The Afghan Wars 1839 42 and 1878 80 by Archibald Forbes

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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slowly, to search for a road by which the guns could be withdrawn, and to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.

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