereignty of Afghanistan as far as Ghuznee, and that +Kamran's conduct in occupying part of the Persian province of Seistan had +given the Shah 'a full justification for commencing hostilities against +Herat.' + +The serious phase of the situation for England and India was that Russian +influence was behind Persia in this hostile action against Herat. Mr +Ellis pointed out that in the then existing state of relations between +Persia and Russia, the progress of the former in Afghanistan was +tantamount to the advancement of the latter. But unfortunately there +remained valid an article in the treaty of 1814 to the effect that, in +case of war between the Afghans and the Persians, the English Government +should not interfere with either party unless when called on by both to +mediate. In vain did Ellis and his successor M'Neill remonstrate with the +Persian monarch against the Herat expedition. An appeal to St Petersburg, +on the part of Great Britain, produced merely an evasive reply. How +diplomatic disquietude had become intensified may be inferred from this, +that whereas in April 1836 Ellis wrote of Persia as a Russian first +parallel of attack against India, Lord Auckland, then Governor-General of +India, directed M'Neill, in the early part of 1837, to urge the Shah to +abandon his enterprise, on the ground that he (the Governor-General) +'must view with umbrage and displeasure schemes of interference and +conquest on our western frontier.' + +The Shah, unmoved by the representations of the British envoy, marched on +Herat, and the siege was opened on November 23d, 1837. Durand, a capable +critic, declares that the strength of the place, the resolution of the +besiegers, the skill of their Russian military advisers, and the +gallantry of the besieged, were alike objects of much exaggeration. 'The +siege was from first to last thoroughly ill-conducted, and the defence, +in reality not better managed, owed its _éclat_ to Persian ignorance, +timidity and supineness. The advice of Pottinger, the gallant English +officer who assisted the defence, was seldom asked, and still more seldom +taken; and no one spoke more plainly of the conduct of both besieged and +besiegers than did Pottinger himself.' M'Neill effected nothing definite +during a long stay in the Persian camp before Herat, the counteracting +influence of the Russian envoy being too strong with the Shah; and the +British representative, weary of continual slights, at length quitted the +Persian camp completely foiled. After six days' bombardment, the Persians +and their Russian auxiliaries delivered an assault in force on June 23d, +1838. It failed, with heavy loss, and the dispirited Shah determined on +raising the siege. His resolution was quickened by the arrival of Colonel +Stoddart in his camp, with the information that a military force from +Bombay, supported by ships of war, had landed on the island of Karrack in +the Persian Gulf, and with the peremptory ultimatum to the Shah that he +must retire from Herat at once. Lord Palmerston, in ordering this +diversion in the Gulf, had thought himself justified by circumstances in +overriding the clear and precise terms of an article in a treaty to which +England had on several occasions engaged to adhere. As for the Shah, he +appears to have been relieved by the ultimatum. On the 9th September he +mounted his horse and rode away from Herat. The siege had lasted nine and +a half months. To-day, half a century after Simonich the Russian envoy +followed Mahomed Shah from battered but unconquered Herat, that city is +still an Afghan place of arms. + +Shah Soojah-ool Moolk, a grandson of the illustrious Ahmed Shah, reigned +in Afghanistan from 1803 till 1809. His youth had been full of trouble +and vicissitude. He had been a wanderer, on the verge of starvation, a +pedlar and a bandit, who raised money by plundering caravans. His courage +was lightly reputed, and it was as a mere creature of circumstance that +he reached the throne. His reign was perturbed, and in 1809 he was a +fugitive and an exile. Runjeet Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, +defrauded him of the famous Koh-i-noor, which is now the most precious of +the crown jewels of England, and plundered and imprisoned the fallen man. +Shah Soojah at length escaped from Lahore. After further misfortunes he +at length reached the British frontier station of Loodianah, and in 1816 +became a pensioner of the East India Company. + +After the downfall of Shah Soojah, Afghanistan for many years was a prey +to anarchy. At length in 1826, Dost Mahomed succeeded in making himself +supreme at Cabul, and this masterful man thenceforward held sway until +his death in 1863, uninterruptedly save during the three years of the +British occupation. Dost Mahomed was neither kith nor kin to the +legitimate dynasty which he displaced. His father Poyndah Khan was an +able statesman and gallant soldier. He left twenty-one sons, of whom +Futteh Khan was the eldest, and Dost Mahomed one of the youngest. Futteh +Khan was the Warwick of Afghanistan, but the Afghan 'Kingmaker' had no +Barnet as the closing scene of his chequered life. Falling into hostile +hands, he was blinded and scalped. Refusing to betray his brothers, he +was leisurely cut to pieces by the order and in the presence of the +monarch whom he had made. His young brother Dost Mahomed undertook to +avenge his death. After years of varied fortunes the Dost had worsted all +his enemies, and in 1826 he became the ruler of Cabul. Throughout his +long reign Dost Mahomed was a strong and wise ruler. His youth had been +neglected and dissolute. His education was defective, and he had been +addicted to wine. Once seated on the throne, the reformation of our Henry +Fifth was not more thorough than was that of Dost Mahomed. He taught +himself to read and write, studied the Koran, became scrupulously +abstemious, assiduous in affairs, no longer truculent but courteous. He +is said to have made a public acknowledgment of the errors of his +previous life, and a firm profession of reformation; nor did his after +life belie the pledges to which he committed himself. There was a fine +rugged honesty in his nature, and a streak of genuine chivalry; +notwithstanding the despite he suffered at our hands, he had a real +regard for the English, and his loyalty to us was broken only by his +armed support of the Sikhs in the second Punjaub war. + +The fallen Shah Soojah, from his asylum in Loodianah, was continually +intriguing for his restoration. His schemes were long inoperative, and it +was not until 1832 that certain arrangements were entered into between +him and the Maharaja Runjeet Singh. To an application on Shah Soojah's +part for countenance and pecuniary aid, the Anglo-Indian Government +replied that to afford him assistance would be inconsistent with the +policy of neutrality which the Government had imposed on itself; but it +unwisely contributed financially toward his undertaking by granting him +four months' pension in advance. Sixteen thousand rupees formed a scant +war fund with which to attempt the recovery of a throne, but the Shah +started on his errand in February 1833. After a successful contest with +the Ameers of Scinde, he marched on Candahar, and besieged that fortress. +Candahar was in extremity when Dost Mahomed, hurrying from Cabul, +relieved it, and joining forces with its defenders, he defeated and +routed Shah Soojah, who fled precipitately, leaving behind him his +artillery and camp equipage, During the Dost's absence in the south, +Runjeet Singh's troops crossed the Attock, occupied the Afghan province +of Peshawur, and drove the Afghans into the Khyber Pass. No subsequent +efforts on Dost Mahomed's part availed to expel the Sikhs from Peshawur, +and suspicious of British connivance with Runjeet Singh's successful +aggression, he took into consideration the policy of fortifying himself +by a counter alliance with Persia. As for Shah Soojah, he had crept back +to his refuge at Loodianah. + +Lord Auckland succeeded Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General of +India in March 1836. In reply to Dost Mahomed's letter of congratulation, +his lordship wrote: 'You are aware that it is not the practice of the +British Government to interfere with the affairs of other independent +states;' an abstention which Lord Auckland was soon to violate. He had +brought from England the feeling of disquietude in regard to the designs +of Persia and Russia which the communications of our envoy in Persia had +fostered in the Home Government, but it would appear that he was wholly +undecided what line of action to pursue. 'Swayed,' says Durand, 'by the +vague apprehensions of a remote danger entertained by others rather than +himself,' he despatched to Afghanistan Captain Burnes on a nominally +commercial mission, which, in fact, was one of political discovery, but +without definite instructions. Burnes, an able but rash and ambitious +man, reached Cabul in September 1837, two months before the Persian army +began the siege of Herat. He had a strong prepossession in favour of the +Dost, whose guest he had already been in 1832, and the policy he favoured +was not the revival of the legitimate dynasty in the person of Shah +Soojah, but the attachment of Dost Mahomed to British interests by +strengthening his throne and affording him British countenance. + +Burnes sanguinely believed that he had arrived at Cabul in the nick of +time, for an envoy from the Shah of Persia was already at Candahar, +bearing presents and assurances of support. The Dost made no concealment +to Burnes of his approaches to Persia and Russia, in despair of British +good offices, and being hungry for assistance from any source to meet the +encroachments of the Sikhs, he professed himself ready to abandon his +negotiations with the western powers if he were given reason to expect +countenance and assistance at the hands of the Anglo-Indian Government. +Burnes communicated to his Government those friendly proposals, +supporting them by his own strong representations, and meanwhile, carried +away by enthusiasm, he exceeded his powers by making efforts to dissuade +the Candahar chiefs from the Persian alliance, and by offering to support +them with money to enable them to make head against the offensive, by +which Persia would probably seek to revenge the rejection of her +overtures. For this unauthorised excess of zeal Burnes was severely +reprimanded by his Government, and was directed to retract his offers to +the Candahar chiefs. The situation of Burnes in relation to the Dost was +presently complicated by the arrival at Cabul of a Russian officer +claiming to be an envoy from the Czar, whose credentials, however, were +regarded as dubious, and who, if that circumstance has the least weight, +was on his return to Russia utterly repudiated by Count Nesselrode. The +Dost took small account of this emissary, continuing to assure Burnes +that he cared for no connection except with the English, and Burnes +professed to his Government his fullest confidences in the sincerity of +those declarations. But the tone of Lord Auckland's reply, addressed to +the Dost, was so dictatorial and supercilious as to indicate the writer's +intention that it should give offence. It had that effect, and Burnes' +mission at once became hopeless. Yet, as a last resort, Dost Mahomed +lowered his pride so far as to write to the Governor-General imploring +him 'to remedy the grievances of the Afghans, and afford them some little +encouragement and power.' The pathetic representation had no effect. The +Russian envoy, who was profuse in his promises of everything which the +Dost was most anxious to obtain, was received into favour and treated +with distinction, and on his return journey he effected a treaty with the +Candahar chiefs, which was presently ratified by the Russian minister at +the Persian Court. Burnes, fallen into discredit at Cabul, quitted that +place in August 1838. He had not been discreet, but it was not his +indiscretion that brought about the failure of his mission. A nefarious +transaction, which Kaye denounces with the passion of a just indignation, +connects itself with Burnes' negotiations with the Dost; his official +correspondence was unscrupulously mutilated and garbled in the published +Blue Book with deliberate purpose to deceive the British public. + +Burnes had failed because, since he had quitted India for Cabul, Lord +Auckland's policy had gradually altered. Lord Auckland had landed in +India in the character of a man of peace. That, so late as April 1837, he +had no design of obstructing the existing situation in Afghanistan is +proved by his written statement of that date, that 'the British +Government had resolved decidedly to discourage the prosecution by the +ex-king Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, so long as he may remain under our +protection, of further schemes of hostility against the chiefs now in +power in Cabul and Candahar.' Yet, in the following June, he concluded a +treaty which sent Shah Soojah to Cabul, escorted by British bayonets. Of +this inconsistency no explanation presents itself. It was a far cry from +our frontier on the Sutlej to Herat in the confines of Central Asia--a +distance of more than 1200 miles, over some of the most arduous marching +ground in the known world. No doubt the Anglo-Indian Government was +justified in being somewhat concerned by the facts that a Persian army, +backed by Russian volunteers and Russian roubles, was besieging Herat, +and that Persian and Russian emissaries were at work in Afghanistan. Both +phenomena were rather of the 'bogey' character; how much so to-day shows +when the Afghan frontier is still beyond Herat, and when a descendant of +Dost Mahomed still sits in the Cabul _musnid_. But neither England nor +India scrupled to make the Karrack counter-threat which arrested the +siege of Herat; and the obvious policy as regarded Afghanistan was to +watch the results of the intrigues which were on foot, to ignore them +should they come to nothing, as was probable, to counteract them by +familiar methods if serious consequences should seem impending. Our +alliance with Runjeet Singh was solid, and the quarrel between Dost +Mahomed and him concerning the Peshawur province was notoriously easy of +arrangement. + +On whose memory rests the dark shadow of responsibility for the first +Afghan war? The late Lord Broughton, who, when Sir John Cam Hobhouse, was +President of the Board of Control from 1835 to 1841, declared before a +House of Commons Committee, in 1851, 'The Afghan war was done by myself; +entirely without the privity of the Board of Directors.' The meaning of +that declaration, of course, was that it was the British Government of +the day which was responsible, acting through its member charged with the +control of Indian affairs; and further, that the directorate of the East +India Company was accorded no voice in the matter. But this utterance was +materially qualified by Sir J. C. Hobhouse's statement in the House of +Commons in 1842, that his despatch indicating the policy to be adopted, +and that written by Lord Auckland, informing him that the expedition had +already been undertaken, had crossed each other on the way. + +It would be tedious to detail how Lord Auckland, under evil counsel, +gradually boxed the compass from peace to war. The scheme of action +embodied in the treaty which, in the early summer of 1838, was concluded +between the Anglo-Indian Government, Runjeet Singh, and Shah Soojah, was +that Shah Soojah, with a force officered from an Indian army, and paid by +British money, possessing also the goodwill and support of the Maharaja +of the Punjaub, should attempt the recovery of his throne without any +stiffening of British bayonets at his back. Then it was urged, and the +representation was indeed accepted, that the Shah would need the buttress +afforded by English troops, and that a couple of regiments only would +suffice to afford this prestige. But Sir Harry Fane, the +Commander-in-Chief, judiciously interposed his veto on the despatch of a +handful of British soldiers on so distant and hazardous an expedition. +Finally, the Governor-General, committed already to a mistaken line of +policy, and urged forward by those about him, took the unfortunate +resolution to gather together an Anglo-Indian army, and to send it, with +the ill-omened Shah Soojah on its shoulders, into the unknown and distant +wilds of Afghanistan. This action determined on, it was in accordance +with the Anglo-Indian fitness of things that the Governor-General should +promulgate a justificatory manifesto. Of this composition it is +unnecessary to say more than to quote Durand's observation that in it +'the words "justice and necessity" were applied in a manner for which +there is fortunately no precedent in the English language,' and Sir Henry +Edwardes' not less trenchant comment that 'the views and conduct of Dost +Mahomed were misrepresented with a hardihood which a Russian statesman +might have envied.' + +All men whose experience gave weight to their words opposed this +'preposterous enterprise.' Mr Elphinstone, who had been the head of a +mission to Cabul thirty years earlier, held that 'if an army was sent up +the passes, and if we could feed it, no doubt we might take Cabul and set +up Shah Soojah; but it was hopeless to maintain him in a poor, cold, +strong and remote country, among so turbulent a people.' Lord William +Bentinck, Lord Auckland's predecessor, denounced the project as an act of +incredible folly. Marquis Wellesley regarded 'this wild expedition into a +distant region of rocks and deserts, of sands and ice and snow,' as an +act of infatuation. The Duke of Wellington pronounced with prophetic +sagacity, that the consequence of once crossing the Indus to settle a +government in Afghanistan would be a perennial march into that country. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE MARCH TO CABUL + +The two main objects of the venturesome offensive movement to which Lord +Auckland had committed himself were, first, the raising of the Persian +siege of Herat if the place should hold out until reached--the recapture +of it if it should have fallen; and, secondly, the establishment of Shah +Soojah on the Afghan throne. The former object was the more pressing, and +time was very precious; but the distances in India are great, the means +of communication in 1838 did not admit of celerity, and the seasons +control the safe prosecution of military operations. Nevertheless, the +concentration of the army at the frontier station of Ferozepore was fully +accomplished toward the end of November. Sir Harry Fane was to be the +military head of the expedition, and he had just right to be proud of the +14,000 carefully selected and well-seasoned troops who constituted his +Bengal contingent. The force consisted of two infantry divisions, of +which the first, commanded by Major-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, +contained three brigades, commanded respectively by Colonels Sale, Nott, +and Dennis, of whom the two former were to attain high distinction within +the borders of Afghanistan. Major-General Duncan commanded the second +infantry division of the two brigades, of which one was commanded by +Colonel Roberts, the gallant father of a gallant son, the other by +Colonel Worsley. The 6000 troops raised for Shah Soojah, who were under +Fane's orders, and were officered from our army in India, had been +recently and hurriedly recruited, and although rapidly improving, were +not yet in a state of high efficiency. The contingent which the Bombay +Presidency was to furnish to the 'Army of the Indus,' and which landed +about the close of the year near the mouth of the Indus, was under the +command of General Sir John Keane, the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay +army. The Bombay force was about 5000 strong. + +Before the concentration at Ferozepore had been completed, Lord Auckland +received official intimation of the retreat of the Persians from before +Herat. With their departure had gone, also, the sole legitimate object of +the expedition; there remained but a project of wanton aggression and +usurpation. The Russo-Persian failure at Herat was scarcely calculated to +maintain in the astute and practical Afghans any hope of fulfilment of +the promises which the western powers had thrown about so lavishly, while +it made clear that, for some time at least to come, the Persians would +not be found dancing again to Russian fiddling. The abandonment of the +siege of Herat rendered the invasion of Afghanistan an aggression +destitute even of pretext. The Governor-General endeavoured to justify +his resolution to persevere in it by putting forth the argument that its +prosecution was required, 'alike in observation of the treaties entered +into with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah as by paramount considerations of +defensive policy.' A remarkable illustration of 'defensive policy' to +take the offensive against a remote country from whose further confines +had faded away foiled aggression, leaving behind nothing but a bitter +consciousness of broken promises! As for the other plea, the tripartite +treaty contained no covenant that we should send a corporal's guard +across our frontier. If Shah Soojah had a powerful following in +Afghanistan, he could regain his throne without our assistance; if he had +no holding there, it was for us a truly discreditable enterprise to foist +him on a recalcitrant people at the point of the bayonet. + +One result of the tidings from Herat was to reduce by a division the +strength of the expeditionary force. Fane, who had never taken kindly to +the project, declined to associate himself with the diminished array that +remained. The command of the Bengal column fell to Sir Willoughby Cotton, +with whom as his aide-de-camp rode that Henry Havelock whose name twenty +years later was to ring through India and England. Duncan's division was +to stand fast at Ferozepore as a support, by which disposition the +strength of the Bengal marching force was cut down to about 9500 fighting +men. After its junction with the Bombay column, the army would be 14,500 +strong, without reckoning the Shah's contingent. There was an interlude +at Ferozepore of reviews and high jinks with the shrewd, debauched old +Runjeet Singh; of which proceedings Havelock in his narrative of the +expedition gives a detailed account, dwelling with extreme disapprobation +on Runjeet's addiction to a 'pet tipple' strong enough to lay out the +hardest drinker in the British camp, but which the old reprobate quaffed +freely without turning a hair. + +At length, on December 10th, 1838, Cotton began the long march which was +not to terminate at Cabul until August 6th of the following year. The +most direct route was across the Punjaub, and up the passes from +Peshawur, but the Governor-General had shrunk from proposing to Runjeet +Singh that the force should march through his territories, thinking it +enough that the Maharaja had permitted Shah Soojah's heir, Prince Timour, +to go by Peshawur to Cabul, had engaged to support him with a Sikh force, +and had agreed to maintain an army of reserve at Peshawur. The chosen +route was by the left bank of the Sutlej to its junction with the Indus, +down the left bank of the Indus to the crossing point at Roree, and from +Sukkur across the Scinde and northern Belooch provinces by the Bolan and +Kojuk passes to Candahar, thence by Khelat-i-Ghilzai and Ghuznee to +Cabul. This was a line excessively circuitous, immensely long, full of +difficulties, and equally disadvantageous as to supplies and +communications. On the way the column would have to effect a junction +with the Bombay force, which at Vikkur was distant 800 miles from +Ferozepore. Of the distance of 850 miles from the latter post to Candahar +the first half to the crossing of the Indus presented no serious +difficulties, but from Sukkur beyond the country was inhospitable and +cruelly rugged. It needed little military knowledge to realise how more +and yet more precarious would become the communications as the chain +lengthened, to discern that from Ferozepore to the Indus they would be at +the mercy of the Sikhs, and to comprehend this also, that a single +serious check, in or beyond the passes, would involve all but inevitable +ruin. + +Shah Soojah and his levies moved independently some marches in advance of +Cotton. The Dooranee monarch-elect had already crossed the Indus, and was +encamped at Shikarpore, when he was joined by Mr William Hay Macnaghten, +of the Company's Civil Service, the high functionary who had been +gazetted as 'Envoy and Minister on the part of the Government of India at +the Court of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk.' Durand pronounces the selection an +unhappy one, 'for Macnaghten, long accustomed to irresponsible office, +inexperienced in men, and ignorant of the country and people of +Afghanistan, was, though an erudite Arabic scholar, neither practised in +the field of Asiatic intrigue nor a man of action. His ambition was, +however, great, and the expedition, holding out the promise of +distinction and honours, had met with his strenuous advocacy.' Macnaghten +was one of the three men who chiefly inspired Lord Auckland with the +policy to which he had committed himself. He was the negotiator of the +tripartite treaty. He was now on his way toward a region wherein he was +to concern himself in strange adventures, the outcome of which was to +darken his reputation, consign him to a sudden cruel death, bring awful +ruin on the enterprise he had fostered, and inflict incalculable damage +on British prestige in India. + +Marching through Bhawulpore and Northern Scinde, without noteworthy +incident save heavy losses of draught cattle, Cotton's army reached +Roree, the point at which the Indus was to be crossed, in the third week +of January 1839. Here a delay was encountered. The Scinde Ameers were, +with reason, angered by the unjust and exacting terms which Pottinger had +been instructed to enforce on them. They had been virtually independent +of Afghanistan for nearly half a century; there was now masterfully +demanded of them quarter of a million sterling in name of back tribute, +and this in the face of the fact that they held a solemn release by Shah +Soojah of all past and future claims. When they demurred to this, and to +other exactions, they were peremptorily told that 'neither the ready +power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action, +was wanting if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety +and integrity of the Anglo-Indian empire and frontier.' + +It was little wonder that the Ameers were reluctant to fall in with terms +advanced so arrogantly. Keane marched up the right bank of the Indus to +within a couple of marches of Hyderabad, and having heard of the +rejection by the Ameers of Pottinger's terms, and of the gathering of +some 20,000 armed Belooches about the capital, he called for the +co-operation of part of the Bengal column in a movement on Hyderabad. +Cotton started on his march down the left bank, on January Jeth, with +5600 men. Under menaces so ominous the unfortunate Ameers succumbed. +Cotton returned to Roree; the Bengal column crossed the Indus, and on +February 20th its headquarters reached Shikarpore. Ten days later, +Cotton, leading the advance, was in Dadur, at the foot of the Bolan Pass, +having suffered heavily in transport animals almost from the start. +Supplies were scarce in a region so barren, but with a month's partial +food on his beasts of burden he quitted Dadur March 10th, got safely, if +toilsomely, through the Bolan, and on 26th reached Quetta, where he was +to halt for orders. Shah Soojah and Keane followed, their troops +suffering not a little from scarcity of supplies and loss of animals. + +Keane's error in detaining Cotton at Quetta until he should arrive proved +itself in the semi-starvation to which the troops of the Bengal column +were reduced. The Khan of Khelat, whether from disaffection or inability, +left unfulfilled his promise to supply grain, and the result of the +quarrel which Burnes picked with him was that he shunned coming in and +paying homage to Shah Soojah, for which default he was to suffer cruel +and unjustifiable ruin. The sepoys were put on half, the camp followers +on quarter rations, and the force for eleven days had been idly consuming +the waning supplies, when at length, on April 6th, Keane came into camp, +having already formally assumed the command of the whole army, and made +certain alterations in its organisation and subsidiary commands. There +still remained to be traversed 147 miles before Candahar should be +reached, and the dreaded Kojuk Pass had still to be penetrated. + +Keane was a soldier who had gained a reputation for courage in Egypt and +the Peninsula. He was indebted to the acuteness of his engineer and the +valour of his troops, for the peerage conferred on him for Ghuznee, and +it cannot be said that during his command in Afghanistan he disclosed any +marked military aptitude. But he had sufficient perception to recognise +that he had brought the Bengal column to the verge of starvation in +Quetta, and sufficient common sense to discern that, since if it remained +there it would soon starve outright, the best thing to be done was to +push it forward with all possible speed into a region where food should +be procurable. Acting on this reasoning, he marched the day after his +arrival. Cotton, while lying in Quetta, had not taken the trouble to +reconnoitre the passes in advance, far less to make a practicable road +through the Kojuk defile if that should prove the best route. The +resolution taken to march through it, two days were spent in making the +pass possible for wheels; and from the 13th to the 21st the column was +engaged in overcoming the obstacles it presented, losing in the task, +besides, much baggage, supplies, transport and ordnance stores. Further +back in the Bolan Willshire with the Bombay column was faring worse; he +was plundered severely by tribal marauders. + +By May 4th the main body of the army was encamped in the plain of +Candahar. From the Kojuk, Shah Soojah and his contingent had led the +advance toward the southern capital of the dominions from the throne of +which he had been cast down thirty years before. The Candahar chiefs had +meditated a night attack on his raw troops, but Macnaghten's intrigues +and bribes had wrought defection in their camp; and while Kohun-dil-Khan +and his brothers were in flight to Girishk on the Helmund, the infamous +Hadji Khan Kakur led the venal herd of turncoat sycophants to the feet of +the claimant who came backed by the British gold, which Macnaghten was +scattering abroad with lavish hand. Shah Soojah recovered from his +trepidation, hurried forward in advance of his troops, and entered +Candahar on April 24th. His reception was cold. The influential chiefs +stood aloof, abiding the signs of the times; the populace of Candahar +stood silent and lowering. Nor did the sullenness abate when the presence +of a large army with its followers promptly raised the price of grain, to +the great distress of the poor. The ceremony of the solemn recognition of +the Shah, held close to the scene of his defeat in 1834, Havelock +describes as an imposing pageant, with homagings and royal salutes, +parade of troops and presentation of _nuzzurs_; but the arena set apart +for the inhabitants was empty, spite of Eastern love for a _tamasha_, and +the display of enthusiasm was confined to the immediate retainers of His +Majesty. + +The Shah was eager for the pursuit of the fugitive chiefs; but the troops +were jaded and sickly, the cavalry were partially dismounted, and what +horses remained were feeble skeletons. The transport animals needed +grazing and rest, and their loss of numbers to be made good. The crops +were not yet ripe, and provisions were scant and dear. When, on May 9th, +Sale marched toward Girishk, his detachment carried half rations, and his +handful of regular cavalry was all that two regiments could furnish. +Reaching Girishk, he found that the chiefs had fled toward Seistan, and +leaving a regiment of the Shah's contingent in occupation, he returned to +Candahar. + +Macnaghten professed the belief, and perhaps may have deluded himself +into it, that Candahar had received the Shah with enthusiasm. He was +sanguine that the march to Cabul would be unopposed, and he urged on +Keane, who was wholly dependent on the Envoy for political information, +to move forward at once, lightening the difficulties of the march by +leaving the Bombay troops at Candahar. But Keane declined, on the advice +of Thomson, his chief engineer, who asked significantly whether he had +found the information given him by the political department in any single +instance correct. Food prospects, however, did not improve at Candahar, +and leaving a strong garrison there as well, curious to say, as the siege +train which with arduous labour had been brought up the passes, Keane +began the march to Cabul on June 27th. He had supplies only sufficient to +carry his army thither on half rations. Macnaghten had lavished money so +freely that the treasury chest was all but empty. How the Afghans +regarded the invasion was evinced by condign slaughter of our stragglers. + +As the army advanced up the valley of the Turnuk, the climate became more +temperate, the harvest was later, and the troops improved in health and +spirit. Concentrating his forces, Keane reached Ghuznee on July 21st. The +reconnaissance he made proved that fortress occupied in force. The +outposts driven in, and a close inspection made, the works were found +stronger than had been represented, and its regular reduction was out of +the question without the battering train which Keane had allowed himself +to be persuaded into leaving behind. A wall some 70 feet high and a wet +ditch in its front made mining and escalade alike impracticable. Thomson, +however, noticed that the road and bridge to the Cabul gate were intact. +He obtained trustworthy information that up to a recent date, while all +the other gates had been built up, the Cabul gate had not been so dealt +with. As he watched, a horseman was seen to enter by it. This was +conclusive. The ground within 400 yards of the gate offered good +artillery positions. Thomson therefore reported that although the +operation was full of risk, and success if attained must cost dear, yet +in the absence of a less hazardous method of reduction there offered a +fair chance of success in an attempt to blow open the Cabul gate, and +then carry the place by a _coup de main_. Keane was precluded from the +alternative of masking the place and continuing his advance by the all +but total exhaustion of his supplies, which the capture of Ghuznee would +replenish, and he therefore resolved on an assault by the Cabul gate. + +During the 21st July the army circled round the place, and camped to the +north of it on the Cabul road. The following day was spent in +preparations, and in defeating an attack made on the Shah's contingent by +several thousand Ghilzai tribesmen of the adjacent hill country. In the +gusty darkness of the early morning of the 23d the field artillery was +placed in battery on the heights opposite the northern face of the +fortress. The 13th regiment was extended in skirmishing order in the +gardens under the wall of this face, and a detachment of sepoys was +detailed to make a false attack on the eastern face. Near the centre of +the northern face was the Cabul gate, in front of which lay waiting for +the signal, a storming party consisting of the light companies of the +four European regiments, under command of Colonel Dennie of the 13th. The +main column consisted of two European regiments and the support of a +third, the whole commanded by Brigadier Sale; the native regiments +constituted the reserve. All those dispositions were completed by three +A.M., and, favoured by the noise of the wind and the darkness, without +alarming the garrison. + +Punctually at this hour the little party of engineers charged with the +task of blowing in the gate started forward on the hazardous errand. +Captain Peat of the Bombay Engineers was in command. Durand, a young +lieutenant of Bengal Engineers, who was later to attain high distinction, +was entrusted with the service of heading the explosion party. The +latter, leading the party, had advanced unmolested to within 150 yards of +the works, when a challenge, a shot and a shout gave intimation of his +detection. A musketry fire was promptly opened by the garrison from the +battlements, and blue lights illuminated the approach to the gate, but in +the fortunate absence of fire from the lower works the bridge was safely +crossed, and Peat with his handful of linesmen halted in a sallyport to +cover the explosion operation. Durand advanced to the gate, his sappers +piled their powder bags against it and withdrew; Durand and his sergeant +uncoiled the hose, ignited the quick-match under a rain from the +battlements of bullets and miscellaneous missiles, and then retired to +cover out of reach of the explosion. + +At the sound of the first shot from the battlements, Keane's cannon had +opened their fire. The skirmishers in the gardens engaged in a brisk +fusillade. The rattle of Hay's musketry was heard from the east. The +garrison was alert in its reply. The northern ramparts became a sheet of +flame, and everywhere the cannonade and musketry fire waxed in noise and +volume. Suddenly, as the day was beginning to dawn, a dull, heavy sound +was heard by the head of the waiting column, scarce audible elsewhere +because of the boisterous wind and the din of the firing. A pillar of +black smoke shot up from where had been the Afghan gate, now shattered by +the 300 pounds of gunpowder which Durand had exploded against it. The +signal to the storming party was to be the 'advance' sounded by the +bugler who accompanied Peat. But the bugler had been shot through the +head. Durand could not find Peat. Going back through the bullets to the +nearest party of infantry, he experienced some delay, but at last the +column was apprised that all was right, the 'advance' was sounded, Dennie +and his stormers sped forward, and Sale followed at the head of the main +column. + +After a temporary check to the latter, because of a misconception, it +pushed on in close support of Dennie. That gallant soldier and his +gallant followers had rushed into the smoking and gloomy archway to find +themselves met hand to hand by the Afghan defenders, who had recovered +from their surprise. Nothing could be distinctly seen in the narrow +gorge, but the clash of sword blade against bayonet was heard on every +side. The stormers had to grope their way between the yet standing walls +in a dusk which the glimmer of the blue light only made more perplexing. +But some elbow room was gradually gained, and then, since there was +neither time nor space for methodic street fighting, each loaded section +gave its volley and then made way for the next, which, crowding to the +front, poured a deadly discharge at half pistol-shot into the densely +crowded defenders. Thus the storming party won steadily its way, till at +length Dennie and his leading files discerned over the heads of their +opponents a patch of blue sky and a twinkling star or two, and with a +final charge found themselves within the place. + +A body of fierce Afghan swordsmen projected themselves into the interval +between the storming party and the main column. Sale, at the head of the +latter, was cut down by a tulwar stroke in the face; in the effort of his +blow the assailant fell with the assailed, and they rolled together among +the shattered timbers of the gate. Sale, wounded again on the ground, and +faint with loss of blood, called to one of his officers for assistance. +Kershaw ran the Afghan through the body with his sword; but he still +struggled with the Brigadier. At length in the grapple Sale got +uppermost, and then he dealt his adversary a sabre cut which cleft him +from crown to eyebrows. There was much confused fighting within the +place, for the Afghan garrison made furious rallies again and again; but +the citadel was found open and undefended, and by sunrise British banners +were waving above its battlements Hyder Khan, the Governor of Ghuznee, +one of the sons of Dost Mahomed, was found concealed in a house in the +town and taken prisoner. The British loss amounted to about 200 killed +and wounded, that of the garrison, which was estimated at from 3000 to +4000 strong, was over 500 killed. The number of wounded was not +ascertained; of prisoners taken in arms there were about 1600. The booty +consisted of numerous horses, camels and mules, ordnance and military +weapons of various descriptions, and a vast quantity of supplies of all +kinds. + +Keane, having garrisoned Ghuznee, and left there his sick and wounded, +resumed on July 30th his march on Cabul. Within twenty-four hours after +the event Dost Mahomed heard of the fall of Ghuznee. Possessed of the +adverse intelligence, the Dost gathered his chiefs, received their facile +assurances of fidelity, sent his brother the Nawaub Jubbar Khan to ask +what terms Shah Soojah and his British allies were prepared to offer him, +and recalled from Jellalabad his son Akbar Khan, with all the force he +could muster there. The Dost's emissary to the allied camp was informed +that 'an honourable asylum' in British India was at the service of his +brother; an offer which Jubbar Khan declined in his name without thanks. +Before he left to share the fortunes of the Dost, the Sirdar is reported +to have asked Macnaghten, 'If Shah Soojah is really our king, what need +has he of your army and name? You have brought him here,' he continued, +'with your money and arms. Well, leave him now with us Afghans, and let +him rule us if he can.' When Jubbar Khan returned to Cabul with his +sombre message, the Dost, having been joined by Akbar Khan, concentrated +his army, and found himself at the head of 13,000 men, with thirty guns; +but he mournfully realised that he could lean no reliance on the +constancy and courage of his adherents. Nevertheless, he marched out +along the Ghuznee road, and drew up his force at Urgundeh, where he +commanded the most direct line of retreat toward the western hill country +of Bamian, in case his people would not fight, or should they fight, if +they were beaten. + +There was no fight in his following; scarcely, indeed, was there a loyal +supporter among all those who had eaten his salt for years. There was +true manhood in this chief whom we were replacing by an effete puppet. +The Dost, Koran in hand, rode among his perfidious troops, and conjured +them in the name of God and the Prophet not to dishonour themselves by +transferring their allegiance to one who had filled Afghanistan with +infidels and blasphemers. 'If,' he continued, 'you are resolved to be +traitors to me, at least enable me to die with honour. Support the +brother of Futteh Khan in one last charge against these Feringhee dogs. +In that charge he will fall; then go and make your own terms with Shah +Soojah.' The high-souled appeal inspired no worthy response; but one is +loth to credit the testimony of the soldier-of-fortune Harlan that his +guards forsook the Dost, and that the rabble of troops plundered his +pavilion, snatched from under him the pillows of his divan, seized his +prayer carpet, and finally hacked into pieces the tent and its +appurtenances. On the evening of August 2d the hapless man shook the dust +of the camp of traitors from his feet, and rode away toward Bamian, his +son Akbar Khan, with a handful of resolute men, covering the retreat of +his father and his family. Tidings of the flight of Dost Mahomed reached +Keane on the 3d, at Sheikabad, where he had halted to concentrate; and +Outram volunteered to head a pursuing party, to consist of some British +officers as volunteers, some cavalry and some Afghan horse. Hadji Khan +Kakur, the earliest traitor of his race, undertook to act as guide. This +man's devices of delay defeated Outram's fiery energy, perhaps in deceit, +perhaps because he regarded it as lacking discretion. For Akbar Khan made +a long halt on the crown of the pass, waiting to check any endeavour to +press closely on his fugitive father, and it would have gone hard with +Outram, with a few fagged horsemen at his back, if Hadji Khan had allowed +him to overtake the resolute young Afghan chief. As Keane moved forward, +there fell to him the guns which the Dost had left in the Urgundeh +position. On August 6th he encamped close to Cabul; and on the following +day Shah Soojah made his public entry into the capital which he had last +seen thirty years previously. After so many years of vicissitude, +adventure and intrigue, he was again on the throne of his ancestors, but +placed there by the bayonets of the Government whose creature he was, an +insult to the nation whom he had the insolence to call his people. + +The entry, nevertheless, was a goodly spectacle enough. Shah Soojah, +dazzling in coronet, jewelled girdle and bracelets, but with no +Koh-i-noor now glittering on his forehead, bestrode a white charger, +whose equipments gleamed with gold. By his side rode Macnaghten and +Burnes; in the pageant were the principal officers of the British army. +Sabres flashed in front of the procession, bayonets sparkled in its rear, +as it wended its way through the great bazaar which Pollock was to +destroy three years later, and along the tortuous street to the gate of +the Balla Hissar. But neither the monarch nor his pageant kindled the +enthusiasm in the Cabulees. There was no voice of welcome; the citizens +did not care to trouble themselves so much as to make him a salaam, and +they stared at the European strangers harder than at his restored +majesty. There was a touch of pathos in the burst of eagerness to which +the old man gave way as he reached the palace, ran through the gardens, +visited the apartments, and commented on the neglect everywhere apparent. +Shah Soojah was rather a poor creature, but he was by no means altogether +destitute of good points, and far worse men than he were actors in the +strange historical episode of which he was the figurehead. He was humane +for an Afghan; he never was proved to have been untrue to us; he must +have had some courage of a kind else he would never have remained in +Cabul when our people left it, in the all but full assurance of the fate +which presently overtook him as a matter of course. Havelock thus +portrays him: 'A stout person of the middle height, his chin covered with +a long thick and neatly trimmed beard, dyed black to conceal the +encroachments of time. His manner toward the English is gentle, calm and +dignified, without haughtiness, but his own subjects have invariably +complained of his reception of them as cold and repulsive, even to +rudeness. His complexion is darker than that of the generality of +Afghans, and his features, if not decidedly handsome, are not the reverse +of pleasing; but the expression of his countenance would betray to a +skilful physiognomist that mixture of timidity and duplicity so often +observable in the character of the higher order of men in Southern Asia.' + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Sir John Kaye, in his picturesque if diffuse history of the first Afghan +war, lays it down that, in seating Shah Soojah on the Cabul throne, 'the +British Government had done all that it had undertaken to do,' and Durand +argues that, having accomplished this, 'the British army could have then +been withdrawn with the honour and fame of entire success.' The facts +apparently do not justify the reasoning of either writer. In the Simla +manifesto, in which Lord Auckland embodied the rationale of his policy, +he expressed the confident hope 'that the Shah will be speedily replaced +on his throne by his own subjects and adherents, and when once he shall +be received in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +established, the British army will be withdrawn.' The Shah had been +indeed restored to his throne, but by British bayonets, not by 'his own +subjects and adherents.' It could not seriously be maintained that he was +secure in power, or that the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +were established when British troops were holding Candahar, Ghuznee and +Cabul, the only three positions where the Shah was nominally paramount, +when the fugitive Dost was still within its borders, when intrigue and +disaffection were seething in every valley and on every hill-side, and +when the principality of Herat maintained a contemptuous independence. +Macnaghten might avow himself convinced of the popularity of the Shah, +and believe or strive to believe that the Afghans had received the puppet +king `with feelings nearly amounting to adoration,' but he did not +venture to support the conviction he avowed by advocating that the Shah +should be abandoned to his adoring subjects. Lord Auckland's policy was +gravely and radically erroneous, but it had a definite object, and that +object certainly was not a futile march to Cabul and back, dropping +incidentally by the wayside the aspirant to a throne whom he had himself +put forward, and leaving him to take his chance among a truculent and +adverse population. Thus early, in all probability, Lord Auckland was +disillusioned of the expectation that the effective restoration of Shah +Soojah would be of light and easy accomplishment, but at least he could +not afford to have the enterprise a _coup manqué_ when as yet it was +little beyond its inception. + +The cost of the expedition was already, however, a strain, and the troops +engaged in it were needed in India. Lord Auckland intimated to Macnaghten +his expectation that a strong brigade would suffice to hold Afghanistan +in conjunction with the Shah's contingent, and his desire that the rest +of the army of the Indus should at once return to India. Macnaghten, on +the other hand, in spite of his avowal of the Shah's popularity, was +anxious to retain in Afghanistan a large body of troops. He meditated +strange enterprises, and proposed that Keane should support his project +of sending a force toward Bokhara to give check to a Russian column which +Pottinger at Herat had heard was assembling at Orenburg, with Khiva for +its objective. Keane derided the proposal, and Macnaghten reluctantly +abandoned it, but he demanded of Lord Auckland with success, the +retention in Afghanistan of the Bengal division of the army. In the +middle of September General Willshire marched with the Bombay column, +with orders, on his way to the Indus to pay a hostile visit to Khelat, +and punish its khan for the 'disloyalty' with which he had been charged, +a commission which the British officer fulfilled with a skill and +thoroughness that could be admired with less reservation had the +aggression on the gallant Mehrab been less wanton. A month later Keane +started for India by the Khyber route, which Wade had opened without +serious resistance when in August and September he escorted through the +passes Prince Timour, Shah Soojah's heir-apparent. During the temporary +absence of Cotton, who accompanied Keane, Nott had the command at +Candahar, Sale at and about Cabul, and the troops were quartered in those +capitals, and in Jellalabad, Ghuznee, Charikar and Bamian. The Shah and +the Envoy wintered in the milder climate of Jellalabad, and Burnes was in +political charge of the capital and its vicinity. + +It was a prophetic utterance that the accomplishment of our military +succession would mark but the commencement of our real difficulties in +Afghanistan. In theory and in name Shah Soojah was an independent +monarch; it was, indeed, only in virtue of his proving himself able to +rule independently that he could justify his claim to rule at all. But +that he was independent was a contradiction in terms while British troops +studded the country, and while the real powers of sovereignty were +exercised by Macnaghten. Certain functions, it is true, the latter did +permit the nominal monarch to exercise. While debarred from a voice in +measures of external policy, and not allowed to sway the lines of conduct +to be adopted toward independent or revolting tribes, the Shah was +allowed to concern himself with the administration of justice, and in his +hands were the settlement, collection and appropriation of the revenue of +those portions of the kingdom from which any revenue could be exacted. He +was allowed to appoint as his minister of state, the companion of his +exile, old Moolla Shikore, who had lost both his memory and his ears, but +who had sufficient faculty left to hate the English, to oppress the +people, to be corrupt and venal beyond all conception, and to appoint +subordinates as flagitious as himself. 'Bad ministers,' wrote Burnes, +'are in every government solid ground for unpopularity; and I doubt if +ever a king had a worse set than has Shah Soojah.' The oppressed people +appealed to the British functionaries, who remonstrated with the +minister, and the minister punished the people for appealing to the +British functionaries. The Shah was free to confer grants of land on his +creatures, but when the holders resisted, he was unable to enforce his +will since he was not allowed to employ soldiers; and the odium of the +forcible confiscation ultimately fell on Macnaghten, who alone had the +ordering of expeditions, and who could not see the Shah belittled by +non-fulfilment of his requisitions. + +Justice sold by venal judges, oppression and corruption rampant in every +department of internal administration, it was no wonder that nobles and +people alike resented the inflictions under whose sting they writhed. +They were accustomed to a certain amount of oppression; Dost Mahomed had +chastised them with whips, but Shah Soojah, whom the English had brought, +was chastising them with scorpions. And they felt his yoke the more +bitterly because, with the shrewd acuteness of the race, they recognised +the really servile condition of this new king. They fretted, too, under +the sharp bit of the British political agents who were strewn about the +country, in the execution of a miserable and futile policy, and whose +lives, in a few instances, did not maintain the good name of their +country. Dost Mahomed had maintained his sway by politic management of +the chiefs, and through them of the tribes. Macnaghten would have done +well to impress on Shah Soojah the wisdom of pursuing the same tactics. +There was, it is true, the alternative of destroying the power of the +barons, but that policy involved a stubborn and doubtful struggle, and +prolonged occupation of the country by British troops in great strength. +Macnaghten professed our occupation of Afghanistan to be temporary; yet +he was clearly adventuring on the rash experiment of weakening the nobles +when he set about the enlistment of local tribal levies, who, paid from +the Royal treasury and commanded by British officers, were expected to be +staunch to the Shah, and useful in curbing the powers of the chiefs. The +latter, of course, were alienated and resentful, and the levies, imbued +with the Afghan attribute of fickleness, proved for the most part +undisciplined and faithless. + +The winter of 1839-40 passed without much noteworthy incident. The winter +climate of Afghanistan is severe, and the Afghan, in ordinary +circumstances, is among the hibernating animals. But down in the Khyber, +in October, the tribes gave some trouble. They were dissatisfied with the +amount of annual black-mail paid them for the right of way through their +passes. When the Shah was a fugitive thirty years previously, they had +concealed and protected him; and mindful of their kindly services, he had +promised them, unknown to Macnaghten, the augmentation of their subsidy +to the old scale from which it had gradually dwindled. Wade, returning +from Cabul, did not bring them the assurances they expected, whereupon +they rose and concentrated and invested Ali Musjid, a fort which they +regarded as the key of their gloomy defile. Mackeson, the Peshawur +political officer, threw provisions and ammunition into Ali Musjid, but +the force, on its return march, was attacked by the hillmen, the Sikhs +being routed, and the sepoys incurring loss of men and transport. The +emboldened Khyberees now turned on Ali Musjid in earnest; but the +garrison was strengthened, and the place was held until a couple of +regiments marched down from Jellalabad, and were preparing to attack the +hillmen, when it was announced that Mackeson had made a compact with the +chiefs for the payment of an annual subsidy which they considered +adequate. + +Afghanistan fifty years ago, and the same is in a measure true of it +to-day, was rather a bundle of provinces, some of which owned scarcely a +nominal allegiance to the ruler in Cabul, than a concrete state. Herat +and Candahar were wholly independent, the Ghilzai tribes inhabiting the +wide tracts from the Suliman ranges westward beyond the road through +Ghuznee, between Candahar and Cabul, and northward into the rugged +country between Cabul and Jellalabad, acknowledged no other authority +than that of their own chiefs. The Ghilzais are agriculturists, +shepherds, and robbers; they are constantly engaged in internal feuds; +they are jealous of their wild independence, and through the centuries +have abated little of their untamed ferocity. They had rejected +Macnaghten's advances, and had attacked Shah Soojah's camp on the day +before the fall of Ghuznee. Outram, in reprisal, had promptly raided part +of their country. Later, the winter had restrained them from activity, +but they broke out again in the spring. In May Captain Anderson, marching +from Candahar with a mixed force about 1200 strong, was offered battle +near Jazee, in the Turnuk, by some 2000 Ghilzai horse and foot. +Andersen's guns told heavily among the Ghilzai horsemen, who, impatient +of the fire, made a spirited dash on his left flank. Grape and musketry +checked them; but they rallied, and twice charged home on the bayonets +before they withdrew, leaving 200 of their number dead on the ground. +Nott sent a detachment to occupy the fortress of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, +between Candahar and Ghuznee, thus rendering the communications more +secure; and later, Macnaghten bribed the chiefs by an annual subsidy of +£600 to abstain from infesting the highways. The terms were cheap, for +the Ghilzai tribes mustered some 40,000 fighting men. + +Shah Soojah and the Envoy returned from Jellalabad to Cabul in April +1840. A couple of regiments had wintered not uncomfortably in the Balla +Hissar. That fortress was then the key of Cabul, and while our troops +remained in Afghanistan it should not have been left ungarrisoned a +single hour. The soldiers did their best to impress on Macnaghten the +all-importance of the position. But the Shah objected to its continued +occupation, and Macnaghten weakly yielded. Cotton, who had returned to +the chief military command in Afghanistan, made no remonstrance; the +Balla Hissar was evacuated, and the troops were quartered in cantonments +built in an utterly defenceless position on the plain north of Cabul, a +position whose environs were cumbered with walled gardens, and commanded +by adjacent high ground, and by native forts which were neither +demolished nor occupied. The troops, now in permanent and regularly +constructed quarters, ceased to be an expeditionary force, and became +substantially an army of occupation. The officers sent for their wives to +inhabit with them the bungalows in which they had settled down. Lady +Macnaghten, in the spacious mission residence which stood apart in its +own grounds, presided over the society of the cantonments, which had all +the cheery surroundings of the half-settled, half-nomadic life of our +military people in the East. There were the 'coffee house' after the +morning ride, the gathering round the bandstand in the evening, the +impromptu dance, and the _burra khana_ occasionally in the larger houses. +A racecourse had been laid out, and there were 'sky' races and more +formal meetings. And so 'as in the days that were before the flood, they +were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, and knew +not until the flood came, and took them all away.' + +Macnaghten engaged himself in a welter of internal and external intrigue, +his mood swinging from singular complacency to a disquietude that +sometimes approached despondency. It had come to be forced on him, in +spite of his intermittent optimism, that the Government was a government +of sentry-boxes, and that Afghanistan was not governed so much as +garrisoned. The utter failure of the winter march attempted by +Peroffski's Russian column across the frozen steppes on Khiva was a +relief to him; but the state of affairs in Herat was a constant trouble +and anxiety. Major Todd had been sent there as political agent, to make a +treaty with Shah Kamran, and to superintend the repair and improvement of +the fortifications of the city. Kamran was plenteously subsidised; he +took Macnaghten's lakhs, but furtively maintained close relations with +Persia. Detecting the double-dealing, Macnaghten urged on Lord Auckland +the annexation of Herat to Shah Soojah's dominions, but was instructed to +condone Kamran's duplicity, and try to bribe him higher. Kamran by no +means objected to this policy, and, while continuing his intrigues with +Persia, cheerfully accepted the money, arms and ammunition which +Macnaghten supplied him with so profusely as to cause remonstrance on the +part of the financial authorities in Calcutta. The Commander-in-Chief was +strong enough to counteract the pressure which Macnaghten brought to bear +on Lord Auckland in favour of an expedition against Herat, which his +lordship at length finally negatived, to the great disgust of the Envoy, +who wrote of the conduct of his chief as 'drivelling beyond contempt,' +and 'sighed for a Wellesley or a Hastings.' The ultimate result of +Macnaghten's negotiations with Shah Kamran was Major Todd's withdrawal +from Herat. Todd had suspended the monthly subsidy, to the great wrath of +Kamran's rapacious and treacherous minister Yar Mahomed, who made a +peremptory demand for increased advances, and refused Todd's stipulation +that a British force should be admitted into Herat. Todd's action in +quitting Herat was severely censured by his superiors, and he was +relegated to regimental duty. Perhaps he acted somewhat rashly, but he +had not been kept well informed; for instance, he had been unaware that +Persia had become our friend, and had engaged to cease relations with +Shah Kamran--an important arrangement of which he certainly should have +been cognisant. Macnaghten had squandered more gold on Herat than the +fee-simple of the principality was worth, and to no purpose; he left that +state just as he found it, treacherous, insolent, greedy and independent. + +The precariousness of the long lines of communications between British +India and the army in Afghanistan--a source of danger which from the +first had disquieted cautious soldiers--was making itself seriously felt, +and constituted for Macnaghten another cause of solicitude. Old Runjeet +Singh, a faithful if not disinterested ally, had died on June 27th, 1839, +the day on which Keane marched out from Candahar. The breath was scarcely +out of the old reprobate when the Punjaub began to drift into anarchy. So +far as the Sikh share in it was concerned, the tripartite treaty +threatened to become a dead letter. The Lahore Durbar had not adequately +fulfilled the undertaking to support Prince Timour's advance by the +Khyber, nor was it duly regarding the obligation to maintain a force on +the Peshawur frontier of the Punjaub. But those things were trivial in +comparison with the growing reluctance manifested freely, to accord to +our troops and convoys permission to traverse the Punjaub on the march to +and from Cabul. The Anglo-Indian Government sent Mr Clerk to Lahore to +settle the question as to the thoroughfare. He had instructions to be +firm, and the Sikhs did not challenge Mr Clerk's stipulation that the +Anglo-Indian Government must have unmolested right of way through the +Punjaub, while he undertook to restrict the use of it as much as +possible. This arrangement by no means satisfied the exacting Macnaghten, +and he continued to worry himself by foreseeing all sorts of troublous +contingencies unless measures were adopted for 'macadamising' the road +through the Punjaub. + +The summer of 1840 did not pass without serious interruptions to the +British communications between Candahar and the Indus; nor without +unexpected and ominous disasters before they were restored. General +Willshire, with the returning Bombay column, had in the previous November +stormed Mehrab Khan's ill-manned and worse armed fort of Khelat, and the +Khan, disdaining to yield, had fallen in the hopeless struggle. His son +Nusseer Khan had been put aside in favour of a collateral pretender, and +became an active and dangerous malcontent. All Northern Beloochistan fell +into a state of anarchy. A detachment of sepoys escorting supplies was +cut to pieces in one of the passes. Quetta was attacked with great +resolution by Nusseer Khan, but was opportunely relieved by a force sent +from another post. Nusseer made himself master of Khelat, and there fell +into his cruel hands Lieutenant Loveday, the British political officer +stationed there, whom he treated with great barbarity, and finally +murdered. A British detachment under Colonel Clibborn, was defeated by +the Beloochees with heavy loss, and compelled to retreat. Nusseer Khan, +descending into the low country of Cutch, assaulted the important post of +Dadur, but was repulsed, and taking refuge in the hills, was routed by +Colonel Marshall with a force from Kotree, whereupon he became a skulking +fugitive. Nott marched down from Candahar with a strong force, occupied +Khelat, and fully re-established communications with the line of the +Indus, while fresh troops moved forward into Upper Scinde, and thence +gradually advancing to Quetta and Candahar, materially strengthened the +British position in Southern Afghanistan. + +Dost Mahomed, after his flight from Cabul in 1839, had soon left the +hospitable refuge afforded him in Khooloom, a territory west of the +Hindoo Koosh beyond Bamian, and had gone to Bokhara on the treacherous +invitation of its Ameer, who threw him into captivity. The Dost's family +remained at Khooloom, in the charge of his brother Jubbar Khan. The +advance of British forces beyond Bamian to Syghan and Bajgah, induced +that Sirdar to commit himself and the ladies to British protection. Dr +Lord, Macnaghten's political officer in the Bamian district, was a rash +although well-meaning man. The errors he had committed since the opening +of spring had occasioned disasters to the troops whose dispositions he +controlled, and had incited the neighbouring hill tribes to active +disaffection. In July Dost Mahomed made his escape from Bokhara, hurried +to Khooloom, found its ruler and the tribes full of zeal for his cause, +and rapidly grew in strength. Lord found it was time to call in his +advance posts and concentrate at Bamian, losing in the operation an +Afghan regiment which deserted to the Dost. Macnaghten reinforced Bamian, +and sent Colonel Dennie to command there. On September 18th Dennie moved +out with two guns and 800 men against the Dost's advance parties raiding +in an adjacent valley. Those detachments driven back, Dennie suddenly +found himself opposed to the irregular mass of Oosbeg horse and foot +which constituted the army of the Dost. Mackenzie's cannon fire shook the +undisciplined horde, the infantry pressed in to close quarters, and soon +the nondescript host of the Dost was in panic flight, with Dennie's +cavalry in eager pursuit. The Dost escaped with difficulty, with the loss +of his entire personal equipment. He was once more a fugitive, and the +Wali of Khooloom promptly submitted himself to the victors, and pledged +himself to aid and harbour the broken chief no more. Macnaghten had been +a prey to apprehension while the Dost's attitude was threatening; he was +now in a glow of joy and hope. + +But the Envoy's elation was short-lived. Dost Mahomed was yet to cause +him much solicitude. Defeated in Bamian, he was ready for another attempt +in the Kohistan country to the north of Cabul. Disaffection was rife +everywhere throughout the kingdom, but it was perhaps most rife in the +Kohistan, which was seething with intrigues in favour of Dost Mahomed, +while the local chiefs were intensely exasperated by the exactions of the +Shah's revenue collectors. Macnaghten summoned the chiefs to Cabul. They +came, they did homage to the Shah and swore allegiance to him; they went +away from the capital pledging each other to his overthrow, and jeering +at the scantiness of the force they had seen at Cabul. Intercepted +letters disclosed their schemes, and in the end of September Sale, with a +considerable force, marched out to chastise the disaffected Kohistanees. +The fort of Tootundurrah fell without resistance. Julgah, however, the +next fort assailed, stubbornly held out, and officers and men fell in the +unsuccessful attempt to storm it. In three weeks Sale marched to and fro +through the Kohistan, pursuing will-o'-the-wisp rumours as to the +whereabouts of the Dost, destroying forts on the course of his weary +pilgrimage, and subjected occasionally to night attacks. + +Meanwhile, in the belief that Dost Mahomed was close to Cabul, and +mournfully conscious that the capital and surrounding country were ripe +for a rising, Macnaghten had relapsed into nervousness, and was a prey to +gloomy forebodings. The troops at Bamian were urgently recalled. Cannon +were mounted on the Balla Hissar to overawe the city, the concentration +of the troops in the fortress was under consideration, and men were +talking of preparing for a siege. How Macnaghten's English nature was +undergoing deterioration under the strain of events is shown by his +writing of the Dost: 'Would it be justifiable to set a price on this +fellow's head?' How his perceptions were warped was further evinced by +his talking of 'showing no mercy to the man who has been the author of +all the evil now distracting the country,' and by his complaining of Sale +and Burnes that, 'with 2000 good infantry, they are sitting down before a +fortified place, and are afraid to attack it.' + +Learning that for certain the Dost had crossed the Hindoo Koosh from +Nijrao into the Kohistan, Sale, who had been reinforced, sent out +reconnaissances which ascertained that he was in the Purwan Durrah +valley, stretching down from the Hindoo Koosh to the Gorebund river; and +the British force marched thither on 2d November. As the village was +neared, the Dost's people were seen evacuating it and the adjacent forts, +and making for the hills. Sale's cavalry was some distance in advance of +the infantry of the advance guard, but time was precious. Anderson's +horse went to the left, to cut off retreat down the Gorebund valley. +Fraser took his two squadrons of Bengal cavalry to the right, advanced +along the foothills, and gained the head of the valley. He was too late +to intercept a small body of Afghan horsemen, who were already climbing +the upland; but badly mounted as the latter were, he could pursue them +with effect. But it seemed that the Afghans preferred to fight rather +than be pursued. The Dost himself was in command of the little party, and +the Dost was a man whose nature was to fight, not to run. He wheeled his +handful so that his horsemen faced Fraser's troop down there below them. +Then the Dost pointed to his banner, bared his head, called on his +supporters in the name of God and the Prophet to follow him against the +unbelievers, and led them down the slope. + +Fraser had formed up his troopers when recall orders reached him. Joyous +that the situation entitled him to disobey them, he gave instead the word +to charge. As the Afghans came down at no great pace, they fired +occasionally; either because of the bullets, or because of an access of +pusillanimity, Fraser's troopers broke and fled ignominiously. The +British gentlemen charged home unsupported. Broadfoot, Crispin and Lord +were slain; Ponsonby, severely wounded and his reins cut, was carried out +of the _mêlée_ by his charger; Fraser, covered with blood and wounds, +broke through his assailants, and brought to Sale his report of the +disgrace of his troopers. After a sharp pursuit of the poltroons, the +Dost and his followers leisurely quitted the field. + +Burnes wrote to the Envoy--he was a soldier, but he was also a +'political,' and political employ seemed often in Afghanistan to +deteriorate the attribute of soldierhood--that there was no alternative +for the force but to fall back on Cabul, and entreated Macnaghten to +order immediate concentration of all the troops. This letter Macnaghten +received the day after the disaster in the Kohistan, when he was taking +his afternoon ride in the Cabul plain. His heart must have been very +heavy as he rode, when suddenly a horseman galloped up to him and +announced that the Ameer was approaching. 'What Ameer?' asked Macnaghten. +'Dost Mahomed Khan,' was the reply, and sure enough there was the Dost +close at hand. Dismounting, this Afghan prince and gentleman saluted the +Envoy, and offered him his sword, which Macnaghten declined to take. Dost +and Envoy rode into Cabul together, and such was the impression the +former made on the latter that Macnaghten, who a month before had +permitted himself to think of putting a price on 'the fellow's' head, +begged now of the Governor-General 'that the Dost be treated more +handsomely than was Shah Soojah, who had no claim on us.' And then +followed a strange confession for the man to make who made the tripartite +treaty, and approved the Simla manifesto: 'We had no hand in depriving +the Shah of his kingdom, _whereas we ejected the Dost, who never offended +us, in support of our policy, of which he was the victim_.' + +Durand regards Dost Mahomed's surrender as 'evincing a strange +pusillanimity.' This opprobrious judgment appears unjustified. No doubt +he was weary of the fugitive life he had been leading, but to pronounce +him afraid that the Kohistanees or any other Afghans would betray him is +to ignore the fact that he had been for months among people who might, +any hour of any day, have betrayed him if they had chosen. Nobler motives +than those ascribed to him by Durand may be supposed to have actuated a +man of his simple and lofty nature. He had given the arbitrament of war a +trial, and had realised that in that way he could make no head against +us. He might, indeed, have continued the futile struggle, but he was the +sort of man to recognise the selfishness of that persistency which would +involve ruin and death to the devoted people who would not desert his +cause while he claimed to have a cause. When historians write of Afghan +treachery and guile, it seems to have escaped their perception that +Afghan treachery was but a phase of Afghan patriotism, of an unscrupulous +character, doubtless, according to our notions, but nevertheless +practical in its methods, and not wholly unsuccessful in its results. It +may have been a higher and purer patriotism that moved Dost Mahomed to +cease, by his surrender, from being an obstacle to the tranquillisation +of the country of which he had been the ruler. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Dost Mahomed remained for a few days in the British cantonments on the +Cabul plain, an honoured guest rather than a prisoner. His soldierly +frankness, his bearing at once manly and courteous, his honest liking for +and trust in our race, notwithstanding the experiences which he had +undergone, won universal respect and cordiality. Officers who stood aloof +from Shah Soojah vied with each other in evincing to Dost Mahomed their +sympathy with him in his fallen fortunes. Shah Soojah would not see the +man whom he had ingloriously supplanted, on the pretext that he 'could +not bring himself to show common civility to such a villain.' How +Macnaghten's feeling in regard to the two men had altered is disclosed by +his comment on this refusal. 'It is well,' he wrote, 'as the Dost must +have suffered much humiliation in being subjected to such an ordeal.' + +In the middle of November 1840 the Dost began his journey toward British +India, accompanied by Sir Willoughby Cotton, who was finally quitting +Afghanistan, and under the escort of a considerable British force which +had completed its tour of duty in Afghanistan. Sale succeeded Cotton in +temporary divisional command pending the arrival of the latter's +successor. About the middle of December Shah Soojah and his Court, +accompanied by the British Envoy, arrived at Jellalabad for the winter, +Burnes remaining at Cabul in political charge. + +Macnaghten was mentally so constituted as to be continually alternating +between high elation and the depths of despondency; discerning to-day +ominous indications of ruin in an incident of no account, and to-morrow +scorning imperiously to recognise danger in the fierce rising of a +province. It may almost be said that each letter of his to Lord Auckland +was of a different tone from the one which had preceded it. Burnes, who +was nominally Macnaghten's chief lieutenant, with more self-restraint, +had much the same temperament. Kaye writes of him: 'Sometimes sanguine, +sometimes despondent, sometimes confident, sometimes credulous, Burnes +gave to fleeting impressions all the importance and seeming permanency of +settled convictions, and imbued surrounding objects with the colours of +his own varying mind.' But if Burnes had been a discreet and steadfast +man, he could have exercised no influence on the autocratic Macnaghten, +since between the two men there was neither sympathy nor confidence. +Burnes had, indeed, no specific duties of any kind; in his own words, he +was in 'the most nondescript situation.' Macnaghten gave him no +responsibility, and while Burnes waited for the promised reversion of the +office of envoy, he chiefly employed himself in writing long memorials on +the situation and prospects of affairs, on which Macnaghten's marginal +comments were brusque, and occasionally contemptuous. The resolute and +clear-headed Pottinger, who, if the opportunity had been given him, might +have buttressed and steadied Macnaghten, was relegated to provincial +service. Throughout his career in Afghanistan the Envoy could not look +for much advice from the successive commanders of the Cabul force, even +if he had cared to commune with them. Keane, indeed, did save him from +the perpetration of one folly. But Cotton appears to have been a +respectable nonentity. Sale was a stout, honest soldier, who was not +fortunate on the only occasion which called him outside of his restricted +_métier_. Poor Elphinstone was an object for pity rather than for +censure. + +It happened fortunately, in the impending misfortunes, that two men of +stable temperament and lucid perception were in authority at Candahar. +General Nott was a grand old Indian officer, in whom there was no guile, +but a good deal of temper. He was not supple, and he had the habit of +speaking his mind with great directness, a propensity which accounted, +perhaps, for the repeated supersessions he had undergone. A clearheaded, +shrewd man, he was disgusted with very many things which he recognised as +unworthy in the conduct of the affairs of Afghanistan, and he was not the +man to choose mild phrases in giving vent to his convictions. He had in +full measure that chronic dislike which the Indian commander in the field +nourishes to the political officer who is imposed on him by the +authorities, and who controls his measures and trammels his actions. +Nott's 'political,' who, the sole survivor of the men who were prominent +during this unhappy period, still lives among us esteemed and revered, +was certainly the ablest officer of the unpopular department to which he +belonged; and how cool was Henry Rawlinson's temper is evinced in his +ability to live in amity with the rugged and outspoken chief who +addressed him in such a philippic as the following--words all the more +trenchant because he to whom they were addressed must have realised how +intrinsically true they were:-- + +'I have no right to interfere with the affairs of this country, and I +never do so. But in reference to that part of your note where you speak +of political influence, I will candidly tell you that these are not times +for mere ceremony, and that under present circumstances, and at a +distance of 2000 miles from the seat of the supreme Government, I throw +responsibility to the wind, and tell you that in my opinion you have not +had for some time past, nor have you at present, one particle of +political influence in this country.' + +Nott steadily laboured to maintain the _morale_ and discipline of his +troops, and thus watching the flowing tide of misrule and embroilment, he +calmly made the best preparations in his power to meet the storm the sure +and early outbreak of which his clear discernment prognosticated. + +Shah Soojah's viceroy at Candahar was his heir-apparent Prince Timour. +The Dooranee chiefs of Western Afghanistan had not unnaturally expected +favours and influence under the rule of the Dooranee monarch; and while +in Candahar before proceeding to Cabul, and still uncertain of what might +occur there, Shah Soojah had been lavish of his promises. The chiefs had +anticipated that they would be called around the vice-throne of Prince +Timour; but Shah Soojah made the same error as that into which Louis +XVIII. fell on his restoration. He constituted his Court of the men who +had shared his Loodianah exile. The counsellors who went to Candahar with +Timour were returned _émigrés_, in whom fitness for duty counted less +than the qualification of companionship in exile. Those people had come +back to Afghanistan poor; now they made haste to be rich by acts of +oppressive injustice, in the exaction of revenue from the people, and by +intercepting from the Dooranee chiefs the flow of royal bounty to which +they had looked forward. + +Uktar Khan was prominent among the Dooranee noblemen, and he had the +double grievance of having been disappointed of the headship of the +Zemindawar province on the western bank of the Helmund, and having been +evilly entreated by the minions of Prince Timour. He had raised his clan +and routed a force under a royalist follower, when Nott sent a detachment +against him. Uktar Khan had crossed the Helmund into Zemindawar, when +Farrington attacked him, and, after a brisk fight, routed and pursued +him. The action was fought on January 3, 1841, in the very dead of +winter; the intensity of the cold dispersed Uktar's levies, and +Farrington returned to Candahar. + +In reply to Macnaghten's demand for information regarding the origin of +this outbreak, Rawlinson wrote him some home truths which were very +distasteful. Rawlinson warned his chief earnestly of the danger which +threatened the false position of the British in Afghanistan. He pointed +out how cruel must be the revenue exactions which enabled Prince Timour's +courtiers to absorb great sums. He expressed his suspicion that Shah +Soojah had countenanced Uktar Khan's rising, and spoke of intrigues of +dark and dangerous character. Macnaghten scouted Rawlinson's warning, and +instructed him that 'it will make the consideration of all questions more +simple if you will hereafter take for granted that as regards us "the +king can do no wrong."' However, he and the Shah did remove from Candahar +the Vakeel and his clique of obnoxious persons, who had been grinding the +faces of the people; and the Envoy allowed himself to hope that this +measure would restore order to the province of Candahar. + +The hope was vain, the evil lay deeper; disaffection to the Shah and +hatred to the British power were becoming intensified from day to day, +and the aspiration for relief was swelling into a passion. In the days +before our advent there had been venality and corruption in public +places--occasionally, likely enough, as Macnaghten asserted, to an extent +all but incredible. But exaction so sweeping could have occurred only in +regions under complete domination; and in Afghanistan, even to this day, +there are few regions wholly in this condition. When the yoke became +over-weighty, a people of a nature so intractable knew how to resent +oppression and oppose exaction. But now the tax gatherer swaggered over +the land, and the people had to endure him, for at his back were the +soldiers of the Feringhees and the levies of the Shah. The latter were +paid by assignments on the revenues of specified districts; as the levies +constituted a standing army of some size, the contributions demanded were +heavier and more permanent than in bygone times. Macnaghten, aware of the +discontent engendered by the system of assignments, desired to alter it. +But the Shah's needs were pressing; the Anglo-Indian treasury was +strained already by the expenditure in Afghanistan; and it was not easy +in a period of turmoil and rebellion to carry out the amendment of a +fiscal system. That, since the surrender of the Dost, there had been no +serious rising in Northern or Eastern Afghanistan, sufficed to make +Macnaghten an optimist of the moment. He had come by this time to a +reluctant admission of the fact against which he had set his face so +long, that Shah Soojah was unpopular. 'He has incurred,' he wrote, 'the +odium that attaches to him from his alliance with us'; but the Envoy +would not admit that our position in Afghanistan was a false one, in that +we were maintaining by our bayonets, against the will of the Afghans, a +sovereign whom they detested. 'It would,' he pleaded, 'be an act of +downright dishonesty to desert His Majesty before he has found the means +of taking root in the soil to which we have transplanted him.' While he +wrote, Macnaghten must have experienced a sudden thrill of optimism or of +self-delusion, for he continued: 'All things considered, the present +tranquillity of this country is to my mind perfectly miraculous. Already +our presence has been infinitely beneficial in allaying animosities and +in pointing out abuses.' If it had been the case that the country was +tranquil, his adjective would have been singularly appropriate, but not +precisely in the sense he meant to convey. + +But there was no tranquillity, miraculous or otherwise. While Macnaghten +was writing the letter which has just been quoted, Brigadier Shelton, +who, about the New Year, had reached Jellalabad with a brigade from +British India in relief of the force which was withdrawing with Cotton, +was contending with an outbreak of the wild and lawless clans of the +Khyber. When Macnaghten wrote, he had already received intelligence of +the collapse of his projects in Herat, and that Major Todd, who had been +his representative there, judging it imperative to break up the mission +of which he was the head, had abruptly quitted that city, and was on his +way to Candahar. Mischief was simmering in the Zemindawar country. The +Ghilzai tribes of the region between Candahar and Ghuznee had accepted a +subsidy to remain quiet, but the indomitable independence of this wild +and fierce race was not to be tamed by bribes, and the spirit of +hostility was manifesting itself so truculently that a British garrison +had been placed in Khelat-i-Ghilzai, right in the heart of the disturbed +territory. This warning and defensive measure the tribes had regarded +with angry jealousy; but it was not until a rash 'political' had directed +the unprovoked assault and capture of a Ghilzai fort that the tribes +passionately flew to arms, bent on contesting the occupation of their +rugged country. Colonel Wymer was sent from Candahar with a force, +escorting a convoy of stores intended for the equipment of +Khelat-i-Ghilzai. The tribes who had been loosely beleaguering that place +marched down the Turnuk upon Wymer, and on May 19th attacked him with +great impetuosity, under the command of a principal chief who was known +as the 'Gooroo.' Wymer, in the protection of his convoy, had to stand on +the defensive. The Ghilzais, regardless of the grape which tore through +their masses, fell on sword in hand, and with an intuitive tactical +perception struck Wymer simultaneously in front and flank. His sepoys had +to change their dispositions, and the Ghilzais took the opportunity of +their momentary dislocation to charge right home. They were met firmly by +the bayonet, but again and again the hillmen renewed their attacks; and +it was not till after five hours of hard fighting which cost them heavy +loss, that at length, in the darkness, they suddenly drew off. Had they +been Swiss peasants defending their mountains, or Poles struggling +against the ferocious tyranny of Russia, their gallant effort might have +excited praise and sympathy. Had they been Soudanese, a statesman might +have spoken of them as a people 'rightly struggling to be free'; as it +was, the Envoy vituperated them as 'a parcel of ragamuffins,' and Wymer's +sepoys were held to have 'covered themselves with glory.' Macnaghten +proceeded to encourage a sense of honour among the tribes by proposing +the transfer to another chief, on condition of his seizing and delivering +over the inconvenient 'Gooroo,' of the share of subsidy of which the +latter had been in receipt. + +While this creditable transaction was under consideration, Uktar Khan was +again making himself very unpleasant; so much so that Macnaghten was +authorising Rawlinson to offer a reward of 10,000 rupees for his capture, +which accomplished, Rawlinson was instructed to 'hang the villain as high +as Haman.' The gallows was not built, however, on which Uktar was to +hang, although that chief sustained two severe defeats at the hands of +troops sent from Candahar, and had to become a fugitive. The Ghilzais, +who had gathered again after their defeat under the 'Gooroo,' had made +little stand against the detachment which Colonel Chambers led out from +Candahar, and they were again temporarily dispersed. The 'Gooroo' himself +was in our hands. If the disaffection was in no degree diminished, the +active ebullitions of it were assuredly quelled for the time. It was +true, to be sure, that Akbar Khan, the fierce and resolute son of Dost +Mahomed, had refused the Envoy's overtures to come in, and was wandering +and plotting in Khooloom, quite ready to fulfil Macnaghten's prophetic +apprehension that 'the fellow will be after some mischief should the +opportunity present itself'; that the Dooranees were still defiant; that +an insurgent force was out in the Dehrawat; and that the tameless chief +Akram Khan was being blown from a gun by the cruel and feeble Timour. But +unquestionably there was a comparative although short-lived lull in the +overt hostility of the Afghan peoples against Shah Soojah and his foreign +supporters; and Macnaghten characteristically announced that 'the country +was quiet from Dan to Beersheba.' To one of his correspondents he wrote: +'From Mookoor to the Khyber Pass, all is content and tranquillity; and +wherever we Europeans go, we are received with respect, attention and +welcome. I think our prospects are most cheering; and with the materials +we have there ought to be little or no difficulty in the management of +the country. The people are perfect children, and they should be treated +as such. If we put one naughty boy in the corner, the rest will be +terrified.' + +General Nott at Candahar, who 'never interfered in the government of the +country,' but regarded the situation with shrewd, clear-headed common +sense, differed utterly from the Envoy's view. The stout old soldier did +not squander his fire; it was a close volley he discharged in the +following words: 'The conduct of the thousand and one politicals has +ruined our cause, and bared the throat of every European in this country +to the sword and knife of the revengeful Afghan and bloody Belooch; and +unless several regiments be quickly sent, not a man will be left to +describe the fate of his comrades. Nothing will ever make the Afghans +submit to the hated Shah Soojah, who is most certainly as great a +scoundrel as ever lived.' + +Nott's conclusions were in the main justified by after events, but the +correctness of his premiss may be questioned. That the conduct of some of +the political officers intensified the rancour of the Afghans is +unhappily true, but the hate of our domination, and of the puppet thrust +upon them by us, seems to have found its origin in a deeper feeling. The +patriotism of a savage race is marked by features repulsive to civilised +communities, but through the ruthless cruelty of the indiscriminate +massacre, the treachery of the stealthy stab, and the lightly broken +pledges, there may shine out the noblest virtue that a virile people can +possess. A semi-barbarian nation whose manhood pours out its blood like +water in stubborn resistance against an alien yoke, may be pardoned for +many acts shocking to civilised communities which have not known the +bitterness of stern and masterful subjugation. + + + + +CHAPTER V: THE BEGINNING OF THE END + +The deceptive quietude of Afghanistan which followed the sharp lessons +administered to the Dooranees and the Ghilzais was not seriously +disturbed during the month of September 1841, and Macnaghten was in a +full glow of cheerfulness. His services had been recognised by his +appointment to the dignified and lucrative post of Governor of the Bombay +Presidency, and he was looking forward to an early departure for a less +harassing and tumultuous sphere of action than that in which he had been +labouring for two troubled years. The belief that he would leave behind +him a quiescent Afghanistan, and Shah Soojah firmly established on its +throne, was the complement, to a proud and zealous man, of the +satisfaction which his promotion afforded. + +One distasteful task he had to perform before he should go. The Home +Government had become seriously disquieted by the condition of affairs in +Afghanistan. The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, the channel +through which the ministry communicated with the Governor-General, had +expressed great concern at the heavy burden imposed on the Indian +finances by the cost of the maintenance of the British force in +Afghanistan, and by the lavish expenditure of the administration which +Macnaghten directed. The Anglo-Indian Government was urgently required to +review with great earnestness the question of its future policy in regard +to Afghanistan, and to consider gravely whether an enterprise at once so +costly and so unsatisfactory in results should not be frankly abandoned. +Lord Auckland was alive to the difficulties and embarrassments which +encompassed the position beyond the Indus, but he was loth to admit that +the policy of which he had been the author, and in which the Home +Government had abetted him so eagerly, was an utter failure. He and his +advisers finally decided in favour of the continued occupation of +Afghanistan; and since the Indian treasury was empty, and the annual +charge of that occupation was not less than a million and a quarter +sterling, recourse was had to a loan, Macnaghten was pressed to effect +economies in the administration, and he was specially enjoined to cut +down the subsidies which were paid to Afghan chiefs as bribes to keep +them quiet. Macnaghten had objected to this retrenchment, pointing out +that the stipends to the chiefs were simply compensation for the +abandonment by them of their immemorial practice of highway robbery, but +he yielded to pressure, called to Cabul the chiefs in its vicinity, and +informed them that thenceforth their subsidies would be reduced. The +chiefs strongly remonstrated, but without effect, and they then formed a +confederacy of rebellion. The Ghilzai chiefs were the first to act. +Quitting Cabul, they occupied the passes between the capital and +Jellalabad, and entirely intercepted the communications with India by the +Khyber route. + +Macnaghten did not take alarm at this significant demonstration, +regarding the outbreak merely as 'provoking,' and writing to Rawlinson +that 'the rascals would be well trounced for their pains.' Yet warnings +of gathering danger were rife, which but for his mood of optimism should +have struck home to his apprehension. Pottinger had come down from the +Kohistan, where he was acting as political officer, bent on impressing on +him that a general rising of that region was certain unless strong +measures of prevention were resorted to. For some time before the actual +outbreak of the Ghilzais, the Afghan hatred to our people had been +showing itself with exceptional openness and bitterness. Europeans and +camp followers had been murdered, but the sinister evidences of growing +danger had been regarded merely as ebullitions of private rancour. Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, had moved forward from Khooloom into the Bamian +country, and there was little doubt that he was fomenting the +disaffection of the Ghilzai chiefs, with some of whom this indomitable +man, who in his intense hatred of the English intruders had resolutely +rejected all offers of accommodation, and preferred the life of a +homeless exile to the forfeiture of his independence, was closely +connected by marriage. + +The time was approaching when Sale's brigade was to quit Cabul on its +return journey to India. Macnaghten seems to have originally intended to +accompany this force, for he wrote that he 'hoped to settle the hash of +the Ghilzais on the way down, if not before.' The rising, however, spread +so widely and so rapidly that immediate action was judged necessary, and +on October 9th Colonel Monteath marched towards the passes with his own +regiment, the 35th Native Infantry, some artillery and cavalry details, +and a detachment of Broadfoot's sappers. + +How able, resolute, and high-souled a man was George Broadfoot, the +course of this narrative will later disclose. He was one of three gallant +brothers, all of whom died sword in hand. The corps of sappers which he +commanded was a remarkable body--a strange medley of Hindustanees, +Goorkhas, and Afghan tribesmen of divers regions. Many were desperate and +intractable characters, but Broadfoot, with mingled strength and +kindness, moulded his heterogeneous recruits into skilful, obedient and +disciplined soldiers. Broadfoot's description of his endeavours to learn +something of the nature of the duties expected of him in the expedition +for which he had been detailed, and to obtain such equipment as those +duties might require, throws a melancholy light on the deteriorated state +of affairs among our people at this period, and on the relations between +the military and civilian authorities. + +Broadfoot went for information, in the first instance, to Colonel +Monteath, who could give him no orders, having received none himself. +Monteath declined to apply for details as to the expedition, as he knew +'these people' (the authorities) too well; he was quite aware of the +danger of going on service in the dark, but explained that it was not the +custom of the military authorities at Cabul to consult or even instruct +the commanders of expeditions. Broadfoot then went to the General. +Cotton's successor in the chief military command in Afghanistan was poor +General Elphinstone, a most gallant soldier, but with no experience of +Indian warfare, and utterly ignorant of the Afghans and of Afghanistan. +Wrecked in body and impaired in mind by physical ailments and +infirmities, he had lost all faculty of energy, and such mind as remained +to him was swayed by the opinion of the person with whom he had last +spoken. The poor gentleman was so exhausted by the exertion of getting +out of bed, and being helped into his visiting-room, that it was not for +half-an-hour, and after several ineffectual efforts, that he could attend +to business. He knew nothing of the nature of the service on which +Monteath was ordered, could give Broadfoot no orders, and was unwilling +to refer to the Envoy on a matter which should have been left to him to +arrange. He complained bitterly of the way in which he was reduced to a +cypher--'degraded from a general to the "Lord-Lieutenant's head +constable."' Broadfoot went from the General to the Envoy, who 'was +peevish,' and denounced the General as fidgety. He declared the enemy to +be contemptible, and that as for Broadfoot and his sappers, twenty men +with pickaxes were enough; all they were wanted for was to pick stones +from under the gun wheels. When Broadfoot represented the inconvenience +with which imperfect information as to the objects of the expedition was +fraught, Macnaghten lost his temper, and told Broadfoot that, if he +thought Monteath's movement likely to bring on an attack, 'he need not +go, he was not wanted'; whereupon Broadfoot declined to listen to such +language, and made his bow. Returning to the General, whom he found 'lost +and perplexed,' he was told to follow his own judgment as to what +quantity of tools he should take. The Adjutant-General came in, and 'this +officer, after abusing the Envoy, spoke to the General with an +imperiousness and disrespect, and to me, a stranger, with an insolence it +was painful to see the influence of on the General. His advice to his +chief was to have nothing to say to Macnaghten, to me, or to the sappers, +saying Monteath had men enough, and needed neither sappers nor tools.' At +parting the poor old man said to Broadfoot: 'If you go out, for God's +sake clear the passes quickly, that I may get away; for if anything were +to turn up, I am unfit for it, done up in body and mind.' This was the +man whom Lord Auckland had appointed to the most responsible and arduous +command at his disposal, and this not in ignorance of General +Elphinstone's disqualifications for active service, but in the fullest +knowledge of them! + +Monteath's camp at Bootkhak, the first halting-place on the Jellalabad +road, was sharply attacked on the night of the 9th, and the assailants, +many of whom were the armed retainers of chiefs living in Cabul sent out +specially to take part in the attack, although unsuccessful, inflicted on +Monteath considerable loss. Next day Sale, with H.M.'s 13th, joined +Monteath, and on the 13th he forced the long and dangerous ravine of the +Khoord Cabul with sharp fighting, but no very serious loss, although Sale +himself was wounded, and had to relinquish the active command to Colonel +Dennie. Monteath encamped in the valley beyond the pass, and Sale, with +the 13th, returned without opposition to Bootkhak, there to await +reinforcements and transports. In his isolated position Monteath remained +unmolested until the night of the 17th, when he repulsed a Ghilzai attack +made in considerable strength, and aided by the treachery of 'friendly' +Afghans who had been admitted into his camp; but he had many casualties, +and lost a number of camels. On the 20th Sale, reinforced by troops +returned from the Zurmut expedition, moved forward on Monteath, and on +the 22d pushed on to the Tezeen valley, meeting with no opposition either +on the steep summit of the Huft Kotul or in the deep narrow ravine +opening into the valley. The Ghilzais were in force around the mouth of +the defile, but a few cannon-shots broke them up. The advance guard +pursued with over-rashness; the Ghilzais rallied, in the skirmish which +ensued an officer and several men were killed, and the retirement of our +people unfortunately degenerated into precipitate flight, with the +Ghilzais in hot pursuit. The 13th, to which the fugitive detachment +mainly belonged, now consisted mainly of young soldiers, whose constancy +was impaired by this untoward occurrence. + +Macnaghten had furnished Sale with a force which, in good heart and +vigorously commanded, was strong enough to have effected great things. +The Ghilzai chief of Tezeen possessed a strong fort full of supplies, +which Dennie was about to attack, when the wily Afghan sent to Major +Macgregor, the political officer accompanying Sale, a tender of +submission. Macgregor fell into the snare, desired Sale to countermand +the attack, and entered into negotiations. In doing so he committed a +fatal error, and he exceeded his instructions in the concessions which he +made. Macnaghten, it was true, had left matters greatly to Macgregor's +discretion; and if 'the rebels were very humble,' the Envoy was not +disposed to be too hard upon them. But one of his firm stipulations was +that the defences of Khoda Buxsh's fort must be demolished, and that Gool +Mahomed Khan 'should have nothing but war.' Both injunctions were +disregarded by Macgregor, who, with unimportant exceptions, surrendered +all along the line. The Ghilzais claimed and obtained the restoration of +their original subsidies; a sum was handed to them to enable them to +raise the tribes in order to keep clear the passes; Khoda Buxsh held his +fort, and sold the supplies it contained to Sale's commissary at a fine +price. Every item of the arrangement was dead in favour of the Ghilzais, +and contributory to their devices. Sale, continuing his march, would be +separated further and further from the now diminished force in Cabul, and +by the feigned submission the chiefs had made they had escaped the +permanent establishment of a strong detachment in their midst at Tezeen. + +Macnaghten, discontented though he was with the sweeping concessions +which Macgregor had granted to the Ghilzais, put the best face he could +on the completed transaction, and allowed himself to believe that a +stable settlement had been effected. On the 26th Sale continued his +march, having made up his baggage animals at the expense of the 37th +Native Infantry, which, with half of the sappers and three guns of the +mountain train, he sent back to Kubbar-i-Jubbar, there to halt in a +dangerously helpless situation until transport should be sent down from +Cabul. His march as far as Kutti Sung was unmolested. Mistrusting the +good faith of his new-made allies, he shunned the usual route through the +Purwan Durrah by taking the mountain road to the south of that defile, +and thus reached the Jugdulluk valley with little opposition, baulking +the dispositions of the Ghilzais, who, expecting him to traverse the +Purwan Durrah, were massed about the southern end of the defile, ready to +fall on the column when committed to the tortuous gorge. + +From the Jugdulluk camping ground there is a steep and winding ascent of +three miles, commanded until near the summit by heights on either side. +Sale's main body had attained the crest with trivial loss, having +detached parties by the way to ascend to suitable flanking positions, and +hold those until the long train of slow-moving baggage should have +passed, when they were to fall in and come on with the rear-guard. The +dispositions would have been successful but that on reaching the crest +the main body, instead of halting there for the rear to close up, hurried +down the reverse slope, leaving baggage, detachments, and rear-guard to +endure the attacks which the Ghilzais promptly delivered, pressing +fiercely on the rear, and firing down from either side on the confused +mass in the trough below. The flanking detachments had relinquished their +posts in panic, and hurried forward in confusion to get out of the pass. +The rear-guard was in disorder, when Broadfoot, with a few officers and +some of his sappers, valiantly checked the onslaught, but the crest was +not crossed until upwards of 120 men had fallen, the wounded among whom +had to be abandoned with the dead. On October 30th Sale's force reached +Gundamuk without further molestation, and halted there temporarily to +await orders. During the halt melancholy rumours filtered down the passes +from the capital, and later came confirmation of the evil tidings from +the Envoy, and orders from Elphinstone directing the immediate return of +the brigade to Cabul, if the safety of its sick and wounded could be +assured. Sale called a council of war, which pronounced, although not +unanimously, against a return to Cabul; and it was resolved instead to +march on to Jellalabad, which was regarded as an eligible _point d'appui_ +on which a relieving force might move up and a retiring force might move +down. Accordingly on November 11th the brigade quitted Gundamuk, and +hurried down rather precipitately, and with some fighting by the way, to +Jellalabad, which was occupied on the 14th. + +Some members of the Gundamuk council of war, foremost among whom was +Broadfoot, argued vigorously in favour of the return march to Cabul. +Havelock, who was with Sale as a staff-officer, strongly urged the +further retreat into Jellalabad. Others, again, advocated the middle +course of continuing to hold Gundamuk. It may be said that a daring +general would have fought his way back to Cabul, that a prudent general +would have remained at Gundamuk, and that the occupation of Jellalabad +was the expedient of a weak general. That a well-led march on Cabul was +feasible, although it might have been difficult and bloody, cannot be +questioned, and the advent of such men as Broadfoot and Havelock would +have done much toward rekindling confidence and stimulating the +restoration of soldierly virtue, alike in the military authorities and in +the rank and file of the Cabul force. At Gundamuk, again, the brigade, +well able to maintain its position there, would have made its influence +felt all through the Ghilzai country and as far as Cabul. The evacuation +of that capital decided on, it would have been in a position to give the +hand to the retiring army, and so to avert at least the worst disasters +of the retreat. The retirement on Jellalabad, in the terse language of +Durand, 'served no conceivable purpose except to betray weakness, and +still further to encourage revolt.' + +While Sale was struggling through the passes on his way to Gundamuk, our +people at Cabul were enjoying unwonted quietude. Casual entries in Lady +Sale's journal, during the later days of October, afford clear evidence +how utterly unconscious were they of the close gathering of the storm +that so soon was to break upon them. Her husband had written to her from +Tezeen that his wound was fast healing, and that the chiefs were +extremely polite. She complains of the interruption of the mails owing to +the Ghilzai outbreak, but comforts herself with the anticipation of their +arrival in a day or two. She was to leave Cabul for India in a few days, +along with the Macnaghtens and General Elphinstone, and her diary +expresses an undernote of regret at having to leave the snug house in the +cantonments which Sale had built on his own plan, the excellent kitchen +garden in which her warrior husband, in the intervals of his soldiering +duties, grew fine crops of peas, potatoes, cauliflowers and artichokes, +and the parterres of flowers which she herself cultivated, and which were +the admiration of the Afghan gentlemen who came to pay their morning +calls. + +[Illustration: CABUL the CANTONMENT _and the_ Surrounding COUNTRY.] + +The defencelessness of the position at Cabul had long engaged the +solicitude of men who were no alarmists. Engineer officer after engineer +officer had unavailingly and a half from the cantonments, with the Cabul +river intervening. With Shelton's troops and those in the cantonments +General Elphinstone had at his disposition, apart from the Shah's +contingent, four infantry regiments, two batteries of artillery, three +companies of sappers, a regiment of cavalry, and some irregular horse--a +force fully equipped and in good order. In the Balla Hissar Shah Soojah +had a considerable, if rather mixed, body of military and several guns. + +The rising of the 2d November may not have been the result of a fully +organised plan. There are indications that it was premature, and that the +revolt in force would have been postponed until after the expected +departure of the Envoy and the General with all the troops except +Shelton's brigade, but for an irrepressible burst of personal rancour +against Burnes. Durand holds, however, that the malcontents acted on the +belief that to kill Burnes and sack the Treasury was to inaugurate the +insurrection with an imposing success. Be this as it may, a truculent mob +early in the morning of November 2d assailed Burnes' house. He at first +regarded the outbreak as a casual riot, and wrote to Macnaghten to that +effect. Having harangued the throng without effect, he and his brother, +along with William Broadfoot his secretary, prepared for defence. +Broadfoot was soon killed, and a little later Burnes and his brother were +hacked to pieces in the garden behind the house. The Treasury was sacked; +the sepoys who had guarded it and Burnes' house were massacred, and both +buildings were fired; the armed mob swelled in numbers, and soon the +whole city was in a roar of tumult. + +Prompt and vigorous military action would no doubt have crushed the +insurrection, at least for the time. But the indifference, vacillation +and delay of the British authorities greatly encouraged its rapid +development. Macnaghten at first 'did not think much of it.' Shelton was +ordered into the Balla Hissar, countermanded, a second time ordered, and +again instructed to halt for orders. At last the Envoy himself despatched +him, with the loose order to act on his own judgment in communication +with the Shah. Shelton marched into the Balla Hissar with part of his +force, and the rest of it was moved into the cantonments. When the +Brigadier went to the Shah, that potentate demanded to know who sent him, +and what he had come for. But the Shah, to do him justice, had himself +taken action. Informed that Burnes was attacked and the city in revolt, +he had ordered Campbell's regiment of his own levies and a couple of guns +to march to his assistance. Campbell recklessly attempted to push his way +through the heart of the city, instead of reaching Burnes' house by a +circuitous but opener route, and after some sharp street fighting in +which he lost heavily, he was driven back, unable to penetrate to the +scene of plunder and butchery. Shelton remained inactive in the Balla +Hissar until Campbell was reported beaten and retreating, when he took +some feeble measures to cover the retreat of the fugitives, who, however, +abandoned their guns outside the fortress. The day was allowed to pass +without anything further being done, except the despatch of an urgent +recall to Major Griffiths, whom Sale had left at Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and +that good soldier, having fought every step of the way through the +passes, brought in his detachment in unbroken order and without loss of +baggage, notwithstanding his weakness in transport. Shelton, reinforced +in the Balla Hissar, maintained an intermittent and ineffectual fire on +the city. Urgent orders were despatched to Sale, recalling him and his +brigade--orders with which, as has been mentioned, Sale did not +comply--and also to Nott, at Candahar, begging him to send a brigade to +Cabul. In compliance with this requisition, Maclaren's brigade +immediately started from Candahar, but soon returned owing to the +inclemency of the weather. + +Captain Mackenzie was in charge of a fort containing the Shah's +commissariat stores; this fort was on the outskirts of a suburb of Cabul, +and was fiercely attacked on the 2d. For two days Mackenzie maintained +his post with unwearying constancy. His garrison was short of water and +of ammunition, and the fort was crowded with women and children, but he +held on resolutely until the night of the 3d. No assistance was sent, no +notice, indeed, of any kind was taken of him; his garrison was +discouraged by heavy loss, and by the mines which the enemy were pushing +forward. At length, when the gate of the fort had been fired, and his +wounded were dying for lack of medical aid, he evacuated the fort, and +fought his way gallantly into cantonments, bringing in his wounded and +the women and children. With this solitary exception the Afghans had +nowhere encountered resistance, and the strange passiveness of our people +encouraged them to act with vigour. From the enclosed space of the Shah +Bagh, and the adjacent forts of Mahmood Khan and Mahomed Shereef, they +were threatening the Commissariat fort, hindering access to it, and +besetting the south-western flank of the cantonments. A young officer +commanded the hundred sepoys garrisoning the Commissariat fort; he +reported himself in danger of being cut off, and Elphinstone gave orders +that he and his garrison should be brought off, and the fort and its +contents abandoned. Several efforts to accomplish the withdrawal were +thwarted by the Afghan flanking fire, with the loss of several officers +and many men. The commissary officer urged on the General the disastrous +consequences which the abandonment of the fort would entail, containing +as it did all the stores, adding that in cantonments there were only two +days' supplies, without prospect of procuring any more. Orders were then +sent to Warren to hold out to the last extremity; which instructions he +denied having received. Early in the morning of the 5th troops were +preparing to attack the Afghan fort and reinforce the Commissariat fort, +when Warren and his garrison reached the cantonments. The gate of the +Commissariat fort had been fired, but the enemy had not effected an +entrance, yet Warren and his people had evacuated the fort through a hole +cut in its wall. Thus, with scarcely a struggle to save it, was this +vital fort allowed to fall into the enemy's hands, and thenceforward our +unfortunate people were to be reduced to precarious and scanty sources +for their food. + +From the 5th to the 9th November there was a good deal of desultory +fighting, in the course of which, after one failure, Mahomed Shereef's +fort was stormed by a detachment of our people, under the command of +Major Griffiths; but this success had little influence on the threatening +attitude maintained by the Afghans. On the 9th, owing to the mental and +physical weakness of poor General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton was +summoned into cantonments from the Balla Hissar, bringing with him part +of the garrison with which he had been holding the latter post. The hopes +entertained that Shelton would display vigour, and restore the confidence +of the troops, were not realised. He from the first had no belief in the +ability of the occupants of the cantonment to maintain their position, +and he never ceased to urge prompt retreat on Jellalabad. From the purely +military point of view he was probably right; the Duke of Wellington +shared his opinion when he said in the House of Lords: 'After the first +few days, particularly after the negotiations at Cabul had commenced, it +became hopeless for General Elphinstone to maintain his position.' +Shelton's situation was unquestionably a very uncomfortable one, for +Elphinstone, broken as he was, yet allowed his second in command no +freedom of action, and was testily pertinacious of his prerogative of +command. If in Shelton, who after his manner was a strong man, there had +been combined with his resolution some tact and temper, he might have +exercised a beneficial influence. As it was he became sullen and +despondent, and retired behind an 'uncommunicative and disheartening +reserve.' Brave as he was, he seems to have lacked the inspiration which +alone could reinvigorate the drooping spirit of the troops. In a word, +though he probably was, in army language, a 'good duty soldier,' he +certainly was nothing more. And something more was needed then. + +Action on Shelton's part became necessary the day after he came into +cantonments. The Afghans occupied all the forts on the plain between the +Seah Sung heights and the cantonments, and from the nearest of them, the +Rikabashee fort, poured in a heavy fire at close range, which the return +artillery fire could not quell. On Macnaghten's urgent requisition the +General ordered out a strong force, under Shelton, to storm the obnoxious +fort. Captain Bellew missed the gate, and blew open merely a narrow +wicket, but the storming party obeyed the signal to advance. Through a +heavy fire the leaders reached the wicket, and forced their way in, +followed by a few soldiers. The garrison of the fort hastily evacuated +it, and all seemed well, when a sudden stampede ensued--the handful +which, led by Colonel Mackrell of the 44th and Lieutenant Bird of the +Shah's force, had already entered the fort, remaining inside it. The +runaway troops were rallied with difficulty by Shelton and the +subordinate officers, but a call for volunteers from the European +regiment was responded to but by one solitary Scottish private. After a +second advance, and a second retreat--a retreat made notwithstanding +strong artillery and musketry support--Shelton's efforts brought his +people forward yet again, and this time the fort was occupied in force. +Of those who had previously entered it but two survivors were found. The +Afghans, re-entering the fort, had hacked Mackrell to pieces and +slaughtered the men who tried to escape by the wicket. Lieutenant Bird +and a sepoy, from a stable the door of which they had barricaded with +logs of wood, had fended off their assailants by a steady and deadly +fire, and when they were rescued by the entrance of the troops they had +to clamber out over a pile of thirty dead Afghans whom the bullets of the +two men had struck down. + +It had come to our people in those gloomy days, to regard as a 'triumph' +a combat in which they were not actually worsted; and even of such +dubious successes the last occurred on November 13, when the Afghans, +after having pressed our infantry down the slopes of the Behmaroo ridge, +were driven back by artillery fire, and forced by a cavalry charge to +retreat further, leaving behind them a couple of guns from which they had +been sending missiles into the cantonments. One of those guns was brought +in without difficulty, but the other the Afghans covered with their +jezail fire. The Envoy had sent a message of entreaty that 'the triumph +of the day' should be completed by its capture. Major Scott of the 44th +made appeal on appeal, ineffectually, to the soldierly feelings of his +men, and while they would not move the sepoys could not be induced to +advance. At length Eyre spiked the piece as a precautionary measure, and +finally some men of the Shah's infantry succeeded in bringing in the +prize. The return march of the troops into cantonments in the dark, was +rendered disorderly by the close pressure of the Afghans, who, firing +incessantly, pursued the broken soldiery up to the entrance gate. + +On the depressed garrison of the Cabul cantonments tidings of disaster +further afield had been pouring in apace. Soon after the outbreak of the +rising, it was known that Lieutenant Maule, commanding the Kohistanee +regiment at Kurdurrah, had been cut to pieces, with his adjutant and +sergeant-major, by the men of his own corps; and on November 6th +intelligence had come in that the Goorkha regiment stationed at Charikar +in the Kohistan, where Major Pottinger was Resident, was in dangerous +case, and that Codrington, its commandant, and some of his officers had +already fallen. And now, on the 15th, there rode wearily into cantonments +two wounded men, who believed themselves the only British survivors of +the Charikar force. Pottinger was wounded in the leg, Haughton, the +adjutant of the Goorkha corps, had lost his right hand, and his head hung +forward on his breast, half severed from his body by a great tulwar +slash. Of the miserable story which it fell to Pottinger to tell only the +briefest summary can be given. His residence was at Lughmanee, a few +miles from the Charikar cantonments, when early in the month a number of +chiefs of the Kohistan and the Nijrao country assembled to discuss with +him the terms on which they would reopen the communications with Cabul. +Those chiefs proved treacherous, slew Rattray, Pottinger's assistant, and +besieged Pottinger in Lughmanee. Finding his position untenable, he +withdrew to Charikar under cover of night. On the morning of the 5th the +Afghans assailed the cantonments. Pottinger was wounded, Codrington was +killed, and the Goorkhas were driven into the barracks. Haughton, who +succeeded to the command of the regiment, made sortie on sortie, but was +finally driven in, and the enemy renewed their assaults in augmented +strength. Thenceforward the position was all but hopeless. On the 10th +the last scant remains of water was distributed. Efforts to procure water +by sorties on the nights of the 11th and 12th were not successful, and +the corps fell into disorganisation because of losses, hardships, +exhaustion, hunger and thirst. Pottinger and Haughton agreed that there +was no prospect of saving even a remnant of the regiment unless by a +retreat to Cabul, which, however, was clearly possible only in the case +of the stronger men, unencumbered with women and children, of whom, +unfortunately, there was a great number in the garrison. On the afternoon +of the 13th Haughton was cut down by a treacherous native officer of the +artillery, who then rushed out of the gate, followed by all the gunners +and most of the Mahommedans of the garrison. In the midst of the chaos of +disorganisation, Dr Grant amputated Haughton's hand, dressed his other +wounds, and then spiked all the guns. When it was dark, the garrison +moved out, Pottinger leading the advance, Dr Grant the main body, and +Ensign Rose the rear-guard. From the beginning of the march, discipline +was all but entirely in abeyance; on reaching the first stream, the last +remains of control were lost, and the force was rapidly disintegrating. +Pottinger and Haughton, the latter only just able to keep the saddle, +pushed on toward Cabul, rested in a ravine during the day, evaded the +partisan detachment sent out from Cabul to intercept them, rode through +sleeping Cabul in the small hours of the morning, and after being pursued +and fired upon in the outskirts of the city, finally attained the +cantonments. It was afterwards learned that a portion of the regiment had +struggled on to within twenty miles from Cabul, gallantly headed by young +Rose and Dr Grant. Then the remnant was destroyed. Rose was killed, after +despatching four Afghans with his own hand. Dr Grant, escaping the +massacre, held on until within three miles of the cantonments, when he +too was killed. + +Macnaghten was naturally much depressed by the news communicated by +Pottinger, and realised that the Afghan masses already encompassing the +position on the Cabul plain would certainly be increased by bands from +the Kohistan and Nijrao, flushed already with their Charikar success. He +sided strongly with the large party among the officers who were +advocating the measure of abandoning the cantonments altogether, and +moving the force now quartered there to the safer and more commanding +position in the Balla Hissar. The military chiefs opposed the project, +and propounded a variety of objections to it, none of which were without +weight, yet all of which might have been overcome by energy and proper +dispositions. Shelton, however, was opposed to the scheme, since if +carried out it would avert or postpone the accomplishment of his policy +of retreat on Jellalabad; Elphinstone was against it in the inertia of +debility, and the project gradually came to be regarded as abandoned. +Another project, that of driving the Afghans from Mahmood Khan's fort, +commanding the direct road between the cantonments and the Balla Hissar, +and of occupying it with a British force, was so far advanced that the +time for the attempt was fixed, and the storming party actually warned, +when some petty objection intervened and the enterprise was abandoned, +never to be revived. + +The rising was not three days old when already Elphinstone had lost +heart. On the 5th he had written to Macnaghten suggesting that the latter +should 'consider what chance there is of making terms,' and since then he +had been repeatedly pressing on the Envoy the 'hopelessness of further +resistance.' Macnaghten, vacillating as he was, yet had more pith in his +nature than was left in the debilitated old general. He wrote to +Elphinstone on the 18th recommending, not very strenuously, the policy of +holding out where they were as long as possible, and indeed throughout +the winter, if subsistence could be obtained. He pointed out that in the +cantonments, which he believed to be impregnable, there were at least the +essentials of wood and water. Arguing that a retreat on Jellalabad must +be most disastrous, and was to be avoided except in the last extremity, +he nevertheless ended somewhat inconsistently by leaving to the military +authorities, if in eight or ten days there should appear no prospect of +an improvement of the situation, the decision whether it would be wiser +to attempt a retreat or to withdraw from the cantonments into the Balla +Hissar. + +Far from improving, the situation was speedily to become all but +hopeless. The village of Behmaroo, built on the north-eastern slope of +the ridge of the same name bounding the plain on the north-west, lay +about half a mile due north of the cantonments, part of which some of the +houses on the upper slope commanded. From this village, after the loss of +the Commissariat fort, our people had been drawing supplies. On the +morning of the 22d the Afghans were seen moving in force from Cabul +toward Behmaroo, obviously with intent to occupy the village, and so +deprive the occupants of the cantonments of the resource it had been +affording them. A detachment under Major Swayne, sent out to forestall +this occupation, found Behmaroo already in the possession of a body of +Kohistanees, who had so blocked the approaches that Swayne did not +consider himself justified in attempting the fulfilment of his orders to +storm the place; and he contented himself with maintaining all day an +ineffectual musketry fire on it. A diversion in his favour by a gun +supported by cavalry had no result save that of casualties to the gunners +and troopers; reinforcements brought out by Shelton effected nothing, and +in the evening the troops were recalled. On this ill-fated day Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's fierce and implacable son, arrived in Cabul, and the +evil influence on the British fortunes which he exerted immediately made +itself felt, for the events of the following day were to bring about a +crisis in the fate of our ill-starred people. + +Recognising the mischief wrought by the hostile occupation of our only +source of supplies, the Envoy strongly urged the immediate despatch of a +strong force to occupy the Behmaroo ridge, and dislodge from the village +its Kohistanee garrison. Shelton opposed the measure, urging the +dispirited state of the troops, their fatigue from constant defensive +duty, and their weakened physique because of poor and scanty rations. He +was overruled, and before daybreak of the 23d a force under his command, +consisting of five companies of the 44th, twelve companies of native +infantry, some cavalry, and one horse-artillery gun, was in position on +the north-eastern extremity of the ridge overhanging the village. The gun +opened fire on the village with grape, and after a short resistance the +greater part of its garrison quitted it. The storming party intrusted to +Major Swayne did not, however, act, and was withdrawn. Leaving a +detachment on the knoll above the village, Shelton moved his force along +the upland to a position near the gorge intersecting the ridge, forming +his infantry into two squares, with the cavalry in rear. The further hill +beyond the gorge was crowded with hostile Afghans from Cabul, and the +long-range fire of their jezails across the dividing depression, carried +execution into the squares which Shelton had inexplicably formed as if to +furnish his foes with a target which they could not miss. The muskets of +his men could not retaliate, and the skirmishers he threw forward to the +brow of his hill could not endure the Afghan fire. Shelton's single gun +maintained a hot and telling fire on the Afghan masses on the opposite +hill, and baulked an attempt against his right flank made by the Afghan +cavalry swarming in the outer plain; but when its vent became too hot for +the gunners to serve it, the dullest comprehension became alive to the +folly of sending a single gun into the field. + +Shelton's men, falling fast though they were, and faint with fatigue and +thirst, yet had endured for hours a fusillade to which they could not +reply, when a body of Afghan fanatics suddenly sprang up out of the +gorge, swept back with their fire the few skirmishers who had been still +holding the brow of the hill, and planted their flag within thirty yards +of the front of the nearer of the squares. Shelton offered a large reward +to the man who should bring it in, but there was no response. In a +passion of soldierly wrath, the veteran commanded a bayonet charge; not a +man sprang forward at the summons which British soldiers are wont to +welcome with cheers. The cowed infantry remained supine, when their +officers darted forward and threw stones into the faces of the enemy; the +troopers heard but obeyed not that trumpet-call to 'Charge!' which so +rarely fails to thrill the cavalryman with the rapture of the fray. The +gunners only, men of that noble force the Company's Horse-Artillery, +quitted themselves valiantly. They stood to their piece to the bitter +end. Two of them were killed beside it, another was severely wounded, a +fourth, refusing to run, took refuge under the gun, and miraculously +escaped death. But the gallant example of the artillerymen in their front +did not hearten the infantrymen of the leading square. The panic spread +among them, and they broke and fled. Fortunately they were not pursued. +The rear square stood fast, and the officers by great exertion succeeded +in rallying the fugitives under the cover it afforded. The news that a +principal chief, Abdoolah Khan, had been severely wounded in the plain +gave pause to the offensive vigour of the Afghans, and the assailants +fell back, abandoning the gun, but carrying off the limber and gun-team. +Our people reoccupied the position, the gun recommenced its fire, and if +the cavalry and infantry could have been persuaded to take the offensive +the battle might have been retrieved. But they remained passive. The +reinforced Afghans renewed their long-range fire with terrible effect; +most of the gunners had fallen, and the Brigadier, recognising the +growing unsteadiness of his command and the imminent danger of capture to +which the solitary gun was again exposed, ordered a retirement on the +detachment left near Behmaroo and the limbering up of the gun, to which a +second limber had been sent out from the cantonments. The movement was +scarcely begun when a rush of fanatic Afghans completely broke the +square, and all order and discipline then disappeared. A regular rout set +in down the hill toward cantonments, the fugitives disregarding the +efforts of the officers to rally them, and the enemy in full pursuit, the +Afghan cavalry making ghastly slaughter among the panic-stricken +runaways. The detachment near Behmaroo attempted to fall back in orderly +fashion, but the reinforced garrison of the village swept out upon it, +surrounded it, broke it up, and threw it into utter rout with the loss of +a large proportion of its strength, one whole company being all but +annihilated. It seemed as if pursued and pursuers would enter the +cantonments together so closely were they commingled; but the fire from +the ramparts and an opportune charge of horse arrested the pursuit. Yet +Eyre reckons as the chief reason why all the British force that had gone +out to battle was not destroyed, the fact that a leading Afghan chief +forced his men to spare the fugitives, and ultimately halted and withdrew +his people when the opportunity for wholesale slaughter lay open to them. +Most of the wounded were left on the field, where they were miserably cut +to pieces; and the gun, which had been overturned in the attempt of the +drivers to gallop down the face of the hill, finally passed into the +possession of the Afghans. Shelton's dispositions as a commander could +not well have been worse; his bearing as a soldier, although undaunted, +imparted to his hapless troops nothing of inspiration. The obstinacy with +which he held the hill after the impossibility of even partial success +must have been patent to him, was universally condemned. It need scarcely +be added that his loss was very severe. + +No more fighting was possible. What, then, was to be done? Elphinstone +and Shelton were at one in opposing removal into the Balla Hissar. +Macnaghten, to whom Shah Soojah had communicated his urgent +recommendation of that measure as the only expedient which could secure +the safety of the British troops, fell in with the views of the military +authorities. There came to him a letter from Osman Khan, the chief who +had called off his adherents on the previous day from pursuing the +fugitives fleeing into cantonments. Osman wrote that, if his troops had +followed up their successes, the loss of the cantonments and the +destruction of the British force were inevitable; but, he continued, that +it was not the wish of the chiefs to proceed to such extremities, their +sole desire being that our people should quietly evacuate the country, +leaving the Afghan sirdars to govern it according to their own customs, +and with a king of their own choosing. In communicating this letter to +General Elphinstone, Sir William asked for the latter's opinion on the +military possibility, or the reverse, of the retention of the British +position in Afghanistan. Elphinstone, in reply, enumerated sundry reasons +which led him to the conclusion which he stated, that 'it is not feasible +any longer to maintain our position in this country, and that you ought +to avail yourself of the offer to negotiate which has been made to you.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI: THE ROAD TO RUIN + +As the result of the military disaster of November 23d, and of the +representations of the General, recorded in the last chapter, Macnaghten, +with whatever reluctance, permitted himself to entertain proposals for an +arrangement made by the Afghan leaders. From the beginning of the +outbreak, while urging on the military authorities to exert themselves in +putting down the revolt, he had been engaged in tortuous and dangerous +intrigues, with the object of sowing discord among the Afghan chiefs, and +thus weakening the league of hostility against Shah Soojah and his +British supporters. In the conduct of these intrigues he used the +services of Mohun Lal, who had been one of Burnes' assistants, and who, +having escaped the fate of his chief, had found refuge in the city +residence of a Kuzzilbash chief. Mohun Lal was a fitting agent for the +sort of work prescribed to him, and he burrowed and suborned with +assiduity, and not altogether without success. But it is unhappily true +that he was commissioned to carry out a darker enterprise, the removal by +assassination of certain of the more virulently hostile among the Afghan +leaders. The incident is the blackest of the many discreditable +transactions which chequer the inner political history of this melancholy +chapter of our annals. It is unfortunately certain that Lieutenant John +Conolly, Macnaghten's kinsman and his confidential representative with +Shah Soojah, authorised Mohun Lal, in writing, to compass the taking off +of prominent Afghan leaders. In a letter to Mohun Lal, of 5th November, +Conolly wrote: 'I promise 10,000 rupees for the head of each rebel +chief.' Again, on the 11th, he wrote: 'There is a man called Hadji Ali, +who might be induced by a bribe to try and bring in the heads of one or +two of the Mufsids. Endeavour to let him know that 10,000 rupees will be +given for each head, or even 15,000 rupees.' Two chiefs certainly did die +under suspicious circumstances, and in each case the blood-money was +claimed. It was refused by Mohun Lal on the plea that the stipulation +that the heads of the dead Afghans should be brought in was not +fulfilled. + +Whether Macnaghten inspired those nefarious machinations, whether indeed +he was actively aware of them, are questions which, in the absence of +conclusive evidence, may judiciously be left unanswered. There is extant +a letter from him to Mohun Lal, written December 1st, which has the +following passage: 'I am sorry to find from your letter of last night +that you should have supposed it was ever my object to encourage +assassination. The rebels are very wicked men, but we must not take +unlawful means to destroy them.' And later he is reported to have +informed an Afghan deputation that, 'as a British functionary, nothing +would induce him to pay a price for blood.' Durand holds that it was the +belief on the part of the Afghan chiefs that the British Envoy had set a +price on their heads which destroyed all confidence in Macnaghten's good +faith, and which was Akbar Khan's chief incentive to his murder. + +The terms proffered on November 25th by an Afghan deputation were so +humiliating that Macnaghten peremptorily rejected them; and the threat of +immediate hostilities unless our people promptly surrendered their arms +and withdrew was not carried out. A period of inaction strangely ensued, +which on the Afghan side was a treacherous lull, but which Macnaghten, +hoping against hope that some turn in our favour might yet occur, +regarded with complacency. The chiefs, aware that winter was approaching +with added hardship to the forlorn garrison, temporarily desisted from +urging negotiations. But the British military authorities, with troops +living from hand to mouth on precarious half rations, and with transport +cattle dying fast of starvation, kept urging the Envoy to activity in +making terms, if absolute starvation was to be averted. Futile projects +were discussed between Envoy and General, only to be put aside. As the +dreary days of inaction and depletion passed, the deterioration of +military spirit among our people manifested itself more and more plainly. +British soldiers stolidly watched the Afghans destroying our bridge +across the Cabul river, within a quarter of a mile from cantonments. +Scared by the threat of an assault, which, in the scornful words of brave +Lady Sale, a child with a stick might have repulsed, the garrison of the +Mahomed Shereef fort abandoned it in a panic, the white soldiers of the +44th showing the example of pusillanimity to the sepoys whom their +cowardice demoralised. Next day the detachment of the 44th which had +guarded an exposed position had to be withdrawn, ceding the post of +honour to the stauncher sepoys. The camp followers were living on +carrion; the commissaries reported but four days' provisions in store, +and their inability to procure any more supplies. At length on December +8th the four senior military officers informed the Envoy that it was +imperatively necessary he should negotiate a retreat, on the best terms +he could obtain. + +Macnaghten had to bring himself to recognise that the alternatives were +negotiation or starvation, and on the 11th December, with a draft treaty +in his hand, he met the principal Afghan chiefs on the river side between +the cantonments and the city. After the introductory palavers, Macnaghten +read the proposed treaty, whose purport was as follows: that the British +should evacuate Afghanistan forthwith unmolested, furnished with supplies +and accompanied by hostages, on their march to India; that the Dost, his +family, and other Afghan political exiles, should be allowed to return to +their country; that Shah Soojah should have the option of remaining at +Cabul or going down to India; that amnesty should be accorded to all +adherents of Shah Soojah and his British allies; that all prisoners +should be released; and that perpetual friendship and mutual good offices +should thenceforth endure between the British and the Afghans. + +Akbar Khan made demur to some of the provisions, but was overruled, and +the main stipulations of the treaty were agreed to by the chiefs. The +conference broke up with the understanding that the British troops should +evacuate cantonments within three days, and that meanwhile provisions +should be sent in for their use. The treaty was simply a virtual +capitulation all along the line; but the inherent falseness of our +position, the incapacity of the military chiefs, and the debased spirit +of the troops, consequent partly on low rations but mainly because of the +utter absence of competent and vigorous leadership such as a Broadfoot or +a Havelock would have supplied, enforced on the reluctant Envoy +conditions humiliating beyond previous parallel in the history of our +nation. + +From the outset the Afghan chiefs defaulted from their promise of sending +in supplies, but some grain was brought into cantonments by the troops, +whose evacuation of the Balla Hissar on the 13th was effected under +humiliating circumstances. The Afghans demanded the surrender of the +forts in British occupation in the vicinity of the cantonments. The +requisition was complied with, and the Magazine fort furnished the enemy +with both arms and ammunition. + +The three stipulated days passed away, and still the British force +remained motionless in the cantonments. Macnaghten was bent on +procrastination, and circumstances seemed to favour a policy which to all +but himself was inexplicable. By the treaty, Shah Soojah was in effect +committed to withdraw to India, but soon after its acceptance the chiefs +had invited him to remain in Cabul as king, on the stipulation that he +should give his daughters in marriage to leaders of the malcontents. +After considerable deliberation, the Shah had consented to remain on the +condition named, but a few days later he withdrew his acceptance. His +vacillation increased the suspicions of the chiefs, and they demanded the +immediate evacuation of the cantonments, refusing to furnish provisions +until that was done. Meanwhile they sent in no transport animals, +although large sums had been handed over for their purchase. Our people +were still immobile, and already, on the 18th, there had occurred a fall +of snow several inches deep. + +The Envoy was engaged in strange and dubious intrigues, and since the +Afghans were not fulfilling their share of the treaty obligations, he +appears to have regarded himself as no longer bound by its conditions, +and free to try to obtain better terms from other sources, in pursuit of +which purpose he was expending money in a variety of directions. The dark +and unscrupulous Mohun Lal was his confidant and instrument. Akbar Khan +and the chiefs of his party had become aware of Macnaghten's +machinations, and they laid a snare for him into which he fell with open +eyes. Emissaries were sent to him with the sinister proposals that the +British should remain in Afghanistan until the spring, when they were to +withdraw as of their own accord; that the head of Ameenoolla Khan, one of +the most powerful and obnoxious of the rebel leaders, should be presented +to the Envoy in return for a stipulated sum of money; and that for all +those services the British Government should requite Akbar Khan with a +present of thirty lakhs of rupees, and an annual pension of four lakhs. +Macnaghten refused peremptorily the proffer of Ameenoolla's head, but did +not reject co-operation in that chiefs capture by a dubious device in +which British troops were to participate; he did not hesitate to accept +the general terms of the proposals; and he consented to hold a conference +with Akbar Khan on the following day to carry into effect the projected +measures. + +On the morning of the 23d the deceived and doomed man, accompanied by his +staff-officers, Lawrence, Trevor and Mackenzie, rode out from cantonments +to keep the fateful tryst on the bank of the Cabul river. His manner was +'distracted and hurried.' When he told Lawrence of the nature of the +affair on which he was going, that shrewd officer immediately warned him +that it was a plot against him. 'A plot!' he replied hastily, 'let me +alone for that; trust me for that!' and Lawrence desisted from useless +expostulation. Poor old Elphinstone had scented treachery; but the Envoy +had closed his mouth with the impatient words: 'I understand these things +better than you!' As he rode out, he admitted the danger of the +enterprise, but argued that if it succeeded it was worth all risks. 'At +all events,' he ended, 'let the loss be what it may, I would rather die a +hundred deaths than live the last six weeks over again.' The escort +halted, and the four British gentlemen advanced to the place of +rendezvous, whither came presently Akbar Khan and his party. Akbar began +the conference by asking the Envoy if he was ready to carry out the +proposals presented to him overnight. 'Why not?' was Sir William's short +reply. A number of Afghans, armed to the teeth, had gradually formed a +circle around the informal durbar. Lawrence and Mackenzie pointed out +this environment to some of the chiefs, who affected to drive off the +intruders with their whips; but Akbar observed that it did not matter, as +they 'were all in the secret.' 'Suddenly,' wrote Mackenzie, 'I heard +Akbar call out, "Begeer! begeer!" ("Seize! seize!") and turning round I +saw him grasp the Envoy's left hand with an expression on his face of the +most diabolical ferocity. I think it was Sultan Jan who laid hold of the +Envoy's right hand. They dragged him in a stooping posture down the +hillock, the only words I heard poor Sir William utter being, "Az barae +Khooda" ("For God's sake"). I saw his face, however, and it was full of +horror and astonishment.' Neither Mackenzie nor Lawrence, the surviving +companions of the Envoy, witnessed the actual end. 'Whether,' writes +Kaye, 'he died on the spot, or whether he was slain by the infuriated +ghazees, is not very clearly known; but the fanatics threw themselves on +the prostrate body and hacked it with their knives.' There is no doubt +that the head of the unfortunate Macnaghten was paraded in triumph +through the streets of Cabul, and that the mangled trunk, after being +dragged about the city, was hung up in the great bazaar. Of the three +officers who accompanied the Envoy to the conference, Trevor was +massacred, Lawrence and Mackenzie were saved with difficulty by friendly +chiefs, and brought into the city, where they and Captain Skinner joined +the hostages, Captains Connolly and Airey, under the safe roof of the +venerable Mahomed Zemaun Khan. + +That Akbar and the confederate chiefs spread a snare for the Envoy is +plain, and that they regarded his acceptance of their deceitful proposals +as a proof of his faithlessness to the treaty obligations to which he had +bound himself. It was no element in their reasoning that since they had +not regarded the treaty the British functionary might without breach of +faith hold that it did not bind him. But it is improbable that the murder +of Macnaghten was actually included in their scheme of action. Their +intention seems to have been to seize him as a hostage, with intent thus +to secure the evacuation of Afghanistan and the restoration of Dost +Mahomed. The ill-fated Envoy's expressions on his way to the rendezvous +indicate his unhinged state of mind. He went forth to sure treachery; +Akbar's gust of sudden fury converted the planned abduction into savage +murder, and his abrupt pistol bullet baulked the more wily and less +ruthless project which had probably been devised in cold blood. + +The escort brought back into cantonments tidings that the Envoy had been +seized. The garrison got under arms, and remained passive throughout the +day. The defences were manned at night, in the apprehension that the +noise and disturbance in the city portended an assault; but that clamour +was caused by the mustering of the Afghans in expectation that the +British would attack the city, bent on vengeance on the murderers of the +Envoy. Action of that nature was, however, wholly absent from the +prostrate minds of the military chiefs. On the following afternoon +Captain Lawrence transmitted certain overtures from the chiefs, as the +result of a conference held by them, when, notwithstanding severe +comments on the conduct of the Envoy, professions were made of sincere +regret for his death. With certain alterations and additions, the treaty +drawn up by Macnaghten was taken by the chiefs as the basis for the +negotiations which they desired to renew. Major Pottinger, as now the +senior 'political' with the force, was called on by General Elphinstone +to undertake the task of conducting negotiations with the Afghan leaders. +The high-souled Pottinger rose at the summons from the sickbed to which +he had been confined ever since his wonderful escape from Charikar, and +accepted the thankless and distasteful duty. It is not necessary to +recount the details of negotiations, every article and every stage of +which display the arrogance of the men who knew themselves masters of the +situation, and reveal not less the degrading humiliation to which was +submitting itself a strong brigade of British troops, whose arms were +still in the soldiers' hands, and over whose ranks hung banners blazoned +with victories that shall be memorable down the ages. On the sombre and +cheerless Christmas Day Pottinger rose in the council of men who wore +swords, and remonstrated with soldierly vigour and powerful argument +against the degrading terms which the chiefs had contumeliously thrown to +them. He produced letters from Jellalabad and Peshawur giving information +of reinforcements on the way from India, and urging the maintenance of +resistance. He argued that to conclude a treaty with the Afghans would be +a fatal error, and suggested two alternative courses which offered a +prospect of saving their honour and part of the army--the occupation of +the Balla Hissar, which was the preferable measure, or the abandonment of +camp, baggage, and encumbrances, and forcing a retreat down the passes. +The council--Pottinger must have written sarcastically when he termed it +a 'council of war'--unanimously decided that to remain in Cabul and to +force a retreat were alike impracticable, and that nothing remained but +the endeavour to release the army by agreeing to the conditions offered +by the enemy. 'Under these circumstances,' in the words of Pottinger, 'as +the Major-General coincided with the officers of the council, and refused +to attempt occupying the Balla Hissar, and as his second in command +declared that impracticable, I considered it my duty, notwithstanding my +repugnance to and disapproval of the measure, to yield, and attempt to +carry on a negotiation.' + +This Pottinger accordingly did. The first demand with which he had to +comply was to give bills for the great sums promised by the Envoy to the +chiefs for their services in furthering and supporting his treaty. This +imposition had to be submitted to, since the Afghans stopped the supplies +until the extortion was complied with. The next concession required was +the surrender of the artillery of the force, with the exception of six +field and three mule guns; and the military chiefs endured this +humiliation, against which even the demoralised soldiery chafed. Then the +demand for hostages had to be complied with, and four officers were sent +on to join the two hostages already in Afghan hands. The chiefs had +demanded four married hostages, with their wives and children, and a +circular was sent round offering to volunteers the inducement of a large +stipend; but the sentiment of repulsion was too strong to be overcome by +the bribe. The sick and wounded who could not bear the march were sent +into the city in accordance with an article of the treaty, two surgeons +accompanying their patients. + +The treaty, ratified by the leading chiefs and sent into cantonments on +New Year's Day 1842, provided that the British troops, within twenty-four +hours after receiving transport, and under the protection of certain +chiefs and an adequate escort, should begin their march of evacuation, +the Jellalabad garrison moving down to Peshawur in advance; that the six +hostages left in Cabul should be well treated, and liberated on the +arrival at Peshawur of Dost Mahomed; the sick and wounded left behind to +be at liberty to return to India on their recovery; all small arms and +ordnance stores in the cantonment magazine to be made over to the Afghans +'as a token of friendship,' on which account also, they were to have all +the British cannon except as above mentioned; the Afghans to escort the +Ghuznee garrison in safety to Peshawur; and a further stipulation was +that the British troops in Candahar and Western Afghanistan were to +resign the territories occupied by them and start quickly for India, +provisioned and protected from molestation by the way. + +Severe and humiliating as were those terms, they were not obtained +without difficulty. The terms put forward in the earlier drafts of the +treaty were yet more exacting, and the tone of the demands was abrupt, +contemptuous, and insulting. Pottinger had to plead, to entreat, to be +abject; to beg the masterful Afghans 'not to overpower the weak with +sufferings'; 'to be good enough to excuse the women from the suffering' +of remaining as hostages; and to entreat them 'not to forget kindness' +shown by us in former days. One blushes not for but with the gallant +Pottinger, loyally carrying out the miserable duty put upon him. The +shame was not his; it lay on the council of superior officers, who +overruled his remonstrances, and ground his face into the dust. + +Our people were made to pass under the yoke every hour of their wretched +lives during those last winter days in the Cabul cantonments. The +fanatics and the common folk of the city and its environs swarmed around +our petty ramparts, with their foul sneers and their blackguard taunts, +hurled with impunity from where they stood at the muzzles of the loaded +guns which the gunners were forbidden to fire. Officers and rank and file +were in a condition of smouldering fury, but no act of reprisal or +retribution was permitted. If the present was one continuous misery, the +future lowered yet more gloomily. It was of common knowledge as well in +the cantonments as in the city, that the engagements made by the chiefs +were not worth the paper on which they had been written, and that +treachery was being concerted against the force on its impending travail +through the passes. It was told by a chief to one of the officers who was +his friend, that Akbar Khan had sworn to have in his possession the +British ladies as security for the safe restoration of his own family and +relatives, and, strange forecast to be fulfilled almost to the very +letter, had vowed to annihilate every soldier of the British army with +the exception of one man, who should reach Jellalabad to tell the story +of the massacre of all his comrades. Pottinger was well aware how +desperate was the situation of the hapless people on whose behalf he had +bent so low his proud soul. Mohun Lal warned him of the treachery the +chiefs were plotting, and assured him that unless their sons should +accompany the army as hostages, it would be attacked on the march. Day +after day the departure was delayed, on the pretext that the chiefs had +not completed their preparations for the safe conduct of the force and +its encumbrances. Day after day the snow was falling with a quiet, +ruthless persistency. The bitter night frosts were destroying the sepoys +and the camp followers, their vitality weakened by semi-starvation and by +the lack of firewood which had long distressed them. At length on January +5th, Sturt the engineer officer got his instructions to throw down into +the ditch a section of the eastern rampart, and so furnish a freer exit +than the gates could afford. The supply of transport was inadequate, +provisions were scant, and the escort promised by the chiefs was not +forthcoming. Pottinger advised waiting yet a little longer, until +supplies and escort should arrive; but for once the military chiefs were +set against the policy of delay, and firm orders were issued that the +cantonments should be evacuated on the following day. + +Shah Soojah remained in Cabul. The resolution became him better than +anything else we know of the unfortunate man. It may be he reasoned that +he had a chance for life by remaining in the Balla Hissar, and that from +what he knew, there was no chance of life for anyone participating in the +fateful march. He behaved fairly by the British authorities, sending more +than one solemn warning pressing on them the occupation of the Balla +Hissar. And there was some dignity in his appeal to Brigadier Anquetil, +who commanded his own contingent, 'if it were well to forsake him in the +hour of need, and to deprive him of the aid of that force which he had +hitherto been taught to regard as his own?' + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE CATASTROPHE + +The ill-omened evacuation by our doomed people of the cantonments wherein +for two months they had undergone every extremity of humiliation and +contumely, was begun on the dreary winter morning of January 6th, 1842. +Snow lay deep on plain and hill-side; the cruel cold, penetrating through +the warmest clothing, bit fiercely into the debilitated and thinly clad +frames of the sepoys and the great horde of camp followers. The military +force which marched out of cantonments consisted of about 4500 armed men, +of whom about 690 were Europeans, 2840 native soldiers on foot, and 970 +native cavalrymen. The gallant troop of Company's Horse-Artillery marched +out with its full complement of six guns, to which, with three pieces of +the mountain train, the artillery arm of the departing force was +restricted by the degrading terms imposed by the Afghan chiefs. In good +heart and resolutely commanded, a body of disciplined troops thus +constituted, and of a fighting strength so respectable, might have been +trusted not only to hold its own against Afghan onslaught, but if +necessary to take the offensive with success. But alas, the heart of the +hapless force had gone to water, its discipline was a wreck, its chiefs +were feeble and apathetic; its steps were dogged by the incubus of some +12,000 camp followers, with a great company of women and children. The +awful fate brooded over its forlorn banners of expiating by its utter +annihilation, the wretched folly and sinister prosecution of the +enterprise whose deserved failure was to be branded yet deeper on the +gloomiest page of our national history, by the impending catastrophe of +which the dark shadow already lay upon the blighted column. + +The advance began to move out from cantonments at nine A.M. The march was +delayed at the river by the non-completion of the temporary bridge, and +the whole of the advance was not across until after noon. The main body +under Shelton, which was accompanied by the ladies, invalids, and sick, +slowly followed. It as well as the advance was disorganised from the +first by the throngs of camp followers with the baggage, who could not be +prevented from mixing themselves up with the troops. The Afghans occupied +the cantonments as portion after portion was evacuated by our people, +rending the air with their exulting cries, and committing every kind of +atrocity. It was late in the afternoon before the long train of camels +following the main body had cleared the cantonments; and meanwhile the +rear-guard was massed outside, in the space between the rampart and the +canal, among the chaos of already abandoned baggage. It was exposed there +to a vicious jezail fire poured into it by the Afghans, who abandoned the +pleasures of plunder and arson for the yet greater joy of slaughtering +the Feringhees. When the rear-guard moved away in the twilight, an +officer and fifty men were left dead in the snow, the victims of the +Afghan fire from the rampart of the cantonment; and owing to casualties +in the gun teams it had been found necessary to spike and abandon two of +the horse-artillery guns. + +The rear-guard, cut into from behind by the pestilent ghazees, found its +route encumbered with heaps of abandoned baggage around which swarmed +Afghan plunderers. Other Afghans, greedier for blood than for booty, were +hacking and slaying among the numberless sepoys and camp followers who +had dropped out of the column, and were lying or sitting on the wayside +in apathetic despair, waiting for death and careless whether it came to +them by knife or by cold. Babes lay on the snow abandoned by their +mothers, themselves prostrate and dying a few hundred yards further on. +It was not until two o'clock of the following morning that the rear-guard +reached the straggling and chaotic bivouac in which its comrades lay in +the snow at the end of the first short march of six miles. Its weary +progress had been illuminated by the conflagration raging in the +cantonments, which had been fired by the Afghan fanatics, rabid to erase +every relic of the detested unbelievers. + +It was a night of bitter cold. Out in the open among the snow, soldiers +and camp followers, foodless, fireless, and shelterless, froze to death +in numbers, and numbers more were frost-bitten. The cheery morning noise +of ordinary camp life was unheard in the mournful bivouac. Captain +Lawrence outlines a melancholy picture. 'The silence of the men betrayed +their despair and torpor. In the morning I found lying close to me, +stiff, cold, and quite dead, in full regimentals, with his sword drawn in +his hand, an old grey-haired conductor named Macgregor, who, utterly +exhausted, had lain down there silently to die.' Already defection had +set in. One of the Shah's infantry regiments and his detachment of +sappers and miners had deserted bodily, partly during the march of the +previous day, partly in the course of the night. + +No orders were given out, no bugle sounded the march, on the morning of +the 7th. The column heaved itself forward sluggishly, a mere mob of +soldiers, camp followers and cattle, destitute of any semblance of order +or discipline. Quite half the sepoys were already unfit for duty; in +hundreds they drifted in among the non-combatants and increased the +confusion. The advance of the previous day was now the rear-guard. After +plundering the abandoned baggage, the Afghans set to harassing the +rear-guard, whose progress was delayed by the disorderly multitude +blocking the road in front. The three mountain guns, temporarily +separated from the infantry, were captured by a sudden Afghan rush. In +vain Anquetil strove to rouse the 44th to make an effort for their +recapture. Green was more successful with his handful of artillerymen, +who followed him and the Brigadier and spiked the pieces, but being +unsupported were compelled a second time to abandon them. On this march +it became necessary also, from the exhaustion of their teams, to spike +and abandon two more of the horse-artillery guns; so that there now +remained with the force only a couple of six-pounders. While the +rear-guard was in action, a body of Afghan horse charged on the flank, +right into the heart of the baggage column, swept away much plunder, and +spread confusion and dismay far and wide. The rear of the column would +probably have been entirely cut off, but that reinforcements from the +advance under Shelton pushed back the enemy, and by crowning the lateral +heights kept open the thoroughfare. At Bootkhak was found Akbar Khan, who +professed to have been commissioned to escort the force to Jellalabad, +and who blamed our people for having marched out prematurely from the +cantonments. He insisted on the halt of the column at Bootkhak until the +following morning, when he would provide supplies, but he demanded an +immediate subsidy of 15,000 rupees, and that Pottinger, Lawrence and +Mackenzie should be given up to him as hostages that the force would not +march beyond Tezeen until tidings should arrive that Sale had evacuated +Jellalabad. Those officers by the General's instructions joined the +Afghan chief on the following morning, and Akbar's financial requisition +was obsequiously fulfilled. After two days' marching our people, who had +brought out with them provisions for but five and a half days, expecting +within that time to reach Jellalabad, were only ten miles forward on +their march. + +Another night passed, with its train of horrors--starvation, cold, +exhaustion, death. Lady Sale relates that scarcely any of the baggage now +remained; that there was no food for man or beast; that snow lay a foot +deep on the ground; that even water from the adjacent stream was +difficult to obtain, as the carriers were fired on in fetching it; and +that she thought herself fortunate in being sheltered in a small tent in +which 'we slept nine, all touching each other.' Daylight brought merely a +more bitter realisation of utter misery. Eyre expresses his wonderment at +the effect of two nights' exposure to the frost in disorganising the +force. 'It had so nipped even the strongest men as to completely +prostrate their powers and incapacitate them for service; even the +cavalry, who suffered less than the rest, were obliged to be lifted on +their horses.' In fact, only a few hundred serviceable men remained. At +the sound of hostile fire the living struggled to their feet from their +lairs in the snow, stiffened with cold, all but unable to move or hold a +weapon, leaving many of their more fortunate comrades stark in death. A +turmoil of confusion reigned. The Afghans were firing into the rear of +the mass, and there was a wild rush of camp followers to the front, who +stripped the baggage cattle of their loads and carried the animals off, +leaving the ground strewn with ammunition, treasure, plate, and other +property. The ladies were no longer carried in litters and palanquins, +for their bearers were mostly dead; they sat in the bullet fire packed +into panniers slung on camels, invalids as some of them were--one poor +lady with her baby only five days old. Mess stores were being recklessly +distributed, and Lady Sale honestly acknowledges that, as she sat on her +horse in the cold, she felt very grateful for a tumbler of sherry, which +at any other time would have made her 'very unladylike,' but which now +merely warmed her. Cups full of sherry were drunk by young children +without in the least affecting their heads, so strong on them was the +hold of the cold. + +It was not until noon that the living mass of men and animals was once +more in motion. The troops were in utter disorganisation; the baggage was +mixed up with the advance guard; the camp followers were pushing ahead in +precipitate panic. The task before the wretched congeries of people was +to thread the stupendous gorge of the Khoord Cabul pass--a defile about +five miles long, hemmed in on either hand by steeply scarped hills. Down +the bottom of the ravine dashed a mountain torrent, whose edges were +lined with thick layers of ice, on which had formed glacier-like masses +of snow. The 'Jaws of Death' were barely entered when the slaughter +began. With the advance rode several Afghan chiefs, whose followers, by +their command, shouted to the Ghilzais lining the heights to hold their +fire, but the tribesmen gave no heed to the mandate. Lady Sale rode with +the chiefs. The Ghilzai fire at fifty yards was close and deadly. The men +of the advance fell fast. Lady Sale had a bullet in her arm, and three +more through her dress. But the weight of the hostile fire fell on the +main column, the baggage escort, and the rear-guard. Some of the ladies, +who mostly were on camels which were led with the column, had strange +adventures. On one camel was quite a group. In one of its panniers were +Mrs Boyd and her little son, in the other Mrs Mainwaring, with her own +infant and Mrs Anderson's eldest child. The camel fell, shot. A +Hindustanee trooper took up Mrs Boyd _en croupe_, and carried her through +in safety; another horseman behind whom her son rode, was killed, and the +boy fell into Afghan hands. The Anderson girl shared the same fate. Mrs +Mainwaring, with her baby in her arms, attempted to mount a baggage pony, +but the load upset, and she pursued her way on foot. An Afghan horseman +rode at her, threatened her with his sword, and tried to drag away the +shawl in which she carried her child. She was rescued by a sepoy +grenadier, who shot the Afghan dead, and then conducted the poor lady +along the pass through the dead and dying, through, also, the close fire +which struck down people near to her, almost to the exit of the pass, +when a bullet killed the chivalrous sepoy, and Mrs Mainwaring had to +continue her tramp to the bivouac alone. + +A very fierce attack was made on the rear-guard, consisting of the 44th. +In the narrow throat of the pass the regiment was compelled to halt by a +block in front, and in this stationary position suffered severely. A +flanking fire told heavily on the handful of European infantry. The +belated stragglers masked their fire, and at length the soldiers fell +back, firing volleys indiscriminately into the stragglers and the +Afghans. Near the exit of the pass a commanding position was maintained +by some detachments which still held together, strengthened by the only +gun now remaining, the last but one having been abandoned in the gorge. +Under cover of this stand the rear of the mass gradually drifted forward +while the Afghan pursuit was checked, and at length all the surviving +force reached the camping ground. There had been left dead in the pass +about 500 soldiers and over 2500 camp followers. + +Akbar and the chiefs, taking the hostages with them, rode forward on the +track of the retreating force. Akbar professed that his object was to +stop the firing, but Mackenzie writes that Pottinger said to him: +'Mackenzie, remember if I am killed that I heard Akbar Khan shout "Slay +them!" in Pushtoo, although in Persian he called out to stop the firing.' +The hostages had to be hidden away from the ferocious ghazees among rocks +in the ravine until near evening, when in passing through the region of +the heaviest slaughter they 'came upon one sight of horror after another. +All the bodies were stripped. There were children cut in two. Hindustanee +women as well as men--some frozen to death, some literally chopped to +pieces, many with their throats cut from ear to ear.' + +Snow fell all night on the unfortunates gathered tentless on the Khoord +Cabul camping ground. On the morning of the 9th the confused and +disorderly march was resumed, but after a mile had been traversed a halt +for the day was ordered at the instance of Akbar Khan, who sent into camp +by Captain Skinner a proposal that the ladies and children, with whose +deplorable condition he professed with apparent sincerity to sympathise, +should be made over to his protection, and that the married officers +should accompany their wives; he pledging himself to preserve the party +from further hardships and dangers, and afford its members safe escort +through the passes in rear of the force. The General had little faith in +the Sirdar, but he was fain to give his consent to an arrangement which +promised alleviation to the wretchedness of the ladies, scarce any of +whom had tasted a meal since leaving Cabul. Some, still weak from +childbirth, were nursing infants only a few days old; other poor +creatures were momentarily apprehending the pangs of motherhood. There +were invalids whose only attire, as they rode in the camel panniers or +shivered on the snow, was the nightdresses they wore when leaving the +cantonments in their palanquins, and none possessed anything save the +clothes on their backs. It is not surprising, then, that dark and +doubtful as was the future to which they were consigning themselves, the +ladies preferred its risks and chances to the awful certainties which lay +before the doomed column. The Afghan chief had cunningly made it a +condition of his proffer that the husbands should accompany their wives, +and if there was a struggle in the breasts of the former between public +and private duties, the General humanely decided the issue by ordering +them to share the fortunes of their families. + +Akbar Khan sent in no supplies, and the march was resumed on the morning +of the both by a force attenuated by starvation, cold, and despair, +diminished further by extensive desertion. After much exertion the +advance, consisting of all that remained of the 44th, the solitary gun, +and a detachment of cavalry, forced a passage to the front through the +rabble of camp followers, and marched unmolested for about two miles +until the Tunghee Tariki was reached, a deep gorge not more than ten feet +wide. Men fell fast in the horrid defile, struck down by the Afghan fire +from the heights; but the pass, if narrow, was short, and the advance +having struggled through it moved on to the halting-place at +Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and waited there for the arrival of the main body. But +that body was never to emerge from out the shambles in the narrow throat +of the Tunghee Tariki. The advance was to learn from the few stragglers +who reached it the ghastly truth that it now was all that remained of the +strong brigade which four days before had marched out from the Cabul +cantonments. The slaughter from the Afghan fire had blocked the gorge +with dead and dying. The Ghilzai tribesmen, at the turn into the pen at +the other end of which was the blocked gorge, had closed up fiercely. +Then the steep slopes suddenly swarmed with Afghans rushing sword in hand +down to the work of butchery, and the massacre stinted not while living +victims remained. The rear-guard regiment of sepoys was exterminated, +save for two or three desperately wounded officers who contrived to reach +the advance. + +The remnant of the army consisted now of about seventy files of the 44th, +about 100 troopers, and a detachment of horse-artillery with a single +gun. The General sent to Akbar Khan to remonstrate with him on the attack +he had allowed to be made after having guaranteed that the force should +meet with no further molestation. Akbar protested his regret, and pleaded +his inability to control the wild Ghilzai hillmen, over whom, in their +lust for blood and plunder, their own chiefs had lost all control; but he +was willing to guarantee the safe conduct to Jellalabad of the European +officers and men if they would lay down their arms and commit themselves +wholly into his hands. This sinister proposal the General refused, and +the march was continued, led in disorder by the remnant of the camp +followers. In the steep descent from the Huft Kotul into the Tezeen +ravine, the soldiers following the rabble at some distance, came suddenly +on a fresh butchery. The Afghans had suddenly fallen on the confused +throng, and the descent was covered with dead and dying. + +During the march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar to the Tezeen valley Shelton's +dogged valour had mainly saved the force from destruction. With a few +staunch soldiers of his own regiment, the one-armed veteran, restored now +to his proper _métier_ of stubborn fighting man, had covered the rear and +repelled the Ghilzai assaults with persevering energy and dauntless +fortitude. And he it was who now suggested, since Akbar Khan still held +to his stipulation that the force should lay down its arms, that a +resolute effort should be made to press on to Jugdulluk by a rapid night +march of four-and-twenty miles, in the hope of clearing the passes in +that vicinity before the enemy should have time to occupy them. + +That the attempt would prove successful was doubtful, since the force was +already exhausted; but it was the last chance, and Shelton's suggestion +was adopted. In the early moonlight the march silently began, an ill omen +marking the start in the shape of the forced abandonment of the last gun. +Fatal delay occurred between Seh Baba and Kutti Sung because of a panic +among the camp followers, who, scared by a few shots, drifted backwards +and forwards in a mass, retarding the progress of the column and for the +time entirely arresting the advance of Shelton's and his rear-guard. The +force could not close up until the morning, ten miles short of Jugdulluk, +and already the Afghans were swarming on every adjacent height. All the +way down the broken slope to Jugdulluk the little column trudged through +the gauntlet of jezail fire which lined the road with dead and wounded. +Shelton and his rear-guard handful performed wonders, again and again +fending off with close fire and levelled bayonets the fierce rushes of +Ghilzais charging sword in hand. The harassed advance reached Jugdulluk +in the afternoon of the 11th, and took post behind some ruins on a height +by the roadside, the surviving officers forming line in support of the +gallant rear-guard struggling forward through its environment of +assailants. As Shelton and his brave fellows burst through the cordon +they were greeted by cheers from the knoll. But there was no rest for the +exhausted people, for the Afghans promptly occupied commanding positions +whence they maintained a fire from which the ruins afforded but scant +protection. To men parched with thirst the stream at the foot of their +knoll was but a tantalising aggravation, for to attempt to reach it was +certain death. The snow they devoured only increased their sufferings, +and but little stay was afforded by the raw flesh of a few gun bullocks. +Throughout the day volley after volley was poured down upon the weary +band by the inexorable enemy. Frequent sallies were made, and the heights +were cleared, but the positions were soon reoccupied and the ruthless +fire was renewed. + +Captain Skinner, summoned by Akbar, brought back a message that General +Elphinstone should visit him to take part in a conference, and that +Brigadier Shelton and Captain Johnson should be given over as hostages +for the evacuation of Jellalabad. Compliance was held to be imperative, +and the temporary command was entrusted to Brigadier Anquetil. Akbar was +extremely hospitable to his compulsory guests; but he insisted on +including the General among his hostages, and was not moved by +Elphinstone's representations that he would prefer death to the disgrace +of being separated from his command in its time of peril. The Ghilzai +chiefs came into conference burning with hatred against the British, and +revelling in the anticipated delights of slaughtering them. Akbar seemed +sincere in his effort to conciliate them, but was long unsuccessful. +Their hatred seemed indeed stronger than their greed; but at length +toward nightfall Akbar announced that pacific arrangements had been +accepted by the tribes, and that what remained of the force should be +allowed to march unmolested to Jellalabad. + +How futile was the compact, if indeed there was any compact, was soon +revealed. The day among the ruins on the knoll had passed in dark and +cruel suspense--in hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, in the presence of +frequent death; and as the evening fell, in anguish and all but utter +despair. As darkness set in the conviction enforced itself that to remain +longer in the accursed place was madness; and the little band, leaving +behind perforce the sick and wounded, marched out, resolute to push +through or die fighting. In the valley the only molestation at first was +a desultory fire from the camping Ghilzais, who were rather taken by +surprise, but soon became wide awake to their opportunities. Some hurried +forward to occupy the pass rising from the valley to the Jugdulluk crest; +others, hanging on the rear and flanks of the column encumbered with its +fatal incubus of camp followers, mixed among the unarmed throng with +their deadly knives, and killed and plundered with the dexterity of long +practice. Throughout the tedious march up the steeply rising defile a +spattering fire came from the rocks and ridges flanking the track, all +but blocked by the surging concourse of miserable followers. The advance +had to employ cruel measures to force its way through the chaos toward +the crest. As it is approached from the Jugdulluk direction the flanking +elevations recede and merge in the transverse ridge, which is crowned by +a low-cut abrupt rocky upheaval, worn down somewhat where the road passes +over the crest by the friction of traffic. Just here the tribesmen had +constructed a formidable abattis of prickly brushwood, which stretched +athwart the road, and dammed back the fugitives in the shallow oval basin +between the termination of the ravine and the summit of the ridge. In +this trap were caught our hapless people and the swarm of their native +followers, and now the end was very near. From behind the barrier, and +around the lip of the great trap, the hillmen fired their hardest into +the seething mass of soldiers and followers writhing in the awful Gehenna +on which the calm moon shone down. On the edges of this whirlpool of +death the fell Ghilzais were stabbing and hacking with the ferocious +industry inspired by thirst for blood and lust for plunder. It is among +the characteristics of our diverse-natured race to die game, and even to +thrill with a strange fierce joy when hope of escape from death has all +but passed away and there remains only to sell life at the highest +possible premium of exchange. Among our people, face to face with death +on the rocky Jugdulluk, officers and soldiers alike fought with cool +deadly rancour. The brigadier and the private engaged in the same fierce +_mêlée_, fought side by side, and fell side by side. Stalwart Captain +Dodgin of the 44th slew five Afghans before he fell. Captain Nicholl of +the horse-artillery, gunless now, rallied to him the few staunch gunners +who were all that remained to him of his noble and historic troop, and +led them on to share with him a heroic death. + +All did not perish on the rugged summit of the Jugdulluk. The barrier was +finally broken through, and a scant remnant of the force wrought out its +escape from the slaughter-pit. Small detachments, harassed by sudden +onslaughts, and delayed by reluctance to desert wounded comrades, were +trudging in the darkness down the long slope to the Soorkhab. The morning +of the 13th dawned near Gundamuk on the straggling group of some twenty +officers and forty-five European soldiers. Its march arrested by sharp +attacks, the little band moved aside to occupy a defensive position on an +adjacent hillock. A local sirdar invited the senior officer to consult +with him as to a pacific arrangement, and while Major Griffiths was +absent on this errand there was a temporary suspension of hostilities. +The Afghans meanwhile swarmed around the detachment with a pretence of +friendship, but presently attempts were made to snatch from the soldiers +their arms. This conduct was sternly resented, and the Afghans were +forced back. They ascended an adjacent elevation and set themselves to +the work of deliberately picking off officer after officer, man after +man. The few rounds remaining in the pouches of the soldiers were soon +exhausted, but the detachment stood fast, and calmly awaited the +inevitable end. Rush after rush was driven back from its steadfast front, +but at last, nearly all being killed or wounded, a final onset of the +enemy, sword in hand, terminated the struggle, and completed the dismal +tragedy. Captain Souter of the 44th, with three or four privates all of +whom as well as himself were wounded, was spared and carried into +captivity; he saved the colours of his regiment, which he had tied round +his waist before leaving Jugdulluk. A group of mounted officers had +pushed forward as soon as they had cleared the barrier on the crest. Six +only reached Futtehabad in safety. There they were treacherously offered +food, and while they halted a few moments to eat two were cut down. Of +the four who rode away three were overtaken and killed within four miles +of Jellalabad; one officer alone survived to reach that haven of refuge. + +The ladies, the married officers, and the original hostages, followed +Akbar Khan down the passes toward Jugdulluk, pursuing the line of retreat +strewn with its ghastly tokens of slaughter, and recognising almost at +every step the bodies of friends and comrades. At Jugdulluk they found +General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton, and Captain Johnson, and learned +the fate which had overtaken the marching force. On the following day +Akbar quitted Jugdulluk with his hostages and the ladies, all of whom +were virtually prisoners, and rode away through the mountains in a +northerly direction. On the fourth day the fort of Budiabad in the +Lughman valley was reached, where Akbar left the prisoners while he went +to attempt the reduction of Jellalabad. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + +Sale's brigade, retreating from Gundamuk, reached Jellalabad on the 12th +November 1841. An investigation into the state of the fortifications of +that place showed them, in their existing condition, to be incapable of +resisting a vigorous assault. But it was resolved to occupy the place, +and to Captain George Broadfoot, as garrison engineer, was committed the +duty of making it defensible. This assuredly was no light task. The +enciente was far too extensive for the slender garrison, and its tracing +was radically bad. The ramparts were so dilapidated that in places they +were scarcely discernible, and the ruins strewn over what should have +been the glacis afforded near cover to assailants, whose attitude was +already so threatening as to hinder the beginning of repairing +operations. Their fire swept the defences, and their braves capered +derisively to the strains of a bagpipe on the adjacent rocky elevation, +which thenceforth went by the name of 'Piper's Hill.' A sortie on the +15th cleared the environs of the troublesome Afghans, supplies began to +come in, and Broad-foot was free to set his sappers to the task of +repairing the fortifications, in which work the entrenching tools he had +wrenched from the Cabul stores proved invaluable. How greatly Sale had +erred in shutting up his force in Jellalabad was promptly demonstrated. +The connecting posts of Gundamuk and Peshbolak had to be evacuated; and +thus, from Jumrood at the foot of the Khyber up to Cabul, there remained +no intermediate post in British possession with the solitary exception of +Jellalabad, and communications were entirely interrupted except through +the medium of furtive messengers. + +The Jellalabad garrison was left unmolested for nearly a fortnight, and +the repairs were well advanced when on the 29th the Afghans came down, +invested the place, and pushed their skirmishers close up to the walls. +On December 1st Colonel Dennie headed a sortie, which worsted the +besiegers with considerable slaughter and drove them from the vicinity. +Bad news came at intervals from Cabul, and at the new year arrived a +melancholy letter from Pottinger, confirming the rumours already rife of +the murder of the Envoy, and of the virtual capitulation to which the +Cabul force had submitted. A week later an official communication was +received from Cabul, signed by General Elphinstone and Major Pottinger, +formally announcing the convention which the Cabul force had entered into +with the chiefs, and ordering the garrison of Jellalabad forthwith to +evacuate that post and retire to Peshawur, leaving behind with 'the new +Governor,' an Afghan chief who was the bearer of the humiliating missive, +the fortress guns and such stores and baggage as there lacked transport +to remove. The council of war summoned by Sale was unanimous in favour of +non-compliance with this mandate. Broadfoot urged with vigour that an +order by a superior who was no longer a free agent and who issued it +under duress, could impose no obligation of obedience. Sale pronounced +himself untrammelled by a convention forced from people 'with knives at +their throats,' and was resolute in the expression of his determination +to hold Jellalabad unless ordered by the Government to withdraw. + +More and more ominous tidings poured in from Cabul. A letter received on +January both reported the Cabul force to be still in the cantonments, +living utterly at the mercy of the Afghans; another arriving on the 12th +told of the abandonment of the cantonments and the beginning of the +march, but that the forlorn wayfarers were lingering in detention at +Bootkhak, halted in their misery by the orders of Akbar Khan. Those +communications in a measure prepared the people in Jellalabad for +disaster, but not for the awful catastrophe of which Dr Brydon had to +tell, when in the afternoon of the 13th the lone man, whose approach to +the fortress Lady Butler's painting so pathetically depicts, rode through +the Cabul gate of Jellalabad. Dr Brydon was covered with cuts and +contusions, and was utterly exhausted. His first few hasty sentences +extinguished all hope in the hearts of the listeners regarding their +Cabul comrades and friends. + +There was naturally great excitement in Jellalabad, but no panic. The +working parties were called in, the assembly was sounded, the gates were +closed, the walls were lined, and the batteries were manned; for it was +believed for the moment that the enemy were in full pursuit of fugitives +following in Brydon's track. The situation impressed Broadfoot with the +conviction that a crisis had come in the fortunes of the Jellalabad +garrison. He thought it his duty to lay before the General the conditions +of the critical moment which he believed to have arrived, pointing out to +him that the imperative alternatives were that he should either firmly +resolve on the defence of Jellalabad to the last extremity, or that he +should make up his mind to a retreat that very night, while as yet +retreat was practicable. Sale decided on holding on to the place, and +immediately announced to the Commander-in-Chief his resolve to persevere +in a determined defence, relying on the promise of the earliest possible +relief. + +Because of the defection of his Sikh auxiliaries and the +faint-heartedness of his sepoys, Wild's efforts to cross the threshold of +the Khyber had failed, and with the tidings of his failure there came to +Sale the information that the effort for his relief must be indefinitely +postponed. It may be assumed that this intimation weakened in some degree +the General's expressed resolution to hold Jellalabad with determination, +and it is not to be denied that this resolution was in a measure +conditional on the not unwarranted expectation of early relief. Neither +he nor his adviser Macgregor appears to have realised how incumbent on +the garrison of Jellalabad it was to hold out to the last extremity, +irrespective of consequences to itself, unless it should receive a +peremptory recall from higher authority; or to have recognised the +glorious opportunity presented of inspiriting by its staunch constancy +and high-souled self-abnegation a weak government staggering under a +burden of calamity. Than Sale no braver soldier ever wore sword, but a +man may delight to head a forlorn hope and yet lack nerve to carry with +high heart a load of responsibility; nor was Macgregor so constituted as +to animate his chief to noble emprise. Fast on the heels of the gloomy +tidings from the Khyber mouth there came to them from Shah Soojah, who +was still the nominal sovereign at Cabul, a curt peremptory letter +obviously written under compulsion, of which the following were the +terms: 'Your people have concluded a treaty with us; you are still in +Jellalabad; what are your intentions? Tell us quickly.' + +Sale summoned a council of war, which assembled at his quarters on +January 27th. Its proceedings were recorded, and the documents laid +before it were preserved by Captain Henry Havelock in his capacity as +Sale's staff-officer. Record and papers were reclaimed from Havelock's +custody by General Sale before the evacuation of Afghanistan, and had +been long lost to sight. They have recently been deposited among the +records of the India Office, but not before their latest non-official +possessor had published some extracts from them. It is to be hoped that +the more important documents may be given to the public in full, since +passages from documents, whether intentionally or not, may be so +extracted as to be misleading. Broadfoot, who had been a member of the +council of war, and who was apparently aware of the suppression of the +official records, wrote in 1843 a detailed narrative of its proceedings +while his recollection of them was still fresh, and this narrative he +sent to Havelock, desiring him to note 'any points erroneously stated, +distinguishing between what you may merely not remember and what you know +I am mistaken in.' Havelock, who was a loyal and ardent admirer of +General Sale, having sparsely annotated Broadfoot's narrative, returned +it with the statement that he had compared it with memoranda still in his +possession, and that he considered that it 'contributes a fair and +correct statement of that which occurred.' The officers comprising the +council to whom Sale and Macgregor addressed themselves were Colonel +Dennie of the 13th, Colonel Monteath of the 35th N.I., Captains Backhouse +and Abbott of the artillery, Captain Oldfield commanding the cavalry, and +Captain Broadfoot the garrison engineer. The following is a summary of +the proceedings, as recorded by Broadfoot and authenticated by Havelock. + +After a few formal words from General Sale, he called on Macgregor to +submit a matter on which that political officer and himself were agreed. +Macgregor then described the situation from the point of view of Sale and +himself, and expressed their united conviction that nothing was to be +hoped for from the Government. Reserving his own liberty of action, he +sought the opinion of the officers on offers received from Akbar Khan to +treat for the evacuation of Afghanistan, and he laid before them a draft +answer to Shah Soojah's curt letter, professing the readiness of the +garrison to evacuate Jellalabad on his requisition, since it was held +only for him, but naming certain conditions: the exchange of hostages, +the restoration of British prisoners and hostages in exchange for the +Afghan hostages on arrival of the force at Peshawur, escort thither 'in +safety and honour,' with arms, colours, and guns, and adequate assistance +of supplies and transport. Both Sale and Macgregor frankly owned that +they were resolved to yield, and negotiate for safe retreat. + +Great excitement from the first had pervaded the assemblage, and when +Macgregor had finished his statement Broadfoot arose in his wrath. He +declined to believe that the Government had abandoned the Jellalabad +garrison to its fate, and there was a general outburst of indignation +when Sale produced a letter carrying that significance. Broadfoot waxed +so warm in his remonstrances against the proposed action that an +adjournment was agreed to. Next day Sale and Macgregor urged that it was +impossible to hold out much longer, that later retreat would be +impracticable, and that the scheme they proposed was safe and honourable. +Broadfoot denounced it as disgraceful, contended that they could hold +Jellalabad indefinitely--'could colonise if they liked'--and retreat at +discretion. He denied that the place was held for Shah Soojah, and +challenged their right to surrender the post unless by Government order. +Hostages he proclaimed worthless while the Afghans held heavier pledges +of ours in the shape of prisoners and hostages. He denounced as +disgraceful the giving of hostages on our part. Monteath's remark that +nobody would go as a hostage roused Oldfield to express himself tersely +but pointedly on the subject. 