THE DEFENCE OF CHITRAL
Chitral was now relieved; communication with the British officers so
long shut up there was once more established, and letters were at last
received giving an account of the desperate defence and of all that had
occurred since the Chitralis had risen in revolt.
I take up the narrative from the point at which I left it at the close
of the first chapter. The Chitralis had then suddenly given up their
opposition to Umra Khan and, joining Sher Afzul, who had now allied
himself with Umra Khan, had advanced against the British officers
established in Chitral fort.
On the 3rd of March, at about 4.30 P.M., news was received by the
British officers in Chitral fort that Sher Afzul, with a large force,
was approaching. Captain Colin Campbell, of the Central India
Horse, and, for the time, Inspecting Officer of the Kashmir Imperial
Service Troops, was in command of the troops now in Chitral; and,
late in the afternoon though it was, he thought it necessary to go
out with a strong reconnoitring force to ascertain the strength and
intentions of the Chitrali force. Hostilities between the British and
the Chitralis had not yet commenced, and with a large armed force
advancing towards the fort it was necessary for the British garrison
to take every precaution against being caught unawares. Two hundred
Kashmir Infantry under Captains Campbell, Townshend, and Baird, and
accompanied by the British Agent, Surgeon-Major Robertson, Lieutenant
Gurdon, and Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch, therefore set out from the
fort to reconnoitre the Chitrali dispositions. There is no regular
town of Chitral, but round the fort, which is merely the residence of
the Mehtars, there are scattered over the valley a number of little
hamlets, and detached houses, dotted among the cultivated lands which
stretch for a distance of about three miles down the valley. These
cultivated lands are on some gently sloping ground, from a mile to
a mile and a half in width, which runs down from the high, steep
hill-sides on the right bank to the river.
Leaving fifty men in the _serai_ a quarter of a mile from the fort,
and detaching a section under Captain Baird, which Lieutenant Gurdon
accompanied, to ascend the hill-sides on the right, Captains Campbell
and Townshend advanced for a mile and a half down the valley, towards a
house in which it was stated that Sher Afzul had established himself.
On arrival at the house it was found that Sher Afzul was not in it,
and Captain Townshend then advanced still further down the valley,
while Captain Baird's flanking party was strengthened by an additional
twenty-five men. Captain Townshend could see a number of men moving
about among the trees and houses of a hamlet 500 yards beyond the
house which it had been supposed Sher Afzul was occupying; and on
the hill-sides which Baird's party were ascending there were some
hundreds of the Chitralis. On these hill-slopes firing now commenced,
and Captain Townshend concluding that the men he could see in the
front moving about in the hamlet were the enemy, opened fire with a
section volley. The fire was immediately returned by the enemy, who,
being armed with Martini-Henry and Snider rifles, made, says Captain
Townshend, most excellent shooting. Among the enemy were several
hundred of Umra Khan's men, drilled and trained by pensioners from
our own Indian Army; and there were, indeed, many of these pensioners
themselves in the force which was now advancing upon Chitral.
Captain Townshend kept his men under cover as much as possible, and,
taking advantage, for the purpose, of the boulders and low walls
which surrounded the fields, advanced to within 200 yards or so of
the hamlet. There was now no more cover in his front, many of his men
were hit, and he could see the hamlet towards which he was advancing
now crowded with men who were keeping up a well-sustained fire from
the walls and loopholes. To advance with the hundred men he had with
him, and these not veteran troops of our own army, but untried Kashmir
troops armed with worn-out Snider rifles, against superior numbers of
a better-armed and more experienced force posted behind walls was
an impossibility, and Captain Townshend decided therefore to hold
his ground until Captain Baird should move along the hill-slopes to
the westward, and so turn the hamlet, and when Baird had done this
Townshend would then advance to attack it in front.
But time went on, and Townshend could see no signs of Baird advancing
on his flank. On the other hand small parties of the enemy began to
overlap him on both flanks and to enfilade him with their fire. His
position was now becoming untenable; it was half-past six and would
soon be dark, so decisive action of some sort--either an advance or a
retirement--had to be carried out at once. At this juncture Captain
Campbell arrived and directed that the hamlet should be stormed. The
order to reinforce was given but the support of men in rear did not
come up, though the order was continually repeated. Captain Campbell
then went back to himself bring up the support, while Captain Townshend
fixed bayonets preparatory to a charge and kept up a heavy independent
fire. The support all this time was lying behind some low walls 150
yards to the rear. Captain Campbell succeeded in bringing on about a
dozen men from among them, and then fell shot through the knee just as
he was rejoining the advance party. Colonel Jagat Singh, of the Kashmir
troops, then went back to try and get more men on, but he could only
bring on one or two. So Captain Townshend, finding that to await for
further support was useless, went round his men telling them they must
rush straight in and take the houses, and he then sounded the charge.
