Jumrood to the mouth of the pass. It was divided into three columns;
two of these were to crown the heights on either side, while the third,
when the hills had been sufficiently cleared, was to advance through
the gorge; each column was composed of a mixed force of Europeans
and Sepoys; four squadrons of the 3rd Dragoons and eleven pieces of
artillery accompanied the centre column. The attack was as successful
as it was ingenious. A huge barricade of mud and stones and trunks
of trees had been thrown across the mouth of the pass, while the
heights on either side swarmed with the wild hill-tribes. So quietly,
however, did our flanking columns advance, that they were half-way up
the heights before the enemy became aware of the movement. From peak
to peak our men, English as well as Sepoys, clambered as agile as the
mountaineers themselves, pouring from every spot of vantage a steady
and well-directed fire on the disconcerted Khyberees, who had never
dreamed that the white-faced infidels could prove more than a match
for them in their own fastnesses. Then Pollock with the main column
advanced. The Afghans, finding themselves out-flanked on either side,
gradually withdrew; the barricade was removed without loss; and the
huge line of soldiers, camp-followers, and baggage-waggons passed
unopposed on its victorious way to Jellalabad. The dreaded Khyber Pass
had been forced with the slightest possible loss of life, and the
boastful Afghans beaten at their own tactics. On the 16th Jellalabad
was reached. With what intense delight Sale's noble brigade saw once
more from their walls the colours of a friendly force may well be
imagined. For five weary months the little band had resisted every
offer of surrender, and beaten back every assault. In February the
fortifications that had been raised and strengthened by Broadfoot with
infinite labour were destroyed by an earthquake; and at that very
time they learnt that Akbar Khan was advancing on them. The works,
however, were restored, and in a dashing sortie, commanded by Dennie,
the Afghan chief, with the flower of the Barukzye Horse, was driven
from his position without the loss of a single man to the garrison.
A few days before Pollock arrived a still more daring enterprise had
been attempted. On April 5th another sortie in force was sent out under
Dennie, Monteith, and Havelock, which bore down on the Afghan camp,
and sent Akbar Khan flying with his 6000 men far away in the direction
of Lughman--a dashing exploit, and a complete victory, but dearly won,
for it was won at the cost of the gallant Dennie. The meeting between
the two armies was, wrote Pollock to a friend, "a sight worth seeing;"
according to Mr. Gleig the band of the 13th went out to play the
relieving force in, and the entry was performed to the tune of "Oh, but
ye've been lang o' coming."
Still there was plenty yet to be done, if only the English soldiers
might be allowed to do it. At first it seemed doubtful whether Lord
Ellenborough, who had succeeded Lord Auckland in February, would be
more willing to sanction a forward movement than was his predecessor.
On his first landing, no one could have been more eager than he to
avenge the humiliation of Cabul, but as he went up the country his
opinions began to suffer a change. Soojah had been murdered about the
very time that the Khyber Pass was forced, by the treachery of a
son of Zemaun Khan (a faithful friend to the English, by whose good
offices the English captives were still living in safety, if not in
comfort); his son Futteh Jung had been nominally appointed to succeed
him, but his government was no more than a farce. Jealous of each
other, and jealous particularly of the rising power of Akbar Khan, it
was plain that the Afghan Sirdars would never rest till the strength
and popularity of Dost Mahomed was once more among them to restore and
maintain order. Was it not better to accept the inevitable, to withdraw
our troops, now that it could be done with comparative honour, and to
leave the country to its own king and its own devices? It was doubtful
how much longer the brave Nott could maintain himself in Candahar, and
the force that had been sent out from Sindh under England to relieve
him had been beaten back at the Kojuck Pass; Ghuznee, after a stubborn
resistance, had fallen, and the British officers sent prisoners to
Cabul. Lord Ellenborough cannot be blamed for hesitating at such a
crisis; but the urgent prayers of Pollock, Nott, and Outram at last
prevailed, and orders were given that the military commanders might
use their own discretion, while they were at the same time warned that
failure meant the inevitable fall of the British Empire in the East.