'I for one,' he exclaimed in great +agitation, 'will fight here to the last drop of my blood, but I plainly +declare that I will never be a hostage, and I am surprised that anyone +should propose such a thing, or regard an Afghan's word as worth +anything.' The resolution to treat for the abandonment of Jellalabad was +carried, Oldfield only voting with Broadfoot against it, but the +stipulations: regarding hostages were omitted. Broadfoot continued to +press modifications of the conditions set out in the proposed reply, +pleading, but in vain, that the restoration of the prisoners in Afghan +hands before departure of the garrison should be insisted on; and that +since evacuation was resolved on, it should at least be conducted as a +military operation, and not degradingly under escort. Then, and little +wonder, he objected to expressions in the draft letter as too abject, and +he was successful in procuring the alteration of them. The letter was +written out, signed by Macgregor, and despatched to Cabul. It was agreed +that those members of the council who chose to do should record in +writing the reasons for their votes, and this was done by Dennie, +Monteath, Abbott, and Broadfoot. + +Broadfoot, pending an answer from Cabul, set the garrison to work in +digging a ditch round the fortifications. The reply from the Shah, to the +effect 'If you are sincere in offers, let all the chief gentlemen affix +their seals,' was laid before the reassembled council on February 12th. +The implied imputation on the good faith of British officers might well +have stung to indignation the meekest; but the council's opinion was +taken as to the expediency of complying with the derogatory request made +by the Shah, as well as of a stipulation--a modification of what +Broadfoot had originally urged in vain--for the surrender of all +prisoners, hostages, sick, and wounded under detention in Afghanistan, on +the arrival at Peshawur of the Jellalabad brigade. The members of +council, who in the long interval since the previous meeting had been +gradually regaining their self-respect and mental equipoise, unanimously +declined to accept the proposals tendered them by their commanding +officer and his political ally; and a letter written by Monteath was +accepted, which 'was not a continuation of the negotiation.' + +Thus ended the deliberations of the memorable council of war, whose +eleventh hour resolve to 'hold the fort' mainly averted the ruin of +British prestige in India and throughout the regions bordering on our +Eastern Empire; and the credit of its final decision to repudiate the +humiliating proposals of Sale and Macgregor belongs to George Broadfoot, +who was firmly though silently backed by Havelock. The day after that +decision was formulated a letter came from Peshawur informing the +garrison that every effort would be made for its relief; and thenceforth +there was no more talk of surrender, nor was the courage of the little +brigade impaired even when the earthquake of February 19th shook the +newly repaired fortifications into wreck. Broadfoot's vehement energy +infected the troops, and by the end of the month the parapets were +entirely restored, the bastions repaired, and every battery +re-established. + +After the council of war had rejected the proposals laid before it, a +decision which in effect involved the maintenance of the defence to the +last extremity, nearly two months passed without the occurrence of any +important event, except the speedily retrieved misfortune of the +earthquake of February 19th. The close investment of the place by Akbar +Khan thwarted the efforts of the foraging parties to obtain much needed +supplies. Those efforts were not vigorous, for Sale, aware of his +garrison's poverty of ammunition, was bent on a passive defence, and +steadily refused his consent to vigorous sorties. The policy may have had +its abstract merits, but it was certainly unsatisfactory in this respect, +that perseverance in it involved the unpleasantness of apparently +inevitable starvation. General Pollock had arrived in Peshawur, and was +making energetic efforts to get his force in order for the accomplishment +of the relief of Jellalabad. But he foresaw serious delays, and so late +as the middle of March was still unable to specify with any definiteness +the probable date of his arrival at that place. The European troops in +Jellalabad would be out of meat rations early in April, and Havelock's +calculation was that the grain, on which mainly subsisted the native +soldiers, who had been on half rations since the new year, would be +exhausted before the middle of that month. Sale modified his policy of +inactivity when he learned that the blockading Afghans were attempting to +drive a mine under a salient of the defences, and Dennie on March 11th +led out a sally, destroyed the works, and thrust back Akbar's +encroachments. The general lack of vigour, however, on the garrison's +part emboldened the Afghans so much that they actually grazed their +flocks of sheep within 600 yards of the walls. This was too impudent, and +the General consented to a raid, which resulted in the acquisition of +some 500 sheep, an invaluable addition to the commissariat resources. It +is worth recording that the native regiment gave up its share of the +sheep to the soldiers of the 13th, on the ground that Europeans needed +animal food more than did natives of India. + +On April 6th the Afghan leader fired a salute in triumph for a +supposititious repulse of Pollock in the Khyber. In regard to what then +happened there is a strange conflict of testimony. General Sale, in a +private letter written six weeks later, states: 'I made my arrangements +with Macgregor to sally the next day, provided we did not hear that +Pollock had forced the pass.' Akbar's salutes, and the information of +spies that Pollock had fallen back, 'made us look very grave--our case +desperate, our provisions nearly out, and no relief at hand. I therefore +decided to play a bold stroke to relieve ourselves, and give courage to +Pollock's force in case of success. If we failed in thrashing Akbar, we +would have left our bones on the field.' Abbott's diary of April 5th and +6th records that spies reported that Pollock had been repulsed at Ali +Musjid, and that the heads of three of his officers had been sent in to +Akbar, whereupon 'all the commanding officers waited on the General, +beseeching him to attack Akbar instantly. The 13th and the battery got +all ready for work, but the old General was obstinate, and refused to +act.' Backhouse's diary (April 6th) mentions that Pollock having been +reported repulsed, and Akbar having fired a salute, the officers +commanding corps and detachments went in a body and proposed to the +General to attack Akbar instantly, but without success. 'Immediately the +matter was broached, the General set his face against anything of the +kind, and disagreed about every point--insisted that the enemy had 5000 +or 6000 men in camp, and were too strong for us; and then, the next +minute, that it was no use going out as we couldn't punish them, as they +_wouldn't stand_; and concluding with usual excuse for inactivity, "It +isn't our game." Words ran precious high....' + +Whether spontaneously or under pressure, General Sale must have ordered a +sortie in force; for at dawn of the 7th three infantry columns marched +out by the Cabul gate, the right commanded by Havelock, the centre by +Dennie, the left by Monteath, General Sale being in command of the whole +force. Akbar, reputed about 5000 strong, was in formation in front of his +camp about three miles west of Jellalabad, his left flank resting on the +river, with an advanced post of 300 men in the 'patched up' fort about +midway between his camp and Jellalabad. The prescribed tactics were to +march straight on the enemy, with which Monteath and Havelock complied; +but Dennie, whether with or without orders is a matter in dispute, +diverged to assail the 'patched up' fort. The outer defences were +carried, gallant old Dennie riding at the head of his men to receive his +death wound. In vain did the guns for which Sale had sent batter at the +inner keep, and the General abandoning the attempt to reduce it, led on +in person the centre column. Meanwhile Havelock and Monteath had been +moving steadily forward, until halted by orders when considerably +advanced. Havelock had to form square once and again against the Afghan +horsemen, who, however, did not dare to charge home. The artillery came +to the front at the gallop, and poured shot and shell into Akbar's mass. +The three columns, now abreast of each other, deployed into line, and +moving forward at the double in the teeth of the Afghan musketry fire, +swept the enemy clean out of his position, capturing his artillery, +firing his camp, and putting him to utter rout. Akbar, by seven o'clock +in the April morning, had been signally beaten in the open field by the +troops he had boasted of blockading in the fortress. + +The garrison of Jellalabad had thus wrought out its own relief. +Thenceforth it experienced neither annoyance nor scarcity. Pollock +arrived a fortnight after the dashing sally which had given the garrison +deliverance, and the head of his column was played into its camp on the +Jellalabad plain by the band of the 13th, to the significant tune 'Oh, +but ye've been lang o'coming.' The magniloquent Ellenborough dubbed +Sale's brigade 'the Illustrious Garrison,' and if the expression is +overstrained, its conduct was without question eminently creditable. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + +It was little wonder that the unexpected tidings of the Cabul outbreak, +and the later shock of the catastrophe in the passes, should have +temporarily unnerved the Governor-General. But Lord Auckland rallied his +energies with creditable promptitude. His successor was on the voyage +out, and in the remnant of his term that remained he could not do more +than make dispositions which his successor might find of service. Every +soldier of the 'Army of Retribution' was despatched to the frontier +during Lord Auckland's rule. Lord Auckland appointed to the command of +the troops which he was sending forward a quiet, steadfast, experienced +officer of the artillery arm, who had fought under Lake at Deig and +Bhurtpore, and during his forty years of honest service had soldiered +steadily from the precipices of Nepaul to the rice-swamps of the +Irrawaddy. Pollock was essentially the fitting man for the service that +lay before him, characterised as he was by strong sense, shrewd sagacity, +calm firmness, and self-command. When his superior devolved on him an +undue onus of responsibility he was to prove himself thoroughly equal to +the occasion, and the sedate, balanced man murmured not, but probably was +rather amused when he saw a maker of phrases essaying to deck himself in +his laurels. There were many things in Lord Auckland's Indian career of +which it behoved him to repent, but it must go to his credit that he gave +Pollock high command, and that he could honestly proclaim, as he made his +preparations to quit the great possession whose future his policy had +endangered, that he had contributed toward the retrieval of the crisis by +promptly furthering 'such operations as might be required for the +maintenance of the honour and interests of the British Government.' + +Brigadier Wild reached Peshawur with a brigade of four sepoy regiments +just before the new year. He was destitute of artillery, his sepoys were +in poor heart, and the Sikh contingent was utterly untrustworthy. To +force the Khyber seemed hopeless. Wild, however, made the attempt +energetically enough. But the Sikhs mutinied, expelled their officers, +and marched back to Peshawur; Wild's sepoys, behaving badly, were driven +back with loss from the mouth of the pass, and Wild himself was wounded. +When Pollock reached Peshawur on February 6th, 1842, he found half of +Wild's brigade sick in hospital, and the whole of it in a state of utter +demoralisation. A second brigade commanded by Brigadier-General +McCaskill, had accompanied Pollock, the sepoys of which promptly fell +under the evil influence of Wild's dispirited and disaffected regiments. +Pollock had to resist the pressing appeals for speedy relief made to him +from Jellalabad, and patiently to devote weeks and months to the +restoration of the morale and discipline of the disheartened sepoys of +his command, and to the reinvigoration of their physique. By kindness +combined with firmness he was able gradually to inspire them with perfect +trust and faith in him, and when in the end of March there reached him a +third brigade, comprising British cavalry and horse-artillery, ordered +forward by Lord Auckland on receipt of tidings of the destruction of the +Cabul force, he felt himself at length justified in advancing with +confidence. + +[Illustration: Sir George Pollock] + +Before daylight on the morning of April 5th Pollock's army about 8000 +strong, consisting of eight infantry regiments, three cavalry corps, a +troop and two batteries of artillery, and a mountain train, marched from +the Jumrood camping ground into the portals of the Khyber. Pollock's +scheme of operations was perfect in conception and complete in detail. +His main column, with strong advance and rear-guards, was to pursue the +usual road through the pass. It was flanked on each side by a chain of +infantry detachments, whose assigned duty was to crown the heights and +sweep them clear of assailants in advance of the head of the central +column. The Afreedi hill men had blocked the throat of the pass by a +formidable barrier, behind which they were gathered in force, waiting for +the opportunity which was never to come to them. For the main body of +Pollock's force serenely halted, while the flanking columns, breaking +into skirmishing order, hurried in the grey dawn along the slopes and +heights, dislodging the Afreedi pickets as they advanced, driving them +before them with resolute impetuosity, and pushing forward so far as to +take in reverse with their concentrated fire the great barrier and its +defenders. The clansmen, recognising the frustration of their devices, +deserted the position in its rear, and rushed tumultuously away to crags +and sungahs where knife and jezail might still be plied. The centre +column then advanced unmolested to the deserted barricade, through which +the sappers soon cleared a thoroughfare. The guns swept with shrapnel the +hill-sides in front, the flanking detachments pushed steadily further and +yet further forward, chasing and slaying the fugitive hillmen; and the +Duke of Wellington's observation was that morning fully made good, that +he had never heard that our troops were not equal, as well in their +personal activity as in their arms, to contend with and overcome any +natives of hills whatever.' The whole British force, in its order of +three columns, the centre in the bed of the hollow, the wings on the +flanking ridges, steadily if slowly moved on in the assured consciousness +of victory. It was sunset before the rear-guard was in camp under the +reoccupied Ali Musjid. The Sikh troops who were to keep open Pollock's +communications with Peshawur moved simultaneously on Ali Musjid by a more +circuitous route. + +While Pollock was halted opposite the throat of the Khyber waiting for +the demolition of the Afreedi barricade, the ill-starred Shah Soojah was +being murdered, on his way from the Balla Hissar of Cabul to review on +the Siah Sung slopes the reinforcements which Akbar Khan was clamouring +that he should lead down to aid that Sirdar in reducing Jellalabad before +relief should arrive. Ever since the outbreak of November Shah Soojah had +led a dog's life. He had reigned in Cabul, but he had not ruled. The +Sirdars dunned him for money, and jeered at his protestations of poverty. +It is not so much a matter of surprise that he should have been murdered +as that, feeble, rich, and loathed, he should have been let live so long. +It does not seem worth while to discuss the vexed question whether or not +he was faithful to his British allies. He was certainly entitled to argue +that he owed us nothing, since what we did in regard to him was nakedly +for our own purposes. Shah Soojah's second son Futteh Jung had himself +proclaimed his father's successor. The vicissitudes of his short reign +need not be narrated. While Pollock was gathering his brigades at +Gundamuk in the beginning of the following September, a forlorn Afghan, +in dirty and tattered rags, rode into his camp. This scarecrow was Futteh +Jung, who, unable to endure longer his sham kingship and the ominous +tyranny of Akbar Khan, had fled from Cabul in disguise to beg a refuge in +the British camp. + +Pollock's march from Ali Musjid to Jellalabad was slow, but almost +unmolested. He found, in his own words, 'the fortress strong, the +garrison healthy; and except for wine and beer, better off than we are.' +One principal object of his commission had been accomplished; he had +relieved the garrison of Jellalabad, and was in a position to ensure its +safe withdrawal. But his commission gave him a considerable discretion, +and a great company of his countrymen and countrywomen were still in +Afghan durance. The calm pulsed, resolute commander had views of his own +as to his duty, and he determined in his patient, steadfast way to tarry +a while on the Jellalabad plain, in the hope that the course of events +might play into his hands. + +Maclaren's brigade, which in the beginning of November 1841 General +Elphinstone had instructed General Nott to despatch with all speed to +Cabul, returned to Candahar early in December. Nott in despatching it had +deferred reluctantly to superior authority, and probably Maclaren not +sorry to have in the snowfall a pretext for retracing his steps. Atta +Mahomed Khan, sent from Cabul to foment mischief in the Candahar regions, +had gathered to his banner a considerable force. General Nott quietly +waited until the Sirdar, at the head of some 10,000 men, came within five +miles of Candahar, and then he crushed him after twenty minutes' +fighting. The fugitives found refuge in the camp of the disaffected +Dooranee chiefs, whose leader Meerza Ahmed was sedulously trying to +tamper with Nott's native troops, severe weather hindering the General +from attacking him. Near the end of February there reached Nott a letter +two months old from Elphinstone and Pottinger, ordering him to evacuate +Candahar and retire to India, in pursuance of the convention into which +they had entered. The Dooranee chiefs astutely urged that Shah Soojah, no +longer supported by British bayonets, was now ruling in Cabul, as an +argument in favour of Nott's withdrawal. Nott's answer was brief: 'I will +not treat with any person whatever for the retirement of the British +troops from Afghanistan, until I have received instructions from the +Supreme Government'--a blunt sentence in curious contrast to the missive +which Sale and Macgregor laid before the Jellalabad council of war. When +presently there came a communication from Government intimating that the +continued occupation of Candahar was regarded as conducive to the +interest of the state, Nott and Rawlinson were in a position to +congratulate themselves on having anticipated the wishes of their +superiors. The situation, however, became so menacing that early in March +its Afghan inhabitants were expelled from the city of Candahar to the +last soul; and then Nott, leaving a garrison in the place, took the field +in force. The old soldier, wary as he was, became the victim of Meerza's +wily strategy. As he advanced, the Afghans retired, skirmishing +assiduously. Leaving Nott in the Turnuk valley, they doubled back on +Candahar, and in the early darkness of the night of the 10th March they +furiously assailed the city gates. They fired one of the gates, and the +swarming ghazees tore down with fury its blazing planks and the red-hot +ironwork. The garrison behaved valiantly. Inside the burning gate they +piled up a rampart of grain bags, on which they trained a couple of guns +loaded with case. For three hours after the gate fell did the fanatics +hurl assault after assault on the interior barricade. They were terribly +critical hours, but the garrison prevailed, and at midnight, with a loss +of many hundreds, the obstinate assailants sullenly drew off. Nott, +although urgently summoned, was unable to reach Candahar until the 12th. + +Candahar was fortunately preserved, but at the end of March the +unpleasant tidings came that Ghuznee, which British valour had carried by +storm three years before, had now reverted into Afghan possession. The +siege had lasted for nearly three and a half months. In mid-December the +besiegers occupied the city in force, introduced by the citizens through +a subterranean way; and the garrison, consisting chiefly of a regiment of +sepoys, withdrew into the citadel. The bitter winter and the scant +rations took the heart out of the natives of the warm and fertile Indian +plains; but nevertheless it was not until March 6th that the garrison, +under pledge of being escorted to Peshawur with colours, arms, and +baggage, marched out. The unfortunates would have done better to have +died a soldierly death, with arms in their hands and the glow of fighting +in their hearts. As the event was, faith with them was broken, and save +for a few officers who were made prisoners, most were slaughtered, or +perished in a vain attempt to escape. + +During his long isolation Nott's resources had been seriously depleted, +and he had ordered up from Scinde a brigade, escorting much needed +treasure, ammunition, and medicines. Brigadier England was entrusted with +the command of this force, whose assemblage at Quetta was expected about +the end of March. Pending its gathering England had moved out toward the +entrance of the Kojuk Pass, where he met with a sharp and far from +creditable repulse, and fell back on Quetta miserably disheartened, +suggesting in his abjectness that Nott should abandon Candahar and retire +on him. The stout old soldier at Candahar waxed wroth at the limpness of +his subordinate, and addressed to England a biting letter, ordering +peremptorily the latter's prompt advance to Candahar, engaging to +dry-nurse him through the Kojuk by a brigade sent down from Candahar for +the purpose, and remarking sarcastically, 'I am well aware that war +cannot be made without loss; but yet perhaps British troops can oppose +Asiatic armies without defeat.' Thus exhorted England moved, to find his +march through the Kojuk protected by Wymer's sepoys from Candahar, who +had crowned the lateral heights before he ventured into the pass; and he +reached Candahar without maltreatment on the 10th May, bringing to Nott +the much needed supplies which rendered that resolute man equal to any +enterprise. + +It remained, however, to be seen whether any enterprise was to be +permitted to him and to his brother commander lying in camp on the +Jellalabad plain. Lord Ellenborough, the successor of Lord Auckland, had +struck a firm if somewhat inexplicit note in his earliest manifesto, +dated March 13th. A single sentence will indicate its tenor: 'Whatever +course we may hereafter take must rest solely on military considerations, +and hence in the first instance regard to the safety of our detached +garrisons in Afghanistan; to the security of our troops now in the field +from unnecessary risks; and finally, to the re-establishment of our +military reputation by the infliction upon the Afghans of some signal and +decisive blow.' Those were brave words, if only they had been adhered to. +But six weeks later his lordship was ordering Nott to evacuate Candahar +and fall back on Quetta, until the season should permit further +retirement to the Indus; and instructing Pollock, through the +Commander-in-Chief, to withdraw without delay every British soldier from +Jellalabad to Peshawur, except under certain specified eventualities, +none of which were in course of occurrence. Pollock temporised, holding +on to his advanced position by the plea of inability to retire for want +of transport, claiming mildly to find discretionary powers in the +Government instructions, and cautiously arguing in favour of an advance +by a few marches to a region where better climate was to be found, and +whence he might bring to bear stronger pressure for the liberation of the +prisoners. Nott was a narrower man than Pollock. When he got his orders +he regarded them as strictly binding, no matter how unpalatable the +injunctions. 'I shall not lose a moment,' he wrote, 'in making +arrangements to carry out my orders, without turning to the right or the +left, and without inquiring into the reasons for the measures enjoined, +whatever our own opinions or wishes may be.' He reluctantly began +preparations for withdrawal. Carriage was ordered up from Quetta, and a +brigade was despatched to withdraw the garrison of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and +to destroy the fort which Craigie had so long and valiantly defended. + +It would be tedious to detail the vacillations, the obscurities, and the +tortuosities of Lord Ellenborough's successive communications to his two +Generals in Afghanistan. Pollock had been permitted to remain about +Jellalabad until the autumn should bring cooler marching weather. Nott +had been detained at Candahar by the necessity for crushing menacing +bodies of tribal levies, but as July waned his preparations for +withdrawal were all but complete. On the 4th of that month Lord +Ellenborough wrote to him, reiterating injunctions for his withdrawal +from Afghanistan, but permitting him the alternatives of retiring by the +direct route along his line of communications over Quetta and Sukkur, or +of boxing the compass by the curiously circuitous 'retirement' _via_ +Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad. Pollock, for his part, was permitted, if +he thought proper, to advance on Cabul in order to facilitate Nott's +withdrawal, if the latter should elect to 'retreat' by the circuitous +route which has just been described. + +One does not care to characterise the 'heads I win, tails you lose' +policy of a Governor-General who thus shuffled off his responsibility +upon two soldiers who previously had been sedulously restricted within +narrow if varying limits. Their relief from those trammels set them free, +and it was their joy to accept the devolved responsibility, and to act +with soldierly initiative and vigour. The chief credit of the qualified +yet substantial triumph over official hesitation certainly belongs to +Pollock, who gently yet firmly forced the hand of the Governor-General, +while Nott's merit was limited to a ready acceptance of the +responsibility of a proffered option. A letter from Nott intimating his +determination to retire by way of Cabul and Jellalabad reached Pollock in +the middle of August, who immediately advanced from Jellalabad; and his +troops having concentrated at Gundamuk, he marched from that position on +7th September, his second division, commanded by M'Caskill, following +next day. Pollock was woefully short of transport, and therefore was +compelled to leave some troops behind at Gundamuk, and even then could +carry only half the complement of tentage. But his soldiers, who carried +in their haversacks seven days' provisions, would gladly have marched +without any baggage at all, and the chief himself was eager to hurry +forward, for Nott had written that he expected to reach Cabul on 15th +September, and Pollock was burning to be there first. In the Jugdulluk +Pass, on the 8th, he found the Ghilzais in considerable force on the +heights. Regardless of a heavy artillery fire they stood their ground, +and so galled Pollock's troops with sharp discharges from their jezails +that it became necessary to send infantry against them. They were +dislodged from the mountain they had occupied by a portion of the +Jellalabad brigade, led by gallant old General Sale, who had his usual +luck in the shape of a wound. + +This Jugdulluk fighting was, however, little more than a skirmish, and +Pollock's people were to experience more severe opposition before they +should emerge from the passes on to the Cabul plain. On the morning of +the 13th the concentrated force had quitted its camp in the Tezeen +valley, and had committed itself without due precaution to the passage of +the ravine beyond, when the Afghan levies with which Akbar Khan had +manned the flanking heights, opened their fire. The Sirdar had been +dissuaded by Captain Troup, one of his prisoners, from attempting futile +negotiations, and advised not to squander lives in useless opposition. +Akbar had replied that he was too deeply committed to recede, and that +his people were bent on fighting. They were not baulked in the +aspiration, which assuredly their opponents shared with at least equal +zeal. Pollock's advance-guard was about the middle of the defile, when +the enemy were suddenly discovered blocking the pass in front, and +holding the heights which Pollock's light troops should have crowned in +advance of the column. Akbar's force was calculated to be about 15,000 +strong, and the Afghans fought resolutely against the British regiments +which forced their way up the heights on the right and left. The ghazees +dashed down to meet the red soldiers halfway, and up among the precipices +there were many hand-to-hand encounters, in which the sword and the +bayonet fought out the issue. The Afghans made their last stand on the +rocky summit of the Huft Kotul; but from this commanding position they +were finally driven by Broadfoot's bloodthirsty little Goorkhas, who, +hillmen themselves from their birth, chased the Afghans from crag to +crag, using their fell kookeries as they pursued. It was Akbar Khan's +last effort, and the quelling of it cost Pollock the trivial loss of +thirty-two killed and 130 wounded. There was no more opposition, and it +was well for the Afghans, for the awful spectacles presented in the +Khoord Cabul Pass traversed on the following day, kindled in Pollock's +soldiers a white heat of fury. 'The bodies,' wrote Backhouse in his +unpublished diary, 'lay in heaps of fifties and hundreds, our gun wheels +crushing the bones of our late comrades at every yard for four or five +miles; indeed, the whole march from Gundamuk to Cabul may be said to have +been over the bodies of the massacred army.' Pollock marched unmolested +to Cabul on the 15th, and camped on the old racecourse to the east of the +city. + +Nott, in evacuating Candahar, divided his force into two portions, the +weaker of which General England took back to India by Quetta and Sukkur, +while on August 9th Nott himself, with two European battalions, the +'beautiful sepoy regiments' of which he had a right to be proud, and his +field guns, marched away from Candahar, his face set towards Cabul. His +march was uneventful until about midway between Khelat-i-Ghilzai and +Ghuznee, when on the 28th the cavalry, unsupported and badly handled in a +stupid and unauthorised foray, lost severely in officers and men, took to +flight in panic, and so gave no little encouragement to the enemy hanging +on Nott's flank. Two days later Shumshoodeen, the Afghan leader, drew up +some 10,000 men in order of battle on high ground left of the British +camp. Nott attacked with vigour, advancing to turn the Afghan left. In +reprisal the enemy threw their strength on his left, supporting their +jezail fire with artillery, whereupon Nott changed front to the left, +deployed, and then charged. The Afghans did not wait for close quarters, +and Nott was no more seriously molested. Reaching the vicinity of Ghuznee +on September 5th, he cleared away the hordes hanging on the heights which +encircle the place. During the night the Afghans evacuated Ghuznee. Soon +after daylight the British flag was waving from the citadel. Having +fulfilled Lord Ellenborough's ridiculous order to carry away from the +tomb of Sultan Mahmoud in the environs of Ghuznee, the supposititious +gates of Somnath, a once famous Hindoo shrine in the Bombay province of +Kattiawar, Nott marched onward unmolested till within a couple of marches +of Cabul, when near Maidan he had some stubborn fighting with an Afghan +force which tried ineffectually to block his way. On the 17th he marched +into camp four miles west of Cabul, whence he could discern, not with +entire complacency, the British ensign already flying from the Balla +Hissar, for Pollock had won the race to Cabul by a couple of days. + +For months there had been negotiations for the release of the British +prisoners whom Akbar Khan had kept in durance ever since they came into +his hands in the course of the disastrous retreat from Cabul in January, +but they had been unsuccessful, and now it was known that the unfortunate +company of officers, women, and children, had been carried off westward +into the hill country of Bamian. Nott's officers, as the Candahar column +was nearing Cabul, had more than once urged him to detach a brigade in +the direction of Bamian in the hope of effecting a rescue of the +prisoners, but he had steadily refused, leaning obstinately on the +absence from the instructions sent him by Government of any permission to +engage in the enterprise of attempting their release. He was not less +brusque in the intimation of his declinature when Pollock gave him the +opportunity to send a force in support of Sir Richmond Shakespear, whom, +with a detachment of Kuzzilbash horse, Pollock had already despatched on +the mission of attempting the liberation of the prisoners. The narrow old +soldier argued doggedly that Government 'had thrown the prisoners +overboard.' Why, then, should he concern himself with their rescue? If +his superior officer should give him a firm order, of course he would +obey, but he would obey under protest. Pollock disdained to impose so +enviable a duty on a recalcitrant man, and committed to Sale the +honourable and welcome service--all the more welcome to that officer +because his wife and daughter were among the captives. At the head of his +Jellalabad brigade, he was to push forward by forced marches on the track +of Shakespear and his horsemen. + +The strange and bitter experiences of the captives, from that miserable +January Sabbath day on which they passed under the 'protection' of Akbar +Khan until the mid-September noon when Shakespear galloped into their +midst, are recorded in full and interesting detail in Lady Sale's +journal, in Vincent Eyre's _Captivity_, and in Colin Mackenzie's +biography published under the title of _Storms and Sunshine of a +Soldier's Life_. Here it is possible only briefly to summarise the chief +incidents of the captivity. The unanimous testimony of the released +prisoners was to the effect that Akbar Khan, violent, bloody, and +passionate man though he was, behaved toward them with kindness and a +certain rude chivalry. They remained for nearly three months at Budiabad, +living in great squalor and discomfort. For the whole party there were +but five rooms, each of which was occupied by from five to ten officers +and ladies, the few soldiers and non-commissioned officers, who were +mostly wounded, being quartered in sheds and cellars. Mackenzie drily +remarks that the hardships of the common lot, and the close intimacy of +prison life, brought into full relief good and evil qualities; +'conventional polish was a good deal rubbed off and replaced by a +plainness of speech quite unheard of in good society.' Ladies and +gentlemen were necessitated to occupy the same room during the night, but +the men 'cleared out' early in the morning, leaving the ladies to +themselves. The dirt and vermin of their habitation were abominably +offensive to people to whom scrupulous cleanliness was a second nature. +But the captives were allowed to take exercise within a limited range; +they had among them a few books, and an old newspaper occasionally came +on to them from Jellalabad, with which place a fitful correspondence in +cypher was surreptitiously maintained. They had a few packs of playing +cards; they made for themselves backgammon and draught-boards, and when +in good spirits they sometimes played hopscotch and blindman's-buff with +the children of the party. The Sundays were always kept scrupulously, +Lawrence and Mackenzie conducting the service in turn. + +The earthquake which shook down the fortifications of Jellalabad brought +their rickety fort about the ears of the captives. Several escaped +narrowly with their lives when walls and roofs yawned and crumbled, and +all had to turn out and sleep in the courtyard, where they suffered from +cold and saturating dews. After the defeat of Akbar by the Jellalabad +garrison on April 7th, there was keen expectation that Sale would march +to their rescue, but he came not, and there were rumours among the guards +of their impending massacre in revenge for the crushing reverse Akbar had +experienced. Presently, however, Mahomed Shah Khan, Akbar's lieutenant, +arrived full of courtesy and reassurance, but with the unwelcome +intimation that the prisoners must prepare themselves to leave Budiabad +at once, and move to a greater distance from Jellalabad and their +friends. For some preparation was not a difficult task. 'All my worldly +goods,' wrote Captain Johnson, 'might be stowed away in a towel.' Others +who possessed heavier impedimenta, were lightened of the encumbrance by +the Ghilzai Sirdar, who plundered indiscriminately. The European soldiers +were left behind at Budiabad, and the band of ladies and gentlemen +started on the afternoon of April 10th, in utter ignorance of their +destination, under the escort of a strong band of Afghans. At the ford +across the Cabul river the cavalcade found Akbar Khan wounded, haggard, +and dejected, seated in a palanquin, which, weak as he was, he gave up to +Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, who were ill. A couple of days were spent at +Tezeen among the melancholy relics of the January slaughter, whence most +of the party were carried several miles further into the southern +mountains to the village of Zandeh, while General Elphinstone, whose end +was fast approaching, remained in the Tezeen valley with Pottinger, +Mackenzie, Eyre, and one or two others. On the evening of April 23d the +poor General was finally released from suffering of mind and body. Akbar, +who when too late had offered to free him, sent the body down to +Jellalabad under a guard, and accompanied by Moore the General's soldier +servant; and Elphinstone lies with Colonel Dennie and the dead of the +defence of Jellalabad in their nameless graves in a waste place within +the walls of that place. Toward the end of May the captives were moved up +the passes to the vicinity of Cabul, where Akbar Khan was now gradually +attaining the ascendant. Prince Futteh Jung, however, still held out in +the Balla Hissar, and intermittent firing was heard as the weary +_cortège_ of prisoners reached a fort about three miles short of Cabul, +which the ladies of the proprietor's zenana had evacuated in their +favour. Here they lived if not in contentment at least in considerable +comfort and amenity. They had the privacy of a delightful garden, and +enjoyed the freedom of bathing in the adjacent river. After the strife +between Akbar Khan and Futteh Jung ceased they were even permitted to +exchange visits with their countrymen, the hostages quartered on the +Balla Hissar. They were able to obtain money from the Cabul usurers, and +thus to supply themselves with suitable clothing and additions to their +rations, and their mails from India and Jellalabad were forwarded to them +without hindrance. The summer months were passed in captivity, but it was +no longer for them a captivity of squalor and wretchedness. Life was a +good deal better worth living in the pleasant garden house on the bank of +the Logur than it had been in the noisome squalor of Budiabad and the +vermin-infested huddlement of Zandeh. But they still-lived under the long +strain of anxiety and apprehension, for none of them knew what the morrow +might bring forth. While residing in the pleasant quarters in the Logur +valley the captives of the passes were joined by nine officers, who were +the captives of Ghuznee. After the capitulation the latter had been +treated with cruel harshness, shut up in one small room, and debarred +from fresh air and exercise. Colonel Palmer, indeed, had undergone the +barbarity of torture in the endeavour to force him to disclose the +whereabouts of treasure which he was suspected of having buried. + +Akbar had full and timely intimation of the mutual intention of the +British generals at Jellalabad and Candahar to march on Cabul, and did +not fail to recognise of what value to him in extremity might be his +continued possession of the prisoners. They had been warned of their +probable deportation to the remote and rugged Bamian; and the toilsome +journey thither was begun on the evening of August 25th. A couple of +ailing families alone, with a surgeon in charge of them, were allowed to +remain behind; all the others, hale and sick, had to travel, the former +on horseback, the latter carried in camel panniers. The escort consisted +of an irregular regiment of Afghan infantry commanded by one Saleh +Mahomed Khan, who when a subadar serving in one of the Shah's Afghan +regiments had deserted to Dost Mahomed. The wayfarers, female as well as +male, wore the Afghan costume, in order that they might attract as little +notice as possible. + +Bamian was reached on September 3d, where the wretchedness of the +quarters contrasted vividly with the amenity of those left behind on the +Cabul plain. But the wretchedness of Bamian was not to be long endured. +An intimacy had been struck up between Captain Johnson and Saleh Mahomed, +and the latter cautiously hinted that a reward and a pension might induce +him to carry his charges into the British camp. On September 11th there +was a private meeting between the Afghan commandant and three British +officers, Pottinger, Johnson, and Lawrence. Saleh Mahomed intimated the +receipt of instructions from the Sirdar to carry the prisoners over the +Hindoo Koosh into Khooloom, and leave them there to seeming hopeless +captivity. But on the other hand a messenger had reached Saleh from Mohun +Lal with the assurance that General Pollock, if he restored the +prisoners, would ensure him a reward of 20,000 rupees, and a life pension +of 12,000 rupees a year. Saleh Mahomed demanded and received a guarantee +from the British officers; and the captives bound themselves to make good +from their own resources their redemption money. The Afghan ex-Subadar +proved himself honest; the captives were captives no longer, and they +proceeded to assert themselves in the masterful British manner. They +hoisted the national flag; Pottinger became once again the high-handed +'political,' and ordered the local chiefs to come to his durbar and +receive dresses of honour. Their fort was put into a state of defence, +and a store of provisions was gathered in case of a siege. But in +mid-September came the tidings that Akbar had been defeated at Tezeen, +and had fled no one knew whither, whereupon the self-emancipated party +set out on the march to Cabul. At noon of the 17th they passed into the +safe guardianship of Shakespear and his horsemen. Three days later, +within a march of Cabul, there was reached the column which Sale had +taken out, and on September 21st Pollock greeted the company of men and +women whose rescue had been wrought out by his cool, strong +steadfastness. + +Little more remains to be told. There was an Afghan force still in arms +at Istalif, a beautiful village of the inveterately hostile Kohistanees; +a division marched to attack it, carried the place by assault, burnt part +of it, and severely smote the garrison. Utter destruction was the fate of +Charikar, the capital of the Kohistan, where Codrington's Goorkha +regiment had been destroyed. Pollock determined to 'set a mark' on Cabul +to commemorate the retribution which the British had exacted. He spared +the Balla Hissar, and abstained from laying the city in ruins, contenting +himself with the destruction of the principal bazaar, through which the +heads of Macnaghten and Burnes had been paraded, and in which their +mangled bodies had been exposed. Prince Futteh Jung, tired of his +vicissitudes in the character of an Afghan monarch, ceded what of a +throne he possessed to another puppet of his race, and gladly accompanied +the British armies to India. Other waifs of the wreck of a nefarious and +disastrous enterprise, among them old Zemaun Khan, who had been our +friend throughout, and the family of the ill-fated Shah Soojah, were well +content to return to the exile which afforded safety and quietude. There +also accompanied the march of the humane Pollock a great number of the +mutilated and crippled camp followers of Elphinstone's army who had +escaped with their lives from its destruction. On the 12th of October the +forces of Pollock and of Nott turned their backs on Cabul, which no +British army was again to see for nearly forty years, and set out on +their march down the passes. Jellalabad and Ali Musjid were partially +destroyed in passing. Pollock's division reached Peshawur without loss, +thanks to the precautions of its chief; but with M'Caskill and Nott the +indomitable Afghans had the last word, cutting off their stragglers, +capturing their baggage, and in the final skirmish killing and wounding +some sixty men of Nott's command. + +Of the bombastic and grotesque paeans of triumph emitted by Lord +Ellenborough, whose head had been turned by a success to which he had but +scantly contributed, nothing need now be said, nor of the garish pageant +with which he received the armies as they re-entered British territory at +Ferozepore. As they passed down through the Punjaub, Dost Mahomed passed +up on his way to reoccupy the position from which he had been driven. And +so ended the first Afghan war, a period of history in which no redeeming +features are perceptible except the defence of Jellalabad, the dogged +firmness of Nott, and Pollock's noble and successful constancy of +purpose. Beyond this effulgence there spreads a sombre welter of +misrepresentation and unscrupulousness, intrigue, moral deterioration, +and dishonour unspeakable. + + + + +PART II: THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + + + +CHAPTER I: THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + +A brief period of peace intervened between the ratification of the treaty +of Gundamuk on May 30th, 1879, and the renewal of hostilities consequent +on the massacre at Cabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the whole _entourage_ +of the mission of which he was the head. There was nothing identical or +even similar in the motives of the two campaigns, and regarded purely on +principle they might be regarded as two distinct wars, rather than as +successive campaigns of one and the same war. But the interval between +them was so short that the ink of the signatures to the treaty of +Gundamuk may be said to have been scarcely dry when the murder of the +British Envoy tore that document into bloody shreds; and it seems the +simplest and most convenient method to designate the two years of +hostilities from November 1878 to September 1880, as the 'second Afghan +war,' notwithstanding the three months' interval of peace in the summer +of 1879. + +Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and after a long struggle his son Shere Ali +possessed himself of the throne bequeathed to him by his father. The +relations between Shere Ali and the successive Viceroys of India were +friendly, although not close. The consistent aim of the British policy +was to maintain Afghanistan in the position of a strong, friendly, and +independent state, prepared in certain contingencies to co-operate in +keeping at a distance foreign intrigue or aggression; and while this +object was promoted by donations of money and arms, to abstain from +interference in the internal affairs of the country, while according a +friendly recognition to the successive occupants of its throne, without +undertaking indefinite liabilities in their interest. The aim, in a word, +was to utilise Afghanistan as a 'buffer' state between the northwestern +frontier of British India and Russian advances from the direction of +Central Asia. Shere Ali was never a very comfortable ally; he was of a +saturnine and suspicious nature, and he seems also to have had an +overweening sense of the value of the position of Afghanistan, interposed +between two great powers profoundly jealous one of the other. He did not +succeed with Lord Northbrook in an attempt to work on that Viceroy by +playing off the bogey of Russian aggression; and as the consequence of +this failure he allowed himself to display marked evidences of +disaffected feeling. Cognisance was taken of this 'attitude of extreme +reserve,' and early in 1876 Lord Lytton arrived in India charged with +instructions to break away from the policy designated as that of +'masterly inactivity,' and to initiate a new basis of relations with +Afghanistan and its Ameer. + +Lord Lytton's instructions directed him to despatch without delay a +mission to Cabul, whose errand would be to require of the Ameer the +acceptance of a permanent Resident and free access to the frontier +positions of Afghanistan on the part of British officers, who should have +opportunity of conferring with the Ameer on matters of common interest +with 'becoming attention to their friendly councils.' Those were demands +notoriously obnoxious to the Afghan monarch and the Afghan people. +Compliance with them involved sacrifice of independence, and the Afghan +loathing of Feringhee officials in their midst had been fiercely evinced +in the long bloody struggle and awful catastrophe recorded in earlier +pages of this volume. Probably the Ameer, had he desired, would not have +dared to concede such demands on any terms, no matter how full of +advantage. But the terms which Lord Lytton was instructed to tender as an +equivalent were strangely meagre. The Ameer was to receive a money gift, +and a precarious stipend regarding which the new Viceroy was to 'deem it +inconvenient to commit his government to any permanent pecuniary +obligation.' The desiderated recognition of Abdoolah Jan as Shere Ali's +successor was promised with the qualifying reservation that the promise +'did not imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of +the state.' The guarantee against foreign aggression was vague and +indefinite, and the Government of India reserved to itself entire +'freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the +obligation of material support.' + +The Ameer replied to the notice that a mission was about to proceed to +Cabul by a courteous declinature to receive an Envoy, assigning several +specious reasons. He was quite satisfied with the existing friendly +relations, and desired no change in them; he could not guarantee the +safety of the Envoy and his people; if he admitted a British mission, he +would have no excuse for refusing to receive a Russian one. An intimation +was conveyed to the Ameer that if he should persist in his refusal to +receive the mission, the Viceroy would have no other alternative than to +regard Afghanistan as a state which had 'voluntarily isolated itself from +the alliance and support of the British Government.' The Ameer arranged +that the Vakeel of the Indian Government should visit Simla, carrying +with him full explanations, and charged to lay before the Viceroy sundry +grievances which were distressing Shere Ali. That functionary took back +to Cabul certain minor concessions, but conveyed the message also that +those concessions were contingent on the Ameer's acceptance of British +officers about his frontiers, and that it would be of no avail to send an +Envoy to the conference at Peshawur for which sanction was given, unless +he were commissioned to agree to this condition as the fundamental basis +of a treaty. Before the Vakeel quitted Simla he had to listen to a +truculent address from Lord Lytton, in the course of which Shere Ali's +position was genially likened to that of 'an earthen pipkin between two +iron pots.' Before Sir Lewis Pelly and the Ameer's representative met at +Peshawur in January 1877, Shere Ali had not unnaturally been perturbed by +the permanent occupation of Quetta, on the southern verge of his +dominions, as indicating, along with other military dispositions, an +intended invasion. The Peshawur conference, which from the first had +little promise, dragged on unsatisfactorily until terminated by the death +of the Ameer's representative, whereupon Sir Lewis Pelly was recalled by +Lord Lytton, notwithstanding the latter's cognisance that Shere Ali was +despatching to Peshawur a fresh Envoy authorised to assent to all the +British demands. The justification advanced by Lord Lytton for this +procedure was the discovery purported to have been made by Sir Lewis +Pelly that the Ameer was intriguing with General Kaufmann at Tashkend. +Since Shere Ali was an independent monarch, it was no crime on his part +to enter into negotiations with another power than Great Britain, +although if the worried and distracted man did so the charge of folly may +be laid to him, since the Russians were pretty certain to betray him +after having made a cat's-paw of him, and since in applying to them he +involved himself in the risk of hostile action on the part of the +British. The wisdom of Lord Lytton's conduct is not apparent. The +truculent policy of which he was the instrument was admittedly on the +point of triumphing; and events curiously falsified his short-sighted +anticipation of the unlikelihood, because of the Russo-Turkish war then +impending, of any _rapprochement_ between the Ameer and the Russian +authorities in Central Asia. The Viceroy withdrew his Vakeel from Cabul, +and in the recognition of the Ameer's attitude of 'isolation and scarcely +veiled hostility' Lord Salisbury authorised Lord Lytton to protect the +British frontier by such measures as circumstances should render +expedient, 'without regard to the wishes of the Ameer or the interests of +his dynasty.' Lord Lytton took no measures, expedient or otherwise, in +the direction indicated by Lord Salisbury; the Ameer, as if he had been a +petted boy consigned to the corner, was abandoned to his sullen +'isolation,' and the Russians adroitly used him to involve us in a war +which lasted two years, cost us the lives of many valiant men, caused us +to incur an expenditure of many millions, and left our relations with +Afghanistan in all essential respects in the same condition as Lord +Lytton found them when he reached India with the 'new policy' in his +pocket. + +If the Russians could execute as thoroughly as they can plan skilfully, +there would be hardly any limit to their conquests. When England was +mobilising her forces after the treaty of San Stefano, and ordering into +the Mediterranean a division of sepoys drawn from the three presidencies +of her Indian Empire, Russia for her part was concerting an important +diversion in the direction of the north-western frontier of that great +possession. But for the opportune conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, the +question as to the ability of sepoy troops stiffened by British regiments +to cope with the mixed levies of the Tzar might have been tried out on +stricken fields between the Oxus and the Indus. When Gortschakoff +returned from Berlin to St Petersburg with his version of 'Peace with +Honour'--Bessarabia and Batoum thrown in--Kaufmann had to countermand the +concentration of troops that had been in progress on the northern +frontier of Afghanistan. But the Indian division was still much in +evidence in the Mediterranean, its tents now gleaming on the brown slopes +of Malta, now crowning the upland of Larnaca and nestling among the +foliage of Kyrenea. Kaufmann astutely retorted on this demonstration by +despatching, not indeed an expedition, but an embassy to Cabul; and when +Stolietoff, the gallant defender of the Schipka Pass, rode into the Balla +Hissar on August 11th, 1878, Shere Ali received him with every token of +cordiality and regard. + +No other course was now open to Her Majesty's Government than to insist +on the reception at Cabul of a British mission. The gallant veteran +officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, known to be held in regard by the Ameer, +was named as Envoy, and an emissary was sent to Cabul in advance with +information of the date fixed for the setting out of the mission. Shere +Ali was greatly perplexed, and begged for more time. 'It is not proper,' +he protested, 'to use pressure in this way; it will tend to a complete +rupture.' But Sir Neville Chamberlain was satisfied that the Ameer was +trifling with the Indian Government; and he had certain information that +the Ameer, his Ministers, and the Afghan outpost officers, had stated +plainly that, if necessary, the advance of the mission would be arrested +by force. This was what in effect happened when on September 21st Major +Cavagnari rode forward to the Afghan post in the Khyber Pass. The officer +who courteously stopped him assured him that he had orders to oppose by +force the progress of Sir Neville and his mission, so Cavagnari shook +hands with the Afghan major and rode back to Peshawur. + +The Viceroy sought permission to declare war immediately, notwithstanding +his condition of unpreparedness; but the Home Government directed him +instead to require in temperate language an apology and the acceptance of +a permanent mission, presenting at the same time the ultimatum that if a +satisfactory reply should not be received on or before the 20th November +hostilities would immediately commence. Meanwhile military preparations +were actively pushed forward. The scheme of operations was as follows: +three columns of invasion were to move simultaneously, one through the +Khyber Pass to Dakka, another through the Kuram valley, south of the +Khyber, with the Peiwar Pass as its objective, and a third from Quetta +into the Pisheen valley, to march forward to Candahar after reinforcement +by a division from Mooltan. To General Sir Sam Browne was assigned the +command of the Khyber column, consisting of about 10,000 men, with thirty +guns; to General Roberts the command of the Kuram valley column, of about +5,500 men, with twenty-four guns; and to General Biddulph the command of +the Quetta force, numbering some 6000 men, with eighteen guns. When +General Donald Stewart should bring up from Mooltan the division which +was being concentrated there, he was to command the whole southern force +moving on Candahar. The reserve division gathering at Hassan Abdul and +commanded by General Maude, would support the Khyber force; another +reserve division massing at Sukkur under General Primrose, would act in +support of the Candahar force; and a contingent contributed by the Sikh +Feudatory States and commanded by Colonel Watson, was to do duty on the +Kurum line of communication. The Generals commanding columns were to act +independently of each other, taking instructions direct from Army and +Government headquarters. + +No answer to the ultimatum was received from the Ameer, and on the +morning of November 21st Sir Sam Browne crossed the Afghan frontier and +moved up the Khyber on Ali Musjid with his third and fourth brigades and +the guns. Overnight he had detached Macpherson's and Tytler's brigades +with the commission to turn the Ali Musjid position by a circuitous +march, the former charged to descend into the Khyber Pass in rear of the +fortress, and block the escape of its garrison; the latter instructed to +find, if possible, a position on the Rhotas heights on the proper left of +the fortress from which a flank attack might be delivered. About noon Sir +Sam reached the Shagai ridge and came under a brisk fire from the guns of +Ali Musjid, to which his heavy cannon and Manderson's horse-battery +replied with good results. The Afghan position, which was very strong, +stretched right athwart the valley from an entrenched line on the right +to the Rhotas summit on the extreme left. The artillery duel lasted about +two hours, and then Sir Sam determined to advance, on the expectation +that the turning brigades had reached their respective objectives. He +himself moved forward on the right upland; on the opposite side of the +Khyber stream Appleyard led the advance of his brigade against the Afghan +right. No co-operation on the part of the turning brigades had made +itself manifest up till dusk; the right brigade had been brought to a +halt in face of a precipitous cliff crowned by the enemy, and it was +wisely judged that to press the frontal attack further in the meantime +would involve a useless loss of life. Sir Sam therefore halted, and sent +word to Appleyard to stay for the night his further advance, merely +holding the ridge which he had already carried. But before this order +reached him Appleyard was sharply engaged with the enemy in their +entrenched position, and in the fighting which occurred before the +retirement was effected two officers were killed, a third wounded, and a +good many casualties occurred among the rank and file of the native +detachments gallantly assailing the Afghan entrenchments. + +Early next morning offensive operations were about to be resumed, when a +young officer of the 9th Lancers brought intelligence that the Afghan +garrison had fled under cover of night, whereupon the fort was promptly +occupied. The turning brigades had been delayed by the difficult country +encountered, but detachments from both had reached Kata Kustia in time to +capture several hundred fugitives of the Ali Musjid garrison. The mass of +it, however--its total strength was about 4000 men--effected a retreat by +the Peshbolak track from the right of the entrenched position. Sir Sam +Browne's advance to Dakka was made without molestation, and on 20th +December he encamped on the plain of Jellalabad, where he remained +throughout the winter, Maude's reserve division keeping open his +communications through the Khyber Pass. The hill tribes, true to their +nature, gave great annoyance by their continual raids, and several +punitive expeditions were sent against them from time to time, but seldom +with decisive results. The tribesmen for the most part carried off into +the hills their moveable effects, and the destruction of their petty +forts apparently gave them little concern. For the most part they +maintained their irreconcilable attitude, hanging on the flanks of our +detachments on their return march through the lateral passes to their +camps, and inflicting irritating if not very severe losses. Occasionally +they thought proper to make nominal submission with tongue in cheek, +breaking out again when opportunity or temptation presented itself. +Detailed description of those raids and counter-raids would be very +tedious reading. It was when starting to co-operate in one of those +necessary but tantalising expeditions that a number of troopers of the +10th Hussars were drowned in a treacherous ford of the Cabul river near +Jellalabad. + +General Roberts, to whom the conduct of operations in the Kuram district +had been entrusted, crossed the frontier on November 21st, and marched up +the valley with great expedition. The inhabitants evinced friendliness, +bringing in live stock and provisions for sale. Reaching Habib Killa on +the morning of the 28th, he received a report that the Afghan force which +he knew to be opposed to him had abandoned its guns on the hither side of +the Peiwar Kotul, and was retreating in confusion over that summit. +Roberts promptly pushed forward in two columns. Building on the erroneous +information that the enemy were in a hollow trying to withdraw their +guns--in reality they were already in their entrenched position on the +summit of the Kotul--he ordered Cobbe's (the left) column to turn the +right of the supposed Afghan position, and debar the enemy from the +Kotul, while the other column (Thelwall's) was ordered to attack in +front, the object being to have the enemy between two fires. Cobbe's +leading regiment near the village of Turrai found its advance blocked by +precipices, and a withdrawal was ordered, the advantage having been +attained of forcing the enemy to disclose the position which he was +holding. Further reconnaissances proved that the Afghan line of defence +extended along the crest of a lofty and broken mountainous range from the +Spingawai summit on the left to the Peiwar Kotul on the right centre, the +right itself resting on commanding elevations a mile further south. The +position had a front in all of about four miles. It was afterwards +ascertained to have been held by about 3500 regulars and a large number +of tribal irregulars. General Roberts' force numbered about 3100 men. + +His scheme of operations he explained to his commanding officers on the +evening of December 1st. With the bulk of the force he himself was to +make a circuitous night march by his right on the Spingawai Kotul, with +the object of turning that position and taking the main Afghan position +on the Peiwar Kotul in reverse; while Brigadier Cobbe, with whom were to +remain the 8th (Queen's) and 5th Punjaub Infantry regiments, a cavalry +regiment and six guns, was instructed to assail the enemy's centre when +the result of the flank attack on his left should have made itself +apparent. + +The turning column, whose advance the General led in person, consisted of +the 29th N. I. (leading), 5th Goorkhas, and a mountain battery, all under +Colonel Gordon's command; followed by a wing of the 72d Highlanders, 2d +Punjaub Infantry, and 23d Pioneers, with four guns on elephants, under +Brigadier Thelwall. The arduous march began at ten P.M. Trending at first +rearward to the Peiwar village, the course followed was then to the +proper right, up the rugged and steep Spingawai ravine. In the darkness +part of Thelwall's force lost its way, and disappeared from ken. Further +on a couple of shots were fired by disaffected Pathans in the ranks of +the 29th N. I. That regiment was promptly deprived of the lead, which was +taken by the Goorkha regiment, and the column toiled on by a track +described by General Roberts as 'nothing but a mass of stones, heaped +into ridges and furrowed into deep hollows by the action of the water.' +Day had not broken when the head of the column reached the foot of the +steep ascent to the Spingawai Kotul. The Goorkhas and the 72d rushed +forward on the first stockade. It was carried without a pause save to +bayonet the defenders, and stockade after stockade was swept over in +rapid and brilliant succession. In half-an-hour General Roberts was in +full possession of the Spingawai defences, and the Afghan left flank was +not only turned but driven in. Cobbe was ordered by signal to co-operate +by pressing on his frontal attack; and Roberts himself hurried forward on +his enterprise of rolling up the Afghan left and shaking its centre. But +this proved no easy task. The Afghans made a good defence, and gave +ground reluctantly. They made a resolute stand on the further side of a +narrow deep-cut ravine, to dislodge them from which effort after effort +was ineffectually made. The General then determined to desist from +pressing this line of attack, and to make a second turning movement by +which he hoped to reach the rear of the Afghan centre. He led the 72d +wing, three native regiments, and ten guns, in a direction which should +enable him to threaten the line of the Afghan retreat. Brigadier Cobbe +since morning had been steadily although slowly climbing toward the front +of the Peiwar Kotul position. After an artillery duel which lasted for +three hours the Afghan fire was partially quelled; Cobbe's infantry +pushed on and up from ridge to ridge, and at length they reached a crest +within 800 yards of the guns on the Kotul, whence their rifle fire +compelled the Afghan gunners to abandon their batteries. Meanwhile +Roberts' second turning movement was developing, and the defenders of the +Kotul placed between two fires and their line of retreat compromised, +began to waver. Brigadier Cobbe had been wounded, but Colonel Drew led +forward his gallant youngsters of the 8th, and after toilsome climbing +they entered the Afghan position, which its defenders had just abandoned, +leaving many dead, eighteen guns, and a vast accumulation of stores and +ammunition. Colonel H. Gough pursued with his cavalry, and possessed +himself of several more guns which the Afghans had relinquished in their +precipitate flight. The decisive success of the Peiwar Kotul combat had +not cost heavily; the British losses were twenty-one killed and +seventy-two wounded. + +His sick and wounded sent back to Fort Kuram, General Roberts advanced to +Ali Khel, and thence made a reconnaissance forward to the Shutargurdan +Pass, whose summit is distant from Cabul little more than fifty miles. +Its height is great--upwards of 11,200 feet--but it was regarded as not +presenting serious obstacles to the advance by this route of a force from +the Kuram valley moving on Cabul. A misfortune befell the baggage guard +on one of the marches in the trans-Peiwar region when Captains Goad and +Powell lost their lives in a tribal onslaught. The somewhat chequered +experiences of General Roberts in the Khost valley need not be told in +detail. After some fighting and more marching he withdrew from that +turbulent region altogether, abjuring its pestilent tribesmen and all +their works. The Kuram force wintered in excellent health spite of the +rigorous climate, and toward the end of March 1879 its forward +concentration about Ali Kheyl was ordered, which was virtually +accomplished before the snow had melted from the passes in the later +weeks of April. Adequate transport had been got together and supplies +accumulated; Colonel Watson's contingent was occupying the posts along +the valley; and General Roberts was in full readiness promptly to obey +the orders to advance which he had been led to expect, and on which his +brother-general Sir Sam Browne had already acted to some extent. + +The march on Candahar of the two divisions under the command of General +Stewart had the character, for the most part, of a military promenade. +The tramp across the deserts of Northern Beloochistan was arduous; the +Bolan, the Gwaga, and the Kojuk passes had to be surmounted, and the +distances which both Biddulph and Stewart had to traverse were immensely +in excess of those covered by either of the forces operating from the +north-western frontier line. But uneventful marches, however long and +toilsome, do not call for detailed description. Stewart rode into +Candahar on January 8th, 1879, and the troops as they arrived encamped on +the adjacent plain. The Governor and most of his officials, together with +the Afghan cavalry, had fled toward Herat; the Deputy-Governor remained +to hand over the city to General Stewart. For commissariat reasons one +division under Stewart presently moved by the Cabul road on +Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which was found empty, the Afghan garrison having +evacuated it. Simultaneously with Stewart's departure from Candahar +Biddulph marched out a column westward toward the Helmund, remaining in +that region until the third week in February. On its return march to +Candahar the rear-guard had a sharp skirmish at Khushk-i-Nakhud with +Alizai tribesmen, of whom 163 were left dead on the field. Soon after the +return of Stewart and Biddulph to Candahar, orders arrived that the +former should retain in Candahar, Quetta, and Pishin a strong division of +all arms, sending back to India the remainder of his command under +Biddulph--the march to be made by the previously unexplored Thal-Chotiali +route to the eastward of the Pisheen valley. + +Before Sir Sam Browne moved forward from Jellalabad to Gundamuk he had +been able to report to the Viceroy the death of Shere Ali. That +unfortunate man had seen with despair the departure on December 10th of +the last Russian from Cabul--sure token that he need hope for nothing +from Kaufmann or the Tzar. His chiefs unanimous that further resistance +by him was hopeless, he released his son Yakoub Khan from his long harsh +imprisonment, constituted him Regent, and then followed the Russian +mission in the direction of Tashkend. Kaufmann would not so much as allow +him to cross the frontier, and after a painful illness Shere Ali died on +February 21st, 1879, near Balkh in northern Afghanistan. He was a man who +deserved a better fate than that which befell him. His aspiration was to +maintain the independence of the kingdom which he ruled with justice if +also with masterfulness, and he could not brook the degradation of +subjection. But, unfortunately for him, he was the 'earthen pipkin' which +the 'iron pot' found inconvenient. There had been plenty of manhood +originally in his son and successor Yakoub Khan, but much of that +attribute had withered in him during the long cruel imprisonment to which +he had been subjected by his father. Shere Ali's death made him nominal +master of Afghanistan, but the vigour of his youth-time no longer +characterised him. He reigned but did not rule, and how precarious was +his position was evidenced by the defection of many leading chiefs who +came into the English camps and were ready to make terms. + +After the flight of Shere Ali some correspondence had passed between +Yakoub Khan and Major Cavagnari, but the former had not expressed any +willingness for the re-establishment of friendly relations. In February +of his own accord he made overtures for a reconciliation, and soon after +intimated the death of his father and his own accession to the Afghan +throne. Major Cavagnari, acting on the Viceroy's authorisation, wrote to +the new sovereign stating the terms on which the Anglo-Indian Government +was prepared to engage in negotiations for peace. Yakoub temporised for +some time, but influenced by the growing defection of the Sirdars from +his cause, as well as by the forward movements of the forces commanded by +Browne and Roberts, he intimated his intention of visiting Gundamuk in +order to discuss matters in personal conference with Major Cavagnari. A +fortnight later he was on his way down the passes. + +Instructions had been given by the Viceroy that Yakoub Khan should be +received in the British camp with all honour and distinction. When his +approach was announced on May 8th, Cavagnari and a number of British +officers rode out to meet him; when he reached the camp, a royal salute +greeted him, a guard of honour presented arms, and Sir Sam Browne and his +staff gave him a ceremonious welcome. Cavagnari had full powers to +represent his Government in the pending negotiations, as to the terms of +which he had received from the Viceroy detailed instructions. The Ameer +and his General-in-Chief, Daoud Shah, came to the conference attired in +Russian uniforms. The negotiations were tedious, for the Ameer, his +Minister, and his General made difficulties with a somewhat elaborate +stupidity, but Cavagnari as a diplomatist possessed the gift of being at +once patient and firm; and at length on May 26th the treaty of peace was +signed, and formally ratified by the Viceroy four days later. By the +treaty of Gundamuk Afghanistan was deprived for the time of its +traditional character of a 'buffer state,' and its Ameer became virtually +a feudatory of the British Crown. He was no longer an independent prince; +although his titular rank and a nominal sovereignty remained to him, his +position under its articles was to be analogous to that of the mediatised +princes of the German Empire. The treaty vested in the British Government +the control of the external relations of Afghanistan. The Ameer consented +to the residence of British Agents within his dominions, guaranteeing +their safety and honourable treatment, while the British Government +undertook that its representatives should not interfere with the internal +administration of the country. The districts of Pisheen, Kuram, and Sibi +were ceded to the British Government along with the permanent control of +the Khyber and Michnai passes, and of the mountain tribes inhabiting the +vicinity of those passes; all other Afghan territory in British +occupation was to be restored. The obligations to which the treaty +committed the British Government were that it should support the Ameer +against foreign aggression with arms, money, or troops at its discretion, +and that it should pay to him and his successor an annual subsidy of +£60,000. Commercial relations between India and Afghanistan were to be +protected and encouraged; a telegraph line between Cabul and the Kuram +was forthwith to be constructed; and the Ameer was to proclaim an amnesty +relieving all and sundry of his subjects from punishment for services +rendered to the British during the war. + +That the treaty of Gundamuk involved our Indian Empire in serious +responsibilities is obvious, and those responsibilities were the more +serious that they were vague and indefinite, yet none the less binding on +this account. It is probable that its provisions, if they had remained in +force, would have been found in the long run injurious to the interests +of British India. For that realm Afghanistan has the value that its +ruggedness presents exceptional obstacles to the march through it of +hostile armies having the Indian frontier for their objective, and this +further and yet more important value that the Afghans by nature are frank +and impartial Ishmaelites, their hands against all foreigners alike, no +matter of what nationality. If this character be impaired, what virtue +the Afghan has in our eyes is lost. In his implacable passion for +independence, in his fierce intolerance of the Feringhee intruder, he +fulfils in relation to our Indian frontier a kindred office to that +served by abattis, _cheveux de frise,_ and wire entanglements in front of +a military position. The short-lived treaty, for which the sanguine Mr +Stanhope claimed that it had gained for England 'a friendly, an +independent, and a strong Afghanistan,' may now be chiefly remembered +because of the circumstance that it gave effect for the moment to Lord +Beaconsfield's 'scientific frontier.' + +The withdrawal of the two northern forces to positions within the new +frontier began immediately on the ratification of the treaty of Gundamuk, +the evacuation of Candahar being postponed for sanitary reasons until +autumn. The march of Sir Sam Browne's force from the breezy upland of +Gundamuk down the passes to Peshawur, made as it was in the fierce heat +of midsummer through a region of bad name for insalubrity, and pervaded +also by virulent cholera, was a ghastly journey. That melancholy +pilgrimage, every halting-place in whose course was marked by graves, and +from which the living emerged 'gaunt and haggard, marching with a +listless air, their clothing stiff with dried perspiration, their faces +thick with a mud of dust and sweat through which their red bloodshot eyes +looked forth, many suffering from heat prostration,' dwells in the memory +of British India as the 'death march,' and its horrors have been +recounted in vivid and pathetic words by Surgeon-Major Evatt, one of the +few medical officers whom, participating in it, it did not kill. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + +There were many who mistrusted the stability of the treaty of Gundamuk. +Perhaps in his heart Sir Louis Cavagnari may have had his misgivings, for +he was gifted with shrewd insight, and no man knew the Afghan nature +better; but outwardly, in his quiet, resolute manner, he professed the +fullest confidence. Cavagnari was a remarkable man. Italian and Irish +blood commingled in his veins. Both strains carry the attributes of +vivacity and restlessness, but Cavagnari to the superficial observer +appeared as phlegmatic as he was habitually taciturn. This sententious +imperturbability was only on the surface; whether it was a natural +characteristic or an acquired manner is not easy to decide. Below the +surface of measured reticent composure there lay a temperament of ardent +enthusiasm, and not less ardent ambition. In subtlety he was a match for +the wiliest Oriental, whom face to face he dominated with a placid +dauntless masterfulness that was all his own. The wild hill tribes among +whom he went about escortless, carrying his life continually in his hand, +recognised the complex strength of his personal sway, and feared at once +and loved the quiet, firm man, the flash of whose eye was sometimes +ominous, but who could cow the fiercest hillman without losing a tittle +of his cool composure. + +[Illustration: _From a Photograph by Bourne & Shepherd: Sir Louis +Cavagnari and Sirdars_] + +Cavagnari had negotiated the treaty of Gundamuk, the real importance of +which consisted in the Afghan acceptance of a British Resident at Cabul. +The honour, the duty, and the danger naturally fell to him of being the +first occupant of a post created mainly by his own mingled tact and +strength. Many of his friends regarded him in the light of the leader of +a forlorn hope, and probably Cavagnari recognised with perfect clearness +the risks which encompassed his embassy; but apart from mayhap a little +added gravity in his leave-takings when he quitted Simla, he gave no +sign. It was not a very imposing mission at whose head he rode into the +Balla Hissar of Cabul on July 24th, 1879. His companions were his +secretary, Mr William Jenkins, a young Scotsman of the Punjaub Civil +Service, Dr Ambrose Kelly, the medical officer of the embassy, and the +gallant, stalwart young Lieutenant W. R. P. Hamilton, V.C., commanding +the modest escort of seventy-five soldiers of the Guides. It was held +that an escort so scanty was sufficient, since the Ameer had pledged +himself personally for the safety and protection of the mission. The +Envoy was received with high honour, and conducted to the roomy quarters +in the Balla Hissar which had been prepared as the Residency, within easy +distance of the Ameer's palace. Unquestionably the mission was welcome +neither to the Afghan ruler nor to the people, but Cavagnari, writing to +the Viceroy, made the best of things. The arrival at the adjacent Sherpur +cantonments of the Herat regiments in the beginning of August was +extremely unfortunate for the mission. Those troops had been inspired by +their commander Ayoub Khan with intense hatred to the English, and they +marched through the Cabul streets shouting objurgations against the +British Envoy, and picking quarrels with the soldiers of his escort. A +pensioned sepoy who had learned that the Afghan troops had been ordered +to abuse the Eltchi, warned Cavagnari of the danger signals. Cavagnari's +calm remark was, 'Dogs that bark don't bite.' The old soldier earnestly +urged, 'But these dogs do bite, and there is danger.' 'Well,' said +Cavagnari, 'they can only kill the handful of us here, and our death will +be avenged.' The days passed, and it seemed that Cavagnari's diagnosis of +the situation was the accurate one. The last words of his last message to +the Viceroy, despatched on September 2d, were 'All well.' The writer of +those words was a dead man, and his mission had perished with him, almost +as soon as the cheerful message borne along the telegraph wires reached +its destination. + +In the morning of September 3d some Afghan regiments paraded without arms +in the Balla Hissar to receive their pay. An instalment was paid, but the +soldiers clamoured for arrears due. The demand was refused, a riot began, +and the shout rose that the British Eltchi might prove a free-handed +paymaster. There was a rush toward the Residency, and while some of the +Afghan soldiers resorted to stone-throwing, others ran for arms to their +quarters, and looted the Arsenal in the upper Balla Hissar. The Residency +gates had been closed on the first alarm, and fire was promptly opened on +the rabble. The place was never intended for defence, commanded as it was +at close range from the higher level of the Arsenal, whence a heavy +continuous fire was from the first poured down. The mob of the city in +their thousands hurried to co-operate with the mutinied soldiers and +share in the spoils of the sack, so that the Residency was soon besieged. +As soon as the outbreak manifested itself Cavagnari had sent a message to +the Ameer, and the communication admittedly reached the latter's hands. +He had more than 2000 troops in the Balla Hissar, still at least +nominally loyal; he had guaranteed the protection of the mission, and it +behoved him to do what in him lay to fulfil his pledge. But the Ameer sat +supine in his palace, doing no more than send his General-in-Chief Daoud +Shah to remonstrate with the insurgents. Daoud Shah went on the errand, +but it is questionable whether he showed any energy, or indeed desired +that the besiegers should desist. It was claimed by and for him that he +was maltreated and indeed wounded by the mob, and it appears that he did +ride into the throng and was forcibly dismounted. He might perhaps have +exerted himself with greater determination if he had received more +specific orders from his master the Ameer. That feeble or treacherous +prince never stirred. To the frequent urgent messages sent him by +Lieutenant Hamilton, he replied vaguely: 'As God wills; I am making +preparations.' Meanwhile the little garrison maintained with gallant +staunchness hour after hour the all but hopeless defence.' While the +fighting was going on,' reported the pensioner who had previously warned +Cavagnari, 'I myself saw the four European officers charge out at the +head of some twenty-five of the garrison; they drove away a party holding +some broken ground. When chased, the Afghan soldiers ran like sheep +before a wolf. Later, another sally was made by a detachment, with but +three officers at their head. Cavagnari was not with them this time. A +third sally was made with only two officers leading, Hamilton and +Jenkins; and the last of the sallies was made by a Sikh Jemadar bravely +leading. No more sallies were made after this.' About noon the gates were +forced, and the Residency building was fired; but the defenders long +maintained their position on the roof and in a detached building. At +length the fire did its work, the walls and roof fell in, and soon the +fell deed was consummated by the slaughter of the last survivors of the +ill-fated garrison. Hamilton was said to have died sword in hand in a +final desperate charge. Tidings of the massacre were carried with great +speed to Massy's outposts in the Kuram valley. The news reached Simla by +telegraph early on the morning of the 5th. The authorities there rallied +from the shock with fine purposeful promptitude, and within a few hours a +telegram was on its way to General Massy's headquarters at Ali Khel +instructing him to occupy the crest of the Shutargurdan Pass with two +infantry regiments and a mountain battery, which force was to entrench +itself there and await orders. + +The policy of which Lord Lytton was the figurehead had come down with a +bloody crash, and the 'masterly inactivity' of wise John Lawrence stood +vindicated in the eyes of Europe and of Asia. But if his policy had gone +to water, the Viceroy, although he was soon to default from the constancy +of his purpose, saw for the present clear before him the duty that now in +its stead lay upon him of inflicting summary punishment on a people who +had ruthlessly violated the sacred immunity from harm that shields alike +among civilised and barbarous communities the person and suite of an +ambassador accepted under the provisions of a deliberate treaty. Burnes +and Macnaghten had met their fate because they had gone to Cabul the +supporters of a detested intruder and the unwelcome representatives of a +hated power. But Cavagnari had been slaughtered notwithstanding that he +dwelt in the Balla Hissar Residency in virtue of a solemn treaty between +the Empress of India and the Ameer of Afghanistan, notwithstanding that +the latter had guaranteed him safety and protection, notwithstanding that +Britain and Afghanistan had ratified a pledge of mutual friendship and +reciprocal good offices. Lord Lytton recognised, at least for the moment, +that no consideration of present expediency or of ulterior policy could +intervene to deter him from the urgent imperative duty which now suddenly +confronted him. The task, it was true, was beset with difficulties and +dangers. The forces on the north-western frontier had been reduced to a +peace footing, and the transport for economical reasons had been severely +cut down. The bitter Afghan winter season was approaching, during which +military operations could be conducted only under extremely arduous +conditions, and when the line of communications would be liable to +serious interruptions, The available troops for a prompt offensive did +not amount to more than 6500 men all told, and it was apparent that many +circumstances might postpone their reinforcement. + +When men are in earnest, difficulties and dangers are recognised only to +be coped with and overcome. When the Simla council of war broke up on the +afternoon of September 5th the plan of campaign had been settled, and the +leader of the enterprise had been chosen. Sir Frederick Roberts was +already deservedly esteemed one of the most brilliant soldiers of the +British army. He had fought with distinction all through the Great +Mutiny, earning the Victoria Cross and rapid promotion; he had served in +the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, and been chosen by Napier to carry home +his final despatches; and he had worthily shared in the toil, fighting, +and honours of the Umbeyla and Looshai expeditions. In his command of the +Kuram field force during the winter of 1878-9 he had proved himself a +skilful, resolute, and vigorous leader. The officers and men who served +under him believed in him enthusiastically, and, what with soldiers is +the convincing assurance of whole-souled confidence, they had bestowed on +him an affectionate nickname--they knew him among themselves as 'little +Bobs.' His administrative capacity he had proved in the post of +Quartermaster-General in India. Ripe in experience of war, Roberts at the +age of forty-seven was in the full vigour of manhood, alert in mind, and +of tough and enduring physique. He was a very junior Major-General, but +even among his seniors the conviction was general that Lord Lytton the +Viceroy, and Sir F. Haines the Commander-in-Chief, acted wisely in +entrusting to him the most active command in the impending campaign. + +Our retention of the Kuram valley was to prove very useful in the +emergency which had suddenly occurred. Its occupation enabled Massy to +seize and hold the Shutargurdan, and the force in the valley was to +constitute the nucleus of the little army of invasion and retribution to +the command of which Sir Frederick Roberts was appointed. The apex at the +Shutargurdan of the salient angle into Afghanistan which our possession +of the Kuram valley furnished was within little more than fifty miles of +Cabul, whereas the distance of that city from Lundi Kotul, our advanced +position at the head of the Khyber Pass, was about 140 miles, and the +route exceptionally difficult. Roberts' column of invasion was to consist +of a cavalry brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Dunham-Massy, and of +two infantry brigades, the first commanded by Brigadier-General +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General Baker, three batteries of +artillery, a company of sappers and miners, and two Gatling guns. The +Kuram valley between the Shutargurdan and the base was to be garrisoned +adequately by a force about 4000 strong, in protection of Roberts' +communications by that line until snow should close it, by which time it +was anticipated that communication by the Khyber-Jellalabad-Gundamuk line +would be opened up, for gaining and maintaining which a force of about +6600 men was to be detailed under the command of Major-General Bright, +which was to furnish a movable column to establish communications onward +to Cabul. A strong reserve force was to be gathered between Peshawur and +Rawal Pindi under the command of Major-General Ross, to move forward as +occasion might require, in the south-west Sir Donald Stewart was to +recall to Candahar his troops, which, having begun their march toward +India, were now mainly echeloned along the route to Quetta, when that +General would have about 9000 men at his disposition to dominate the +Candahar province, reoccupy Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and threaten Ghuznee, his +communications with the Indus being kept open by a brigade of Bombay +troops commanded by Brigadier-General Phayre. + +Sir Frederick Roberts left Simla on ET September along with Colonel +Charles Macgregor, C.B., the brilliant and daring soldier whom he had +chosen as chief of staff, and travelling night and day they reached Ali +Khel on the 12th. The transport and supply difficulty had to be promptly +met, and this was effected only by making a clean sweep of all the +resources of the Peshawur district, greatly but unavoidably to the +hindrance of the advance of the Khyber column, and by procuring carriage +and supplies from the friendly tribes of the Kuram. Notwithstanding the +most strenuous exertions it was not until the 1st October that Roberts' +little army, having crossed the Shutargurdan by detachments, was +rendezvoused at and about the village of Kushi in the Logur plain, within +forty-eight miles of Cabul. Some sharp skirmishes had been fought as the +troops traversed the rugged ground between Ali Khel and the Shutargurdan, +but the losses were trivial, although the General himself had a narrow +escape. A couple of regiments and four guns under the command of Colonel +Money were left in an entrenched camp to hold the Shutargurdan. + +The massacre of the British mission had no sooner been perpetrated than +Yakoub Khan found himself in a very bad way. The Cabul Sirdars sided with +the disaffected soldiery, and urged the Ameer to raise his banner for a +_jehad_ or religious war, a measure for which he had no nerve. Nor had he +the nerve to remain in Cabul until Roberts should camp under the Balla +Hissar and demand of him an account of the stewardship he had undertaken +on behalf of the ill-fated Cavagnari. What reasons actuated the anxious +and bewildered man cannot precisely be known; whether he was simply +solicitous for his own wretched skin, whether he acted from a wish to +save Cabul from destruction, or whether he hoped that his entreaties for +delay might stay the British advance until the tribesmen should gather to +bar the road to the capital. He resolved to fly from Cabul, and commit +himself to the protection of General Roberts and his army. The day before +General Roberts arrived at Kushi the Ameer presented himself in Baker's +camp, accompanied by his eldest son and some of his Sirdars, among whom +was Daoud Shah the Commander-in-Chief of his army. Sir Frederick on his +arrival at Kushi paid a formal visit to the Ameer, which the latter +returned the same afternoon and took occasion to plead that the General +should delay his advance. The reply was that not even for a single day +would Sir Frederick defer his march on Cabul. The Ameer remained in camp, +his personal safety carefully protected, but under a species of +honourable surveillance, until it should be ascertained judicially +whether or not he was implicated in the massacre of the mission. + +Yakoub had intimated his intention of presenting himself in the British +camp some days in advance of his arrival, and as telegraphic +communication with headquarters was open, his acceptance in the character +of an honoured guest was presumably in accordance with instructions from +Simla. The man who had made himself personally responsible for the safety +of Cavagnari's mission was a strange guest with an army whose avowed +errand was to exact retribution for the crime of its destruction. It +might seem not unreasonable to expect that, as an indispensable +preliminary to his entertainment, he should have at least afforded some +_prima facie_ evidence that he had been zealous to avert the fate which +had befallen the mission, and stern in the punishment of an atrocity +which touched him so nearly. But instead, he was taken on trust so fully +that Afghans resisting the British advance were not so much regarded as +enemies resisting an invasion and as constructive vindicators of the +massacre, as they were held traitors to their sovereign harbouring in the +British camp. + +On the morning of October 2d the whole force marched from Kushi toward +Cabul, temporarily cutting loose from communication with the +Shutargurdan, to avoid diminishing the strength of the column by leaving +detachments to keep the road open. All told, Roberts' army was the +reverse of a mighty host. Its strength was little greater than that of a +Prussian brigade on a war footing. Its fate was in its own hands, for +befall it what might it could hope for no timely reinforcement. It was a +mere detachment marching against a nation of fighting men plentifully +supplied with artillery, no longer shooting laboriously with jezails, but +carrying arms of precision equal or little inferior to those in the hands +of our own soldiery. But the men, Europeans and Easterns, hillmen of +Scotland and hillmen of Nepaul, plainmen of Hampshire and plainmen of the +Punjaub, strode along buoyant with confidence and with health, believing +in their leader, in their discipline, in themselves. Of varied race, no +soldier who followed Roberts but came of fighting stock; ever blithely +rejoicing in the combat, one and all burned for the strife now before +them with more than wonted ardour, because of the opportunity it promised +to exact vengeance for a deed of foul treachery. + +The soldiers had not long to wait for the first fight of the campaign. On +the afternoon of the 5th Baker's brigade, with most of the cavalry and +artillery, and with the 92d Highlanders belonging to Macpherson's +brigade, camped on the plain to the south of the village of Charasiah, +Macpherson remaining one march in rear to escort the convoy of ammunition +and stores. North of Charasiah rises a semicircular curtain of hills +ascending in three successive tiers, the most distant and loftiest range +closing in the horizon and shutting out the view of Cabul, distant only +about eleven miles. The leftward projection of the curtain, as one looks +northward, comes down into the plain almost as far as and somewhat to the +left of Charasiah, dividing the valley of Charasiah from the outer plain +of Chardeh. To the right front of Charasiah, distant from it about three +miles, the range is cleft by the rugged and narrow Sung-i-Nawishta Pass, +through which run the Logur river and the direct road to Cabul by Beni +Hissar. Information had been received that the Afghans were determined on +a resolute attempt to prevent the British force from reaching Cabul, and +the position beyond Charasiah seemed so tempting that it was regarded as +surprising that cavalry reconnaissances sent forward on three distinct +roads detected no evidences of any large hostile gathering. + +But next morning 'showed another sight.' At dawn on the 6th General +Roberts, anxious to secure the Sung-i-Nawishta Pass and to render the +track through it passable for guns, sent forward his pioneer battalion +with a wing of the 92d and two mountain guns. That detachment had gone +out no great distance when the spectacle before it gave it pause. From +the Sung-i-Nawishta defile, both sides of which were held, the +semicircular sweep of the hill-crests was crowned by an Afghan host in +great strength and regular formation. According to subsequent information +no fewer than thirteen regiments of the Afghan regular army took part in +the combat, as well as large contingents of irregular fighting men from +Cabul and the adjoining villages, while the British camp was threatened +from the heights on either side by formidable bodies of tribesmen, to +thwart whose obviously intended attack on it a considerable force had to +be retained. The dispositions of the Afghan commander Nek Mahomed Khan +were made with some tactical skill. The Sung-i-Nawishta Pass itself, the +heights on either side, and a low detached eminence further forward, were +strongly held by Afghan infantry; in the mouth of the pass were four +Armstrong guns, and on the flanking height twelve mountain guns were in +position. The projecting spur toward Charasiah which was the extreme +right of the Afghan position, was held in force, whence an effective fire +would bear on the left flank of a force advancing to a direct attack on +the pass. But Roberts was not the man to play into the hands of the +Afghan tactician. He humoured his conception so far as to send forward on +his right toward the pass, a small detachment of all arms under Major +White of the 92d, with instructions to maintain a threatening attitude in +that direction, and to seize the opportunity to co-operate with the +flanking movement entrusted to General Baker as soon as its development +should have shaken the constancy of the enemy. To Baker with about 2000 +infantry and four guns, was assigned the task of attacking the Afghan +right on the projecting spur and ridge, forcing back and dispersing that +flank; and then, having reached the right of the Afghan main position on +the farthest and loftiest range, he was to wheel to his right and sweep +its defenders from the chain of summits. + +Baker moved out toward his left front against the eminences held by the +Afghan right wing, which Nek Mahomed, having discerned the character of +Roberts' tactics, was now reinforcing with great activity. The 72d +Highlanders led the attack, supported vigorously by the 5th Goorkhas and +the 5th Punjaub Infantry. The resistance of the Afghans was stubborn, +especially opposite our extreme left, whence from behind their sungahs on +a steep hill they poured a heavy fire on the assailants. A yet heavier +fire came from a detached knoll on Baker's right, which the artillery +fire gradually beat down. The Afghans continued to hold the advanced +ridge constituting their first position until two o'clock, when a direct +attack, accompanied by a double flanking fire, compelled their +withdrawal. They, however, fell back only to an intermediate loftier +position about 700 yards in rear of the ridge from which they had been +driven. Approached by successive rushes under cover-of artillery fire, +they were then attacked vigorously and fell back in confusion. No rally +was permitted them, and by three o'clock the whole Afghan right was +shattered and in full flight along the edge of the Chardeh valley. Baker +unfortunately had no cavalry, else the fugitives would have suffered +severely. But the rout of the Afghan right had decided the fortune of the +day. Its defenders were already dribbling away from the main position +when Baker, wheeling to his right, marched along the lofty crest, rolling +up and sweeping away the Afghan defence as he moved toward the +Sung-i-Nawishta gorge. That defile had already been entered by the +cavalry of White's detachment, supported by some infantry. While Baker +had been turning the Afghan right, White and his little force had been +distinguishing themselves not a little. After an artillery preparation +the detached hill had been won as the result of a hand-to-hand struggle. +Later had fallen into the hands of White's people all the Afghan guns, +and the heights to the immediate right and left of the gorge had been +carried, the defenders driven away, and the pass opened up. But the +progress through it of the cavalry was arrested by a strongly garrisoned +fort completely commanding the road. On this fort Baker directed his +artillery fire, at the same time sending down two infantry regiments to +clear away the remnants of the Afghan army still lingering in the pass. +This accomplished, the fighting ceased. It had been a satisfactory day. +Less than half of Roberts' force had been engaged, and this mere brigade +had routed the army of Cabul and captured the whole of the artillery it +had brought into the field. The Afghan loss was estimated at about 300 +killed. The British loss was twenty killed and sixty-seven wounded. On +the night of the combat part of Baker's troops bivouacked beyond the +Sung-i-Nawishta, and on the following day the whole division passed the +defile and camped at Beni Hissar, within sight of the Balla Hissar and +the lofty ridge overhanging Cabul. + +On the afternoon of the 7th a violent explosion was heard in the Beni +Hissar camp from the direction of the Sherpur cantonment north of Cabul, +near the site of the British cantonments of 1839-41. Next morning +information came in that the Sherpur magazine had been blown up, and that +the cantonment had been abandoned by the Afghan regiments which had +garrisoned that vast unfinished structure. General Massy led out part of +his brigade on a reconnaissance, and took possession of the deserted +Sherpur cantonment, and of the seventy-five pieces of ordnance parked +within the walls. Massy had observed from the Siah Sung heights that the +Asmai heights, overhanging the Cabul suburb of Deh Afghan, were held by a +large body of Afghan soldiery, a force, it was afterwards learned, +composed of the remnants of the regiments defeated at Charasiah, three +fresh regiments from the Kohistan, and the rabble of the city and +adjacent villages, having a total strength of nearly 3000 men, with +twelve guns, under the leadership of Mahomed Jan, who later was to figure +prominently as the ablest of our Afghan enemies. Massy heliographed his +information to General Roberts, who sent Baker with a force to drive the +enemy from the heights; and Massy was instructed to pass through a gap in +the ridge and gain the Chardeh valley, where he might find opportunity to +intercept the Afghan retreat toward the west. Massy pierced the ridge at +the village of Aushar, and disposed his troops on the roads crossing the +Chardeh valley. Meanwhile Baker found the ascent of the Sher Derwaza +heights so steep that the afternoon was far spent before his guns came +into action, and it was still later before part of his infantry effected +their descent into the Chardeh valley. Reinforcements necessary to enable +him to act did not reach him until dusk, when it would have been folly to +commit himself to an attack. A night patrol ascertained that the Afghans +had evacuated the position under cover of darkness, leaving behind their +guns and camp equipage. On the 9th the divisional camp moved forward to +the Siah Sung heights, a mile eastward from the Balla Hissar, and there +it was joined by Baker, and by Massy, who on his way to camp led his +wearied troopers through the city of Cabul without mishap or insult. The +Goorkha regiment was detached to hold the ridge commanding the Balla +Hissar, and a cavalry regiment was quartered in the Sherpur cantonment to +protect it from the ravages of the villagers. + +A melancholy interest attaches to the visit paid by Sir Frederick Roberts +to the Balla Hissar on the 11th. Through the dirt and squalor of the +lower portion he ascended the narrow lane leading to the ruin which a few +weeks earlier had been the British Residency. The commander of the +avenging army looked with sorrowful eyes on the scene of heroism and +slaughter, on the smoke-blackened walls, the blood splashes on the +whitewashed walls, the still smouldering debris, the half-burned skulls +and bones in the blood-dabbled chamber where apparently the final +struggle had been fought out. He stood in the great breach in the +quarters of the Guides where the gate had been blown in after the last of +the sorties made by the gallant Hamilton, and lingered in the tattered +wreck of poor Cavagnari's drawing-room, its walls dinted with +bullet-pits, its floor and walls brutally defiled. Next day he made a +formal entry into the Balla Hissar, his road lined with his staunch +troops, a royal salute greeting the banner of Britain as it rose on the +tall flagstaff above the gateway. He held a Durbar in the 'Audience +Chamber' in the garden of the Ameer's palace; in front and in flank of +him the pushing throng of obsequious Sirdars of Cabul arrayed in all the +colours of the rainbow; behind them, standing immobile at attention, the +guard of British infantry with fixed bayonets which the soldiers longed +to use. The General read the mild proclamation announcing the disarmament +of the Cabulese and the punishment of fine which was laid upon the city, +but which never was exacted. And then he summarily dismissed the Sirdars, +three only, the Mustaphi, Yahuja Khan the Ameer's father-in-law, and +Zakariah Khan his brother, being desired to remain. Their smug +complacency was suddenly changed into dismay when they were abruptly told +that they were prisoners. + +Another ceremonial progress the General had to perform. On the 13th he +marched through the streets of Cabul at the head of his little army, the +bazaars and dead walls echoing to the music of the bands and the wild +scream of the bagpipes. In the Afghan quarter no salaams greeted the +conquering Feringhees, and scowling faces frowned on the spectacle from +windows and side-streets. Three days later occurred an event which might +have been a great catastrophe. Captain Shafto of the ordnance was +conducting an examination into the contents of the arsenal in the upper +Balla Hissar, and had already discovered millions of cartridges, and +about 150,000 lbs. of gunpowder. Daoud Shah, however, expressed his +belief that at least a million pounds were in store. Captain Shafto, a +very cautious man, was pursuing his researches; the Goorkhas were +quartered in the upper Balla Hissar near the magazine shed, and the 67th +occupied the Ameer's garden lower down. On the 16th a dull report was +heard in the Siah Sung camp, followed immediately by the rising above the +Balla Hissar of a huge column of grey smoke, which as it drifted away +disclosed flashes of flame and sudden jets of smoke telling of repeated +gunpowder explosions. The 67th, powdered with dust, escaped all but +scathless; but the Goorkha regiment had been heavily smitten. Twelve poor +fellows were killed, and seven wounded; among the former were five +principal Goorkha officers. + +The Balla Hissar was promptly evacuated. Occasional explosions occurred +for several days, the heaviest of those on the afternoon of the 16th, +which threw on the city a great shower of stones, beams, and bullets. By +a jet of stones blown out through the Balla Hissar gate four Afghans were +killed, and two sowars and an Afghan badly hurt. Captain Shafto's body +and the remains of the Goorkhas were found later, and buried; and the +determination was formed to have no more to do with the Balla Hissar, but +to occupy the Sherpur cantonment. Meanwhile General Hugh Gough was +despatched with a small force of all arms to escort to Cabul Money's +gallant garrison of the Shutargurdan, and to close for the winter the +line of communication _via_ the Kuram valley. Colonel Money had undergone +with fine soldierly spirit and action not a few turbulent experiences +since Roberts had left him and his Sikhs on the lofty crest of the +Shutargurdan. The truculent Ghilzais gave him no peace; his method of +dealing with them was for the most part with the bayonet point. The last +attempt on him was made by a horde of Ghilzais some 17,000 strong, who +completely invested his camp, and after the civility of requesting him to +surrender, a compliment which he answered by bullets, made a close and +determined attack on his position. This was on the 18th October; on the +following day Gough heliographed his arrival at Kushi, whereupon Money +took the offensive with vigour and scattered to the winds his Ghilzai +assailants. On 30th October the Shutargurdan position was evacuated, and +on the 3d November the Cabul force received the welcome accession of +headquarters and two squadrons 9th Lancers, Money's 3d Sikhs, and four +mountain guns. + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + +Sir Frederick Roberts had been hurried forward on Cabul charged with the +duty of avenging the perpetration of a foul and treacherous crime, 'which +had brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan nation.' The scriptural +injunction to turn the other cheek to the smiter has not yet become a +canon of international law or practice; and the anti-climax to an +expedition engaged in with so stern a purpose, of a nominal disarmament +and a petty fine never exacted, is self-evident. Our nation is given to +walk in the path of precedent; and in this juncture the authorities had +to their hand the most apposite of precedents. Pollock, by destroying the +Char bazaar in which had been exposed the mangled remains of Burnes and +Macnaghten, set a 'mark' on Cabul the memory of which had lasted for +decades. Cavagnari and his people had been slaughtered in the Balla +Hissar, and their bones were still mingled with the smouldering ruins of +the Residency. Wise men discerned that the destruction of the fortress +followed by a homeward march as swift yet as measured as had been the +march of invasion, could not but have made a deep and lasting impression +on the Afghans; while the complications, humiliations, and expense of the +long futile occupation would have been obviated. Other counsels +prevailed. To discover, in a nation virtually accessory as a whole after +the fact to the slaughter of the mission, the men on whom lay the +suspicion of having been the instigators and the perpetrators of the +cruel deed, to accord them a fair trial, and to send to the gallows those +on whose hands was found the blood of the massacred mission, was held a +more befitting and not less telling course of retributive action than to +raze the Balla Hissar and sow its site with salt. Skilfully and patiently +evidence was gathered, and submitted to the Military Commission which +General Roberts had appointed. This tribunal took cognisance of crimes +nominally of two classes. It tried men who were accused of having been +concerned in the destruction of the British mission, and those charged +with treason in having offered armed resistance to the British troops +acting in support of the Ameer, who had put himself under their +protection. Of the five prisoners first tried, condemned, and duly +hanged, two were signal criminals. One of them, the Kotwal or Mayor of +Cabul, was proved to have superintended the contumelious throwing of the +bodies of the slaughtered Guides of the mission escort into the ditch of +the Balla Hissar. Another was proved to have carried away from the +wrecked Residency a head believed to have been Cavagnari's, and to have +exhibited it on the ridge above the city. The other three and many of +those who were subsequently executed, suffered for the crime of 'treason' +against Yakoub Khan. Probably there was no Afghan who did not approve of +the slaughter of the Envoy, and who would not in his heart have rejoiced +at the annihilation of the British force; but it seems strange law and +stranger justice to hang men for 'treason' against a Sovereign who had +gone over to the enemy. On the curious expedient of temporarily governing +in the name of an Ameer who had deserted his post to save his skin, +comment would be superfluous. Executions continued; few, however, of the +mutinous sepoys who actually took part in the wanton attack on the +British Residency had been secured, and it was judged expedient that +efforts should be made to capture and punish those against whom there was +evidence of that crime, in the shape of the muster-rolls of the regiments +now in the possession of the military authorities. It was known that many +of the disbanded and fugitive soldiers had returned to their homes in the +villages around Cabul, and early in November General Baker took out a +force and suddenly encircled the village of Indikee, on the edge of the +Chardeh valley--a village reported full of Afghan sepoys. A number of men +were brought out by the scared headmen and handed over, answering to +their names called over from a list carried by Baker; and other villages +in the vicinity yielded a considerable harvest of disbanded soldiers. +Before the Commission the prisoners made no attempt to conceal their +names, or deny the regiments to which they had belonged; and forty-nine +of them were found guilty and hanged, nearly all of whom belonged to the +regiments that had assailed the Residency. + +On 12th November Sir Frederick Roberts proclaimed an amnesty in favour of +all who had fought against the British troops, on condition that they +should surrender their arms and return to their homes; but exempted from +the benefit were all concerned in the attack on the Residency. The +amnesty was well timed, although most people would have preferred that +fewer sepoys and more Sirdars should have been hanged. + +Our relations with the Ameer during the earlier part of his residence in +the British camp were not a little peculiar. Nominally he was our guest, +and a certain freedom was accorded to him and his retinue. There was no +doubt that the Sirdars of the Ameer's suite grossly abused their +privileges. Whether with Yakoub Khan's cognisance or not, they authorised +the use of his name by the insurgent leaders. Nek Mahomed, the insurgent +commander at Charasiah, was actually in the tents of the Ameer on the +evening before the fight. To all appearance our operations continued to +have for their ultimate object the restoration of Yakoub Khan to his +throne. Our administrative measures were carried on in his name. The +hostile Afghans we designated as rebels against his rule; and his +authority was proclaimed as the justification of much of our conduct. But +the situation gradually became intolerable to Yakoub Khan. He was a guest +in the British camp, but he was also in a species of custody. Should our +arms reinstate him, he could not hope to hold his throne. His harassed +perplexity came to a crisis on the morning of the 12th October, the day +of General Roberts' durbar in the Balla Hissar, which he had been desired +to attend. What he specifically apprehended is unknown; what he did was +to tell General Roberts, with great excitement, that he would not go to +the durbar, that his life was too miserable for long endurance, that he +would rather be a grass-cutter in the British camp than remain Ameer of +Afghanistan. He was firmly resolved to resign the throne, and begged that +he might be allowed to do so at once. General Roberts explained that the +acceptance of his resignation rested not with him but with the Viceroy, +pending whose decision matters, the General desired, should remain as +they were, affairs continuing to be conducted in the Ameer's name as +before. To this the Ameer consented; his tents were moved to the vicinity +of General Roberts' headquarters, and a somewhat closer surveillance over +him was maintained. + +Secrecy meanwhile was preserved until the Viceroy's reply should arrive. +The nature of that reply was intimated by the proclamation which General +Roberts issued on the 28th October. It announced that the Ameer had of +his own free will abdicated his throne and left Afghanistan without a +government. 'The British Government,' the proclamation continued, 'now +commands that all Afghan authorities, chiefs, and sirdars, do continue +their functions in maintaining order ... The British Government, after +consultation with the principal sirdars, tribal chiefs, and others +representing the interests and wishes of the various provinces and +cities, will declare its will as to the future permanent arrangements to +be made for the good government of the people.' + +This _ad interim_ assumption of the rulership of Afghanistan may have +been adopted as the only policy which afforded even a remote possibility +of tranquillity. But it was essentially a policy of speculative +makeshift. The retributive and punitive object of the swift march on +Cabul can scarcely be regarded as having been fulfilled by the execution +of a number of subordinate participants and accessories in the +destruction of the mission and by the voluntary abdication of Yakoub +Khan. That the Afghan 'authorities, chiefs, and sirdars,' would obey the +command to 'maintain order' issued by the leader of a few thousand +hostile troops, masters of little more than the ground on which they were +encamped, experience and common sense seemed alike to render improbable. +The Afghans subordinated their internal quarrels to their common hatred +of the masterful foreigners, and the desperate fighting of December +proved how fiercely they were in earnest. + +Yakoub Khan had been regarded as merely a weak and unfortunate man, but +the shadows gradually darkened around him until at length he came to be a +man under grave suspicion. General Roberts became satisfied from the +results of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, that the attack on +the Residency, if not actually instigated by him, might at least have +been checked by active exertion on his part. Information was obtained +which convinced the General that the ex-Ameer was contemplating a flight +toward Turkestan, and it was considered necessary to place him in close +confinement. He remained a close prisoner until December 1st. On the +early morning of that day he was brought out from his tent, and after +taking farewell of the General and his staff, started on his journey to +Peshawur, surrounded by a strong escort. If the hill tribes along his +route had cared enough about him to attempt his rescue, the speed with +which he travelled afforded them no time to gather for that purpose. + +During those uneventful October and November days, when the little army +commanded by General Roberts lay in its breezy camp on the Siah Sung +heights, there was no little temptation for the unprofessional reader of +the telegraphic information in the newspapers to hold cheap those +reputedly formidable Afghans, whose resistance a single sharp skirmish +had seemingly scattered to the winds, and who were now apparently +accepting without active remonstrance the dominance of the few thousand +British bayonets glittering there serenely over against the once +turbulent but now tamed hill capital. One may be certain that the shrewd +and careful soldier who commanded that scant array did not permit himself +to share in the facile optimism whether on the part of a government or of +the casual reader of complacent telegrams. It was true that the +Government of India had put or was putting some 30,000 soldiers into the +field on the apparent errand of prosecuting an Afghan war. But what +availed Roberts this host of fighting men when he had to realise that, +befall him what might in the immediate or near future, not a man of it +was available to strengthen or to succour him? The quietude of those cool +October days was very pleasant, but the chief knew well how precarious +and deceitful was the calm. For the present the Afghan unanimity of +hostility was affected in a measure by the fact that the Ameer, who had +still a party, was voluntarily in the British camp. But when Yakoub's +abdication should be announced, he knew the Afghan nature too well to +doubt that the tribal blood-feuds would be soldered for the time, that +Dooranee and Barakzai would strike hands, that Afghan regulars and Afghan +irregulars would rally under the same standards, and that the fierce +shouts of 'Deen! deen!' would resound on hill-top and in plain. Cut loose +from any base, with slowly dwindling strength, with waning stock of +ammunition, it was his part to hold his ground here for the winter, he +and his staunch soldiers, a firm rock in the midst of those surging +Afghan billows that were certain to rise around him. Not only would he +withstand them, but he would meet them, for this bold man knew the value +in dealing with Afghans of a resolute and vigorous offensive. But it +behoved him above all things to make timely choice of his winter quarters +where he should collect his supplies and house his troops and the +followers. After careful deliberation the Sherpur cantonment was +selected. It was overlarge for easy defence, but hard work, careful +engineering, and steadfast courage would redeem that evil. And Sherpur +had the great advantage that besides being in a measure a ready-made +defensive position, it had shelter for all the European troops and most +of the native soldiery, and that it would accommodate also the horses of +the cavalry, the transport animals, and all the needful supplies and +stores. + +An Afghan of the Afghans, Shere Ali nevertheless had curiously failed to +discern that the warlike strength of the nation which he ruled lay in its +intuitive aptitude for irregular fighting; and he had industriously set +himself to the effort of warping the combative genius of his people and +of constituting Afghanistan a military power of the regular and +disciplined type. He had created a large standing army the soldiery of +which wore uniforms, underwent regular drill, obeyed words of command, +and carried arms of precision. He had devoted great pains to the +manufacture of a formidable artillery, and what with presents from the +British Government and the imitative skill of native artificers he was +possessed at the outbreak of hostilities of several hundred cannon. His +artisans were skillful enough to turn out in large numbers very fair +rifled small-arms, which they copied from British models; and in the +Balla Hissar magazine were found by our people vast quantities of +gunpowder and of admirable cartridges of local manufacture. There were +many reasons why the Cabul division of Shere Ali's army should be +quartered apart from his turbulent and refractory capital, and why its +cantonment should take the form of a permanent fortified camp, in which +his soldiers might be isolated from Cabul intrigues, while its proximity +to the capital should constitute a standing menace to the conspirators of +the city. His original design apparently was to enclose the Behmaroo +heights within the walls of his cantonment, and thus form a great +fortified square upon the heights in the centre of which should rise a +strong citadel dominating the plain in every direction. The Sherpur +cantonment as found by Roberts consisted of a fortified enciente, +enclosing on two sides a great open space in the shape of a parallelogram +lying along the southern base of the Behmaroo heights. When the British +troops took possession, only the west and south faces of the enciente +were completed; although not long built those were already in bad repair, +and the explosion of the great magazine when the Afghan troops abandoned +the cantonment had wrecked a section of the western face. The eastern +face had been little more than traced, and the northern side had no +artificial protection, but was closed in by the Behmaroo heights, whose +centre was cleft by a broad and deep gorge. The design of the enciente +was peculiar. There was a thick and high exterior wall of mud, with a +banquette for infantry protected by a parapet. Inside this wall was a dry +ditch forty feet wide, on the inner brink of which was the long range of +barrack-rooms. Along the interior front of the barrack-rooms was a +verandah faced with arches supported by pillars, its continuity broken +occasionally by broad staircases conducting to the roof of the barracks, +which afforded a second line of defence. The closing in of the verandah +would of course give additional barrack accommodation, but there were +quarters in the barrack-rooms for at least all the European troops. In +the southern face of the enciente were three gateways, and in the centre +of the western face there was a fourth, each gate covered adequately by a +curtain. Between each gate were semicircular bastions for guns. In the +interior there was space to manoeuvre a division of all arms. There was a +copious supply of water, and if the aspect of the great cantonment was +grim because of the absence of trees and the utter barrenness of the +enclosed space, this aesthetic consideration went for little against its +manifest advantages as snug and defensible winter quarters. Shere Ali had +indeed been all unconsciously a friend in need to the British force +wintering in the heart of that unfortunate potentate's dominions. Human +nature is perverse and exacting, and there were those who objurgated his +memory because he had constructed his cantonment a few sizes too large to +be comfortably defended by Sir Frederick Roberts' little force. But this +was manifestly unreasonable; and in serious truth the Sherpur cantonment +was a real godsend to our people. Supplies of all kinds were steadily +being accumulated there, and the woodwork of the houses in the Balla +Hissar was being carried to Sherpur for use as firewood. On the last day +of October the force quitted the Siah Sung position and took possession +of Sherpur, which had undergone a rigorous process of fumigation and +cleansing. The change was distinctly for the better. The force was +compacted, and the routine military duties were appreciably lightened +since there were needed merely piquets on the Behmaroo heights and +sentries on the gates; the little army was healthy, temperate, and in +excellent case in all respects. + +The dispositions for field service made at the outset of the campaign by +the military authorities have already been detailed. Regarded simply as +dispositions they left nothing to be desired, and certainly Sir Frederick +Roberts' force had been organised and equipped with a fair amount of +expedition. But it was apparent that the equipment of that body of 6500 +men--and that equipment by no means of an adequate character, had +exhausted for the time the resources of the Government as regarded +transport and supplies. Promptitude of advance on the part of the force +to which had been assigned the line of invasion by the Khyber-Jellalabad +route, was of scarcely less moment than the rapidity of the stroke which +Roberts was commissioned to deliver. The former's was a treble duty. One +of its tasks was to open up and maintain Roberts' communications with +India, so that the closing of the Shutargurdan should not leave him +isolated. Another duty resting on the Khyber force was to constitute for +Roberts a ready and convenient reserve, on which he might draw when his +occasions demanded. No man could tell how soon after the commencement of +his invasion that necessity might arise; it was a prime _raison d'être_ +of the Khyber force to be in a position to give him the hand when he +should intimate a need for support. Yet again, its presence in the passes +dominantly thrusting forward, would have the effect of retaining the +eastern tribes within their own borders, and hindering them from joining +an offensive combination against the little force with which Roberts was +to strike at Cabul. But delay on delay marked the mobilisation and +advance of the troops operating in the Khyber line. There was no lack of +earnestness anywhere; the eagerness to push on was universal from the +commander to the corporal. But the barren hills and rugged passes could +furnish no supplies; the base had to furnish everything, and there was +nothing at the base, neither any accumulation of supplies nor means to +transport supplies if they had been accumulated. Weeks elapsed before the +organisation of the force approached completion, and it was only by a +desperate struggle that General Charles Gough's little brigade received +by the end of September equipment sufficient to enable that officer to +advance by short marches. Roberts was holding his durbar in the Balla +Hissar of Cabul on the day that the head of Gough's advance reached +Jellalabad. No man can associate the idea of dawdling with Jenkins and +his Guides, yet the Guides reaching Jellalabad on October 12th were not +at Gundamuk until the 23d, and Gundamuk is but thirty miles beyond +Jellalabad. The anti-climax for the time of General Bright's exertions +occurred on November 6th. On that day he with Gough's brigade reached so +far Cabulward as Kutti Sung, two marches beyond Gundamuk. There he met +General Macpherson of Roberts' force, who had marched down from Cabul +with his brigade on the errand of opening communications with the head of +the Khyber column. The two brigades had touch of each other for the +period of an interview between the Generals, and then they fell apart and +the momentary union of communication was disrupted. General Bright had to +fall back toward Gundamuk for lack of supplies. The breach continued open +only for a few days, and then it was closed, not from down country but +from up country. Roberts, surveying the rugged country to the east of +Cabul, had discerned that the hill road toward Jugdulluk by Luttabund, +was at once opener and shorter than the customary tortuous and overhung +route through the Khoord Cabul Pass and by Tezeen. The pioneers were set +to work to improve the former. The Luttabund road became the habitual +route along which, from Cabul downwards, were posted detachments +maintaining the communications of the Cabul force with the Khyber column +and India. Nearly simultaneous with this accomplishment was the +accordance to Sir Frederick Roberts of the local rank of +Lieutenant-General, a promotion which placed him in command of all the +troops in Eastern Afghanistan down to Jumrood, and enabled him to order +up reinforcements from the Khyber column at his discretion, a power he +refrained from exercising until the moment of urgent need was impending. + +After his interview at Kutti Sung with General Bright, Macpherson, before +returning to Cabul, made a short reconnaissance north of the Cabul river +toward the Lughman valley and into the Tagao country inhabited by the +fanatic tribe of the Safis. From his camp at Naghloo a foraging party, +consisting of a company of the 67th escorting a number of camels and +mules, moved westward toward a village near the junction of the Panjshir +and Cabul rivers, there to obtain supplies of grain and forage. The +little detachment on its march was suddenly met by the fire of about 1000 +Sari tribesmen. Captain Poole, observing that the tribesmen were moving +to cut him off, withdrew his party through a defile in his rear, and +taking cover under the river bank maintained a steady fire while the +camels were being retired. The Safis were extremely bold and they too +shot very straight. Captain Poole was severely wounded and of his handful +of fifty-six men eight were either killed or wounded, but their comrades +resolutely held their position until reinforcements came out from the +camp. The Safis, who retired with dogged reluctance, were not finally +routed until attacked by British infantry in front and flank. After they +broke the cavalry pursued them for six miles, doing severe execution; the +dead of the 67th were recovered, but the poor fellows had been mutilated +almost past recognition. General Macpherson returned to Sherpur on the +20th November, having left a strong garrison temporarily at Luttabund to +strengthen communications and open out effectually the new route +eastward. + +General Roberts, with all his exertions, had been unable to accumulate +sufficient winter of grain for his native troops and forage for his +cavalry and baggage animals. Agents had been purchasing supplies in the +fertile district of Maidan, distant from Cabul about twenty-five miles in +the Ghuznee direction, but the local people lacked carriage to convey +their stocks into camp, and it was necessary that the supplies should be +brought in by the transport of the force. The country toward Ghuznee was +reported to be in a state of disquiet, and a strong body of troops was +detailed under the command of General Baker for the protection of the +transport. This force marched out from Sherpur on November 21st, and next +day camped on the edge of the pleasant Maidan plain. Baker encountered +great difficulties in collecting supplies. The villages readily gave in +their tribute of grain and forage, but evinced extreme reluctance to +furnish the additional quantities which our necessities forced us to +requisition. With the villagers it was not a question of money; the +supplies for which Baker's commissaries demanded money in hand +constituted their provision for the winter season. But the stern maxim of +war is that soldiers must live although villagers starve, and this much +may be said in our favour that we are the only nation in the world which, +when compelled to resort to forced requisitions, invariably pays in hard +cash and not in promissory notes. Baker's ready-money tariff was far +higher than the current rates, but nevertheless he had to resort to +strong measures. In one instance he was defied outright. A certain +Bahadur Khan inhabiting a remote valley in the Bamian direction, refused +to sell any portion of his great store of grain and forage, and declined +to comply with a summons to present himself in Baker's camp. It was known +that he was under the influence of the aged fanatic Moulla the +Mushk-i-Alum, who was engaged in fomenting a tribal rising, and it was +reported that he was affording protection to a number of the fugitive +sepoys of the ex-Ameer's army. A political officer with two squadrons of +cavalry was sent to bring into camp the recalcitrant Bahadur Khan. His +fort and village were found prepared for a stubborn defence. Received +with a heavy fire from a large body of men while swarms of hostile +tribesmen showed themselves on the adjacent hills, the horsemen had to +withdraw. It was judged necessary to punish the contumacious chief and to +disperse the tribal gathering before it should make more head, and Baker +led out a strong detachment in light marching order. There was no +fighting, and the only enemies seen were a few tribesmen, who drew off +into the hills as the head of Baker's column approached. Fort, villages, +and valley were found utterly deserted. There were no means to carry away +the forage and grain found in the houses, so the villages belonging to +Bahadur Khan were destroyed by fire. Their inhabitants found refuge in +the surrounding villages, and there was absolutely no foundation for the +statements which appeared in English papers to the effect that old men, +women, and children were turned out to die in the snow. In the words of +Mr Hensman, a correspondent who accompanied the column: 'There were no +old men, women, and children, and there was no snow.' British officers +cannot be supposed to have found pleasure, on the verge of the bitter +Afghan winter, in the destruction of the hovels and the winter stores of +food belonging to a number of miserable villagers; but experience has +proved that only by such stern measures is there any possibility of +cowing the rancour of Afghan tribesmen. No elation can accompany an +operation so pitiless, and the plea of stern necessity must be advanced +alike and accepted with a shudder. Of the necessity of some such form of +reprisals an example is afforded in an experience which befell General +Baker a few days later in this same Maidan region. He visited the village +of Beni-Badam with a small cavalry escort. The villagers with every +demonstration of friendliness entertained the officers and men with milk +and fruit, and provided corn and forage for their horses. There were only +old men in the village with the women and children, but no treachery was +suspected until suddenly two large bodies of armed men were seen hurrying +to cut off the retreat, and it was only by hard fighting that the General +with his escort succeeded in escaping from the snare. Next day he +destroyed the village. Baker probably acted on general principles, but +had he cared for precedents he would have found them in the conduct of +the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. He remained in the Maidan +district until the transport of the army had brought into Sherpur all the +supplies which he had succeeded in obtaining in that region, and then +returned to the cantonment. + +By the terms of the proclamation which he issued on the 28th October Sir +Frederick Roberts was announced as the dominant authority for the time +being in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan. He occupied this position just +as far as and no further than he could make it good. And he could make it +good only over a very circumscribed area. Even more than had been true of +Shah Soojah's government forty years previously was it true of Roberts' +government now that it was a government of sentry-boxes. He was firm +master of the Sherpur cantonment. General Hills, his nominee, held a +somewhat precarious sway in Cabul in the capacity of its Governor, +maintaining his position there in virtue of the bayonets of his military +guard, the support of the adjacent Sherpur, and the waiting attitude of +the populace of the capital. East of Cabul the domination of Britain was +represented by a series of fortified posts studding the road to Gundamuk, +whence to Jumrood the occupation was closer, although not wholly +undisturbed. When a column marched out from Sherpur the British power was +dominant only within the area of its fire zone. The stretch of road it +vacated as it moved on ceased to be territory over which the British held +dominion. This narrowly restricted nature of his actual sway Sir +Frederick Roberts could not but recognise, but how with a force of 7000 +men all told was it possible for him to enlarge its borders? One +expedient suggested itself which could not indeed extend the area of his +real power, but which might have the effect, to use a now familiar +expression, of widening the sphere of his influence. From among the +Sirdars who had regarded it as their interest to cast in their lot with +the British, he selected four to represent him in the capacity of +governors of provinces which his bayonets were not long enough to reach. +The experiment made it disagreeably plain that the people of the +provinces to which he had deputed governors were utterly indisposed to +have anything to do either with them or with him. The governors went in +no state, they had no great sums to disburse, they were protected by no +armed escorts, and they were regarded by the natives much as the Southern +states of the American Union after the Civil War regarded the 'carpet +bag' governors whom the North imposed upon them. The Logur Governor was +treated with utter contempt. The Kohistanees despitefully used Shahbaz +Khan, and when a brother of Yakoub Khan was sent to use his influence in +favour of the worried and threatened governor, he was reviled as a +'Kafir' and a 'Feringhee,' and ordered peremptorily back to Sherpur if he +had any regard for his life. Sirdar Wali Mahomed, the governor-nominate +to the remote Turkestan, found pretext after pretext for delaying to +proceed to take up his functions, and had never quitted the British camp. +When Baker returned from Maidan he reported that he had left the district +peaceful in charge of the governor whom he had installed, the venerable +and amiable Hassan Khan. Baker's rear-guard was scarcely clear of the +valley when a mob of tribesmen and sepoys attacked the fort in which the +old Sirdar was residing, shot him through the head, and then hacked his +body to pieces. It was too clear that governors unsupported by bayonets, +and whose only weapons were tact and persuasiveness, were at an extreme +discount in the condition which Afghanistan presented in the end of +November and the beginning of December. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE DECEMBER STORM + +The invader of Afghanistan may count as inevitable a national rising +against him, but the Afghans are a people so immersed in tribal quarrels +and domestic blood feuds that the period of the outbreak is curiously +uncertain. The British force which placed Shah Soojah on the throne and +supported him there, was in Afghanistan for more than two years before +the waves of the national tempest rose around it. The national +combination against Roberts' occupation was breaking its strength against +the Sherpur defences while as yet the Cabul field force had not been +within sight of the capital for more than two months. There seems no +relation between opportunity and the period of the inevitable outburst. +If in November 1841 the Cabul Sirdars had restrained themselves for a few +days longer two more regiments would have been following on Sale's track, +and the British force in the cantonments would have been proportionately +attenuated. Roberts might have been assailed with better chance of +success when his force was dispersed between the Siah Sung camp, the +Balla Hissar, and Sherpur, than when concentrated in the strong defensive +position against which the Afghans beat in vain. Perhaps the rising +ripened faster in 1879 than in 1841 because in the former period no +Macnaghten fomented intrigues and scattered gold. Perhaps Shere Ali's +military innovations may have instilled into the masses of his time some +rough lessons in the art and practice of speedy mobilisation. The +crowning disgrace of 1842 was that a trained army of regular soldiers +should have been annihilated by a few thousand hillmen, among whom there +was no symptom either of real valour or of good leadership. To Roberts +and his force attaches the credit of having defeated the persistent and +desperate efforts of levies at least ten times superior in numbers, well +armed, far from undisciplined, courageous beyond all experience of Afghan +nature, and under the guidance of a leader who had some conception of +strategy, and who certainly was no mean tactician. + +In the Afghan idiosyncrasy there is a considerable strain of practical +philosophy. The blood of the massacred mission was not dry when it was +recognised in Cabul that stern retribution would inevitably follow. Well, +said the Afghans among themselves, what must be must be, for they are all +fatalists. The seniors recalled the memory of the retribution Pollock +exacted--how he came, destroyed Istalif, set a 'mark' on Cabul by sending +the great bazaar in fragments into the air, and then departed. This time +Istalif was not compromised; if Roberts Sahib should be determined to +blow up the Char Chowk again, why, that infliction must be endured. It +had been rebuilt after Pollock Sahib's engineers had worked their will on +it; it could be rebuilt a second time when Roberts Sahib should have +turned his back on the city, as pray God and the Prophet he might do with +no more delay than Pollock Sahib had made out yonder on the Logur plain. +So after a trial of Roberts' mettle at Charasiah, and finding the testing +sample not quite to their taste, the Afghans fell into an attitude of +expectancy, and were mightily relieved by his proclamation read at the +Balla Hissar durbar of October 12th. After a reasonable amount of hanging +and the exaction of the fine laid on the city, it was assumed that he +would no doubt depart so as to get home to India before the winter snows +should block the passes. But the expected did not happen. The British +General established a British Governor in Cabul who had a heavy hand, and +policed the place in a fashion that stirred a lurid fury in the bosoms of +haughty Sirdars who had been wont to do what seemed good in their own +eyes. He engaged in the sacrilegious work of dismantling the Balla +Hissar, the historic fortress of the nation, within whose walls were the +royal palace and the residences of the principal nobles. Those were +bitter things, but they could be borne if they were mere temporary +inflictions, and if the hated Feringhees would but take themselves away +soon. But that hope was shattered by the proclamation of October 28th, +when the abdication of the Ameer was intimated and the British _raj_ in +Afghanistan was announced. Yes, that pestilent _zabardasti_ little +General, who would not follow the example of good old Pollock Sahib, and +who held Yakoub Khan and sundry of his Sirdars in close imprisonment in +his camp, had now the insolence to proclaim himself virtually the Ameer +of Afghanistan! Far from showing symptom of budging, he was sending out +his governors into the provinces, he was gathering tribute in kind, and +he had taken possession of Shere Ali's monumental cantonment, under the +shadow of the Behmaroo heights on which Afghan warriors of a past +generation had slaughtered the Feringhee soldiers as if they had been +sheep; and it was the Feringhee General's cantonment now, which he was +cunningly strengthening as if he meant to make it his permanent fortress. + +Yakoub Khan had gained little personal popularity during his brief and +troubled reign, but he was an Afghan and a Mahomedan; and his deportation +to India, followed shortly afterwards by that of his three Ministers, +intensified the rancour of his countrymen and co-religionists against the +handful of presumptuous foreigners who arrogantly claimed to sway the +destinies of Afghanistan. _Cherchez la femme_ is the keynote among +Western peoples of an investigation into the origin of most troubles and +strifes; the watchword of the student of the springs of great popular +outbursts among Eastern nations must be _Cherchez les prêtres_. The Peter +the Hermit of Afghanistan was the old Mushk-i-Alum, the fanatic Chief +Moulla of Ghuznee. This aged enthusiast went to and fro among the tribes +proclaiming the sacred duty of a _Jehad_ or religious war against the +unbelieving invaders, stimulating the pious passions of the followers of +the Prophet by fervent appeals, enjoining the chiefs to merge their +intestine strifes in the common universal effort to crush the foreign +invaders of the Afghan soil. The female relatives of the abdicated Ameer +fomented the rising by appeals to popular sympathy, and by the more +practical argument of lavish distribution of treasure. The flame spread, +tribesmen and disbanded soldiers sprang to arms, the banner of the +Prophet was unfurled, and the nation heaved with the impulse of +fanaticism. Musa Khan, the boy heir of Yakoub, was in the hands of the +Mushk-i-Alum, and the combination of fighting tribes found a competent +leader in Mahomed Jan, a Warduk general of proved courage and capacity. +The plan of campaign was comprehensive and well devised. The contingent +from the country to the south of the capital, from Logur, Zurmat, and the +Mangal and Jadran districts, was to seize that section of the Cabul ridge +extending from Charasiah northward to the cleft through which flows the +Cabul river. The northern contingent from the Kohistan and Kohdaman was +to occupy the Asmai heights and the hills further to the north-west; +while the troops from the Maidan and Warduk territories, led by Mahomed +Jan in person, were to come in from the westward across the Chardeh +valley, take possession of Cabul, and rally to their banners the +disaffected population of the capital and the surrounding villages. The +concentration of the three bodies effected, the capital and the ridge +against which it leans occupied, the next step would be the investment of +the Sherpur cantonment, preparatory to an assault upon it in force. + +The British general through his spies had information of those projects. +To allow the projected concentration to be effected would involve serious +disadvantages, and both experience and temperament enjoined on Roberts +the offensive. The Logur contingent was regarded as not of much account, +and might be headed back by a threat. Mahomed Jan's force, which was +reckoned some 5000 strong, needed to be handled with greater vigour. Meer +Butcha and his Kohistanees were less formidable, and might be dealt with +incidentally. Roberts took a measure of wise precaution in telegraphing +to Colonel Jenkins on the 7th December to march his Guides (cavalry and +infantry) from Jugdulluk to Sherpur. + +On the 8th General Macpherson was sent out toward the west with a column +consisting of 1300 bayonets, three squadrons, and eight guns. Following +the Ghuznee road across the Chardeh valley, he was to march to Urgundeh, +in the vicinity of which place it was expected that he would find Mahomed +Jan's levies, which he was to attack and drive backward on Maidan, taking +care to prevent their retreat to the westward in the direction of Bamian. +On the following day General Baker marched out with a force made up of +900 infantrymen, two and a half squadrons, and four guns, with +instructions to march southward toward the Logur valley, deal with the +tribal gathering there, then bend sharply in a south-westerly direction +and take up a position across the Ghuznee road in the Maidan valley on +the line of retreat which it was hoped that Macpherson would succeed in +enforcing on Mahomed Jan. In that case the Afghan leader would find +himself between two fires, and would be punished so severely as to render +it unlikely that he would give further trouble. To afford time for Baker +to reach the position assigned to him Macpherson remained halted during +the 9th at Aushar, a village just beyond the debouche of the Nanuchee +Pass, at the north-western extremity of the Asmai heights. On that day a +cavalry reconnaissance discovered that the Kohistanee levies in +considerable strength had already gathered about Karez Meer, some ten +miles north-west of Cabul, and that masses of Afghans presumably +belonging to the force of Mahomed Jan were moving northward in the +Kohistan direction, apparently with the object of joining Meer Butcha's +gathering at Karez. It was imperative that the latter should be dispersed +before the junction could be effected, and Sir Frederick Roberts had no +option but to order Macpherson to alter his line of advance and move +against the Kohistanees. Necessary as was this divergence from the +original plan of operation, it had the effect of sending to wreck the +combined movement from which so much was hoped, and of bringing about a +very critical situation. If Lockhart's reconnaissance had been made a day +earlier, Macpherson might probably have utilised to good purpose by +dispersing the Kohistanees, the day which as it was he spent halted at +Aushar. He might have accomplished that object equally well if, instead +of the cavalry reconnaissance made by Lockhart, Macpherson himself had +been instructed to devote the 9th to a reconnaissance in force in the +direction of Karez Meer. + +[Illustration: Map of Cabul and surroundings.] + +The country being held unsuited for the action of wheeled artillery and +cavalry, Macpherson left his details of those arms at Aushar, and marched +on the morning of the 10th on Karez with his infantry and mountain guns. +As his troops crowned the Surkh Kotul they saw before them an imposing +spectacle. The whole terrain around Karez swarmed with masses of armed +tribesmen, whose banners were flying on every hillock. Down in the +Pughman valley to the left rear, were discerned bodies of the hostile +contingent from the west, between which and the Kohistanees no junction +had fortunately as yet been made. Macpherson's dispositions were simple. +His mountain guns shelled with effect the Kohistanee tribesmen, and then +he moved forward from the Surkh Kotul in three columns. His skirmishers +drove back the forward stragglers, and then the main columns advancing at +the double swept the disordered masses before them, and forced them +rearward into their intrenched position in front of the Karez village. +There the resistance was half-hearted. After a brief artillery +preparation the columns carried the position with a rush, and the +Kohistanees were routed with heavy loss. Meer Butcha and his Kohistanees +well beaten, Macpherson camped for the night near Karez. Baker had +reached his assigned position in the Maidan valley, and there seemed a +fair prospect that the operation against Mahomed Jan as originally +designed might be carried out notwithstanding the interruption to its +prosecution which had been found necessary. For there was good reason to +believe that the Afghan commander and his force, whose strength was +estimated at about 5000 men, were in the vicinity of Urgundeh, about +midway between Macpherson at Karez and Baker in the Maidan valley. If +Mahomed Jan would be so complaisant as to remain where he was until +Macpherson could reach him, then Roberts' strategy would have a +triumphant issue, and the Warduk general and his followers might be +relegated to the category of negligable quantities. + +Orders were sent to Macpherson to march as early as possible on the +morning of the 11th, follow up the enemy who had been observed retiring +toward the west and south, and endeavour to drive them down toward +General Baker. He was further informed that the cavalry and +horse-artillery which he had left at Aushar would leave that village at +nine A.M. under the command of Brigadier-General Massy, and would cross +the Chardeh valley by the Urgundeh road, on which he was directed to join +them on his march. The specific instructions given to General Massy were +as follows: 'To advance from Aushar by the road leading directly from the +city of Cabul toward Urgundeh and Ghuznee' (the main Ghuznee road), 'to +proceed cautiously and quietly feeling for the enemy, to communicate with +General Macpherson, and to act in conformity with that officer's +movements, but on no account to commit himself to an action until General +Macpherson had engaged the enemy.' + +Macpherson marched at eight A.M., moving in a south-westerly direction +toward Urgundeh by a direct track in rear of the range of hills bounding +the western edge of the Chardeh valley. To the point at which it was +probable that he and Massy should meet he had considerably further to +travel than had the latter from the Aushar camp, and Macpherson's force +consisted of infantry while that of Massy was cavalry and +horse-artillery. Massy left Aushar at nine A.M. in consideration of the +shorter distance he had to traverse, and he headed for Killa Kazee, a +village near the foothills of the western ridge about four miles from +Aushar as the crow flies. He did not comply with the letter of his +instructions to follow the Ghuznee road because of the wide detour +marching by it would have involved, but instead made his way straight +across country. That he should have done this was unfortunate, since the +time he thus gained threw him forward into a position involving danger in +advance of any possible co-operation on the part of Macpherson, who was +still far away from the point of intended junction while Massy was +comparatively near it. Massy's force consisted of two squadrons 9th +Lancers and a troop of 14th Bengal Lancers, escorting four +horse-artillery guns. He had detached a troop of 9th Lancers to endeavour +to open communication with Macpherson, in compliance with his +instructions. As he approached Killa Kazee, Captain Gough commanding the +troop of 9th Lancers forming the advance guard, sent back word that the +hills on either side of the Ghuznee road some distance beyond the village +were occupied by the enemy in considerable force. Massy, in his +unsupported condition and destitute of any information as to Macpherson's +whereabouts, would have shown discretion by halting on receipt of this +intelligence pending further developments. But he probably believed that +the Afghans flanking the road were casual tribesmen from the adjacent +villages who were unlikely to make any stand, and he determined to move +on. + +What he presently saw gave him pause. A great mass of Afghans some 2000 +strong were forming across the Ghuznee road. From the hills to right and +left broad streams of armed men were pouring down the hillslopes and +forming on the plain. The surprise was complete, the situation full of +perplexity. That gathering host in Massy's front could be none other than +Mahomed Jan's entire force. So far from being in retreat southward and +westward, so far from waiting supinely about Urgundeh until Macpherson as +per programme should drive it on to the muzzles of Baker's Martinis, here +it was inside our guard, in possession of the interior line, its front +facing toward turbulent Cabul and depleted Sherpur, with no obstruction +in its path save this handful of lancers and these four guns! Massy's +orders, it was true, were to act in conformity with Macpherson's +movements, and on no account to commit himself to an action until that +officer had engaged the enemy. Yes, but could the framer of those orders +have anticipated the possibility of such a position as that in which +Massy now found himself? There was no Macpherson within ken of the +perplexed cavalryman, nor the vaguest indication of his movements. The +enemy had doubled on that stout and shrewd soldier; it was clear that for +the moment he was not within striking distance of his foe, whether on +flank or on rear. No course of action presented itself to Massy that was +not fraught with grave contingencies. If he should keep to the letter of +his orders, the Afghan host might be in Cabul in a couple of hours. +Should he retire slowly, striving to retard the Afghan advance by his +cannon fire and by the threatening demonstrations of his cavalry, the +enemy might follow him up so vigorously as to be beyond Macpherson's +reach when that officer should make good his point in the direction of +Urgundeh. If on the other hand he should show a bold front, and departing +from his orders in the urgent crisis face to face with which he found +himself should strain every nerve to 'hold' the Afghan masses in their +present position, there was the possibility that, at whatever sacrifice +to himself and his little force, he might save the situation and gain +time for Macpherson to come up and strike Mahomed Jan on flank and in +rear. + +For better or for worse Massy committed himself to the rasher enterprise, +and opened fire on the swiftly growing Afghan masses. The first range was +held not sufficiently effective, and in the hope by closer fire of +deterring the enemy from effecting the formation they were attempting, +the guns were advanced to the shorter ranges of 2500 and 2000 yards. The +shells did execution, but contrary to precedent did not daunt the +Afghans. They made good their formation under the shell fire. Mahomed +Jan's force had been estimated of about 5000 strong; according to Massy's +estimate it proved to be double that number. The array was well led; it +never wavered, but came steadily on with waving banners and loud shouts. +The guns had to be retired; they came into action again, but owing to the +rapidity of the Afghan advance at shorter range than before. The carbine +fire of thirty dismounted lancers 'had no appreciable effect.' The +outlook was already ominous when at this moment Sir Frederick Roberts +came on the scene. As was his wont, he acted with decision. The action, +it was clear to him, could not be maintained against odds so overwhelming +and in ground so unfavourable. He immediately ordered Massy to retire +slowly, to search for a road by which the guns could be withdrawn, and to +watch for an opportunity to execute a charge under cover of which the +guns might be extricated. He despatched an aide-de-camp in quest of +Macpherson, with an order directing that officer to wheel to his left +into the Chardeh valley and hurry to Massy's assistance; and he ordered +General Hills to gallop to Sherpur and warn General Hugh Gough, who had +charge in the cantonment, to be on the alert, and also to send out at +speed a wing of the 72d to the village of Deh Mazung, in the throat of +the gorge of the Cabul river, which the Highlanders were to hold to +extremity. + +The enemy were coming on, the guns were in imminent danger, and the +moment had come for the action of the cavalry. The gallant Cleland gave +the word to his lancers and led them straight for the centre of the +Afghan line, the troop of Bengal Lancers following in support. Gough, +away on the Afghan left, saw his chief charging and he eagerly +'conformed,' crushing in on the enemy's flank at the head of his troop. +'Self-sacrifice' the Germans hold the duty of cavalry; and there have +been few forlorner hopes than the errand on which on this ill-starred day +our 200 troopers rode into the heart of 10,000 Afghans flushed with +unwonted good fortune. Through the dust-cloud of the charge were visible +the flashes of the Afghan volleys and the sheen of the British lance +heads as they came down to the 'engage.' There was a short interval of +suspense, the stour and bicker of the _mêlée_ faintly heard, but +invisible behind the bank of smoke and dust. Then from out the cloud of +battle riderless horses came galloping back, followed by broken groups of +troopers. Gallantly led home, the charge had failed--what other result +could have been expected? Its career had been blocked by sheer weight of +opposing numbers. Sixteen troopers had been killed, seven were wounded, +two officers had been slain in the hand-to-hand strife. Cleland came out +with a sword cut and a bullet wound. Captain Stewart Mackenzie had been +crushed under his fallen horse, but distinguished himself greatly, and +brought the regiment out of action. As the dust settled it was apparent +that the charge had merely encouraged the enemy, who as they steadily +pressed on in good order, were waving their banners in triumph and +brandishing their tulwars and knives. The fire from the Sniders and +Enfields of their marksmen was well directed and deliberate. While +Cleland's broken troopers were being rallied two guns were brought into +action, protected in a measure by Gough's troop and the detachment of +Bengal Lancers, which had not suffered much in the charge. But the +Afghans came on so ardently that there was no alternative but prompt +retreat. One gun had to be spiked and abandoned, Lieutenant Hardy of the +Horse Artillery remaining by it until surrounded and killed. Some 500 +yards further back, near the village of Baghwana, the three remaining +guns stuck fast in a deep watercourse. At General Roberts' instance a +second charge was attempted, to give time for their extrication; but it +made no head, so that the guns had to be abandoned, and the gunners and +drivers with their teams accompanied the retirement of the cavalry. Some +fugitives both of cavalry and artillery hurried to the shelter of the +cantonment somewhat precipitately; but the great majority of Massy's +people behaved well, rallying without hesitation and constituting the +steady and soldierly little body with which Roberts, retiring on Deh +Mazung as slowly as possible to give time for the Highlanders from +Sherpur to reach that all-important point, strove to delay the Afghan +advance. This in a measure was accomplished by the dismounted fire of the +troopers, and the retirement was distinguished by the steady coolness +displayed by Cough's men and Neville's Bengal Lancers. Deh Mazung was +reached, but no Highlanders had as yet reached that place. The carbines +of the cavalrymen were promptly utilised from the cover the village +afforded; but they could not have availed to stay the Afghan rush. There +was a short interval of extreme anxiety until the 200 men of the 72d, +Brownlow leading them, became visible advancing at the double through the +gorge. 'It was literally touch and go who should reach the village first, +the Highlanders or the Afghans,' who were streaming toward it 'like ants +on a hill,' but the men of the 72d swept in, and swarming to the house +tops soon checked with their breechloaders the advancing tide. After +half-an-hour of futile effort the Afghans saw fit to abandon the attempt +to force the gorge, and inclining to their right they occupied the +Takht-i-Shah summit, the slopes of the Sher Derwaza heights, and the +villages in the south-eastern section of the Chardeh valley. + +Macpherson, marching from the Surkh Kotul toward Urgundeh, had observed +parties of Afghans crossing his front in the direction of the Chardeh +valley, and when the sound reached him of Massy's artillery fire he +wheeled to his left through a break in the hills opening into the Chardeh +valley, and approached the scene of the discomfiture of Massy's force. +This he did at 12.30 P.M., four and a half hours after leaving the Surkh +Kotul. As the length of his march was about ten miles, it may be assumed +that he encountered difficulties in the rugged track by which he moved, +for Macpherson was not the man to linger by the way when there was the +prospect of a fight. Had it been possible for him to have marched two +hours earlier than he did--and his orders were to march as early as +possible--his doing so would have made all the difference in the world to +Massy, and could scarcely have failed to change the face of the day. He +did not discover the lost guns, but he struck the Afghan rear, which was +speedily broken and dispersed by the 67th and 3d Sikhs. Macpherson's +intention to spend the night at Killa Kazee was changed by the receipt of +an order from General Roberts calling him in to Deh Mazung, where he +arrived about nightfall. Sir Frederick Roberts then returned to Sherpur, +for the defence of which General Hugh Gough had made the best +dispositions in his power, and the slender garrison of which was to +receive in the course of the night an invaluable accession in the shape +of the Guides, 900 strong, whom Jenkins had brought up by forced marches +from Jugdulluk. + +The misfortunes of the day were in a measure retrieved by a well-timed, +ready-witted, and gallant action on the part of that brilliant and +lamented soldier Colonel Macgregor. A wing of the 72d had been called out +to hold the gorge of the Cabul river, but the Nanuchee Pass, through +which led the direct road from the scene of the combat to Sherpur, +remained open; and there was a time when the Afghan army was heading in +its direction. Macgregor had hurried to the open pass in time to rally +about him a number of Massy's people, who had lost their officers and +were making their way confusedly toward the refuge of Sherpur. Remaining +in possession of this important point until all danger was over, he +noticed that the ground about Bagwana, where the guns had been abandoned, +was not held by the enemy, and there seemed to him that the opportunity +to recover them presented itself. Taking with him a detachment of lancers +and artillerymen, he rode out and met with no molestation beyond a few +shots from villagers. From Macpherson's baggage guard, met as it crossed +the valley toward Sherpur, he requisitioned sixty infantrymen who entered +and held Bagwana, and covered him and the gunners during the long and +arduous struggle to extricate the guns from their lair in the deep and +rugged watercourse. This was at length accomplished, scratch teams were +improvised, and the guns, which were uninjured although the ammunition +boxes had been emptied, were brought into the cantonment to the general +joy. + +The result of the day's operations left General Baker momentarily +belated. But on the morning of the 11th that officer, finding that no +Afghans were being driven down upon him in accordance with the programme, +quitted the Maidan country and marched northward toward Urgundeh. An +attack on his baggage and rearguard was foiled; but as he reached his +camping ground for the night at Urgundeh the Afghans were found in +possession of the gorge opening into the Chardeh valley, through which +ran his road to Cabul. They were dislodged by a dashing attack of part of +the g2d Highlanders led by Lieutenant Scott Napier. It was not until the +morning of the 12th that Baker was informed by heliograph from Sherpur of +the occurrences of the previous day, and received directions to return to +the cantonment without delay. In the course of a few hours he was inside +Sherpur, notwithstanding that his march had been constantly molested by +attacks on his rear-guard. + +The casualties of the 11th had been after all not very serious. All told +they amounted to thirty men killed and forty-four wounded; fifty-one +horses killed and sixteen wounded. But the Afghans were naturally elated +by the success they had unquestionably achieved; the national rising had +been inaugurated by a distinct triumph, the news of which would bring +into the field incalculable swarms of fierce and fanatical partisans. It +was clear that Mahomed Jan had a quick eye for opportunities, and some +skill in handling men. That he could recognise the keypoint of a position +and act boldly and promptly on that recognition, his tactics of the 11th +made abundantly obvious, and his commanding position on the morning of +the 12th still further demonstrated his tactical ability. _L'audace, +encore l'audace, et toujours l'audace_ is the game to be played by the +commander of disciplined troops against Asiatic levies, and no man was +more sensible of this than the gallant soldier who now from the bastion +of Sherpur could see the Afghan standards waving on the summit of the +Takht-i-Shah. Indeed he was impressed so thoroughly by the force of the +maxim as to allow himself to hope that some 560 soldiers, of whom about +one-third were Europeans, backed by a couple of mountain guns, would be +able to carry by assault the lofty peak, strongly held by resolute +Afghans in protected positions, supported by several thousands of their +fellows lying out of sight until an attack should develop itself, to meet +which they were at hand to reinforce the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah. +From the gorge of the Cabul river there runs due south to near Charasiah +a lofty and rugged range, the highest point of which, the Takht-i-Shah, +is about midway from either extremity. From this main ridge there project +eastward at right angles two lateral spurs. The shorter and more +northerly of those runs down to the Balla Hissar, the longer and more +southerly obtruding itself into the plain as far as the village of Beni +Hissar. This latter spur quits the main ridge no great distance south of +the Takht-i-Shah peak, and on the 12th the Afghan reserves were massed in +rear of the peak, both on the main ridge and on this spur. The steep +faces of the mountain were strewn with great smooth boulders and jagged +masses of rock; the ascent, everywhere laborious, was complicated in +places by sheer scarps, and those formidable impediments were made still +more difficult by frequent sungahs, strong stone curtains behind which +the defenders lay safe or fired with a minimum of exposure. On the summit +was a great natural cavity which had been made bomb proof by art, and +further cover was afforded by caves and lines of rock. The most northerly +portion of the ridge described is known as the Sher Derwaza heights, +which Macpherson had occupied on the morning of the 12th, and his brigade +it was which furnished the little force already mentioned as charged to +attempt the task of storming the Takht-i-Shah. + +For several hours Morgan's two mountain guns industriously shelled that +peak, and then the infantry made their effort. The Afghans fought +stubbornly in defence of a lower hill they held in advance of the +Takht-i-Shah, but after a hard struggle they had to abandon it to +Macpherson's resolute men. But the exertions of the latter to ascend the +peak were baulked by its rugged steepness and the fire of the Afghans +holding the sungahs on its face. Sir Frederick Roberts had to recognise +that the direct attack by so weak a force unaided by a diversion, could +not succeed, and he ordered further efforts to be deferred. The +casualties of the abortive attempt included three officers, one of whom, +Major Cook, V.C. of the Goorkhas, than whom the British army contained no +better soldier, died of his wound. Macpherson was directed to hold the +ground he had won, including the lower advanced hill, and was informed +that on the following morning he was to expect the co-operation of +General Baker from the direction of Beni Hissar. + +The lesson of the result of attempting impossibilities had been taken to +heart, and the force which Baker led out on the morning of the 13th was +exceptionally strong, consisting as it did of the 92d Highlanders and +Guides infantry, a wing of the 3d Sikhs, a cavalry regiment, and eight +guns. Marching in the direction of the lateral spur extending from the +main ridge eastward to Beni Hissar, Baker observed that large masses of +the enemy were quitting the plain villages about Beni Hissar in which +they had taken shelter for the night, and were hurrying to gain the +summit of the spur which constituted the defensive position of the Afghan +reserve. Baker's _coup d'oeil_ was quick and true. By gaining the centre +of the spur he would cut in two the Afghan line along its summit, and so +isolate and neutralise the section of it from the centre to the Beni +Hissar extremity, toward which section the reinforcements from the plain +villages were climbing. But to accomplish this shrewd stroke it was +necessary that he should act with promptitude and energy. His guns opened +fire on the summit. The Sikhs, extended athwart the plain, protected his +right flank. His cavalry on the left cut into the bodies of Afghans +hurrying to ascend the eastern extremity of the spur. With noble +emulation the Highlanders and the Guides sprang up the rugged slope, +their faces set towards the centre of the summit line. Major White, who +already had earned many laurels in the campaign, led on his Highlanders; +the Guides, burning to make the most of their first opportunity to +distinguish themselves, followed eagerly the gallant chief who had so +often led them to victory on other fields. Lieutenant Forbes, a young +officer of the 92d heading the advance of his regiment, reached the +summit accompanied only by his colour-sergeant. A band of ghazees rushed +on the pair and the sergeant fell. As Forbes stood covering his body he +was overpowered and slain. The sudden catastrophe staggered for a moment +the soldiers following their officer, but Lieutenant Dick Cunyngham +rallied them immediately and led them forward at speed. For his conduct +on this occasion Cunyngham received the Victoria Cross. + +With rolling volleys Highlanders and Guides reached and won the summit. +The Afghans momentarily clung to the position, but the British fire swept +them away and the bayonets disposed of the ghazees, who fought and died +in defence of their standards. The severance of the Afghan line was +complete. A detachment was left to maintain the isolation of some 2000 of +the enemy who had been cut off; and then swinging to their right Baker's +regiments swept along the summit of the spur toward the main ridge and +the Takht-i-Shah, the Highlanders leading. As they advanced they rolled +up the Afghan line and a panic set in among the enemy, who sought safety +in flight. Assailed from both sides, for Macpherson's men from the +conical hill were passing up the north side of the peak, and shaken by +the steady fire of the mountain guns, the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah +evacuated the position. Baker's soldiers toiled vigorously upward toward +the peak, keen for the honour of winning it; but the credit of that +achievement justly fell to their comrades of Macpherson's command, who +had striven so valiantly to earn it the day before, and who had gained +possession of the peak and the Afghan standards flying on its summit, a +few minutes before the arrival of White's Highlanders and Jenkins' +Guides. As the midday gun was fired in the cantonment the flash of the +heliograph from the peak told that the Takht-i-Shah was won. + +While Baker was sweeping the spur and climbing the lofty peak of the main +ridge, his reserve, which remained in the plain, was in sharp action +against masses of assailants from the city and other bodies from the +villages about Beni Hissar. Those were beaten off by the 3d Sikhs and +Baker's flanks were thus cleared, but the resolute Afghans, bent on +interfering with his return march, surged away in the direction of the +Siah Sung ridge and gathered thereon in considerable strength. The guns +of Sherpur shelled them smartly, but they held their ground; and Massy +went out to disperse them with the cavalry. The Afghans showed unwonted +resolution, confronting the cavalry with extraordinary steadiness in +regular formation and withholding their fire until the troopers were +close upon them. But the horsemen were not to be denied. Captains Butson +and Chisholme led their squadrons against the Afghan flanks, and the +troopers of the 9th avenged the mishap which had befallen that gallant +regiment two days before, riding through and through the hostile masses +and scattering them over the plain. But in the charge Butson was killed, +Chisholme and Trower were wounded; the sergeant-major and three men were +killed and seven were wounded. Brilliant charges were delivered by the +other cavalry detachments, and the Siah Sung heights were ultimately +cleared. The Guides' cavalry attacked, defeated, and pursued for a long +distance a body of Kohistanees marching from the north-east apparently +with intent to join Mahomed Jan. The casualties of the day were sixteen +killed and forty-five wounded; not a heavy loss considering the amount of +hard fighting. The Afghans were estimated to have lost in killed alone +from 200 to 300 men. + +The operations of the day were unquestionably successful so far as they +went, but the actual results attained scarcely warranted the anticipation +that the Afghans would acknowledge themselves defeated by breaking up +their combination and dispersing to their homes. It was true that they +had been defeated, but they had fought with unprecedented stubbornness +and gave little evidence of being cowed. Throughout the day the villages +around Cabul had evinced a rancorous hostility which had a marked +significance. Not less significant was the participation in the fighting +of the day on the part of the population of Cabul. As Baker was returning +to Sherpur in the evening he had been fired upon from the Balla Hissar, +and his flanking parties had found ambushes of armed Afghans among the +willows between the city and the cantonment. But for the skill and +courage of the non-commissioned officer in charge a convoy of wounded on +its way to Sherpur would certainly have been destroyed. But there was a +stronger argument than any of those indications, significant as they were +of the unbroken spirit of the Afghans, telling against the probability +that the operations of the day would have the effect of putting down the +national rising. The hordes which had gathered to the banners of the +Mushk-i-Alum and Mahomed Jan combined with the fanaticism of the _jehad_ +a fine secular greed for plunder. Was it likely that they would scatter +resignedly, leaving untouched the rich booty of the city that had been +almost within arm's-length as they looked down on it from the peak of the +Takht-i-Shah, and whose minarets they were within sight of on the spur +and in the villages of Beni-Hissar? Was that ever likely? And was it not +made more and yet more unlikely when on the afternoon of the 13th +Macpherson, acting on orders, moved his camp to the Balla Hissar heights, +evacuating Deh Mazung and leaving open to the enemy the road into the +city through the Cabul gorge? The following morning was to show how +promptly and how freely the Afghans had taken advantage of the access to +the capital thus afforded them. It must never be forgotten that at this +time our people in Afghanistan held no more territory than the actual +ground they stood upon and the terrain swept by their fire. No +trustworthy intelligence from outside that region was procurable; and of +this there can be no clearer evidence than that the General was under the +belief that the enemy had been 'foiled in their western and southern +operations.' + +The morning of the 14th effectually dispelled the optimistic +anticipations indulged in overnight. At daybreak a large body of Afghans, +with many standards, were discerned on a hill about a mile northward of +the Asmai ridge, from which and from the Kohistan road they were moving +on to the crest of that ridge. They were joined there by several +thousands coming up the slopes from out the village of Deh Afghan, the +northern suburb of Cabul. It was estimated that there were about 8000 men +in position along the summit of the ridge, and occupying also a low +conical hill beyond its north-western termination. The array of Afghans +displayed itself within a mile of the west face of the Sherpur +cantonment, and formed a menace which could not be brooked. To General +Baker was entrusted the task of dislodging the enemy from the threatening +position, and there was assigned to him for this purpose a force +consisting of about 1200 bayonets, eight guns, and a regiment of native +cavalry. His first object was to gain possession of the conical hill +already mentioned, and thus debar the Afghan force on the Asmai heights +from receiving accessions either from the masses on the hill further +north or by the Kohistan road. Under cover of the artillery fire the +Highlanders and Guides occupied this conical hill after a short conflict. +A detachment was left to hold it and then Colonel Jenkins, who commanded +the attack, set about the arduous task of storming from the northward the +formidable position of the Asmai heights. The assault was led by +Brownlow's staunch Highlanders, supported on the right by the Guides +operating on the enemy's flank; and the Afghan position was heavily +shelled by four of Baker's guns, and by four more in action near the +south-western corner of the Sherpur cantonment. Macpherson from his +position on the Balla Hissar hill aided the attack by the fire of his +guns, and also by despatching two companies of the 67th to cross the +Cabul gorge and operate against the enemy's left rear. + +In the face of a heavy fire the Highlanders and Guides climbed with great +speed and steadiness the rugged hillside leading upward to the Afghan +breastwork on the northern edge of the summit. Their approach and the +crushing shrapnel fire from the guns near Sherpur had caused numerous +Afghans to move downward from the position toward Deh Afghan, heavily +smitten as they went; but the ghazees in the breastworks made a strenuous +resistance and died under their banners as the Highlanders carried the +defences with a rush. The crest, about a quarter of a mile long, was +traversed under heavy fire and the southern breastwork on the peak was +approached. It was strong and strongly held, but a cross fire was brought +to bear on its garrison, and then the frontal attack led by a +lance-corporal of the 72d was delivered. After a hand-to-hand grapple in +which Highlanders and Guides were freely cut and slashed by the knives of +the ghazees, the position, which was found full of dead, was carried, but +with considerable loss. The whole summit of the Asmai heights was now in +British possession, and everything seemed auspicious. The Afghans +streaming down from the heights toward the city were being lacerated by +shell fire and musketry fire as they descended. When they took refuge in +Deh Afghan that suburb was heavily shelled, and it was gradually +evacuated. + +Scarcely had Jenkins won the summit of the Asmai ridge when the fortune +of the day was suddenly overcast; indeed while he was still engaged in +the attainment of that object premonitory indications of serious mischief +were unexpectedly presenting themselves. A vast host of Afghans described +as numbering from 15,000 to 20,000, debouched into the Chardeh valley +from the direction of Indikee, and were moving northwards, apparently +with the object of forming a junction with the masses occupying the hills +to the north-west of the Asmai heights. About the same time cavalry +scouting in the Chardeh valley brought in the information that large +parties of hostile infantry and cavalry were hurrying across the valley +in the direction of the conical hill the defence of which had been +entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Clark with 120 Highlanders and Guides. +Recognising Clark's weakness, General Baker had judiciously reinforced +that officer with four mountain guns and 100 bayonets. The guns opened +fire on the Afghan bodies marching from the Killa Kazee direction, and +drove them out of range. But they coalesced with the host advancing from +Indikee, and the vast mass of Afghans, facing to the right, struck the +whole range of the British position from near the Cabul gorge on the +south to and beyond the conical hill on the north. The most vulnerable +point was the section at and about that eminence, and the necessity for +supplying Clark with further reinforcements became urgently manifest. +Baker sent up a second detachment, and 200 Sikhs came out from Sherpur at +the double. But the Afghans, creeping stealthily in great numbers up the +slope from out the Chardeh valley, had the shorter distance to travel, +and were beforehand with the reinforcements. Their tactics were on a par +with their resolution. The left of their attack grasped and held a knoll +north of the conical hill, and from this position of vantage brought a +cross fire to bear on Clark's detachment. As their direct attack +developed itself it encountered from the conical hill a heavy rifle fire, +and shells at short range tore through the loose rush of ghazees, but the +fanatics sped on and up without wavering. As they gathered behind a mound +for the final onslaught, Captain Spens of the 72d with a handful of his +Highlanders went out on the forlorn hope of dislodging them. A rush was +made on him; he was overpowered and slaughtered after a desperate +resistance, and the Afghan charge swept up the hill-side. In momentary +panic the defenders gave ground, carrying downhill with them the +reinforcement of Punjaubees which Captain Hall was bringing up. Two of +the mountain guns were lost, but there was a rally at the foot of the +hill under cover of which the other two were extricated. The Afghans +refrained from descending into the plain, and directed their efforts +toward cutting off the occupants of the position on the Asmai summit. +They ascended by two distinct directions. One body from the conical hill +followed the route taken by Jenkins in the morning; another scaled a spur +trending downward to the Chardeh valley from the southern extremity of +the Asmai ridge. + +It was estimated that the Afghan strength disclosed this day did not fall +short of 40,000 men; and General Roberts was reluctantly compelled to +abandon for the time any further offensive efforts. His reasons, stated +with perfect frankness, may best be given in his own words. 'Up to this +time,' he wrote, 'I had no reason to apprehend that the Afghans were in +sufficient force to cope successfully with disciplined troops, but the +resolute and determined manner in which the conical hill had been +recaptured, and the information sent to me by Brigadier-General +Macpherson that large masses of the enemy were still advancing from the +north, south, and west, made it evident that the numbers combined against +us were too overwhelming to admit of my comparatively small force meeting +them. I therefore determined to withdraw from all isolated positions, and +to concentrate the whole force at Sherpur, thus securing the safety of +our large cantonment, and avoiding what had now become a useless +sacrifice of life.' The orders issued to Generals Baker and Macpherson to +retire into the cantonment were executed with skill and steadiness. +Jenkins' evacuation of the Asmai position was conspicuously adroit. When +the order to quit reached that able officer, Major Stockwell of the 72d +was out with a small detachment, maintaining a hot fire on the Afghan +bodies ascending by the southern spur from the Chardeh valley. He fell +back with great deliberation, and when he rejoined the retirement down +the hill face looking toward Sherpur was leisurely proceeded with, the +hostile advance from, the northern side being held in check by the fire +of covering parties from Jenkins' left flank. General Macpherson's +retirement was masterly. Flanking his march through the Cabul gorge with +two companies of the 67th who stalled off a rush of ghazees from the +Asmai crest, he continued his march through the suburb of Deh Afghan, his +baggage in front under a strong guard. Some few shots were exchanged +before the suburb was cleared, but the casualties were few and presently +the brigade entered the cantonment. General Baker continued to hold a +covering position with part of his force, until the troops from the +heights and Macpherson's command had made good their retirement, and he +was the last to withdraw. By dusk the whole force was safely concentrated +within the cantonment, and the period of the defensive had begun. The +casualties of the day were serious; thirty-five killed, and 107 wounded. +During the week of fighting the little force had lost somewhat heavily; +the killed numbered eighty-three, the wounded 192. Eight officers were +killed, twelve were wounded. + + + + +CHAPTER V: ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + +Although overlarge for its garrison, the Sherpur cantonment had many of +the features of a strong defensive position. On the southern and western +faces the massive and continuous enciente made it impregnable against any +force unprovided with siege artillery. But on the eastern face the wall +had been built to the elevation only of seven feet, and at either end of +the Behmaroo heights, which constituted the northern line of defence, +there were open gaps which had to be made good. The space between the +north-western bastion and the heights was closed by an entrenchment +supported by a 'laager' of Afghan gun-carriages and limbers, the ground +in front strengthened by abattis and wire entanglements, beyond which a +village flanking the northern and western faces was occupied as a +detached post. The open space on the north-eastern angle was similarly +fortified; the village of Behmaroo was loopholed, and outlying buildings +to the front were placed in a state of defence. The unfinished eastern +wall was heightened by logs built up in tiers, and its front was covered +with abattis, a tower and garden outside being occupied by a detachment. +A series of block houses had been built along the crest of the Behmaroo +heights supporting a continuous entrenchment, gun emplacements made in +the line of defence, and the gorge dividing the heights strongly +fortified against an attack from the northern plain. The enciente was +divided into sections to each of which was assigned a commanding officer +with a specified detail of troops; and a strong reserve of European +infantry was under the command of Brigadier-General Baker, ready at short +notice to reinforce any threatened point. It was presumably owing to the +absorption of the troops in fighting, collecting supplies, and providing +winter shelter, that when the concentration within Sherpur became +suddenly necessary the defences of the position were still seriously +defective; and throughout the period of investment the force was +unremittingly engaged in the task of strengthening them. Nor had the +military precaution been taken of razing the villages and enclosures +within the fire zone of the enciente, and they remained to afford cover +to the enemy during the period of investment. + +Before the enemy cut the telegraph wire in the early morning of the 15th +Sir Frederick Roberts had informed the authorities in India of his +situation and of his need for reinforcements; and he had also ordered up +General Charles Gough's brigade without loss of time. Gough was already +at Jugdulluk when he received the order calling him to Cabul, but he had +to wait for reinforcements and supplies, and the tribesmen were +threatening his position and the line of communication in rear of it. He +did not move forward until the 21st. On the following day he reached +Luttabund, whence he took on with him the garrison of that post, but +although his march was unmolested it was not until the 24th that he +reached Sherpur, a day too late to participate in repelling the assault +on the cantonment. + +While General Roberts' force was busily engaged in making good the +defences of Sherpur, the Afghans refrained from attempting to back their +success on the Asmai heights by an assault on the defensive position +which seemed to invite an attack. During the first two days of their +possession of the city they were enjoying the fruits of their occupation +in their own turbulent manner. Roberts' spies reported them busily +engaged in sacking the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters, in looting and +wrecking the houses of chiefs and townsfolk who had shown friendliness to +the British, and in quarrelling among themselves over the spoils. +Requisitioning was in full force. The old Moulla Mushk-i-Alum was the +temporary successor of General Hills in the office of Governor of Cabul; +and spite of his ninety years he threw extraordinary energy into the work +of arousing fanaticism and rallying to Cabul the fighting men of the +surrounding country. The _jehad_ of which he had been the chief +instigator had certainly attained unexampled dimensions, and although it +was not in the nature of things that every Afghan who carried arms should +be inspired with religious fanaticism to such a pitch as to be utterly +reckless of his life, swarms of fierce ghazees made formidable the levies +which Mahomed Jan commanded. + +On the 17th and 18th the Afghans made ostentatious demonstrations against +Sherpur, but those were never formidable, although they made themselves +troublesome with some perseverance during the daytime, consistently +refraining from night attacks, which was remarkable since ordinarily they +are much addicted to the _chapao_. There never was any investment of +Sherpur, or indeed any approximation to investment. Cavalry +reconnaissances constantly went out, and piquets and videttes were +habitually on external duty; infantry detachments sallied forth whenever +occasion demanded to dislodge the assailants from points occupied by them +in inconvenient proximity to the defences. The Afghan offensive was not +dangerous, but annoying and wearying. It was indeed pushed with some +resolution on the 18th, when several thousand men poured out of the city, +and skirmished forward under cover of the gardens and enclosures on the +plain between Cabul and Sherpur, in the direction of the southern front +and the south-western bastions. The Afghans are admirable skirmishers, +and from their close cover kept up for hours a brisk fire on the soldiers +lining the Sherpur defences, but with singularly little effect. The +return rifle fire was for the most part restricted to volleys directed on +those of the enemy who offered a sure mark by exposing themselves; and +shell fire was chiefly used to drive the Afghan skirmishers from their +cover in the gardens and enclosures. Some of those, notwithstanding, were +able to get within 400 yards of the enciente, but could make no further +headway. On the morning of the 19th it was found that in the night the +enemy had occupied the Meer Akhor fort, a few hundred yards beyond the +eastern face, and close to the Residency compound of the old cantonments +of 1839-42. The fire from this fort was annoying, and General Baker went +out on the errand of destroying it, with 800 bayonets, two mountain guns, +and a party of sappers. As the fort was being approached through the +dense mist a sudden volley from it struck down several men, and +Lieutenant Montenaro of the mountain battery was mortally wounded. The +fort was heavily shelled from the south-eastern bastion; its garrison +evacuated it, and it was blown up. + +Mahomed Jan and his coadjutors could hardly flatter themselves that as +yet they had made any impression on the steadfast defence which the +British force was maintaining in the Sherpur cantonment. The Afghan +leader had tried force in vain; he knew the history of that strange +period in the winter of 1841 during which Afghan truculence and audacity +had withered the spirit of a British force not much less numerically +strong than the little army now calmly withstanding him. Things had not +gone very well with that little army of late, possibly its constancy +might have been impaired, and its chief might be willing, as had been +Elphinstone and the Eltchi, to listen to terms. Anyhow there could be no +harm in making a proffer based on the old lines. So the Afghan leader +proposed to General Roberts, apparently in all seriousness, that the +British army should forthwith evacuate Afghanistan, encountering no +molestation in its march; that the British General before departing +should engage that Yakoub Khan should return to Afghanistan as its Ameer; +and that there should be left behind two officers of distinction as +hostages for the faithful fulfilment of the contract. 'We have a lakh of +men; they are like wolves eager to rush on their prey! We cannot much +longer control them!'