The little party of a hundred men scrambled over the bank behind which
they had been lying and advanced to the attack of the strongly-held
village to their front. It was a desperate venture, for the enemy were
not only in superior numbers and better armed, but they were firing
from behind cover, while the troops which the British had now to lead
to the attack had to advance across 200 yards of open ground, exposed
to fire for the whole distance, and they were men who had never been
in action before. Captain Townshend had served in the expedition sent
to relieve Khartoum, and had been present in the battles of Gubat
and Abu Klea, where Sir Herbert Stewart and Burnaby lost their lives,
and he had taken part in the sharp little Hunza campaign in 1891, but
he told me that he had never before been under so hot a fire as that
which now met his party as they scrambled over the bank. The Kashmir
General Baj Singh, a fine old soldier and gentleman, who was always
keen to be in the thickest of a fight, and whose keenness had now led
him to the front when by rights he should have been more in rear, was
shot down on one side of Captain Townshend, while Major Bhikam Singh,
another brave old Kashmir officer, was mortally wounded on the other
side. Their leaders fallen, the finest troops in the world would have
found it hard to face so terrible a fire, and the raw Kashmir infantry
could no longer stand before it. Insensibly they shrank under the fire,
then crouched down behind stones, till Captain Townshend finding it
impossible to carry the charge home in spite of all his endeavours to
get the men on abandoned the attempt, and ordered his men back behind
the wall from which they had started.
Events had now taken a very serious turn. The British officers were
nearly two miles distant from the fort with a handful of disheartened
troops in the face of vastly superior numbers of an elated enemy, who
were now commencing to overlap them on all sides. The retirement to the
fort commenced, and Captain Campbell, even though he was very severely
wounded in the knee, mounted a pony and helped to keep the troops in
order and steady. This trying manoeuvre was effected by alternate
parties, the men dribbling off to the rear by word of command while the
remainder kept up a heavy fire to keep off the enemy. Captain Townshend
always remained with the last party in order to prevent any panic or
disorder arising, and in this way the party reached a house about a
mile from the fort, where Mr. Robertson was found rallying men who had
retired before, and here a short stand was made, while Mr. Robertson,
at great risk and exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy now lining the
garden walls and houses on every side, rode back to the fort to bring
out fifty of Lieutenant Harley's Sikhs to cover the retirement.
It was now quite dark, and the enemy were firing into Captain
Townshend's troops from front, flank, and rear, from every hamlet
and wall. The Chitralis and Pathans were wild with excitement at the
unexpected success of their first encounter with the British, and,
carried away in the whirl of enthusiasm, even women hurled down stones
upon the retiring troops. Groping their way, and unable at a short
distance to distinguish friend from foe, Captain Townshend brought
his men along between walls flashing out fire in the darkness till he
reached the _serai_ near the fort, where he found fifty Sikhs under
Lieutenant Harley come out to cover his retreat. Steady as on parade,
and calm and unmoved amidst all the excitement around them, Harley and
his veterans headed back the storm while the Kashmir troops retired
to the fort. Then he and his men slowly retired within the walls also
while the enemy closed thickly around, and the investment commenced
which was to last forty-seven long days and weary nights.
But when the officers arrived within the walls it was found that two
of their number were missing. Neither Dr. Whitchurch nor Captain
Baird had yet arrived. It was known that Baird had been desperately
wounded, and deep anxiety regarding the fate of him and Whitchurch
was felt, when, at about eight o'clock, Whitchurch was seen from
the walls staggering along towards the gateway, supporting and half
carrying Baird along. At the beginning of the action Baird, with
about fifty men, had been sent away on the right to work round the
enemy's flank. With his handful of men, and with Lieutenant Gurdon by
his side, he ascended the steep rocky mountain slopes which overlook
the valley. It is a generally accepted principle of warfare that an
attacking party should be divided into an advance party and a support,
and this principle was now acted upon; but Captain Baird, with his
characteristic zeal, would not remain with the support, and determined
on leading the advance himself. And Lieutenant Gurdon, who, being
Political Officer was not present in the reconnaissance in a strictly
military capacity, was as anxious as Baird to be in front. So the two
British officers agreed to go on together with the advance.
But the enemy were now in hundreds on the mountain side firing and
hurling down stones upon the little straggling party, who painfully
worked their way upward. Captain Baird was mortally wounded in the
stomach, many other of his men were also hit, and the party had to
be drawn off. Lieutenant Gurdon could not remain long to look after
his wounded comrade, for he had to collect the men and conduct their
retirement upon the main body.
News was given to Dr. Whitchurch of the misfortune to poor Baird, and
a small escort was left to help him home, as no general retirement had
yet taken place. All that he could do Dr. Whitchurch did for Baird;
but now, as darkness was closing in, it was seen that our troops were
retiring, that the enemy were swarming round on all sides, and that
even the retreat to the fort was threatened. Whitchurch collected
together about a dozen sepoys, and then set off to carry the wounded
officer back to the fort. The enemy had penetrated in between him and
the main body, and were firing from the houses and garden walls on the
way to the fort. The direct road back was therefore quite blocked to
him, and Dr. Whitchurch had to take a circuitous route of three miles
round. They were exposed to fire for almost the entire way, and had
it not been for the darkness nothing could have saved them. On more
than one occasion Whitchurch had to lay down his burden, and, at the
head of the men he had collected, charge the enemy to drive them from
a wall and make a way. Then he would go back, pick Baird up again, and
carry him through. Several of the party were killed--how many cannot
be correctly ascertained, for in the darkness and confusion it was
impossible to ascertain the exact number of his party--and just as they
reached the fort, and when in a few minutes more they would have been
in safety, Captain Baird was hit for the third time, and wounded in
the face. Dr. Whitchurch and the brave Kashmir troops who had remained
with him had by their devotion and gallantry brought back their wounded
comrade to the other British officers, only to die, indeed, on the
following morning, but to die with his brother officers by his side,
and where he could be buried by them with the last solemn rites.
