[November, 1841.]
Progress of the Insurrection—Attempted Movement on the City—Attack
on Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort—Loss of the Commissariat Fort—Captain
Mackenzie’s Defence—Capture of Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort—Attempts to
corrupt the Enemy.
On this disastrous 2nd of November, the British authorities in the
Caubul cantonments, instead of acting to-day, had, I have said, been
talking about doing something to-morrow. That something was a conjoint
movement from the cantonments and the Balla Hissar on the Lahore gate
of the city. “We must see,” wrote Elphinstone to Macnaghten, “what
the morning brings, and then think what can be done.” The morning was
one of early bustle and activity throughout the British cantonment.
Before day had broken, the drums beat to arms. Intelligence had come
in that a large body of men were marching over the Seeah Sungh hills.
They were believed to be enemies, but they proved to be friends. The
37 Regiment of Native Infantry had been called in from Koord-Caubul on
the preceding day; and it had made good its march, in the face of no
feeble opposition, bringing in its baggage and its sick in an orderly
manner, very creditable to the commanding officer.[120] Two guns of the
mountain-train accompanied the regiment. Any addition to the cantonment
force was valuable at such a time; and the 37th Regiment was regarded
as one of the best in the service. Still, although when our resources
were thus increased, a movement was made upon the city, so small a
force was sent out that it was compelled to retreat.
The movement, such as it was—the first attempted by the British
troops—was made three hours after noon. The enemy had by this time
increased mightily in numbers. Thousands, long ripe for revolt, were
now ready to declare themselves on the side of the national party. All
the surrounding villages poured in their tributaries,[121] and swelled
the great tide of insurrection. At noon, on the preceding day, the
road between the cantonments and the city had been scarcely passable;
and now all this intervening ground was alive with an angry enemy.
In the face of a hostile multitude, it was little likely that a weak
detachment could penetrate into the city. The party sent out on this
hazardous service, under Major Swayne, consisted of one company of
H. M.’s 44th Regiment, two companies of the 5th Native Infantry, and
two horse artillery guns. The whole affair was a failure. The only
fortunate circumstance was that this feeble detachment retired in good
time. Owing to some misconception of orders, no party had been detached
to co-operate with them from the Balla Hissar; and if they had forced
their way to the Lahore gate of the city, the whole detachment would
have been cut to pieces. As it was, the party was fired upon from the
Kohistan gate, near which it ought not to have gone;[122] and it was
soon only too obvious that a further advance, in the face of such an
enemy, would be a profitless sacrifice of life. Major Swayne brought
back his detachment, and so ended the first attempt to operate upon the
city.
It is hard to say why a stronger force, with a fair allowance of
cavalry, was not sent out in the first instance; or why, on the return
of Swayne’s weak detachment, it was not re-inforced and sent out
against the enemy. There was daylight enough left to do good execution
with an adequate force, adequately commanded. But the evening of this
day, like that of the preceding one, closed in upon an inactive and
dispirited British force, and an undisciplined enemy emboldened by
impunity and flushed with success.
The aspect of affairs now became more threatening. Before noon, on the
preceding day, the Envoy and his family had vacated the Residency, and
sought a more secure asylum within the walls of the cantonments. Now
preparations were being made to place those cantonments in a state of
defence. This was no easy matter. The works were of “frightful extent;”
and demanded a much larger body of troops and greater number of guns,
than were at the disposal of the General, to defend them even against
the “contemptible enemy” that was now collecting around them. It was
not long after the commencement of the outbreak, before Lieutenant
Eyre, the ordnance commissariat officer, had placed every available gun
in position. But the want of artillery in this conjuncture was soon
lamentably apparent. There had, at no time, been a sufficiency of this
important arm; but one portion of the miserable allowance was now with
Sale’s force, another in the Balla Hissar, and the wretched remnant was
in cantonments.
It was impossible now any longer to close one’s eyes against the
real state of affairs. They were growing rapidly worse and worse.