--such were said to have been the terms of a message +intended to disturb the equanimity of the British commander. Meer Butcha +and his Kohistanees, again, were not to all appearance anxious for the +restoration of Yakoub. They professed themselves content to accept our +staunch friend Wali Mahomed as Ameer, if only the British army would be +good enough to march home promptly and leave to Afghans the +administration of Afghan affairs. It was not likely that a man of +Roberts' nature would demean himself to take any notice of such +overtures. For the moment circumstances had enforced on him the wisdom of +accepting the defensive attitude, but he knew himself, nevertheless, the +virtual master of the situation. He had but one serious anxiety--the +apprehension lest the Afghans should not harden their hearts to deliver +an assault on his position. + +That apprehension was not long to give him concern. On the 20th, as a +menace against the southern face of Sherpur, the enemy took strong +possession of the Mahomed Shereef fort, stormed so gallantly by Colonel +Griffiths on 6th November 1841; and they maintained themselves there +during the two following days in face of the fire of siege guns mounted +on the bastions of the enciente. On the 21st and 22d large numbers of +Afghans quitted the city, and passing eastward behind the Siah Sung +heights, took possession in great force of the forts and villages outside +the eastern face of Sherpur. On the 22d a spy brought in the intelligence +that Mahomed Jan and his brother-chiefs had resolved to assault the +cantonment early on the following morning, and the spy was able to +communicate the plan of attack. The 2000 men holding the King's Garden +and the Mahomed Shereef fort had been equipped with scaling ladders, and +were to make a false attack which might become a real one, against the +western section of the southern front. The principal assault, however, +was to be made against the eastern face of the Behmaroo +village--unquestionably the weakest part of the defensive position. The +23d was the last day of the Mohurrum--the great Mahomedan religious +festival, when fanaticism would be at its height; and further to +stimulate that incentive to valour, the Mushk-i-Alum would himself kindle +the beacon fire on the Asmai height which was to be the signal to the +faithful to rush to the assault. + +The information proved perfectly accurate. All night long the shouts and +chants of the Afghans filled the air. Purposeful silence reigned +throughout the cantonment. In the darkness the soldiers mustered and +quietly fell into their places; the officers commanding sections of the +defence made their dispositions; the reserves were silently standing to +their arms. Every eye was toward the Asmai heights, shrouded still in the +gloom of the night. A long tongue of flame shot up into the air, blazed +brilliantly for a few moments, and then waned. At the signal a fierce +fire opened from the broken ground before one of the gateways of the +southern face, the flashes indicating that the marksmen were plying their +rifles within 200 yards of the enciente. The bullets sped harmlessly over +the defenders sheltered behind the parapet, and in the dusk of the dawn +reprisals were not attempted. But this outburst of powder-burning against +the southern face was a mere incident; what men listened and watched for +was the development of the true assault on the eastern end of the great +parallelogram. The section commanders there were General Hugh Gough in +charge of the eastern end of the Behmaroo heights, and Colonel Jenkins +from the village down to the Native Hospital and beyond to the bastion at +the south-eastern corner. The troops engaged were the Guides from the +ridge down to Behmaroo village and beyond to the Native Hospital, in +which were 100 men of the 28th Punjaub Infantry, and between the Hospital +and the corner bastion the 67th, reinforced by two companies of 92d +Highlanders from the reserve, which later sent to the defence of the +eastern face additional contributions of men and guns. 'From beyond +Behmaroo and the eastern trenches and walls,' writes Mr Hensman, 'came a +roar of voices so loud and menacing that it seemed as if an army fifty +thousand strong was charging down on our thin line of men. Led by their +ghazees, the main body of Afghans hidden in the villages and orchards on +the east side of Sherpur had rushed out in one dense mob, and were +filling the air with their shouts of "Allah-il-Allah." The roar surged +forward as their line advanced, but it was answered by such a roll of +musketry that it was drowned for the moment, and then merged into the +general din which told us that our men with Martinis and Sniders were +holding their own against the attacking force.' When the first attack +thus graphically described was made the morning was still so dark and +misty that the outlook from the trenches was restricted, and the order to +the troops was to hold their fire till the assailants should be +distinctly visible. The detachment of the 28th opened fire somewhat +prematurely, and presently the Guides holding Behmaroo and the trenches +on the slopes followed the example, and sweeping with their fire the +terrain in front of them broke the force of the attack while its leaders +were still several hundred yards away. Between the Hospital and the +corner bastion the men of the 67th and 92d awaited with impassive +discipline the word of permission to begin firing. From out the mist at +length emerged dense masses of men, some of whom were brandishing swords +and knives, while others loaded and fired while hurrying forward. The +order to fire was not given until the leading ghazees were within eighty +yards, and the mass of assailants not more distant than 200 yards. +Heavily struck then by volley on volley, they recoiled but soon gathered +courage to come on again; and for several hours there was sharp fighting, +repeated efforts being made to carry the low eastern wall. So resolute +were the Afghans that more than once they reached the abattis, but each +time were driven back with heavy loss. About ten o'clock there was a lull +and it seemed that the attacking force was owning the frustration of its +attempts, but an hour later there was a partial recrudescence of the +fighting and the assailants once more came on. The attack, however, was +not pushed with much vigour and was soon beaten down, but the Afghans +still maintained a threatening attitude and the fire from the defences +was ineffectual to dislodge them. The General resolved to take their +positions in flank, and with this intent sent out into the open through +the gorge in the Behmaroo heights, four field guns escorted by a cavalry +regiment. Bending to the right, the guns came into action on the right +flank of the Afghans, and the counter-stroke had immediate effect. The +enemy wavered and soon were in full retreat. The Kohistanee contingent, +some 5000 strong, cut loose and marched away northward, with obvious +recognition that the game was up. The fugitives were scourged with +artillery and rifle fire, and Massy led out the cavalry, swept the plain, +and drove the lingering Afghans from the slopes of Siah Sung. The false +attack on the southern face from the King's Garden and the Mahomed +Shereef fort never made any head. Those positions were steadily shelled +until late in the afternoon, when they were finally evacuated, and by +nightfall all the villages and enclosures between Sherpur and Cabul were +entirely deserted. Some of those had been destroyed by sappers from the +garrison during the afternoon, in the course of which operation two +gallant engineer officers, Captain Dundas and Lieutenant Nugent, were +unfortunately killed by the premature explosion of a mine. + +Mahomed Jan had been as good as his word; he had delivered his stroke +against Sherpur, and that stroke had utterly failed. With its failure +came promptly the collapse of the national rising. Before daybreak of the +24th the formidable combination which had included all the fighting +elements of North-Eastern Afghanistan, and under whose banners it was +believed that more than 100,000 armed men had mustered, was no more. Not +only had it broken up; it had disappeared. Neither in the city, nor in +the adjacent villages, nor on the surrounding heights, was a man to be +seen. So hurried had been the Afghan dispersal that the dead lay unburied +where they had fallen. His nine days on the defensive had cost General +Roberts singularly little in casualties; his losses were eighteen killed +and sixty-eight wounded. The enemy's loss from first to last of the +rising was reckoned to be not under 3000. + +On the 24th the cavalry rode far and fast in pursuit of the fugitives, +but they overtook none, such haste had the fleeing Afghans made. On the +same day Cabul and the Balla Hissar were reoccupied, and General Hills +resumed his functions as military governor of the city. Cabul had the +aspect of having undergone a sack at the hands of the enemy; the bazaars +were broken up and deserted and the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters had +been relentlessly wrecked. Sir Frederick Roberts lost no time in +despatching a column to, the Kohistan to punish Meer Butcha by destroying +that chief's forts and villages, and to ascertain whether the tribesmen +of the district had dispersed to their homes. This was found to be the +case, and the column returned after having been out five days. After +making a few examples the General issued a proclamation of amnesty, +excluding therefrom only five of the principal leaders and fomentors of +the recent rising, and stipulating that the tribesmen should send +representatives to Sherpur to receive explanations regarding the +dispositions contemplated for the government of the country. This policy +of conciliation bore good fruit; and a durbar was held on January 9th, +1880, at which were present about 200 sirdars, chiefs, and headmen from +the Kohistan, Logur, and the Ghilzai country. Rewards were presented to +those chiefs who had remained friendly; the General received the salaams +of the assembled sirdars and then addressed them in a firm but +conciliatory speech. + +The country remained still in a disturbed state, but there was little +likelihood of a second general rising. General Roberts was resolved, +however, to be thoroughly prepared to cope with that contingency should +it occur. Sherpur was encircled by a military road, and all cover and +obstructions for the space of 1000 yards outside the enciente were swept +away. Another road was constructed from Behmaroo village to the Siah Sung +heights and yet another from the south-eastern gateway direct to the +Balla Hissar, on both of which there were bridges across the Cabul river. +Along the northern face of Cabul from Deh Afghan to the Balla Hissar, a +road broad enough for guns was made, and another broad road cut through +the lower Balla Hissar. Another military road was built through the Cabul +gorge to the main Ghuznee and Bamian road in the Chardeh valley. Strong +forts were built on the Asmai and Sher Derwaza heights and on the spur +above the Balla Hissar, which, well garrisoned and supplied adequately +with provisions, water, and ammunition, would enable Cabul as well as +Sherpur to be held. The latter was greatly strengthened, the eastern +point of the Behmaroo heights being converted into something like a +regular fortress. Later, in March, when the Cabul force had increased to +a strength of about 11,500 men and twenty-six guns, the command was +formed into two divisions, of which the first remained under the +Lieutenant-General, the second being commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The line of communications was in charge of Major-General Bright, +and Brigadier-General Hugh Gough was the cavalry commander in succession +to Brigadier-General Massy. On the 2d of May, Sir Donald Stewart arriving +at Cabul from Candahar, took over the chief command in North-Eastern +Afghanistan from Sir Frederick Roberts. Sir Donald's march from Candahar, +which was an eventful one, is dealt with in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI: AHMED KHEL + +While Sir Frederick Roberts had been fighting hard in North-Eastern +Afghanistan, Sir Donald Stewart had been experiencing comparative +tranquillity in his Candahar command. As soon as the news reached him of +the destruction of Cavagnari's mission he had promptly concentrated his +troops, and so early as the third week of September (1879) he was in a +position to carry out his orders to create a diversion in aid of Roberts' +advance on Cabul by making a demonstration in the direction of Ghuznee +and placing a garrison in Khelat-i-Ghilzai. No subsequent movements of +importance were undertaken in Southern Afghanistan during the winter, and +the province enjoyed almost unbroken quietude. In Herat, however, +disturbance was rife. Ayoub Khan, the brother of Yakoub Khan, had +returned from exile and made good his footing in Herat, of which formerly +he had been conjoint governor with Yakoub. In December he began a hostile +advance on Candahar, but a conflict broke out between the Cabul and Herat +troops under his command, and he abandoned for the time his projected +expedition. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT AHMED KHEL. 20 Miles from GHUZNEE. 19th. April +1880.] + +In the end of March Sir Donald Stewart began the march toward Cabul which +orders from India had prescribed. He left behind him in Candahar the +Bombay division of his force under the command of Major-General Primrose, +whose line of communication with the Indus valley was to be kept open by +Phayre's brigade, and took with him on the northward march the Bengal +division, consisting of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade. The +first infantry brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Barter, the +second by Brigadier-General Hughes, and the cavalry brigade, which +divisional headquarters accompanied, by Brigadier-General Palliser. +Khelat-i-Ghilzai was reached on 6th April; the Bengal portion of its +garrison joined the division and the advance was resumed on the following +day. Until Shahjui, the limit of the Candahar province, the march was +uneventful; but beyond that place extreme difficulties were experienced +in procuring supplies, for the villages were found deserted and the +inhabitants had carried off, destroyed, or hidden their stores of grain. +The force was embarrassed by a horde of Hazaras, who swarmed in wild +irregularity on its flanks, plundering and burning with great +vindictiveness, eager to wreak vengeance on their Afghan foes. And it had +another although more distant companionship, in the shape of several +thousand hostile tribesmen and ghazees, whose fanaticism their moullas +had been assiduously inciting, and who marched day by day parallel with +the British right flank along the foothills at a distance of about eight +miles. Their attitude was threatening but it was not thought wise to +meddle with them, since their retreat over the hills could not well be +cut off, and since the policy of non-interference would tend to encourage +them to venture on a battle. The soundness of this reasoning was soon to +be made manifest. + +On the night of April 18th the division was encamped at Mushaki, about +thirty miles south of Ghuznee. The spies that evening brought in the +information that the enemy had resolved on fighting on the following +morning, and that the position they intended to take up was the summit of +a low spur of the Gul Koh mountain ridge, bounding on the west the valley +followed by the road. This spur was said to project in a north-easterly +direction toward the Ghuznee river, gradually sinking into the plain. +During a great part of its length it flanked and overhung the road, but +near where it merged into the plain the road passed over it by a low +saddle at a point about six miles beyond Mushaki. At dawn of the 19th the +column moved off, Palliser leading the advance, which Sir Donald Stewart +accompanied, Hughes commanding the centre, Barter bringing up the rear +and protecting the baggage. An hour later the enemy were visible in great +strength about three miles in advance, presenting the aspect of a vast +body formed up on the spur and on the saddle crossed by the road, and +thus threatening Stewart at once in front and on both flanks. The British +general at once made his dispositions. His guns were on the road in +column of route. The three infantry regiments of Hughes' brigade came up +to the left of and in line with the leading battery, the cavalry took +ground on the plain on its right, and a reserve was formed consisting of +an infantry regiment, two companies sappers and miners, and the General's +escort of a troop and two companies. Orders were sent back to Barter to +send forward without delay half the infantry of his brigade. In the +formation described the force resumed its advance until within striking +distance. Then the two batteries came into action on either side of the +road; the horse-battery on the right, the flat ground to its right being +covered by the 2d Punjaub Cavalry; the field-battery on the left. Sir +Donald Stewart's proper front thus consisted of the field and +horse-batteries with their supports, but since it was apparent that the +greatest strength of the enemy was on the higher ground flanking his +left, it behoved him to show a front in that direction also, and for this +purpose he utilised Hughes' three infantry regiments, of which the 59th +was on the right, the 2d Sikhs in the centre, and the 3d Goorkhas on the +left. Part of the reserve infantry was sent to make good the interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. + +The guns had no sooner come into action than the enemy in great masses +showed themselves on spur and saddle and plain, bent seemingly on an +attempt to envelop the position held by the British. 'Suddenly,' writes +Hensmen, 'a commotion was observed in the most advanced lines of the +opposing army; the moullas could be seen haranguing the irregular host +with frantic energy, the beating of the tom-toms was redoubled, and then +as if by magic waves on waves of men--ghazees of the most desperate +type--poured down upon the plain, and rushed upon General Stewart's +force. The main body of the Afghan army remained upon the hill to watch +the ghazees in their reckless onslaught, and take advantage of any +success they might gain. The fanaticism of the 3000 or 4000 men who made +this desperate charge has perhaps never been equalled; they had 500 or +600 yards to cover before they could come to close quarters, and yet they +made nothing of the distance. Nearly all were well armed with tulwars, +knives, and pistols. Some carried rifles and matchlocks, while a few--and +those must have been resolute fanatics indeed--had simply pikes made of +bayonets, or pieces of sharpened iron fastened on long shafts. Their +attack broke with greatest violence on our flanks. On our left flank the +19th Bengal Lancers were still moving into position when the ghazees +rushed in among them. In an instant they were hidden in the cloud of dust +and smoke, and then they galloped toward the right rear, and struck into +the reserve in rear of the Lieutenant-General and his staff. All was +confusion for a moment; the ammunition mules were stampeded, and with the +riderless horses of the lancers killed or wounded in the _mêlée_, dashed +into the headquarter staff. The ghazees had continued their onward rush, +and were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with our infantry. Some of them +penetrated to within twenty yards of the knoll on which the staff were +watching the action, and so critical was the moment that Sir Donald +Stewart and every man of his staff drew their swords and prepared for +self-defence.' The hurried retirement of the lancers had left the left +flank bare. It was turned by the fierce rush of the fanatics, who were +actually in rear of the leftward infantry regiment and in the heart of +the British position. The Goorkhas had been thrown into momentary +confusion, but their colonel promptly formed them into rallying squares, +whose fire mowed down the ghazees and arrested the headlong vehemence of +their turning movement. But it was not the British left only which was +temporarily compromised by the furious onslaught of the fanatics. Their +enveloping charge broke down the defence of the weakly-manned interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. The +detachments holding that interval were forced back, righting hand-to-hand +as the sheer weight of the assault compelled them to give ground; the +59th, in its effort to throw back its right to cover the interval and +protect the guns, was thrown into confusion and gave ground; and the +guns, their case shot exhausted and the Afghans within a few yards of +their muzzles, had to be retired. The onslaught on the right front of the +horse-battery was delivered with great determination, but was held at bay +and finally crushed by the repeated charges of the 2d Punjaub cavalry. + +Every man of the reserves was hurried into the fighting line; the +soldiers were steadied by the energetic efforts of their officers and +settled down to a steady and continuous fire from their breechloaders; +the guns poured their shells into the hostile masses; and the fire of the +forty-pounders on the left effectually arrested the attempt of the Afghan +horse to move round that flank. The hard-fought combat lasted for an +hour; at ten o'clock the 'cease fire' sounded, and the British victory +was signal. The enemy was dispersing in full flight, and the cavalry was +chasing the fugitives across the plain on the right. How reckless had +been the whirlwind charges of the ghazees was evidenced by the +extraordinary number of their dead whose corpses strewed the battlefield. +In no previous conflict between our troops and the Afghans had the latter +suffered nearly so heavily. More than 1000 dead were counted on the +field, and many bodies were carried away; on a moderate computation their +total loss must have been between 2000 and 3000, and that in an estimated +strength of from 12,000 to 15,000. The casualties of the British force +were seventeen killed and 124 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds. +The injuries consisted almost wholly of sword slashes and knife stabs +received in hand-to-hand encounters. The pursuit was soon recalled, but +the Hazaras took up the chase with ardour and in the rancour of vengeance +slew and spared not. + +Sir Donald Stewart tarried on the field only long enough to bury his dead +and have his wounded attended to; and soon after noon his force resumed +its march. Ghuznee was reached on the 21st, where there was a halt of +three days. It had been reported that the indomitable Mushk-i-Alum was +raising the tribesmen of Zurmut and Shilgur to avenge the defeat of Ahmed +Khel, and a cavalry reconnaissance made on the 22d had found a gathering +of 2000 or 3000 men about the villages of Urzoo and Shalez, six miles +south-east of Ghuznee. On the morning of the 23d a strong column +commanded by Brigadier-General Palliser moved on the villages, which were +found occupied in considerable force. They were too solidly built to be +much injured by artillery fire, and the Afghans lay close in the shelter +they afforded. Palliser hesitated to commit his infantry to an attack. +Sir Donald Stewart having arrived, ordered the infantry to carry the +villages without delay, and the affair was soon over, the tribesmen +suffering severely from the rifle fire as they evacuated the villages, +and later in the pursuit made by the cavalry and horse-artillery. On the +following day the march toward Cabul was resumed. + +On the 16th April Major-General Ross had been despatched from Cabul by +Sir Frederick Roberts on the mission of joining hands with Stewart's +division. On the 20th Ross opened heliographic communication with Sir +Donald, and was informed of the latter's victory at Ahmed Khel. But the +junction of the two forces was not accomplished until the 27th; and in +the interval the force commanded by General Ross had received +considerable annoyance at the hands of tribal levies gathered by local +chiefs. The tribesmen interfered with the roadmaking operations of his +sappers in the vicinity of Sheikabad, and some fighting occurred in very +rugged country on the 23d. Trivial loss was experienced by his command, +but the demonstrations of the tribesmen evinced with what inveterate +determination, notwithstanding so many severe lessons, the Afghans +persisted in their refusal to admit themselves conquered. Driven away +with severe loss on the 25th, those indomitable hillmen and villagers +were back again on the following morning on the overhanging ridges; nor +were they dispersed by the 'resources of civilised warfare' until more of +them had paid with their lives the penalty of their obstinate hostility. +On the 28th, at Sheikabad, Sir Donald Stewart took leave of the division +which he had led from Candahar, and proceeded to Cabul with General Ross' +force to assume the chief command in North-Eastern Afghanistan. His +division turned aside into the Logur valley, where it remained at until +the final concentration about Cabul in anticipation of the evacuation. By +the reinforcement brought by Stewart the Cabul field force was increased +to a strength of about 18,000 men. + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +The occupation of Afghanistan by the British troops had been prolonged +far beyond the period originally intended by the authorities. But the +strain of that occupation was great, and although it had to be maintained +until there should be found a ruler strong enough to hold his own after +the evacuation, the decision was definitely arrived at to withdraw from +the country before the setting in of another winter. Mr Lepel Griffin, a +distinguished member of the political department of the Indian Civil +Service, reached Cabul on 20th March, his mission being to further the +selection and acceptance of a capable ruler to be left in possession. The +task was no easy one. There was little promise in any of the Barakzai +pretenders who were in Afghanistan, and in the address which Mr Griffin +addressed in Durbar to a number of sirdars and chiefs in the middle of +April, he preserved a tone at once haughty and enigmatical. One thing he +definitely announced, the Viceroy's decision that Yakoub Khan was not to +return to Afghanistan. The State was to be dismembered. As to the future +of Herat the speaker made no allusion; but the province of Candahar was +to be separated from Cabul and placed under an independent Barakzai +prince. No decision could for the present be given in regard to the +choice of an Ameer to rule over Cabul. The Government desired to nominate +an Ameer strong enough to govern his people and steadfast in his +friendship to the British; if those qualifications could be secured the +Government was willing and anxious to recognise the wish of the Afghan +people, and nominate an Ameer of their choice. + +But in effect the choice, so far as the English were concerned, had been +already virtually made. On the 14th of March Lord Lytton had telegraphed +to the Secretary of State advocating the 'early public recognition of +Abdurrahman as legitimate heir of Dost Mahomed, and the despatch of a +deputation of sirdars, with British concurrence, to offer him the throne, +as sole means of saving the country from anarchy'; and the Minister had +promptly replied authorising the nomination of Abdurrahman, should he be +found 'acceptable to the country and would be contented with Northern +Afghanistan.' Abdurrahman had known strange vicissitudes. He was the +eldest grandson of the old Dost; his father was Afzul Khan, the elder +brother of Shere Ali. After the death of the Dost he had been an exile in +Bokhara, but he returned to Balkh, of which province his father had been +Governor until removed by Shere Ali, made good his footing there, and +having done so advanced on Cabul, taking advantage of Shere Ali's absence +at Candahar. The capital opened its gates to him in March 1866; he fought +a successful battle with Shere Ali at Sheikabad, occupied Ghuznee, and +proclaimed his father Ameer. Those were triumphs, but soon the wheel came +round full circle. Afzul had but a short life as Ameer, and Abdurrahman +had to retire to Afghan Turkestan. Yakoub, then full of vigour and +enterprise, defeated him at Bamian and restored his father Shere Ali to +the throne in the winter of 1868. Abdurrahman then once more found +himself an exile. In 1870, after much wandering, he reached Tashkend, +where General Kaufmann gave him permission to reside, and obtained for +him from the Czar a pension of 25,000 roubles per annum. Petrosvky, a +Russian writer who professed to be intimate with him during his period of +exile, wrote of him that, 'To get square some day with the English and +Shere Ali was Abdurrahman's most cherished thought, his dominant, +never-failing passion.' His hatred of Shere Ali, his family, and +supporters, was intelligible and natural enough, but why he should have +entertained a bitter grudge against the English is not very apparent; and +there has been no overt manifestation of its existence since he became +Ameer. To Mr Eugene Schuyler, who had an interview with him at Tashkend, +he expressed his conviction that with £50,000 wherewith to raise and +equip an army he could attain his legitimate position as Ameer of +Afghanistan. Resolutely bent on an effort to accomplish this purpose, he +was living penuriously and saving the greater part of his pension, and he +hinted that he might have Russian assistance in the prosecution of his +endeavour. The selection of a man of such antecedents and associations as +the ruler of a 'buffer' state in friendly relations with British India +was perhaps the greatest leap in the dark on record. Abdurrahman came +straight from the position of a Russian pensionary; in moving on +Afghanistan he obeyed Russian instructions; his Tashkend patrons had +furnished him with a modest equipment of arms and money, the value of +which he undertook to repay if successful. It is of course possible that +those functionaries of a notoriously simple and ingenuous government +started and equipped him in pure friendly good nature, although they had +previously consistently deterred him. But there was not a circumstance in +connection with Abdurrahman that was not suspicious. Three distinct +hypotheses seem to present themselves in relation to this selection as +our nominee; that Lord Lytton had extraordinary, almost indeed +preternatural foresight and sagacity; that he was extremely fortunate in +his leap in the dark; that he desired to bring to the naked _reductio ad +absurdum_ the 'buffer state' policy. When Abdurrahman began his movement +is uncertain. So early as the middle of January it was reported at +Sherpur that he had left Tashkend, and was probably already on the Afghan +side of the Oxus. In a letter of February 17th Mr Hensman speaks of him +as being in Badakshan, where his wife's kinsmen were in power, and +describes him as having a following of 2000 or 3000 Turcoman horsemen and +possessed according to native report of twelve lakhs of rupees. On the +17th of March Lord Lytton telegraphed to the Secretary of State that he +was in possession of 'authentic intelligence that the Sirdar was in +Afghan Turkestan, having lately arrived there from Badakshan.' + +[Illustration: The Ameer Abdurrahman.] + +It was regarded of urgent importance to ascertain definitely the +disposition of Abdurrahman, and whether he was disposed to throw in his +lot with the British Government, and accept the position of its nominee +in Northern Afghanistan. The agent selected by Mr Griffin to open +preliminary negotiations was a certain Mohamed Surwar, Ghilzai, who had +been all his life in the confidential service of the Sirdar's family. +Surwar was the bearer of a formal and colourless letter by way simply of +authentication; but he also carried full and explicit verbal +instructions. He was directed to inform the Sirdar that since he had +entered Afghan Turkestan and occupied places there by force of arms, it +was essential for him to declare with what object he had come, and +whether actuated by friendly or hostile feelings toward the British +Government, which for its part had no ill-feeling toward him because of +his long residence within the Russian Empire and his notoriously close +relations with that power. That the British Government was able to +benefit him very largely in comparison with that of Russia; and that +wisdom and self interest alike suggested that he should at once open a +friendly correspondence with the British officers in Cabul. That his +opportunity was now come, and that the British Government was disposed to +treat him with every consideration and to consider most favourably any +representations he might make. It had no intention of annexing the +country, and only desired to see a strong and friendly chief established +at Cabul; and that consequently the present communication was made solely +in Abdurrahman's own interest, and not in that of the British Government. +He was desired to send a reply by Surwar, and later to repair to Cabul, +where he should be honourably received. + +Surwar returned to Cabul on 21st April, bringing a reply from Abdurrahman +to Mr Griffin's letter. The tone of the reply was friendly enough, but +somewhat indefinite. In conversation with Surwar as reported by the +latter, Abdurrahman was perfectly frank as to his relations with the +Russians, and his sentiments in regard to them. It had been reported that +he had made his escape clandestinely from Tashkend. Had he cared to stand +well with us at the expense of truth, it would have been his cue to +disclaim all authority or assistance from the Russian Government, to +confirm the current story of his escape, and to profess his anxiety to +cultivate friendly relations with the British in a spirit of opposition +to the power in whose territory he had lived so long virtually as a +prisoner. But neither in writing nor in conversation did he make any +concealment of his friendliness toward the Russians, a feeling which he +clearly regarded as nowise incompatible with friendly relations with the +British Government. 'If,' said he to Surwar, 'the English will in +sincerity befriend me, I have no wish to hide anything from them'; and he +went on to tell how the Russians had forbidden him for years to make any +effort to interfere in Afghan affairs. This prohibition stood until +information reached Tashkend of the deportation of Yakoub Khan to India. +Then it was that General Kaufmann's representative said to him: 'You have +always been anxious to return to your country; the English have removed +Yakoub Khan; the opportunity is favourable; if you wish you are at +liberty to go.' The Russians, continued Abdurrahman, pressed him most +strongly to set out on the enterprise which lay before him. They lent him +33,000 rupees, and arms, ammunition, and supplies; he was bound to the +Russians by no path or promise, but simply by feelings of gratitude. 'I +should never like,' said he, 'to be obliged to fight them. I have eaten +their salt, and was for twelve years dependent on their hospitality.' + +Surwar reported Abdurrahman as in fine health and possessed of great +energy. He had with him a force of about 3000 men, consisting of four +infantry and two cavalry regiments, with twelve guns and some irregulars. +He professed his readiness, in preference to conducting negotiations +through agents, to go himself to Charikar in the Kohistan with an escort, +and there discuss matters with the English officers in person. Surwar +testified that the Sirdar had with him in Turkestan no Russian or Russian +agent, and this was confirmed through other sources. He had sent forward +to ascertain which was the easiest pass across the Hindoo Koosh, but +meanwhile he was to remain at Kondooz until he should hear again from Mr +Griffin. + +While the wary Sirdar waited on events beyond the Hindoo Koosh he was +sending letters to the leading chiefs of the Kohistan and the Cabul +province, desiring them to be ready to support his cause. That he had an +influential party was made clear at a durbar held by Mr Griffin on April +21st, when a considerable gathering of important chiefs united in the +request that Abdurrahman's claim to the Ameership should be favourably +regarded by the British authorities. In pursuance of the negotiations a +mission consisting of three Afghan gentlemen, two of whom belonged to Mr +Griffin's political staff, left Cabul on May 2nd carrying to Abdurrahman +a letter from Mr Griffin intimating that it had been decided to withdraw +the British army from Afghanistan in the course of a few months, and that +the British authorities desired to leave the rulership in capable and +friendly hands; that they were therefore willing to transfer the +Government to him, recognise him as the head of the State, and afford him +facilities and even support in reorganising the Government and +establishing himself in the sovereignty. The mission found the attitude +of Abdurrahman scarcely so satisfactory as had been reported by Surwar, +and its members were virtual prisoners, their tents surrounded by +sentries. Abdurrahman's explanation of this rigour of isolation was that +he could not otherwise ensure the safety of the envoys; but another +construction conveyed to them was that they were kept prisoners that they +might not, by mixing with the people, learn of the presence on the right +bank of the Oxus of a Russian officer with whom Abdurrahman was said to +be in constant communication and on whose advice he acted. Their belief +was that Abdurrahman was entirely under Russian influence; that Mr +Griffin's letter after it had been read in Durbar in the camp was +immediately despatched across the Oxus by means of mounted relays; and +that Russian instructions as to a reply had not been received when they +left Turkestan to return to Cabul. They expressed their belief that the +Sirdar would not accept from British hands Cabul shorn of Candahar. They +had urged him to repeat in the letter they were to carry back to Cabul +the expression of his willingness to meet the British representative at +Charikar which had been contained in his letter sent by Surwar; but he +demurred to committing himself even to this slight extent. The letter +which he sent by way of reply to the weighty communication Mr Griffin had +addressed to him on the part of the Government of India that official +characterised as 'frivolous and empty, and only saved by its special +courtesy of tone from being an impertinence.' + +An Afghan who had sat at Kaufmann's feet, Abdurrahman was not wholly a +guileless man; and the truth probably was that he mistrusted the Greeks +of Simla and the gifts they tendered him with so lavish protestation that +they were entirely for his own interest. There was very little finesse +about the importunity of the British that he should constitute himself +their bridge of extrication, so that they might get out of Afghanistan +without the dangers and discredit of leaving chaos behind them. But +Abdurrahman had come to know himself strong enough to reduce to order +that legacy of chaos if it should be left; and in view of his future +relations with his fellow Afghans he was not solicitous to be beholden to +the foreigners to any embarrassing extent. He knew, too, the wisdom of +'masterly inactivity' in delicate conditions. And, again, he had no +confidence in our pledges. On the 4th of August, the day after the +meeting between him and Mr Griffin at Zimma, the latter wrote: 'They +(Abdurrahman and his advisers) feared greatly our intention was to rid +ourselves of a formidable opponent, and dreaded that if he had come +straight into Cabul he would have been arrested, and deported to India.' + +A Liberal Government was now in office in England, and was urgent for the +speedy evacuation of Afghanistan. Lord Lytton had resigned and had been +succeeded as Viceroy by the Marquis of Ripon. Lieutenant-General Sir +Donald Stewart was in chief command at Cabul. A great number of letters +from Abdurrahman to chiefs and influential persons throughout Afghanistan +were being intercepted, the tone of which was considered objectionable. +He was reported to be in close correspondence with Mahomed Jan, who had +never ceased to be our bitter enemy. The fact that negotiations were in +progress between the British Government and Abdurrahman had become matter +of general knowledge throughout the country, and was occasioning +disquietude and excitement. So clear were held the evidences of what was +termed Abdurrahman's bad faith, but was probably a combination of genuine +mistrust, astute passivity, and shrewd playing for his own hand, that it +became a serious question with the Indian Government on the arrival of +the new Viceroy, whether it was good policy to have anything more to do +with him. It was resolved that before breaking off intercourse the +suggestion of Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin should be adopted, that a +peremptory although still friendly letter, demanding a definite +acceptance or refusal of the proffers made, within four days after the +receipt, should be sent to Abdurrahman, with a detailed explanation of +the arrangements into which we were prepared to enter with regard to him +and the future of Afghanistan. A letter was forwarded from Cabul on 14th +June, in which Mr Griffin informed the Sirdar that since the British +Government admitted no right of interference by foreign powers in +Afghanistan, it was plain that the Cabul ruler could have no political +relations with any foreign power except the English; and if any foreign +power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such +interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Cabul ruler, +then the British Government would be prepared to aid him, if necessary, +to repel it. As regarded limits of the territory, the latter stated that +the whole province of Candahar had been placed under a separate ruler, +except Sibi and Pisheen, which were retained in British possession. +Consequently the British Government was unable to enter into any +negotiations on those points, or in respect to arrangements in regard to +the north-western frontier which were settled by the treaty of Gundamuk. +Subject to those reservations, the British Government was willing that +Abdurrahman should establish over Afghanistan--including Herat when he +should have conquered it--as complete and extensive authority as was +swayed by any previous Ameer. The British Government would exercise no +interference in the internal government of those territories nor would it +demand the acceptance of an English Resident anywhere within Afghanistan, +although for convenience of ordinary friendly intercourse it might be +agreed upon that a Mahommedan Agent of the British Government should be +stationed at Cabul. + +Abdurrahman's reply to this communication was vague and evasive, and was +regarded by Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin as so unsatisfactory that +they represented to the Government of India, not for the first time, +their conviction of the danger of trusting Abdurrahman, the imprudence of +delaying immediate action, and the necessity of breaking off with him and +adopting other means of establishing a government in Cabul before the +impending evacuation. Lord Ripon, however, considered that 'as matters +stood an arrangement with Abdurrahman offered the most advisable +solution, while he doubted whether it would not be found very difficult +to enter into any alternative arrangement.' His Excellency's decision was +justified by the event. Meanwhile, indeed, Abdurrahman had started on +June 28th for the Kohistan. He crossed the Hindoo Koosh and arrived on +July 20th at Charikar, where he was welcomed by a deputation of leading +chiefs, while the old Mushk-i-Alum, who for some time, thanks to Mr +Griffin's influence, had been working in the interests of peace, +intimated on behalf of a number of chiefs assembled in Maidan that they +were ready to accept as Ameer the nominee of the British Government. + +So propitious seemed the situation that it was considered the time had +come for formally acknowledging Abdurrahman as the new Ameer, and also +for fixing approximately the date of the evacuation of Cabul by the +British troops. The ceremony of recognition was enacted in a great durbar +tent within the Sherpur cantonment on the afternoon of July 22d. The +absence of Abdurrahman, and the notorious cause of that absence, +detracted from the intrinsic dignity of the occasion so far as concerned +the British participation in it; nor was the balance restored by the +presence of three members of his suite whom he had delegated to represent +him. A large number of sirdars, chiefs, and maliks were present, some of +whom had fought stoutly against us in December. Sir Donald Stewart, who +presided, explained to the assembled Afghans that their presence and that +of the officers of the British force had been called for in order that +the public recognition by the British Government of the Sirdar +Abdurrahman Khan as Ameer of Cabul should be made known with as much +honour as possible. Then Mr Griffin addressed in Persian a short speech +to the 'sirdars, chiefs, and gentlemen' who constituted his audience. +Having announced the recognition of Abdurrahman by 'the Viceroy of India +and the Government of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Empress,' he +proceeded: 'It is to the Government a source of satisfaction that the +tribes and chiefs have preferred as Ameer a distinguished member of the +Barakzai family, who is a renowned soldier, wise, and experienced. His +sentiments towards the British Government are most friendly; and so long +as his rule shows that he is animated by these sentiments, he cannot fail +to receive the support of the British Government.' Mr Griffin then +intimated that the British armies would shortly withdraw from +Afghanistan; and in his formal farewell there was a certain appropriate +dignity, and a well-earned tribute to the conduct of our soldiers during +their service within the Afghan borders. 'We trust and firmly believe,' +said Mr Griffin, 'that your remembrance of the English will not be +unkindly. We have fought you in the field whenever you have opposed us; +but your religion has in no way been interfered with; the honour of your +women has been respected, and every one has been secure in possession of +his property. Whatever has been necessary for the support of the army has +been liberally paid for. Since I came to Cabul I have been in daily +intercourse with you, but I have never heard an Afghan make a complaint +of the conduct of any soldier, English or native, belonging to Her +Majesty's army.' The durbar was closed by an earnest appeal by Sir Donald +Stewart to all the sirdars and chiefs that they should put aside their +private feuds and unite to support the new Ameer. + +On August 3d Abdurrahman and Mr Griffin at length met, about sixteen +miles north of Cabul. His adherents were still full of excitement and +suspicion; but the Ameer himself was calm, cheerful, and dignified. The +conference between him and Mr Griffin lasted for three hours and was +renewed on the following day. 'He appeared,' wrote Mr Griffin, 'animated +by a sincere desire to be on cordial terms with the British Government, +and although his expectations were larger than the Government was +prepared to satisfy, yet he did not press them with any discourteous +insistence, and the result of the interview may be considered on the +whole to be highly satisfactory.' The tidings of the Maiwand disaster had +reached Sherpur by telegraph, and the Ameer was informed that a necessity +might occur for marching a force from Cabul to Candahar. His reply was +that the tribes might be hostile, but that if no long halts were made by +the way he would have no objections to such a march. In this he showed +his astuteness, since the defeat of Ayoub Khan by a British army would +obviously save him a contest. So willing to be of service on this matter +was he that when the march was decided on he sent influential persons of +his party in advance to arrange with the local maliks to have supplies +collected for the column. The arrangements made with him were that he was +to fall heir to the thirty guns of Shere Ali's manufacture which the +out-marching army was to leave in Sherpur, and was to receive 19-1/2 +lakhs of rupees (£190,500); ten lakhs of which were given as an earnest +of British friendship, and the balance was money belonging to the Afghan +State, which had gone into the commissariat chest and was now restored. +At the Ameer's earnest and repeated request the forts which had been +built around Cabul by the British army, were not destroyed as had been +intended, but were handed over intact to the new Ameer. + +It seemed that Sir Donald Stewart, who was to evacuate Sherpur on the +11th August, would leave Cabul without seeing Abdurrahman. But at the +last moment Mr Griffin succeeded in arranging an interview. It was held +early in the morning of the evacuation, in a tent just outside the +Sherpur cantonment, was quite public, and lasted only for quarter of an +hour. Abdurrahman was frank and cordial. He said that his heart was full +of gratitude to the British, and desired that his best thanks should be +communicated to the Viceroy. At the close of the interview he shook hands +with all 'who cared to wish him good-bye and good luck,' and sent his +principal officer to accompany the General on his first day's march, +which began immediately after the parting with Abdurrahman. Sir Donald +Stewart's march down the passes was accomplished without incident, quite +unmolested by the tribes. Small garrisons were temporarily left in the +Khyber posts, and the war-worn regiments were dispersed through the +stations of North-Western India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + +When in the early spring of 1880 Sir Donald Stewart quitted Candahar with +the Bengal division of his force, he left there the Bombay division, to +the command of which General Primrose acceded, General Phayre assuming +charge of the communications. The province during the early summer was +fairly quiet, but it was known that Ayoub Khan was making hostile +preparations at Herat, although the reports as to his intentions and +movements were long uncertain and conflicting. Shere Ali Khan, who had +been Governor of Candahar during Stewart's residence there, had been +nominated hereditary ruler of the province with the title of 'Wali,' when +it was determined to separate Candahar from North-Eastern Afghanistan. On +June 21st the Wali, who had some days earlier crossed the Helmund and +occupied Girishk with his troops, reported that Ayoub was actually on the +march toward the Candahar frontier, and asked for the support of a +British brigade to enable him to cope with the hostile advance. There was +reason to believe that the Wali's troops were disaffected, and that he +was in no condition to meet Ayoub's army with any likelihood of success. +After Stewart's departure the strength of the British forces at Candahar +was dangerously low--only 4700 of all ranks; but it was important to +thwart Ayoub's offensive movement, and a brigade consisting of a troop of +horse-artillery, six companies of the 66th, two Bombay native infantry +regiments, and 500 native troopers, in all about 2300 strong, under the +command of Brigadier-General Burrows, reached the left bank of the +Helmund on July 11th. On the 13th the Wali's infantry, 2000 strong, +mutinied _en masse_ and marched away up the right bank of the river, +taking with them a battery of smooth bore guns, a present to Shere Ali +Khan from the British Government. His cavalry did not behave quite so +badly, but, not to go into detail, his army no longer existed, and +Burrows' brigade was the only force in the field to resist the advance of +Ayoub Khan, whose regular troops were reported to number 4000 cavalry, +and from 4000 to 5000 infantry exclusive of the 2000 deserters from the +Wali, with thirty guns and an irregular force of uncertain strength. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT MAIWAND. 27th. July 1880.] + +Burrows promptly recaptured from the Wali's infantry the battery they +were carrying off, and punished them severely. The mutineers had removed +or destroyed the supplies which the Wali had accumulated for the use of +the brigade, and General Burrows therefore could no longer remain in the +vicinity of Girishk. The Helmund owing to the dry season was passable +everywhere, so that nothing was to be gained by watching the fords. It +was determined to fall back to Khushk-i-Nakhud, a point distant thirty +miles from Girishk and forty-five from Candahar, where several roads from +the Helmund converged and where supplies were plentiful. At and near +Khushk-i-Nakhud the brigade remained from the 16th until the morning of +the 27th July. While waiting and watching there a despatch from army +headquarters at Simla was communicated to General Burrows from Candahar, +authorising him to attack Ayoub if he thought himself strong enough to +beat him, and informing him that it was considered of the greatest +political importance that the force from Herat should be dispersed and +prevented from moving on toward Ghuznee. Spies brought in news that Ayoub +had reached Girishk, and was distributing his force along the right bank +between that place and Hydrabad. Cavalry patrols failed to find the enemy +until the 21st, when a detachment was encountered in the village of +Sangbur on the northern road about midway between the Helmund and +Khushk-i-Nakhud. Next day that village was found more strongly occupied, +and on the 23d a reconnaissance in force came upon a body of Ayoub's +horsemen in the plain below the Garmao hills, about midway between +Sangbur and Maiwand. + +Those discoveries were tolerably clear indications of Ayoub's intention +to turn Burrows' position by moving along the northern road to Maiwand +and thence pressing on through the Maiwand pass, until at Singiri Ayoub's +army should have interposed itself between the brigade and Candahar. +There was certainly nothing impossible in such an endeavour, since +Maiwand is nearer Candahar than is Khushk-i-Nakhud. Why, in the face of +the information at his disposal and of the precautions enjoined on him to +hinder Ayoub from slipping by him toward Ghuznee through Maiwand and up +the Khakrez valley, General Burrows should have remained so long at +Khushk-i-Nakhud, is not intelligible. He was stirred at length on the +afternoon of the 26th, by the report that 2000 of Yakoub's cavalry and a +large body of his ghazees were in possession of Garmao and Maiwand, and +were to be promptly followed by Ayoub himself with the main body of his +army, his reported intention being to push on through the Maiwand pass +and reach the Urgundab valley in rear of the British brigade. Later in +the day Colonel St John, the political officer, reported to General +Burrows the intelligence which had reached him that the whole of Ayoub's +army was at Sangbur; but credence was not given to the information. + +The somewhat tardy resolution was taken to march to Maiwand on the +morning of the 27th. There was the expectation that the brigade would +arrive at that place before the enemy should have occupied it in force, +and this point made good there might be the opportunity to drive out of +Garmao the body of Yakoub's cavalry reported in possession there. There +was a further reason why Maiwand should be promptly occupied; the brigade +had been obtaining its supplies from that village, and there was still a +quantity of grain in its vicinity to lose which would be unfortunate. The +brigade, now 2600 strong, struck camp on the morning of the 27th. The +march to Maiwand was twelve miles long, and an earlier start than 6.30 +would have been judicious. The soldiers marched fast, but halts from time +to time were necessary to allow the baggage to come up; the hostile state +of the country did not admit of anything being left behind and the column +was encumbered by a great quantity of stores and baggage. At Karezah, +eight miles from Khushk-i-Nakhud and four miles south-west of Maiwand, +information was brought in that the whole of Yakoub's army was close by +on the left front of the brigade, and marching toward Maiwand. The spies +had previously proved themselves so untrustworthy that small heed was +taken of this report; but a little later a cavalry reconnaissance found +large bodies of cavalry moving in the direction indicated and inclining +away toward Garmao as the brigade advanced. A thick haze made it +impossible to discern what force, if any, was being covered by the +cavalry. About ten A.M. the advance guard occupied the village of +Mundabad, about three miles south-west of Maiwand. West of Mundabad, +close to the village, was a broad and deep ravine running north and +south. Beyond this ravine was a wide expanse of level and partially +cultivated plain across which, almost entirely concealed by the haze, +Ayoub's army was marching eastward toward Maiwand village, which covers +the western entrance to the pass of the same name. If General Burrows' +eye could have penetrated that haze, probably he would have considered it +prudent to take up a defensive position, for which Mundabad presented +many advantages. But he was firm in the conviction that the enemy's guns +were not up, notwithstanding the reports of spies to the contrary; he +believed that a favourable opportunity presented itself for taking the +initiative, and he resolved to attack with all possible speed. + +Lieutenant Maclaine of the Horse-Artillery, a gallant young officer who +was soon to meet a melancholy fate, precipitated events in a somewhat +reckless fashion. With the two guns he commanded he crossed the ravine, +galloped across the plain, and opened fire on a body of Afghan cavalry +which had just come within view. General Nuttall, commanding the cavalry +and horse-artillery, failing to recall Maclaine, sent forward in support +of him the four remaining guns of the battery. Those approached to within +800 yards of the two advanced pieces, and Maclaine was directed to fall +back upon the battery pending the arrival of the brigade, which General +Burrows was now sending forward. It crossed the ravine near Mundabad, +advanced on the plain about a mile in a north-westerly direction, and +then formed up. There were several changes in the dispositions; when the +engagement became warm about noon the formation was as follows:--The 66th +foot was on the right, its right flank thrown back to check an attempt +made to turn it by a rush of ghazees springing out of the ravine in the +British front; on the left of the 66th were four companies of Jacob's +Rifles (30th Native Infantry) and a company of sappers, the centre was +occupied by the horse-artillery and smooth bore guns, of which latter, +however, two had been moved to the right flank; on the left of the guns +were the its Grenadiers somewhat refused, and on the extreme left two +companies of Jacob's Rifles. The cavalry was in the rear, engaged in +efforts to prevent the Afghans from taking the British infantry in +reverse. The position was radically faulty, and indeed invited disaster. +Both flanks were _en l'air_ in face of an enemy of greatly superior +strength; almost from the first every rifle was in the fighting line, and +the sole reserve consisted of the two cavalry regiments. The baggage had +followed the brigade across the ravine and was halted about 1000 yards in +rear of the right, inadequately guarded by cavalry detachments. + +For half-an-hour no reply was made to the British shell fire, and an +offensive movement at this time might have resulted in success. But +presently battery after battery was brought into action by the Afghans, +until half-an-hour after noon the fire of thirty guns was concentrated on +the brigade. Under cover of this artillery fire the ghazees from the +ravine charged forward to within 500 yards of the 66th, but the rifle +fire of the British regiment drove them back with heavy loss, and they +recoiled as far as the ravine, whence they maintained a desultory fire. +The enemy's artillery fire was well sustained and effective; the infantry +found some protection from it in lying down, but the artillery and +cavalry remained exposed and suffered severely. An artillery duel was +maintained for two hours, greatly to the disadvantage of the brigade, +which had but twelve guns in action against thirty well-served Afghan +pieces. The prostrate infantry had escaped serious punishment, but by two +P.M. the cavalry had lost fourteen per cent, of the men in the front +line, and 149 horses; the Afghan horsemen had turned both flanks and the +brigade was all but surrounded, while a separate attack was being made on +the baggage. Heat and want of water were telling heavily on the sepoys, +who were further demoralised by the Afghan artillery fire. + +A little later the smooth bore guns had to be withdrawn for want of +ammunition. This was the signal for a general advance of the Afghans. +Their guns were pushed forward with great boldness; their cavalry +streamed round the British left; in the right rear were masses of mounted +and dismounted irregulars who had seized the villages on the British line +of retreat. Swarms of ghazees soon showed themselves threatening the +centre and left; those in front of the 66th were still held in check by +the steady volleys fired by that regiment. At sight of the ghazees, and +cowed by the heavy artillery fire and the loss of their officers, the two +companies of Jacob's Rifles on the left suddenly fell into confusion, and +broke into the ranks of the Grenadiers. That regiment had behaved well +but it caught the infection of demoralisation, the whole left collapsed, +and the sepoys in utter panic, surrounded by and intermingled with the +ghazees, rolled in a great wave upon the right. The artillerymen and +sappers made a gallant stand, fighting the ghazees hand-to-hand with +handspikes and rammers, while the guns poured canister into the advancing +masses. Slade reluctantly limbered up and took his four guns out of +action; Maclaine remained in action until the ghazees were at the muzzles +of his two guns, which fell into the enemy's hands. The torrent of +mingled sepoys and ghazees broke in upon the 66th, and overwhelmed that +regiment. The slaughter of the sepoys was appalling--so utterly cowed +were they that they scarcely attempted to defend themselves, and allowed +themselves without resistance to be dragged out of the ranks and killed. +A cavalry charge was ordered in the direction of the captured guns, but +it failed and the troopers retired in disorder. The infantry, assailed by +hordes of fierce and triumphant ghazees, staggered away to the right, the +66th alone maintaining any show of formation, until the ravine was +crossed, when the broken remnants of the sepoy regiments took to flight +toward the east and the General's efforts to rally them were wholly +unavailing. The 66th with some of the sappers and grenadiers, made a +gallant stand round its colours in an enclosure near the village of Khig. +There Colonel Galbraith and several of his officers were killed, and the +little body of brave men becoming outflanked, continued its retreat, +making stand after stand until most were slain. The Afghans pursued for +about four miles, but were checked by a detachment of rallied cavalry, +and desisted. The fugitives, forming with wounded and baggage a +straggling column upwards of six miles long, crossed the waterless desert +sixteen miles wide, to Hanz-i-Madat, which was reached about midnight and +where water was found. From Asu Khan, where cultivation began, to Kokoran +near Candahar, the retreat was harassed by armed villagers and the troops +had to fight more or less all the way. Officers and men were killed, +Lieutenant Maclaine was taken prisoner, and five of the smooth bore guns +had to be abandoned because of the exhaustion of the teams. About midday +of the 28th the broken remnants of the brigade reached Candahar. When the +casualties were ascertained it became evident how disastrous to the +British arms had been the combat of Maiwand. Out of a total of 2476 +engaged no fewer than 964 were killed. The wounded numbered 167; 331 +followers and 201 horses were killed and seven followers and sixty-eight +horses wounded. Since Chillianwallah the British arms in Asia had not +suffered loss so severe. + +The spirit of the Candahar force suffered materially from the Maiwand +disaster, and it was held that there was no alternative but to accept the +humiliation of a siege within the fortified city. The cantonments were +abandoned, the whole force was withdrawn into Candahar, and was detailed +for duty on the city walls. The effective garrison on the night of the +28th numbered 4360, including the survivors of the Maiwand brigade. So +alert were the Afghans that a cavalry reconnaissance made on the morning +of the 29th, found the cantonments plundered and partly burned and the +vicinity of Candahar swarming with armed men. The whole Afghan population +amounting to about 12,000 persons, were compelled to leave the city, and +then the work of placing it in a state of defence was energetically +undertaken. Buildings and enclosures affording cover too close to the +enciente were razed, communication along the walls was opened up, and gun +platforms were constructed in the more commanding positions. The walls +were both high and thick, but they were considerably dilapidated and +there were gaps and breaks in the bastions and parapet. The weak places +as well as the gates were fronted with abattis, the defects were made +good with sandbags, and wire entanglements and other obstructions were +laid down outside the walls. While this work was in progress the covering +parties were in daily collision with the enemy, and occasional sharp +skirmishes occurred. + +On the 8th August Ayoub opened fire on the citadel from Picquet hill, an +elevation north-westward of the city, and a few days later he brought +guns into action from the villages of Deh Khoja and Deh Khati on the east +and south. This fire, steadily maintained though it was day after day, +had little effect, and the return fire gave good results. It was not easy +to invest the city since on the west and north there was no cover for the +besiegers, but in Deh Khoja on the east there was ample protection for +batteries, and the ground on the south-west was very favourable. Its +advantages were improved so skilfully that it was at one time believed +there was a European engineer in Ayoub's camp. Deh Khoja was +inconveniently near the Cabul gate, and was always full of men. So +menacing was the attitude of the Afghans that a sortie was resolved on +against the village, which was conducted with resolution but resulted in +utter failure. The attempt was made on the morning of the 16th. The +cavalry went out to hinder reinforcements from entering the village from +the eastward. An infantry force 800 strong commanded by Brigadier-General +Brooke and divided into three parties, moved out later covered by a heavy +artillery fire from the city walls. The village was reached, but was so +full of enemies in occupation of the fortress-like houses that it was +found untenable, and the three detachments extricated themselves +separately. In the course of the retirement General Brooke and Captain +Cruickshank were killed. The casualties were very heavy; 106 were killed +and 117 were wounded. + +The tidings of the Maiwand disaster reached Cabul on the 29th July by +telegram from Simla. The intention of the military authorities had +already been intimated that the Cabul force should evacuate Afghanistan +in two separate bodies and by two distinct routes. Sir Donald Stewart was +to march one portion by the Khyber route; the other under Sir Frederick +Roberts was to retire by the Kuram valley, which Watson's division had +been garrisoning since Roberts had crossed the Shutargurdan in September +1879. But the Maiwand news interfered with those arrangements. Stewart +and Roberts concurred in the necessity of retrieving the Maiwand disaster +by the despatch of a division from Cabul. Roberts promptly offered to +lead that division, and as promptly the offer was accepted by Stewart. By +arrangement with the latter Roberts telegraphed to Simla urging that a +force should be despatched from Cabul without delay; and recognising that +the authorities might hesitate to send on this errand troops already +under orders to return to India, he took it on himself to guarantee that +none of the soldiers would demur, providing he was authorised to give the +assurance that after the work in the field was over they would not be +detained in garrison at Candahar. The Viceroy's sanction came on the 3d +August. The constitution and equipment of the force were entrusted to the +two generals; and in reply to questions His Excellency was informed that +Roberts would march on the 8th and expected to reach Candahar on 2d +September. Sir Donald Stewart gave his junior full freedom to select the +troops to accompany him, and placed at his disposal the entire resources +of the army in transport and equipment. It cannot truly be said that it +was the _elite_ of the Cabul field force which constituted the column led +by Roberts in his famous march to Candahar. Of the native infantry +regiments of his own original force which he had mustered eleven months +previously in the Kuram only two followed him to Candahar, the 5th +Goorkhas and 23d Pioneers, and the second mountain battery adhered to him +staunchly, Of his original white troops the 9th Lancers, as ever, were +ready for the march. His senior infantry regiment, the 67th, would fain +have gone, but the good old corps was weak from casualties and sickness, +and the gallant Knowles denied himself in the interests of his men. The +two Highland regiments, the 72d and 92d, had done an infinity of fighting +and marching, but both had received strong drafts, were in fine +condition, and were not to be hindered from following the chief whom, +though not of their northern blood, the stalwart sons of the mist swore +by as one man. + +Sir Frederick Roberts had already represented that it would be impolitic +to require the native regiments to remain absent from India and their +homes for a longer period than two years. In the case of many of the +regiments that term was closely approached, and the men after prolonged +absence and arduous toil needed rest and were longing to rejoin their +families. 'It was not,' in the words of General Chapman, 'with eager +desire that the honour of marching to Candahar was sought for, and some +commanding officers of experience judged rightly the tempers of their men +when they represented for the General's consideration the claims of the +regiments they commanded to be relieved as soon as possible from field +service.... The enthusiasm which carried Sir Frederick Roberts' force +with exceptional rapidity to Candahar was an after-growth evolved by the +enterprise itself, and came as a response to the unfailing spirit which +animated the leader himself.' The constitution of the force was made +known by the general orders published on 3d August. It consisted of three +batteries of artillery commanded by Colonel Alured Johnson; of a cavalry +brigade of four regiments commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Gough; and +of an infantry division of three brigades commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Herbert +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General T. D. Baker, and the third by +Brigadier-General Charles Macgregor. Colonel Chapman, R.A., who had +served in the same capacity with Sir Donald Stewart, was now Roberts' +chief of staff. The marching out strength of the column was about 10,000 +men, of whom 2835 were Europeans. Speed being an object and since the +column might have to traverse rough ground, no wheeled artillery or +transport accompanied it; the guns were carried on mules, the baggage was +severely cut down, the supplies carried were reduced to a minimum, and +the transport animals, numbering 8590, consisted of mules, ponies, and +donkeys. It was known that the country could supply flour, sheep, and +forage. + +The time specified for the departure of the force from Sherpur was kept +to the day. On the 8th the brigades moved out a short distance into camp, +and on the following morning the march begun in earnest. The distance +from Cabul to Candahar is about 320 miles, and the march naturally +divides itself into three parts; from Cabul to Ghuznee, ninety-eight +miles; from Ghuznee to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, one hundred and thirty-four +miles; and from Khelat-i-Ghilzai to Candahar, eighty-eight miles, Ghuznee +was reached on the seventh day, the daily average being fourteen +miles--excellent work for troops unseasoned to long continuous travel, +tramping steadily in a temperature of from 84° to 92° in the shade. When +possible the force moved on a broad front, the brigades and regiments +leading by rotation, and halts were made at specified intervals. The +'rouse' sounded at 2.45 A.M. and the march began at four; the troops were +generally in camp by two P.M. and the baggage was usually reported all in +by five; but the rearguard had both hard work and long hours. There was +no sign of opposition anywhere, not a single load of baggage was left +behind, comparatively few men fell out foot-sore, and the troops were +steadily increasing in endurance and capacity of rapid and continuous +marching. + +At Ghuznee there was no rest day, and the steadfast dogged march was +resumed on the morning of the 16th. The strain of this day's long tramp +of twenty miles to Yergati was severe, but the men rallied gamely, and +the General by dint of care and expedient was able to keep up the high +pressure. 'The method,' writes General Chapman, 'of such marching as was +now put in practice is not easy to describe; it combined the extreme of +freedom in movement with carefully regulated halts, and the closest +control in every portion of the column; it employed the individual +intelligence of each man composing the masses in motion, and called on +all for exertion in overcoming the difficulties of the march, in bearing +its extraordinary toil, and in aiding the accomplishment of the object in +view.' On the 20th a distance of twenty-one miles was covered--the +longest day's march made; the effort was distressing owing to the heat +and the lack of shade, but it was enforced by the absence of water. There +was no relaxation in the rate of marching, and Khelat-i-Ghilzai was +reached on the eighth day from Ghuznee, showing a daily average of nearly +seventeen miles. + +The 24th was a halt day at Khelat-i-Ghilzai, where Sir Frederick Roberts +received a letter from General Primrose in Candahar, describing the +sortie made on the village of Deh Khoja and giving details of his +situation. It was resolved to evacuate Khelat-i-Ghilzai and take on its +garrison with the column, which on the 25th resumed its march to +Candahar. On his arrival at Tir Andaz on the following day the General +found a letter from Candahar, informing him that at the news of the +approach of the Cabul force Ayoub Khan had withdrawn from his investment +of Candahar, and had shifted his camp to the village of Mazra in the +Urgundab valley, nearly due north of Candahar. On the morning of the 27th +General Hugh Gough was sent forward with two cavalry regiments a distance +of thirty-four miles to Robat, the main column moving on to Khel Akhund, +half way to the former place. Gough was accompanied by Captain Straton +the principal signalling officer of the force, who was successful in +communicating with Candahar, and in the afternoon Colonel St John, Major +Leach, and Major Adam rode out to Robat, bringing the information that +Ayoub Khan was engaged in strengthening his position in the Urgundab +valley, and apparently had the intention to risk the issue of a battle. +On the 28th the whole force was concentrated at Robat; and as it was +desirable that the troops should reach Candahar fresh and ready for +prompt action, the General decided to make the 20th a rest day and divide +the nineteen miles from Robat to Candahar into two short marches. + +The long forced march from Cabul may be regarded as having ended at +Robat. The distance between those two places, 303 miles, had been covered +in twenty days. It is customary in a long march to allow two rest days in +each week, but Roberts had granted his force but a single rest day in the +twenty days of its strenuous march. Including this rest day, the average +daily march was a fraction over fifteen miles. As a feat of marching by a +regular force of 10,000 men encumbered with baggage and followers, this +achievement is unique, and it could have been accomplished only by +thorough organisation and steady vigorous energy. Sir Frederick Roberts +was so fortunate as to encounter no opposition. For this immunity he was +indebted mainly to the stern lessons given to the tribesmen by Sir Donald +Stewart at Ahmed Khel and Urzoo while that resolute soldier was marching +from Candahar to Cabul, and in a measure also to the good offices of the +new Ameer. But it must be remembered that Roberts had no assurance of +exemption from hostile efforts to block his path, and that he marched +ever ready to fight. It will long be remembered how when Roberts had +started on the long swift march, the suspense as to its issue grew and +swelled until the strain became intense. The safety of the garrison of +Candahar was in grave hazard; the British prestige, impaired by the +disaster of Maiwand, was trembling in the balance. The days passed, and +there came no news of Roberts and of the 10,000 men with whom the wise, +daring little chief had cut loose from any base and struck for his goal +through a region of ill repute for fanaticism and bitter hostility. The +pessimists among us held him to be rushing on his ruin. But Roberts +marched light; he lived on what the country supplied; he gave the +tribesmen no time to concentrate against him; and two days in advance of +the time he had set himself he reached Candahar at the head of a force in +full freshness of vigour and burning with zeal for immediate battle. + +While halted at Robat on the 29th Sir Frederick heard from General Phayre +that his division had been retarded in its march by lack of transport, +but that he hoped to have it assembled at Killa Abdoolla on the 28th, and +would be able to move toward Candahar on the 30th. But as Killa Abdoolla +is distant some eight marches from Candahar, it was obvious that General +Phayre could not arrive in time to share in the impending battle. On the +morning of the 31st the Cabul force reached Candahar. Sir Frederick +Roberts, who had been suffering from fever for some days, was able to +leave his dhooly and mount his horse in time to meet General Primrose and +his officers to the east of Deh Khoja. The troops halted and breakfasted +outside the Shikapore gate, while General Roberts entered the city and +paid a visit to the Wali Shere Ali Khan. On his arrival he assumed +command of the troops in Southern Afghanistan; and he remained resting in +the city while the Cabul force marched to its selected camping ground +near the destroyed cantonments on the north-west of Candahar. A few shots +were fired, but the ground was occupied without opposition. Baker's +brigade was on the right, camped in rear of Picquet hill, in the centre +was Macpherson's brigade sheltered in its front by Karez hill, and on the +left among orchards and enclosures was Macgregor's brigade, in rear of +which was the cavalry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + +Although Yakoub Khan had ceased to beleaguer Candahar, he had withdrawn +from that fortress but a very short distance, and the position he had +taken up was of considerable strength. The Urgundab valley is separated +on the north-west from the Candahar plain by a long precipitous spur +trending south-west from the mountainous mass forming the eastern +boundary of the valley further north. Where the spur quits the main +range, due north of the city, the Murcha Pass affords communication +between the Candahar plain and the Urgundab valley. The spur, its summit +serrated by alternate heights and depressions, is again crossed lower +down by an easy pass known as the Babawali Kotul. It is continued beyond +this saddle for about a mile, still maintaining its south-westerly trend, +never losing its precipitous character, and steeply scarped on its +eastern face; and it finally ends in the plain in a steep descent of +several hundred feet. The section of it from the Babawali Kotul to its +south-western termination is known as the Pir Paimal hill, from a village +of that name in the valley near its extremity. Ayoub Khan had made his +camp near the village of Mazra, behind the curtain formed by the spur +described, and about a mile higher up in the valley than the point at +which the spur is crossed by the road over the Babawali Kotul. He was +thus, with that point artificially strengthened and defended by +artillery, well protected against a direct attack from the direction of +Candahar, and was exposed only to the risk of a turning movement round +the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill. Such a movement might be made the +reverse of easy. A force advancing to attempt it must do so exposed to +fire from the commanding summit of the Pir Paimal; around the base of +that elevation there were several plain villages, and an expanse of +enclosed orchards and gardens which strongly held were capable of +stubborn defence. In the valley behind the Pir Paimal hill there was the +lofty detached Kharoti hill, the fire from which would meet in the teeth +a force essaying the turning movement; and the interval between the two +hills, through which was the access to the Mazra camps, was obstructed by +deep irrigation channels whose banks afforded cover for defensive fire, +and could be swept by a cross fire from the hills on either flank. + +[Illustration: Kandahar.] + +Sir Frederick Roberts at a glance had perceived that a direct attack by +the Babawali Kotul must involve very heavy loss, and he resolved on the +alternative of turning the Afghan position. A reconnaissance was made on +the afternoon of the 31st by General Gough, accompanied by Colonel +Chapman. He penetrated to within a short distance of the village of Pir +Paimal, where it was ascertained that the enemy were strongly entrenched, +and where several guns were unmasked. A great deal of valuable +information was obtained before the enemy began to interfere with the +leisurely withdrawal. The cavalry suffered little, but the Sikh infantry +covering the retirement of the reconnaissance were hard pressed by great +masses of Afghan regulars and irregulars. So boldly did the enemy come on +that the third and part of the first brigade came into action, and the +firing did not cease until the evening. The enemy were clearly in the +belief that the reconnaissance was an advance in force which they had +been able to check and indeed drive in, and they were opportunely +audacious in the misapprehension that they had gained a success. The +information brought in decided the General to attack on the following +morning; and having matured his dispositions, he explained them +personally to the commanding officers in the early morning of September +1st. The plan of attack was perfectly simple. The Babawali Kotul was to +be plied with a brisk cannonade and threatened by demonstrations both of +cavalry and infantry; while the first and second brigades, with the third +in reserve, were to turn the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill, force the +enemy's right in the interval between that hill and the Kharoti eminence, +take in reverse the Babawali Kotul, and pressing on up the Urgundab +valley, carry Ayoub Khan's principal camp at Mazra. The Bombay cavalry +brigade was to watch the roads over the Murcha and Babawali Kotuls, +supported by infantry and artillery belonging to General Primrose's +command, part of which was also detailed for the protection of the city; +and to hold the ground from which the Cabul brigades were to advance. +General Gough was to take the cavalry of the Cabul column across the +Urgundab, so as to reach by a wide circuit the anticipated line of the +Afghan retreat. + +Soon after nine A.M. the forty-pounders on the right of Picquet hill +began a vigorous cannonade of the Babawali Kotul, which was sturdily +replied to by the three field-guns the enemy had in battery on that +elevation. It had been early apparent that the Ayoub's army was in great +heart, and apparently meditating an offensive movement had moved out so +far into the plain as to occupy the villages of Mulla Sahibdad opposite +the British right, and Gundigan on the left front of the British left. +Both villages were right in the fair way of Roberts' intended line of +advance; they, the adjacent enclosures, and the interval between the +villages were strongly held, and manifestly the first thing to be done +was to force the enemy back from those advanced positions. Two batteries +opened a heavy shell fire on the Sahibdad village, under cover of which +Macpherson advanced his brigade against it, the 2d Goorkhas and 92d +Highlanders in his first line. Simultaneously Baker moved out to the +assault of Gundigan, clearing the gardens and orchards between him and +that village, and keeping touch as he advanced with the first brigade. + +The shell fire compelled the Afghan occupants of Sahibdad to lie close, +and it was not until they were near the village that Macpherson's two +leading regiments encountered much opposition. It was carried at the +bayonet point after a very stubborn resistance; the place was full of +ghazees who threw their lives away recklessly, and continued to fire on +the British soldiers from houses and cellars after the streets had been +cleared. The 92d lost several men, but the Afghans were severely +punished; it was reported that 200 were killed in this village alone. +While a detachment remained to clear out the village, the brigade under a +heavy fire from the slopes and crest of the Fir Paimal hill moved on in +the direction of that hill's south-western extremity, the progress of the +troops impeded by obstacles in the shape of dry water-cuts, orchards, and +walled enclosures, every yard of which was infested by enemies and had to +be made good by steady fighting. + +While Macpherson was advancing on Sahibdad, Baker's brigade had been +pushing on through complicated lanes and walled enclosures toward the +village of Gundigan. The opposition experienced was very resolute. The +Afghans held their ground behind loopholed walls which had to be carried +by storm, and they did not hesitate to take the offensive by making +vigorous counter-rushes. Baker's two leading regiments were the 72d and +the 2d Sikhs. The left wing of the former supported by the 5th Goorkhas, +the old and tried comrades of the 72d, assailed and took the village. Its +right wing fought its way through the orchards between it and Sahibdad, +in the course of which work it came under a severe enfilading fire from a +loopholed wall which the Sikhs on the right were attempting to turn. +Captain Frome and several men had been struck down and the hot fire had +staggered the Highlanders, when their chief, Colonel Brownlow, came up on +foot. That gallant soldier gave the word for a rush, but immediately fell +mortally wounded. After much hard fighting Baker's brigade got forward +into opener country, but was then exposed to the fire of an Afghan +battery near the extremity of the Pir Paimal spur, and to the attacks of +great bodies of ghazees, which were withstood stoutly by the Sikhs and +driven off by a bayonet attack delivered by the Highlanders. + +The two brigades had accomplished the first part of their task. They were +now in alignment with each other; and the work before them was to +accomplish the turning movement round the steep extremity of the Pir +Paimal ridge. Macpherson's brigade, hugging the face of the elevation, +brought up the left shoulder and having accomplished the turning +movement, swept up the valley and carried the village of Pir Paimal by a +series of rushes. Here, however, Major White commanding the advance of +the 92d, found himself confronted by great masses of the enemy, who +appeared determined to make a resolute stand about their guns which were +in position south-west of the Babawali Kotul. Reinforcements were +observed hurrying up from Ayoub's standing camp at Mazra, and the Afghan +guns on the Kotul had been reversed so that their fire should enfilade +the British advance. Discerning that in such circumstances prompt action +was imperative, Macpherson determined to storm the position without +waiting for reinforcements. The 92d under Major White led the way, +covered by the fire of a field battery and supported by the 5th Goorkhas +and the 23d Pioneers. Springing out of a watercourse at the challenge of +their leader, the Highlanders rushed across the open ground. The Afghans, +sheltered by high banks, fired steadily and well; their riflemen from the +Pir Paimal slopes poured in a sharp cross fire; their guns were well +served. But the Scottish soldiers were not to be denied. Their losses +were severe, but they took the guns at the point of the bayonet, and +valiantly supported by the Goorkhas and pioneers, shattered and dispersed +the mass of Afghans, which was reckoned to have numbered some 8000 men. +No chance was given the enemy to rally. They were headed off from the Pir +Paimal slopes by Macpherson. Baker hustled them out of cover in the +watercourses in the basin on the left, and while one stream of fugitives +poured away across the river, another rolled backward into and through +Ayoub's camp at Mazra. + +While Macpherson had effected his turning movement close under the ridge, +Baker's troops on the left had to make a wider sweep before bringing up +the left shoulder and wheeling into the hollow between the Pir Paimal and +the Kharoti hill. They swept out of their path what opposition they +encountered, and moved up the centre of the hollow, where their commander +halted them until Macpherson's brigade on the right, having accomplished +its more arduous work, should come up and restore the alignment. Baker +had sent Colonel Money with a half battalion away to the left to take +possession of the Kharoti hill, where he found and captured three Afghan +guns. Pressing toward the northern end of the hill, Money to his surprise +found himself in full view of Ayoub's camp, which was then full of men +and in rear of which a line of cavalry was drawn up. Money was too weak +to attack alone and sent to General Baker for reinforcements which, +however, could not be spared him, and the gallant Money had perforce to +remain looking on while the advance of Macpherson and Baker caused the +evacuation of Ayoub's camp and the flight of his cavalry and infantry +toward the Urgundab. But the discovery and capture of five more Afghan +cannon near Babawali village was some consolation for the enforced +inaction. + +Considerable numbers of Ayoub's troops had earlier pushed through the +Babawali Pass, and moved down toward the right front of General Burrows' +Bombay brigade in position about Picquet hill. Having assured himself +that Burrows was able to hold his own, Sir Frederick Roberts ordered +Macgregor to move the third brigade forward toward Pir Paimal village, +whither he himself rode. On his arrival there he found that the first and +second brigades were already quite a mile in advance. The battle really +had already been won but there being no open view to the front General +Ross, who commanded the whole infantry division, had no means of +discerning this result; and anticipating the likelihood that Ayoub's camp +at Mazra would have to be taken by storm, he halted the brigades to +replenish ammunition. This delay gave opportunity for the entire +evacuation of the Afghan camp, which when reached without any further +opposition and entered at one P.M. was found to be deserted. The tents +had been left standing; 'all the rude equipage of a half barbarous army +had been abandoned--the meat in the cooking pots, the bread half kneaded +in the earthen vessels, the bazaar with its _ghee_ pots, dried fruits, +flour, and corn.' Ayoub's great marquee had been precipitately abandoned, +and the fine carpets covering its floor were left. But in the hurry of +their flight the Afghans had found time to illustrate their barbarity by +murdering their prisoner Lieutenant Maclaine, whose body was found near +Ayoub's tent with the throat cut. To this deed Ayoub does not seem to +have been privy. The sepoys who were prisoners with Maclaine testified +that Ayoub fled about eleven o'clock, leaving the prisoners in charge of +the guard with no instructions beyond a verbal order that they were not +to be killed. It was more than an hour later when the guard ordered the +unfortunate officer out of his tent and took his life. + +The victory was complete and Ayoub's army was in full rout. Unfortunately +no cavalry were in hand for a pursuit from the Mazra camp. The scheme for +intercepting the fugitive Afghans by sending the cavalry brigade on a +wide movement across the Urgundab, and striking the line of their +probable retreat toward the Khakrez valley, may have been ingenious in +conception, but in practice did not have the desired effect. But Ayoub +had been decisively beaten. He had lost the whole of his artillery +numbering thirty-two pieces, his camp, an immense quantity of ammunition, +about 1000 men killed; his army was dispersed, and he himself was a +fugitive with a mere handful along with him of the army of 12,000 men +whom he had commanded in the morning. + +The battle of Candahar was an effective finale to the latest of our +Afghan wars, and it is in this sense that it is chiefly memorable. The +gallant men who participated in the winning of it must have been the +first to smile at the epithets of 'glorious' and 'brilliant' which were +lavished on the victory. In truth, if it had not been a victory our arms +would have sustained a grave discredit. The soldiers of Roberts and +Stewart had been accustomed to fight and to conquer against heavy +numerical odds, which were fairly balanced by their discipline and the +superiority of their armament. But in the battle of Candahar the +numerical disparity was non-existent, and Ayoub had immensely the +disadvantage as regarded trained strength. His force according to the +reckoning ascertained by the British general, amounted all told to 12,800 +men. The strength of the British force, not including the detail of +Bombay troops garrisoning Candahar, was over 12,000. But this army 12,000 +strong, consisted entirely of disciplined soldiers of whom over one-fifth +were Europeans. The accepted analysis of Ayoub's army shows it to have +consisted of 4000 regular infantry, 800 regular cavalry, 5000 tribal +irregular infantry of whom an indefinite proportion was no doubt ghazees, +and 3000 irregular horsemen. In artillery strength the two forces were +nearly equal. When it is remembered that Charasiah was won by some 2500 +soldiers of whom only about 800 were Europeans, contending against 10,000 +Afghans in an exceptionally strong position and well provided with +artillery, Sir Frederick Roberts' wise decision to make assurance doubly +sure in dealing with Ayoub at Candahar stands out very strikingly. +Perforce in his battles around Cabul he had taken risks, but because +those adventures had for the most part been successful he was not the man +to weaken the certainty of an all-important issue by refraining from +putting into the field every soldier at his disposal. And he was wisely +cautious in his tactics. That he was strong enough to make a direct +attack by storming the Babawali Kotul and the Pir Paimal hill was clear +in the light of previous experience. But if there was more 'brilliancy' +in a direct attack, there was certain to be heavier loss than would be +incurred in the less dashing turning movement, and Sir Frederick with the +true spirit of a commander chose the more artistic and less bloody method +of earning his victory. It did not cost him dear. His casualties of the +day were thirty-six killed including three officers, and 218 wounded +among whom were nine officers. + +The battle of Candahar brought to a close the latest of our Afghan wars. +Sir Frederick Roberts quitted Candahar on the 9th September, and marched +to Quetta with part of his division. On the 15th October, at Sibi, he +resigned his command, and taking sick leave to England sailed from Bombay +on the 30th October. His year of hard and successful service in +Afghanistan greatly enhanced his reputation as a prompt, skilful, and +enterprising soldier. + + * * * * * + +The Pisheen and Sibi valleys are the sole tangible results remaining to +us of the two campaigns in Afghanistan sketched in the second part of +this volume--campaigns which cost the lives of many gallant men slain in +action or dead of disease, and involved the expenditure of about twenty +millions sterling. Lord Beaconsfield's vaunted 'scientific frontier,' +condemned by a consensus of the best military opinions, was rejected by +the Liberal Government which had recently acceded to power, whose +decision was that both the Khyber Pass and the Kuram valley should be +abandoned. On this subject Sir Frederick Roberts wrote with great +shrewdness: 'We have nothing to fear from Afghanistan, and the best thing +to do is to leave it as much as possible to itself. It may not be very +flattering to our _amour propre_, but I feel sure I am right when I say +that the less the Afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should +Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India +through it, we should have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to +our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime.' +During the winter of 1880-1 the Khyber and the Kuram were evacuated by +the British troops, the charge of keeping open and quiet the former being +entrusted to tribal levies paid by the Indian Government. + +So far, then, as regarded the north-western frontier, the _status quo +ante_ had been fallen back upon. But there was a keen difference of +opinion in regard to the disposition of the salient angle furnished by +Candahar. Throughout the British occupation and the negotiations with +Abdurrahman, the annexation of Candahar had been consistently repudiated. +The intention on our part announced was to separate it from Cabul, and to +place it under the independent rule of a Barakzai prince. Such a prince +had actually been appointed in Shere Ali Khan, and although that +incompetent Sirdar was wise enough to abdicate a position for which he +was not strong enough, this action did not relieve us from our pledges +against annexation. Nevertheless many distinguished men whose opinions +were abstractly entitled to weight, were strongly in favour of our +retention of Candahar. Among those were the late Lord Napier of Magdala, +Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Edward Hamley, Sir Donald Stewart, and Sir +Frederick Roberts. Among the authorities opposed to the occupation of +Candahar were such men as the late Lord Lawrence and General Charles +Gordon, Sir Robert Montgomery, Lord Wolseley, Sir Henry Norman, Sir John +Adye, and Sir Archibald Alison. + +While the professional experts differed and while the 'Candahar debates' +in Parliament were vehement and prolonged, the issue, assuming that +fidelity to pledges was still regarded as a national virtue, was +perfectly clear and simple. In the frank words of Sir Lepel Griffin: 'We +could not have remained in Candahar without a breach of faith.' And he +added with unanswerable force: 'Our withdrawal was in direct accordance +with the reiterated and solemn professions which I had been instructed to +make, and the assurances of the Government of India to the chiefs and +people of Cabul.... The wisdom of the policy of retiring from Candahar +may be a fair matter for argument, but it was one on which both +Governments were agreed. I am convinced that withdrawal, after our public +assurances, was the only practicable policy.' + +Lord Ripon acted on his instructions 'to keep in view the paramount +importance of effecting a withdrawal from Candahar on the earliest +suitable occasion.' The abdication of the Wali Shere Ali Khan cleared the +air to some extent. A British garrison under the command of General Hume +wintered in Candahar. Ayoub Khan was a competitor for the rulership of +the southern province, but he received no encouragement, and after some +negotiation the Ameer Abdurrahman was informed that Candahar was +reincorporated with the kingdom of Afghanistan, and it was intimated to +him that the capital would be given over to the Governor, accompanied by +a suitable military force, whom he should send. On the 1st of April an +Afghan force entered Candahar, followed presently by Mahomed Hassan Khan, +the Governor nominated by the Ameer. General Hume soon after marched out, +and after halting for a time in the Pisheen valley to watch the course of +events in Candahar, he continued his march toward India. The restless +Ayoub did not tamely submit to the arrangement which gave Candahar to +Abdurrahman. Spite of many arduous difficulties, spite of lack of money +and of mutinous troops, he set out toward Candahar in July 1881. Mahomed +Hassan marched against him from Candahar, and a battle was fought at +Maiwand on the anniversary of the defeat of General Burrows on the same +field. Ayoub was the conqueror, and he straightway took possession of the +capital and was for the time ruler of the province. But Abdurrahman, +subsidised with English money and English arms, hurried from Cabul, +encountered Ayoub outside the walls of Candahar, and inflicted on him a +decisive defeat. His flight to Herat was followed up, he sustained a +second reverse there, and took refuge in Persia. Abdurrahman's tenure of +the Cabul sovereignty had been at first extremely precarious; but he +proved a man at once strong, resolute, and politic. In little more than a +year after his accession he was ruler of Shere Ali's Afghanistan; +Candahar and Herat had both come to him, and that without very serious +exertion. He continues to reign quietly, steadfastly, and firmly; and +there never has been any serious friction between him and the Government +of India, whose wise policy is a studied abstinence from interference in +the internal affairs of the Afghan kingdom. + + * * * * * + +INDEX + +A. + +ABDOOLAH JAN, to be Shere Ali's successor. + +ABDURRAHMAN, the Ameer, son of Afzul Khan, the eldest son of Dost +Mahomed, his early career; his connection with Russia; sounded by the +British Government; Sir Lepel Griffin's mission to; enters Afghanistan; +recognised as Ameer; defeats Ayoub Khan; his subsequent reign. + +ADAM, Major. + +ADVE, Sir John, against keeping Candahar. + +AFGHANISTAN, events in, previous to the first Afghan war; 'a bundle of +provinces;' its condition under Abdurrahman. + +AFGHAN WAR, FIRST, the responsibility for; objects of and preparations +for. + +AFGHAN WAR, SECOND, the policy of England leading to; the force employed +in; tangible results to England. + +AFREEDI HILLMEN oppose Pollock. + +AFZUL KHAN, the Ameer, eldest son of Dost Mahomed, and father of +Abdurrahman. + +ARMED KHEL, battle of. + +AIREY, Captain, a hostage. + +AKBAR KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, joins his father with a force; covers +his father's retreat; in Khooloom; among the Ghilzais; in Cabul; +negotiations with Macnaghten; interview with and murder of Macnaghten; +forecast of his intentions; meets the retreating British army at +Bootkhak, his demands; conduct to the fugitives; offers to treat; invests +Jellalabad; resistance to Pollock; treatment of his captives; sends the +body of Elphinstone to Jellalabad. + +AKRAM KHAN put to death by Timour. + +ALI KHEL. + +ALI MUSJID FORT, the, key of the Khyber pass; partially destroyed; Sir +Sam Browne's attack upon. + + +ALISON, Sir Archibald, against keeping Candahar. + +AMEENOOLLA KHAN, an Afghan chief. + +AMEER. See SHERE ALI, YAKOUB KHAN, ABDURRAHMAN, AFZUL KHAN. + +ANDERSON, Captain, skirmish with the Ghilzais. + +ANDERSON, Mrs, her child. + +ANQUETIL, Brigadier, in command of Shah Soojah's contingent; exertions +during the retreat; replaces Shelton in command. + +APPLEYARD, at Sir S. Browne's attack upon Ali Musjid. + +ASMAI HEIGHTS, the, Afghans driven from; reoccupied; beacon on; fortified +by Sir F. Roberts. + +ASU KHAN. + +ATTA MAHOMED KHAN, overcome by General Nott. + +ATTOCK RIVER, the. + +AUCKLAND, Lord; becomes Governor-General of India 1836, his undecided +policy; treatment of Dost Mahomed's appeal; his policy becomes warlike; +treaty with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah; determines to support Shah +Soojah with an army; objects of the expedition; the Simla manifesto; +disagreement with Macnaghten; forbids an expedition against Herat; the +Home Government presses the reconsideration of the Afghan questions; +after the disasters; has the credit of Pollock's appointment. + +AUSHAR; Massy at. + +AYOUB KHAN, brother of Yakoub, in command of Herat regiments; in +possession of Herat; his victory at Maiwand; besieges Cabul; shifts to +Mazra; defeated by Sir F. Roberts; drives Mahomed Hassan out of Candahar, +defeated by Abdurrahman. + +B. + +BABA WALI KOTUL, pass of the; cannonaded; village of. + +BACKHOUSE, Captain, on the council of war at Jellalabad; his diary. + +BADAKSHAN. + +BADIABAD, the fort of, the captives at the. + +BAGHWANA, guns abandoned at; recovered. + +BAHADUR KHAN refuses to furnish forage. + +BAJGAH. + +BAKER, Brigadier-General; battle of Charasiah; pursues the mutinous +sepoys; in the Maidan valley; marches to Sherpur; takes the Takht-i-Shah; +in the attack on the cantonments; takes the Meer Akhor fort; in the Great +March; his position at Candahar, the battle. + +BALKH. + +BALLA HISSAR, the; evacuated; Cavagnari at; Sir F. Roberts at; explosions +in, evacuated; road cut through. + +BAMIAN, hill country of; Abdurrahman defeated by Yakoub Khan at. + +BARAKZAI TRIBE, the. + +BARTER, Brigadier-General, commands the infantry at Ahmed Khel. + +BEACONSFIELD, Lord, 'scientific frontier'. + +BEHMAROO RIDGE; village of. + +BELLEW, Captain, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BELOOCH PROVINCES, the. + +BENI BADAM, Baker treacherously attacked at. + +BENI HISSAR. + +BENTINCK, Lord William; his opinion of the first Afghan expedition. + +BERLIN, Treaty of. + +BHAWULPORE. + +BHURTPORE. + +BIDDULPH, General, in command of the Quetta force. + +BIRD, Lieutenant, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BOKHARA. + +BOLAN PASS, the. + +BOOTKHAK. + +BOYD, Mrs, in the retreat. + +BROADFOOT, Captain George, his sappers; in the Gundamuk council of war; +garrison engineer at Jellalabad; urges Sale to hold the place; his +account of the council of war. + +BROADFOOT, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +BROADFOOT, William, Secretary to Sir A. Burnes, murdered with him. + +BROOKE, Brigadier-General, killed in attack on Deh Khoja. + +BROWNE, Sir Sam, in command of the Khyber column; attack on the Ali +Musjid; reports the death of Shere Ali; receives Yakoub Khan; commands in +'the Death March'. + +BROWNLOW, Colonel, of the 72d Highlanders, in the attack on the +cantonments; killed in the battle of Candahar. + +BROUGHTON, Lord. _See_ SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE. + +BRYDON, Dr, sole survivor of the Khyber disaster. + +BURNES, Sir Alexander, sent by Lord Auckland to Cabul; favourable to Dost +Mahomed, reprimanded by his superiors, leaves Cabul; re-enters with Shah +Soojah; his opinion of Shah Soojah's ministers; advice to Macnaghten; his +character; murdered; revenged. + +BURROWS, Brigadier-General, in the Maiwand disaster; in the battle of +Candahar. + +BUTLER'S, Lady, picture. + +BUTSON, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +C. + +CABUL, PASS OF KHOORD; description of, slaughter in; Pollock's army +marches up. + +CABUL, Shah Soojah ousted from the throne of; Shah Soojah re-enters; +British troops in; Dost Mahomed surrenders at; murder of Burnes at; Shah +Soojah murdered at; Nott arrives at; punished; Cavagnari at; the Sherpur +cantonments, north of; Roberts near; Mahomed Jan plans to take; hostility +of villages round; Mushk-i-Alum governor of; re-occupied by Roberts; +fortifications and communications improved; Sir Lepel Griffin arrives at; +holds a durbar at. + +CAMPBELL, sent by Shah Soojah to assist Burnes, fails. + +CANDAHAR, siege of, by Shah Soojah, relieved by Dost Mahomed; entered by +Shah Soojah and Keane; occupied by British troops; independent province +of; Timour, Shah Soojah's viceroy at; British troops to leave; Nott in; +Afghans beaten off; General Stuart's march on; evacuated; to be separated +from Cabul; Shere Ali Khan governor of; Burrow's army withdrawn into; Sir +F. Roberts marches on; arrives at; battle of; question of retention of; +battle between Abdurrahman and Ayoub Khan at. + +CAVAGNARI, Sir Louis; ineffectual attempt to enter Cabul; correspondence +with Yakoub Khan; at Cabul, his character; the massacre. + +CHAMBERLAIN, Sir Neville, abortive attempt to enter Afghanistan as Envoy. + +CHAMBERS, Colonel, defeats the Ghilzais. + +CHAPMAN, Colonel (now Major-General) E. F., chief of the staff; in the +Great March; reconnaissance before the battle of Candahar. + +CHARASIAH, battle of. + +CHARDEH VALLEY, the. + +CHARIKAR, capital of the Kohistan, troops quartered in; disaster of; +punishment of; Abdurrahman arrives at. + +CHISHOLM, Captain, wounded at the Seah Sung ridge. + +CLARK, Lieutenant-Colonel. + +CLELAND, gallant conduct of. + +CLERK, Mr, demands right of way through the Punjaub. + +CLIBBORN, Colonel, defeated by Beloochees. + +COBBE, leads the attack of the Peiwar Kotul. + +CODRINGTON, commandant of Charikar; killed; revenged. + +COMMISSARIAT FORT, the. + +CONOLLY, Lieutenant John; a hostage. + +COOK, Major, V.C., of the Goorkha regiment, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +COTTON, Sir Willoughby, commands first infantry division; on the march to +Cabul; in chief command in Afghanistan; a respectable nonentity.'. + +CRAIGIE, defence of Khelat-i-Ghilzai. + +CRISPIN, with Eraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +CRUICKSHANK, Captain, killed at the attack on Deh Khoja. + +CUNYNGHAM, Lieutenant Dick, V.C., gallant conduct at the Takht-i-Shah. + +CUTCH. + +D. + +DADUR, in. + +DAKKA. + +DAOUD SHAH, Yakoub Khan's general; accompanies the Ameer to Roberts' +camp. + +DEH-I-AFGHAN, a suburb of Cabul. + +DEH KHATI. + +DEH KHOJA. + +DEH MAZUNG. + +DEHRAWAT. + +DEIG. + +DENNIE, Colonel, of the 13th, at the taking of Ghuznee; in command at +Bamian; replaces Sale in command; heads a sortie from Jellalabad; in the +council of war; commands the centre at the great sortie and is killed. + +DENNIS, Colonel. + +DODGIN, Captain, valour in the retreat. + +DOORANEES, the. + +DOST MAHOMED, origin; early career; asks for terms; forsaken by his +troops; a fugitive; in Bokhara and Khooloom; at Bamian and Kohistan; +surrenders to Macnaghten; sent into British India; to be allowed to +return to Afghanistan; his return to his sovereignty; dies. + +DREW, Colonel, enters the Peiwar Kotul. + +DUNCAN, General. + +DUNDAS, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +DUNHAM-MASSY, Brigadier-General. + +DURAND, on the siege of Herat; on Lord Auckland's manifesto; on +Macnaghten's appointment; at siege of Ghuznee; on the restoration of Shah +Soojah; on Dost Mahomed's surrender; on the retreat on Jellalabad; on +Macnaghten's ill-faith. + +E. + +EDWARDES, Sir Henry, on Lord Auckland's manifesto. + +ELLENBOROUGH, Lord, on Sale's brigade; first manifesto; vacillations; +orders the removal of the gates of Somnath from Sultan Mahmoud's tomb; +reception of the returning armies. + +ELLIS, Mr, British Envoy to Persia. + +ELPHINSTONE, General; succeeds Cotton in chief command; his character and +infirmities; orders Sale to return to Cabul; about to leave India; orders +the abandonment of the Commissariat fort; the Duke of Wellington's +verdict on his position; hopeless; 'scents treachery'; calls upon +Pottinger to open negotiations; in the retreat; consents to hand over the +ladies; and their husbands; refuses Akbar's proposal that the Europeans +should lay down their arms; conference; made a hostage; at Jugdulluk; +death. + +ELPHINSTONE, Mr, on the Afghan expedition. + +ENGLAND, Brigadier, defeated at the Kojuk pass. + +EVATT, Surgeon-Major, on the 'Death March.' + +EYRE, Vincent, opinion on Shelton's defeat at Behmaroo; description of +the sufferings of the retreat; his 'Captivity.'. + +F. + +FANE, Sir Harry, Commander-in-Chief; heads the expedition to Cabul. + +FARRINGTON, routs Uktar Khan at Zemindawar. + +FEROZEPORE. + +FORBES, Lieutenant, of the 92d Highlanders, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +FRASER'S BENGAL CAVALRY at Purwan Durrah. + +FROME, Captain, killed in the battle of Candahar. + +FUTTEHABAD. + +FUTTEH ALI, Shah of Persia. + +FUTTEH JUNG, second son and successor of Shah Soojah; abdicates. + +FUTTEH KHAN, eldest brother of Dost Mahomed, his fate. + +G. + +GALBRAITH, Colonel, killed at Maiwand. + +GARMAO HILLS, the. + +GHAZEES. + +GHILZAIS, the; description of; brave conduct of under the 'Gooroo,'; gain +terms from Macgregor; attack Sale's force; slaughter by, in the Khoord +Cabul; hang on the rear of the retreat; slaughter by, at Jugdulluk; +attack Pollock; harass Money. + +GHIRISHK. + +GHUZNEE. siege of; occupied by British troops; surrendered to the +Afghans; retaken by Nott. + +GOAD, Captain, killed. + +GOOL MAHOMED KHAN. + +GOORKHA REGIMENTS. + +GOOROO, the Ghilzai leader. + +GORDON, Colonel, his command in the attack on the Spingawai and Peiwar +Kotuls. + +GORDON, General Charles, against keeping Candahar. + +GOREBUND RIVER, the. + +GORTSCHAKOFF. + +GOUGH, Captain, with the 9th Lancers; in the charge of December 11th. + +GOUGH, General Charles. + +GOUGH, General Hugh. + +GRANT, Dr, gallant conduct at Charikar. + +GREEN, in the Retreat. + +GRENADIERS, its, the. + +GRIFFIN, Sir Lepel, his mission to arrange for the succession to Yakoub +Khan; on the retention of Candahar. + +GRIFFITHS, Major, gallant march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar; storms Mahomed +Shereef's fort. + +GUIDES, the; in the attack on the Beni-Hissar. + +GUL KOH RIDGE, the. + +GUNDAMUK, Sale's council of war at; final tragedy of the Retreat near; +evacuated; Pollock's troops concentrate at; treaty of 1879; conclusion +of. + +GUNDIGAN. + +GWAGA PASS, the. + +H. + +HABIB KILLA. + +HADJI KHAN KHAKUR. + +HAINES, Sir F., Commander-in-Chief. + +HALL, Captain. + +HAMILTON, Lieutenant W. R. P., V.C., with Cavagnari at Cabul; killed. + +HAMLEY, Sir Edward, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +HANZ-I-MADAT. + +HARDY, Lieutenant, killed. + +HASSAN ABDUL. + +HASSAN KHAN, governor of Maidan, killed. + +HAUGHTON, desperately wounded in the Charikar disaster. + +HAVELOCK, Captain Henry, aide-de-camp to Sir W. Cotton; on Shah Soojah's +reception in Candahar; description of Shah Soojah; staff officer to Sale; +authenticates Broadfoot's account of Sale's council of war at Jellalabad; +in the great sortie from Jellalabad. + +HAY, at the siege of Ghuznee. + +HAZARAS, horde of. + +HELMUND RIVER, the. + +HENSMAN, Mr; on the defence of Sherpur; on the battle of Ahmed Khel; on +Abdurrahman. + +HERAT, Persia and; siege of, by the Persians; independent; Macnaghten +presses for an expedition against; Ayoub Khan in; Ayoub driven from, by +Abdurrahman. + +HIGHLANDERS, the 72d and 92d. + +HILLS, Major-General, governor of Cabul. + +HINDOO KOOSH, the. + +HOBHOUSE, Sir John Cam, Lord Broughton, president of the Board of +Control, claims the responsibility of the first Afghan war in 1851, +contradictory statement in 1842. + +HUFT KOTUL, the; last stand of the Afghans at. + +HUGHES, Brigadier-General, at Ahmed Khel. + +HUME, General. + +HYDERABAD. + +HYDER KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, and governor of Ghuznee, taken prisoner. + +HYDRABAD. + +I. + +INDIAN CONTINGENT in the Mediterranean, the. + +INDIKEE, mutinous sepoys captured in. + +INDUS, the. + +IRRAWADY, the. + +ISTALIF, a Kohistan village destroyed. + +JACOB'S RIFLES (30th Native Infantry) at the Maiwand disaster. + +JADRAN. + +JAZEE, Anderson encounters Ghilzais at. + +JELLALABAD; British troops quartered in; march on resolved upon; Durand's +opinion of; Akbar's conditions for the evacuation of; defence of; Pollock +at; Elphinstone buried at; partially destroyed; Sir S. Browne's camp +near; disaster to the 10th Hussars near. + +JENKINS, Colonel, of the Guides; storms the Asmai heights; adroit +evacuation of Asmai heights. + +JENKINS, William, Secretary to Cavagnari. + +JOHNSON, Captain, in charge of the Treasury at Cabul; hostage; arranges +the redemption of the captives. + +JOHNSON, Colonel Alured, commands the artillery in the Great March. + +JUBBUR KHAN, brother to Dost Mahomed, 28; in charge of Dost Mahomed's +family at Khooloom. + +JUGDULLUK VALLEY, the; retreating column harassed at; slaughter at; +captives arrive at; Pollock engaged with Ghilzais at. + +JULGAH FORT, the, Sale fails to take. + +JUMROOD. + + +K. + +KAMRAN, Shah of Herat. + +KAREZAH. + +KAREZ HILL, the. + +KAREZ MEER. + +KARRACK. + +KATA KUSTIA. + +KATTIAWAR. + +KAUFMANN, General. + +KAYE, Sir John; history of the Afghan war; opinion of Burnes; account of +Macnaghten's murder. + +KEANE, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay army; marches towards +Hyderabad; his character; marches on Cabul; siege of Ghuznee; camp near +Cabul. + +KELLY, Dr Ambrose, with Cavagnari. + +KERSHAW, at siege of Ghuznee. + +KHAKREZ VALLEY, the. + +KHAROTI HILL, the. + +KHEL AKHUND. + +KHELAT; occupied by Nott. + +KHELAT, Khans of. See MEERAB, NUSSEER. + +KHELAT-I-GHILZAI; occupied by Nott; garrisoned; garrison withdrawn; one +of the stages on the Great March. + +KHIG. + +KHIVA. + +KHODA BUXSH. + +KHOOLOOM; Akbar at. + +KHOOLOOM, Wali of. + +KHOST VALLEY, the. + +KHUSHK-I-NAKHUD, skirmish at. + +KHYBER-Jellalabad-Gundamuk route, the. + +KHYBER PASS, the; the clans of; Ghilzais intercept the communication by; +Wild fails to force; Pollock marches through; Cavagnari turned back from; +question of the retention of; evacuated. + +KILLA ABDOOLLA. + +KILLA KAZEE; Massy at. + +KING'S GARDEN, the, at Cabul. + +KNOWLES. + +KOHDAMAN. + +KOH-I-NOOR, the, taken by Runjeet Singh from Shah Soojah. + +KOHISTAN, Dost Mahomed in. + +KOJUK PASS, the; Brigadier England repulsed at. + +KOKORAN. + +KOLUM-DIL-KHAN. + +KOTWAL OF CABUL, the, tried for the massacre of Cavagnari, etc. + +KONDOOZ. + +KOTTREE. + +KUBBAR-I-JUBBAR. + +KURAM VALLEY, the. + +KURDURRAH. + +KUSHI; General Roberts meets Yakoub Khan at. + +KUTTI SUNG. + +L. + +LAHORE, Mr Clerk at. + +LAKE. + +LANCERS, the 9th. + +LANCERS, Bengal, the. + +LAWRENCE, Captain, warns Macnaghten; made prisoner; sends messages from +the chiefs to Elphinstone; description of the retreat; made hostage; in +captivity. + +LAWRENCE, Lord, his 'masterly inactivity;' against keeping Candahar. + +LEACH, Major. + +LOCKHART. + +LOGUR VALLEY, the; plain; river. + +LOODIANAH, Shah Soojah's refuge in. + +LORD, Dr, political officer in the Bamian district; killed at Purwan +Durrah. + +LOVEDAY, Lieutenant, political officer at Khelat, barbarously murdered. + +LUGHMAN VALLEY, the. + +LUGHMANEE, Pottinger besieged in. + +LUNDI KOTUL. + +LUTTABUND. + +LYTTON, Lord, Viceroy, 1876; his instructions; ratifies the treaty of +Gunda-Gundamuk; prepares to revenge Cavagnari; decides that Yakoub Khan +does not return to Afghanistan; recommends Abdurrahman. + +M. + +MACGREGOR, Brigadier-General Charles, C. B., chief of Sir F. Roberts' +staff; recovers the guns at Baghwana; in the Great March; in the battle +of Candahar. + +MACGREGOR, Major, deceived by the Ghilzai chief of Tezeen; Sale's +adviser. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Colin, at the defeat of Dost Mahomed near Bamian; +gallant conduct of; with Macnaghten; a hostage; story of the Retreat. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Stuart, gallant conduct of. + +MACKESON, political officer at Peshawur. + +MACKRELL, Colonel, killed at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +MACLAINE, Lieutenant, of the Horse Artillery, in the Maiwand disaster; +taken prisoner; murdered. + +MACLAREN. + +MACNAGHTEN, Lady; in the Retreat. + +MACNAGHTEN, Sir William Hay, envoy to Shah Soojah, influence with Lord +Auckland; his use of bribery; on the reception of the Shah at Candahar; +enters Cabul with Shah Soojah; convinced of the Shah's popularity; real +sovereign of Afghanistan; his mistakes; relations with the Ghilzais; +consents to the abandonment of the Balla Hissar; relations with Herat; +nervous about the communication; relation with Dost Mahomed; proposes to +put a price on his head; receives his surrender; his peculiar +temperament; his finance; discovers the unpopularity of the Shah; his +conduct to the 'Gooroo' and Ghilzais; appointed Governor of Bombay; +called upon to retrench; his conduct to Elphinstone; despatches Sale; his +quarters at Cabul; demands the reduction of the Rikabashee fort; +depression; negotiation about the Retreat; murdered. + +MACPHERSON, Brigadier-General; in the December operations round Cabul; in +the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +MAHMOOD KHAN, fort of. + +MAHMOUD SHAH, brother of Shah Soojah. + +MAHOMED HASSAN KHAN, Abdurrahman's governor of Candahar, defeated by +Ayoub. + +MAHOMED JAN, a Warduk general, defends the Asmai heights; attacked by +Massy and Macpherson; attack on the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAHOMED MEERZA, Shah of Persia, his ambition, designs on Herat. + +MAHOMED SHAH KHAN, Akbar's lieutenant. + +MAHOMED SHEREEF, fort of. + +MAHOMED SURWAR, agent of Sir Lepel Griffin. + +MAHOMED ZEMAUN KHAN. + +MAIDAN PLAIN, the. + +MAINWARING, Mrs, in the Retreat. + +MAIWAND; disaster at; battle at, between Mahomed Hassan and Ayoub. + +MANDERSON. + +MANGAL. + +MARSHALL, Colonel, routs Nusseer Khan. + +MASSY, Brigadier-General; occupies the Shutargurdan pass; takes +possession of the Sherpur cantonments; in the attack on Mahomed Jan; in +the defence of the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAUDE, General. + +MAULE, Lieutenant. + +MAZRA; Ayoub's camp at, during battle of Candahar. + +M'CASKILL, Brigadier-General, with Pollock; in the last skirmishes. + +MEER AKHOR FORT, the, blown up. + +MEER BUTCHA, a chief of Kohistan. + +MEERZA AHMED, a Dooranee chief. + +MEHRAB, Khan of Khelat. + +MICHNAI PASS, the. + +M'Neill, British Envoy to Persia. + +MOHUN LAL, agent for Macnaghten's 'blood money.' + +MONEY, Colonel, left to hold the Shutargurdan pass; brought out by Gough; +in the battle of Candahar. + +MONTEATH, Colonel, sent against the Ghilzais; in the council of war at +Jellalabad; at the great sortie. + +MONTENARO, Captain, killed at the Meer Akhor fort. + +MONTGOMERY, Sir Robert, against keeping Candahar. + +MOOKOOR. + +MOOLLA SHIKORE, Shah Soojah's minister. + +MOOLTAN. + +MOORE, Elphinstone's servant. + +MORGAN. + +MULLA SAHIBDAD. + +MUNDABAD. + +MURCHA PASS. + +MUSA KHAN, heir of Yakoub Khan. + +MUSHAKI. + +MUSHK-I-ALUM, a Moulla of Ghuznee; his influence; governor of Cabul, +fires the beacon on the Asmai heights. + +MUSTAPHI, the, punished for the Cavagnari massacre. + +N. + +NAGHLOO. + +NANUCHEE PASS, the. + +NAPIER, Lieutenant Scott, of the 92d Highlanders. + +NAPIER, Lord, of Magdala, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +NEK MAHOMED KHAN, Afghan commander at the battle of Charasiah. + +NEPAUL. + +NEVILLE, of the Bengal Lancers. + +NICHOLL, Captain, his heroism in the Retreat. + +NIJRAO. + +NORMAN, Sir Henry, against keeping Candahar. + +NORTHBROOK, Lord, relations with Shere Ali. + +NOTT, General; in command at Candahar; occupies Khelat; his character; +discipline; disagrees with Macnaghten; receives orders from Elphinstone +to evacuate Candahar, refuses to obey; fighting with Meerza Ahmed; his +letter to Brigadier England; Lord Ellenborough repeats orders to evacuate +Candahar, obeys; marches towards Cabul; drives Afghans out of Ghuznee; +refuses to aid in the rescue of the prisoners. + +NUGENT, Lieutenant, killed. + +NUSSEER, Khan of Khelat. + +NUTTALL, General. + +O. + +OLDFIELD, Captain, in the Council of War at Jellalabad. + +ORENBURG. + +OSMAN KHAN. + +OUTRAM pursues Dost Mahomed; raid on the Ghilzais. + +P. + +PALLISER, Brigadier-General. + +PALMER, Colonel, tortured. + +PALMERSTON'S, Lord, ultimatum to Persia. + +PANJSHIR RIVER, the. + +PASKEVITCH, General. + +PATHANS. + +PEAT, Captain, at siege of Ghuznee. + +PEIWAR PASS, the. + +PELLY, Sir Lewis, at the conference of Peshawur. + +PEROFFSKY. + +PERSIA, relations between Great Britain and. + +PESHAWUR. + +PESHBOLAK. + +PETROFFSKY, a Russian writer. + +PHAYRE, Brigadier-General. + +PICQUET HILL, the, attacked by Ayoub Khan. + +PIONEERS, the. + +PISHEEN VALLEY, the; retained by us. + +POLLOCK, General; arrives in Peshawur; at Jellalabad; his qualifications; +his work; the rescue and retribution; contrast between Nott and; arrives +at Cabul; punishment of Cabul. + +PONSONBY, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry in Purwan Durrah. + +POOLE, Captain, wounded. + +POTTINGER, Major, defends Herat against the Persians; warns Macnaghten of +the danger in Kohistan; in the disaster at Charikar; conducts +negotiations for the retreat; a hostage. + +POWELL, Captain, killed. + +POYNDAH KHAN, father to Dost Mahomed. + +PRIMROSE, General; in the battle of Candahar. + +PUNJAUB REGIMENTS. + +PUNJAUB, the. + +PURWAN DURRAH VALLEY, the. + +Q. + +QUETTA; occupied. + +R. + +RATTRAY. + +RAWLINSON, Sir Henry; his warnings to Macnaghten; Macnaghten's orders to, +respecting Uktar Khan; in favour of retaining Candahar. + +RAWUL PINDI. + +RHOTAS HEIGHTS, the. + +RIKABASHEE FORT, the. + +RIPON, Marquis of, Viceroy; in favour of the settlement with Abdurrahman; +sanctions General Roberts' March on Candahar. + +ROBAT, Great March ends at. + +ROBERTS, Colonel. + +ROBERTS, Sir Frederick, in command of the Kuram column; his scheme of +operations; battle of the Peiwar Kotul; his previous career; with the +army of invasion; battle of Charasiah; at Cabul; revenge for Cavagnari; +intercourse with Yakoub Khan; in the Sherpur cantonment; active +operations round Cabul; on the defensive in Sherpur; the Great March on +Candahar; battle of Candahar; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ROREE. + +ROSE, Ensign, in the retreat from Charikar. + +ROSS, Major-General John; in the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +RUNJEET SINGH Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, treatment of Shah Soojah; +occupies Peshawur; death. + +RUSSIA, relations with Persia; policy towards Dost Mahomed; Afghanistan +to be used as a 'buffer state' between British India and; Russo-Turkish +war; relations with Abdurrahman; opinion of Roberts on Afghanistan and. + +S. + +SAFI TRIBE, the, engage Macpherson. + +SALE, Lady, her journal; account of the Retreat; Akbar's kindness to. + +SALE, Sir Robert; at siege of Ghuznee; in command at Cabul; chastises the +Kohistanees; his character; fighting in the Khoord Cabul at Bootkhak; at +Gundamuk; occupies Jellalabad; defence of Jellalabad; fighting with the +Ghilzais at Jugdulluk; ordered to rescue captives. + +SALEH MAHOMED KHAN, arranges the escape of the captives. + +SALISBURY, Lord. + +SANGBUR. + +SCINDE. + +SCOTT, Major. + +SCHUYLER, Mr Eugene, interviews Abdurrahman. + +SEAH SUNG HEIGHTS, the. + +SEH BABA. + +SEISTAN, province of. + +SHAFTO, Captain, killed at the Balla Hissar. + +SHAGAI RIDGE, the. + +SHAH BAGH, the. + +SHAHBAZ KHAN. + +SHAHJUI. + +SHAHLEZ. + +SHAKESPEAR, Sir Richmond. + +SHEIKABAD. + +SHELTON. Brigadier, arrives at Jellalabad; character; at Cabul; receives +contradictory orders from Macnaghten; in the Balla Hissar; takes the +Rikabashee fort; opposes the removal of the troops into the Balla Hissar; +attacks Bemaroo; commands the main body in the Retreat; his dogged +valour; a hostage. + +SHER-DERWAZA HEIGHTS, the. + +SHERE ALI, the Ameer, son of Dost Mahomed, accession and character; +refuses to receive a Resident; negotiations with Lord Lytton; cordial +reception of the Russians, refuses to receive Sir Neville Chamberlain; +death at Balkh; his mistakes. + +SHERE ALI KHAN, Wali of Candahar; abdicates. + +SHERPUR CANTONMENTS, the; description of; operations round; defence of; +durbar at; interview between Sir Donald Stewart and Abdurrahman at. + +SHIKARPORE. + +SHILGUR. + +SHUMSHOODEEN, an Afghan leader. + +SHUTARGURDAN PASS, the. + +SIBI; retained by us. + +SIKHS. + +SIKH FEUDATORY STATES CONTINGENT. + +SIKH REGIMENTS. + +SINGIRI. + +SKINNER, Captain, a hostage. + +SLADE, at the Maiwand disaster. + +SOMNATH, gates of. + +SOOJAH-OOL-MOOLK, Shah; early career; intrigues; Lord Auckland determines +to restore him; his share in the expedition; replaced on the throne, +entry into Cabul; his position; with Macnaghten at Cabul; refuses to see +Dost Mahomed; goes to Jellalabad; his errors; disaffection towards him; +recommends the occupation of the Balla Hissar; stipulations with regard +to; remains in Cabul; letter to Sale at Jellalabad; murdered. + +SOORKHAB. + +SOUTER, Captain, escapes from the slaughter at Gundamuk. + +SPENS, Captain of the 72d Highlanders, killed. + +SPINGAWAI KOTUL, the, attack on, by Roberts. + +STANHOPE, Mr, on the treaty of Gundamuk. + +STEWART, Sir Donald; marches into Candahar; begins his march to Cabul; +battle of Ahmed Khel and Urzoo; continues his march to Cabul; relations +with Abdurrahman; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ST JOHN, Colonel. + +STODDART, Colonel. + +STOLIETOFF, defender of the Schipka pass, received by Shere Ali. + +'STORMS AND SUNSHINE OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE,' by Colin Mackenzie. + +STRATON, Captain. + +SUKKUR. + +SULIMAN MOUNTAINS, the. + +SULTAN JAN. + +SULTAN MAHMOUD, tomb of. + +SUNG-I-NAWISHTA PASS, the. + +SURKH KOTUL, the. + +SUTLEJ RIVER, the. + +SWAYNE, Major. + +SYGHAN. + +T. + +TAGAO. + +TAKHT-I-SHAH PEAK, the. + +TASHKEND, Russians at; Shere Ali at; Abdurrahman at. + +TEZEEN. + +THAL-CHOTIALI. + +THELWALL, Brigadier. + +THOMSON, engineer to Keane. + +TIMOUR, Prince, son of Shah Soojah, supported by Runjeet Singh; Soojah's +viceroy at Candahar; cruelty. + +TIR-ANDAZ. + +TODD, Major, political agent in Herat. + +TOOTUNDURRAH FORT, Sale takes. + +TREVOR, with Macnaghten at his death; murdered. + +TROUP, Captain. + +TUNGHEE TARIKI, gorge of, scene of slaughter. + +TURNUK. + +TURRAI. + +TYTLER. + +U. + +UKTAR KHAN, a discontented Dooranee chief; Macnaghten offers reward for +his head. + +URGUNDAB. + +URGUNDEH. + +URZOO, affair of. + +V. + +VAKEEL, the, obnoxious minister of Shah Soojah. + +VICEROYS, _See_ LORDS W. BENTINCK, AUCKLAND, ELLENBOROUGH, NORTHBROOK, +LYTTON, and the MARQUIS OF RIPON. + +VIKKUR. + +W. + +WADE, escorts Prince Timour by the Khyber route. + +WALI MAHOMED, governor designate of Turkestan. + +WARREN, evacuates the Commissariat fort. + +WATSON, Colonel, in command of the Sikh Feudatory contingent. + +WELLESLEY, the Marquis, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision. + +WELLINGTON, Duke of, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision; on +Elphinstone's position at Cabul; on English troops v. hillmen. + +WHITE, Major, of the 92d Highlanders, at the attack on Beni Hissar; in +the battle of Candahar. + +WILD, Brigadier, attempts to force the Khyber pass. + +WILLSHIRE, General, harassed in the Bolan pass; punishes Khelat. + +WOLSELEY, Lord, against keeping Candahar. + +WORSLEY, Colonel. + +WYMER, Colonel, hard fighting with the Ghilzais. + +Y. + +YAHUJA KHAN. + +YAKOUB KHAN, son of Shere Ali, released and made regent; intercourse with +Sir Sam Browne; question of his complicity in the Cavagnari massacre; +takes refuge in the English camp; a prisoner; the Viceroy's decision +against his return to power. + +YAR MAHOMED, Shah Kamran's minister. + +YERGATI. + +Z. + +ZAKARIAH KHAN, Yakoub's brother. + +ZANDEH, captives carried to. + +ZEMINDAWAR, country of. + +ZIMMA, Abdurrahman and Sir Lepel Griffin at. + +ZURMUT. + + * * * * * + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, by +Archibald Forbes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND *** + +***** This file should be named 8428-8.txt or 8428-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/2/8428/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/8428-8.zip b/old/8428-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ed511e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8428-8.zip diff --git a/old/8428.txt b/old/8428.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39dc0c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8428.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9327 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, by Archibald Forbes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 + +Author: Archibald Forbes + +Posting Date: September 22, 2014 [EBook #8428] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 9, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Sir Frederick Roberts] + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND 1878-80 + +by ARCHIBALD FORBES + +With Portraits and Plans + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + +PART I.--THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR + +CHAP. + + I.--PRELIMINARY + + II.--THE MARCH TO CABUL + + III.--THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + IV.--THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + V.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END + + VI.--THE ROAD TO RUIN + + VII.--THE CATASTROPHE + +VIII.--THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + + IX.--RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + + +PART II.--THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + I.--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + + II.--THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + III.--THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + + IV.--THE DECEMBER STORM + + V.--ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + + VI.--AHMED KHEL + + VII.--THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +VIII.--MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + + IX.--THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + * * * * * + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS + + PORTRAIT OF SIR FREDERICK ROBERTS _Frontispiece_ + + PLAN OF CABUL, THE CANTONMENT + + PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE POLLOCK + + PORTRAIT OF SIR LOUIS CAVAGNARI AND SIRDARS + + PLAN OF CABUL SHOWING THE ACTIONS, DEC. 11-14 + + PLAN OF ACTION, AHMED KHEL + + PORTRAIT OF THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF MAIWAND + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF CANDAHAR + +_The Portraits of Sir G. Pollock and Sir F. Roberts are engraved by +permission of Messrs Henry Graves & Co._ + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS + + + + +PART I: _THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR_ + + + + +CHAPTER I: PRELIMINARY + +Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished +what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian +army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between +Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression. + +By a treaty, concluded between England and Persia in 1814, the former +state bound itself, in case of the invasion of Persia by any European +nation, to aid the Shah either with troops from India or by the payment +of an annual subsidy in support of his war expenses. It was a dangerous +engagement, even with the _caveat_ rendering the undertaking inoperative +if such invasion should be provoked by Persia. During the fierce struggle +of 1825-7, between Abbas Meerza and the Russian General Paskevitch, +England refrained from supporting Persia either with men or with money, +and when prostrate Persia was in financial extremities because of the war +indemnity which the treaty of Turkmanchai imposed upon her, England took +advantage of her needs by purchasing the cancellation of the inconvenient +obligation at the cheap cost of about L300,000. It was the natural result +of this transaction that English influence with the Persian Court should +sensibly decline, and it was not less natural that in conscious weakness +Persia should fall under the domination of Russian influence. + +Futteh Ali, the old Shah of Persia, died in 1834, and was succeeded by +his grandson Prince Mahomed Meerza, a young man who inherited much of the +ambition of his gallant father Abbas Meerza. His especial aspiration, +industriously stimulated by his Russian advisers, urged him to the +enterprise of conquering the independent principality of Herat, on the +western border of Afghanistan. Herat was the only remnant of Afghan +territory that still remained to a member of the legitimate royal house. +Its ruler was Shah Kamran, son of that Mahmoud Shah who, after ousting +his brother Shah Soojah from the throne of Cabul, had himself been driven +from that elevation, and had retired to the minor principality of Herat. +The young Shah of Persia was not destitute of justification for his +designs on Herat. That this was so was frankly admitted by Mr Ellis, the +British envoy to his Court, who wrote to his Government that the Shah had +fair claim to the sovereignty of Afghanistan as far as Ghuznee, and that +Kamran's conduct in occupying part of the Persian province of Seistan had +given the Shah 'a full justification for commencing hostilities against +Herat.' + +The serious phase of the situation for England and India was that Russian +influence was behind Persia in this hostile action against Herat. Mr +Ellis pointed out that in the then existing state of relations between +Persia and Russia, the progress of the former in Afghanistan was +tantamount to the advancement of the latter. But unfortunately there +remained valid an article in the treaty of 1814 to the effect that, in +case of war between the Afghans and the Persians, the English Government +should not interfere with either party unless when called on by both to +mediate. In vain did Ellis and his successor M'Neill remonstrate with the +Persian monarch against the Herat expedition. An appeal to St Petersburg, +on the part of Great Britain, produced merely an evasive reply. How +diplomatic disquietude had become intensified may be inferred from this, +that whereas in April 1836 Ellis wrote of Persia as a Russian first +parallel of attack against India, Lord Auckland, then Governor-General of +India, directed M'Neill, in the early part of 1837, to urge the Shah to +abandon his enterprise, on the ground that he (the Governor-General) +'must view with umbrage and displeasure schemes of interference and +conquest on our western frontier.' + +The Shah, unmoved by the representations of the British envoy, marched on +Herat, and the siege was opened on November 23d, 1837. Durand, a capable +critic, declares that the strength of the place, the resolution of the +besiegers, the skill of their Russian military advisers, and the +gallantry of the besieged, were alike objects of much exaggeration. 'The +siege was from first to last thoroughly ill-conducted, and the defence, +in reality not better managed, owed its _eclat_ to Persian ignorance, +timidity and supineness. The advice of Pottinger, the gallant English +officer who assisted the defence, was seldom asked, and still more seldom +taken; and no one spoke more plainly of the conduct of both besieged and +besiegers than did Pottinger himself.' M'Neill effected nothing definite +during a long stay in the Persian camp before Herat, the counteracting +influence of the Russian envoy being too strong with the Shah; and the +British representative, weary of continual slights, at length quitted the +Persian camp completely foiled. After six days' bombardment, the Persians +and their Russian auxiliaries delivered an assault in force on June 23d, +1838. It failed, with heavy loss, and the dispirited Shah determined on +raising the siege. His resolution was quickened by the arrival of Colonel +Stoddart in his camp, with the information that a military force from +Bombay, supported by ships of war, had landed on the island of Karrack in +the Persian Gulf, and with the peremptory ultimatum to the Shah that he +must retire from Herat at once. Lord Palmerston, in ordering this +diversion in the Gulf, had thought himself justified by circumstances in +overriding the clear and precise terms of an article in a treaty to which +England had on several occasions engaged to adhere. As for the Shah, he +appears to have been relieved by the ultimatum. On the 9th September he +mounted his horse and rode away from Herat. The siege had lasted nine and +a half months. To-day, half a century after Simonich the Russian envoy +followed Mahomed Shah from battered but unconquered Herat, that city is +still an Afghan place of arms. + +Shah Soojah-ool Moolk, a grandson of the illustrious Ahmed Shah, reigned +in Afghanistan from 1803 till 1809. His youth had been full of trouble +and vicissitude. He had been a wanderer, on the verge of starvation, a +pedlar and a bandit, who raised money by plundering caravans. His courage +was lightly reputed, and it was as a mere creature of circumstance that +he reached the throne. His reign was perturbed, and in 1809 he was a +fugitive and an exile. Runjeet Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, +defrauded him of the famous Koh-i-noor, which is now the most precious of +the crown jewels of England, and plundered and imprisoned the fallen man. +Shah Soojah at length escaped from Lahore. After further misfortunes he +at length reached the British frontier station of Loodianah, and in 1816 +became a pensioner of the East India Company. + +After the downfall of Shah Soojah, Afghanistan for many years was a prey +to anarchy. At length in 1826, Dost Mahomed succeeded in making himself +supreme at Cabul, and this masterful man thenceforward held sway until +his death in 1863, uninterruptedly save during the three years of the +British occupation. Dost Mahomed was neither kith nor kin to the +legitimate dynasty which he displaced. His father Poyndah Khan was an +able statesman and gallant soldier. He left twenty-one sons, of whom +Futteh Khan was the eldest, and Dost Mahomed one of the youngest. Futteh +Khan was the Warwick of Afghanistan, but the Afghan 'Kingmaker' had no +Barnet as the closing scene of his chequered life. Falling into hostile +hands, he was blinded and scalped. Refusing to betray his brothers, he +was leisurely cut to pieces by the order and in the presence of the +monarch whom he had made. His young brother Dost Mahomed undertook to +avenge his death. After years of varied fortunes the Dost had worsted all +his enemies, and in 1826 he became the ruler of Cabul. Throughout his +long reign Dost Mahomed was a strong and wise ruler. His youth had been +neglected and dissolute. His education was defective, and he had been +addicted to wine. Once seated on the throne, the reformation of our Henry +Fifth was not more thorough than was that of Dost Mahomed. He taught +himself to read and write, studied the Koran, became scrupulously +abstemious, assiduous in affairs, no longer truculent but courteous. He +is said to have made a public acknowledgment of the errors of his +previous life, and a firm profession of reformation; nor did his after +life belie the pledges to which he committed himself. There was a fine +rugged honesty in his nature, and a streak of genuine chivalry; +notwithstanding the despite he suffered at our hands, he had a real +regard for the English, and his loyalty to us was broken only by his +armed support of the Sikhs in the second Punjaub war. + +The fallen Shah Soojah, from his asylum in Loodianah, was continually +intriguing for his restoration. His schemes were long inoperative, and it +was not until 1832 that certain arrangements were entered into between +him and the Maharaja Runjeet Singh. To an application on Shah Soojah's +part for countenance and pecuniary aid, the Anglo-Indian Government +replied that to afford him assistance would be inconsistent with the +policy of neutrality which the Government had imposed on itself; but it +unwisely contributed financially toward his undertaking by granting him +four months' pension in advance. Sixteen thousand rupees formed a scant +war fund with which to attempt the recovery of a throne, but the Shah +started on his errand in February 1833. After a successful contest with +the Ameers of Scinde, he marched on Candahar, and besieged that fortress. +Candahar was in extremity when Dost Mahomed, hurrying from Cabul, +relieved it, and joining forces with its defenders, he defeated and +routed Shah Soojah, who fled precipitately, leaving behind him his +artillery and camp equipage, During the Dost's absence in the south, +Runjeet Singh's troops crossed the Attock, occupied the Afghan province +of Peshawur, and drove the Afghans into the Khyber Pass. No subsequent +efforts on Dost Mahomed's part availed to expel the Sikhs from Peshawur, +and suspicious of British connivance with Runjeet Singh's successful +aggression, he took into consideration the policy of fortifying himself +by a counter alliance with Persia. As for Shah Soojah, he had crept back +to his refuge at Loodianah. + +Lord Auckland succeeded Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General of +India in March 1836. In reply to Dost Mahomed's letter of congratulation, +his lordship wrote: 'You are aware that it is not the practice of the +British Government to interfere with the affairs of other independent +states;' an abstention which Lord Auckland was soon to violate. He had +brought from England the feeling of disquietude in regard to the designs +of Persia and Russia which the communications of our envoy in Persia had +fostered in the Home Government, but it would appear that he was wholly +undecided what line of action to pursue. 'Swayed,' says Durand, 'by the +vague apprehensions of a remote danger entertained by others rather than +himself,' he despatched to Afghanistan Captain Burnes on a nominally +commercial mission, which, in fact, was one of political discovery, but +without definite instructions. Burnes, an able but rash and ambitious +man, reached Cabul in September 1837, two months before the Persian army +began the siege of Herat. He had a strong prepossession in favour of the +Dost, whose guest he had already been in 1832, and the policy he favoured +was not the revival of the legitimate dynasty in the person of Shah +Soojah, but the attachment of Dost Mahomed to British interests by +strengthening his throne and affording him British countenance. + +Burnes sanguinely believed that he had arrived at Cabul in the nick of +time, for an envoy from the Shah of Persia was already at Candahar, +bearing presents and assurances of support. The Dost made no concealment +to Burnes of his approaches to Persia and Russia, in despair of British +good offices, and being hungry for assistance from any source to meet the +encroachments of the Sikhs, he professed himself ready to abandon his +negotiations with the western powers if he were given reason to expect +countenance and assistance at the hands of the Anglo-Indian Government. +Burnes communicated to his Government those friendly proposals, +supporting them by his own strong representations, and meanwhile, carried +away by enthusiasm, he exceeded his powers by making efforts to dissuade +the Candahar chiefs from the Persian alliance, and by offering to support +them with money to enable them to make head against the offensive, by +which Persia would probably seek to revenge the rejection of her +overtures. For this unauthorised excess of zeal Burnes was severely +reprimanded by his Government, and was directed to retract his offers to +the Candahar chiefs. The situation of Burnes in relation to the Dost was +presently complicated by the arrival at Cabul of a Russian officer +claiming to be an envoy from the Czar, whose credentials, however, were +regarded as dubious, and who, if that circumstance has the least weight, +was on his return to Russia utterly repudiated by Count Nesselrode. The +Dost took small account of this emissary, continuing to assure Burnes +that he cared for no connection except with the English, and Burnes +professed to his Government his fullest confidences in the sincerity of +those declarations. But the tone of Lord Auckland's reply, addressed to +the Dost, was so dictatorial and supercilious as to indicate the writer's +intention that it should give offence. It had that effect, and Burnes' +mission at once became hopeless. Yet, as a last resort, Dost Mahomed +lowered his pride so far as to write to the Governor-General imploring +him 'to remedy the grievances of the Afghans, and afford them some little +encouragement and power.' The pathetic representation had no effect. The +Russian envoy, who was profuse in his promises of everything which the +Dost was most anxious to obtain, was received into favour and treated +with distinction, and on his return journey he effected a treaty with the +Candahar chiefs, which was presently ratified by the Russian minister at +the Persian Court. Burnes, fallen into discredit at Cabul, quitted that +place in August 1838. He had not been discreet, but it was not his +indiscretion that brought about the failure of his mission. A nefarious +transaction, which Kaye denounces with the passion of a just indignation, +connects itself with Burnes' negotiations with the Dost; his official +correspondence was unscrupulously mutilated and garbled in the published +Blue Book with deliberate purpose to deceive the British public. + +Burnes had failed because, since he had quitted India for Cabul, Lord +Auckland's policy had gradually altered. Lord Auckland had landed in +India in the character of a man of peace. That, so late as April 1837, he +had no design of obstructing the existing situation in Afghanistan is +proved by his written statement of that date, that 'the British +Government had resolved decidedly to discourage the prosecution by the +ex-king Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, so long as he may remain under our +protection, of further schemes of hostility against the chiefs now in +power in Cabul and Candahar.' Yet, in the following June, he concluded a +treaty which sent Shah Soojah to Cabul, escorted by British bayonets. Of +this inconsistency no explanation presents itself. It was a far cry from +our frontier on the Sutlej to Herat in the confines of Central Asia--a +distance of more than 1200 miles, over some of the most arduous marching +ground in the known world. No doubt the Anglo-Indian Government was +justified in being somewhat concerned by the facts that a Persian army, +backed by Russian volunteers and Russian roubles, was besieging Herat, +and that Persian and Russian emissaries were at work in Afghanistan. Both +phenomena were rather of the 'bogey' character; how much so to-day shows +when the Afghan frontier is still beyond Herat, and when a descendant of +Dost Mahomed still sits in the Cabul _musnid_. But neither England nor +India scrupled to make the Karrack counter-threat which arrested the +siege of Herat; and the obvious policy as regarded Afghanistan was to +watch the results of the intrigues which were on foot, to ignore them +should they come to nothing, as was probable, to counteract them by +familiar methods if serious consequences should seem impending. Our +alliance with Runjeet Singh was solid, and the quarrel between Dost +Mahomed and him concerning the Peshawur province was notoriously easy of +arrangement. + +On whose memory rests the dark shadow of responsibility for the first +Afghan war? The late Lord Broughton, who, when Sir John Cam Hobhouse, was +President of the Board of Control from 1835 to 1841, declared before a +House of Commons Committee, in 1851, 'The Afghan war was done by myself; +entirely without the privity of the Board of Directors.' The meaning of +that declaration, of course, was that it was the British Government of +the day which was responsible, acting through its member charged with the +control of Indian affairs; and further, that the directorate of the East +India Company was accorded no voice in the matter. But this utterance was +materially qualified by Sir J. C. Hobhouse's statement in the House of +Commons in 1842, that his despatch indicating the policy to be adopted, +and that written by Lord Auckland, informing him that the expedition had +already been undertaken, had crossed each other on the way. + +It would be tedious to detail how Lord Auckland, under evil counsel, +gradually boxed the compass from peace to war. The scheme of action +embodied in the treaty which, in the early summer of 1838, was concluded +between the Anglo-Indian Government, Runjeet Singh, and Shah Soojah, was +that Shah Soojah, with a force officered from an Indian army, and paid by +British money, possessing also the goodwill and support of the Maharaja +of the Punjaub, should attempt the recovery of his throne without any +stiffening of British bayonets at his back. Then it was urged, and the +representation was indeed accepted, that the Shah would need the buttress +afforded by English troops, and that a couple of regiments only would +suffice to afford this prestige. But Sir Harry Fane, the +Commander-in-Chief, judiciously interposed his veto on the despatch of a +handful of British soldiers on so distant and hazardous an expedition. +Finally, the Governor-General, committed already to a mistaken line of +policy, and urged forward by those about him, took the unfortunate +resolution to gather together an Anglo-Indian army, and to send it, with +the ill-omened Shah Soojah on its shoulders, into the unknown and distant +wilds of Afghanistan. This action determined on, it was in accordance +with the Anglo-Indian fitness of things that the Governor-General should +promulgate a justificatory manifesto. Of this composition it is +unnecessary to say more than to quote Durand's observation that in it +'the words "justice and necessity" were applied in a manner for which +there is fortunately no precedent in the English language,' and Sir Henry +Edwardes' not less trenchant comment that 'the views and conduct of Dost +Mahomed were misrepresented with a hardihood which a Russian statesman +might have envied.' + +All men whose experience gave weight to their words opposed this +'preposterous enterprise.' Mr Elphinstone, who had been the head of a +mission to Cabul thirty years earlier, held that 'if an army was sent up +the passes, and if we could feed it, no doubt we might take Cabul and set +up Shah Soojah; but it was hopeless to maintain him in a poor, cold, +strong and remote country, among so turbulent a people.' Lord William +Bentinck, Lord Auckland's predecessor, denounced the project as an act of +incredible folly. Marquis Wellesley regarded 'this wild expedition into a +distant region of rocks and deserts, of sands and ice and snow,' as an +act of infatuation. The Duke of Wellington pronounced with prophetic +sagacity, that the consequence of once crossing the Indus to settle a +government in Afghanistan would be a perennial march into that country. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE MARCH TO CABUL + +The two main objects of the venturesome offensive movement to which Lord +Auckland had committed himself were, first, the raising of the Persian +siege of Herat if the place should hold out until reached--the recapture +of it if it should have fallen; and, secondly, the establishment of Shah +Soojah on the Afghan throne. The former object was the more pressing, and +time was very precious; but the distances in India are great, the means +of communication in 1838 did not admit of celerity, and the seasons +control the safe prosecution of military operations. Nevertheless, the +concentration of the army at the frontier station of Ferozepore was fully +accomplished toward the end of November. Sir Harry Fane was to be the +military head of the expedition, and he had just right to be proud of the +14,000 carefully selected and well-seasoned troops who constituted his +Bengal contingent. The force consisted of two infantry divisions, of +which the first, commanded by Major-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, +contained three brigades, commanded respectively by Colonels Sale, Nott, +and Dennis, of whom the two former were to attain high distinction within +the borders of Afghanistan. Major-General Duncan commanded the second +infantry division of the two brigades, of which one was commanded by +Colonel Roberts, the gallant father of a gallant son, the other by +Colonel Worsley. The 6000 troops raised for Shah Soojah, who were under +Fane's orders, and were officered from our army in India, had been +recently and hurriedly recruited, and although rapidly improving, were +not yet in a state of high efficiency. The contingent which the Bombay +Presidency was to furnish to the 'Army of the Indus,' and which landed +about the close of the year near the mouth of the Indus, was under the +command of General Sir John Keane, the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay +army. The Bombay force was about 5000 strong. + +Before the concentration at Ferozepore had been completed, Lord Auckland +received official intimation of the retreat of the Persians from before +Herat. With their departure had gone, also, the sole legitimate object of +the expedition; there remained but a project of wanton aggression and +usurpation. The Russo-Persian failure at Herat was scarcely calculated to +maintain in the astute and practical Afghans any hope of fulfilment of +the promises which the western powers had thrown about so lavishly, while +it made clear that, for some time at least to come, the Persians would +not be found dancing again to Russian fiddling. The abandonment of the +siege of Herat rendered the invasion of Afghanistan an aggression +destitute even of pretext. The Governor-General endeavoured to justify +his resolution to persevere in it by putting forth the argument that its +prosecution was required, 'alike in observation of the treaties entered +into with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah as by paramount considerations of +defensive policy.' A remarkable illustration of 'defensive policy' to +take the offensive against a remote country from whose further confines +had faded away foiled aggression, leaving behind nothing but a bitter +consciousness of broken promises! As for the other plea, the tripartite +treaty contained no covenant that we should send a corporal's guard +across our frontier. If Shah Soojah had a powerful following in +Afghanistan, he could regain his throne without our assistance; if he had +no holding there, it was for us a truly discreditable enterprise to foist +him on a recalcitrant people at the point of the bayonet. + +One result of the tidings from Herat was to reduce by a division the +strength of the expeditionary force. Fane, who had never taken kindly to +the project, declined to associate himself with the diminished array that +remained. The command of the Bengal column fell to Sir Willoughby Cotton, +with whom as his aide-de-camp rode that Henry Havelock whose name twenty +years later was to ring through India and England. Duncan's division was +to stand fast at Ferozepore as a support, by which disposition the +strength of the Bengal marching force was cut down to about 9500 fighting +men. After its junction with the Bombay column, the army would be 14,500 +strong, without reckoning the Shah's contingent. There was an interlude +at Ferozepore of reviews and high jinks with the shrewd, debauched old +Runjeet Singh; of which proceedings Havelock in his narrative of the +expedition gives a detailed account, dwelling with extreme disapprobation +on Runjeet's addiction to a 'pet tipple' strong enough to lay out the +hardest drinker in the British camp, but which the old reprobate quaffed +freely without turning a hair. + +At length, on December 10th, 1838, Cotton began the long march which was +not to terminate at Cabul until August 6th of the following year. The +most direct route was across the Punjaub, and up the passes from +Peshawur, but the Governor-General had shrunk from proposing to Runjeet +Singh that the force should march through his territories, thinking it +enough that the Maharaja had permitted Shah Soojah's heir, Prince Timour, +to go by Peshawur to Cabul, had engaged to support him with a Sikh force, +and had agreed to maintain an army of reserve at Peshawur. The chosen +route was by the left bank of the Sutlej to its junction with the Indus, +down the left bank of the Indus to the crossing point at Roree, and from +Sukkur across the Scinde and northern Belooch provinces by the Bolan and +Kojuk passes to Candahar, thence by Khelat-i-Ghilzai and Ghuznee to +Cabul. This was a line excessively circuitous, immensely long, full of +difficulties, and equally disadvantageous as to supplies and +communications. On the way the column would have to effect a junction +with the Bombay force, which at Vikkur was distant 800 miles from +Ferozepore. Of the distance of 850 miles from the latter post to Candahar +the first half to the crossing of the Indus presented no serious +difficulties, but from Sukkur beyond the country was inhospitable and +cruelly rugged. It needed little military knowledge to realise how more +and yet more precarious would become the communications as the chain +lengthened, to discern that from Ferozepore to the Indus they would be at +the mercy of the Sikhs, and to comprehend this also, that a single +serious check, in or beyond the passes, would involve all but inevitable +ruin. + +Shah Soojah and his levies moved independently some marches in advance of +Cotton. The Dooranee monarch-elect had already crossed the Indus, and was +encamped at Shikarpore, when he was joined by Mr William Hay Macnaghten, +of the Company's Civil Service, the high functionary who had been +gazetted as 'Envoy and Minister on the part of the Government of India at +the Court of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk.' Durand pronounces the selection an +unhappy one, 'for Macnaghten, long accustomed to irresponsible office, +inexperienced in men, and ignorant of the country and people of +Afghanistan, was, though an erudite Arabic scholar, neither practised in +the field of Asiatic intrigue nor a man of action. His ambition was, +however, great, and the expedition, holding out the promise of +distinction and honours, had met with his strenuous advocacy.' Macnaghten +was one of the three men who chiefly inspired Lord Auckland with the +policy to which he had committed himself. He was the negotiator of the +tripartite treaty. He was now on his way toward a region wherein he was +to concern himself in strange adventures, the outcome of which was to +darken his reputation, consign him to a sudden cruel death, bring awful +ruin on the enterprise he had fostered, and inflict incalculable damage +on British prestige in India. + +Marching through Bhawulpore and Northern Scinde, without noteworthy +incident save heavy losses of draught cattle, Cotton's army reached +Roree, the point at which the Indus was to be crossed, in the third week +of January 1839. Here a delay was encountered. The Scinde Ameers were, +with reason, angered by the unjust and exacting terms which Pottinger had +been instructed to enforce on them. They had been virtually independent +of Afghanistan for nearly half a century; there was now masterfully +demanded of them quarter of a million sterling in name of back tribute, +and this in the face of the fact that they held a solemn release by Shah +Soojah of all past and future claims. When they demurred to this, and to +other exactions, they were peremptorily told that 'neither the ready +power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action, +was wanting if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety +and integrity of the Anglo-Indian empire and frontier.' + +It was little wonder that the Ameers were reluctant to fall in with terms +advanced so arrogantly. Keane marched up the right bank of the Indus to +within a couple of marches of Hyderabad, and having heard of the +rejection by the Ameers of Pottinger's terms, and of the gathering of +some 20,000 armed Belooches about the capital, he called for the +co-operation of part of the Bengal column in a movement on Hyderabad. +Cotton started on his march down the left bank, on January Jeth, with +5600 men. Under menaces so ominous the unfortunate Ameers succumbed. +Cotton returned to Roree; the Bengal column crossed the Indus, and on +February 20th its headquarters reached Shikarpore. Ten days later, +Cotton, leading the advance, was in Dadur, at the foot of the Bolan Pass, +having suffered heavily in transport animals almost from the start. +Supplies were scarce in a region so barren, but with a month's partial +food on his beasts of burden he quitted Dadur March 10th, got safely, if +toilsomely, through the Bolan, and on 26th reached Quetta, where he was +to halt for orders. Shah Soojah and Keane followed, their troops +suffering not a little from scarcity of supplies and loss of animals. + +Keane's error in detaining Cotton at Quetta until he should arrive proved +itself in the semi-starvation to which the troops of the Bengal column +were reduced. The Khan of Khelat, whether from disaffection or inability, +left unfulfilled his promise to supply grain, and the result of the +quarrel which Burnes picked with him was that he shunned coming in and +paying homage to Shah Soojah, for which default he was to suffer cruel +and unjustifiable ruin. The sepoys were put on half, the camp followers +on quarter rations, and the force for eleven days had been idly consuming +the waning supplies, when at length, on April 6th, Keane came into camp, +having already formally assumed the command of the whole army, and made +certain alterations in its organisation and subsidiary commands. There +still remained to be traversed 147 miles before Candahar should be +reached, and the dreaded Kojuk Pass had still to be penetrated. + +Keane was a soldier who had gained a reputation for courage in Egypt and +the Peninsula. He was indebted to the acuteness of his engineer and the +valour of his troops, for the peerage conferred on him for Ghuznee, and +it cannot be said that during his command in Afghanistan he disclosed any +marked military aptitude. But he had sufficient perception to recognise +that he had brought the Bengal column to the verge of starvation in +Quetta, and sufficient common sense to discern that, since if it remained +there it would soon starve outright, the best thing to be done was to +push it forward with all possible speed into a region where food should +be procurable. Acting on this reasoning, he marched the day after his +arrival. Cotton, while lying in Quetta, had not taken the trouble to +reconnoitre the passes in advance, far less to make a practicable road +through the Kojuk defile if that should prove the best route. The +resolution taken to march through it, two days were spent in making the +pass possible for wheels; and from the 13th to the 21st the column was +engaged in overcoming the obstacles it presented, losing in the task, +besides, much baggage, supplies, transport and ordnance stores. Further +back in the Bolan Willshire with the Bombay column was faring worse; he +was plundered severely by tribal marauders. + +By May 4th the main body of the army was encamped in the plain of +Candahar. From the Kojuk, Shah Soojah and his contingent had led the +advance toward the southern capital of the dominions from the throne of +which he had been cast down thirty years before. The Candahar chiefs had +meditated a night attack on his raw troops, but Macnaghten's intrigues +and bribes had wrought defection in their camp; and while Kohun-dil-Khan +and his brothers were in flight to Girishk on the Helmund, the infamous +Hadji Khan Kakur led the venal herd of turncoat sycophants to the feet of +the claimant who came backed by the British gold, which Macnaghten was +scattering abroad with lavish hand. Shah Soojah recovered from his +trepidation, hurried forward in advance of his troops, and entered +Candahar on April 24th. His reception was cold. The influential chiefs +stood aloof, abiding the signs of the times; the populace of Candahar +stood silent and lowering. Nor did the sullenness abate when the presence +of a large army with its followers promptly raised the price of grain, to +the great distress of the poor. The ceremony of the solemn recognition of +the Shah, held close to the scene of his defeat in 1834, Havelock +describes as an imposing pageant, with homagings and royal salutes, +parade of troops and presentation of _nuzzurs_; but the arena set apart +for the inhabitants was empty, spite of Eastern love for a _tamasha_, and +the display of enthusiasm was confined to the immediate retainers of His +Majesty. + +The Shah was eager for the pursuit of the fugitive chiefs; but the troops +were jaded and sickly, the cavalry were partially dismounted, and what +horses remained were feeble skeletons. The transport animals needed +grazing and rest, and their loss of numbers to be made good. The crops +were not yet ripe, and provisions were scant and dear. When, on May 9th, +Sale marched toward Girishk, his detachment carried half rations, and his +handful of regular cavalry was all that two regiments could furnish. +Reaching Girishk, he found that the chiefs had fled toward Seistan, and +leaving a regiment of the Shah's contingent in occupation, he returned to +Candahar. + +Macnaghten professed the belief, and perhaps may have deluded himself +into it, that Candahar had received the Shah with enthusiasm. He was +sanguine that the march to Cabul would be unopposed, and he urged on +Keane, who was wholly dependent on the Envoy for political information, +to move forward at once, lightening the difficulties of the march by +leaving the Bombay troops at Candahar. But Keane declined, on the advice +of Thomson, his chief engineer, who asked significantly whether he had +found the information given him by the political department in any single +instance correct. Food prospects, however, did not improve at Candahar, +and leaving a strong garrison there as well, curious to say, as the siege +train which with arduous labour had been brought up the passes, Keane +began the march to Cabul on June 27th. He had supplies only sufficient to +carry his army thither on half rations. Macnaghten had lavished money so +freely that the treasury chest was all but empty. How the Afghans +regarded the invasion was evinced by condign slaughter of our stragglers. + +As the army advanced up the valley of the Turnuk, the climate became more +temperate, the harvest was later, and the troops improved in health and +spirit. Concentrating his forces, Keane reached Ghuznee on July 21st. The +reconnaissance he made proved that fortress occupied in force. The +outposts driven in, and a close inspection made, the works were found +stronger than had been represented, and its regular reduction was out of +the question without the battering train which Keane had allowed himself +to be persuaded into leaving behind. A wall some 70 feet high and a wet +ditch in its front made mining and escalade alike impracticable. Thomson, +however, noticed that the road and bridge to the Cabul gate were intact. +He obtained trustworthy information that up to a recent date, while all +the other gates had been built up, the Cabul gate had not been so dealt +with. As he watched, a horseman was seen to enter by it. This was +conclusive. The ground within 400 yards of the gate offered good +artillery positions. Thomson therefore reported that although the +operation was full of risk, and success if attained must cost dear, yet +in the absence of a less hazardous method of reduction there offered a +fair chance of success in an attempt to blow open the Cabul gate, and +then carry the place by a _coup de main_. Keane was precluded from the +alternative of masking the place and continuing his advance by the all +but total exhaustion of his supplies, which the capture of Ghuznee would +replenish, and he therefore resolved on an assault by the Cabul gate. + +During the 21st July the army circled round the place, and camped to the +north of it on the Cabul road. The following day was spent in +preparations, and in defeating an attack made on the Shah's contingent by +several thousand Ghilzai tribesmen of the adjacent hill country. In the +gusty darkness of the early morning of the 23d the field artillery was +placed in battery on the heights opposite the northern face of the +fortress. The 13th regiment was extended in skirmishing order in the +gardens under the wall of this face, and a detachment of sepoys was +detailed to make a false attack on the eastern face. Near the centre of +the northern face was the Cabul gate, in front of which lay waiting for +the signal, a storming party consisting of the light companies of the +four European regiments, under command of Colonel Dennie of the 13th. The +main column consisted of two European regiments and the support of a +third, the whole commanded by Brigadier Sale; the native regiments +constituted the reserve. All those dispositions were completed by three +A.M., and, favoured by the noise of the wind and the darkness, without +alarming the garrison. + +Punctually at this hour the little party of engineers charged with the +task of blowing in the gate started forward on the hazardous errand. +Captain Peat of the Bombay Engineers was in command. Durand, a young +lieutenant of Bengal Engineers, who was later to attain high distinction, +was entrusted with the service of heading the explosion party. The +latter, leading the party, had advanced unmolested to within 150 yards of +the works, when a challenge, a shot and a shout gave intimation of his +detection. A musketry fire was promptly opened by the garrison from the +battlements, and blue lights illuminated the approach to the gate, but in +the fortunate absence of fire from the lower works the bridge was safely +crossed, and Peat with his handful of linesmen halted in a sallyport to +cover the explosion operation. Durand advanced to the gate, his sappers +piled their powder bags against it and withdrew; Durand and his sergeant +uncoiled the hose, ignited the quick-match under a rain from the +battlements of bullets and miscellaneous missiles, and then retired to +cover out of reach of the explosion. + +At the sound of the first shot from the battlements, Keane's cannon had +opened their fire. The skirmishers in the gardens engaged in a brisk +fusillade. The rattle of Hay's musketry was heard from the east. The +garrison was alert in its reply. The northern ramparts became a sheet of +flame, and everywhere the cannonade and musketry fire waxed in noise and +volume. Suddenly, as the day was beginning to dawn, a dull, heavy sound +was heard by the head of the waiting column, scarce audible elsewhere +because of the boisterous wind and the din of the firing. A pillar of +black smoke shot up from where had been the Afghan gate, now shattered by +the 300 pounds of gunpowder which Durand had exploded against it. The +signal to the storming party was to be the 'advance' sounded by the +bugler who accompanied Peat. But the bugler had been shot through the +head. Durand could not find Peat. Going back through the bullets to the +nearest party of infantry, he experienced some delay, but at last the +column was apprised that all was right, the 'advance' was sounded, Dennie +and his stormers sped forward, and Sale followed at the head of the main +column. + +After a temporary check to the latter, because of a misconception, it +pushed on in close support of Dennie. That gallant soldier and his +gallant followers had rushed into the smoking and gloomy archway to find +themselves met hand to hand by the Afghan defenders, who had recovered +from their surprise. Nothing could be distinctly seen in the narrow +gorge, but the clash of sword blade against bayonet was heard on every +side. The stormers had to grope their way between the yet standing walls +in a dusk which the glimmer of the blue light only made more perplexing. +But some elbow room was gradually gained, and then, since there was +neither time nor space for methodic street fighting, each loaded section +gave its volley and then made way for the next, which, crowding to the +front, poured a deadly discharge at half pistol-shot into the densely +crowded defenders. Thus the storming party won steadily its way, till at +length Dennie and his leading files discerned over the heads of their +opponents a patch of blue sky and a twinkling star or two, and with a +final charge found themselves within the place. + +A body of fierce Afghan swordsmen projected themselves into the interval +between the storming party and the main column. Sale, at the head of the +latter, was cut down by a tulwar stroke in the face; in the effort of his +blow the assailant fell with the assailed, and they rolled together among +the shattered timbers of the gate. Sale, wounded again on the ground, and +faint with loss of blood, called to one of his officers for assistance. +Kershaw ran the Afghan through the body with his sword; but he still +struggled with the Brigadier. At length in the grapple Sale got +uppermost, and then he dealt his adversary a sabre cut which cleft him +from crown to eyebrows. There was much confused fighting within the +place, for the Afghan garrison made furious rallies again and again; but +the citadel was found open and undefended, and by sunrise British banners +were waving above its battlements Hyder Khan, the Governor of Ghuznee, +one of the sons of Dost Mahomed, was found concealed in a house in the +town and taken prisoner. The British loss amounted to about 200 killed +and wounded, that of the garrison, which was estimated at from 3000 to +4000 strong, was over 500 killed. The number of wounded was not +ascertained; of prisoners taken in arms there were about 1600. The booty +consisted of numerous horses, camels and mules, ordnance and military +weapons of various descriptions, and a vast quantity of supplies of all +kinds. + +Keane, having garrisoned Ghuznee, and left there his sick and wounded, +resumed on July 30th his march on Cabul. Within twenty-four hours after +the event Dost Mahomed heard of the fall of Ghuznee. Possessed of the +adverse intelligence, the Dost gathered his chiefs, received their facile +assurances of fidelity, sent his brother the Nawaub Jubbar Khan to ask +what terms Shah Soojah and his British allies were prepared to offer him, +and recalled from Jellalabad his son Akbar Khan, with all the force he +could muster there. The Dost's emissary to the allied camp was informed +that 'an honourable asylum' in British India was at the service of his +brother; an offer which Jubbar Khan declined in his name without thanks. +Before he left to share the fortunes of the Dost, the Sirdar is reported +to have asked Macnaghten, 'If Shah Soojah is really our king, what need +has he of your army and name? You have brought him here,' he continued, +'with your money and arms. Well, leave him now with us Afghans, and let +him rule us if he can.' When Jubbar Khan returned to Cabul with his +sombre message, the Dost, having been joined by Akbar Khan, concentrated +his army, and found himself at the head of 13,000 men, with thirty guns; +but he mournfully realised that he could lean no reliance on the +constancy and courage of his adherents. Nevertheless, he marched out +along the Ghuznee road, and drew up his force at Urgundeh, where he +commanded the most direct line of retreat toward the western hill country +of Bamian, in case his people would not fight, or should they fight, if +they were beaten. + +There was no fight in his following; scarcely, indeed, was there a loyal +supporter among all those who had eaten his salt for years. There was +true manhood in this chief whom we were replacing by an effete puppet. +The Dost, Koran in hand, rode among his perfidious troops, and conjured +them in the name of God and the Prophet not to dishonour themselves by +transferring their allegiance to one who had filled Afghanistan with +infidels and blasphemers. 'If,' he continued, 'you are resolved to be +traitors to me, at least enable me to die with honour. Support the +brother of Futteh Khan in one last charge against these Feringhee dogs. +In that charge he will fall; then go and make your own terms with Shah +Soojah.' The high-souled appeal inspired no worthy response; but one is +loth to credit the testimony of the soldier-of-fortune Harlan that his +guards forsook the Dost, and that the rabble of troops plundered his +pavilion, snatched from under him the pillows of his divan, seized his +prayer carpet, and finally hacked into pieces the tent and its +appurtenances. On the evening of August 2d the hapless man shook the dust +of the camp of traitors from his feet, and rode away toward Bamian, his +son Akbar Khan, with a handful of resolute men, covering the retreat of +his father and his family. Tidings of the flight of Dost Mahomed reached +Keane on the 3d, at Sheikabad, where he had halted to concentrate; and +Outram volunteered to head a pursuing party, to consist of some British +officers as volunteers, some cavalry and some Afghan horse. Hadji Khan +Kakur, the earliest traitor of his race, undertook to act as guide. This +man's devices of delay defeated Outram's fiery energy, perhaps in deceit, +perhaps because he regarded it as lacking discretion. For Akbar Khan made +a long halt on the crown of the pass, waiting to check any endeavour to +press closely on his fugitive father, and it would have gone hard with +Outram, with a few fagged horsemen at his back, if Hadji Khan had allowed +him to overtake the resolute young Afghan chief. As Keane moved forward, +there fell to him the guns which the Dost had left in the Urgundeh +position. On August 6th he encamped close to Cabul; and on the following +day Shah Soojah made his public entry into the capital which he had last +seen thirty years previously. After so many years of vicissitude, +adventure and intrigue, he was again on the throne of his ancestors, but +placed there by the bayonets of the Government whose creature he was, an +insult to the nation whom he had the insolence to call his people. + +The entry, nevertheless, was a goodly spectacle enough. Shah Soojah, +dazzling in coronet, jewelled girdle and bracelets, but with no +Koh-i-noor now glittering on his forehead, bestrode a white charger, +whose equipments gleamed with gold. By his side rode Macnaghten and +Burnes; in the pageant were the principal officers of the British army. +Sabres flashed in front of the procession, bayonets sparkled in its rear, +as it wended its way through the great bazaar which Pollock was to +destroy three years later, and along the tortuous street to the gate of +the Balla Hissar. But neither the monarch nor his pageant kindled the +enthusiasm in the Cabulees. There was no voice of welcome; the citizens +did not care to trouble themselves so much as to make him a salaam, and +they stared at the European strangers harder than at his restored +majesty. There was a touch of pathos in the burst of eagerness to which +the old man gave way as he reached the palace, ran through the gardens, +visited the apartments, and commented on the neglect everywhere apparent. +Shah Soojah was rather a poor creature, but he was by no means altogether +destitute of good points, and far worse men than he were actors in the +strange historical episode of which he was the figurehead. He was humane +for an Afghan; he never was proved to have been untrue to us; he must +have had some courage of a kind else he would never have remained in +Cabul when our people left it, in the all but full assurance of the fate +which presently overtook him as a matter of course. Havelock thus +portrays him: 'A stout person of the middle height, his chin covered with +a long thick and neatly trimmed beard, dyed black to conceal the +encroachments of time. His manner toward the English is gentle, calm and +dignified, without haughtiness, but his own subjects have invariably +complained of his reception of them as cold and repulsive, even to +rudeness. His complexion is darker than that of the generality of +Afghans, and his features, if not decidedly handsome, are not the reverse +of pleasing; but the expression of his countenance would betray to a +skilful physiognomist that mixture of timidity and duplicity so often +observable in the character of the higher order of men in Southern Asia.' + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Sir John Kaye, in his picturesque if diffuse history of the first Afghan +war, lays it down that, in seating Shah Soojah on the Cabul throne, 'the +British Government had done all that it had undertaken to do,' and Durand +argues that, having accomplished this, 'the British army could have then +been withdrawn with the honour and fame of entire success.' The facts +apparently do not justify the reasoning of either writer. In the Simla +manifesto, in which Lord Auckland embodied the rationale of his policy, +he expressed the confident hope 'that the Shah will be speedily replaced +on his throne by his own subjects and adherents, and when once he shall +be received in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +established, the British army will be withdrawn.' The Shah had been +indeed restored to his throne, but by British bayonets, not by 'his own +subjects and adherents.' It could not seriously be maintained that he was +secure in power, or that the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +were established when British troops were holding Candahar, Ghuznee and +Cabul, the only three positions where the Shah was nominally paramount, +when the fugitive Dost was still within its borders, when intrigue and +disaffection were seething in every valley and on every hill-side, and +when the principality of Herat maintained a contemptuous independence. +Macnaghten might avow himself convinced of the popularity of the Shah, +and believe or strive to believe that the Afghans had received the puppet +king `with feelings nearly amounting to adoration,' but he did not +venture to support the conviction he avowed by advocating that the Shah +should be abandoned to his adoring subjects. Lord Auckland's policy was +gravely and radically erroneous, but it had a definite object, and that +object certainly was not a futile march to Cabul and back, dropping +incidentally by the wayside the aspirant to a throne whom he had himself +put forward, and leaving him to take his chance among a truculent and +adverse population. Thus early, in all probability, Lord Auckland was +disillusioned of the expectation that the effective restoration of Shah +Soojah would be of light and easy accomplishment, but at least he could +not afford to have the enterprise a _coup manque_ when as yet it was +little beyond its inception. + +The cost of the expedition was already, however, a strain, and the troops +engaged in it were needed in India. Lord Auckland intimated to Macnaghten +his expectation that a strong brigade would suffice to hold Afghanistan +in conjunction with the Shah's contingent, and his desire that the rest +of the army of the Indus should at once return to India. Macnaghten, on +the other hand, in spite of his avowal of the Shah's popularity, was +anxious to retain in Afghanistan a large body of troops. He meditated +strange enterprises, and proposed that Keane should support his project +of sending a force toward Bokhara to give check to a Russian column which +Pottinger at Herat had heard was assembling at Orenburg, with Khiva for +its objective. Keane derided the proposal, and Macnaghten reluctantly +abandoned it, but he demanded of Lord Auckland with success, the +retention in Afghanistan of the Bengal division of the army. In the +middle of September General Willshire marched with the Bombay column, +with orders, on his way to the Indus to pay a hostile visit to Khelat, +and punish its khan for the 'disloyalty' with which he had been charged, +a commission which the British officer fulfilled with a skill and +thoroughness that could be admired with less reservation had the +aggression on the gallant Mehrab been less wanton. A month later Keane +started for India by the Khyber route, which Wade had opened without +serious resistance when in August and September he escorted through the +passes Prince Timour, Shah Soojah's heir-apparent. During the temporary +absence of Cotton, who accompanied Keane, Nott had the command at +Candahar, Sale at and about Cabul, and the troops were quartered in those +capitals, and in Jellalabad, Ghuznee, Charikar and Bamian. The Shah and +the Envoy wintered in the milder climate of Jellalabad, and Burnes was in +political charge of the capital and its vicinity. + +It was a prophetic utterance that the accomplishment of our military +succession would mark but the commencement of our real difficulties in +Afghanistan. In theory and in name Shah Soojah was an independent +monarch; it was, indeed, only in virtue of his proving himself able to +rule independently that he could justify his claim to rule at all. But +that he was independent was a contradiction in terms while British troops +studded the country, and while the real powers of sovereignty were +exercised by Macnaghten. Certain functions, it is true, the latter did +permit the nominal monarch to exercise. While debarred from a voice in +measures of external policy, and not allowed to sway the lines of conduct +to be adopted toward independent or revolting tribes, the Shah was +allowed to concern himself with the administration of justice, and in his +hands were the settlement, collection and appropriation of the revenue of +those portions of the kingdom from which any revenue could be exacted. He +was allowed to appoint as his minister of state, the companion of his +exile, old Moolla Shikore, who had lost both his memory and his ears, but +who had sufficient faculty left to hate the English, to oppress the +people, to be corrupt and venal beyond all conception, and to appoint +subordinates as flagitious as himself. 'Bad ministers,' wrote Burnes, +'are in every government solid ground for unpopularity; and I doubt if +ever a king had a worse set than has Shah Soojah.' The oppressed people +appealed to the British functionaries, who remonstrated with the +minister, and the minister punished the people for appealing to the +British functionaries. The Shah was free to confer grants of land on his +creatures, but when the holders resisted, he was unable to enforce his +will since he was not allowed to employ soldiers; and the odium of the +forcible confiscation ultimately fell on Macnaghten, who alone had the +ordering of expeditions, and who could not see the Shah belittled by +non-fulfilment of his requisitions. + +Justice sold by venal judges, oppression and corruption rampant in every +department of internal administration, it was no wonder that nobles and +people alike resented the inflictions under whose sting they writhed. +They were accustomed to a certain amount of oppression; Dost Mahomed had +chastised them with whips, but Shah Soojah, whom the English had brought, +was chastising them with scorpions. And they felt his yoke the more +bitterly because, with the shrewd acuteness of the race, they recognised +the really servile condition of this new king. They fretted, too, under +the sharp bit of the British political agents who were strewn about the +country, in the execution of a miserable and futile policy, and whose +lives, in a few instances, did not maintain the good name of their +country. Dost Mahomed had maintained his sway by politic management of +the chiefs, and through them of the tribes. Macnaghten would have done +well to impress on Shah Soojah the wisdom of pursuing the same tactics. +There was, it is true, the alternative of destroying the power of the +barons, but that policy involved a stubborn and doubtful struggle, and +prolonged occupation of the country by British troops in great strength. +Macnaghten professed our occupation of Afghanistan to be temporary; yet +he was clearly adventuring on the rash experiment of weakening the nobles +when he set about the enlistment of local tribal levies, who, paid from +the Royal treasury and commanded by British officers, were expected to be +staunch to the Shah, and useful in curbing the powers of the chiefs. The +latter, of course, were alienated and resentful, and the levies, imbued +with the Afghan attribute of fickleness, proved for the most part +undisciplined and faithless. + +The winter of 1839-40 passed without much noteworthy incident. The winter +climate of Afghanistan is severe, and the Afghan, in ordinary +circumstances, is among the hibernating animals. But down in the Khyber, +in October, the tribes gave some trouble. They were dissatisfied with the +amount of annual black-mail paid them for the right of way through their +passes. When the Shah was a fugitive thirty years previously, they had +concealed and protected him; and mindful of their kindly services, he had +promised them, unknown to Macnaghten, the augmentation of their subsidy +to the old scale from which it had gradually dwindled. Wade, returning +from Cabul, did not bring them the assurances they expected, whereupon +they rose and concentrated and invested Ali Musjid, a fort which they +regarded as the key of their gloomy defile. Mackeson, the Peshawur +political officer, threw provisions and ammunition into Ali Musjid, but +the force, on its return march, was attacked by the hillmen, the Sikhs +being routed, and the sepoys incurring loss of men and transport. The +emboldened Khyberees now turned on Ali Musjid in earnest; but the +garrison was strengthened, and the place was held until a couple of +regiments marched down from Jellalabad, and were preparing to attack the +hillmen, when it was announced that Mackeson had made a compact with the +chiefs for the payment of an annual subsidy which they considered +adequate. + +Afghanistan fifty years ago, and the same is in a measure true of it +to-day, was rather a bundle of provinces, some of which owned scarcely a +nominal allegiance to the ruler in Cabul, than a concrete state. Herat +and Candahar were wholly independent, the Ghilzai tribes inhabiting the +wide tracts from the Suliman ranges westward beyond the road through +Ghuznee, between Candahar and Cabul, and northward into the rugged +country between Cabul and Jellalabad, acknowledged no other authority +than that of their own chiefs. The Ghilzais are agriculturists, +shepherds, and robbers; they are constantly engaged in internal feuds; +they are jealous of their wild independence, and through the centuries +have abated little of their untamed ferocity. They had rejected +Macnaghten's advances, and had attacked Shah Soojah's camp on the day +before the fall of Ghuznee. Outram, in reprisal, had promptly raided part +of their country. Later, the winter had restrained them from activity, +but they broke out again in the spring. In May Captain Anderson, marching +from Candahar with a mixed force about 1200 strong, was offered battle +near Jazee, in the Turnuk, by some 2000 Ghilzai horse and foot. +Andersen's guns told heavily among the Ghilzai horsemen, who, impatient +of the fire, made a spirited dash on his left flank. Grape and musketry +checked them; but they rallied, and twice charged home on the bayonets +before they withdrew, leaving 200 of their number dead on the ground. +Nott sent a detachment to occupy the fortress of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, +between Candahar and Ghuznee, thus rendering the communications more +secure; and later, Macnaghten bribed the chiefs by an annual subsidy of +L600 to abstain from infesting the highways. The terms were cheap, for +the Ghilzai tribes mustered some 40,000 fighting men. + +Shah Soojah and the Envoy returned from Jellalabad to Cabul in April +1840. A couple of regiments had wintered not uncomfortably in the Balla +Hissar. That fortress was then the key of Cabul, and while our troops +remained in Afghanistan it should not have been left ungarrisoned a +single hour. The soldiers did their best to impress on Macnaghten the +all-importance of the position. But the Shah objected to its continued +occupation, and Macnaghten weakly yielded. Cotton, who had returned to +the chief military command in Afghanistan, made no remonstrance; the +Balla Hissar was evacuated, and the troops were quartered in cantonments +built in an utterly defenceless position on the plain north of Cabul, a +position whose environs were cumbered with walled gardens, and commanded +by adjacent high ground, and by native forts which were neither +demolished nor occupied. The troops, now in permanent and regularly +constructed quarters, ceased to be an expeditionary force, and became +substantially an army of occupation. The officers sent for their wives to +inhabit with them the bungalows in which they had settled down. Lady +Macnaghten, in the spacious mission residence which stood apart in its +own grounds, presided over the society of the cantonments, which had all +the cheery surroundings of the half-settled, half-nomadic life of our +military people in the East. There were the 'coffee house' after the +morning ride, the gathering round the bandstand in the evening, the +impromptu dance, and the _burra khana_ occasionally in the larger houses. +A racecourse had been laid out, and there were 'sky' races and more +formal meetings. And so 'as in the days that were before the flood, they +were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, and knew +not until the flood came, and took them all away.' + +Macnaghten engaged himself in a welter of internal and external intrigue, +his mood swinging from singular complacency to a disquietude that +sometimes approached despondency. It had come to be forced on him, in +spite of his intermittent optimism, that the Government was a government +of sentry-boxes, and that Afghanistan was not governed so much as +garrisoned. The utter failure of the winter march attempted by +Peroffski's Russian column across the frozen steppes on Khiva was a +relief to him; but the state of affairs in Herat was a constant trouble +and anxiety. Major Todd had been sent there as political agent, to make a +treaty with Shah Kamran, and to superintend the repair and improvement of +the fortifications of the city. Kamran was plenteously subsidised; he +took Macnaghten's lakhs, but furtively maintained close relations with +Persia. Detecting the double-dealing, Macnaghten urged on Lord Auckland +the annexation of Herat to Shah Soojah's dominions, but was instructed to +condone Kamran's duplicity, and try to bribe him higher. Kamran by no +means objected to this policy, and, while continuing his intrigues with +Persia, cheerfully accepted the money, arms and ammunition which +Macnaghten supplied him with so profusely as to cause remonstrance on the +part of the financial authorities in Calcutta. The Commander-in-Chief was +strong enough to counteract the pressure which Macnaghten brought to bear +on Lord Auckland in favour of an expedition against Herat, which his +lordship at length finally negatived, to the great disgust of the Envoy, +who wrote of the conduct of his chief as 'drivelling beyond contempt,' +and 'sighed for a Wellesley or a Hastings.' The ultimate result of +Macnaghten's negotiations with Shah Kamran was Major Todd's withdrawal +from Herat. Todd had suspended the monthly subsidy, to the great wrath of +Kamran's rapacious and treacherous minister Yar Mahomed, who made a +peremptory demand for increased advances, and refused Todd's stipulation +that a British force should be admitted into Herat. Todd's action in +quitting Herat was severely censured by his superiors, and he was +relegated to regimental duty. Perhaps he acted somewhat rashly, but he +had not been kept well informed; for instance, he had been unaware that +Persia had become our friend, and had engaged to cease relations with +Shah Kamran--an important arrangement of which he certainly should have +been cognisant. Macnaghten had squandered more gold on Herat than the +fee-simple of the principality was worth, and to no purpose; he left that +state just as he found it, treacherous, insolent, greedy and independent. + +The precariousness of the long lines of communications between British +India and the army in Afghanistan--a source of danger which from the +first had disquieted cautious soldiers--was making itself seriously felt, +and constituted for Macnaghten another cause of solicitude. Old Runjeet +Singh, a faithful if not disinterested ally, had died on June 27th, 1839, +the day on which Keane marched out from Candahar. The breath was scarcely +out of the old reprobate when the Punjaub began to drift into anarchy. So +far as the Sikh share in it was concerned, the tripartite treaty +threatened to become a dead letter. The Lahore Durbar had not adequately +fulfilled the undertaking to support Prince Timour's advance by the +Khyber, nor was it duly regarding the obligation to maintain a force on +the Peshawur frontier of the Punjaub. But those things were trivial in +comparison with the growing reluctance manifested freely, to accord to +our troops and convoys permission to traverse the Punjaub on the march to +and from Cabul. The Anglo-Indian Government sent Mr Clerk to Lahore to +settle the question as to the thoroughfare. He had instructions to be +firm, and the Sikhs did not challenge Mr Clerk's stipulation that the +Anglo-Indian Government must have unmolested right of way through the +Punjaub, while he undertook to restrict the use of it as much as +possible. This arrangement by no means satisfied the exacting Macnaghten, +and he continued to worry himself by foreseeing all sorts of troublous +contingencies unless measures were adopted for 'macadamising' the road +through the Punjaub. + +The summer of 1840 did not pass without serious interruptions to the +British communications between Candahar and the Indus; nor without +unexpected and ominous disasters before they were restored. General +Willshire, with the returning Bombay column, had in the previous November +stormed Mehrab Khan's ill-manned and worse armed fort of Khelat, and the +Khan, disdaining to yield, had fallen in the hopeless struggle. His son +Nusseer Khan had been put aside in favour of a collateral pretender, and +became an active and dangerous malcontent. All Northern Beloochistan fell +into a state of anarchy. A detachment of sepoys escorting supplies was +cut to pieces in one of the passes. Quetta was attacked with great +resolution by Nusseer Khan, but was opportunely relieved by a force sent +from another post. Nusseer made himself master of Khelat, and there fell +into his cruel hands Lieutenant Loveday, the British political officer +stationed there, whom he treated with great barbarity, and finally +murdered. A British detachment under Colonel Clibborn, was defeated by +the Beloochees with heavy loss, and compelled to retreat. Nusseer Khan, +descending into the low country of Cutch, assaulted the important post of +Dadur, but was repulsed, and taking refuge in the hills, was routed by +Colonel Marshall with a force from Kotree, whereupon he became a skulking +fugitive. Nott marched down from Candahar with a strong force, occupied +Khelat, and fully re-established communications with the line of the +Indus, while fresh troops moved forward into Upper Scinde, and thence +gradually advancing to Quetta and Candahar, materially strengthened the +British position in Southern Afghanistan. + +Dost Mahomed, after his flight from Cabul in 1839, had soon left the +hospitable refuge afforded him in Khooloom, a territory west of the +Hindoo Koosh beyond Bamian, and had gone to Bokhara on the treacherous +invitation of its Ameer, who threw him into captivity. The Dost's family +remained at Khooloom, in the charge of his brother Jubbar Khan. The +advance of British forces beyond Bamian to Syghan and Bajgah, induced +that Sirdar to commit himself and the ladies to British protection. Dr +Lord, Macnaghten's political officer in the Bamian district, was a rash +although well-meaning man. The errors he had committed since the opening +of spring had occasioned disasters to the troops whose dispositions he +controlled, and had incited the neighbouring hill tribes to active +disaffection. In July Dost Mahomed made his escape from Bokhara, hurried +to Khooloom, found its ruler and the tribes full of zeal for his cause, +and rapidly grew in strength. Lord found it was time to call in his +advance posts and concentrate at Bamian, losing in the operation an +Afghan regiment which deserted to the Dost. Macnaghten reinforced Bamian, +and sent Colonel Dennie to command there. On September 18th Dennie moved +out with two guns and 800 men against the Dost's advance parties raiding +in an adjacent valley. Those detachments driven back, Dennie suddenly +found himself opposed to the irregular mass of Oosbeg horse and foot +which constituted the army of the Dost. Mackenzie's cannon fire shook the +undisciplined horde, the infantry pressed in to close quarters, and soon +the nondescript host of the Dost was in panic flight, with Dennie's +cavalry in eager pursuit. The Dost escaped with difficulty, with the loss +of his entire personal equipment. He was once more a fugitive, and the +Wali of Khooloom promptly submitted himself to the victors, and pledged +himself to aid and harbour the broken chief no more. Macnaghten had been +a prey to apprehension while the Dost's attitude was threatening; he was +now in a glow of joy and hope. + +But the Envoy's elation was short-lived. Dost Mahomed was yet to cause +him much solicitude. Defeated in Bamian, he was ready for another attempt +in the Kohistan country to the north of Cabul. Disaffection was rife +everywhere throughout the kingdom, but it was perhaps most rife in the +Kohistan, which was seething with intrigues in favour of Dost Mahomed, +while the local chiefs were intensely exasperated by the exactions of the +Shah's revenue collectors. Macnaghten summoned the chiefs to Cabul. They +came, they did homage to the Shah and swore allegiance to him; they went +away from the capital pledging each other to his overthrow, and jeering +at the scantiness of the force they had seen at Cabul. Intercepted +letters disclosed their schemes, and in the end of September Sale, with a +considerable force, marched out to chastise the disaffected Kohistanees. +The fort of Tootundurrah fell without resistance. Julgah, however, the +next fort assailed, stubbornly held out, and officers and men fell in the +unsuccessful attempt to storm it. In three weeks Sale marched to and fro +through the Kohistan, pursuing will-o'-the-wisp rumours as to the +whereabouts of the Dost, destroying forts on the course of his weary +pilgrimage, and subjected occasionally to night attacks. + +Meanwhile, in the belief that Dost Mahomed was close to Cabul, and +mournfully conscious that the capital and surrounding country were ripe +for a rising, Macnaghten had relapsed into nervousness, and was a prey to +gloomy forebodings. The troops at Bamian were urgently recalled. Cannon +were mounted on the Balla Hissar to overawe the city, the concentration +of the troops in the fortress was under consideration, and men were +talking of preparing for a siege. How Macnaghten's English nature was +undergoing deterioration under the strain of events is shown by his +writing of the Dost: 'Would it be justifiable to set a price on this +fellow's head?' How his perceptions were warped was further evinced by +his talking of 'showing no mercy to the man who has been the author of +all the evil now distracting the country,' and by his complaining of Sale +and Burnes that, 'with 2000 good infantry, they are sitting down before a +fortified place, and are afraid to attack it.' + +Learning that for certain the Dost had crossed the Hindoo Koosh from +Nijrao into the Kohistan, Sale, who had been reinforced, sent out +reconnaissances which ascertained that he was in the Purwan Durrah +valley, stretching down from the Hindoo Koosh to the Gorebund river; and +the British force marched thither on 2d November. As the village was +neared, the Dost's people were seen evacuating it and the adjacent forts, +and making for the hills. Sale's cavalry was some distance in advance of +the infantry of the advance guard, but time was precious. Anderson's +horse went to the left, to cut off retreat down the Gorebund valley. +Fraser took his two squadrons of Bengal cavalry to the right, advanced +along the foothills, and gained the head of the valley. He was too late +to intercept a small body of Afghan horsemen, who were already climbing +the upland; but badly mounted as the latter were, he could pursue them +with effect. But it seemed that the Afghans preferred to fight rather +than be pursued. The Dost himself was in command of the little party, and +the Dost was a man whose nature was to fight, not to run. He wheeled his +handful so that his horsemen faced Fraser's troop down there below them. +Then the Dost pointed to his banner, bared his head, called on his +supporters in the name of God and the Prophet to follow him against the +unbelievers, and led them down the slope. + +Fraser had formed up his troopers when recall orders reached him. Joyous +that the situation entitled him to disobey them, he gave instead the word +to charge. As the Afghans came down at no great pace, they fired +occasionally; either because of the bullets, or because of an access of +pusillanimity, Fraser's troopers broke and fled ignominiously. The +British gentlemen charged home unsupported. Broadfoot, Crispin and Lord +were slain; Ponsonby, severely wounded and his reins cut, was carried out +of the _melee_ by his charger; Fraser, covered with blood and wounds, +broke through his assailants, and brought to Sale his report of the +disgrace of his troopers. After a sharp pursuit of the poltroons, the +Dost and his followers leisurely quitted the field. + +Burnes wrote to the Envoy--he was a soldier, but he was also a +'political,' and political employ seemed often in Afghanistan to +deteriorate the attribute of soldierhood--that there was no alternative +for the force but to fall back on Cabul, and entreated Macnaghten to +order immediate concentration of all the troops. This letter Macnaghten +received the day after the disaster in the Kohistan, when he was taking +his afternoon ride in the Cabul plain. His heart must have been very +heavy as he rode, when suddenly a horseman galloped up to him and +announced that the Ameer was approaching. 