"It is difficult to write temperately about Whitchurch," wrote Mr.
Robertson in reporting this action to Government, and men who have
themselves gained the Victoria Cross have said that never has it
been more gallantly earned than on this occasion by Surgeon-Captain
Whitchurch.
The total losses in this day's engagement were twenty-three men killed
and thirty-three wounded out of 200, of whom only 150 were actually
engaged; and it was with this newly-raised Kashmir regiment depressed
by these severe losses, and with their own hearts saddened by the death
on the following morning of their brave comrade, that the British
officers commenced the defence of the Chitral fort against an enemy
correspondingly elated at their success.
The Chitral fort is eighty yards square, with walls twenty-five feet
high and about eight feet thick. At each corner there is a tower some
twenty feet higher than the wall, and outside the north face on the
edge of the river is a fifth tower to guard the water-way. On the east
face a garden runs out for a distance of 140 yards, and forty yards
of the south-east tower is a summer-house. On the north and west faces
were stables and other outhouses.
The fort is built of rude masonry kept together, not by cement or
mortar of any description, but by cradle-work of beams of wood placed
longitudinally and transversely so as to keep the masonry together.
Without this framework of wood the walls would fall to pieces.
It is situated on the right bank of the Chitral River, some forty or
fifty yards from the water's edge, and it is commanded from nearly all
sides for Martini-Henry or Snider rifle fire, for mountains close by
the river rise above the valley bottom. The fort is thus situated for
the purpose of maintaining water, and at the time of its construction
breech-loading rifles were not in possession of the people of the
country, so that the fort could not then be fired into.
The strength of the garrison of the beleaguered fort was 99 men of the
14th Sikhs, 301 men of the Kashmir Infantry, with the following British
officers: Surgeon-Major Robertson, British Agent; Captain C. V. F.
Townshend, Central India Horse, commanding British Agent's Escort, and
Commandant of the fort; Lieutenant Gurdon, Assistant to the British
Agent; Lieutenant H. K. Harley, 14th Sikhs; Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch,
24th Punjab Infantry; Captain Campbell, Central India Horse (badly
wounded).
[Illustration: CHITRAL FORT, FROM THE SOUTH.]
There were 11 followers and 27 servants, 16 Punyali levies, 12 native
clerks and messengers, 7 commissariat and transport followers, and 52
Chitralis, bringing up the total number within the fort to 543 persons.
For these there were supplies which, putting every one in the fort on
half rations, would last about two and a half months. There were 300
rounds of ammunition per man for the Martini-Henry rifles of the Sikhs,
and 280 rounds per man for the Snider rifles of the Kashmir Infantry.
On the 4th of March the enemy commenced offensive action against the
British in earnest by firing the whole day long into the fort. On this
day, Captain Townshend, who, now that Captain Campbell was wounded and
unable to leave his bed, commanded the fort, commenced taking measures
for its proper defence. It was a most unfortunate circumstance that
affairs had come to a head so quickly, that he was unable to carry out
any demolitions of the outhouses, etc., which surrounded the fort. His
first care, however, was to do what he could towards carrying out this
necessary operation: even though much of the work had to be done under
fire, it was necessary to knock down all the garden walls and houses
he could, so as to prevent the enemy occupying them and effecting a
lodgment, as they thus would be close up to the very walls of the fort.
As it was, the besiegers succeeded in occupying the summer-house at
the south-east angle of the fort, which was only forty yards distant
from the corner tower. The fort is surrounded by numbers of trees of
great height, which not only afforded cover to the enemy, but up which
it might have been possible for them to climb, and from their higher
branches fire into the very interior of the fort, and this formed an
additional danger.
[Illustration:
_Photo Van der Weyde_, _Regent Street_.
MAJOR C. V. F. TOWNSHEND, C.B.]
Captain Townshend had also to take efficient measures for protecting
the way down to the river, for as there was no serviceable well inside
the fort it was necessary to obtain every drop of water required by the
garrison from the river. This flowed along the north face of the fort
and a tower covered the way down to it, but in this wintry season it
was low and there was still a space of some thirty yards between the
door of this tower and the river's edge. It was necessary, therefore,
to construct a covered way from the gate of the tower to the water.
To neutralise the effect of the fire from the hill-sides which,
during the whole of the day, came pouring down into the fort, Captain
Townshend had to devise some arrangement. Planks, and beams of wood,
doors, mule-saddles, boxes, and sacks filled with earth, were piled up
as parados to protect the men's backs as they fired from the parapets.