The responsibility was gladly taken, and the advance commenced which
was to retrieve, as far as it was possible to retrieve, the shame of
all former failure.
The advance was an unbroken series of victories. England, reinforced
with some British troops, had moved out again from Quettah, cleared
the Kojuck Pass, and joined Nott at Candahar. With a force now raised
to a strength equal to that which lay at Jellalabad, Nott, resolute
to "retire to India" by way of Ghuznee and Cabul, lost no time in
setting to work. Dividing his troops, he took with him the 40th and
41st Regiments of the Line, and the "beautiful Sepoy" Regiments that
had stood by him so well, and despatched the rest back to India in
charge of England, in whose hands also he placed Prince Timour, whom,
after his father's death it was alike dangerous to take to Cabul or to
leave at Candahar. About the same time Pollock, with 8000 men of all
arms, including the 31st Regiment of the Line and the 3rd Dragoons,
moved out from Jellalabad on the Khoord-Cabul Pass, that blood-stained
theatre of an awful tragedy. The enemy were in force at Jugdulluck,
but Pollock, employing the same tactics that had been so efficacious
among the Khyber hills, sent out flanking parties to clear the
heights, while from below his guns kept up a hot fire of shells on
their position. The Ghilzyes fought bravely, but they could not stand
against the English troops in open fight, and with as little loss as
in his first engagement Pollock led his men into the pass. Seven miles
within, in the little valley of Tezeen, Akbar Khan, with 16,000 of his
best troops, resolved to make one last throw for victory. He threw and
lost. While the English Dragoons met and broke the charge of the Afghan
horse, the English infantry, gallantly seconded by the Sepoys and
Ghoorkahs, pressed up the heights under a heavy fire. Sale himself led
the advanced column; Monteith and Broadfoot and McCaskill followed. Not
a shot was fired by the stormers; thick and fast flew the bullets among
them from the long Afghan jazails, but not an English musket answered.
The work was done with the bayonet, and driven from crag to crag by
that "beautiful weapon" alone, the enemy fled in confusion, till
amid the ringing cheers of the whole British force the British flag
waved on the highest pinnacle of the pass. This was Akbar Khan's last
attempt; leaving his troops to shift for themselves, he fled northward
to the Ghoreebund Valley; Pollock, over the crumbling skeletons of the
comrades whom he had so worthily avenged, led his men in triumph to
Cabul, and the British ensign once more flew from the heights of the
Bala Hissar.
On September 15th Pollock reached Cabul, and on the 17th he was joined
by Nott. After a slight check to the cavalry of his advanced guard, at
an early period of his march, the latter's success had been as complete
as Pollock's. At Ghoaine he had utterly routed a superior force of
the enemy under Shumshoodeen Khan. Ghuznee had been evacuated before
even our preparations for the assault were completed; the works were
dismantled and blown up, the town and citadel fired, and the famous
sandal-wood "gates of Somnauth," which, according to Afghan tradition,
had adorned their famous Sultan's tomb for upwards of eight centuries,
carried off in accordance with Lord Ellenborough's expressed desire.
At Syderabad, where in the previous November Woodburn and his men had
been treacherously massacred, Shumshoodeen turned again; the stand was
stubborn and for a while the issue seemed doubtful; but the news of the
defeat at Tezeen had spread, the Afghans lost heart, and abandoning
their position left the way for Nott clear into Cabul.
The honour of the British arms was at last complete; 15,000 British
troops were encamped in the Afghan capital, and from every quarter
round submission was pouring in. Ameen-oollah Khan, who held out to
the last, had been utterly routed in the Kohistan by a force under
McCaskill, and Akbar Khan had also intimated his wish to treat for
terms. The miserable Futteh Jung, who had already once been forced to
fly for his life, was formally installed on his throne, but as formally
warned that he was to expect no further aid or protection. The prospect
before him was too much for his weak and timorous mind, and, in truth,
it was far from a pleasant one; after a few days' nominal rule, he
voluntarily resigned a crown which he would never have been able to
keep, and Shahpoor, a high-spirited young boy of the Suddozye House,
was seated in his stead.