'What Ameer?' asked Macnaghten. +'Dost Mahomed Khan,' was the reply, and sure enough there was the Dost +close at hand. Dismounting, this Afghan prince and gentleman saluted the +Envoy, and offered him his sword, which Macnaghten declined to take. Dost +and Envoy rode into Cabul together, and such was the impression the +former made on the latter that Macnaghten, who a month before had +permitted himself to think of putting a price on 'the fellow's' head, +begged now of the Governor-General 'that the Dost be treated more +handsomely than was Shah Soojah, who had no claim on us.' And then +followed a strange confession for the man to make who made the tripartite +treaty, and approved the Simla manifesto: 'We had no hand in depriving +the Shah of his kingdom, _whereas we ejected the Dost, who never offended +us, in support of our policy, of which he was the victim_.' + +Durand regards Dost Mahomed's surrender as 'evincing a strange +pusillanimity.' This opprobrious judgment appears unjustified. No doubt +he was weary of the fugitive life he had been leading, but to pronounce +him afraid that the Kohistanees or any other Afghans would betray him is +to ignore the fact that he had been for months among people who might, +any hour of any day, have betrayed him if they had chosen. Nobler motives +than those ascribed to him by Durand may be supposed to have actuated a +man of his simple and lofty nature. He had given the arbitrament of war a +trial, and had realised that in that way he could make no head against +us. He might, indeed, have continued the futile struggle, but he was the +sort of man to recognise the selfishness of that persistency which would +involve ruin and death to the devoted people who would not desert his +cause while he claimed to have a cause. When historians write of Afghan +treachery and guile, it seems to have escaped their perception that +Afghan treachery was but a phase of Afghan patriotism, of an unscrupulous +character, doubtless, according to our notions, but nevertheless +practical in its methods, and not wholly unsuccessful in its results. It +may have been a higher and purer patriotism that moved Dost Mahomed to +cease, by his surrender, from being an obstacle to the tranquillisation +of the country of which he had been the ruler. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Dost Mahomed remained for a few days in the British cantonments on the +Cabul plain, an honoured guest rather than a prisoner. His soldierly +frankness, his bearing at once manly and courteous, his honest liking for +and trust in our race, notwithstanding the experiences which he had +undergone, won universal respect and cordiality. Officers who stood aloof +from Shah Soojah vied with each other in evincing to Dost Mahomed their +sympathy with him in his fallen fortunes. Shah Soojah would not see the +man whom he had ingloriously supplanted, on the pretext that he 'could +not bring himself to show common civility to such a villain.' How +Macnaghten's feeling in regard to the two men had altered is disclosed by +his comment on this refusal. 'It is well,' he wrote, 'as the Dost must +have suffered much humiliation in being subjected to such an ordeal.' + +In the middle of November 1840 the Dost began his journey toward British +India, accompanied by Sir Willoughby Cotton, who was finally quitting +Afghanistan, and under the escort of a considerable British force which +had completed its tour of duty in Afghanistan. Sale succeeded Cotton in +temporary divisional command pending the arrival of the latter's +successor. About the middle of December Shah Soojah and his Court, +accompanied by the British Envoy, arrived at Jellalabad for the winter, +Burnes remaining at Cabul in political charge. + +Macnaghten was mentally so constituted as to be continually alternating +between high elation and the depths of despondency; discerning to-day +ominous indications of ruin in an incident of no account, and to-morrow +scorning imperiously to recognise danger in the fierce rising of a +province. It may almost be said that each letter of his to Lord Auckland +was of a different tone from the one which had preceded it. Burnes, who +was nominally Macnaghten's chief lieutenant, with more self-restraint, +had much the same temperament. Kaye writes of him: 'Sometimes sanguine, +sometimes despondent, sometimes confident, sometimes credulous, Burnes +gave to fleeting impressions all the importance and seeming permanency of +settled convictions, and imbued surrounding objects with the colours of +his own varying mind.' But if Burnes had been a discreet and steadfast +man, he could have exercised no influence on the autocratic Macnaghten, +since between the two men there was neither sympathy nor confidence. +Burnes had, indeed, no specific duties of any kind; in his own words, he +was in 'the most nondescript situation.' Macnaghten gave him no +responsibility, and while Burnes waited for the promised reversion of the +office of envoy, he chiefly employed himself in writing long memorials on +the situation and prospects of affairs, on which Macnaghten's marginal +comments were brusque, and occasionally contemptuous. The resolute and +clear-headed Pottinger, who, if the opportunity had been given him, might +have buttressed and steadied Macnaghten, was relegated to provincial +service. Throughout his career in Afghanistan the Envoy could not look +for much advice from the successive commanders of the Cabul force, even +if he had cared to commune with them. Keane, indeed, did save him from +the perpetration of one folly. But Cotton appears to have been a +respectable nonentity. Sale was a stout, honest soldier, who was not +fortunate on the only occasion which called him outside of his restricted +_metier_. Poor Elphinstone was an object for pity rather than for +censure. + +It happened fortunately, in the impending misfortunes, that two men of +stable temperament and lucid perception were in authority at Candahar. +General Nott was a grand old Indian officer, in whom there was no guile, +but a good deal of temper. He was not supple, and he had the habit of +speaking his mind with great directness, a propensity which accounted, +perhaps, for the repeated supersessions he had undergone. A clearheaded, +shrewd man, he was disgusted with very many things which he recognised as +unworthy in the conduct of the affairs of Afghanistan, and he was not the +man to choose mild phrases in giving vent to his convictions. He had in +full measure that chronic dislike which the Indian commander in the field +nourishes to the political officer who is imposed on him by the +authorities, and who controls his measures and trammels his actions. +Nott's 'political,' who, the sole survivor of the men who were prominent +during this unhappy period, still lives among us esteemed and revered, +was certainly the ablest officer of the unpopular department to which he +belonged; and how cool was Henry Rawlinson's temper is evinced in his +ability to live in amity with the rugged and outspoken chief who +addressed him in such a philippic as the following--words all the more +trenchant because he to whom they were addressed must have realised how +intrinsically true they were:-- + +'I have no right to interfere with the affairs of this country, and I +never do so. But in reference to that part of your note where you speak +of political influence, I will candidly tell you that these are not times +for mere ceremony, and that under present circumstances, and at a +distance of 2000 miles from the seat of the supreme Government, I throw +responsibility to the wind, and tell you that in my opinion you have not +had for some time past, nor have you at present, one particle of +political influence in this country.' + +Nott steadily laboured to maintain the _morale_ and discipline of his +troops, and thus watching the flowing tide of misrule and embroilment, he +calmly made the best preparations in his power to meet the storm the sure +and early outbreak of which his clear discernment prognosticated. + +Shah Soojah's viceroy at Candahar was his heir-apparent Prince Timour. +The Dooranee chiefs of Western Afghanistan had not unnaturally expected +favours and influence under the rule of the Dooranee monarch; and while +in Candahar before proceeding to Cabul, and still uncertain of what might +occur there, Shah Soojah had been lavish of his promises. The chiefs had +anticipated that they would be called around the vice-throne of Prince +Timour; but Shah Soojah made the same error as that into which Louis +XVIII. fell on his restoration. He constituted his Court of the men who +had shared his Loodianah exile. The counsellors who went to Candahar with +Timour were returned _emigres_, in whom fitness for duty counted less +than the qualification of companionship in exile. Those people had come +back to Afghanistan poor; now they made haste to be rich by acts of +oppressive injustice, in the exaction of revenue from the people, and by +intercepting from the Dooranee chiefs the flow of royal bounty to which +they had looked forward. + +Uktar Khan was prominent among the Dooranee noblemen, and he had the +double grievance of having been disappointed of the headship of the +Zemindawar province on the western bank of the Helmund, and having been +evilly entreated by the minions of Prince Timour. He had raised his clan +and routed a force under a royalist follower, when Nott sent a detachment +against him. Uktar Khan had crossed the Helmund into Zemindawar, when +Farrington attacked him, and, after a brisk fight, routed and pursued +him. The action was fought on January 3, 1841, in the very dead of +winter; the intensity of the cold dispersed Uktar's levies, and +Farrington returned to Candahar. + +In reply to Macnaghten's demand for information regarding the origin of +this outbreak, Rawlinson wrote him some home truths which were very +distasteful. Rawlinson warned his chief earnestly of the danger which +threatened the false position of the British in Afghanistan. He pointed +out how cruel must be the revenue exactions which enabled Prince Timour's +courtiers to absorb great sums. He expressed his suspicion that Shah +Soojah had countenanced Uktar Khan's rising, and spoke of intrigues of +dark and dangerous character. Macnaghten scouted Rawlinson's warning, and +instructed him that 'it will make the consideration of all questions more +simple if you will hereafter take for granted that as regards us "the +king can do no wrong."' However, he and the Shah did remove from Candahar +the Vakeel and his clique of obnoxious persons, who had been grinding the +faces of the people; and the Envoy allowed himself to hope that this +measure would restore order to the province of Candahar. + +The hope was vain, the evil lay deeper; disaffection to the Shah and +hatred to the British power were becoming intensified from day to day, +and the aspiration for relief was swelling into a passion. In the days +before our advent there had been venality and corruption in public +places--occasionally, likely enough, as Macnaghten asserted, to an extent +all but incredible. But exaction so sweeping could have occurred only in +regions under complete domination; and in Afghanistan, even to this day, +there are few regions wholly in this condition. When the yoke became +over-weighty, a people of a nature so intractable knew how to resent +oppression and oppose exaction. But now the tax gatherer swaggered over +the land, and the people had to endure him, for at his back were the +soldiers of the Feringhees and the levies of the Shah. The latter were +paid by assignments on the revenues of specified districts; as the levies +constituted a standing army of some size, the contributions demanded were +heavier and more permanent than in bygone times. Macnaghten, aware of the +discontent engendered by the system of assignments, desired to alter it. +But the Shah's needs were pressing; the Anglo-Indian treasury was +strained already by the expenditure in Afghanistan; and it was not easy +in a period of turmoil and rebellion to carry out the amendment of a +fiscal system. That, since the surrender of the Dost, there had been no +serious rising in Northern or Eastern Afghanistan, sufficed to make +Macnaghten an optimist of the moment. He had come by this time to a +reluctant admission of the fact against which he had set his face so +long, that Shah Soojah was unpopular. 'He has incurred,' he wrote, 'the +odium that attaches to him from his alliance with us'; but the Envoy +would not admit that our position in Afghanistan was a false one, in that +we were maintaining by our bayonets, against the will of the Afghans, a +sovereign whom they detested. 'It would,' he pleaded, 'be an act of +downright dishonesty to desert His Majesty before he has found the means +of taking root in the soil to which we have transplanted him.' While he +wrote, Macnaghten must have experienced a sudden thrill of optimism or of +self-delusion, for he continued: 'All things considered, the present +tranquillity of this country is to my mind perfectly miraculous. Already +our presence has been infinitely beneficial in allaying animosities and +in pointing out abuses.' If it had been the case that the country was +tranquil, his adjective would have been singularly appropriate, but not +precisely in the sense he meant to convey. + +But there was no tranquillity, miraculous or otherwise. While Macnaghten +was writing the letter which has just been quoted, Brigadier Shelton, +who, about the New Year, had reached Jellalabad with a brigade from +British India in relief of the force which was withdrawing with Cotton, +was contending with an outbreak of the wild and lawless clans of the +Khyber. When Macnaghten wrote, he had already received intelligence of +the collapse of his projects in Herat, and that Major Todd, who had been +his representative there, judging it imperative to break up the mission +of which he was the head, had abruptly quitted that city, and was on his +way to Candahar. Mischief was simmering in the Zemindawar country. The +Ghilzai tribes of the region between Candahar and Ghuznee had accepted a +subsidy to remain quiet, but the indomitable independence of this wild +and fierce race was not to be tamed by bribes, and the spirit of +hostility was manifesting itself so truculently that a British garrison +had been placed in Khelat-i-Ghilzai, right in the heart of the disturbed +territory. This warning and defensive measure the tribes had regarded +with angry jealousy; but it was not until a rash 'political' had directed +the unprovoked assault and capture of a Ghilzai fort that the tribes +passionately flew to arms, bent on contesting the occupation of their +rugged country. Colonel Wymer was sent from Candahar with a force, +escorting a convoy of stores intended for the equipment of +Khelat-i-Ghilzai. The tribes who had been loosely beleaguering that place +marched down the Turnuk upon Wymer, and on May 19th attacked him with +great impetuosity, under the command of a principal chief who was known +as the 'Gooroo.' Wymer, in the protection of his convoy, had to stand on +the defensive. The Ghilzais, regardless of the grape which tore through +their masses, fell on sword in hand, and with an intuitive tactical +perception struck Wymer simultaneously in front and flank. His sepoys had +to change their dispositions, and the Ghilzais took the opportunity of +their momentary dislocation to charge right home. They were met firmly by +the bayonet, but again and again the hillmen renewed their attacks; and +it was not till after five hours of hard fighting which cost them heavy +loss, that at length, in the darkness, they suddenly drew off. Had they +been Swiss peasants defending their mountains, or Poles struggling +against the ferocious tyranny of Russia, their gallant effort might have +excited praise and sympathy. Had they been Soudanese, a statesman might +have spoken of them as a people 'rightly struggling to be free'; as it +was, the Envoy vituperated them as 'a parcel of ragamuffins,' and Wymer's +sepoys were held to have 'covered themselves with glory.' Macnaghten +proceeded to encourage a sense of honour among the tribes by proposing +the transfer to another chief, on condition of his seizing and delivering +over the inconvenient 'Gooroo,' of the share of subsidy of which the +latter had been in receipt. + +While this creditable transaction was under consideration, Uktar Khan was +again making himself very unpleasant; so much so that Macnaghten was +authorising Rawlinson to offer a reward of 10,000 rupees for his capture, +which accomplished, Rawlinson was instructed to 'hang the villain as high +as Haman.' The gallows was not built, however, on which Uktar was to +hang, although that chief sustained two severe defeats at the hands of +troops sent from Candahar, and had to become a fugitive. The Ghilzais, +who had gathered again after their defeat under the 'Gooroo,' had made +little stand against the detachment which Colonel Chambers led out from +Candahar, and they were again temporarily dispersed. The 'Gooroo' himself +was in our hands. If the disaffection was in no degree diminished, the +active ebullitions of it were assuredly quelled for the time. It was +true, to be sure, that Akbar Khan, the fierce and resolute son of Dost +Mahomed, had refused the Envoy's overtures to come in, and was wandering +and plotting in Khooloom, quite ready to fulfil Macnaghten's prophetic +apprehension that 'the fellow will be after some mischief should the +opportunity present itself'; that the Dooranees were still defiant; that +an insurgent force was out in the Dehrawat; and that the tameless chief +Akram Khan was being blown from a gun by the cruel and feeble Timour. But +unquestionably there was a comparative although short-lived lull in the +overt hostility of the Afghan peoples against Shah Soojah and his foreign +supporters; and Macnaghten characteristically announced that 'the country +was quiet from Dan to Beersheba.' To one of his correspondents he wrote: +'From Mookoor to the Khyber Pass, all is content and tranquillity; and +wherever we Europeans go, we are received with respect, attention and +welcome. I think our prospects are most cheering; and with the materials +we have there ought to be little or no difficulty in the management of +the country. The people are perfect children, and they should be treated +as such. If we put one naughty boy in the corner, the rest will be +terrified.' + +General Nott at Candahar, who 'never interfered in the government of the +country,' but regarded the situation with shrewd, clear-headed common +sense, differed utterly from the Envoy's view. The stout old soldier did +not squander his fire; it was a close volley he discharged in the +following words: 'The conduct of the thousand and one politicals has +ruined our cause, and bared the throat of every European in this country +to the sword and knife of the revengeful Afghan and bloody Belooch; and +unless several regiments be quickly sent, not a man will be left to +describe the fate of his comrades. Nothing will ever make the Afghans +submit to the hated Shah Soojah, who is most certainly as great a +scoundrel as ever lived.' + +Nott's conclusions were in the main justified by after events, but the +correctness of his premiss may be questioned. That the conduct of some of +the political officers intensified the rancour of the Afghans is +unhappily true, but the hate of our domination, and of the puppet thrust +upon them by us, seems to have found its origin in a deeper feeling. The +patriotism of a savage race is marked by features repulsive to civilised +communities, but through the ruthless cruelty of the indiscriminate +massacre, the treachery of the stealthy stab, and the lightly broken +pledges, there may shine out the noblest virtue that a virile people can +possess. A semi-barbarian nation whose manhood pours out its blood like +water in stubborn resistance against an alien yoke, may be pardoned for +many acts shocking to civilised communities which have not known the +bitterness of stern and masterful subjugation. + + + + +CHAPTER V: THE BEGINNING OF THE END + +The deceptive quietude of Afghanistan which followed the sharp lessons +administered to the Dooranees and the Ghilzais was not seriously +disturbed during the month of September 1841, and Macnaghten was in a +full glow of cheerfulness. His services had been recognised by his +appointment to the dignified and lucrative post of Governor of the Bombay +Presidency, and he was looking forward to an early departure for a less +harassing and tumultuous sphere of action than that in which he had been +labouring for two troubled years. The belief that he would leave behind +him a quiescent Afghanistan, and Shah Soojah firmly established on its +throne, was the complement, to a proud and zealous man, of the +satisfaction which his promotion afforded. + +One distasteful task he had to perform before he should go. The Home +Government had become seriously disquieted by the condition of affairs in +Afghanistan. The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, the channel +through which the ministry communicated with the Governor-General, had +expressed great concern at the heavy burden imposed on the Indian +finances by the cost of the maintenance of the British force in +Afghanistan, and by the lavish expenditure of the administration which +Macnaghten directed. The Anglo-Indian Government was urgently required to +review with great earnestness the question of its future policy in regard +to Afghanistan, and to consider gravely whether an enterprise at once so +costly and so unsatisfactory in results should not be frankly abandoned. +Lord Auckland was alive to the difficulties and embarrassments which +encompassed the position beyond the Indus, but he was loth to admit that +the policy of which he had been the author, and in which the Home +Government had abetted him so eagerly, was an utter failure. He and his +advisers finally decided in favour of the continued occupation of +Afghanistan; and since the Indian treasury was empty, and the annual +charge of that occupation was not less than a million and a quarter +sterling, recourse was had to a loan, Macnaghten was pressed to effect +economies in the administration, and he was specially enjoined to cut +down the subsidies which were paid to Afghan chiefs as bribes to keep +them quiet. Macnaghten had objected to this retrenchment, pointing out +that the stipends to the chiefs were simply compensation for the +abandonment by them of their immemorial practice of highway robbery, but +he yielded to pressure, called to Cabul the chiefs in its vicinity, and +informed them that thenceforth their subsidies would be reduced. The +chiefs strongly remonstrated, but without effect, and they then formed a +confederacy of rebellion. The Ghilzai chiefs were the first to act. +Quitting Cabul, they occupied the passes between the capital and +Jellalabad, and entirely intercepted the communications with India by the +Khyber route. + +Macnaghten did not take alarm at this significant demonstration, +regarding the outbreak merely as 'provoking,' and writing to Rawlinson +that 'the rascals would be well trounced for their pains.' Yet warnings +of gathering danger were rife, which but for his mood of optimism should +have struck home to his apprehension. Pottinger had come down from the +Kohistan, where he was acting as political officer, bent on impressing on +him that a general rising of that region was certain unless strong +measures of prevention were resorted to. For some time before the actual +outbreak of the Ghilzais, the Afghan hatred to our people had been +showing itself with exceptional openness and bitterness. Europeans and +camp followers had been murdered, but the sinister evidences of growing +danger had been regarded merely as ebullitions of private rancour. Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, had moved forward from Khooloom into the Bamian +country, and there was little doubt that he was fomenting the +disaffection of the Ghilzai chiefs, with some of whom this indomitable +man, who in his intense hatred of the English intruders had resolutely +rejected all offers of accommodation, and preferred the life of a +homeless exile to the forfeiture of his independence, was closely +connected by marriage. + +The time was approaching when Sale's brigade was to quit Cabul on its +return journey to India. Macnaghten seems to have originally intended to +accompany this force, for he wrote that he 'hoped to settle the hash of +the Ghilzais on the way down, if not before.' The rising, however, spread +so widely and so rapidly that immediate action was judged necessary, and +on October 9th Colonel Monteath marched towards the passes with his own +regiment, the 35th Native Infantry, some artillery and cavalry details, +and a detachment of Broadfoot's sappers. + +How able, resolute, and high-souled a man was George Broadfoot, the +course of this narrative will later disclose. He was one of three gallant +brothers, all of whom died sword in hand. The corps of sappers which he +commanded was a remarkable body--a strange medley of Hindustanees, +Goorkhas, and Afghan tribesmen of divers regions. Many were desperate and +intractable characters, but Broadfoot, with mingled strength and +kindness, moulded his heterogeneous recruits into skilful, obedient and +disciplined soldiers. Broadfoot's description of his endeavours to learn +something of the nature of the duties expected of him in the expedition +for which he had been detailed, and to obtain such equipment as those +duties might require, throws a melancholy light on the deteriorated state +of affairs among our people at this period, and on the relations between +the military and civilian authorities. + +Broadfoot went for information, in the first instance, to Colonel +Monteath, who could give him no orders, having received none himself. +Monteath declined to apply for details as to the expedition, as he knew +'these people' (the authorities) too well; he was quite aware of the +danger of going on service in the dark, but explained that it was not the +custom of the military authorities at Cabul to consult or even instruct +the commanders of expeditions. Broadfoot then went to the General. +Cotton's successor in the chief military command in Afghanistan was poor +General Elphinstone, a most gallant soldier, but with no experience of +Indian warfare, and utterly ignorant of the Afghans and of Afghanistan. +Wrecked in body and impaired in mind by physical ailments and +infirmities, he had lost all faculty of energy, and such mind as remained +to him was swayed by the opinion of the person with whom he had last +spoken. The poor gentleman was so exhausted by the exertion of getting +out of bed, and being helped into his visiting-room, that it was not for +half-an-hour, and after several ineffectual efforts, that he could attend +to business. He knew nothing of the nature of the service on which +Monteath was ordered, could give Broadfoot no orders, and was unwilling +to refer to the Envoy on a matter which should have been left to him to +arrange. He complained bitterly of the way in which he was reduced to a +cypher--'degraded from a general to the "Lord-Lieutenant's head +constable."' Broadfoot went from the General to the Envoy, who 'was +peevish,' and denounced the General as fidgety. He declared the enemy to +be contemptible, and that as for Broadfoot and his sappers, twenty men +with pickaxes were enough; all they were wanted for was to pick stones +from under the gun wheels. When Broadfoot represented the inconvenience +with which imperfect information as to the objects of the expedition was +fraught, Macnaghten lost his temper, and told Broadfoot that, if he +thought Monteath's movement likely to bring on an attack, 'he need not +go, he was not wanted'; whereupon Broadfoot declined to listen to such +language, and made his bow. Returning to the General, whom he found 'lost +and perplexed,' he was told to follow his own judgment as to what +quantity of tools he should take. The Adjutant-General came in, and 'this +officer, after abusing the Envoy, spoke to the General with an +imperiousness and disrespect, and to me, a stranger, with an insolence it +was painful to see the influence of on the General. His advice to his +chief was to have nothing to say to Macnaghten, to me, or to the sappers, +saying Monteath had men enough, and needed neither sappers nor tools.' At +parting the poor old man said to Broadfoot: 'If you go out, for God's +sake clear the passes quickly, that I may get away; for if anything were +to turn up, I am unfit for it, done up in body and mind.' This was the +man whom Lord Auckland had appointed to the most responsible and arduous +command at his disposal, and this not in ignorance of General +Elphinstone's disqualifications for active service, but in the fullest +knowledge of them! + +Monteath's camp at Bootkhak, the first halting-place on the Jellalabad +road, was sharply attacked on the night of the 9th, and the assailants, +many of whom were the armed retainers of chiefs living in Cabul sent out +specially to take part in the attack, although unsuccessful, inflicted on +Monteath considerable loss. Next day Sale, with H.M.'s 13th, joined +Monteath, and on the 13th he forced the long and dangerous ravine of the +Khoord Cabul with sharp fighting, but no very serious loss, although Sale +himself was wounded, and had to relinquish the active command to Colonel +Dennie. Monteath encamped in the valley beyond the pass, and Sale, with +the 13th, returned without opposition to Bootkhak, there to await +reinforcements and transports. In his isolated position Monteath remained +unmolested until the night of the 17th, when he repulsed a Ghilzai attack +made in considerable strength, and aided by the treachery of 'friendly' +Afghans who had been admitted into his camp; but he had many casualties, +and lost a number of camels. On the 20th Sale, reinforced by troops +returned from the Zurmut expedition, moved forward on Monteath, and on +the 22d pushed on to the Tezeen valley, meeting with no opposition either +on the steep summit of the Huft Kotul or in the deep narrow ravine +opening into the valley. The Ghilzais were in force around the mouth of +the defile, but a few cannon-shots broke them up. The advance guard +pursued with over-rashness; the Ghilzais rallied, in the skirmish which +ensued an officer and several men were killed, and the retirement of our +people unfortunately degenerated into precipitate flight, with the +Ghilzais in hot pursuit. The 13th, to which the fugitive detachment +mainly belonged, now consisted mainly of young soldiers, whose constancy +was impaired by this untoward occurrence. + +Macnaghten had furnished Sale with a force which, in good heart and +vigorously commanded, was strong enough to have effected great things. +The Ghilzai chief of Tezeen possessed a strong fort full of supplies, +which Dennie was about to attack, when the wily Afghan sent to Major +Macgregor, the political officer accompanying Sale, a tender of +submission. Macgregor fell into the snare, desired Sale to countermand +the attack, and entered into negotiations. In doing so he committed a +fatal error, and he exceeded his instructions in the concessions which he +made. Macnaghten, it was true, had left matters greatly to Macgregor's +discretion; and if 'the rebels were very humble,' the Envoy was not +disposed to be too hard upon them. But one of his firm stipulations was +that the defences of Khoda Buxsh's fort must be demolished, and that Gool +Mahomed Khan 'should have nothing but war.' Both injunctions were +disregarded by Macgregor, who, with unimportant exceptions, surrendered +all along the line. The Ghilzais claimed and obtained the restoration of +their original subsidies; a sum was handed to them to enable them to +raise the tribes in order to keep clear the passes; Khoda Buxsh held his +fort, and sold the supplies it contained to Sale's commissary at a fine +price. Every item of the arrangement was dead in favour of the Ghilzais, +and contributory to their devices. Sale, continuing his march, would be +separated further and further from the now diminished force in Cabul, and +by the feigned submission the chiefs had made they had escaped the +permanent establishment of a strong detachment in their midst at Tezeen. + +Macnaghten, discontented though he was with the sweeping concessions +which Macgregor had granted to the Ghilzais, put the best face he could +on the completed transaction, and allowed himself to believe that a +stable settlement had been effected. On the 26th Sale continued his +march, having made up his baggage animals at the expense of the 37th +Native Infantry, which, with half of the sappers and three guns of the +mountain train, he sent back to Kubbar-i-Jubbar, there to halt in a +dangerously helpless situation until transport should be sent down from +Cabul. His march as far as Kutti Sung was unmolested. Mistrusting the +good faith of his new-made allies, he shunned the usual route through the +Purwan Durrah by taking the mountain road to the south of that defile, +and thus reached the Jugdulluk valley with little opposition, baulking +the dispositions of the Ghilzais, who, expecting him to traverse the +Purwan Durrah, were massed about the southern end of the defile, ready to +fall on the column when committed to the tortuous gorge. + +From the Jugdulluk camping ground there is a steep and winding ascent of +three miles, commanded until near the summit by heights on either side. +Sale's main body had attained the crest with trivial loss, having +detached parties by the way to ascend to suitable flanking positions, and +hold those until the long train of slow-moving baggage should have +passed, when they were to fall in and come on with the rear-guard. The +dispositions would have been successful but that on reaching the crest +the main body, instead of halting there for the rear to close up, hurried +down the reverse slope, leaving baggage, detachments, and rear-guard to +endure the attacks which the Ghilzais promptly delivered, pressing +fiercely on the rear, and firing down from either side on the confused +mass in the trough below. The flanking detachments had relinquished their +posts in panic, and hurried forward in confusion to get out of the pass. +The rear-guard was in disorder, when Broadfoot, with a few officers and +some of his sappers, valiantly checked the onslaught, but the crest was +not crossed until upwards of 120 men had fallen, the wounded among whom +had to be abandoned with the dead. On October 30th Sale's force reached +Gundamuk without further molestation, and halted there temporarily to +await orders. During the halt melancholy rumours filtered down the passes +from the capital, and later came confirmation of the evil tidings from +the Envoy, and orders from Elphinstone directing the immediate return of +the brigade to Cabul, if the safety of its sick and wounded could be +assured. Sale called a council of war, which pronounced, although not +unanimously, against a return to Cabul; and it was resolved instead to +march on to Jellalabad, which was regarded as an eligible _point d'appui_ +on which a relieving force might move up and a retiring force might move +down. Accordingly on November 11th the brigade quitted Gundamuk, and +hurried down rather precipitately, and with some fighting by the way, to +Jellalabad, which was occupied on the 14th. + +Some members of the Gundamuk council of war, foremost among whom was +Broadfoot, argued vigorously in favour of the return march to Cabul. +Havelock, who was with Sale as a staff-officer, strongly urged the +further retreat into Jellalabad. Others, again, advocated the middle +course of continuing to hold Gundamuk. It may be said that a daring +general would have fought his way back to Cabul, that a prudent general +would have remained at Gundamuk, and that the occupation of Jellalabad +was the expedient of a weak general. That a well-led march on Cabul was +feasible, although it might have been difficult and bloody, cannot be +questioned, and the advent of such men as Broadfoot and Havelock would +have done much toward rekindling confidence and stimulating the +restoration of soldierly virtue, alike in the military authorities and in +the rank and file of the Cabul force. At Gundamuk, again, the brigade, +well able to maintain its position there, would have made its influence +felt all through the Ghilzai country and as far as Cabul. The evacuation +of that capital decided on, it would have been in a position to give the +hand to the retiring army, and so to avert at least the worst disasters +of the retreat. The retirement on Jellalabad, in the terse language of +Durand, 'served no conceivable purpose except to betray weakness, and +still further to encourage revolt.' + +While Sale was struggling through the passes on his way to Gundamuk, our +people at Cabul were enjoying unwonted quietude. Casual entries in Lady +Sale's journal, during the later days of October, afford clear evidence +how utterly unconscious were they of the close gathering of the storm +that so soon was to break upon them. Her husband had written to her from +Tezeen that his wound was fast healing, and that the chiefs were +extremely polite. She complains of the interruption of the mails owing to +the Ghilzai outbreak, but comforts herself with the anticipation of their +arrival in a day or two. She was to leave Cabul for India in a few days, +along with the Macnaghtens and General Elphinstone, and her diary +expresses an undernote of regret at having to leave the snug house in the +cantonments which Sale had built on his own plan, the excellent kitchen +garden in which her warrior husband, in the intervals of his soldiering +duties, grew fine crops of peas, potatoes, cauliflowers and artichokes, +and the parterres of flowers which she herself cultivated, and which were +the admiration of the Afghan gentlemen who came to pay their morning +calls. + +[Illustration: CABUL the CANTONMENT _and the_ Surrounding COUNTRY.] + +The defencelessness of the position at Cabul had long engaged the +solicitude of men who were no alarmists. Engineer officer after engineer +officer had unavailingly and a half from the cantonments, with the Cabul +river intervening. With Shelton's troops and those in the cantonments +General Elphinstone had at his disposition, apart from the Shah's +contingent, four infantry regiments, two batteries of artillery, three +companies of sappers, a regiment of cavalry, and some irregular horse--a +force fully equipped and in good order. In the Balla Hissar Shah Soojah +had a considerable, if rather mixed, body of military and several guns. + +The rising of the 2d November may not have been the result of a fully +organised plan. There are indications that it was premature, and that the +revolt in force would have been postponed until after the expected +departure of the Envoy and the General with all the troops except +Shelton's brigade, but for an irrepressible burst of personal rancour +against Burnes. Durand holds, however, that the malcontents acted on the +belief that to kill Burnes and sack the Treasury was to inaugurate the +insurrection with an imposing success. Be this as it may, a truculent mob +early in the morning of November 2d assailed Burnes' house. He at first +regarded the outbreak as a casual riot, and wrote to Macnaghten to that +effect. Having harangued the throng without effect, he and his brother, +along with William Broadfoot his secretary, prepared for defence. +Broadfoot was soon killed, and a little later Burnes and his brother were +hacked to pieces in the garden behind the house. The Treasury was sacked; +the sepoys who had guarded it and Burnes' house were massacred, and both +buildings were fired; the armed mob swelled in numbers, and soon the +whole city was in a roar of tumult. + +Prompt and vigorous military action would no doubt have crushed the +insurrection, at least for the time. But the indifference, vacillation +and delay of the British authorities greatly encouraged its rapid +development. Macnaghten at first 'did not think much of it.' Shelton was +ordered into the Balla Hissar, countermanded, a second time ordered, and +again instructed to halt for orders. At last the Envoy himself despatched +him, with the loose order to act on his own judgment in communication +with the Shah. Shelton marched into the Balla Hissar with part of his +force, and the rest of it was moved into the cantonments. When the +Brigadier went to the Shah, that potentate demanded to know who sent him, +and what he had come for. But the Shah, to do him justice, had himself +taken action. Informed that Burnes was attacked and the city in revolt, +he had ordered Campbell's regiment of his own levies and a couple of guns +to march to his assistance. Campbell recklessly attempted to push his way +through the heart of the city, instead of reaching Burnes' house by a +circuitous but opener route, and after some sharp street fighting in +which he lost heavily, he was driven back, unable to penetrate to the +scene of plunder and butchery. Shelton remained inactive in the Balla +Hissar until Campbell was reported beaten and retreating, when he took +some feeble measures to cover the retreat of the fugitives, who, however, +abandoned their guns outside the fortress. The day was allowed to pass +without anything further being done, except the despatch of an urgent +recall to Major Griffiths, whom Sale had left at Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and +that good soldier, having fought every step of the way through the +passes, brought in his detachment in unbroken order and without loss of +baggage, notwithstanding his weakness in transport. Shelton, reinforced +in the Balla Hissar, maintained an intermittent and ineffectual fire on +the city. Urgent orders were despatched to Sale, recalling him and his +brigade--orders with which, as has been mentioned, Sale did not +comply--and also to Nott, at Candahar, begging him to send a brigade to +Cabul. In compliance with this requisition, Maclaren's brigade +immediately started from Candahar, but soon returned owing to the +inclemency of the weather. + +Captain Mackenzie was in charge of a fort containing the Shah's +commissariat stores; this fort was on the outskirts of a suburb of Cabul, +and was fiercely attacked on the 2d. For two days Mackenzie maintained +his post with unwearying constancy. His garrison was short of water and +of ammunition, and the fort was crowded with women and children, but he +held on resolutely until the night of the 3d. No assistance was sent, no +notice, indeed, of any kind was taken of him; his garrison was +discouraged by heavy loss, and by the mines which the enemy were pushing +forward. At length, when the gate of the fort had been fired, and his +wounded were dying for lack of medical aid, he evacuated the fort, and +fought his way gallantly into cantonments, bringing in his wounded and +the women and children. With this solitary exception the Afghans had +nowhere encountered resistance, and the strange passiveness of our people +encouraged them to act with vigour. From the enclosed space of the Shah +Bagh, and the adjacent forts of Mahmood Khan and Mahomed Shereef, they +were threatening the Commissariat fort, hindering access to it, and +besetting the south-western flank of the cantonments. A young officer +commanded the hundred sepoys garrisoning the Commissariat fort; he +reported himself in danger of being cut off, and Elphinstone gave orders +that he and his garrison should be brought off, and the fort and its +contents abandoned. Several efforts to accomplish the withdrawal were +thwarted by the Afghan flanking fire, with the loss of several officers +and many men. The commissary officer urged on the General the disastrous +consequences which the abandonment of the fort would entail, containing +as it did all the stores, adding that in cantonments there were only two +days' supplies, without prospect of procuring any more. Orders were then +sent to Warren to hold out to the last extremity; which instructions he +denied having received. Early in the morning of the 5th troops were +preparing to attack the Afghan fort and reinforce the Commissariat fort, +when Warren and his garrison reached the cantonments. The gate of the +Commissariat fort had been fired, but the enemy had not effected an +entrance, yet Warren and his people had evacuated the fort through a hole +cut in its wall. Thus, with scarcely a struggle to save it, was this +vital fort allowed to fall into the enemy's hands, and thenceforward our +unfortunate people were to be reduced to precarious and scanty sources +for their food. + +From the 5th to the 9th November there was a good deal of desultory +fighting, in the course of which, after one failure, Mahomed Shereef's +fort was stormed by a detachment of our people, under the command of +Major Griffiths; but this success had little influence on the threatening +attitude maintained by the Afghans. On the 9th, owing to the mental and +physical weakness of poor General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton was +summoned into cantonments from the Balla Hissar, bringing with him part +of the garrison with which he had been holding the latter post. The hopes +entertained that Shelton would display vigour, and restore the confidence +of the troops, were not realised. He from the first had no belief in the +ability of the occupants of the cantonment to maintain their position, +and he never ceased to urge prompt retreat on Jellalabad. From the purely +military point of view he was probably right; the Duke of Wellington +shared his opinion when he said in the House of Lords: 'After the first +few days, particularly after the negotiations at Cabul had commenced, it +became hopeless for General Elphinstone to maintain his position.' +Shelton's situation was unquestionably a very uncomfortable one, for +Elphinstone, broken as he was, yet allowed his second in command no +freedom of action, and was testily pertinacious of his prerogative of +command. If in Shelton, who after his manner was a strong man, there had +been combined with his resolution some tact and temper, he might have +exercised a beneficial influence. As it was he became sullen and +despondent, and retired behind an 'uncommunicative and disheartening +reserve.' Brave as he was, he seems to have lacked the inspiration which +alone could reinvigorate the drooping spirit of the troops. In a word, +though he probably was, in army language, a 'good duty soldier,' he +certainly was nothing more. And something more was needed then. + +Action on Shelton's part became necessary the day after he came into +cantonments. The Afghans occupied all the forts on the plain between the +Seah Sung heights and the cantonments, and from the nearest of them, the +Rikabashee fort, poured in a heavy fire at close range, which the return +artillery fire could not quell. On Macnaghten's urgent requisition the +General ordered out a strong force, under Shelton, to storm the obnoxious +fort. Captain Bellew missed the gate, and blew open merely a narrow +wicket, but the storming party obeyed the signal to advance. Through a +heavy fire the leaders reached the wicket, and forced their way in, +followed by a few soldiers. The garrison of the fort hastily evacuated +it, and all seemed well, when a sudden stampede ensued--the handful +which, led by Colonel Mackrell of the 44th and Lieutenant Bird of the +Shah's force, had already entered the fort, remaining inside it. The +runaway troops were rallied with difficulty by Shelton and the +subordinate officers, but a call for volunteers from the European +regiment was responded to but by one solitary Scottish private. After a +second advance, and a second retreat--a retreat made notwithstanding +strong artillery and musketry support--Shelton's efforts brought his +people forward yet again, and this time the fort was occupied in force. +Of those who had previously entered it but two survivors were found. The +Afghans, re-entering the fort, had hacked Mackrell to pieces and +slaughtered the men who tried to escape by the wicket. Lieutenant Bird +and a sepoy, from a stable the door of which they had barricaded with +logs of wood, had fended off their assailants by a steady and deadly +fire, and when they were rescued by the entrance of the troops they had +to clamber out over a pile of thirty dead Afghans whom the bullets of the +two men had struck down. + +It had come to our people in those gloomy days, to regard as a 'triumph' +a combat in which they were not actually worsted; and even of such +dubious successes the last occurred on November 13, when the Afghans, +after having pressed our infantry down the slopes of the Behmaroo ridge, +were driven back by artillery fire, and forced by a cavalry charge to +retreat further, leaving behind them a couple of guns from which they had +been sending missiles into the cantonments. One of those guns was brought +in without difficulty, but the other the Afghans covered with their +jezail fire. The Envoy had sent a message of entreaty that 'the triumph +of the day' should be completed by its capture. Major Scott of the 44th +made appeal on appeal, ineffectually, to the soldierly feelings of his +men, and while they would not move the sepoys could not be induced to +advance. At length Eyre spiked the piece as a precautionary measure, and +finally some men of the Shah's infantry succeeded in bringing in the +prize. The return march of the troops into cantonments in the dark, was +rendered disorderly by the close pressure of the Afghans, who, firing +incessantly, pursued the broken soldiery up to the entrance gate. + +On the depressed garrison of the Cabul cantonments tidings of disaster +further afield had been pouring in apace. Soon after the outbreak of the +rising, it was known that Lieutenant Maule, commanding the Kohistanee +regiment at Kurdurrah, had been cut to pieces, with his adjutant and +sergeant-major, by the men of his own corps; and on November 6th +intelligence had come in that the Goorkha regiment stationed at Charikar +in the Kohistan, where Major Pottinger was Resident, was in dangerous +case, and that Codrington, its commandant, and some of his officers had +already fallen. And now, on the 15th, there rode wearily into cantonments +two wounded men, who believed themselves the only British survivors of +the Charikar force. Pottinger was wounded in the leg, Haughton, the +adjutant of the Goorkha corps, had lost his right hand, and his head hung +forward on his breast, half severed from his body by a great tulwar +slash. Of the miserable story which it fell to Pottinger to tell only the +briefest summary can be given. His residence was at Lughmanee, a few +miles from the Charikar cantonments, when early in the month a number of +chiefs of the Kohistan and the Nijrao country assembled to discuss with +him the terms on which they would reopen the communications with Cabul. +Those chiefs proved treacherous, slew Rattray, Pottinger's assistant, and +besieged Pottinger in Lughmanee. Finding his position untenable, he +withdrew to Charikar under cover of night. On the morning of the 5th the +Afghans assailed the cantonments. Pottinger was wounded, Codrington was +killed, and the Goorkhas were driven into the barracks. Haughton, who +succeeded to the command of the regiment, made sortie on sortie, but was +finally driven in, and the enemy renewed their assaults in augmented +strength. Thenceforward the position was all but hopeless. On the 10th +the last scant remains of water was distributed. Efforts to procure water +by sorties on the nights of the 11th and 12th were not successful, and +the corps fell into disorganisation because of losses, hardships, +exhaustion, hunger and thirst. Pottinger and Haughton agreed that there +was no prospect of saving even a remnant of the regiment unless by a +retreat to Cabul, which, however, was clearly possible only in the case +of the stronger men, unencumbered with women and children, of whom, +unfortunately, there was a great number in the garrison. On the afternoon +of the 13th Haughton was cut down by a treacherous native officer of the +artillery, who then rushed out of the gate, followed by all the gunners +and most of the Mahommedans of the garrison. In the midst of the chaos of +disorganisation, Dr Grant amputated Haughton's hand, dressed his other +wounds, and then spiked all the guns. When it was dark, the garrison +moved out, Pottinger leading the advance, Dr Grant the main body, and +Ensign Rose the rear-guard. From the beginning of the march, discipline +was all but entirely in abeyance; on reaching the first stream, the last +remains of control were lost, and the force was rapidly disintegrating. +Pottinger and Haughton, the latter only just able to keep the saddle, +pushed on toward Cabul, rested in a ravine during the day, evaded the +partisan detachment sent out from Cabul to intercept them, rode through +sleeping Cabul in the small hours of the morning, and after being pursued +and fired upon in the outskirts of the city, finally attained the +cantonments. It was afterwards learned that a portion of the regiment had +struggled on to within twenty miles from Cabul, gallantly headed by young +Rose and Dr Grant. Then the remnant was destroyed. Rose was killed, after +despatching four Afghans with his own hand. Dr Grant, escaping the +massacre, held on until within three miles of the cantonments, when he +too was killed. + +Macnaghten was naturally much depressed by the news communicated by +Pottinger, and realised that the Afghan masses already encompassing the +position on the Cabul plain would certainly be increased by bands from +the Kohistan and Nijrao, flushed already with their Charikar success. He +sided strongly with the large party among the officers who were +advocating the measure of abandoning the cantonments altogether, and +moving the force now quartered there to the safer and more commanding +position in the Balla Hissar. The military chiefs opposed the project, +and propounded a variety of objections to it, none of which were without +weight, yet all of which might have been overcome by energy and proper +dispositions. Shelton, however, was opposed to the scheme, since if +carried out it would avert or postpone the accomplishment of his policy +of retreat on Jellalabad; Elphinstone was against it in the inertia of +debility, and the project gradually came to be regarded as abandoned. +Another project, that of driving the Afghans from Mahmood Khan's fort, +commanding the direct road between the cantonments and the Balla Hissar, +and of occupying it with a British force, was so far advanced that the +time for the attempt was fixed, and the storming party actually warned, +when some petty objection intervened and the enterprise was abandoned, +never to be revived. + +The rising was not three days old when already Elphinstone had lost +heart. On the 5th he had written to Macnaghten suggesting that the latter +should 'consider what chance there is of making terms,' and since then he +had been repeatedly pressing on the Envoy the 'hopelessness of further +resistance.' Macnaghten, vacillating as he was, yet had more pith in his +nature than was left in the debilitated old general. He wrote to +Elphinstone on the 18th recommending, not very strenuously, the policy of +holding out where they were as long as possible, and indeed throughout +the winter, if subsistence could be obtained. He pointed out that in the +cantonments, which he believed to be impregnable, there were at least the +essentials of wood and water. Arguing that a retreat on Jellalabad must +be most disastrous, and was to be avoided except in the last extremity, +he nevertheless ended somewhat inconsistently by leaving to the military +authorities, if in eight or ten days there should appear no prospect of +an improvement of the situation, the decision whether it would be wiser +to attempt a retreat or to withdraw from the cantonments into the Balla +Hissar. + +Far from improving, the situation was speedily to become all but +hopeless. The village of Behmaroo, built on the north-eastern slope of +the ridge of the same name bounding the plain on the north-west, lay +about half a mile due north of the cantonments, part of which some of the +houses on the upper slope commanded. From this village, after the loss of +the Commissariat fort, our people had been drawing supplies. On the +morning of the 22d the Afghans were seen moving in force from Cabul +toward Behmaroo, obviously with intent to occupy the village, and so +deprive the occupants of the cantonments of the resource it had been +affording them. A detachment under Major Swayne, sent out to forestall +this occupation, found Behmaroo already in the possession of a body of +Kohistanees, who had so blocked the approaches that Swayne did not +consider himself justified in attempting the fulfilment of his orders to +storm the place; and he contented himself with maintaining all day an +ineffectual musketry fire on it. A diversion in his favour by a gun +supported by cavalry had no result save that of casualties to the gunners +and troopers; reinforcements brought out by Shelton effected nothing, and +in the evening the troops were recalled. On this ill-fated day Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's fierce and implacable son, arrived in Cabul, and the +evil influence on the British fortunes which he exerted immediately made +itself felt, for the events of the following day were to bring about a +crisis in the fate of our ill-starred people. + +Recognising the mischief wrought by the hostile occupation of our only +source of supplies, the Envoy strongly urged the immediate despatch of a +strong force to occupy the Behmaroo ridge, and dislodge from the village +its Kohistanee garrison. Shelton opposed the measure, urging the +dispirited state of the troops, their fatigue from constant defensive +duty, and their weakened physique because of poor and scanty rations. He +was overruled, and before daybreak of the 23d a force under his command, +consisting of five companies of the 44th, twelve companies of native +infantry, some cavalry, and one horse-artillery gun, was in position on +the north-eastern extremity of the ridge overhanging the village. The gun +opened fire on the village with grape, and after a short resistance the +greater part of its garrison quitted it. The storming party intrusted to +Major Swayne did not, however, act, and was withdrawn. Leaving a +detachment on the knoll above the village, Shelton moved his force along +the upland to a position near the gorge intersecting the ridge, forming +his infantry into two squares, with the cavalry in rear. The further hill +beyond the gorge was crowded with hostile Afghans from Cabul, and the +long-range fire of their jezails across the dividing depression, carried +execution into the squares which Shelton had inexplicably formed as if to +furnish his foes with a target which they could not miss. The muskets of +his men could not retaliate, and the skirmishers he threw forward to the +brow of his hill could not endure the Afghan fire. Shelton's single gun +maintained a hot and telling fire on the Afghan masses on the opposite +hill, and baulked an attempt against his right flank made by the Afghan +cavalry swarming in the outer plain; but when its vent became too hot for +the gunners to serve it, the dullest comprehension became alive to the +folly of sending a single gun into the field. + +Shelton's men, falling fast though they were, and faint with fatigue and +thirst, yet had endured for hours a fusillade to which they could not +reply, when a body of Afghan fanatics suddenly sprang up out of the +gorge, swept back with their fire the few skirmishers who had been still +holding the brow of the hill, and planted their flag within thirty yards +of the front of the nearer of the squares. Shelton offered a large reward +to the man who should bring it in, but there was no response. In a +passion of soldierly wrath, the veteran commanded a bayonet charge; not a +man sprang forward at the summons which British soldiers are wont to +welcome with cheers. The cowed infantry remained supine, when their +officers darted forward and threw stones into the faces of the enemy; the +troopers heard but obeyed not that trumpet-call to 'Charge!' which so +rarely fails to thrill the cavalryman with the rapture of the fray. The +gunners only, men of that noble force the Company's Horse-Artillery, +quitted themselves valiantly. They stood to their piece to the bitter +end. Two of them were killed beside it, another was severely wounded, a +fourth, refusing to run, took refuge under the gun, and miraculously +escaped death. But the gallant example of the artillerymen in their front +did not hearten the infantrymen of the leading square. The panic spread +among them, and they broke and fled. Fortunately they were not pursued. +The rear square stood fast, and the officers by great exertion succeeded +in rallying the fugitives under the cover it afforded. The news that a +principal chief, Abdoolah Khan, had been severely wounded in the plain +gave pause to the offensive vigour of the Afghans, and the assailants +fell back, abandoning the gun, but carrying off the limber and gun-team. +Our people reoccupied the position, the gun recommenced its fire, and if +the cavalry and infantry could have been persuaded to take the offensive +the battle might have been retrieved. But they remained passive. The +reinforced Afghans renewed their long-range fire with terrible effect; +most of the gunners had fallen, and the Brigadier, recognising the +growing unsteadiness of his command and the imminent danger of capture to +which the solitary gun was again exposed, ordered a retirement on the +detachment left near Behmaroo and the limbering up of the gun, to which a +second limber had been sent out from the cantonments. The movement was +scarcely begun when a rush of fanatic Afghans completely broke the +square, and all order and discipline then disappeared. A regular rout set +in down the hill toward cantonments, the fugitives disregarding the +efforts of the officers to rally them, and the enemy in full pursuit, the +Afghan cavalry making ghastly slaughter among the panic-stricken +runaways. The detachment near Behmaroo attempted to fall back in orderly +fashion, but the reinforced garrison of the village swept out upon it, +surrounded it, broke it up, and threw it into utter rout with the loss of +a large proportion of its strength, one whole company being all but +annihilated. It seemed as if pursued and pursuers would enter the +cantonments together so closely were they commingled; but the fire from +the ramparts and an opportune charge of horse arrested the pursuit. Yet +Eyre reckons as the chief reason why all the British force that had gone +out to battle was not destroyed, the fact that a leading Afghan chief +forced his men to spare the fugitives, and ultimately halted and withdrew +his people when the opportunity for wholesale slaughter lay open to them. +Most of the wounded were left on the field, where they were miserably cut +to pieces; and the gun, which had been overturned in the attempt of the +drivers to gallop down the face of the hill, finally passed into the +possession of the Afghans. Shelton's dispositions as a commander could +not well have been worse; his bearing as a soldier, although undaunted, +imparted to his hapless troops nothing of inspiration. The obstinacy with +which he held the hill after the impossibility of even partial success +must have been patent to him, was universally condemned. It need scarcely +be added that his loss was very severe. + +No more fighting was possible. What, then, was to be done? Elphinstone +and Shelton were at one in opposing removal into the Balla Hissar. +Macnaghten, to whom Shah Soojah had communicated his urgent +recommendation of that measure as the only expedient which could secure +the safety of the British troops, fell in with the views of the military +authorities. There came to him a letter from Osman Khan, the chief who +had called off his adherents on the previous day from pursuing the +fugitives fleeing into cantonments. Osman wrote that, if his troops had +followed up their successes, the loss of the cantonments and the +destruction of the British force were inevitable; but, he continued, that +it was not the wish of the chiefs to proceed to such extremities, their +sole desire being that our people should quietly evacuate the country, +leaving the Afghan sirdars to govern it according to their own customs, +and with a king of their own choosing. In communicating this letter to +General Elphinstone, Sir William asked for the latter's opinion on the +military possibility, or the reverse, of the retention of the British +position in Afghanistan. Elphinstone, in reply, enumerated sundry reasons +which led him to the conclusion which he stated, that 'it is not feasible +any longer to maintain our position in this country, and that you ought +to avail yourself of the offer to negotiate which has been made to you.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI: THE ROAD TO RUIN + +As the result of the military disaster of November 23d, and of the +representations of the General, recorded in the last chapter, Macnaghten, +with whatever reluctance, permitted himself to entertain proposals for an +arrangement made by the Afghan leaders. From the beginning of the +outbreak, while urging on the military authorities to exert themselves in +putting down the revolt, he had been engaged in tortuous and dangerous +intrigues, with the object of sowing discord among the Afghan chiefs, and +thus weakening the league of hostility against Shah Soojah and his +British supporters. In the conduct of these intrigues he used the +services of Mohun Lal, who had been one of Burnes' assistants, and who, +having escaped the fate of his chief, had found refuge in the city +residence of a Kuzzilbash chief. Mohun Lal was a fitting agent for the +sort of work prescribed to him, and he burrowed and suborned with +assiduity, and not altogether without success. But it is unhappily true +that he was commissioned to carry out a darker enterprise, the removal by +assassination of certain of the more virulently hostile among the Afghan +leaders. The incident is the blackest of the many discreditable +transactions which chequer the inner political history of this melancholy +chapter of our annals. It is unfortunately certain that Lieutenant John +Conolly, Macnaghten's kinsman and his confidential representative with +Shah Soojah, authorised Mohun Lal, in writing, to compass the taking off +of prominent Afghan leaders. In a letter to Mohun Lal, of 5th November, +Conolly wrote: 'I promise 10,000 rupees for the head of each rebel +chief.' Again, on the 11th, he wrote: 'There is a man called Hadji Ali, +who might be induced by a bribe to try and bring in the heads of one or +two of the Mufsids. Endeavour to let him know that 10,000 rupees will be +given for each head, or even 15,000 rupees.' Two chiefs certainly did die +under suspicious circumstances, and in each case the blood-money was +claimed. It was refused by Mohun Lal on the plea that the stipulation +that the heads of the dead Afghans should be brought in was not +fulfilled. + +Whether Macnaghten inspired those nefarious machinations, whether indeed +he was actively aware of them, are questions which, in the absence of +conclusive evidence, may judiciously be left unanswered. There is extant +a letter from him to Mohun Lal, written December 1st, which has the +following passage: 'I am sorry to find from your letter of last night +that you should have supposed it was ever my object to encourage +assassination. The rebels are very wicked men, but we must not take +unlawful means to destroy them.' And later he is reported to have +informed an Afghan deputation that, 'as a British functionary, nothing +would induce him to pay a price for blood.' Durand holds that it was the +belief on the part of the Afghan chiefs that the British Envoy had set a +price on their heads which destroyed all confidence in Macnaghten's good +faith, and which was Akbar Khan's chief incentive to his murder. + +The terms proffered on November 25th by an Afghan deputation were so +humiliating that Macnaghten peremptorily rejected them; and the threat of +immediate hostilities unless our people promptly surrendered their arms +and withdrew was not carried out. A period of inaction strangely ensued, +which on the Afghan side was a treacherous lull, but which Macnaghten, +hoping against hope that some turn in our favour might yet occur, +regarded with complacency. The chiefs, aware that winter was approaching +with added hardship to the forlorn garrison, temporarily desisted from +urging negotiations. But the British military authorities, with troops +living from hand to mouth on precarious half rations, and with transport +cattle dying fast of starvation, kept urging the Envoy to activity in +making terms, if absolute starvation was to be averted. Futile projects +were discussed between Envoy and General, only to be put aside. As the +dreary days of inaction and depletion passed, the deterioration of +military spirit among our people manifested itself more and more plainly. +British soldiers stolidly watched the Afghans destroying our bridge +across the Cabul river, within a quarter of a mile from cantonments. +Scared by the threat of an assault, which, in the scornful words of brave +Lady Sale, a child with a stick might have repulsed, the garrison of the +Mahomed Shereef fort abandoned it in a panic, the white soldiers of the +44th showing the example of pusillanimity to the sepoys whom their +cowardice demoralised. Next day the detachment of the 44th which had +guarded an exposed position had to be withdrawn, ceding the post of +honour to the stauncher sepoys. The camp followers were living on +carrion; the commissaries reported but four days' provisions in store, +and their inability to procure any more supplies. At length on December +8th the four senior military officers informed the Envoy that it was +imperatively necessary he should negotiate a retreat, on the best terms +he could obtain. + +Macnaghten had to bring himself to recognise that the alternatives were +negotiation or starvation, and on the 11th December, with a draft treaty +in his hand, he met the principal Afghan chiefs on the river side between +the cantonments and the city. After the introductory palavers, Macnaghten +read the proposed treaty, whose purport was as follows: that the British +should evacuate Afghanistan forthwith unmolested, furnished with supplies +and accompanied by hostages, on their march to India; that the Dost, his +family, and other Afghan political exiles, should be allowed to return to +their country; that Shah Soojah should have the option of remaining at +Cabul or going down to India; that amnesty should be accorded to all +adherents of Shah Soojah and his British allies; that all prisoners +should be released; and that perpetual friendship and mutual good offices +should thenceforth endure between the British and the Afghans. + +Akbar Khan made demur to some of the provisions, but was overruled, and +the main stipulations of the treaty were agreed to by the chiefs. The +conference broke up with the understanding that the British troops should +evacuate cantonments within three days, and that meanwhile provisions +should be sent in for their use. The treaty was simply a virtual +capitulation all along the line; but the inherent falseness of our +position, the incapacity of the military chiefs, and the debased spirit +of the troops, consequent partly on low rations but mainly because of the +utter absence of competent and vigorous leadership such as a Broadfoot or +a Havelock would have supplied, enforced on the reluctant Envoy +conditions humiliating beyond previous parallel in the history of our +nation. + +From the outset the Afghan chiefs defaulted from their promise of sending +in supplies, but some grain was brought into cantonments by the troops, +whose evacuation of the Balla Hissar on the 13th was effected under +humiliating circumstances. The Afghans demanded the surrender of the +forts in British occupation in the vicinity of the cantonments. The +requisition was complied with, and the Magazine fort furnished the enemy +with both arms and ammunition. + +The three stipulated days passed away, and still the British force +remained motionless in the cantonments. Macnaghten was bent on +procrastination, and circumstances seemed to favour a policy which to all +but himself was inexplicable. By the treaty, Shah Soojah was in effect +committed to withdraw to India, but soon after its acceptance the chiefs +had invited him to remain in Cabul as king, on the stipulation that he +should give his daughters in marriage to leaders of the malcontents. +After considerable deliberation, the Shah had consented to remain on the +condition named, but a few days later he withdrew his acceptance. His +vacillation increased the suspicions of the chiefs, and they demanded the +immediate evacuation of the cantonments, refusing to furnish provisions +until that was done. Meanwhile they sent in no transport animals, +although large sums had been handed over for their purchase. Our people +were still immobile, and already, on the 18th, there had occurred a fall +of snow several inches deep. + +The Envoy was engaged in strange and dubious intrigues, and since the +Afghans were not fulfilling their share of the treaty obligations, he +appears to have regarded himself as no longer bound by its conditions, +and free to try to obtain better terms from other sources, in pursuit of +which purpose he was expending money in a variety of directions. The dark +and unscrupulous Mohun Lal was his confidant and instrument. Akbar Khan +and the chiefs of his party had become aware of Macnaghten's +machinations, and they laid a snare for him into which he fell with open +eyes. Emissaries were sent to him with the sinister proposals that the +British should remain in Afghanistan until the spring, when they were to +withdraw as of their own accord; that the head of Ameenoolla Khan, one of +the most powerful and obnoxious of the rebel leaders, should be presented +to the Envoy in return for a stipulated sum of money; and that for all +those services the British Government should requite Akbar Khan with a +present of thirty lakhs of rupees, and an annual pension of four lakhs. +Macnaghten refused peremptorily the proffer of Ameenoolla's head, but did +not reject co-operation in that chiefs capture by a dubious device in +which British troops were to participate; he did not hesitate to accept +the general terms of the proposals; and he consented to hold a conference +with Akbar Khan on the following day to carry into effect the projected +measures. + +On the morning of the 23d the deceived and doomed man, accompanied by his +staff-officers, Lawrence, Trevor and Mackenzie, rode out from cantonments +to keep the fateful tryst on the bank of the Cabul river. His manner was +'distracted and hurried.' When he told Lawrence of the nature of the +affair on which he was going, that shrewd officer immediately warned him +that it was a plot against him. 'A plot!' he replied hastily, 'let me +alone for that; trust me for that!' and Lawrence desisted from useless +expostulation. Poor old Elphinstone had scented treachery; but the Envoy +had closed his mouth with the impatient words: 'I understand these things +better than you!' As he rode out, he admitted the danger of the +enterprise, but argued that if it succeeded it was worth all risks. 'At +all events,' he ended, 'let the loss be what it may, I would rather die a +hundred deaths than live the last six weeks over again.' The escort +halted, and the four British gentlemen advanced to the place of +rendezvous, whither came presently Akbar Khan and his party. Akbar began +the conference by asking the Envoy if he was ready to carry out the +proposals presented to him overnight. 'Why not?' was Sir William's short +reply. A number of Afghans, armed to the teeth, had gradually formed a +circle around the informal durbar. Lawrence and Mackenzie pointed out +this environment to some of the chiefs, who affected to drive off the +intruders with their whips; but Akbar observed that it did not matter, as +they 'were all in the secret.' 'Suddenly,' wrote Mackenzie, 'I heard +Akbar call out, "Begeer! begeer!" ("Seize! seize!") and turning round I +saw him grasp the Envoy's left hand with an expression on his face of the +most diabolical ferocity. I think it was Sultan Jan who laid hold of the +Envoy's right hand. They dragged him in a stooping posture down the +hillock, the only words I heard poor Sir William utter being, "Az barae +Khooda" ("For God's sake"). I saw his face, however, and it was full of +horror and astonishment.' Neither Mackenzie nor Lawrence, the surviving +companions of the Envoy, witnessed the actual end. 'Whether,' writes +Kaye, 'he died on the spot, or whether he was slain by the infuriated +ghazees, is not very clearly known; but the fanatics threw themselves on +the prostrate body and hacked it with their knives.' There is no doubt +that the head of the unfortunate Macnaghten was paraded in triumph +through the streets of Cabul, and that the mangled trunk, after being +dragged about the city, was hung up in the great bazaar. Of the three +officers who accompanied the Envoy to the conference, Trevor was +massacred, Lawrence and Mackenzie were saved with difficulty by friendly +chiefs, and brought into the city, where they and Captain Skinner joined +the hostages, Captains Connolly and Airey, under the safe roof of the +venerable Mahomed Zemaun Khan. + +That Akbar and the confederate chiefs spread a snare for the Envoy is +plain, and that they regarded his acceptance of their deceitful proposals +as a proof of his faithlessness to the treaty obligations to which he had +bound himself. It was no element in their reasoning that since they had +not regarded the treaty the British functionary might without breach of +faith hold that it did not bind him. But it is improbable that the murder +of Macnaghten was actually included in their scheme of action. Their +intention seems to have been to seize him as a hostage, with intent thus +to secure the evacuation of Afghanistan and the restoration of Dost +Mahomed. The ill-fated Envoy's expressions on his way to the rendezvous +indicate his unhinged state of mind. He went forth to sure treachery; +Akbar's gust of sudden fury converted the planned abduction into savage +murder, and his abrupt pistol bullet baulked the more wily and less +ruthless project which had probably been devised in cold blood. + +The escort brought back into cantonments tidings that the Envoy had been +seized. The garrison got under arms, and remained passive throughout the +day. The defences were manned at night, in the apprehension that the +noise and disturbance in the city portended an assault; but that clamour +was caused by the mustering of the Afghans in expectation that the +British would attack the city, bent on vengeance on the murderers of the +Envoy. Action of that nature was, however, wholly absent from the +prostrate minds of the military chiefs. On the following afternoon +Captain Lawrence transmitted certain overtures from the chiefs, as the +result of a conference held by them, when, notwithstanding severe +comments on the conduct of the Envoy, professions were made of sincere +regret for his death. With certain alterations and additions, the treaty +drawn up by Macnaghten was taken by the chiefs as the basis for the +negotiations which they desired to renew. Major Pottinger, as now the +senior 'political' with the force, was called on by General Elphinstone +to undertake the task of conducting negotiations with the Afghan leaders. +The high-souled Pottinger rose at the summons from the sickbed to which +he had been confined ever since his wonderful escape from Charikar, and +accepted the thankless and distasteful duty. It is not necessary to +recount the details of negotiations, every article and every stage of +which display the arrogance of the men who knew themselves masters of the +situation, and reveal not less the degrading humiliation to which was +submitting itself a strong brigade of British troops, whose arms were +still in the soldiers' hands, and over whose ranks hung banners blazoned +with victories that shall be memorable down the ages. On the sombre and +cheerless Christmas Day Pottinger rose in the council of men who wore +swords, and remonstrated with soldierly vigour and powerful argument +against the degrading terms which the chiefs had contumeliously thrown to +them. He produced letters from Jellalabad and Peshawur giving information +of reinforcements on the way from India, and urging the maintenance of +resistance. He argued that to conclude a treaty with the Afghans would be +a fatal error, and suggested two alternative courses which offered a +prospect of saving their honour and part of the army--the occupation of +the Balla Hissar, which was the preferable measure, or the abandonment of +camp, baggage, and encumbrances, and forcing a retreat down the passes. +The council--Pottinger must have written sarcastically when he termed it +a 'council of war'--unanimously decided that to remain in Cabul and to +force a retreat were alike impracticable, and that nothing remained but +the endeavour to release the army by agreeing to the conditions offered +by the enemy. 'Under these circumstances,' in the words of Pottinger, 'as +the Major-General coincided with the officers of the council, and refused +to attempt occupying the Balla Hissar, and as his second in command +declared that impracticable, I considered it my duty, notwithstanding my +repugnance to and disapproval of the measure, to yield, and attempt to +carry on a negotiation.' + +This Pottinger accordingly did. The first demand with which he had to +comply was to give bills for the great sums promised by the Envoy to the +chiefs for their services in furthering and supporting his treaty. This +imposition had to be submitted to, since the Afghans stopped the supplies +until the extortion was complied with. The next concession required was +the surrender of the artillery of the force, with the exception of six +field and three mule guns; and the military chiefs endured this +humiliation, against which even the demoralised soldiery chafed. Then the +demand for hostages had to be complied with, and four officers were sent +on to join the two hostages already in Afghan hands. The chiefs had +demanded four married hostages, with their wives and children, and a +circular was sent round offering to volunteers the inducement of a large +stipend; but the sentiment of repulsion was too strong to be overcome by +the bribe. The sick and wounded who could not bear the march were sent +into the city in accordance with an article of the treaty, two surgeons +accompanying their patients. + +The treaty, ratified by the leading chiefs and sent into cantonments on +New Year's Day 1842, provided that the British troops, within twenty-four +hours after receiving transport, and under the protection of certain +chiefs and an adequate escort, should begin their march of evacuation, +the Jellalabad garrison moving down to Peshawur in advance; that the six +hostages left in Cabul should be well treated, and liberated on the +arrival at Peshawur of Dost Mahomed; the sick and wounded left behind to +be at liberty to return to India on their recovery; all small arms and +ordnance stores in the cantonment magazine to be made over to the Afghans +'as a token of friendship,' on which account also, they were to have all +the British cannon except as above mentioned; the Afghans to escort the +Ghuznee garrison in safety to Peshawur; and a further stipulation was +that the British troops in Candahar and Western Afghanistan were to +resign the territories occupied by them and start quickly for India, +provisioned and protected from molestation by the way. + +Severe and humiliating as were those terms, they were not obtained +without difficulty. The terms put forward in the earlier drafts of the +treaty were yet more exacting, and the tone of the demands was abrupt, +contemptuous, and insulting. Pottinger had to plead, to entreat, to be +abject; to beg the masterful Afghans 'not to overpower the weak with +sufferings'; 'to be good enough to excuse the women from the suffering' +of remaining as hostages; and to entreat them 'not to forget kindness' +shown by us in former days. One blushes not for but with the gallant +Pottinger, loyally carrying out the miserable duty put upon him. The +shame was not his; it lay on the council of superior officers, who +overruled his remonstrances, and ground his face into the dust. + +Our people were made to pass under the yoke every hour of their wretched +lives during those last winter days in the Cabul cantonments. The +fanatics and the common folk of the city and its environs swarmed around +our petty ramparts, with their foul sneers and their blackguard taunts, +hurled with impunity from where they stood at the muzzles of the loaded +guns which the gunners were forbidden to fire. Officers and rank and file +were in a condition of smouldering fury, but no act of reprisal or +retribution was permitted. If the present was one continuous misery, the +future lowered yet more gloomily. It was of common knowledge as well in +the cantonments as in the city, that the engagements made by the chiefs +were not worth the paper on which they had been written, and that +treachery was being concerted against the force on its impending travail +through the passes. It was told by a chief to one of the officers who was +his friend, that Akbar Khan had sworn to have in his possession the +British ladies as security for the safe restoration of his own family and +relatives, and, strange forecast to be fulfilled almost to the very +letter, had vowed to annihilate every soldier of the British army with +the exception of one man, who should reach Jellalabad to tell the story +of the massacre of all his comrades. Pottinger was well aware how +desperate was the situation of the hapless people on whose behalf he had +bent so low his proud soul. Mohun Lal warned him of the treachery the +chiefs were plotting, and assured him that unless their sons should +accompany the army as hostages, it would be attacked on the march. Day +after day the departure was delayed, on the pretext that the chiefs had +not completed their preparations for the safe conduct of the force and +its encumbrances. Day after day the snow was falling with a quiet, +ruthless persistency. The bitter night frosts were destroying the sepoys +and the camp followers, their vitality weakened by semi-starvation and by +the lack of firewood which had long distressed them. At length on January +5th, Sturt the engineer officer got his instructions to throw down into +the ditch a section of the eastern rampart, and so furnish a freer exit +than the gates could afford. The supply of transport was inadequate, +provisions were scant, and the escort promised by the chiefs was not +forthcoming. Pottinger advised waiting yet a little longer, until +supplies and escort should arrive; but for once the military chiefs were +set against the policy of delay, and firm orders were issued that the +cantonments should be evacuated on the following day. + +Shah Soojah remained in Cabul. The resolution became him better than +anything else we know of the unfortunate man. It may be he reasoned that +he had a chance for life by remaining in the Balla Hissar, and that from +what he knew, there was no chance of life for anyone participating in the +fateful march. He behaved fairly by the British authorities, sending more +than one solemn warning pressing on them the occupation of the Balla +Hissar. And there was some dignity in his appeal to Brigadier Anquetil, +who commanded his own contingent, 'if it were well to forsake him in the +hour of need, and to deprive him of the aid of that force which he had +hitherto been taught to regard as his own?' + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE CATASTROPHE + +The ill-omened evacuation by our doomed people of the cantonments wherein +for two months they had undergone every extremity of humiliation and +contumely, was begun on the dreary winter morning of January 6th, 1842. +Snow lay deep on plain and hill-side; the cruel cold, penetrating through +the warmest clothing, bit fiercely into the debilitated and thinly clad +frames of the sepoys and the great horde of camp followers. The military +force which marched out of cantonments consisted of about 4500 armed men, +of whom about 690 were Europeans, 2840 native soldiers on foot, and 970 +native cavalrymen. The gallant troop of Company's Horse-Artillery marched +out with its full complement of six guns, to which, with three pieces of +the mountain train, the artillery arm of the departing force was +restricted by the degrading terms imposed by the Afghan chiefs. In good +heart and resolutely commanded, a body of disciplined troops thus +constituted, and of a fighting strength so respectable, might have been +trusted not only to hold its own against Afghan onslaught, but if +necessary to take the offensive with success. But alas, the heart of the +hapless force had gone to water, its discipline was a wreck, its chiefs +were feeble and apathetic; its steps were dogged by the incubus of some +12,000 camp followers, with a great company of women and children. The +awful fate brooded over its forlorn banners of expiating by its utter +annihilation, the wretched folly and sinister prosecution of the +enterprise whose deserved failure was to be branded yet deeper on the +gloomiest page of our national history, by the impending catastrophe of +which the dark shadow already lay upon the blighted column. + +The advance began to move out from cantonments at nine A.M. The march was +delayed at the river by the non-completion of the temporary bridge, and +the whole of the advance was not across until after noon. The main body +under Shelton, which was accompanied by the ladies, invalids, and sick, +slowly followed. It as well as the advance was disorganised from the +first by the throngs of camp followers with the baggage, who could not be +prevented from mixing themselves up with the troops. The Afghans occupied +the cantonments as portion after portion was evacuated by our people, +rending the air with their exulting cries, and committing every kind of +atrocity. It was late in the afternoon before the long train of camels +following the main body had cleared the cantonments; and meanwhile the +rear-guard was massed outside, in the space between the rampart and the +canal, among the chaos of already abandoned baggage. It was exposed there +to a vicious jezail fire poured into it by the Afghans, who abandoned the +pleasures of plunder and arson for the yet greater joy of slaughtering +the Feringhees. When the rear-guard moved away in the twilight, an +officer and fifty men were left dead in the snow, the victims of the +Afghan fire from the rampart of the cantonment; and owing to casualties +in the gun teams it had been found necessary to spike and abandon two of +the horse-artillery guns. + +The rear-guard, cut into from behind by the pestilent ghazees, found its +route encumbered with heaps of abandoned baggage around which swarmed +Afghan plunderers. Other Afghans, greedier for blood than for booty, were +hacking and slaying among the numberless sepoys and camp followers who +had dropped out of the column, and were lying or sitting on the wayside +in apathetic despair, waiting for death and careless whether it came to +them by knife or by cold. Babes lay on the snow abandoned by their +mothers, themselves prostrate and dying a few hundred yards further on. +It was not until two o'clock of the following morning that the rear-guard +reached the straggling and chaotic bivouac in which its comrades lay in +the snow at the end of the first short march of six miles. Its weary +progress had been illuminated by the conflagration raging in the +cantonments, which had been fired by the Afghan fanatics, rabid to erase +every relic of the detested unbelievers. + +It was a night of bitter cold. Out in the open among the snow, soldiers +and camp followers, foodless, fireless, and shelterless, froze to death +in numbers, and numbers more were frost-bitten. The cheery morning noise +of ordinary camp life was unheard in the mournful bivouac. Captain +Lawrence outlines a melancholy picture. 'The silence of the men betrayed +their despair and torpor. In the morning I found lying close to me, +stiff, cold, and quite dead, in full regimentals, with his sword drawn in +his hand, an old grey-haired conductor named Macgregor, who, utterly +exhausted, had lain down there silently to die.' Already defection had +set in. One of the Shah's infantry regiments and his detachment of +sappers and miners had deserted bodily, partly during the march of the +previous day, partly in the course of the night. + +No orders were given out, no bugle sounded the march, on the morning of +the 7th. The column heaved itself forward sluggishly, a mere mob of +soldiers, camp followers and cattle, destitute of any semblance of order +or discipline. Quite half the sepoys were already unfit for duty; in +hundreds they drifted in among the non-combatants and increased the +confusion. The advance of the previous day was now the rear-guard. After +plundering the abandoned baggage, the Afghans set to harassing the +rear-guard, whose progress was delayed by the disorderly multitude +blocking the road in front. The three mountain guns, temporarily +separated from the infantry, were captured by a sudden Afghan rush. In +vain Anquetil strove to rouse the 44th to make an effort for their +recapture. Green was more successful with his handful of artillerymen, +who followed him and the Brigadier and spiked the pieces, but being +unsupported were compelled a second time to abandon them. On this march +it became necessary also, from the exhaustion of their teams, to spike +and abandon two more of the horse-artillery guns; so that there now +remained with the force only a couple of six-pounders. While the +rear-guard was in action, a body of Afghan horse charged on the flank, +right into the heart of the baggage column, swept away much plunder, and +spread confusion and dismay far and wide. The rear of the column would +probably have been entirely cut off, but that reinforcements from the +advance under Shelton pushed back the enemy, and by crowning the lateral +heights kept open the thoroughfare. At Bootkhak was found Akbar Khan, who +professed to have been commissioned to escort the force to Jellalabad, +and who blamed our people for having marched out prematurely from the +cantonments. He insisted on the halt of the column at Bootkhak until the +following morning, when he would provide supplies, but he demanded an +immediate subsidy of 15,000 rupees, and that Pottinger, Lawrence and +Mackenzie should be given up to him as hostages that the force would not +march beyond Tezeen until tidings should arrive that Sale had evacuated +Jellalabad. Those officers by the General's instructions joined the +Afghan chief on the following morning, and Akbar's financial requisition +was obsequiously fulfilled. After two days' marching our people, who had +brought out with them provisions for but five and a half days, expecting +within that time to reach Jellalabad, were only ten miles forward on +their march. + +Another night passed, with its train of horrors--starvation, cold, +exhaustion, death. Lady Sale relates that scarcely any of the baggage now +remained; that there was no food for man or beast; that snow lay a foot +deep on the ground; that even water from the adjacent stream was +difficult to obtain, as the carriers were fired on in fetching it; and +that she thought herself fortunate in being sheltered in a small tent in +which 'we slept nine, all touching each other.' Daylight brought merely a +more bitter realisation of utter misery. Eyre expresses his wonderment at +the effect of two nights' exposure to the frost in disorganising the +force. 'It had so nipped even the strongest men as to completely +prostrate their powers and incapacitate them for service; even the +cavalry, who suffered less than the rest, were obliged to be lifted on +their horses.' In fact, only a few hundred serviceable men remained. At +the sound of hostile fire the living struggled to their feet from their +lairs in the snow, stiffened with cold, all but unable to move or hold a +weapon, leaving many of their more fortunate comrades stark in death. A +turmoil of confusion reigned. The Afghans were firing into the rear of +the mass, and there was a wild rush of camp followers to the front, who +stripped the baggage cattle of their loads and carried the animals off, +leaving the ground strewn with ammunition, treasure, plate, and other +property. The ladies were no longer carried in litters and palanquins, +for their bearers were mostly dead; they sat in the bullet fire packed +into panniers slung on camels, invalids as some of them were--one poor +lady with her baby only five days old. Mess stores were being recklessly +distributed, and Lady Sale honestly acknowledges that, as she sat on her +horse in the cold, she felt very grateful for a tumbler of sherry, which +at any other time would have made her 'very unladylike,' but which now +merely warmed her. Cups full of sherry were drunk by young children +without in the least affecting their heads, so strong on them was the +hold of the cold. + +It was not until noon that the living mass of men and animals was once +more in motion. The troops were in utter disorganisation; the baggage was +mixed up with the advance guard; the camp followers were pushing ahead in +precipitate panic. The task before the wretched congeries of people was +to thread the stupendous gorge of the Khoord Cabul pass--a defile about +five miles long, hemmed in on either hand by steeply scarped hills. Down +the bottom of the ravine dashed a mountain torrent, whose edges were +lined with thick layers of ice, on which had formed glacier-like masses +of snow. The 'Jaws of Death' were barely entered when the slaughter +began. With the advance rode several Afghan chiefs, whose followers, by +their command, shouted to the Ghilzais lining the heights to hold their +fire, but the tribesmen gave no heed to the mandate. Lady Sale rode with +the chiefs. The Ghilzai fire at fifty yards was close and deadly. The men +of the advance fell fast. Lady Sale had a bullet in her arm, and three +more through her dress. But the weight of the hostile fire fell on the +main column, the baggage escort, and the rear-guard. Some of the ladies, +who mostly were on camels which were led with the column, had strange +adventures. On one camel was quite a group. In one of its panniers were +Mrs Boyd and her little son, in the other Mrs Mainwaring, with her own +infant and Mrs Anderson's eldest child. The camel fell, shot. A +Hindustanee trooper took up Mrs Boyd _en croupe_, and carried her through +in safety; another horseman behind whom her son rode, was killed, and the +boy fell into Afghan hands. The Anderson girl shared the same fate. Mrs +Mainwaring, with her baby in her arms, attempted to mount a baggage pony, +but the load upset, and she pursued her way on foot. An Afghan horseman +rode at her, threatened her with his sword, and tried to drag away the +shawl in which she carried her child. She was rescued by a sepoy +grenadier, who shot the Afghan dead, and then conducted the poor lady +along the pass through the dead and dying, through, also, the close fire +which struck down people near to her, almost to the exit of the pass, +when a bullet killed the chivalrous sepoy, and Mrs Mainwaring had to +continue her tramp to the bivouac alone. + +A very fierce attack was made on the rear-guard, consisting of the 44th. +In the narrow throat of the pass the regiment was compelled to halt by a +block in front, and in this stationary position suffered severely. A +flanking fire told heavily on the handful of European infantry. The +belated stragglers masked their fire, and at length the soldiers fell +back, firing volleys indiscriminately into the stragglers and the +Afghans. Near the exit of the pass a commanding position was maintained +by some detachments which still held together, strengthened by the only +gun now remaining, the last but one having been abandoned in the gorge. +Under cover of this stand the rear of the mass gradually drifted forward +while the Afghan pursuit was checked, and at length all the surviving +force reached the camping ground. There had been left dead in the pass +about 500 soldiers and over 2500 camp followers. + +Akbar and the chiefs, taking the hostages with them, rode forward on the +track of the retreating force. Akbar professed that his object was to +stop the firing, but Mackenzie writes that Pottinger said to him: +'Mackenzie, remember if I am killed that I heard Akbar Khan shout "Slay +them!" in Pushtoo, although in Persian he called out to stop the firing.' +The hostages had to be hidden away from the ferocious ghazees among rocks +in the ravine until near evening, when in passing through the region of +the heaviest slaughter they 'came upon one sight of horror after another. +All the bodies were stripped. There were children cut in two. Hindustanee +women as well as men--some frozen to death, some literally chopped to +pieces, many with their throats cut from ear to ear.' + +Snow fell all night on the unfortunates gathered tentless on the Khoord +Cabul camping ground. On the morning of the 9th the confused and +disorderly march was resumed, but after a mile had been traversed a halt +for the day was ordered at the instance of Akbar Khan, who sent into camp +by Captain Skinner a proposal that the ladies and children, with whose +deplorable condition he professed with apparent sincerity to sympathise, +should be made over to his protection, and that the married officers +should accompany their wives; he pledging himself to preserve the party +from further hardships and dangers, and afford its members safe escort +through the passes in rear of the force. The General had little faith in +the Sirdar, but he was fain to give his consent to an arrangement which +promised alleviation to the wretchedness of the ladies, scarce any of +whom had tasted a meal since leaving Cabul. Some, still weak from +childbirth, were nursing infants only a few days old; other poor +creatures were momentarily apprehending the pangs of motherhood. There +were invalids whose only attire, as they rode in the camel panniers or +shivered on the snow, was the nightdresses they wore when leaving the +cantonments in their palanquins, and none possessed anything save the +clothes on their backs. It is not surprising, then, that dark and +doubtful as was the future to which they were consigning themselves, the +ladies preferred its risks and chances to the awful certainties which lay +before the doomed column. The Afghan chief had cunningly made it a +condition of his proffer that the husbands should accompany their wives, +and if there was a struggle in the breasts of the former between public +and private duties, the General humanely decided the issue by ordering +them to share the fortunes of their families. + +Akbar Khan sent in no supplies, and the march was resumed on the morning +of the both by a force attenuated by starvation, cold, and despair, +diminished further by extensive desertion. After much exertion the +advance, consisting of all that remained of the 44th, the solitary gun, +and a detachment of cavalry, forced a passage to the front through the +rabble of camp followers, and marched unmolested for about two miles +until the Tunghee Tariki was reached, a deep gorge not more than ten feet +wide. Men fell fast in the horrid defile, struck down by the Afghan fire +from the heights; but the pass, if narrow, was short, and the advance +having struggled through it moved on to the halting-place at +Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and waited there for the arrival of the main body. But +that body was never to emerge from out the shambles in the narrow throat +of the Tunghee Tariki. The advance was to learn from the few stragglers +who reached it the ghastly truth that it now was all that remained of the +strong brigade which four days before had marched out from the Cabul +cantonments. The slaughter from the Afghan fire had blocked the gorge +with dead and dying. The Ghilzai tribesmen, at the turn into the pen at +the other end of which was the blocked gorge, had closed up fiercely. +Then the steep slopes suddenly swarmed with Afghans rushing sword in hand +down to the work of butchery, and the massacre stinted not while living +victims remained. The rear-guard regiment of sepoys was exterminated, +save for two or three desperately wounded officers who contrived to reach +the advance. + +The remnant of the army consisted now of about seventy files of the 44th, +about 100 troopers, and a detachment of horse-artillery with a single +gun. The General sent to Akbar Khan to remonstrate with him on the attack +he had allowed to be made after having guaranteed that the force should +meet with no further molestation. Akbar protested his regret, and pleaded +his inability to control the wild Ghilzai hillmen, over whom, in their +lust for blood and plunder, their own chiefs had lost all control; but he +was willing to guarantee the safe conduct to Jellalabad of the European +officers and men if they would lay down their arms and commit themselves +wholly into his hands. This sinister proposal the General refused, and +the march was continued, led in disorder by the remnant of the camp +followers. In the steep descent from the Huft Kotul into the Tezeen +ravine, the soldiers following the rabble at some distance, came suddenly +on a fresh butchery. The Afghans had suddenly fallen on the confused +throng, and the descent was covered with dead and dying. + +During the march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar to the Tezeen valley Shelton's +dogged valour had mainly saved the force from destruction. With a few +staunch soldiers of his own regiment, the one-armed veteran, restored now +to his proper _metier_ of stubborn fighting man, had covered the rear and +repelled the Ghilzai assaults with persevering energy and dauntless +fortitude. And he it was who now suggested, since Akbar Khan still held +to his stipulation that the force should lay down its arms, that a +resolute effort should be made to press on to Jugdulluk by a rapid night +march of four-and-twenty miles, in the hope of clearing the passes in +that vicinity before the enemy should have time to occupy them. + +That the attempt would prove successful was doubtful, since the force was +already exhausted; but it was the last chance, and Shelton's suggestion +was adopted. In the early moonlight the march silently began, an ill omen +marking the start in the shape of the forced abandonment of the last gun. +Fatal delay occurred between Seh Baba and Kutti Sung because of a panic +among the camp followers, who, scared by a few shots, drifted backwards +and forwards in a mass, retarding the progress of the column and for the +time entirely arresting the advance of Shelton's and his rear-guard. The +force could not close up until the morning, ten miles short of Jugdulluk, +and already the Afghans were swarming on every adjacent height. All the +way down the broken slope to Jugdulluk the little column trudged through +the gauntlet of jezail fire which lined the road with dead and wounded. +Shelton and his rear-guard handful performed wonders, again and again +fending off with close fire and levelled bayonets the fierce rushes of +Ghilzais charging sword in hand. The harassed advance reached Jugdulluk +in the afternoon of the 11th, and took post behind some ruins on a height +by the roadside, the surviving officers forming line in support of the +gallant rear-guard struggling forward through its environment of +assailants. As Shelton and his brave fellows burst through the cordon +they were greeted by cheers from the knoll. But there was no rest for the +exhausted people, for the Afghans promptly occupied commanding positions +whence they maintained a fire from which the ruins afforded but scant +protection. To men parched with thirst the stream at the foot of their +knoll was but a tantalising aggravation, for to attempt to reach it was +certain death. The snow they devoured only increased their sufferings, +and but little stay was afforded by the raw flesh of a few gun bullocks. +Throughout the day volley after volley was poured down upon the weary +band by the inexorable enemy. Frequent sallies were made, and the heights +were cleared, but the positions were soon reoccupied and the ruthless +fire was renewed. + +Captain Skinner, summoned by Akbar, brought back a message that General +Elphinstone should visit him to take part in a conference, and that +Brigadier Shelton and Captain Johnson should be given over as hostages +for the evacuation of Jellalabad. Compliance was held to be imperative, +and the temporary command was entrusted to Brigadier Anquetil. Akbar was +extremely hospitable to his compulsory guests; but he insisted on +including the General among his hostages, and was not moved by +Elphinstone's representations that he would prefer death to the disgrace +of being separated from his command in its time of peril. The Ghilzai +chiefs came into conference burning with hatred against the British, and +revelling in the anticipated delights of slaughtering them. Akbar seemed +sincere in his effort to conciliate them, but was long unsuccessful. +Their hatred seemed indeed stronger than their greed; but at length +toward nightfall Akbar announced that pacific arrangements had been +accepted by the tribes, and that what remained of the force should be +allowed to march unmolested to Jellalabad. + +How futile was the compact, if indeed there was any compact, was soon +revealed. The day among the ruins on the knoll had passed in dark and +cruel suspense--in hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, in the presence of +frequent death; and as the evening fell, in anguish and all but utter +despair. As darkness set in the conviction enforced itself that to remain +longer in the accursed place was madness; and the little band, leaving +behind perforce the sick and wounded, marched out, resolute to push +through or die fighting. In the valley the only molestation at first was +a desultory fire from the camping Ghilzais, who were rather taken by +surprise, but soon became wide awake to their opportunities. Some hurried +forward to occupy the pass rising from the valley to the Jugdulluk crest; +others, hanging on the rear and flanks of the column encumbered with its +fatal incubus of camp followers, mixed among the unarmed throng with +their deadly knives, and killed and plundered with the dexterity of long +practice. Throughout the tedious march up the steeply rising defile a +spattering fire came from the rocks and ridges flanking the track, all +but blocked by the surging concourse of miserable followers. The advance +had to employ cruel measures to force its way through the chaos toward +the crest. As it is approached from the Jugdulluk direction the flanking +elevations recede and merge in the transverse ridge, which is crowned by +a low-cut abrupt rocky upheaval, worn down somewhat where the road passes +over the crest by the friction of traffic. Just here the tribesmen had +constructed a formidable abattis of prickly brushwood, which stretched +athwart the road, and dammed back the fugitives in the shallow oval basin +between the termination of the ravine and the summit of the ridge. In +this trap were caught our hapless people and the swarm of their native +followers, and now the end was very near. From behind the barrier, and +around the lip of the great trap, the hillmen fired their hardest into +the seething mass of soldiers and followers writhing in the awful Gehenna +on which the calm moon shone down. On the edges of this whirlpool of +death the fell Ghilzais were stabbing and hacking with the ferocious +industry inspired by thirst for blood and lust for plunder. It is among +the characteristics of our diverse-natured race to die game, and even to +thrill with a strange fierce joy when hope of escape from death has all +but passed away and there remains only to sell life at the highest +possible premium of exchange. Among our people, face to face with death +on the rocky Jugdulluk, officers and soldiers alike fought with cool +deadly rancour. The brigadier and the private engaged in the same fierce +_melee_, fought side by side, and fell side by side. Stalwart Captain +Dodgin of the 44th slew five Afghans before he fell. Captain Nicholl of +the horse-artillery, gunless now, rallied to him the few staunch gunners +who were all that remained to him of his noble and historic troop, and +led them on to share with him a heroic death. + +All did not perish on the rugged summit of the Jugdulluk. The barrier was +finally broken through, and a scant remnant of the force wrought out its +escape from the slaughter-pit. Small detachments, harassed by sudden +onslaughts, and delayed by reluctance to desert wounded comrades, were +trudging in the darkness down the long slope to the Soorkhab. The morning +of the 13th dawned near Gundamuk on the straggling group of some twenty +officers and forty-five European soldiers. Its march arrested by sharp +attacks, the little band moved aside to occupy a defensive position on an +adjacent hillock. A local sirdar invited the senior officer to consult +with him as to a pacific arrangement, and while Major Griffiths was +absent on this errand there was a temporary suspension of hostilities. +The Afghans meanwhile swarmed around the detachment with a pretence of +friendship, but presently attempts were made to snatch from the soldiers +their arms. This conduct was sternly resented, and the Afghans were +forced back. They ascended an adjacent elevation and set themselves to +the work of deliberately picking off officer after officer, man after +man. The few rounds remaining in the pouches of the soldiers were soon +exhausted, but the detachment stood fast, and calmly awaited the +inevitable end. Rush after rush was driven back from its steadfast front, +but at last, nearly all being killed or wounded, a final onset of the +enemy, sword in hand, terminated the struggle, and completed the dismal +tragedy. Captain Souter of the 44th, with three or four privates all of +whom as well as himself were wounded, was spared and carried into +captivity; he saved the colours of his regiment, which he had tied round +his waist before leaving Jugdulluk. A group of mounted officers had +pushed forward as soon as they had cleared the barrier on the crest. Six +only reached Futtehabad in safety. There they were treacherously offered +food, and while they halted a few moments to eat two were cut down. Of +the four who rode away three were overtaken and killed within four miles +of Jellalabad; one officer alone survived to reach that haven of refuge. + +The ladies, the married officers, and the original hostages, followed +Akbar Khan down the passes toward Jugdulluk, pursuing the line of retreat +strewn with its ghastly tokens of slaughter, and recognising almost at +every step the bodies of friends and comrades. At Jugdulluk they found +General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton, and Captain Johnson, and learned +the fate which had overtaken the marching force. On the following day +Akbar quitted Jugdulluk with his hostages and the ladies, all of whom +were virtually prisoners, and rode away through the mountains in a +northerly direction. On the fourth day the fort of Budiabad in the +Lughman valley was reached, where Akbar left the prisoners while he went +to attempt the reduction of Jellalabad. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + +Sale's brigade, retreating from Gundamuk, reached Jellalabad on the 12th +November 1841. An investigation into the state of the fortifications of +that place showed them, in their existing condition, to be incapable of +resisting a vigorous assault. But it was resolved to occupy the place, +and to Captain George Broadfoot, as garrison engineer, was committed the +duty of making it defensible. This assuredly was no light task. The +enciente was far too extensive for the slender garrison, and its tracing +was radically bad. The ramparts were so dilapidated that in places they +were scarcely discernible, and the ruins strewn over what should have +been the glacis afforded near cover to assailants, whose attitude was +already so threatening as to hinder the beginning of repairing +operations. Their fire swept the defences, and their braves capered +derisively to the strains of a bagpipe on the adjacent rocky elevation, +which thenceforth went by the name of 'Piper's Hill.' A sortie on the +15th cleared the environs of the troublesome Afghans, supplies began to +come in, and Broad-foot was free to set his sappers to the task of +repairing the fortifications, in which work the entrenching tools he had +wrenched from the Cabul stores proved invaluable. How greatly Sale had +erred in shutting up his force in Jellalabad was promptly demonstrated. +The connecting posts of Gundamuk and Peshbolak had to be evacuated; and +thus, from Jumrood at the foot of the Khyber up to Cabul, there remained +no intermediate post in British possession with the solitary exception of +Jellalabad, and communications were entirely interrupted except through +the medium of furtive messengers. + +The Jellalabad garrison was left unmolested for nearly a fortnight, and +the repairs were well advanced when on the 29th the Afghans came down, +invested the place, and pushed their skirmishers close up to the walls. +On December 1st Colonel Dennie headed a sortie, which worsted the +besiegers with considerable slaughter and drove them from the vicinity. +Bad news came at intervals from Cabul, and at the new year arrived a +melancholy letter from Pottinger, confirming the rumours already rife of +the murder of the Envoy, and of the virtual capitulation to which the +Cabul force had submitted. A week later an official communication was +received from Cabul, signed by General Elphinstone and Major Pottinger, +formally announcing the convention which the Cabul force had entered into +with the chiefs, and ordering the garrison of Jellalabad forthwith to +evacuate that post and retire to Peshawur, leaving behind with 'the new +Governor,' an Afghan chief who was the bearer of the humiliating missive, +the fortress guns and such stores and baggage as there lacked transport +to remove. The council of war summoned by Sale was unanimous in favour of +non-compliance with this mandate. Broadfoot urged with vigour that an +order by a superior who was no longer a free agent and who issued it +under duress, could impose no obligation of obedience. Sale pronounced +himself untrammelled by a convention forced from people 'with knives at +their throats,' and was resolute in the expression of his determination +to hold Jellalabad unless ordered by the Government to withdraw. + +More and more ominous tidings poured in from Cabul. A letter received on +January both reported the Cabul force to be still in the cantonments, +living utterly at the mercy of the Afghans; another arriving on the 12th +told of the abandonment of the cantonments and the beginning of the +march, but that the forlorn wayfarers were lingering in detention at +Bootkhak, halted in their misery by the orders of Akbar Khan. Those +communications in a measure prepared the people in Jellalabad for +disaster, but not for the awful catastrophe of which Dr Brydon had to +tell, when in the afternoon of the 13th the lone man, whose approach to +the fortress Lady Butler's painting so pathetically depicts, rode through +the Cabul gate of Jellalabad. Dr Brydon was covered with cuts and +contusions, and was utterly exhausted. His first few hasty sentences +extinguished all hope in the hearts of the listeners regarding their +Cabul comrades and friends. + +There was naturally great excitement in Jellalabad, but no panic. The +working parties were called in, the assembly was sounded, the gates were +closed, the walls were lined, and the batteries were manned; for it was +believed for the moment that the enemy were in full pursuit of fugitives +following in Brydon's track. The situation impressed Broadfoot with the +conviction that a crisis had come in the fortunes of the Jellalabad +garrison. He thought it his duty to lay before the General the conditions +of the critical moment which he believed to have arrived, pointing out to +him that the imperative alternatives were that he should either firmly +resolve on the defence of Jellalabad to the last extremity, or that he +should make up his mind to a retreat that very night, while as yet +retreat was practicable. Sale decided on holding on to the place, and +immediately announced to the Commander-in-Chief his resolve to persevere +in a determined defence, relying on the promise of the earliest possible +relief. + +Because of the defection of his Sikh auxiliaries and the +faint-heartedness of his sepoys, Wild's efforts to cross the threshold of +the Khyber had failed, and with the tidings of his failure there came to +Sale the information that the effort for his relief must be indefinitely +postponed. It may be assumed that this intimation weakened in some degree +the General's expressed resolution to hold Jellalabad with determination, +and it is not to be denied that this resolution was in a measure +conditional on the not unwarranted expectation of early relief. Neither +he nor his adviser Macgregor appears to have realised how incumbent on +the garrison of Jellalabad it was to hold out to the last extremity, +irrespective of consequences to itself, unless it should receive a +peremptory recall from higher authority; or to have recognised the +glorious opportunity presented of inspiriting by its staunch constancy +and high-souled self-abnegation a weak government staggering under a +burden of calamity. Than Sale no braver soldier ever wore sword, but a +man may delight to head a forlorn hope and yet lack nerve to carry with +high heart a load of responsibility; nor was Macgregor so constituted as +to animate his chief to noble emprise. Fast on the heels of the gloomy +tidings from the Khyber mouth there came to them from Shah Soojah, who +was still the nominal sovereign at Cabul, a curt peremptory letter +obviously written under compulsion, of which the following were the +terms: 'Your people have concluded a treaty with us; you are still in +Jellalabad; what are your intentions? Tell us quickly.' + +Sale summoned a council of war, which assembled at his quarters on +January 27th. Its proceedings were recorded, and the documents laid +before it were preserved by Captain Henry Havelock in his capacity as +Sale's staff-officer. Record and papers were reclaimed from Havelock's +custody by General Sale before the evacuation of Afghanistan, and had +been long lost to sight. They have recently been deposited among the +records of the India Office, but not before their latest non-official +possessor had published some extracts from them. It is to be hoped that +the more important documents may be given to the public in full, since +passages from documents, whether intentionally or not, may be so +extracted as to be misleading. Broadfoot, who had been a member of the +council of war, and who was apparently aware of the suppression of the +official records, wrote in 1843 a detailed narrative of its proceedings +while his recollection of them was still fresh, and this narrative he +sent to Havelock, desiring him to note 'any points erroneously stated, +distinguishing between what you may merely not remember and what you know +I am mistaken in.' Havelock, who was a loyal and ardent admirer of +General Sale, having sparsely annotated Broadfoot's narrative, returned +it with the statement that he had compared it with memoranda still in his +possession, and that he considered that it 'contributes a fair and +correct statement of that which occurred.' The officers comprising the +council to whom Sale and Macgregor addressed themselves were Colonel +Dennie of the 13th, Colonel Monteath of the 35th N.I., Captains Backhouse +and Abbott of the artillery, Captain Oldfield commanding the cavalry, and +Captain Broadfoot the garrison engineer. The following is a summary of +the proceedings, as recorded by Broadfoot and authenticated by Havelock. + +After a few formal words from General Sale, he called on Macgregor to +submit a matter on which that political officer and himself were agreed. +Macgregor then described the situation from the point of view of Sale and +himself, and expressed their united conviction that nothing was to be +hoped for from the Government. Reserving his own liberty of action, he +sought the opinion of the officers on offers received from Akbar Khan to +treat for the evacuation of Afghanistan, and he laid before them a draft +answer to Shah Soojah's curt letter, professing the readiness of the +garrison to evacuate Jellalabad on his requisition, since it was held +only for him, but naming certain conditions: the exchange of hostages, +the restoration of British prisoners and hostages in exchange for the +Afghan hostages on arrival of the force at Peshawur, escort thither 'in +safety and honour,' with arms, colours, and guns, and adequate assistance +of supplies and transport. Both Sale and Macgregor frankly owned that +they were resolved to yield, and negotiate for safe retreat. + +Great excitement from the first had pervaded the assemblage, and when +Macgregor had finished his statement Broadfoot arose in his wrath. He +declined to believe that the Government had abandoned the Jellalabad +garrison to its fate, and there was a general outburst of indignation +when Sale produced a letter carrying that significance. Broadfoot waxed +so warm in his remonstrances against the proposed action that an +adjournment was agreed to. Next day Sale and Macgregor urged that it was +impossible to hold out much longer, that later retreat would be +impracticable, and that the scheme they proposed was safe and honourable. +Broadfoot denounced it as disgraceful, contended that they could hold +Jellalabad indefinitely--'could colonise if they liked'--and retreat at +discretion. He denied that the place was held for Shah Soojah, and +challenged their right to surrender the post unless by Government order. +Hostages he proclaimed worthless while the Afghans held heavier pledges +of ours in the shape of prisoners and hostages. He denounced as +disgraceful the giving of hostages on our part. Monteath's remark that +nobody would go as a hostage roused Oldfield to express himself tersely +but pointedly on the subject. 'I for one,' he exclaimed in great +agitation, 'will fight here to the last drop of my blood, but I plainly +declare that I will never be a hostage, and I am surprised that anyone +should propose such a thing, or regard an Afghan's word as worth +anything.' The resolution to treat for the abandonment of Jellalabad was +carried, Oldfield only voting with Broadfoot against it, but the +stipulations: regarding hostages were omitted. Broadfoot continued to +press modifications of the conditions set out in the proposed reply, +pleading, but in vain, that the restoration of the prisoners in Afghan +hands before departure of the garrison should be insisted on; and that +since evacuation was resolved on, it should at least be conducted as a +military operation, and not degradingly under escort. Then, and little +wonder, he objected to expressions in the draft letter as too abject, and +he was successful in procuring the alteration of them. The letter was +written out, signed by Macgregor, and despatched to Cabul. It was agreed +that those members of the council who chose to do should record in +writing the reasons for their votes, and this was done by Dennie, +Monteath, Abbott, and Broadfoot. + +Broadfoot, pending an answer from Cabul, set the garrison to work in +digging a ditch round the fortifications. The reply from the Shah, to the +effect 'If you are sincere in offers, let all the chief gentlemen affix +their seals,' was laid before the reassembled council on February 12th. +The implied imputation on the good faith of British officers might well +have stung to indignation the meekest; but the council's opinion was +taken as to the expediency of complying with the derogatory request made +by the Shah, as well as of a stipulation--a modification of what +Broadfoot had originally urged in vain--for the surrender of all +prisoners, hostages, sick, and wounded under detention in Afghanistan, on +the arrival at Peshawur of the Jellalabad brigade. The members of +council, who in the long interval since the previous meeting had been +gradually regaining their self-respect and mental equipoise, unanimously +declined to accept the proposals tendered them by their commanding +officer and his political ally; and a letter written by Monteath was +accepted, which 'was not a continuation of the negotiation.' + +Thus ended the deliberations of the memorable council of war, whose +eleventh hour resolve to 'hold the fort' mainly averted the ruin of +British prestige in India and throughout the regions bordering on our +Eastern Empire; and the credit of its final decision to repudiate the +humiliating proposals of Sale and Macgregor belongs to George Broadfoot, +who was firmly though silently backed by Havelock. The day after that +decision was formulated a letter came from Peshawur informing the +garrison that every effort would be made for its relief; and thenceforth +there was no more talk of surrender, nor was the courage of the little +brigade impaired even when the earthquake of February 19th shook the +newly repaired fortifications into wreck. Broadfoot's vehement energy +infected the troops, and by the end of the month the parapets were +entirely restored, the bastions repaired, and every battery +re-established. + +After the council of war had rejected the proposals laid before it, a +decision which in effect involved the maintenance of the defence to the +last extremity, nearly two months passed without the occurrence of any +important event, except the speedily retrieved misfortune of the +earthquake of February 19th. The close investment of the place by Akbar +Khan thwarted the efforts of the foraging parties to obtain much needed +supplies. Those efforts were not vigorous, for Sale, aware of his +garrison's poverty of ammunition, was bent on a passive defence, and +steadily refused his consent to vigorous sorties. The policy may have had +its abstract merits, but it was certainly unsatisfactory in this respect, +that perseverance in it involved the unpleasantness of apparently +inevitable starvation. General Pollock had arrived in Peshawur, and was +making energetic efforts to get his force in order for the accomplishment +of the relief of Jellalabad. But he foresaw serious delays, and so late +as the middle of March was still unable to specify with any definiteness +the probable date of his arrival at that place. The European troops in +Jellalabad would be out of meat rations early in April, and Havelock's +calculation was that the grain, on which mainly subsisted the native +soldiers, who had been on half rations since the new year, would be +exhausted before the middle of that month. Sale modified his policy of +inactivity when he learned that the blockading Afghans were attempting to +drive a mine under a salient of the defences, and Dennie on March 11th +led out a sally, destroyed the works, and thrust back Akbar's +encroachments. The general lack of vigour, however, on the garrison's +part emboldened the Afghans so much that they actually grazed their +flocks of sheep within 600 yards of the walls. This was too impudent, and +the General consented to a raid, which resulted in the acquisition of +some 500 sheep, an invaluable addition to the commissariat resources. It +is worth recording that the native regiment gave up its share of the +sheep to the soldiers of the 13th, on the ground that Europeans needed +animal food more than did natives of India. + +On April 6th the Afghan leader fired a salute in triumph for a +supposititious repulse of Pollock in the Khyber. In regard to what then +happened there is a strange conflict of testimony. General Sale, in a +private letter written six weeks later, states: 'I made my arrangements +with Macgregor to sally the next day, provided we did not hear that +Pollock had forced the pass.' Akbar's salutes, and the information of +spies that Pollock had fallen back, 'made us look very grave--our case +desperate, our provisions nearly out, and no relief at hand. I therefore +decided to play a bold stroke to relieve ourselves, and give courage to +Pollock's force in case of success. If we failed in thrashing Akbar, we +would have left our bones on the field.' Abbott's diary of April 5th and +6th records that spies reported that Pollock had been repulsed at Ali +Musjid, and that the heads of three of his officers had been sent in to +Akbar, whereupon 'all the commanding officers waited on the General, +beseeching him to attack Akbar instantly. The 13th and the battery got +all ready for work, but the old General was obstinate, and refused to +act.' Backhouse's diary (April 6th) mentions that Pollock having been +reported repulsed, and Akbar having fired a salute, the officers +commanding corps and detachments went in a body and proposed to the +General to attack Akbar instantly, but without success. 'Immediately the +matter was broached, the General set his face against anything of the +kind, and disagreed about every point--insisted that the enemy had 5000 +or 6000 men in camp, and were too strong for us; and then, the next +minute, that it was no use going out as we couldn't punish them, as they +_wouldn't stand_; and concluding with usual excuse for inactivity, "It +isn't our game." Words ran precious high....' + +Whether spontaneously or under pressure, General Sale must have ordered a +sortie in force; for at dawn of the 7th three infantry columns marched +out by the Cabul gate, the right commanded by Havelock, the centre by +Dennie, the left by Monteath, General Sale being in command of the whole +force. Akbar, reputed about 5000 strong, was in formation in front of his +camp about three miles west of Jellalabad, his left flank resting on the +river, with an advanced post of 300 men in the 'patched up' fort about +midway between his camp and Jellalabad. The prescribed tactics were to +march straight on the enemy, with which Monteath and Havelock complied; +but Dennie, whether with or without orders is a matter in dispute, +diverged to assail the 'patched up' fort. The outer defences were +carried, gallant old Dennie riding at the head of his men to receive his +death wound. In vain did the guns for which Sale had sent batter at the +inner keep, and the General abandoning the attempt to reduce it, led on +in person the centre column. Meanwhile Havelock and Monteath had been +moving steadily forward, until halted by orders when considerably +advanced. Havelock had to form square once and again against the Afghan +horsemen, who, however, did not dare to charge home. The artillery came +to the front at the gallop, and poured shot and shell into Akbar's mass. +The three columns, now abreast of each other, deployed into line, and +moving forward at the double in the teeth of the Afghan musketry fire, +swept the enemy clean out of his position, capturing his artillery, +firing his camp, and putting him to utter rout. Akbar, by seven o'clock +in the April morning, had been signally beaten in the open field by the +troops he had boasted of blockading in the fortress. + +The garrison of Jellalabad had thus wrought out its own relief. +Thenceforth it experienced neither annoyance nor scarcity. Pollock +arrived a fortnight after the dashing sally which had given the garrison +deliverance, and the head of his column was played into its camp on the +Jellalabad plain by the band of the 13th, to the significant tune 'Oh, +but ye've been lang o'coming.' The magniloquent Ellenborough dubbed +Sale's brigade 'the Illustrious Garrison,' and if the expression is +overstrained, its conduct was without question eminently creditable. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + +It was little wonder that the unexpected tidings of the Cabul outbreak, +and the later shock of the catastrophe in the passes, should have +temporarily unnerved the Governor-General. But Lord Auckland rallied his +energies with creditable promptitude. His successor was on the voyage +out, and in the remnant of his term that remained he could not do more +than make dispositions which his successor might find of service. Every +soldier of the 'Army of Retribution' was despatched to the frontier +during Lord Auckland's rule. Lord Auckland appointed to the command of +the troops which he was sending forward a quiet, steadfast, experienced +officer of the artillery arm, who had fought under Lake at Deig and +Bhurtpore, and during his forty years of honest service had soldiered +steadily from the precipices of Nepaul to the rice-swamps of the +Irrawaddy. Pollock was essentially the fitting man for the service that +lay before him, characterised as he was by strong sense, shrewd sagacity, +calm firmness, and self-command. When his superior devolved on him an +undue onus of responsibility he was to prove himself thoroughly equal to +the occasion, and the sedate, balanced man murmured not, but probably was +rather amused when he saw a maker of phrases essaying to deck himself in +his laurels. There were many things in Lord Auckland's Indian career of +which it behoved him to repent, but it must go to his credit that he gave +Pollock high command, and that he could honestly proclaim, as he made his +preparations to quit the great possession whose future his policy had +endangered, that he had contributed toward the retrieval of the crisis by +promptly furthering 'such operations as might be required for the +maintenance of the honour and interests of the British Government.' + +Brigadier Wild reached Peshawur with a brigade of four sepoy regiments +just before the new year. He was destitute of artillery, his sepoys were +in poor heart, and the Sikh contingent was utterly untrustworthy. To +force the Khyber seemed hopeless. Wild, however, made the attempt +energetically enough. But the Sikhs mutinied, expelled their officers, +and marched back to Peshawur; Wild's sepoys, behaving badly, were driven +back with loss from the mouth of the pass, and Wild himself was wounded. +When Pollock reached Peshawur on February 6th, 1842, he found half of +Wild's brigade sick in hospital, and the whole of it in a state of utter +demoralisation. A second brigade commanded by Brigadier-General +McCaskill, had accompanied Pollock, the sepoys of which promptly fell +under the evil influence of Wild's dispirited and disaffected regiments. +Pollock had to resist the pressing appeals for speedy relief made to him +from Jellalabad, and patiently to devote weeks and months to the +restoration of the morale and discipline of the disheartened sepoys of +his command, and to the reinvigoration of their physique. By kindness +combined with firmness he was able gradually to inspire them with perfect +trust and faith in him, and when in the end of March there reached him a +third brigade, comprising British cavalry and horse-artillery, ordered +forward by Lord Auckland on receipt of tidings of the destruction of the +Cabul force, he felt himself at length justified in advancing with +confidence. + +[Illustration: Sir George Pollock] + +Before daylight on the morning of April 5th Pollock's army about 8000 +strong, consisting of eight infantry regiments, three cavalry corps, a +troop and two batteries of artillery, and a mountain train, marched from +the Jumrood camping ground into the portals of the Khyber. Pollock's +scheme of operations was perfect in conception and complete in detail. +His main column, with strong advance and rear-guards, was to pursue the +usual road through the pass. It was flanked on each side by a chain of +infantry detachments, whose assigned duty was to crown the heights and +sweep them clear of assailants in advance of the head of the central +column. The Afreedi hill men had blocked the throat of the pass by a +formidable barrier, behind which they were gathered in force, waiting for +the opportunity which was never to come to them. For the main body of +Pollock's force serenely halted, while the flanking columns, breaking +into skirmishing order, hurried in the grey dawn along the slopes and +heights, dislodging the Afreedi pickets as they advanced, driving them +before them with resolute impetuosity, and pushing forward so far as to +take in reverse with their concentrated fire the great barrier and its +defenders. The clansmen, recognising the frustration of their devices, +deserted the position in its rear, and rushed tumultuously away to crags +and sungahs where knife and jezail might still be plied. The centre +column then advanced unmolested to the deserted barricade, through which +the sappers soon cleared a thoroughfare. The guns swept with shrapnel the +hill-sides in front, the flanking detachments pushed steadily further and +yet further forward, chasing and slaying the fugitive hillmen; and the +Duke of Wellington's observation was that morning fully made good, that +he had never heard that our troops were not equal, as well in their +personal activity as in their arms, to contend with and overcome any +natives of hills whatever.' The whole British force, in its order of +three columns, the centre in the bed of the hollow, the wings on the +flanking ridges, steadily if slowly moved on in the assured consciousness +of victory. It was sunset before the rear-guard was in camp under the +reoccupied Ali Musjid. The Sikh troops who were to keep open Pollock's +communications with Peshawur moved simultaneously on Ali Musjid by a more +circuitous route. + +While Pollock was halted opposite the throat of the Khyber waiting for +the demolition of the Afreedi barricade, the ill-starred Shah Soojah was +being murdered, on his way from the Balla Hissar of Cabul to review on +the Siah Sung slopes the reinforcements which Akbar Khan was clamouring +that he should lead down to aid that Sirdar in reducing Jellalabad before +relief should arrive. Ever since the outbreak of November Shah Soojah had +led a dog's life. He had reigned in Cabul, but he had not ruled. The +Sirdars dunned him for money, and jeered at his protestations of poverty. +It is not so much a matter of surprise that he should have been murdered +as that, feeble, rich, and loathed, he should have been let live so long. +It does not seem worth while to discuss the vexed question whether or not +he was faithful to his British allies. He was certainly entitled to argue +that he owed us nothing, since what we did in regard to him was nakedly +for our own purposes. Shah Soojah's second son Futteh Jung had himself +proclaimed his father's successor. The vicissitudes of his short reign +need not be narrated. While Pollock was gathering his brigades at +Gundamuk in the beginning of the following September, a forlorn Afghan, +in dirty and tattered rags, rode into his camp. This scarecrow was Futteh +Jung, who, unable to endure longer his sham kingship and the ominous +tyranny of Akbar Khan, had fled from Cabul in disguise to beg a refuge in +the British camp. + +Pollock's march from Ali Musjid to Jellalabad was slow, but almost +unmolested. He found, in his own words, 'the fortress strong, the +garrison healthy; and except for wine and beer, better off than we are.' +One principal object of his commission had been accomplished; he had +relieved the garrison of Jellalabad, and was in a position to ensure its +safe withdrawal. But his commission gave him a considerable discretion, +and a great company of his countrymen and countrywomen were still in +Afghan durance. The calm pulsed, resolute commander had views of his own +as to his duty, and he determined in his patient, steadfast way to tarry +a while on the Jellalabad plain, in the hope that the course of events +might play into his hands. + +Maclaren's brigade, which in the beginning of November 1841 General +Elphinstone had instructed General Nott to despatch with all speed to +Cabul, returned to Candahar early in December. Nott in despatching it had +deferred reluctantly to superior authority, and probably Maclaren not +sorry to have in the snowfall a pretext for retracing his steps. Atta +Mahomed Khan, sent from Cabul to foment mischief in the Candahar regions, +had gathered to his banner a considerable force. General Nott quietly +waited until the Sirdar, at the head of some 10,000 men, came within five +miles of Candahar, and then he crushed him after twenty minutes' +fighting. The fugitives found refuge in the camp of the disaffected +Dooranee chiefs, whose leader Meerza Ahmed was sedulously trying to +tamper with Nott's native troops, severe weather hindering the General +from attacking him. Near the end of February there reached Nott a letter +two months old from Elphinstone and Pottinger, ordering him to evacuate +Candahar and retire to India, in pursuance of the convention into which +they had entered. The Dooranee chiefs astutely urged that Shah Soojah, no +longer supported by British bayonets, was now ruling in Cabul, as an +argument in favour of Nott's withdrawal. Nott's answer was brief: 'I will +not treat with any person whatever for the retirement of the British +troops from Afghanistan, until I have received instructions from the +Supreme Government'--a blunt sentence in curious contrast to the missive +which Sale and Macgregor laid before the Jellalabad council of war. When +presently there came a communication from Government intimating that the +continued occupation of Candahar was regarded as conducive to the +interest of the state, Nott and Rawlinson were in a position to +congratulate themselves on having anticipated the wishes of their +superiors. The situation, however, became so menacing that early in March +its Afghan inhabitants were expelled from the city of Candahar to the +last soul; and then Nott, leaving a garrison in the place, took the field +in force. The old soldier, wary as he was, became the victim of Meerza's +wily strategy. As he advanced, the Afghans retired, skirmishing +assiduously. Leaving Nott in the Turnuk valley, they doubled back on +Candahar, and in the early darkness of the night of the 10th March they +furiously assailed the city gates. They fired one of the gates, and the +swarming ghazees tore down with fury its blazing planks and the red-hot +ironwork. The garrison behaved valiantly. Inside the burning gate they +piled up a rampart of grain bags, on which they trained a couple of guns +loaded with case. For three hours after the gate fell did the fanatics +hurl assault after assault on the interior barricade. They were terribly +critical hours, but the garrison prevailed, and at midnight, with a loss +of many hundreds, the obstinate assailants sullenly drew off. Nott, +although urgently summoned, was unable to reach Candahar until the 12th. + +Candahar was fortunately preserved, but at the end of March the +unpleasant tidings came that Ghuznee, which British valour had carried by +storm three years before, had now reverted into Afghan possession. The +siege had lasted for nearly three and a half months. In mid-December the +besiegers occupied the city in force, introduced by the citizens through +a subterranean way; and the garrison, consisting chiefly of a regiment of +sepoys, withdrew into the citadel. The bitter winter and the scant +rations took the heart out of the natives of the warm and fertile Indian +plains; but nevertheless it was not until March 6th that the garrison, +under pledge of being escorted to Peshawur with colours, arms, and +baggage, marched out. The unfortunates would have done better to have +died a soldierly death, with arms in their hands and the glow of fighting +in their hearts. As the event was, faith with them was broken, and save +for a few officers who were made prisoners, most were slaughtered, or +perished in a vain attempt to escape. + +During his long isolation Nott's resources had been seriously depleted, +and he had ordered up from Scinde a brigade, escorting much needed +treasure, ammunition, and medicines. Brigadier England was entrusted with +the command of this force, whose assemblage at Quetta was expected about +the end of March. Pending its gathering England had moved out toward the +entrance of the Kojuk Pass, where he met with a sharp and far from +creditable repulse, and fell back on Quetta miserably disheartened, +suggesting in his abjectness that Nott should abandon Candahar and retire +on him. The stout old soldier at Candahar waxed wroth at the limpness of +his subordinate, and addressed to England a biting letter, ordering +peremptorily the latter's prompt advance to Candahar, engaging to +dry-nurse him through the Kojuk by a brigade sent down from Candahar for +the purpose, and remarking sarcastically, 'I am well aware that war +cannot be made without loss; but yet perhaps British troops can oppose +Asiatic armies without defeat.' Thus exhorted England moved, to find his +march through the Kojuk protected by Wymer's sepoys from Candahar, who +had crowned the lateral heights before he ventured into the pass; and he +reached Candahar without maltreatment on the 10th May, bringing to Nott +the much needed supplies which rendered that resolute man equal to any +enterprise. + +It remained, however, to be seen whether any enterprise was to be +permitted to him and to his brother commander lying in camp on the +Jellalabad plain. Lord Ellenborough, the successor of Lord Auckland, had +struck a firm if somewhat inexplicit note in his earliest manifesto, +dated March 13th. A single sentence will indicate its tenor: 'Whatever +course we may hereafter take must rest solely on military considerations, +and hence in the first instance regard to the safety of our detached +garrisons in Afghanistan; to the security of our troops now in the field +from unnecessary risks; and finally, to the re-establishment of our +military reputation by the infliction upon the Afghans of some signal and +decisive blow.' Those were brave words, if only they had been adhered to. +But six weeks later his lordship was ordering Nott to evacuate Candahar +and fall back on Quetta, until the season should permit further +retirement to the Indus; and instructing Pollock, through the +Commander-in-Chief, to withdraw without delay every British soldier from +Jellalabad to Peshawur, except under certain specified eventualities, +none of which were in course of occurrence. Pollock temporised, holding +on to his advanced position by the plea of inability to retire for want +of transport, claiming mildly to find discretionary powers in the +Government instructions, and cautiously arguing in favour of an advance +by a few marches to a region where better climate was to be found, and +whence he might bring to bear stronger pressure for the liberation of the +prisoners. Nott was a narrower man than Pollock. When he got his orders +he regarded them as strictly binding, no matter how unpalatable the +injunctions. 'I shall not lose a moment,' he wrote, 'in making +arrangements to carry out my orders, without turning to the right or the +left, and without inquiring into the reasons for the measures enjoined, +whatever our own opinions or wishes may be.' He reluctantly began +preparations for withdrawal. Carriage was ordered up from Quetta, and a +brigade was despatched to withdraw the garrison of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and +to destroy the fort which Craigie had so long and valiantly defended. + +It would be tedious to detail the vacillations, the obscurities, and the +tortuosities of Lord Ellenborough's successive communications to his two +Generals in Afghanistan. Pollock had been permitted to remain about +Jellalabad until the autumn should bring cooler marching weather. Nott +had been detained at Candahar by the necessity for crushing menacing +bodies of tribal levies, but as July waned his preparations for +withdrawal were all but complete. On the 4th of that month Lord +Ellenborough wrote to him, reiterating injunctions for his withdrawal +from Afghanistan, but permitting him the alternatives of retiring by the +direct route along his line of communications over Quetta and Sukkur, or +of boxing the compass by the curiously circuitous 'retirement' _via_ +Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad. Pollock, for his part, was permitted, if +he thought proper, to advance on Cabul in order to facilitate Nott's +withdrawal, if the latter should elect to 'retreat' by the circuitous +route which has just been described. + +One does not care to characterise the 'heads I win, tails you lose' +policy of a Governor-General who thus shuffled off his responsibility +upon two soldiers who previously had been sedulously restricted within +narrow if varying limits. Their relief from those trammels set them free, +and it was their joy to accept the devolved responsibility, and to act +with soldierly initiative and vigour. The chief credit of the qualified +yet substantial triumph over official hesitation certainly belongs to +Pollock, who gently yet firmly forced the hand of the Governor-General, +while Nott's merit was limited to a ready acceptance of the +responsibility of a proffered option. A letter from Nott intimating his +determination to retire by way of Cabul and Jellalabad reached Pollock in +the middle of August, who immediately advanced from Jellalabad; and his +troops having concentrated at Gundamuk, he marched from that position on +7th September, his second division, commanded by M'Caskill, following +next day. Pollock was woefully short of transport, and therefore was +compelled to leave some troops behind at Gundamuk, and even then could +carry only half the complement of tentage. But his soldiers, who carried +in their haversacks seven days' provisions, would gladly have marched +without any baggage at all, and the chief himself was eager to hurry +forward, for Nott had written that he expected to reach Cabul on 15th +September, and Pollock was burning to be there first. In the Jugdulluk +Pass, on the 8th, he found the Ghilzais in considerable force on the +heights. Regardless of a heavy artillery fire they stood their ground, +and so galled Pollock's troops with sharp discharges from their jezails +that it became necessary to send infantry against them. They were +dislodged from the mountain they had occupied by a portion of the +Jellalabad brigade, led by gallant old General Sale, who had his usual +luck in the shape of a wound. + +This Jugdulluk fighting was, however, little more than a skirmish, and +Pollock's people were to experience more severe opposition before they +should emerge from the passes on to the Cabul plain. On the morning of +the 13th the concentrated force had quitted its camp in the Tezeen +valley, and had committed itself without due precaution to the passage of +the ravine beyond, when the Afghan levies with which Akbar Khan had +manned the flanking heights, opened their fire. The Sirdar had been +dissuaded by Captain Troup, one of his prisoners, from attempting futile +negotiations, and advised not to squander lives in useless opposition. +Akbar had replied that he was too deeply committed to recede, and that +his people were bent on fighting. They were not baulked in the +aspiration, which assuredly their opponents shared with at least equal +zeal. Pollock's advance-guard was about the middle of the defile, when +the enemy were suddenly discovered blocking the pass in front, and +holding the heights which Pollock's light troops should have crowned in +advance of the column. Akbar's force was calculated to be about 15,000 +strong, and the Afghans fought resolutely against the British regiments +which forced their way up the heights on the right and left. The ghazees +dashed down to meet the red soldiers halfway, and up among the precipices +there were many hand-to-hand encounters, in which the sword and the +bayonet fought out the issue. The Afghans made their last stand on the +rocky summit of the Huft Kotul; but from this commanding position they +were finally driven by Broadfoot's bloodthirsty little Goorkhas, who, +hillmen themselves from their birth, chased the Afghans from crag to +crag, using their fell kookeries as they pursued. It was Akbar Khan's +last effort, and the quelling of it cost Pollock the trivial loss of +thirty-two killed and 130 wounded. There was no more opposition, and it +was well for the Afghans, for the awful spectacles presented in the +Khoord Cabul Pass traversed on the following day, kindled in Pollock's +soldiers a white heat of fury. 'The bodies,' wrote Backhouse in his +unpublished diary, 'lay in heaps of fifties and hundreds, our gun wheels +crushing the bones of our late comrades at every yard for four or five +miles; indeed, the whole march from Gundamuk to Cabul may be said to have +been over the bodies of the massacred army.' Pollock marched unmolested +to Cabul on the 15th, and camped on the old racecourse to the east of the +city. + +Nott, in evacuating Candahar, divided his force into two portions, the +weaker of which General England took back to India by Quetta and Sukkur, +while on August 9th Nott himself, with two European battalions, the +'beautiful sepoy regiments' of which he had a right to be proud, and his +field guns, marched away from Candahar, his face set towards Cabul. His +march was uneventful until about midway between Khelat-i-Ghilzai and +Ghuznee, when on the 28th the cavalry, unsupported and badly handled in a +stupid and unauthorised foray, lost severely in officers and men, took to +flight in panic, and so gave no little encouragement to the enemy hanging +on Nott's flank. Two days later Shumshoodeen, the Afghan leader, drew up +some 10,000 men in order of battle on high ground left of the British +camp. Nott attacked with vigour, advancing to turn the Afghan left. In +reprisal the enemy threw their strength on his left, supporting their +jezail fire with artillery, whereupon Nott changed front to the left, +deployed, and then charged. The Afghans did not wait for close quarters, +and Nott was no more seriously molested. Reaching the vicinity of Ghuznee +on September 5th, he cleared away the hordes hanging on the heights which +encircle the place. During the night the Afghans evacuated Ghuznee. Soon +after daylight the British flag was waving from the citadel. Having +fulfilled Lord Ellenborough's ridiculous order to carry away from the +tomb of Sultan Mahmoud in the environs of Ghuznee, the supposititious +gates of Somnath, a once famous Hindoo shrine in the Bombay province of +Kattiawar, Nott marched onward unmolested till within a couple of marches +of Cabul, when near Maidan he had some stubborn fighting with an Afghan +force which tried ineffectually to block his way. On the 17th he marched +into camp four miles west of Cabul, whence he could discern, not with +entire complacency, the British ensign already flying from the Balla +Hissar, for Pollock had won the race to Cabul by a couple of days. + +For months there had been negotiations for the release of the British +prisoners whom Akbar Khan had kept in durance ever since they came into +his hands in the course of the disastrous retreat from Cabul in January, +but they had been unsuccessful, and now it was known that the unfortunate +company of officers, women, and children, had been carried off westward +into the hill country of Bamian. Nott's officers, as the Candahar column +was nearing Cabul, had more than once urged him to detach a brigade in +the direction of Bamian in the hope of effecting a rescue of the +prisoners, but he had steadily refused, leaning obstinately on the +absence from the instructions sent him by Government of any permission to +engage in the enterprise of attempting their release. He was not less +brusque in the intimation of his declinature when Pollock gave him the +opportunity to send a force in support of Sir Richmond Shakespear, whom, +with a detachment of Kuzzilbash horse, Pollock had already despatched on +the mission of attempting the liberation of the prisoners. The narrow old +soldier argued doggedly that Government 'had thrown the prisoners +overboard.' Why, then, should he concern himself with their rescue? If +his superior officer should give him a firm order, of course he would +obey, but he would obey under protest. Pollock disdained to impose so +enviable a duty on a recalcitrant man, and committed to Sale the +honourable and welcome service--all the more welcome to that officer +because his wife and daughter were among the captives. At the head of his +Jellalabad brigade, he was to push forward by forced marches on the track +of Shakespear and his horsemen. + +The strange and bitter experiences of the captives, from that miserable +January Sabbath day on which they passed under the 'protection' of Akbar +Khan until the mid-September noon when Shakespear galloped into their +midst, are recorded in full and interesting detail in Lady Sale's +journal, in Vincent Eyre's _Captivity_, and in Colin Mackenzie's +biography published under the title of _Storms and Sunshine of a +Soldier's Life_. Here it is possible only briefly to summarise the chief +incidents of the captivity. The unanimous testimony of the released +prisoners was to the effect that Akbar Khan, violent, bloody, and +passionate man though he was, behaved toward them with kindness and a +certain rude chivalry. They remained for nearly three months at Budiabad, +living in great squalor and discomfort. For the whole party there were +but five rooms, each of which was occupied by from five to ten officers +and ladies, the few soldiers and non-commissioned officers, who were +mostly wounded, being quartered in sheds and cellars. Mackenzie drily +remarks that the hardships of the common lot, and the close intimacy of +prison life, brought into full relief good and evil qualities; +'conventional polish was a good deal rubbed off and replaced by a +plainness of speech quite unheard of in good society.' Ladies and +gentlemen were necessitated to occupy the same room during the night, but +the men 'cleared out' early in the morning, leaving the ladies to +themselves. The dirt and vermin of their habitation were abominably +offensive to people to whom scrupulous cleanliness was a second nature. +But the captives were allowed to take exercise within a limited range; +they had among them a few books, and an old newspaper occasionally came +on to them from Jellalabad, with which place a fitful correspondence in +cypher was surreptitiously maintained. They had a few packs of playing +cards; they made for themselves backgammon and draught-boards, and when +in good spirits they sometimes played hopscotch and blindman's-buff with +the children of the party. The Sundays were always kept scrupulously, +Lawrence and Mackenzie conducting the service in turn. + +The earthquake which shook down the fortifications of Jellalabad brought +their rickety fort about the ears of the captives. Several escaped +narrowly with their lives when walls and roofs yawned and crumbled, and +all had to turn out and sleep in the courtyard, where they suffered from +cold and saturating dews. After the defeat of Akbar by the Jellalabad +garrison on April 7th, there was keen expectation that Sale would march +to their rescue, but he came not, and there were rumours among the guards +of their impending massacre in revenge for the crushing reverse Akbar had +experienced. Presently, however, Mahomed Shah Khan, Akbar's lieutenant, +arrived full of courtesy and reassurance, but with the unwelcome +intimation that the prisoners must prepare themselves to leave Budiabad +at once, and move to a greater distance from Jellalabad and their +friends. For some preparation was not a difficult task. 'All my worldly +goods,' wrote Captain Johnson, 'might be stowed away in a towel.' Others +who possessed heavier impedimenta, were lightened of the encumbrance by +the Ghilzai Sirdar, who plundered indiscriminately. The European soldiers +were left behind at Budiabad, and the band of ladies and gentlemen +started on the afternoon of April 10th, in utter ignorance of their +destination, under the escort of a strong band of Afghans. At the ford +across the Cabul river the cavalcade found Akbar Khan wounded, haggard, +and dejected, seated in a palanquin, which, weak as he was, he gave up to +Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, who were ill. A couple of days were spent at +Tezeen among the melancholy relics of the January slaughter, whence most +of the party were carried several miles further into the southern +mountains to the village of Zandeh, while General Elphinstone, whose end +was fast approaching, remained in the Tezeen valley with Pottinger, +Mackenzie, Eyre, and one or two others. On the evening of April 23d the +poor General was finally released from suffering of mind and body. Akbar, +who when too late had offered to free him, sent the body down to +Jellalabad under a guard, and accompanied by Moore the General's soldier +servant; and Elphinstone lies with Colonel Dennie and the dead of the +defence of Jellalabad in their nameless graves in a waste place within +the walls of that place. Toward the end of May the captives were moved up +the passes to the vicinity of Cabul, where Akbar Khan was now gradually +attaining the ascendant. Prince Futteh Jung, however, still held out in +the Balla Hissar, and intermittent firing was heard as the weary +_cortege_ of prisoners reached a fort about three miles short of Cabul, +which the ladies of the proprietor's zenana had evacuated in their +favour. Here they lived if not in contentment at least in considerable +comfort and amenity. They had the privacy of a delightful garden, and +enjoyed the freedom of bathing in the adjacent river. After the strife +between Akbar Khan and Futteh Jung ceased they were even permitted to +exchange visits with their countrymen, the hostages quartered on the +Balla Hissar. They were able to obtain money from the Cabul usurers, and +thus to supply themselves with suitable clothing and additions to their +rations, and their mails from India and Jellalabad were forwarded to them +without hindrance. The summer months were passed in captivity, but it was +no longer for them a captivity of squalor and wretchedness. Life was a +good deal better worth living in the pleasant garden house on the bank of +the Logur than it had been in the noisome squalor of Budiabad and the +vermin-infested huddlement of Zandeh. But they still-lived under the long +strain of anxiety and apprehension, for none of them knew what the morrow +might bring forth. While residing in the pleasant quarters in the Logur +valley the captives of the passes were joined by nine officers, who were +the captives of Ghuznee. After the capitulation the latter had been +treated with cruel harshness, shut up in one small room, and debarred +from fresh air and exercise. Colonel Palmer, indeed, had undergone the +barbarity of torture in the endeavour to force him to disclose the +whereabouts of treasure which he was suspected of having buried. + +Akbar had full and timely intimation of the mutual intention of the +British generals at Jellalabad and Candahar to march on Cabul, and did +not fail to recognise of what value to him in extremity might be his +continued possession of the prisoners. They had been warned of their +probable deportation to the remote and rugged Bamian; and the toilsome +journey thither was begun on the evening of August 25th. A couple of +ailing families alone, with a surgeon in charge of them, were allowed to +remain behind; all the others, hale and sick, had to travel, the former +on horseback, the latter carried in camel panniers. The escort consisted +of an irregular regiment of Afghan infantry commanded by one Saleh +Mahomed Khan, who when a subadar serving in one of the Shah's Afghan +regiments had deserted to Dost Mahomed. The wayfarers, female as well as +male, wore the Afghan costume, in order that they might attract as little +notice as possible. + +Bamian was reached on September 3d, where the wretchedness of the +quarters contrasted vividly with the amenity of those left behind on the +Cabul plain. But the wretchedness of Bamian was not to be long endured. +An intimacy had been struck up between Captain Johnson and Saleh Mahomed, +and the latter cautiously hinted that a reward and a pension might induce +him to carry his charges into the British camp. On September 11th there +was a private meeting between the Afghan commandant and three British +officers, Pottinger, Johnson, and Lawrence. Saleh Mahomed intimated the +receipt of instructions from the Sirdar to carry the prisoners over the +Hindoo Koosh into Khooloom, and leave them there to seeming hopeless +captivity. But on the other hand a messenger had reached Saleh from Mohun +Lal with the assurance that General Pollock, if he restored the +prisoners, would ensure him a reward of 20,000 rupees, and a life pension +of 12,000 rupees a year. Saleh Mahomed demanded and received a guarantee +from the British officers; and the captives bound themselves to make good +from their own resources their redemption money. The Afghan ex-Subadar +proved himself honest; the captives were captives no longer, and they +proceeded to assert themselves in the masterful British manner. They +hoisted the national flag; Pottinger became once again the high-handed +'political,' and ordered the local chiefs to come to his durbar and +receive dresses of honour. Their fort was put into a state of defence, +and a store of provisions was gathered in case of a siege. But in +mid-September came the tidings that Akbar had been defeated at Tezeen, +and had fled no one knew whither, whereupon the self-emancipated party +set out on the march to Cabul. At noon of the 17th they passed into the +safe guardianship of Shakespear and his horsemen. Three days later, +within a march of Cabul, there was reached the column which Sale had +taken out, and on September 21st Pollock greeted the company of men and +women whose rescue had been wrought out by his cool, strong +steadfastness. + +Little more remains to be told. There was an Afghan force still in arms +at Istalif, a beautiful village of the inveterately hostile Kohistanees; +a division marched to attack it, carried the place by assault, burnt part +of it, and severely smote the garrison. Utter destruction was the fate of +Charikar, the capital of the Kohistan, where Codrington's Goorkha +regiment had been destroyed. Pollock determined to 'set a mark' on Cabul +to commemorate the retribution which the British had exacted. He spared +the Balla Hissar, and abstained from laying the city in ruins, contenting +himself with the destruction of the principal bazaar, through which the +heads of Macnaghten and Burnes had been paraded, and in which their +mangled bodies had been exposed. Prince Futteh Jung, tired of his +vicissitudes in the character of an Afghan monarch, ceded what of a +throne he possessed to another puppet of his race, and gladly accompanied +the British armies to India. Other waifs of the wreck of a nefarious and +disastrous enterprise, among them old Zemaun Khan, who had been our +friend throughout, and the family of the ill-fated Shah Soojah, were well +content to return to the exile which afforded safety and quietude. There +also accompanied the march of the humane Pollock a great number of the +mutilated and crippled camp followers of Elphinstone's army who had +escaped with their lives from its destruction. On the 12th of October the +forces of Pollock and of Nott turned their backs on Cabul, which no +British army was again to see for nearly forty years, and set out on +their march down the passes. Jellalabad and Ali Musjid were partially +destroyed in passing. Pollock's division reached Peshawur without loss, +thanks to the precautions of its chief; but with M'Caskill and Nott the +indomitable Afghans had the last word, cutting off their stragglers, +capturing their baggage, and in the final skirmish killing and wounding +some sixty men of Nott's command. + +Of the bombastic and grotesque paeans of triumph emitted by Lord +Ellenborough, whose head had been turned by a success to which he had but +scantly contributed, nothing need now be said, nor of the garish pageant +with which he received the armies as they re-entered British territory at +Ferozepore. As they passed down through the Punjaub, Dost Mahomed passed +up on his way to reoccupy the position from which he had been driven. And +so ended the first Afghan war, a period of history in which no redeeming +features are perceptible except the defence of Jellalabad, the dogged +firmness of Nott, and Pollock's noble and successful constancy of +purpose. Beyond this effulgence there spreads a sombre welter of +misrepresentation and unscrupulousness, intrigue, moral deterioration, +and dishonour unspeakable. + + + + +PART II: THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + + + +CHAPTER I: THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + +A brief period of peace intervened between the ratification of the treaty +of Gundamuk on May 30th, 1879, and the renewal of hostilities consequent +on the massacre at Cabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the whole _entourage_ +of the mission of which he was the head. There was nothing identical or +even similar in the motives of the two campaigns, and regarded purely on +principle they might be regarded as two distinct wars, rather than as +successive campaigns of one and the same war. But the interval between +them was so short that the ink of the signatures to the treaty of +Gundamuk may be said to have been scarcely dry when the murder of the +British Envoy tore that document into bloody shreds; and it seems the +simplest and most convenient method to designate the two years of +hostilities from November 1878 to September 1880, as the 'second Afghan +war,' notwithstanding the three months' interval of peace in the summer +of 1879. + +Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and after a long struggle his son Shere Ali +possessed himself of the throne bequeathed to him by his father. The +relations between Shere Ali and the successive Viceroys of India were +friendly, although not close. The consistent aim of the British policy +was to maintain Afghanistan in the position of a strong, friendly, and +independent state, prepared in certain contingencies to co-operate in +keeping at a distance foreign intrigue or aggression; and while this +object was promoted by donations of money and arms, to abstain from +interference in the internal affairs of the country, while according a +friendly recognition to the successive occupants of its throne, without +undertaking indefinite liabilities in their interest. The aim, in a word, +was to utilise Afghanistan as a 'buffer' state between the northwestern +frontier of British India and Russian advances from the direction of +Central Asia. Shere Ali was never a very comfortable ally; he was of a +saturnine and suspicious nature, and he seems also to have had an +overweening sense of the value of the position of Afghanistan, interposed +between two great powers profoundly jealous one of the other. He did not +succeed with Lord Northbrook in an attempt to work on that Viceroy by +playing off the bogey of Russian aggression; and as the consequence of +this failure he allowed himself to display marked evidences of +disaffected feeling. Cognisance was taken of this 'attitude of extreme +reserve,' and early in 1876 Lord Lytton arrived in India charged with +instructions to break away from the policy designated as that of +'masterly inactivity,' and to initiate a new basis of relations with +Afghanistan and its Ameer. + +Lord Lytton's instructions directed him to despatch without delay a +mission to Cabul, whose errand would be to require of the Ameer the +acceptance of a permanent Resident and free access to the frontier +positions of Afghanistan on the part of British officers, who should have +opportunity of conferring with the Ameer on matters of common interest +with 'becoming attention to their friendly councils.' Those were demands +notoriously obnoxious to the Afghan monarch and the Afghan people. +Compliance with them involved sacrifice of independence, and the Afghan +loathing of Feringhee officials in their midst had been fiercely evinced +in the long bloody struggle and awful catastrophe recorded in earlier +pages of this volume. Probably the Ameer, had he desired, would not have +dared to concede such demands on any terms, no matter how full of +advantage. But the terms which Lord Lytton was instructed to tender as an +equivalent were strangely meagre. The Ameer was to receive a money gift, +and a precarious stipend regarding which the new Viceroy was to 'deem it +inconvenient to commit his government to any permanent pecuniary +obligation.' The desiderated recognition of Abdoolah Jan as Shere Ali's +successor was promised with the qualifying reservation that the promise +'did not imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of +the state.' The guarantee against foreign aggression was vague and +indefinite, and the Government of India reserved to itself entire +'freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the +obligation of material support.' + +The Ameer replied to the notice that a mission was about to proceed to +Cabul by a courteous declinature to receive an Envoy, assigning several +specious reasons. He was quite satisfied with the existing friendly +relations, and desired no change in them; he could not guarantee the +safety of the Envoy and his people; if he admitted a British mission, he +would have no excuse for refusing to receive a Russian one. An intimation +was conveyed to the Ameer that if he should persist in his refusal to +receive the mission, the Viceroy would have no other alternative than to +regard Afghanistan as a state which had 'voluntarily isolated itself from +the alliance and support of the British Government.' The Ameer arranged +that the Vakeel of the Indian Government should visit Simla, carrying +with him full explanations, and charged to lay before the Viceroy sundry +grievances which were distressing Shere Ali. That functionary took back +to Cabul certain minor concessions, but conveyed the message also that +those concessions were contingent on the Ameer's acceptance of British +officers about his frontiers, and that it would be of no avail to send an +Envoy to the conference at Peshawur for which sanction was given, unless +he were commissioned to agree to this condition as the fundamental basis +of a treaty. Before the Vakeel quitted Simla he had to listen to a +truculent address from Lord Lytton, in the course of which Shere Ali's +position was genially likened to that of 'an earthen pipkin between two +iron pots.' Before Sir Lewis Pelly and the Ameer's representative met at +Peshawur in January 1877, Shere Ali had not unnaturally been perturbed by +the permanent occupation of Quetta, on the southern verge of his +dominions, as indicating, along with other military dispositions, an +intended invasion. The Peshawur conference, which from the first had +little promise, dragged on unsatisfactorily until terminated by the death +of the Ameer's representative, whereupon Sir Lewis Pelly was recalled by +Lord Lytton, notwithstanding the latter's cognisance that Shere Ali was +despatching to Peshawur a fresh Envoy authorised to assent to all the +British demands. The justification advanced by Lord Lytton for this +procedure was the discovery purported to have been made by Sir Lewis +Pelly that the Ameer was intriguing with General Kaufmann at Tashkend. +Since Shere Ali was an independent monarch, it was no crime on his part +to enter into negotiations with another power than Great Britain, +although if the worried and distracted man did so the charge of folly may +be laid to him, since the Russians were pretty certain to betray him +after having made a cat's-paw of him, and since in applying to them he +involved himself in the risk of hostile action on the part of the +British. The wisdom of Lord Lytton's conduct is not apparent. The +truculent policy of which he was the instrument was admittedly on the +point of triumphing; and events curiously falsified his short-sighted +anticipation of the unlikelihood, because of the Russo-Turkish war then +impending, of any _rapprochement_ between the Ameer and the Russian +authorities in Central Asia. The Viceroy withdrew his Vakeel from Cabul, +and in the recognition of the Ameer's attitude of 'isolation and scarcely +veiled hostility' Lord Salisbury authorised Lord Lytton to protect the +British frontier by such measures as circumstances should render +expedient, 'without regard to the wishes of the Ameer or the interests of +his dynasty.' Lord Lytton took no measures, expedient or otherwise, in +the direction indicated by Lord Salisbury; the Ameer, as if he had been a +petted boy consigned to the corner, was abandoned to his sullen +'isolation,' and the Russians adroitly used him to involve us in a war +which lasted two years, cost us the lives of many valiant men, caused us +to incur an expenditure of many millions, and left our relations with +Afghanistan in all essential respects in the same condition as Lord +Lytton found them when he reached India with the 'new policy' in his +pocket. + +If the Russians could execute as thoroughly as they can plan skilfully, +there would be hardly any limit to their conquests. When England was +mobilising her forces after the treaty of San Stefano, and ordering into +the Mediterranean a division of sepoys drawn from the three presidencies +of her Indian Empire, Russia for her part was concerting an important +diversion in the direction of the north-western frontier of that great +possession. But for the opportune conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, the +question as to the ability of sepoy troops stiffened by British regiments +to cope with the mixed levies of the Tzar might have been tried out on +stricken fields between the Oxus and the Indus. When Gortschakoff +returned from Berlin to St Petersburg with his version of 'Peace with +Honour'--Bessarabia and Batoum thrown in--Kaufmann had to countermand the +concentration of troops that had been in progress on the northern +frontier of Afghanistan. But the Indian division was still much in +evidence in the Mediterranean, its tents now gleaming on the brown slopes +of Malta, now crowning the upland of Larnaca and nestling among the +foliage of Kyrenea. Kaufmann astutely retorted on this demonstration by +despatching, not indeed an expedition, but an embassy to Cabul; and when +Stolietoff, the gallant defender of the Schipka Pass, rode into the Balla +Hissar on August 11th, 1878, Shere Ali received him with every token of +cordiality and regard. + +No other course was now open to Her Majesty's Government than to insist +on the reception at Cabul of a British mission. The gallant veteran +officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, known to be held in regard by the Ameer, +was named as Envoy, and an emissary was sent to Cabul in advance with +information of the date fixed for the setting out of the mission. Shere +Ali was greatly perplexed, and begged for more time. 