There was not, however, sufficient material of a solid description to
protect the whole of the interior from the enemy's fire, and where
perfect protection could not be made, cover from sight was arranged
for, that is to say, cut-up tents, carpets, and curtains were hung
across passages and doorways so that the enemy might not be able to
see men passing along. If they fired upon these tents and carpets the
bullets would of course go through them, but they would be unable to
know when anybody was passing along behind them, and it would therefore
be scarcely worth their while to keep firing upon these screens on
the mere chance of hitting a passer-by. For the parapets, where the
besiegers would know that men for certain would be stationed, Captain
Townshend arranged sufficient protection of beams of wood, etc.; for
the remainder, screens to serve as protection from sight were provided.
These first measures occupied the attention of the British officers for
the few days following the commencement of the siege.
On the night of the 7th of March the enemy made a determined attack
on the water-way. The besiegers were well versed in every art of the
attack on such forts as Chitral, for among the numbers were several
hundreds of Umra Khan's Jandulis, whose entire lives are occupied in
besieging and defending similar forts to that of Chitral. They well
knew therefore the importance of cutting off the garrison from its
water supply, and this is always the first measure which they attempt.
Under cover of darkness they commenced a heavy and well-sustained fire
from the trees on the north-west front of the fort, and sent a party
of men to effect an entrance to the water-tower. This they actually
succeeded in doing, and a small number of them carrying faggots of wood
placed these in the interior of the tower, and set fire to them with
the object of burning down the entire structure. The garrison, however,
were well on the alert, for the men always slept on their alarm posts,
and every one was quickly in his place. A well-controlled fire was
then commenced on the attacking party. Captain Townshend had given
instructions that no independent firing was to be allowed at night, and
only section volleys were employed. The enemy's attack was driven off,
and water-carriers having been sent out to the water-tower, the fire
there was quickly put out.
At the end of the first week of the siege, owing to the admirable
arrangements for the protection of the men, there had been only five
casualties, but there were now only eighty rifles of the 14th Sikhs
and 200 rifles of the Kashmir Infantry fit for duty. These latter,
too, were much shaken by their severe losses in the reconnaissance of
the 4th of March. They were a new regiment, that action was the first
occasion on which they had been under fire, and they had then lost
their general and major, and fifty-six killed and wounded out of the
total of 250 actually engaged. It was hardly to be wondered at that
these men should be depressed at the prospects before them. The siege
was likely to be a long one, only half rations could be served to the
men, and Captain Townshend saw clearly that under the circumstances he
must husband the resources and energy of his men, and watch them and
encourage them as much as possible.
The following arrangements besides those already detailed, were now
made. First a fort police was established to watch the Chitralis in
the fort and prevent them communicating with the besiegers. Amongst
these Chitralis were many who were anything but loyal to the British,
and who, above everything, desired not to be found on the losing side
when the crisis came. They had therefore to be carefully watched to see
that they did not attempt communication with their friends outside the
fort. Secondly, a system for extinguishing fires was organised. The
water-carriers were ordered to sleep with their mussucks (skins) filled
with water, and ammunition boxes and any vessels which could be found
were also filled with water and placed ready to hand. Patrols were sent
round day and night to watch accidents from fire. These precautions
were especially necessary on account of the large amount of woodwork
inside the fort, and because the walls and towers were built almost
as much of wood as of stone. Thirdly, what sanitary arrangements were
possible were made. Fourthly, followers, officers' servants, and other
non-combatants were organised into parties for carrying water, putting
out fire, carrying out demolitions, building up cover from fire, and
for every other kind of work for which they could be employed, and so
save the regular soldiers. Fifthly, hand mills for grinding were made
and men told off for this work. Lastly, Captain Townshend instilled
into the minds of all the men that a relieving force would soon come,
and then they would be able to sally out and drive back the enemy.
The work of the defence practically devolved upon three officers
only--Captain Townshend, Lieutenant Gurdon, and Lieutenant
Harley--Surgeon-Major Robertson was engaged in his political duties
under flags of truce and so forth in treating and corresponding with
the enemy, Captain Campbell was wounded, and Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch
was fully occupied with his medical duties. The three officers for the
defence therefore took their turn of duty in watches of four hours
each, as on board ship. Each, separately, would come on duty for his
four hours, rest for eight, and then come on duty again for another
four hours, and so on. Theoretically they had eight hours' rest, but
in practice it was found that with alarms of attack and with various
extra work about the fort to be done, they were more often at rest for
four hours and at work for eight, than at work for four and at rest for
eight hours, and the work was now all the more trying that they were
only on half rations, and that they were never able to sleep undressed.
What sleep they got was mostly in the daytime, and even then with all
their clothes and generally even their belts on. It was a remarkable
fact, however, that in spite of the work they had to go through and
the anxieties they must necessarily have had, the sepoys told me when
I reached the fort a week after the siege was over, that they never
saw on the faces of the officers any sign of their anxiety. Captain
Townshend and his officers in fact made a point of, whatever they
might feel inwardly, always appearing cheery and in good heart before
their men, and upon this depended in no small degree the success of
the defence. The Sikhs had sufficient backbone in themselves to keep
up heart; they had suffered no loss in the engagement previous to the
siege, they were many of them veterans who had fought in many frontier
fights, and their native officer had been engaged in the fierce battle
at McNeil's Zareba in the Soudan campaign; but the Kashmir troops were
young and untried, they were now placed in a position which required
all the finest qualities of a soldier, and it was for these especially
that it was necessary that the British officers should be able to
inspire confidence and hope.