The Envoy sate down to his desk and wrote importunate letters to
Captain Macgregor, urging him to bring back Sir Robert Sale’s force
to Caubul. At the same time he wrote to Candahar, to arrest the march
of the troops that were about to return to India, and to despatch
them with all speed to his relief. Nothing came of these mandates but
disappointment. It would have been better if the Caubul force had
trusted wholly to itself.
The next day was one of more appalling disaster. It brought to light
a new evil that threatened destruction to the beleagured force. The
commissariat fort—the magazine in which all the stores, on which our
troops depended for subsistence, were garnered up—was outside the
cantonment walls. It was situated about 400 yards from the south-west
bastion of the cantonment. On the preceding day, the detachment in
charge of the fort had been raised to a subaltern’s guard of eighty
men. It was now threatened by the enemy. Another fort, still nearer
cantonments, known as Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort, was already in possession
of a hostile garrison;[123] and the King’s gardens, between which
and the cantonments this fort was situated, were swarming with the
insurgents. The communications between the British cantonments and
the commissariat fort were thus intercepted by the enemy; and the
position of the slender guard posted for the defence of the latter was
therefore one of imminent peril. The enemy laid siege to the fort;
and began to mine beneath the walls. Surrounded as he was by a far
superior force, and seeing no possibility of repelling the assaults
of the enemy, Lieutenant Warren, who commanded the guard, officially
reported the danger of his position; and set forth that, unless
re-inforced, he should be obliged to abandon his post. The letter was
conveyed to the General, who ordered out two companies of the 44th
Regiment, under Captains Swayne and Robinson, to reinforce the party at
the commissariat fort, or enable them to _evacuate_ it in safety.[124]
They had not proceeded far, when the enemy, posted in Mahomed Sheriff’s
Fort opened upon them with deadly execution. The galling fire of the
concealed marksmen checked their progress. Captains Swayne and Robinson
were shot dead. Other officers were wounded. There seemed to be no
chance of success. To move onward would only have been to expose the
detachment to certain destruction. The officer upon whom the command of
the party had devolved, determined, therefore, to abandon an enterprise
from which nothing but further disaster could arise. He brought back
his party to cantonments; and so another failure was added to the list.
Another was soon to be recorded against us. In the course of the
afternoon, the General determined to try the effect of sending out a
party, consisting mainly of cavalry, to enable Lieutenant Warren to
evacuate the commissariat fort. But this party suffered more severely
than the preceding one. From the loopholes of Mahomed Sheriff’s
Fort—from every tree in the Shah’s garden—from whatever cover of wood
or masonry was to be found—the Afghan marksmen poured, with unerring
aim, their deadly fire upon our advancing troops. The unseen enemy was
too strong for our slight detachment. The troopers of the 5th Cavalry
fell in numbers beneath the fire of the Afghan matchlocks. The forward
movement was checked. The party retreated; and again the enemy gathered
new courage from the contemplation of our reverses.
In the mean while, it had become known to the commissariat officers
that the General contemplated the abandonment of the fort, in which not
only our grain, but our hospital stores, our spirits, wine, beer, &c.,
were garnered. Dismayed at the thought of a sacrifice that must entail
destruction on the entire force, Captain Boyd, the chief commissariat
officer, hastened to General Elphinstone’s quarters, and entreated
him not to withdraw Lieutenant Warren from the fort, but to reinforce
him with all possible despatch. The General, ever ready to listen to
advice, and sometimes to take it, heard all that was advanced by the
commissariat officer, readily assented to its truth, and promised to
send out a reinforcement to the fort. But no reinforcement was sent.
Night was closing in upon the cantonment, and Captain Boyd, to his
bitter disappointment, perceived that no preparations were making for
the promised movement towards the fort. Asking Captain Johnson to
accompany him, he again proceeded to the General’s quarters, where the
two officers, in emphatic language, pointed out the terrible results
of the sacrifice of our supplies. Again the General listened; again he
assented; and again he would have promised all that was required; but
other officers were present, who put forth other opinions; talked of
the danger of the movement; urged that it would be necessary, in the
first instance, to capture Mahomed’s Sheriff’s Fort; and so the General
wavered. But at this juncture, another letter from Lieutenant Warren
was brought in. It represented that his position had become more
insecure; that the enemy were mining under the walls, and the Sepoys
escaping over them; and that if reinforcements were not speedily sent,
he should be compelled to abandon his position.