'It is not proper,' +he protested, 'to use pressure in this way; it will tend to a complete +rupture.' But Sir Neville Chamberlain was satisfied that the Ameer was +trifling with the Indian Government; and he had certain information that +the Ameer, his Ministers, and the Afghan outpost officers, had stated +plainly that, if necessary, the advance of the mission would be arrested +by force. This was what in effect happened when on September 21st Major +Cavagnari rode forward to the Afghan post in the Khyber Pass. The officer +who courteously stopped him assured him that he had orders to oppose by +force the progress of Sir Neville and his mission, so Cavagnari shook +hands with the Afghan major and rode back to Peshawur. + +The Viceroy sought permission to declare war immediately, notwithstanding +his condition of unpreparedness; but the Home Government directed him +instead to require in temperate language an apology and the acceptance of +a permanent mission, presenting at the same time the ultimatum that if a +satisfactory reply should not be received on or before the 20th November +hostilities would immediately commence. Meanwhile military preparations +were actively pushed forward. The scheme of operations was as follows: +three columns of invasion were to move simultaneously, one through the +Khyber Pass to Dakka, another through the Kuram valley, south of the +Khyber, with the Peiwar Pass as its objective, and a third from Quetta +into the Pisheen valley, to march forward to Candahar after reinforcement +by a division from Mooltan. To General Sir Sam Browne was assigned the +command of the Khyber column, consisting of about 10,000 men, with thirty +guns; to General Roberts the command of the Kuram valley column, of about +5,500 men, with twenty-four guns; and to General Biddulph the command of +the Quetta force, numbering some 6000 men, with eighteen guns. When +General Donald Stewart should bring up from Mooltan the division which +was being concentrated there, he was to command the whole southern force +moving on Candahar. The reserve division gathering at Hassan Abdul and +commanded by General Maude, would support the Khyber force; another +reserve division massing at Sukkur under General Primrose, would act in +support of the Candahar force; and a contingent contributed by the Sikh +Feudatory States and commanded by Colonel Watson, was to do duty on the +Kurum line of communication. The Generals commanding columns were to act +independently of each other, taking instructions direct from Army and +Government headquarters. + +No answer to the ultimatum was received from the Ameer, and on the +morning of November 21st Sir Sam Browne crossed the Afghan frontier and +moved up the Khyber on Ali Musjid with his third and fourth brigades and +the guns. Overnight he had detached Macpherson's and Tytler's brigades +with the commission to turn the Ali Musjid position by a circuitous +march, the former charged to descend into the Khyber Pass in rear of the +fortress, and block the escape of its garrison; the latter instructed to +find, if possible, a position on the Rhotas heights on the proper left of +the fortress from which a flank attack might be delivered. About noon Sir +Sam reached the Shagai ridge and came under a brisk fire from the guns of +Ali Musjid, to which his heavy cannon and Manderson's horse-battery +replied with good results. The Afghan position, which was very strong, +stretched right athwart the valley from an entrenched line on the right +to the Rhotas summit on the extreme left. The artillery duel lasted about +two hours, and then Sir Sam determined to advance, on the expectation +that the turning brigades had reached their respective objectives. He +himself moved forward on the right upland; on the opposite side of the +Khyber stream Appleyard led the advance of his brigade against the Afghan +right. No co-operation on the part of the turning brigades had made +itself manifest up till dusk; the right brigade had been brought to a +halt in face of a precipitous cliff crowned by the enemy, and it was +wisely judged that to press the frontal attack further in the meantime +would involve a useless loss of life. Sir Sam therefore halted, and sent +word to Appleyard to stay for the night his further advance, merely +holding the ridge which he had already carried. But before this order +reached him Appleyard was sharply engaged with the enemy in their +entrenched position, and in the fighting which occurred before the +retirement was effected two officers were killed, a third wounded, and a +good many casualties occurred among the rank and file of the native +detachments gallantly assailing the Afghan entrenchments. + +Early next morning offensive operations were about to be resumed, when a +young officer of the 9th Lancers brought intelligence that the Afghan +garrison had fled under cover of night, whereupon the fort was promptly +occupied. The turning brigades had been delayed by the difficult country +encountered, but detachments from both had reached Kata Kustia in time to +capture several hundred fugitives of the Ali Musjid garrison. The mass of +it, however--its total strength was about 4000 men--effected a retreat by +the Peshbolak track from the right of the entrenched position. Sir Sam +Browne's advance to Dakka was made without molestation, and on 20th +December he encamped on the plain of Jellalabad, where he remained +throughout the winter, Maude's reserve division keeping open his +communications through the Khyber Pass. The hill tribes, true to their +nature, gave great annoyance by their continual raids, and several +punitive expeditions were sent against them from time to time, but seldom +with decisive results. The tribesmen for the most part carried off into +the hills their moveable effects, and the destruction of their petty +forts apparently gave them little concern. For the most part they +maintained their irreconcilable attitude, hanging on the flanks of our +detachments on their return march through the lateral passes to their +camps, and inflicting irritating if not very severe losses. Occasionally +they thought proper to make nominal submission with tongue in cheek, +breaking out again when opportunity or temptation presented itself. +Detailed description of those raids and counter-raids would be very +tedious reading. It was when starting to co-operate in one of those +necessary but tantalising expeditions that a number of troopers of the +10th Hussars were drowned in a treacherous ford of the Cabul river near +Jellalabad. + +General Roberts, to whom the conduct of operations in the Kuram district +had been entrusted, crossed the frontier on November 21st, and marched up +the valley with great expedition. The inhabitants evinced friendliness, +bringing in live stock and provisions for sale. Reaching Habib Killa on +the morning of the 28th, he received a report that the Afghan force which +he knew to be opposed to him had abandoned its guns on the hither side of +the Peiwar Kotul, and was retreating in confusion over that summit. +Roberts promptly pushed forward in two columns. Building on the erroneous +information that the enemy were in a hollow trying to withdraw their +guns--in reality they were already in their entrenched position on the +summit of the Kotul--he ordered Cobbe's (the left) column to turn the +right of the supposed Afghan position, and debar the enemy from the +Kotul, while the other column (Thelwall's) was ordered to attack in +front, the object being to have the enemy between two fires. Cobbe's +leading regiment near the village of Turrai found its advance blocked by +precipices, and a withdrawal was ordered, the advantage having been +attained of forcing the enemy to disclose the position which he was +holding. Further reconnaissances proved that the Afghan line of defence +extended along the crest of a lofty and broken mountainous range from the +Spingawai summit on the left to the Peiwar Kotul on the right centre, the +right itself resting on commanding elevations a mile further south. The +position had a front in all of about four miles. It was afterwards +ascertained to have been held by about 3500 regulars and a large number +of tribal irregulars. General Roberts' force numbered about 3100 men. + +His scheme of operations he explained to his commanding officers on the +evening of December 1st. With the bulk of the force he himself was to +make a circuitous night march by his right on the Spingawai Kotul, with +the object of turning that position and taking the main Afghan position +on the Peiwar Kotul in reverse; while Brigadier Cobbe, with whom were to +remain the 8th (Queen's) and 5th Punjaub Infantry regiments, a cavalry +regiment and six guns, was instructed to assail the enemy's centre when +the result of the flank attack on his left should have made itself +apparent. + +The turning column, whose advance the General led in person, consisted of +the 29th N. I. (leading), 5th Goorkhas, and a mountain battery, all under +Colonel Gordon's command; followed by a wing of the 72d Highlanders, 2d +Punjaub Infantry, and 23d Pioneers, with four guns on elephants, under +Brigadier Thelwall. The arduous march began at ten P.M. Trending at first +rearward to the Peiwar village, the course followed was then to the +proper right, up the rugged and steep Spingawai ravine. In the darkness +part of Thelwall's force lost its way, and disappeared from ken. Further +on a couple of shots were fired by disaffected Pathans in the ranks of +the 29th N. I. That regiment was promptly deprived of the lead, which was +taken by the Goorkha regiment, and the column toiled on by a track +described by General Roberts as 'nothing but a mass of stones, heaped +into ridges and furrowed into deep hollows by the action of the water.' +Day had not broken when the head of the column reached the foot of the +steep ascent to the Spingawai Kotul. The Goorkhas and the 72d rushed +forward on the first stockade. It was carried without a pause save to +bayonet the defenders, and stockade after stockade was swept over in +rapid and brilliant succession. In half-an-hour General Roberts was in +full possession of the Spingawai defences, and the Afghan left flank was +not only turned but driven in. Cobbe was ordered by signal to co-operate +by pressing on his frontal attack; and Roberts himself hurried forward on +his enterprise of rolling up the Afghan left and shaking its centre. But +this proved no easy task. The Afghans made a good defence, and gave +ground reluctantly. They made a resolute stand on the further side of a +narrow deep-cut ravine, to dislodge them from which effort after effort +was ineffectually made. The General then determined to desist from +pressing this line of attack, and to make a second turning movement by +which he hoped to reach the rear of the Afghan centre. He led the 72d +wing, three native regiments, and ten guns, in a direction which should +enable him to threaten the line of the Afghan retreat. Brigadier Cobbe +since morning had been steadily although slowly climbing toward the front +of the Peiwar Kotul position. After an artillery duel which lasted for +three hours the Afghan fire was partially quelled; Cobbe's infantry +pushed on and up from ridge to ridge, and at length they reached a crest +within 800 yards of the guns on the Kotul, whence their rifle fire +compelled the Afghan gunners to abandon their batteries. Meanwhile +Roberts' second turning movement was developing, and the defenders of the +Kotul placed between two fires and their line of retreat compromised, +began to waver. Brigadier Cobbe had been wounded, but Colonel Drew led +forward his gallant youngsters of the 8th, and after toilsome climbing +they entered the Afghan position, which its defenders had just abandoned, +leaving many dead, eighteen guns, and a vast accumulation of stores and +ammunition. Colonel H. Gough pursued with his cavalry, and possessed +himself of several more guns which the Afghans had relinquished in their +precipitate flight. The decisive success of the Peiwar Kotul combat had +not cost heavily; the British losses were twenty-one killed and +seventy-two wounded. + +His sick and wounded sent back to Fort Kuram, General Roberts advanced to +Ali Khel, and thence made a reconnaissance forward to the Shutargurdan +Pass, whose summit is distant from Cabul little more than fifty miles. +Its height is great--upwards of 11,200 feet--but it was regarded as not +presenting serious obstacles to the advance by this route of a force from +the Kuram valley moving on Cabul. A misfortune befell the baggage guard +on one of the marches in the trans-Peiwar region when Captains Goad and +Powell lost their lives in a tribal onslaught. The somewhat chequered +experiences of General Roberts in the Khost valley need not be told in +detail. After some fighting and more marching he withdrew from that +turbulent region altogether, abjuring its pestilent tribesmen and all +their works. The Kuram force wintered in excellent health spite of the +rigorous climate, and toward the end of March 1879 its forward +concentration about Ali Kheyl was ordered, which was virtually +accomplished before the snow had melted from the passes in the later +weeks of April. Adequate transport had been got together and supplies +accumulated; Colonel Watson's contingent was occupying the posts along +the valley; and General Roberts was in full readiness promptly to obey +the orders to advance which he had been led to expect, and on which his +brother-general Sir Sam Browne had already acted to some extent. + +The march on Candahar of the two divisions under the command of General +Stewart had the character, for the most part, of a military promenade. +The tramp across the deserts of Northern Beloochistan was arduous; the +Bolan, the Gwaga, and the Kojuk passes had to be surmounted, and the +distances which both Biddulph and Stewart had to traverse were immensely +in excess of those covered by either of the forces operating from the +north-western frontier line. But uneventful marches, however long and +toilsome, do not call for detailed description. Stewart rode into +Candahar on January 8th, 1879, and the troops as they arrived encamped on +the adjacent plain. The Governor and most of his officials, together with +the Afghan cavalry, had fled toward Herat; the Deputy-Governor remained +to hand over the city to General Stewart. For commissariat reasons one +division under Stewart presently moved by the Cabul road on +Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which was found empty, the Afghan garrison having +evacuated it. Simultaneously with Stewart's departure from Candahar +Biddulph marched out a column westward toward the Helmund, remaining in +that region until the third week in February. On its return march to +Candahar the rear-guard had a sharp skirmish at Khushk-i-Nakhud with +Alizai tribesmen, of whom 163 were left dead on the field. Soon after the +return of Stewart and Biddulph to Candahar, orders arrived that the +former should retain in Candahar, Quetta, and Pishin a strong division of +all arms, sending back to India the remainder of his command under +Biddulph--the march to be made by the previously unexplored Thal-Chotiali +route to the eastward of the Pisheen valley. + +Before Sir Sam Browne moved forward from Jellalabad to Gundamuk he had +been able to report to the Viceroy the death of Shere Ali. That +unfortunate man had seen with despair the departure on December 10th of +the last Russian from Cabul--sure token that he need hope for nothing +from Kaufmann or the Tzar. His chiefs unanimous that further resistance +by him was hopeless, he released his son Yakoub Khan from his long harsh +imprisonment, constituted him Regent, and then followed the Russian +mission in the direction of Tashkend. Kaufmann would not so much as allow +him to cross the frontier, and after a painful illness Shere Ali died on +February 21st, 1879, near Balkh in northern Afghanistan. He was a man who +deserved a better fate than that which befell him. His aspiration was to +maintain the independence of the kingdom which he ruled with justice if +also with masterfulness, and he could not brook the degradation of +subjection. But, unfortunately for him, he was the 'earthen pipkin' which +the 'iron pot' found inconvenient. There had been plenty of manhood +originally in his son and successor Yakoub Khan, but much of that +attribute had withered in him during the long cruel imprisonment to which +he had been subjected by his father. Shere Ali's death made him nominal +master of Afghanistan, but the vigour of his youth-time no longer +characterised him. He reigned but did not rule, and how precarious was +his position was evidenced by the defection of many leading chiefs who +came into the English camps and were ready to make terms. + +After the flight of Shere Ali some correspondence had passed between +Yakoub Khan and Major Cavagnari, but the former had not expressed any +willingness for the re-establishment of friendly relations. In February +of his own accord he made overtures for a reconciliation, and soon after +intimated the death of his father and his own accession to the Afghan +throne. Major Cavagnari, acting on the Viceroy's authorisation, wrote to +the new sovereign stating the terms on which the Anglo-Indian Government +was prepared to engage in negotiations for peace. Yakoub temporised for +some time, but influenced by the growing defection of the Sirdars from +his cause, as well as by the forward movements of the forces commanded by +Browne and Roberts, he intimated his intention of visiting Gundamuk in +order to discuss matters in personal conference with Major Cavagnari. A +fortnight later he was on his way down the passes. + +Instructions had been given by the Viceroy that Yakoub Khan should be +received in the British camp with all honour and distinction. When his +approach was announced on May 8th, Cavagnari and a number of British +officers rode out to meet him; when he reached the camp, a royal salute +greeted him, a guard of honour presented arms, and Sir Sam Browne and his +staff gave him a ceremonious welcome. Cavagnari had full powers to +represent his Government in the pending negotiations, as to the terms of +which he had received from the Viceroy detailed instructions. The Ameer +and his General-in-Chief, Daoud Shah, came to the conference attired in +Russian uniforms. The negotiations were tedious, for the Ameer, his +Minister, and his General made difficulties with a somewhat elaborate +stupidity, but Cavagnari as a diplomatist possessed the gift of being at +once patient and firm; and at length on May 26th the treaty of peace was +signed, and formally ratified by the Viceroy four days later. By the +treaty of Gundamuk Afghanistan was deprived for the time of its +traditional character of a 'buffer state,' and its Ameer became virtually +a feudatory of the British Crown. He was no longer an independent prince; +although his titular rank and a nominal sovereignty remained to him, his +position under its articles was to be analogous to that of the mediatised +princes of the German Empire. The treaty vested in the British Government +the control of the external relations of Afghanistan. The Ameer consented +to the residence of British Agents within his dominions, guaranteeing +their safety and honourable treatment, while the British Government +undertook that its representatives should not interfere with the internal +administration of the country. The districts of Pisheen, Kuram, and Sibi +were ceded to the British Government along with the permanent control of +the Khyber and Michnai passes, and of the mountain tribes inhabiting the +vicinity of those passes; all other Afghan territory in British +occupation was to be restored. The obligations to which the treaty +committed the British Government were that it should support the Ameer +against foreign aggression with arms, money, or troops at its discretion, +and that it should pay to him and his successor an annual subsidy of +L60,000. Commercial relations between India and Afghanistan were to be +protected and encouraged; a telegraph line between Cabul and the Kuram +was forthwith to be constructed; and the Ameer was to proclaim an amnesty +relieving all and sundry of his subjects from punishment for services +rendered to the British during the war. + +That the treaty of Gundamuk involved our Indian Empire in serious +responsibilities is obvious, and those responsibilities were the more +serious that they were vague and indefinite, yet none the less binding on +this account. It is probable that its provisions, if they had remained in +force, would have been found in the long run injurious to the interests +of British India. For that realm Afghanistan has the value that its +ruggedness presents exceptional obstacles to the march through it of +hostile armies having the Indian frontier for their objective, and this +further and yet more important value that the Afghans by nature are frank +and impartial Ishmaelites, their hands against all foreigners alike, no +matter of what nationality. If this character be impaired, what virtue +the Afghan has in our eyes is lost. In his implacable passion for +independence, in his fierce intolerance of the Feringhee intruder, he +fulfils in relation to our Indian frontier a kindred office to that +served by abattis, _cheveux de frise,_ and wire entanglements in front of +a military position. The short-lived treaty, for which the sanguine Mr +Stanhope claimed that it had gained for England 'a friendly, an +independent, and a strong Afghanistan,' may now be chiefly remembered +because of the circumstance that it gave effect for the moment to Lord +Beaconsfield's 'scientific frontier.' + +The withdrawal of the two northern forces to positions within the new +frontier began immediately on the ratification of the treaty of Gundamuk, +the evacuation of Candahar being postponed for sanitary reasons until +autumn. The march of Sir Sam Browne's force from the breezy upland of +Gundamuk down the passes to Peshawur, made as it was in the fierce heat +of midsummer through a region of bad name for insalubrity, and pervaded +also by virulent cholera, was a ghastly journey. That melancholy +pilgrimage, every halting-place in whose course was marked by graves, and +from which the living emerged 'gaunt and haggard, marching with a +listless air, their clothing stiff with dried perspiration, their faces +thick with a mud of dust and sweat through which their red bloodshot eyes +looked forth, many suffering from heat prostration,' dwells in the memory +of British India as the 'death march,' and its horrors have been +recounted in vivid and pathetic words by Surgeon-Major Evatt, one of the +few medical officers whom, participating in it, it did not kill. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + +There were many who mistrusted the stability of the treaty of Gundamuk. +Perhaps in his heart Sir Louis Cavagnari may have had his misgivings, for +he was gifted with shrewd insight, and no man knew the Afghan nature +better; but outwardly, in his quiet, resolute manner, he professed the +fullest confidence. Cavagnari was a remarkable man. Italian and Irish +blood commingled in his veins. Both strains carry the attributes of +vivacity and restlessness, but Cavagnari to the superficial observer +appeared as phlegmatic as he was habitually taciturn. This sententious +imperturbability was only on the surface; whether it was a natural +characteristic or an acquired manner is not easy to decide. Below the +surface of measured reticent composure there lay a temperament of ardent +enthusiasm, and not less ardent ambition. In subtlety he was a match for +the wiliest Oriental, whom face to face he dominated with a placid +dauntless masterfulness that was all his own. The wild hill tribes among +whom he went about escortless, carrying his life continually in his hand, +recognised the complex strength of his personal sway, and feared at once +and loved the quiet, firm man, the flash of whose eye was sometimes +ominous, but who could cow the fiercest hillman without losing a tittle +of his cool composure. + +[Illustration: _From a Photograph by Bourne & Shepherd: Sir Louis +Cavagnari and Sirdars_] + +Cavagnari had negotiated the treaty of Gundamuk, the real importance of +which consisted in the Afghan acceptance of a British Resident at Cabul. +The honour, the duty, and the danger naturally fell to him of being the +first occupant of a post created mainly by his own mingled tact and +strength. Many of his friends regarded him in the light of the leader of +a forlorn hope, and probably Cavagnari recognised with perfect clearness +the risks which encompassed his embassy; but apart from mayhap a little +added gravity in his leave-takings when he quitted Simla, he gave no +sign. It was not a very imposing mission at whose head he rode into the +Balla Hissar of Cabul on July 24th, 1879. His companions were his +secretary, Mr William Jenkins, a young Scotsman of the Punjaub Civil +Service, Dr Ambrose Kelly, the medical officer of the embassy, and the +gallant, stalwart young Lieutenant W. R. P. Hamilton, V.C., commanding +the modest escort of seventy-five soldiers of the Guides. It was held +that an escort so scanty was sufficient, since the Ameer had pledged +himself personally for the safety and protection of the mission. The +Envoy was received with high honour, and conducted to the roomy quarters +in the Balla Hissar which had been prepared as the Residency, within easy +distance of the Ameer's palace. Unquestionably the mission was welcome +neither to the Afghan ruler nor to the people, but Cavagnari, writing to +the Viceroy, made the best of things. The arrival at the adjacent Sherpur +cantonments of the Herat regiments in the beginning of August was +extremely unfortunate for the mission. Those troops had been inspired by +their commander Ayoub Khan with intense hatred to the English, and they +marched through the Cabul streets shouting objurgations against the +British Envoy, and picking quarrels with the soldiers of his escort. A +pensioned sepoy who had learned that the Afghan troops had been ordered +to abuse the Eltchi, warned Cavagnari of the danger signals. Cavagnari's +calm remark was, 'Dogs that bark don't bite.' The old soldier earnestly +urged, 'But these dogs do bite, and there is danger.' 'Well,' said +Cavagnari, 'they can only kill the handful of us here, and our death will +be avenged.' The days passed, and it seemed that Cavagnari's diagnosis of +the situation was the accurate one. The last words of his last message to +the Viceroy, despatched on September 2d, were 'All well.' The writer of +those words was a dead man, and his mission had perished with him, almost +as soon as the cheerful message borne along the telegraph wires reached +its destination. + +In the morning of September 3d some Afghan regiments paraded without arms +in the Balla Hissar to receive their pay. An instalment was paid, but the +soldiers clamoured for arrears due. The demand was refused, a riot began, +and the shout rose that the British Eltchi might prove a free-handed +paymaster. There was a rush toward the Residency, and while some of the +Afghan soldiers resorted to stone-throwing, others ran for arms to their +quarters, and looted the Arsenal in the upper Balla Hissar. The Residency +gates had been closed on the first alarm, and fire was promptly opened on +the rabble. The place was never intended for defence, commanded as it was +at close range from the higher level of the Arsenal, whence a heavy +continuous fire was from the first poured down. The mob of the city in +their thousands hurried to co-operate with the mutinied soldiers and +share in the spoils of the sack, so that the Residency was soon besieged. +As soon as the outbreak manifested itself Cavagnari had sent a message to +the Ameer, and the communication admittedly reached the latter's hands. +He had more than 2000 troops in the Balla Hissar, still at least +nominally loyal; he had guaranteed the protection of the mission, and it +behoved him to do what in him lay to fulfil his pledge. But the Ameer sat +supine in his palace, doing no more than send his General-in-Chief Daoud +Shah to remonstrate with the insurgents. Daoud Shah went on the errand, +but it is questionable whether he showed any energy, or indeed desired +that the besiegers should desist. It was claimed by and for him that he +was maltreated and indeed wounded by the mob, and it appears that he did +ride into the throng and was forcibly dismounted. He might perhaps have +exerted himself with greater determination if he had received more +specific orders from his master the Ameer. That feeble or treacherous +prince never stirred. To the frequent urgent messages sent him by +Lieutenant Hamilton, he replied vaguely: 'As God wills; I am making +preparations.' Meanwhile the little garrison maintained with gallant +staunchness hour after hour the all but hopeless defence.' While the +fighting was going on,' reported the pensioner who had previously warned +Cavagnari, 'I myself saw the four European officers charge out at the +head of some twenty-five of the garrison; they drove away a party holding +some broken ground. When chased, the Afghan soldiers ran like sheep +before a wolf. Later, another sally was made by a detachment, with but +three officers at their head. Cavagnari was not with them this time. A +third sally was made with only two officers leading, Hamilton and +Jenkins; and the last of the sallies was made by a Sikh Jemadar bravely +leading. No more sallies were made after this.' About noon the gates were +forced, and the Residency building was fired; but the defenders long +maintained their position on the roof and in a detached building. At +length the fire did its work, the walls and roof fell in, and soon the +fell deed was consummated by the slaughter of the last survivors of the +ill-fated garrison. Hamilton was said to have died sword in hand in a +final desperate charge. Tidings of the massacre were carried with great +speed to Massy's outposts in the Kuram valley. The news reached Simla by +telegraph early on the morning of the 5th. The authorities there rallied +from the shock with fine purposeful promptitude, and within a few hours a +telegram was on its way to General Massy's headquarters at Ali Khel +instructing him to occupy the crest of the Shutargurdan Pass with two +infantry regiments and a mountain battery, which force was to entrench +itself there and await orders. + +The policy of which Lord Lytton was the figurehead had come down with a +bloody crash, and the 'masterly inactivity' of wise John Lawrence stood +vindicated in the eyes of Europe and of Asia. But if his policy had gone +to water, the Viceroy, although he was soon to default from the constancy +of his purpose, saw for the present clear before him the duty that now in +its stead lay upon him of inflicting summary punishment on a people who +had ruthlessly violated the sacred immunity from harm that shields alike +among civilised and barbarous communities the person and suite of an +ambassador accepted under the provisions of a deliberate treaty. Burnes +and Macnaghten had met their fate because they had gone to Cabul the +supporters of a detested intruder and the unwelcome representatives of a +hated power. But Cavagnari had been slaughtered notwithstanding that he +dwelt in the Balla Hissar Residency in virtue of a solemn treaty between +the Empress of India and the Ameer of Afghanistan, notwithstanding that +the latter had guaranteed him safety and protection, notwithstanding that +Britain and Afghanistan had ratified a pledge of mutual friendship and +reciprocal good offices. Lord Lytton recognised, at least for the moment, +that no consideration of present expediency or of ulterior policy could +intervene to deter him from the urgent imperative duty which now suddenly +confronted him. The task, it was true, was beset with difficulties and +dangers. The forces on the north-western frontier had been reduced to a +peace footing, and the transport for economical reasons had been severely +cut down. The bitter Afghan winter season was approaching, during which +military operations could be conducted only under extremely arduous +conditions, and when the line of communications would be liable to +serious interruptions, The available troops for a prompt offensive did +not amount to more than 6500 men all told, and it was apparent that many +circumstances might postpone their reinforcement. + +When men are in earnest, difficulties and dangers are recognised only to +be coped with and overcome. When the Simla council of war broke up on the +afternoon of September 5th the plan of campaign had been settled, and the +leader of the enterprise had been chosen. Sir Frederick Roberts was +already deservedly esteemed one of the most brilliant soldiers of the +British army. He had fought with distinction all through the Great +Mutiny, earning the Victoria Cross and rapid promotion; he had served in +the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, and been chosen by Napier to carry home +his final despatches; and he had worthily shared in the toil, fighting, +and honours of the Umbeyla and Looshai expeditions. In his command of the +Kuram field force during the winter of 1878-9 he had proved himself a +skilful, resolute, and vigorous leader. The officers and men who served +under him believed in him enthusiastically, and, what with soldiers is +the convincing assurance of whole-souled confidence, they had bestowed on +him an affectionate nickname--they knew him among themselves as 'little +Bobs.' His administrative capacity he had proved in the post of +Quartermaster-General in India. Ripe in experience of war, Roberts at the +age of forty-seven was in the full vigour of manhood, alert in mind, and +of tough and enduring physique. He was a very junior Major-General, but +even among his seniors the conviction was general that Lord Lytton the +Viceroy, and Sir F. Haines the Commander-in-Chief, acted wisely in +entrusting to him the most active command in the impending campaign. + +Our retention of the Kuram valley was to prove very useful in the +emergency which had suddenly occurred. Its occupation enabled Massy to +seize and hold the Shutargurdan, and the force in the valley was to +constitute the nucleus of the little army of invasion and retribution to +the command of which Sir Frederick Roberts was appointed. The apex at the +Shutargurdan of the salient angle into Afghanistan which our possession +of the Kuram valley furnished was within little more than fifty miles of +Cabul, whereas the distance of that city from Lundi Kotul, our advanced +position at the head of the Khyber Pass, was about 140 miles, and the +route exceptionally difficult. Roberts' column of invasion was to consist +of a cavalry brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Dunham-Massy, and of +two infantry brigades, the first commanded by Brigadier-General +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General Baker, three batteries of +artillery, a company of sappers and miners, and two Gatling guns. The +Kuram valley between the Shutargurdan and the base was to be garrisoned +adequately by a force about 4000 strong, in protection of Roberts' +communications by that line until snow should close it, by which time it +was anticipated that communication by the Khyber-Jellalabad-Gundamuk line +would be opened up, for gaining and maintaining which a force of about +6600 men was to be detailed under the command of Major-General Bright, +which was to furnish a movable column to establish communications onward +to Cabul. A strong reserve force was to be gathered between Peshawur and +Rawal Pindi under the command of Major-General Ross, to move forward as +occasion might require, in the south-west Sir Donald Stewart was to +recall to Candahar his troops, which, having begun their march toward +India, were now mainly echeloned along the route to Quetta, when that +General would have about 9000 men at his disposition to dominate the +Candahar province, reoccupy Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and threaten Ghuznee, his +communications with the Indus being kept open by a brigade of Bombay +troops commanded by Brigadier-General Phayre. + +Sir Frederick Roberts left Simla on ET September along with Colonel +Charles Macgregor, C.B., the brilliant and daring soldier whom he had +chosen as chief of staff, and travelling night and day they reached Ali +Khel on the 12th. The transport and supply difficulty had to be promptly +met, and this was effected only by making a clean sweep of all the +resources of the Peshawur district, greatly but unavoidably to the +hindrance of the advance of the Khyber column, and by procuring carriage +and supplies from the friendly tribes of the Kuram. Notwithstanding the +most strenuous exertions it was not until the 1st October that Roberts' +little army, having crossed the Shutargurdan by detachments, was +rendezvoused at and about the village of Kushi in the Logur plain, within +forty-eight miles of Cabul. Some sharp skirmishes had been fought as the +troops traversed the rugged ground between Ali Khel and the Shutargurdan, +but the losses were trivial, although the General himself had a narrow +escape. A couple of regiments and four guns under the command of Colonel +Money were left in an entrenched camp to hold the Shutargurdan. + +The massacre of the British mission had no sooner been perpetrated than +Yakoub Khan found himself in a very bad way. The Cabul Sirdars sided with +the disaffected soldiery, and urged the Ameer to raise his banner for a +_jehad_ or religious war, a measure for which he had no nerve. Nor had he +the nerve to remain in Cabul until Roberts should camp under the Balla +Hissar and demand of him an account of the stewardship he had undertaken +on behalf of the ill-fated Cavagnari. What reasons actuated the anxious +and bewildered man cannot precisely be known; whether he was simply +solicitous for his own wretched skin, whether he acted from a wish to +save Cabul from destruction, or whether he hoped that his entreaties for +delay might stay the British advance until the tribesmen should gather to +bar the road to the capital. He resolved to fly from Cabul, and commit +himself to the protection of General Roberts and his army. The day before +General Roberts arrived at Kushi the Ameer presented himself in Baker's +camp, accompanied by his eldest son and some of his Sirdars, among whom +was Daoud Shah the Commander-in-Chief of his army. Sir Frederick on his +arrival at Kushi paid a formal visit to the Ameer, which the latter +returned the same afternoon and took occasion to plead that the General +should delay his advance. The reply was that not even for a single day +would Sir Frederick defer his march on Cabul. The Ameer remained in camp, +his personal safety carefully protected, but under a species of +honourable surveillance, until it should be ascertained judicially +whether or not he was implicated in the massacre of the mission. + +Yakoub had intimated his intention of presenting himself in the British +camp some days in advance of his arrival, and as telegraphic +communication with headquarters was open, his acceptance in the character +of an honoured guest was presumably in accordance with instructions from +Simla. The man who had made himself personally responsible for the safety +of Cavagnari's mission was a strange guest with an army whose avowed +errand was to exact retribution for the crime of its destruction. It +might seem not unreasonable to expect that, as an indispensable +preliminary to his entertainment, he should have at least afforded some +_prima facie_ evidence that he had been zealous to avert the fate which +had befallen the mission, and stern in the punishment of an atrocity +which touched him so nearly. But instead, he was taken on trust so fully +that Afghans resisting the British advance were not so much regarded as +enemies resisting an invasion and as constructive vindicators of the +massacre, as they were held traitors to their sovereign harbouring in the +British camp. + +On the morning of October 2d the whole force marched from Kushi toward +Cabul, temporarily cutting loose from communication with the +Shutargurdan, to avoid diminishing the strength of the column by leaving +detachments to keep the road open. All told, Roberts' army was the +reverse of a mighty host. Its strength was little greater than that of a +Prussian brigade on a war footing. Its fate was in its own hands, for +befall it what might it could hope for no timely reinforcement. It was a +mere detachment marching against a nation of fighting men plentifully +supplied with artillery, no longer shooting laboriously with jezails, but +carrying arms of precision equal or little inferior to those in the hands +of our own soldiery. But the men, Europeans and Easterns, hillmen of +Scotland and hillmen of Nepaul, plainmen of Hampshire and plainmen of the +Punjaub, strode along buoyant with confidence and with health, believing +in their leader, in their discipline, in themselves. Of varied race, no +soldier who followed Roberts but came of fighting stock; ever blithely +rejoicing in the combat, one and all burned for the strife now before +them with more than wonted ardour, because of the opportunity it promised +to exact vengeance for a deed of foul treachery. + +The soldiers had not long to wait for the first fight of the campaign. On +the afternoon of the 5th Baker's brigade, with most of the cavalry and +artillery, and with the 92d Highlanders belonging to Macpherson's +brigade, camped on the plain to the south of the village of Charasiah, +Macpherson remaining one march in rear to escort the convoy of ammunition +and stores. North of Charasiah rises a semicircular curtain of hills +ascending in three successive tiers, the most distant and loftiest range +closing in the horizon and shutting out the view of Cabul, distant only +about eleven miles. The leftward projection of the curtain, as one looks +northward, comes down into the plain almost as far as and somewhat to the +left of Charasiah, dividing the valley of Charasiah from the outer plain +of Chardeh. To the right front of Charasiah, distant from it about three +miles, the range is cleft by the rugged and narrow Sung-i-Nawishta Pass, +through which run the Logur river and the direct road to Cabul by Beni +Hissar. Information had been received that the Afghans were determined on +a resolute attempt to prevent the British force from reaching Cabul, and +the position beyond Charasiah seemed so tempting that it was regarded as +surprising that cavalry reconnaissances sent forward on three distinct +roads detected no evidences of any large hostile gathering. + +But next morning 'showed another sight.' At dawn on the 6th General +Roberts, anxious to secure the Sung-i-Nawishta Pass and to render the +track through it passable for guns, sent forward his pioneer battalion +with a wing of the 92d and two mountain guns. That detachment had gone +out no great distance when the spectacle before it gave it pause. From +the Sung-i-Nawishta defile, both sides of which were held, the +semicircular sweep of the hill-crests was crowned by an Afghan host in +great strength and regular formation. According to subsequent information +no fewer than thirteen regiments of the Afghan regular army took part in +the combat, as well as large contingents of irregular fighting men from +Cabul and the adjoining villages, while the British camp was threatened +from the heights on either side by formidable bodies of tribesmen, to +thwart whose obviously intended attack on it a considerable force had to +be retained. The dispositions of the Afghan commander Nek Mahomed Khan +were made with some tactical skill. The Sung-i-Nawishta Pass itself, the +heights on either side, and a low detached eminence further forward, were +strongly held by Afghan infantry; in the mouth of the pass were four +Armstrong guns, and on the flanking height twelve mountain guns were in +position. The projecting spur toward Charasiah which was the extreme +right of the Afghan position, was held in force, whence an effective fire +would bear on the left flank of a force advancing to a direct attack on +the pass. But Roberts was not the man to play into the hands of the +Afghan tactician. He humoured his conception so far as to send forward on +his right toward the pass, a small detachment of all arms under Major +White of the 92d, with instructions to maintain a threatening attitude in +that direction, and to seize the opportunity to co-operate with the +flanking movement entrusted to General Baker as soon as its development +should have shaken the constancy of the enemy. To Baker with about 2000 +infantry and four guns, was assigned the task of attacking the Afghan +right on the projecting spur and ridge, forcing back and dispersing that +flank; and then, having reached the right of the Afghan main position on +the farthest and loftiest range, he was to wheel to his right and sweep +its defenders from the chain of summits. + +Baker moved out toward his left front against the eminences held by the +Afghan right wing, which Nek Mahomed, having discerned the character of +Roberts' tactics, was now reinforcing with great activity. The 72d +Highlanders led the attack, supported vigorously by the 5th Goorkhas and +the 5th Punjaub Infantry. The resistance of the Afghans was stubborn, +especially opposite our extreme left, whence from behind their sungahs on +a steep hill they poured a heavy fire on the assailants. A yet heavier +fire came from a detached knoll on Baker's right, which the artillery +fire gradually beat down. The Afghans continued to hold the advanced +ridge constituting their first position until two o'clock, when a direct +attack, accompanied by a double flanking fire, compelled their +withdrawal. They, however, fell back only to an intermediate loftier +position about 700 yards in rear of the ridge from which they had been +driven. Approached by successive rushes under cover-of artillery fire, +they were then attacked vigorously and fell back in confusion. No rally +was permitted them, and by three o'clock the whole Afghan right was +shattered and in full flight along the edge of the Chardeh valley. Baker +unfortunately had no cavalry, else the fugitives would have suffered +severely. But the rout of the Afghan right had decided the fortune of the +day. Its defenders were already dribbling away from the main position +when Baker, wheeling to his right, marched along the lofty crest, rolling +up and sweeping away the Afghan defence as he moved toward the +Sung-i-Nawishta gorge. That defile had already been entered by the +cavalry of White's detachment, supported by some infantry. While Baker +had been turning the Afghan right, White and his little force had been +distinguishing themselves not a little. After an artillery preparation +the detached hill had been won as the result of a hand-to-hand struggle. +Later had fallen into the hands of White's people all the Afghan guns, +and the heights to the immediate right and left of the gorge had been +carried, the defenders driven away, and the pass opened up. But the +progress through it of the cavalry was arrested by a strongly garrisoned +fort completely commanding the road. On this fort Baker directed his +artillery fire, at the same time sending down two infantry regiments to +clear away the remnants of the Afghan army still lingering in the pass. +This accomplished, the fighting ceased. It had been a satisfactory day. +Less than half of Roberts' force had been engaged, and this mere brigade +had routed the army of Cabul and captured the whole of the artillery it +had brought into the field. The Afghan loss was estimated at about 300 +killed. The British loss was twenty killed and sixty-seven wounded. On +the night of the combat part of Baker's troops bivouacked beyond the +Sung-i-Nawishta, and on the following day the whole division passed the +defile and camped at Beni Hissar, within sight of the Balla Hissar and +the lofty ridge overhanging Cabul. + +On the afternoon of the 7th a violent explosion was heard in the Beni +Hissar camp from the direction of the Sherpur cantonment north of Cabul, +near the site of the British cantonments of 1839-41. Next morning +information came in that the Sherpur magazine had been blown up, and that +the cantonment had been abandoned by the Afghan regiments which had +garrisoned that vast unfinished structure. General Massy led out part of +his brigade on a reconnaissance, and took possession of the deserted +Sherpur cantonment, and of the seventy-five pieces of ordnance parked +within the walls. Massy had observed from the Siah Sung heights that the +Asmai heights, overhanging the Cabul suburb of Deh Afghan, were held by a +large body of Afghan soldiery, a force, it was afterwards learned, +composed of the remnants of the regiments defeated at Charasiah, three +fresh regiments from the Kohistan, and the rabble of the city and +adjacent villages, having a total strength of nearly 3000 men, with +twelve guns, under the leadership of Mahomed Jan, who later was to figure +prominently as the ablest of our Afghan enemies. Massy heliographed his +information to General Roberts, who sent Baker with a force to drive the +enemy from the heights; and Massy was instructed to pass through a gap in +the ridge and gain the Chardeh valley, where he might find opportunity to +intercept the Afghan retreat toward the west. Massy pierced the ridge at +the village of Aushar, and disposed his troops on the roads crossing the +Chardeh valley. Meanwhile Baker found the ascent of the Sher Derwaza +heights so steep that the afternoon was far spent before his guns came +into action, and it was still later before part of his infantry effected +their descent into the Chardeh valley. Reinforcements necessary to enable +him to act did not reach him until dusk, when it would have been folly to +commit himself to an attack. A night patrol ascertained that the Afghans +had evacuated the position under cover of darkness, leaving behind their +guns and camp equipage. On the 9th the divisional camp moved forward to +the Siah Sung heights, a mile eastward from the Balla Hissar, and there +it was joined by Baker, and by Massy, who on his way to camp led his +wearied troopers through the city of Cabul without mishap or insult. The +Goorkha regiment was detached to hold the ridge commanding the Balla +Hissar, and a cavalry regiment was quartered in the Sherpur cantonment to +protect it from the ravages of the villagers. + +A melancholy interest attaches to the visit paid by Sir Frederick Roberts +to the Balla Hissar on the 11th. Through the dirt and squalor of the +lower portion he ascended the narrow lane leading to the ruin which a few +weeks earlier had been the British Residency. The commander of the +avenging army looked with sorrowful eyes on the scene of heroism and +slaughter, on the smoke-blackened walls, the blood splashes on the +whitewashed walls, the still smouldering debris, the half-burned skulls +and bones in the blood-dabbled chamber where apparently the final +struggle had been fought out. He stood in the great breach in the +quarters of the Guides where the gate had been blown in after the last of +the sorties made by the gallant Hamilton, and lingered in the tattered +wreck of poor Cavagnari's drawing-room, its walls dinted with +bullet-pits, its floor and walls brutally defiled. Next day he made a +formal entry into the Balla Hissar, his road lined with his staunch +troops, a royal salute greeting the banner of Britain as it rose on the +tall flagstaff above the gateway. He held a Durbar in the 'Audience +Chamber' in the garden of the Ameer's palace; in front and in flank of +him the pushing throng of obsequious Sirdars of Cabul arrayed in all the +colours of the rainbow; behind them, standing immobile at attention, the +guard of British infantry with fixed bayonets which the soldiers longed +to use. The General read the mild proclamation announcing the disarmament +of the Cabulese and the punishment of fine which was laid upon the city, +but which never was exacted. And then he summarily dismissed the Sirdars, +three only, the Mustaphi, Yahuja Khan the Ameer's father-in-law, and +Zakariah Khan his brother, being desired to remain. Their smug +complacency was suddenly changed into dismay when they were abruptly told +that they were prisoners. + +Another ceremonial progress the General had to perform. On the 13th he +marched through the streets of Cabul at the head of his little army, the +bazaars and dead walls echoing to the music of the bands and the wild +scream of the bagpipes. In the Afghan quarter no salaams greeted the +conquering Feringhees, and scowling faces frowned on the spectacle from +windows and side-streets. Three days later occurred an event which might +have been a great catastrophe. Captain Shafto of the ordnance was +conducting an examination into the contents of the arsenal in the upper +Balla Hissar, and had already discovered millions of cartridges, and +about 150,000 lbs. of gunpowder. Daoud Shah, however, expressed his +belief that at least a million pounds were in store. Captain Shafto, a +very cautious man, was pursuing his researches; the Goorkhas were +quartered in the upper Balla Hissar near the magazine shed, and the 67th +occupied the Ameer's garden lower down. On the 16th a dull report was +heard in the Siah Sung camp, followed immediately by the rising above the +Balla Hissar of a huge column of grey smoke, which as it drifted away +disclosed flashes of flame and sudden jets of smoke telling of repeated +gunpowder explosions. The 67th, powdered with dust, escaped all but +scathless; but the Goorkha regiment had been heavily smitten. Twelve poor +fellows were killed, and seven wounded; among the former were five +principal Goorkha officers. + +The Balla Hissar was promptly evacuated. Occasional explosions occurred +for several days, the heaviest of those on the afternoon of the 16th, +which threw on the city a great shower of stones, beams, and bullets. By +a jet of stones blown out through the Balla Hissar gate four Afghans were +killed, and two sowars and an Afghan badly hurt. Captain Shafto's body +and the remains of the Goorkhas were found later, and buried; and the +determination was formed to have no more to do with the Balla Hissar, but +to occupy the Sherpur cantonment. Meanwhile General Hugh Gough was +despatched with a small force of all arms to escort to Cabul Money's +gallant garrison of the Shutargurdan, and to close for the winter the +line of communication _via_ the Kuram valley. Colonel Money had undergone +with fine soldierly spirit and action not a few turbulent experiences +since Roberts had left him and his Sikhs on the lofty crest of the +Shutargurdan. The truculent Ghilzais gave him no peace; his method of +dealing with them was for the most part with the bayonet point. The last +attempt on him was made by a horde of Ghilzais some 17,000 strong, who +completely invested his camp, and after the civility of requesting him to +surrender, a compliment which he answered by bullets, made a close and +determined attack on his position. This was on the 18th October; on the +following day Gough heliographed his arrival at Kushi, whereupon Money +took the offensive with vigour and scattered to the winds his Ghilzai +assailants. On 30th October the Shutargurdan position was evacuated, and +on the 3d November the Cabul force received the welcome accession of +headquarters and two squadrons 9th Lancers, Money's 3d Sikhs, and four +mountain guns. + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + +Sir Frederick Roberts had been hurried forward on Cabul charged with the +duty of avenging the perpetration of a foul and treacherous crime, 'which +had brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan nation.' The scriptural +injunction to turn the other cheek to the smiter has not yet become a +canon of international law or practice; and the anti-climax to an +expedition engaged in with so stern a purpose, of a nominal disarmament +and a petty fine never exacted, is self-evident. Our nation is given to +walk in the path of precedent; and in this juncture the authorities had +to their hand the most apposite of precedents. Pollock, by destroying the +Char bazaar in which had been exposed the mangled remains of Burnes and +Macnaghten, set a 'mark' on Cabul the memory of which had lasted for +decades. Cavagnari and his people had been slaughtered in the Balla +Hissar, and their bones were still mingled with the smouldering ruins of +the Residency. Wise men discerned that the destruction of the fortress +followed by a homeward march as swift yet as measured as had been the +march of invasion, could not but have made a deep and lasting impression +on the Afghans; while the complications, humiliations, and expense of the +long futile occupation would have been obviated. Other counsels +prevailed. To discover, in a nation virtually accessory as a whole after +the fact to the slaughter of the mission, the men on whom lay the +suspicion of having been the instigators and the perpetrators of the +cruel deed, to accord them a fair trial, and to send to the gallows those +on whose hands was found the blood of the massacred mission, was held a +more befitting and not less telling course of retributive action than to +raze the Balla Hissar and sow its site with salt. Skilfully and patiently +evidence was gathered, and submitted to the Military Commission which +General Roberts had appointed. This tribunal took cognisance of crimes +nominally of two classes. It tried men who were accused of having been +concerned in the destruction of the British mission, and those charged +with treason in having offered armed resistance to the British troops +acting in support of the Ameer, who had put himself under their +protection. Of the five prisoners first tried, condemned, and duly +hanged, two were signal criminals. One of them, the Kotwal or Mayor of +Cabul, was proved to have superintended the contumelious throwing of the +bodies of the slaughtered Guides of the mission escort into the ditch of +the Balla Hissar. Another was proved to have carried away from the +wrecked Residency a head believed to have been Cavagnari's, and to have +exhibited it on the ridge above the city. The other three and many of +those who were subsequently executed, suffered for the crime of 'treason' +against Yakoub Khan. Probably there was no Afghan who did not approve of +the slaughter of the Envoy, and who would not in his heart have rejoiced +at the annihilation of the British force; but it seems strange law and +stranger justice to hang men for 'treason' against a Sovereign who had +gone over to the enemy. On the curious expedient of temporarily governing +in the name of an Ameer who had deserted his post to save his skin, +comment would be superfluous. Executions continued; few, however, of the +mutinous sepoys who actually took part in the wanton attack on the +British Residency had been secured, and it was judged expedient that +efforts should be made to capture and punish those against whom there was +evidence of that crime, in the shape of the muster-rolls of the regiments +now in the possession of the military authorities. It was known that many +of the disbanded and fugitive soldiers had returned to their homes in the +villages around Cabul, and early in November General Baker took out a +force and suddenly encircled the village of Indikee, on the edge of the +Chardeh valley--a village reported full of Afghan sepoys. A number of men +were brought out by the scared headmen and handed over, answering to +their names called over from a list carried by Baker; and other villages +in the vicinity yielded a considerable harvest of disbanded soldiers. +Before the Commission the prisoners made no attempt to conceal their +names, or deny the regiments to which they had belonged; and forty-nine +of them were found guilty and hanged, nearly all of whom belonged to the +regiments that had assailed the Residency. + +On 12th November Sir Frederick Roberts proclaimed an amnesty in favour of +all who had fought against the British troops, on condition that they +should surrender their arms and return to their homes; but exempted from +the benefit were all concerned in the attack on the Residency. The +amnesty was well timed, although most people would have preferred that +fewer sepoys and more Sirdars should have been hanged. + +Our relations with the Ameer during the earlier part of his residence in +the British camp were not a little peculiar. Nominally he was our guest, +and a certain freedom was accorded to him and his retinue. There was no +doubt that the Sirdars of the Ameer's suite grossly abused their +privileges. Whether with Yakoub Khan's cognisance or not, they authorised +the use of his name by the insurgent leaders. Nek Mahomed, the insurgent +commander at Charasiah, was actually in the tents of the Ameer on the +evening before the fight. To all appearance our operations continued to +have for their ultimate object the restoration of Yakoub Khan to his +throne. Our administrative measures were carried on in his name. The +hostile Afghans we designated as rebels against his rule; and his +authority was proclaimed as the justification of much of our conduct. But +the situation gradually became intolerable to Yakoub Khan. He was a guest +in the British camp, but he was also in a species of custody. Should our +arms reinstate him, he could not hope to hold his throne. His harassed +perplexity came to a crisis on the morning of the 12th October, the day +of General Roberts' durbar in the Balla Hissar, which he had been desired +to attend. What he specifically apprehended is unknown; what he did was +to tell General Roberts, with great excitement, that he would not go to +the durbar, that his life was too miserable for long endurance, that he +would rather be a grass-cutter in the British camp than remain Ameer of +Afghanistan. He was firmly resolved to resign the throne, and begged that +he might be allowed to do so at once. General Roberts explained that the +acceptance of his resignation rested not with him but with the Viceroy, +pending whose decision matters, the General desired, should remain as +they were, affairs continuing to be conducted in the Ameer's name as +before. To this the Ameer consented; his tents were moved to the vicinity +of General Roberts' headquarters, and a somewhat closer surveillance over +him was maintained. + +Secrecy meanwhile was preserved until the Viceroy's reply should arrive. +The nature of that reply was intimated by the proclamation which General +Roberts issued on the 28th October. It announced that the Ameer had of +his own free will abdicated his throne and left Afghanistan without a +government. 'The British Government,' the proclamation continued, 'now +commands that all Afghan authorities, chiefs, and sirdars, do continue +their functions in maintaining order ... The British Government, after +consultation with the principal sirdars, tribal chiefs, and others +representing the interests and wishes of the various provinces and +cities, will declare its will as to the future permanent arrangements to +be made for the good government of the people.' + +This _ad interim_ assumption of the rulership of Afghanistan may have +been adopted as the only policy which afforded even a remote possibility +of tranquillity. But it was essentially a policy of speculative +makeshift. The retributive and punitive object of the swift march on +Cabul can scarcely be regarded as having been fulfilled by the execution +of a number of subordinate participants and accessories in the +destruction of the mission and by the voluntary abdication of Yakoub +Khan. That the Afghan 'authorities, chiefs, and sirdars,' would obey the +command to 'maintain order' issued by the leader of a few thousand +hostile troops, masters of little more than the ground on which they were +encamped, experience and common sense seemed alike to render improbable. +The Afghans subordinated their internal quarrels to their common hatred +of the masterful foreigners, and the desperate fighting of December +proved how fiercely they were in earnest. + +Yakoub Khan had been regarded as merely a weak and unfortunate man, but +the shadows gradually darkened around him until at length he came to be a +man under grave suspicion. General Roberts became satisfied from the +results of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, that the attack on +the Residency, if not actually instigated by him, might at least have +been checked by active exertion on his part. Information was obtained +which convinced the General that the ex-Ameer was contemplating a flight +toward Turkestan, and it was considered necessary to place him in close +confinement. He remained a close prisoner until December 1st. On the +early morning of that day he was brought out from his tent, and after +taking farewell of the General and his staff, started on his journey to +Peshawur, surrounded by a strong escort. If the hill tribes along his +route had cared enough about him to attempt his rescue, the speed with +which he travelled afforded them no time to gather for that purpose. + +During those uneventful October and November days, when the little army +commanded by General Roberts lay in its breezy camp on the Siah Sung +heights, there was no little temptation for the unprofessional reader of +the telegraphic information in the newspapers to hold cheap those +reputedly formidable Afghans, whose resistance a single sharp skirmish +had seemingly scattered to the winds, and who were now apparently +accepting without active remonstrance the dominance of the few thousand +British bayonets glittering there serenely over against the once +turbulent but now tamed hill capital. One may be certain that the shrewd +and careful soldier who commanded that scant array did not permit himself +to share in the facile optimism whether on the part of a government or of +the casual reader of complacent telegrams. It was true that the +Government of India had put or was putting some 30,000 soldiers into the +field on the apparent errand of prosecuting an Afghan war. But what +availed Roberts this host of fighting men when he had to realise that, +befall him what might in the immediate or near future, not a man of it +was available to strengthen or to succour him? The quietude of those cool +October days was very pleasant, but the chief knew well how precarious +and deceitful was the calm. For the present the Afghan unanimity of +hostility was affected in a measure by the fact that the Ameer, who had +still a party, was voluntarily in the British camp. But when Yakoub's +abdication should be announced, he knew the Afghan nature too well to +doubt that the tribal blood-feuds would be soldered for the time, that +Dooranee and Barakzai would strike hands, that Afghan regulars and Afghan +irregulars would rally under the same standards, and that the fierce +shouts of 'Deen! deen!' would resound on hill-top and in plain. Cut loose +from any base, with slowly dwindling strength, with waning stock of +ammunition, it was his part to hold his ground here for the winter, he +and his staunch soldiers, a firm rock in the midst of those surging +Afghan billows that were certain to rise around him. Not only would he +withstand them, but he would meet them, for this bold man knew the value +in dealing with Afghans of a resolute and vigorous offensive. But it +behoved him above all things to make timely choice of his winter quarters +where he should collect his supplies and house his troops and the +followers. After careful deliberation the Sherpur cantonment was +selected. It was overlarge for easy defence, but hard work, careful +engineering, and steadfast courage would redeem that evil. And Sherpur +had the great advantage that besides being in a measure a ready-made +defensive position, it had shelter for all the European troops and most +of the native soldiery, and that it would accommodate also the horses of +the cavalry, the transport animals, and all the needful supplies and +stores. + +An Afghan of the Afghans, Shere Ali nevertheless had curiously failed to +discern that the warlike strength of the nation which he ruled lay in its +intuitive aptitude for irregular fighting; and he had industriously set +himself to the effort of warping the combative genius of his people and +of constituting Afghanistan a military power of the regular and +disciplined type. He had created a large standing army the soldiery of +which wore uniforms, underwent regular drill, obeyed words of command, +and carried arms of precision. He had devoted great pains to the +manufacture of a formidable artillery, and what with presents from the +British Government and the imitative skill of native artificers he was +possessed at the outbreak of hostilities of several hundred cannon. His +artisans were skillful enough to turn out in large numbers very fair +rifled small-arms, which they copied from British models; and in the +Balla Hissar magazine were found by our people vast quantities of +gunpowder and of admirable cartridges of local manufacture. There were +many reasons why the Cabul division of Shere Ali's army should be +quartered apart from his turbulent and refractory capital, and why its +cantonment should take the form of a permanent fortified camp, in which +his soldiers might be isolated from Cabul intrigues, while its proximity +to the capital should constitute a standing menace to the conspirators of +the city. His original design apparently was to enclose the Behmaroo +heights within the walls of his cantonment, and thus form a great +fortified square upon the heights in the centre of which should rise a +strong citadel dominating the plain in every direction. The Sherpur +cantonment as found by Roberts consisted of a fortified enciente, +enclosing on two sides a great open space in the shape of a parallelogram +lying along the southern base of the Behmaroo heights. When the British +troops took possession, only the west and south faces of the enciente +were completed; although not long built those were already in bad repair, +and the explosion of the great magazine when the Afghan troops abandoned +the cantonment had wrecked a section of the western face. The eastern +face had been little more than traced, and the northern side had no +artificial protection, but was closed in by the Behmaroo heights, whose +centre was cleft by a broad and deep gorge. The design of the enciente +was peculiar. There was a thick and high exterior wall of mud, with a +banquette for infantry protected by a parapet. Inside this wall was a dry +ditch forty feet wide, on the inner brink of which was the long range of +barrack-rooms. Along the interior front of the barrack-rooms was a +verandah faced with arches supported by pillars, its continuity broken +occasionally by broad staircases conducting to the roof of the barracks, +which afforded a second line of defence. The closing in of the verandah +would of course give additional barrack accommodation, but there were +quarters in the barrack-rooms for at least all the European troops. In +the southern face of the enciente were three gateways, and in the centre +of the western face there was a fourth, each gate covered adequately by a +curtain. Between each gate were semicircular bastions for guns. In the +interior there was space to manoeuvre a division of all arms. There was a +copious supply of water, and if the aspect of the great cantonment was +grim because of the absence of trees and the utter barrenness of the +enclosed space, this aesthetic consideration went for little against its +manifest advantages as snug and defensible winter quarters. Shere Ali had +indeed been all unconsciously a friend in need to the British force +wintering in the heart of that unfortunate potentate's dominions. Human +nature is perverse and exacting, and there were those who objurgated his +memory because he had constructed his cantonment a few sizes too large to +be comfortably defended by Sir Frederick Roberts' little force. But this +was manifestly unreasonable; and in serious truth the Sherpur cantonment +was a real godsend to our people. Supplies of all kinds were steadily +being accumulated there, and the woodwork of the houses in the Balla +Hissar was being carried to Sherpur for use as firewood. On the last day +of October the force quitted the Siah Sung position and took possession +of Sherpur, which had undergone a rigorous process of fumigation and +cleansing. The change was distinctly for the better. The force was +compacted, and the routine military duties were appreciably lightened +since there were needed merely piquets on the Behmaroo heights and +sentries on the gates; the little army was healthy, temperate, and in +excellent case in all respects. + +The dispositions for field service made at the outset of the campaign by +the military authorities have already been detailed. Regarded simply as +dispositions they left nothing to be desired, and certainly Sir Frederick +Roberts' force had been organised and equipped with a fair amount of +expedition. But it was apparent that the equipment of that body of 6500 +men--and that equipment by no means of an adequate character, had +exhausted for the time the resources of the Government as regarded +transport and supplies. Promptitude of advance on the part of the force +to which had been assigned the line of invasion by the Khyber-Jellalabad +route, was of scarcely less moment than the rapidity of the stroke which +Roberts was commissioned to deliver. The former's was a treble duty. One +of its tasks was to open up and maintain Roberts' communications with +India, so that the closing of the Shutargurdan should not leave him +isolated. Another duty resting on the Khyber force was to constitute for +Roberts a ready and convenient reserve, on which he might draw when his +occasions demanded. No man could tell how soon after the commencement of +his invasion that necessity might arise; it was a prime _raison d'etre_ +of the Khyber force to be in a position to give him the hand when he +should intimate a need for support. Yet again, its presence in the passes +dominantly thrusting forward, would have the effect of retaining the +eastern tribes within their own borders, and hindering them from joining +an offensive combination against the little force with which Roberts was +to strike at Cabul. But delay on delay marked the mobilisation and +advance of the troops operating in the Khyber line. There was no lack of +earnestness anywhere; the eagerness to push on was universal from the +commander to the corporal. But the barren hills and rugged passes could +furnish no supplies; the base had to furnish everything, and there was +nothing at the base, neither any accumulation of supplies nor means to +transport supplies if they had been accumulated. Weeks elapsed before the +organisation of the force approached completion, and it was only by a +desperate struggle that General Charles Gough's little brigade received +by the end of September equipment sufficient to enable that officer to +advance by short marches. Roberts was holding his durbar in the Balla +Hissar of Cabul on the day that the head of Gough's advance reached +Jellalabad. No man can associate the idea of dawdling with Jenkins and +his Guides, yet the Guides reaching Jellalabad on October 12th were not +at Gundamuk until the 23d, and Gundamuk is but thirty miles beyond +Jellalabad. The anti-climax for the time of General Bright's exertions +occurred on November 6th. On that day he with Gough's brigade reached so +far Cabulward as Kutti Sung, two marches beyond Gundamuk. There he met +General Macpherson of Roberts' force, who had marched down from Cabul +with his brigade on the errand of opening communications with the head of +the Khyber column. The two brigades had touch of each other for the +period of an interview between the Generals, and then they fell apart and +the momentary union of communication was disrupted. General Bright had to +fall back toward Gundamuk for lack of supplies. The breach continued open +only for a few days, and then it was closed, not from down country but +from up country. Roberts, surveying the rugged country to the east of +Cabul, had discerned that the hill road toward Jugdulluk by Luttabund, +was at once opener and shorter than the customary tortuous and overhung +route through the Khoord Cabul Pass and by Tezeen. The pioneers were set +to work to improve the former. The Luttabund road became the habitual +route along which, from Cabul downwards, were posted detachments +maintaining the communications of the Cabul force with the Khyber column +and India. Nearly simultaneous with this accomplishment was the +accordance to Sir Frederick Roberts of the local rank of +Lieutenant-General, a promotion which placed him in command of all the +troops in Eastern Afghanistan down to Jumrood, and enabled him to order +up reinforcements from the Khyber column at his discretion, a power he +refrained from exercising until the moment of urgent need was impending. + +After his interview at Kutti Sung with General Bright, Macpherson, before +returning to Cabul, made a short reconnaissance north of the Cabul river +toward the Lughman valley and into the Tagao country inhabited by the +fanatic tribe of the Safis. From his camp at Naghloo a foraging party, +consisting of a company of the 67th escorting a number of camels and +mules, moved westward toward a village near the junction of the Panjshir +and Cabul rivers, there to obtain supplies of grain and forage. The +little detachment on its march was suddenly met by the fire of about 1000 +Sari tribesmen. Captain Poole, observing that the tribesmen were moving +to cut him off, withdrew his party through a defile in his rear, and +taking cover under the river bank maintained a steady fire while the +camels were being retired. The Safis were extremely bold and they too +shot very straight. Captain Poole was severely wounded and of his handful +of fifty-six men eight were either killed or wounded, but their comrades +resolutely held their position until reinforcements came out from the +camp. The Safis, who retired with dogged reluctance, were not finally +routed until attacked by British infantry in front and flank. After they +broke the cavalry pursued them for six miles, doing severe execution; the +dead of the 67th were recovered, but the poor fellows had been mutilated +almost past recognition. General Macpherson returned to Sherpur on the +20th November, having left a strong garrison temporarily at Luttabund to +strengthen communications and open out effectually the new route +eastward. + +General Roberts, with all his exertions, had been unable to accumulate +sufficient winter of grain for his native troops and forage for his +cavalry and baggage animals. Agents had been purchasing supplies in the +fertile district of Maidan, distant from Cabul about twenty-five miles in +the Ghuznee direction, but the local people lacked carriage to convey +their stocks into camp, and it was necessary that the supplies should be +brought in by the transport of the force. The country toward Ghuznee was +reported to be in a state of disquiet, and a strong body of troops was +detailed under the command of General Baker for the protection of the +transport. This force marched out from Sherpur on November 21st, and next +day camped on the edge of the pleasant Maidan plain. Baker encountered +great difficulties in collecting supplies. The villages readily gave in +their tribute of grain and forage, but evinced extreme reluctance to +furnish the additional quantities which our necessities forced us to +requisition. With the villagers it was not a question of money; the +supplies for which Baker's commissaries demanded money in hand +constituted their provision for the winter season. But the stern maxim of +war is that soldiers must live although villagers starve, and this much +may be said in our favour that we are the only nation in the world which, +when compelled to resort to forced requisitions, invariably pays in hard +cash and not in promissory notes. Baker's ready-money tariff was far +higher than the current rates, but nevertheless he had to resort to +strong measures. In one instance he was defied outright. A certain +Bahadur Khan inhabiting a remote valley in the Bamian direction, refused +to sell any portion of his great store of grain and forage, and declined +to comply with a summons to present himself in Baker's camp. It was known +that he was under the influence of the aged fanatic Moulla the +Mushk-i-Alum, who was engaged in fomenting a tribal rising, and it was +reported that he was affording protection to a number of the fugitive +sepoys of the ex-Ameer's army. A political officer with two squadrons of +cavalry was sent to bring into camp the recalcitrant Bahadur Khan. His +fort and village were found prepared for a stubborn defence. Received +with a heavy fire from a large body of men while swarms of hostile +tribesmen showed themselves on the adjacent hills, the horsemen had to +withdraw. It was judged necessary to punish the contumacious chief and to +disperse the tribal gathering before it should make more head, and Baker +led out a strong detachment in light marching order. There was no +fighting, and the only enemies seen were a few tribesmen, who drew off +into the hills as the head of Baker's column approached. Fort, villages, +and valley were found utterly deserted. There were no means to carry away +the forage and grain found in the houses, so the villages belonging to +Bahadur Khan were destroyed by fire. Their inhabitants found refuge in +the surrounding villages, and there was absolutely no foundation for the +statements which appeared in English papers to the effect that old men, +women, and children were turned out to die in the snow. In the words of +Mr Hensman, a correspondent who accompanied the column: 'There were no +old men, women, and children, and there was no snow.' British officers +cannot be supposed to have found pleasure, on the verge of the bitter +Afghan winter, in the destruction of the hovels and the winter stores of +food belonging to a number of miserable villagers; but experience has +proved that only by such stern measures is there any possibility of +cowing the rancour of Afghan tribesmen. No elation can accompany an +operation so pitiless, and the plea of stern necessity must be advanced +alike and accepted with a shudder. Of the necessity of some such form of +reprisals an example is afforded in an experience which befell General +Baker a few days later in this same Maidan region. He visited the village +of Beni-Badam with a small cavalry escort. The villagers with every +demonstration of friendliness entertained the officers and men with milk +and fruit, and provided corn and forage for their horses. There were only +old men in the village with the women and children, but no treachery was +suspected until suddenly two large bodies of armed men were seen hurrying +to cut off the retreat, and it was only by hard fighting that the General +with his escort succeeded in escaping from the snare. Next day he +destroyed the village. Baker probably acted on general principles, but +had he cared for precedents he would have found them in the conduct of +the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. He remained in the Maidan +district until the transport of the army had brought into Sherpur all the +supplies which he had succeeded in obtaining in that region, and then +returned to the cantonment. + +By the terms of the proclamation which he issued on the 28th October Sir +Frederick Roberts was announced as the dominant authority for the time +being in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan. He occupied this position just +as far as and no further than he could make it good. And he could make it +good only over a very circumscribed area. Even more than had been true of +Shah Soojah's government forty years previously was it true of Roberts' +government now that it was a government of sentry-boxes. He was firm +master of the Sherpur cantonment. General Hills, his nominee, held a +somewhat precarious sway in Cabul in the capacity of its Governor, +maintaining his position there in virtue of the bayonets of his military +guard, the support of the adjacent Sherpur, and the waiting attitude of +the populace of the capital. East of Cabul the domination of Britain was +represented by a series of fortified posts studding the road to Gundamuk, +whence to Jumrood the occupation was closer, although not wholly +undisturbed. When a column marched out from Sherpur the British power was +dominant only within the area of its fire zone. The stretch of road it +vacated as it moved on ceased to be territory over which the British held +dominion. This narrowly restricted nature of his actual sway Sir +Frederick Roberts could not but recognise, but how with a force of 7000 +men all told was it possible for him to enlarge its borders? One +expedient suggested itself which could not indeed extend the area of his +real power, but which might have the effect, to use a now familiar +expression, of widening the sphere of his influence. From among the +Sirdars who had regarded it as their interest to cast in their lot with +the British, he selected four to represent him in the capacity of +governors of provinces which his bayonets were not long enough to reach. +The experiment made it disagreeably plain that the people of the +provinces to which he had deputed governors were utterly indisposed to +have anything to do either with them or with him. The governors went in +no state, they had no great sums to disburse, they were protected by no +armed escorts, and they were regarded by the natives much as the Southern +states of the American Union after the Civil War regarded the 'carpet +bag' governors whom the North imposed upon them. The Logur Governor was +treated with utter contempt. The Kohistanees despitefully used Shahbaz +Khan, and when a brother of Yakoub Khan was sent to use his influence in +favour of the worried and threatened governor, he was reviled as a +'Kafir' and a 'Feringhee,' and ordered peremptorily back to Sherpur if he +had any regard for his life. Sirdar Wali Mahomed, the governor-nominate +to the remote Turkestan, found pretext after pretext for delaying to +proceed to take up his functions, and had never quitted the British camp. +When Baker returned from Maidan he reported that he had left the district +peaceful in charge of the governor whom he had installed, the venerable +and amiable Hassan Khan. Baker's rear-guard was scarcely clear of the +valley when a mob of tribesmen and sepoys attacked the fort in which the +old Sirdar was residing, shot him through the head, and then hacked his +body to pieces. It was too clear that governors unsupported by bayonets, +and whose only weapons were tact and persuasiveness, were at an extreme +discount in the condition which Afghanistan presented in the end of +November and the beginning of December. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE DECEMBER STORM + +The invader of Afghanistan may count as inevitable a national rising +against him, but the Afghans are a people so immersed in tribal quarrels +and domestic blood feuds that the period of the outbreak is curiously +uncertain. The British force which placed Shah Soojah on the throne and +supported him there, was in Afghanistan for more than two years before +the waves of the national tempest rose around it. The national +combination against Roberts' occupation was breaking its strength against +the Sherpur defences while as yet the Cabul field force had not been +within sight of the capital for more than two months. There seems no +relation between opportunity and the period of the inevitable outburst. +If in November 1841 the Cabul Sirdars had restrained themselves for a few +days longer two more regiments would have been following on Sale's track, +and the British force in the cantonments would have been proportionately +attenuated. Roberts might have been assailed with better chance of +success when his force was dispersed between the Siah Sung camp, the +Balla Hissar, and Sherpur, than when concentrated in the strong defensive +position against which the Afghans beat in vain. Perhaps the rising +ripened faster in 1879 than in 1841 because in the former period no +Macnaghten fomented intrigues and scattered gold. Perhaps Shere Ali's +military innovations may have instilled into the masses of his time some +rough lessons in the art and practice of speedy mobilisation. The +crowning disgrace of 1842 was that a trained army of regular soldiers +should have been annihilated by a few thousand hillmen, among whom there +was no symptom either of real valour or of good leadership. To Roberts +and his force attaches the credit of having defeated the persistent and +desperate efforts of levies at least ten times superior in numbers, well +armed, far from undisciplined, courageous beyond all experience of Afghan +nature, and under the guidance of a leader who had some conception of +strategy, and who certainly was no mean tactician. + +In the Afghan idiosyncrasy there is a considerable strain of practical +philosophy. The blood of the massacred mission was not dry when it was +recognised in Cabul that stern retribution would inevitably follow. Well, +said the Afghans among themselves, what must be must be, for they are all +fatalists. The seniors recalled the memory of the retribution Pollock +exacted--how he came, destroyed Istalif, set a 'mark' on Cabul by sending +the great bazaar in fragments into the air, and then departed. This time +Istalif was not compromised; if Roberts Sahib should be determined to +blow up the Char Chowk again, why, that infliction must be endured. It +had been rebuilt after Pollock Sahib's engineers had worked their will on +it; it could be rebuilt a second time when Roberts Sahib should have +turned his back on the city, as pray God and the Prophet he might do with +no more delay than Pollock Sahib had made out yonder on the Logur plain. +So after a trial of Roberts' mettle at Charasiah, and finding the testing +sample not quite to their taste, the Afghans fell into an attitude of +expectancy, and were mightily relieved by his proclamation read at the +Balla Hissar durbar of October 12th. After a reasonable amount of hanging +and the exaction of the fine laid on the city, it was assumed that he +would no doubt depart so as to get home to India before the winter snows +should block the passes. But the expected did not happen. The British +General established a British Governor in Cabul who had a heavy hand, and +policed the place in a fashion that stirred a lurid fury in the bosoms of +haughty Sirdars who had been wont to do what seemed good in their own +eyes. He engaged in the sacrilegious work of dismantling the Balla +Hissar, the historic fortress of the nation, within whose walls were the +royal palace and the residences of the principal nobles. Those were +bitter things, but they could be borne if they were mere temporary +inflictions, and if the hated Feringhees would but take themselves away +soon. But that hope was shattered by the proclamation of October 28th, +when the abdication of the Ameer was intimated and the British _raj_ in +Afghanistan was announced. Yes, that pestilent _zabardasti_ little +General, who would not follow the example of good old Pollock Sahib, and +who held Yakoub Khan and sundry of his Sirdars in close imprisonment in +his camp, had now the insolence to proclaim himself virtually the Ameer +of Afghanistan! Far from showing symptom of budging, he was sending out +his governors into the provinces, he was gathering tribute in kind, and +he had taken possession of Shere Ali's monumental cantonment, under the +shadow of the Behmaroo heights on which Afghan warriors of a past +generation had slaughtered the Feringhee soldiers as if they had been +sheep; and it was the Feringhee General's cantonment now, which he was +cunningly strengthening as if he meant to make it his permanent fortress. + +Yakoub Khan had gained little personal popularity during his brief and +troubled reign, but he was an Afghan and a Mahomedan; and his deportation +to India, followed shortly afterwards by that of his three Ministers, +intensified the rancour of his countrymen and co-religionists against the +handful of presumptuous foreigners who arrogantly claimed to sway the +destinies of Afghanistan. _Cherchez la femme_ is the keynote among +Western peoples of an investigation into the origin of most troubles and +strifes; the watchword of the student of the springs of great popular +outbursts among Eastern nations must be _Cherchez les pretres_. The Peter +the Hermit of Afghanistan was the old Mushk-i-Alum, the fanatic Chief +Moulla of Ghuznee. This aged enthusiast went to and fro among the tribes +proclaiming the sacred duty of a _Jehad_ or religious war against the +unbelieving invaders, stimulating the pious passions of the followers of +the Prophet by fervent appeals, enjoining the chiefs to merge their +intestine strifes in the common universal effort to crush the foreign +invaders of the Afghan soil. The female relatives of the abdicated Ameer +fomented the rising by appeals to popular sympathy, and by the more +practical argument of lavish distribution of treasure. The flame spread, +tribesmen and disbanded soldiers sprang to arms, the banner of the +Prophet was unfurled, and the nation heaved with the impulse of +fanaticism. Musa Khan, the boy heir of Yakoub, was in the hands of the +Mushk-i-Alum, and the combination of fighting tribes found a competent +leader in Mahomed Jan, a Warduk general of proved courage and capacity. +The plan of campaign was comprehensive and well devised. The contingent +from the country to the south of the capital, from Logur, Zurmat, and the +Mangal and Jadran districts, was to seize that section of the Cabul ridge +extending from Charasiah northward to the cleft through which flows the +Cabul river. The northern contingent from the Kohistan and Kohdaman was +to occupy the Asmai heights and the hills further to the north-west; +while the troops from the Maidan and Warduk territories, led by Mahomed +Jan in person, were to come in from the westward across the Chardeh +valley, take possession of Cabul, and rally to their banners the +disaffected population of the capital and the surrounding villages. The +concentration of the three bodies effected, the capital and the ridge +against which it leans occupied, the next step would be the investment of +the Sherpur cantonment, preparatory to an assault upon it in force. + +The British general through his spies had information of those projects. +To allow the projected concentration to be effected would involve serious +disadvantages, and both experience and temperament enjoined on Roberts +the offensive. The Logur contingent was regarded as not of much account, +and might be headed back by a threat. Mahomed Jan's force, which was +reckoned some 5000 strong, needed to be handled with greater vigour. Meer +Butcha and his Kohistanees were less formidable, and might be dealt with +incidentally. Roberts took a measure of wise precaution in telegraphing +to Colonel Jenkins on the 7th December to march his Guides (cavalry and +infantry) from Jugdulluk to Sherpur. + +On the 8th General Macpherson was sent out toward the west with a column +consisting of 1300 bayonets, three squadrons, and eight guns. Following +the Ghuznee road across the Chardeh valley, he was to march to Urgundeh, +in the vicinity of which place it was expected that he would find Mahomed +Jan's levies, which he was to attack and drive backward on Maidan, taking +care to prevent their retreat to the westward in the direction of Bamian. +On the following day General Baker marched out with a force made up of +900 infantrymen, two and a half squadrons, and four guns, with +instructions to march southward toward the Logur valley, deal with the +tribal gathering there, then bend sharply in a south-westerly direction +and take up a position across the Ghuznee road in the Maidan valley on +the line of retreat which it was hoped that Macpherson would succeed in +enforcing on Mahomed Jan. In that case the Afghan leader would find +himself between two fires, and would be punished so severely as to render +it unlikely that he would give further trouble. To afford time for Baker +to reach the position assigned to him Macpherson remained halted during +the 9th at Aushar, a village just beyond the debouche of the Nanuchee +Pass, at the north-western extremity of the Asmai heights. On that day a +cavalry reconnaissance discovered that the Kohistanee levies in +considerable strength had already gathered about Karez Meer, some ten +miles north-west of Cabul, and that masses of Afghans presumably +belonging to the force of Mahomed Jan were moving northward in the +Kohistan direction, apparently with the object of joining Meer Butcha's +gathering at Karez. It was imperative that the latter should be dispersed +before the junction could be effected, and Sir Frederick Roberts had no +option but to order Macpherson to alter his line of advance and move +against the Kohistanees. Necessary as was this divergence from the +original plan of operation, it had the effect of sending to wreck the +combined movement from which so much was hoped, and of bringing about a +very critical situation. If Lockhart's reconnaissance had been made a day +earlier, Macpherson might probably have utilised to good purpose by +dispersing the Kohistanees, the day which as it was he spent halted at +Aushar. He might have accomplished that object equally well if, instead +of the cavalry reconnaissance made by Lockhart, Macpherson himself had +been instructed to devote the 9th to a reconnaissance in force in the +direction of Karez Meer. + +[Illustration: Map of Cabul and surroundings.] + +The country being held unsuited for the action of wheeled artillery and +cavalry, Macpherson left his details of those arms at Aushar, and marched +on the morning of the 10th on Karez with his infantry and mountain guns. +As his troops crowned the Surkh Kotul they saw before them an imposing +spectacle. The whole terrain around Karez swarmed with masses of armed +tribesmen, whose banners were flying on every hillock. Down in the +Pughman valley to the left rear, were discerned bodies of the hostile +contingent from the west, between which and the Kohistanees no junction +had fortunately as yet been made. Macpherson's dispositions were simple. +His mountain guns shelled with effect the Kohistanee tribesmen, and then +he moved forward from the Surkh Kotul in three columns. His skirmishers +drove back the forward stragglers, and then the main columns advancing at +the double swept the disordered masses before them, and forced them +rearward into their intrenched position in front of the Karez village. +There the resistance was half-hearted. After a brief artillery +preparation the columns carried the position with a rush, and the +Kohistanees were routed with heavy loss. Meer Butcha and his Kohistanees +well beaten, Macpherson camped for the night near Karez. Baker had +reached his assigned position in the Maidan valley, and there seemed a +fair prospect that the operation against Mahomed Jan as originally +designed might be carried out notwithstanding the interruption to its +prosecution which had been found necessary. For there was good reason to +believe that the Afghan commander and his force, whose strength was +estimated at about 5000 men, were in the vicinity of Urgundeh, about +midway between Macpherson at Karez and Baker in the Maidan valley. If +Mahomed Jan would be so complaisant as to remain where he was until +Macpherson could reach him, then Roberts' strategy would have a +triumphant issue, and the Warduk general and his followers might be +relegated to the category of negligable quantities. + +Orders were sent to Macpherson to march as early as possible on the +morning of the 11th, follow up the enemy who had been observed retiring +toward the west and south, and endeavour to drive them down toward +General Baker. He was further informed that the cavalry and +horse-artillery which he had left at Aushar would leave that village at +nine A.M. under the command of Brigadier-General Massy, and would cross +the Chardeh valley by the Urgundeh road, on which he was directed to join +them on his march. The specific instructions given to General Massy were +as follows: 'To advance from Aushar by the road leading directly from the +city of Cabul toward Urgundeh and Ghuznee' (the main Ghuznee road), 'to +proceed cautiously and quietly feeling for the enemy, to communicate with +General Macpherson, and to act in conformity with that officer's +movements, but on no account to commit himself to an action until General +Macpherson had engaged the enemy.' + +Macpherson marched at eight A.M., moving in a south-westerly direction +toward Urgundeh by a direct track in rear of the range of hills bounding +the western edge of the Chardeh valley. To the point at which it was +probable that he and Massy should meet he had considerably further to +travel than had the latter from the Aushar camp, and Macpherson's force +consisted of infantry while that of Massy was cavalry and +horse-artillery. Massy left Aushar at nine A.M. in consideration of the +shorter distance he had to traverse, and he headed for Killa Kazee, a +village near the foothills of the western ridge about four miles from +Aushar as the crow flies. He did not comply with the letter of his +instructions to follow the Ghuznee road because of the wide detour +marching by it would have involved, but instead made his way straight +across country. That he should have done this was unfortunate, since the +time he thus gained threw him forward into a position involving danger in +advance of any possible co-operation on the part of Macpherson, who was +still far away from the point of intended junction while Massy was +comparatively near it. Massy's force consisted of two squadrons 9th +Lancers and a troop of 14th Bengal Lancers, escorting four +horse-artillery guns. He had detached a troop of 9th Lancers to endeavour +to open communication with Macpherson, in compliance with his +instructions. As he approached Killa Kazee, Captain Gough commanding the +troop of 9th Lancers forming the advance guard, sent back word that the +hills on either side of the Ghuznee road some distance beyond the village +were occupied by the enemy in considerable force. Massy, in his +unsupported condition and destitute of any information as to Macpherson's +whereabouts, would have shown discretion by halting on receipt of this +intelligence pending further developments. But he probably believed that +the Afghans flanking the road were casual tribesmen from the adjacent +villages who were unlikely to make any stand, and he determined to move +on. + +What he presently saw gave him pause. A great mass of Afghans some 2000 +strong were forming across the Ghuznee road. From the hills to right and +left broad streams of armed men were pouring down the hillslopes and +forming on the plain. The surprise was complete, the situation full of +perplexity. That gathering host in Massy's front could be none other than +Mahomed Jan's entire force. So far from being in retreat southward and +westward, so far from waiting supinely about Urgundeh until Macpherson as +per programme should drive it on to the muzzles of Baker's Martinis, here +it was inside our guard, in possession of the interior line, its front +facing toward turbulent Cabul and depleted Sherpur, with no obstruction +in its path save this handful of lancers and these four guns! Massy's +orders, it was true, were to act in conformity with Macpherson's +movements, and on no account to commit himself to an action until that +officer had engaged the enemy. Yes, but could the framer of those orders +have anticipated the possibility of such a position as that in which +Massy now found himself? There was no Macpherson within ken of the +perplexed cavalryman, nor the vaguest indication of his movements. The +enemy had doubled on that stout and shrewd soldier; it was clear that for +the moment he was not within striking distance of his foe, whether on +flank or on rear. No course of action presented itself to Massy that was +not fraught with grave contingencies. If he should keep to the letter of +his orders, the Afghan host might be in Cabul in a couple of hours. +Should he retire slowly, striving to retard the Afghan advance by his +cannon fire and by the threatening demonstrations of his cavalry, the +enemy might follow him up so vigorously as to be beyond Macpherson's +reach when that officer should make good his point in the direction of +Urgundeh. If on the other hand he should show a bold front, and departing +from his orders in the urgent crisis face to face with which he found +himself should strain every nerve to 'hold' the Afghan masses in their +present position, there was the possibility that, at whatever sacrifice +to himself and his little force, he might save the situation and gain +time for Macpherson to come up and strike Mahomed Jan on flank and in +rear. + +For better or for worse Massy committed himself to the rasher enterprise, +and opened fire on the swiftly growing Afghan masses. The first range was +held not sufficiently effective, and in the hope by closer fire of +deterring the enemy from effecting the formation they were attempting, +the guns were advanced to the shorter ranges of 2500 and 2000 yards. The +shells did execution, but contrary to precedent did not daunt the +Afghans. They made good their formation under the shell fire. Mahomed +Jan's force had been estimated of about 5000 strong; according to Massy's +estimate it proved to be double that number. The array was well led; it +never wavered, but came steadily on with waving banners and loud shouts. +The guns had to be retired; they came into action again, but owing to the +rapidity of the Afghan advance at shorter range than before. The carbine +fire of thirty dismounted lancers 'had no appreciable effect.' The +outlook was already ominous when at this moment Sir Frederick Roberts +came on the scene. As was his wont, he acted with decision. The action, +it was clear to him, could not be maintained against odds so overwhelming +and in ground so unfavourable. He immediately ordered Massy to retire +slowly, to search for a road by which the guns could be withdrawn, and to +watch for an opportunity to execute a charge under cover of which the +guns might be extricated. He despatched an aide-de-camp in quest of +Macpherson, with an order directing that officer to wheel to his left +into the Chardeh valley and hurry to Massy's assistance; and he ordered +General Hills to gallop to Sherpur and warn General Hugh Gough, who had +charge in the cantonment, to be on the alert, and also to send out at +speed a wing of the 72d to the village of Deh Mazung, in the throat of +the gorge of the Cabul river, which the Highlanders were to hold to +extremity. + +The enemy were coming on, the guns were in imminent danger, and the +moment had come for the action of the cavalry. The gallant Cleland gave +the word to his lancers and led them straight for the centre of the +Afghan line, the troop of Bengal Lancers following in support. Gough, +away on the Afghan left, saw his chief charging and he eagerly +'conformed,' crushing in on the enemy's flank at the head of his troop. +'Self-sacrifice' the Germans hold the duty of cavalry; and there have +been few forlorner hopes than the errand on which on this ill-starred day +our 200 troopers rode into the heart of 10,000 Afghans flushed with +unwonted good fortune. Through the dust-cloud of the charge were visible +the flashes of the Afghan volleys and the sheen of the British lance +heads as they came down to the 'engage.' There was a short interval of +suspense, the stour and bicker of the _melee_ faintly heard, but +invisible behind the bank of smoke and dust. Then from out the cloud of +battle riderless horses came galloping back, followed by broken groups of +troopers. Gallantly led home, the charge had failed--what other result +could have been expected? Its career had been blocked by sheer weight of +opposing numbers. Sixteen troopers had been killed, seven were wounded, +two officers had been slain in the hand-to-hand strife. Cleland came out +with a sword cut and a bullet wound. Captain Stewart Mackenzie had been +crushed under his fallen horse, but distinguished himself greatly, and +brought the regiment out of action. As the dust settled it was apparent +that the charge had merely encouraged the enemy, who as they steadily +pressed on in good order, were waving their banners in triumph and +brandishing their tulwars and knives. The fire from the Sniders and +Enfields of their marksmen was well directed and deliberate. While +Cleland's broken troopers were being rallied two guns were brought into +action, protected in a measure by Gough's troop and the detachment of +Bengal Lancers, which had not suffered much in the charge. But the +Afghans came on so ardently that there was no alternative but prompt +retreat. One gun had to be spiked and abandoned, Lieutenant Hardy of the +Horse Artillery remaining by it until surrounded and killed. Some 500 +yards further back, near the village of Baghwana, the three remaining +guns stuck fast in a deep watercourse. At General Roberts' instance a +second charge was attempted, to give time for their extrication; but it +made no head, so that the guns had to be abandoned, and the gunners and +drivers with their teams accompanied the retirement of the cavalry. Some +fugitives both of cavalry and artillery hurried to the shelter of the +cantonment somewhat precipitately; but the great majority of Massy's +people behaved well, rallying without hesitation and constituting the +steady and soldierly little body with which Roberts, retiring on Deh +Mazung as slowly as possible to give time for the Highlanders from +Sherpur to reach that all-important point, strove to delay the Afghan +advance. This in a measure was accomplished by the dismounted fire of the +troopers, and the retirement was distinguished by the steady coolness +displayed by Cough's men and Neville's Bengal Lancers. Deh Mazung was +reached, but no Highlanders had as yet reached that place. The carbines +of the cavalrymen were promptly utilised from the cover the village +afforded; but they could not have availed to stay the Afghan rush. There +was a short interval of extreme anxiety until the 200 men of the 72d, +Brownlow leading them, became visible advancing at the double through the +gorge. 'It was literally touch and go who should reach the village first, +the Highlanders or the Afghans,' who were streaming toward it 'like ants +on a hill,' but the men of the 72d swept in, and swarming to the house +tops soon checked with their breechloaders the advancing tide. After +half-an-hour of futile effort the Afghans saw fit to abandon the attempt +to force the gorge, and inclining to their right they occupied the +Takht-i-Shah summit, the slopes of the Sher Derwaza heights, and the +villages in the south-eastern section of the Chardeh valley. + +Macpherson, marching from the Surkh Kotul toward Urgundeh, had observed +parties of Afghans crossing his front in the direction of the Chardeh +valley, and when the sound reached him of Massy's artillery fire he +wheeled to his left through a break in the hills opening into the Chardeh +valley, and approached the scene of the discomfiture of Massy's force. +This he did at 12.30 P.M., four and a half hours after leaving the Surkh +Kotul. As the length of his march was about ten miles, it may be assumed +that he encountered difficulties in the rugged track by which he moved, +for Macpherson was not the man to linger by the way when there was the +prospect of a fight. Had it been possible for him to have marched two +hours earlier than he did--and his orders were to march as early as +possible--his doing so would have made all the difference in the world to +Massy, and could scarcely have failed to change the face of the day. He +did not discover the lost guns, but he struck the Afghan rear, which was +speedily broken and dispersed by the 67th and 3d Sikhs. Macpherson's +intention to spend the night at Killa Kazee was changed by the receipt of +an order from General Roberts calling him in to Deh Mazung, where he +arrived about nightfall. Sir Frederick Roberts then returned to Sherpur, +for the defence of which General Hugh Gough had made the best +dispositions in his power, and the slender garrison of which was to +receive in the course of the night an invaluable accession in the shape +of the Guides, 900 strong, whom Jenkins had brought up by forced marches +from Jugdulluk. + +The misfortunes of the day were in a measure retrieved by a well-timed, +ready-witted, and gallant action on the part of that brilliant and +lamented soldier Colonel Macgregor. A wing of the 72d had been called out +to hold the gorge of the Cabul river, but the Nanuchee Pass, through +which led the direct road from the scene of the combat to Sherpur, +remained open; and there was a time when the Afghan army was heading in +its direction. Macgregor had hurried to the open pass in time to rally +about him a number of Massy's people, who had lost their officers and +were making their way confusedly toward the refuge of Sherpur. Remaining +in possession of this important point until all danger was over, he +noticed that the ground about Bagwana, where the guns had been abandoned, +was not held by the enemy, and there seemed to him that the opportunity +to recover them presented itself. Taking with him a detachment of lancers +and artillerymen, he rode out and met with no molestation beyond a few +shots from villagers. From Macpherson's baggage guard, met as it crossed +the valley toward Sherpur, he requisitioned sixty infantrymen who entered +and held Bagwana, and covered him and the gunners during the long and +arduous struggle to extricate the guns from their lair in the deep and +rugged watercourse. This was at length accomplished, scratch teams were +improvised, and the guns, which were uninjured although the ammunition +boxes had been emptied, were brought into the cantonment to the general +joy. + +The result of the day's operations left General Baker momentarily +belated. But on the morning of the 11th that officer, finding that no +Afghans were being driven down upon him in accordance with the programme, +quitted the Maidan country and marched northward toward Urgundeh. An +attack on his baggage and rearguard was foiled; but as he reached his +camping ground for the night at Urgundeh the Afghans were found in +possession of the gorge opening into the Chardeh valley, through which +ran his road to Cabul. They were dislodged by a dashing attack of part of +the g2d Highlanders led by Lieutenant Scott Napier. It was not until the +morning of the 12th that Baker was informed by heliograph from Sherpur of +the occurrences of the previous day, and received directions to return to +the cantonment without delay. In the course of a few hours he was inside +Sherpur, notwithstanding that his march had been constantly molested by +attacks on his rear-guard. + +The casualties of the 11th had been after all not very serious. All told +they amounted to thirty men killed and forty-four wounded; fifty-one +horses killed and sixteen wounded. But the Afghans were naturally elated +by the success they had unquestionably achieved; the national rising had +been inaugurated by a distinct triumph, the news of which would bring +into the field incalculable swarms of fierce and fanatical partisans. It +was clear that Mahomed Jan had a quick eye for opportunities, and some +skill in handling men. That he could recognise the keypoint of a position +and act boldly and promptly on that recognition, his tactics of the 11th +made abundantly obvious, and his commanding position on the morning of +the 12th still further demonstrated his tactical ability. _L'audace, +encore l'audace, et toujours l'audace_ is the game to be played by the +commander of disciplined troops against Asiatic levies, and no man was +more sensible of this than the gallant soldier who now from the bastion +of Sherpur could see the Afghan standards waving on the summit of the +Takht-i-Shah. Indeed he was impressed so thoroughly by the force of the +maxim as to allow himself to hope that some 560 soldiers, of whom about +one-third were Europeans, backed by a couple of mountain guns, would be +able to carry by assault the lofty peak, strongly held by resolute +Afghans in protected positions, supported by several thousands of their +fellows lying out of sight until an attack should develop itself, to meet +which they were at hand to reinforce the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah. +From the gorge of the Cabul river there runs due south to near Charasiah +a lofty and rugged range, the highest point of which, the Takht-i-Shah, +is about midway from either extremity. From this main ridge there project +eastward at right angles two lateral spurs. The shorter and more +northerly of those runs down to the Balla Hissar, the longer and more +southerly obtruding itself into the plain as far as the village of Beni +Hissar. This latter spur quits the main ridge no great distance south of +the Takht-i-Shah peak, and on the 12th the Afghan reserves were massed in +rear of the peak, both on the main ridge and on this spur. The steep +faces of the mountain were strewn with great smooth boulders and jagged +masses of rock; the ascent, everywhere laborious, was complicated in +places by sheer scarps, and those formidable impediments were made still +more difficult by frequent sungahs, strong stone curtains behind which +the defenders lay safe or fired with a minimum of exposure. On the summit +was a great natural cavity which had been made bomb proof by art, and +further cover was afforded by caves and lines of rock. The most northerly +portion of the ridge described is known as the Sher Derwaza heights, +which Macpherson had occupied on the morning of the 12th, and his brigade +it was which furnished the little force already mentioned as charged to +attempt the task of storming the Takht-i-Shah. + +For several hours Morgan's two mountain guns industriously shelled that +peak, and then the infantry made their effort. The Afghans fought +stubbornly in defence of a lower hill they held in advance of the +Takht-i-Shah, but after a hard struggle they had to abandon it to +Macpherson's resolute men. But the exertions of the latter to ascend the +peak were baulked by its rugged steepness and the fire of the Afghans +holding the sungahs on its face. Sir Frederick Roberts had to recognise +that the direct attack by so weak a force unaided by a diversion, could +not succeed, and he ordered further efforts to be deferred. The +casualties of the abortive attempt included three officers, one of whom, +Major Cook, V.C. of the Goorkhas, than whom the British army contained no +better soldier, died of his wound. Macpherson was directed to hold the +ground he had won, including the lower advanced hill, and was informed +that on the following morning he was to expect the co-operation of +General Baker from the direction of Beni Hissar. + +The lesson of the result of attempting impossibilities had been taken to +heart, and the force which Baker led out on the morning of the 13th was +exceptionally strong, consisting as it did of the 92d Highlanders and +Guides infantry, a wing of the 3d Sikhs, a cavalry regiment, and eight +guns. Marching in the direction of the lateral spur extending from the +main ridge eastward to Beni Hissar, Baker observed that large masses of +the enemy were quitting the plain villages about Beni Hissar in which +they had taken shelter for the night, and were hurrying to gain the +summit of the spur which constituted the defensive position of the Afghan +reserve. Baker's _coup d'oeil_ was quick and true. By gaining the centre +of the spur he would cut in two the Afghan line along its summit, and so +isolate and neutralise the section of it from the centre to the Beni +Hissar extremity, toward which section the reinforcements from the plain +villages were climbing. But to accomplish this shrewd stroke it was +necessary that he should act with promptitude and energy. His guns opened +fire on the summit. The Sikhs, extended athwart the plain, protected his +right flank. His cavalry on the left cut into the bodies of Afghans +hurrying to ascend the eastern extremity of the spur. With noble +emulation the Highlanders and the Guides sprang up the rugged slope, +their faces set towards the centre of the summit line. Major White, who +already had earned many laurels in the campaign, led on his Highlanders; +the Guides, burning to make the most of their first opportunity to +distinguish themselves, followed eagerly the gallant chief who had so +often led them to victory on other fields. Lieutenant Forbes, a young +officer of the 92d heading the advance of his regiment, reached the +summit accompanied only by his colour-sergeant. A band of ghazees rushed +on the pair and the sergeant fell. As Forbes stood covering his body he +was overpowered and slain. The sudden catastrophe staggered for a moment +the soldiers following their officer, but Lieutenant Dick Cunyngham +rallied them immediately and led them forward at speed. For his conduct +on this occasion Cunyngham received the Victoria Cross. + +With rolling volleys Highlanders and Guides reached and won the summit. +The Afghans momentarily clung to the position, but the British fire swept +them away and the bayonets disposed of the ghazees, who fought and died +in defence of their standards. The severance of the Afghan line was +complete. A detachment was left to maintain the isolation of some 2000 of +the enemy who had been cut off; and then swinging to their right Baker's +regiments swept along the summit of the spur toward the main ridge and +the Takht-i-Shah, the Highlanders leading. As they advanced they rolled +up the Afghan line and a panic set in among the enemy, who sought safety +in flight. Assailed from both sides, for Macpherson's men from the +conical hill were passing up the north side of the peak, and shaken by +the steady fire of the mountain guns, the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah +evacuated the position. Baker's soldiers toiled vigorously upward toward +the peak, keen for the honour of winning it; but the credit of that +achievement justly fell to their comrades of Macpherson's command, who +had striven so valiantly to earn it the day before, and who had gained +possession of the peak and the Afghan standards flying on its summit, a +few minutes before the arrival of White's Highlanders and Jenkins' +Guides. As the midday gun was fired in the cantonment the flash of the +heliograph from the peak told that the Takht-i-Shah was won. + +While Baker was sweeping the spur and climbing the lofty peak of the main +ridge, his reserve, which remained in the plain, was in sharp action +against masses of assailants from the city and other bodies from the +villages about Beni Hissar. Those were beaten off by the 3d Sikhs and +Baker's flanks were thus cleared, but the resolute Afghans, bent on +interfering with his return march, surged away in the direction of the +Siah Sung ridge and gathered thereon in considerable strength. The guns +of Sherpur shelled them smartly, but they held their ground; and Massy +went out to disperse them with the cavalry. The Afghans showed unwonted +resolution, confronting the cavalry with extraordinary steadiness in +regular formation and withholding their fire until the troopers were +close upon them. But the horsemen were not to be denied. Captains Butson +and Chisholme led their squadrons against the Afghan flanks, and the +troopers of the 9th avenged the mishap which had befallen that gallant +regiment two days before, riding through and through the hostile masses +and scattering them over the plain. But in the charge Butson was killed, +Chisholme and Trower were wounded; the sergeant-major and three men were +killed and seven were wounded. Brilliant charges were delivered by the +other cavalry detachments, and the Siah Sung heights were ultimately +cleared. The Guides' cavalry attacked, defeated, and pursued for a long +distance a body of Kohistanees marching from the north-east apparently +with intent to join Mahomed Jan. The casualties of the day were sixteen +killed and forty-five wounded; not a heavy loss considering the amount of +hard fighting. The Afghans were estimated to have lost in killed alone +from 200 to 300 men. + +The operations of the day were unquestionably successful so far as they +went, but the actual results attained scarcely warranted the anticipation +that the Afghans would acknowledge themselves defeated by breaking up +their combination and dispersing to their homes. It was true that they +had been defeated, but they had fought with unprecedented stubbornness +and gave little evidence of being cowed. Throughout the day the villages +around Cabul had evinced a rancorous hostility which had a marked +significance. Not less significant was the participation in the fighting +of the day on the part of the population of Cabul. As Baker was returning +to Sherpur in the evening he had been fired upon from the Balla Hissar, +and his flanking parties had found ambushes of armed Afghans among the +willows between the city and the cantonment. But for the skill and +courage of the non-commissioned officer in charge a convoy of wounded on +its way to Sherpur would certainly have been destroyed. But there was a +stronger argument than any of those indications, significant as they were +of the unbroken spirit of the Afghans, telling against the probability +that the operations of the day would have the effect of putting down the +national rising. The hordes which had gathered to the banners of the +Mushk-i-Alum and Mahomed Jan combined with the fanaticism of the _jehad_ +a fine secular greed for plunder. Was it likely that they would scatter +resignedly, leaving untouched the rich booty of the city that had been +almost within arm's-length as they looked down on it from the peak of the +Takht-i-Shah, and whose minarets they were within sight of on the spur +and in the villages of Beni-Hissar? Was that ever likely? And was it not +made more and yet more unlikely when on the afternoon of the 13th +Macpherson, acting on orders, moved his camp to the Balla Hissar heights, +evacuating Deh Mazung and leaving open to the enemy the road into the +city through the Cabul gorge? The following morning was to show how +promptly and how freely the Afghans had taken advantage of the access to +the capital thus afforded them. It must never be forgotten that at this +time our people in Afghanistan held no more territory than the actual +ground they stood upon and the terrain swept by their fire. No +trustworthy intelligence from outside that region was procurable; and of +this there can be no clearer evidence than that the General was under the +belief that the enemy had been 'foiled in their western and southern +operations.' + +The morning of the 14th effectually dispelled the optimistic +anticipations indulged in overnight. At daybreak a large body of Afghans, +with many standards, were discerned on a hill about a mile northward of +the Asmai ridge, from which and from the Kohistan road they were moving +on to the crest of that ridge. They were joined there by several +thousands coming up the slopes from out the village of Deh Afghan, the +northern suburb of Cabul. It was estimated that there were about 8000 men +in position along the summit of the ridge, and occupying also a low +conical hill beyond its north-western termination. The array of Afghans +displayed itself within a mile of the west face of the Sherpur +cantonment, and formed a menace which could not be brooked. To General +Baker was entrusted the task of dislodging the enemy from the threatening +position, and there was assigned to him for this purpose a force +consisting of about 1200 bayonets, eight guns, and a regiment of native +cavalry. His first object was to gain possession of the conical hill +already mentioned, and thus debar the Afghan force on the Asmai heights +from receiving accessions either from the masses on the hill further +north or by the Kohistan road. Under cover of the artillery fire the +Highlanders and Guides occupied this conical hill after a short conflict. +A detachment was left to hold it and then Colonel Jenkins, who commanded +the attack, set about the arduous task of storming from the northward the +formidable position of the Asmai heights. The assault was led by +Brownlow's staunch Highlanders, supported on the right by the Guides +operating on the enemy's flank; and the Afghan position was heavily +shelled by four of Baker's guns, and by four more in action near the +south-western corner of the Sherpur cantonment. Macpherson from his +position on the Balla Hissar hill aided the attack by the fire of his +guns, and also by despatching two companies of the 67th to cross the +Cabul gorge and operate against the enemy's left rear. + +In the face of a heavy fire the Highlanders and Guides climbed with great +speed and steadiness the rugged hillside leading upward to the Afghan +breastwork on the northern edge of the summit. Their approach and the +crushing shrapnel fire from the guns near Sherpur had caused numerous +Afghans to move downward from the position toward Deh Afghan, heavily +smitten as they went; but the ghazees in the breastworks made a strenuous +resistance and died under their banners as the Highlanders carried the +defences with a rush. The crest, about a quarter of a mile long, was +traversed under heavy fire and the southern breastwork on the peak was +approached. It was strong and strongly held, but a cross fire was brought +to bear on its garrison, and then the frontal attack led by a +lance-corporal of the 72d was delivered. After a hand-to-hand grapple in +which Highlanders and Guides were freely cut and slashed by the knives of +the ghazees, the position, which was found full of dead, was carried, but +with considerable loss. The whole summit of the Asmai heights was now in +British possession, and everything seemed auspicious. The Afghans +streaming down from the heights toward the city were being lacerated by +shell fire and musketry fire as they descended. When they took refuge in +Deh Afghan that suburb was heavily shelled, and it was gradually +evacuated. + +Scarcely had Jenkins won the summit of the Asmai ridge when the fortune +of the day was suddenly overcast; indeed while he was still engaged in +the attainment of that object premonitory indications of serious mischief +were unexpectedly presenting themselves. A vast host of Afghans described +as numbering from 15,000 to 20,000, debouched into the Chardeh valley +from the direction of Indikee, and were moving northwards, apparently +with the object of forming a junction with the masses occupying the hills +to the north-west of the Asmai heights. About the same time cavalry +scouting in the Chardeh valley brought in the information that large +parties of hostile infantry and cavalry were hurrying across the valley +in the direction of the conical hill the defence of which had been +entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Clark with 120 Highlanders and Guides. +Recognising Clark's weakness, General Baker had judiciously reinforced +that officer with four mountain guns and 100 bayonets. The guns opened +fire on the Afghan bodies marching from the Killa Kazee direction, and +drove them out of range. But they coalesced with the host advancing from +Indikee, and the vast mass of Afghans, facing to the right, struck the +whole range of the British position from near the Cabul gorge on the +south to and beyond the conical hill on the north. The most vulnerable +point was the section at and about that eminence, and the necessity for +supplying Clark with further reinforcements became urgently manifest. +Baker sent up a second detachment, and 200 Sikhs came out from Sherpur at +the double. But the Afghans, creeping stealthily in great numbers up the +slope from out the Chardeh valley, had the shorter distance to travel, +and were beforehand with the reinforcements. Their tactics were on a par +with their resolution. The left of their attack grasped and held a knoll +north of the conical hill, and from this position of vantage brought a +cross fire to bear on Clark's detachment. As their direct attack +developed itself it encountered from the conical hill a heavy rifle fire, +and shells at short range tore through the loose rush of ghazees, but the +fanatics sped on and up without wavering. As they gathered behind a mound +for the final onslaught, Captain Spens of the 72d with a handful of his +Highlanders went out on the forlorn hope of dislodging them. A rush was +made on him; he was overpowered and slaughtered after a desperate +resistance, and the Afghan charge swept up the hill-side. In momentary +panic the defenders gave ground, carrying downhill with them the +reinforcement of Punjaubees which Captain Hall was bringing up. Two of +the mountain guns were lost, but there was a rally at the foot of the +hill under cover of which the other two were extricated. The Afghans +refrained from descending into the plain, and directed their efforts +toward cutting off the occupants of the position on the Asmai summit. +They ascended by two distinct directions. One body from the conical hill +followed the route taken by Jenkins in the morning; another scaled a spur +trending downward to the Chardeh valley from the southern extremity of +the Asmai ridge. + +It was estimated that the Afghan strength disclosed this day did not fall +short of 40,000 men; and General Roberts was reluctantly compelled to +abandon for the time any further offensive efforts. His reasons, stated +with perfect frankness, may best be given in his own words. 'Up to this +time,' he wrote, 'I had no reason to apprehend that the Afghans were in +sufficient force to cope successfully with disciplined troops, but the +resolute and determined manner in which the conical hill had been +recaptured, and the information sent to me by Brigadier-General +Macpherson that large masses of the enemy were still advancing from the +north, south, and west, made it evident that the numbers combined against +us were too overwhelming to admit of my comparatively small force meeting +them. I therefore determined to withdraw from all isolated positions, and +to concentrate the whole force at Sherpur, thus securing the safety of +our large cantonment, and avoiding what had now become a useless +sacrifice of life.' The orders issued to Generals Baker and Macpherson to +retire into the cantonment were executed with skill and steadiness. +Jenkins' evacuation of the Asmai position was conspicuously adroit. When +the order to quit reached that able officer, Major Stockwell of the 72d +was out with a small detachment, maintaining a hot fire on the Afghan +bodies ascending by the southern spur from the Chardeh valley. He fell +back with great deliberation, and when he rejoined the retirement down +the hill face looking toward Sherpur was leisurely proceeded with, the +hostile advance from, the northern side being held in check by the fire +of covering parties from Jenkins' left flank. General Macpherson's +retirement was masterly. Flanking his march through the Cabul gorge with +two companies of the 67th who stalled off a rush of ghazees from the +Asmai crest, he continued his march through the suburb of Deh Afghan, his +baggage in front under a strong guard. Some few shots were exchanged +before the suburb was cleared, but the casualties were few and presently +the brigade entered the cantonment. General Baker continued to hold a +covering position with part of his force, until the troops from the +heights and Macpherson's command had made good their retirement, and he +was the last to withdraw. By dusk the whole force was safely concentrated +within the cantonment, and the period of the defensive had begun. The +casualties of the day were serious; thirty-five killed, and 107 wounded. +During the week of fighting the little force had lost somewhat heavily; +the killed numbered eighty-three, the wounded 192. Eight officers were +killed, twelve were wounded. + + + + +CHAPTER V: ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + +Although overlarge for its garrison, the Sherpur cantonment had many of +the features of a strong defensive position. On the southern and western +faces the massive and continuous enciente made it impregnable against any +force unprovided with siege artillery. But on the eastern face the wall +had been built to the elevation only of seven feet, and at either end of +the Behmaroo heights, which constituted the northern line of defence, +there were open gaps which had to be made good. The space between the +north-western bastion and the heights was closed by an entrenchment +supported by a 'laager' of Afghan gun-carriages and limbers, the ground +in front strengthened by abattis and wire entanglements, beyond which a +village flanking the northern and western faces was occupied as a +detached post. The open space on the north-eastern angle was similarly +fortified; the village of Behmaroo was loopholed, and outlying buildings +to the front were placed in a state of defence. The unfinished eastern +wall was heightened by logs built up in tiers, and its front was covered +with abattis, a tower and garden outside being occupied by a detachment. +A series of block houses had been built along the crest of the Behmaroo +heights supporting a continuous entrenchment, gun emplacements made in +the line of defence, and the gorge dividing the heights strongly +fortified against an attack from the northern plain. The enciente was +divided into sections to each of which was assigned a commanding officer +with a specified detail of troops; and a strong reserve of European +infantry was under the command of Brigadier-General Baker, ready at short +notice to reinforce any threatened point. It was presumably owing to the +absorption of the troops in fighting, collecting supplies, and providing +winter shelter, that when the concentration within Sherpur became +suddenly necessary the defences of the position were still seriously +defective; and throughout the period of investment the force was +unremittingly engaged in the task of strengthening them. Nor had the +military precaution been taken of razing the villages and enclosures +within the fire zone of the enciente, and they remained to afford cover +to the enemy during the period of investment. + +Before the enemy cut the telegraph wire in the early morning of the 15th +Sir Frederick Roberts had informed the authorities in India of his +situation and of his need for reinforcements; and he had also ordered up +General Charles Gough's brigade without loss of time. Gough was already +at Jugdulluk when he received the order calling him to Cabul, but he had +to wait for reinforcements and supplies, and the tribesmen were +threatening his position and the line of communication in rear of it. He +did not move forward until the 21st. On the following day he reached +Luttabund, whence he took on with him the garrison of that post, but +although his march was unmolested it was not until the 24th that he +reached Sherpur, a day too late to participate in repelling the assault +on the cantonment. + +While General Roberts' force was busily engaged in making good the +defences of Sherpur, the Afghans refrained from attempting to back their +success on the Asmai heights by an assault on the defensive position +which seemed to invite an attack. During the first two days of their +possession of the city they were enjoying the fruits of their occupation +in their own turbulent manner. Roberts' spies reported them busily +engaged in sacking the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters, in looting and +wrecking the houses of chiefs and townsfolk who had shown friendliness to +the British, and in quarrelling among themselves over the spoils. +Requisitioning was in full force. The old Moulla Mushk-i-Alum was the +temporary successor of General Hills in the office of Governor of Cabul; +and spite of his ninety years he threw extraordinary energy into the work +of arousing fanaticism and rallying to Cabul the fighting men of the +surrounding country. The _jehad_ of which he had been the chief +instigator had certainly attained unexampled dimensions, and although it +was not in the nature of things that every Afghan who carried arms should +be inspired with religious fanaticism to such a pitch as to be utterly +reckless of his life, swarms of fierce ghazees made formidable the levies +which Mahomed Jan commanded. + +On the 17th and 18th the Afghans made ostentatious demonstrations against +Sherpur, but those were never formidable, although they made themselves +troublesome with some perseverance during the daytime, consistently +refraining from night attacks, which was remarkable since ordinarily they +are much addicted to the _chapao_. There never was any investment of +Sherpur, or indeed any approximation to investment. Cavalry +reconnaissances constantly went out, and piquets and videttes were +habitually on external duty; infantry detachments sallied forth whenever +occasion demanded to dislodge the assailants from points occupied by them +in inconvenient proximity to the defences. The Afghan offensive was not +dangerous, but annoying and wearying. It was indeed pushed with some +resolution on the 18th, when several thousand men poured out of the city, +and skirmished forward under cover of the gardens and enclosures on the +plain between Cabul and Sherpur, in the direction of the southern front +and the south-western bastions. The Afghans are admirable skirmishers, +and from their close cover kept up for hours a brisk fire on the soldiers +lining the Sherpur defences, but with singularly little effect. The +return rifle fire was for the most part restricted to volleys directed on +those of the enemy who offered a sure mark by exposing themselves; and +shell fire was chiefly used to drive the Afghan skirmishers from their +cover in the gardens and enclosures. Some of those, notwithstanding, were +able to get within 400 yards of the enciente, but could make no further +headway. On the morning of the 19th it was found that in the night the +enemy had occupied the Meer Akhor fort, a few hundred yards beyond the +eastern face, and close to the Residency compound of the old cantonments +of 1839-42. The fire from this fort was annoying, and General Baker went +out on the errand of destroying it, with 800 bayonets, two mountain guns, +and a party of sappers. As the fort was being approached through the +dense mist a sudden volley from it struck down several men, and +Lieutenant Montenaro of the mountain battery was mortally wounded. The +fort was heavily shelled from the south-eastern bastion; its garrison +evacuated it, and it was blown up. + +Mahomed Jan and his coadjutors could hardly flatter themselves that as +yet they had made any impression on the steadfast defence which the +British force was maintaining in the Sherpur cantonment. The Afghan +leader had tried force in vain; he knew the history of that strange +period in the winter of 1841 during which Afghan truculence and audacity +had withered the spirit of a British force not much less numerically +strong than the little army now calmly withstanding him. Things had not +gone very well with that little army of late, possibly its constancy +might have been impaired, and its chief might be willing, as had been +Elphinstone and the Eltchi, to listen to terms. Anyhow there could be no +harm in making a proffer based on the old lines. So the Afghan leader +proposed to General Roberts, apparently in all seriousness, that the +British army should forthwith evacuate Afghanistan, encountering no +molestation in its march; that the British General before departing +should engage that Yakoub Khan should return to Afghanistan as its Ameer; +and that there should be left behind two officers of distinction as +hostages for the faithful fulfilment of the contract. 'We have a lakh of +men; they are like wolves eager to rush on their prey! We cannot much +longer control them!'--such were said to have been the terms of a message +intended to disturb the equanimity of the British commander. Meer Butcha +and his Kohistanees, again, were not to all appearance anxious for the +restoration of Yakoub. They professed themselves content to accept our +staunch friend Wali Mahomed as Ameer, if only the British army would be +good enough to march home promptly and leave to Afghans the +administration of Afghan affairs. It was not likely that a man of +Roberts' nature would demean himself to take any notice of such +overtures. For the moment circumstances had enforced on him the wisdom of +accepting the defensive attitude, but he knew himself, nevertheless, the +virtual master of the situation. He had but one serious anxiety--the +apprehension lest the Afghans should not harden their hearts to deliver +an assault on his position. + +That apprehension was not long to give him concern. On the 20th, as a +menace against the southern face of Sherpur, the enemy took strong +possession of the Mahomed Shereef fort, stormed so gallantly by Colonel +Griffiths on 6th November 1841; and they maintained themselves there +during the two following days in face of the fire of siege guns mounted +on the bastions of the enciente. On the 21st and 22d large numbers of +Afghans quitted the city, and passing eastward behind the Siah Sung +heights, took possession in great force of the forts and villages outside +the eastern face of Sherpur. On the 22d a spy brought in the intelligence +that Mahomed Jan and his brother-chiefs had resolved to assault the +cantonment early on the following morning, and the spy was able to +communicate the plan of attack. The 2000 men holding the King's Garden +and the Mahomed Shereef fort had been equipped with scaling ladders, and +were to make a false attack which might become a real one, against the +western section of the southern front. The principal assault, however, +was to be made against the eastern face of the Behmaroo +village--unquestionably the weakest part of the defensive position. The +23d was the last day of the Mohurrum--the great Mahomedan religious +festival, when fanaticism would be at its height; and further to +stimulate that incentive to valour, the Mushk-i-Alum would himself kindle +the beacon fire on the Asmai height which was to be the signal to the +faithful to rush to the assault. + +The information proved perfectly accurate. All night long the shouts and +chants of the Afghans filled the air. Purposeful silence reigned +throughout the cantonment. In the darkness the soldiers mustered and +quietly fell into their places; the officers commanding sections of the +defence made their dispositions; the reserves were silently standing to +their arms. Every eye was toward the Asmai heights, shrouded still in the +gloom of the night. A long tongue of flame shot up into the air, blazed +brilliantly for a few moments, and then waned. At the signal a fierce +fire opened from the broken ground before one of the gateways of the +southern face, the flashes indicating that the marksmen were plying their +rifles within 200 yards of the enciente. The bullets sped harmlessly over +the defenders sheltered behind the parapet, and in the dusk of the dawn +reprisals were not attempted. But this outburst of powder-burning against +the southern face was a mere incident; what men listened and watched for +was the development of the true assault on the eastern end of the great +parallelogram. The section commanders there were General Hugh Gough in +charge of the eastern end of the Behmaroo heights, and Colonel Jenkins +from the village down to the Native Hospital and beyond to the bastion at +the south-eastern corner. The troops engaged were the Guides from the +ridge down to Behmaroo village and beyond to the Native Hospital, in +which were 100 men of the 28th Punjaub Infantry, and between the Hospital +and the corner bastion the 67th, reinforced by two companies of 92d +Highlanders from the reserve, which later sent to the defence of the +eastern face additional contributions of men and guns. 'From beyond +Behmaroo and the eastern trenches and walls,' writes Mr Hensman, 'came a +roar of voices so loud and menacing that it seemed as if an army fifty +thousand strong was charging down on our thin line of men. Led by their +ghazees, the main body of Afghans hidden in the villages and orchards on +the east side of Sherpur had rushed out in one dense mob, and were +filling the air with their shouts of "Allah-il-Allah." The roar surged +forward as their line advanced, but it was answered by such a roll of +musketry that it was drowned for the moment, and then merged into the +general din which told us that our men with Martinis and Sniders were +holding their own against the attacking force.' When the first attack +thus graphically described was made the morning was still so dark and +misty that the outlook from the trenches was restricted, and the order to +the troops was to hold their fire till the assailants should be +distinctly visible. The detachment of the 28th opened fire somewhat +prematurely, and presently the Guides holding Behmaroo and the trenches +on the slopes followed the example, and sweeping with their fire the +terrain in front of them broke the force of the attack while its leaders +were still several hundred yards away. Between the Hospital and the +corner bastion the men of the 67th and 92d awaited with impassive +discipline the word of permission to begin firing. From out the mist at +length emerged dense masses of men, some of whom were brandishing swords +and knives, while others loaded and fired while hurrying forward. The +order to fire was not given until the leading ghazees were within eighty +yards, and the mass of assailants not more distant than 200 yards. +Heavily struck then by volley on volley, they recoiled but soon gathered +courage to come on again; and for several hours there was sharp fighting, +repeated efforts being made to carry the low eastern wall. So resolute +were the Afghans that more than once they reached the abattis, but each +time were driven back with heavy loss. About ten o'clock there was a lull +and it seemed that the attacking force was owning the frustration of its +attempts, but an hour later there was a partial recrudescence of the +fighting and the assailants once more came on. The attack, however, was +not pushed with much vigour and was soon beaten down, but the Afghans +still maintained a threatening attitude and the fire from the defences +was ineffectual to dislodge them. The General resolved to take their +positions in flank, and with this intent sent out into the open through +the gorge in the Behmaroo heights, four field guns escorted by a cavalry +regiment. Bending to the right, the guns came into action on the right +flank of the Afghans, and the counter-stroke had immediate effect. The +enemy wavered and soon were in full retreat. The Kohistanee contingent, +some 5000 strong, cut loose and marched away northward, with obvious +recognition that the game was up. The fugitives were scourged with +artillery and rifle fire, and Massy led out the cavalry, swept the plain, +and drove the lingering Afghans from the slopes of Siah Sung. The false +attack on the southern face from the King's Garden and the Mahomed +Shereef fort never made any head. Those positions were steadily shelled +until late in the afternoon, when they were finally evacuated, and by +nightfall all the villages and enclosures between Sherpur and Cabul were +entirely deserted. Some of those had been destroyed by sappers from the +garrison during the afternoon, in the course of which operation two +gallant engineer officers, Captain Dundas and Lieutenant Nugent, were +unfortunately killed by the premature explosion of a mine. + +Mahomed Jan had been as good as his word; he had delivered his stroke +against Sherpur, and that stroke had utterly failed. With its failure +came promptly the collapse of the national rising. Before daybreak of the +24th the formidable combination which had included all the fighting +elements of North-Eastern Afghanistan, and under whose banners it was +believed that more than 100,000 armed men had mustered, was no more. Not +only had it broken up; it had disappeared. Neither in the city, nor in +the adjacent villages, nor on the surrounding heights, was a man to be +seen. So hurried had been the Afghan dispersal that the dead lay unburied +where they had fallen. His nine days on the defensive had cost General +Roberts singularly little in casualties; his losses were eighteen killed +and sixty-eight wounded. The enemy's loss from first to last of the +rising was reckoned to be not under 3000. + +On the 24th the cavalry rode far and fast in pursuit of the fugitives, +but they overtook none, such haste had the fleeing Afghans made. On the +same day Cabul and the Balla Hissar were reoccupied, and General Hills +resumed his functions as military governor of the city. Cabul had the +aspect of having undergone a sack at the hands of the enemy; the bazaars +were broken up and deserted and the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters had +been relentlessly wrecked. Sir Frederick Roberts lost no time in +despatching a column to, the Kohistan to punish Meer Butcha by destroying +that chief's forts and villages, and to ascertain whether the tribesmen +of the district had dispersed to their homes. This was found to be the +case, and the column returned after having been out five days. After +making a few examples the General issued a proclamation of amnesty, +excluding therefrom only five of the principal leaders and fomentors of +the recent rising, and stipulating that the tribesmen should send +representatives to Sherpur to receive explanations regarding the +dispositions contemplated for the government of the country. This policy +of conciliation bore good fruit; and a durbar was held on January 9th, +1880, at which were present about 200 sirdars, chiefs, and headmen from +the Kohistan, Logur, and the Ghilzai country. Rewards were presented to +those chiefs who had remained friendly; the General received the salaams +of the assembled sirdars and then addressed them in a firm but +conciliatory speech. + +The country remained still in a disturbed state, but there was little +likelihood of a second general rising. General Roberts was resolved, +however, to be thoroughly prepared to cope with that contingency should +it occur. Sherpur was encircled by a military road, and all cover and +obstructions for the space of 1000 yards outside the enciente were swept +away. Another road was constructed from Behmaroo village to the Siah Sung +heights and yet another from the south-eastern gateway direct to the +Balla Hissar, on both of which there were bridges across the Cabul river. +Along the northern face of Cabul from Deh Afghan to the Balla Hissar, a +road broad enough for guns was made, and another broad road cut through +the lower Balla Hissar. Another military road was built through the Cabul +gorge to the main Ghuznee and Bamian road in the Chardeh valley. Strong +forts were built on the Asmai and Sher Derwaza heights and on the spur +above the Balla Hissar, which, well garrisoned and supplied adequately +with provisions, water, and ammunition, would enable Cabul as well as +Sherpur to be held. The latter was greatly strengthened, the eastern +point of the Behmaroo heights being converted into something like a +regular fortress. Later, in March, when the Cabul force had increased to +a strength of about 11,500 men and twenty-six guns, the command was +formed into two divisions, of which the first remained under the +Lieutenant-General, the second being commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The line of communications was in charge of Major-General Bright, +and Brigadier-General Hugh Gough was the cavalry commander in succession +to Brigadier-General Massy. On the 2d of May, Sir Donald Stewart arriving +at Cabul from Candahar, took over the chief command in North-Eastern +Afghanistan from Sir Frederick Roberts. Sir Donald's march from Candahar, +which was an eventful one, is dealt with in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI: AHMED KHEL + +While Sir Frederick Roberts had been fighting hard in North-Eastern +Afghanistan, Sir Donald Stewart had been experiencing comparative +tranquillity in his Candahar command. As soon as the news reached him of +the destruction of Cavagnari's mission he had promptly concentrated his +troops, and so early as the third week of September (1879) he was in a +position to carry out his orders to create a diversion in aid of Roberts' +advance on Cabul by making a demonstration in the direction of Ghuznee +and placing a garrison in Khelat-i-Ghilzai. No subsequent movements of +importance were undertaken in Southern Afghanistan during the winter, and +the province enjoyed almost unbroken quietude. In Herat, however, +disturbance was rife. Ayoub Khan, the brother of Yakoub Khan, had +returned from exile and made good his footing in Herat, of which formerly +he had been conjoint governor with Yakoub. In December he began a hostile +advance on Candahar, but a conflict broke out between the Cabul and Herat +troops under his command, and he abandoned for the time his projected +expedition. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT AHMED KHEL. 20 Miles from GHUZNEE. 19th. April +1880.] + +In the end of March Sir Donald Stewart began the march toward Cabul which +orders from India had prescribed. He left behind him in Candahar the +Bombay division of his force under the command of Major-General Primrose, +whose line of communication with the Indus valley was to be kept open by +Phayre's brigade, and took with him on the northward march the Bengal +division, consisting of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade. The +first infantry brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Barter, the +second by Brigadier-General Hughes, and the cavalry brigade, which +divisional headquarters accompanied, by Brigadier-General Palliser. +Khelat-i-Ghilzai was reached on 6th April; the Bengal portion of its +garrison joined the division and the advance was resumed on the following +day. Until Shahjui, the limit of the Candahar province, the march was +uneventful; but beyond that place extreme difficulties were experienced +in procuring supplies, for the villages were found deserted and the +inhabitants had carried off, destroyed, or hidden their stores of grain. +The force was embarrassed by a horde of Hazaras, who swarmed in wild +irregularity on its flanks, plundering and burning with great +vindictiveness, eager to wreak vengeance on their Afghan foes. And it had +another although more distant companionship, in the shape of several +thousand hostile tribesmen and ghazees, whose fanaticism their moullas +had been assiduously inciting, and who marched day by day parallel with +the British right flank along the foothills at a distance of about eight +miles. Their attitude was threatening but it was not thought wise to +meddle with them, since their retreat over the hills could not well be +cut off, and since the policy of non-interference would tend to encourage +them to venture on a battle. The soundness of this reasoning was soon to +be made manifest. + +On the night of April 18th the division was encamped at Mushaki, about +thirty miles south of Ghuznee. The spies that evening brought in the +information that the enemy had resolved on fighting on the following +morning, and that the position they intended to take up was the summit of +a low spur of the Gul Koh mountain ridge, bounding on the west the valley +followed by the road. This spur was said to project in a north-easterly +direction toward the Ghuznee river, gradually sinking into the plain. +During a great part of its length it flanked and overhung the road, but +near where it merged into the plain the road passed over it by a low +saddle at a point about six miles beyond Mushaki. At dawn of the 19th the +column moved off, Palliser leading the advance, which Sir Donald Stewart +accompanied, Hughes commanding the centre, Barter bringing up the rear +and protecting the baggage. An hour later the enemy were visible in great +strength about three miles in advance, presenting the aspect of a vast +body formed up on the spur and on the saddle crossed by the road, and +thus threatening Stewart at once in front and on both flanks. The British +general at once made his dispositions. His guns were on the road in +column of route. The three infantry regiments of Hughes' brigade came up +to the left of and in line with the leading battery, the cavalry took +ground on the plain on its right, and a reserve was formed consisting of +an infantry regiment, two companies sappers and miners, and the General's +escort of a troop and two companies. Orders were sent back to Barter to +send forward without delay half the infantry of his brigade. In the +formation described the force resumed its advance until within striking +distance. Then the two batteries came into action on either side of the +road; the horse-battery on the right, the flat ground to its right being +covered by the 2d Punjaub Cavalry; the field-battery on the left. Sir +Donald Stewart's proper front thus consisted of the field and +horse-batteries with their supports, but since it was apparent that the +greatest strength of the enemy was on the higher ground flanking his +left, it behoved him to show a front in that direction also, and for this +purpose he utilised Hughes' three infantry regiments, of which the 59th +was on the right, the 2d Sikhs in the centre, and the 3d Goorkhas on the +left. Part of the reserve infantry was sent to make good the interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. + +The guns had no sooner come into action than the enemy in great masses +showed themselves on spur and saddle and plain, bent seemingly on an +attempt to envelop the position held by the British. 'Suddenly,' writes +Hensmen, 'a commotion was observed in the most advanced lines of the +opposing army; the moullas could be seen haranguing the irregular host +with frantic energy, the beating of the tom-toms was redoubled, and then +as if by magic waves on waves of men--ghazees of the most desperate +type--poured down upon the plain, and rushed upon General Stewart's +force. The main body of the Afghan army remained upon the hill to watch +the ghazees in their reckless onslaught, and take advantage of any +success they might gain. The fanaticism of the 3000 or 4000 men who made +this desperate charge has perhaps never been equalled; they had 500 or +600 yards to cover before they could come to close quarters, and yet they +made nothing of the distance. Nearly all were well armed with tulwars, +knives, and pistols. Some carried rifles and matchlocks, while a few--and +those must have been resolute fanatics indeed--had simply pikes made of +bayonets, or pieces of sharpened iron fastened on long shafts. Their +attack broke with greatest violence on our flanks. On our left flank the +19th Bengal Lancers were still moving into position when the ghazees +rushed in among them. In an instant they were hidden in the cloud of dust +and smoke, and then they galloped toward the right rear, and struck into +the reserve in rear of the Lieutenant-General and his staff. All was +confusion for a moment; the ammunition mules were stampeded, and with the +riderless horses of the lancers killed or wounded in the _melee_, dashed +into the headquarter staff. The ghazees had continued their onward rush, +and were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with our infantry. Some of them +penetrated to within twenty yards of the knoll on which the staff were +watching the action, and so critical was the moment that Sir Donald +Stewart and every man of his staff drew their swords and prepared for +self-defence.' The hurried retirement of the lancers had left the left +flank bare. It was turned by the fierce rush of the fanatics, who were +actually in rear of the leftward infantry regiment and in the heart of +the British position. The Goorkhas had been thrown into momentary +confusion, but their colonel promptly formed them into rallying squares, +whose fire mowed down the ghazees and arrested the headlong vehemence of +their turning movement. But it was not the British left only which was +temporarily compromised by the furious onslaught of the fanatics. Their +enveloping charge broke down the defence of the weakly-manned interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. The +detachments holding that interval were forced back, righting hand-to-hand +as the sheer weight of the assault compelled them to give ground; the +59th, in its effort to throw back its right to cover the interval and +protect the guns, was thrown into confusion and gave ground; and the +guns, their case shot exhausted and the Afghans within a few yards of +their muzzles, had to be retired. The onslaught on the right front of the +horse-battery was delivered with great determination, but was held at bay +and finally crushed by the repeated charges of the 2d Punjaub cavalry. + +Every man of the reserves was hurried into the fighting line; the +soldiers were steadied by the energetic efforts of their officers and +settled down to a steady and continuous fire from their breechloaders; +the guns poured their shells into the hostile masses; and the fire of the +forty-pounders on the left effectually arrested the attempt of the Afghan +horse to move round that flank. The hard-fought combat lasted for an +hour; at ten o'clock the 'cease fire' sounded, and the British victory +was signal. The enemy was dispersing in full flight, and the cavalry was +chasing the fugitives across the plain on the right. How reckless had +been the whirlwind charges of the ghazees was evidenced by the +extraordinary number of their dead whose corpses strewed the battlefield. +In no previous conflict between our troops and the Afghans had the latter +suffered nearly so heavily. More than 1000 dead were counted on the +field, and many bodies were carried away; on a moderate computation their +total loss must have been between 2000 and 3000, and that in an estimated +strength of from 12,000 to 15,000. The casualties of the British force +were seventeen killed and 124 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds. +The injuries consisted almost wholly of sword slashes and knife stabs +received in hand-to-hand encounters. The pursuit was soon recalled, but +the Hazaras took up the chase with ardour and in the rancour of vengeance +slew and spared not. + +Sir Donald Stewart tarried on the field only long enough to bury his dead +and have his wounded attended to; and soon after noon his force resumed +its march. Ghuznee was reached on the 21st, where there was a halt of +three days. It had been reported that the indomitable Mushk-i-Alum was +raising the tribesmen of Zurmut and Shilgur to avenge the defeat of Ahmed +Khel, and a cavalry reconnaissance made on the 22d had found a gathering +of 2000 or 3000 men about the villages of Urzoo and Shalez, six miles +south-east of Ghuznee. On the morning of the 23d a strong column +commanded by Brigadier-General Palliser moved on the villages, which were +found occupied in considerable force. They were too solidly built to be +much injured by artillery fire, and the Afghans lay close in the shelter +they afforded. Palliser hesitated to commit his infantry to an attack. +Sir Donald Stewart having arrived, ordered the infantry to carry the +villages without delay, and the affair was soon over, the tribesmen +suffering severely from the rifle fire as they evacuated the villages, +and later in the pursuit made by the cavalry and horse-artillery. On the +following day the march toward Cabul was resumed. + +On the 16th April Major-General Ross had been despatched from Cabul by +Sir Frederick Roberts on the mission of joining hands with Stewart's +division. On the 20th Ross opened heliographic communication with Sir +Donald, and was informed of the latter's victory at Ahmed Khel. But the +junction of the two forces was not accomplished until the 27th; and in +the interval the force commanded by General Ross had received +considerable annoyance at the hands of tribal levies gathered by local +chiefs. The tribesmen interfered with the roadmaking operations of his +sappers in the vicinity of Sheikabad, and some fighting occurred in very +rugged country on the 23d. Trivial loss was experienced by his command, +but the demonstrations of the tribesmen evinced with what inveterate +determination, notwithstanding so many severe lessons, the Afghans +persisted in their refusal to admit themselves conquered. Driven away +with severe loss on the 25th, those indomitable hillmen and villagers +were back again on the following morning on the overhanging ridges; nor +were they dispersed by the 'resources of civilised warfare' until more of +them had paid with their lives the penalty of their obstinate hostility. +On the 28th, at Sheikabad, Sir Donald Stewart took leave of the division +which he had led from Candahar, and proceeded to Cabul with General Ross' +force to assume the chief command in North-Eastern Afghanistan. His +division turned aside into the Logur valley, where it remained at until +the final concentration about Cabul in anticipation of the evacuation. By +the reinforcement brought by Stewart the Cabul field force was increased +to a strength of about 18,000 men. + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +The occupation of Afghanistan by the British troops had been prolonged +far beyond the period originally intended by the authorities. But the +strain of that occupation was great, and although it had to be maintained +until there should be found a ruler strong enough to hold his own after +the evacuation, the decision was definitely arrived at to withdraw from +the country before the setting in of another winter. Mr Lepel Griffin, a +distinguished member of the political department of the Indian Civil +Service, reached Cabul on 20th March, his mission being to further the +selection and acceptance of a capable ruler to be left in possession. The +task was no easy one. There was little promise in any of the Barakzai +pretenders who were in Afghanistan, and in the address which Mr Griffin +addressed in Durbar to a number of sirdars and chiefs in the middle of +April, he preserved a tone at once haughty and enigmatical. One thing he +definitely announced, the Viceroy's decision that Yakoub Khan was not to +return to Afghanistan. The State was to be dismembered. As to the future +of Herat the speaker made no allusion; but the province of Candahar was +to be separated from Cabul and placed under an independent Barakzai +prince. No decision could for the present be given in regard to the +choice of an Ameer to rule over Cabul. The Government desired to nominate +an Ameer strong enough to govern his people and steadfast in his +friendship to the British; if those qualifications could be secured the +Government was willing and anxious to recognise the wish of the Afghan +people, and nominate an Ameer of their choice. + +But in effect the choice, so far as the English were concerned, had been +already virtually made. On the 14th of March Lord Lytton had telegraphed +to the Secretary of State advocating the 'early public recognition of +Abdurrahman as legitimate heir of Dost Mahomed, and the despatch of a +deputation of sirdars, with British concurrence, to offer him the throne, +as sole means of saving the country from anarchy'; and the Minister had +promptly replied authorising the nomination of Abdurrahman, should he be +found 'acceptable to the country and would be contented with Northern +Afghanistan.' Abdurrahman had known strange vicissitudes. He was the +eldest grandson of the old Dost; his father was Afzul Khan, the elder +brother of Shere Ali. After the death of the Dost he had been an exile in +Bokhara, but he returned to Balkh, of which province his father had been +Governor until removed by Shere Ali, made good his footing there, and +having done so advanced on Cabul, taking advantage of Shere Ali's absence +at Candahar. The capital opened its gates to him in March 1866; he fought +a successful battle with Shere Ali at Sheikabad, occupied Ghuznee, and +proclaimed his father Ameer. Those were triumphs, but soon the wheel came +round full circle. Afzul had but a short life as Ameer, and Abdurrahman +had to retire to Afghan Turkestan. Yakoub, then full of vigour and +enterprise, defeated him at Bamian and restored his father Shere Ali to +the throne in the winter of 1868. Abdurrahman then once more found +himself an exile. In 1870, after much wandering, he reached Tashkend, +where General Kaufmann gave him permission to reside, and obtained for +him from the Czar a pension of 25,000 roubles per annum. Petrosvky, a +Russian writer who professed to be intimate with him during his period of +exile, wrote of him that, 'To get square some day with the English and +Shere Ali was Abdurrahman's most cherished thought, his dominant, +never-failing passion.' His hatred of Shere Ali, his family, and +supporters, was intelligible and natural enough, but why he should have +entertained a bitter grudge against the English is not very apparent; and +there has been no overt manifestation of its existence since he became +Ameer. To Mr Eugene Schuyler, who had an interview with him at Tashkend, +he expressed his conviction that with L50,000 wherewith to raise and +equip an army he could attain his legitimate position as Ameer of +Afghanistan. Resolutely bent on an effort to accomplish this purpose, he +was living penuriously and saving the greater part of his pension, and he +hinted that he might have Russian assistance in the prosecution of his +endeavour. The selection of a man of such antecedents and associations as +the ruler of a 'buffer' state in friendly relations with British India +was perhaps the greatest leap in the dark on record. Abdurrahman came +straight from the position of a Russian pensionary; in moving on +Afghanistan he obeyed Russian instructions; his Tashkend patrons had +furnished him with a modest equipment of arms and money, the value of +which he undertook to repay if successful. It is of course possible that +those functionaries of a notoriously simple and ingenuous government +started and equipped him in pure friendly good nature, although they had +previously consistently deterred him. But there was not a circumstance in +connection with Abdurrahman that was not suspicious. Three distinct +hypotheses seem to present themselves in relation to this selection as +our nominee; that Lord Lytton had extraordinary, almost indeed +preternatural foresight and sagacity; that he was extremely fortunate in +his leap in the dark; that he desired to bring to the naked _reductio ad +absurdum_ the 'buffer state' policy. When Abdurrahman began his movement +is uncertain. So early as the middle of January it was reported at +Sherpur that he had left Tashkend, and was probably already on the Afghan +side of the Oxus. In a letter of February 17th Mr Hensman speaks of him +as being in Badakshan, where his wife's kinsmen were in power, and +describes him as having a following of 2000 or 3000 Turcoman horsemen and +possessed according to native report of twelve lakhs of rupees. On the +17th of March Lord Lytton telegraphed to the Secretary of State that he +was in possession of 'authentic intelligence that the Sirdar was in +Afghan Turkestan, having lately arrived there from Badakshan.' + +[Illustration: The Ameer Abdurrahman.] + +It was regarded of urgent importance to ascertain definitely the +disposition of Abdurrahman, and whether he was disposed to throw in his +lot with the British Government, and accept the position of its nominee +in Northern Afghanistan. The agent selected by Mr Griffin to open +preliminary negotiations was a certain Mohamed Surwar, Ghilzai, who had +been all his life in the confidential service of the Sirdar's family. +Surwar was the bearer of a formal and colourless letter by way simply of +authentication; but he also carried full and explicit verbal +instructions. He was directed to inform the Sirdar that since he had +entered Afghan Turkestan and occupied places there by force of arms, it +was essential for him to declare with what object he had come, and +whether actuated by friendly or hostile feelings toward the British +Government, which for its part had no ill-feeling toward him because of +his long residence within the Russian Empire and his notoriously close +relations with that power. That the British Government was able to +benefit him very largely in comparison with that of Russia; and that +wisdom and self interest alike suggested that he should at once open a +friendly correspondence with the British officers in Cabul. That his +opportunity was now come, and that the British Government was disposed to +treat him with every consideration and to consider most favourably any +representations he might make. It had no intention of annexing the +country, and only desired to see a strong and friendly chief established +at Cabul; and that consequently the present communication was made solely +in Abdurrahman's own interest, and not in that of the British Government. +He was desired to send a reply by Surwar, and later to repair to Cabul, +where he should be honourably received. + +Surwar returned to Cabul on 21st April, bringing a reply from Abdurrahman +to Mr Griffin's letter. The tone of the reply was friendly enough, but +somewhat indefinite. In conversation with Surwar as reported by the +latter, Abdurrahman was perfectly frank as to his relations with the +Russians, and his sentiments in regard to them. It had been reported that +he had made his escape clandestinely from Tashkend. Had he cared to stand +well with us at the expense of truth, it would have been his cue to +disclaim all authority or assistance from the Russian Government, to +confirm the current story of his escape, and to profess his anxiety to +cultivate friendly relations with the British in a spirit of opposition +to the power in whose territory he had lived so long virtually as a +prisoner. But neither in writing nor in conversation did he make any +concealment of his friendliness toward the Russians, a feeling which he +clearly regarded as nowise incompatible with friendly relations with the +British Government. 'If,' said he to Surwar, 'the English will in +sincerity befriend me, I have no wish to hide anything from them'; and he +went on to tell how the Russians had forbidden him for years to make any +effort to interfere in Afghan affairs. This prohibition stood until +information reached Tashkend of the deportation of Yakoub Khan to India. +Then it was that General Kaufmann's representative said to him: 'You have +always been anxious to return to your country; the English have removed +Yakoub Khan; the opportunity is favourable; if you wish you are at +liberty to go.' The Russians, continued Abdurrahman, pressed him most +strongly to set out on the enterprise which lay before him. They lent him +33,000 rupees, and arms, ammunition, and supplies; he was bound to the +Russians by no path or promise, but simply by feelings of gratitude. 'I +should never like,' said he, 'to be obliged to fight them. I have eaten +their salt, and was for twelve years dependent on their hospitality.' + +Surwar reported Abdurrahman as in fine health and possessed of great +energy. He had with him a force of about 3000 men, consisting of four +infantry and two cavalry regiments, with twelve guns and some irregulars. +He professed his readiness, in preference to conducting negotiations +through agents, to go himself to Charikar in the Kohistan with an escort, +and there discuss matters with the English officers in person. Surwar +testified that the Sirdar had with him in Turkestan no Russian or Russian +agent, and this was confirmed through other sources. He had sent forward +to ascertain which was the easiest pass across the Hindoo Koosh, but +meanwhile he was to remain at Kondooz until he should hear again from Mr +Griffin. + +While the wary Sirdar waited on events beyond the Hindoo Koosh he was +sending letters to the leading chiefs of the Kohistan and the Cabul +province, desiring them to be ready to support his cause. That he had an +influential party was made clear at a durbar held by Mr Griffin on April +21st, when a considerable gathering of important chiefs united in the +request that Abdurrahman's claim to the Ameership should be favourably +regarded by the British authorities. In pursuance of the negotiations a +mission consisting of three Afghan gentlemen, two of whom belonged to Mr +Griffin's political staff, left Cabul on May 2nd carrying to Abdurrahman +a letter from Mr Griffin intimating that it had been decided to withdraw +the British army from Afghanistan in the course of a few months, and that +the British authorities desired to leave the rulership in capable and +friendly hands; that they were therefore willing to transfer the +Government to him, recognise him as the head of the State, and afford him +facilities and even support in reorganising the Government and +establishing himself in the sovereignty. The mission found the attitude +of Abdurrahman scarcely so satisfactory as had been reported by Surwar, +and its members were virtual prisoners, their tents surrounded by +sentries. Abdurrahman's explanation of this rigour of isolation was that +he could not otherwise ensure the safety of the envoys; but another +construction conveyed to them was that they were kept prisoners that they +might not, by mixing with the people, learn of the presence on the right +bank of the Oxus of a Russian officer with whom Abdurrahman was said to +be in constant communication and on whose advice he acted. Their belief +was that Abdurrahman was entirely under Russian influence; that Mr +Griffin's letter after it had been read in Durbar in the camp was +immediately despatched across the Oxus by means of mounted relays; and +that Russian instructions as to a reply had not been received when they +left Turkestan to return to Cabul. They expressed their belief that the +Sirdar would not accept from British hands Cabul shorn of Candahar. They +had urged him to repeat in the letter they were to carry back to Cabul +the expression of his willingness to meet the British representative at +Charikar which had been contained in his letter sent by Surwar; but he +demurred to committing himself even to this slight extent. The letter +which he sent by way of reply to the weighty communication Mr Griffin had +addressed to him on the part of the Government of India that official +characterised as 'frivolous and empty, and only saved by its special +courtesy of tone from being an impertinence.' + +An Afghan who had sat at Kaufmann's feet, Abdurrahman was not wholly a +guileless man; and the truth probably was that he mistrusted the Greeks +of Simla and the gifts they tendered him with so lavish protestation that +they were entirely for his own interest. There was very little finesse +about the importunity of the British that he should constitute himself +their bridge of extrication, so that they might get out of Afghanistan +without the dangers and discredit of leaving chaos behind them. But +Abdurrahman had come to know himself strong enough to reduce to order +that legacy of chaos if it should be left; and in view of his future +relations with his fellow Afghans he was not solicitous to be beholden to +the foreigners to any embarrassing extent. He knew, too, the wisdom of +'masterly inactivity' in delicate conditions. And, again, he had no +confidence in our pledges. On the 4th of August, the day after the +meeting between him and Mr Griffin at Zimma, the latter wrote: 'They +(Abdurrahman and his advisers) feared greatly our intention was to rid +ourselves of a formidable opponent, and dreaded that if he had come +straight into Cabul he would have been arrested, and deported to India.' + +A Liberal Government was now in office in England, and was urgent for the +speedy evacuation of Afghanistan. Lord Lytton had resigned and had been +succeeded as Viceroy by the Marquis of Ripon. Lieutenant-General Sir +Donald Stewart was in chief command at Cabul. A great number of letters +from Abdurrahman to chiefs and influential persons throughout Afghanistan +were being intercepted, the tone of which was considered objectionable. +He was reported to be in close correspondence with Mahomed Jan, who had +never ceased to be our bitter enemy. The fact that negotiations were in +progress between the British Government and Abdurrahman had become matter +of general knowledge throughout the country, and was occasioning +disquietude and excitement. So clear were held the evidences of what was +termed Abdurrahman's bad faith, but was probably a combination of genuine +mistrust, astute passivity, and shrewd playing for his own hand, that it +became a serious question with the Indian Government on the arrival of +the new Viceroy, whether it was good policy to have anything more to do +with him. It was resolved that before breaking off intercourse the +suggestion of Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin should be adopted, that a +peremptory although still friendly letter, demanding a definite +acceptance or refusal of the proffers made, within four days after the +receipt, should be sent to Abdurrahman, with a detailed explanation of +the arrangements into which we were prepared to enter with regard to him +and the future of Afghanistan. A letter was forwarded from Cabul on 14th +June, in which Mr Griffin informed the Sirdar that since the British +Government admitted no right of interference by foreign powers in +Afghanistan, it was plain that the Cabul ruler could have no political +relations with any foreign power except the English; and if any foreign +power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such +interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Cabul ruler, +then the British Government would be prepared to aid him, if necessary, +to repel it. As regarded limits of the territory, the latter stated that +the whole province of Candahar had been placed under a separate ruler, +except Sibi and Pisheen, which were retained in British possession. +Consequently the British Government was unable to enter into any +negotiations on those points, or in respect to arrangements in regard to +the north-western frontier which were settled by the treaty of Gundamuk. +Subject to those reservations, the British Government was willing that +Abdurrahman should establish over Afghanistan--including Herat when he +should have conquered it--as complete and extensive authority as was +swayed by any previous Ameer. The British Government would exercise no +interference in the internal government of those territories nor would it +demand the acceptance of an English Resident anywhere within Afghanistan, +although for convenience of ordinary friendly intercourse it might be +agreed upon that a Mahommedan Agent of the British Government should be +stationed at Cabul. + +Abdurrahman's reply to this communication was vague and evasive, and was +regarded by Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin as so unsatisfactory that +they represented to the Government of India, not for the first time, +their conviction of the danger of trusting Abdurrahman, the imprudence of +delaying immediate action, and the necessity of breaking off with him and +adopting other means of establishing a government in Cabul before the +impending evacuation. Lord Ripon, however, considered that 'as matters +stood an arrangement with Abdurrahman offered the most advisable +solution, while he doubted whether it would not be found very difficult +to enter into any alternative arrangement.' His Excellency's decision was +justified by the event. Meanwhile, indeed, Abdurrahman had started on +June 28th for the Kohistan. He crossed the Hindoo Koosh and arrived on +July 20th at Charikar, where he was welcomed by a deputation of leading +chiefs, while the old Mushk-i-Alum, who for some time, thanks to Mr +Griffin's influence, had been working in the interests of peace, +intimated on behalf of a number of chiefs assembled in Maidan that they +were ready to accept as Ameer the nominee of the British Government. + +So propitious seemed the situation that it was considered the time had +come for formally acknowledging Abdurrahman as the new Ameer, and also +for fixing approximately the date of the evacuation of Cabul by the +British troops. The ceremony of recognition was enacted in a great durbar +tent within the Sherpur cantonment on the afternoon of July 22d. The +absence of Abdurrahman, and the notorious cause of that absence, +detracted from the intrinsic dignity of the occasion so far as concerned +the British participation in it; nor was the balance restored by the +presence of three members of his suite whom he had delegated to represent +him. A large number of sirdars, chiefs, and maliks were present, some of +whom had fought stoutly against us in December. Sir Donald Stewart, who +presided, explained to the assembled Afghans that their presence and that +of the officers of the British force had been called for in order that +the public recognition by the British Government of the Sirdar +Abdurrahman Khan as Ameer of Cabul should be made known with as much +honour as possible. Then Mr Griffin addressed in Persian a short speech +to the 'sirdars, chiefs, and gentlemen' who constituted his audience. +Having announced the recognition of Abdurrahman by 'the Viceroy of India +and the Government of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Empress,' he +proceeded: 'It is to the Government a source of satisfaction that the +tribes and chiefs have preferred as Ameer a distinguished member of the +Barakzai family, who is a renowned soldier, wise, and experienced. His +sentiments towards the British Government are most friendly; and so long +as his rule shows that he is animated by these sentiments, he cannot fail +to receive the support of the British Government.' Mr Griffin then +intimated that the British armies would shortly withdraw from +Afghanistan; and in his formal farewell there was a certain appropriate +dignity, and a well-earned tribute to the conduct of our soldiers during +their service within the Afghan borders. 'We trust and firmly believe,' +said Mr Griffin, 'that your remembrance of the English will not be +unkindly. We have fought you in the field whenever you have opposed us; +but your religion has in no way been interfered with; the honour of your +women has been respected, and every one has been secure in possession of +his property. Whatever has been necessary for the support of the army has +been liberally paid for. Since I came to Cabul I have been in daily +intercourse with you, but I have never heard an Afghan make a complaint +of the conduct of any soldier, English or native, belonging to Her +Majesty's army.' The durbar was closed by an earnest appeal by Sir Donald +Stewart to all the sirdars and chiefs that they should put aside their +private feuds and unite to support the new Ameer. + +On August 3d Abdurrahman and Mr Griffin at length met, about sixteen +miles north of Cabul. His adherents were still full of excitement and +suspicion; but the Ameer himself was calm, cheerful, and dignified. The +conference between him and Mr Griffin lasted for three hours and was +renewed on the following day. 'He appeared,' wrote Mr Griffin, 'animated +by a sincere desire to be on cordial terms with the British Government, +and although his expectations were larger than the Government was +prepared to satisfy, yet he did not press them with any discourteous +insistence, and the result of the interview may be considered on the +whole to be highly satisfactory.' The tidings of the Maiwand disaster had +reached Sherpur by telegraph, and the Ameer was informed that a necessity +might occur for marching a force from Cabul to Candahar. His reply was +that the tribes might be hostile, but that if no long halts were made by +the way he would have no objections to such a march. In this he showed +his astuteness, since the defeat of Ayoub Khan by a British army would +obviously save him a contest. So willing to be of service on this matter +was he that when the march was decided on he sent influential persons of +his party in advance to arrange with the local maliks to have supplies +collected for the column. The arrangements made with him were that he was +to fall heir to the thirty guns of Shere Ali's manufacture which the +out-marching army was to leave in Sherpur, and was to receive 19-1/2 +lakhs of rupees (L190,500); ten lakhs of which were given as an earnest +of British friendship, and the balance was money belonging to the Afghan +State, which had gone into the commissariat chest and was now restored. +At the Ameer's earnest and repeated request the forts which had been +built around Cabul by the British army, were not destroyed as had been +intended, but were handed over intact to the new Ameer. + +It seemed that Sir Donald Stewart, who was to evacuate Sherpur on the +11th August, would leave Cabul without seeing Abdurrahman. But at the +last moment Mr Griffin succeeded in arranging an interview. It was held +early in the morning of the evacuation, in a tent just outside the +Sherpur cantonment, was quite public, and lasted only for quarter of an +hour. Abdurrahman was frank and cordial. He said that his heart was full +of gratitude to the British, and desired that his best thanks should be +communicated to the Viceroy. At the close of the interview he shook hands +with all 'who cared to wish him good-bye and good luck,' and sent his +principal officer to accompany the General on his first day's march, +which began immediately after the parting with Abdurrahman. Sir Donald +Stewart's march down the passes was accomplished without incident, quite +unmolested by the tribes. Small garrisons were temporarily left in the +Khyber posts, and the war-worn regiments were dispersed through the +stations of North-Western India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + +When in the early spring of 1880 Sir Donald Stewart quitted Candahar with +the Bengal division of his force, he left there the Bombay division, to +the command of which General Primrose acceded, General Phayre assuming +charge of the communications. The province during the early summer was +fairly quiet, but it was known that Ayoub Khan was making hostile +preparations at Herat, although the reports as to his intentions and +movements were long uncertain and conflicting. Shere Ali Khan, who had +been Governor of Candahar during Stewart's residence there, had been +nominated hereditary ruler of the province with the title of 'Wali,' when +it was determined to separate Candahar from North-Eastern Afghanistan. On +June 21st the Wali, who had some days earlier crossed the Helmund and +occupied Girishk with his troops, reported that Ayoub was actually on the +march toward the Candahar frontier, and asked for the support of a +British brigade to enable him to cope with the hostile advance. There was +reason to believe that the Wali's troops were disaffected, and that he +was in no condition to meet Ayoub's army with any likelihood of success. +After Stewart's departure the strength of the British forces at Candahar +was dangerously low--only 4700 of all ranks; but it was important to +thwart Ayoub's offensive movement, and a brigade consisting of a troop of +horse-artillery, six companies of the 66th, two Bombay native infantry +regiments, and 500 native troopers, in all about 2300 strong, under the +command of Brigadier-General Burrows, reached the left bank of the +Helmund on July 11th. On the 13th the Wali's infantry, 2000 strong, +mutinied _en masse_ and marched away up the right bank of the river, +taking with them a battery of smooth bore guns, a present to Shere Ali +Khan from the British Government. His cavalry did not behave quite so +badly, but, not to go into detail, his army no longer existed, and +Burrows' brigade was the only force in the field to resist the advance of +Ayoub Khan, whose regular troops were reported to number 4000 cavalry, +and from 4000 to 5000 infantry exclusive of the 2000 deserters from the +Wali, with thirty guns and an irregular force of uncertain strength. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT MAIWAND. 27th. July 1880.] + +Burrows promptly recaptured from the Wali's infantry the battery they +were carrying off, and punished them severely. The mutineers had removed +or destroyed the supplies which the Wali had accumulated for the use of +the brigade, and General Burrows therefore could no longer remain in the +vicinity of Girishk. The Helmund owing to the dry season was passable +everywhere, so that nothing was to be gained by watching the fords. It +was determined to fall back to Khushk-i-Nakhud, a point distant thirty +miles from Girishk and forty-five from Candahar, where several roads from +the Helmund converged and where supplies were plentiful. At and near +Khushk-i-Nakhud the brigade remained from the 16th until the morning of +the 27th July. While waiting and watching there a despatch from army +headquarters at Simla was communicated to General Burrows from Candahar, +authorising him to attack Ayoub if he thought himself strong enough to +beat him, and informing him that it was considered of the greatest +political importance that the force from Herat should be dispersed and +prevented from moving on toward Ghuznee. Spies brought in news that Ayoub +had reached Girishk, and was distributing his force along the right bank +between that place and Hydrabad. Cavalry patrols failed to find the enemy +until the 21st, when a detachment was encountered in the village of +Sangbur on the northern road about midway between the Helmund and +Khushk-i-Nakhud. Next day that village was found more strongly occupied, +and on the 23d a reconnaissance in force came upon a body of Ayoub's +horsemen in the plain below the Garmao hills, about midway between +Sangbur and Maiwand. + +Those discoveries were tolerably clear indications of Ayoub's intention +to turn Burrows' position by moving along the northern road to Maiwand +and thence pressing on through the Maiwand pass, until at Singiri Ayoub's +army should have interposed itself between the brigade and Candahar. +There was certainly nothing impossible in such an endeavour, since +Maiwand is nearer Candahar than is Khushk-i-Nakhud. Why, in the face of +the information at his disposal and of the precautions enjoined on him to +hinder Ayoub from slipping by him toward Ghuznee through Maiwand and up +the Khakrez valley, General Burrows should have remained so long at +Khushk-i-Nakhud, is not intelligible. He was stirred at length on the +afternoon of the 26th, by the report that 2000 of Yakoub's cavalry and a +large body of his ghazees were in possession of Garmao and Maiwand, and +were to be promptly followed by Ayoub himself with the main body of his +army, his reported intention being to push on through the Maiwand pass +and reach the Urgundab valley in rear of the British brigade. Later in +the day Colonel St John, the political officer, reported to General +Burrows the intelligence which had reached him that the whole of Ayoub's +army was at Sangbur; but credence was not given to the information. + +The somewhat tardy resolution was taken to march to Maiwand on the +morning of the 27th. There was the expectation that the brigade would +arrive at that place before the enemy should have occupied it in force, +and this point made good there might be the opportunity to drive out of +Garmao the body of Yakoub's cavalry reported in possession there. There +was a further reason why Maiwand should be promptly occupied; the brigade +had been obtaining its supplies from that village, and there was still a +quantity of grain in its vicinity to lose which would be unfortunate. The +brigade, now 2600 strong, struck camp on the morning of the 27th. The +march to Maiwand was twelve miles long, and an earlier start than 6.30 +would have been judicious. The soldiers marched fast, but halts from time +to time were necessary to allow the baggage to come up; the hostile state +of the country did not admit of anything being left behind and the column +was encumbered by a great quantity of stores and baggage. At Karezah, +eight miles from Khushk-i-Nakhud and four miles south-west of Maiwand, +information was brought in that the whole of Yakoub's army was close by +on the left front of the brigade, and marching toward Maiwand. The spies +had previously proved themselves so untrustworthy that small heed was +taken of this report; but a little later a cavalry reconnaissance found +large bodies of cavalry moving in the direction indicated and inclining +away toward Garmao as the brigade advanced. A thick haze made it +impossible to discern what force, if any, was being covered by the +cavalry. About ten A.M. the advance guard occupied the village of +Mundabad, about three miles south-west of Maiwand. West of Mundabad, +close to the village, was a broad and deep ravine running north and +south. Beyond this ravine was a wide expanse of level and partially +cultivated plain across which, almost entirely concealed by the haze, +Ayoub's army was marching eastward toward Maiwand village, which covers +the western entrance to the pass of the same name. If General Burrows' +eye could have penetrated that haze, probably he would have considered it +prudent to take up a defensive position, for which Mundabad presented +many advantages. But he was firm in the conviction that the enemy's guns +were not up, notwithstanding the reports of spies to the contrary; he +believed that a favourable opportunity presented itself for taking the +initiative, and he resolved to attack with all possible speed. + +Lieutenant Maclaine of the Horse-Artillery, a gallant young officer who +was soon to meet a melancholy fate, precipitated events in a somewhat +reckless fashion. With the two guns he commanded he crossed the ravine, +galloped across the plain, and opened fire on a body of Afghan cavalry +which had just come within view. General Nuttall, commanding the cavalry +and horse-artillery, failing to recall Maclaine, sent forward in support +of him the four remaining guns of the battery. Those approached to within +800 yards of the two advanced pieces, and Maclaine was directed to fall +back upon the battery pending the arrival of the brigade, which General +Burrows was now sending forward. It crossed the ravine near Mundabad, +advanced on the plain about a mile in a north-westerly direction, and +then formed up. There were several changes in the dispositions; when the +engagement became warm about noon the formation was as follows:--The 66th +foot was on the right, its right flank thrown back to check an attempt +made to turn it by a rush of ghazees springing out of the ravine in the +British front; on the left of the 66th were four companies of Jacob's +Rifles (30th Native Infantry) and a company of sappers, the centre was +occupied by the horse-artillery and smooth bore guns, of which latter, +however, two had been moved to the right flank; on the left of the guns +were the its Grenadiers somewhat refused, and on the extreme left two +companies of Jacob's Rifles. The cavalry was in the rear, engaged in +efforts to prevent the Afghans from taking the British infantry in +reverse. The position was radically faulty, and indeed invited disaster. +Both flanks were _en l'air_ in face of an enemy of greatly superior +strength; almost from the first every rifle was in the fighting line, and +the sole reserve consisted of the two cavalry regiments. The baggage had +followed the brigade across the ravine and was halted about 1000 yards in +rear of the right, inadequately guarded by cavalry detachments. + +For half-an-hour no reply was made to the British shell fire, and an +offensive movement at this time might have resulted in success. But +presently battery after battery was brought into action by the Afghans, +until half-an-hour after noon the fire of thirty guns was concentrated on +the brigade. Under cover of this artillery fire the ghazees from the +ravine charged forward to within 500 yards of the 66th, but the rifle +fire of the British regiment drove them back with heavy loss, and they +recoiled as far as the ravine, whence they maintained a desultory fire. +The enemy's artillery fire was well sustained and effective; the infantry +found some protection from it in lying down, but the artillery and +cavalry remained exposed and suffered severely. An artillery duel was +maintained for two hours, greatly to the disadvantage of the brigade, +which had but twelve guns in action against thirty well-served Afghan +pieces. The prostrate infantry had escaped serious punishment, but by two +P.M. the cavalry had lost fourteen per cent, of the men in the front +line, and 149 horses; the Afghan horsemen had turned both flanks and the +brigade was all but surrounded, while a separate attack was being made on +the baggage. Heat and want of water were telling heavily on the sepoys, +who were further demoralised by the Afghan artillery fire. + +A little later the smooth bore guns had to be withdrawn for want of +ammunition. This was the signal for a general advance of the Afghans. +Their guns were pushed forward with great boldness; their cavalry +streamed round the British left; in the right rear were masses of mounted +and dismounted irregulars who had seized the villages on the British line +of retreat. Swarms of ghazees soon showed themselves threatening the +centre and left; those in front of the 66th were still held in check by +the steady volleys fired by that regiment. At sight of the ghazees, and +cowed by the heavy artillery fire and the loss of their officers, the two +companies of Jacob's Rifles on the left suddenly fell into confusion, and +broke into the ranks of the Grenadiers. That regiment had behaved well +but it caught the infection of demoralisation, the whole left collapsed, +and the sepoys in utter panic, surrounded by and intermingled with the +ghazees, rolled in a great wave upon the right. The artillerymen and +sappers made a gallant stand, fighting the ghazees hand-to-hand with +handspikes and rammers, while the guns poured canister into the advancing +masses. Slade reluctantly limbered up and took his four guns out of +action; Maclaine remained in action until the ghazees were at the muzzles +of his two guns, which fell into the enemy's hands. The torrent of +mingled sepoys and ghazees broke in upon the 66th, and overwhelmed that +regiment. The slaughter of the sepoys was appalling--so utterly cowed +were they that they scarcely attempted to defend themselves, and allowed +themselves without resistance to be dragged out of the ranks and killed. +A cavalry charge was ordered in the direction of the captured guns, but +it failed and the troopers retired in disorder. The infantry, assailed by +hordes of fierce and triumphant ghazees, staggered away to the right, the +66th alone maintaining any show of formation, until the ravine was +crossed, when the broken remnants of the sepoy regiments took to flight +toward the east and the General's efforts to rally them were wholly +unavailing. The 66th with some of the sappers and grenadiers, made a +gallant stand round its colours in an enclosure near the village of Khig. +There Colonel Galbraith and several of his officers were killed, and the +little body of brave men becoming outflanked, continued its retreat, +making stand after stand until most were slain. The Afghans pursued for +about four miles, but were checked by a detachment of rallied cavalry, +and desisted. The fugitives, forming with wounded and baggage a +straggling column upwards of six miles long, crossed the waterless desert +sixteen miles wide, to Hanz-i-Madat, which was reached about midnight and +where water was found. From Asu Khan, where cultivation began, to Kokoran +near Candahar, the retreat was harassed by armed villagers and the troops +had to fight more or less all the way. Officers and men were killed, +Lieutenant Maclaine was taken prisoner, and five of the smooth bore guns +had to be abandoned because of the exhaustion of the teams. About midday +of the 28th the broken remnants of the brigade reached Candahar. When the +casualties were ascertained it became evident how disastrous to the +British arms had been the combat of Maiwand. Out of a total of 2476 +engaged no fewer than 964 were killed. The wounded numbered 167; 331 +followers and 201 horses were killed and seven followers and sixty-eight +horses wounded. Since Chillianwallah the British arms in Asia had not +suffered loss so severe. + +The spirit of the Candahar force suffered materially from the Maiwand +disaster, and it was held that there was no alternative but to accept the +humiliation of a siege within the fortified city. The cantonments were +abandoned, the whole force was withdrawn into Candahar, and was detailed +for duty on the city walls. The effective garrison on the night of the +28th numbered 4360, including the survivors of the Maiwand brigade. So +alert were the Afghans that a cavalry reconnaissance made on the morning +of the 29th, found the cantonments plundered and partly burned and the +vicinity of Candahar swarming with armed men. The whole Afghan population +amounting to about 12,000 persons, were compelled to leave the city, and +then the work of placing it in a state of defence was energetically +undertaken. Buildings and enclosures affording cover too close to the +enciente were razed, communication along the walls was opened up, and gun +platforms were constructed in the more commanding positions. The walls +were both high and thick, but they were considerably dilapidated and +there were gaps and breaks in the bastions and parapet. The weak places +as well as the gates were fronted with abattis, the defects were made +good with sandbags, and wire entanglements and other obstructions were +laid down outside the walls. While this work was in progress the covering +parties were in daily collision with the enemy, and occasional sharp +skirmishes occurred. + +On the 8th August Ayoub opened fire on the citadel from Picquet hill, an +elevation north-westward of the city, and a few days later he brought +guns into action from the villages of Deh Khoja and Deh Khati on the east +and south. This fire, steadily maintained though it was day after day, +had little effect, and the return fire gave good results. It was not easy +to invest the city since on the west and north there was no cover for the +besiegers, but in Deh Khoja on the east there was ample protection for +batteries, and the ground on the south-west was very favourable. Its +advantages were improved so skilfully that it was at one time believed +there was a European engineer in Ayoub's camp. Deh Khoja was +inconveniently near the Cabul gate, and was always full of men. So +menacing was the attitude of the Afghans that a sortie was resolved on +against the village, which was conducted with resolution but resulted in +utter failure. The attempt was made on the morning of the 16th. The +cavalry went out to hinder reinforcements from entering the village from +the eastward. An infantry force 800 strong commanded by Brigadier-General +Brooke and divided into three parties, moved out later covered by a heavy +artillery fire from the city walls. The village was reached, but was so +full of enemies in occupation of the fortress-like houses that it was +found untenable, and the three detachments extricated themselves +separately. In the course of the retirement General Brooke and Captain +Cruickshank were killed. The casualties were very heavy; 106 were killed +and 117 were wounded. + +The tidings of the Maiwand disaster reached Cabul on the 29th July by +telegram from Simla. The intention of the military authorities had +already been intimated that the Cabul force should evacuate Afghanistan +in two separate bodies and by two distinct routes. Sir Donald Stewart was +to march one portion by the Khyber route; the other under Sir Frederick +Roberts was to retire by the Kuram valley, which Watson's division had +been garrisoning since Roberts had crossed the Shutargurdan in September +1879. But the Maiwand news interfered with those arrangements. Stewart +and Roberts concurred in the necessity of retrieving the Maiwand disaster +by the despatch of a division from Cabul. Roberts promptly offered to +lead that division, and as promptly the offer was accepted by Stewart. By +arrangement with the latter Roberts telegraphed to Simla urging that a +force should be despatched from Cabul without delay; and recognising that +the authorities might hesitate to send on this errand troops already +under orders to return to India, he took it on himself to guarantee that +none of the soldiers would demur, providing he was authorised to give the +assurance that after the work in the field was over they would not be +detained in garrison at Candahar. The Viceroy's sanction came on the 3d +August. The constitution and equipment of the force were entrusted to the +two generals; and in reply to questions His Excellency was informed that +Roberts would march on the 8th and expected to reach Candahar on 2d +September. Sir Donald Stewart gave his junior full freedom to select the +troops to accompany him, and placed at his disposal the entire resources +of the army in transport and equipment. It cannot truly be said that it +was the _elite_ of the Cabul field force which constituted the column led +by Roberts in his famous march to Candahar. Of the native infantry +regiments of his own original force which he had mustered eleven months +previously in the Kuram only two followed him to Candahar, the 5th +Goorkhas and 23d Pioneers, and the second mountain battery adhered to him +staunchly, Of his original white troops the 9th Lancers, as ever, were +ready for the march. His senior infantry regiment, the 67th, would fain +have gone, but the good old corps was weak from casualties and sickness, +and the gallant Knowles denied himself in the interests of his men. The +two Highland regiments, the 72d and 92d, had done an infinity of fighting +and marching, but both had received strong drafts, were in fine +condition, and were not to be hindered from following the chief whom, +though not of their northern blood, the stalwart sons of the mist swore +by as one man. + +Sir Frederick Roberts had already represented that it would be impolitic +to require the native regiments to remain absent from India and their +homes for a longer period than two years. In the case of many of the +regiments that term was closely approached, and the men after prolonged +absence and arduous toil needed rest and were longing to rejoin their +families. 