Lieut. Hawtrey of the 37th N. I. was on duty at the captured fort to-day with 100 men—forty of these were of the 44th, the rest from the 37th. Suppose this to be the fort: * no outlet, the window being blocked up with mud. In this room were six of the 44th. The Affghans planted their crooked sticks, which served them for scaling ladders; got up one by one; pulled out the mud, and got in. A child with a stick might have repulsed them. The Europeans had their belts and accoutrements off, and the Sipahees the same. They all ran away as fast as they could! The 44th say that the 37th ran first, and as they were too weak they went too. Hawtrey says there was not a pin to choose,—all cowards alike. After he was deserted by the men, he himself threw six hand grenades before he followed them. One man of the 44th was an exception, and he was shot whilst assisting Hawtrey in throwing these missiles.
Lieut. Gray, 44th, was wounded in the arm earlier in the day, by a man who climbed up and fired through a loophole at him: he thoughtlessly left his post to return to cantonments and get his wound dressed; and the men endeavoured to excuse themselves by saying their own officer was not there to direct them. It was the most shameful of all the runaways that has occurred. The men (all agree) were not dressed when the enemy entered. The 37th had three men left dead in the breach, and two were wounded, which certainly looks as if they had defended themselves. We lost 6000 rounds of ammunition in this fort.
Brig. Shelton wished that the garrison who had evacuated the fort should retake it. For this purpose he got the men under arms as soon as they could be collected together, and kept them, regardless of the inclemency of the weather, with snow lying on the ground, until three or four o'clock in the morning; when they were eventually dismissed, nothing being attempted.
The least thing seems to-day to create alarm. The following note, accompanied by a six-pound shot, was sent by order of Brig. Shelton to Sturt:
"Dear Hogg—The enemy have planted a gun in a bastion of one of their forts, near the road leading to the Kohistan gate of the city, and have been firing it at the Magazine fort since one o'clock. Two or three shots struck the rear face. I send you one that fell in the room above the gateway, after passing through the wall.
"Yours, W. Grant."
Gen. Elphinstone wrote again to the Envoy to-day, urging him to treat for terms with the enemy.
At near 9 A.M. Sturt left us with an intention of blowing up the captured fort, which the men seem to have taken a dislike to, and to be determined not to defend it. He had not been gone more than a few minutes when quick firing commenced: the enemy had come down evidently in force along the south-eastern face of cantonments. There was a blaze of light from Mahmood Khan's fort to our rear gate: it did not last long, but it was a very anxious time; for our north-eastern portion of rampart is occupied by the 5th, and I distinctly heard Bygrave using no gentle language whilst he kicked the men up and out of their tents. Lieut. Mein (13th) was also active in assisting to do the same, but with very little success; though the drums beating to arms, and the hallooing and shouting for the General and the Brigadier, were noise enough to have aroused the dead. Lieut. Deas was on the rear gate guard; and had a rush been made at it by the enemy, there did not seem to be any one to oppose them.
Yesterday when Sturt was talking to the General and the Brigadier about the captured fort, he mentioned that Capt. Layton commanded there that day, and that he wished he should remain and retain it as a permanent command, it being a place for which an officer should be selected, and he considered him as well fitted for the command. Shelton, with a sneer, asked if Layton would like to stay there? To which Sturt replied, "I do not know what he would like, but I know that I should wish him to do so." Capt. Layton's courage and steadiness were too unimpeachable for the sneer to affect his character as a soldier. The Brigadier's dislike to him arose from his not being a man of polished manners, and rather ungrammatical in his language.
After all had gone wrong, the Brigadier told Sturt that he had told him to order Capt. Layton to remain, and appealed to the General whether he did not; to which Elphinstone hesitatingly replied, yes. On Sturt saying that he never understood such an order, and that their recollections of the conversation were different from his; that he would not give up his own reminiscence of the business; that he (Sturt) was wide awake at the time; the Brigadier lying on the floor rolled up in his bedding, and either really or affectedly half asleep. On this the General hedged off evasively by saying, he did not think what was said amounted to an order!