This brought the General round again to the opinion that reinforcements
ought to be sent; he promised that, soon after midnight a detachment
should be under arms to take Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort, and to strengthen
Warren’s position; and the requisite orders were accordingly issued.
But later counsels prevailed. The march of the detachment was postponed
to the following morning; and, before it moved, the little garrison
had abandoned the fort and returned to cantonments, leaving all our
supplies in the hands of the enemy, and inspiring them with fresh
confidence and courage. Warren, a man of a reserved and taciturn
nature, but of great courage and resolution, had done his best to
defend the place; and had set an example of personal daring to his men,
which ought to have inspired and invigorated them. On one occasion,
amidst a deadly shower from the Afghan jezails, he had advanced alone,
and torn down the national standard which the Afghans had planted at
the gate of the fort. But the Sepoys had lost heart. It was impossible
to continue the defence of the place. So the little party escaped by
working a hole from the interior of the fort underneath the walls, by
the aid of tools which had been sent them for a different purpose on
the preceding night.[125]
Nor was this our only loss. The commissariat fort, in which the
supplies for Shah Soojah’s force were stored, was on the outskirts
of the city. In 1840, when a general rising was deemed no unlikely
occurrence, Captain Johnson laid in a supply of 17,000 maunds of attah
for Shah Soojah’s force, and had erected godowns for their reception
within the Balla Hissar, where early in 1841 the grain was all laid up
in store. The King, however, subsequently exercised the royal privilege
of changing his mind. The godowns were inconveniently situated; and
Captain Johnson was ordered to remove the grain from the citadel, and,
having no better place for its reception, to convert his camel-sheds,
on the outskirts of the city, into a godown fort.[126] In this fort,
on the 2nd of November, there were about 8000 maunds of attah. Captain
Mackenzie (who had then been for some months in charge of the executive
commissariat of the Shah’s troops), an officer of high character,
greatly and deservedly esteemed by the Envoy and all the officers of
the force, was at this time in charge of the fort. On the morning
of the 2nd of November, it was attacked by the armed population of
Deh-Afghan. Throughout the whole of that day Mackenzie held his post
with unvarying constancy and unshaken courage. Everything was against
the little garrison. Water was scarce; ammunition was scarce. They
were encumbered with baggage, and overwhelmed with women and children.
Reinforcements were written for in vain. Captain Trevor, who occupied,
with his family, a neighbouring fort, despatched repeated letters to
cantonments, importuning the Envoy to reinforce these isolated posts.
But in vain they turned their straining eyes towards the cantonment,
“looking for the glittering bayonets through the trees.”[127] Not
a company came to their relief. Instead of assistance they received
nothing but melancholy tidings of disaster. A demonstration from the
cantonment would have saved them. Captain Lawrence had volunteered to
take two companies to the relief of the fort; but permission was denied
to him. The Kuzzilbashes, too, were ready to declare themselves on the
side of the British. Khan Sheeren Khan was, indeed, at Trevor’s house.
But when the chiefs saw that not an effort was made by the British
commanders to vindicate our authority, or to save the lives of our
officers, they prudently held aloof and refused to link themselves with
a declining cause.
On the 3rd of November, “about the middle of the day,” the enemy
got possession of Trevor’s house; and it soon became certain that
Mackenzie, with all his gallantry and all his laborious zeal—working
day and night without food and without rest—conducting the defence
with as much judgment as spirit—could not much longer hold his post.