'It was not,' in the words of General Chapman, 'with eager +desire that the honour of marching to Candahar was sought for, and some +commanding officers of experience judged rightly the tempers of their men +when they represented for the General's consideration the claims of the +regiments they commanded to be relieved as soon as possible from field +service.... The enthusiasm which carried Sir Frederick Roberts' force +with exceptional rapidity to Candahar was an after-growth evolved by the +enterprise itself, and came as a response to the unfailing spirit which +animated the leader himself.' The constitution of the force was made +known by the general orders published on 3d August. It consisted of three +batteries of artillery commanded by Colonel Alured Johnson; of a cavalry +brigade of four regiments commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Gough; and +of an infantry division of three brigades commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Herbert +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General T. D. Baker, and the third by +Brigadier-General Charles Macgregor. Colonel Chapman, R.A., who had +served in the same capacity with Sir Donald Stewart, was now Roberts' +chief of staff. The marching out strength of the column was about 10,000 +men, of whom 2835 were Europeans. Speed being an object and since the +column might have to traverse rough ground, no wheeled artillery or +transport accompanied it; the guns were carried on mules, the baggage was +severely cut down, the supplies carried were reduced to a minimum, and +the transport animals, numbering 8590, consisted of mules, ponies, and +donkeys. It was known that the country could supply flour, sheep, and +forage. + +The time specified for the departure of the force from Sherpur was kept +to the day. On the 8th the brigades moved out a short distance into camp, +and on the following morning the march begun in earnest. The distance +from Cabul to Candahar is about 320 miles, and the march naturally +divides itself into three parts; from Cabul to Ghuznee, ninety-eight +miles; from Ghuznee to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, one hundred and thirty-four +miles; and from Khelat-i-Ghilzai to Candahar, eighty-eight miles, Ghuznee +was reached on the seventh day, the daily average being fourteen +miles--excellent work for troops unseasoned to long continuous travel, +tramping steadily in a temperature of from 84 deg. to 92 deg. in the shade. When +possible the force moved on a broad front, the brigades and regiments +leading by rotation, and halts were made at specified intervals. The +'rouse' sounded at 2.45 A.M. and the march began at four; the troops were +generally in camp by two P.M. and the baggage was usually reported all in +by five; but the rearguard had both hard work and long hours. There was +no sign of opposition anywhere, not a single load of baggage was left +behind, comparatively few men fell out foot-sore, and the troops were +steadily increasing in endurance and capacity of rapid and continuous +marching. + +At Ghuznee there was no rest day, and the steadfast dogged march was +resumed on the morning of the 16th. The strain of this day's long tramp +of twenty miles to Yergati was severe, but the men rallied gamely, and +the General by dint of care and expedient was able to keep up the high +pressure. 'The method,' writes General Chapman, 'of such marching as was +now put in practice is not easy to describe; it combined the extreme of +freedom in movement with carefully regulated halts, and the closest +control in every portion of the column; it employed the individual +intelligence of each man composing the masses in motion, and called on +all for exertion in overcoming the difficulties of the march, in bearing +its extraordinary toil, and in aiding the accomplishment of the object in +view.' On the 20th a distance of twenty-one miles was covered--the +longest day's march made; the effort was distressing owing to the heat +and the lack of shade, but it was enforced by the absence of water. There +was no relaxation in the rate of marching, and Khelat-i-Ghilzai was +reached on the eighth day from Ghuznee, showing a daily average of nearly +seventeen miles. + +The 24th was a halt day at Khelat-i-Ghilzai, where Sir Frederick Roberts +received a letter from General Primrose in Candahar, describing the +sortie made on the village of Deh Khoja and giving details of his +situation. It was resolved to evacuate Khelat-i-Ghilzai and take on its +garrison with the column, which on the 25th resumed its march to +Candahar. On his arrival at Tir Andaz on the following day the General +found a letter from Candahar, informing him that at the news of the +approach of the Cabul force Ayoub Khan had withdrawn from his investment +of Candahar, and had shifted his camp to the village of Mazra in the +Urgundab valley, nearly due north of Candahar. On the morning of the 27th +General Hugh Gough was sent forward with two cavalry regiments a distance +of thirty-four miles to Robat, the main column moving on to Khel Akhund, +half way to the former place. Gough was accompanied by Captain Straton +the principal signalling officer of the force, who was successful in +communicating with Candahar, and in the afternoon Colonel St John, Major +Leach, and Major Adam rode out to Robat, bringing the information that +Ayoub Khan was engaged in strengthening his position in the Urgundab +valley, and apparently had the intention to risk the issue of a battle. +On the 28th the whole force was concentrated at Robat; and as it was +desirable that the troops should reach Candahar fresh and ready for +prompt action, the General decided to make the 20th a rest day and divide +the nineteen miles from Robat to Candahar into two short marches. + +The long forced march from Cabul may be regarded as having ended at +Robat. The distance between those two places, 303 miles, had been covered +in twenty days. It is customary in a long march to allow two rest days in +each week, but Roberts had granted his force but a single rest day in the +twenty days of its strenuous march. Including this rest day, the average +daily march was a fraction over fifteen miles. As a feat of marching by a +regular force of 10,000 men encumbered with baggage and followers, this +achievement is unique, and it could have been accomplished only by +thorough organisation and steady vigorous energy. Sir Frederick Roberts +was so fortunate as to encounter no opposition. For this immunity he was +indebted mainly to the stern lessons given to the tribesmen by Sir Donald +Stewart at Ahmed Khel and Urzoo while that resolute soldier was marching +from Candahar to Cabul, and in a measure also to the good offices of the +new Ameer. But it must be remembered that Roberts had no assurance of +exemption from hostile efforts to block his path, and that he marched +ever ready to fight. It will long be remembered how when Roberts had +started on the long swift march, the suspense as to its issue grew and +swelled until the strain became intense. The safety of the garrison of +Candahar was in grave hazard; the British prestige, impaired by the +disaster of Maiwand, was trembling in the balance. The days passed, and +there came no news of Roberts and of the 10,000 men with whom the wise, +daring little chief had cut loose from any base and struck for his goal +through a region of ill repute for fanaticism and bitter hostility. The +pessimists among us held him to be rushing on his ruin. But Roberts +marched light; he lived on what the country supplied; he gave the +tribesmen no time to concentrate against him; and two days in advance of +the time he had set himself he reached Candahar at the head of a force in +full freshness of vigour and burning with zeal for immediate battle. + +While halted at Robat on the 29th Sir Frederick heard from General Phayre +that his division had been retarded in its march by lack of transport, +but that he hoped to have it assembled at Killa Abdoolla on the 28th, and +would be able to move toward Candahar on the 30th. But as Killa Abdoolla +is distant some eight marches from Candahar, it was obvious that General +Phayre could not arrive in time to share in the impending battle. On the +morning of the 31st the Cabul force reached Candahar. Sir Frederick +Roberts, who had been suffering from fever for some days, was able to +leave his dhooly and mount his horse in time to meet General Primrose and +his officers to the east of Deh Khoja. The troops halted and breakfasted +outside the Shikapore gate, while General Roberts entered the city and +paid a visit to the Wali Shere Ali Khan. On his arrival he assumed +command of the troops in Southern Afghanistan; and he remained resting in +the city while the Cabul force marched to its selected camping ground +near the destroyed cantonments on the north-west of Candahar. A few shots +were fired, but the ground was occupied without opposition. Baker's +brigade was on the right, camped in rear of Picquet hill, in the centre +was Macpherson's brigade sheltered in its front by Karez hill, and on the +left among orchards and enclosures was Macgregor's brigade, in rear of +which was the cavalry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + +Although Yakoub Khan had ceased to beleaguer Candahar, he had withdrawn +from that fortress but a very short distance, and the position he had +taken up was of considerable strength. The Urgundab valley is separated +on the north-west from the Candahar plain by a long precipitous spur +trending south-west from the mountainous mass forming the eastern +boundary of the valley further north. Where the spur quits the main +range, due north of the city, the Murcha Pass affords communication +between the Candahar plain and the Urgundab valley. The spur, its summit +serrated by alternate heights and depressions, is again crossed lower +down by an easy pass known as the Babawali Kotul. It is continued beyond +this saddle for about a mile, still maintaining its south-westerly trend, +never losing its precipitous character, and steeply scarped on its +eastern face; and it finally ends in the plain in a steep descent of +several hundred feet. The section of it from the Babawali Kotul to its +south-western termination is known as the Pir Paimal hill, from a village +of that name in the valley near its extremity. Ayoub Khan had made his +camp near the village of Mazra, behind the curtain formed by the spur +described, and about a mile higher up in the valley than the point at +which the spur is crossed by the road over the Babawali Kotul. He was +thus, with that point artificially strengthened and defended by +artillery, well protected against a direct attack from the direction of +Candahar, and was exposed only to the risk of a turning movement round +the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill. Such a movement might be made the +reverse of easy. A force advancing to attempt it must do so exposed to +fire from the commanding summit of the Pir Paimal; around the base of +that elevation there were several plain villages, and an expanse of +enclosed orchards and gardens which strongly held were capable of +stubborn defence. In the valley behind the Pir Paimal hill there was the +lofty detached Kharoti hill, the fire from which would meet in the teeth +a force essaying the turning movement; and the interval between the two +hills, through which was the access to the Mazra camps, was obstructed by +deep irrigation channels whose banks afforded cover for defensive fire, +and could be swept by a cross fire from the hills on either flank. + +[Illustration: Kandahar.] + +Sir Frederick Roberts at a glance had perceived that a direct attack by +the Babawali Kotul must involve very heavy loss, and he resolved on the +alternative of turning the Afghan position. A reconnaissance was made on +the afternoon of the 31st by General Gough, accompanied by Colonel +Chapman. He penetrated to within a short distance of the village of Pir +Paimal, where it was ascertained that the enemy were strongly entrenched, +and where several guns were unmasked. A great deal of valuable +information was obtained before the enemy began to interfere with the +leisurely withdrawal. The cavalry suffered little, but the Sikh infantry +covering the retirement of the reconnaissance were hard pressed by great +masses of Afghan regulars and irregulars. So boldly did the enemy come on +that the third and part of the first brigade came into action, and the +firing did not cease until the evening. The enemy were clearly in the +belief that the reconnaissance was an advance in force which they had +been able to check and indeed drive in, and they were opportunely +audacious in the misapprehension that they had gained a success. The +information brought in decided the General to attack on the following +morning; and having matured his dispositions, he explained them +personally to the commanding officers in the early morning of September +1st. The plan of attack was perfectly simple. The Babawali Kotul was to +be plied with a brisk cannonade and threatened by demonstrations both of +cavalry and infantry; while the first and second brigades, with the third +in reserve, were to turn the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill, force the +enemy's right in the interval between that hill and the Kharoti eminence, +take in reverse the Babawali Kotul, and pressing on up the Urgundab +valley, carry Ayoub Khan's principal camp at Mazra. The Bombay cavalry +brigade was to watch the roads over the Murcha and Babawali Kotuls, +supported by infantry and artillery belonging to General Primrose's +command, part of which was also detailed for the protection of the city; +and to hold the ground from which the Cabul brigades were to advance. +General Gough was to take the cavalry of the Cabul column across the +Urgundab, so as to reach by a wide circuit the anticipated line of the +Afghan retreat. + +Soon after nine A.M. the forty-pounders on the right of Picquet hill +began a vigorous cannonade of the Babawali Kotul, which was sturdily +replied to by the three field-guns the enemy had in battery on that +elevation. It had been early apparent that the Ayoub's army was in great +heart, and apparently meditating an offensive movement had moved out so +far into the plain as to occupy the villages of Mulla Sahibdad opposite +the British right, and Gundigan on the left front of the British left. +Both villages were right in the fair way of Roberts' intended line of +advance; they, the adjacent enclosures, and the interval between the +villages were strongly held, and manifestly the first thing to be done +was to force the enemy back from those advanced positions. Two batteries +opened a heavy shell fire on the Sahibdad village, under cover of which +Macpherson advanced his brigade against it, the 2d Goorkhas and 92d +Highlanders in his first line. Simultaneously Baker moved out to the +assault of Gundigan, clearing the gardens and orchards between him and +that village, and keeping touch as he advanced with the first brigade. + +The shell fire compelled the Afghan occupants of Sahibdad to lie close, +and it was not until they were near the village that Macpherson's two +leading regiments encountered much opposition. It was carried at the +bayonet point after a very stubborn resistance; the place was full of +ghazees who threw their lives away recklessly, and continued to fire on +the British soldiers from houses and cellars after the streets had been +cleared. The 92d lost several men, but the Afghans were severely +punished; it was reported that 200 were killed in this village alone. +While a detachment remained to clear out the village, the brigade under a +heavy fire from the slopes and crest of the Fir Paimal hill moved on in +the direction of that hill's south-western extremity, the progress of the +troops impeded by obstacles in the shape of dry water-cuts, orchards, and +walled enclosures, every yard of which was infested by enemies and had to +be made good by steady fighting. + +While Macpherson was advancing on Sahibdad, Baker's brigade had been +pushing on through complicated lanes and walled enclosures toward the +village of Gundigan. The opposition experienced was very resolute. The +Afghans held their ground behind loopholed walls which had to be carried +by storm, and they did not hesitate to take the offensive by making +vigorous counter-rushes. Baker's two leading regiments were the 72d and +the 2d Sikhs. The left wing of the former supported by the 5th Goorkhas, +the old and tried comrades of the 72d, assailed and took the village. Its +right wing fought its way through the orchards between it and Sahibdad, +in the course of which work it came under a severe enfilading fire from a +loopholed wall which the Sikhs on the right were attempting to turn. +Captain Frome and several men had been struck down and the hot fire had +staggered the Highlanders, when their chief, Colonel Brownlow, came up on +foot. That gallant soldier gave the word for a rush, but immediately fell +mortally wounded. After much hard fighting Baker's brigade got forward +into opener country, but was then exposed to the fire of an Afghan +battery near the extremity of the Pir Paimal spur, and to the attacks of +great bodies of ghazees, which were withstood stoutly by the Sikhs and +driven off by a bayonet attack delivered by the Highlanders. + +The two brigades had accomplished the first part of their task. They were +now in alignment with each other; and the work before them was to +accomplish the turning movement round the steep extremity of the Pir +Paimal ridge. Macpherson's brigade, hugging the face of the elevation, +brought up the left shoulder and having accomplished the turning +movement, swept up the valley and carried the village of Pir Paimal by a +series of rushes. Here, however, Major White commanding the advance of +the 92d, found himself confronted by great masses of the enemy, who +appeared determined to make a resolute stand about their guns which were +in position south-west of the Babawali Kotul. Reinforcements were +observed hurrying up from Ayoub's standing camp at Mazra, and the Afghan +guns on the Kotul had been reversed so that their fire should enfilade +the British advance. Discerning that in such circumstances prompt action +was imperative, Macpherson determined to storm the position without +waiting for reinforcements. The 92d under Major White led the way, +covered by the fire of a field battery and supported by the 5th Goorkhas +and the 23d Pioneers. Springing out of a watercourse at the challenge of +their leader, the Highlanders rushed across the open ground. The Afghans, +sheltered by high banks, fired steadily and well; their riflemen from the +Pir Paimal slopes poured in a sharp cross fire; their guns were well +served. But the Scottish soldiers were not to be denied. Their losses +were severe, but they took the guns at the point of the bayonet, and +valiantly supported by the Goorkhas and pioneers, shattered and dispersed +the mass of Afghans, which was reckoned to have numbered some 8000 men. +No chance was given the enemy to rally. They were headed off from the Pir +Paimal slopes by Macpherson. Baker hustled them out of cover in the +watercourses in the basin on the left, and while one stream of fugitives +poured away across the river, another rolled backward into and through +Ayoub's camp at Mazra. + +While Macpherson had effected his turning movement close under the ridge, +Baker's troops on the left had to make a wider sweep before bringing up +the left shoulder and wheeling into the hollow between the Pir Paimal and +the Kharoti hill. They swept out of their path what opposition they +encountered, and moved up the centre of the hollow, where their commander +halted them until Macpherson's brigade on the right, having accomplished +its more arduous work, should come up and restore the alignment. Baker +had sent Colonel Money with a half battalion away to the left to take +possession of the Kharoti hill, where he found and captured three Afghan +guns. Pressing toward the northern end of the hill, Money to his surprise +found himself in full view of Ayoub's camp, which was then full of men +and in rear of which a line of cavalry was drawn up. Money was too weak +to attack alone and sent to General Baker for reinforcements which, +however, could not be spared him, and the gallant Money had perforce to +remain looking on while the advance of Macpherson and Baker caused the +evacuation of Ayoub's camp and the flight of his cavalry and infantry +toward the Urgundab. But the discovery and capture of five more Afghan +cannon near Babawali village was some consolation for the enforced +inaction. + +Considerable numbers of Ayoub's troops had earlier pushed through the +Babawali Pass, and moved down toward the right front of General Burrows' +Bombay brigade in position about Picquet hill. Having assured himself +that Burrows was able to hold his own, Sir Frederick Roberts ordered +Macgregor to move the third brigade forward toward Pir Paimal village, +whither he himself rode. On his arrival there he found that the first and +second brigades were already quite a mile in advance. The battle really +had already been won but there being no open view to the front General +Ross, who commanded the whole infantry division, had no means of +discerning this result; and anticipating the likelihood that Ayoub's camp +at Mazra would have to be taken by storm, he halted the brigades to +replenish ammunition. This delay gave opportunity for the entire +evacuation of the Afghan camp, which when reached without any further +opposition and entered at one P.M. was found to be deserted. The tents +had been left standing; 'all the rude equipage of a half barbarous army +had been abandoned--the meat in the cooking pots, the bread half kneaded +in the earthen vessels, the bazaar with its _ghee_ pots, dried fruits, +flour, and corn.' Ayoub's great marquee had been precipitately abandoned, +and the fine carpets covering its floor were left. But in the hurry of +their flight the Afghans had found time to illustrate their barbarity by +murdering their prisoner Lieutenant Maclaine, whose body was found near +Ayoub's tent with the throat cut. To this deed Ayoub does not seem to +have been privy. The sepoys who were prisoners with Maclaine testified +that Ayoub fled about eleven o'clock, leaving the prisoners in charge of +the guard with no instructions beyond a verbal order that they were not +to be killed. It was more than an hour later when the guard ordered the +unfortunate officer out of his tent and took his life. + +The victory was complete and Ayoub's army was in full rout. Unfortunately +no cavalry were in hand for a pursuit from the Mazra camp. The scheme for +intercepting the fugitive Afghans by sending the cavalry brigade on a +wide movement across the Urgundab, and striking the line of their +probable retreat toward the Khakrez valley, may have been ingenious in +conception, but in practice did not have the desired effect. But Ayoub +had been decisively beaten. He had lost the whole of his artillery +numbering thirty-two pieces, his camp, an immense quantity of ammunition, +about 1000 men killed; his army was dispersed, and he himself was a +fugitive with a mere handful along with him of the army of 12,000 men +whom he had commanded in the morning. + +The battle of Candahar was an effective finale to the latest of our +Afghan wars, and it is in this sense that it is chiefly memorable. The +gallant men who participated in the winning of it must have been the +first to smile at the epithets of 'glorious' and 'brilliant' which were +lavished on the victory. In truth, if it had not been a victory our arms +would have sustained a grave discredit. The soldiers of Roberts and +Stewart had been accustomed to fight and to conquer against heavy +numerical odds, which were fairly balanced by their discipline and the +superiority of their armament. But in the battle of Candahar the +numerical disparity was non-existent, and Ayoub had immensely the +disadvantage as regarded trained strength. His force according to the +reckoning ascertained by the British general, amounted all told to 12,800 +men. The strength of the British force, not including the detail of +Bombay troops garrisoning Candahar, was over 12,000. But this army 12,000 +strong, consisted entirely of disciplined soldiers of whom over one-fifth +were Europeans. The accepted analysis of Ayoub's army shows it to have +consisted of 4000 regular infantry, 800 regular cavalry, 5000 tribal +irregular infantry of whom an indefinite proportion was no doubt ghazees, +and 3000 irregular horsemen. In artillery strength the two forces were +nearly equal. When it is remembered that Charasiah was won by some 2500 +soldiers of whom only about 800 were Europeans, contending against 10,000 +Afghans in an exceptionally strong position and well provided with +artillery, Sir Frederick Roberts' wise decision to make assurance doubly +sure in dealing with Ayoub at Candahar stands out very strikingly. +Perforce in his battles around Cabul he had taken risks, but because +those adventures had for the most part been successful he was not the man +to weaken the certainty of an all-important issue by refraining from +putting into the field every soldier at his disposal. And he was wisely +cautious in his tactics. That he was strong enough to make a direct +attack by storming the Babawali Kotul and the Pir Paimal hill was clear +in the light of previous experience. But if there was more 'brilliancy' +in a direct attack, there was certain to be heavier loss than would be +incurred in the less dashing turning movement, and Sir Frederick with the +true spirit of a commander chose the more artistic and less bloody method +of earning his victory. It did not cost him dear. His casualties of the +day were thirty-six killed including three officers, and 218 wounded +among whom were nine officers. + +The battle of Candahar brought to a close the latest of our Afghan wars. +Sir Frederick Roberts quitted Candahar on the 9th September, and marched +to Quetta with part of his division. On the 15th October, at Sibi, he +resigned his command, and taking sick leave to England sailed from Bombay +on the 30th October. His year of hard and successful service in +Afghanistan greatly enhanced his reputation as a prompt, skilful, and +enterprising soldier. + + * * * * * + +The Pisheen and Sibi valleys are the sole tangible results remaining to +us of the two campaigns in Afghanistan sketched in the second part of +this volume--campaigns which cost the lives of many gallant men slain in +action or dead of disease, and involved the expenditure of about twenty +millions sterling. Lord Beaconsfield's vaunted 'scientific frontier,' +condemned by a consensus of the best military opinions, was rejected by +the Liberal Government which had recently acceded to power, whose +decision was that both the Khyber Pass and the Kuram valley should be +abandoned. On this subject Sir Frederick Roberts wrote with great +shrewdness: 'We have nothing to fear from Afghanistan, and the best thing +to do is to leave it as much as possible to itself. It may not be very +flattering to our _amour propre_, but I feel sure I am right when I say +that the less the Afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should +Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India +through it, we should have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to +our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime.' +During the winter of 1880-1 the Khyber and the Kuram were evacuated by +the British troops, the charge of keeping open and quiet the former being +entrusted to tribal levies paid by the Indian Government. + +So far, then, as regarded the north-western frontier, the _status quo +ante_ had been fallen back upon. But there was a keen difference of +opinion in regard to the disposition of the salient angle furnished by +Candahar. Throughout the British occupation and the negotiations with +Abdurrahman, the annexation of Candahar had been consistently repudiated. +The intention on our part announced was to separate it from Cabul, and to +place it under the independent rule of a Barakzai prince. Such a prince +had actually been appointed in Shere Ali Khan, and although that +incompetent Sirdar was wise enough to abdicate a position for which he +was not strong enough, this action did not relieve us from our pledges +against annexation. Nevertheless many distinguished men whose opinions +were abstractly entitled to weight, were strongly in favour of our +retention of Candahar. Among those were the late Lord Napier of Magdala, +Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Edward Hamley, Sir Donald Stewart, and Sir +Frederick Roberts. Among the authorities opposed to the occupation of +Candahar were such men as the late Lord Lawrence and General Charles +Gordon, Sir Robert Montgomery, Lord Wolseley, Sir Henry Norman, Sir John +Adye, and Sir Archibald Alison. + +While the professional experts differed and while the 'Candahar debates' +in Parliament were vehement and prolonged, the issue, assuming that +fidelity to pledges was still regarded as a national virtue, was +perfectly clear and simple. In the frank words of Sir Lepel Griffin: 'We +could not have remained in Candahar without a breach of faith.' And he +added with unanswerable force: 'Our withdrawal was in direct accordance +with the reiterated and solemn professions which I had been instructed to +make, and the assurances of the Government of India to the chiefs and +people of Cabul.... The wisdom of the policy of retiring from Candahar +may be a fair matter for argument, but it was one on which both +Governments were agreed. I am convinced that withdrawal, after our public +assurances, was the only practicable policy.' + +Lord Ripon acted on his instructions 'to keep in view the paramount +importance of effecting a withdrawal from Candahar on the earliest +suitable occasion.' The abdication of the Wali Shere Ali Khan cleared the +air to some extent. A British garrison under the command of General Hume +wintered in Candahar. Ayoub Khan was a competitor for the rulership of +the southern province, but he received no encouragement, and after some +negotiation the Ameer Abdurrahman was informed that Candahar was +reincorporated with the kingdom of Afghanistan, and it was intimated to +him that the capital would be given over to the Governor, accompanied by +a suitable military force, whom he should send. On the 1st of April an +Afghan force entered Candahar, followed presently by Mahomed Hassan Khan, +the Governor nominated by the Ameer. General Hume soon after marched out, +and after halting for a time in the Pisheen valley to watch the course of +events in Candahar, he continued his march toward India. The restless +Ayoub did not tamely submit to the arrangement which gave Candahar to +Abdurrahman. Spite of many arduous difficulties, spite of lack of money +and of mutinous troops, he set out toward Candahar in July 1881. Mahomed +Hassan marched against him from Candahar, and a battle was fought at +Maiwand on the anniversary of the defeat of General Burrows on the same +field. Ayoub was the conqueror, and he straightway took possession of the +capital and was for the time ruler of the province. But Abdurrahman, +subsidised with English money and English arms, hurried from Cabul, +encountered Ayoub outside the walls of Candahar, and inflicted on him a +decisive defeat. His flight to Herat was followed up, he sustained a +second reverse there, and took refuge in Persia. Abdurrahman's tenure of +the Cabul sovereignty had been at first extremely precarious; but he +proved a man at once strong, resolute, and politic. In little more than a +year after his accession he was ruler of Shere Ali's Afghanistan; +Candahar and Herat had both come to him, and that without very serious +exertion. He continues to reign quietly, steadfastly, and firmly; and +there never has been any serious friction between him and the Government +of India, whose wise policy is a studied abstinence from interference in +the internal affairs of the Afghan kingdom. + + * * * * * + +INDEX + +A. + +ABDOOLAH JAN, to be Shere Ali's successor. + +ABDURRAHMAN, the Ameer, son of Afzul Khan, the eldest son of Dost +Mahomed, his early career; his connection with Russia; sounded by the +British Government; Sir Lepel Griffin's mission to; enters Afghanistan; +recognised as Ameer; defeats Ayoub Khan; his subsequent reign. + +ADAM, Major. + +ADVE, Sir John, against keeping Candahar. + +AFGHANISTAN, events in, previous to the first Afghan war; 'a bundle of +provinces;' its condition under Abdurrahman. + +AFGHAN WAR, FIRST, the responsibility for; objects of and preparations +for. + +AFGHAN WAR, SECOND, the policy of England leading to; the force employed +in; tangible results to England. + +AFREEDI HILLMEN oppose Pollock. + +AFZUL KHAN, the Ameer, eldest son of Dost Mahomed, and father of +Abdurrahman. + +ARMED KHEL, battle of. + +AIREY, Captain, a hostage. + +AKBAR KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, joins his father with a force; covers +his father's retreat; in Khooloom; among the Ghilzais; in Cabul; +negotiations with Macnaghten; interview with and murder of Macnaghten; +forecast of his intentions; meets the retreating British army at +Bootkhak, his demands; conduct to the fugitives; offers to treat; invests +Jellalabad; resistance to Pollock; treatment of his captives; sends the +body of Elphinstone to Jellalabad. + +AKRAM KHAN put to death by Timour. + +ALI KHEL. + +ALI MUSJID FORT, the, key of the Khyber pass; partially destroyed; Sir +Sam Browne's attack upon. + + +ALISON, Sir Archibald, against keeping Candahar. + +AMEENOOLLA KHAN, an Afghan chief. + +AMEER. See SHERE ALI, YAKOUB KHAN, ABDURRAHMAN, AFZUL KHAN. + +ANDERSON, Captain, skirmish with the Ghilzais. + +ANDERSON, Mrs, her child. + +ANQUETIL, Brigadier, in command of Shah Soojah's contingent; exertions +during the retreat; replaces Shelton in command. + +APPLEYARD, at Sir S. Browne's attack upon Ali Musjid. + +ASMAI HEIGHTS, the, Afghans driven from; reoccupied; beacon on; fortified +by Sir F. Roberts. + +ASU KHAN. + +ATTA MAHOMED KHAN, overcome by General Nott. + +ATTOCK RIVER, the. + +AUCKLAND, Lord; becomes Governor-General of India 1836, his undecided +policy; treatment of Dost Mahomed's appeal; his policy becomes warlike; +treaty with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah; determines to support Shah +Soojah with an army; objects of the expedition; the Simla manifesto; +disagreement with Macnaghten; forbids an expedition against Herat; the +Home Government presses the reconsideration of the Afghan questions; +after the disasters; has the credit of Pollock's appointment. + +AUSHAR; Massy at. + +AYOUB KHAN, brother of Yakoub, in command of Herat regiments; in +possession of Herat; his victory at Maiwand; besieges Cabul; shifts to +Mazra; defeated by Sir F. Roberts; drives Mahomed Hassan out of Candahar, +defeated by Abdurrahman. + +B. + +BABA WALI KOTUL, pass of the; cannonaded; village of. + +BACKHOUSE, Captain, on the council of war at Jellalabad; his diary. + +BADAKSHAN. + +BADIABAD, the fort of, the captives at the. + +BAGHWANA, guns abandoned at; recovered. + +BAHADUR KHAN refuses to furnish forage. + +BAJGAH. + +BAKER, Brigadier-General; battle of Charasiah; pursues the mutinous +sepoys; in the Maidan valley; marches to Sherpur; takes the Takht-i-Shah; +in the attack on the cantonments; takes the Meer Akhor fort; in the Great +March; his position at Candahar, the battle. + +BALKH. + +BALLA HISSAR, the; evacuated; Cavagnari at; Sir F. Roberts at; explosions +in, evacuated; road cut through. + +BAMIAN, hill country of; Abdurrahman defeated by Yakoub Khan at. + +BARAKZAI TRIBE, the. + +BARTER, Brigadier-General, commands the infantry at Ahmed Khel. + +BEACONSFIELD, Lord, 'scientific frontier'. + +BEHMAROO RIDGE; village of. + +BELLEW, Captain, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BELOOCH PROVINCES, the. + +BENI BADAM, Baker treacherously attacked at. + +BENI HISSAR. + +BENTINCK, Lord William; his opinion of the first Afghan expedition. + +BERLIN, Treaty of. + +BHAWULPORE. + +BHURTPORE. + +BIDDULPH, General, in command of the Quetta force. + +BIRD, Lieutenant, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BOKHARA. + +BOLAN PASS, the. + +BOOTKHAK. + +BOYD, Mrs, in the retreat. + +BROADFOOT, Captain George, his sappers; in the Gundamuk council of war; +garrison engineer at Jellalabad; urges Sale to hold the place; his +account of the council of war. + +BROADFOOT, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +BROADFOOT, William, Secretary to Sir A. Burnes, murdered with him. + +BROOKE, Brigadier-General, killed in attack on Deh Khoja. + +BROWNE, Sir Sam, in command of the Khyber column; attack on the Ali +Musjid; reports the death of Shere Ali; receives Yakoub Khan; commands in +'the Death March'. + +BROWNLOW, Colonel, of the 72d Highlanders, in the attack on the +cantonments; killed in the battle of Candahar. + +BROUGHTON, Lord. _See_ SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE. + +BRYDON, Dr, sole survivor of the Khyber disaster. + +BURNES, Sir Alexander, sent by Lord Auckland to Cabul; favourable to Dost +Mahomed, reprimanded by his superiors, leaves Cabul; re-enters with Shah +Soojah; his opinion of Shah Soojah's ministers; advice to Macnaghten; his +character; murdered; revenged. + +BURROWS, Brigadier-General, in the Maiwand disaster; in the battle of +Candahar. + +BUTLER'S, Lady, picture. + +BUTSON, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +C. + +CABUL, PASS OF KHOORD; description of, slaughter in; Pollock's army +marches up. + +CABUL, Shah Soojah ousted from the throne of; Shah Soojah re-enters; +British troops in; Dost Mahomed surrenders at; murder of Burnes at; Shah +Soojah murdered at; Nott arrives at; punished; Cavagnari at; the Sherpur +cantonments, north of; Roberts near; Mahomed Jan plans to take; hostility +of villages round; Mushk-i-Alum governor of; re-occupied by Roberts; +fortifications and communications improved; Sir Lepel Griffin arrives at; +holds a durbar at. + +CAMPBELL, sent by Shah Soojah to assist Burnes, fails. + +CANDAHAR, siege of, by Shah Soojah, relieved by Dost Mahomed; entered by +Shah Soojah and Keane; occupied by British troops; independent province +of; Timour, Shah Soojah's viceroy at; British troops to leave; Nott in; +Afghans beaten off; General Stuart's march on; evacuated; to be separated +from Cabul; Shere Ali Khan governor of; Burrow's army withdrawn into; Sir +F. Roberts marches on; arrives at; battle of; question of retention of; +battle between Abdurrahman and Ayoub Khan at. + +CAVAGNARI, Sir Louis; ineffectual attempt to enter Cabul; correspondence +with Yakoub Khan; at Cabul, his character; the massacre. + +CHAMBERLAIN, Sir Neville, abortive attempt to enter Afghanistan as Envoy. + +CHAMBERS, Colonel, defeats the Ghilzais. + +CHAPMAN, Colonel (now Major-General) E. F., chief of the staff; in the +Great March; reconnaissance before the battle of Candahar. + +CHARASIAH, battle of. + +CHARDEH VALLEY, the. + +CHARIKAR, capital of the Kohistan, troops quartered in; disaster of; +punishment of; Abdurrahman arrives at. + +CHISHOLM, Captain, wounded at the Seah Sung ridge. + +CLARK, Lieutenant-Colonel. + +CLELAND, gallant conduct of. + +CLERK, Mr, demands right of way through the Punjaub. + +CLIBBORN, Colonel, defeated by Beloochees. + +COBBE, leads the attack of the Peiwar Kotul. + +CODRINGTON, commandant of Charikar; killed; revenged. + +COMMISSARIAT FORT, the. + +CONOLLY, Lieutenant John; a hostage. + +COOK, Major, V.C., of the Goorkha regiment, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +COTTON, Sir Willoughby, commands first infantry division; on the march to +Cabul; in chief command in Afghanistan; a respectable nonentity.'. + +CRAIGIE, defence of Khelat-i-Ghilzai. + +CRISPIN, with Eraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +CRUICKSHANK, Captain, killed at the attack on Deh Khoja. + +CUNYNGHAM, Lieutenant Dick, V.C., gallant conduct at the Takht-i-Shah. + +CUTCH. + +D. + +DADUR, in. + +DAKKA. + +DAOUD SHAH, Yakoub Khan's general; accompanies the Ameer to Roberts' +camp. + +DEH-I-AFGHAN, a suburb of Cabul. + +DEH KHATI. + +DEH KHOJA. + +DEH MAZUNG. + +DEHRAWAT. + +DEIG. + +DENNIE, Colonel, of the 13th, at the taking of Ghuznee; in command at +Bamian; replaces Sale in command; heads a sortie from Jellalabad; in the +council of war; commands the centre at the great sortie and is killed. + +DENNIS, Colonel. + +DODGIN, Captain, valour in the retreat. + +DOORANEES, the. + +DOST MAHOMED, origin; early career; asks for terms; forsaken by his +troops; a fugitive; in Bokhara and Khooloom; at Bamian and Kohistan; +surrenders to Macnaghten; sent into British India; to be allowed to +return to Afghanistan; his return to his sovereignty; dies. + +DREW, Colonel, enters the Peiwar Kotul. + +DUNCAN, General. + +DUNDAS, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +DUNHAM-MASSY, Brigadier-General. + +DURAND, on the siege of Herat; on Lord Auckland's manifesto; on +Macnaghten's appointment; at siege of Ghuznee; on the restoration of Shah +Soojah; on Dost Mahomed's surrender; on the retreat on Jellalabad; on +Macnaghten's ill-faith. + +E. + +EDWARDES, Sir Henry, on Lord Auckland's manifesto. + +ELLENBOROUGH, Lord, on Sale's brigade; first manifesto; vacillations; +orders the removal of the gates of Somnath from Sultan Mahmoud's tomb; +reception of the returning armies. + +ELLIS, Mr, British Envoy to Persia. + +ELPHINSTONE, General; succeeds Cotton in chief command; his character and +infirmities; orders Sale to return to Cabul; about to leave India; orders +the abandonment of the Commissariat fort; the Duke of Wellington's +verdict on his position; hopeless; 'scents treachery'; calls upon +Pottinger to open negotiations; in the retreat; consents to hand over the +ladies; and their husbands; refuses Akbar's proposal that the Europeans +should lay down their arms; conference; made a hostage; at Jugdulluk; +death. + +ELPHINSTONE, Mr, on the Afghan expedition. + +ENGLAND, Brigadier, defeated at the Kojuk pass. + +EVATT, Surgeon-Major, on the 'Death March.' + +EYRE, Vincent, opinion on Shelton's defeat at Behmaroo; description of +the sufferings of the retreat; his 'Captivity.'. + +F. + +FANE, Sir Harry, Commander-in-Chief; heads the expedition to Cabul. + +FARRINGTON, routs Uktar Khan at Zemindawar. + +FEROZEPORE. + +FORBES, Lieutenant, of the 92d Highlanders, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +FRASER'S BENGAL CAVALRY at Purwan Durrah. + +FROME, Captain, killed in the battle of Candahar. + +FUTTEHABAD. + +FUTTEH ALI, Shah of Persia. + +FUTTEH JUNG, second son and successor of Shah Soojah; abdicates. + +FUTTEH KHAN, eldest brother of Dost Mahomed, his fate. + +G. + +GALBRAITH, Colonel, killed at Maiwand. + +GARMAO HILLS, the. + +GHAZEES. + +GHILZAIS, the; description of; brave conduct of under the 'Gooroo,'; gain +terms from Macgregor; attack Sale's force; slaughter by, in the Khoord +Cabul; hang on the rear of the retreat; slaughter by, at Jugdulluk; +attack Pollock; harass Money. + +GHIRISHK. + +GHUZNEE. siege of; occupied by British troops; surrendered to the +Afghans; retaken by Nott. + +GOAD, Captain, killed. + +GOOL MAHOMED KHAN. + +GOORKHA REGIMENTS. + +GOOROO, the Ghilzai leader. + +GORDON, Colonel, his command in the attack on the Spingawai and Peiwar +Kotuls. + +GORDON, General Charles, against keeping Candahar. + +GOREBUND RIVER, the. + +GORTSCHAKOFF. + +GOUGH, Captain, with the 9th Lancers; in the charge of December 11th. + +GOUGH, General Charles. + +GOUGH, General Hugh. + +GRANT, Dr, gallant conduct at Charikar. + +GREEN, in the Retreat. + +GRENADIERS, its, the. + +GRIFFIN, Sir Lepel, his mission to arrange for the succession to Yakoub +Khan; on the retention of Candahar. + +GRIFFITHS, Major, gallant march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar; storms Mahomed +Shereef's fort. + +GUIDES, the; in the attack on the Beni-Hissar. + +GUL KOH RIDGE, the. + +GUNDAMUK, Sale's council of war at; final tragedy of the Retreat near; +evacuated; Pollock's troops concentrate at; treaty of 1879; conclusion +of. + +GUNDIGAN. + +GWAGA PASS, the. + +H. + +HABIB KILLA. + +HADJI KHAN KHAKUR. + +HAINES, Sir F., Commander-in-Chief. + +HALL, Captain. + +HAMILTON, Lieutenant W. R. P., V.C., with Cavagnari at Cabul; killed. + +HAMLEY, Sir Edward, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +HANZ-I-MADAT. + +HARDY, Lieutenant, killed. + +HASSAN ABDUL. + +HASSAN KHAN, governor of Maidan, killed. + +HAUGHTON, desperately wounded in the Charikar disaster. + +HAVELOCK, Captain Henry, aide-de-camp to Sir W. Cotton; on Shah Soojah's +reception in Candahar; description of Shah Soojah; staff officer to Sale; +authenticates Broadfoot's account of Sale's council of war at Jellalabad; +in the great sortie from Jellalabad. + +HAY, at the siege of Ghuznee. + +HAZARAS, horde of. + +HELMUND RIVER, the. + +HENSMAN, Mr; on the defence of Sherpur; on the battle of Ahmed Khel; on +Abdurrahman. + +HERAT, Persia and; siege of, by the Persians; independent; Macnaghten +presses for an expedition against; Ayoub Khan in; Ayoub driven from, by +Abdurrahman. + +HIGHLANDERS, the 72d and 92d. + +HILLS, Major-General, governor of Cabul. + +HINDOO KOOSH, the. + +HOBHOUSE, Sir John Cam, Lord Broughton, president of the Board of +Control, claims the responsibility of the first Afghan war in 1851, +contradictory statement in 1842. + +HUFT KOTUL, the; last stand of the Afghans at. + +HUGHES, Brigadier-General, at Ahmed Khel. + +HUME, General. + +HYDERABAD. + +HYDER KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, and governor of Ghuznee, taken prisoner. + +HYDRABAD. + +I. + +INDIAN CONTINGENT in the Mediterranean, the. + +INDIKEE, mutinous sepoys captured in. + +INDUS, the. + +IRRAWADY, the. + +ISTALIF, a Kohistan village destroyed. + +JACOB'S RIFLES (30th Native Infantry) at the Maiwand disaster. + +JADRAN. + +JAZEE, Anderson encounters Ghilzais at. + +JELLALABAD; British troops quartered in; march on resolved upon; Durand's +opinion of; Akbar's conditions for the evacuation of; defence of; Pollock +at; Elphinstone buried at; partially destroyed; Sir S. Browne's camp +near; disaster to the 10th Hussars near. + +JENKINS, Colonel, of the Guides; storms the Asmai heights; adroit +evacuation of Asmai heights. + +JENKINS, William, Secretary to Cavagnari. + +JOHNSON, Captain, in charge of the Treasury at Cabul; hostage; arranges +the redemption of the captives. + +JOHNSON, Colonel Alured, commands the artillery in the Great March. + +JUBBUR KHAN, brother to Dost Mahomed, 28; in charge of Dost Mahomed's +family at Khooloom. + +JUGDULLUK VALLEY, the; retreating column harassed at; slaughter at; +captives arrive at; Pollock engaged with Ghilzais at. + +JULGAH FORT, the, Sale fails to take. + +JUMROOD. + + +K. + +KAMRAN, Shah of Herat. + +KAREZAH. + +KAREZ HILL, the. + +KAREZ MEER. + +KARRACK. + +KATA KUSTIA. + +KATTIAWAR. + +KAUFMANN, General. + +KAYE, Sir John; history of the Afghan war; opinion of Burnes; account of +Macnaghten's murder. + +KEANE, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay army; marches towards +Hyderabad; his character; marches on Cabul; siege of Ghuznee; camp near +Cabul. + +KELLY, Dr Ambrose, with Cavagnari. + +KERSHAW, at siege of Ghuznee. + +KHAKREZ VALLEY, the. + +KHAROTI HILL, the. + +KHEL AKHUND. + +KHELAT; occupied by Nott. + +KHELAT, Khans of. See MEERAB, NUSSEER. + +KHELAT-I-GHILZAI; occupied by Nott; garrisoned; garrison withdrawn; one +of the stages on the Great March. + +KHIG. + +KHIVA. + +KHODA BUXSH. + +KHOOLOOM; Akbar at. + +KHOOLOOM, Wali of. + +KHOST VALLEY, the. + +KHUSHK-I-NAKHUD, skirmish at. + +KHYBER-Jellalabad-Gundamuk route, the. + +KHYBER PASS, the; the clans of; Ghilzais intercept the communication by; +Wild fails to force; Pollock marches through; Cavagnari turned back from; +question of the retention of; evacuated. + +KILLA ABDOOLLA. + +KILLA KAZEE; Massy at. + +KING'S GARDEN, the, at Cabul. + +KNOWLES. + +KOHDAMAN. + +KOH-I-NOOR, the, taken by Runjeet Singh from Shah Soojah. + +KOHISTAN, Dost Mahomed in. + +KOJUK PASS, the; Brigadier England repulsed at. + +KOKORAN. + +KOLUM-DIL-KHAN. + +KOTWAL OF CABUL, the, tried for the massacre of Cavagnari, etc. + +KONDOOZ. + +KOTTREE. + +KUBBAR-I-JUBBAR. + +KURAM VALLEY, the. + +KURDURRAH. + +KUSHI; General Roberts meets Yakoub Khan at. + +KUTTI SUNG. + +L. + +LAHORE, Mr Clerk at. + +LAKE. + +LANCERS, the 9th. + +LANCERS, Bengal, the. + +LAWRENCE, Captain, warns Macnaghten; made prisoner; sends messages from +the chiefs to Elphinstone; description of the retreat; made hostage; in +captivity. + +LAWRENCE, Lord, his 'masterly inactivity;' against keeping Candahar. + +LEACH, Major. + +LOCKHART. + +LOGUR VALLEY, the; plain; river. + +LOODIANAH, Shah Soojah's refuge in. + +LORD, Dr, political officer in the Bamian district; killed at Purwan +Durrah. + +LOVEDAY, Lieutenant, political officer at Khelat, barbarously murdered. + +LUGHMAN VALLEY, the. + +LUGHMANEE, Pottinger besieged in. + +LUNDI KOTUL. + +LUTTABUND. + +LYTTON, Lord, Viceroy, 1876; his instructions; ratifies the treaty of +Gunda-Gundamuk; prepares to revenge Cavagnari; decides that Yakoub Khan +does not return to Afghanistan; recommends Abdurrahman. + +M. + +MACGREGOR, Brigadier-General Charles, C. B., chief of Sir F. Roberts' +staff; recovers the guns at Baghwana; in the Great March; in the battle +of Candahar. + +MACGREGOR, Major, deceived by the Ghilzai chief of Tezeen; Sale's +adviser. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Colin, at the defeat of Dost Mahomed near Bamian; +gallant conduct of; with Macnaghten; a hostage; story of the Retreat. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Stuart, gallant conduct of. + +MACKESON, political officer at Peshawur. + +MACKRELL, Colonel, killed at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +MACLAINE, Lieutenant, of the Horse Artillery, in the Maiwand disaster; +taken prisoner; murdered. + +MACLAREN. + +MACNAGHTEN, Lady; in the Retreat. + +MACNAGHTEN, Sir William Hay, envoy to Shah Soojah, influence with Lord +Auckland; his use of bribery; on the reception of the Shah at Candahar; +enters Cabul with Shah Soojah; convinced of the Shah's popularity; real +sovereign of Afghanistan; his mistakes; relations with the Ghilzais; +consents to the abandonment of the Balla Hissar; relations with Herat; +nervous about the communication; relation with Dost Mahomed; proposes to +put a price on his head; receives his surrender; his peculiar +temperament; his finance; discovers the unpopularity of the Shah; his +conduct to the 'Gooroo' and Ghilzais; appointed Governor of Bombay; +called upon to retrench; his conduct to Elphinstone; despatches Sale; his +quarters at Cabul; demands the reduction of the Rikabashee fort; +depression; negotiation about the Retreat; murdered. + +MACPHERSON, Brigadier-General; in the December operations round Cabul; in +the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +MAHMOOD KHAN, fort of. + +MAHMOUD SHAH, brother of Shah Soojah. + +MAHOMED HASSAN KHAN, Abdurrahman's governor of Candahar, defeated by +Ayoub. + +MAHOMED JAN, a Warduk general, defends the Asmai heights; attacked by +Massy and Macpherson; attack on the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAHOMED MEERZA, Shah of Persia, his ambition, designs on Herat. + +MAHOMED SHAH KHAN, Akbar's lieutenant. + +MAHOMED SHEREEF, fort of. + +MAHOMED SURWAR, agent of Sir Lepel Griffin. + +MAHOMED ZEMAUN KHAN. + +MAIDAN PLAIN, the. + +MAINWARING, Mrs, in the Retreat. + +MAIWAND; disaster at; battle at, between Mahomed Hassan and Ayoub. + +MANDERSON. + +MANGAL. + +MARSHALL, Colonel, routs Nusseer Khan. + +MASSY, Brigadier-General; occupies the Shutargurdan pass; takes +possession of the Sherpur cantonments; in the attack on Mahomed Jan; in +the defence of the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAUDE, General. + +MAULE, Lieutenant. + +MAZRA; Ayoub's camp at, during battle of Candahar. + +M'CASKILL, Brigadier-General, with Pollock; in the last skirmishes. + +MEER AKHOR FORT, the, blown up. + +MEER BUTCHA, a chief of Kohistan. + +MEERZA AHMED, a Dooranee chief. + +MEHRAB, Khan of Khelat. + +MICHNAI PASS, the. + +M'Neill, British Envoy to Persia. + +MOHUN LAL, agent for Macnaghten's 'blood money.' + +MONEY, Colonel, left to hold the Shutargurdan pass; brought out by Gough; +in the battle of Candahar. + +MONTEATH, Colonel, sent against the Ghilzais; in the council of war at +Jellalabad; at the great sortie. + +MONTENARO, Captain, killed at the Meer Akhor fort. + +MONTGOMERY, Sir Robert, against keeping Candahar. + +MOOKOOR. + +MOOLLA SHIKORE, Shah Soojah's minister. + +MOOLTAN. + +MOORE, Elphinstone's servant. + +MORGAN. + +MULLA SAHIBDAD. + +MUNDABAD. + +MURCHA PASS. + +MUSA KHAN, heir of Yakoub Khan. + +MUSHAKI. + +MUSHK-I-ALUM, a Moulla of Ghuznee; his influence; governor of Cabul, +fires the beacon on the Asmai heights. + +MUSTAPHI, the, punished for the Cavagnari massacre. + +N. + +NAGHLOO. + +NANUCHEE PASS, the. + +NAPIER, Lieutenant Scott, of the 92d Highlanders. + +NAPIER, Lord, of Magdala, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +NEK MAHOMED KHAN, Afghan commander at the battle of Charasiah. + +NEPAUL. + +NEVILLE, of the Bengal Lancers. + +NICHOLL, Captain, his heroism in the Retreat. + +NIJRAO. + +NORMAN, Sir Henry, against keeping Candahar. + +NORTHBROOK, Lord, relations with Shere Ali. + +NOTT, General; in command at Candahar; occupies Khelat; his character; +discipline; disagrees with Macnaghten; receives orders from Elphinstone +to evacuate Candahar, refuses to obey; fighting with Meerza Ahmed; his +letter to Brigadier England; Lord Ellenborough repeats orders to evacuate +Candahar, obeys; marches towards Cabul; drives Afghans out of Ghuznee; +refuses to aid in the rescue of the prisoners. + +NUGENT, Lieutenant, killed. + +NUSSEER, Khan of Khelat. + +NUTTALL, General. + +O. + +OLDFIELD, Captain, in the Council of War at Jellalabad. + +ORENBURG. + +OSMAN KHAN. + +OUTRAM pursues Dost Mahomed; raid on the Ghilzais. + +P. + +PALLISER, Brigadier-General. + +PALMER, Colonel, tortured. + +PALMERSTON'S, Lord, ultimatum to Persia. + +PANJSHIR RIVER, the. + +PASKEVITCH, General. + +PATHANS. + +PEAT, Captain, at siege of Ghuznee. + +PEIWAR PASS, the. + +PELLY, Sir Lewis, at the conference of Peshawur. + +PEROFFSKY. + +PERSIA, relations between Great Britain and. + +PESHAWUR. + +PESHBOLAK. + +PETROFFSKY, a Russian writer. + +PHAYRE, Brigadier-General. + +PICQUET HILL, the, attacked by Ayoub Khan. + +PIONEERS, the. + +PISHEEN VALLEY, the; retained by us. + +POLLOCK, General; arrives in Peshawur; at Jellalabad; his qualifications; +his work; the rescue and retribution; contrast between Nott and; arrives +at Cabul; punishment of Cabul. + +PONSONBY, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry in Purwan Durrah. + +POOLE, Captain, wounded. + +POTTINGER, Major, defends Herat against the Persians; warns Macnaghten of +the danger in Kohistan; in the disaster at Charikar; conducts +negotiations for the retreat; a hostage. + +POWELL, Captain, killed. + +POYNDAH KHAN, father to Dost Mahomed. + +PRIMROSE, General; in the battle of Candahar. + +PUNJAUB REGIMENTS. + +PUNJAUB, the. + +PURWAN DURRAH VALLEY, the. + +Q. + +QUETTA; occupied. + +R. + +RATTRAY. + +RAWLINSON, Sir Henry; his warnings to Macnaghten; Macnaghten's orders to, +respecting Uktar Khan; in favour of retaining Candahar. + +RAWUL PINDI. + +RHOTAS HEIGHTS, the. + +RIKABASHEE FORT, the. + +RIPON, Marquis of, Viceroy; in favour of the settlement with Abdurrahman; +sanctions General Roberts' March on Candahar. + +ROBAT, Great March ends at. + +ROBERTS, Colonel. + +ROBERTS, Sir Frederick, in command of the Kuram column; his scheme of +operations; battle of the Peiwar Kotul; his previous career; with the +army of invasion; battle of Charasiah; at Cabul; revenge for Cavagnari; +intercourse with Yakoub Khan; in the Sherpur cantonment; active +operations round Cabul; on the defensive in Sherpur; the Great March on +Candahar; battle of Candahar; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ROREE. + +ROSE, Ensign, in the retreat from Charikar. + +ROSS, Major-General John; in the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +RUNJEET SINGH Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, treatment of Shah Soojah; +occupies Peshawur; death. + +RUSSIA, relations with Persia; policy towards Dost Mahomed; Afghanistan +to be used as a 'buffer state' between British India and; Russo-Turkish +war; relations with Abdurrahman; opinion of Roberts on Afghanistan and. + +S. + +SAFI TRIBE, the, engage Macpherson. + +SALE, Lady, her journal; account of the Retreat; Akbar's kindness to. + +SALE, Sir Robert; at siege of Ghuznee; in command at Cabul; chastises the +Kohistanees; his character; fighting in the Khoord Cabul at Bootkhak; at +Gundamuk; occupies Jellalabad; defence of Jellalabad; fighting with the +Ghilzais at Jugdulluk; ordered to rescue captives. + +SALEH MAHOMED KHAN, arranges the escape of the captives. + +SALISBURY, Lord. + +SANGBUR. + +SCINDE. + +SCOTT, Major. + +SCHUYLER, Mr Eugene, interviews Abdurrahman. + +SEAH SUNG HEIGHTS, the. + +SEH BABA. + +SEISTAN, province of. + +SHAFTO, Captain, killed at the Balla Hissar. + +SHAGAI RIDGE, the. + +SHAH BAGH, the. + +SHAHBAZ KHAN. + +SHAHJUI. + +SHAHLEZ. + +SHAKESPEAR, Sir Richmond. + +SHEIKABAD. + +SHELTON. Brigadier, arrives at Jellalabad; character; at Cabul; receives +contradictory orders from Macnaghten; in the Balla Hissar; takes the +Rikabashee fort; opposes the removal of the troops into the Balla Hissar; +attacks Bemaroo; commands the main body in the Retreat; his dogged +valour; a hostage. + +SHER-DERWAZA HEIGHTS, the. + +SHERE ALI, the Ameer, son of Dost Mahomed, accession and character; +refuses to receive a Resident; negotiations with Lord Lytton; cordial +reception of the Russians, refuses to receive Sir Neville Chamberlain; +death at Balkh; his mistakes. + +SHERE ALI KHAN, Wali of Candahar; abdicates. + +SHERPUR CANTONMENTS, the; description of; operations round; defence of; +durbar at; interview between Sir Donald Stewart and Abdurrahman at. + +SHIKARPORE. + +SHILGUR. + +SHUMSHOODEEN, an Afghan leader. + +SHUTARGURDAN PASS, the. + +SIBI; retained by us. + +SIKHS. + +SIKH FEUDATORY STATES CONTINGENT. + +SIKH REGIMENTS. + +SINGIRI. + +SKINNER, Captain, a hostage. + +SLADE, at the Maiwand disaster. + +SOMNATH, gates of. + +SOOJAH-OOL-MOOLK, Shah; early career; intrigues; Lord Auckland determines +to restore him; his share in the expedition; replaced on the throne, +entry into Cabul; his position; with Macnaghten at Cabul; refuses to see +Dost Mahomed; goes to Jellalabad; his errors; disaffection towards him; +recommends the occupation of the Balla Hissar; stipulations with regard +to; remains in Cabul; letter to Sale at Jellalabad; murdered. + +SOORKHAB. + +SOUTER, Captain, escapes from the slaughter at Gundamuk. + +SPENS, Captain of the 72d Highlanders, killed. + +SPINGAWAI KOTUL, the, attack on, by Roberts. + +STANHOPE, Mr, on the treaty of Gundamuk. + +STEWART, Sir Donald; marches into Candahar; begins his march to Cabul; +battle of Ahmed Khel and Urzoo; continues his march to Cabul; relations +with Abdurrahman; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ST JOHN, Colonel. + +STODDART, Colonel. + +STOLIETOFF, defender of the Schipka pass, received by Shere Ali. + +'STORMS AND SUNSHINE OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE,' by Colin Mackenzie. + +STRATON, Captain. + +SUKKUR. + +SULIMAN MOUNTAINS, the. + +SULTAN JAN. + +SULTAN MAHMOUD, tomb of. + +SUNG-I-NAWISHTA PASS, the. + +SURKH KOTUL, the. + +SUTLEJ RIVER, the. + +SWAYNE, Major. + +SYGHAN. + +T. + +TAGAO. + +TAKHT-I-SHAH PEAK, the. + +TASHKEND, Russians at; Shere Ali at; Abdurrahman at. + +TEZEEN. + +THAL-CHOTIALI. + +THELWALL, Brigadier. + +THOMSON, engineer to Keane. + +TIMOUR, Prince, son of Shah Soojah, supported by Runjeet Singh; Soojah's +viceroy at Candahar; cruelty. + +TIR-ANDAZ. + +TODD, Major, political agent in Herat. + +TOOTUNDURRAH FORT, Sale takes. + +TREVOR, with Macnaghten at his death; murdered. + +TROUP, Captain. + +TUNGHEE TARIKI, gorge of, scene of slaughter. + +TURNUK. + +TURRAI. + +TYTLER. + +U. + +UKTAR KHAN, a discontented Dooranee chief; Macnaghten offers reward for +his head. + +URGUNDAB. + +URGUNDEH. + +URZOO, affair of. + +V. + +VAKEEL, the, obnoxious minister of Shah Soojah. + +VICEROYS, _See_ LORDS W. BENTINCK, AUCKLAND, ELLENBOROUGH, NORTHBROOK, +LYTTON, and the MARQUIS OF RIPON. + +VIKKUR. + +W. + +WADE, escorts Prince Timour by the Khyber route. + +WALI MAHOMED, governor designate of Turkestan. + +WARREN, evacuates the Commissariat fort. + +WATSON, Colonel, in command of the Sikh Feudatory contingent. + +WELLESLEY, the Marquis, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision. + +WELLINGTON, Duke of, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision; on +Elphinstone's position at Cabul; on English troops v. hillmen. + +WHITE, Major, of the 92d Highlanders, at the attack on Beni Hissar; in +the battle of Candahar. + +WILD, Brigadier, attempts to force the Khyber pass. + +WILLSHIRE, General, harassed in the Bolan pass; punishes Khelat. + +WOLSELEY, Lord, against keeping Candahar. + +WORSLEY, Colonel. + +WYMER, Colonel, hard fighting with the Ghilzais. + +Y. + +YAHUJA KHAN. + +YAKOUB KHAN, son of Shere Ali, released and made regent; intercourse with +Sir Sam Browne; question of his complicity in the Cavagnari massacre; +takes refuge in the English camp; a prisoner; the Viceroy's decision +against his return to power. + +YAR MAHOMED, Shah Kamran's minister. + +YERGATI. + +Z. + +ZAKARIAH KHAN, Yakoub's brother. + +ZANDEH, captives carried to. + +ZEMINDAWAR, country of. + +ZIMMA, Abdurrahman and Sir Lepel Griffin at. + +ZURMUT. + + * * * * * + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, by +Archibald Forbes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND *** + +***** This file should be named 8428.txt or 8428.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/2/8428/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 + +Author: Archibald Forbes + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8428] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +[Illustration: Sir Frederick Roberts] + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND 1878-80 + +by ARCHIBALD FORBES + +With Portraits and Plans + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + +PART I.--THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR + +CHAP. + + I.--PRELIMINARY + + II.--THE MARCH TO CABUL + + III.--THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + IV.--THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + + V.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END + + VI.--THE ROAD TO RUIN + + VII.--THE CATASTROPHE + +VIII.--THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + + IX.--RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + + +PART II.--THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + I.--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + + II.--THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + III.--THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + + IV.--THE DECEMBER STORM + + V.--ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + + VI.--AHMED KHEL + + VII.--THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +VIII.--MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + + IX.--THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + * * * * * + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS + + PORTRAIT OF SIR FREDERICK ROBERTS _Frontispiece_ + + PLAN OF CABUL, THE CANTONMENT + + PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE POLLOCK + + PORTRAIT OF SIR LOUIS CAVAGNARI AND SIRDARS + + PLAN OF CABUL SHOWING THE ACTIONS, DEC. 11-14 + + PLAN OF ACTION, AHMED KHEL + + PORTRAIT OF THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF MAIWAND + + PLAN OF THE ACTION OF CANDAHAR + +_The Portraits of Sir G. Pollock and Sir F. Roberts are engraved by +permission of Messrs Henry Graves & Co._ + + * * * * * + +THE AFGHAN WARS + + + + +PART I: _THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR_ + + + + +CHAPTER I: PRELIMINARY + +Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished +what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian +army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between +Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression. + +By a treaty, concluded between England and Persia in 1814, the former +state bound itself, in case of the invasion of Persia by any European +nation, to aid the Shah either with troops from India or by the payment +of an annual subsidy in support of his war expenses. It was a dangerous +engagement, even with the _caveat_ rendering the undertaking inoperative +if such invasion should be provoked by Persia. During the fierce struggle +of 1825-7, between Abbas Meerza and the Russian General Paskevitch, +England refrained from supporting Persia either with men or with money, +and when prostrate Persia was in financial extremities because of the war +indemnity which the treaty of Turkmanchai imposed upon her, England took +advantage of her needs by purchasing the cancellation of the inconvenient +obligation at the cheap cost of about £300,000. It was the natural result +of this transaction that English influence with the Persian Court should +sensibly decline, and it was not less natural that in conscious weakness +Persia should fall under the domination of Russian influence. + +Futteh Ali, the old Shah of Persia, died in 1834, and was succeeded by +his grandson Prince Mahomed Meerza, a young man who inherited much of the +ambition of his gallant father Abbas Meerza. His especial aspiration, +industriously stimulated by his Russian advisers, urged him to the +enterprise of conquering the independent principality of Herat, on the +western border of Afghanistan. Herat was the only remnant of Afghan +territory that still remained to a member of the legitimate royal house. +Its ruler was Shah Kamran, son of that Mahmoud Shah who, after ousting +his brother Shah Soojah from the throne of Cabul, had himself been driven +from that elevation, and had retired to the minor principality of Herat. +The young Shah of Persia was not destitute of justification for his +designs on Herat. That this was so was frankly admitted by Mr Ellis, the +British envoy to his Court, who wrote to his Government that the Shah had +fair claim to the sovereignty of Afghanistan as far as Ghuznee, and that +Kamran's conduct in occupying part of the Persian province of Seistan had +given the Shah 'a full justification for commencing hostilities against +Herat.' + +The serious phase of the situation for England and India was that Russian +influence was behind Persia in this hostile action against Herat. Mr +Ellis pointed out that in the then existing state of relations between +Persia and Russia, the progress of the former in Afghanistan was +tantamount to the advancement of the latter. But unfortunately there +remained valid an article in the treaty of 1814 to the effect that, in +case of war between the Afghans and the Persians, the English Government +should not interfere with either party unless when called on by both to +mediate. In vain did Ellis and his successor M'Neill remonstrate with the +Persian monarch against the Herat expedition. An appeal to St Petersburg, +on the part of Great Britain, produced merely an evasive reply. How +diplomatic disquietude had become intensified may be inferred from this, +that whereas in April 1836 Ellis wrote of Persia as a Russian first +parallel of attack against India, Lord Auckland, then Governor-General of +India, directed M'Neill, in the early part of 1837, to urge the Shah to +abandon his enterprise, on the ground that he (the Governor-General) +'must view with umbrage and displeasure schemes of interference and +conquest on our western frontier.' + +The Shah, unmoved by the representations of the British envoy, marched on +Herat, and the siege was opened on November 23d, 1837. Durand, a capable +critic, declares that the strength of the place, the resolution of the +besiegers, the skill of their Russian military advisers, and the +gallantry of the besieged, were alike objects of much exaggeration. 'The +siege was from first to last thoroughly ill-conducted, and the defence, +in reality not better managed, owed its _éclat_ to Persian ignorance, +timidity and supineness. The advice of Pottinger, the gallant English +officer who assisted the defence, was seldom asked, and still more seldom +taken; and no one spoke more plainly of the conduct of both besieged and +besiegers than did Pottinger himself.' M'Neill effected nothing definite +during a long stay in the Persian camp before Herat, the counteracting +influence of the Russian envoy being too strong with the Shah; and the +British representative, weary of continual slights, at length quitted the +Persian camp completely foiled. After six days' bombardment, the Persians +and their Russian auxiliaries delivered an assault in force on June 23d, +1838. It failed, with heavy loss, and the dispirited Shah determined on +raising the siege. His resolution was quickened by the arrival of Colonel +Stoddart in his camp, with the information that a military force from +Bombay, supported by ships of war, had landed on the island of Karrack in +the Persian Gulf, and with the peremptory ultimatum to the Shah that he +must retire from Herat at once. Lord Palmerston, in ordering this +diversion in the Gulf, had thought himself justified by circumstances in +overriding the clear and precise terms of an article in a treaty to which +England had on several occasions engaged to adhere. As for the Shah, he +appears to have been relieved by the ultimatum. On the 9th September he +mounted his horse and rode away from Herat. The siege had lasted nine and +a half months. To-day, half a century after Simonich the Russian envoy +followed Mahomed Shah from battered but unconquered Herat, that city is +still an Afghan place of arms. + +Shah Soojah-ool Moolk, a grandson of the illustrious Ahmed Shah, reigned +in Afghanistan from 1803 till 1809. His youth had been full of trouble +and vicissitude. He had been a wanderer, on the verge of starvation, a +pedlar and a bandit, who raised money by plundering caravans. His courage +was lightly reputed, and it was as a mere creature of circumstance that +he reached the throne. His reign was perturbed, and in 1809 he was a +fugitive and an exile. Runjeet Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, +defrauded him of the famous Koh-i-noor, which is now the most precious of +the crown jewels of England, and plundered and imprisoned the fallen man. +Shah Soojah at length escaped from Lahore. After further misfortunes he +at length reached the British frontier station of Loodianah, and in 1816 +became a pensioner of the East India Company. + +After the downfall of Shah Soojah, Afghanistan for many years was a prey +to anarchy. At length in 1826, Dost Mahomed succeeded in making himself +supreme at Cabul, and this masterful man thenceforward held sway until +his death in 1863, uninterruptedly save during the three years of the +British occupation. Dost Mahomed was neither kith nor kin to the +legitimate dynasty which he displaced. His father Poyndah Khan was an +able statesman and gallant soldier. He left twenty-one sons, of whom +Futteh Khan was the eldest, and Dost Mahomed one of the youngest. Futteh +Khan was the Warwick of Afghanistan, but the Afghan 'Kingmaker' had no +Barnet as the closing scene of his chequered life. Falling into hostile +hands, he was blinded and scalped. Refusing to betray his brothers, he +was leisurely cut to pieces by the order and in the presence of the +monarch whom he had made. His young brother Dost Mahomed undertook to +avenge his death. After years of varied fortunes the Dost had worsted all +his enemies, and in 1826 he became the ruler of Cabul. Throughout his +long reign Dost Mahomed was a strong and wise ruler. His youth had been +neglected and dissolute. His education was defective, and he had been +addicted to wine. Once seated on the throne, the reformation of our Henry +Fifth was not more thorough than was that of Dost Mahomed. He taught +himself to read and write, studied the Koran, became scrupulously +abstemious, assiduous in affairs, no longer truculent but courteous. He +is said to have made a public acknowledgment of the errors of his +previous life, and a firm profession of reformation; nor did his after +life belie the pledges to which he committed himself. There was a fine +rugged honesty in his nature, and a streak of genuine chivalry; +notwithstanding the despite he suffered at our hands, he had a real +regard for the English, and his loyalty to us was broken only by his +armed support of the Sikhs in the second Punjaub war. + +The fallen Shah Soojah, from his asylum in Loodianah, was continually +intriguing for his restoration. His schemes were long inoperative, and it +was not until 1832 that certain arrangements were entered into between +him and the Maharaja Runjeet Singh. To an application on Shah Soojah's +part for countenance and pecuniary aid, the Anglo-Indian Government +replied that to afford him assistance would be inconsistent with the +policy of neutrality which the Government had imposed on itself; but it +unwisely contributed financially toward his undertaking by granting him +four months' pension in advance. Sixteen thousand rupees formed a scant +war fund with which to attempt the recovery of a throne, but the Shah +started on his errand in February 1833. After a successful contest with +the Ameers of Scinde, he marched on Candahar, and besieged that fortress. +Candahar was in extremity when Dost Mahomed, hurrying from Cabul, +relieved it, and joining forces with its defenders, he defeated and +routed Shah Soojah, who fled precipitately, leaving behind him his +artillery and camp equipage, During the Dost's absence in the south, +Runjeet Singh's troops crossed the Attock, occupied the Afghan province +of Peshawur, and drove the Afghans into the Khyber Pass. No subsequent +efforts on Dost Mahomed's part availed to expel the Sikhs from Peshawur, +and suspicious of British connivance with Runjeet Singh's successful +aggression, he took into consideration the policy of fortifying himself +by a counter alliance with Persia. As for Shah Soojah, he had crept back +to his refuge at Loodianah. + +Lord Auckland succeeded Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General of +India in March 1836. In reply to Dost Mahomed's letter of congratulation, +his lordship wrote: 'You are aware that it is not the practice of the +British Government to interfere with the affairs of other independent +states;' an abstention which Lord Auckland was soon to violate. He had +brought from England the feeling of disquietude in regard to the designs +of Persia and Russia which the communications of our envoy in Persia had +fostered in the Home Government, but it would appear that he was wholly +undecided what line of action to pursue. 'Swayed,' says Durand, 'by the +vague apprehensions of a remote danger entertained by others rather than +himself,' he despatched to Afghanistan Captain Burnes on a nominally +commercial mission, which, in fact, was one of political discovery, but +without definite instructions. Burnes, an able but rash and ambitious +man, reached Cabul in September 1837, two months before the Persian army +began the siege of Herat. He had a strong prepossession in favour of the +Dost, whose guest he had already been in 1832, and the policy he favoured +was not the revival of the legitimate dynasty in the person of Shah +Soojah, but the attachment of Dost Mahomed to British interests by +strengthening his throne and affording him British countenance. + +Burnes sanguinely believed that he had arrived at Cabul in the nick of +time, for an envoy from the Shah of Persia was already at Candahar, +bearing presents and assurances of support. The Dost made no concealment +to Burnes of his approaches to Persia and Russia, in despair of British +good offices, and being hungry for assistance from any source to meet the +encroachments of the Sikhs, he professed himself ready to abandon his +negotiations with the western powers if he were given reason to expect +countenance and assistance at the hands of the Anglo-Indian Government. +Burnes communicated to his Government those friendly proposals, +supporting them by his own strong representations, and meanwhile, carried +away by enthusiasm, he exceeded his powers by making efforts to dissuade +the Candahar chiefs from the Persian alliance, and by offering to support +them with money to enable them to make head against the offensive, by +which Persia would probably seek to revenge the rejection of her +overtures. For this unauthorised excess of zeal Burnes was severely +reprimanded by his Government, and was directed to retract his offers to +the Candahar chiefs. The situation of Burnes in relation to the Dost was +presently complicated by the arrival at Cabul of a Russian officer +claiming to be an envoy from the Czar, whose credentials, however, were +regarded as dubious, and who, if that circumstance has the least weight, +was on his return to Russia utterly repudiated by Count Nesselrode. The +Dost took small account of this emissary, continuing to assure Burnes +that he cared for no connection except with the English, and Burnes +professed to his Government his fullest confidences in the sincerity of +those declarations. But the tone of Lord Auckland's reply, addressed to +the Dost, was so dictatorial and supercilious as to indicate the writer's +intention that it should give offence. It had that effect, and Burnes' +mission at once became hopeless. Yet, as a last resort, Dost Mahomed +lowered his pride so far as to write to the Governor-General imploring +him 'to remedy the grievances of the Afghans, and afford them some little +encouragement and power.' The pathetic representation had no effect. The +Russian envoy, who was profuse in his promises of everything which the +Dost was most anxious to obtain, was received into favour and treated +with distinction, and on his return journey he effected a treaty with the +Candahar chiefs, which was presently ratified by the Russian minister at +the Persian Court. Burnes, fallen into discredit at Cabul, quitted that +place in August 1838. He had not been discreet, but it was not his +indiscretion that brought about the failure of his mission. A nefarious +transaction, which Kaye denounces with the passion of a just indignation, +connects itself with Burnes' negotiations with the Dost; his official +correspondence was unscrupulously mutilated and garbled in the published +Blue Book with deliberate purpose to deceive the British public. + +Burnes had failed because, since he had quitted India for Cabul, Lord +Auckland's policy had gradually altered. Lord Auckland had landed in +India in the character of a man of peace. That, so late as April 1837, he +had no design of obstructing the existing situation in Afghanistan is +proved by his written statement of that date, that 'the British +Government had resolved decidedly to discourage the prosecution by the +ex-king Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, so long as he may remain under our +protection, of further schemes of hostility against the chiefs now in +power in Cabul and Candahar.' Yet, in the following June, he concluded a +treaty which sent Shah Soojah to Cabul, escorted by British bayonets. Of +this inconsistency no explanation presents itself. It was a far cry from +our frontier on the Sutlej to Herat in the confines of Central Asia--a +distance of more than 1200 miles, over some of the most arduous marching +ground in the known world. No doubt the Anglo-Indian Government was +justified in being somewhat concerned by the facts that a Persian army, +backed by Russian volunteers and Russian roubles, was besieging Herat, +and that Persian and Russian emissaries were at work in Afghanistan. Both +phenomena were rather of the 'bogey' character; how much so to-day shows +when the Afghan frontier is still beyond Herat, and when a descendant of +Dost Mahomed still sits in the Cabul _musnid_. But neither England nor +India scrupled to make the Karrack counter-threat which arrested the +siege of Herat; and the obvious policy as regarded Afghanistan was to +watch the results of the intrigues which were on foot, to ignore them +should they come to nothing, as was probable, to counteract them by +familiar methods if serious consequences should seem impending. Our +alliance with Runjeet Singh was solid, and the quarrel between Dost +Mahomed and him concerning the Peshawur province was notoriously easy of +arrangement. + +On whose memory rests the dark shadow of responsibility for the first +Afghan war? The late Lord Broughton, who, when Sir John Cam Hobhouse, was +President of the Board of Control from 1835 to 1841, declared before a +House of Commons Committee, in 1851, 'The Afghan war was done by myself; +entirely without the privity of the Board of Directors.' The meaning of +that declaration, of course, was that it was the British Government of +the day which was responsible, acting through its member charged with the +control of Indian affairs; and further, that the directorate of the East +India Company was accorded no voice in the matter. But this utterance was +materially qualified by Sir J. C. Hobhouse's statement in the House of +Commons in 1842, that his despatch indicating the policy to be adopted, +and that written by Lord Auckland, informing him that the expedition had +already been undertaken, had crossed each other on the way. + +It would be tedious to detail how Lord Auckland, under evil counsel, +gradually boxed the compass from peace to war. The scheme of action +embodied in the treaty which, in the early summer of 1838, was concluded +between the Anglo-Indian Government, Runjeet Singh, and Shah Soojah, was +that Shah Soojah, with a force officered from an Indian army, and paid by +British money, possessing also the goodwill and support of the Maharaja +of the Punjaub, should attempt the recovery of his throne without any +stiffening of British bayonets at his back. Then it was urged, and the +representation was indeed accepted, that the Shah would need the buttress +afforded by English troops, and that a couple of regiments only would +suffice to afford this prestige. But Sir Harry Fane, the +Commander-in-Chief, judiciously interposed his veto on the despatch of a +handful of British soldiers on so distant and hazardous an expedition. +Finally, the Governor-General, committed already to a mistaken line of +policy, and urged forward by those about him, took the unfortunate +resolution to gather together an Anglo-Indian army, and to send it, with +the ill-omened Shah Soojah on its shoulders, into the unknown and distant +wilds of Afghanistan. This action determined on, it was in accordance +with the Anglo-Indian fitness of things that the Governor-General should +promulgate a justificatory manifesto. Of this composition it is +unnecessary to say more than to quote Durand's observation that in it +'the words "justice and necessity" were applied in a manner for which +there is fortunately no precedent in the English language,' and Sir Henry +Edwardes' not less trenchant comment that 'the views and conduct of Dost +Mahomed were misrepresented with a hardihood which a Russian statesman +might have envied.' + +All men whose experience gave weight to their words opposed this +'preposterous enterprise.' Mr Elphinstone, who had been the head of a +mission to Cabul thirty years earlier, held that 'if an army was sent up +the passes, and if we could feed it, no doubt we might take Cabul and set +up Shah Soojah; but it was hopeless to maintain him in a poor, cold, +strong and remote country, among so turbulent a people.' Lord William +Bentinck, Lord Auckland's predecessor, denounced the project as an act of +incredible folly. Marquis Wellesley regarded 'this wild expedition into a +distant region of rocks and deserts, of sands and ice and snow,' as an +act of infatuation. The Duke of Wellington pronounced with prophetic +sagacity, that the consequence of once crossing the Indus to settle a +government in Afghanistan would be a perennial march into that country. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE MARCH TO CABUL + +The two main objects of the venturesome offensive movement to which Lord +Auckland had committed himself were, first, the raising of the Persian +siege of Herat if the place should hold out until reached--the recapture +of it if it should have fallen; and, secondly, the establishment of Shah +Soojah on the Afghan throne. The former object was the more pressing, and +time was very precious; but the distances in India are great, the means +of communication in 1838 did not admit of celerity, and the seasons +control the safe prosecution of military operations. Nevertheless, the +concentration of the army at the frontier station of Ferozepore was fully +accomplished toward the end of November. Sir Harry Fane was to be the +military head of the expedition, and he had just right to be proud of the +14,000 carefully selected and well-seasoned troops who constituted his +Bengal contingent. The force consisted of two infantry divisions, of +which the first, commanded by Major-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, +contained three brigades, commanded respectively by Colonels Sale, Nott, +and Dennis, of whom the two former were to attain high distinction within +the borders of Afghanistan. Major-General Duncan commanded the second +infantry division of the two brigades, of which one was commanded by +Colonel Roberts, the gallant father of a gallant son, the other by +Colonel Worsley. The 6000 troops raised for Shah Soojah, who were under +Fane's orders, and were officered from our army in India, had been +recently and hurriedly recruited, and although rapidly improving, were +not yet in a state of high efficiency. The contingent which the Bombay +Presidency was to furnish to the 'Army of the Indus,' and which landed +about the close of the year near the mouth of the Indus, was under the +command of General Sir John Keane, the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay +army. The Bombay force was about 5000 strong. + +Before the concentration at Ferozepore had been completed, Lord Auckland +received official intimation of the retreat of the Persians from before +Herat. With their departure had gone, also, the sole legitimate object of +the expedition; there remained but a project of wanton aggression and +usurpation. The Russo-Persian failure at Herat was scarcely calculated to +maintain in the astute and practical Afghans any hope of fulfilment of +the promises which the western powers had thrown about so lavishly, while +it made clear that, for some time at least to come, the Persians would +not be found dancing again to Russian fiddling. The abandonment of the +siege of Herat rendered the invasion of Afghanistan an aggression +destitute even of pretext. The Governor-General endeavoured to justify +his resolution to persevere in it by putting forth the argument that its +prosecution was required, 'alike in observation of the treaties entered +into with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah as by paramount considerations of +defensive policy.' A remarkable illustration of 'defensive policy' to +take the offensive against a remote country from whose further confines +had faded away foiled aggression, leaving behind nothing but a bitter +consciousness of broken promises! As for the other plea, the tripartite +treaty contained no covenant that we should send a corporal's guard +across our frontier. If Shah Soojah had a powerful following in +Afghanistan, he could regain his throne without our assistance; if he had +no holding there, it was for us a truly discreditable enterprise to foist +him on a recalcitrant people at the point of the bayonet. + +One result of the tidings from Herat was to reduce by a division the +strength of the expeditionary force. Fane, who had never taken kindly to +the project, declined to associate himself with the diminished array that +remained. The command of the Bengal column fell to Sir Willoughby Cotton, +with whom as his aide-de-camp rode that Henry Havelock whose name twenty +years later was to ring through India and England. Duncan's division was +to stand fast at Ferozepore as a support, by which disposition the +strength of the Bengal marching force was cut down to about 9500 fighting +men. After its junction with the Bombay column, the army would be 14,500 +strong, without reckoning the Shah's contingent. There was an interlude +at Ferozepore of reviews and high jinks with the shrewd, debauched old +Runjeet Singh; of which proceedings Havelock in his narrative of the +expedition gives a detailed account, dwelling with extreme disapprobation +on Runjeet's addiction to a 'pet tipple' strong enough to lay out the +hardest drinker in the British camp, but which the old reprobate quaffed +freely without turning a hair. + +At length, on December 10th, 1838, Cotton began the long march which was +not to terminate at Cabul until August 6th of the following year. The +most direct route was across the Punjaub, and up the passes from +Peshawur, but the Governor-General had shrunk from proposing to Runjeet +Singh that the force should march through his territories, thinking it +enough that the Maharaja had permitted Shah Soojah's heir, Prince Timour, +to go by Peshawur to Cabul, had engaged to support him with a Sikh force, +and had agreed to maintain an army of reserve at Peshawur. The chosen +route was by the left bank of the Sutlej to its junction with the Indus, +down the left bank of the Indus to the crossing point at Roree, and from +Sukkur across the Scinde and northern Belooch provinces by the Bolan and +Kojuk passes to Candahar, thence by Khelat-i-Ghilzai and Ghuznee to +Cabul. This was a line excessively circuitous, immensely long, full of +difficulties, and equally disadvantageous as to supplies and +communications. On the way the column would have to effect a junction +with the Bombay force, which at Vikkur was distant 800 miles from +Ferozepore. Of the distance of 850 miles from the latter post to Candahar +the first half to the crossing of the Indus presented no serious +difficulties, but from Sukkur beyond the country was inhospitable and +cruelly rugged. It needed little military knowledge to realise how more +and yet more precarious would become the communications as the chain +lengthened, to discern that from Ferozepore to the Indus they would be at +the mercy of the Sikhs, and to comprehend this also, that a single +serious check, in or beyond the passes, would involve all but inevitable +ruin. + +Shah Soojah and his levies moved independently some marches in advance of +Cotton. The Dooranee monarch-elect had already crossed the Indus, and was +encamped at Shikarpore, when he was joined by Mr William Hay Macnaghten, +of the Company's Civil Service, the high functionary who had been +gazetted as 'Envoy and Minister on the part of the Government of India at +the Court of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk.' Durand pronounces the selection an +unhappy one, 'for Macnaghten, long accustomed to irresponsible office, +inexperienced in men, and ignorant of the country and people of +Afghanistan, was, though an erudite Arabic scholar, neither practised in +the field of Asiatic intrigue nor a man of action. His ambition was, +however, great, and the expedition, holding out the promise of +distinction and honours, had met with his strenuous advocacy.' Macnaghten +was one of the three men who chiefly inspired Lord Auckland with the +policy to which he had committed himself. He was the negotiator of the +tripartite treaty. He was now on his way toward a region wherein he was +to concern himself in strange adventures, the outcome of which was to +darken his reputation, consign him to a sudden cruel death, bring awful +ruin on the enterprise he had fostered, and inflict incalculable damage +on British prestige in India. + +Marching through Bhawulpore and Northern Scinde, without noteworthy +incident save heavy losses of draught cattle, Cotton's army reached +Roree, the point at which the Indus was to be crossed, in the third week +of January 1839. Here a delay was encountered. The Scinde Ameers were, +with reason, angered by the unjust and exacting terms which Pottinger had +been instructed to enforce on them. They had been virtually independent +of Afghanistan for nearly half a century; there was now masterfully +demanded of them quarter of a million sterling in name of back tribute, +and this in the face of the fact that they held a solemn release by Shah +Soojah of all past and future claims. When they demurred to this, and to +other exactions, they were peremptorily told that 'neither the ready +power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action, +was wanting if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety +and integrity of the Anglo-Indian empire and frontier.' + +It was little wonder that the Ameers were reluctant to fall in with terms +advanced so arrogantly. Keane marched up the right bank of the Indus to +within a couple of marches of Hyderabad, and having heard of the +rejection by the Ameers of Pottinger's terms, and of the gathering of +some 20,000 armed Belooches about the capital, he called for the +co-operation of part of the Bengal column in a movement on Hyderabad. +Cotton started on his march down the left bank, on January Jeth, with +5600 men. Under menaces so ominous the unfortunate Ameers succumbed. +Cotton returned to Roree; the Bengal column crossed the Indus, and on +February 20th its headquarters reached Shikarpore. Ten days later, +Cotton, leading the advance, was in Dadur, at the foot of the Bolan Pass, +having suffered heavily in transport animals almost from the start. +Supplies were scarce in a region so barren, but with a month's partial +food on his beasts of burden he quitted Dadur March 10th, got safely, if +toilsomely, through the Bolan, and on 26th reached Quetta, where he was +to halt for orders. Shah Soojah and Keane followed, their troops +suffering not a little from scarcity of supplies and loss of animals. + +Keane's error in detaining Cotton at Quetta until he should arrive proved +itself in the semi-starvation to which the troops of the Bengal column +were reduced. The Khan of Khelat, whether from disaffection or inability, +left unfulfilled his promise to supply grain, and the result of the +quarrel which Burnes picked with him was that he shunned coming in and +paying homage to Shah Soojah, for which default he was to suffer cruel +and unjustifiable ruin. The sepoys were put on half, the camp followers +on quarter rations, and the force for eleven days had been idly consuming +the waning supplies, when at length, on April 6th, Keane came into camp, +having already formally assumed the command of the whole army, and made +certain alterations in its organisation and subsidiary commands. There +still remained to be traversed 147 miles before Candahar should be +reached, and the dreaded Kojuk Pass had still to be penetrated. + +Keane was a soldier who had gained a reputation for courage in Egypt and +the Peninsula. He was indebted to the acuteness of his engineer and the +valour of his troops, for the peerage conferred on him for Ghuznee, and +it cannot be said that during his command in Afghanistan he disclosed any +marked military aptitude. But he had sufficient perception to recognise +that he had brought the Bengal column to the verge of starvation in +Quetta, and sufficient common sense to discern that, since if it remained +there it would soon starve outright, the best thing to be done was to +push it forward with all possible speed into a region where food should +be procurable. Acting on this reasoning, he marched the day after his +arrival. Cotton, while lying in Quetta, had not taken the trouble to +reconnoitre the passes in advance, far less to make a practicable road +through the Kojuk defile if that should prove the best route. The +resolution taken to march through it, two days were spent in making the +pass possible for wheels; and from the 13th to the 21st the column was +engaged in overcoming the obstacles it presented, losing in the task, +besides, much baggage, supplies, transport and ordnance stores. Further +back in the Bolan Willshire with the Bombay column was faring worse; he +was plundered severely by tribal marauders. + +By May 4th the main body of the army was encamped in the plain of +Candahar. From the Kojuk, Shah Soojah and his contingent had led the +advance toward the southern capital of the dominions from the throne of +which he had been cast down thirty years before. The Candahar chiefs had +meditated a night attack on his raw troops, but Macnaghten's intrigues +and bribes had wrought defection in their camp; and while Kohun-dil-Khan +and his brothers were in flight to Girishk on the Helmund, the infamous +Hadji Khan Kakur led the venal herd of turncoat sycophants to the feet of +the claimant who came backed by the British gold, which Macnaghten was +scattering abroad with lavish hand. Shah Soojah recovered from his +trepidation, hurried forward in advance of his troops, and entered +Candahar on April 24th. His reception was cold. The influential chiefs +stood aloof, abiding the signs of the times; the populace of Candahar +stood silent and lowering. Nor did the sullenness abate when the presence +of a large army with its followers promptly raised the price of grain, to +the great distress of the poor. The ceremony of the solemn recognition of +the Shah, held close to the scene of his defeat in 1834, Havelock +describes as an imposing pageant, with homagings and royal salutes, +parade of troops and presentation of _nuzzurs_; but the arena set apart +for the inhabitants was empty, spite of Eastern love for a _tamasha_, and +the display of enthusiasm was confined to the immediate retainers of His +Majesty. + +The Shah was eager for the pursuit of the fugitive chiefs; but the troops +were jaded and sickly, the cavalry were partially dismounted, and what +horses remained were feeble skeletons. The transport animals needed +grazing and rest, and their loss of numbers to be made good. The crops +were not yet ripe, and provisions were scant and dear. When, on May 9th, +Sale marched toward Girishk, his detachment carried half rations, and his +handful of regular cavalry was all that two regiments could furnish. +Reaching Girishk, he found that the chiefs had fled toward Seistan, and +leaving a regiment of the Shah's contingent in occupation, he returned to +Candahar. + +Macnaghten professed the belief, and perhaps may have deluded himself +into it, that Candahar had received the Shah with enthusiasm. He was +sanguine that the march to Cabul would be unopposed, and he urged on +Keane, who was wholly dependent on the Envoy for political information, +to move forward at once, lightening the difficulties of the march by +leaving the Bombay troops at Candahar. But Keane declined, on the advice +of Thomson, his chief engineer, who asked significantly whether he had +found the information given him by the political department in any single +instance correct. Food prospects, however, did not improve at Candahar, +and leaving a strong garrison there as well, curious to say, as the siege +train which with arduous labour had been brought up the passes, Keane +began the march to Cabul on June 27th. He had supplies only sufficient to +carry his army thither on half rations. Macnaghten had lavished money so +freely that the treasury chest was all but empty. How the Afghans +regarded the invasion was evinced by condign slaughter of our stragglers. + +As the army advanced up the valley of the Turnuk, the climate became more +temperate, the harvest was later, and the troops improved in health and +spirit. Concentrating his forces, Keane reached Ghuznee on July 21st. The +reconnaissance he made proved that fortress occupied in force. The +outposts driven in, and a close inspection made, the works were found +stronger than had been represented, and its regular reduction was out of +the question without the battering train which Keane had allowed himself +to be persuaded into leaving behind. A wall some 70 feet high and a wet +ditch in its front made mining and escalade alike impracticable. Thomson, +however, noticed that the road and bridge to the Cabul gate were intact. +He obtained trustworthy information that up to a recent date, while all +the other gates had been built up, the Cabul gate had not been so dealt +with. As he watched, a horseman was seen to enter by it. This was +conclusive. The ground within 400 yards of the gate offered good +artillery positions. Thomson therefore reported that although the +operation was full of risk, and success if attained must cost dear, yet +in the absence of a less hazardous method of reduction there offered a +fair chance of success in an attempt to blow open the Cabul gate, and +then carry the place by a _coup de main_. Keane was precluded from the +alternative of masking the place and continuing his advance by the all +but total exhaustion of his supplies, which the capture of Ghuznee would +replenish, and he therefore resolved on an assault by the Cabul gate. + +During the 21st July the army circled round the place, and camped to the +north of it on the Cabul road. The following day was spent in +preparations, and in defeating an attack made on the Shah's contingent by +several thousand Ghilzai tribesmen of the adjacent hill country. In the +gusty darkness of the early morning of the 23d the field artillery was +placed in battery on the heights opposite the northern face of the +fortress. The 13th regiment was extended in skirmishing order in the +gardens under the wall of this face, and a detachment of sepoys was +detailed to make a false attack on the eastern face. Near the centre of +the northern face was the Cabul gate, in front of which lay waiting for +the signal, a storming party consisting of the light companies of the +four European regiments, under command of Colonel Dennie of the 13th. The +main column consisted of two European regiments and the support of a +third, the whole commanded by Brigadier Sale; the native regiments +constituted the reserve. All those dispositions were completed by three +A.M., and, favoured by the noise of the wind and the darkness, without +alarming the garrison. + +Punctually at this hour the little party of engineers charged with the +task of blowing in the gate started forward on the hazardous errand. +Captain Peat of the Bombay Engineers was in command. Durand, a young +lieutenant of Bengal Engineers, who was later to attain high distinction, +was entrusted with the service of heading the explosion party. The +latter, leading the party, had advanced unmolested to within 150 yards of +the works, when a challenge, a shot and a shout gave intimation of his +detection. A musketry fire was promptly opened by the garrison from the +battlements, and blue lights illuminated the approach to the gate, but in +the fortunate absence of fire from the lower works the bridge was safely +crossed, and Peat with his handful of linesmen halted in a sallyport to +cover the explosion operation. Durand advanced to the gate, his sappers +piled their powder bags against it and withdrew; Durand and his sergeant +uncoiled the hose, ignited the quick-match under a rain from the +battlements of bullets and miscellaneous missiles, and then retired to +cover out of reach of the explosion. + +At the sound of the first shot from the battlements, Keane's cannon had +opened their fire. The skirmishers in the gardens engaged in a brisk +fusillade. The rattle of Hay's musketry was heard from the east. The +garrison was alert in its reply. The northern ramparts became a sheet of +flame, and everywhere the cannonade and musketry fire waxed in noise and +volume. Suddenly, as the day was beginning to dawn, a dull, heavy sound +was heard by the head of the waiting column, scarce audible elsewhere +because of the boisterous wind and the din of the firing. A pillar of +black smoke shot up from where had been the Afghan gate, now shattered by +the 300 pounds of gunpowder which Durand had exploded against it. The +signal to the storming party was to be the 'advance' sounded by the +bugler who accompanied Peat. But the bugler had been shot through the +head. Durand could not find Peat. Going back through the bullets to the +nearest party of infantry, he experienced some delay, but at last the +column was apprised that all was right, the 'advance' was sounded, Dennie +and his stormers sped forward, and Sale followed at the head of the main +column. + +After a temporary check to the latter, because of a misconception, it +pushed on in close support of Dennie. That gallant soldier and his +gallant followers had rushed into the smoking and gloomy archway to find +themselves met hand to hand by the Afghan defenders, who had recovered +from their surprise. Nothing could be distinctly seen in the narrow +gorge, but the clash of sword blade against bayonet was heard on every +side. The stormers had to grope their way between the yet standing walls +in a dusk which the glimmer of the blue light only made more perplexing. +But some elbow room was gradually gained, and then, since there was +neither time nor space for methodic street fighting, each loaded section +gave its volley and then made way for the next, which, crowding to the +front, poured a deadly discharge at half pistol-shot into the densely +crowded defenders. Thus the storming party won steadily its way, till at +length Dennie and his leading files discerned over the heads of their +opponents a patch of blue sky and a twinkling star or two, and with a +final charge found themselves within the place. + +A body of fierce Afghan swordsmen projected themselves into the interval +between the storming party and the main column. Sale, at the head of the +latter, was cut down by a tulwar stroke in the face; in the effort of his +blow the assailant fell with the assailed, and they rolled together among +the shattered timbers of the gate. Sale, wounded again on the ground, and +faint with loss of blood, called to one of his officers for assistance. +Kershaw ran the Afghan through the body with his sword; but he still +struggled with the Brigadier. At length in the grapple Sale got +uppermost, and then he dealt his adversary a sabre cut which cleft him +from crown to eyebrows. There was much confused fighting within the +place, for the Afghan garrison made furious rallies again and again; but +the citadel was found open and undefended, and by sunrise British banners +were waving above its battlements Hyder Khan, the Governor of Ghuznee, +one of the sons of Dost Mahomed, was found concealed in a house in the +town and taken prisoner. The British loss amounted to about 200 killed +and wounded, that of the garrison, which was estimated at from 3000 to +4000 strong, was over 500 killed. The number of wounded was not +ascertained; of prisoners taken in arms there were about 1600. The booty +consisted of numerous horses, camels and mules, ordnance and military +weapons of various descriptions, and a vast quantity of supplies of all +kinds. + +Keane, having garrisoned Ghuznee, and left there his sick and wounded, +resumed on July 30th his march on Cabul. Within twenty-four hours after +the event Dost Mahomed heard of the fall of Ghuznee. Possessed of the +adverse intelligence, the Dost gathered his chiefs, received their facile +assurances of fidelity, sent his brother the Nawaub Jubbar Khan to ask +what terms Shah Soojah and his British allies were prepared to offer him, +and recalled from Jellalabad his son Akbar Khan, with all the force he +could muster there. The Dost's emissary to the allied camp was informed +that 'an honourable asylum' in British India was at the service of his +brother; an offer which Jubbar Khan declined in his name without thanks. +Before he left to share the fortunes of the Dost, the Sirdar is reported +to have asked Macnaghten, 'If Shah Soojah is really our king, what need +has he of your army and name? You have brought him here,' he continued, +'with your money and arms. Well, leave him now with us Afghans, and let +him rule us if he can.' When Jubbar Khan returned to Cabul with his +sombre message, the Dost, having been joined by Akbar Khan, concentrated +his army, and found himself at the head of 13,000 men, with thirty guns; +but he mournfully realised that he could lean no reliance on the +constancy and courage of his adherents. Nevertheless, he marched out +along the Ghuznee road, and drew up his force at Urgundeh, where he +commanded the most direct line of retreat toward the western hill country +of Bamian, in case his people would not fight, or should they fight, if +they were beaten. + +There was no fight in his following; scarcely, indeed, was there a loyal +supporter among all those who had eaten his salt for years. There was +true manhood in this chief whom we were replacing by an effete puppet. +The Dost, Koran in hand, rode among his perfidious troops, and conjured +them in the name of God and the Prophet not to dishonour themselves by +transferring their allegiance to one who had filled Afghanistan with +infidels and blasphemers. 'If,' he continued, 'you are resolved to be +traitors to me, at least enable me to die with honour. Support the +brother of Futteh Khan in one last charge against these Feringhee dogs. +In that charge he will fall; then go and make your own terms with Shah +Soojah.' The high-souled appeal inspired no worthy response; but one is +loth to credit the testimony of the soldier-of-fortune Harlan that his +guards forsook the Dost, and that the rabble of troops plundered his +pavilion, snatched from under him the pillows of his divan, seized his +prayer carpet, and finally hacked into pieces the tent and its +appurtenances. On the evening of August 2d the hapless man shook the dust +of the camp of traitors from his feet, and rode away toward Bamian, his +son Akbar Khan, with a handful of resolute men, covering the retreat of +his father and his family. Tidings of the flight of Dost Mahomed reached +Keane on the 3d, at Sheikabad, where he had halted to concentrate; and +Outram volunteered to head a pursuing party, to consist of some British +officers as volunteers, some cavalry and some Afghan horse. Hadji Khan +Kakur, the earliest traitor of his race, undertook to act as guide. This +man's devices of delay defeated Outram's fiery energy, perhaps in deceit, +perhaps because he regarded it as lacking discretion. For Akbar Khan made +a long halt on the crown of the pass, waiting to check any endeavour to +press closely on his fugitive father, and it would have gone hard with +Outram, with a few fagged horsemen at his back, if Hadji Khan had allowed +him to overtake the resolute young Afghan chief. As Keane moved forward, +there fell to him the guns which the Dost had left in the Urgundeh +position. On August 6th he encamped close to Cabul; and on the following +day Shah Soojah made his public entry into the capital which he had last +seen thirty years previously. After so many years of vicissitude, +adventure and intrigue, he was again on the throne of his ancestors, but +placed there by the bayonets of the Government whose creature he was, an +insult to the nation whom he had the insolence to call his people. + +The entry, nevertheless, was a goodly spectacle enough. Shah Soojah, +dazzling in coronet, jewelled girdle and bracelets, but with no +Koh-i-noor now glittering on his forehead, bestrode a white charger, +whose equipments gleamed with gold. By his side rode Macnaghten and +Burnes; in the pageant were the principal officers of the British army. +Sabres flashed in front of the procession, bayonets sparkled in its rear, +as it wended its way through the great bazaar which Pollock was to +destroy three years later, and along the tortuous street to the gate of +the Balla Hissar. But neither the monarch nor his pageant kindled the +enthusiasm in the Cabulees. There was no voice of welcome; the citizens +did not care to trouble themselves so much as to make him a salaam, and +they stared at the European strangers harder than at his restored +majesty. There was a touch of pathos in the burst of eagerness to which +the old man gave way as he reached the palace, ran through the gardens, +visited the apartments, and commented on the neglect everywhere apparent. +Shah Soojah was rather a poor creature, but he was by no means altogether +destitute of good points, and far worse men than he were actors in the +strange historical episode of which he was the figurehead. He was humane +for an Afghan; he never was proved to have been untrue to us; he must +have had some courage of a kind else he would never have remained in +Cabul when our people left it, in the all but full assurance of the fate +which presently overtook him as a matter of course. Havelock thus +portrays him: 'A stout person of the middle height, his chin covered with +a long thick and neatly trimmed beard, dyed black to conceal the +encroachments of time. His manner toward the English is gentle, calm and +dignified, without haughtiness, but his own subjects have invariably +complained of his reception of them as cold and repulsive, even to +rudeness. His complexion is darker than that of the generality of +Afghans, and his features, if not decidedly handsome, are not the reverse +of pleasing; but the expression of his countenance would betray to a +skilful physiognomist that mixture of timidity and duplicity so often +observable in the character of the higher order of men in Southern Asia.' + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Sir John Kaye, in his picturesque if diffuse history of the first Afghan +war, lays it down that, in seating Shah Soojah on the Cabul throne, 'the +British Government had done all that it had undertaken to do,' and Durand +argues that, having accomplished this, 'the British army could have then +been withdrawn with the honour and fame of entire success.' The facts +apparently do not justify the reasoning of either writer. In the Simla +manifesto, in which Lord Auckland embodied the rationale of his policy, +he expressed the confident hope 'that the Shah will be speedily replaced +on his throne by his own subjects and adherents, and when once he shall +be received in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +established, the British army will be withdrawn.' The Shah had been +indeed restored to his throne, but by British bayonets, not by 'his own +subjects and adherents.' It could not seriously be maintained that he was +secure in power, or that the independence and integrity of Afghanistan +were established when British troops were holding Candahar, Ghuznee and +Cabul, the only three positions where the Shah was nominally paramount, +when the fugitive Dost was still within its borders, when intrigue and +disaffection were seething in every valley and on every hill-side, and +when the principality of Herat maintained a contemptuous independence. +Macnaghten might avow himself convinced of the popularity of the Shah, +and believe or strive to believe that the Afghans had received the puppet +king `with feelings nearly amounting to adoration,' but he did not +venture to support the conviction he avowed by advocating that the Shah +should be abandoned to his adoring subjects. Lord Auckland's policy was +gravely and radically erroneous, but it had a definite object, and that +object certainly was not a futile march to Cabul and back, dropping +incidentally by the wayside the aspirant to a throne whom he had himself +put forward, and leaving him to take his chance among a truculent and +adverse population. Thus early, in all probability, Lord Auckland was +disillusioned of the expectation that the effective restoration of Shah +Soojah would be of light and easy accomplishment, but at least he could +not afford to have the enterprise a _coup manqué_ when as yet it was +little beyond its inception. + +The cost of the expedition was already, however, a strain, and the troops +engaged in it were needed in India. Lord Auckland intimated to Macnaghten +his expectation that a strong brigade would suffice to hold Afghanistan +in conjunction with the Shah's contingent, and his desire that the rest +of the army of the Indus should at once return to India. Macnaghten, on +the other hand, in spite of his avowal of the Shah's popularity, was +anxious to retain in Afghanistan a large body of troops. He meditated +strange enterprises, and proposed that Keane should support his project +of sending a force toward Bokhara to give check to a Russian column which +Pottinger at Herat had heard was assembling at Orenburg, with Khiva for +its objective. Keane derided the proposal, and Macnaghten reluctantly +abandoned it, but he demanded of Lord Auckland with success, the +retention in Afghanistan of the Bengal division of the army. In the +middle of September General Willshire marched with the Bombay column, +with orders, on his way to the Indus to pay a hostile visit to Khelat, +and punish its khan for the 'disloyalty' with which he had been charged, +a commission which the British officer fulfilled with a skill and +thoroughness that could be admired with less reservation had the +aggression on the gallant Mehrab been less wanton. A month later Keane +started for India by the Khyber route, which Wade had opened without +serious resistance when in August and September he escorted through the +passes Prince Timour, Shah Soojah's heir-apparent. During the temporary +absence of Cotton, who accompanied Keane, Nott had the command at +Candahar, Sale at and about Cabul, and the troops were quartered in those +capitals, and in Jellalabad, Ghuznee, Charikar and Bamian. The Shah and +the Envoy wintered in the milder climate of Jellalabad, and Burnes was in +political charge of the capital and its vicinity. + +It was a prophetic utterance that the accomplishment of our military +succession would mark but the commencement of our real difficulties in +Afghanistan. In theory and in name Shah Soojah was an independent +monarch; it was, indeed, only in virtue of his proving himself able to +rule independently that he could justify his claim to rule at all. But +that he was independent was a contradiction in terms while British troops +studded the country, and while the real powers of sovereignty were +exercised by Macnaghten. Certain functions, it is true, the latter did +permit the nominal monarch to exercise. While debarred from a voice in +measures of external policy, and not allowed to sway the lines of conduct +to be adopted toward independent or revolting tribes, the Shah was +allowed to concern himself with the administration of justice, and in his +hands were the settlement, collection and appropriation of the revenue of +those portions of the kingdom from which any revenue could be exacted. He +was allowed to appoint as his minister of state, the companion of his +exile, old Moolla Shikore, who had lost both his memory and his ears, but +who had sufficient faculty left to hate the English, to oppress the +people, to be corrupt and venal beyond all conception, and to appoint +subordinates as flagitious as himself. 'Bad ministers,' wrote Burnes, +'are in every government solid ground for unpopularity; and I doubt if +ever a king had a worse set than has Shah Soojah.' The oppressed people +appealed to the British functionaries, who remonstrated with the +minister, and the minister punished the people for appealing to the +British functionaries. The Shah was free to confer grants of land on his +creatures, but when the holders resisted, he was unable to enforce his +will since he was not allowed to employ soldiers; and the odium of the +forcible confiscation ultimately fell on Macnaghten, who alone had the +ordering of expeditions, and who could not see the Shah belittled by +non-fulfilment of his requisitions. + +Justice sold by venal judges, oppression and corruption rampant in every +department of internal administration, it was no wonder that nobles and +people alike resented the inflictions under whose sting they writhed. +They were accustomed to a certain amount of oppression; Dost Mahomed had +chastised them with whips, but Shah Soojah, whom the English had brought, +was chastising them with scorpions. And they felt his yoke the more +bitterly because, with the shrewd acuteness of the race, they recognised +the really servile condition of this new king. They fretted, too, under +the sharp bit of the British political agents who were strewn about the +country, in the execution of a miserable and futile policy, and whose +lives, in a few instances, did not maintain the good name of their +country. Dost Mahomed had maintained his sway by politic management of +the chiefs, and through them of the tribes. Macnaghten would have done +well to impress on Shah Soojah the wisdom of pursuing the same tactics. +There was, it is true, the alternative of destroying the power of the +barons, but that policy involved a stubborn and doubtful struggle, and +prolonged occupation of the country by British troops in great strength. +Macnaghten professed our occupation of Afghanistan to be temporary; yet +he was clearly adventuring on the rash experiment of weakening the nobles +when he set about the enlistment of local tribal levies, who, paid from +the Royal treasury and commanded by British officers, were expected to be +staunch to the Shah, and useful in curbing the powers of the chiefs. The +latter, of course, were alienated and resentful, and the levies, imbued +with the Afghan attribute of fickleness, proved for the most part +undisciplined and faithless. + +The winter of 1839-40 passed without much noteworthy incident. The winter +climate of Afghanistan is severe, and the Afghan, in ordinary +circumstances, is among the hibernating animals. But down in the Khyber, +in October, the tribes gave some trouble. They were dissatisfied with the +amount of annual black-mail paid them for the right of way through their +passes. When the Shah was a fugitive thirty years previously, they had +concealed and protected him; and mindful of their kindly services, he had +promised them, unknown to Macnaghten, the augmentation of their subsidy +to the old scale from which it had gradually dwindled. Wade, returning +from Cabul, did not bring them the assurances they expected, whereupon +they rose and concentrated and invested Ali Musjid, a fort which they +regarded as the key of their gloomy defile. Mackeson, the Peshawur +political officer, threw provisions and ammunition into Ali Musjid, but +the force, on its return march, was attacked by the hillmen, the Sikhs +being routed, and the sepoys incurring loss of men and transport. The +emboldened Khyberees now turned on Ali Musjid in earnest; but the +garrison was strengthened, and the place was held until a couple of +regiments marched down from Jellalabad, and were preparing to attack the +hillmen, when it was announced that Mackeson had made a compact with the +chiefs for the payment of an annual subsidy which they considered +adequate. + +Afghanistan fifty years ago, and the same is in a measure true of it +to-day, was rather a bundle of provinces, some of which owned scarcely a +nominal allegiance to the ruler in Cabul, than a concrete state. Herat +and Candahar were wholly independent, the Ghilzai tribes inhabiting the +wide tracts from the Suliman ranges westward beyond the road through +Ghuznee, between Candahar and Cabul, and northward into the rugged +country between Cabul and Jellalabad, acknowledged no other authority +than that of their own chiefs. The Ghilzais are agriculturists, +shepherds, and robbers; they are constantly engaged in internal feuds; +they are jealous of their wild independence, and through the centuries +have abated little of their untamed ferocity. They had rejected +Macnaghten's advances, and had attacked Shah Soojah's camp on the day +before the fall of Ghuznee. Outram, in reprisal, had promptly raided part +of their country. Later, the winter had restrained them from activity, +but they broke out again in the spring. In May Captain Anderson, marching +from Candahar with a mixed force about 1200 strong, was offered battle +near Jazee, in the Turnuk, by some 2000 Ghilzai horse and foot. +Andersen's guns told heavily among the Ghilzai horsemen, who, impatient +of the fire, made a spirited dash on his left flank. Grape and musketry +checked them; but they rallied, and twice charged home on the bayonets +before they withdrew, leaving 200 of their number dead on the ground. +Nott sent a detachment to occupy the fortress of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, +between Candahar and Ghuznee, thus rendering the communications more +secure; and later, Macnaghten bribed the chiefs by an annual subsidy of +£600 to abstain from infesting the highways. The terms were cheap, for +the Ghilzai tribes mustered some 40,000 fighting men. + +Shah Soojah and the Envoy returned from Jellalabad to Cabul in April +1840. A couple of regiments had wintered not uncomfortably in the Balla +Hissar. That fortress was then the key of Cabul, and while our troops +remained in Afghanistan it should not have been left ungarrisoned a +single hour. The soldiers did their best to impress on Macnaghten the +all-importance of the position. But the Shah objected to its continued +occupation, and Macnaghten weakly yielded. Cotton, who had returned to +the chief military command in Afghanistan, made no remonstrance; the +Balla Hissar was evacuated, and the troops were quartered in cantonments +built in an utterly defenceless position on the plain north of Cabul, a +position whose environs were cumbered with walled gardens, and commanded +by adjacent high ground, and by native forts which were neither +demolished nor occupied. The troops, now in permanent and regularly +constructed quarters, ceased to be an expeditionary force, and became +substantially an army of occupation. The officers sent for their wives to +inhabit with them the bungalows in which they had settled down. Lady +Macnaghten, in the spacious mission residence which stood apart in its +own grounds, presided over the society of the cantonments, which had all +the cheery surroundings of the half-settled, half-nomadic life of our +military people in the East. There were the 'coffee house' after the +morning ride, the gathering round the bandstand in the evening, the +impromptu dance, and the _burra khana_ occasionally in the larger houses. +A racecourse had been laid out, and there were 'sky' races and more +formal meetings. And so 'as in the days that were before the flood, they +were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, and knew +not until the flood came, and took them all away.' + +Macnaghten engaged himself in a welter of internal and external intrigue, +his mood swinging from singular complacency to a disquietude that +sometimes approached despondency. It had come to be forced on him, in +spite of his intermittent optimism, that the Government was a government +of sentry-boxes, and that Afghanistan was not governed so much as +garrisoned. The utter failure of the winter march attempted by +Peroffski's Russian column across the frozen steppes on Khiva was a +relief to him; but the state of affairs in Herat was a constant trouble +and anxiety. Major Todd had been sent there as political agent, to make a +treaty with Shah Kamran, and to superintend the repair and improvement of +the fortifications of the city. Kamran was plenteously subsidised; he +took Macnaghten's lakhs, but furtively maintained close relations with +Persia. Detecting the double-dealing, Macnaghten urged on Lord Auckland +the annexation of Herat to Shah Soojah's dominions, but was instructed to +condone Kamran's duplicity, and try to bribe him higher. Kamran by no +means objected to this policy, and, while continuing his intrigues with +Persia, cheerfully accepted the money, arms and ammunition which +Macnaghten supplied him with so profusely as to cause remonstrance on the +part of the financial authorities in Calcutta. The Commander-in-Chief was +strong enough to counteract the pressure which Macnaghten brought to bear +on Lord Auckland in favour of an expedition against Herat, which his +lordship at length finally negatived, to the great disgust of the Envoy, +who wrote of the conduct of his chief as 'drivelling beyond contempt,' +and 'sighed for a Wellesley or a Hastings.' The ultimate result of +Macnaghten's negotiations with Shah Kamran was Major Todd's withdrawal +from Herat. Todd had suspended the monthly subsidy, to the great wrath of +Kamran's rapacious and treacherous minister Yar Mahomed, who made a +peremptory demand for increased advances, and refused Todd's stipulation +that a British force should be admitted into Herat. Todd's action in +quitting Herat was severely censured by his superiors, and he was +relegated to regimental duty. Perhaps he acted somewhat rashly, but he +had not been kept well informed; for instance, he had been unaware that +Persia had become our friend, and had engaged to cease relations with +Shah Kamran--an important arrangement of which he certainly should have +been cognisant. Macnaghten had squandered more gold on Herat than the +fee-simple of the principality was worth, and to no purpose; he left that +state just as he found it, treacherous, insolent, greedy and independent. + +The precariousness of the long lines of communications between British +India and the army in Afghanistan--a source of danger which from the +first had disquieted cautious soldiers--was making itself seriously felt, +and constituted for Macnaghten another cause of solicitude. Old Runjeet +Singh, a faithful if not disinterested ally, had died on June 27th, 1839, +the day on which Keane marched out from Candahar. The breath was scarcely +out of the old reprobate when the Punjaub began to drift into anarchy. So +far as the Sikh share in it was concerned, the tripartite treaty +threatened to become a dead letter. The Lahore Durbar had not adequately +fulfilled the undertaking to support Prince Timour's advance by the +Khyber, nor was it duly regarding the obligation to maintain a force on +the Peshawur frontier of the Punjaub. But those things were trivial in +comparison with the growing reluctance manifested freely, to accord to +our troops and convoys permission to traverse the Punjaub on the march to +and from Cabul. The Anglo-Indian Government sent Mr Clerk to Lahore to +settle the question as to the thoroughfare. He had instructions to be +firm, and the Sikhs did not challenge Mr Clerk's stipulation that the +Anglo-Indian Government must have unmolested right of way through the +Punjaub, while he undertook to restrict the use of it as much as +possible. This arrangement by no means satisfied the exacting Macnaghten, +and he continued to worry himself by foreseeing all sorts of troublous +contingencies unless measures were adopted for 'macadamising' the road +through the Punjaub. + +The summer of 1840 did not pass without serious interruptions to the +British communications between Candahar and the Indus; nor without +unexpected and ominous disasters before they were restored. General +Willshire, with the returning Bombay column, had in the previous November +stormed Mehrab Khan's ill-manned and worse armed fort of Khelat, and the +Khan, disdaining to yield, had fallen in the hopeless struggle. His son +Nusseer Khan had been put aside in favour of a collateral pretender, and +became an active and dangerous malcontent. All Northern Beloochistan fell +into a state of anarchy. A detachment of sepoys escorting supplies was +cut to pieces in one of the passes. Quetta was attacked with great +resolution by Nusseer Khan, but was opportunely relieved by a force sent +from another post. Nusseer made himself master of Khelat, and there fell +into his cruel hands Lieutenant Loveday, the British political officer +stationed there, whom he treated with great barbarity, and finally +murdered. A British detachment under Colonel Clibborn, was defeated by +the Beloochees with heavy loss, and compelled to retreat. Nusseer Khan, +descending into the low country of Cutch, assaulted the important post of +Dadur, but was repulsed, and taking refuge in the hills, was routed by +Colonel Marshall with a force from Kotree, whereupon he became a skulking +fugitive. Nott marched down from Candahar with a strong force, occupied +Khelat, and fully re-established communications with the line of the +Indus, while fresh troops moved forward into Upper Scinde, and thence +gradually advancing to Quetta and Candahar, materially strengthened the +British position in Southern Afghanistan. + +Dost Mahomed, after his flight from Cabul in 1839, had soon left the +hospitable refuge afforded him in Khooloom, a territory west of the +Hindoo Koosh beyond Bamian, and had gone to Bokhara on the treacherous +invitation of its Ameer, who threw him into captivity. The Dost's family +remained at Khooloom, in the charge of his brother Jubbar Khan. The +advance of British forces beyond Bamian to Syghan and Bajgah, induced +that Sirdar to commit himself and the ladies to British protection. Dr +Lord, Macnaghten's political officer in the Bamian district, was a rash +although well-meaning man. The errors he had committed since the opening +of spring had occasioned disasters to the troops whose dispositions he +controlled, and had incited the neighbouring hill tribes to active +disaffection. In July Dost Mahomed made his escape from Bokhara, hurried +to Khooloom, found its ruler and the tribes full of zeal for his cause, +and rapidly grew in strength. Lord found it was time to call in his +advance posts and concentrate at Bamian, losing in the operation an +Afghan regiment which deserted to the Dost. Macnaghten reinforced Bamian, +and sent Colonel Dennie to command there. On September 18th Dennie moved +out with two guns and 800 men against the Dost's advance parties raiding +in an adjacent valley. Those detachments driven back, Dennie suddenly +found himself opposed to the irregular mass of Oosbeg horse and foot +which constituted the army of the Dost. Mackenzie's cannon fire shook the +undisciplined horde, the infantry pressed in to close quarters, and soon +the nondescript host of the Dost was in panic flight, with Dennie's +cavalry in eager pursuit. The Dost escaped with difficulty, with the loss +of his entire personal equipment. He was once more a fugitive, and the +Wali of Khooloom promptly submitted himself to the victors, and pledged +himself to aid and harbour the broken chief no more. Macnaghten had been +a prey to apprehension while the Dost's attitude was threatening; he was +now in a glow of joy and hope. + +But the Envoy's elation was short-lived. Dost Mahomed was yet to cause +him much solicitude. Defeated in Bamian, he was ready for another attempt +in the Kohistan country to the north of Cabul. Disaffection was rife +everywhere throughout the kingdom, but it was perhaps most rife in the +Kohistan, which was seething with intrigues in favour of Dost Mahomed, +while the local chiefs were intensely exasperated by the exactions of the +Shah's revenue collectors. Macnaghten summoned the chiefs to Cabul. They +came, they did homage to the Shah and swore allegiance to him; they went +away from the capital pledging each other to his overthrow, and jeering +at the scantiness of the force they had seen at Cabul. Intercepted +letters disclosed their schemes, and in the end of September Sale, with a +considerable force, marched out to chastise the disaffected Kohistanees. +The fort of Tootundurrah fell without resistance. Julgah, however, the +next fort assailed, stubbornly held out, and officers and men fell in the +unsuccessful attempt to storm it. In three weeks Sale marched to and fro +through the Kohistan, pursuing will-o'-the-wisp rumours as to the +whereabouts of the Dost, destroying forts on the course of his weary +pilgrimage, and subjected occasionally to night attacks. + +Meanwhile, in the belief that Dost Mahomed was close to Cabul, and +mournfully conscious that the capital and surrounding country were ripe +for a rising, Macnaghten had relapsed into nervousness, and was a prey to +gloomy forebodings. The troops at Bamian were urgently recalled. Cannon +were mounted on the Balla Hissar to overawe the city, the concentration +of the troops in the fortress was under consideration, and men were +talking of preparing for a siege. How Macnaghten's English nature was +undergoing deterioration under the strain of events is shown by his +writing of the Dost: 'Would it be justifiable to set a price on this +fellow's head?' How his perceptions were warped was further evinced by +his talking of 'showing no mercy to the man who has been the author of +all the evil now distracting the country,' and by his complaining of Sale +and Burnes that, 'with 2000 good infantry, they are sitting down before a +fortified place, and are afraid to attack it.' + +Learning that for certain the Dost had crossed the Hindoo Koosh from +Nijrao into the Kohistan, Sale, who had been reinforced, sent out +reconnaissances which ascertained that he was in the Purwan Durrah +valley, stretching down from the Hindoo Koosh to the Gorebund river; and +the British force marched thither on 2d November. As the village was +neared, the Dost's people were seen evacuating it and the adjacent forts, +and making for the hills. Sale's cavalry was some distance in advance of +the infantry of the advance guard, but time was precious. Anderson's +horse went to the left, to cut off retreat down the Gorebund valley. +Fraser took his two squadrons of Bengal cavalry to the right, advanced +along the foothills, and gained the head of the valley. He was too late +to intercept a small body of Afghan horsemen, who were already climbing +the upland; but badly mounted as the latter were, he could pursue them +with effect. But it seemed that the Afghans preferred to fight rather +than be pursued. The Dost himself was in command of the little party, and +the Dost was a man whose nature was to fight, not to run. He wheeled his +handful so that his horsemen faced Fraser's troop down there below them. +Then the Dost pointed to his banner, bared his head, called on his +supporters in the name of God and the Prophet to follow him against the +unbelievers, and led them down the slope. + +Fraser had formed up his troopers when recall orders reached him. Joyous +that the situation entitled him to disobey them, he gave instead the word +to charge. As the Afghans came down at no great pace, they fired +occasionally; either because of the bullets, or because of an access of +pusillanimity, Fraser's troopers broke and fled ignominiously. The +British gentlemen charged home unsupported. Broadfoot, Crispin and Lord +were slain; Ponsonby, severely wounded and his reins cut, was carried out +of the _mêlée_ by his charger; Fraser, covered with blood and wounds, +broke through his assailants, and brought to Sale his report of the +disgrace of his troopers. After a sharp pursuit of the poltroons, the +Dost and his followers leisurely quitted the field. + +Burnes wrote to the Envoy--he was a soldier, but he was also a +'political,' and political employ seemed often in Afghanistan to +deteriorate the attribute of soldierhood--that there was no alternative +for the force but to fall back on Cabul, and entreated Macnaghten to +order immediate concentration of all the troops. This letter Macnaghten +received the day after the disaster in the Kohistan, when he was taking +his afternoon ride in the Cabul plain. His heart must have been very +heavy as he rode, when suddenly a horseman galloped up to him and +announced that the Ameer was approaching. 'What Ameer?' asked Macnaghten. +'Dost Mahomed Khan,' was the reply, and sure enough there was the Dost +close at hand. Dismounting, this Afghan prince and gentleman saluted the +Envoy, and offered him his sword, which Macnaghten declined to take. Dost +and Envoy rode into Cabul together, and such was the impression the +former made on the latter that Macnaghten, who a month before had +permitted himself to think of putting a price on 'the fellow's' head, +begged now of the Governor-General 'that the Dost be treated more +handsomely than was Shah Soojah, who had no claim on us.' And then +followed a strange confession for the man to make who made the tripartite +treaty, and approved the Simla manifesto: 'We had no hand in depriving +the Shah of his kingdom, _whereas we ejected the Dost, who never offended +us, in support of our policy, of which he was the victim_.' + +Durand regards Dost Mahomed's surrender as 'evincing a strange +pusillanimity.' This opprobrious judgment appears unjustified. No doubt +he was weary of the fugitive life he had been leading, but to pronounce +him afraid that the Kohistanees or any other Afghans would betray him is +to ignore the fact that he had been for months among people who might, +any hour of any day, have betrayed him if they had chosen. Nobler motives +than those ascribed to him by Durand may be supposed to have actuated a +man of his simple and lofty nature. He had given the arbitrament of war a +trial, and had realised that in that way he could make no head against +us. He might, indeed, have continued the futile struggle, but he was the +sort of man to recognise the selfishness of that persistency which would +involve ruin and death to the devoted people who would not desert his +cause while he claimed to have a cause. When historians write of Afghan +treachery and guile, it seems to have escaped their perception that +Afghan treachery was but a phase of Afghan patriotism, of an unscrupulous +character, doubtless, according to our notions, but nevertheless +practical in its methods, and not wholly unsuccessful in its results. It +may have been a higher and purer patriotism that moved Dost Mahomed to +cease, by his surrender, from being an obstacle to the tranquillisation +of the country of which he had been the ruler. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION + +Dost Mahomed remained for a few days in the British cantonments on the +Cabul plain, an honoured guest rather than a prisoner. His soldierly +frankness, his bearing at once manly and courteous, his honest liking for +and trust in our race, notwithstanding the experiences which he had +undergone, won universal respect and cordiality. Officers who stood aloof +from Shah Soojah vied with each other in evincing to Dost Mahomed their +sympathy with him in his fallen fortunes. Shah Soojah would not see the +man whom he had ingloriously supplanted, on the pretext that he 'could +not bring himself to show common civility to such a villain.' How +Macnaghten's feeling in regard to the two men had altered is disclosed by +his comment on this refusal. 'It is well,' he wrote, 'as the Dost must +have suffered much humiliation in being subjected to such an ordeal.' + +In the middle of November 1840 the Dost began his journey toward British +India, accompanied by Sir Willoughby Cotton, who was finally quitting +Afghanistan, and under the escort of a considerable British force which +had completed its tour of duty in Afghanistan. Sale succeeded Cotton in +temporary divisional command pending the arrival of the latter's +successor. About the middle of December Shah Soojah and his Court, +accompanied by the British Envoy, arrived at Jellalabad for the winter, +Burnes remaining at Cabul in political charge. + +Macnaghten was mentally so constituted as to be continually alternating +between high elation and the depths of despondency; discerning to-day +ominous indications of ruin in an incident of no account, and to-morrow +scorning imperiously to recognise danger in the fierce rising of a +province. It may almost be said that each letter of his to Lord Auckland +was of a different tone from the one which had preceded it. Burnes, who +was nominally Macnaghten's chief lieutenant, with more self-restraint, +had much the same temperament. Kaye writes of him: 'Sometimes sanguine, +sometimes despondent, sometimes confident, sometimes credulous, Burnes +gave to fleeting impressions all the importance and seeming permanency of +settled convictions, and imbued surrounding objects with the colours of +his own varying mind.' But if Burnes had been a discreet and steadfast +man, he could have exercised no influence on the autocratic Macnaghten, +since between the two men there was neither sympathy nor confidence. +Burnes had, indeed, no specific duties of any kind; in his own words, he +was in 'the most nondescript situation.' Macnaghten gave him no +responsibility, and while Burnes waited for the promised reversion of the +office of envoy, he chiefly employed himself in writing long memorials on +the situation and prospects of affairs, on which Macnaghten's marginal +comments were brusque, and occasionally contemptuous. The resolute and +clear-headed Pottinger, who, if the opportunity had been given him, might +have buttressed and steadied Macnaghten, was relegated to provincial +service. Throughout his career in Afghanistan the Envoy could not look +for much advice from the successive commanders of the Cabul force, even +if he had cared to commune with them. Keane, indeed, did save him from +the perpetration of one folly. But Cotton appears to have been a +respectable nonentity. Sale was a stout, honest soldier, who was not +fortunate on the only occasion which called him outside of his restricted +_métier_. Poor Elphinstone was an object for pity rather than for +censure. + +It happened fortunately, in the impending misfortunes, that two men of +stable temperament and lucid perception were in authority at Candahar. +General Nott was a grand old Indian officer, in whom there was no guile, +but a good deal of temper. He was not supple, and he had the habit of +speaking his mind with great directness, a propensity which accounted, +perhaps, for the repeated supersessions he had undergone. A clearheaded, +shrewd man, he was disgusted with very many things which he recognised as +unworthy in the conduct of the affairs of Afghanistan, and he was not the +man to choose mild phrases in giving vent to his convictions. He had in +full measure that chronic dislike which the Indian commander in the field +nourishes to the political officer who is imposed on him by the +authorities, and who controls his measures and trammels his actions. +Nott's 'political,' who, the sole survivor of the men who were prominent +during this unhappy period, still lives among us esteemed and revered, +was certainly the ablest officer of the unpopular department to which he +belonged; and how cool was Henry Rawlinson's temper is evinced in his +ability to live in amity with the rugged and outspoken chief who +addressed him in such a philippic as the following--words all the more +trenchant because he to whom they were addressed must have realised how +intrinsically true they were:-- + +'I have no right to interfere with the affairs of this country, and I +never do so. But in reference to that part of your note where you speak +of political influence, I will candidly tell you that these are not times +for mere ceremony, and that under present circumstances, and at a +distance of 2000 miles from the seat of the supreme Government, I throw +responsibility to the wind, and tell you that in my opinion you have not +had for some time past, nor have you at present, one particle of +political influence in this country.' + +Nott steadily laboured to maintain the _morale_ and discipline of his +troops, and thus watching the flowing tide of misrule and embroilment, he +calmly made the best preparations in his power to meet the storm the sure +and early outbreak of which his clear discernment prognosticated. + +Shah Soojah's viceroy at Candahar was his heir-apparent Prince Timour. +The Dooranee chiefs of Western Afghanistan had not unnaturally expected +favours and influence under the rule of the Dooranee monarch; and while +in Candahar before proceeding to Cabul, and still uncertain of what might +occur there, Shah Soojah had been lavish of his promises. The chiefs had +anticipated that they would be called around the vice-throne of Prince +Timour; but Shah Soojah made the same error as that into which Louis +XVIII. fell on his restoration. He constituted his Court of the men who +had shared his Loodianah exile. The counsellors who went to Candahar with +Timour were returned _émigrés_, in whom fitness for duty counted less +than the qualification of companionship in exile. Those people had come +back to Afghanistan poor; now they made haste to be rich by acts of +oppressive injustice, in the exaction of revenue from the people, and by +intercepting from the Dooranee chiefs the flow of royal bounty to which +they had looked forward. + +Uktar Khan was prominent among the Dooranee noblemen, and he had the +double grievance of having been disappointed of the headship of the +Zemindawar province on the western bank of the Helmund, and having been +evilly entreated by the minions of Prince Timour. He had raised his clan +and routed a force under a royalist follower, when Nott sent a detachment +against him. Uktar Khan had crossed the Helmund into Zemindawar, when +Farrington attacked him, and, after a brisk fight, routed and pursued +him. The action was fought on January 3, 1841, in the very dead of +winter; the intensity of the cold dispersed Uktar's levies, and +Farrington returned to Candahar. + +In reply to Macnaghten's demand for information regarding the origin of +this outbreak, Rawlinson wrote him some home truths which were very +distasteful. Rawlinson warned his chief earnestly of the danger which +threatened the false position of the British in Afghanistan. He pointed +out how cruel must be the revenue exactions which enabled Prince Timour's +courtiers to absorb great sums. He expressed his suspicion that Shah +Soojah had countenanced Uktar Khan's rising, and spoke of intrigues of +dark and dangerous character. Macnaghten scouted Rawlinson's warning, and +instructed him that 'it will make the consideration of all questions more +simple if you will hereafter take for granted that as regards us "the +king can do no wrong."' However, he and the Shah did remove from Candahar +the Vakeel and his clique of obnoxious persons, who had been grinding the +faces of the people; and the Envoy allowed himself to hope that this +measure would restore order to the province of Candahar. + +The hope was vain, the evil lay deeper; disaffection to the Shah and +hatred to the British power were becoming intensified from day to day, +and the aspiration for relief was swelling into a passion. In the days +before our advent there had been venality and corruption in public +places--occasionally, likely enough, as Macnaghten asserted, to an extent +all but incredible. But exaction so sweeping could have occurred only in +regions under complete domination; and in Afghanistan, even to this day, +there are few regions wholly in this condition. When the yoke became +over-weighty, a people of a nature so intractable knew how to resent +oppression and oppose exaction. But now the tax gatherer swaggered over +the land, and the people had to endure him, for at his back were the +soldiers of the Feringhees and the levies of the Shah. The latter were +paid by assignments on the revenues of specified districts; as the levies +constituted a standing army of some size, the contributions demanded were +heavier and more permanent than in bygone times. Macnaghten, aware of the +discontent engendered by the system of assignments, desired to alter it. +But the Shah's needs were pressing; the Anglo-Indian treasury was +strained already by the expenditure in Afghanistan; and it was not easy +in a period of turmoil and rebellion to carry out the amendment of a +fiscal system. That, since the surrender of the Dost, there had been no +serious rising in Northern or Eastern Afghanistan, sufficed to make +Macnaghten an optimist of the moment. He had come by this time to a +reluctant admission of the fact against which he had set his face so +long, that Shah Soojah was unpopular. 'He has incurred,' he wrote, 'the +odium that attaches to him from his alliance with us'; but the Envoy +would not admit that our position in Afghanistan was a false one, in that +we were maintaining by our bayonets, against the will of the Afghans, a +sovereign whom they detested. 'It would,' he pleaded, 'be an act of +downright dishonesty to desert His Majesty before he has found the means +of taking root in the soil to which we have transplanted him.' While he +wrote, Macnaghten must have experienced a sudden thrill of optimism or of +self-delusion, for he continued: 'All things considered, the present +tranquillity of this country is to my mind perfectly miraculous. Already +our presence has been infinitely beneficial in allaying animosities and +in pointing out abuses.' If it had been the case that the country was +tranquil, his adjective would have been singularly appropriate, but not +precisely in the sense he meant to convey. + +But there was no tranquillity, miraculous or otherwise. While Macnaghten +was writing the letter which has just been quoted, Brigadier Shelton, +who, about the New Year, had reached Jellalabad with a brigade from +British India in relief of the force which was withdrawing with Cotton, +was contending with an outbreak of the wild and lawless clans of the +Khyber. When Macnaghten wrote, he had already received intelligence of +the collapse of his projects in Herat, and that Major Todd, who had been +his representative there, judging it imperative to break up the mission +of which he was the head, had abruptly quitted that city, and was on his +way to Candahar. Mischief was simmering in the Zemindawar country. The +Ghilzai tribes of the region between Candahar and Ghuznee had accepted a +subsidy to remain quiet, but the indomitable independence of this wild +and fierce race was not to be tamed by bribes, and the spirit of +hostility was manifesting itself so truculently that a British garrison +had been placed in Khelat-i-Ghilzai, right in the heart of the disturbed +territory. This warning and defensive measure the tribes had regarded +with angry jealousy; but it was not until a rash 'political' had directed +the unprovoked assault and capture of a Ghilzai fort that the tribes +passionately flew to arms, bent on contesting the occupation of their +rugged country. Colonel Wymer was sent from Candahar with a force, +escorting a convoy of stores intended for the equipment of +Khelat-i-Ghilzai. The tribes who had been loosely beleaguering that place +marched down the Turnuk upon Wymer, and on May 19th attacked him with +great impetuosity, under the command of a principal chief who was known +as the 'Gooroo.' Wymer, in the protection of his convoy, had to stand on +the defensive. The Ghilzais, regardless of the grape which tore through +their masses, fell on sword in hand, and with an intuitive tactical +perception struck Wymer simultaneously in front and flank. His sepoys had +to change their dispositions, and the Ghilzais took the opportunity of +their momentary dislocation to charge right home. They were met firmly by +the bayonet, but again and again the hillmen renewed their attacks; and +it was not till after five hours of hard fighting which cost them heavy +loss, that at length, in the darkness, they suddenly drew off. Had they +been Swiss peasants defending their mountains, or Poles struggling +against the ferocious tyranny of Russia, their gallant effort might have +excited praise and sympathy. Had they been Soudanese, a statesman might +have spoken of them as a people 'rightly struggling to be free'; as it +was, the Envoy vituperated them as 'a parcel of ragamuffins,' and Wymer's +sepoys were held to have 'covered themselves with glory.' Macnaghten +proceeded to encourage a sense of honour among the tribes by proposing +the transfer to another chief, on condition of his seizing and delivering +over the inconvenient 'Gooroo,' of the share of subsidy of which the +latter had been in receipt. + +While this creditable transaction was under consideration, Uktar Khan was +again making himself very unpleasant; so much so that Macnaghten was +authorising Rawlinson to offer a reward of 10,000 rupees for his capture, +which accomplished, Rawlinson was instructed to 'hang the villain as high +as Haman.' The gallows was not built, however, on which Uktar was to +hang, although that chief sustained two severe defeats at the hands of +troops sent from Candahar, and had to become a fugitive. The Ghilzais, +who had gathered again after their defeat under the 'Gooroo,' had made +little stand against the detachment which Colonel Chambers led out from +Candahar, and they were again temporarily dispersed. The 'Gooroo' himself +was in our hands. If the disaffection was in no degree diminished, the +active ebullitions of it were assuredly quelled for the time. It was +true, to be sure, that Akbar Khan, the fierce and resolute son of Dost +Mahomed, had refused the Envoy's overtures to come in, and was wandering +and plotting in Khooloom, quite ready to fulfil Macnaghten's prophetic +apprehension that 'the fellow will be after some mischief should the +opportunity present itself'; that the Dooranees were still defiant; that +an insurgent force was out in the Dehrawat; and that the tameless chief +Akram Khan was being blown from a gun by the cruel and feeble Timour. But +unquestionably there was a comparative although short-lived lull in the +overt hostility of the Afghan peoples against Shah Soojah and his foreign +supporters; and Macnaghten characteristically announced that 'the country +was quiet from Dan to Beersheba.' To one of his correspondents he wrote: +'From Mookoor to the Khyber Pass, all is content and tranquillity; and +wherever we Europeans go, we are received with respect, attention and +welcome. I think our prospects are most cheering; and with the materials +we have there ought to be little or no difficulty in the management of +the country. The people are perfect children, and they should be treated +as such. If we put one naughty boy in the corner, the rest will be +terrified.' + +General Nott at Candahar, who 'never interfered in the government of the +country,' but regarded the situation with shrewd, clear-headed common +sense, differed utterly from the Envoy's view. The stout old soldier did +not squander his fire; it was a close volley he discharged in the +following words: 'The conduct of the thousand and one politicals has +ruined our cause, and bared the throat of every European in this country +to the sword and knife of the revengeful Afghan and bloody Belooch; and +unless several regiments be quickly sent, not a man will be left to +describe the fate of his comrades. Nothing will ever make the Afghans +submit to the hated Shah Soojah, who is most certainly as great a +scoundrel as ever lived.' + +Nott's conclusions were in the main justified by after events, but the +correctness of his premiss may be questioned. That the conduct of some of +the political officers intensified the rancour of the Afghans is +unhappily true, but the hate of our domination, and of the puppet thrust +upon them by us, seems to have found its origin in a deeper feeling. The +patriotism of a savage race is marked by features repulsive to civilised +communities, but through the ruthless cruelty of the indiscriminate +massacre, the treachery of the stealthy stab, and the lightly broken +pledges, there may shine out the noblest virtue that a virile people can +possess. A semi-barbarian nation whose manhood pours out its blood like +water in stubborn resistance against an alien yoke, may be pardoned for +many acts shocking to civilised communities which have not known the +bitterness of stern and masterful subjugation. + + + + +CHAPTER V: THE BEGINNING OF THE END + +The deceptive quietude of Afghanistan which followed the sharp lessons +administered to the Dooranees and the Ghilzais was not seriously +disturbed during the month of September 1841, and Macnaghten was in a +full glow of cheerfulness. His services had been recognised by his +appointment to the dignified and lucrative post of Governor of the Bombay +Presidency, and he was looking forward to an early departure for a less +harassing and tumultuous sphere of action than that in which he had been +labouring for two troubled years. The belief that he would leave behind +him a quiescent Afghanistan, and Shah Soojah firmly established on its +throne, was the complement, to a proud and zealous man, of the +satisfaction which his promotion afforded. + +One distasteful task he had to perform before he should go. The Home +Government had become seriously disquieted by the condition of affairs in +Afghanistan. The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, the channel +through which the ministry communicated with the Governor-General, had +expressed great concern at the heavy burden imposed on the Indian +finances by the cost of the maintenance of the British force in +Afghanistan, and by the lavish expenditure of the administration which +Macnaghten directed. The Anglo-Indian Government was urgently required to +review with great earnestness the question of its future policy in regard +to Afghanistan, and to consider gravely whether an enterprise at once so +costly and so unsatisfactory in results should not be frankly abandoned. +Lord Auckland was alive to the difficulties and embarrassments which +encompassed the position beyond the Indus, but he was loth to admit that +the policy of which he had been the author, and in which the Home +Government had abetted him so eagerly, was an utter failure. He and his +advisers finally decided in favour of the continued occupation of +Afghanistan; and since the Indian treasury was empty, and the annual +charge of that occupation was not less than a million and a quarter +sterling, recourse was had to a loan, Macnaghten was pressed to effect +economies in the administration, and he was specially enjoined to cut +down the subsidies which were paid to Afghan chiefs as bribes to keep +them quiet. Macnaghten had objected to this retrenchment, pointing out +that the stipends to the chiefs were simply compensation for the +abandonment by them of their immemorial practice of highway robbery, but +he yielded to pressure, called to Cabul the chiefs in its vicinity, and +informed them that thenceforth their subsidies would be reduced. The +chiefs strongly remonstrated, but without effect, and they then formed a +confederacy of rebellion. The Ghilzai chiefs were the first to act. +Quitting Cabul, they occupied the passes between the capital and +Jellalabad, and entirely intercepted the communications with India by the +Khyber route. + +Macnaghten did not take alarm at this significant demonstration, +regarding the outbreak merely as 'provoking,' and writing to Rawlinson +that 'the rascals would be well trounced for their pains.' Yet warnings +of gathering danger were rife, which but for his mood of optimism should +have struck home to his apprehension. Pottinger had come down from the +Kohistan, where he was acting as political officer, bent on impressing on +him that a general rising of that region was certain unless strong +measures of prevention were resorted to. For some time before the actual +outbreak of the Ghilzais, the Afghan hatred to our people had been +showing itself with exceptional openness and bitterness. Europeans and +camp followers had been murdered, but the sinister evidences of growing +danger had been regarded merely as ebullitions of private rancour. Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, had moved forward from Khooloom into the Bamian +country, and there was little doubt that he was fomenting the +disaffection of the Ghilzai chiefs, with some of whom this indomitable +man, who in his intense hatred of the English intruders had resolutely +rejected all offers of accommodation, and preferred the life of a +homeless exile to the forfeiture of his independence, was closely +connected by marriage. + +The time was approaching when Sale's brigade was to quit Cabul on its +return journey to India. Macnaghten seems to have originally intended to +accompany this force, for he wrote that he 'hoped to settle the hash of +the Ghilzais on the way down, if not before.' The rising, however, spread +so widely and so rapidly that immediate action was judged necessary, and +on October 9th Colonel Monteath marched towards the passes with his own +regiment, the 35th Native Infantry, some artillery and cavalry details, +and a detachment of Broadfoot's sappers. + +How able, resolute, and high-souled a man was George Broadfoot, the +course of this narrative will later disclose. He was one of three gallant +brothers, all of whom died sword in hand. The corps of sappers which he +commanded was a remarkable body--a strange medley of Hindustanees, +Goorkhas, and Afghan tribesmen of divers regions. Many were desperate and +intractable characters, but Broadfoot, with mingled strength and +kindness, moulded his heterogeneous recruits into skilful, obedient and +disciplined soldiers. Broadfoot's description of his endeavours to learn +something of the nature of the duties expected of him in the expedition +for which he had been detailed, and to obtain such equipment as those +duties might require, throws a melancholy light on the deteriorated state +of affairs among our people at this period, and on the relations between +the military and civilian authorities. + +Broadfoot went for information, in the first instance, to Colonel +Monteath, who could give him no orders, having received none himself. +Monteath declined to apply for details as to the expedition, as he knew +'these people' (the authorities) too well; he was quite aware of the +danger of going on service in the dark, but explained that it was not the +custom of the military authorities at Cabul to consult or even instruct +the commanders of expeditions. Broadfoot then went to the General. +Cotton's successor in the chief military command in Afghanistan was poor +General Elphinstone, a most gallant soldier, but with no experience of +Indian warfare, and utterly ignorant of the Afghans and of Afghanistan. +Wrecked in body and impaired in mind by physical ailments and +infirmities, he had lost all faculty of energy, and such mind as remained +to him was swayed by the opinion of the person with whom he had last +spoken. The poor gentleman was so exhausted by the exertion of getting +out of bed, and being helped into his visiting-room, that it was not for +half-an-hour, and after several ineffectual efforts, that he could attend +to business. He knew nothing of the nature of the service on which +Monteath was ordered, could give Broadfoot no orders, and was unwilling +to refer to the Envoy on a matter which should have been left to him to +arrange. He complained bitterly of the way in which he was reduced to a +cypher--'degraded from a general to the "Lord-Lieutenant's head +constable."' Broadfoot went from the General to the Envoy, who 'was +peevish,' and denounced the General as fidgety. He declared the enemy to +be contemptible, and that as for Broadfoot and his sappers, twenty men +with pickaxes were enough; all they were wanted for was to pick stones +from under the gun wheels. When Broadfoot represented the inconvenience +with which imperfect information as to the objects of the expedition was +fraught, Macnaghten lost his temper, and told Broadfoot that, if he +thought Monteath's movement likely to bring on an attack, 'he need not +go, he was not wanted'; whereupon Broadfoot declined to listen to such +language, and made his bow. Returning to the General, whom he found 'lost +and perplexed,' he was told to follow his own judgment as to what +quantity of tools he should take. The Adjutant-General came in, and 'this +officer, after abusing the Envoy, spoke to the General with an +imperiousness and disrespect, and to me, a stranger, with an insolence it +was painful to see the influence of on the General. His advice to his +chief was to have nothing to say to Macnaghten, to me, or to the sappers, +saying Monteath had men enough, and needed neither sappers nor tools.' At +parting the poor old man said to Broadfoot: 'If you go out, for God's +sake clear the passes quickly, that I may get away; for if anything were +to turn up, I am unfit for it, done up in body and mind.' This was the +man whom Lord Auckland had appointed to the most responsible and arduous +command at his disposal, and this not in ignorance of General +Elphinstone's disqualifications for active service, but in the fullest +knowledge of them! + +Monteath's camp at Bootkhak, the first halting-place on the Jellalabad +road, was sharply attacked on the night of the 9th, and the assailants, +many of whom were the armed retainers of chiefs living in Cabul sent out +specially to take part in the attack, although unsuccessful, inflicted on +Monteath considerable loss. Next day Sale, with H.M.'s 13th, joined +Monteath, and on the 13th he forced the long and dangerous ravine of the +Khoord Cabul with sharp fighting, but no very serious loss, although Sale +himself was wounded, and had to relinquish the active command to Colonel +Dennie. Monteath encamped in the valley beyond the pass, and Sale, with +the 13th, returned without opposition to Bootkhak, there to await +reinforcements and transports. In his isolated position Monteath remained +unmolested until the night of the 17th, when he repulsed a Ghilzai attack +made in considerable strength, and aided by the treachery of 'friendly' +Afghans who had been admitted into his camp; but he had many casualties, +and lost a number of camels. On the 20th Sale, reinforced by troops +returned from the Zurmut expedition, moved forward on Monteath, and on +the 22d pushed on to the Tezeen valley, meeting with no opposition either +on the steep summit of the Huft Kotul or in the deep narrow ravine +opening into the valley. The Ghilzais were in force around the mouth of +the defile, but a few cannon-shots broke them up. The advance guard +pursued with over-rashness; the Ghilzais rallied, in the skirmish which +ensued an officer and several men were killed, and the retirement of our +people unfortunately degenerated into precipitate flight, with the +Ghilzais in hot pursuit. The 13th, to which the fugitive detachment +mainly belonged, now consisted mainly of young soldiers, whose constancy +was impaired by this untoward occurrence. + +Macnaghten had furnished Sale with a force which, in good heart and +vigorously commanded, was strong enough to have effected great things. +The Ghilzai chief of Tezeen possessed a strong fort full of supplies, +which Dennie was about to attack, when the wily Afghan sent to Major +Macgregor, the political officer accompanying Sale, a tender of +submission. Macgregor fell into the snare, desired Sale to countermand +the attack, and entered into negotiations. In doing so he committed a +fatal error, and he exceeded his instructions in the concessions which he +made. Macnaghten, it was true, had left matters greatly to Macgregor's +discretion; and if 'the rebels were very humble,' the Envoy was not +disposed to be too hard upon them. But one of his firm stipulations was +that the defences of Khoda Buxsh's fort must be demolished, and that Gool +Mahomed Khan 'should have nothing but war.' Both injunctions were +disregarded by Macgregor, who, with unimportant exceptions, surrendered +all along the line. The Ghilzais claimed and obtained the restoration of +their original subsidies; a sum was handed to them to enable them to +raise the tribes in order to keep clear the passes; Khoda Buxsh held his +fort, and sold the supplies it contained to Sale's commissary at a fine +price. Every item of the arrangement was dead in favour of the Ghilzais, +and contributory to their devices. Sale, continuing his march, would be +separated further and further from the now diminished force in Cabul, and +by the feigned submission the chiefs had made they had escaped the +permanent establishment of a strong detachment in their midst at Tezeen. + +Macnaghten, discontented though he was with the sweeping concessions +which Macgregor had granted to the Ghilzais, put the best face he could +on the completed transaction, and allowed himself to believe that a +stable settlement had been effected. On the 26th Sale continued his +march, having made up his baggage animals at the expense of the 37th +Native Infantry, which, with half of the sappers and three guns of the +mountain train, he sent back to Kubbar-i-Jubbar, there to halt in a +dangerously helpless situation until transport should be sent down from +Cabul. His march as far as Kutti Sung was unmolested. Mistrusting the +good faith of his new-made allies, he shunned the usual route through the +Purwan Durrah by taking the mountain road to the south of that defile, +and thus reached the Jugdulluk valley with little opposition, baulking +the dispositions of the Ghilzais, who, expecting him to traverse the +Purwan Durrah, were massed about the southern end of the defile, ready to +fall on the column when committed to the tortuous gorge. + +From the Jugdulluk camping ground there is a steep and winding ascent of +three miles, commanded until near the summit by heights on either side. +Sale's main body had attained the crest with trivial loss, having +detached parties by the way to ascend to suitable flanking positions, and +hold those until the long train of slow-moving baggage should have +passed, when they were to fall in and come on with the rear-guard. The +dispositions would have been successful but that on reaching the crest +the main body, instead of halting there for the rear to close up, hurried +down the reverse slope, leaving baggage, detachments, and rear-guard to +endure the attacks which the Ghilzais promptly delivered, pressing +fiercely on the rear, and firing down from either side on the confused +mass in the trough below. The flanking detachments had relinquished their +posts in panic, and hurried forward in confusion to get out of the pass. +The rear-guard was in disorder, when Broadfoot, with a few officers and +some of his sappers, valiantly checked the onslaught, but the crest was +not crossed until upwards of 120 men had fallen, the wounded among whom +had to be abandoned with the dead. On October 30th Sale's force reached +Gundamuk without further molestation, and halted there temporarily to +await orders. During the halt melancholy rumours filtered down the passes +from the capital, and later came confirmation of the evil tidings from +the Envoy, and orders from Elphinstone directing the immediate return of +the brigade to Cabul, if the safety of its sick and wounded could be +assured. Sale called a council of war, which pronounced, although not +unanimously, against a return to Cabul; and it was resolved instead to +march on to Jellalabad, which was regarded as an eligible _point d'appui_ +on which a relieving force might move up and a retiring force might move +down. Accordingly on November 11th the brigade quitted Gundamuk, and +hurried down rather precipitately, and with some fighting by the way, to +Jellalabad, which was occupied on the 14th. + +Some members of the Gundamuk council of war, foremost among whom was +Broadfoot, argued vigorously in favour of the return march to Cabul. +Havelock, who was with Sale as a staff-officer, strongly urged the +further retreat into Jellalabad. Others, again, advocated the middle +course of continuing to hold Gundamuk. It may be said that a daring +general would have fought his way back to Cabul, that a prudent general +would have remained at Gundamuk, and that the occupation of Jellalabad +was the expedient of a weak general. That a well-led march on Cabul was +feasible, although it might have been difficult and bloody, cannot be +questioned, and the advent of such men as Broadfoot and Havelock would +have done much toward rekindling confidence and stimulating the +restoration of soldierly virtue, alike in the military authorities and in +the rank and file of the Cabul force. At Gundamuk, again, the brigade, +well able to maintain its position there, would have made its influence +felt all through the Ghilzai country and as far as Cabul. The evacuation +of that capital decided on, it would have been in a position to give the +hand to the retiring army, and so to avert at least the worst disasters +of the retreat. The retirement on Jellalabad, in the terse language of +Durand, 'served no conceivable purpose except to betray weakness, and +still further to encourage revolt.' + +While Sale was struggling through the passes on his way to Gundamuk, our +people at Cabul were enjoying unwonted quietude. Casual entries in Lady +Sale's journal, during the later days of October, afford clear evidence +how utterly unconscious were they of the close gathering of the storm +that so soon was to break upon them. Her husband had written to her from +Tezeen that his wound was fast healing, and that the chiefs were +extremely polite. She complains of the interruption of the mails owing to +the Ghilzai outbreak, but comforts herself with the anticipation of their +arrival in a day or two. She was to leave Cabul for India in a few days, +along with the Macnaghtens and General Elphinstone, and her diary +expresses an undernote of regret at having to leave the snug house in the +cantonments which Sale had built on his own plan, the excellent kitchen +garden in which her warrior husband, in the intervals of his soldiering +duties, grew fine crops of peas, potatoes, cauliflowers and artichokes, +and the parterres of flowers which she herself cultivated, and which were +the admiration of the Afghan gentlemen who came to pay their morning +calls. + +[Illustration: CABUL the CANTONMENT _and the_ Surrounding COUNTRY.] + +The defencelessness of the position at Cabul had long engaged the +solicitude of men who were no alarmists. Engineer officer after engineer +officer had unavailingly and a half from the cantonments, with the Cabul +river intervening. With Shelton's troops and those in the cantonments +General Elphinstone had at his disposition, apart from the Shah's +contingent, four infantry regiments, two batteries of artillery, three +companies of sappers, a regiment of cavalry, and some irregular horse--a +force fully equipped and in good order. In the Balla Hissar Shah Soojah +had a considerable, if rather mixed, body of military and several guns. + +The rising of the 2d November may not have been the result of a fully +organised plan. There are indications that it was premature, and that the +revolt in force would have been postponed until after the expected +departure of the Envoy and the General with all the troops except +Shelton's brigade, but for an irrepressible burst of personal rancour +against Burnes. Durand holds, however, that the malcontents acted on the +belief that to kill Burnes and sack the Treasury was to inaugurate the +insurrection with an imposing success. Be this as it may, a truculent mob +early in the morning of November 2d assailed Burnes' house. He at first +regarded the outbreak as a casual riot, and wrote to Macnaghten to that +effect. Having harangued the throng without effect, he and his brother, +along with William Broadfoot his secretary, prepared for defence. +Broadfoot was soon killed, and a little later Burnes and his brother were +hacked to pieces in the garden behind the house. The Treasury was sacked; +the sepoys who had guarded it and Burnes' house were massacred, and both +buildings were fired; the armed mob swelled in numbers, and soon the +whole city was in a roar of tumult. + +Prompt and vigorous military action would no doubt have crushed the +insurrection, at least for the time. But the indifference, vacillation +and delay of the British authorities greatly encouraged its rapid +development. Macnaghten at first 'did not think much of it.' Shelton was +ordered into the Balla Hissar, countermanded, a second time ordered, and +again instructed to halt for orders. At last the Envoy himself despatched +him, with the loose order to act on his own judgment in communication +with the Shah. Shelton marched into the Balla Hissar with part of his +force, and the rest of it was moved into the cantonments. When the +Brigadier went to the Shah, that potentate demanded to know who sent him, +and what he had come for. But the Shah, to do him justice, had himself +taken action. Informed that Burnes was attacked and the city in revolt, +he had ordered Campbell's regiment of his own levies and a couple of guns +to march to his assistance. Campbell recklessly attempted to push his way +through the heart of the city, instead of reaching Burnes' house by a +circuitous but opener route, and after some sharp street fighting in +which he lost heavily, he was driven back, unable to penetrate to the +scene of plunder and butchery. Shelton remained inactive in the Balla +Hissar until Campbell was reported beaten and retreating, when he took +some feeble measures to cover the retreat of the fugitives, who, however, +abandoned their guns outside the fortress. The day was allowed to pass +without anything further being done, except the despatch of an urgent +recall to Major Griffiths, whom Sale had left at Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and +that good soldier, having fought every step of the way through the +passes, brought in his detachment in unbroken order and without loss of +baggage, notwithstanding his weakness in transport. Shelton, reinforced +in the Balla Hissar, maintained an intermittent and ineffectual fire on +the city. Urgent orders were despatched to Sale, recalling him and his +brigade--orders with which, as has been mentioned, Sale did not +comply--and also to Nott, at Candahar, begging him to send a brigade to +Cabul. In compliance with this requisition, Maclaren's brigade +immediately started from Candahar, but soon returned owing to the +inclemency of the weather. + +Captain Mackenzie was in charge of a fort containing the Shah's +commissariat stores; this fort was on the outskirts of a suburb of Cabul, +and was fiercely attacked on the 2d. For two days Mackenzie maintained +his post with unwearying constancy. His garrison was short of water and +of ammunition, and the fort was crowded with women and children, but he +held on resolutely until the night of the 3d. No assistance was sent, no +notice, indeed, of any kind was taken of him; his garrison was +discouraged by heavy loss, and by the mines which the enemy were pushing +forward. At length, when the gate of the fort had been fired, and his +wounded were dying for lack of medical aid, he evacuated the fort, and +fought his way gallantly into cantonments, bringing in his wounded and +the women and children. With this solitary exception the Afghans had +nowhere encountered resistance, and the strange passiveness of our people +encouraged them to act with vigour. From the enclosed space of the Shah +Bagh, and the adjacent forts of Mahmood Khan and Mahomed Shereef, they +were threatening the Commissariat fort, hindering access to it, and +besetting the south-western flank of the cantonments. A young officer +commanded the hundred sepoys garrisoning the Commissariat fort; he +reported himself in danger of being cut off, and Elphinstone gave orders +that he and his garrison should be brought off, and the fort and its +contents abandoned. Several efforts to accomplish the withdrawal were +thwarted by the Afghan flanking fire, with the loss of several officers +and many men. The commissary officer urged on the General the disastrous +consequences which the abandonment of the fort would entail, containing +as it did all the stores, adding that in cantonments there were only two +days' supplies, without prospect of procuring any more. Orders were then +sent to Warren to hold out to the last extremity; which instructions he +denied having received. Early in the morning of the 5th troops were +preparing to attack the Afghan fort and reinforce the Commissariat fort, +when Warren and his garrison reached the cantonments. The gate of the +Commissariat fort had been fired, but the enemy had not effected an +entrance, yet Warren and his people had evacuated the fort through a hole +cut in its wall. Thus, with scarcely a struggle to save it, was this +vital fort allowed to fall into the enemy's hands, and thenceforward our +unfortunate people were to be reduced to precarious and scanty sources +for their food. + +From the 5th to the 9th November there was a good deal of desultory +fighting, in the course of which, after one failure, Mahomed Shereef's +fort was stormed by a detachment of our people, under the command of +Major Griffiths; but this success had little influence on the threatening +attitude maintained by the Afghans. On the 9th, owing to the mental and +physical weakness of poor General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton was +summoned into cantonments from the Balla Hissar, bringing with him part +of the garrison with which he had been holding the latter post. The hopes +entertained that Shelton would display vigour, and restore the confidence +of the troops, were not realised. He from the first had no belief in the +ability of the occupants of the cantonment to maintain their position, +and he never ceased to urge prompt retreat on Jellalabad. From the purely +military point of view he was probably right; the Duke of Wellington +shared his opinion when he said in the House of Lords: 'After the first +few days, particularly after the negotiations at Cabul had commenced, it +became hopeless for General Elphinstone to maintain his position.' +Shelton's situation was unquestionably a very uncomfortable one, for +Elphinstone, broken as he was, yet allowed his second in command no +freedom of action, and was testily pertinacious of his prerogative of +command. If in Shelton, who after his manner was a strong man, there had +been combined with his resolution some tact and temper, he might have +exercised a beneficial influence. As it was he became sullen and +despondent, and retired behind an 'uncommunicative and disheartening +reserve.' Brave as he was, he seems to have lacked the inspiration which +alone could reinvigorate the drooping spirit of the troops. In a word, +though he probably was, in army language, a 'good duty soldier,' he +certainly was nothing more. And something more was needed then. + +Action on Shelton's part became necessary the day after he came into +cantonments. The Afghans occupied all the forts on the plain between the +Seah Sung heights and the cantonments, and from the nearest of them, the +Rikabashee fort, poured in a heavy fire at close range, which the return +artillery fire could not quell. On Macnaghten's urgent requisition the +General ordered out a strong force, under Shelton, to storm the obnoxious +fort. Captain Bellew missed the gate, and blew open merely a narrow +wicket, but the storming party obeyed the signal to advance. Through a +heavy fire the leaders reached the wicket, and forced their way in, +followed by a few soldiers. The garrison of the fort hastily evacuated +it, and all seemed well, when a sudden stampede ensued--the handful +which, led by Colonel Mackrell of the 44th and Lieutenant Bird of the +Shah's force, had already entered the fort, remaining inside it. The +runaway troops were rallied with difficulty by Shelton and the +subordinate officers, but a call for volunteers from the European +regiment was responded to but by one solitary Scottish private. After a +second advance, and a second retreat--a retreat made notwithstanding +strong artillery and musketry support--Shelton's efforts brought his +people forward yet again, and this time the fort was occupied in force. +Of those who had previously entered it but two survivors were found. The +Afghans, re-entering the fort, had hacked Mackrell to pieces and +slaughtered the men who tried to escape by the wicket. Lieutenant Bird +and a sepoy, from a stable the door of which they had barricaded with +logs of wood, had fended off their assailants by a steady and deadly +fire, and when they were rescued by the entrance of the troops they had +to clamber out over a pile of thirty dead Afghans whom the bullets of the +two men had struck down. + +It had come to our people in those gloomy days, to regard as a 'triumph' +a combat in which they were not actually worsted; and even of such +dubious successes the last occurred on November 13, when the Afghans, +after having pressed our infantry down the slopes of the Behmaroo ridge, +were driven back by artillery fire, and forced by a cavalry charge to +retreat further, leaving behind them a couple of guns from which they had +been sending missiles into the cantonments. One of those guns was brought +in without difficulty, but the other the Afghans covered with their +jezail fire. The Envoy had sent a message of entreaty that 'the triumph +of the day' should be completed by its capture. Major Scott of the 44th +made appeal on appeal, ineffectually, to the soldierly feelings of his +men, and while they would not move the sepoys could not be induced to +advance. At length Eyre spiked the piece as a precautionary measure, and +finally some men of the Shah's infantry succeeded in bringing in the +prize. The return march of the troops into cantonments in the dark, was +rendered disorderly by the close pressure of the Afghans, who, firing +incessantly, pursued the broken soldiery up to the entrance gate. + +On the depressed garrison of the Cabul cantonments tidings of disaster +further afield had been pouring in apace. Soon after the outbreak of the +rising, it was known that Lieutenant Maule, commanding the Kohistanee +regiment at Kurdurrah, had been cut to pieces, with his adjutant and +sergeant-major, by the men of his own corps; and on November 6th +intelligence had come in that the Goorkha regiment stationed at Charikar +in the Kohistan, where Major Pottinger was Resident, was in dangerous +case, and that Codrington, its commandant, and some of his officers had +already fallen. And now, on the 15th, there rode wearily into cantonments +two wounded men, who believed themselves the only British survivors of +the Charikar force. Pottinger was wounded in the leg, Haughton, the +adjutant of the Goorkha corps, had lost his right hand, and his head hung +forward on his breast, half severed from his body by a great tulwar +slash. Of the miserable story which it fell to Pottinger to tell only the +briefest summary can be given. His residence was at Lughmanee, a few +miles from the Charikar cantonments, when early in the month a number of +chiefs of the Kohistan and the Nijrao country assembled to discuss with +him the terms on which they would reopen the communications with Cabul. +Those chiefs proved treacherous, slew Rattray, Pottinger's assistant, and +besieged Pottinger in Lughmanee. Finding his position untenable, he +withdrew to Charikar under cover of night. On the morning of the 5th the +Afghans assailed the cantonments. Pottinger was wounded, Codrington was +killed, and the Goorkhas were driven into the barracks. Haughton, who +succeeded to the command of the regiment, made sortie on sortie, but was +finally driven in, and the enemy renewed their assaults in augmented +strength. Thenceforward the position was all but hopeless. On the 10th +the last scant remains of water was distributed. Efforts to procure water +by sorties on the nights of the 11th and 12th were not successful, and +the corps fell into disorganisation because of losses, hardships, +exhaustion, hunger and thirst. Pottinger and Haughton agreed that there +was no prospect of saving even a remnant of the regiment unless by a +retreat to Cabul, which, however, was clearly possible only in the case +of the stronger men, unencumbered with women and children, of whom, +unfortunately, there was a great number in the garrison. On the afternoon +of the 13th Haughton was cut down by a treacherous native officer of the +artillery, who then rushed out of the gate, followed by all the gunners +and most of the Mahommedans of the garrison. In the midst of the chaos of +disorganisation, Dr Grant amputated Haughton's hand, dressed his other +wounds, and then spiked all the guns. When it was dark, the garrison +moved out, Pottinger leading the advance, Dr Grant the main body, and +Ensign Rose the rear-guard. From the beginning of the march, discipline +was all but entirely in abeyance; on reaching the first stream, the last +remains of control were lost, and the force was rapidly disintegrating. +Pottinger and Haughton, the latter only just able to keep the saddle, +pushed on toward Cabul, rested in a ravine during the day, evaded the +partisan detachment sent out from Cabul to intercept them, rode through +sleeping Cabul in the small hours of the morning, and after being pursued +and fired upon in the outskirts of the city, finally attained the +cantonments. It was afterwards learned that a portion of the regiment had +struggled on to within twenty miles from Cabul, gallantly headed by young +Rose and Dr Grant. Then the remnant was destroyed. Rose was killed, after +despatching four Afghans with his own hand. Dr Grant, escaping the +massacre, held on until within three miles of the cantonments, when he +too was killed. + +Macnaghten was naturally much depressed by the news communicated by +Pottinger, and realised that the Afghan masses already encompassing the +position on the Cabul plain would certainly be increased by bands from +the Kohistan and Nijrao, flushed already with their Charikar success. He +sided strongly with the large party among the officers who were +advocating the measure of abandoning the cantonments altogether, and +moving the force now quartered there to the safer and more commanding +position in the Balla Hissar. The military chiefs opposed the project, +and propounded a variety of objections to it, none of which were without +weight, yet all of which might have been overcome by energy and proper +dispositions. Shelton, however, was opposed to the scheme, since if +carried out it would avert or postpone the accomplishment of his policy +of retreat on Jellalabad; Elphinstone was against it in the inertia of +debility, and the project gradually came to be regarded as abandoned. +Another project, that of driving the Afghans from Mahmood Khan's fort, +commanding the direct road between the cantonments and the Balla Hissar, +and of occupying it with a British force, was so far advanced that the +time for the attempt was fixed, and the storming party actually warned, +when some petty objection intervened and the enterprise was abandoned, +never to be revived. + +The rising was not three days old when already Elphinstone had lost +heart. On the 5th he had written to Macnaghten suggesting that the latter +should 'consider what chance there is of making terms,' and since then he +had been repeatedly pressing on the Envoy the 'hopelessness of further +resistance.' Macnaghten, vacillating as he was, yet had more pith in his +nature than was left in the debilitated old general. He wrote to +Elphinstone on the 18th recommending, not very strenuously, the policy of +holding out where they were as long as possible, and indeed throughout +the winter, if subsistence could be obtained. He pointed out that in the +cantonments, which he believed to be impregnable, there were at least the +essentials of wood and water. Arguing that a retreat on Jellalabad must +be most disastrous, and was to be avoided except in the last extremity, +he nevertheless ended somewhat inconsistently by leaving to the military +authorities, if in eight or ten days there should appear no prospect of +an improvement of the situation, the decision whether it would be wiser +to attempt a retreat or to withdraw from the cantonments into the Balla +Hissar. + +Far from improving, the situation was speedily to become all but +hopeless. The village of Behmaroo, built on the north-eastern slope of +the ridge of the same name bounding the plain on the north-west, lay +about half a mile due north of the cantonments, part of which some of the +houses on the upper slope commanded. From this village, after the loss of +the Commissariat fort, our people had been drawing supplies. On the +morning of the 22d the Afghans were seen moving in force from Cabul +toward Behmaroo, obviously with intent to occupy the village, and so +deprive the occupants of the cantonments of the resource it had been +affording them. A detachment under Major Swayne, sent out to forestall +this occupation, found Behmaroo already in the possession of a body of +Kohistanees, who had so blocked the approaches that Swayne did not +consider himself justified in attempting the fulfilment of his orders to +storm the place; and he contented himself with maintaining all day an +ineffectual musketry fire on it. A diversion in his favour by a gun +supported by cavalry had no result save that of casualties to the gunners +and troopers; reinforcements brought out by Shelton effected nothing, and +in the evening the troops were recalled. On this ill-fated day Akbar +Khan, Dost Mahomed's fierce and implacable son, arrived in Cabul, and the +evil influence on the British fortunes which he exerted immediately made +itself felt, for the events of the following day were to bring about a +crisis in the fate of our ill-starred people. + +Recognising the mischief wrought by the hostile occupation of our only +source of supplies, the Envoy strongly urged the immediate despatch of a +strong force to occupy the Behmaroo ridge, and dislodge from the village +its Kohistanee garrison. Shelton opposed the measure, urging the +dispirited state of the troops, their fatigue from constant defensive +duty, and their weakened physique because of poor and scanty rations. He +was overruled, and before daybreak of the 23d a force under his command, +consisting of five companies of the 44th, twelve companies of native +infantry, some cavalry, and one horse-artillery gun, was in position on +the north-eastern extremity of the ridge overhanging the village. The gun +opened fire on the village with grape, and after a short resistance the +greater part of its garrison quitted it. The storming party intrusted to +Major Swayne did not, however, act, and was withdrawn. Leaving a +detachment on the knoll above the village, Shelton moved his force along +the upland to a position near the gorge intersecting the ridge, forming +his infantry into two squares, with the cavalry in rear. The further hill +beyond the gorge was crowded with hostile Afghans from Cabul, and the +long-range fire of their jezails across the dividing depression, carried +execution into the squares which Shelton had inexplicably formed as if to +furnish his foes with a target which they could not miss. The muskets of +his men could not retaliate, and the skirmishers he threw forward to the +brow of his hill could not endure the Afghan fire. Shelton's single gun +maintained a hot and telling fire on the Afghan masses on the opposite +hill, and baulked an attempt against his right flank made by the Afghan +cavalry swarming in the outer plain; but when its vent became too hot for +the gunners to serve it, the dullest comprehension became alive to the +folly of sending a single gun into the field. + +Shelton's men, falling fast though they were, and faint with fatigue and +thirst, yet had endured for hours a fusillade to which they could not +reply, when a body of Afghan fanatics suddenly sprang up out of the +gorge, swept back with their fire the few skirmishers who had been still +holding the brow of the hill, and planted their flag within thirty yards +of the front of the nearer of the squares. Shelton offered a large reward +to the man who should bring it in, but there was no response. In a +passion of soldierly wrath, the veteran commanded a bayonet charge; not a +man sprang forward at the summons which British soldiers are wont to +welcome with cheers. The cowed infantry remained supine, when their +officers darted forward and threw stones into the faces of the enemy; the +troopers heard but obeyed not that trumpet-call to 'Charge!' which so +rarely fails to thrill the cavalryman with the rapture of the fray. The +gunners only, men of that noble force the Company's Horse-Artillery, +quitted themselves valiantly. They stood to their piece to the bitter +end. Two of them were killed beside it, another was severely wounded, a +fourth, refusing to run, took refuge under the gun, and miraculously +escaped death. But the gallant example of the artillerymen in their front +did not hearten the infantrymen of the leading square. The panic spread +among them, and they broke and fled. Fortunately they were not pursued. +The rear square stood fast, and the officers by great exertion succeeded +in rallying the fugitives under the cover it afforded. The news that a +principal chief, Abdoolah Khan, had been severely wounded in the plain +gave pause to the offensive vigour of the Afghans, and the assailants +fell back, abandoning the gun, but carrying off the limber and gun-team. +Our people reoccupied the position, the gun recommenced its fire, and if +the cavalry and infantry could have been persuaded to take the offensive +the battle might have been retrieved. But they remained passive. The +reinforced Afghans renewed their long-range fire with terrible effect; +most of the gunners had fallen, and the Brigadier, recognising the +growing unsteadiness of his command and the imminent danger of capture to +which the solitary gun was again exposed, ordered a retirement on the +detachment left near Behmaroo and the limbering up of the gun, to which a +second limber had been sent out from the cantonments. The movement was +scarcely begun when a rush of fanatic Afghans completely broke the +square, and all order and discipline then disappeared. A regular rout set +in down the hill toward cantonments, the fugitives disregarding the +efforts of the officers to rally them, and the enemy in full pursuit, the +Afghan cavalry making ghastly slaughter among the panic-stricken +runaways. The detachment near Behmaroo attempted to fall back in orderly +fashion, but the reinforced garrison of the village swept out upon it, +surrounded it, broke it up, and threw it into utter rout with the loss of +a large proportion of its strength, one whole company being all but +annihilated. It seemed as if pursued and pursuers would enter the +cantonments together so closely were they commingled; but the fire from +the ramparts and an opportune charge of horse arrested the pursuit. Yet +Eyre reckons as the chief reason why all the British force that had gone +out to battle was not destroyed, the fact that a leading Afghan chief +forced his men to spare the fugitives, and ultimately halted and withdrew +his people when the opportunity for wholesale slaughter lay open to them. +Most of the wounded were left on the field, where they were miserably cut +to pieces; and the gun, which had been overturned in the attempt of the +drivers to gallop down the face of the hill, finally passed into the +possession of the Afghans. Shelton's dispositions as a commander could +not well have been worse; his bearing as a soldier, although undaunted, +imparted to his hapless troops nothing of inspiration. The obstinacy with +which he held the hill after the impossibility of even partial success +must have been patent to him, was universally condemned. It need scarcely +be added that his loss was very severe. + +No more fighting was possible. What, then, was to be done? Elphinstone +and Shelton were at one in opposing removal into the Balla Hissar. +Macnaghten, to whom Shah Soojah had communicated his urgent +recommendation of that measure as the only expedient which could secure +the safety of the British troops, fell in with the views of the military +authorities. There came to him a letter from Osman Khan, the chief who +had called off his adherents on the previous day from pursuing the +fugitives fleeing into cantonments. Osman wrote that, if his troops had +followed up their successes, the loss of the cantonments and the +destruction of the British force were inevitable; but, he continued, that +it was not the wish of the chiefs to proceed to such extremities, their +sole desire being that our people should quietly evacuate the country, +leaving the Afghan sirdars to govern it according to their own customs, +and with a king of their own choosing. In communicating this letter to +General Elphinstone, Sir William asked for the latter's opinion on the +military possibility, or the reverse, of the retention of the British +position in Afghanistan. Elphinstone, in reply, enumerated sundry reasons +which led him to the conclusion which he stated, that 'it is not feasible +any longer to maintain our position in this country, and that you ought +to avail yourself of the offer to negotiate which has been made to you.