Captain Townshend still continued the work of demolishing the outer
walls beyond the main wall of the fort whenever opportunity occurred
and he had time to spare. He used the Punyalis for this, and they did
it, he says, marvellously quickly. They crept along on their stomachs
outside the walls, and with beams of wood pushed down the light outer
walls which ran out round the fort. The enemy fired incessantly upon
them while the work was being carried out, but nobody was hit. Thirty
rounds a day were also fired at the house in which Sher Afzul lived, in
order to cause him annoyance, and let him see that the garrison were
awake. When an attack was made at night, and there was no firing, the
average amount of ammunition expended during the first two or three
weeks of the siege was between forty and fifty rounds of Martini-Henry,
and twenty or thirty rounds of Snider ammunition daily. To guard
against attack by night, arrangements had to be made for lighting
up the ground immediately outside the walls of the fort. At first,
light balls made up of chips of wood and resinous pine, and soaked in
kerosene oil, were lighted and thrown over the walls. But there were
not sufficient materials to carry on this method nightly; and the
defenders adopted the better plan of building out platforms from the
walls, and on these lighting fires which would keep the ground in the
vicinity of the fort illuminated for the entire night.
On the night of the 13th-14th of March the enemy made an attack on the
east face, outside which is a garden with a number of large trees. They
sounded the advance on a bugle, and with much shouting and beating
of tom-toms, and keeping up a straggling fire they advanced to the
attack. The garrison received them with a brisk fire, and though men
had been heard by the defenders shouting to them repeatedly to come and
attack the water-way, they gradually slunk off back to their own lines.
Finding the enemy still had an intention of attacking the water-way,
Captain Townshend further strengthened the way to the river, loopholing
and occupying the stables just by the gate.
A letter was received from Sher Afzul on the 15th of March in which the
would-be Mehtar said that a party of troops escorting an ammunition
convoy had been surrounded and defeated at Reshun; and further, that
a British officer, who had come down from Mastuj, had also been taken
prisoner, and that he had written a letter to Dr. Robertson, which Sher
Afzul would deliver if the British Agent would send some one to receive
it. This was the news of the disaster to Captain Ross, and Lieutenants
Edwardes' and Fowler's parties. But the officers in Chitral refused
to believe it. On the following day, however, a letter written by
Lieutenant Edwardes from Reshun on the 13th of March was received, and
in it he gave the news of the attack upon his party, and of his being
shut up in the post which he had fortified.
On the 19th of March Abdul Majid Khan, Umra Khan's lieutenant, who,
with three hundred Jandulis, had been with Sher Afzul during the siege,
sent a letter to Dr. Robertson saying that he much regretted that
although he had sent off messengers to Reshun to say that peace had
been made, a fight had taken place, and that two British officers and
nine Mohammedan sepoys had been taken prisoners, and would arrive in
Chitral on the following day. On the 20th of March, Lieutenant Edwardes
and Fowler reached Chitral, and on the same day a native clerk from
the garrison was allowed to come and see them, that he might be able
to assure the defenders that there was no mistake about the disasters
having occurred.
The news of this unfortunate occurrence much depressed the garrison.
They knew that it would not only greatly elate the Chitralis, but
would also give into their hands a large quantity of ammunition and
engineering stores which might be used against them. Captain Townshend,
however, in no way relaxed his efforts in conducting a successful
defence, and even during the few days' truce which followed, he
worked incessantly at his defences, strengthening the cover to the
water-way and constructing a semi-circular loopholed flêche outside the
water-door.
Rations were now running short and the officers had to commence eating
horse-flesh, killing and salting their ponies. For the next few days
and nights the rain poured in torrents, doing much damage to the walls
of the fort, a large piece of the parapet on the west front subsiding,
and giving the garrison much work in rebuilding it with beams in the
evening.
A Union Jack, made up from the red cloth of the sepoys' turbans and
other material, was hoisted on the top of the highest tower, the
south-west, on the 29th of March, and the garrison considered that
from that time onward their luck began to turn. Improved head-cover
was made on all the towers, and beams were put up in the stables to
protect men going out of the water-gate down to the covered water-way.
The top of the water-tower was also strengthened, and its lowest story
pierced with loopholes. An attempt was made to send a messenger to Mr.
Udny at Asmar, but the enemy was watching so closely, that the man was
compelled to return, and not once during the siege were the garrison
able to communicate with the outside world.