Two things had yet to be done. The captives were to be recovered, and
some unmistakeable mark of British retribution was to be stamped on
Cabul.
Before Akbar Khan took the field for the last time he had despatched
all the English hostages, together with the prisoners from Ghuznee,
towards the Bamean frontier, under Saleh Mohamed. Pollock immediately
on reaching Cabul had sent Sir Richmond Shakespeare, with a party of
horse in hot haste after them, and subsequently a stronger force under
Sale. Before, however, the rescue arrived the prisoners had effected
their own deliverance through the medium of Saleh Mohamed's cupidity.
On a promise, duly drawn up and signed by Pottinger, Lawrence and three
others, of a heavy bribe, the Afghan had consented to escort them
not to Turkestan and slavery, as had been intended, but back to the
English camp, and it was at Kaloo, on their way down to Cabul, that,
after more than eight months' daily expectation of death, they once
more found themselves among English friends and safe under the English
flag. Despite the many hardships and anxieties they had undergone,
their health, even of the women and children, had been marvellously
preserved, and their condition had, on the whole, been far better than
any they could have hoped for when they exchanged the certain dangers
of the retreat for the uncertain security of Akbar Khan's word. Two
only of the little band that had turned their backs on the miseries of
the Khoord-Cabul Pass were missing when they rode into Sale's camp,
amid the cheers of the men and a salute of welcome from the guns.
John Conolly, mourned by all who knew him, had died at Cabul a few
days before the march for Bamean began, and in the previous April,
after Pollock's victory had heralded the triumph which was to atone
for the disasters that the British arms had experienced under his
command, poor Elphinstone, after days of intense suffering in body
and mind, and bewailing to the last that he had not been permitted
to die with his men, passed away amid the affectionate sympathy of
all his fellow-prisoners. His body was sent down to Jellalabad, and
there interred with military honours in the presence of his victorious
successor.
To set the seal of our triumph on Cabul it was determined to destroy
the great Bazaar, where the mutilated body of Macnaghten had been
exposed to the insults of his murderers. It had been first intended to
demolish the citadel, but the Suddozye chiefs pleaded so earnestly for
this last remnant of their royalty, that Pollock consented to spare
it. During two days, October 9th and 10th, the work of destruction
went on, and though every precaution was taken to prevent any farther
loss beyond that ordered, and particularly any excess on the part of
our soldiers, many suffered, and there was much excess. On the 11th
the homeward march began. Futteh Jung had implored the safe conduct
of the British from a kingdom where he was no king, and from subjects
with whom his life was not worth an hour's purchase, and with him went
for the second time into exile his blind old grandfather Zemaun Shah.
By the Khoord-Cabul and Khyber Passes, the scenes of so much misery
and such grievous humiliation, the victorious army returned in triumph
to Hindostan, and ere Ferozepore was reached they heard that the last
of the Suddozye line had fled, that Akbar Khan had seized the throne
in trust for his father, and that Dost Mahomed himself was even then
on his way through the Punjab to resume his old dominion. And so the
English army left secure on the throne of Afghanistan the dynasty they
had spent so many millions of treasure and so many thousands of lives
to overthrow.
LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, E.C.
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Inconsistent hyphenation fixed.
P. 22: He proceded to Teheran -> He proceeded to Teheran.
Pp. 19 (twice), 57: Dost Mohamed -> Dost Mahomed.
P. 30: to be be applied -> to be applied.
P. 32: five brigades of of infantry -> five brigades of infantry.
P. 33: Burnes with with him -> Burnes with him.
P. 51: you own terms -> your own terms.
P. 85: salutatations were exchanged -> salutations were exchanged.