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI: THE ROAD TO RUIN + +As the result of the military disaster of November 23d, and of the +representations of the General, recorded in the last chapter, Macnaghten, +with whatever reluctance, permitted himself to entertain proposals for an +arrangement made by the Afghan leaders. From the beginning of the +outbreak, while urging on the military authorities to exert themselves in +putting down the revolt, he had been engaged in tortuous and dangerous +intrigues, with the object of sowing discord among the Afghan chiefs, and +thus weakening the league of hostility against Shah Soojah and his +British supporters. In the conduct of these intrigues he used the +services of Mohun Lal, who had been one of Burnes' assistants, and who, +having escaped the fate of his chief, had found refuge in the city +residence of a Kuzzilbash chief. Mohun Lal was a fitting agent for the +sort of work prescribed to him, and he burrowed and suborned with +assiduity, and not altogether without success. But it is unhappily true +that he was commissioned to carry out a darker enterprise, the removal by +assassination of certain of the more virulently hostile among the Afghan +leaders. The incident is the blackest of the many discreditable +transactions which chequer the inner political history of this melancholy +chapter of our annals. It is unfortunately certain that Lieutenant John +Conolly, Macnaghten's kinsman and his confidential representative with +Shah Soojah, authorised Mohun Lal, in writing, to compass the taking off +of prominent Afghan leaders. In a letter to Mohun Lal, of 5th November, +Conolly wrote: 'I promise 10,000 rupees for the head of each rebel +chief.' Again, on the 11th, he wrote: 'There is a man called Hadji Ali, +who might be induced by a bribe to try and bring in the heads of one or +two of the Mufsids. Endeavour to let him know that 10,000 rupees will be +given for each head, or even 15,000 rupees.' Two chiefs certainly did die +under suspicious circumstances, and in each case the blood-money was +claimed. It was refused by Mohun Lal on the plea that the stipulation +that the heads of the dead Afghans should be brought in was not +fulfilled. + +Whether Macnaghten inspired those nefarious machinations, whether indeed +he was actively aware of them, are questions which, in the absence of +conclusive evidence, may judiciously be left unanswered. There is extant +a letter from him to Mohun Lal, written December 1st, which has the +following passage: 'I am sorry to find from your letter of last night +that you should have supposed it was ever my object to encourage +assassination. The rebels are very wicked men, but we must not take +unlawful means to destroy them.' And later he is reported to have +informed an Afghan deputation that, 'as a British functionary, nothing +would induce him to pay a price for blood.' Durand holds that it was the +belief on the part of the Afghan chiefs that the British Envoy had set a +price on their heads which destroyed all confidence in Macnaghten's good +faith, and which was Akbar Khan's chief incentive to his murder. + +The terms proffered on November 25th by an Afghan deputation were so +humiliating that Macnaghten peremptorily rejected them; and the threat of +immediate hostilities unless our people promptly surrendered their arms +and withdrew was not carried out. A period of inaction strangely ensued, +which on the Afghan side was a treacherous lull, but which Macnaghten, +hoping against hope that some turn in our favour might yet occur, +regarded with complacency. The chiefs, aware that winter was approaching +with added hardship to the forlorn garrison, temporarily desisted from +urging negotiations. But the British military authorities, with troops +living from hand to mouth on precarious half rations, and with transport +cattle dying fast of starvation, kept urging the Envoy to activity in +making terms, if absolute starvation was to be averted. Futile projects +were discussed between Envoy and General, only to be put aside. As the +dreary days of inaction and depletion passed, the deterioration of +military spirit among our people manifested itself more and more plainly. +British soldiers stolidly watched the Afghans destroying our bridge +across the Cabul river, within a quarter of a mile from cantonments. +Scared by the threat of an assault, which, in the scornful words of brave +Lady Sale, a child with a stick might have repulsed, the garrison of the +Mahomed Shereef fort abandoned it in a panic, the white soldiers of the +44th showing the example of pusillanimity to the sepoys whom their +cowardice demoralised. Next day the detachment of the 44th which had +guarded an exposed position had to be withdrawn, ceding the post of +honour to the stauncher sepoys. The camp followers were living on +carrion; the commissaries reported but four days' provisions in store, +and their inability to procure any more supplies. At length on December +8th the four senior military officers informed the Envoy that it was +imperatively necessary he should negotiate a retreat, on the best terms +he could obtain. + +Macnaghten had to bring himself to recognise that the alternatives were +negotiation or starvation, and on the 11th December, with a draft treaty +in his hand, he met the principal Afghan chiefs on the river side between +the cantonments and the city. After the introductory palavers, Macnaghten +read the proposed treaty, whose purport was as follows: that the British +should evacuate Afghanistan forthwith unmolested, furnished with supplies +and accompanied by hostages, on their march to India; that the Dost, his +family, and other Afghan political exiles, should be allowed to return to +their country; that Shah Soojah should have the option of remaining at +Cabul or going down to India; that amnesty should be accorded to all +adherents of Shah Soojah and his British allies; that all prisoners +should be released; and that perpetual friendship and mutual good offices +should thenceforth endure between the British and the Afghans. + +Akbar Khan made demur to some of the provisions, but was overruled, and +the main stipulations of the treaty were agreed to by the chiefs. The +conference broke up with the understanding that the British troops should +evacuate cantonments within three days, and that meanwhile provisions +should be sent in for their use. The treaty was simply a virtual +capitulation all along the line; but the inherent falseness of our +position, the incapacity of the military chiefs, and the debased spirit +of the troops, consequent partly on low rations but mainly because of the +utter absence of competent and vigorous leadership such as a Broadfoot or +a Havelock would have supplied, enforced on the reluctant Envoy +conditions humiliating beyond previous parallel in the history of our +nation. + +From the outset the Afghan chiefs defaulted from their promise of sending +in supplies, but some grain was brought into cantonments by the troops, +whose evacuation of the Balla Hissar on the 13th was effected under +humiliating circumstances. The Afghans demanded the surrender of the +forts in British occupation in the vicinity of the cantonments. The +requisition was complied with, and the Magazine fort furnished the enemy +with both arms and ammunition. + +The three stipulated days passed away, and still the British force +remained motionless in the cantonments. Macnaghten was bent on +procrastination, and circumstances seemed to favour a policy which to all +but himself was inexplicable. By the treaty, Shah Soojah was in effect +committed to withdraw to India, but soon after its acceptance the chiefs +had invited him to remain in Cabul as king, on the stipulation that he +should give his daughters in marriage to leaders of the malcontents. +After considerable deliberation, the Shah had consented to remain on the +condition named, but a few days later he withdrew his acceptance. His +vacillation increased the suspicions of the chiefs, and they demanded the +immediate evacuation of the cantonments, refusing to furnish provisions +until that was done. Meanwhile they sent in no transport animals, +although large sums had been handed over for their purchase. Our people +were still immobile, and already, on the 18th, there had occurred a fall +of snow several inches deep. + +The Envoy was engaged in strange and dubious intrigues, and since the +Afghans were not fulfilling their share of the treaty obligations, he +appears to have regarded himself as no longer bound by its conditions, +and free to try to obtain better terms from other sources, in pursuit of +which purpose he was expending money in a variety of directions. The dark +and unscrupulous Mohun Lal was his confidant and instrument. Akbar Khan +and the chiefs of his party had become aware of Macnaghten's +machinations, and they laid a snare for him into which he fell with open +eyes. Emissaries were sent to him with the sinister proposals that the +British should remain in Afghanistan until the spring, when they were to +withdraw as of their own accord; that the head of Ameenoolla Khan, one of +the most powerful and obnoxious of the rebel leaders, should be presented +to the Envoy in return for a stipulated sum of money; and that for all +those services the British Government should requite Akbar Khan with a +present of thirty lakhs of rupees, and an annual pension of four lakhs. +Macnaghten refused peremptorily the proffer of Ameenoolla's head, but did +not reject co-operation in that chiefs capture by a dubious device in +which British troops were to participate; he did not hesitate to accept +the general terms of the proposals; and he consented to hold a conference +with Akbar Khan on the following day to carry into effect the projected +measures. + +On the morning of the 23d the deceived and doomed man, accompanied by his +staff-officers, Lawrence, Trevor and Mackenzie, rode out from cantonments +to keep the fateful tryst on the bank of the Cabul river. His manner was +'distracted and hurried.' When he told Lawrence of the nature of the +affair on which he was going, that shrewd officer immediately warned him +that it was a plot against him. 'A plot!' he replied hastily, 'let me +alone for that; trust me for that!' and Lawrence desisted from useless +expostulation. Poor old Elphinstone had scented treachery; but the Envoy +had closed his mouth with the impatient words: 'I understand these things +better than you!' As he rode out, he admitted the danger of the +enterprise, but argued that if it succeeded it was worth all risks. 'At +all events,' he ended, 'let the loss be what it may, I would rather die a +hundred deaths than live the last six weeks over again.' The escort +halted, and the four British gentlemen advanced to the place of +rendezvous, whither came presently Akbar Khan and his party. Akbar began +the conference by asking the Envoy if he was ready to carry out the +proposals presented to him overnight. 'Why not?' was Sir William's short +reply. A number of Afghans, armed to the teeth, had gradually formed a +circle around the informal durbar. Lawrence and Mackenzie pointed out +this environment to some of the chiefs, who affected to drive off the +intruders with their whips; but Akbar observed that it did not matter, as +they 'were all in the secret.' 'Suddenly,' wrote Mackenzie, 'I heard +Akbar call out, "Begeer! begeer!" ("Seize! seize!") and turning round I +saw him grasp the Envoy's left hand with an expression on his face of the +most diabolical ferocity. I think it was Sultan Jan who laid hold of the +Envoy's right hand. They dragged him in a stooping posture down the +hillock, the only words I heard poor Sir William utter being, "Az barae +Khooda" ("For God's sake"). I saw his face, however, and it was full of +horror and astonishment.' Neither Mackenzie nor Lawrence, the surviving +companions of the Envoy, witnessed the actual end. 'Whether,' writes +Kaye, 'he died on the spot, or whether he was slain by the infuriated +ghazees, is not very clearly known; but the fanatics threw themselves on +the prostrate body and hacked it with their knives.' There is no doubt +that the head of the unfortunate Macnaghten was paraded in triumph +through the streets of Cabul, and that the mangled trunk, after being +dragged about the city, was hung up in the great bazaar. Of the three +officers who accompanied the Envoy to the conference, Trevor was +massacred, Lawrence and Mackenzie were saved with difficulty by friendly +chiefs, and brought into the city, where they and Captain Skinner joined +the hostages, Captains Connolly and Airey, under the safe roof of the +venerable Mahomed Zemaun Khan. + +That Akbar and the confederate chiefs spread a snare for the Envoy is +plain, and that they regarded his acceptance of their deceitful proposals +as a proof of his faithlessness to the treaty obligations to which he had +bound himself. It was no element in their reasoning that since they had +not regarded the treaty the British functionary might without breach of +faith hold that it did not bind him. But it is improbable that the murder +of Macnaghten was actually included in their scheme of action. Their +intention seems to have been to seize him as a hostage, with intent thus +to secure the evacuation of Afghanistan and the restoration of Dost +Mahomed. The ill-fated Envoy's expressions on his way to the rendezvous +indicate his unhinged state of mind. He went forth to sure treachery; +Akbar's gust of sudden fury converted the planned abduction into savage +murder, and his abrupt pistol bullet baulked the more wily and less +ruthless project which had probably been devised in cold blood. + +The escort brought back into cantonments tidings that the Envoy had been +seized. The garrison got under arms, and remained passive throughout the +day. The defences were manned at night, in the apprehension that the +noise and disturbance in the city portended an assault; but that clamour +was caused by the mustering of the Afghans in expectation that the +British would attack the city, bent on vengeance on the murderers of the +Envoy. Action of that nature was, however, wholly absent from the +prostrate minds of the military chiefs. On the following afternoon +Captain Lawrence transmitted certain overtures from the chiefs, as the +result of a conference held by them, when, notwithstanding severe +comments on the conduct of the Envoy, professions were made of sincere +regret for his death. With certain alterations and additions, the treaty +drawn up by Macnaghten was taken by the chiefs as the basis for the +negotiations which they desired to renew. Major Pottinger, as now the +senior 'political' with the force, was called on by General Elphinstone +to undertake the task of conducting negotiations with the Afghan leaders. +The high-souled Pottinger rose at the summons from the sickbed to which +he had been confined ever since his wonderful escape from Charikar, and +accepted the thankless and distasteful duty. It is not necessary to +recount the details of negotiations, every article and every stage of +which display the arrogance of the men who knew themselves masters of the +situation, and reveal not less the degrading humiliation to which was +submitting itself a strong brigade of British troops, whose arms were +still in the soldiers' hands, and over whose ranks hung banners blazoned +with victories that shall be memorable down the ages. On the sombre and +cheerless Christmas Day Pottinger rose in the council of men who wore +swords, and remonstrated with soldierly vigour and powerful argument +against the degrading terms which the chiefs had contumeliously thrown to +them. He produced letters from Jellalabad and Peshawur giving information +of reinforcements on the way from India, and urging the maintenance of +resistance. He argued that to conclude a treaty with the Afghans would be +a fatal error, and suggested two alternative courses which offered a +prospect of saving their honour and part of the army--the occupation of +the Balla Hissar, which was the preferable measure, or the abandonment of +camp, baggage, and encumbrances, and forcing a retreat down the passes. +The council--Pottinger must have written sarcastically when he termed it +a 'council of war'--unanimously decided that to remain in Cabul and to +force a retreat were alike impracticable, and that nothing remained but +the endeavour to release the army by agreeing to the conditions offered +by the enemy. 'Under these circumstances,' in the words of Pottinger, 'as +the Major-General coincided with the officers of the council, and refused +to attempt occupying the Balla Hissar, and as his second in command +declared that impracticable, I considered it my duty, notwithstanding my +repugnance to and disapproval of the measure, to yield, and attempt to +carry on a negotiation.' + +This Pottinger accordingly did. The first demand with which he had to +comply was to give bills for the great sums promised by the Envoy to the +chiefs for their services in furthering and supporting his treaty. This +imposition had to be submitted to, since the Afghans stopped the supplies +until the extortion was complied with. The next concession required was +the surrender of the artillery of the force, with the exception of six +field and three mule guns; and the military chiefs endured this +humiliation, against which even the demoralised soldiery chafed. Then the +demand for hostages had to be complied with, and four officers were sent +on to join the two hostages already in Afghan hands. The chiefs had +demanded four married hostages, with their wives and children, and a +circular was sent round offering to volunteers the inducement of a large +stipend; but the sentiment of repulsion was too strong to be overcome by +the bribe. The sick and wounded who could not bear the march were sent +into the city in accordance with an article of the treaty, two surgeons +accompanying their patients. + +The treaty, ratified by the leading chiefs and sent into cantonments on +New Year's Day 1842, provided that the British troops, within twenty-four +hours after receiving transport, and under the protection of certain +chiefs and an adequate escort, should begin their march of evacuation, +the Jellalabad garrison moving down to Peshawur in advance; that the six +hostages left in Cabul should be well treated, and liberated on the +arrival at Peshawur of Dost Mahomed; the sick and wounded left behind to +be at liberty to return to India on their recovery; all small arms and +ordnance stores in the cantonment magazine to be made over to the Afghans +'as a token of friendship,' on which account also, they were to have all +the British cannon except as above mentioned; the Afghans to escort the +Ghuznee garrison in safety to Peshawur; and a further stipulation was +that the British troops in Candahar and Western Afghanistan were to +resign the territories occupied by them and start quickly for India, +provisioned and protected from molestation by the way. + +Severe and humiliating as were those terms, they were not obtained +without difficulty. The terms put forward in the earlier drafts of the +treaty were yet more exacting, and the tone of the demands was abrupt, +contemptuous, and insulting. Pottinger had to plead, to entreat, to be +abject; to beg the masterful Afghans 'not to overpower the weak with +sufferings'; 'to be good enough to excuse the women from the suffering' +of remaining as hostages; and to entreat them 'not to forget kindness' +shown by us in former days. One blushes not for but with the gallant +Pottinger, loyally carrying out the miserable duty put upon him. The +shame was not his; it lay on the council of superior officers, who +overruled his remonstrances, and ground his face into the dust. + +Our people were made to pass under the yoke every hour of their wretched +lives during those last winter days in the Cabul cantonments. The +fanatics and the common folk of the city and its environs swarmed around +our petty ramparts, with their foul sneers and their blackguard taunts, +hurled with impunity from where they stood at the muzzles of the loaded +guns which the gunners were forbidden to fire. Officers and rank and file +were in a condition of smouldering fury, but no act of reprisal or +retribution was permitted. If the present was one continuous misery, the +future lowered yet more gloomily. It was of common knowledge as well in +the cantonments as in the city, that the engagements made by the chiefs +were not worth the paper on which they had been written, and that +treachery was being concerted against the force on its impending travail +through the passes. It was told by a chief to one of the officers who was +his friend, that Akbar Khan had sworn to have in his possession the +British ladies as security for the safe restoration of his own family and +relatives, and, strange forecast to be fulfilled almost to the very +letter, had vowed to annihilate every soldier of the British army with +the exception of one man, who should reach Jellalabad to tell the story +of the massacre of all his comrades. Pottinger was well aware how +desperate was the situation of the hapless people on whose behalf he had +bent so low his proud soul. Mohun Lal warned him of the treachery the +chiefs were plotting, and assured him that unless their sons should +accompany the army as hostages, it would be attacked on the march. Day +after day the departure was delayed, on the pretext that the chiefs had +not completed their preparations for the safe conduct of the force and +its encumbrances. Day after day the snow was falling with a quiet, +ruthless persistency. The bitter night frosts were destroying the sepoys +and the camp followers, their vitality weakened by semi-starvation and by +the lack of firewood which had long distressed them. At length on January +5th, Sturt the engineer officer got his instructions to throw down into +the ditch a section of the eastern rampart, and so furnish a freer exit +than the gates could afford. The supply of transport was inadequate, +provisions were scant, and the escort promised by the chiefs was not +forthcoming. Pottinger advised waiting yet a little longer, until +supplies and escort should arrive; but for once the military chiefs were +set against the policy of delay, and firm orders were issued that the +cantonments should be evacuated on the following day. + +Shah Soojah remained in Cabul. The resolution became him better than +anything else we know of the unfortunate man. It may be he reasoned that +he had a chance for life by remaining in the Balla Hissar, and that from +what he knew, there was no chance of life for anyone participating in the +fateful march. He behaved fairly by the British authorities, sending more +than one solemn warning pressing on them the occupation of the Balla +Hissar. And there was some dignity in his appeal to Brigadier Anquetil, +who commanded his own contingent, 'if it were well to forsake him in the +hour of need, and to deprive him of the aid of that force which he had +hitherto been taught to regard as his own?' + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE CATASTROPHE + +The ill-omened evacuation by our doomed people of the cantonments wherein +for two months they had undergone every extremity of humiliation and +contumely, was begun on the dreary winter morning of January 6th, 1842. +Snow lay deep on plain and hill-side; the cruel cold, penetrating through +the warmest clothing, bit fiercely into the debilitated and thinly clad +frames of the sepoys and the great horde of camp followers. The military +force which marched out of cantonments consisted of about 4500 armed men, +of whom about 690 were Europeans, 2840 native soldiers on foot, and 970 +native cavalrymen. The gallant troop of Company's Horse-Artillery marched +out with its full complement of six guns, to which, with three pieces of +the mountain train, the artillery arm of the departing force was +restricted by the degrading terms imposed by the Afghan chiefs. In good +heart and resolutely commanded, a body of disciplined troops thus +constituted, and of a fighting strength so respectable, might have been +trusted not only to hold its own against Afghan onslaught, but if +necessary to take the offensive with success. But alas, the heart of the +hapless force had gone to water, its discipline was a wreck, its chiefs +were feeble and apathetic; its steps were dogged by the incubus of some +12,000 camp followers, with a great company of women and children. The +awful fate brooded over its forlorn banners of expiating by its utter +annihilation, the wretched folly and sinister prosecution of the +enterprise whose deserved failure was to be branded yet deeper on the +gloomiest page of our national history, by the impending catastrophe of +which the dark shadow already lay upon the blighted column. + +The advance began to move out from cantonments at nine A.M. The march was +delayed at the river by the non-completion of the temporary bridge, and +the whole of the advance was not across until after noon. The main body +under Shelton, which was accompanied by the ladies, invalids, and sick, +slowly followed. It as well as the advance was disorganised from the +first by the throngs of camp followers with the baggage, who could not be +prevented from mixing themselves up with the troops. The Afghans occupied +the cantonments as portion after portion was evacuated by our people, +rending the air with their exulting cries, and committing every kind of +atrocity. It was late in the afternoon before the long train of camels +following the main body had cleared the cantonments; and meanwhile the +rear-guard was massed outside, in the space between the rampart and the +canal, among the chaos of already abandoned baggage. It was exposed there +to a vicious jezail fire poured into it by the Afghans, who abandoned the +pleasures of plunder and arson for the yet greater joy of slaughtering +the Feringhees. When the rear-guard moved away in the twilight, an +officer and fifty men were left dead in the snow, the victims of the +Afghan fire from the rampart of the cantonment; and owing to casualties +in the gun teams it had been found necessary to spike and abandon two of +the horse-artillery guns. + +The rear-guard, cut into from behind by the pestilent ghazees, found its +route encumbered with heaps of abandoned baggage around which swarmed +Afghan plunderers. Other Afghans, greedier for blood than for booty, were +hacking and slaying among the numberless sepoys and camp followers who +had dropped out of the column, and were lying or sitting on the wayside +in apathetic despair, waiting for death and careless whether it came to +them by knife or by cold. Babes lay on the snow abandoned by their +mothers, themselves prostrate and dying a few hundred yards further on. +It was not until two o'clock of the following morning that the rear-guard +reached the straggling and chaotic bivouac in which its comrades lay in +the snow at the end of the first short march of six miles. Its weary +progress had been illuminated by the conflagration raging in the +cantonments, which had been fired by the Afghan fanatics, rabid to erase +every relic of the detested unbelievers. + +It was a night of bitter cold. Out in the open among the snow, soldiers +and camp followers, foodless, fireless, and shelterless, froze to death +in numbers, and numbers more were frost-bitten. The cheery morning noise +of ordinary camp life was unheard in the mournful bivouac. Captain +Lawrence outlines a melancholy picture. 'The silence of the men betrayed +their despair and torpor. In the morning I found lying close to me, +stiff, cold, and quite dead, in full regimentals, with his sword drawn in +his hand, an old grey-haired conductor named Macgregor, who, utterly +exhausted, had lain down there silently to die.' Already defection had +set in. One of the Shah's infantry regiments and his detachment of +sappers and miners had deserted bodily, partly during the march of the +previous day, partly in the course of the night. + +No orders were given out, no bugle sounded the march, on the morning of +the 7th. The column heaved itself forward sluggishly, a mere mob of +soldiers, camp followers and cattle, destitute of any semblance of order +or discipline. Quite half the sepoys were already unfit for duty; in +hundreds they drifted in among the non-combatants and increased the +confusion. The advance of the previous day was now the rear-guard. After +plundering the abandoned baggage, the Afghans set to harassing the +rear-guard, whose progress was delayed by the disorderly multitude +blocking the road in front. The three mountain guns, temporarily +separated from the infantry, were captured by a sudden Afghan rush. In +vain Anquetil strove to rouse the 44th to make an effort for their +recapture. Green was more successful with his handful of artillerymen, +who followed him and the Brigadier and spiked the pieces, but being +unsupported were compelled a second time to abandon them. On this march +it became necessary also, from the exhaustion of their teams, to spike +and abandon two more of the horse-artillery guns; so that there now +remained with the force only a couple of six-pounders. While the +rear-guard was in action, a body of Afghan horse charged on the flank, +right into the heart of the baggage column, swept away much plunder, and +spread confusion and dismay far and wide. The rear of the column would +probably have been entirely cut off, but that reinforcements from the +advance under Shelton pushed back the enemy, and by crowning the lateral +heights kept open the thoroughfare. At Bootkhak was found Akbar Khan, who +professed to have been commissioned to escort the force to Jellalabad, +and who blamed our people for having marched out prematurely from the +cantonments. He insisted on the halt of the column at Bootkhak until the +following morning, when he would provide supplies, but he demanded an +immediate subsidy of 15,000 rupees, and that Pottinger, Lawrence and +Mackenzie should be given up to him as hostages that the force would not +march beyond Tezeen until tidings should arrive that Sale had evacuated +Jellalabad. Those officers by the General's instructions joined the +Afghan chief on the following morning, and Akbar's financial requisition +was obsequiously fulfilled. After two days' marching our people, who had +brought out with them provisions for but five and a half days, expecting +within that time to reach Jellalabad, were only ten miles forward on +their march. + +Another night passed, with its train of horrors--starvation, cold, +exhaustion, death. Lady Sale relates that scarcely any of the baggage now +remained; that there was no food for man or beast; that snow lay a foot +deep on the ground; that even water from the adjacent stream was +difficult to obtain, as the carriers were fired on in fetching it; and +that she thought herself fortunate in being sheltered in a small tent in +which 'we slept nine, all touching each other.' Daylight brought merely a +more bitter realisation of utter misery. Eyre expresses his wonderment at +the effect of two nights' exposure to the frost in disorganising the +force. 'It had so nipped even the strongest men as to completely +prostrate their powers and incapacitate them for service; even the +cavalry, who suffered less than the rest, were obliged to be lifted on +their horses.' In fact, only a few hundred serviceable men remained. At +the sound of hostile fire the living struggled to their feet from their +lairs in the snow, stiffened with cold, all but unable to move or hold a +weapon, leaving many of their more fortunate comrades stark in death. A +turmoil of confusion reigned. The Afghans were firing into the rear of +the mass, and there was a wild rush of camp followers to the front, who +stripped the baggage cattle of their loads and carried the animals off, +leaving the ground strewn with ammunition, treasure, plate, and other +property. The ladies were no longer carried in litters and palanquins, +for their bearers were mostly dead; they sat in the bullet fire packed +into panniers slung on camels, invalids as some of them were--one poor +lady with her baby only five days old. Mess stores were being recklessly +distributed, and Lady Sale honestly acknowledges that, as she sat on her +horse in the cold, she felt very grateful for a tumbler of sherry, which +at any other time would have made her 'very unladylike,' but which now +merely warmed her. Cups full of sherry were drunk by young children +without in the least affecting their heads, so strong on them was the +hold of the cold. + +It was not until noon that the living mass of men and animals was once +more in motion. The troops were in utter disorganisation; the baggage was +mixed up with the advance guard; the camp followers were pushing ahead in +precipitate panic. The task before the wretched congeries of people was +to thread the stupendous gorge of the Khoord Cabul pass--a defile about +five miles long, hemmed in on either hand by steeply scarped hills. Down +the bottom of the ravine dashed a mountain torrent, whose edges were +lined with thick layers of ice, on which had formed glacier-like masses +of snow. The 'Jaws of Death' were barely entered when the slaughter +began. With the advance rode several Afghan chiefs, whose followers, by +their command, shouted to the Ghilzais lining the heights to hold their +fire, but the tribesmen gave no heed to the mandate. Lady Sale rode with +the chiefs. The Ghilzai fire at fifty yards was close and deadly. The men +of the advance fell fast. Lady Sale had a bullet in her arm, and three +more through her dress. But the weight of the hostile fire fell on the +main column, the baggage escort, and the rear-guard. Some of the ladies, +who mostly were on camels which were led with the column, had strange +adventures. On one camel was quite a group. In one of its panniers were +Mrs Boyd and her little son, in the other Mrs Mainwaring, with her own +infant and Mrs Anderson's eldest child. The camel fell, shot. A +Hindustanee trooper took up Mrs Boyd _en croupe_, and carried her through +in safety; another horseman behind whom her son rode, was killed, and the +boy fell into Afghan hands. The Anderson girl shared the same fate. Mrs +Mainwaring, with her baby in her arms, attempted to mount a baggage pony, +but the load upset, and she pursued her way on foot. An Afghan horseman +rode at her, threatened her with his sword, and tried to drag away the +shawl in which she carried her child. She was rescued by a sepoy +grenadier, who shot the Afghan dead, and then conducted the poor lady +along the pass through the dead and dying, through, also, the close fire +which struck down people near to her, almost to the exit of the pass, +when a bullet killed the chivalrous sepoy, and Mrs Mainwaring had to +continue her tramp to the bivouac alone. + +A very fierce attack was made on the rear-guard, consisting of the 44th. +In the narrow throat of the pass the regiment was compelled to halt by a +block in front, and in this stationary position suffered severely. A +flanking fire told heavily on the handful of European infantry. The +belated stragglers masked their fire, and at length the soldiers fell +back, firing volleys indiscriminately into the stragglers and the +Afghans. Near the exit of the pass a commanding position was maintained +by some detachments which still held together, strengthened by the only +gun now remaining, the last but one having been abandoned in the gorge. +Under cover of this stand the rear of the mass gradually drifted forward +while the Afghan pursuit was checked, and at length all the surviving +force reached the camping ground. There had been left dead in the pass +about 500 soldiers and over 2500 camp followers. + +Akbar and the chiefs, taking the hostages with them, rode forward on the +track of the retreating force. Akbar professed that his object was to +stop the firing, but Mackenzie writes that Pottinger said to him: +'Mackenzie, remember if I am killed that I heard Akbar Khan shout "Slay +them!" in Pushtoo, although in Persian he called out to stop the firing.' +The hostages had to be hidden away from the ferocious ghazees among rocks +in the ravine until near evening, when in passing through the region of +the heaviest slaughter they 'came upon one sight of horror after another. +All the bodies were stripped. There were children cut in two. Hindustanee +women as well as men--some frozen to death, some literally chopped to +pieces, many with their throats cut from ear to ear.' + +Snow fell all night on the unfortunates gathered tentless on the Khoord +Cabul camping ground. On the morning of the 9th the confused and +disorderly march was resumed, but after a mile had been traversed a halt +for the day was ordered at the instance of Akbar Khan, who sent into camp +by Captain Skinner a proposal that the ladies and children, with whose +deplorable condition he professed with apparent sincerity to sympathise, +should be made over to his protection, and that the married officers +should accompany their wives; he pledging himself to preserve the party +from further hardships and dangers, and afford its members safe escort +through the passes in rear of the force. The General had little faith in +the Sirdar, but he was fain to give his consent to an arrangement which +promised alleviation to the wretchedness of the ladies, scarce any of +whom had tasted a meal since leaving Cabul. Some, still weak from +childbirth, were nursing infants only a few days old; other poor +creatures were momentarily apprehending the pangs of motherhood. There +were invalids whose only attire, as they rode in the camel panniers or +shivered on the snow, was the nightdresses they wore when leaving the +cantonments in their palanquins, and none possessed anything save the +clothes on their backs. It is not surprising, then, that dark and +doubtful as was the future to which they were consigning themselves, the +ladies preferred its risks and chances to the awful certainties which lay +before the doomed column. The Afghan chief had cunningly made it a +condition of his proffer that the husbands should accompany their wives, +and if there was a struggle in the breasts of the former between public +and private duties, the General humanely decided the issue by ordering +them to share the fortunes of their families. + +Akbar Khan sent in no supplies, and the march was resumed on the morning +of the both by a force attenuated by starvation, cold, and despair, +diminished further by extensive desertion. After much exertion the +advance, consisting of all that remained of the 44th, the solitary gun, +and a detachment of cavalry, forced a passage to the front through the +rabble of camp followers, and marched unmolested for about two miles +until the Tunghee Tariki was reached, a deep gorge not more than ten feet +wide. Men fell fast in the horrid defile, struck down by the Afghan fire +from the heights; but the pass, if narrow, was short, and the advance +having struggled through it moved on to the halting-place at +Kubbar-i-Jubbar, and waited there for the arrival of the main body. But +that body was never to emerge from out the shambles in the narrow throat +of the Tunghee Tariki. The advance was to learn from the few stragglers +who reached it the ghastly truth that it now was all that remained of the +strong brigade which four days before had marched out from the Cabul +cantonments. The slaughter from the Afghan fire had blocked the gorge +with dead and dying. The Ghilzai tribesmen, at the turn into the pen at +the other end of which was the blocked gorge, had closed up fiercely. +Then the steep slopes suddenly swarmed with Afghans rushing sword in hand +down to the work of butchery, and the massacre stinted not while living +victims remained. The rear-guard regiment of sepoys was exterminated, +save for two or three desperately wounded officers who contrived to reach +the advance. + +The remnant of the army consisted now of about seventy files of the 44th, +about 100 troopers, and a detachment of horse-artillery with a single +gun. The General sent to Akbar Khan to remonstrate with him on the attack +he had allowed to be made after having guaranteed that the force should +meet with no further molestation. Akbar protested his regret, and pleaded +his inability to control the wild Ghilzai hillmen, over whom, in their +lust for blood and plunder, their own chiefs had lost all control; but he +was willing to guarantee the safe conduct to Jellalabad of the European +officers and men if they would lay down their arms and commit themselves +wholly into his hands. This sinister proposal the General refused, and +the march was continued, led in disorder by the remnant of the camp +followers. In the steep descent from the Huft Kotul into the Tezeen +ravine, the soldiers following the rabble at some distance, came suddenly +on a fresh butchery. The Afghans had suddenly fallen on the confused +throng, and the descent was covered with dead and dying. + +During the march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar to the Tezeen valley Shelton's +dogged valour had mainly saved the force from destruction. With a few +staunch soldiers of his own regiment, the one-armed veteran, restored now +to his proper _métier_ of stubborn fighting man, had covered the rear and +repelled the Ghilzai assaults with persevering energy and dauntless +fortitude. And he it was who now suggested, since Akbar Khan still held +to his stipulation that the force should lay down its arms, that a +resolute effort should be made to press on to Jugdulluk by a rapid night +march of four-and-twenty miles, in the hope of clearing the passes in +that vicinity before the enemy should have time to occupy them. + +That the attempt would prove successful was doubtful, since the force was +already exhausted; but it was the last chance, and Shelton's suggestion +was adopted. In the early moonlight the march silently began, an ill omen +marking the start in the shape of the forced abandonment of the last gun. +Fatal delay occurred between Seh Baba and Kutti Sung because of a panic +among the camp followers, who, scared by a few shots, drifted backwards +and forwards in a mass, retarding the progress of the column and for the +time entirely arresting the advance of Shelton's and his rear-guard. The +force could not close up until the morning, ten miles short of Jugdulluk, +and already the Afghans were swarming on every adjacent height. All the +way down the broken slope to Jugdulluk the little column trudged through +the gauntlet of jezail fire which lined the road with dead and wounded. +Shelton and his rear-guard handful performed wonders, again and again +fending off with close fire and levelled bayonets the fierce rushes of +Ghilzais charging sword in hand. The harassed advance reached Jugdulluk +in the afternoon of the 11th, and took post behind some ruins on a height +by the roadside, the surviving officers forming line in support of the +gallant rear-guard struggling forward through its environment of +assailants. As Shelton and his brave fellows burst through the cordon +they were greeted by cheers from the knoll. But there was no rest for the +exhausted people, for the Afghans promptly occupied commanding positions +whence they maintained a fire from which the ruins afforded but scant +protection. To men parched with thirst the stream at the foot of their +knoll was but a tantalising aggravation, for to attempt to reach it was +certain death. The snow they devoured only increased their sufferings, +and but little stay was afforded by the raw flesh of a few gun bullocks. +Throughout the day volley after volley was poured down upon the weary +band by the inexorable enemy. Frequent sallies were made, and the heights +were cleared, but the positions were soon reoccupied and the ruthless +fire was renewed. + +Captain Skinner, summoned by Akbar, brought back a message that General +Elphinstone should visit him to take part in a conference, and that +Brigadier Shelton and Captain Johnson should be given over as hostages +for the evacuation of Jellalabad. Compliance was held to be imperative, +and the temporary command was entrusted to Brigadier Anquetil. Akbar was +extremely hospitable to his compulsory guests; but he insisted on +including the General among his hostages, and was not moved by +Elphinstone's representations that he would prefer death to the disgrace +of being separated from his command in its time of peril. The Ghilzai +chiefs came into conference burning with hatred against the British, and +revelling in the anticipated delights of slaughtering them. Akbar seemed +sincere in his effort to conciliate them, but was long unsuccessful. +Their hatred seemed indeed stronger than their greed; but at length +toward nightfall Akbar announced that pacific arrangements had been +accepted by the tribes, and that what remained of the force should be +allowed to march unmolested to Jellalabad. + +How futile was the compact, if indeed there was any compact, was soon +revealed. The day among the ruins on the knoll had passed in dark and +cruel suspense--in hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, in the presence of +frequent death; and as the evening fell, in anguish and all but utter +despair. As darkness set in the conviction enforced itself that to remain +longer in the accursed place was madness; and the little band, leaving +behind perforce the sick and wounded, marched out, resolute to push +through or die fighting. In the valley the only molestation at first was +a desultory fire from the camping Ghilzais, who were rather taken by +surprise, but soon became wide awake to their opportunities. Some hurried +forward to occupy the pass rising from the valley to the Jugdulluk crest; +others, hanging on the rear and flanks of the column encumbered with its +fatal incubus of camp followers, mixed among the unarmed throng with +their deadly knives, and killed and plundered with the dexterity of long +practice. Throughout the tedious march up the steeply rising defile a +spattering fire came from the rocks and ridges flanking the track, all +but blocked by the surging concourse of miserable followers. The advance +had to employ cruel measures to force its way through the chaos toward +the crest. As it is approached from the Jugdulluk direction the flanking +elevations recede and merge in the transverse ridge, which is crowned by +a low-cut abrupt rocky upheaval, worn down somewhat where the road passes +over the crest by the friction of traffic. Just here the tribesmen had +constructed a formidable abattis of prickly brushwood, which stretched +athwart the road, and dammed back the fugitives in the shallow oval basin +between the termination of the ravine and the summit of the ridge. In +this trap were caught our hapless people and the swarm of their native +followers, and now the end was very near. From behind the barrier, and +around the lip of the great trap, the hillmen fired their hardest into +the seething mass of soldiers and followers writhing in the awful Gehenna +on which the calm moon shone down. On the edges of this whirlpool of +death the fell Ghilzais were stabbing and hacking with the ferocious +industry inspired by thirst for blood and lust for plunder. It is among +the characteristics of our diverse-natured race to die game, and even to +thrill with a strange fierce joy when hope of escape from death has all +but passed away and there remains only to sell life at the highest +possible premium of exchange. Among our people, face to face with death +on the rocky Jugdulluk, officers and soldiers alike fought with cool +deadly rancour. The brigadier and the private engaged in the same fierce +_mêlée_, fought side by side, and fell side by side. Stalwart Captain +Dodgin of the 44th slew five Afghans before he fell. Captain Nicholl of +the horse-artillery, gunless now, rallied to him the few staunch gunners +who were all that remained to him of his noble and historic troop, and +led them on to share with him a heroic death. + +All did not perish on the rugged summit of the Jugdulluk. The barrier was +finally broken through, and a scant remnant of the force wrought out its +escape from the slaughter-pit. Small detachments, harassed by sudden +onslaughts, and delayed by reluctance to desert wounded comrades, were +trudging in the darkness down the long slope to the Soorkhab. The morning +of the 13th dawned near Gundamuk on the straggling group of some twenty +officers and forty-five European soldiers. Its march arrested by sharp +attacks, the little band moved aside to occupy a defensive position on an +adjacent hillock. A local sirdar invited the senior officer to consult +with him as to a pacific arrangement, and while Major Griffiths was +absent on this errand there was a temporary suspension of hostilities. +The Afghans meanwhile swarmed around the detachment with a pretence of +friendship, but presently attempts were made to snatch from the soldiers +their arms. This conduct was sternly resented, and the Afghans were +forced back. They ascended an adjacent elevation and set themselves to +the work of deliberately picking off officer after officer, man after +man. The few rounds remaining in the pouches of the soldiers were soon +exhausted, but the detachment stood fast, and calmly awaited the +inevitable end. Rush after rush was driven back from its steadfast front, +but at last, nearly all being killed or wounded, a final onset of the +enemy, sword in hand, terminated the struggle, and completed the dismal +tragedy. Captain Souter of the 44th, with three or four privates all of +whom as well as himself were wounded, was spared and carried into +captivity; he saved the colours of his regiment, which he had tied round +his waist before leaving Jugdulluk. A group of mounted officers had +pushed forward as soon as they had cleared the barrier on the crest. Six +only reached Futtehabad in safety. There they were treacherously offered +food, and while they halted a few moments to eat two were cut down. Of +the four who rode away three were overtaken and killed within four miles +of Jellalabad; one officer alone survived to reach that haven of refuge. + +The ladies, the married officers, and the original hostages, followed +Akbar Khan down the passes toward Jugdulluk, pursuing the line of retreat +strewn with its ghastly tokens of slaughter, and recognising almost at +every step the bodies of friends and comrades. At Jugdulluk they found +General Elphinstone, Brigadier Shelton, and Captain Johnson, and learned +the fate which had overtaken the marching force. On the following day +Akbar quitted Jugdulluk with his hostages and the ladies, all of whom +were virtually prisoners, and rode away through the mountains in a +northerly direction. On the fourth day the fort of Budiabad in the +Lughman valley was reached, where Akbar left the prisoners while he went +to attempt the reduction of Jellalabad. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD + +Sale's brigade, retreating from Gundamuk, reached Jellalabad on the 12th +November 1841. An investigation into the state of the fortifications of +that place showed them, in their existing condition, to be incapable of +resisting a vigorous assault. But it was resolved to occupy the place, +and to Captain George Broadfoot, as garrison engineer, was committed the +duty of making it defensible. This assuredly was no light task. The +enciente was far too extensive for the slender garrison, and its tracing +was radically bad. The ramparts were so dilapidated that in places they +were scarcely discernible, and the ruins strewn over what should have +been the glacis afforded near cover to assailants, whose attitude was +already so threatening as to hinder the beginning of repairing +operations. Their fire swept the defences, and their braves capered +derisively to the strains of a bagpipe on the adjacent rocky elevation, +which thenceforth went by the name of 'Piper's Hill.' A sortie on the +15th cleared the environs of the troublesome Afghans, supplies began to +come in, and Broad-foot was free to set his sappers to the task of +repairing the fortifications, in which work the entrenching tools he had +wrenched from the Cabul stores proved invaluable. How greatly Sale had +erred in shutting up his force in Jellalabad was promptly demonstrated. +The connecting posts of Gundamuk and Peshbolak had to be evacuated; and +thus, from Jumrood at the foot of the Khyber up to Cabul, there remained +no intermediate post in British possession with the solitary exception of +Jellalabad, and communications were entirely interrupted except through +the medium of furtive messengers. + +The Jellalabad garrison was left unmolested for nearly a fortnight, and +the repairs were well advanced when on the 29th the Afghans came down, +invested the place, and pushed their skirmishers close up to the walls. +On December 1st Colonel Dennie headed a sortie, which worsted the +besiegers with considerable slaughter and drove them from the vicinity. +Bad news came at intervals from Cabul, and at the new year arrived a +melancholy letter from Pottinger, confirming the rumours already rife of +the murder of the Envoy, and of the virtual capitulation to which the +Cabul force had submitted. A week later an official communication was +received from Cabul, signed by General Elphinstone and Major Pottinger, +formally announcing the convention which the Cabul force had entered into +with the chiefs, and ordering the garrison of Jellalabad forthwith to +evacuate that post and retire to Peshawur, leaving behind with 'the new +Governor,' an Afghan chief who was the bearer of the humiliating missive, +the fortress guns and such stores and baggage as there lacked transport +to remove. The council of war summoned by Sale was unanimous in favour of +non-compliance with this mandate. Broadfoot urged with vigour that an +order by a superior who was no longer a free agent and who issued it +under duress, could impose no obligation of obedience. Sale pronounced +himself untrammelled by a convention forced from people 'with knives at +their throats,' and was resolute in the expression of his determination +to hold Jellalabad unless ordered by the Government to withdraw. + +More and more ominous tidings poured in from Cabul. A letter received on +January both reported the Cabul force to be still in the cantonments, +living utterly at the mercy of the Afghans; another arriving on the 12th +told of the abandonment of the cantonments and the beginning of the +march, but that the forlorn wayfarers were lingering in detention at +Bootkhak, halted in their misery by the orders of Akbar Khan. Those +communications in a measure prepared the people in Jellalabad for +disaster, but not for the awful catastrophe of which Dr Brydon had to +tell, when in the afternoon of the 13th the lone man, whose approach to +the fortress Lady Butler's painting so pathetically depicts, rode through +the Cabul gate of Jellalabad. Dr Brydon was covered with cuts and +contusions, and was utterly exhausted. His first few hasty sentences +extinguished all hope in the hearts of the listeners regarding their +Cabul comrades and friends. + +There was naturally great excitement in Jellalabad, but no panic. The +working parties were called in, the assembly was sounded, the gates were +closed, the walls were lined, and the batteries were manned; for it was +believed for the moment that the enemy were in full pursuit of fugitives +following in Brydon's track. The situation impressed Broadfoot with the +conviction that a crisis had come in the fortunes of the Jellalabad +garrison. He thought it his duty to lay before the General the conditions +of the critical moment which he believed to have arrived, pointing out to +him that the imperative alternatives were that he should either firmly +resolve on the defence of Jellalabad to the last extremity, or that he +should make up his mind to a retreat that very night, while as yet +retreat was practicable. Sale decided on holding on to the place, and +immediately announced to the Commander-in-Chief his resolve to persevere +in a determined defence, relying on the promise of the earliest possible +relief. + +Because of the defection of his Sikh auxiliaries and the +faint-heartedness of his sepoys, Wild's efforts to cross the threshold of +the Khyber had failed, and with the tidings of his failure there came to +Sale the information that the effort for his relief must be indefinitely +postponed. It may be assumed that this intimation weakened in some degree +the General's expressed resolution to hold Jellalabad with determination, +and it is not to be denied that this resolution was in a measure +conditional on the not unwarranted expectation of early relief. Neither +he nor his adviser Macgregor appears to have realised how incumbent on +the garrison of Jellalabad it was to hold out to the last extremity, +irrespective of consequences to itself, unless it should receive a +peremptory recall from higher authority; or to have recognised the +glorious opportunity presented of inspiriting by its staunch constancy +and high-souled self-abnegation a weak government staggering under a +burden of calamity. Than Sale no braver soldier ever wore sword, but a +man may delight to head a forlorn hope and yet lack nerve to carry with +high heart a load of responsibility; nor was Macgregor so constituted as +to animate his chief to noble emprise. Fast on the heels of the gloomy +tidings from the Khyber mouth there came to them from Shah Soojah, who +was still the nominal sovereign at Cabul, a curt peremptory letter +obviously written under compulsion, of which the following were the +terms: 'Your people have concluded a treaty with us; you are still in +Jellalabad; what are your intentions? Tell us quickly.' + +Sale summoned a council of war, which assembled at his quarters on +January 27th. Its proceedings were recorded, and the documents laid +before it were preserved by Captain Henry Havelock in his capacity as +Sale's staff-officer. Record and papers were reclaimed from Havelock's +custody by General Sale before the evacuation of Afghanistan, and had +been long lost to sight. They have recently been deposited among the +records of the India Office, but not before their latest non-official +possessor had published some extracts from them. It is to be hoped that +the more important documents may be given to the public in full, since +passages from documents, whether intentionally or not, may be so +extracted as to be misleading. Broadfoot, who had been a member of the +council of war, and who was apparently aware of the suppression of the +official records, wrote in 1843 a detailed narrative of its proceedings +while his recollection of them was still fresh, and this narrative he +sent to Havelock, desiring him to note 'any points erroneously stated, +distinguishing between what you may merely not remember and what you know +I am mistaken in.' Havelock, who was a loyal and ardent admirer of +General Sale, having sparsely annotated Broadfoot's narrative, returned +it with the statement that he had compared it with memoranda still in his +possession, and that he considered that it 'contributes a fair and +correct statement of that which occurred.' The officers comprising the +council to whom Sale and Macgregor addressed themselves were Colonel +Dennie of the 13th, Colonel Monteath of the 35th N.I., Captains Backhouse +and Abbott of the artillery, Captain Oldfield commanding the cavalry, and +Captain Broadfoot the garrison engineer. The following is a summary of +the proceedings, as recorded by Broadfoot and authenticated by Havelock. + +After a few formal words from General Sale, he called on Macgregor to +submit a matter on which that political officer and himself were agreed. +Macgregor then described the situation from the point of view of Sale and +himself, and expressed their united conviction that nothing was to be +hoped for from the Government. Reserving his own liberty of action, he +sought the opinion of the officers on offers received from Akbar Khan to +treat for the evacuation of Afghanistan, and he laid before them a draft +answer to Shah Soojah's curt letter, professing the readiness of the +garrison to evacuate Jellalabad on his requisition, since it was held +only for him, but naming certain conditions: the exchange of hostages, +the restoration of British prisoners and hostages in exchange for the +Afghan hostages on arrival of the force at Peshawur, escort thither 'in +safety and honour,' with arms, colours, and guns, and adequate assistance +of supplies and transport. Both Sale and Macgregor frankly owned that +they were resolved to yield, and negotiate for safe retreat. + +Great excitement from the first had pervaded the assemblage, and when +Macgregor had finished his statement Broadfoot arose in his wrath. He +declined to believe that the Government had abandoned the Jellalabad +garrison to its fate, and there was a general outburst of indignation +when Sale produced a letter carrying that significance. Broadfoot waxed +so warm in his remonstrances against the proposed action that an +adjournment was agreed to. Next day Sale and Macgregor urged that it was +impossible to hold out much longer, that later retreat would be +impracticable, and that the scheme they proposed was safe and honourable. +Broadfoot denounced it as disgraceful, contended that they could hold +Jellalabad indefinitely--'could colonise if they liked'--and retreat at +discretion. He denied that the place was held for Shah Soojah, and +challenged their right to surrender the post unless by Government order. +Hostages he proclaimed worthless while the Afghans held heavier pledges +of ours in the shape of prisoners and hostages. He denounced as +disgraceful the giving of hostages on our part. Monteath's remark that +nobody would go as a hostage roused Oldfield to express himself tersely +but pointedly on the subject. 'I for one,' he exclaimed in great +agitation, 'will fight here to the last drop of my blood, but I plainly +declare that I will never be a hostage, and I am surprised that anyone +should propose such a thing, or regard an Afghan's word as worth +anything.' The resolution to treat for the abandonment of Jellalabad was +carried, Oldfield only voting with Broadfoot against it, but the +stipulations: regarding hostages were omitted. Broadfoot continued to +press modifications of the conditions set out in the proposed reply, +pleading, but in vain, that the restoration of the prisoners in Afghan +hands before departure of the garrison should be insisted on; and that +since evacuation was resolved on, it should at least be conducted as a +military operation, and not degradingly under escort. Then, and little +wonder, he objected to expressions in the draft letter as too abject, and +he was successful in procuring the alteration of them. The letter was +written out, signed by Macgregor, and despatched to Cabul. It was agreed +that those members of the council who chose to do should record in +writing the reasons for their votes, and this was done by Dennie, +Monteath, Abbott, and Broadfoot. + +Broadfoot, pending an answer from Cabul, set the garrison to work in +digging a ditch round the fortifications. The reply from the Shah, to the +effect 'If you are sincere in offers, let all the chief gentlemen affix +their seals,' was laid before the reassembled council on February 12th. +The implied imputation on the good faith of British officers might well +have stung to indignation the meekest; but the council's opinion was +taken as to the expediency of complying with the derogatory request made +by the Shah, as well as of a stipulation--a modification of what +Broadfoot had originally urged in vain--for the surrender of all +prisoners, hostages, sick, and wounded under detention in Afghanistan, on +the arrival at Peshawur of the Jellalabad brigade. The members of +council, who in the long interval since the previous meeting had been +gradually regaining their self-respect and mental equipoise, unanimously +declined to accept the proposals tendered them by their commanding +officer and his political ally; and a letter written by Monteath was +accepted, which 'was not a continuation of the negotiation.' + +Thus ended the deliberations of the memorable council of war, whose +eleventh hour resolve to 'hold the fort' mainly averted the ruin of +British prestige in India and throughout the regions bordering on our +Eastern Empire; and the credit of its final decision to repudiate the +humiliating proposals of Sale and Macgregor belongs to George Broadfoot, +who was firmly though silently backed by Havelock. The day after that +decision was formulated a letter came from Peshawur informing the +garrison that every effort would be made for its relief; and thenceforth +there was no more talk of surrender, nor was the courage of the little +brigade impaired even when the earthquake of February 19th shook the +newly repaired fortifications into wreck. Broadfoot's vehement energy +infected the troops, and by the end of the month the parapets were +entirely restored, the bastions repaired, and every battery +re-established. + +After the council of war had rejected the proposals laid before it, a +decision which in effect involved the maintenance of the defence to the +last extremity, nearly two months passed without the occurrence of any +important event, except the speedily retrieved misfortune of the +earthquake of February 19th. The close investment of the place by Akbar +Khan thwarted the efforts of the foraging parties to obtain much needed +supplies. Those efforts were not vigorous, for Sale, aware of his +garrison's poverty of ammunition, was bent on a passive defence, and +steadily refused his consent to vigorous sorties. The policy may have had +its abstract merits, but it was certainly unsatisfactory in this respect, +that perseverance in it involved the unpleasantness of apparently +inevitable starvation. General Pollock had arrived in Peshawur, and was +making energetic efforts to get his force in order for the accomplishment +of the relief of Jellalabad. But he foresaw serious delays, and so late +as the middle of March was still unable to specify with any definiteness +the probable date of his arrival at that place. The European troops in +Jellalabad would be out of meat rations early in April, and Havelock's +calculation was that the grain, on which mainly subsisted the native +soldiers, who had been on half rations since the new year, would be +exhausted before the middle of that month. Sale modified his policy of +inactivity when he learned that the blockading Afghans were attempting to +drive a mine under a salient of the defences, and Dennie on March 11th +led out a sally, destroyed the works, and thrust back Akbar's +encroachments. The general lack of vigour, however, on the garrison's +part emboldened the Afghans so much that they actually grazed their +flocks of sheep within 600 yards of the walls. This was too impudent, and +the General consented to a raid, which resulted in the acquisition of +some 500 sheep, an invaluable addition to the commissariat resources. It +is worth recording that the native regiment gave up its share of the +sheep to the soldiers of the 13th, on the ground that Europeans needed +animal food more than did natives of India. + +On April 6th the Afghan leader fired a salute in triumph for a +supposititious repulse of Pollock in the Khyber. In regard to what then +happened there is a strange conflict of testimony. General Sale, in a +private letter written six weeks later, states: 'I made my arrangements +with Macgregor to sally the next day, provided we did not hear that +Pollock had forced the pass.' Akbar's salutes, and the information of +spies that Pollock had fallen back, 'made us look very grave--our case +desperate, our provisions nearly out, and no relief at hand. I therefore +decided to play a bold stroke to relieve ourselves, and give courage to +Pollock's force in case of success. If we failed in thrashing Akbar, we +would have left our bones on the field.' Abbott's diary of April 5th and +6th records that spies reported that Pollock had been repulsed at Ali +Musjid, and that the heads of three of his officers had been sent in to +Akbar, whereupon 'all the commanding officers waited on the General, +beseeching him to attack Akbar instantly. The 13th and the battery got +all ready for work, but the old General was obstinate, and refused to +act.' Backhouse's diary (April 6th) mentions that Pollock having been +reported repulsed, and Akbar having fired a salute, the officers +commanding corps and detachments went in a body and proposed to the +General to attack Akbar instantly, but without success. 'Immediately the +matter was broached, the General set his face against anything of the +kind, and disagreed about every point--insisted that the enemy had 5000 +or 6000 men in camp, and were too strong for us; and then, the next +minute, that it was no use going out as we couldn't punish them, as they +_wouldn't stand_; and concluding with usual excuse for inactivity, "It +isn't our game." Words ran precious high....' + +Whether spontaneously or under pressure, General Sale must have ordered a +sortie in force; for at dawn of the 7th three infantry columns marched +out by the Cabul gate, the right commanded by Havelock, the centre by +Dennie, the left by Monteath, General Sale being in command of the whole +force. Akbar, reputed about 5000 strong, was in formation in front of his +camp about three miles west of Jellalabad, his left flank resting on the +river, with an advanced post of 300 men in the 'patched up' fort about +midway between his camp and Jellalabad. The prescribed tactics were to +march straight on the enemy, with which Monteath and Havelock complied; +but Dennie, whether with or without orders is a matter in dispute, +diverged to assail the 'patched up' fort. The outer defences were +carried, gallant old Dennie riding at the head of his men to receive his +death wound. In vain did the guns for which Sale had sent batter at the +inner keep, and the General abandoning the attempt to reduce it, led on +in person the centre column. Meanwhile Havelock and Monteath had been +moving steadily forward, until halted by orders when considerably +advanced. Havelock had to form square once and again against the Afghan +horsemen, who, however, did not dare to charge home. The artillery came +to the front at the gallop, and poured shot and shell into Akbar's mass. +The three columns, now abreast of each other, deployed into line, and +moving forward at the double in the teeth of the Afghan musketry fire, +swept the enemy clean out of his position, capturing his artillery, +firing his camp, and putting him to utter rout. Akbar, by seven o'clock +in the April morning, had been signally beaten in the open field by the +troops he had boasted of blockading in the fortress. + +The garrison of Jellalabad had thus wrought out its own relief. +Thenceforth it experienced neither annoyance nor scarcity. Pollock +arrived a fortnight after the dashing sally which had given the garrison +deliverance, and the head of his column was played into its camp on the +Jellalabad plain by the band of the 13th, to the significant tune 'Oh, +but ye've been lang o'coming.' The magniloquent Ellenborough dubbed +Sale's brigade 'the Illustrious Garrison,' and if the expression is +overstrained, its conduct was without question eminently creditable. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE + +It was little wonder that the unexpected tidings of the Cabul outbreak, +and the later shock of the catastrophe in the passes, should have +temporarily unnerved the Governor-General. But Lord Auckland rallied his +energies with creditable promptitude. His successor was on the voyage +out, and in the remnant of his term that remained he could not do more +than make dispositions which his successor might find of service. Every +soldier of the 'Army of Retribution' was despatched to the frontier +during Lord Auckland's rule. Lord Auckland appointed to the command of +the troops which he was sending forward a quiet, steadfast, experienced +officer of the artillery arm, who had fought under Lake at Deig and +Bhurtpore, and during his forty years of honest service had soldiered +steadily from the precipices of Nepaul to the rice-swamps of the +Irrawaddy. Pollock was essentially the fitting man for the service that +lay before him, characterised as he was by strong sense, shrewd sagacity, +calm firmness, and self-command. When his superior devolved on him an +undue onus of responsibility he was to prove himself thoroughly equal to +the occasion, and the sedate, balanced man murmured not, but probably was +rather amused when he saw a maker of phrases essaying to deck himself in +his laurels. There were many things in Lord Auckland's Indian career of +which it behoved him to repent, but it must go to his credit that he gave +Pollock high command, and that he could honestly proclaim, as he made his +preparations to quit the great possession whose future his policy had +endangered, that he had contributed toward the retrieval of the crisis by +promptly furthering 'such operations as might be required for the +maintenance of the honour and interests of the British Government.' + +Brigadier Wild reached Peshawur with a brigade of four sepoy regiments +just before the new year. He was destitute of artillery, his sepoys were +in poor heart, and the Sikh contingent was utterly untrustworthy. To +force the Khyber seemed hopeless. Wild, however, made the attempt +energetically enough. But the Sikhs mutinied, expelled their officers, +and marched back to Peshawur; Wild's sepoys, behaving badly, were driven +back with loss from the mouth of the pass, and Wild himself was wounded. +When Pollock reached Peshawur on February 6th, 1842, he found half of +Wild's brigade sick in hospital, and the whole of it in a state of utter +demoralisation. A second brigade commanded by Brigadier-General +McCaskill, had accompanied Pollock, the sepoys of which promptly fell +under the evil influence of Wild's dispirited and disaffected regiments. +Pollock had to resist the pressing appeals for speedy relief made to him +from Jellalabad, and patiently to devote weeks and months to the +restoration of the morale and discipline of the disheartened sepoys of +his command, and to the reinvigoration of their physique. By kindness +combined with firmness he was able gradually to inspire them with perfect +trust and faith in him, and when in the end of March there reached him a +third brigade, comprising British cavalry and horse-artillery, ordered +forward by Lord Auckland on receipt of tidings of the destruction of the +Cabul force, he felt himself at length justified in advancing with +confidence. + +[Illustration: Sir George Pollock] + +Before daylight on the morning of April 5th Pollock's army about 8000 +strong, consisting of eight infantry regiments, three cavalry corps, a +troop and two batteries of artillery, and a mountain train, marched from +the Jumrood camping ground into the portals of the Khyber. Pollock's +scheme of operations was perfect in conception and complete in detail. +His main column, with strong advance and rear-guards, was to pursue the +usual road through the pass. It was flanked on each side by a chain of +infantry detachments, whose assigned duty was to crown the heights and +sweep them clear of assailants in advance of the head of the central +column. The Afreedi hill men had blocked the throat of the pass by a +formidable barrier, behind which they were gathered in force, waiting for +the opportunity which was never to come to them. For the main body of +Pollock's force serenely halted, while the flanking columns, breaking +into skirmishing order, hurried in the grey dawn along the slopes and +heights, dislodging the Afreedi pickets as they advanced, driving them +before them with resolute impetuosity, and pushing forward so far as to +take in reverse with their concentrated fire the great barrier and its +defenders. The clansmen, recognising the frustration of their devices, +deserted the position in its rear, and rushed tumultuously away to crags +and sungahs where knife and jezail might still be plied. The centre +column then advanced unmolested to the deserted barricade, through which +the sappers soon cleared a thoroughfare. The guns swept with shrapnel the +hill-sides in front, the flanking detachments pushed steadily further and +yet further forward, chasing and slaying the fugitive hillmen; and the +Duke of Wellington's observation was that morning fully made good, that +he had never heard that our troops were not equal, as well in their +personal activity as in their arms, to contend with and overcome any +natives of hills whatever.' The whole British force, in its order of +three columns, the centre in the bed of the hollow, the wings on the +flanking ridges, steadily if slowly moved on in the assured consciousness +of victory. It was sunset before the rear-guard was in camp under the +reoccupied Ali Musjid. The Sikh troops who were to keep open Pollock's +communications with Peshawur moved simultaneously on Ali Musjid by a more +circuitous route. + +While Pollock was halted opposite the throat of the Khyber waiting for +the demolition of the Afreedi barricade, the ill-starred Shah Soojah was +being murdered, on his way from the Balla Hissar of Cabul to review on +the Siah Sung slopes the reinforcements which Akbar Khan was clamouring +that he should lead down to aid that Sirdar in reducing Jellalabad before +relief should arrive. Ever since the outbreak of November Shah Soojah had +led a dog's life. He had reigned in Cabul, but he had not ruled. The +Sirdars dunned him for money, and jeered at his protestations of poverty. +It is not so much a matter of surprise that he should have been murdered +as that, feeble, rich, and loathed, he should have been let live so long. +It does not seem worth while to discuss the vexed question whether or not +he was faithful to his British allies. He was certainly entitled to argue +that he owed us nothing, since what we did in regard to him was nakedly +for our own purposes. Shah Soojah's second son Futteh Jung had himself +proclaimed his father's successor. The vicissitudes of his short reign +need not be narrated. While Pollock was gathering his brigades at +Gundamuk in the beginning of the following September, a forlorn Afghan, +in dirty and tattered rags, rode into his camp. This scarecrow was Futteh +Jung, who, unable to endure longer his sham kingship and the ominous +tyranny of Akbar Khan, had fled from Cabul in disguise to beg a refuge in +the British camp. + +Pollock's march from Ali Musjid to Jellalabad was slow, but almost +unmolested. He found, in his own words, 'the fortress strong, the +garrison healthy; and except for wine and beer, better off than we are.' +One principal object of his commission had been accomplished; he had +relieved the garrison of Jellalabad, and was in a position to ensure its +safe withdrawal. But his commission gave him a considerable discretion, +and a great company of his countrymen and countrywomen were still in +Afghan durance. The calm pulsed, resolute commander had views of his own +as to his duty, and he determined in his patient, steadfast way to tarry +a while on the Jellalabad plain, in the hope that the course of events +might play into his hands. + +Maclaren's brigade, which in the beginning of November 1841 General +Elphinstone had instructed General Nott to despatch with all speed to +Cabul, returned to Candahar early in December. Nott in despatching it had +deferred reluctantly to superior authority, and probably Maclaren not +sorry to have in the snowfall a pretext for retracing his steps. Atta +Mahomed Khan, sent from Cabul to foment mischief in the Candahar regions, +had gathered to his banner a considerable force. General Nott quietly +waited until the Sirdar, at the head of some 10,000 men, came within five +miles of Candahar, and then he crushed him after twenty minutes' +fighting. The fugitives found refuge in the camp of the disaffected +Dooranee chiefs, whose leader Meerza Ahmed was sedulously trying to +tamper with Nott's native troops, severe weather hindering the General +from attacking him. Near the end of February there reached Nott a letter +two months old from Elphinstone and Pottinger, ordering him to evacuate +Candahar and retire to India, in pursuance of the convention into which +they had entered. The Dooranee chiefs astutely urged that Shah Soojah, no +longer supported by British bayonets, was now ruling in Cabul, as an +argument in favour of Nott's withdrawal. Nott's answer was brief: 'I will +not treat with any person whatever for the retirement of the British +troops from Afghanistan, until I have received instructions from the +Supreme Government'--a blunt sentence in curious contrast to the missive +which Sale and Macgregor laid before the Jellalabad council of war. When +presently there came a communication from Government intimating that the +continued occupation of Candahar was regarded as conducive to the +interest of the state, Nott and Rawlinson were in a position to +congratulate themselves on having anticipated the wishes of their +superiors. The situation, however, became so menacing that early in March +its Afghan inhabitants were expelled from the city of Candahar to the +last soul; and then Nott, leaving a garrison in the place, took the field +in force. The old soldier, wary as he was, became the victim of Meerza's +wily strategy. As he advanced, the Afghans retired, skirmishing +assiduously. Leaving Nott in the Turnuk valley, they doubled back on +Candahar, and in the early darkness of the night of the 10th March they +furiously assailed the city gates. They fired one of the gates, and the +swarming ghazees tore down with fury its blazing planks and the red-hot +ironwork. The garrison behaved valiantly. Inside the burning gate they +piled up a rampart of grain bags, on which they trained a couple of guns +loaded with case. For three hours after the gate fell did the fanatics +hurl assault after assault on the interior barricade. They were terribly +critical hours, but the garrison prevailed, and at midnight, with a loss +of many hundreds, the obstinate assailants sullenly drew off. Nott, +although urgently summoned, was unable to reach Candahar until the 12th. + +Candahar was fortunately preserved, but at the end of March the +unpleasant tidings came that Ghuznee, which British valour had carried by +storm three years before, had now reverted into Afghan possession. The +siege had lasted for nearly three and a half months. In mid-December the +besiegers occupied the city in force, introduced by the citizens through +a subterranean way; and the garrison, consisting chiefly of a regiment of +sepoys, withdrew into the citadel. The bitter winter and the scant +rations took the heart out of the natives of the warm and fertile Indian +plains; but nevertheless it was not until March 6th that the garrison, +under pledge of being escorted to Peshawur with colours, arms, and +baggage, marched out. The unfortunates would have done better to have +died a soldierly death, with arms in their hands and the glow of fighting +in their hearts. As the event was, faith with them was broken, and save +for a few officers who were made prisoners, most were slaughtered, or +perished in a vain attempt to escape. + +During his long isolation Nott's resources had been seriously depleted, +and he had ordered up from Scinde a brigade, escorting much needed +treasure, ammunition, and medicines. Brigadier England was entrusted with +the command of this force, whose assemblage at Quetta was expected about +the end of March. Pending its gathering England had moved out toward the +entrance of the Kojuk Pass, where he met with a sharp and far from +creditable repulse, and fell back on Quetta miserably disheartened, +suggesting in his abjectness that Nott should abandon Candahar and retire +on him. The stout old soldier at Candahar waxed wroth at the limpness of +his subordinate, and addressed to England a biting letter, ordering +peremptorily the latter's prompt advance to Candahar, engaging to +dry-nurse him through the Kojuk by a brigade sent down from Candahar for +the purpose, and remarking sarcastically, 'I am well aware that war +cannot be made without loss; but yet perhaps British troops can oppose +Asiatic armies without defeat.' Thus exhorted England moved, to find his +march through the Kojuk protected by Wymer's sepoys from Candahar, who +had crowned the lateral heights before he ventured into the pass; and he +reached Candahar without maltreatment on the 10th May, bringing to Nott +the much needed supplies which rendered that resolute man equal to any +enterprise. + +It remained, however, to be seen whether any enterprise was to be +permitted to him and to his brother commander lying in camp on the +Jellalabad plain. Lord Ellenborough, the successor of Lord Auckland, had +struck a firm if somewhat inexplicit note in his earliest manifesto, +dated March 13th. A single sentence will indicate its tenor: 'Whatever +course we may hereafter take must rest solely on military considerations, +and hence in the first instance regard to the safety of our detached +garrisons in Afghanistan; to the security of our troops now in the field +from unnecessary risks; and finally, to the re-establishment of our +military reputation by the infliction upon the Afghans of some signal and +decisive blow.' Those were brave words, if only they had been adhered to. +But six weeks later his lordship was ordering Nott to evacuate Candahar +and fall back on Quetta, until the season should permit further +retirement to the Indus; and instructing Pollock, through the +Commander-in-Chief, to withdraw without delay every British soldier from +Jellalabad to Peshawur, except under certain specified eventualities, +none of which were in course of occurrence. Pollock temporised, holding +on to his advanced position by the plea of inability to retire for want +of transport, claiming mildly to find discretionary powers in the +Government instructions, and cautiously arguing in favour of an advance +by a few marches to a region where better climate was to be found, and +whence he might bring to bear stronger pressure for the liberation of the +prisoners. Nott was a narrower man than Pollock. When he got his orders +he regarded them as strictly binding, no matter how unpalatable the +injunctions. 'I shall not lose a moment,' he wrote, 'in making +arrangements to carry out my orders, without turning to the right or the +left, and without inquiring into the reasons for the measures enjoined, +whatever our own opinions or wishes may be.' He reluctantly began +preparations for withdrawal. Carriage was ordered up from Quetta, and a +brigade was despatched to withdraw the garrison of Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and +to destroy the fort which Craigie had so long and valiantly defended. + +It would be tedious to detail the vacillations, the obscurities, and the +tortuosities of Lord Ellenborough's successive communications to his two +Generals in Afghanistan. Pollock had been permitted to remain about +Jellalabad until the autumn should bring cooler marching weather. Nott +had been detained at Candahar by the necessity for crushing menacing +bodies of tribal levies, but as July waned his preparations for +withdrawal were all but complete. On the 4th of that month Lord +Ellenborough wrote to him, reiterating injunctions for his withdrawal +from Afghanistan, but permitting him the alternatives of retiring by the +direct route along his line of communications over Quetta and Sukkur, or +of boxing the compass by the curiously circuitous 'retirement' _via_ +Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad. Pollock, for his part, was permitted, if +he thought proper, to advance on Cabul in order to facilitate Nott's +withdrawal, if the latter should elect to 'retreat' by the circuitous +route which has just been described. + +One does not care to characterise the 'heads I win, tails you lose' +policy of a Governor-General who thus shuffled off his responsibility +upon two soldiers who previously had been sedulously restricted within +narrow if varying limits. Their relief from those trammels set them free, +and it was their joy to accept the devolved responsibility, and to act +with soldierly initiative and vigour. The chief credit of the qualified +yet substantial triumph over official hesitation certainly belongs to +Pollock, who gently yet firmly forced the hand of the Governor-General, +while Nott's merit was limited to a ready acceptance of the +responsibility of a proffered option. A letter from Nott intimating his +determination to retire by way of Cabul and Jellalabad reached Pollock in +the middle of August, who immediately advanced from Jellalabad; and his +troops having concentrated at Gundamuk, he marched from that position on +7th September, his second division, commanded by M'Caskill, following +next day. Pollock was woefully short of transport, and therefore was +compelled to leave some troops behind at Gundamuk, and even then could +carry only half the complement of tentage. But his soldiers, who carried +in their haversacks seven days' provisions, would gladly have marched +without any baggage at all, and the chief himself was eager to hurry +forward, for Nott had written that he expected to reach Cabul on 15th +September, and Pollock was burning to be there first. In the Jugdulluk +Pass, on the 8th, he found the Ghilzais in considerable force on the +heights. Regardless of a heavy artillery fire they stood their ground, +and so galled Pollock's troops with sharp discharges from their jezails +that it became necessary to send infantry against them. They were +dislodged from the mountain they had occupied by a portion of the +Jellalabad brigade, led by gallant old General Sale, who had his usual +luck in the shape of a wound. + +This Jugdulluk fighting was, however, little more than a skirmish, and +Pollock's people were to experience more severe opposition before they +should emerge from the passes on to the Cabul plain. On the morning of +the 13th the concentrated force had quitted its camp in the Tezeen +valley, and had committed itself without due precaution to the passage of +the ravine beyond, when the Afghan levies with which Akbar Khan had +manned the flanking heights, opened their fire. The Sirdar had been +dissuaded by Captain Troup, one of his prisoners, from attempting futile +negotiations, and advised not to squander lives in useless opposition. +Akbar had replied that he was too deeply committed to recede, and that +his people were bent on fighting. They were not baulked in the +aspiration, which assuredly their opponents shared with at least equal +zeal. Pollock's advance-guard was about the middle of the defile, when +the enemy were suddenly discovered blocking the pass in front, and +holding the heights which Pollock's light troops should have crowned in +advance of the column. Akbar's force was calculated to be about 15,000 +strong, and the Afghans fought resolutely against the British regiments +which forced their way up the heights on the right and left. The ghazees +dashed down to meet the red soldiers halfway, and up among the precipices +there were many hand-to-hand encounters, in which the sword and the +bayonet fought out the issue. The Afghans made their last stand on the +rocky summit of the Huft Kotul; but from this commanding position they +were finally driven by Broadfoot's bloodthirsty little Goorkhas, who, +hillmen themselves from their birth, chased the Afghans from crag to +crag, using their fell kookeries as they pursued. It was Akbar Khan's +last effort, and the quelling of it cost Pollock the trivial loss of +thirty-two killed and 130 wounded. There was no more opposition, and it +was well for the Afghans, for the awful spectacles presented in the +Khoord Cabul Pass traversed on the following day, kindled in Pollock's +soldiers a white heat of fury. 'The bodies,' wrote Backhouse in his +unpublished diary, 'lay in heaps of fifties and hundreds, our gun wheels +crushing the bones of our late comrades at every yard for four or five +miles; indeed, the whole march from Gundamuk to Cabul may be said to have +been over the bodies of the massacred army.' Pollock marched unmolested +to Cabul on the 15th, and camped on the old racecourse to the east of the +city. + +Nott, in evacuating Candahar, divided his force into two portions, the +weaker of which General England took back to India by Quetta and Sukkur, +while on August 9th Nott himself, with two European battalions, the +'beautiful sepoy regiments' of which he had a right to be proud, and his +field guns, marched away from Candahar, his face set towards Cabul. His +march was uneventful until about midway between Khelat-i-Ghilzai and +Ghuznee, when on the 28th the cavalry, unsupported and badly handled in a +stupid and unauthorised foray, lost severely in officers and men, took to +flight in panic, and so gave no little encouragement to the enemy hanging +on Nott's flank. Two days later Shumshoodeen, the Afghan leader, drew up +some 10,000 men in order of battle on high ground left of the British +camp. Nott attacked with vigour, advancing to turn the Afghan left. In +reprisal the enemy threw their strength on his left, supporting their +jezail fire with artillery, whereupon Nott changed front to the left, +deployed, and then charged. The Afghans did not wait for close quarters, +and Nott was no more seriously molested. Reaching the vicinity of Ghuznee +on September 5th, he cleared away the hordes hanging on the heights which +encircle the place. During the night the Afghans evacuated Ghuznee. Soon +after daylight the British flag was waving from the citadel. Having +fulfilled Lord Ellenborough's ridiculous order to carry away from the +tomb of Sultan Mahmoud in the environs of Ghuznee, the supposititious +gates of Somnath, a once famous Hindoo shrine in the Bombay province of +Kattiawar, Nott marched onward unmolested till within a couple of marches +of Cabul, when near Maidan he had some stubborn fighting with an Afghan +force which tried ineffectually to block his way. On the 17th he marched +into camp four miles west of Cabul, whence he could discern, not with +entire complacency, the British ensign already flying from the Balla +Hissar, for Pollock had won the race to Cabul by a couple of days. + +For months there had been negotiations for the release of the British +prisoners whom Akbar Khan had kept in durance ever since they came into +his hands in the course of the disastrous retreat from Cabul in January, +but they had been unsuccessful, and now it was known that the unfortunate +company of officers, women, and children, had been carried off westward +into the hill country of Bamian. Nott's officers, as the Candahar column +was nearing Cabul, had more than once urged him to detach a brigade in +the direction of Bamian in the hope of effecting a rescue of the +prisoners, but he had steadily refused, leaning obstinately on the +absence from the instructions sent him by Government of any permission to +engage in the enterprise of attempting their release. He was not less +brusque in the intimation of his declinature when Pollock gave him the +opportunity to send a force in support of Sir Richmond Shakespear, whom, +with a detachment of Kuzzilbash horse, Pollock had already despatched on +the mission of attempting the liberation of the prisoners. The narrow old +soldier argued doggedly that Government 'had thrown the prisoners +overboard.' Why, then, should he concern himself with their rescue? If +his superior officer should give him a firm order, of course he would +obey, but he would obey under protest. Pollock disdained to impose so +enviable a duty on a recalcitrant man, and committed to Sale the +honourable and welcome service--all the more welcome to that officer +because his wife and daughter were among the captives. At the head of his +Jellalabad brigade, he was to push forward by forced marches on the track +of Shakespear and his horsemen. + +The strange and bitter experiences of the captives, from that miserable +January Sabbath day on which they passed under the 'protection' of Akbar +Khan until the mid-September noon when Shakespear galloped into their +midst, are recorded in full and interesting detail in Lady Sale's +journal, in Vincent Eyre's _Captivity_, and in Colin Mackenzie's +biography published under the title of _Storms and Sunshine of a +Soldier's Life_. Here it is possible only briefly to summarise the chief +incidents of the captivity. The unanimous testimony of the released +prisoners was to the effect that Akbar Khan, violent, bloody, and +passionate man though he was, behaved toward them with kindness and a +certain rude chivalry. They remained for nearly three months at Budiabad, +living in great squalor and discomfort. For the whole party there were +but five rooms, each of which was occupied by from five to ten officers +and ladies, the few soldiers and non-commissioned officers, who were +mostly wounded, being quartered in sheds and cellars. Mackenzie drily +remarks that the hardships of the common lot, and the close intimacy of +prison life, brought into full relief good and evil qualities; +'conventional polish was a good deal rubbed off and replaced by a +plainness of speech quite unheard of in good society.' Ladies and +gentlemen were necessitated to occupy the same room during the night, but +the men 'cleared out' early in the morning, leaving the ladies to +themselves. The dirt and vermin of their habitation were abominably +offensive to people to whom scrupulous cleanliness was a second nature. +But the captives were allowed to take exercise within a limited range; +they had among them a few books, and an old newspaper occasionally came +on to them from Jellalabad, with which place a fitful correspondence in +cypher was surreptitiously maintained. They had a few packs of playing +cards; they made for themselves backgammon and draught-boards, and when +in good spirits they sometimes played hopscotch and blindman's-buff with +the children of the party. The Sundays were always kept scrupulously, +Lawrence and Mackenzie conducting the service in turn. + +The earthquake which shook down the fortifications of Jellalabad brought +their rickety fort about the ears of the captives. Several escaped +narrowly with their lives when walls and roofs yawned and crumbled, and +all had to turn out and sleep in the courtyard, where they suffered from +cold and saturating dews. After the defeat of Akbar by the Jellalabad +garrison on April 7th, there was keen expectation that Sale would march +to their rescue, but he came not, and there were rumours among the guards +of their impending massacre in revenge for the crushing reverse Akbar had +experienced. Presently, however, Mahomed Shah Khan, Akbar's lieutenant, +arrived full of courtesy and reassurance, but with the unwelcome +intimation that the prisoners must prepare themselves to leave Budiabad +at once, and move to a greater distance from Jellalabad and their +friends. For some preparation was not a difficult task. 'All my worldly +goods,' wrote Captain Johnson, 'might be stowed away in a towel.' Others +who possessed heavier impedimenta, were lightened of the encumbrance by +the Ghilzai Sirdar, who plundered indiscriminately. The European soldiers +were left behind at Budiabad, and the band of ladies and gentlemen +started on the afternoon of April 10th, in utter ignorance of their +destination, under the escort of a strong band of Afghans. At the ford +across the Cabul river the cavalcade found Akbar Khan wounded, haggard, +and dejected, seated in a palanquin, which, weak as he was, he gave up to +Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, who were ill. A couple of days were spent at +Tezeen among the melancholy relics of the January slaughter, whence most +of the party were carried several miles further into the southern +mountains to the village of Zandeh, while General Elphinstone, whose end +was fast approaching, remained in the Tezeen valley with Pottinger, +Mackenzie, Eyre, and one or two others. On the evening of April 23d the +poor General was finally released from suffering of mind and body. Akbar, +who when too late had offered to free him, sent the body down to +Jellalabad under a guard, and accompanied by Moore the General's soldier +servant; and Elphinstone lies with Colonel Dennie and the dead of the +defence of Jellalabad in their nameless graves in a waste place within +the walls of that place. Toward the end of May the captives were moved up +the passes to the vicinity of Cabul, where Akbar Khan was now gradually +attaining the ascendant. Prince Futteh Jung, however, still held out in +the Balla Hissar, and intermittent firing was heard as the weary +_cortège_ of prisoners reached a fort about three miles short of Cabul, +which the ladies of the proprietor's zenana had evacuated in their +favour. Here they lived if not in contentment at least in considerable +comfort and amenity. They had the privacy of a delightful garden, and +enjoyed the freedom of bathing in the adjacent river. After the strife +between Akbar Khan and Futteh Jung ceased they were even permitted to +exchange visits with their countrymen, the hostages quartered on the +Balla Hissar. They were able to obtain money from the Cabul usurers, and +thus to supply themselves with suitable clothing and additions to their +rations, and their mails from India and Jellalabad were forwarded to them +without hindrance. The summer months were passed in captivity, but it was +no longer for them a captivity of squalor and wretchedness. Life was a +good deal better worth living in the pleasant garden house on the bank of +the Logur than it had been in the noisome squalor of Budiabad and the +vermin-infested huddlement of Zandeh. But they still-lived under the long +strain of anxiety and apprehension, for none of them knew what the morrow +might bring forth. While residing in the pleasant quarters in the Logur +valley the captives of the passes were joined by nine officers, who were +the captives of Ghuznee. After the capitulation the latter had been +treated with cruel harshness, shut up in one small room, and debarred +from fresh air and exercise. Colonel Palmer, indeed, had undergone the +barbarity of torture in the endeavour to force him to disclose the +whereabouts of treasure which he was suspected of having buried. + +Akbar had full and timely intimation of the mutual intention of the +British generals at Jellalabad and Candahar to march on Cabul, and did +not fail to recognise of what value to him in extremity might be his +continued possession of the prisoners. They had been warned of their +probable deportation to the remote and rugged Bamian; and the toilsome +journey thither was begun on the evening of August 25th. A couple of +ailing families alone, with a surgeon in charge of them, were allowed to +remain behind; all the others, hale and sick, had to travel, the former +on horseback, the latter carried in camel panniers. The escort consisted +of an irregular regiment of Afghan infantry commanded by one Saleh +Mahomed Khan, who when a subadar serving in one of the Shah's Afghan +regiments had deserted to Dost Mahomed. The wayfarers, female as well as +male, wore the Afghan costume, in order that they might attract as little +notice as possible. + +Bamian was reached on September 3d, where the wretchedness of the +quarters contrasted vividly with the amenity of those left behind on the +Cabul plain. But the wretchedness of Bamian was not to be long endured. +An intimacy had been struck up between Captain Johnson and Saleh Mahomed, +and the latter cautiously hinted that a reward and a pension might induce +him to carry his charges into the British camp. On September 11th there +was a private meeting between the Afghan commandant and three British +officers, Pottinger, Johnson, and Lawrence. Saleh Mahomed intimated the +receipt of instructions from the Sirdar to carry the prisoners over the +Hindoo Koosh into Khooloom, and leave them there to seeming hopeless +captivity. But on the other hand a messenger had reached Saleh from Mohun +Lal with the assurance that General Pollock, if he restored the +prisoners, would ensure him a reward of 20,000 rupees, and a life pension +of 12,000 rupees a year. Saleh Mahomed demanded and received a guarantee +from the British officers; and the captives bound themselves to make good +from their own resources their redemption money. The Afghan ex-Subadar +proved himself honest; the captives were captives no longer, and they +proceeded to assert themselves in the masterful British manner. They +hoisted the national flag; Pottinger became once again the high-handed +'political,' and ordered the local chiefs to come to his durbar and +receive dresses of honour. Their fort was put into a state of defence, +and a store of provisions was gathered in case of a siege. But in +mid-September came the tidings that Akbar had been defeated at Tezeen, +and had fled no one knew whither, whereupon the self-emancipated party +set out on the march to Cabul. At noon of the 17th they passed into the +safe guardianship of Shakespear and his horsemen. Three days later, +within a march of Cabul, there was reached the column which Sale had +taken out, and on September 21st Pollock greeted the company of men and +women whose rescue had been wrought out by his cool, strong +steadfastness. + +Little more remains to be told. There was an Afghan force still in arms +at Istalif, a beautiful village of the inveterately hostile Kohistanees; +a division marched to attack it, carried the place by assault, burnt part +of it, and severely smote the garrison. Utter destruction was the fate of +Charikar, the capital of the Kohistan, where Codrington's Goorkha +regiment had been destroyed. Pollock determined to 'set a mark' on Cabul +to commemorate the retribution which the British had exacted. He spared +the Balla Hissar, and abstained from laying the city in ruins, contenting +himself with the destruction of the principal bazaar, through which the +heads of Macnaghten and Burnes had been paraded, and in which their +mangled bodies had been exposed. Prince Futteh Jung, tired of his +vicissitudes in the character of an Afghan monarch, ceded what of a +throne he possessed to another puppet of his race, and gladly accompanied +the British armies to India. Other waifs of the wreck of a nefarious and +disastrous enterprise, among them old Zemaun Khan, who had been our +friend throughout, and the family of the ill-fated Shah Soojah, were well +content to return to the exile which afforded safety and quietude. There +also accompanied the march of the humane Pollock a great number of the +mutilated and crippled camp followers of Elphinstone's army who had +escaped with their lives from its destruction. On the 12th of October the +forces of Pollock and of Nott turned their backs on Cabul, which no +British army was again to see for nearly forty years, and set out on +their march down the passes. Jellalabad and Ali Musjid were partially +destroyed in passing. Pollock's division reached Peshawur without loss, +thanks to the precautions of its chief; but with M'Caskill and Nott the +indomitable Afghans had the last word, cutting off their stragglers, +capturing their baggage, and in the final skirmish killing and wounding +some sixty men of Nott's command. + +Of the bombastic and grotesque paeans of triumph emitted by Lord +Ellenborough, whose head had been turned by a success to which he had but +scantly contributed, nothing need now be said, nor of the garish pageant +with which he received the armies as they re-entered British territory at +Ferozepore. As they passed down through the Punjaub, Dost Mahomed passed +up on his way to reoccupy the position from which he had been driven. And +so ended the first Afghan war, a period of history in which no redeeming +features are perceptible except the defence of Jellalabad, the dogged +firmness of Nott, and Pollock's noble and successful constancy of +purpose. Beyond this effulgence there spreads a sombre welter of +misrepresentation and unscrupulousness, intrigue, moral deterioration, +and dishonour unspeakable. + + + + +PART II: THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR + + + + +CHAPTER I: THE FIRST CAMPAIGN + +A brief period of peace intervened between the ratification of the treaty +of Gundamuk on May 30th, 1879, and the renewal of hostilities consequent +on the massacre at Cabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the whole _entourage_ +of the mission of which he was the head. There was nothing identical or +even similar in the motives of the two campaigns, and regarded purely on +principle they might be regarded as two distinct wars, rather than as +successive campaigns of one and the same war. But the interval between +them was so short that the ink of the signatures to the treaty of +Gundamuk may be said to have been scarcely dry when the murder of the +British Envoy tore that document into bloody shreds; and it seems the +simplest and most convenient method to designate the two years of +hostilities from November 1878 to September 1880, as the 'second Afghan +war,' notwithstanding the three months' interval of peace in the summer +of 1879. + +Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and after a long struggle his son Shere Ali +possessed himself of the throne bequeathed to him by his father. The +relations between Shere Ali and the successive Viceroys of India were +friendly, although not close. The consistent aim of the British policy +was to maintain Afghanistan in the position of a strong, friendly, and +independent state, prepared in certain contingencies to co-operate in +keeping at a distance foreign intrigue or aggression; and while this +object was promoted by donations of money and arms, to abstain from +interference in the internal affairs of the country, while according a +friendly recognition to the successive occupants of its throne, without +undertaking indefinite liabilities in their interest. The aim, in a word, +was to utilise Afghanistan as a 'buffer' state between the northwestern +frontier of British India and Russian advances from the direction of +Central Asia. Shere Ali was never a very comfortable ally; he was of a +saturnine and suspicious nature, and he seems also to have had an +overweening sense of the value of the position of Afghanistan, interposed +between two great powers profoundly jealous one of the other. He did not +succeed with Lord Northbrook in an attempt to work on that Viceroy by +playing off the bogey of Russian aggression; and as the consequence of +this failure he allowed himself to display marked evidences of +disaffected feeling. Cognisance was taken of this 'attitude of extreme +reserve,' and early in 1876 Lord Lytton arrived in India charged with +instructions to break away from the policy designated as that of +'masterly inactivity,' and to initiate a new basis of relations with +Afghanistan and its Ameer. + +Lord Lytton's instructions directed him to despatch without delay a +mission to Cabul, whose errand would be to require of the Ameer the +acceptance of a permanent Resident and free access to the frontier +positions of Afghanistan on the part of British officers, who should have +opportunity of conferring with the Ameer on matters of common interest +with 'becoming attention to their friendly councils.' Those were demands +notoriously obnoxious to the Afghan monarch and the Afghan people. +Compliance with them involved sacrifice of independence, and the Afghan +loathing of Feringhee officials in their midst had been fiercely evinced +in the long bloody struggle and awful catastrophe recorded in earlier +pages of this volume. Probably the Ameer, had he desired, would not have +dared to concede such demands on any terms, no matter how full of +advantage. But the terms which Lord Lytton was instructed to tender as an +equivalent were strangely meagre. The Ameer was to receive a money gift, +and a precarious stipend regarding which the new Viceroy was to 'deem it +inconvenient to commit his government to any permanent pecuniary +obligation.' The desiderated recognition of Abdoolah Jan as Shere Ali's +successor was promised with the qualifying reservation that the promise +'did not imply or necessitate any intervention in the internal affairs of +the state.' The guarantee against foreign aggression was vague and +indefinite, and the Government of India reserved to itself entire +'freedom of judgment as to the character of circumstances involving the +obligation of material support.' + +The Ameer replied to the notice that a mission was about to proceed to +Cabul by a courteous declinature to receive an Envoy, assigning several +specious reasons. He was quite satisfied with the existing friendly +relations, and desired no change in them; he could not guarantee the +safety of the Envoy and his people; if he admitted a British mission, he +would have no excuse for refusing to receive a Russian one. An intimation +was conveyed to the Ameer that if he should persist in his refusal to +receive the mission, the Viceroy would have no other alternative than to +regard Afghanistan as a state which had 'voluntarily isolated itself from +the alliance and support of the British Government.' The Ameer arranged +that the Vakeel of the Indian Government should visit Simla, carrying +with him full explanations, and charged to lay before the Viceroy sundry +grievances which were distressing Shere Ali. That functionary took back +to Cabul certain minor concessions, but conveyed the message also that +those concessions were contingent on the Ameer's acceptance of British +officers about his frontiers, and that it would be of no avail to send an +Envoy to the conference at Peshawur for which sanction was given, unless +he were commissioned to agree to this condition as the fundamental basis +of a treaty. Before the Vakeel quitted Simla he had to listen to a +truculent address from Lord Lytton, in the course of which Shere Ali's +position was genially likened to that of 'an earthen pipkin between two +iron pots.' Before Sir Lewis Pelly and the Ameer's representative met at +Peshawur in January 1877, Shere Ali had not unnaturally been perturbed by +the permanent occupation of Quetta, on the southern verge of his +dominions, as indicating, along with other military dispositions, an +intended invasion. The Peshawur conference, which from the first had +little promise, dragged on unsatisfactorily until terminated by the death +of the Ameer's representative, whereupon Sir Lewis Pelly was recalled by +Lord Lytton, notwithstanding the latter's cognisance that Shere Ali was +despatching to Peshawur a fresh Envoy authorised to assent to all the +British demands. The justification advanced by Lord Lytton for this +procedure was the discovery purported to have been made by Sir Lewis +Pelly that the Ameer was intriguing with General Kaufmann at Tashkend. +Since Shere Ali was an independent monarch, it was no crime on his part +to enter into negotiations with another power than Great Britain, +although if the worried and distracted man did so the charge of folly may +be laid to him, since the Russians were pretty certain to betray him +after having made a cat's-paw of him, and since in applying to them he +involved himself in the risk of hostile action on the part of the +British. The wisdom of Lord Lytton's conduct is not apparent. The +truculent policy of which he was the instrument was admittedly on the +point of triumphing; and events curiously falsified his short-sighted +anticipation of the unlikelihood, because of the Russo-Turkish war then +impending, of any _rapprochement_ between the Ameer and the Russian +authorities in Central Asia. The Viceroy withdrew his Vakeel from Cabul, +and in the recognition of the Ameer's attitude of 'isolation and scarcely +veiled hostility' Lord Salisbury authorised Lord Lytton to protect the +British frontier by such measures as circumstances should render +expedient, 'without regard to the wishes of the Ameer or the interests of +his dynasty.' Lord Lytton took no measures, expedient or otherwise, in +the direction indicated by Lord Salisbury; the Ameer, as if he had been a +petted boy consigned to the corner, was abandoned to his sullen +'isolation,' and the Russians adroitly used him to involve us in a war +which lasted two years, cost us the lives of many valiant men, caused us +to incur an expenditure of many millions, and left our relations with +Afghanistan in all essential respects in the same condition as Lord +Lytton found them when he reached India with the 'new policy' in his +pocket. + +If the Russians could execute as thoroughly as they can plan skilfully, +there would be hardly any limit to their conquests. When England was +mobilising her forces after the treaty of San Stefano, and ordering into +the Mediterranean a division of sepoys drawn from the three presidencies +of her Indian Empire, Russia for her part was concerting an important +diversion in the direction of the north-western frontier of that great +possession. But for the opportune conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, the +question as to the ability of sepoy troops stiffened by British regiments +to cope with the mixed levies of the Tzar might have been tried out on +stricken fields between the Oxus and the Indus. When Gortschakoff +returned from Berlin to St Petersburg with his version of 'Peace with +Honour'--Bessarabia and Batoum thrown in--Kaufmann had to countermand the +concentration of troops that had been in progress on the northern +frontier of Afghanistan. But the Indian division was still much in +evidence in the Mediterranean, its tents now gleaming on the brown slopes +of Malta, now crowning the upland of Larnaca and nestling among the +foliage of Kyrenea. Kaufmann astutely retorted on this demonstration by +despatching, not indeed an expedition, but an embassy to Cabul; and when +Stolietoff, the gallant defender of the Schipka Pass, rode into the Balla +Hissar on August 11th, 1878, Shere Ali received him with every token of +cordiality and regard. + +No other course was now open to Her Majesty's Government than to insist +on the reception at Cabul of a British mission. The gallant veteran +officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, known to be held in regard by the Ameer, +was named as Envoy, and an emissary was sent to Cabul in advance with +information of the date fixed for the setting out of the mission. Shere +Ali was greatly perplexed, and begged for more time. 'It is not proper,' +he protested, 'to use pressure in this way; it will tend to a complete +rupture.' But Sir Neville Chamberlain was satisfied that the Ameer was +trifling with the Indian Government; and he had certain information that +the Ameer, his Ministers, and the Afghan outpost officers, had stated +plainly that, if necessary, the advance of the mission would be arrested +by force. This was what in effect happened when on September 21st Major +Cavagnari rode forward to the Afghan post in the Khyber Pass. The officer +who courteously stopped him assured him that he had orders to oppose by +force the progress of Sir Neville and his mission, so Cavagnari shook +hands with the Afghan major and rode back to Peshawur. + +The Viceroy sought permission to declare war immediately, notwithstanding +his condition of unpreparedness; but the Home Government directed him +instead to require in temperate language an apology and the acceptance of +a permanent mission, presenting at the same time the ultimatum that if a +satisfactory reply should not be received on or before the 20th November +hostilities would immediately commence. Meanwhile military preparations +were actively pushed forward. The scheme of operations was as follows: +three columns of invasion were to move simultaneously, one through the +Khyber Pass to Dakka, another through the Kuram valley, south of the +Khyber, with the Peiwar Pass as its objective, and a third from Quetta +into the Pisheen valley, to march forward to Candahar after reinforcement +by a division from Mooltan. To General Sir Sam Browne was assigned the +command of the Khyber column, consisting of about 10,000 men, with thirty +guns; to General Roberts the command of the Kuram valley column, of about +5,500 men, with twenty-four guns; and to General Biddulph the command of +the Quetta force, numbering some 6000 men, with eighteen guns. When +General Donald Stewart should bring up from Mooltan the division which +was being concentrated there, he was to command the whole southern force +moving on Candahar. The reserve division gathering at Hassan Abdul and +commanded by General Maude, would support the Khyber force; another +reserve division massing at Sukkur under General Primrose, would act in +support of the Candahar force; and a contingent contributed by the Sikh +Feudatory States and commanded by Colonel Watson, was to do duty on the +Kurum line of communication. The Generals commanding columns were to act +independently of each other, taking instructions direct from Army and +Government headquarters. + +No answer to the ultimatum was received from the Ameer, and on the +morning of November 21st Sir Sam Browne crossed the Afghan frontier and +moved up the Khyber on Ali Musjid with his third and fourth brigades and +the guns. Overnight he had detached Macpherson's and Tytler's brigades +with the commission to turn the Ali Musjid position by a circuitous +march, the former charged to descend into the Khyber Pass in rear of the +fortress, and block the escape of its garrison; the latter instructed to +find, if possible, a position on the Rhotas heights on the proper left of +the fortress from which a flank attack might be delivered. About noon Sir +Sam reached the Shagai ridge and came under a brisk fire from the guns of +Ali Musjid, to which his heavy cannon and Manderson's horse-battery +replied with good results. The Afghan position, which was very strong, +stretched right athwart the valley from an entrenched line on the right +to the Rhotas summit on the extreme left. The artillery duel lasted about +two hours, and then Sir Sam determined to advance, on the expectation +that the turning brigades had reached their respective objectives. He +himself moved forward on the right upland; on the opposite side of the +Khyber stream Appleyard led the advance of his brigade against the Afghan +right. No co-operation on the part of the turning brigades had made +itself manifest up till dusk; the right brigade had been brought to a +halt in face of a precipitous cliff crowned by the enemy, and it was +wisely judged that to press the frontal attack further in the meantime +would involve a useless loss of life. Sir Sam therefore halted, and sent +word to Appleyard to stay for the night his further advance, merely +holding the ridge which he had already carried. But before this order +reached him Appleyard was sharply engaged with the enemy in their +entrenched position, and in the fighting which occurred before the +retirement was effected two officers were killed, a third wounded, and a +good many casualties occurred among the rank and file of the native +detachments gallantly assailing the Afghan entrenchments. + +Early next morning offensive operations were about to be resumed, when a +young officer of the 9th Lancers brought intelligence that the Afghan +garrison had fled under cover of night, whereupon the fort was promptly +occupied. The turning brigades had been delayed by the difficult country +encountered, but detachments from both had reached Kata Kustia in time to +capture several hundred fugitives of the Ali Musjid garrison. The mass of +it, however--its total strength was about 4000 men--effected a retreat by +the Peshbolak track from the right of the entrenched position. Sir Sam +Browne's advance to Dakka was made without molestation, and on 20th +December he encamped on the plain of Jellalabad, where he remained +throughout the winter, Maude's reserve division keeping open his +communications through the Khyber Pass. The hill tribes, true to their +nature, gave great annoyance by their continual raids, and several +punitive expeditions were sent against them from time to time, but seldom +with decisive results. The tribesmen for the most part carried off into +the hills their moveable effects, and the destruction of their petty +forts apparently gave them little concern. For the most part they +maintained their irreconcilable attitude, hanging on the flanks of our +detachments on their return march through the lateral passes to their +camps, and inflicting irritating if not very severe losses. Occasionally +they thought proper to make nominal submission with tongue in cheek, +breaking out again when opportunity or temptation presented itself. +Detailed description of those raids and counter-raids would be very +tedious reading. It was when starting to co-operate in one of those +necessary but tantalising expeditions that a number of troopers of the +10th Hussars were drowned in a treacherous ford of the Cabul river near +Jellalabad. + +General Roberts, to whom the conduct of operations in the Kuram district +had been entrusted, crossed the frontier on November 21st, and marched up +the valley with great expedition. The inhabitants evinced friendliness, +bringing in live stock and provisions for sale. Reaching Habib Killa on +the morning of the 28th, he received a report that the Afghan force which +he knew to be opposed to him had abandoned its guns on the hither side of +the Peiwar Kotul, and was retreating in confusion over that summit. +Roberts promptly pushed forward in two columns. Building on the erroneous +information that the enemy were in a hollow trying to withdraw their +guns--in reality they were already in their entrenched position on the +summit of the Kotul--he ordered Cobbe's (the left) column to turn the +right of the supposed Afghan position, and debar the enemy from the +Kotul, while the other column (Thelwall's) was ordered to attack in +front, the object being to have the enemy between two fires. Cobbe's +leading regiment near the village of Turrai found its advance blocked by +precipices, and a withdrawal was ordered, the advantage having been +attained of forcing the enemy to disclose the position which he was +holding. Further reconnaissances proved that the Afghan line of defence +extended along the crest of a lofty and broken mountainous range from the +Spingawai summit on the left to the Peiwar Kotul on the right centre, the +right itself resting on commanding elevations a mile further south. The +position had a front in all of about four miles. It was afterwards +ascertained to have been held by about 3500 regulars and a large number +of tribal irregulars. General Roberts' force numbered about 3100 men. + +His scheme of operations he explained to his commanding officers on the +evening of December 1st. With the bulk of the force he himself was to +make a circuitous night march by his right on the Spingawai Kotul, with +the object of turning that position and taking the main Afghan position +on the Peiwar Kotul in reverse; while Brigadier Cobbe, with whom were to +remain the 8th (Queen's) and 5th Punjaub Infantry regiments, a cavalry +regiment and six guns, was instructed to assail the enemy's centre when +the result of the flank attack on his left should have made itself +apparent. + +The turning column, whose advance the General led in person, consisted of +the 29th N. I. (leading), 5th Goorkhas, and a mountain battery, all under +Colonel Gordon's command; followed by a wing of the 72d Highlanders, 2d +Punjaub Infantry, and 23d Pioneers, with four guns on elephants, under +Brigadier Thelwall. The arduous march began at ten P.M. Trending at first +rearward to the Peiwar village, the course followed was then to the +proper right, up the rugged and steep Spingawai ravine. In the darkness +part of Thelwall's force lost its way, and disappeared from ken. Further +on a couple of shots were fired by disaffected Pathans in the ranks of +the 29th N. I. That regiment was promptly deprived of the lead, which was +taken by the Goorkha regiment, and the column toiled on by a track +described by General Roberts as 'nothing but a mass of stones, heaped +into ridges and furrowed into deep hollows by the action of the water.' +Day had not broken when the head of the column reached the foot of the +steep ascent to the Spingawai Kotul. The Goorkhas and the 72d rushed +forward on the first stockade. It was carried without a pause save to +bayonet the defenders, and stockade after stockade was swept over in +rapid and brilliant succession. In half-an-hour General Roberts was in +full possession of the Spingawai defences, and the Afghan left flank was +not only turned but driven in. Cobbe was ordered by signal to co-operate +by pressing on his frontal attack; and Roberts himself hurried forward on +his enterprise of rolling up the Afghan left and shaking its centre. But +this proved no easy task. The Afghans made a good defence, and gave +ground reluctantly. They made a resolute stand on the further side of a +narrow deep-cut ravine, to dislodge them from which effort after effort +was ineffectually made. The General then determined to desist from +pressing this line of attack, and to make a second turning movement by +which he hoped to reach the rear of the Afghan centre. He led the 72d +wing, three native regiments, and ten guns, in a direction which should +enable him to threaten the line of the Afghan retreat. Brigadier Cobbe +since morning had been steadily although slowly climbing toward the front +of the Peiwar Kotul position. After an artillery duel which lasted for +three hours the Afghan fire was partially quelled; Cobbe's infantry +pushed on and up from ridge to ridge, and at length they reached a crest +within 800 yards of the guns on the Kotul, whence their rifle fire +compelled the Afghan gunners to abandon their batteries. Meanwhile +Roberts' second turning movement was developing, and the defenders of the +Kotul placed between two fires and their line of retreat compromised, +began to waver. Brigadier Cobbe had been wounded, but Colonel Drew led +forward his gallant youngsters of the 8th, and after toilsome climbing +they entered the Afghan position, which its defenders had just abandoned, +leaving many dead, eighteen guns, and a vast accumulation of stores and +ammunition. Colonel H. Gough pursued with his cavalry, and possessed +himself of several more guns which the Afghans had relinquished in their +precipitate flight. The decisive success of the Peiwar Kotul combat had +not cost heavily; the British losses were twenty-one killed and +seventy-two wounded. + +His sick and wounded sent back to Fort Kuram, General Roberts advanced to +Ali Khel, and thence made a reconnaissance forward to the Shutargurdan +Pass, whose summit is distant from Cabul little more than fifty miles. +Its height is great--upwards of 11,200 feet--but it was regarded as not +presenting serious obstacles to the advance by this route of a force from +the Kuram valley moving on Cabul. A misfortune befell the baggage guard +on one of the marches in the trans-Peiwar region when Captains Goad and +Powell lost their lives in a tribal onslaught. The somewhat chequered +experiences of General Roberts in the Khost valley need not be told in +detail. After some fighting and more marching he withdrew from that +turbulent region altogether, abjuring its pestilent tribesmen and all +their works. The Kuram force wintered in excellent health spite of the +rigorous climate, and toward the end of March 1879 its forward +concentration about Ali Kheyl was ordered, which was virtually +accomplished before the snow had melted from the passes in the later +weeks of April. Adequate transport had been got together and supplies +accumulated; Colonel Watson's contingent was occupying the posts along +the valley; and General Roberts was in full readiness promptly to obey +the orders to advance which he had been led to expect, and on which his +brother-general Sir Sam Browne had already acted to some extent. + +The march on Candahar of the two divisions under the command of General +Stewart had the character, for the most part, of a military promenade. +The tramp across the deserts of Northern Beloochistan was arduous; the +Bolan, the Gwaga, and the Kojuk passes had to be surmounted, and the +distances which both Biddulph and Stewart had to traverse were immensely +in excess of those covered by either of the forces operating from the +north-western frontier line. But uneventful marches, however long and +toilsome, do not call for detailed description. Stewart rode into +Candahar on January 8th, 1879, and the troops as they arrived encamped on +the adjacent plain. The Governor and most of his officials, together with +the Afghan cavalry, had fled toward Herat; the Deputy-Governor remained +to hand over the city to General Stewart. For commissariat reasons one +division under Stewart presently moved by the Cabul road on +Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which was found empty, the Afghan garrison having +evacuated it. Simultaneously with Stewart's departure from Candahar +Biddulph marched out a column westward toward the Helmund, remaining in +that region until the third week in February. On its return march to +Candahar the rear-guard had a sharp skirmish at Khushk-i-Nakhud with +Alizai tribesmen, of whom 163 were left dead on the field. Soon after the +return of Stewart and Biddulph to Candahar, orders arrived that the +former should retain in Candahar, Quetta, and Pishin a strong division of +all arms, sending back to India the remainder of his command under +Biddulph--the march to be made by the previously unexplored Thal-Chotiali +route to the eastward of the Pisheen valley. + +Before Sir Sam Browne moved forward from Jellalabad to Gundamuk he had +been able to report to the Viceroy the death of Shere Ali. That +unfortunate man had seen with despair the departure on December 10th of +the last Russian from Cabul--sure token that he need hope for nothing +from Kaufmann or the Tzar. His chiefs unanimous that further resistance +by him was hopeless, he released his son Yakoub Khan from his long harsh +imprisonment, constituted him Regent, and then followed the Russian +mission in the direction of Tashkend. Kaufmann would not so much as allow +him to cross the frontier, and after a painful illness Shere Ali died on +February 21st, 1879, near Balkh in northern Afghanistan. He was a man who +deserved a better fate than that which befell him. His aspiration was to +maintain the independence of the kingdom which he ruled with justice if +also with masterfulness, and he could not brook the degradation of +subjection. But, unfortunately for him, he was the 'earthen pipkin' which +the 'iron pot' found inconvenient. There had been plenty of manhood +originally in his son and successor Yakoub Khan, but much of that +attribute had withered in him during the long cruel imprisonment to which +he had been subjected by his father. Shere Ali's death made him nominal +master of Afghanistan, but the vigour of his youth-time no longer +characterised him. He reigned but did not rule, and how precarious was +his position was evidenced by the defection of many leading chiefs who +came into the English camps and were ready to make terms. + +After the flight of Shere Ali some correspondence had passed between +Yakoub Khan and Major Cavagnari, but the former had not expressed any +willingness for the re-establishment of friendly relations. In February +of his own accord he made overtures for a reconciliation, and soon after +intimated the death of his father and his own accession to the Afghan +throne. Major Cavagnari, acting on the Viceroy's authorisation, wrote to +the new sovereign stating the terms on which the Anglo-Indian Government +was prepared to engage in negotiations for peace. Yakoub temporised for +some time, but influenced by the growing defection of the Sirdars from +his cause, as well as by the forward movements of the forces commanded by +Browne and Roberts, he intimated his intention of visiting Gundamuk in +order to discuss matters in personal conference with Major Cavagnari. A +fortnight later he was on his way down the passes. + +Instructions had been given by the Viceroy that Yakoub Khan should be +received in the British camp with all honour and distinction. When his +approach was announced on May 8th, Cavagnari and a number of British +officers rode out to meet him; when he reached the camp, a royal salute +greeted him, a guard of honour presented arms, and Sir Sam Browne and his +staff gave him a ceremonious welcome. Cavagnari had full powers to +represent his Government in the pending negotiations, as to the terms of +which he had received from the Viceroy detailed instructions. The Ameer +and his General-in-Chief, Daoud Shah, came to the conference attired in +Russian uniforms. The negotiations were tedious, for the Ameer, his +Minister, and his General made difficulties with a somewhat elaborate +stupidity, but Cavagnari as a diplomatist possessed the gift of being at +once patient and firm; and at length on May 26th the treaty of peace was +signed, and formally ratified by the Viceroy four days later. By the +treaty of Gundamuk Afghanistan was deprived for the time of its +traditional character of a 'buffer state,' and its Ameer became virtually +a feudatory of the British Crown. He was no longer an independent prince; +although his titular rank and a nominal sovereignty remained to him, his +position under its articles was to be analogous to that of the mediatised +princes of the German Empire. The treaty vested in the British Government +the control of the external relations of Afghanistan. The Ameer consented +to the residence of British Agents within his dominions, guaranteeing +their safety and honourable treatment, while the British Government +undertook that its representatives should not interfere with the internal +administration of the country. The districts of Pisheen, Kuram, and Sibi +were ceded to the British Government along with the permanent control of +the Khyber and Michnai passes, and of the mountain tribes inhabiting the +vicinity of those passes; all other Afghan territory in British +occupation was to be restored. The obligations to which the treaty +committed the British Government were that it should support the Ameer +against foreign aggression with arms, money, or troops at its discretion, +and that it should pay to him and his successor an annual subsidy of +£60,000. Commercial relations between India and Afghanistan were to be +protected and encouraged; a telegraph line between Cabul and the Kuram +was forthwith to be constructed; and the Ameer was to proclaim an amnesty +relieving all and sundry of his subjects from punishment for services +rendered to the British during the war. + +That the treaty of Gundamuk involved our Indian Empire in serious +responsibilities is obvious, and those responsibilities were the more +serious that they were vague and indefinite, yet none the less binding on +this account. It is probable that its provisions, if they had remained in +force, would have been found in the long run injurious to the interests +of British India. For that realm Afghanistan has the value that its +ruggedness presents exceptional obstacles to the march through it of +hostile armies having the Indian frontier for their objective, and this +further and yet more important value that the Afghans by nature are frank +and impartial Ishmaelites, their hands against all foreigners alike, no +matter of what nationality. If this character be impaired, what virtue +the Afghan has in our eyes is lost. In his implacable passion for +independence, in his fierce intolerance of the Feringhee intruder, he +fulfils in relation to our Indian frontier a kindred office to that +served by abattis, _cheveux de frise,_ and wire entanglements in front of +a military position. The short-lived treaty, for which the sanguine Mr +Stanhope claimed that it had gained for England 'a friendly, an +independent, and a strong Afghanistan,' may now be chiefly remembered +because of the circumstance that it gave effect for the moment to Lord +Beaconsfield's 'scientific frontier.' + +The withdrawal of the two northern forces to positions within the new +frontier began immediately on the ratification of the treaty of Gundamuk, +the evacuation of Candahar being postponed for sanitary reasons until +autumn. The march of Sir Sam Browne's force from the breezy upland of +Gundamuk down the passes to Peshawur, made as it was in the fierce heat +of midsummer through a region of bad name for insalubrity, and pervaded +also by virulent cholera, was a ghastly journey. That melancholy +pilgrimage, every halting-place in whose course was marked by graves, and +from which the living emerged 'gaunt and haggard, marching with a +listless air, their clothing stiff with dried perspiration, their faces +thick with a mud of dust and sweat through which their red bloodshot eyes +looked forth, many suffering from heat prostration,' dwells in the memory +of British India as the 'death march,' and its horrors have been +recounted in vivid and pathetic words by Surgeon-Major Evatt, one of the +few medical officers whom, participating in it, it did not kill. + + + + +CHAPTER II: THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN + + +There were many who mistrusted the stability of the treaty of Gundamuk. +Perhaps in his heart Sir Louis Cavagnari may have had his misgivings, for +he was gifted with shrewd insight, and no man knew the Afghan nature +better; but outwardly, in his quiet, resolute manner, he professed the +fullest confidence. Cavagnari was a remarkable man. Italian and Irish +blood commingled in his veins. Both strains carry the attributes of +vivacity and restlessness, but Cavagnari to the superficial observer +appeared as phlegmatic as he was habitually taciturn. This sententious +imperturbability was only on the surface; whether it was a natural +characteristic or an acquired manner is not easy to decide. Below the +surface of measured reticent composure there lay a temperament of ardent +enthusiasm, and not less ardent ambition. In subtlety he was a match for +the wiliest Oriental, whom face to face he dominated with a placid +dauntless masterfulness that was all his own. The wild hill tribes among +whom he went about escortless, carrying his life continually in his hand, +recognised the complex strength of his personal sway, and feared at once +and loved the quiet, firm man, the flash of whose eye was sometimes +ominous, but who could cow the fiercest hillman without losing a tittle +of his cool composure. + +[Illustration: _From a Photograph by Bourne & Shepherd: Sir Louis +Cavagnari and Sirdars_] + +Cavagnari had negotiated the treaty of Gundamuk, the real importance of +which consisted in the Afghan acceptance of a British Resident at Cabul. +The honour, the duty, and the danger naturally fell to him of being the +first occupant of a post created mainly by his own mingled tact and +strength. Many of his friends regarded him in the light of the leader of +a forlorn hope, and probably Cavagnari recognised with perfect clearness +the risks which encompassed his embassy; but apart from mayhap a little +added gravity in his leave-takings when he quitted Simla, he gave no +sign. It was not a very imposing mission at whose head he rode into the +Balla Hissar of Cabul on July 24th, 1879. His companions were his +secretary, Mr William Jenkins, a young Scotsman of the Punjaub Civil +Service, Dr Ambrose Kelly, the medical officer of the embassy, and the +gallant, stalwart young Lieutenant W. R. P. Hamilton, V.C., commanding +the modest escort of seventy-five soldiers of the Guides. It was held +that an escort so scanty was sufficient, since the Ameer had pledged +himself personally for the safety and protection of the mission. The +Envoy was received with high honour, and conducted to the roomy quarters +in the Balla Hissar which had been prepared as the Residency, within easy +distance of the Ameer's palace. Unquestionably the mission was welcome +neither to the Afghan ruler nor to the people, but Cavagnari, writing to +the Viceroy, made the best of things. The arrival at the adjacent Sherpur +cantonments of the Herat regiments in the beginning of August was +extremely unfortunate for the mission. Those troops had been inspired by +their commander Ayoub Khan with intense hatred to the English, and they +marched through the Cabul streets shouting objurgations against the +British Envoy, and picking quarrels with the soldiers of his escort. A +pensioned sepoy who had learned that the Afghan troops had been ordered +to abuse the Eltchi, warned Cavagnari of the danger signals. Cavagnari's +calm remark was, 'Dogs that bark don't bite.' The old soldier earnestly +urged, 'But these dogs do bite, and there is danger.' 'Well,' said +Cavagnari, 'they can only kill the handful of us here, and our death will +be avenged.' The days passed, and it seemed that Cavagnari's diagnosis of +the situation was the accurate one. The last words of his last message to +the Viceroy, despatched on September 2d, were 'All well.' The writer of +those words was a dead man, and his mission had perished with him, almost +as soon as the cheerful message borne along the telegraph wires reached +its destination. + +In the morning of September 3d some Afghan regiments paraded without arms +in the Balla Hissar to receive their pay. An instalment was paid, but the +soldiers clamoured for arrears due. The demand was refused, a riot began, +and the shout rose that the British Eltchi might prove a free-handed +paymaster. There was a rush toward the Residency, and while some of the +Afghan soldiers resorted to stone-throwing, others ran for arms to their +quarters, and looted the Arsenal in the upper Balla Hissar. The Residency +gates had been closed on the first alarm, and fire was promptly opened on +the rabble. The place was never intended for defence, commanded as it was +at close range from the higher level of the Arsenal, whence a heavy +continuous fire was from the first poured down. The mob of the city in +their thousands hurried to co-operate with the mutinied soldiers and +share in the spoils of the sack, so that the Residency was soon besieged. +As soon as the outbreak manifested itself Cavagnari had sent a message to +the Ameer, and the communication admittedly reached the latter's hands. +He had more than 2000 troops in the Balla Hissar, still at least +nominally loyal; he had guaranteed the protection of the mission, and it +behoved him to do what in him lay to fulfil his pledge. But the Ameer sat +supine in his palace, doing no more than send his General-in-Chief Daoud +Shah to remonstrate with the insurgents. Daoud Shah went on the errand, +but it is questionable whether he showed any energy, or indeed desired +that the besiegers should desist. It was claimed by and for him that he +was maltreated and indeed wounded by the mob, and it appears that he did +ride into the throng and was forcibly dismounted. He might perhaps have +exerted himself with greater determination if he had received more +specific orders from his master the Ameer. That feeble or treacherous +prince never stirred. To the frequent urgent messages sent him by +Lieutenant Hamilton, he replied vaguely: 'As God wills; I am making +preparations.' Meanwhile the little garrison maintained with gallant +staunchness hour after hour the all but hopeless defence.' While the +fighting was going on,' reported the pensioner who had previously warned +Cavagnari, 'I myself saw the four European officers charge out at the +head of some twenty-five of the garrison; they drove away a party holding +some broken ground. When chased, the Afghan soldiers ran like sheep +before a wolf. Later, another sally was made by a detachment, with but +three officers at their head. Cavagnari was not with them this time. A +third sally was made with only two officers leading, Hamilton and +Jenkins; and the last of the sallies was made by a Sikh Jemadar bravely +leading. No more sallies were made after this.' About noon the gates were +forced, and the Residency building was fired; but the defenders long +maintained their position on the roof and in a detached building. At +length the fire did its work, the walls and roof fell in, and soon the +fell deed was consummated by the slaughter of the last survivors of the +ill-fated garrison. Hamilton was said to have died sword in hand in a +final desperate charge. Tidings of the massacre were carried with great +speed to Massy's outposts in the Kuram valley. The news reached Simla by +telegraph early on the morning of the 5th. The authorities there rallied +from the shock with fine purposeful promptitude, and within a few hours a +telegram was on its way to General Massy's headquarters at Ali Khel +instructing him to occupy the crest of the Shutargurdan Pass with two +infantry regiments and a mountain battery, which force was to entrench +itself there and await orders. + +The policy of which Lord Lytton was the figurehead had come down with a +bloody crash, and the 'masterly inactivity' of wise John Lawrence stood +vindicated in the eyes of Europe and of Asia. But if his policy had gone +to water, the Viceroy, although he was soon to default from the constancy +of his purpose, saw for the present clear before him the duty that now in +its stead lay upon him of inflicting summary punishment on a people who +had ruthlessly violated the sacred immunity from harm that shields alike +among civilised and barbarous communities the person and suite of an +ambassador accepted under the provisions of a deliberate treaty. Burnes +and Macnaghten had met their fate because they had gone to Cabul the +supporters of a detested intruder and the unwelcome representatives of a +hated power. But Cavagnari had been slaughtered notwithstanding that he +dwelt in the Balla Hissar Residency in virtue of a solemn treaty between +the Empress of India and the Ameer of Afghanistan, notwithstanding that +the latter had guaranteed him safety and protection, notwithstanding that +Britain and Afghanistan had ratified a pledge of mutual friendship and +reciprocal good offices. Lord Lytton recognised, at least for the moment, +that no consideration of present expediency or of ulterior policy could +intervene to deter him from the urgent imperative duty which now suddenly +confronted him. The task, it was true, was beset with difficulties and +dangers. The forces on the north-western frontier had been reduced to a +peace footing, and the transport for economical reasons had been severely +cut down. The bitter Afghan winter season was approaching, during which +military operations could be conducted only under extremely arduous +conditions, and when the line of communications would be liable to +serious interruptions, The available troops for a prompt offensive did +not amount to more than 6500 men all told, and it was apparent that many +circumstances might postpone their reinforcement. + +When men are in earnest, difficulties and dangers are recognised only to +be coped with and overcome. When the Simla council of war broke up on the +afternoon of September 5th the plan of campaign had been settled, and the +leader of the enterprise had been chosen. Sir Frederick Roberts was +already deservedly esteemed one of the most brilliant soldiers of the +British army. He had fought with distinction all through the Great +Mutiny, earning the Victoria Cross and rapid promotion; he had served in +the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, and been chosen by Napier to carry home +his final despatches; and he had worthily shared in the toil, fighting, +and honours of the Umbeyla and Looshai expeditions. In his command of the +Kuram field force during the winter of 1878-9 he had proved himself a +skilful, resolute, and vigorous leader. The officers and men who served +under him believed in him enthusiastically, and, what with soldiers is +the convincing assurance of whole-souled confidence, they had bestowed on +him an affectionate nickname--they knew him among themselves as 'little +Bobs.' His administrative capacity he had proved in the post of +Quartermaster-General in India. Ripe in experience of war, Roberts at the +age of forty-seven was in the full vigour of manhood, alert in mind, and +of tough and enduring physique. He was a very junior Major-General, but +even among his seniors the conviction was general that Lord Lytton the +Viceroy, and Sir F. Haines the Commander-in-Chief, acted wisely in +entrusting to him the most active command in the impending campaign. + +Our retention of the Kuram valley was to prove very useful in the +emergency which had suddenly occurred. Its occupation enabled Massy to +seize and hold the Shutargurdan, and the force in the valley was to +constitute the nucleus of the little army of invasion and retribution to +the command of which Sir Frederick Roberts was appointed. The apex at the +Shutargurdan of the salient angle into Afghanistan which our possession +of the Kuram valley furnished was within little more than fifty miles of +Cabul, whereas the distance of that city from Lundi Kotul, our advanced +position at the head of the Khyber Pass, was about 140 miles, and the +route exceptionally difficult. Roberts' column of invasion was to consist +of a cavalry brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Dunham-Massy, and of +two infantry brigades, the first commanded by Brigadier-General +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General Baker, three batteries of +artillery, a company of sappers and miners, and two Gatling guns. The +Kuram valley between the Shutargurdan and the base was to be garrisoned +adequately by a force about 4000 strong, in protection of Roberts' +communications by that line until snow should close it, by which time it +was anticipated that communication by the Khyber-Jellalabad-Gundamuk line +would be opened up, for gaining and maintaining which a force of about +6600 men was to be detailed under the command of Major-General Bright, +which was to furnish a movable column to establish communications onward +to Cabul. A strong reserve force was to be gathered between Peshawur and +Rawal Pindi under the command of Major-General Ross, to move forward as +occasion might require, in the south-west Sir Donald Stewart was to +recall to Candahar his troops, which, having begun their march toward +India, were now mainly echeloned along the route to Quetta, when that +General would have about 9000 men at his disposition to dominate the +Candahar province, reoccupy Khelat-i-Ghilzai, and threaten Ghuznee, his +communications with the Indus being kept open by a brigade of Bombay +troops commanded by Brigadier-General Phayre. + +Sir Frederick Roberts left Simla on ET September along with Colonel +Charles Macgregor, C.B., the brilliant and daring soldier whom he had +chosen as chief of staff, and travelling night and day they reached Ali +Khel on the 12th. The transport and supply difficulty had to be promptly +met, and this was effected only by making a clean sweep of all the +resources of the Peshawur district, greatly but unavoidably to the +hindrance of the advance of the Khyber column, and by procuring carriage +and supplies from the friendly tribes of the Kuram. Notwithstanding the +most strenuous exertions it was not until the 1st October that Roberts' +little army, having crossed the Shutargurdan by detachments, was +rendezvoused at and about the village of Kushi in the Logur plain, within +forty-eight miles of Cabul. Some sharp skirmishes had been fought as the +troops traversed the rugged ground between Ali Khel and the Shutargurdan, +but the losses were trivial, although the General himself had a narrow +escape. A couple of regiments and four guns under the command of Colonel +Money were left in an entrenched camp to hold the Shutargurdan. + +The massacre of the British mission had no sooner been perpetrated than +Yakoub Khan found himself in a very bad way. The Cabul Sirdars sided with +the disaffected soldiery, and urged the Ameer to raise his banner for a +_jehad_ or religious war, a measure for which he had no nerve. Nor had he +the nerve to remain in Cabul until Roberts should camp under the Balla +Hissar and demand of him an account of the stewardship he had undertaken +on behalf of the ill-fated Cavagnari. What reasons actuated the anxious +and bewildered man cannot precisely be known; whether he was simply +solicitous for his own wretched skin, whether he acted from a wish to +save Cabul from destruction, or whether he hoped that his entreaties for +delay might stay the British advance until the tribesmen should gather to +bar the road to the capital. He resolved to fly from Cabul, and commit +himself to the protection of General Roberts and his army. The day before +General Roberts arrived at Kushi the Ameer presented himself in Baker's +camp, accompanied by his eldest son and some of his Sirdars, among whom +was Daoud Shah the Commander-in-Chief of his army. Sir Frederick on his +arrival at Kushi paid a formal visit to the Ameer, which the latter +returned the same afternoon and took occasion to plead that the General +should delay his advance. The reply was that not even for a single day +would Sir Frederick defer his march on Cabul. The Ameer remained in camp, +his personal safety carefully protected, but under a species of +honourable surveillance, until it should be ascertained judicially +whether or not he was implicated in the massacre of the mission. + +Yakoub had intimated his intention of presenting himself in the British +camp some days in advance of his arrival, and as telegraphic +communication with headquarters was open, his acceptance in the character +of an honoured guest was presumably in accordance with instructions from +Simla. The man who had made himself personally responsible for the safety +of Cavagnari's mission was a strange guest with an army whose avowed +errand was to exact retribution for the crime of its destruction. It +might seem not unreasonable to expect that, as an indispensable +preliminary to his entertainment, he should have at least afforded some +_prima facie_ evidence that he had been zealous to avert the fate which +had befallen the mission, and stern in the punishment of an atrocity +which touched him so nearly. But instead, he was taken on trust so fully +that Afghans resisting the British advance were not so much regarded as +enemies resisting an invasion and as constructive vindicators of the +massacre, as they were held traitors to their sovereign harbouring in the +British camp. + +On the morning of October 2d the whole force marched from Kushi toward +Cabul, temporarily cutting loose from communication with the +Shutargurdan, to avoid diminishing the strength of the column by leaving +detachments to keep the road open. All told, Roberts' army was the +reverse of a mighty host. Its strength was little greater than that of a +Prussian brigade on a war footing. Its fate was in its own hands, for +befall it what might it could hope for no timely reinforcement. It was a +mere detachment marching against a nation of fighting men plentifully +supplied with artillery, no longer shooting laboriously with jezails, but +carrying arms of precision equal or little inferior to those in the hands +of our own soldiery. But the men, Europeans and Easterns, hillmen of +Scotland and hillmen of Nepaul, plainmen of Hampshire and plainmen of the +Punjaub, strode along buoyant with confidence and with health, believing +in their leader, in their discipline, in themselves. Of varied race, no +soldier who followed Roberts but came of fighting stock; ever blithely +rejoicing in the combat, one and all burned for the strife now before +them with more than wonted ardour, because of the opportunity it promised +to exact vengeance for a deed of foul treachery. + +The soldiers had not long to wait for the first fight of the campaign. On +the afternoon of the 5th Baker's brigade, with most of the cavalry and +artillery, and with the 92d Highlanders belonging to Macpherson's +brigade, camped on the plain to the south of the village of Charasiah, +Macpherson remaining one march in rear to escort the convoy of ammunition +and stores. North of Charasiah rises a semicircular curtain of hills +ascending in three successive tiers, the most distant and loftiest range +closing in the horizon and shutting out the view of Cabul, distant only +about eleven miles. The leftward projection of the curtain, as one looks +northward, comes down into the plain almost as far as and somewhat to the +left of Charasiah, dividing the valley of Charasiah from the outer plain +of Chardeh. To the right front of Charasiah, distant from it about three +miles, the range is cleft by the rugged and narrow Sung-i-Nawishta Pass, +through which run the Logur river and the direct road to Cabul by Beni +Hissar. Information had been received that the Afghans were determined on +a resolute attempt to prevent the British force from reaching Cabul, and +the position beyond Charasiah seemed so tempting that it was regarded as +surprising that cavalry reconnaissances sent forward on three distinct +roads detected no evidences of any large hostile gathering. + +But next morning 'showed another sight.' At dawn on the 6th General +Roberts, anxious to secure the Sung-i-Nawishta Pass and to render the +track through it passable for guns, sent forward his pioneer battalion +with a wing of the 92d and two mountain guns. That detachment had gone +out no great distance when the spectacle before it gave it pause. From +the Sung-i-Nawishta defile, both sides of which were held, the +semicircular sweep of the hill-crests was crowned by an Afghan host in +great strength and regular formation. According to subsequent information +no fewer than thirteen regiments of the Afghan regular army took part in +the combat, as well as large contingents of irregular fighting men from +Cabul and the adjoining villages, while the British camp was threatened +from the heights on either side by formidable bodies of tribesmen, to +thwart whose obviously intended attack on it a considerable force had to +be retained. The dispositions of the Afghan commander Nek Mahomed Khan +were made with some tactical skill. The Sung-i-Nawishta Pass itself, the +heights on either side, and a low detached eminence further forward, were +strongly held by Afghan infantry; in the mouth of the pass were four +Armstrong guns, and on the flanking height twelve mountain guns were in +position. The projecting spur toward Charasiah which was the extreme +right of the Afghan position, was held in force, whence an effective fire +would bear on the left flank of a force advancing to a direct attack on +the pass. But Roberts was not the man to play into the hands of the +Afghan tactician. He humoured his conception so far as to send forward on +his right toward the pass, a small detachment of all arms under Major +White of the 92d, with instructions to maintain a threatening attitude in +that direction, and to seize the opportunity to co-operate with the +flanking movement entrusted to General Baker as soon as its development +should have shaken the constancy of the enemy. To Baker with about 2000 +infantry and four guns, was assigned the task of attacking the Afghan +right on the projecting spur and ridge, forcing back and dispersing that +flank; and then, having reached the right of the Afghan main position on +the farthest and loftiest range, he was to wheel to his right and sweep +its defenders from the chain of summits. + +Baker moved out toward his left front against the eminences held by the +Afghan right wing, which Nek Mahomed, having discerned the character of +Roberts' tactics, was now reinforcing with great activity. The 72d +Highlanders led the attack, supported vigorously by the 5th Goorkhas and +the 5th Punjaub Infantry. The resistance of the Afghans was stubborn, +especially opposite our extreme left, whence from behind their sungahs on +a steep hill they poured a heavy fire on the assailants. A yet heavier +fire came from a detached knoll on Baker's right, which the artillery +fire gradually beat down. The Afghans continued to hold the advanced +ridge constituting their first position until two o'clock, when a direct +attack, accompanied by a double flanking fire, compelled their +withdrawal. They, however, fell back only to an intermediate loftier +position about 700 yards in rear of the ridge from which they had been +driven. Approached by successive rushes under cover-of artillery fire, +they were then attacked vigorously and fell back in confusion. No rally +was permitted them, and by three o'clock the whole Afghan right was +shattered and in full flight along the edge of the Chardeh valley. Baker +unfortunately had no cavalry, else the fugitives would have suffered +severely. But the rout of the Afghan right had decided the fortune of the +day. Its defenders were already dribbling away from the main position +when Baker, wheeling to his right, marched along the lofty crest, rolling +up and sweeping away the Afghan defence as he moved toward the +Sung-i-Nawishta gorge. That defile had already been entered by the +cavalry of White's detachment, supported by some infantry. While Baker +had been turning the Afghan right, White and his little force had been +distinguishing themselves not a little. After an artillery preparation +the detached hill had been won as the result of a hand-to-hand struggle. +Later had fallen into the hands of White's people all the Afghan guns, +and the heights to the immediate right and left of the gorge had been +carried, the defenders driven away, and the pass opened up. But the +progress through it of the cavalry was arrested by a strongly garrisoned +fort completely commanding the road. On this fort Baker directed his +artillery fire, at the same time sending down two infantry regiments to +clear away the remnants of the Afghan army still lingering in the pass. +This accomplished, the fighting ceased. It had been a satisfactory day. +Less than half of Roberts' force had been engaged, and this mere brigade +had routed the army of Cabul and captured the whole of the artillery it +had brought into the field. The Afghan loss was estimated at about 300 +killed. The British loss was twenty killed and sixty-seven wounded. On +the night of the combat part of Baker's troops bivouacked beyond the +Sung-i-Nawishta, and on the following day the whole division passed the +defile and camped at Beni Hissar, within sight of the Balla Hissar and +the lofty ridge overhanging Cabul. + +On the afternoon of the 7th a violent explosion was heard in the Beni +Hissar camp from the direction of the Sherpur cantonment north of Cabul, +near the site of the British cantonments of 1839-41. Next morning +information came in that the Sherpur magazine had been blown up, and that +the cantonment had been abandoned by the Afghan regiments which had +garrisoned that vast unfinished structure. General Massy led out part of +his brigade on a reconnaissance, and took possession of the deserted +Sherpur cantonment, and of the seventy-five pieces of ordnance parked +within the walls. Massy had observed from the Siah Sung heights that the +Asmai heights, overhanging the Cabul suburb of Deh Afghan, were held by a +large body of Afghan soldiery, a force, it was afterwards learned, +composed of the remnants of the regiments defeated at Charasiah, three +fresh regiments from the Kohistan, and the rabble of the city and +adjacent villages, having a total strength of nearly 3000 men, with +twelve guns, under the leadership of Mahomed Jan, who later was to figure +prominently as the ablest of our Afghan enemies. Massy heliographed his +information to General Roberts, who sent Baker with a force to drive the +enemy from the heights; and Massy was instructed to pass through a gap in +the ridge and gain the Chardeh valley, where he might find opportunity to +intercept the Afghan retreat toward the west. Massy pierced the ridge at +the village of Aushar, and disposed his troops on the roads crossing the +Chardeh valley. Meanwhile Baker found the ascent of the Sher Derwaza +heights so steep that the afternoon was far spent before his guns came +into action, and it was still later before part of his infantry effected +their descent into the Chardeh valley. Reinforcements necessary to enable +him to act did not reach him until dusk, when it would have been folly to +commit himself to an attack. A night patrol ascertained that the Afghans +had evacuated the position under cover of darkness, leaving behind their +guns and camp equipage. On the 9th the divisional camp moved forward to +the Siah Sung heights, a mile eastward from the Balla Hissar, and there +it was joined by Baker, and by Massy, who on his way to camp led his +wearied troopers through the city of Cabul without mishap or insult. The +Goorkha regiment was detached to hold the ridge commanding the Balla +Hissar, and a cavalry regiment was quartered in the Sherpur cantonment to +protect it from the ravages of the villagers. + +A melancholy interest attaches to the visit paid by Sir Frederick Roberts +to the Balla Hissar on the 11th. Through the dirt and squalor of the +lower portion he ascended the narrow lane leading to the ruin which a few +weeks earlier had been the British Residency. The commander of the +avenging army looked with sorrowful eyes on the scene of heroism and +slaughter, on the smoke-blackened walls, the blood splashes on the +whitewashed walls, the still smouldering debris, the half-burned skulls +and bones in the blood-dabbled chamber where apparently the final +struggle had been fought out. He stood in the great breach in the +quarters of the Guides where the gate had been blown in after the last of +the sorties made by the gallant Hamilton, and lingered in the tattered +wreck of poor Cavagnari's drawing-room, its walls dinted with +bullet-pits, its floor and walls brutally defiled. Next day he made a +formal entry into the Balla Hissar, his road lined with his staunch +troops, a royal salute greeting the banner of Britain as it rose on the +tall flagstaff above the gateway. He held a Durbar in the 'Audience +Chamber' in the garden of the Ameer's palace; in front and in flank of +him the pushing throng of obsequious Sirdars of Cabul arrayed in all the +colours of the rainbow; behind them, standing immobile at attention, the +guard of British infantry with fixed bayonets which the soldiers longed +to use. The General read the mild proclamation announcing the disarmament +of the Cabulese and the punishment of fine which was laid upon the city, +but which never was exacted. And then he summarily dismissed the Sirdars, +three only, the Mustaphi, Yahuja Khan the Ameer's father-in-law, and +Zakariah Khan his brother, being desired to remain. Their smug +complacency was suddenly changed into dismay when they were abruptly told +that they were prisoners. + +Another ceremonial progress the General had to perform. On the 13th he +marched through the streets of Cabul at the head of his little army, the +bazaars and dead walls echoing to the music of the bands and the wild +scream of the bagpipes. In the Afghan quarter no salaams greeted the +conquering Feringhees, and scowling faces frowned on the spectacle from +windows and side-streets. Three days later occurred an event which might +have been a great catastrophe. Captain Shafto of the ordnance was +conducting an examination into the contents of the arsenal in the upper +Balla Hissar, and had already discovered millions of cartridges, and +about 150,000 lbs. of gunpowder. Daoud Shah, however, expressed his +belief that at least a million pounds were in store. Captain Shafto, a +very cautious man, was pursuing his researches; the Goorkhas were +quartered in the upper Balla Hissar near the magazine shed, and the 67th +occupied the Ameer's garden lower down. On the 16th a dull report was +heard in the Siah Sung camp, followed immediately by the rising above the +Balla Hissar of a huge column of grey smoke, which as it drifted away +disclosed flashes of flame and sudden jets of smoke telling of repeated +gunpowder explosions. The 67th, powdered with dust, escaped all but +scathless; but the Goorkha regiment had been heavily smitten. Twelve poor +fellows were killed, and seven wounded; among the former were five +principal Goorkha officers. + +The Balla Hissar was promptly evacuated. Occasional explosions occurred +for several days, the heaviest of those on the afternoon of the 16th, +which threw on the city a great shower of stones, beams, and bullets. By +a jet of stones blown out through the Balla Hissar gate four Afghans were +killed, and two sowars and an Afghan badly hurt. Captain Shafto's body +and the remains of the Goorkhas were found later, and buried; and the +determination was formed to have no more to do with the Balla Hissar, but +to occupy the Sherpur cantonment. Meanwhile General Hugh Gough was +despatched with a small force of all arms to escort to Cabul Money's +gallant garrison of the Shutargurdan, and to close for the winter the +line of communication _via_ the Kuram valley. Colonel Money had undergone +with fine soldierly spirit and action not a few turbulent experiences +since Roberts had left him and his Sikhs on the lofty crest of the +Shutargurdan. The truculent Ghilzais gave him no peace; his method of +dealing with them was for the most part with the bayonet point. The last +attempt on him was made by a horde of Ghilzais some 17,000 strong, who +completely invested his camp, and after the civility of requesting him to +surrender, a compliment which he answered by bullets, made a close and +determined attack on his position. This was on the 18th October; on the +following day Gough heliographed his arrival at Kushi, whereupon Money +took the offensive with vigour and scattered to the winds his Ghilzai +assailants. On 30th October the Shutargurdan position was evacuated, and +on the 3d November the Cabul force received the welcome accession of +headquarters and two squadrons 9th Lancers, Money's 3d Sikhs, and four +mountain guns. + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM + +Sir Frederick Roberts had been hurried forward on Cabul charged with the +duty of avenging the perpetration of a foul and treacherous crime, 'which +had brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan nation.' The scriptural +injunction to turn the other cheek to the smiter has not yet become a +canon of international law or practice; and the anti-climax to an +expedition engaged in with so stern a purpose, of a nominal disarmament +and a petty fine never exacted, is self-evident. Our nation is given to +walk in the path of precedent; and in this juncture the authorities had +to their hand the most apposite of precedents. Pollock, by destroying the +Char bazaar in which had been exposed the mangled remains of Burnes and +Macnaghten, set a 'mark' on Cabul the memory of which had lasted for +decades. Cavagnari and his people had been slaughtered in the Balla +Hissar, and their bones were still mingled with the smouldering ruins of +the Residency. Wise men discerned that the destruction of the fortress +followed by a homeward march as swift yet as measured as had been the +march of invasion, could not but have made a deep and lasting impression +on the Afghans; while the complications, humiliations, and expense of the +long futile occupation would have been obviated. Other counsels +prevailed. To discover, in a nation virtually accessory as a whole after +the fact to the slaughter of the mission, the men on whom lay the +suspicion of having been the instigators and the perpetrators of the +cruel deed, to accord them a fair trial, and to send to the gallows those +on whose hands was found the blood of the massacred mission, was held a +more befitting and not less telling course of retributive action than to +raze the Balla Hissar and sow its site with salt. Skilfully and patiently +evidence was gathered, and submitted to the Military Commission which +General Roberts had appointed. This tribunal took cognisance of crimes +nominally of two classes. It tried men who were accused of having been +concerned in the destruction of the British mission, and those charged +with treason in having offered armed resistance to the British troops +acting in support of the Ameer, who had put himself under their +protection. Of the five prisoners first tried, condemned, and duly +hanged, two were signal criminals. One of them, the Kotwal or Mayor of +Cabul, was proved to have superintended the contumelious throwing of the +bodies of the slaughtered Guides of the mission escort into the ditch of +the Balla Hissar. Another was proved to have carried away from the +wrecked Residency a head believed to have been Cavagnari's, and to have +exhibited it on the ridge above the city. The other three and many of +those who were subsequently executed, suffered for the crime of 'treason' +against Yakoub Khan. Probably there was no Afghan who did not approve of +the slaughter of the Envoy, and who would not in his heart have rejoiced +at the annihilation of the British force; but it seems strange law and +stranger justice to hang men for 'treason' against a Sovereign who had +gone over to the enemy. On the curious expedient of temporarily governing +in the name of an Ameer who had deserted his post to save his skin, +comment would be superfluous. Executions continued; few, however, of the +mutinous sepoys who actually took part in the wanton attack on the +British Residency had been secured, and it was judged expedient that +efforts should be made to capture and punish those against whom there was +evidence of that crime, in the shape of the muster-rolls of the regiments +now in the possession of the military authorities. It was known that many +of the disbanded and fugitive soldiers had returned to their homes in the +villages around Cabul, and early in November General Baker took out a +force and suddenly encircled the village of Indikee, on the edge of the +Chardeh valley--a village reported full of Afghan sepoys. A number of men +were brought out by the scared headmen and handed over, answering to +their names called over from a list carried by Baker; and other villages +in the vicinity yielded a considerable harvest of disbanded soldiers. +Before the Commission the prisoners made no attempt to conceal their +names, or deny the regiments to which they had belonged; and forty-nine +of them were found guilty and hanged, nearly all of whom belonged to the +regiments that had assailed the Residency. + +On 12th November Sir Frederick Roberts proclaimed an amnesty in favour of +all who had fought against the British troops, on condition that they +should surrender their arms and return to their homes; but exempted from +the benefit were all concerned in the attack on the Residency. The +amnesty was well timed, although most people would have preferred that +fewer sepoys and more Sirdars should have been hanged. + +Our relations with the Ameer during the earlier part of his residence in +the British camp were not a little peculiar. Nominally he was our guest, +and a certain freedom was accorded to him and his retinue. There was no +doubt that the Sirdars of the Ameer's suite grossly abused their +privileges. Whether with Yakoub Khan's cognisance or not, they authorised +the use of his name by the insurgent leaders. Nek Mahomed, the insurgent +commander at Charasiah, was actually in the tents of the Ameer on the +evening before the fight. To all appearance our operations continued to +have for their ultimate object the restoration of Yakoub Khan to his +throne. Our administrative measures were carried on in his name. The +hostile Afghans we designated as rebels against his rule; and his +authority was proclaimed as the justification of much of our conduct. But +the situation gradually became intolerable to Yakoub Khan. He was a guest +in the British camp, but he was also in a species of custody. Should our +arms reinstate him, he could not hope to hold his throne. His harassed +perplexity came to a crisis on the morning of the 12th October, the day +of General Roberts' durbar in the Balla Hissar, which he had been desired +to attend. What he specifically apprehended is unknown; what he did was +to tell General Roberts, with great excitement, that he would not go to +the durbar, that his life was too miserable for long endurance, that he +would rather be a grass-cutter in the British camp than remain Ameer of +Afghanistan. He was firmly resolved to resign the throne, and begged that +he might be allowed to do so at once. General Roberts explained that the +acceptance of his resignation rested not with him but with the Viceroy, +pending whose decision matters, the General desired, should remain as +they were, affairs continuing to be conducted in the Ameer's name as +before. To this the Ameer consented; his tents were moved to the vicinity +of General Roberts' headquarters, and a somewhat closer surveillance over +him was maintained. + +Secrecy meanwhile was preserved until the Viceroy's reply should arrive. +The nature of that reply was intimated by the proclamation which General +Roberts issued on the 28th October. It announced that the Ameer had of +his own free will abdicated his throne and left Afghanistan without a +government. 'The British Government,' the proclamation continued, 'now +commands that all Afghan authorities, chiefs, and sirdars, do continue +their functions in maintaining order ... The British Government, after +consultation with the principal sirdars, tribal chiefs, and others +representing the interests and wishes of the various provinces and +cities, will declare its will as to the future permanent arrangements to +be made for the good government of the people.' + +This _ad interim_ assumption of the rulership of Afghanistan may have +been adopted as the only policy which afforded even a remote possibility +of tranquillity. But it was essentially a policy of speculative +makeshift. The retributive and punitive object of the swift march on +Cabul can scarcely be regarded as having been fulfilled by the execution +of a number of subordinate participants and accessories in the +destruction of the mission and by the voluntary abdication of Yakoub +Khan. That the Afghan 'authorities, chiefs, and sirdars,' would obey the +command to 'maintain order' issued by the leader of a few thousand +hostile troops, masters of little more than the ground on which they were +encamped, experience and common sense seemed alike to render improbable. +The Afghans subordinated their internal quarrels to their common hatred +of the masterful foreigners, and the desperate fighting of December +proved how fiercely they were in earnest. + +Yakoub Khan had been regarded as merely a weak and unfortunate man, but +the shadows gradually darkened around him until at length he came to be a +man under grave suspicion. General Roberts became satisfied from the +results of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, that the attack on +the Residency, if not actually instigated by him, might at least have +been checked by active exertion on his part. Information was obtained +which convinced the General that the ex-Ameer was contemplating a flight +toward Turkestan, and it was considered necessary to place him in close +confinement. He remained a close prisoner until December 1st. On the +early morning of that day he was brought out from his tent, and after +taking farewell of the General and his staff, started on his journey to +Peshawur, surrounded by a strong escort. If the hill tribes along his +route had cared enough about him to attempt his rescue, the speed with +which he travelled afforded them no time to gather for that purpose. + +During those uneventful October and November days, when the little army +commanded by General Roberts lay in its breezy camp on the Siah Sung +heights, there was no little temptation for the unprofessional reader of +the telegraphic information in the newspapers to hold cheap those +reputedly formidable Afghans, whose resistance a single sharp skirmish +had seemingly scattered to the winds, and who were now apparently +accepting without active remonstrance the dominance of the few thousand +British bayonets glittering there serenely over against the once +turbulent but now tamed hill capital. One may be certain that the shrewd +and careful soldier who commanded that scant array did not permit himself +to share in the facile optimism whether on the part of a government or of +the casual reader of complacent telegrams. It was true that the +Government of India had put or was putting some 30,000 soldiers into the +field on the apparent errand of prosecuting an Afghan war. But what +availed Roberts this host of fighting men when he had to realise that, +befall him what might in the immediate or near future, not a man of it +was available to strengthen or to succour him? The quietude of those cool +October days was very pleasant, but the chief knew well how precarious +and deceitful was the calm. For the present the Afghan unanimity of +hostility was affected in a measure by the fact that the Ameer, who had +still a party, was voluntarily in the British camp. But when Yakoub's +abdication should be announced, he knew the Afghan nature too well to +doubt that the tribal blood-feuds would be soldered for the time, that +Dooranee and Barakzai would strike hands, that Afghan regulars and Afghan +irregulars would rally under the same standards, and that the fierce +shouts of 'Deen! deen!' would resound on hill-top and in plain. Cut loose +from any base, with slowly dwindling strength, with waning stock of +ammunition, it was his part to hold his ground here for the winter, he +and his staunch soldiers, a firm rock in the midst of those surging +Afghan billows that were certain to rise around him. Not only would he +withstand them, but he would meet them, for this bold man knew the value +in dealing with Afghans of a resolute and vigorous offensive. But it +behoved him above all things to make timely choice of his winter quarters +where he should collect his supplies and house his troops and the +followers. After careful deliberation the Sherpur cantonment was +selected. It was overlarge for easy defence, but hard work, careful +engineering, and steadfast courage would redeem that evil. And Sherpur +had the great advantage that besides being in a measure a ready-made +defensive position, it had shelter for all the European troops and most +of the native soldiery, and that it would accommodate also the horses of +the cavalry, the transport animals, and all the needful supplies and +stores. + +An Afghan of the Afghans, Shere Ali nevertheless had curiously failed to +discern that the warlike strength of the nation which he ruled lay in its +intuitive aptitude for irregular fighting; and he had industriously set +himself to the effort of warping the combative genius of his people and +of constituting Afghanistan a military power of the regular and +disciplined type. He had created a large standing army the soldiery of +which wore uniforms, underwent regular drill, obeyed words of command, +and carried arms of precision. He had devoted great pains to the +manufacture of a formidable artillery, and what with presents from the +British Government and the imitative skill of native artificers he was +possessed at the outbreak of hostilities of several hundred cannon. His +artisans were skillful enough to turn out in large numbers very fair +rifled small-arms, which they copied from British models; and in the +Balla Hissar magazine were found by our people vast quantities of +gunpowder and of admirable cartridges of local manufacture. There were +many reasons why the Cabul division of Shere Ali's army should be +quartered apart from his turbulent and refractory capital, and why its +cantonment should take the form of a permanent fortified camp, in which +his soldiers might be isolated from Cabul intrigues, while its proximity +to the capital should constitute a standing menace to the conspirators of +the city. His original design apparently was to enclose the Behmaroo +heights within the walls of his cantonment, and thus form a great +fortified square upon the heights in the centre of which should rise a +strong citadel dominating the plain in every direction. The Sherpur +cantonment as found by Roberts consisted of a fortified enciente, +enclosing on two sides a great open space in the shape of a parallelogram +lying along the southern base of the Behmaroo heights. When the British +troops took possession, only the west and south faces of the enciente +were completed; although not long built those were already in bad repair, +and the explosion of the great magazine when the Afghan troops abandoned +the cantonment had wrecked a section of the western face. The eastern +face had been little more than traced, and the northern side had no +artificial protection, but was closed in by the Behmaroo heights, whose +centre was cleft by a broad and deep gorge. The design of the enciente +was peculiar. There was a thick and high exterior wall of mud, with a +banquette for infantry protected by a parapet. Inside this wall was a dry +ditch forty feet wide, on the inner brink of which was the long range of +barrack-rooms. Along the interior front of the barrack-rooms was a +verandah faced with arches supported by pillars, its continuity broken +occasionally by broad staircases conducting to the roof of the barracks, +which afforded a second line of defence. The closing in of the verandah +would of course give additional barrack accommodation, but there were +quarters in the barrack-rooms for at least all the European troops. In +the southern face of the enciente were three gateways, and in the centre +of the western face there was a fourth, each gate covered adequately by a +curtain. Between each gate were semicircular bastions for guns. In the +interior there was space to manoeuvre a division of all arms. There was a +copious supply of water, and if the aspect of the great cantonment was +grim because of the absence of trees and the utter barrenness of the +enclosed space, this aesthetic consideration went for little against its +manifest advantages as snug and defensible winter quarters. Shere Ali had +indeed been all unconsciously a friend in need to the British force +wintering in the heart of that unfortunate potentate's dominions. Human +nature is perverse and exacting, and there were those who objurgated his +memory because he had constructed his cantonment a few sizes too large to +be comfortably defended by Sir Frederick Roberts' little force. But this +was manifestly unreasonable; and in serious truth the Sherpur cantonment +was a real godsend to our people. Supplies of all kinds were steadily +being accumulated there, and the woodwork of the houses in the Balla +Hissar was being carried to Sherpur for use as firewood. On the last day +of October the force quitted the Siah Sung position and took possession +of Sherpur, which had undergone a rigorous process of fumigation and +cleansing. The change was distinctly for the better. The force was +compacted, and the routine military duties were appreciably lightened +since there were needed merely piquets on the Behmaroo heights and +sentries on the gates; the little army was healthy, temperate, and in +excellent case in all respects. + +The dispositions for field service made at the outset of the campaign by +the military authorities have already been detailed. Regarded simply as +dispositions they left nothing to be desired, and certainly Sir Frederick +Roberts' force had been organised and equipped with a fair amount of +expedition. But it was apparent that the equipment of that body of 6500 +men--and that equipment by no means of an adequate character, had +exhausted for the time the resources of the Government as regarded +transport and supplies. Promptitude of advance on the part of the force +to which had been assigned the line of invasion by the Khyber-Jellalabad +route, was of scarcely less moment than the rapidity of the stroke which +Roberts was commissioned to deliver. The former's was a treble duty. One +of its tasks was to open up and maintain Roberts' communications with +India, so that the closing of the Shutargurdan should not leave him +isolated. Another duty resting on the Khyber force was to constitute for +Roberts a ready and convenient reserve, on which he might draw when his +occasions demanded. No man could tell how soon after the commencement of +his invasion that necessity might arise; it was a prime _raison d'être_ +of the Khyber force to be in a position to give him the hand when he +should intimate a need for support. Yet again, its presence in the passes +dominantly thrusting forward, would have the effect of retaining the +eastern tribes within their own borders, and hindering them from joining +an offensive combination against the little force with which Roberts was +to strike at Cabul. But delay on delay marked the mobilisation and +advance of the troops operating in the Khyber line. There was no lack of +earnestness anywhere; the eagerness to push on was universal from the +commander to the corporal. But the barren hills and rugged passes could +furnish no supplies; the base had to furnish everything, and there was +nothing at the base, neither any accumulation of supplies nor means to +transport supplies if they had been accumulated. Weeks elapsed before the +organisation of the force approached completion, and it was only by a +desperate struggle that General Charles Gough's little brigade received +by the end of September equipment sufficient to enable that officer to +advance by short marches. Roberts was holding his durbar in the Balla +Hissar of Cabul on the day that the head of Gough's advance reached +Jellalabad. No man can associate the idea of dawdling with Jenkins and +his Guides, yet the Guides reaching Jellalabad on October 12th were not +at Gundamuk until the 23d, and Gundamuk is but thirty miles beyond +Jellalabad. The anti-climax for the time of General Bright's exertions +occurred on November 6th. On that day he with Gough's brigade reached so +far Cabulward as Kutti Sung, two marches beyond Gundamuk. There he met +General Macpherson of Roberts' force, who had marched down from Cabul +with his brigade on the errand of opening communications with the head of +the Khyber column. The two brigades had touch of each other for the +period of an interview between the Generals, and then they fell apart and +the momentary union of communication was disrupted. General Bright had to +fall back toward Gundamuk for lack of supplies. The breach continued open +only for a few days, and then it was closed, not from down country but +from up country. Roberts, surveying the rugged country to the east of +Cabul, had discerned that the hill road toward Jugdulluk by Luttabund, +was at once opener and shorter than the customary tortuous and overhung +route through the Khoord Cabul Pass and by Tezeen. The pioneers were set +to work to improve the former. The Luttabund road became the habitual +route along which, from Cabul downwards, were posted detachments +maintaining the communications of the Cabul force with the Khyber column +and India. Nearly simultaneous with this accomplishment was the +accordance to Sir Frederick Roberts of the local rank of +Lieutenant-General, a promotion which placed him in command of all the +troops in Eastern Afghanistan down to Jumrood, and enabled him to order +up reinforcements from the Khyber column at his discretion, a power he +refrained from exercising until the moment of urgent need was impending. + +After his interview at Kutti Sung with General Bright, Macpherson, before +returning to Cabul, made a short reconnaissance north of the Cabul river +toward the Lughman valley and into the Tagao country inhabited by the +fanatic tribe of the Safis. From his camp at Naghloo a foraging party, +consisting of a company of the 67th escorting a number of camels and +mules, moved westward toward a village near the junction of the Panjshir +and Cabul rivers, there to obtain supplies of grain and forage. The +little detachment on its march was suddenly met by the fire of about 1000 +Sari tribesmen. Captain Poole, observing that the tribesmen were moving +to cut him off, withdrew his party through a defile in his rear, and +taking cover under the river bank maintained a steady fire while the +camels were being retired. The Safis were extremely bold and they too +shot very straight. Captain Poole was severely wounded and of his handful +of fifty-six men eight were either killed or wounded, but their comrades +resolutely held their position until reinforcements came out from the +camp. The Safis, who retired with dogged reluctance, were not finally +routed until attacked by British infantry in front and flank. After they +broke the cavalry pursued them for six miles, doing severe execution; the +dead of the 67th were recovered, but the poor fellows had been mutilated +almost past recognition. General Macpherson returned to Sherpur on the +20th November, having left a strong garrison temporarily at Luttabund to +strengthen communications and open out effectually the new route +eastward. + +General Roberts, with all his exertions, had been unable to accumulate +sufficient winter of grain for his native troops and forage for his +cavalry and baggage animals. Agents had been purchasing supplies in the +fertile district of Maidan, distant from Cabul about twenty-five miles in +the Ghuznee direction, but the local people lacked carriage to convey +their stocks into camp, and it was necessary that the supplies should be +brought in by the transport of the force. The country toward Ghuznee was +reported to be in a state of disquiet, and a strong body of troops was +detailed under the command of General Baker for the protection of the +transport. This force marched out from Sherpur on November 21st, and next +day camped on the edge of the pleasant Maidan plain. Baker encountered +great difficulties in collecting supplies. The villages readily gave in +their tribute of grain and forage, but evinced extreme reluctance to +furnish the additional quantities which our necessities forced us to +requisition. With the villagers it was not a question of money; the +supplies for which Baker's commissaries demanded money in hand +constituted their provision for the winter season. But the stern maxim of +war is that soldiers must live although villagers starve, and this much +may be said in our favour that we are the only nation in the world which, +when compelled to resort to forced requisitions, invariably pays in hard +cash and not in promissory notes. Baker's ready-money tariff was far +higher than the current rates, but nevertheless he had to resort to +strong measures. In one instance he was defied outright. A certain +Bahadur Khan inhabiting a remote valley in the Bamian direction, refused +to sell any portion of his great store of grain and forage, and declined +to comply with a summons to present himself in Baker's camp. It was known +that he was under the influence of the aged fanatic Moulla the +Mushk-i-Alum, who was engaged in fomenting a tribal rising, and it was +reported that he was affording protection to a number of the fugitive +sepoys of the ex-Ameer's army. A political officer with two squadrons of +cavalry was sent to bring into camp the recalcitrant Bahadur Khan. His +fort and village were found prepared for a stubborn defence. Received +with a heavy fire from a large body of men while swarms of hostile +tribesmen showed themselves on the adjacent hills, the horsemen had to +withdraw. It was judged necessary to punish the contumacious chief and to +disperse the tribal gathering before it should make more head, and Baker +led out a strong detachment in light marching order. There was no +fighting, and the only enemies seen were a few tribesmen, who drew off +into the hills as the head of Baker's column approached. Fort, villages, +and valley were found utterly deserted. There were no means to carry away +the forage and grain found in the houses, so the villages belonging to +Bahadur Khan were destroyed by fire. Their inhabitants found refuge in +the surrounding villages, and there was absolutely no foundation for the +statements which appeared in English papers to the effect that old men, +women, and children were turned out to die in the snow. In the words of +Mr Hensman, a correspondent who accompanied the column: 'There were no +old men, women, and children, and there was no snow.' British officers +cannot be supposed to have found pleasure, on the verge of the bitter +Afghan winter, in the destruction of the hovels and the winter stores of +food belonging to a number of miserable villagers; but experience has +proved that only by such stern measures is there any possibility of +cowing the rancour of Afghan tribesmen. No elation can accompany an +operation so pitiless, and the plea of stern necessity must be advanced +alike and accepted with a shudder. Of the necessity of some such form of +reprisals an example is afforded in an experience which befell General +Baker a few days later in this same Maidan region. He visited the village +of Beni-Badam with a small cavalry escort. The villagers with every +demonstration of friendliness entertained the officers and men with milk +and fruit, and provided corn and forage for their horses. There were only +old men in the village with the women and children, but no treachery was +suspected until suddenly two large bodies of armed men were seen hurrying +to cut off the retreat, and it was only by hard fighting that the General +with his escort succeeded in escaping from the snare. Next day he +destroyed the village. Baker probably acted on general principles, but +had he cared for precedents he would have found them in the conduct of +the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. He remained in the Maidan +district until the transport of the army had brought into Sherpur all the +supplies which he had succeeded in obtaining in that region, and then +returned to the cantonment. + +By the terms of the proclamation which he issued on the 28th October Sir +Frederick Roberts was announced as the dominant authority for the time +being in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan. He occupied this position just +as far as and no further than he could make it good. And he could make it +good only over a very circumscribed area. Even more than had been true of +Shah Soojah's government forty years previously was it true of Roberts' +government now that it was a government of sentry-boxes. He was firm +master of the Sherpur cantonment. General Hills, his nominee, held a +somewhat precarious sway in Cabul in the capacity of its Governor, +maintaining his position there in virtue of the bayonets of his military +guard, the support of the adjacent Sherpur, and the waiting attitude of +the populace of the capital. East of Cabul the domination of Britain was +represented by a series of fortified posts studding the road to Gundamuk, +whence to Jumrood the occupation was closer, although not wholly +undisturbed. When a column marched out from Sherpur the British power was +dominant only within the area of its fire zone. The stretch of road it +vacated as it moved on ceased to be territory over which the British held +dominion. This narrowly restricted nature of his actual sway Sir +Frederick Roberts could not but recognise, but how with a force of 7000 +men all told was it possible for him to enlarge its borders? One +expedient suggested itself which could not indeed extend the area of his +real power, but which might have the effect, to use a now familiar +expression, of widening the sphere of his influence. From among the +Sirdars who had regarded it as their interest to cast in their lot with +the British, he selected four to represent him in the capacity of +governors of provinces which his bayonets were not long enough to reach. +The experiment made it disagreeably plain that the people of the +provinces to which he had deputed governors were utterly indisposed to +have anything to do either with them or with him. The governors went in +no state, they had no great sums to disburse, they were protected by no +armed escorts, and they were regarded by the natives much as the Southern +states of the American Union after the Civil War regarded the 'carpet +bag' governors whom the North imposed upon them. The Logur Governor was +treated with utter contempt. The Kohistanees despitefully used Shahbaz +Khan, and when a brother of Yakoub Khan was sent to use his influence in +favour of the worried and threatened governor, he was reviled as a +'Kafir' and a 'Feringhee,' and ordered peremptorily back to Sherpur if he +had any regard for his life. Sirdar Wali Mahomed, the governor-nominate +to the remote Turkestan, found pretext after pretext for delaying to +proceed to take up his functions, and had never quitted the British camp. +When Baker returned from Maidan he reported that he had left the district +peaceful in charge of the governor whom he had installed, the venerable +and amiable Hassan Khan. Baker's rear-guard was scarcely clear of the +valley when a mob of tribesmen and sepoys attacked the fort in which the +old Sirdar was residing, shot him through the head, and then hacked his +body to pieces. It was too clear that governors unsupported by bayonets, +and whose only weapons were tact and persuasiveness, were at an extreme +discount in the condition which Afghanistan presented in the end of +November and the beginning of December. