After the second charge, in which the 9th Lancers lost several men shot down, Captain Gough’s troop did rear-guard work, dismounting and firing, so as to hold the enemy a little in cheek. Only such Lancers as were wounded, or had their horses disabled, were sent back to Sherpur, by way of the Nanuchi Kotal, the rest escorting General Roberts to Dehmazung. Once the broken squadron of the 9th were got together, they settled down resolutely to their work of keeping the enemy in play, and their carbines were used with good effect until Dehmazung was reached. Here they got cover, and, with the sowars of the 14th, opened a smart fire upon Mahomed Jan’s force as it streamed up towards Cabul. Alone and unaided they could not have hoped to stem the rush, and matters were at a crisis when Colonel Brownlow, with the 200 rifles of the 72nd Highlanders, arrived. The Highlanders were in the nick of time: Colonel Brownlow doubled out a company to occupy Dehmazung, the 9th cheering them lustily as they saw the welcome relief, and soon from the roofs and walls of the village rapid volleys were being poured into the Afghan ranks. The enemy streamed down upon the village “like ants on a hill,” as a Highlander described it, but Colonel Brownlow’s admirable disposition of his handful of Highlanders soon checked the rush. The men were told not to throw away a shot; the Martinis soon blazed out in one persistent line of fire—and such a fire, that even Ghazis shrank from encountering it. In less than half an hour the enemy were forced back, and they then split up into two parts—one going on to the south, to Indikee village, and thence scaling the Takht-i-Shah Peak and the heights to the south of the Bala Hissar fortified ridge, the other facing round to the west, as if to get upon the hills south of Kila Kazi. Their entrance into Cabul had been frustrated, and all that was left to them was to raise their standards on the hills they had occupied and flourish their knives in defiance at distant Sherpur. This they did, as we could see plainly enough through our binoculars.
In the meantime General Macpherson had fallen upon a large body of Afghans higher up the valley, and with the 67th Regiment and the 3rd Sikhs had completely broken their ranks and pursued them towards Argandeh. General Macpherson did not then know of the loss of the guns, but in facing round towards Cabul he came upon the scene of the charge, and was then able to recover the bodies of Lieutenants Hearsey and Ricardo and of the troopers killed in action. His own loss was not heavy, Lieutenant Cook of the 3rd Sikhs being the only officer wounded. Sir F. Roberts remained at Dehmazung until Macpherson’s force reached it, about nightfall; and then, leaving the Brigadier with his men encamped below the gorge, where Wali Mahomed had a camp with some mountain guns (he was preparing to start for Turkistan), the Lieutenant-General returned to Sherpur. He had before received the news that the guns had been pulled out of the watercourses into which they had fallen, and were on their way to cantonments. How they were recovered, well deserves telling.
When Sir F. Roberts trotted across to the Cabul gorge, there were Lancers, gunners, and drivers, making their way towards Sherpur, and most of them were out of hand, their officers having been either put out of action or being missing. At the Nanuchi Kotal, facing the western end of Sherpur, most of these rallied about Colonel Macgregor, Captain Dean also having gathered some stragglers together. When the enemy veered off towards Dehmazung, Colonel Macgregor saw that the village of Baghwana, near where the guns were lying, was not guarded by any of Mahomed Jan’s rear guard, and he thought there might be a chance of recovering the guns without waiting for General Macpherson’s advance. With a scratch lot of Lancers and Artillerymen, he accordingly followed the upper Argandeh Road; and, beyond stray shots from villagers (who, as on October 8th, blazed at us whenever we were within range), the party met with no opposition. The baggage of Macpherson’s brigade was met making its way to Sherpur; and as the enemy were then well on their way to Indikee, Colonel Macgregor took thirty men of the 67th, and about the same number of Sikhs and Ghoorkas—sixty in all—and, extending them in skirmishing older, made for the abandoned guns. On arriving at the village he placed his men in an enclosure well adapted for defence against any numbers; and such artillerymen as were with him set to work to get out the guns. This was done after a long struggle, and then it was found that teams sufficient only to give four horses per gun were present. The rest had galloped into Sherpur with their officer, Major Smith-Windham. With no artillery officer, but with the Chief of the Staff, rests the credit of recapturing the guns. Colonel Ross was told to bring them safely into camp with the baggage escort and the scratch gathering of mounted men, and this he did.
Our losses in the day’s action, so far as the R.H.A. and the cavalry are concerned, are four officers killed, two wounded, and twenty-three men killed and ten wounded. The officers killed and wounded were well to the front in the desperate charge their squadrons made upon the unbroken masses of infantry, and most of them were hit by the volley which the enemy poured into them as they got to close quarters. Colonel Cleland, in spite of his two wounds, was helped into the saddle and rode eight miles to Sherpur, fainting as he was lifted from his horse into a dhoolie at the gate. The bodies of those killed were brought in, and, I am sorry to say, they had been fearfully mutilated. The passions of our men are likely to be dangerously aroused in future fighting by the remembrance of these mutilations, which will not bear description.
