Orders were this day issued, that the arms and accoutrements, discipline, &c . of the various corps, should be attended to! Consequent on this order the 5th have been very busy cleaning their musket barrels,—a most unusual exertion. The arms used to be placed against the rampart, and of course the barrels were rusty and the powder damp.
A committee is ordered to assemble to-morrow to value all useless horses in the Bazaar, which are to be destroyed; so there will be plenty of cheap meat, as tattoos and camels have for some time past been eaten: even some of the gentlemen ate camel's flesh, particularly the heart, which was esteemed equal to that of the bullock. I never was tempted by these choice viands; so cannot offer an opinion regarding them.
Brig. Shelton sent to tell Sturt that one of the bastions of the captured fort was on fire, and to request he would send bildars to dig the place and lay on fresh earth. He went accordingly to see what was the matter, and came back very angry, as the guard had been burning the defences he had put up.
4th.—Two chiefs have been treating with the King: they propose that he throws off the Feringhees, on which they will render their allegiance to him. His Majesty, however, thinks it unsafe to break with us. Gen. Nott's brigade is now supposed to be at Shekoabad, about six marches from Cabul. The enemy assembled in numbers on the heights, and planted two guns in the gorge; from which they discharged 144 shot at us (said to have been scored on the wall of the Mission Compound). They had three other guns out, which were placed on the road behind a trench they had dug, and a kind of breastwork they had thrown up across the road, near the Shah Bagh.
In front of this they had another for their men to fire from behind it. Another party took post in the Nullah, near the bridge going to Siah Sung. A man mounted on a grey horse came down apparently to see if they were properly posted: he had a foot man with him. A shot was taken at the latter, who, being beyond its range, ran a few yards backwards and forwards, dancing, jumping, and cutting capers in derision.
Just as it was getting dark the fight commenced in earnest: the enemy made a rush at the captured fort. They had placed a bag of powder at the wicket, and must have been greatly astonished at finding it produced no effect in consequence of Sturt having filled the place up.
They were received with a sharp fire, which was kept up for a long time, both of musketry and guns. Lieut. Cumberland, of the 44th, was on duty there with 100 men. He sent for a reinforcement, and Sturt took fifty men to him under a very heavy fire. (Observe the wisdom of unnecessarily risking the life of our only engineer officer.)
Notwithstanding that the enemy opened five guns on us, our loss was very trifling: as yet I have heard only of one man, an artilleryman, killed; and a sergeant of Sturt's (Williams) was wounded whilst digging with the sappers. A few horses and camels were killed, as also one or two camp followers in the Mission Compound.
Some of the cannon shot went clean over the cantonments (those fired from the gorge): one fell between the legs of Mr. Mein's mule in Sturt's compound, near the rear gate, without doing any damage.
To-day Sturt came home with his clothes singed, having been nearly blown up by an explosion of powder in one of the batteries, when a man got his pouch ignited by the port-fire; he was much hurt: at 10 o'clock the shots were dropping quickly.