The amount of ammunition in hand on the 30th of March was 29,224
rounds of Martini-Henry ammunition--_i.e._ 356 rounds per rifle for
eighty-two effective sepoys and fourteen Sikhs. Besides this, there
were 68,587 rounds of Snider ammunition in hand for 261 effective men
of the Kashmir Infantry, that is to say, 262 rounds per rifle for
these. There were now fit for duty 343 rifles in all. By these the
following guards and pickets had to be furnished:--
Main gate 10
Parapet 40 (10 on each parapet)
Water pickets 20
" tower 25
Stable picket 20
Water-gate guard 10
Guard over Amir-ul-Mulk 6
" " Chitralis at night 4
" on ammunition 6
" " garden gate 6
" " four towers 24
----
Total 171
Thus only 172 rifles were available with which to make a sortie. The
strength of the guards had been reduced to the lowest number compatible
with safety, and out of 172, at least thirty-five would be required
for an inlying picket. The garrison now had supplies to the amount of
45,000 pounds of grain, which would last the number of persons in the
fort seventy-four days, or up to the 13th of June, at the rate of
540 pounds a day. Some allowance for wastage would necessarily have
to be made. There were only left thirty-six pounds of the clarified
butter which native soldiers require so much. And this was kept for the
sick and wounded, and for lights at guards in the fort, and even then
would only last another twelve days. After that it was known that the
already heavy sick-list would be greatly increased, for the men were
all the time on half rations, and were getting little else than this
clarified butter. Stenches in the stables, too, in which were situated
the latrines, were terrible, and a picket of twenty-five men had to be
placed there every night, as it lay on the water-way. There was still a
little rum left, and some tea, and the Sikhs were given one dram of rum
every four days, and the Kashmir Infantry were given a tea ration every
third day.
The enemy made a new sangar on the opposite bank of the river on the
31st of March, at a distance of only 175 yards from the place where
the garrison had to take the water from the river. The enemy showed
the greatest skill in the construction and defence of their sangars,
making regular zigzag approaches after the manner of our own engineers,
excavating trenches, and building up breastworks of fascines, stones,
and earth. The defenders replied by placing screens of tents to conceal
the men going down to the water, so that the enemy should not be able
to see when any one was on the way to the river's edge. More beams were
also put outside the water-gate, to protect the doorway from the fire
of the riflemen on the opposite bank of the river.
But the enemy were not only advancing their trenches towards the
water-way from the opposite bank of the river, they also now commenced
the construction of a covered way to the water from their lower sangar
on the north-west front of the fort, close down to the river. This
sangar was only about eighty yards from the defenders' covered way to
the water. Captain Townshend now commenced further protection for men
going to the water, by sinking a trench in the stables. On the 5th and
6th of April, the enemy showed great activity on the south-east corner
of the fort, occupying the summer-house only forty yards distant, and
they also constructed a large fascine sangar in front of the main gate,
at a distance of only forty yards. The garrison commenced loopholing
the lower story of this tower to command the east end of the stables,
and more loopholes were also made in the stable buildings at the west
end. From their proximity, the enemy were able to cause great annoyance
to the besiegers, and it was with great difficulty that the defenders
were able to keep a proper watch over their proceedings. On the 7th
of April, at about 5 A.M., a large number of the enemy opened a heavy
matchlock fire from the trees in front of the north tower, and an
attack was made on the covered way to the water. The defenders were
instantly on the alert, and steady volleys were fired upon the enemy by
the Sikhs, which caused them to decamp towards the bazaar.
While this firing was taking place on the western face, the enemy
managed with great pluck to place huge faggots and blocks of wood in a
pile against the corner of the gun tower on the south-east, and setting
alight to it, the tower was soon set on fire, and began blazing up.
This was a most serious matter. Captain Townshend immediately sent up
the whole of the inlying picket with their greatcoats full of earth,
and as much water as could be obtained was brought up to throw down
upon the fire. A strong wind was blowing at the time, and though for
a moment the fire was got under, it soon blazed up again, the flames
mounting up in spaces between the beams and the tower. Dr. Robertson,
who was in the tower superintending the putting out of the fire, was
wounded at a hole in the wall, and a Sikh shot there the next minute. A
sentry of the Kashmir Infantry was also shot. Altogether nine men were
wounded, and as the enemy were only forty yards distant, no one could
appear above the wall, or at any hole, for the purpose of throwing down
earth or water upon the fire raging below, without the risk of being
shot. It seemed at one time, therefore, as if it would be impossible
to keep down the flames, which were now working right into the tower,
and which, if they could not be subdued, would quickly burn down the
whole of the woodwork of which so much of the tower is composed, and so
cause the whole tower to fall a mass of ruins, and make a great gap
in the walls of the fort. Eventually the defenders devised the plan
of making a water-spout, which they pushed out through a hole in the
corner of the tower, and then pouring in water from the inside, allowed
it to pour down on the flames below. In this way, after working for
about five hours, the fire was got under, but water was kept pouring
down inside the walls all day long, and holes were picked inside the
tower to thoroughly clamp it out. To guard against this happening again
Captain Townshend made more strict arrangements for watching the ground
under the walls, and the better-disciplined Sikhs were put as sentries
in place of the men of the Kashmir Infantry.
The Machicoulis galleries were gradually improved and loopholed inside,
in a way that all the ground immediately under the tower could be
well watched, and a sentry always lay in each of these galleries.
