Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti

by G. A. Henty

Captain Campbell then ordered a charge with the bayonet, to clear the hamlet. It was gallantly led, by Captain Townshend and two native officers. The ground being perfectly open, and the fire of the enemy being steady and continuous, the two native officers and four sepoys were killed at once.

When they got within forty yards of the village, which was concealed in a grove of trees, they found that it was a large place; with a wall, three hundred feet in length, behind which the enemy were posted in perfect cover. There was nothing for it but to retreat. Captain Campbell was, at this moment, shot in the knee; and Captain Townshend assumed the command. Captain Campbell was carried to the rear, and the force retired in alternate parties.

The retreat, however, was conducted slowly and deliberately; though the enemy, who came running out, soon overlapped the little column--some even getting behind it, while groups of fanatic swordsmen, from time to time, charged furiously down upon it. From all the hamlets they passed through, a fire was opened upon them by the Chitralis, those who were supposed to be friendly having gone over to the other side. So heavy was the fire that, at last, Townshend ordered his men to double. This they did with great steadiness; and he was able to rally them, without difficulty, at a small hamlet, where he found Mr. Robertson encouraging the men he had brought out. A message was sent to the fort for reinforcements, and Lieutenant Harley led out fifty of the Sikhs, and covered the retreat to the fort.

In the meantime Gurdon, with his detachment and Captain Baird, were still far away on the steep side of the ravine. Dr. Whitchurch, who had dressed Baird's wound, was sent to take him to the rear; and it was then that Townshend's party began to retreat and, after fierce fighting, arrived at the fort, where they found that Whitchurch had not arrived.

The doctor had with him a handful of sepoys and Kashmir Rifles, and some stretcher bearers, under the command of a native officer. Matters had developed so rapidly that, in a very short time, they were behind Townshend's retreating parties, round which the enemy were swarming; and when the retirement became a rapid retreat, they dropped farther behind. Small detached parties soon became aware of their position, and attacked them. Three men, who were carrying the stretcher, were killed by successive shots and, when the fourth was hit, the stretcher could be no longer carried; so Captain Baird was partly carried, and partly dragged along the ground.

The enemy's fire became so hot that the party were compelled to make for the river bank. They had to charge, and carry, two or three stone walls. Once they were completely surrounded, but the gallant Kashmirs charged the enemy so furiously with rifle and bayonet that, at last, they made a way through them and reached the fort, where they had been given up for lost. Thirteen men, in all, came in; but only seven of these had fought their way through with Whitchurch; the other six being fugitives, who had joined him just before he had reached the fort. Half of Whitchurch's little party were killed, and Baird had been, again, twice wounded. Whitchurch, himself, marvellously escaped without a wound. No finer action was ever performed than that by this little body.

The total casualties of the day were very heavy. Of the hundred and fifty men actually engaged, twenty non-commissioned officers and men were killed, and twenty-eight wounded. Of the officers, Captain Campbell was badly wounded, and Captain Baird died on the following morning. The two native officers were killed.

The enemy's strength was computed to be from a thousand to twelve hundred men. Of these, five hundred were Umra Khan's men, who were armed with Martinis. Many of the others carried Sniders.

The whole of the Chitralis had now joined Sher Afzul, most of them doubtless being forced to do so, by fear of the consequences that would ensue should they refuse. The little fort thus stood isolated, in the midst of a powerful enemy and a hostile population. The villages stood on higher ground than the fort and, from all of them, a constant fusillade was kept up on the garrison, while they were engaged in the difficult work of putting the fort into a better condition of defence.

The first thing to be done was, of course, to take stock of the stores; and the next to estimate how many days it would last. Everyone was put upon half rations, and it was calculated that they could hold out two and a half months. It was found that they had two hundred and eighty rounds per man, besides Snider ammunition for the Kashmir Rifles, and three hundred rounds of Martini ammunition for the Sikhs.