His men were wearied out; his ammunition was exhausted; his wounded
were dying for want of medical aid. He had defended his position
throughout two days of toil, suffering, and danger; and no aid had come
from cantonments—none was likely to come. So yielding at last to the
importunity of others, he moved out of the fort, and fought his way,
by night, to cantonments. It was a difficult and hazardous march; and,
almost by a miracle, Mackenzie escaped to encounter new dangers, to
sustain new trials, and to live in habitual gratitude to God for his
wonderful preservation.
The abandonment of our commissariat stores not only threatened the
British force with instant starvation, but made such a lamentable
exposure of our imbecility, that all who had before held aloof,
thinking that the British nation would arise and crush the insurgents,
now gathered heart and openly declared themselves against us. The
doubtful were assured; the wavering were established. There was a
British army looking over the walls of their cantonment at an ill-armed
enemy—almost a rabble—gutting their commissariat fort. There were the
spoliators, within four hundred yards of our position, carrying off
our supplies, as busily as a swarm of ants. “The godown fort,” wrote
Captain Johnson in his journal, “was this day something similar to a
large ants’ nest. Ere noon, thousands and thousands had assembled from
far and wide, to participate in the booty of the English dogs, each man
taking away with him as much as he could carry—and to this we were all
eye-witnesses.” The troops were grievously indignant at the imbecility
of their leaders, who had suffered them to be so ignominiously stripped
of the very means of subsistence; and clamoured to be led out against
the enemy, who were parading their spoils under the very walls of the
cantonment.
The feeling was not one to be checked. Lieutenant Eyre went to the
quarters of the General, urged him to send out a party for the capture
of Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort, and volunteered to keep the road clear for
the advance of the storming party. With some reluctance the General
assented, and wrote to the Envoy saying, that after due consideration
he had determined on attacking the fort, with fifty men of the 44th,
and 200 Native Infantry. “We will first try to breach the place,”
he added, “and shell it as well as we can. From information I have
received respecting the interior of the fort, which I think is to be
relied on, it seems the centre, like our old bazaar, is filled with
buildings; therefore, if we succeed in blowing open the gate, we should
only be exposed to a destructive fire from the buildings, which, from
the state of preparation they evince, would no doubt be occupied in
force, supported from the garden. Carrying powder-bags up under fire
would have a chance of failure. Our men have been all night in the
works, are tired, and ill-fed; but we must hope for the best, and
securing our commissariat fort with the stores.”[128]
It was in this letter, written scarcely three days after the first
outbreak of the insurrection, that the General first hinted at the
necessity of treating with the insolent enemy. “It behoves us,” he
wrote, “to look to the consequences of failure: in this case I know
not how we are to subsist, or, from want of provisions, to retreat.
You should, therefore, consider what chance there is of making terms,
if we are driven to this extremity. Shelton must then be withdrawn,
as we shall not be able to supply him.” What hope was there for the
national honour after this? What but failure was likely to result from
an expedition undertaken under such auspices? The party was sent out
under Major Swayne. It seems to have stood still, when it ought to
have rushed forward. The opportunity was lost; and the General, who
was watching the movement from the gateway, ordered the detachment to
be withdrawn. The Sepoys of the 37th regiment who had been eager to
advance to the capture of the fort, were enraged and disappointed at
being held back; and the enemy, more confident and presumptuous than
before, exulted in a new triumph.
Whilst affairs were in this distressing and dispiriting state at
Caubul, our outposts were exposed to imminent danger; and it was
soon only too plain that the insurrection was not confined to the
neighbourhood of the capital. At Kardurrah Lieutenant Maule, of
the Bengal Artillery, commanding the Kohistanee regiment, with his
adjutant and sergeant-major, had been cut to pieces at the outset of
the insurrection, by the men of his own corps; and now intelligence
came in that the Goorkha regiment, posted at Charekur in the Kohistan,
where Eldred Pottinger was acting as Political Agent, was threatened
with annihilation. Captain Codrington, the commandant, and other
officers had been killed; and as water was failing the garrison, there
was little chance of its holding out. The Envoy communicated these sad
tidings to the General, who wrote in reply, that the intelligence was
“most distressing;” and asked whether “nothing could be done by the
promise of a large reward—a lakh of rupees for instance, if necessary,
to any of the Kohistan chiefs,” to bring off the little garrison.