Captain Townshend also had heaps of earth collected, and sent up on
the parapets, and vessels and ammunition boxes filled with water,
placed in every story in each of the towers. The waterproof sheets
of the 14th Sikhs were utilised for the purpose of holding water,
and all the servants and followers were formed into a fire picket
under Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch. Heaps of stones were placed at the
top of the towers for the sentries to throw down from time to time
in the dark. On the evening of the 8th of April, some red-hot embers
and a bundle of faggots were observed quite close to the tower, and
it was evident that the enemy had succeeded in rushing up and placing
these there while the sentries were being relieved. Captain Townshend
accordingly arranged that the sentries should be relieved at a
different time from day to day, so that the enemy should be unaware
when the relief was taking place. On that day, Captain Townshend
demolished some remaining walls left outside the main gate, and he also
built a stone loopholed tambour in front of the main gate. This would
hold ten men, and from it it was possible to flank the whole of the
west front with its two towers.
The Machicoulis gallery in the gun tower was still further improved,
and good loopholes were made in the lower story. A hole was dug inside
the tower in the floor to the depth of about four feet, and then a
shutter-like loophole was made which commanded the ground at the foot
of the south face of the tower. Sentries were placed in all of these.
Fourteen men were now permanently in this gun tower, and an officer
lived in it. The number of men in hospital now were 11 Sikhs, 19
Kashmir Infantry, and 6 others, and there were 49 out-patients besides,
making the total number of sick 85.
A great attack upon the water-way was made on the night of the
10th-11th of April. The enemy came rushing in with a tremendous din,
yelling, and beating tom-toms, but the defenders immediately sprang
to their stations, and fired section-volleys from the parapets. These
volleys caused them, as on other attacks, to retreat towards the
bazaar, and with a loss of only one man wounded on the part of the
defenders, this last assault of the enemy was beaten. On the following
day it was noticed that the enemy began playing tom-toms and Pathan
pipes, in the summer-house at night, and shouting abuse at intervals.
At this time, large parties of the enemy were seen moving away towards
Mastuj, and the garrison began speculating upon the approach of a force
from Gilgit to their relief. The enemy were indeed moving off to oppose
Colonel Kelly, who had now crossed the Shandur Pass and reached Mastuj
on his way to Chitral.
On the evening of the 16th of April, it having struck the defenders
that the tom-toming, which was so constantly kept up in the
summer-house, was intended to drown the sound of the picking of a mine,
sentries in the gun tower were warned to be on the alert, and to listen
intently. It was thought quite possible that the enemy might have
the intention of digging a mine from the summer-house in towards the
tower, and right under it, so as to be able to blow it up, and effect
an entrance to the fort. At midnight one of the sentries in the lower
story of the gun tower, reported that he heard the noise of picking.
Captain Townshend himself went up, but could hear nothing. But about
11 A.M. on the morning of the 17th, the native officer in the gun
tower reported to him that he could hear the noise of picking quite
distinctly. Captain Townshend accordingly again went up, and there
could now be no mistake that a mine was being made, and that it had
reached to within twelve feet of the walls of the fort. Dr. Robertson
came up and listened too; and both officers agreed that the only thing
to be done was to rush the summer-house, and destroy the mine, for
there was no time to construct a counter-mine, and the enemy's plan
must be frustrated at once.
Lieutenant Harley was accordingly told off to command a party of
forty Sikhs, and sixty of the Kashmir Infantry, and he was given the
following instructions:--"He was not to fire a shot in rushing to
the assault, but to use the bayonet only. He was, however, to take
forty rounds of ammunition for the purpose of firing upon the enemy
after he had captured the summer-house. He was to take with him three
powder bags with 110 pounds of powder, and forty feet of powder-hose,
and picks and spades. He was to go straight for a gap in the wall of
the house with his whole party without any support. Having rushed the
place, he was to hold it with part of his men, while with the remainder
he was to destroy the mine by pulling down the upright and wooden
supports, if any, or by blowing it in if he saw fit. If possible he was
to take a prisoner or two."
[Illustration:
_Photo Lafayette_, _Dublin_.
LIEUTENANT H. K. HARLEY, D.S.O.]
Captain Townshend summoned the native officers going with Lieutenant
Harley, and explained to them the object of the sortie, that they might
be able to make it thoroughly clear to their non-commissioned officers
and men. All officers carried matches, and one officer was told off to
bring up the rear, and see that no man hung back.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th April, the gate of the
east face of the fort was quietly opened, and Lieutenant Harley rushed
out at the head of his party. A man was shot on either side of him,
even in the short space of eighty yards which they had to cover before
reaching the walls of the summer-house. But the enemy had been taken
by surprise, and were only able to get off a few hurried shots before
Lieutenant Harley and his men were up to the walls, over them, and into
their midst. At the time of this unexpected assault there were about
thirty Pathans in the house. They bolted down the garden wall, and
stopping at the far end, threw out fascines from behind it, and from
under this cover, poured a heavy fire into the house. Lieutenant Harley
told off a certain number of his men to reply to this, and then sought
for the main shaft of the mine. It was found outside the summer-house,
behind the garden wall, and thirty-five Chitralis were bayoneted in the
mouth of the mine as they came out.