In Sherpur, an anxious afternoon was passed. When stragglers from the 9th Lancers and F-A battery rode in, wounded, mud-splashed, and many without lances or swords, it was known that a serious action had taken place, and all troops in the cantonment were ordered to stand to their arms. Major Smith-Windham, with half a dozen drivers of F-A battery, was the first officer to arrive; and when no guns followed him, and he reported them “spiked and abandoned,” and the enemy advancing towards Sherpur in overwhelming force, the anxiety of Brigadier Hugh Gough was greatly increased. No gunner would leave his guns if there were a chance of recovering them, and they were given up for lost. The western wall of the cantonments was manned by 150 of the 3rd Sikhs. At its northern end, where there is a gap between it and the Bemaru hills defended by a shelter trench, wire entanglements were laid down from the foot of the hill to the end of the wall. All the gates were occupied by small detachments of infantry, and the two remaining Horse Artillery guns were placed upon the Bemaru Heights facing towards the Nanuchi Kotal leading to Chardeh. If an attack were really about to be made, it would be sharp work defending the three miles of walls enclosing the cantonments, as less than 1,000 men were available for the duty; but the news that Mahomed Jan with his 10,000 followers had turned off towards the Cabul gorge dissipated the anxiety felt; and when, later, the fire of the 72nd Highlanders was heard at Dehmazung and then died away, everyone knew Sherpur was safe. It was ticklish work for the time being; but Brigadier Gough made his arrangements quietly, and without listening to any absurd suggestions. As a precautionary measure, a heliogram was sent to Colonel Jenkins, commanding the Guides, who had reached Luttabund from Sei Baba in the morning: he was ordered to come in with his cavalry and infantry, without baggage. At seven o’clock we heard he was at Butkhak, and as I am writing (at midnight) his corps is marching in over 700 strong—200 more will arrive to-morrow with the baggage. Sir F. Roberts, after sending up 200 of the 72nd Highlanders to reinforce the picquet on the Bala Hissar Heights, rode into cantonments, within the walls of which all is made snug for the night. The reinforcement to the picquet was caused by the belief that Mahomed Jan would attempt to occupy the heights commanding the Bala Hissar and Cabul, and there is no doubt this was his intention. Since seven o’clock the picquet has been assailed on all sides, and even now the circle of fire shows where the 250 British soldiers are holding their own.
CHAPTER XVI.
Attempt to storm the Takht-i-Shah Peak—Natural Strength of the Position—Heliograms exchanged with General Baker—Failure to take the Peak—Casualties—The New Plan of Attack—The Action of the 13th of December—Storming of the Beni Hissar Ridge by the 92 Highlanders and the Guides—The Cavalry Charges in the Plain—Death of Captain Butson—The Position of Affairs at Nightfall—Reinforcements from Kohistan—The Action of December 14th—Storming of the Asmai Heights—Retreat of the Safis—Captain Vousden’s Charge—Counter-Attack by the Enemy from Indikee—Death of Captain Spens, and Retirement from the Cuncal Hill—Loss of Two Mountain Guns—Withdrawal of all Troops from the Asmai and Sherderwaza Heights—The State of the Sherpur Defences—Total Casualties.
Sherpur, 12th December, midnight.
I left Mahomed Jan and his followers in possession of the hills to the south of the Sherderwaza Heights, with a part of General Macpherson’s brigade on the latter, ready to attack him. To-day a party of 560 men, made up in nearly equal proportions from the 67th Foot, 72nd Highlanders, 3rd Sikhs, and 5th Ghoorkas, aided by two guns of Morgan’s mountain battery, have made that attack, and have established themselves on a lower hill between the Sherderwaza Heights and the high conical peak of Takht-i-Shah, whereon the enemy muster in great force and have sixteen standards flying. This peak is the highest of the clump of mountains south of Cabul and lying between the city and Charasia, and was the point whence Captain Straton tried to heliograph to the Shutargardan in the early days of our occupation. It is cone-shaped, looked at from Sherpur, and on its southern side joins a ridge running southwards above the village of Indikee. The sides facing Cabul are very steep, and covered with huge boulders polished by wind and rain, and of a kind to check any storming party. Perfect cover is afforded to men holding it, and on the summit is a well-built sungar of great thickness, covering a natural cavity in the rocks which has been made bomb-proof by some Afghan engineer, who understood the strength of the point. Fifty men could lie in perfect security behind the sungar or in the hole below it, and could choose their own time for firing at an advancing enemy. Outside the sungar, and a little lower down, is a cave, wherein another strong body of men could hide themselves and act in a similar way, while their flank to the left would be guarded by a broken line of rocks extending down to the kotal, where the Bala Hissar Ridge meets them. Just between the two ranges is a low, dome-shaped hill, blocking up the otherwise open kotal; and round this a footpath winds, leading to the sungar, but so narrow as only to admit of men going up in Indian file. The enemy occupied this morning the Takht-i-Shah Peak and the line of rocks I have mentioned, and had also a few score of men on the lower hill in the kotal. Away on the south, hidden from our view, were some 5,000 or 6,000 men, waiting for an attack to develop, in order to reinforce the peak. At eight o’clock our guns opened fire from the picquet on the ridge. There were then only seven standards on the peak, but during the day nine others were brought up; and the long ridge, stretching downwards to Beni Hissar, was lined with men. These were, by the contour of the ground, safe from our shells, and they quietly watched the guns all day. From eight o’clock until evening Captain Morgan fired shell after shell into the sungar and the rocks below. The enemy were of quite a different order to those we have hitherto had to deal with. They stood up boldly to their flags, and waved their rifles and knives in derision at each shot. We could not spare more infantry for the attack, as we had to protect Sherpur, which, we learnt, was to be attacked by Kohistanis from over the Paen Minar Kotal, north of the lake. The city, too, was known to be in a ferment, and a demonstration might at any time be made from it against our cantonment. General Baker with his flying column was still absent, and our object was rather to hold the main body of Mahomed Jan’s force in check, than try to disperse them with 560 men. At nine o’clock heliographic communication was opened with General Baker, then on the Argandeh Kotal. He reported that his rear-guard had been harassed for the last two days, and that the hills in all directions were lined with tribesmen. He was ordered to march without delay to Sherpur, and it was hoped at first that he would arrive in time to assist General Macpherson in attacking the enemy’s position. As he had to march fourteen miles with his rear-guard engaged from time to time, he did not reach Sherpur until evening, so his troops, footsore and tired, were not available.