This was written on the 6th of November. That day witnessed our first
success. A party, under Major Griffiths, of the 37th Native Infantry,
was sent out against Mahomed Sheriff’s Fort. A practicable breach
was effected, and the storming party entered with an irresistible
impetuosity, worthy of British troops. Ensign Raban, of the 44th
regiment, was shot dead on the crest of the breach. The garrison
escaped to the hills, where a party of Anderson’s horse dashed at
them in gallant style, and drove them from their position. The rest
of the day was spent in dubious skirmishing. All arms were employed
in a wild desultory manner. Artillery, cavalry, and infantry did good
independent service; but they did not support each other. Nothing great
was designed or attempted. A general action might have been brought on;
and, properly commanded at that time, the British troops, who were then
eager to meet the enemy, might have beaten five times their numbers in
the field. But General Elphinstone, long before this, had ceased to
think of beating the enemy. Everything seemed possible to him but that.
We had lost our commissariat forts; but, happily, we had not lost our
commissariat officers. As soon as it was perceived that our stores
were in jeopardy, Captain Boyd and Captain Johnson had begun to exert
themselves, with an energy as praiseworthy as it was rare in that
conjuncture, to collect supplies from the surrounding villages. They
were more successful than under such circumstances could have been
anticipated. The villagers sold the grain which they had laid up for
their own winter supplies, at no very exorbitant rates, and the horrors
of immediate starvation were averted from the beleagured force. The
troops were put upon half-rations. The ordinary food of the native
troops—the _attah_, or ground wheat—was wanting, for the water-mills
in the villages had been destroyed; but the unbroken grain was served
out to them in its stead.
A new danger was now to be discovered. The force had been threatened
with starvation; but now supplies were coming in from the surrounding
villages. It would have been impossible to hold out without provisions.
It would be equally impossible to hold out without ammunition. As soon
as the one danger was averted, the General began to look about for
the approach of the other. On the 6th of November, he again wrote to
Sir William Macnaghten, suggesting the expediency of making terms,
with the least possible delay:—“We have temporarily,” he said, “and
I hope permanently, got over the difficulty of provisions. Our next
consideration is ammunition; a very serious and indeed awful one. We
have expended a great quantity; therefore it becomes worthy of thought
on your part, how desirable it is that our operations should not be
protracted by anything in treating that might tend to a continuance
of the present state of things. Do not suppose from this I wish to
recommend, or am advocating humiliating terms, or such as would reflect
disgrace on us; but this fact of ammunition must not be lost sight of.”
And in a postscript to this letter are these melancholy words:—“Our
case is not yet desperate; I do not mean to impress that; but it must
be borne in mind that it goes very fast.”[129] The Envoy needed no
better proof than this that our case, if not desperate, was “going very
fast.” There was an abundant supply of ammunition in store. But what
hope was there, so long as the troops were thus commanded? There was
no hope from our arms; but something might be done by our money. If
the enemy could not be beaten off, he might be bought off. The Envoy,
therefore, began to appeal to the cupidity of the chiefs.