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE DECEMBER STORM + +The invader of Afghanistan may count as inevitable a national rising +against him, but the Afghans are a people so immersed in tribal quarrels +and domestic blood feuds that the period of the outbreak is curiously +uncertain. The British force which placed Shah Soojah on the throne and +supported him there, was in Afghanistan for more than two years before +the waves of the national tempest rose around it. The national +combination against Roberts' occupation was breaking its strength against +the Sherpur defences while as yet the Cabul field force had not been +within sight of the capital for more than two months. There seems no +relation between opportunity and the period of the inevitable outburst. +If in November 1841 the Cabul Sirdars had restrained themselves for a few +days longer two more regiments would have been following on Sale's track, +and the British force in the cantonments would have been proportionately +attenuated. Roberts might have been assailed with better chance of +success when his force was dispersed between the Siah Sung camp, the +Balla Hissar, and Sherpur, than when concentrated in the strong defensive +position against which the Afghans beat in vain. Perhaps the rising +ripened faster in 1879 than in 1841 because in the former period no +Macnaghten fomented intrigues and scattered gold. Perhaps Shere Ali's +military innovations may have instilled into the masses of his time some +rough lessons in the art and practice of speedy mobilisation. The +crowning disgrace of 1842 was that a trained army of regular soldiers +should have been annihilated by a few thousand hillmen, among whom there +was no symptom either of real valour or of good leadership. To Roberts +and his force attaches the credit of having defeated the persistent and +desperate efforts of levies at least ten times superior in numbers, well +armed, far from undisciplined, courageous beyond all experience of Afghan +nature, and under the guidance of a leader who had some conception of +strategy, and who certainly was no mean tactician. + +In the Afghan idiosyncrasy there is a considerable strain of practical +philosophy. The blood of the massacred mission was not dry when it was +recognised in Cabul that stern retribution would inevitably follow. Well, +said the Afghans among themselves, what must be must be, for they are all +fatalists. The seniors recalled the memory of the retribution Pollock +exacted--how he came, destroyed Istalif, set a 'mark' on Cabul by sending +the great bazaar in fragments into the air, and then departed. This time +Istalif was not compromised; if Roberts Sahib should be determined to +blow up the Char Chowk again, why, that infliction must be endured. It +had been rebuilt after Pollock Sahib's engineers had worked their will on +it; it could be rebuilt a second time when Roberts Sahib should have +turned his back on the city, as pray God and the Prophet he might do with +no more delay than Pollock Sahib had made out yonder on the Logur plain. +So after a trial of Roberts' mettle at Charasiah, and finding the testing +sample not quite to their taste, the Afghans fell into an attitude of +expectancy, and were mightily relieved by his proclamation read at the +Balla Hissar durbar of October 12th. After a reasonable amount of hanging +and the exaction of the fine laid on the city, it was assumed that he +would no doubt depart so as to get home to India before the winter snows +should block the passes. But the expected did not happen. The British +General established a British Governor in Cabul who had a heavy hand, and +policed the place in a fashion that stirred a lurid fury in the bosoms of +haughty Sirdars who had been wont to do what seemed good in their own +eyes. He engaged in the sacrilegious work of dismantling the Balla +Hissar, the historic fortress of the nation, within whose walls were the +royal palace and the residences of the principal nobles. Those were +bitter things, but they could be borne if they were mere temporary +inflictions, and if the hated Feringhees would but take themselves away +soon. But that hope was shattered by the proclamation of October 28th, +when the abdication of the Ameer was intimated and the British _raj_ in +Afghanistan was announced. Yes, that pestilent _zabardasti_ little +General, who would not follow the example of good old Pollock Sahib, and +who held Yakoub Khan and sundry of his Sirdars in close imprisonment in +his camp, had now the insolence to proclaim himself virtually the Ameer +of Afghanistan! Far from showing symptom of budging, he was sending out +his governors into the provinces, he was gathering tribute in kind, and +he had taken possession of Shere Ali's monumental cantonment, under the +shadow of the Behmaroo heights on which Afghan warriors of a past +generation had slaughtered the Feringhee soldiers as if they had been +sheep; and it was the Feringhee General's cantonment now, which he was +cunningly strengthening as if he meant to make it his permanent fortress. + +Yakoub Khan had gained little personal popularity during his brief and +troubled reign, but he was an Afghan and a Mahomedan; and his deportation +to India, followed shortly afterwards by that of his three Ministers, +intensified the rancour of his countrymen and co-religionists against the +handful of presumptuous foreigners who arrogantly claimed to sway the +destinies of Afghanistan. _Cherchez la femme_ is the keynote among +Western peoples of an investigation into the origin of most troubles and +strifes; the watchword of the student of the springs of great popular +outbursts among Eastern nations must be _Cherchez les prêtres_. The Peter +the Hermit of Afghanistan was the old Mushk-i-Alum, the fanatic Chief +Moulla of Ghuznee. This aged enthusiast went to and fro among the tribes +proclaiming the sacred duty of a _Jehad_ or religious war against the +unbelieving invaders, stimulating the pious passions of the followers of +the Prophet by fervent appeals, enjoining the chiefs to merge their +intestine strifes in the common universal effort to crush the foreign +invaders of the Afghan soil. The female relatives of the abdicated Ameer +fomented the rising by appeals to popular sympathy, and by the more +practical argument of lavish distribution of treasure. The flame spread, +tribesmen and disbanded soldiers sprang to arms, the banner of the +Prophet was unfurled, and the nation heaved with the impulse of +fanaticism. Musa Khan, the boy heir of Yakoub, was in the hands of the +Mushk-i-Alum, and the combination of fighting tribes found a competent +leader in Mahomed Jan, a Warduk general of proved courage and capacity. +The plan of campaign was comprehensive and well devised. The contingent +from the country to the south of the capital, from Logur, Zurmat, and the +Mangal and Jadran districts, was to seize that section of the Cabul ridge +extending from Charasiah northward to the cleft through which flows the +Cabul river. The northern contingent from the Kohistan and Kohdaman was +to occupy the Asmai heights and the hills further to the north-west; +while the troops from the Maidan and Warduk territories, led by Mahomed +Jan in person, were to come in from the westward across the Chardeh +valley, take possession of Cabul, and rally to their banners the +disaffected population of the capital and the surrounding villages. The +concentration of the three bodies effected, the capital and the ridge +against which it leans occupied, the next step would be the investment of +the Sherpur cantonment, preparatory to an assault upon it in force. + +The British general through his spies had information of those projects. +To allow the projected concentration to be effected would involve serious +disadvantages, and both experience and temperament enjoined on Roberts +the offensive. The Logur contingent was regarded as not of much account, +and might be headed back by a threat. Mahomed Jan's force, which was +reckoned some 5000 strong, needed to be handled with greater vigour. Meer +Butcha and his Kohistanees were less formidable, and might be dealt with +incidentally. Roberts took a measure of wise precaution in telegraphing +to Colonel Jenkins on the 7th December to march his Guides (cavalry and +infantry) from Jugdulluk to Sherpur. + +On the 8th General Macpherson was sent out toward the west with a column +consisting of 1300 bayonets, three squadrons, and eight guns. Following +the Ghuznee road across the Chardeh valley, he was to march to Urgundeh, +in the vicinity of which place it was expected that he would find Mahomed +Jan's levies, which he was to attack and drive backward on Maidan, taking +care to prevent their retreat to the westward in the direction of Bamian. +On the following day General Baker marched out with a force made up of +900 infantrymen, two and a half squadrons, and four guns, with +instructions to march southward toward the Logur valley, deal with the +tribal gathering there, then bend sharply in a south-westerly direction +and take up a position across the Ghuznee road in the Maidan valley on +the line of retreat which it was hoped that Macpherson would succeed in +enforcing on Mahomed Jan. In that case the Afghan leader would find +himself between two fires, and would be punished so severely as to render +it unlikely that he would give further trouble. To afford time for Baker +to reach the position assigned to him Macpherson remained halted during +the 9th at Aushar, a village just beyond the debouche of the Nanuchee +Pass, at the north-western extremity of the Asmai heights. On that day a +cavalry reconnaissance discovered that the Kohistanee levies in +considerable strength had already gathered about Karez Meer, some ten +miles north-west of Cabul, and that masses of Afghans presumably +belonging to the force of Mahomed Jan were moving northward in the +Kohistan direction, apparently with the object of joining Meer Butcha's +gathering at Karez. It was imperative that the latter should be dispersed +before the junction could be effected, and Sir Frederick Roberts had no +option but to order Macpherson to alter his line of advance and move +against the Kohistanees. Necessary as was this divergence from the +original plan of operation, it had the effect of sending to wreck the +combined movement from which so much was hoped, and of bringing about a +very critical situation. If Lockhart's reconnaissance had been made a day +earlier, Macpherson might probably have utilised to good purpose by +dispersing the Kohistanees, the day which as it was he spent halted at +Aushar. He might have accomplished that object equally well if, instead +of the cavalry reconnaissance made by Lockhart, Macpherson himself had +been instructed to devote the 9th to a reconnaissance in force in the +direction of Karez Meer. + +[Illustration: Map of Cabul and surroundings.] + +The country being held unsuited for the action of wheeled artillery and +cavalry, Macpherson left his details of those arms at Aushar, and marched +on the morning of the 10th on Karez with his infantry and mountain guns. +As his troops crowned the Surkh Kotul they saw before them an imposing +spectacle. The whole terrain around Karez swarmed with masses of armed +tribesmen, whose banners were flying on every hillock. Down in the +Pughman valley to the left rear, were discerned bodies of the hostile +contingent from the west, between which and the Kohistanees no junction +had fortunately as yet been made. Macpherson's dispositions were simple. +His mountain guns shelled with effect the Kohistanee tribesmen, and then +he moved forward from the Surkh Kotul in three columns. His skirmishers +drove back the forward stragglers, and then the main columns advancing at +the double swept the disordered masses before them, and forced them +rearward into their intrenched position in front of the Karez village. +There the resistance was half-hearted. After a brief artillery +preparation the columns carried the position with a rush, and the +Kohistanees were routed with heavy loss. Meer Butcha and his Kohistanees +well beaten, Macpherson camped for the night near Karez. Baker had +reached his assigned position in the Maidan valley, and there seemed a +fair prospect that the operation against Mahomed Jan as originally +designed might be carried out notwithstanding the interruption to its +prosecution which had been found necessary. For there was good reason to +believe that the Afghan commander and his force, whose strength was +estimated at about 5000 men, were in the vicinity of Urgundeh, about +midway between Macpherson at Karez and Baker in the Maidan valley. If +Mahomed Jan would be so complaisant as to remain where he was until +Macpherson could reach him, then Roberts' strategy would have a +triumphant issue, and the Warduk general and his followers might be +relegated to the category of negligable quantities. + +Orders were sent to Macpherson to march as early as possible on the +morning of the 11th, follow up the enemy who had been observed retiring +toward the west and south, and endeavour to drive them down toward +General Baker. He was further informed that the cavalry and +horse-artillery which he had left at Aushar would leave that village at +nine A.M. under the command of Brigadier-General Massy, and would cross +the Chardeh valley by the Urgundeh road, on which he was directed to join +them on his march. The specific instructions given to General Massy were +as follows: 'To advance from Aushar by the road leading directly from the +city of Cabul toward Urgundeh and Ghuznee' (the main Ghuznee road), 'to +proceed cautiously and quietly feeling for the enemy, to communicate with +General Macpherson, and to act in conformity with that officer's +movements, but on no account to commit himself to an action until General +Macpherson had engaged the enemy.' + +Macpherson marched at eight A.M., moving in a south-westerly direction +toward Urgundeh by a direct track in rear of the range of hills bounding +the western edge of the Chardeh valley. To the point at which it was +probable that he and Massy should meet he had considerably further to +travel than had the latter from the Aushar camp, and Macpherson's force +consisted of infantry while that of Massy was cavalry and +horse-artillery. Massy left Aushar at nine A.M. in consideration of the +shorter distance he had to traverse, and he headed for Killa Kazee, a +village near the foothills of the western ridge about four miles from +Aushar as the crow flies. He did not comply with the letter of his +instructions to follow the Ghuznee road because of the wide detour +marching by it would have involved, but instead made his way straight +across country. That he should have done this was unfortunate, since the +time he thus gained threw him forward into a position involving danger in +advance of any possible co-operation on the part of Macpherson, who was +still far away from the point of intended junction while Massy was +comparatively near it. Massy's force consisted of two squadrons 9th +Lancers and a troop of 14th Bengal Lancers, escorting four +horse-artillery guns. He had detached a troop of 9th Lancers to endeavour +to open communication with Macpherson, in compliance with his +instructions. As he approached Killa Kazee, Captain Gough commanding the +troop of 9th Lancers forming the advance guard, sent back word that the +hills on either side of the Ghuznee road some distance beyond the village +were occupied by the enemy in considerable force. Massy, in his +unsupported condition and destitute of any information as to Macpherson's +whereabouts, would have shown discretion by halting on receipt of this +intelligence pending further developments. But he probably believed that +the Afghans flanking the road were casual tribesmen from the adjacent +villages who were unlikely to make any stand, and he determined to move +on. + +What he presently saw gave him pause. A great mass of Afghans some 2000 +strong were forming across the Ghuznee road. From the hills to right and +left broad streams of armed men were pouring down the hillslopes and +forming on the plain. The surprise was complete, the situation full of +perplexity. That gathering host in Massy's front could be none other than +Mahomed Jan's entire force. So far from being in retreat southward and +westward, so far from waiting supinely about Urgundeh until Macpherson as +per programme should drive it on to the muzzles of Baker's Martinis, here +it was inside our guard, in possession of the interior line, its front +facing toward turbulent Cabul and depleted Sherpur, with no obstruction +in its path save this handful of lancers and these four guns! Massy's +orders, it was true, were to act in conformity with Macpherson's +movements, and on no account to commit himself to an action until that +officer had engaged the enemy. Yes, but could the framer of those orders +have anticipated the possibility of such a position as that in which +Massy now found himself? There was no Macpherson within ken of the +perplexed cavalryman, nor the vaguest indication of his movements. The +enemy had doubled on that stout and shrewd soldier; it was clear that for +the moment he was not within striking distance of his foe, whether on +flank or on rear. No course of action presented itself to Massy that was +not fraught with grave contingencies. If he should keep to the letter of +his orders, the Afghan host might be in Cabul in a couple of hours. +Should he retire slowly, striving to retard the Afghan advance by his +cannon fire and by the threatening demonstrations of his cavalry, the +enemy might follow him up so vigorously as to be beyond Macpherson's +reach when that officer should make good his point in the direction of +Urgundeh. If on the other hand he should show a bold front, and departing +from his orders in the urgent crisis face to face with which he found +himself should strain every nerve to 'hold' the Afghan masses in their +present position, there was the possibility that, at whatever sacrifice +to himself and his little force, he might save the situation and gain +time for Macpherson to come up and strike Mahomed Jan on flank and in +rear. + +For better or for worse Massy committed himself to the rasher enterprise, +and opened fire on the swiftly growing Afghan masses. The first range was +held not sufficiently effective, and in the hope by closer fire of +deterring the enemy from effecting the formation they were attempting, +the guns were advanced to the shorter ranges of 2500 and 2000 yards. The +shells did execution, but contrary to precedent did not daunt the +Afghans. They made good their formation under the shell fire. Mahomed +Jan's force had been estimated of about 5000 strong; according to Massy's +estimate it proved to be double that number. The array was well led; it +never wavered, but came steadily on with waving banners and loud shouts. +The guns had to be retired; they came into action again, but owing to the +rapidity of the Afghan advance at shorter range than before. The carbine +fire of thirty dismounted lancers 'had no appreciable effect.' The +outlook was already ominous when at this moment Sir Frederick Roberts +came on the scene. As was his wont, he acted with decision. The action, +it was clear to him, could not be maintained against odds so overwhelming +and in ground so unfavourable. He immediately ordered Massy to retire +slowly, to search for a road by which the guns could be withdrawn, and to +watch for an opportunity to execute a charge under cover of which the +guns might be extricated. He despatched an aide-de-camp in quest of +Macpherson, with an order directing that officer to wheel to his left +into the Chardeh valley and hurry to Massy's assistance; and he ordered +General Hills to gallop to Sherpur and warn General Hugh Gough, who had +charge in the cantonment, to be on the alert, and also to send out at +speed a wing of the 72d to the village of Deh Mazung, in the throat of +the gorge of the Cabul river, which the Highlanders were to hold to +extremity. + +The enemy were coming on, the guns were in imminent danger, and the +moment had come for the action of the cavalry. The gallant Cleland gave +the word to his lancers and led them straight for the centre of the +Afghan line, the troop of Bengal Lancers following in support. Gough, +away on the Afghan left, saw his chief charging and he eagerly +'conformed,' crushing in on the enemy's flank at the head of his troop. +'Self-sacrifice' the Germans hold the duty of cavalry; and there have +been few forlorner hopes than the errand on which on this ill-starred day +our 200 troopers rode into the heart of 10,000 Afghans flushed with +unwonted good fortune. Through the dust-cloud of the charge were visible +the flashes of the Afghan volleys and the sheen of the British lance +heads as they came down to the 'engage.' There was a short interval of +suspense, the stour and bicker of the _mêlée_ faintly heard, but +invisible behind the bank of smoke and dust. Then from out the cloud of +battle riderless horses came galloping back, followed by broken groups of +troopers. Gallantly led home, the charge had failed--what other result +could have been expected? Its career had been blocked by sheer weight of +opposing numbers. Sixteen troopers had been killed, seven were wounded, +two officers had been slain in the hand-to-hand strife. Cleland came out +with a sword cut and a bullet wound. Captain Stewart Mackenzie had been +crushed under his fallen horse, but distinguished himself greatly, and +brought the regiment out of action. As the dust settled it was apparent +that the charge had merely encouraged the enemy, who as they steadily +pressed on in good order, were waving their banners in triumph and +brandishing their tulwars and knives. The fire from the Sniders and +Enfields of their marksmen was well directed and deliberate. While +Cleland's broken troopers were being rallied two guns were brought into +action, protected in a measure by Gough's troop and the detachment of +Bengal Lancers, which had not suffered much in the charge. But the +Afghans came on so ardently that there was no alternative but prompt +retreat. One gun had to be spiked and abandoned, Lieutenant Hardy of the +Horse Artillery remaining by it until surrounded and killed. Some 500 +yards further back, near the village of Baghwana, the three remaining +guns stuck fast in a deep watercourse. At General Roberts' instance a +second charge was attempted, to give time for their extrication; but it +made no head, so that the guns had to be abandoned, and the gunners and +drivers with their teams accompanied the retirement of the cavalry. Some +fugitives both of cavalry and artillery hurried to the shelter of the +cantonment somewhat precipitately; but the great majority of Massy's +people behaved well, rallying without hesitation and constituting the +steady and soldierly little body with which Roberts, retiring on Deh +Mazung as slowly as possible to give time for the Highlanders from +Sherpur to reach that all-important point, strove to delay the Afghan +advance. This in a measure was accomplished by the dismounted fire of the +troopers, and the retirement was distinguished by the steady coolness +displayed by Cough's men and Neville's Bengal Lancers. Deh Mazung was +reached, but no Highlanders had as yet reached that place. The carbines +of the cavalrymen were promptly utilised from the cover the village +afforded; but they could not have availed to stay the Afghan rush. There +was a short interval of extreme anxiety until the 200 men of the 72d, +Brownlow leading them, became visible advancing at the double through the +gorge. 'It was literally touch and go who should reach the village first, +the Highlanders or the Afghans,' who were streaming toward it 'like ants +on a hill,' but the men of the 72d swept in, and swarming to the house +tops soon checked with their breechloaders the advancing tide. After +half-an-hour of futile effort the Afghans saw fit to abandon the attempt +to force the gorge, and inclining to their right they occupied the +Takht-i-Shah summit, the slopes of the Sher Derwaza heights, and the +villages in the south-eastern section of the Chardeh valley. + +Macpherson, marching from the Surkh Kotul toward Urgundeh, had observed +parties of Afghans crossing his front in the direction of the Chardeh +valley, and when the sound reached him of Massy's artillery fire he +wheeled to his left through a break in the hills opening into the Chardeh +valley, and approached the scene of the discomfiture of Massy's force. +This he did at 12.30 P.M., four and a half hours after leaving the Surkh +Kotul. As the length of his march was about ten miles, it may be assumed +that he encountered difficulties in the rugged track by which he moved, +for Macpherson was not the man to linger by the way when there was the +prospect of a fight. Had it been possible for him to have marched two +hours earlier than he did--and his orders were to march as early as +possible--his doing so would have made all the difference in the world to +Massy, and could scarcely have failed to change the face of the day. He +did not discover the lost guns, but he struck the Afghan rear, which was +speedily broken and dispersed by the 67th and 3d Sikhs. Macpherson's +intention to spend the night at Killa Kazee was changed by the receipt of +an order from General Roberts calling him in to Deh Mazung, where he +arrived about nightfall. Sir Frederick Roberts then returned to Sherpur, +for the defence of which General Hugh Gough had made the best +dispositions in his power, and the slender garrison of which was to +receive in the course of the night an invaluable accession in the shape +of the Guides, 900 strong, whom Jenkins had brought up by forced marches +from Jugdulluk. + +The misfortunes of the day were in a measure retrieved by a well-timed, +ready-witted, and gallant action on the part of that brilliant and +lamented soldier Colonel Macgregor. A wing of the 72d had been called out +to hold the gorge of the Cabul river, but the Nanuchee Pass, through +which led the direct road from the scene of the combat to Sherpur, +remained open; and there was a time when the Afghan army was heading in +its direction. Macgregor had hurried to the open pass in time to rally +about him a number of Massy's people, who had lost their officers and +were making their way confusedly toward the refuge of Sherpur. Remaining +in possession of this important point until all danger was over, he +noticed that the ground about Bagwana, where the guns had been abandoned, +was not held by the enemy, and there seemed to him that the opportunity +to recover them presented itself. Taking with him a detachment of lancers +and artillerymen, he rode out and met with no molestation beyond a few +shots from villagers. From Macpherson's baggage guard, met as it crossed +the valley toward Sherpur, he requisitioned sixty infantrymen who entered +and held Bagwana, and covered him and the gunners during the long and +arduous struggle to extricate the guns from their lair in the deep and +rugged watercourse. This was at length accomplished, scratch teams were +improvised, and the guns, which were uninjured although the ammunition +boxes had been emptied, were brought into the cantonment to the general +joy. + +The result of the day's operations left General Baker momentarily +belated. But on the morning of the 11th that officer, finding that no +Afghans were being driven down upon him in accordance with the programme, +quitted the Maidan country and marched northward toward Urgundeh. An +attack on his baggage and rearguard was foiled; but as he reached his +camping ground for the night at Urgundeh the Afghans were found in +possession of the gorge opening into the Chardeh valley, through which +ran his road to Cabul. They were dislodged by a dashing attack of part of +the g2d Highlanders led by Lieutenant Scott Napier. It was not until the +morning of the 12th that Baker was informed by heliograph from Sherpur of +the occurrences of the previous day, and received directions to return to +the cantonment without delay. In the course of a few hours he was inside +Sherpur, notwithstanding that his march had been constantly molested by +attacks on his rear-guard. + +The casualties of the 11th had been after all not very serious. All told +they amounted to thirty men killed and forty-four wounded; fifty-one +horses killed and sixteen wounded. But the Afghans were naturally elated +by the success they had unquestionably achieved; the national rising had +been inaugurated by a distinct triumph, the news of which would bring +into the field incalculable swarms of fierce and fanatical partisans. It +was clear that Mahomed Jan had a quick eye for opportunities, and some +skill in handling men. That he could recognise the keypoint of a position +and act boldly and promptly on that recognition, his tactics of the 11th +made abundantly obvious, and his commanding position on the morning of +the 12th still further demonstrated his tactical ability. _L'audace, +encore l'audace, et toujours l'audace_ is the game to be played by the +commander of disciplined troops against Asiatic levies, and no man was +more sensible of this than the gallant soldier who now from the bastion +of Sherpur could see the Afghan standards waving on the summit of the +Takht-i-Shah. Indeed he was impressed so thoroughly by the force of the +maxim as to allow himself to hope that some 560 soldiers, of whom about +one-third were Europeans, backed by a couple of mountain guns, would be +able to carry by assault the lofty peak, strongly held by resolute +Afghans in protected positions, supported by several thousands of their +fellows lying out of sight until an attack should develop itself, to meet +which they were at hand to reinforce the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah. +From the gorge of the Cabul river there runs due south to near Charasiah +a lofty and rugged range, the highest point of which, the Takht-i-Shah, +is about midway from either extremity. From this main ridge there project +eastward at right angles two lateral spurs. The shorter and more +northerly of those runs down to the Balla Hissar, the longer and more +southerly obtruding itself into the plain as far as the village of Beni +Hissar. This latter spur quits the main ridge no great distance south of +the Takht-i-Shah peak, and on the 12th the Afghan reserves were massed in +rear of the peak, both on the main ridge and on this spur. The steep +faces of the mountain were strewn with great smooth boulders and jagged +masses of rock; the ascent, everywhere laborious, was complicated in +places by sheer scarps, and those formidable impediments were made still +more difficult by frequent sungahs, strong stone curtains behind which +the defenders lay safe or fired with a minimum of exposure. On the summit +was a great natural cavity which had been made bomb proof by art, and +further cover was afforded by caves and lines of rock. The most northerly +portion of the ridge described is known as the Sher Derwaza heights, +which Macpherson had occupied on the morning of the 12th, and his brigade +it was which furnished the little force already mentioned as charged to +attempt the task of storming the Takht-i-Shah. + +For several hours Morgan's two mountain guns industriously shelled that +peak, and then the infantry made their effort. The Afghans fought +stubbornly in defence of a lower hill they held in advance of the +Takht-i-Shah, but after a hard struggle they had to abandon it to +Macpherson's resolute men. But the exertions of the latter to ascend the +peak were baulked by its rugged steepness and the fire of the Afghans +holding the sungahs on its face. Sir Frederick Roberts had to recognise +that the direct attack by so weak a force unaided by a diversion, could +not succeed, and he ordered further efforts to be deferred. The +casualties of the abortive attempt included three officers, one of whom, +Major Cook, V.C. of the Goorkhas, than whom the British army contained no +better soldier, died of his wound. Macpherson was directed to hold the +ground he had won, including the lower advanced hill, and was informed +that on the following morning he was to expect the co-operation of +General Baker from the direction of Beni Hissar. + +The lesson of the result of attempting impossibilities had been taken to +heart, and the force which Baker led out on the morning of the 13th was +exceptionally strong, consisting as it did of the 92d Highlanders and +Guides infantry, a wing of the 3d Sikhs, a cavalry regiment, and eight +guns. Marching in the direction of the lateral spur extending from the +main ridge eastward to Beni Hissar, Baker observed that large masses of +the enemy were quitting the plain villages about Beni Hissar in which +they had taken shelter for the night, and were hurrying to gain the +summit of the spur which constituted the defensive position of the Afghan +reserve. Baker's _coup d'oeil_ was quick and true. By gaining the centre +of the spur he would cut in two the Afghan line along its summit, and so +isolate and neutralise the section of it from the centre to the Beni +Hissar extremity, toward which section the reinforcements from the plain +villages were climbing. But to accomplish this shrewd stroke it was +necessary that he should act with promptitude and energy. His guns opened +fire on the summit. The Sikhs, extended athwart the plain, protected his +right flank. His cavalry on the left cut into the bodies of Afghans +hurrying to ascend the eastern extremity of the spur. With noble +emulation the Highlanders and the Guides sprang up the rugged slope, +their faces set towards the centre of the summit line. Major White, who +already had earned many laurels in the campaign, led on his Highlanders; +the Guides, burning to make the most of their first opportunity to +distinguish themselves, followed eagerly the gallant chief who had so +often led them to victory on other fields. Lieutenant Forbes, a young +officer of the 92d heading the advance of his regiment, reached the +summit accompanied only by his colour-sergeant. A band of ghazees rushed +on the pair and the sergeant fell. As Forbes stood covering his body he +was overpowered and slain. The sudden catastrophe staggered for a moment +the soldiers following their officer, but Lieutenant Dick Cunyngham +rallied them immediately and led them forward at speed. For his conduct +on this occasion Cunyngham received the Victoria Cross. + +With rolling volleys Highlanders and Guides reached and won the summit. +The Afghans momentarily clung to the position, but the British fire swept +them away and the bayonets disposed of the ghazees, who fought and died +in defence of their standards. The severance of the Afghan line was +complete. A detachment was left to maintain the isolation of some 2000 of +the enemy who had been cut off; and then swinging to their right Baker's +regiments swept along the summit of the spur toward the main ridge and +the Takht-i-Shah, the Highlanders leading. As they advanced they rolled +up the Afghan line and a panic set in among the enemy, who sought safety +in flight. Assailed from both sides, for Macpherson's men from the +conical hill were passing up the north side of the peak, and shaken by +the steady fire of the mountain guns, the garrison of the Takht-i-Shah +evacuated the position. Baker's soldiers toiled vigorously upward toward +the peak, keen for the honour of winning it; but the credit of that +achievement justly fell to their comrades of Macpherson's command, who +had striven so valiantly to earn it the day before, and who had gained +possession of the peak and the Afghan standards flying on its summit, a +few minutes before the arrival of White's Highlanders and Jenkins' +Guides. As the midday gun was fired in the cantonment the flash of the +heliograph from the peak told that the Takht-i-Shah was won. + +While Baker was sweeping the spur and climbing the lofty peak of the main +ridge, his reserve, which remained in the plain, was in sharp action +against masses of assailants from the city and other bodies from the +villages about Beni Hissar. Those were beaten off by the 3d Sikhs and +Baker's flanks were thus cleared, but the resolute Afghans, bent on +interfering with his return march, surged away in the direction of the +Siah Sung ridge and gathered thereon in considerable strength. The guns +of Sherpur shelled them smartly, but they held their ground; and Massy +went out to disperse them with the cavalry. The Afghans showed unwonted +resolution, confronting the cavalry with extraordinary steadiness in +regular formation and withholding their fire until the troopers were +close upon them. But the horsemen were not to be denied. Captains Butson +and Chisholme led their squadrons against the Afghan flanks, and the +troopers of the 9th avenged the mishap which had befallen that gallant +regiment two days before, riding through and through the hostile masses +and scattering them over the plain. But in the charge Butson was killed, +Chisholme and Trower were wounded; the sergeant-major and three men were +killed and seven were wounded. Brilliant charges were delivered by the +other cavalry detachments, and the Siah Sung heights were ultimately +cleared. The Guides' cavalry attacked, defeated, and pursued for a long +distance a body of Kohistanees marching from the north-east apparently +with intent to join Mahomed Jan. The casualties of the day were sixteen +killed and forty-five wounded; not a heavy loss considering the amount of +hard fighting. The Afghans were estimated to have lost in killed alone +from 200 to 300 men. + +The operations of the day were unquestionably successful so far as they +went, but the actual results attained scarcely warranted the anticipation +that the Afghans would acknowledge themselves defeated by breaking up +their combination and dispersing to their homes. It was true that they +had been defeated, but they had fought with unprecedented stubbornness +and gave little evidence of being cowed. Throughout the day the villages +around Cabul had evinced a rancorous hostility which had a marked +significance. Not less significant was the participation in the fighting +of the day on the part of the population of Cabul. As Baker was returning +to Sherpur in the evening he had been fired upon from the Balla Hissar, +and his flanking parties had found ambushes of armed Afghans among the +willows between the city and the cantonment. But for the skill and +courage of the non-commissioned officer in charge a convoy of wounded on +its way to Sherpur would certainly have been destroyed. But there was a +stronger argument than any of those indications, significant as they were +of the unbroken spirit of the Afghans, telling against the probability +that the operations of the day would have the effect of putting down the +national rising. The hordes which had gathered to the banners of the +Mushk-i-Alum and Mahomed Jan combined with the fanaticism of the _jehad_ +a fine secular greed for plunder. Was it likely that they would scatter +resignedly, leaving untouched the rich booty of the city that had been +almost within arm's-length as they looked down on it from the peak of the +Takht-i-Shah, and whose minarets they were within sight of on the spur +and in the villages of Beni-Hissar? Was that ever likely? And was it not +made more and yet more unlikely when on the afternoon of the 13th +Macpherson, acting on orders, moved his camp to the Balla Hissar heights, +evacuating Deh Mazung and leaving open to the enemy the road into the +city through the Cabul gorge? The following morning was to show how +promptly and how freely the Afghans had taken advantage of the access to +the capital thus afforded them. It must never be forgotten that at this +time our people in Afghanistan held no more territory than the actual +ground they stood upon and the terrain swept by their fire. No +trustworthy intelligence from outside that region was procurable; and of +this there can be no clearer evidence than that the General was under the +belief that the enemy had been 'foiled in their western and southern +operations.' + +The morning of the 14th effectually dispelled the optimistic +anticipations indulged in overnight. At daybreak a large body of Afghans, +with many standards, were discerned on a hill about a mile northward of +the Asmai ridge, from which and from the Kohistan road they were moving +on to the crest of that ridge. They were joined there by several +thousands coming up the slopes from out the village of Deh Afghan, the +northern suburb of Cabul. It was estimated that there were about 8000 men +in position along the summit of the ridge, and occupying also a low +conical hill beyond its north-western termination. The array of Afghans +displayed itself within a mile of the west face of the Sherpur +cantonment, and formed a menace which could not be brooked. To General +Baker was entrusted the task of dislodging the enemy from the threatening +position, and there was assigned to him for this purpose a force +consisting of about 1200 bayonets, eight guns, and a regiment of native +cavalry. His first object was to gain possession of the conical hill +already mentioned, and thus debar the Afghan force on the Asmai heights +from receiving accessions either from the masses on the hill further +north or by the Kohistan road. Under cover of the artillery fire the +Highlanders and Guides occupied this conical hill after a short conflict. +A detachment was left to hold it and then Colonel Jenkins, who commanded +the attack, set about the arduous task of storming from the northward the +formidable position of the Asmai heights. The assault was led by +Brownlow's staunch Highlanders, supported on the right by the Guides +operating on the enemy's flank; and the Afghan position was heavily +shelled by four of Baker's guns, and by four more in action near the +south-western corner of the Sherpur cantonment. Macpherson from his +position on the Balla Hissar hill aided the attack by the fire of his +guns, and also by despatching two companies of the 67th to cross the +Cabul gorge and operate against the enemy's left rear. + +In the face of a heavy fire the Highlanders and Guides climbed with great +speed and steadiness the rugged hillside leading upward to the Afghan +breastwork on the northern edge of the summit. Their approach and the +crushing shrapnel fire from the guns near Sherpur had caused numerous +Afghans to move downward from the position toward Deh Afghan, heavily +smitten as they went; but the ghazees in the breastworks made a strenuous +resistance and died under their banners as the Highlanders carried the +defences with a rush. The crest, about a quarter of a mile long, was +traversed under heavy fire and the southern breastwork on the peak was +approached. It was strong and strongly held, but a cross fire was brought +to bear on its garrison, and then the frontal attack led by a +lance-corporal of the 72d was delivered. After a hand-to-hand grapple in +which Highlanders and Guides were freely cut and slashed by the knives of +the ghazees, the position, which was found full of dead, was carried, but +with considerable loss. The whole summit of the Asmai heights was now in +British possession, and everything seemed auspicious. The Afghans +streaming down from the heights toward the city were being lacerated by +shell fire and musketry fire as they descended. When they took refuge in +Deh Afghan that suburb was heavily shelled, and it was gradually +evacuated. + +Scarcely had Jenkins won the summit of the Asmai ridge when the fortune +of the day was suddenly overcast; indeed while he was still engaged in +the attainment of that object premonitory indications of serious mischief +were unexpectedly presenting themselves. A vast host of Afghans described +as numbering from 15,000 to 20,000, debouched into the Chardeh valley +from the direction of Indikee, and were moving northwards, apparently +with the object of forming a junction with the masses occupying the hills +to the north-west of the Asmai heights. About the same time cavalry +scouting in the Chardeh valley brought in the information that large +parties of hostile infantry and cavalry were hurrying across the valley +in the direction of the conical hill the defence of which had been +entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Clark with 120 Highlanders and Guides. +Recognising Clark's weakness, General Baker had judiciously reinforced +that officer with four mountain guns and 100 bayonets. The guns opened +fire on the Afghan bodies marching from the Killa Kazee direction, and +drove them out of range. But they coalesced with the host advancing from +Indikee, and the vast mass of Afghans, facing to the right, struck the +whole range of the British position from near the Cabul gorge on the +south to and beyond the conical hill on the north. The most vulnerable +point was the section at and about that eminence, and the necessity for +supplying Clark with further reinforcements became urgently manifest. +Baker sent up a second detachment, and 200 Sikhs came out from Sherpur at +the double. But the Afghans, creeping stealthily in great numbers up the +slope from out the Chardeh valley, had the shorter distance to travel, +and were beforehand with the reinforcements. Their tactics were on a par +with their resolution. The left of their attack grasped and held a knoll +north of the conical hill, and from this position of vantage brought a +cross fire to bear on Clark's detachment. As their direct attack +developed itself it encountered from the conical hill a heavy rifle fire, +and shells at short range tore through the loose rush of ghazees, but the +fanatics sped on and up without wavering. As they gathered behind a mound +for the final onslaught, Captain Spens of the 72d with a handful of his +Highlanders went out on the forlorn hope of dislodging them. A rush was +made on him; he was overpowered and slaughtered after a desperate +resistance, and the Afghan charge swept up the hill-side. In momentary +panic the defenders gave ground, carrying downhill with them the +reinforcement of Punjaubees which Captain Hall was bringing up. Two of +the mountain guns were lost, but there was a rally at the foot of the +hill under cover of which the other two were extricated. The Afghans +refrained from descending into the plain, and directed their efforts +toward cutting off the occupants of the position on the Asmai summit. +They ascended by two distinct directions. One body from the conical hill +followed the route taken by Jenkins in the morning; another scaled a spur +trending downward to the Chardeh valley from the southern extremity of +the Asmai ridge. + +It was estimated that the Afghan strength disclosed this day did not fall +short of 40,000 men; and General Roberts was reluctantly compelled to +abandon for the time any further offensive efforts. His reasons, stated +with perfect frankness, may best be given in his own words. 'Up to this +time,' he wrote, 'I had no reason to apprehend that the Afghans were in +sufficient force to cope successfully with disciplined troops, but the +resolute and determined manner in which the conical hill had been +recaptured, and the information sent to me by Brigadier-General +Macpherson that large masses of the enemy were still advancing from the +north, south, and west, made it evident that the numbers combined against +us were too overwhelming to admit of my comparatively small force meeting +them. I therefore determined to withdraw from all isolated positions, and +to concentrate the whole force at Sherpur, thus securing the safety of +our large cantonment, and avoiding what had now become a useless +sacrifice of life.' The orders issued to Generals Baker and Macpherson to +retire into the cantonment were executed with skill and steadiness. +Jenkins' evacuation of the Asmai position was conspicuously adroit. When +the order to quit reached that able officer, Major Stockwell of the 72d +was out with a small detachment, maintaining a hot fire on the Afghan +bodies ascending by the southern spur from the Chardeh valley. He fell +back with great deliberation, and when he rejoined the retirement down +the hill face looking toward Sherpur was leisurely proceeded with, the +hostile advance from, the northern side being held in check by the fire +of covering parties from Jenkins' left flank. General Macpherson's +retirement was masterly. Flanking his march through the Cabul gorge with +two companies of the 67th who stalled off a rush of ghazees from the +Asmai crest, he continued his march through the suburb of Deh Afghan, his +baggage in front under a strong guard. Some few shots were exchanged +before the suburb was cleared, but the casualties were few and presently +the brigade entered the cantonment. General Baker continued to hold a +covering position with part of his force, until the troops from the +heights and Macpherson's command had made good their retirement, and he +was the last to withdraw. By dusk the whole force was safely concentrated +within the cantonment, and the period of the defensive had begun. The +casualties of the day were serious; thirty-five killed, and 107 wounded. +During the week of fighting the little force had lost somewhat heavily; +the killed numbered eighty-three, the wounded 192. Eight officers were +killed, twelve were wounded. + + + + +CHAPTER V: ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR + +Although overlarge for its garrison, the Sherpur cantonment had many of +the features of a strong defensive position. On the southern and western +faces the massive and continuous enciente made it impregnable against any +force unprovided with siege artillery. But on the eastern face the wall +had been built to the elevation only of seven feet, and at either end of +the Behmaroo heights, which constituted the northern line of defence, +there were open gaps which had to be made good. The space between the +north-western bastion and the heights was closed by an entrenchment +supported by a 'laager' of Afghan gun-carriages and limbers, the ground +in front strengthened by abattis and wire entanglements, beyond which a +village flanking the northern and western faces was occupied as a +detached post. The open space on the north-eastern angle was similarly +fortified; the village of Behmaroo was loopholed, and outlying buildings +to the front were placed in a state of defence. The unfinished eastern +wall was heightened by logs built up in tiers, and its front was covered +with abattis, a tower and garden outside being occupied by a detachment. +A series of block houses had been built along the crest of the Behmaroo +heights supporting a continuous entrenchment, gun emplacements made in +the line of defence, and the gorge dividing the heights strongly +fortified against an attack from the northern plain. The enciente was +divided into sections to each of which was assigned a commanding officer +with a specified detail of troops; and a strong reserve of European +infantry was under the command of Brigadier-General Baker, ready at short +notice to reinforce any threatened point. It was presumably owing to the +absorption of the troops in fighting, collecting supplies, and providing +winter shelter, that when the concentration within Sherpur became +suddenly necessary the defences of the position were still seriously +defective; and throughout the period of investment the force was +unremittingly engaged in the task of strengthening them. Nor had the +military precaution been taken of razing the villages and enclosures +within the fire zone of the enciente, and they remained to afford cover +to the enemy during the period of investment. + +Before the enemy cut the telegraph wire in the early morning of the 15th +Sir Frederick Roberts had informed the authorities in India of his +situation and of his need for reinforcements; and he had also ordered up +General Charles Gough's brigade without loss of time. Gough was already +at Jugdulluk when he received the order calling him to Cabul, but he had +to wait for reinforcements and supplies, and the tribesmen were +threatening his position and the line of communication in rear of it. He +did not move forward until the 21st. On the following day he reached +Luttabund, whence he took on with him the garrison of that post, but +although his march was unmolested it was not until the 24th that he +reached Sherpur, a day too late to participate in repelling the assault +on the cantonment. + +While General Roberts' force was busily engaged in making good the +defences of Sherpur, the Afghans refrained from attempting to back their +success on the Asmai heights by an assault on the defensive position +which seemed to invite an attack. During the first two days of their +possession of the city they were enjoying the fruits of their occupation +in their own turbulent manner. Roberts' spies reported them busily +engaged in sacking the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters, in looting and +wrecking the houses of chiefs and townsfolk who had shown friendliness to +the British, and in quarrelling among themselves over the spoils. +Requisitioning was in full force. The old Moulla Mushk-i-Alum was the +temporary successor of General Hills in the office of Governor of Cabul; +and spite of his ninety years he threw extraordinary energy into the work +of arousing fanaticism and rallying to Cabul the fighting men of the +surrounding country. The _jehad_ of which he had been the chief +instigator had certainly attained unexampled dimensions, and although it +was not in the nature of things that every Afghan who carried arms should +be inspired with religious fanaticism to such a pitch as to be utterly +reckless of his life, swarms of fierce ghazees made formidable the levies +which Mahomed Jan commanded. + +On the 17th and 18th the Afghans made ostentatious demonstrations against +Sherpur, but those were never formidable, although they made themselves +troublesome with some perseverance during the daytime, consistently +refraining from night attacks, which was remarkable since ordinarily they +are much addicted to the _chapao_. There never was any investment of +Sherpur, or indeed any approximation to investment. Cavalry +reconnaissances constantly went out, and piquets and videttes were +habitually on external duty; infantry detachments sallied forth whenever +occasion demanded to dislodge the assailants from points occupied by them +in inconvenient proximity to the defences. The Afghan offensive was not +dangerous, but annoying and wearying. It was indeed pushed with some +resolution on the 18th, when several thousand men poured out of the city, +and skirmished forward under cover of the gardens and enclosures on the +plain between Cabul and Sherpur, in the direction of the southern front +and the south-western bastions. The Afghans are admirable skirmishers, +and from their close cover kept up for hours a brisk fire on the soldiers +lining the Sherpur defences, but with singularly little effect. The +return rifle fire was for the most part restricted to volleys directed on +those of the enemy who offered a sure mark by exposing themselves; and +shell fire was chiefly used to drive the Afghan skirmishers from their +cover in the gardens and enclosures. Some of those, notwithstanding, were +able to get within 400 yards of the enciente, but could make no further +headway. On the morning of the 19th it was found that in the night the +enemy had occupied the Meer Akhor fort, a few hundred yards beyond the +eastern face, and close to the Residency compound of the old cantonments +of 1839-42. The fire from this fort was annoying, and General Baker went +out on the errand of destroying it, with 800 bayonets, two mountain guns, +and a party of sappers. As the fort was being approached through the +dense mist a sudden volley from it struck down several men, and +Lieutenant Montenaro of the mountain battery was mortally wounded. The +fort was heavily shelled from the south-eastern bastion; its garrison +evacuated it, and it was blown up. + +Mahomed Jan and his coadjutors could hardly flatter themselves that as +yet they had made any impression on the steadfast defence which the +British force was maintaining in the Sherpur cantonment. The Afghan +leader had tried force in vain; he knew the history of that strange +period in the winter of 1841 during which Afghan truculence and audacity +had withered the spirit of a British force not much less numerically +strong than the little army now calmly withstanding him. Things had not +gone very well with that little army of late, possibly its constancy +might have been impaired, and its chief might be willing, as had been +Elphinstone and the Eltchi, to listen to terms. Anyhow there could be no +harm in making a proffer based on the old lines. So the Afghan leader +proposed to General Roberts, apparently in all seriousness, that the +British army should forthwith evacuate Afghanistan, encountering no +molestation in its march; that the British General before departing +should engage that Yakoub Khan should return to Afghanistan as its Ameer; +and that there should be left behind two officers of distinction as +hostages for the faithful fulfilment of the contract. 'We have a lakh of +men; they are like wolves eager to rush on their prey! We cannot much +longer control them!'--such were said to have been the terms of a message +intended to disturb the equanimity of the British commander. Meer Butcha +and his Kohistanees, again, were not to all appearance anxious for the +restoration of Yakoub. They professed themselves content to accept our +staunch friend Wali Mahomed as Ameer, if only the British army would be +good enough to march home promptly and leave to Afghans the +administration of Afghan affairs. It was not likely that a man of +Roberts' nature would demean himself to take any notice of such +overtures. For the moment circumstances had enforced on him the wisdom of +accepting the defensive attitude, but he knew himself, nevertheless, the +virtual master of the situation. He had but one serious anxiety--the +apprehension lest the Afghans should not harden their hearts to deliver +an assault on his position. + +That apprehension was not long to give him concern. On the 20th, as a +menace against the southern face of Sherpur, the enemy took strong +possession of the Mahomed Shereef fort, stormed so gallantly by Colonel +Griffiths on 6th November 1841; and they maintained themselves there +during the two following days in face of the fire of siege guns mounted +on the bastions of the enciente. On the 21st and 22d large numbers of +Afghans quitted the city, and passing eastward behind the Siah Sung +heights, took possession in great force of the forts and villages outside +the eastern face of Sherpur. On the 22d a spy brought in the intelligence +that Mahomed Jan and his brother-chiefs had resolved to assault the +cantonment early on the following morning, and the spy was able to +communicate the plan of attack. The 2000 men holding the King's Garden +and the Mahomed Shereef fort had been equipped with scaling ladders, and +were to make a false attack which might become a real one, against the +western section of the southern front. The principal assault, however, +was to be made against the eastern face of the Behmaroo +village--unquestionably the weakest part of the defensive position. The +23d was the last day of the Mohurrum--the great Mahomedan religious +festival, when fanaticism would be at its height; and further to +stimulate that incentive to valour, the Mushk-i-Alum would himself kindle +the beacon fire on the Asmai height which was to be the signal to the +faithful to rush to the assault. + +The information proved perfectly accurate. All night long the shouts and +chants of the Afghans filled the air. Purposeful silence reigned +throughout the cantonment. In the darkness the soldiers mustered and +quietly fell into their places; the officers commanding sections of the +defence made their dispositions; the reserves were silently standing to +their arms. Every eye was toward the Asmai heights, shrouded still in the +gloom of the night. A long tongue of flame shot up into the air, blazed +brilliantly for a few moments, and then waned. At the signal a fierce +fire opened from the broken ground before one of the gateways of the +southern face, the flashes indicating that the marksmen were plying their +rifles within 200 yards of the enciente. The bullets sped harmlessly over +the defenders sheltered behind the parapet, and in the dusk of the dawn +reprisals were not attempted. But this outburst of powder-burning against +the southern face was a mere incident; what men listened and watched for +was the development of the true assault on the eastern end of the great +parallelogram. The section commanders there were General Hugh Gough in +charge of the eastern end of the Behmaroo heights, and Colonel Jenkins +from the village down to the Native Hospital and beyond to the bastion at +the south-eastern corner. The troops engaged were the Guides from the +ridge down to Behmaroo village and beyond to the Native Hospital, in +which were 100 men of the 28th Punjaub Infantry, and between the Hospital +and the corner bastion the 67th, reinforced by two companies of 92d +Highlanders from the reserve, which later sent to the defence of the +eastern face additional contributions of men and guns. 'From beyond +Behmaroo and the eastern trenches and walls,' writes Mr Hensman, 'came a +roar of voices so loud and menacing that it seemed as if an army fifty +thousand strong was charging down on our thin line of men. Led by their +ghazees, the main body of Afghans hidden in the villages and orchards on +the east side of Sherpur had rushed out in one dense mob, and were +filling the air with their shouts of "Allah-il-Allah." The roar surged +forward as their line advanced, but it was answered by such a roll of +musketry that it was drowned for the moment, and then merged into the +general din which told us that our men with Martinis and Sniders were +holding their own against the attacking force.' When the first attack +thus graphically described was made the morning was still so dark and +misty that the outlook from the trenches was restricted, and the order to +the troops was to hold their fire till the assailants should be +distinctly visible. The detachment of the 28th opened fire somewhat +prematurely, and presently the Guides holding Behmaroo and the trenches +on the slopes followed the example, and sweeping with their fire the +terrain in front of them broke the force of the attack while its leaders +were still several hundred yards away. Between the Hospital and the +corner bastion the men of the 67th and 92d awaited with impassive +discipline the word of permission to begin firing. From out the mist at +length emerged dense masses of men, some of whom were brandishing swords +and knives, while others loaded and fired while hurrying forward. The +order to fire was not given until the leading ghazees were within eighty +yards, and the mass of assailants not more distant than 200 yards. +Heavily struck then by volley on volley, they recoiled but soon gathered +courage to come on again; and for several hours there was sharp fighting, +repeated efforts being made to carry the low eastern wall. So resolute +were the Afghans that more than once they reached the abattis, but each +time were driven back with heavy loss. About ten o'clock there was a lull +and it seemed that the attacking force was owning the frustration of its +attempts, but an hour later there was a partial recrudescence of the +fighting and the assailants once more came on. The attack, however, was +not pushed with much vigour and was soon beaten down, but the Afghans +still maintained a threatening attitude and the fire from the defences +was ineffectual to dislodge them. The General resolved to take their +positions in flank, and with this intent sent out into the open through +the gorge in the Behmaroo heights, four field guns escorted by a cavalry +regiment. Bending to the right, the guns came into action on the right +flank of the Afghans, and the counter-stroke had immediate effect. The +enemy wavered and soon were in full retreat. The Kohistanee contingent, +some 5000 strong, cut loose and marched away northward, with obvious +recognition that the game was up. The fugitives were scourged with +artillery and rifle fire, and Massy led out the cavalry, swept the plain, +and drove the lingering Afghans from the slopes of Siah Sung. The false +attack on the southern face from the King's Garden and the Mahomed +Shereef fort never made any head. Those positions were steadily shelled +until late in the afternoon, when they were finally evacuated, and by +nightfall all the villages and enclosures between Sherpur and Cabul were +entirely deserted. Some of those had been destroyed by sappers from the +garrison during the afternoon, in the course of which operation two +gallant engineer officers, Captain Dundas and Lieutenant Nugent, were +unfortunately killed by the premature explosion of a mine. + +Mahomed Jan had been as good as his word; he had delivered his stroke +against Sherpur, and that stroke had utterly failed. With its failure +came promptly the collapse of the national rising. Before daybreak of the +24th the formidable combination which had included all the fighting +elements of North-Eastern Afghanistan, and under whose banners it was +believed that more than 100,000 armed men had mustered, was no more. Not +only had it broken up; it had disappeared. Neither in the city, nor in +the adjacent villages, nor on the surrounding heights, was a man to be +seen. So hurried had been the Afghan dispersal that the dead lay unburied +where they had fallen. His nine days on the defensive had cost General +Roberts singularly little in casualties; his losses were eighteen killed +and sixty-eight wounded. The enemy's loss from first to last of the +rising was reckoned to be not under 3000. + +On the 24th the cavalry rode far and fast in pursuit of the fugitives, +but they overtook none, such haste had the fleeing Afghans made. On the +same day Cabul and the Balla Hissar were reoccupied, and General Hills +resumed his functions as military governor of the city. Cabul had the +aspect of having undergone a sack at the hands of the enemy; the bazaars +were broken up and deserted and the Hindoo and Kuzzilbash quarters had +been relentlessly wrecked. Sir Frederick Roberts lost no time in +despatching a column to, the Kohistan to punish Meer Butcha by destroying +that chief's forts and villages, and to ascertain whether the tribesmen +of the district had dispersed to their homes. This was found to be the +case, and the column returned after having been out five days. After +making a few examples the General issued a proclamation of amnesty, +excluding therefrom only five of the principal leaders and fomentors of +the recent rising, and stipulating that the tribesmen should send +representatives to Sherpur to receive explanations regarding the +dispositions contemplated for the government of the country. This policy +of conciliation bore good fruit; and a durbar was held on January 9th, +1880, at which were present about 200 sirdars, chiefs, and headmen from +the Kohistan, Logur, and the Ghilzai country. Rewards were presented to +those chiefs who had remained friendly; the General received the salaams +of the assembled sirdars and then addressed them in a firm but +conciliatory speech. + +The country remained still in a disturbed state, but there was little +likelihood of a second general rising. General Roberts was resolved, +however, to be thoroughly prepared to cope with that contingency should +it occur. Sherpur was encircled by a military road, and all cover and +obstructions for the space of 1000 yards outside the enciente were swept +away. Another road was constructed from Behmaroo village to the Siah Sung +heights and yet another from the south-eastern gateway direct to the +Balla Hissar, on both of which there were bridges across the Cabul river. +Along the northern face of Cabul from Deh Afghan to the Balla Hissar, a +road broad enough for guns was made, and another broad road cut through +the lower Balla Hissar. Another military road was built through the Cabul +gorge to the main Ghuznee and Bamian road in the Chardeh valley. Strong +forts were built on the Asmai and Sher Derwaza heights and on the spur +above the Balla Hissar, which, well garrisoned and supplied adequately +with provisions, water, and ammunition, would enable Cabul as well as +Sherpur to be held. The latter was greatly strengthened, the eastern +point of the Behmaroo heights being converted into something like a +regular fortress. Later, in March, when the Cabul force had increased to +a strength of about 11,500 men and twenty-six guns, the command was +formed into two divisions, of which the first remained under the +Lieutenant-General, the second being commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The line of communications was in charge of Major-General Bright, +and Brigadier-General Hugh Gough was the cavalry commander in succession +to Brigadier-General Massy. On the 2d of May, Sir Donald Stewart arriving +at Cabul from Candahar, took over the chief command in North-Eastern +Afghanistan from Sir Frederick Roberts. Sir Donald's march from Candahar, +which was an eventful one, is dealt with in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI: AHMED KHEL + +While Sir Frederick Roberts had been fighting hard in North-Eastern +Afghanistan, Sir Donald Stewart had been experiencing comparative +tranquillity in his Candahar command. As soon as the news reached him of +the destruction of Cavagnari's mission he had promptly concentrated his +troops, and so early as the third week of September (1879) he was in a +position to carry out his orders to create a diversion in aid of Roberts' +advance on Cabul by making a demonstration in the direction of Ghuznee +and placing a garrison in Khelat-i-Ghilzai. No subsequent movements of +importance were undertaken in Southern Afghanistan during the winter, and +the province enjoyed almost unbroken quietude. In Herat, however, +disturbance was rife. Ayoub Khan, the brother of Yakoub Khan, had +returned from exile and made good his footing in Herat, of which formerly +he had been conjoint governor with Yakoub. In December he began a hostile +advance on Candahar, but a conflict broke out between the Cabul and Herat +troops under his command, and he abandoned for the time his projected +expedition. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT AHMED KHEL. 20 Miles from GHUZNEE. 19th. April +1880.] + +In the end of March Sir Donald Stewart began the march toward Cabul which +orders from India had prescribed. He left behind him in Candahar the +Bombay division of his force under the command of Major-General Primrose, +whose line of communication with the Indus valley was to be kept open by +Phayre's brigade, and took with him on the northward march the Bengal +division, consisting of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade. The +first infantry brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Barter, the +second by Brigadier-General Hughes, and the cavalry brigade, which +divisional headquarters accompanied, by Brigadier-General Palliser. +Khelat-i-Ghilzai was reached on 6th April; the Bengal portion of its +garrison joined the division and the advance was resumed on the following +day. Until Shahjui, the limit of the Candahar province, the march was +uneventful; but beyond that place extreme difficulties were experienced +in procuring supplies, for the villages were found deserted and the +inhabitants had carried off, destroyed, or hidden their stores of grain. +The force was embarrassed by a horde of Hazaras, who swarmed in wild +irregularity on its flanks, plundering and burning with great +vindictiveness, eager to wreak vengeance on their Afghan foes. And it had +another although more distant companionship, in the shape of several +thousand hostile tribesmen and ghazees, whose fanaticism their moullas +had been assiduously inciting, and who marched day by day parallel with +the British right flank along the foothills at a distance of about eight +miles. Their attitude was threatening but it was not thought wise to +meddle with them, since their retreat over the hills could not well be +cut off, and since the policy of non-interference would tend to encourage +them to venture on a battle. The soundness of this reasoning was soon to +be made manifest. + +On the night of April 18th the division was encamped at Mushaki, about +thirty miles south of Ghuznee. The spies that evening brought in the +information that the enemy had resolved on fighting on the following +morning, and that the position they intended to take up was the summit of +a low spur of the Gul Koh mountain ridge, bounding on the west the valley +followed by the road. This spur was said to project in a north-easterly +direction toward the Ghuznee river, gradually sinking into the plain. +During a great part of its length it flanked and overhung the road, but +near where it merged into the plain the road passed over it by a low +saddle at a point about six miles beyond Mushaki. At dawn of the 19th the +column moved off, Palliser leading the advance, which Sir Donald Stewart +accompanied, Hughes commanding the centre, Barter bringing up the rear +and protecting the baggage. An hour later the enemy were visible in great +strength about three miles in advance, presenting the aspect of a vast +body formed up on the spur and on the saddle crossed by the road, and +thus threatening Stewart at once in front and on both flanks. The British +general at once made his dispositions. His guns were on the road in +column of route. The three infantry regiments of Hughes' brigade came up +to the left of and in line with the leading battery, the cavalry took +ground on the plain on its right, and a reserve was formed consisting of +an infantry regiment, two companies sappers and miners, and the General's +escort of a troop and two companies. Orders were sent back to Barter to +send forward without delay half the infantry of his brigade. In the +formation described the force resumed its advance until within striking +distance. Then the two batteries came into action on either side of the +road; the horse-battery on the right, the flat ground to its right being +covered by the 2d Punjaub Cavalry; the field-battery on the left. Sir +Donald Stewart's proper front thus consisted of the field and +horse-batteries with their supports, but since it was apparent that the +greatest strength of the enemy was on the higher ground flanking his +left, it behoved him to show a front in that direction also, and for this +purpose he utilised Hughes' three infantry regiments, of which the 59th +was on the right, the 2d Sikhs in the centre, and the 3d Goorkhas on the +left. Part of the reserve infantry was sent to make good the interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. + +The guns had no sooner come into action than the enemy in great masses +showed themselves on spur and saddle and plain, bent seemingly on an +attempt to envelop the position held by the British. 'Suddenly,' writes +Hensmen, 'a commotion was observed in the most advanced lines of the +opposing army; the moullas could be seen haranguing the irregular host +with frantic energy, the beating of the tom-toms was redoubled, and then +as if by magic waves on waves of men--ghazees of the most desperate +type--poured down upon the plain, and rushed upon General Stewart's +force. The main body of the Afghan army remained upon the hill to watch +the ghazees in their reckless onslaught, and take advantage of any +success they might gain. The fanaticism of the 3000 or 4000 men who made +this desperate charge has perhaps never been equalled; they had 500 or +600 yards to cover before they could come to close quarters, and yet they +made nothing of the distance. Nearly all were well armed with tulwars, +knives, and pistols. Some carried rifles and matchlocks, while a few--and +those must have been resolute fanatics indeed--had simply pikes made of +bayonets, or pieces of sharpened iron fastened on long shafts. Their +attack broke with greatest violence on our flanks. On our left flank the +19th Bengal Lancers were still moving into position when the ghazees +rushed in among them. In an instant they were hidden in the cloud of dust +and smoke, and then they galloped toward the right rear, and struck into +the reserve in rear of the Lieutenant-General and his staff. All was +confusion for a moment; the ammunition mules were stampeded, and with the +riderless horses of the lancers killed or wounded in the _mêlée_, dashed +into the headquarter staff. The ghazees had continued their onward rush, +and were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with our infantry. Some of them +penetrated to within twenty yards of the knoll on which the staff were +watching the action, and so critical was the moment that Sir Donald +Stewart and every man of his staff drew their swords and prepared for +self-defence.' The hurried retirement of the lancers had left the left +flank bare. It was turned by the fierce rush of the fanatics, who were +actually in rear of the leftward infantry regiment and in the heart of +the British position. The Goorkhas had been thrown into momentary +confusion, but their colonel promptly formed them into rallying squares, +whose fire mowed down the ghazees and arrested the headlong vehemence of +their turning movement. But it was not the British left only which was +temporarily compromised by the furious onslaught of the fanatics. Their +enveloping charge broke down the defence of the weakly-manned interval +between the left of the artillery and the right of the infantry. The +detachments holding that interval were forced back, righting hand-to-hand +as the sheer weight of the assault compelled them to give ground; the +59th, in its effort to throw back its right to cover the interval and +protect the guns, was thrown into confusion and gave ground; and the +guns, their case shot exhausted and the Afghans within a few yards of +their muzzles, had to be retired. The onslaught on the right front of the +horse-battery was delivered with great determination, but was held at bay +and finally crushed by the repeated charges of the 2d Punjaub cavalry. + +Every man of the reserves was hurried into the fighting line; the +soldiers were steadied by the energetic efforts of their officers and +settled down to a steady and continuous fire from their breechloaders; +the guns poured their shells into the hostile masses; and the fire of the +forty-pounders on the left effectually arrested the attempt of the Afghan +horse to move round that flank. The hard-fought combat lasted for an +hour; at ten o'clock the 'cease fire' sounded, and the British victory +was signal. The enemy was dispersing in full flight, and the cavalry was +chasing the fugitives across the plain on the right. How reckless had +been the whirlwind charges of the ghazees was evidenced by the +extraordinary number of their dead whose corpses strewed the battlefield. +In no previous conflict between our troops and the Afghans had the latter +suffered nearly so heavily. More than 1000 dead were counted on the +field, and many bodies were carried away; on a moderate computation their +total loss must have been between 2000 and 3000, and that in an estimated +strength of from 12,000 to 15,000. The casualties of the British force +were seventeen killed and 124 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds. +The injuries consisted almost wholly of sword slashes and knife stabs +received in hand-to-hand encounters. The pursuit was soon recalled, but +the Hazaras took up the chase with ardour and in the rancour of vengeance +slew and spared not. + +Sir Donald Stewart tarried on the field only long enough to bury his dead +and have his wounded attended to; and soon after noon his force resumed +its march. Ghuznee was reached on the 21st, where there was a halt of +three days. It had been reported that the indomitable Mushk-i-Alum was +raising the tribesmen of Zurmut and Shilgur to avenge the defeat of Ahmed +Khel, and a cavalry reconnaissance made on the 22d had found a gathering +of 2000 or 3000 men about the villages of Urzoo and Shalez, six miles +south-east of Ghuznee. On the morning of the 23d a strong column +commanded by Brigadier-General Palliser moved on the villages, which were +found occupied in considerable force. They were too solidly built to be +much injured by artillery fire, and the Afghans lay close in the shelter +they afforded. Palliser hesitated to commit his infantry to an attack. +Sir Donald Stewart having arrived, ordered the infantry to carry the +villages without delay, and the affair was soon over, the tribesmen +suffering severely from the rifle fire as they evacuated the villages, +and later in the pursuit made by the cavalry and horse-artillery. On the +following day the march toward Cabul was resumed. + +On the 16th April Major-General Ross had been despatched from Cabul by +Sir Frederick Roberts on the mission of joining hands with Stewart's +division. On the 20th Ross opened heliographic communication with Sir +Donald, and was informed of the latter's victory at Ahmed Khel. But the +junction of the two forces was not accomplished until the 27th; and in +the interval the force commanded by General Ross had received +considerable annoyance at the hands of tribal levies gathered by local +chiefs. The tribesmen interfered with the roadmaking operations of his +sappers in the vicinity of Sheikabad, and some fighting occurred in very +rugged country on the 23d. Trivial loss was experienced by his command, +but the demonstrations of the tribesmen evinced with what inveterate +determination, notwithstanding so many severe lessons, the Afghans +persisted in their refusal to admit themselves conquered. Driven away +with severe loss on the 25th, those indomitable hillmen and villagers +were back again on the following morning on the overhanging ridges; nor +were they dispersed by the 'resources of civilised warfare' until more of +them had paid with their lives the penalty of their obstinate hostility. +On the 28th, at Sheikabad, Sir Donald Stewart took leave of the division +which he had led from Candahar, and proceeded to Cabul with General Ross' +force to assume the chief command in North-Eastern Afghanistan. His +division turned aside into the Logur valley, where it remained at until +the final concentration about Cabul in anticipation of the evacuation. By +the reinforcement brought by Stewart the Cabul field force was increased +to a strength of about 18,000 men. + + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN + +The occupation of Afghanistan by the British troops had been prolonged +far beyond the period originally intended by the authorities. But the +strain of that occupation was great, and although it had to be maintained +until there should be found a ruler strong enough to hold his own after +the evacuation, the decision was definitely arrived at to withdraw from +the country before the setting in of another winter. Mr Lepel Griffin, a +distinguished member of the political department of the Indian Civil +Service, reached Cabul on 20th March, his mission being to further the +selection and acceptance of a capable ruler to be left in possession. The +task was no easy one. There was little promise in any of the Barakzai +pretenders who were in Afghanistan, and in the address which Mr Griffin +addressed in Durbar to a number of sirdars and chiefs in the middle of +April, he preserved a tone at once haughty and enigmatical. One thing he +definitely announced, the Viceroy's decision that Yakoub Khan was not to +return to Afghanistan. The State was to be dismembered. As to the future +of Herat the speaker made no allusion; but the province of Candahar was +to be separated from Cabul and placed under an independent Barakzai +prince. No decision could for the present be given in regard to the +choice of an Ameer to rule over Cabul. The Government desired to nominate +an Ameer strong enough to govern his people and steadfast in his +friendship to the British; if those qualifications could be secured the +Government was willing and anxious to recognise the wish of the Afghan +people, and nominate an Ameer of their choice. + +But in effect the choice, so far as the English were concerned, had been +already virtually made. On the 14th of March Lord Lytton had telegraphed +to the Secretary of State advocating the 'early public recognition of +Abdurrahman as legitimate heir of Dost Mahomed, and the despatch of a +deputation of sirdars, with British concurrence, to offer him the throne, +as sole means of saving the country from anarchy'; and the Minister had +promptly replied authorising the nomination of Abdurrahman, should he be +found 'acceptable to the country and would be contented with Northern +Afghanistan.' Abdurrahman had known strange vicissitudes. He was the +eldest grandson of the old Dost; his father was Afzul Khan, the elder +brother of Shere Ali. After the death of the Dost he had been an exile in +Bokhara, but he returned to Balkh, of which province his father had been +Governor until removed by Shere Ali, made good his footing there, and +having done so advanced on Cabul, taking advantage of Shere Ali's absence +at Candahar. The capital opened its gates to him in March 1866; he fought +a successful battle with Shere Ali at Sheikabad, occupied Ghuznee, and +proclaimed his father Ameer. Those were triumphs, but soon the wheel came +round full circle. Afzul had but a short life as Ameer, and Abdurrahman +had to retire to Afghan Turkestan. Yakoub, then full of vigour and +enterprise, defeated him at Bamian and restored his father Shere Ali to +the throne in the winter of 1868. Abdurrahman then once more found +himself an exile. In 1870, after much wandering, he reached Tashkend, +where General Kaufmann gave him permission to reside, and obtained for +him from the Czar a pension of 25,000 roubles per annum. Petrosvky, a +Russian writer who professed to be intimate with him during his period of +exile, wrote of him that, 'To get square some day with the English and +Shere Ali was Abdurrahman's most cherished thought, his dominant, +never-failing passion.' His hatred of Shere Ali, his family, and +supporters, was intelligible and natural enough, but why he should have +entertained a bitter grudge against the English is not very apparent; and +there has been no overt manifestation of its existence since he became +Ameer. To Mr Eugene Schuyler, who had an interview with him at Tashkend, +he expressed his conviction that with £50,000 wherewith to raise and +equip an army he could attain his legitimate position as Ameer of +Afghanistan. Resolutely bent on an effort to accomplish this purpose, he +was living penuriously and saving the greater part of his pension, and he +hinted that he might have Russian assistance in the prosecution of his +endeavour. The selection of a man of such antecedents and associations as +the ruler of a 'buffer' state in friendly relations with British India +was perhaps the greatest leap in the dark on record. Abdurrahman came +straight from the position of a Russian pensionary; in moving on +Afghanistan he obeyed Russian instructions; his Tashkend patrons had +furnished him with a modest equipment of arms and money, the value of +which he undertook to repay if successful. It is of course possible that +those functionaries of a notoriously simple and ingenuous government +started and equipped him in pure friendly good nature, although they had +previously consistently deterred him. But there was not a circumstance in +connection with Abdurrahman that was not suspicious. Three distinct +hypotheses seem to present themselves in relation to this selection as +our nominee; that Lord Lytton had extraordinary, almost indeed +preternatural foresight and sagacity; that he was extremely fortunate in +his leap in the dark; that he desired to bring to the naked _reductio ad +absurdum_ the 'buffer state' policy. When Abdurrahman began his movement +is uncertain. So early as the middle of January it was reported at +Sherpur that he had left Tashkend, and was probably already on the Afghan +side of the Oxus. In a letter of February 17th Mr Hensman speaks of him +as being in Badakshan, where his wife's kinsmen were in power, and +describes him as having a following of 2000 or 3000 Turcoman horsemen and +possessed according to native report of twelve lakhs of rupees. On the +17th of March Lord Lytton telegraphed to the Secretary of State that he +was in possession of 'authentic intelligence that the Sirdar was in +Afghan Turkestan, having lately arrived there from Badakshan.' + +[Illustration: The Ameer Abdurrahman.] + +It was regarded of urgent importance to ascertain definitely the +disposition of Abdurrahman, and whether he was disposed to throw in his +lot with the British Government, and accept the position of its nominee +in Northern Afghanistan. The agent selected by Mr Griffin to open +preliminary negotiations was a certain Mohamed Surwar, Ghilzai, who had +been all his life in the confidential service of the Sirdar's family. +Surwar was the bearer of a formal and colourless letter by way simply of +authentication; but he also carried full and explicit verbal +instructions. He was directed to inform the Sirdar that since he had +entered Afghan Turkestan and occupied places there by force of arms, it +was essential for him to declare with what object he had come, and +whether actuated by friendly or hostile feelings toward the British +Government, which for its part had no ill-feeling toward him because of +his long residence within the Russian Empire and his notoriously close +relations with that power. That the British Government was able to +benefit him very largely in comparison with that of Russia; and that +wisdom and self interest alike suggested that he should at once open a +friendly correspondence with the British officers in Cabul. That his +opportunity was now come, and that the British Government was disposed to +treat him with every consideration and to consider most favourably any +representations he might make. It had no intention of annexing the +country, and only desired to see a strong and friendly chief established +at Cabul; and that consequently the present communication was made solely +in Abdurrahman's own interest, and not in that of the British Government. +He was desired to send a reply by Surwar, and later to repair to Cabul, +where he should be honourably received. + +Surwar returned to Cabul on 21st April, bringing a reply from Abdurrahman +to Mr Griffin's letter. The tone of the reply was friendly enough, but +somewhat indefinite. In conversation with Surwar as reported by the +latter, Abdurrahman was perfectly frank as to his relations with the +Russians, and his sentiments in regard to them. It had been reported that +he had made his escape clandestinely from Tashkend. Had he cared to stand +well with us at the expense of truth, it would have been his cue to +disclaim all authority or assistance from the Russian Government, to +confirm the current story of his escape, and to profess his anxiety to +cultivate friendly relations with the British in a spirit of opposition +to the power in whose territory he had lived so long virtually as a +prisoner. But neither in writing nor in conversation did he make any +concealment of his friendliness toward the Russians, a feeling which he +clearly regarded as nowise incompatible with friendly relations with the +British Government. 'If,' said he to Surwar, 'the English will in +sincerity befriend me, I have no wish to hide anything from them'; and he +went on to tell how the Russians had forbidden him for years to make any +effort to interfere in Afghan affairs. This prohibition stood until +information reached Tashkend of the deportation of Yakoub Khan to India. +Then it was that General Kaufmann's representative said to him: 'You have +always been anxious to return to your country; the English have removed +Yakoub Khan; the opportunity is favourable; if you wish you are at +liberty to go.' The Russians, continued Abdurrahman, pressed him most +strongly to set out on the enterprise which lay before him. They lent him +33,000 rupees, and arms, ammunition, and supplies; he was bound to the +Russians by no path or promise, but simply by feelings of gratitude. 'I +should never like,' said he, 'to be obliged to fight them. I have eaten +their salt, and was for twelve years dependent on their hospitality.' + +Surwar reported Abdurrahman as in fine health and possessed of great +energy. He had with him a force of about 3000 men, consisting of four +infantry and two cavalry regiments, with twelve guns and some irregulars. +He professed his readiness, in preference to conducting negotiations +through agents, to go himself to Charikar in the Kohistan with an escort, +and there discuss matters with the English officers in person. Surwar +testified that the Sirdar had with him in Turkestan no Russian or Russian +agent, and this was confirmed through other sources. He had sent forward +to ascertain which was the easiest pass across the Hindoo Koosh, but +meanwhile he was to remain at Kondooz until he should hear again from Mr +Griffin. + +While the wary Sirdar waited on events beyond the Hindoo Koosh he was +sending letters to the leading chiefs of the Kohistan and the Cabul +province, desiring them to be ready to support his cause. That he had an +influential party was made clear at a durbar held by Mr Griffin on April +21st, when a considerable gathering of important chiefs united in the +request that Abdurrahman's claim to the Ameership should be favourably +regarded by the British authorities. In pursuance of the negotiations a +mission consisting of three Afghan gentlemen, two of whom belonged to Mr +Griffin's political staff, left Cabul on May 2nd carrying to Abdurrahman +a letter from Mr Griffin intimating that it had been decided to withdraw +the British army from Afghanistan in the course of a few months, and that +the British authorities desired to leave the rulership in capable and +friendly hands; that they were therefore willing to transfer the +Government to him, recognise him as the head of the State, and afford him +facilities and even support in reorganising the Government and +establishing himself in the sovereignty. The mission found the attitude +of Abdurrahman scarcely so satisfactory as had been reported by Surwar, +and its members were virtual prisoners, their tents surrounded by +sentries. Abdurrahman's explanation of this rigour of isolation was that +he could not otherwise ensure the safety of the envoys; but another +construction conveyed to them was that they were kept prisoners that they +might not, by mixing with the people, learn of the presence on the right +bank of the Oxus of a Russian officer with whom Abdurrahman was said to +be in constant communication and on whose advice he acted. Their belief +was that Abdurrahman was entirely under Russian influence; that Mr +Griffin's letter after it had been read in Durbar in the camp was +immediately despatched across the Oxus by means of mounted relays; and +that Russian instructions as to a reply had not been received when they +left Turkestan to return to Cabul. They expressed their belief that the +Sirdar would not accept from British hands Cabul shorn of Candahar. They +had urged him to repeat in the letter they were to carry back to Cabul +the expression of his willingness to meet the British representative at +Charikar which had been contained in his letter sent by Surwar; but he +demurred to committing himself even to this slight extent. The letter +which he sent by way of reply to the weighty communication Mr Griffin had +addressed to him on the part of the Government of India that official +characterised as 'frivolous and empty, and only saved by its special +courtesy of tone from being an impertinence.' + +An Afghan who had sat at Kaufmann's feet, Abdurrahman was not wholly a +guileless man; and the truth probably was that he mistrusted the Greeks +of Simla and the gifts they tendered him with so lavish protestation that +they were entirely for his own interest. There was very little finesse +about the importunity of the British that he should constitute himself +their bridge of extrication, so that they might get out of Afghanistan +without the dangers and discredit of leaving chaos behind them. But +Abdurrahman had come to know himself strong enough to reduce to order +that legacy of chaos if it should be left; and in view of his future +relations with his fellow Afghans he was not solicitous to be beholden to +the foreigners to any embarrassing extent. He knew, too, the wisdom of +'masterly inactivity' in delicate conditions. And, again, he had no +confidence in our pledges. On the 4th of August, the day after the +meeting between him and Mr Griffin at Zimma, the latter wrote: 'They +(Abdurrahman and his advisers) feared greatly our intention was to rid +ourselves of a formidable opponent, and dreaded that if he had come +straight into Cabul he would have been arrested, and deported to India.' + +A Liberal Government was now in office in England, and was urgent for the +speedy evacuation of Afghanistan. Lord Lytton had resigned and had been +succeeded as Viceroy by the Marquis of Ripon. Lieutenant-General Sir +Donald Stewart was in chief command at Cabul. A great number of letters +from Abdurrahman to chiefs and influential persons throughout Afghanistan +were being intercepted, the tone of which was considered objectionable. +He was reported to be in close correspondence with Mahomed Jan, who had +never ceased to be our bitter enemy. The fact that negotiations were in +progress between the British Government and Abdurrahman had become matter +of general knowledge throughout the country, and was occasioning +disquietude and excitement. So clear were held the evidences of what was +termed Abdurrahman's bad faith, but was probably a combination of genuine +mistrust, astute passivity, and shrewd playing for his own hand, that it +became a serious question with the Indian Government on the arrival of +the new Viceroy, whether it was good policy to have anything more to do +with him. It was resolved that before breaking off intercourse the +suggestion of Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin should be adopted, that a +peremptory although still friendly letter, demanding a definite +acceptance or refusal of the proffers made, within four days after the +receipt, should be sent to Abdurrahman, with a detailed explanation of +the arrangements into which we were prepared to enter with regard to him +and the future of Afghanistan. A letter was forwarded from Cabul on 14th +June, in which Mr Griffin informed the Sirdar that since the British +Government admitted no right of interference by foreign powers in +Afghanistan, it was plain that the Cabul ruler could have no political +relations with any foreign power except the English; and if any foreign +power should attempt to interfere in Afghanistan, and if such +interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Cabul ruler, +then the British Government would be prepared to aid him, if necessary, +to repel it. As regarded limits of the territory, the latter stated that +the whole province of Candahar had been placed under a separate ruler, +except Sibi and Pisheen, which were retained in British possession. +Consequently the British Government was unable to enter into any +negotiations on those points, or in respect to arrangements in regard to +the north-western frontier which were settled by the treaty of Gundamuk. +Subject to those reservations, the British Government was willing that +Abdurrahman should establish over Afghanistan--including Herat when he +should have conquered it--as complete and extensive authority as was +swayed by any previous Ameer. The British Government would exercise no +interference in the internal government of those territories nor would it +demand the acceptance of an English Resident anywhere within Afghanistan, +although for convenience of ordinary friendly intercourse it might be +agreed upon that a Mahommedan Agent of the British Government should be +stationed at Cabul. + +Abdurrahman's reply to this communication was vague and evasive, and was +regarded by Sir Donald Stewart and Mr Griffin as so unsatisfactory that +they represented to the Government of India, not for the first time, +their conviction of the danger of trusting Abdurrahman, the imprudence of +delaying immediate action, and the necessity of breaking off with him and +adopting other means of establishing a government in Cabul before the +impending evacuation. Lord Ripon, however, considered that 'as matters +stood an arrangement with Abdurrahman offered the most advisable +solution, while he doubted whether it would not be found very difficult +to enter into any alternative arrangement.' His Excellency's decision was +justified by the event. Meanwhile, indeed, Abdurrahman had started on +June 28th for the Kohistan. He crossed the Hindoo Koosh and arrived on +July 20th at Charikar, where he was welcomed by a deputation of leading +chiefs, while the old Mushk-i-Alum, who for some time, thanks to Mr +Griffin's influence, had been working in the interests of peace, +intimated on behalf of a number of chiefs assembled in Maidan that they +were ready to accept as Ameer the nominee of the British Government. + +So propitious seemed the situation that it was considered the time had +come for formally acknowledging Abdurrahman as the new Ameer, and also +for fixing approximately the date of the evacuation of Cabul by the +British troops. The ceremony of recognition was enacted in a great durbar +tent within the Sherpur cantonment on the afternoon of July 22d. The +absence of Abdurrahman, and the notorious cause of that absence, +detracted from the intrinsic dignity of the occasion so far as concerned +the British participation in it; nor was the balance restored by the +presence of three members of his suite whom he had delegated to represent +him. A large number of sirdars, chiefs, and maliks were present, some of +whom had fought stoutly against us in December. Sir Donald Stewart, who +presided, explained to the assembled Afghans that their presence and that +of the officers of the British force had been called for in order that +the public recognition by the British Government of the Sirdar +Abdurrahman Khan as Ameer of Cabul should be made known with as much +honour as possible. Then Mr Griffin addressed in Persian a short speech +to the 'sirdars, chiefs, and gentlemen' who constituted his audience. +Having announced the recognition of Abdurrahman by 'the Viceroy of India +and the Government of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Empress,' he +proceeded: 'It is to the Government a source of satisfaction that the +tribes and chiefs have preferred as Ameer a distinguished member of the +Barakzai family, who is a renowned soldier, wise, and experienced. His +sentiments towards the British Government are most friendly; and so long +as his rule shows that he is animated by these sentiments, he cannot fail +to receive the support of the British Government.' Mr Griffin then +intimated that the British armies would shortly withdraw from +Afghanistan; and in his formal farewell there was a certain appropriate +dignity, and a well-earned tribute to the conduct of our soldiers during +their service within the Afghan borders. 'We trust and firmly believe,' +said Mr Griffin, 'that your remembrance of the English will not be +unkindly. We have fought you in the field whenever you have opposed us; +but your religion has in no way been interfered with; the honour of your +women has been respected, and every one has been secure in possession of +his property. Whatever has been necessary for the support of the army has +been liberally paid for. Since I came to Cabul I have been in daily +intercourse with you, but I have never heard an Afghan make a complaint +of the conduct of any soldier, English or native, belonging to Her +Majesty's army.' The durbar was closed by an earnest appeal by Sir Donald +Stewart to all the sirdars and chiefs that they should put aside their +private feuds and unite to support the new Ameer. + +On August 3d Abdurrahman and Mr Griffin at length met, about sixteen +miles north of Cabul. His adherents were still full of excitement and +suspicion; but the Ameer himself was calm, cheerful, and dignified. The +conference between him and Mr Griffin lasted for three hours and was +renewed on the following day. 'He appeared,' wrote Mr Griffin, 'animated +by a sincere desire to be on cordial terms with the British Government, +and although his expectations were larger than the Government was +prepared to satisfy, yet he did not press them with any discourteous +insistence, and the result of the interview may be considered on the +whole to be highly satisfactory.' The tidings of the Maiwand disaster had +reached Sherpur by telegraph, and the Ameer was informed that a necessity +might occur for marching a force from Cabul to Candahar. His reply was +that the tribes might be hostile, but that if no long halts were made by +the way he would have no objections to such a march. In this he showed +his astuteness, since the defeat of Ayoub Khan by a British army would +obviously save him a contest. So willing to be of service on this matter +was he that when the march was decided on he sent influential persons of +his party in advance to arrange with the local maliks to have supplies +collected for the column. The arrangements made with him were that he was +to fall heir to the thirty guns of Shere Ali's manufacture which the +out-marching army was to leave in Sherpur, and was to receive 19-1/2 +lakhs of rupees (£190,500); ten lakhs of which were given as an earnest +of British friendship, and the balance was money belonging to the Afghan +State, which had gone into the commissariat chest and was now restored. +At the Ameer's earnest and repeated request the forts which had been +built around Cabul by the British army, were not destroyed as had been +intended, but were handed over intact to the new Ameer. + +It seemed that Sir Donald Stewart, who was to evacuate Sherpur on the +11th August, would leave Cabul without seeing Abdurrahman. But at the +last moment Mr Griffin succeeded in arranging an interview. It was held +early in the morning of the evacuation, in a tent just outside the +Sherpur cantonment, was quite public, and lasted only for quarter of an +hour. Abdurrahman was frank and cordial. He said that his heart was full +of gratitude to the British, and desired that his best thanks should be +communicated to the Viceroy. At the close of the interview he shook hands +with all 'who cared to wish him good-bye and good luck,' and sent his +principal officer to accompany the General on his first day's march, +which began immediately after the parting with Abdurrahman. Sir Donald +Stewart's march down the passes was accomplished without incident, quite +unmolested by the tribes. Small garrisons were temporarily left in the +Khyber posts, and the war-worn regiments were dispersed through the +stations of North-Western India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH + +When in the early spring of 1880 Sir Donald Stewart quitted Candahar with +the Bengal division of his force, he left there the Bombay division, to +the command of which General Primrose acceded, General Phayre assuming +charge of the communications. The province during the early summer was +fairly quiet, but it was known that Ayoub Khan was making hostile +preparations at Herat, although the reports as to his intentions and +movements were long uncertain and conflicting. Shere Ali Khan, who had +been Governor of Candahar during Stewart's residence there, had been +nominated hereditary ruler of the province with the title of 'Wali,' when +it was determined to separate Candahar from North-Eastern Afghanistan. On +June 21st the Wali, who had some days earlier crossed the Helmund and +occupied Girishk with his troops, reported that Ayoub was actually on the +march toward the Candahar frontier, and asked for the support of a +British brigade to enable him to cope with the hostile advance. There was +reason to believe that the Wali's troops were disaffected, and that he +was in no condition to meet Ayoub's army with any likelihood of success. +After Stewart's departure the strength of the British forces at Candahar +was dangerously low--only 4700 of all ranks; but it was important to +thwart Ayoub's offensive movement, and a brigade consisting of a troop of +horse-artillery, six companies of the 66th, two Bombay native infantry +regiments, and 500 native troopers, in all about 2300 strong, under the +command of Brigadier-General Burrows, reached the left bank of the +Helmund on July 11th. On the 13th the Wali's infantry, 2000 strong, +mutinied _en masse_ and marched away up the right bank of the river, +taking with them a battery of smooth bore guns, a present to Shere Ali +Khan from the British Government. His cavalry did not behave quite so +badly, but, not to go into detail, his army no longer existed, and +Burrows' brigade was the only force in the field to resist the advance of +Ayoub Khan, whose regular troops were reported to number 4000 cavalry, +and from 4000 to 5000 infantry exclusive of the 2000 deserters from the +Wali, with thirty guns and an irregular force of uncertain strength. + +[Illustration: ACTION AT MAIWAND. 27th. July 1880.] + +Burrows promptly recaptured from the Wali's infantry the battery they +were carrying off, and punished them severely. The mutineers had removed +or destroyed the supplies which the Wali had accumulated for the use of +the brigade, and General Burrows therefore could no longer remain in the +vicinity of Girishk. The Helmund owing to the dry season was passable +everywhere, so that nothing was to be gained by watching the fords. It +was determined to fall back to Khushk-i-Nakhud, a point distant thirty +miles from Girishk and forty-five from Candahar, where several roads from +the Helmund converged and where supplies were plentiful. At and near +Khushk-i-Nakhud the brigade remained from the 16th until the morning of +the 27th July. While waiting and watching there a despatch from army +headquarters at Simla was communicated to General Burrows from Candahar, +authorising him to attack Ayoub if he thought himself strong enough to +beat him, and informing him that it was considered of the greatest +political importance that the force from Herat should be dispersed and +prevented from moving on toward Ghuznee. Spies brought in news that Ayoub +had reached Girishk, and was distributing his force along the right bank +between that place and Hydrabad. Cavalry patrols failed to find the enemy +until the 21st, when a detachment was encountered in the village of +Sangbur on the northern road about midway between the Helmund and +Khushk-i-Nakhud. Next day that village was found more strongly occupied, +and on the 23d a reconnaissance in force came upon a body of Ayoub's +horsemen in the plain below the Garmao hills, about midway between +Sangbur and Maiwand. + +Those discoveries were tolerably clear indications of Ayoub's intention +to turn Burrows' position by moving along the northern road to Maiwand +and thence pressing on through the Maiwand pass, until at Singiri Ayoub's +army should have interposed itself between the brigade and Candahar. +There was certainly nothing impossible in such an endeavour, since +Maiwand is nearer Candahar than is Khushk-i-Nakhud. Why, in the face of +the information at his disposal and of the precautions enjoined on him to +hinder Ayoub from slipping by him toward Ghuznee through Maiwand and up +the Khakrez valley, General Burrows should have remained so long at +Khushk-i-Nakhud, is not intelligible. He was stirred at length on the +afternoon of the 26th, by the report that 2000 of Yakoub's cavalry and a +large body of his ghazees were in possession of Garmao and Maiwand, and +were to be promptly followed by Ayoub himself with the main body of his +army, his reported intention being to push on through the Maiwand pass +and reach the Urgundab valley in rear of the British brigade. Later in +the day Colonel St John, the political officer, reported to General +Burrows the intelligence which had reached him that the whole of Ayoub's +army was at Sangbur; but credence was not given to the information. + +The somewhat tardy resolution was taken to march to Maiwand on the +morning of the 27th. There was the expectation that the brigade would +arrive at that place before the enemy should have occupied it in force, +and this point made good there might be the opportunity to drive out of +Garmao the body of Yakoub's cavalry reported in possession there. There +was a further reason why Maiwand should be promptly occupied; the brigade +had been obtaining its supplies from that village, and there was still a +quantity of grain in its vicinity to lose which would be unfortunate. The +brigade, now 2600 strong, struck camp on the morning of the 27th. The +march to Maiwand was twelve miles long, and an earlier start than 6.30 +would have been judicious. The soldiers marched fast, but halts from time +to time were necessary to allow the baggage to come up; the hostile state +of the country did not admit of anything being left behind and the column +was encumbered by a great quantity of stores and baggage. At Karezah, +eight miles from Khushk-i-Nakhud and four miles south-west of Maiwand, +information was brought in that the whole of Yakoub's army was close by +on the left front of the brigade, and marching toward Maiwand. The spies +had previously proved themselves so untrustworthy that small heed was +taken of this report; but a little later a cavalry reconnaissance found +large bodies of cavalry moving in the direction indicated and inclining +away toward Garmao as the brigade advanced. A thick haze made it +impossible to discern what force, if any, was being covered by the +cavalry. About ten A.M. the advance guard occupied the village of +Mundabad, about three miles south-west of Maiwand. West of Mundabad, +close to the village, was a broad and deep ravine running north and +south. Beyond this ravine was a wide expanse of level and partially +cultivated plain across which, almost entirely concealed by the haze, +Ayoub's army was marching eastward toward Maiwand village, which covers +the western entrance to the pass of the same name. If General Burrows' +eye could have penetrated that haze, probably he would have considered it +prudent to take up a defensive position, for which Mundabad presented +many advantages. But he was firm in the conviction that the enemy's guns +were not up, notwithstanding the reports of spies to the contrary; he +believed that a favourable opportunity presented itself for taking the +initiative, and he resolved to attack with all possible speed. + +Lieutenant Maclaine of the Horse-Artillery, a gallant young officer who +was soon to meet a melancholy fate, precipitated events in a somewhat +reckless fashion. With the two guns he commanded he crossed the ravine, +galloped across the plain, and opened fire on a body of Afghan cavalry +which had just come within view. General Nuttall, commanding the cavalry +and horse-artillery, failing to recall Maclaine, sent forward in support +of him the four remaining guns of the battery. Those approached to within +800 yards of the two advanced pieces, and Maclaine was directed to fall +back upon the battery pending the arrival of the brigade, which General +Burrows was now sending forward. It crossed the ravine near Mundabad, +advanced on the plain about a mile in a north-westerly direction, and +then formed up. There were several changes in the dispositions; when the +engagement became warm about noon the formation was as follows:--The 66th +foot was on the right, its right flank thrown back to check an attempt +made to turn it by a rush of ghazees springing out of the ravine in the +British front; on the left of the 66th were four companies of Jacob's +Rifles (30th Native Infantry) and a company of sappers, the centre was +occupied by the horse-artillery and smooth bore guns, of which latter, +however, two had been moved to the right flank; on the left of the guns +were the its Grenadiers somewhat refused, and on the extreme left two +companies of Jacob's Rifles. The cavalry was in the rear, engaged in +efforts to prevent the Afghans from taking the British infantry in +reverse. The position was radically faulty, and indeed invited disaster. +Both flanks were _en l'air_ in face of an enemy of greatly superior +strength; almost from the first every rifle was in the fighting line, and +the sole reserve consisted of the two cavalry regiments. The baggage had +followed the brigade across the ravine and was halted about 1000 yards in +rear of the right, inadequately guarded by cavalry detachments. + +For half-an-hour no reply was made to the British shell fire, and an +offensive movement at this time might have resulted in success. But +presently battery after battery was brought into action by the Afghans, +until half-an-hour after noon the fire of thirty guns was concentrated on +the brigade. Under cover of this artillery fire the ghazees from the +ravine charged forward to within 500 yards of the 66th, but the rifle +fire of the British regiment drove them back with heavy loss, and they +recoiled as far as the ravine, whence they maintained a desultory fire. +The enemy's artillery fire was well sustained and effective; the infantry +found some protection from it in lying down, but the artillery and +cavalry remained exposed and suffered severely. An artillery duel was +maintained for two hours, greatly to the disadvantage of the brigade, +which had but twelve guns in action against thirty well-served Afghan +pieces. The prostrate infantry had escaped serious punishment, but by two +P.M. the cavalry had lost fourteen per cent, of the men in the front +line, and 149 horses; the Afghan horsemen had turned both flanks and the +brigade was all but surrounded, while a separate attack was being made on +the baggage. Heat and want of water were telling heavily on the sepoys, +who were further demoralised by the Afghan artillery fire. + +A little later the smooth bore guns had to be withdrawn for want of +ammunition. This was the signal for a general advance of the Afghans. +Their guns were pushed forward with great boldness; their cavalry +streamed round the British left; in the right rear were masses of mounted +and dismounted irregulars who had seized the villages on the British line +of retreat. Swarms of ghazees soon showed themselves threatening the +centre and left; those in front of the 66th were still held in check by +the steady volleys fired by that regiment. At sight of the ghazees, and +cowed by the heavy artillery fire and the loss of their officers, the two +companies of Jacob's Rifles on the left suddenly fell into confusion, and +broke into the ranks of the Grenadiers. That regiment had behaved well +but it caught the infection of demoralisation, the whole left collapsed, +and the sepoys in utter panic, surrounded by and intermingled with the +ghazees, rolled in a great wave upon the right. The artillerymen and +sappers made a gallant stand, fighting the ghazees hand-to-hand with +handspikes and rammers, while the guns poured canister into the advancing +masses. Slade reluctantly limbered up and took his four guns out of +action; Maclaine remained in action until the ghazees were at the muzzles +of his two guns, which fell into the enemy's hands. The torrent of +mingled sepoys and ghazees broke in upon the 66th, and overwhelmed that +regiment. The slaughter of the sepoys was appalling--so utterly cowed +were they that they scarcely attempted to defend themselves, and allowed +themselves without resistance to be dragged out of the ranks and killed. +A cavalry charge was ordered in the direction of the captured guns, but +it failed and the troopers retired in disorder. The infantry, assailed by +hordes of fierce and triumphant ghazees, staggered away to the right, the +66th alone maintaining any show of formation, until the ravine was +crossed, when the broken remnants of the sepoy regiments took to flight +toward the east and the General's efforts to rally them were wholly +unavailing. The 66th with some of the sappers and grenadiers, made a +gallant stand round its colours in an enclosure near the village of Khig. +There Colonel Galbraith and several of his officers were killed, and the +little body of brave men becoming outflanked, continued its retreat, +making stand after stand until most were slain. The Afghans pursued for +about four miles, but were checked by a detachment of rallied cavalry, +and desisted. The fugitives, forming with wounded and baggage a +straggling column upwards of six miles long, crossed the waterless desert +sixteen miles wide, to Hanz-i-Madat, which was reached about midnight and +where water was found. From Asu Khan, where cultivation began, to Kokoran +near Candahar, the retreat was harassed by armed villagers and the troops +had to fight more or less all the way. Officers and men were killed, +Lieutenant Maclaine was taken prisoner, and five of the smooth bore guns +had to be abandoned because of the exhaustion of the teams. About midday +of the 28th the broken remnants of the brigade reached Candahar. When the +casualties were ascertained it became evident how disastrous to the +British arms had been the combat of Maiwand. Out of a total of 2476 +engaged no fewer than 964 were killed. The wounded numbered 167; 331 +followers and 201 horses were killed and seven followers and sixty-eight +horses wounded. Since Chillianwallah the British arms in Asia had not +suffered loss so severe. + +The spirit of the Candahar force suffered materially from the Maiwand +disaster, and it was held that there was no alternative but to accept the +humiliation of a siege within the fortified city. The cantonments were +abandoned, the whole force was withdrawn into Candahar, and was detailed +for duty on the city walls. The effective garrison on the night of the +28th numbered 4360, including the survivors of the Maiwand brigade. So +alert were the Afghans that a cavalry reconnaissance made on the morning +of the 29th, found the cantonments plundered and partly burned and the +vicinity of Candahar swarming with armed men. The whole Afghan population +amounting to about 12,000 persons, were compelled to leave the city, and +then the work of placing it in a state of defence was energetically +undertaken. Buildings and enclosures affording cover too close to the +enciente were razed, communication along the walls was opened up, and gun +platforms were constructed in the more commanding positions. The walls +were both high and thick, but they were considerably dilapidated and +there were gaps and breaks in the bastions and parapet. The weak places +as well as the gates were fronted with abattis, the defects were made +good with sandbags, and wire entanglements and other obstructions were +laid down outside the walls. While this work was in progress the covering +parties were in daily collision with the enemy, and occasional sharp +skirmishes occurred. + +On the 8th August Ayoub opened fire on the citadel from Picquet hill, an +elevation north-westward of the city, and a few days later he brought +guns into action from the villages of Deh Khoja and Deh Khati on the east +and south. This fire, steadily maintained though it was day after day, +had little effect, and the return fire gave good results. It was not easy +to invest the city since on the west and north there was no cover for the +besiegers, but in Deh Khoja on the east there was ample protection for +batteries, and the ground on the south-west was very favourable. Its +advantages were improved so skilfully that it was at one time believed +there was a European engineer in Ayoub's camp. Deh Khoja was +inconveniently near the Cabul gate, and was always full of men. So +menacing was the attitude of the Afghans that a sortie was resolved on +against the village, which was conducted with resolution but resulted in +utter failure. The attempt was made on the morning of the 16th. The +cavalry went out to hinder reinforcements from entering the village from +the eastward. An infantry force 800 strong commanded by Brigadier-General +Brooke and divided into three parties, moved out later covered by a heavy +artillery fire from the city walls. The village was reached, but was so +full of enemies in occupation of the fortress-like houses that it was +found untenable, and the three detachments extricated themselves +separately. In the course of the retirement General Brooke and Captain +Cruickshank were killed. The casualties were very heavy; 106 were killed +and 117 were wounded. + +The tidings of the Maiwand disaster reached Cabul on the 29th July by +telegram from Simla. The intention of the military authorities had +already been intimated that the Cabul force should evacuate Afghanistan +in two separate bodies and by two distinct routes. Sir Donald Stewart was +to march one portion by the Khyber route; the other under Sir Frederick +Roberts was to retire by the Kuram valley, which Watson's division had +been garrisoning since Roberts had crossed the Shutargurdan in September +1879. But the Maiwand news interfered with those arrangements. Stewart +and Roberts concurred in the necessity of retrieving the Maiwand disaster +by the despatch of a division from Cabul. Roberts promptly offered to +lead that division, and as promptly the offer was accepted by Stewart. By +arrangement with the latter Roberts telegraphed to Simla urging that a +force should be despatched from Cabul without delay; and recognising that +the authorities might hesitate to send on this errand troops already +under orders to return to India, he took it on himself to guarantee that +none of the soldiers would demur, providing he was authorised to give the +assurance that after the work in the field was over they would not be +detained in garrison at Candahar. The Viceroy's sanction came on the 3d +August. The constitution and equipment of the force were entrusted to the +two generals; and in reply to questions His Excellency was informed that +Roberts would march on the 8th and expected to reach Candahar on 2d +September. Sir Donald Stewart gave his junior full freedom to select the +troops to accompany him, and placed at his disposal the entire resources +of the army in transport and equipment. It cannot truly be said that it +was the _elite_ of the Cabul field force which constituted the column led +by Roberts in his famous march to Candahar. Of the native infantry +regiments of his own original force which he had mustered eleven months +previously in the Kuram only two followed him to Candahar, the 5th +Goorkhas and 23d Pioneers, and the second mountain battery adhered to him +staunchly, Of his original white troops the 9th Lancers, as ever, were +ready for the march. His senior infantry regiment, the 67th, would fain +have gone, but the good old corps was weak from casualties and sickness, +and the gallant Knowles denied himself in the interests of his men. The +two Highland regiments, the 72d and 92d, had done an infinity of fighting +and marching, but both had received strong drafts, were in fine +condition, and were not to be hindered from following the chief whom, +though not of their northern blood, the stalwart sons of the mist swore +by as one man. + +Sir Frederick Roberts had already represented that it would be impolitic +to require the native regiments to remain absent from India and their +homes for a longer period than two years. In the case of many of the +regiments that term was closely approached, and the men after prolonged +absence and arduous toil needed rest and were longing to rejoin their +families. 'It was not,' in the words of General Chapman, 'with eager +desire that the honour of marching to Candahar was sought for, and some +commanding officers of experience judged rightly the tempers of their men +when they represented for the General's consideration the claims of the +regiments they commanded to be relieved as soon as possible from field +service.... The enthusiasm which carried Sir Frederick Roberts' force +with exceptional rapidity to Candahar was an after-growth evolved by the +enterprise itself, and came as a response to the unfailing spirit which +animated the leader himself.' The constitution of the force was made +known by the general orders published on 3d August. It consisted of three +batteries of artillery commanded by Colonel Alured Johnson; of a cavalry +brigade of four regiments commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Gough; and +of an infantry division of three brigades commanded by Major-General John +Ross. The first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Herbert +Macpherson, the second by Brigadier-General T. D. Baker, and the third by +Brigadier-General Charles Macgregor. Colonel Chapman, R.A., who had +served in the same capacity with Sir Donald Stewart, was now Roberts' +chief of staff. The marching out strength of the column was about 10,000 +men, of whom 2835 were Europeans. Speed being an object and since the +column might have to traverse rough ground, no wheeled artillery or +transport accompanied it; the guns were carried on mules, the baggage was +severely cut down, the supplies carried were reduced to a minimum, and +the transport animals, numbering 8590, consisted of mules, ponies, and +donkeys. It was known that the country could supply flour, sheep, and +forage. + +The time specified for the departure of the force from Sherpur was kept +to the day. On the 8th the brigades moved out a short distance into camp, +and on the following morning the march begun in earnest. The distance +from Cabul to Candahar is about 320 miles, and the march naturally +divides itself into three parts; from Cabul to Ghuznee, ninety-eight +miles; from Ghuznee to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, one hundred and thirty-four +miles; and from Khelat-i-Ghilzai to Candahar, eighty-eight miles, Ghuznee +was reached on the seventh day, the daily average being fourteen +miles--excellent work for troops unseasoned to long continuous travel, +tramping steadily in a temperature of from 84° to 92° in the shade. When +possible the force moved on a broad front, the brigades and regiments +leading by rotation, and halts were made at specified intervals. The +'rouse' sounded at 2.45 A.M. and the march began at four; the troops were +generally in camp by two P.M. and the baggage was usually reported all in +by five; but the rearguard had both hard work and long hours. There was +no sign of opposition anywhere, not a single load of baggage was left +behind, comparatively few men fell out foot-sore, and the troops were +steadily increasing in endurance and capacity of rapid and continuous +marching. + +At Ghuznee there was no rest day, and the steadfast dogged march was +resumed on the morning of the 16th. The strain of this day's long tramp +of twenty miles to Yergati was severe, but the men rallied gamely, and +the General by dint of care and expedient was able to keep up the high +pressure. 'The method,' writes General Chapman, 'of such marching as was +now put in practice is not easy to describe; it combined the extreme of +freedom in movement with carefully regulated halts, and the closest +control in every portion of the column; it employed the individual +intelligence of each man composing the masses in motion, and called on +all for exertion in overcoming the difficulties of the march, in bearing +its extraordinary toil, and in aiding the accomplishment of the object in +view.' On the 20th a distance of twenty-one miles was covered--the +longest day's march made; the effort was distressing owing to the heat +and the lack of shade, but it was enforced by the absence of water. There +was no relaxation in the rate of marching, and Khelat-i-Ghilzai was +reached on the eighth day from Ghuznee, showing a daily average of nearly +seventeen miles. + +The 24th was a halt day at Khelat-i-Ghilzai, where Sir Frederick Roberts +received a letter from General Primrose in Candahar, describing the +sortie made on the village of Deh Khoja and giving details of his +situation. It was resolved to evacuate Khelat-i-Ghilzai and take on its +garrison with the column, which on the 25th resumed its march to +Candahar. On his arrival at Tir Andaz on the following day the General +found a letter from Candahar, informing him that at the news of the +approach of the Cabul force Ayoub Khan had withdrawn from his investment +of Candahar, and had shifted his camp to the village of Mazra in the +Urgundab valley, nearly due north of Candahar. On the morning of the 27th +General Hugh Gough was sent forward with two cavalry regiments a distance +of thirty-four miles to Robat, the main column moving on to Khel Akhund, +half way to the former place. Gough was accompanied by Captain Straton +the principal signalling officer of the force, who was successful in +communicating with Candahar, and in the afternoon Colonel St John, Major +Leach, and Major Adam rode out to Robat, bringing the information that +Ayoub Khan was engaged in strengthening his position in the Urgundab +valley, and apparently had the intention to risk the issue of a battle. +On the 28th the whole force was concentrated at Robat; and as it was +desirable that the troops should reach Candahar fresh and ready for +prompt action, the General decided to make the 20th a rest day and divide +the nineteen miles from Robat to Candahar into two short marches. + +The long forced march from Cabul may be regarded as having ended at +Robat. The distance between those two places, 303 miles, had been covered +in twenty days. It is customary in a long march to allow two rest days in +each week, but Roberts had granted his force but a single rest day in the +twenty days of its strenuous march. Including this rest day, the average +daily march was a fraction over fifteen miles. As a feat of marching by a +regular force of 10,000 men encumbered with baggage and followers, this +achievement is unique, and it could have been accomplished only by +thorough organisation and steady vigorous energy. Sir Frederick Roberts +was so fortunate as to encounter no opposition. For this immunity he was +indebted mainly to the stern lessons given to the tribesmen by Sir Donald +Stewart at Ahmed Khel and Urzoo while that resolute soldier was marching +from Candahar to Cabul, and in a measure also to the good offices of the +new Ameer. But it must be remembered that Roberts had no assurance of +exemption from hostile efforts to block his path, and that he marched +ever ready to fight. It will long be remembered how when Roberts had +started on the long swift march, the suspense as to its issue grew and +swelled until the strain became intense. The safety of the garrison of +Candahar was in grave hazard; the British prestige, impaired by the +disaster of Maiwand, was trembling in the balance. The days passed, and +there came no news of Roberts and of the 10,000 men with whom the wise, +daring little chief had cut loose from any base and struck for his goal +through a region of ill repute for fanaticism and bitter hostility. The +pessimists among us held him to be rushing on his ruin. But Roberts +marched light; he lived on what the country supplied; he gave the +tribesmen no time to concentrate against him; and two days in advance of +the time he had set himself he reached Candahar at the head of a force in +full freshness of vigour and burning with zeal for immediate battle. + +While halted at Robat on the 29th Sir Frederick heard from General Phayre +that his division had been retarded in its march by lack of transport, +but that he hoped to have it assembled at Killa Abdoolla on the 28th, and +would be able to move toward Candahar on the 30th. But as Killa Abdoolla +is distant some eight marches from Candahar, it was obvious that General +Phayre could not arrive in time to share in the impending battle. On the +morning of the 31st the Cabul force reached Candahar. Sir Frederick +Roberts, who had been suffering from fever for some days, was able to +leave his dhooly and mount his horse in time to meet General Primrose and +his officers to the east of Deh Khoja. The troops halted and breakfasted +outside the Shikapore gate, while General Roberts entered the city and +paid a visit to the Wali Shere Ali Khan. On his arrival he assumed +command of the troops in Southern Afghanistan; and he remained resting in +the city while the Cabul force marched to its selected camping ground +near the destroyed cantonments on the north-west of Candahar. A few shots +were fired, but the ground was occupied without opposition. Baker's +brigade was on the right, camped in rear of Picquet hill, in the centre +was Macpherson's brigade sheltered in its front by Karez hill, and on the +left among orchards and enclosures was Macgregor's brigade, in rear of +which was the cavalry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR + +Although Yakoub Khan had ceased to beleaguer Candahar, he had withdrawn +from that fortress but a very short distance, and the position he had +taken up was of considerable strength. The Urgundab valley is separated +on the north-west from the Candahar plain by a long precipitous spur +trending south-west from the mountainous mass forming the eastern +boundary of the valley further north. Where the spur quits the main +range, due north of the city, the Murcha Pass affords communication +between the Candahar plain and the Urgundab valley. The spur, its summit +serrated by alternate heights and depressions, is again crossed lower +down by an easy pass known as the Babawali Kotul. It is continued beyond +this saddle for about a mile, still maintaining its south-westerly trend, +never losing its precipitous character, and steeply scarped on its +eastern face; and it finally ends in the plain in a steep descent of +several hundred feet. The section of it from the Babawali Kotul to its +south-western termination is known as the Pir Paimal hill, from a village +of that name in the valley near its extremity. Ayoub Khan had made his +camp near the village of Mazra, behind the curtain formed by the spur +described, and about a mile higher up in the valley than the point at +which the spur is crossed by the road over the Babawali Kotul. He was +thus, with that point artificially strengthened and defended by +artillery, well protected against a direct attack from the direction of +Candahar, and was exposed only to the risk of a turning movement round +the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill. Such a movement might be made the +reverse of easy. A force advancing to attempt it must do so exposed to +fire from the commanding summit of the Pir Paimal; around the base of +that elevation there were several plain villages, and an expanse of +enclosed orchards and gardens which strongly held were capable of +stubborn defence. In the valley behind the Pir Paimal hill there was the +lofty detached Kharoti hill, the fire from which would meet in the teeth +a force essaying the turning movement; and the interval between the two +hills, through which was the access to the Mazra camps, was obstructed by +deep irrigation channels whose banks afforded cover for defensive fire, +and could be swept by a cross fire from the hills on either flank. + +[Illustration: Kandahar.] + +Sir Frederick Roberts at a glance had perceived that a direct attack by +the Babawali Kotul must involve very heavy loss, and he resolved on the +alternative of turning the Afghan position. A reconnaissance was made on +the afternoon of the 31st by General Gough, accompanied by Colonel +Chapman. He penetrated to within a short distance of the village of Pir +Paimal, where it was ascertained that the enemy were strongly entrenched, +and where several guns were unmasked. A great deal of valuable +information was obtained before the enemy began to interfere with the +leisurely withdrawal. The cavalry suffered little, but the Sikh infantry +covering the retirement of the reconnaissance were hard pressed by great +masses of Afghan regulars and irregulars. So boldly did the enemy come on +that the third and part of the first brigade came into action, and the +firing did not cease until the evening. The enemy were clearly in the +belief that the reconnaissance was an advance in force which they had +been able to check and indeed drive in, and they were opportunely +audacious in the misapprehension that they had gained a success. The +information brought in decided the General to attack on the following +morning; and having matured his dispositions, he explained them +personally to the commanding officers in the early morning of September +1st. The plan of attack was perfectly simple. The Babawali Kotul was to +be plied with a brisk cannonade and threatened by demonstrations both of +cavalry and infantry; while the first and second brigades, with the third +in reserve, were to turn the extremity of the Pir Paimal hill, force the +enemy's right in the interval between that hill and the Kharoti eminence, +take in reverse the Babawali Kotul, and pressing on up the Urgundab +valley, carry Ayoub Khan's principal camp at Mazra. The Bombay cavalry +brigade was to watch the roads over the Murcha and Babawali Kotuls, +supported by infantry and artillery belonging to General Primrose's +command, part of which was also detailed for the protection of the city; +and to hold the ground from which the Cabul brigades were to advance. +General Gough was to take the cavalry of the Cabul column across the +Urgundab, so as to reach by a wide circuit the anticipated line of the +Afghan retreat. + +Soon after nine A.M. the forty-pounders on the right of Picquet hill +began a vigorous cannonade of the Babawali Kotul, which was sturdily +replied to by the three field-guns the enemy had in battery on that +elevation. It had been early apparent that the Ayoub's army was in great +heart, and apparently meditating an offensive movement had moved out so +far into the plain as to occupy the villages of Mulla Sahibdad opposite +the British right, and Gundigan on the left front of the British left. +Both villages were right in the fair way of Roberts' intended line of +advance; they, the adjacent enclosures, and the interval between the +villages were strongly held, and manifestly the first thing to be done +was to force the enemy back from those advanced positions. Two batteries +opened a heavy shell fire on the Sahibdad village, under cover of which +Macpherson advanced his brigade against it, the 2d Goorkhas and 92d +Highlanders in his first line. Simultaneously Baker moved out to the +assault of Gundigan, clearing the gardens and orchards between him and +that village, and keeping touch as he advanced with the first brigade. + +The shell fire compelled the Afghan occupants of Sahibdad to lie close, +and it was not until they were near the village that Macpherson's two +leading regiments encountered much opposition. It was carried at the +bayonet point after a very stubborn resistance; the place was full of +ghazees who threw their lives away recklessly, and continued to fire on +the British soldiers from houses and cellars after the streets had been +cleared. The 92d lost several men, but the Afghans were severely +punished; it was reported that 200 were killed in this village alone. +While a detachment remained to clear out the village, the brigade under a +heavy fire from the slopes and crest of the Fir Paimal hill moved on in +the direction of that hill's south-western extremity, the progress of the +troops impeded by obstacles in the shape of dry water-cuts, orchards, and +walled enclosures, every yard of which was infested by enemies and had to +be made good by steady fighting. + +While Macpherson was advancing on Sahibdad, Baker's brigade had been +pushing on through complicated lanes and walled enclosures toward the +village of Gundigan. The opposition experienced was very resolute. The +Afghans held their ground behind loopholed walls which had to be carried +by storm, and they did not hesitate to take the offensive by making +vigorous counter-rushes. Baker's two leading regiments were the 72d and +the 2d Sikhs. The left wing of the former supported by the 5th Goorkhas, +the old and tried comrades of the 72d, assailed and took the village. Its +right wing fought its way through the orchards between it and Sahibdad, +in the course of which work it came under a severe enfilading fire from a +loopholed wall which the Sikhs on the right were attempting to turn. +Captain Frome and several men had been struck down and the hot fire had +staggered the Highlanders, when their chief, Colonel Brownlow, came up on +foot. That gallant soldier gave the word for a rush, but immediately fell +mortally wounded. After much hard fighting Baker's brigade got forward +into opener country, but was then exposed to the fire of an Afghan +battery near the extremity of the Pir Paimal spur, and to the attacks of +great bodies of ghazees, which were withstood stoutly by the Sikhs and +driven off by a bayonet attack delivered by the Highlanders. + +The two brigades had accomplished the first part of their task. They were +now in alignment with each other; and the work before them was to +accomplish the turning movement round the steep extremity of the Pir +Paimal ridge. Macpherson's brigade, hugging the face of the elevation, +brought up the left shoulder and having accomplished the turning +movement, swept up the valley and carried the village of Pir Paimal by a +series of rushes. Here, however, Major White commanding the advance of +the 92d, found himself confronted by great masses of the enemy, who +appeared determined to make a resolute stand about their guns which were +in position south-west of the Babawali Kotul. Reinforcements were +observed hurrying up from Ayoub's standing camp at Mazra, and the Afghan +guns on the Kotul had been reversed so that their fire should enfilade +the British advance. Discerning that in such circumstances prompt action +was imperative, Macpherson determined to storm the position without +waiting for reinforcements. The 92d under Major White led the way, +covered by the fire of a field battery and supported by the 5th Goorkhas +and the 23d Pioneers. Springing out of a watercourse at the challenge of +their leader, the Highlanders rushed across the open ground. The Afghans, +sheltered by high banks, fired steadily and well; their riflemen from the +Pir Paimal slopes poured in a sharp cross fire; their guns were well +served. But the Scottish soldiers were not to be denied. Their losses +were severe, but they took the guns at the point of the bayonet, and +valiantly supported by the Goorkhas and pioneers, shattered and dispersed +the mass of Afghans, which was reckoned to have numbered some 8000 men. +No chance was given the enemy to rally. They were headed off from the Pir +Paimal slopes by Macpherson. Baker hustled them out of cover in the +watercourses in the basin on the left, and while one stream of fugitives +poured away across the river, another rolled backward into and through +Ayoub's camp at Mazra. + +While Macpherson had effected his turning movement close under the ridge, +Baker's troops on the left had to make a wider sweep before bringing up +the left shoulder and wheeling into the hollow between the Pir Paimal and +the Kharoti hill. They swept out of their path what opposition they +encountered, and moved up the centre of the hollow, where their commander +halted them until Macpherson's brigade on the right, having accomplished +its more arduous work, should come up and restore the alignment. Baker +had sent Colonel Money with a half battalion away to the left to take +possession of the Kharoti hill, where he found and captured three Afghan +guns. Pressing toward the northern end of the hill, Money to his surprise +found himself in full view of Ayoub's camp, which was then full of men +and in rear of which a line of cavalry was drawn up. Money was too weak +to attack alone and sent to General Baker for reinforcements which, +however, could not be spared him, and the gallant Money had perforce to +remain looking on while the advance of Macpherson and Baker caused the +evacuation of Ayoub's camp and the flight of his cavalry and infantry +toward the Urgundab. But the discovery and capture of five more Afghan +cannon near Babawali village was some consolation for the enforced +inaction. + +Considerable numbers of Ayoub's troops had earlier pushed through the +Babawali Pass, and moved down toward the right front of General Burrows' +Bombay brigade in position about Picquet hill. Having assured himself +that Burrows was able to hold his own, Sir Frederick Roberts ordered +Macgregor to move the third brigade forward toward Pir Paimal village, +whither he himself rode. On his arrival there he found that the first and +second brigades were already quite a mile in advance. The battle really +had already been won but there being no open view to the front General +Ross, who commanded the whole infantry division, had no means of +discerning this result; and anticipating the likelihood that Ayoub's camp +at Mazra would have to be taken by storm, he halted the brigades to +replenish ammunition. This delay gave opportunity for the entire +evacuation of the Afghan camp, which when reached without any further +opposition and entered at one P.M. was found to be deserted. The tents +had been left standing; 'all the rude equipage of a half barbarous army +had been abandoned--the meat in the cooking pots, the bread half kneaded +in the earthen vessels, the bazaar with its _ghee_ pots, dried fruits, +flour, and corn.' Ayoub's great marquee had been precipitately abandoned, +and the fine carpets covering its floor were left. But in the hurry of +their flight the Afghans had found time to illustrate their barbarity by +murdering their prisoner Lieutenant Maclaine, whose body was found near +Ayoub's tent with the throat cut. To this deed Ayoub does not seem to +have been privy. The sepoys who were prisoners with Maclaine testified +that Ayoub fled about eleven o'clock, leaving the prisoners in charge of +the guard with no instructions beyond a verbal order that they were not +to be killed. It was more than an hour later when the guard ordered the +unfortunate officer out of his tent and took his life. + +The victory was complete and Ayoub's army was in full rout. Unfortunately +no cavalry were in hand for a pursuit from the Mazra camp. The scheme for +intercepting the fugitive Afghans by sending the cavalry brigade on a +wide movement across the Urgundab, and striking the line of their +probable retreat toward the Khakrez valley, may have been ingenious in +conception, but in practice did not have the desired effect. But Ayoub +had been decisively beaten. He had lost the whole of his artillery +numbering thirty-two pieces, his camp, an immense quantity of ammunition, +about 1000 men killed; his army was dispersed, and he himself was a +fugitive with a mere handful along with him of the army of 12,000 men +whom he had commanded in the morning. + +The battle of Candahar was an effective finale to the latest of our +Afghan wars, and it is in this sense that it is chiefly memorable. The +gallant men who participated in the winning of it must have been the +first to smile at the epithets of 'glorious' and 'brilliant' which were +lavished on the victory. In truth, if it had not been a victory our arms +would have sustained a grave discredit. The soldiers of Roberts and +Stewart had been accustomed to fight and to conquer against heavy +numerical odds, which were fairly balanced by their discipline and the +superiority of their armament. But in the battle of Candahar the +numerical disparity was non-existent, and Ayoub had immensely the +disadvantage as regarded trained strength. His force according to the +reckoning ascertained by the British general, amounted all told to 12,800 +men. The strength of the British force, not including the detail of +Bombay troops garrisoning Candahar, was over 12,000. But this army 12,000 +strong, consisted entirely of disciplined soldiers of whom over one-fifth +were Europeans. The accepted analysis of Ayoub's army shows it to have +consisted of 4000 regular infantry, 800 regular cavalry, 5000 tribal +irregular infantry of whom an indefinite proportion was no doubt ghazees, +and 3000 irregular horsemen. In artillery strength the two forces were +nearly equal. When it is remembered that Charasiah was won by some 2500 +soldiers of whom only about 800 were Europeans, contending against 10,000 +Afghans in an exceptionally strong position and well provided with +artillery, Sir Frederick Roberts' wise decision to make assurance doubly +sure in dealing with Ayoub at Candahar stands out very strikingly. +Perforce in his battles around Cabul he had taken risks, but because +those adventures had for the most part been successful he was not the man +to weaken the certainty of an all-important issue by refraining from +putting into the field every soldier at his disposal. And he was wisely +cautious in his tactics. That he was strong enough to make a direct +attack by storming the Babawali Kotul and the Pir Paimal hill was clear +in the light of previous experience. But if there was more 'brilliancy' +in a direct attack, there was certain to be heavier loss than would be +incurred in the less dashing turning movement, and Sir Frederick with the +true spirit of a commander chose the more artistic and less bloody method +of earning his victory. It did not cost him dear. His casualties of the +day were thirty-six killed including three officers, and 218 wounded +among whom were nine officers. + +The battle of Candahar brought to a close the latest of our Afghan wars. +Sir Frederick Roberts quitted Candahar on the 9th September, and marched +to Quetta with part of his division. On the 15th October, at Sibi, he +resigned his command, and taking sick leave to England sailed from Bombay +on the 30th October. His year of hard and successful service in +Afghanistan greatly enhanced his reputation as a prompt, skilful, and +enterprising soldier. + + * * * * * + +The Pisheen and Sibi valleys are the sole tangible results remaining to +us of the two campaigns in Afghanistan sketched in the second part of +this volume--campaigns which cost the lives of many gallant men slain in +action or dead of disease, and involved the expenditure of about twenty +millions sterling. Lord Beaconsfield's vaunted 'scientific frontier,' +condemned by a consensus of the best military opinions, was rejected by +the Liberal Government which had recently acceded to power, whose +decision was that both the Khyber Pass and the Kuram valley should be +abandoned. On this subject Sir Frederick Roberts wrote with great +shrewdness: 'We have nothing to fear from Afghanistan, and the best thing +to do is to leave it as much as possible to itself. It may not be very +flattering to our _amour propre_, but I feel sure I am right when I say +that the less the Afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should +Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India +through it, we should have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to +our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime.' +During the winter of 1880-1 the Khyber and the Kuram were evacuated by +the British troops, the charge of keeping open and quiet the former being +entrusted to tribal levies paid by the Indian Government. + +So far, then, as regarded the north-western frontier, the _status quo +ante_ had been fallen back upon. But there was a keen difference of +opinion in regard to the disposition of the salient angle furnished by +Candahar. Throughout the British occupation and the negotiations with +Abdurrahman, the annexation of Candahar had been consistently repudiated. +The intention on our part announced was to separate it from Cabul, and to +place it under the independent rule of a Barakzai prince. Such a prince +had actually been appointed in Shere Ali Khan, and although that +incompetent Sirdar was wise enough to abdicate a position for which he +was not strong enough, this action did not relieve us from our pledges +against annexation. Nevertheless many distinguished men whose opinions +were abstractly entitled to weight, were strongly in favour of our +retention of Candahar. Among those were the late Lord Napier of Magdala, +Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Edward Hamley, Sir Donald Stewart, and Sir +Frederick Roberts. Among the authorities opposed to the occupation of +Candahar were such men as the late Lord Lawrence and General Charles +Gordon, Sir Robert Montgomery, Lord Wolseley, Sir Henry Norman, Sir John +Adye, and Sir Archibald Alison. + +While the professional experts differed and while the 'Candahar debates' +in Parliament were vehement and prolonged, the issue, assuming that +fidelity to pledges was still regarded as a national virtue, was +perfectly clear and simple. In the frank words of Sir Lepel Griffin: 'We +could not have remained in Candahar without a breach of faith.' And he +added with unanswerable force: 'Our withdrawal was in direct accordance +with the reiterated and solemn professions which I had been instructed to +make, and the assurances of the Government of India to the chiefs and +people of Cabul.... The wisdom of the policy of retiring from Candahar +may be a fair matter for argument, but it was one on which both +Governments were agreed. I am convinced that withdrawal, after our public +assurances, was the only practicable policy.' + +Lord Ripon acted on his instructions 'to keep in view the paramount +importance of effecting a withdrawal from Candahar on the earliest +suitable occasion.' The abdication of the Wali Shere Ali Khan cleared the +air to some extent. A British garrison under the command of General Hume +wintered in Candahar. Ayoub Khan was a competitor for the rulership of +the southern province, but he received no encouragement, and after some +negotiation the Ameer Abdurrahman was informed that Candahar was +reincorporated with the kingdom of Afghanistan, and it was intimated to +him that the capital would be given over to the Governor, accompanied by +a suitable military force, whom he should send. On the 1st of April an +Afghan force entered Candahar, followed presently by Mahomed Hassan Khan, +the Governor nominated by the Ameer. General Hume soon after marched out, +and after halting for a time in the Pisheen valley to watch the course of +events in Candahar, he continued his march toward India. The restless +Ayoub did not tamely submit to the arrangement which gave Candahar to +Abdurrahman. Spite of many arduous difficulties, spite of lack of money +and of mutinous troops, he set out toward Candahar in July 1881. Mahomed +Hassan marched against him from Candahar, and a battle was fought at +Maiwand on the anniversary of the defeat of General Burrows on the same +field. Ayoub was the conqueror, and he straightway took possession of the +capital and was for the time ruler of the province. But Abdurrahman, +subsidised with English money and English arms, hurried from Cabul, +encountered Ayoub outside the walls of Candahar, and inflicted on him a +decisive defeat. His flight to Herat was followed up, he sustained a +second reverse there, and took refuge in Persia. Abdurrahman's tenure of +the Cabul sovereignty had been at first extremely precarious; but he +proved a man at once strong, resolute, and politic. In little more than a +year after his accession he was ruler of Shere Ali's Afghanistan; +Candahar and Herat had both come to him, and that without very serious +exertion. He continues to reign quietly, steadfastly, and firmly; and +there never has been any serious friction between him and the Government +of India, whose wise policy is a studied abstinence from interference in +the internal affairs of the Afghan kingdom. + + * * * * * + +INDEX + +A. + +ABDOOLAH JAN, to be Shere Ali's successor. + +ABDURRAHMAN, the Ameer, son of Afzul Khan, the eldest son of Dost +Mahomed, his early career; his connection with Russia; sounded by the +British Government; Sir Lepel Griffin's mission to; enters Afghanistan; +recognised as Ameer; defeats Ayoub Khan; his subsequent reign. + +ADAM, Major. + +ADVE, Sir John, against keeping Candahar. + +AFGHANISTAN, events in, previous to the first Afghan war; 'a bundle of +provinces;' its condition under Abdurrahman. + +AFGHAN WAR, FIRST, the responsibility for; objects of and preparations +for. + +AFGHAN WAR, SECOND, the policy of England leading to; the force employed +in; tangible results to England. + +AFREEDI HILLMEN oppose Pollock. + +AFZUL KHAN, the Ameer, eldest son of Dost Mahomed, and father of +Abdurrahman. + +ARMED KHEL, battle of. + +AIREY, Captain, a hostage. + +AKBAR KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, joins his father with a force; covers +his father's retreat; in Khooloom; among the Ghilzais; in Cabul; +negotiations with Macnaghten; interview with and murder of Macnaghten; +forecast of his intentions; meets the retreating British army at +Bootkhak, his demands; conduct to the fugitives; offers to treat; invests +Jellalabad; resistance to Pollock; treatment of his captives; sends the +body of Elphinstone to Jellalabad. + +AKRAM KHAN put to death by Timour. + +ALI KHEL. + +ALI MUSJID FORT, the, key of the Khyber pass; partially destroyed; Sir +Sam Browne's attack upon. + + +ALISON, Sir Archibald, against keeping Candahar. + +AMEENOOLLA KHAN, an Afghan chief. + +AMEER. See SHERE ALI, YAKOUB KHAN, ABDURRAHMAN, AFZUL KHAN. + +ANDERSON, Captain, skirmish with the Ghilzais. + +ANDERSON, Mrs, her child. + +ANQUETIL, Brigadier, in command of Shah Soojah's contingent; exertions +during the retreat; replaces Shelton in command. + +APPLEYARD, at Sir S. Browne's attack upon Ali Musjid. + +ASMAI HEIGHTS, the, Afghans driven from; reoccupied; beacon on; fortified +by Sir F. Roberts. + +ASU KHAN. + +ATTA MAHOMED KHAN, overcome by General Nott. + +ATTOCK RIVER, the. + +AUCKLAND, Lord; becomes Governor-General of India 1836, his undecided +policy; treatment of Dost Mahomed's appeal; his policy becomes warlike; +treaty with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah; determines to support Shah +Soojah with an army; objects of the expedition; the Simla manifesto; +disagreement with Macnaghten; forbids an expedition against Herat; the +Home Government presses the reconsideration of the Afghan questions; +after the disasters; has the credit of Pollock's appointment. + +AUSHAR; Massy at. + +AYOUB KHAN, brother of Yakoub, in command of Herat regiments; in +possession of Herat; his victory at Maiwand; besieges Cabul; shifts to +Mazra; defeated by Sir F. Roberts; drives Mahomed Hassan out of Candahar, +defeated by Abdurrahman. + +B. + +BABA WALI KOTUL, pass of the; cannonaded; village of. + +BACKHOUSE, Captain, on the council of war at Jellalabad; his diary. + +BADAKSHAN. + +BADIABAD, the fort of, the captives at the. + +BAGHWANA, guns abandoned at; recovered. + +BAHADUR KHAN refuses to furnish forage. + +BAJGAH. + +BAKER, Brigadier-General; battle of Charasiah; pursues the mutinous +sepoys; in the Maidan valley; marches to Sherpur; takes the Takht-i-Shah; +in the attack on the cantonments; takes the Meer Akhor fort; in the Great +March; his position at Candahar, the battle. + +BALKH. + +BALLA HISSAR, the; evacuated; Cavagnari at; Sir F. Roberts at; explosions +in, evacuated; road cut through. + +BAMIAN, hill country of; Abdurrahman defeated by Yakoub Khan at. + +BARAKZAI TRIBE, the. + +BARTER, Brigadier-General, commands the infantry at Ahmed Khel. + +BEACONSFIELD, Lord, 'scientific frontier'. + +BEHMAROO RIDGE; village of. + +BELLEW, Captain, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BELOOCH PROVINCES, the. + +BENI BADAM, Baker treacherously attacked at. + +BENI HISSAR. + +BENTINCK, Lord William; his opinion of the first Afghan expedition. + +BERLIN, Treaty of. + +BHAWULPORE. + +BHURTPORE. + +BIDDULPH, General, in command of the Quetta force. + +BIRD, Lieutenant, at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +BOKHARA. + +BOLAN PASS, the. + +BOOTKHAK. + +BOYD, Mrs, in the retreat. + +BROADFOOT, Captain George, his sappers; in the Gundamuk council of war; +garrison engineer at Jellalabad; urges Sale to hold the place; his +account of the council of war. + +BROADFOOT, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +BROADFOOT, William, Secretary to Sir A. Burnes, murdered with him. + +BROOKE, Brigadier-General, killed in attack on Deh Khoja. + +BROWNE, Sir Sam, in command of the Khyber column; attack on the Ali +Musjid; reports the death of Shere Ali; receives Yakoub Khan; commands in +'the Death March'. + +BROWNLOW, Colonel, of the 72d Highlanders, in the attack on the +cantonments; killed in the battle of Candahar. + +BROUGHTON, Lord. _See_ SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE. + +BRYDON, Dr, sole survivor of the Khyber disaster. + +BURNES, Sir Alexander, sent by Lord Auckland to Cabul; favourable to Dost +Mahomed, reprimanded by his superiors, leaves Cabul; re-enters with Shah +Soojah; his opinion of Shah Soojah's ministers; advice to Macnaghten; his +character; murdered; revenged. + +BURROWS, Brigadier-General, in the Maiwand disaster; in the battle of +Candahar. + +BUTLER'S, Lady, picture. + +BUTSON, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +C. + +CABUL, PASS OF KHOORD; description of, slaughter in; Pollock's army +marches up. + +CABUL, Shah Soojah ousted from the throne of; Shah Soojah re-enters; +British troops in; Dost Mahomed surrenders at; murder of Burnes at; Shah +Soojah murdered at; Nott arrives at; punished; Cavagnari at; the Sherpur +cantonments, north of; Roberts near; Mahomed Jan plans to take; hostility +of villages round; Mushk-i-Alum governor of; re-occupied by Roberts; +fortifications and communications improved; Sir Lepel Griffin arrives at; +holds a durbar at. + +CAMPBELL, sent by Shah Soojah to assist Burnes, fails. + +CANDAHAR, siege of, by Shah Soojah, relieved by Dost Mahomed; entered by +Shah Soojah and Keane; occupied by British troops; independent province +of; Timour, Shah Soojah's viceroy at; British troops to leave; Nott in; +Afghans beaten off; General Stuart's march on; evacuated; to be separated +from Cabul; Shere Ali Khan governor of; Burrow's army withdrawn into; Sir +F. Roberts marches on; arrives at; battle of; question of retention of; +battle between Abdurrahman and Ayoub Khan at. + +CAVAGNARI, Sir Louis; ineffectual attempt to enter Cabul; correspondence +with Yakoub Khan; at Cabul, his character; the massacre. + +CHAMBERLAIN, Sir Neville, abortive attempt to enter Afghanistan as Envoy. + +CHAMBERS, Colonel, defeats the Ghilzais. + +CHAPMAN, Colonel (now Major-General) E. F., chief of the staff; in the +Great March; reconnaissance before the battle of Candahar. + +CHARASIAH, battle of. + +CHARDEH VALLEY, the. + +CHARIKAR, capital of the Kohistan, troops quartered in; disaster of; +punishment of; Abdurrahman arrives at. + +CHISHOLM, Captain, wounded at the Seah Sung ridge. + +CLARK, Lieutenant-Colonel. + +CLELAND, gallant conduct of. + +CLERK, Mr, demands right of way through the Punjaub. + +CLIBBORN, Colonel, defeated by Beloochees. + +COBBE, leads the attack of the Peiwar Kotul. + +CODRINGTON, commandant of Charikar; killed; revenged. + +COMMISSARIAT FORT, the. + +CONOLLY, Lieutenant John; a hostage. + +COOK, Major, V.C., of the Goorkha regiment, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +COTTON, Sir Willoughby, commands first infantry division; on the march to +Cabul; in chief command in Afghanistan; a respectable nonentity.'. + +CRAIGIE, defence of Khelat-i-Ghilzai. + +CRISPIN, with Eraser's Bengal Cavalry, killed at Purwan Durrah. + +CRUICKSHANK, Captain, killed at the attack on Deh Khoja. + +CUNYNGHAM, Lieutenant Dick, V.C., gallant conduct at the Takht-i-Shah. + +CUTCH. + +D. + +DADUR, in. + +DAKKA. + +DAOUD SHAH, Yakoub Khan's general; accompanies the Ameer to Roberts' +camp. + +DEH-I-AFGHAN, a suburb of Cabul. + +DEH KHATI. + +DEH KHOJA. + +DEH MAZUNG. + +DEHRAWAT. + +DEIG. + +DENNIE, Colonel, of the 13th, at the taking of Ghuznee; in command at +Bamian; replaces Sale in command; heads a sortie from Jellalabad; in the +council of war; commands the centre at the great sortie and is killed. + +DENNIS, Colonel. + +DODGIN, Captain, valour in the retreat. + +DOORANEES, the. + +DOST MAHOMED, origin; early career; asks for terms; forsaken by his +troops; a fugitive; in Bokhara and Khooloom; at Bamian and Kohistan; +surrenders to Macnaghten; sent into British India; to be allowed to +return to Afghanistan; his return to his sovereignty; dies. + +DREW, Colonel, enters the Peiwar Kotul. + +DUNCAN, General. + +DUNDAS, Captain, killed at Sherpur. + +DUNHAM-MASSY, Brigadier-General. + +DURAND, on the siege of Herat; on Lord Auckland's manifesto; on +Macnaghten's appointment; at siege of Ghuznee; on the restoration of Shah +Soojah; on Dost Mahomed's surrender; on the retreat on Jellalabad; on +Macnaghten's ill-faith. + +E. + +EDWARDES, Sir Henry, on Lord Auckland's manifesto. + +ELLENBOROUGH, Lord, on Sale's brigade; first manifesto; vacillations; +orders the removal of the gates of Somnath from Sultan Mahmoud's tomb; +reception of the returning armies. + +ELLIS, Mr, British Envoy to Persia. + +ELPHINSTONE, General; succeeds Cotton in chief command; his character and +infirmities; orders Sale to return to Cabul; about to leave India; orders +the abandonment of the Commissariat fort; the Duke of Wellington's +verdict on his position; hopeless; 'scents treachery'; calls upon +Pottinger to open negotiations; in the retreat; consents to hand over the +ladies; and their husbands; refuses Akbar's proposal that the Europeans +should lay down their arms; conference; made a hostage; at Jugdulluk; +death. + +ELPHINSTONE, Mr, on the Afghan expedition. + +ENGLAND, Brigadier, defeated at the Kojuk pass. + +EVATT, Surgeon-Major, on the 'Death March.' + +EYRE, Vincent, opinion on Shelton's defeat at Behmaroo; description of +the sufferings of the retreat; his 'Captivity.'. + +F. + +FANE, Sir Harry, Commander-in-Chief; heads the expedition to Cabul. + +FARRINGTON, routs Uktar Khan at Zemindawar. + +FEROZEPORE. + +FORBES, Lieutenant, of the 92d Highlanders, killed at the Takht-i-Shah. + +FRASER'S BENGAL CAVALRY at Purwan Durrah. + +FROME, Captain, killed in the battle of Candahar. + +FUTTEHABAD. + +FUTTEH ALI, Shah of Persia. + +FUTTEH JUNG, second son and successor of Shah Soojah; abdicates. + +FUTTEH KHAN, eldest brother of Dost Mahomed, his fate. + +G. + +GALBRAITH, Colonel, killed at Maiwand. + +GARMAO HILLS, the. + +GHAZEES. + +GHILZAIS, the; description of; brave conduct of under the 'Gooroo,'; gain +terms from Macgregor; attack Sale's force; slaughter by, in the Khoord +Cabul; hang on the rear of the retreat; slaughter by, at Jugdulluk; +attack Pollock; harass Money. + +GHIRISHK. + +GHUZNEE. siege of; occupied by British troops; surrendered to the +Afghans; retaken by Nott. + +GOAD, Captain, killed. + +GOOL MAHOMED KHAN. + +GOORKHA REGIMENTS. + +GOOROO, the Ghilzai leader. + +GORDON, Colonel, his command in the attack on the Spingawai and Peiwar +Kotuls. + +GORDON, General Charles, against keeping Candahar. + +GOREBUND RIVER, the. + +GORTSCHAKOFF. + +GOUGH, Captain, with the 9th Lancers; in the charge of December 11th. + +GOUGH, General Charles. + +GOUGH, General Hugh. + +GRANT, Dr, gallant conduct at Charikar. + +GREEN, in the Retreat. + +GRENADIERS, its, the. + +GRIFFIN, Sir Lepel, his mission to arrange for the succession to Yakoub +Khan; on the retention of Candahar. + +GRIFFITHS, Major, gallant march from Kubbar-i-Jubbar; storms Mahomed +Shereef's fort. + +GUIDES, the; in the attack on the Beni-Hissar. + +GUL KOH RIDGE, the. + +GUNDAMUK, Sale's council of war at; final tragedy of the Retreat near; +evacuated; Pollock's troops concentrate at; treaty of 1879; conclusion +of. + +GUNDIGAN. + +GWAGA PASS, the. + +H. + +HABIB KILLA. + +HADJI KHAN KHAKUR. + +HAINES, Sir F., Commander-in-Chief. + +HALL, Captain. + +HAMILTON, Lieutenant W. R. P., V.C., with Cavagnari at Cabul; killed. + +HAMLEY, Sir Edward, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +HANZ-I-MADAT. + +HARDY, Lieutenant, killed. + +HASSAN ABDUL. + +HASSAN KHAN, governor of Maidan, killed. + +HAUGHTON, desperately wounded in the Charikar disaster. + +HAVELOCK, Captain Henry, aide-de-camp to Sir W. Cotton; on Shah Soojah's +reception in Candahar; description of Shah Soojah; staff officer to Sale; +authenticates Broadfoot's account of Sale's council of war at Jellalabad; +in the great sortie from Jellalabad. + +HAY, at the siege of Ghuznee. + +HAZARAS, horde of. + +HELMUND RIVER, the. + +HENSMAN, Mr; on the defence of Sherpur; on the battle of Ahmed Khel; on +Abdurrahman. + +HERAT, Persia and; siege of, by the Persians; independent; Macnaghten +presses for an expedition against; Ayoub Khan in; Ayoub driven from, by +Abdurrahman. + +HIGHLANDERS, the 72d and 92d. + +HILLS, Major-General, governor of Cabul. + +HINDOO KOOSH, the. + +HOBHOUSE, Sir John Cam, Lord Broughton, president of the Board of +Control, claims the responsibility of the first Afghan war in 1851, +contradictory statement in 1842. + +HUFT KOTUL, the; last stand of the Afghans at. + +HUGHES, Brigadier-General, at Ahmed Khel. + +HUME, General. + +HYDERABAD. + +HYDER KHAN, son of Dost Mahomed, and governor of Ghuznee, taken prisoner. + +HYDRABAD. + +I. + +INDIAN CONTINGENT in the Mediterranean, the. + +INDIKEE, mutinous sepoys captured in. + +INDUS, the. + +IRRAWADY, the. + +ISTALIF, a Kohistan village destroyed. + +JACOB'S RIFLES (30th Native Infantry) at the Maiwand disaster. + +JADRAN. + +JAZEE, Anderson encounters Ghilzais at. + +JELLALABAD; British troops quartered in; march on resolved upon; Durand's +opinion of; Akbar's conditions for the evacuation of; defence of; Pollock +at; Elphinstone buried at; partially destroyed; Sir S. Browne's camp +near; disaster to the 10th Hussars near. + +JENKINS, Colonel, of the Guides; storms the Asmai heights; adroit +evacuation of Asmai heights. + +JENKINS, William, Secretary to Cavagnari. + +JOHNSON, Captain, in charge of the Treasury at Cabul; hostage; arranges +the redemption of the captives. + +JOHNSON, Colonel Alured, commands the artillery in the Great March. + +JUBBUR KHAN, brother to Dost Mahomed, 28; in charge of Dost Mahomed's +family at Khooloom. + +JUGDULLUK VALLEY, the; retreating column harassed at; slaughter at; +captives arrive at; Pollock engaged with Ghilzais at. + +JULGAH FORT, the, Sale fails to take. + +JUMROOD. + + +K. + +KAMRAN, Shah of Herat. + +KAREZAH. + +KAREZ HILL, the. + +KAREZ MEER. + +KARRACK. + +KATA KUSTIA. + +KATTIAWAR. + +KAUFMANN, General. + +KAYE, Sir John; history of the Afghan war; opinion of Burnes; account of +Macnaghten's murder. + +KEANE, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay army; marches towards +Hyderabad; his character; marches on Cabul; siege of Ghuznee; camp near +Cabul. + +KELLY, Dr Ambrose, with Cavagnari. + +KERSHAW, at siege of Ghuznee. + +KHAKREZ VALLEY, the. + +KHAROTI HILL, the. + +KHEL AKHUND. + +KHELAT; occupied by Nott. + +KHELAT, Khans of. See MEERAB, NUSSEER. + +KHELAT-I-GHILZAI; occupied by Nott; garrisoned; garrison withdrawn; one +of the stages on the Great March. + +KHIG. + +KHIVA. + +KHODA BUXSH. + +KHOOLOOM; Akbar at. + +KHOOLOOM, Wali of. + +KHOST VALLEY, the. + +KHUSHK-I-NAKHUD, skirmish at. + +KHYBER-Jellalabad-Gundamuk route, the. + +KHYBER PASS, the; the clans of; Ghilzais intercept the communication by; +Wild fails to force; Pollock marches through; Cavagnari turned back from; +question of the retention of; evacuated. + +KILLA ABDOOLLA. + +KILLA KAZEE; Massy at. + +KING'S GARDEN, the, at Cabul. + +KNOWLES. + +KOHDAMAN. + +KOH-I-NOOR, the, taken by Runjeet Singh from Shah Soojah. + +KOHISTAN, Dost Mahomed in. + +KOJUK PASS, the; Brigadier England repulsed at. + +KOKORAN. + +KOLUM-DIL-KHAN. + +KOTWAL OF CABUL, the, tried for the massacre of Cavagnari, etc. + +KONDOOZ. + +KOTTREE. + +KUBBAR-I-JUBBAR. + +KURAM VALLEY, the. + +KURDURRAH. + +KUSHI; General Roberts meets Yakoub Khan at. + +KUTTI SUNG. + +L. + +LAHORE, Mr Clerk at. + +LAKE. + +LANCERS, the 9th. + +LANCERS, Bengal, the. + +LAWRENCE, Captain, warns Macnaghten; made prisoner; sends messages from +the chiefs to Elphinstone; description of the retreat; made hostage; in +captivity. + +LAWRENCE, Lord, his 'masterly inactivity;' against keeping Candahar. + +LEACH, Major. + +LOCKHART. + +LOGUR VALLEY, the; plain; river. + +LOODIANAH, Shah Soojah's refuge in. + +LORD, Dr, political officer in the Bamian district; killed at Purwan +Durrah. + +LOVEDAY, Lieutenant, political officer at Khelat, barbarously murdered. + +LUGHMAN VALLEY, the. + +LUGHMANEE, Pottinger besieged in. + +LUNDI KOTUL. + +LUTTABUND. + +LYTTON, Lord, Viceroy, 1876; his instructions; ratifies the treaty of +Gunda-Gundamuk; prepares to revenge Cavagnari; decides that Yakoub Khan +does not return to Afghanistan; recommends Abdurrahman. + +M. + +MACGREGOR, Brigadier-General Charles, C. B., chief of Sir F. Roberts' +staff; recovers the guns at Baghwana; in the Great March; in the battle +of Candahar. + +MACGREGOR, Major, deceived by the Ghilzai chief of Tezeen; Sale's +adviser. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Colin, at the defeat of Dost Mahomed near Bamian; +gallant conduct of; with Macnaghten; a hostage; story of the Retreat. + +MACKENZIE, Captain Stuart, gallant conduct of. + +MACKESON, political officer at Peshawur. + +MACKRELL, Colonel, killed at the storming of the Rikabashee fort. + +MACLAINE, Lieutenant, of the Horse Artillery, in the Maiwand disaster; +taken prisoner; murdered. + +MACLAREN. + +MACNAGHTEN, Lady; in the Retreat. + +MACNAGHTEN, Sir William Hay, envoy to Shah Soojah, influence with Lord +Auckland; his use of bribery; on the reception of the Shah at Candahar; +enters Cabul with Shah Soojah; convinced of the Shah's popularity; real +sovereign of Afghanistan; his mistakes; relations with the Ghilzais; +consents to the abandonment of the Balla Hissar; relations with Herat; +nervous about the communication; relation with Dost Mahomed; proposes to +put a price on his head; receives his surrender; his peculiar +temperament; his finance; discovers the unpopularity of the Shah; his +conduct to the 'Gooroo' and Ghilzais; appointed Governor of Bombay; +called upon to retrench; his conduct to Elphinstone; despatches Sale; his +quarters at Cabul; demands the reduction of the Rikabashee fort; +depression; negotiation about the Retreat; murdered. + +MACPHERSON, Brigadier-General; in the December operations round Cabul; in +the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +MAHMOOD KHAN, fort of. + +MAHMOUD SHAH, brother of Shah Soojah. + +MAHOMED HASSAN KHAN, Abdurrahman's governor of Candahar, defeated by +Ayoub. + +MAHOMED JAN, a Warduk general, defends the Asmai heights; attacked by +Massy and Macpherson; attack on the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAHOMED MEERZA, Shah of Persia, his ambition, designs on Herat. + +MAHOMED SHAH KHAN, Akbar's lieutenant. + +MAHOMED SHEREEF, fort of. + +MAHOMED SURWAR, agent of Sir Lepel Griffin. + +MAHOMED ZEMAUN KHAN. + +MAIDAN PLAIN, the. + +MAINWARING, Mrs, in the Retreat. + +MAIWAND; disaster at; battle at, between Mahomed Hassan and Ayoub. + +MANDERSON. + +MANGAL. + +MARSHALL, Colonel, routs Nusseer Khan. + +MASSY, Brigadier-General; occupies the Shutargurdan pass; takes +possession of the Sherpur cantonments; in the attack on Mahomed Jan; in +the defence of the Sherpur cantonments. + +MAUDE, General. + +MAULE, Lieutenant. + +MAZRA; Ayoub's camp at, during battle of Candahar. + +M'CASKILL, Brigadier-General, with Pollock; in the last skirmishes. + +MEER AKHOR FORT, the, blown up. + +MEER BUTCHA, a chief of Kohistan. + +MEERZA AHMED, a Dooranee chief. + +MEHRAB, Khan of Khelat. + +MICHNAI PASS, the. + +M'Neill, British Envoy to Persia. + +MOHUN LAL, agent for Macnaghten's 'blood money.' + +MONEY, Colonel, left to hold the Shutargurdan pass; brought out by Gough; +in the battle of Candahar. + +MONTEATH, Colonel, sent against the Ghilzais; in the council of war at +Jellalabad; at the great sortie. + +MONTENARO, Captain, killed at the Meer Akhor fort. + +MONTGOMERY, Sir Robert, against keeping Candahar. + +MOOKOOR. + +MOOLLA SHIKORE, Shah Soojah's minister. + +MOOLTAN. + +MOORE, Elphinstone's servant. + +MORGAN. + +MULLA SAHIBDAD. + +MUNDABAD. + +MURCHA PASS. + +MUSA KHAN, heir of Yakoub Khan. + +MUSHAKI. + +MUSHK-I-ALUM, a Moulla of Ghuznee; his influence; governor of Cabul, +fires the beacon on the Asmai heights. + +MUSTAPHI, the, punished for the Cavagnari massacre. + +N. + +NAGHLOO. + +NANUCHEE PASS, the. + +NAPIER, Lieutenant Scott, of the 92d Highlanders. + +NAPIER, Lord, of Magdala, in favour of keeping Candahar. + +NEK MAHOMED KHAN, Afghan commander at the battle of Charasiah. + +NEPAUL. + +NEVILLE, of the Bengal Lancers. + +NICHOLL, Captain, his heroism in the Retreat. + +NIJRAO. + +NORMAN, Sir Henry, against keeping Candahar. + +NORTHBROOK, Lord, relations with Shere Ali. + +NOTT, General; in command at Candahar; occupies Khelat; his character; +discipline; disagrees with Macnaghten; receives orders from Elphinstone +to evacuate Candahar, refuses to obey; fighting with Meerza Ahmed; his +letter to Brigadier England; Lord Ellenborough repeats orders to evacuate +Candahar, obeys; marches towards Cabul; drives Afghans out of Ghuznee; +refuses to aid in the rescue of the prisoners. + +NUGENT, Lieutenant, killed. + +NUSSEER, Khan of Khelat. + +NUTTALL, General. + +O. + +OLDFIELD, Captain, in the Council of War at Jellalabad. + +ORENBURG. + +OSMAN KHAN. + +OUTRAM pursues Dost Mahomed; raid on the Ghilzais. + +P. + +PALLISER, Brigadier-General. + +PALMER, Colonel, tortured. + +PALMERSTON'S, Lord, ultimatum to Persia. + +PANJSHIR RIVER, the. + +PASKEVITCH, General. + +PATHANS. + +PEAT, Captain, at siege of Ghuznee. + +PEIWAR PASS, the. + +PELLY, Sir Lewis, at the conference of Peshawur. + +PEROFFSKY. + +PERSIA, relations between Great Britain and. + +PESHAWUR. + +PESHBOLAK. + +PETROFFSKY, a Russian writer. + +PHAYRE, Brigadier-General. + +PICQUET HILL, the, attacked by Ayoub Khan. + +PIONEERS, the. + +PISHEEN VALLEY, the; retained by us. + +POLLOCK, General; arrives in Peshawur; at Jellalabad; his qualifications; +his work; the rescue and retribution; contrast between Nott and; arrives +at Cabul; punishment of Cabul. + +PONSONBY, with Fraser's Bengal Cavalry in Purwan Durrah. + +POOLE, Captain, wounded. + +POTTINGER, Major, defends Herat against the Persians; warns Macnaghten of +the danger in Kohistan; in the disaster at Charikar; conducts +negotiations for the retreat; a hostage. + +POWELL, Captain, killed. + +POYNDAH KHAN, father to Dost Mahomed. + +PRIMROSE, General; in the battle of Candahar. + +PUNJAUB REGIMENTS. + +PUNJAUB, the. + +PURWAN DURRAH VALLEY, the. + +Q. + +QUETTA; occupied. + +R. + +RATTRAY. + +RAWLINSON, Sir Henry; his warnings to Macnaghten; Macnaghten's orders to, +respecting Uktar Khan; in favour of retaining Candahar. + +RAWUL PINDI. + +RHOTAS HEIGHTS, the. + +RIKABASHEE FORT, the. + +RIPON, Marquis of, Viceroy; in favour of the settlement with Abdurrahman; +sanctions General Roberts' March on Candahar. + +ROBAT, Great March ends at. + +ROBERTS, Colonel. + +ROBERTS, Sir Frederick, in command of the Kuram column; his scheme of +operations; battle of the Peiwar Kotul; his previous career; with the +army of invasion; battle of Charasiah; at Cabul; revenge for Cavagnari; +intercourse with Yakoub Khan; in the Sherpur cantonment; active +operations round Cabul; on the defensive in Sherpur; the Great March on +Candahar; battle of Candahar; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ROREE. + +ROSE, Ensign, in the retreat from Charikar. + +ROSS, Major-General John; in the Great March; in the battle of Candahar. + +RUNJEET SINGH Sikh ruler of the Punjaub, treatment of Shah Soojah; +occupies Peshawur; death. + +RUSSIA, relations with Persia; policy towards Dost Mahomed; Afghanistan +to be used as a 'buffer state' between British India and; Russo-Turkish +war; relations with Abdurrahman; opinion of Roberts on Afghanistan and. + +S. + +SAFI TRIBE, the, engage Macpherson. + +SALE, Lady, her journal; account of the Retreat; Akbar's kindness to. + +SALE, Sir Robert; at siege of Ghuznee; in command at Cabul; chastises the +Kohistanees; his character; fighting in the Khoord Cabul at Bootkhak; at +Gundamuk; occupies Jellalabad; defence of Jellalabad; fighting with the +Ghilzais at Jugdulluk; ordered to rescue captives. + +SALEH MAHOMED KHAN, arranges the escape of the captives. + +SALISBURY, Lord. + +SANGBUR. + +SCINDE. + +SCOTT, Major. + +SCHUYLER, Mr Eugene, interviews Abdurrahman. + +SEAH SUNG HEIGHTS, the. + +SEH BABA. + +SEISTAN, province of. + +SHAFTO, Captain, killed at the Balla Hissar. + +SHAGAI RIDGE, the. + +SHAH BAGH, the. + +SHAHBAZ KHAN. + +SHAHJUI. + +SHAHLEZ. + +SHAKESPEAR, Sir Richmond. + +SHEIKABAD. + +SHELTON. Brigadier, arrives at Jellalabad; character; at Cabul; receives +contradictory orders from Macnaghten; in the Balla Hissar; takes the +Rikabashee fort; opposes the removal of the troops into the Balla Hissar; +attacks Bemaroo; commands the main body in the Retreat; his dogged +valour; a hostage. + +SHER-DERWAZA HEIGHTS, the. + +SHERE ALI, the Ameer, son of Dost Mahomed, accession and character; +refuses to receive a Resident; negotiations with Lord Lytton; cordial +reception of the Russians, refuses to receive Sir Neville Chamberlain; +death at Balkh; his mistakes. + +SHERE ALI KHAN, Wali of Candahar; abdicates. + +SHERPUR CANTONMENTS, the; description of; operations round; defence of; +durbar at; interview between Sir Donald Stewart and Abdurrahman at. + +SHIKARPORE. + +SHILGUR. + +SHUMSHOODEEN, an Afghan leader. + +SHUTARGURDAN PASS, the. + +SIBI; retained by us. + +SIKHS. + +SIKH FEUDATORY STATES CONTINGENT. + +SIKH REGIMENTS. + +SINGIRI. + +SKINNER, Captain, a hostage. + +SLADE, at the Maiwand disaster. + +SOMNATH, gates of. + +SOOJAH-OOL-MOOLK, Shah; early career; intrigues; Lord Auckland determines +to restore him; his share in the expedition; replaced on the throne, +entry into Cabul; his position; with Macnaghten at Cabul; refuses to see +Dost Mahomed; goes to Jellalabad; his errors; disaffection towards him; +recommends the occupation of the Balla Hissar; stipulations with regard +to; remains in Cabul; letter to Sale at Jellalabad; murdered. + +SOORKHAB. + +SOUTER, Captain, escapes from the slaughter at Gundamuk. + +SPENS, Captain of the 72d Highlanders, killed. + +SPINGAWAI KOTUL, the, attack on, by Roberts. + +STANHOPE, Mr, on the treaty of Gundamuk. + +STEWART, Sir Donald; marches into Candahar; begins his march to Cabul; +battle of Ahmed Khel and Urzoo; continues his march to Cabul; relations +with Abdurrahman; in favour of keeping Candahar. + +ST JOHN, Colonel. + +STODDART, Colonel. + +STOLIETOFF, defender of the Schipka pass, received by Shere Ali. + +'STORMS AND SUNSHINE OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE,' by Colin Mackenzie. + +STRATON, Captain. + +SUKKUR. + +SULIMAN MOUNTAINS, the. + +SULTAN JAN. + +SULTAN MAHMOUD, tomb of. + +SUNG-I-NAWISHTA PASS, the. + +SURKH KOTUL, the. + +SUTLEJ RIVER, the. + +SWAYNE, Major. + +SYGHAN. + +T. + +TAGAO. + +TAKHT-I-SHAH PEAK, the. + +TASHKEND, Russians at; Shere Ali at; Abdurrahman at. + +TEZEEN. + +THAL-CHOTIALI. + +THELWALL, Brigadier. + +THOMSON, engineer to Keane. + +TIMOUR, Prince, son of Shah Soojah, supported by Runjeet Singh; Soojah's +viceroy at Candahar; cruelty. + +TIR-ANDAZ. + +TODD, Major, political agent in Herat. + +TOOTUNDURRAH FORT, Sale takes. + +TREVOR, with Macnaghten at his death; murdered. + +TROUP, Captain. + +TUNGHEE TARIKI, gorge of, scene of slaughter. + +TURNUK. + +TURRAI. + +TYTLER. + +U. + +UKTAR KHAN, a discontented Dooranee chief; Macnaghten offers reward for +his head. + +URGUNDAB. + +URGUNDEH. + +URZOO, affair of. + +V. + +VAKEEL, the, obnoxious minister of Shah Soojah. + +VICEROYS, _See_ LORDS W. BENTINCK, AUCKLAND, ELLENBOROUGH, NORTHBROOK, +LYTTON, and the MARQUIS OF RIPON. + +VIKKUR. + +W. + +WADE, escorts Prince Timour by the Khyber route. + +WALI MAHOMED, governor designate of Turkestan. + +WARREN, evacuates the Commissariat fort. + +WATSON, Colonel, in command of the Sikh Feudatory contingent. + +WELLESLEY, the Marquis, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision. + +WELLINGTON, Duke of, criticism on Lord Auckland's decision; on +Elphinstone's position at Cabul; on English troops v. hillmen. + +WHITE, Major, of the 92d Highlanders, at the attack on Beni Hissar; in +the battle of Candahar. + +WILD, Brigadier, attempts to force the Khyber pass. + +WILLSHIRE, General, harassed in the Bolan pass; punishes Khelat. + +WOLSELEY, Lord, against keeping Candahar. + +WORSLEY, Colonel. + +WYMER, Colonel, hard fighting with the Ghilzais. + +Y. + +YAHUJA KHAN. + +YAKOUB KHAN, son of Shere Ali, released and made regent; intercourse with +Sir Sam Browne; question of his complicity in the Cavagnari massacre; +takes refuge in the English camp; a prisoner; the Viceroy's decision +against his return to power. + +YAR MAHOMED, Shah Kamran's minister. + +YERGATI. + +Z. + +ZAKARIAH KHAN, Yakoub's brother. + +ZANDEH, captives carried to. + +ZEMINDAWAR, country of. + +ZIMMA, Abdurrahman and Sir Lepel Griffin at. + +ZURMUT. + + * * * * * + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 +by Archibald Forbes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS *** + +This file should be named 8afgh10.txt or 8afgh10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8afgh11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8afgh10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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