While Harley was employed in clearing the mine and holding the
summer-house, the enemy, now thoroughly on the alert, began moving in
large numbers down to the river-bank and along behind the garden wall
towards the water-way, with the intention of making a counter-attack
upon it. Captain Townshend having considerable anxiety that an attack
made now while a hundred of his men were outside might be successful,
lined the parapets and kept an incessant steady fire upon the
assailants, while he sent three successive messengers to Lieutenant
Harley to hurry up in his work, and warning him that the enemy were
gathering round the garden with the intention of either cutting him
off, or striking at the water-way. In about an hour's time Lieutenant
Harley cleared the mine of the men inside it, and taking down the
powder bags placed them in the mine. These were exploded, and the work
being completed, Lieutenant Harley rushed back to the fort again, the
enemy from the end of the garden keeping up a furious fusillade as
they retired. The party lost, altogether, 8 men killed and 13 wounded,
_i.e._ 21 killed and wounded out of a total of 100 men. But the work
had been accomplished, the mine had been successfully blown up, until
it now lay exposed as a trench running up to within ten feet of the
fort, and the besiegers had been shown that now, after forty-six days
of the siege, the defenders still had pluck and spirits enough left in
them to assume a vigorous offensive. It was the most brilliant episode
in this gallant defence.
[Illustration: SKETCH OF SOUTH (GUN) TOWER, CHITRAL FORT.]
Yet the defenders were not to be carried away by their success, or led
into slackening their precautions in any way, and they immediately
began to run a subterranean gallery round the tower, to ensure that
if the enemy again attempted mining, they must run into it. But now
relief was close at hand, and the labours and anxieties of the garrison
were soon to cease.
On the night of the 18th of April, a man was heard outside the walls
shouting to those inside that he had important news to tell. With
great precautions he was let into the fort, and he was then recognised
as a man known to the officers. He told them that Sher Afzul and the
Janduli chiefs, with all their men, had fled in the night, and that a
British force from Gilgit was only two marches distant. The officers
at first refused to believe this story, for the news seemed all too
good to be true, and they feared that the enemy were merely trying to
entrap them into leaving the fort or slackening their watching, and so
catching them at a disadvantage. But as no signs of the enemy could be
observed, patrols were sent out, and then, as it became apparent that
the enemy had really drawn off, the famished British officers, in the
first place, showed their satisfaction at their release by sitting
down to eat a good square meal. They had so far been only able to eat
sparingly even of their horse-flesh, but now, as the siege was over,
they could eat as they wished. Then they tried to sleep, but being
so excited they found it impossible to do so; so they got up and ate
again, calling their first meal "supper," and the second meal "early
breakfast." At daylight the next morning, patrols were sent out at
some distance from the fort, and the whole place was then found to be
deserted, and on the following day Colonel Kelly's little force marched
in from Gilgit.
So ended this memorable siege. "The quite exemplary coolness,
intrepidity, and energy exhibited by Captain Townshend, and the valour
and endurance displayed by all ranks in the defence of the fort at
Chitral," said the Commander-in-Chief in India, Sir George White, the
defender of Ladysmith, "have added greatly to the prestige of the
British arms, and will elicit the admiration of all who read this
account of the gallant defence made by a small party of Her Majesty's
forces, and combined with the troops of His Highness the Maharajah of
Kashmir, against heavy odds when shut up in a fort in the heart of
an enemy's country, many miles from succour and support." And the
Viceroy, in endorsing the Commander-in-Chief's remarks, said: "That his
words will, he feels assured, be deeply felt by every subject of Her
Majesty throughout the British Empire. The steady front shown to the
enemy, the military skill displayed in the conducting of the defence,
the cheerful endurance of all the hardships of the siege, the gallant
demeanour of the troops, and the conspicuous example of heroism and
intrepidity recorded, will ever be remembered as forming a glorious
episode in the history of the Indian Empire and its army." The Viceroy
joined with the Commander-in-Chief in deploring the loss of Captain
Baird, General Baj Singh, and Major Bhikan Singh, and of so many other
brave soldiers who fell in the discharge of their duty. Her Majesty the
Queen was pleased to express her gracious approbation of the successful
efforts of the troops, and His Excellency the Viceroy in Council
tendered to Surgeon-Major Robertson, Captain Townshend, and to the
whole garrison, his heartfelt congratulations on their gallant defence
of the position entrusted to them, while it was an especial pleasure,
His Excellency said, to recognise the devoted aid given by the loyal
troops of His Highness the Maharajah of Kashmir.
All ranks in the garrison were granted six months' pay, which reward
also fell to the heirs of those killed, in addition to the pensions to
which they might be entitled. Surgeon-Major Robertson was created a
Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India; Captain Townshend
was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and promoted to a
Brevet majority; Captain Campbell was given the Decoration of the
Distinguished Service Order, and promoted to a Brevet majority;
and Lieutenant Gurdon and Lieutenant Harley were both also given
the Decoration of the Distinguished Service Order; and, lastly,
Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch was awarded that most coveted of all
rewards, the Victoria Cross.