The agent whom he employed was Mohun Lal. On the first outbreak in
the city, the Moonshee had narrowly escaped destruction by taking
refuge under the skirts of Mohamed Zemaun Khan.[130] Since that time
he had resided in Caubul, under the protection of the Kuzzilbash chief
Khan Shereen Khan, and had kept up a correspondence with Sir William
Macnaghten, doing the Envoy’s bidding, as he said, at the risk of his
life. His first experiment was made upon the corruptibility of the
Ghilzyes. At the request of the Envoy, Mohun Lal opened negotiations
with the chiefs of the tribe, offering them two lakhs of rupees,
with an immediate advance of a quarter of the amount; but before
the contract was completed, the Envoy, doubtful, perhaps, of the
sincerity of the chiefs, receded from the negotiation. The Ghilzyes
were mortally offended; but the Envoy had another game in hand. On the
7th of November, he wrote to Mohun Lal, authorising him to assure our
friends Khan Shereen Khan and Mahomed Kumye, that if they performed
the service which they had undertaken, the former should receive one
lakh, and the latter 50,000 rupees, “besides getting the present, and
everything else they require.” “You may assure them,” added Macnaghten,
“that, whatever bluster the rebels may make, they will be beaten in
the end. I hope that you will encourage Mohamed Yar Khan, the rival
of Ameen-oollah; assure him that he shall receive the chiefship, and
all the assistance necessary to enable him to support it. You may give
promises in my name to the extent of 500,000 rupees (five lakhs).”[131]
Intelligence had by this time reached Caubul from many sources, to the
effect that Mahomed Akbar Khan, the second son of Dost Mahomed, was
coming in from Toorkistan, and had already advanced as far as Bameean;
and Macnaghten had now begun to credit and to attach due importance to
the news. Mohun Lal suggested the expediency of despatching an emissary
to meet the Sirdar on the way, and offer him a handsome allowance to
league himself with our party. To this the Envoy replied, that Mahomed
Akbar’s arrival at Bameean was likely enough; but that there could be
little use in offering him a separate remittance, if the rebels had
made already overtures to him.[132] He had more hope from the good
offices of the Kuzzilbash chief and others on the spot, disposed to aid
us, and he commended Mohun Lal for raising money to distribute among
them. But he thought that, until assured of a good return, it would be
better to scatter promises than coin; and so Mohun Lal was told not to
advance more than 50,000 rupees until some service had been actually
rendered.
But neither money actually spent, nor larger promises given, could
really aid us in such an extremity. There were too many hungry
appetites to appease—too many conflicting interests to reconcile; it
was altogether, by this time, too mighty a movement to be put down by a
display of the money-bags. The jingling of the coin could not drown the
voice of an outraged and incensed people.
I wish that I had nothing more to say of the efforts made, out of
the fair field of open battle, to destroy the power of the insurgent
chiefs. There is a darker page of history yet to be written. This
Mohun Lal had other work entrusted to him than that spoken of in these
letters. He was not directed merely to appeal to the cupidity of the
chiefs, by offering them large sums of money to exert their influence
in our favour. He was directed, also, to offer rewards for the heads of
the principal insurgents. As early as the 5th of November, Lieutenant
John Conolly, who was in attendance upon Shah Soojah in the Balla
Hissar, wrote thus to Mohun Lal:
Tell the Kuzzilbash chiefs, Shereen Khan, Naib Sheriff, in fact, all
the chiefs of Sheeah persuasion, to join against the rebels. You
can promise one lakh of rupees to Khan Shereen on the condition of
his killing and seizing the rebels and arming all the Sheeahs, and
immediately attacking all rebels. This is the time for the Sheeahs
to do good service. Explain to them that, if the Soonees once get
the upper hand in the town, they will immediately attack and plunder
their part of the town; hold out promises of reward and money; write
to me very frequently. Tell the chiefs who are well disposed, to send
respectable agents to the Envoy. Try and spread “nifak” among the
rebels. In everything that you do consult me, and write very often.
Meer Hyder Purja-Bashi has been sent to Khan Shereen, and will see you.
And in a postscript to this letter appeared the ominous words: “I
promise 10,000 rupees for the head of each of the principal rebel
chiefs.”
Mohun Lal received this letter, and being ready for any kind of
service not in the field, began to cast about in his mind the best
means of accomplishing the object spoken of in Conolly’s postscript,
with the least danger to himself and the greatest benefit to his
employers. It was necessary, however, to tread cautiously in so
delicate a matter. The Moonshee was not yet assured of the temper
of the Kuzzilbash chief; and the game might be played away by one
precipitate move. So he resolved to keep the offer of the head-money in
abeyance for a few days, and to watch the course of events.