The enemy during the night occupied two strong forts a few hundred yards beyond the eastern wall, and were in such numbers that their fire annoyed us in that direction. Near the 28th N.I. lines is a high walled enclosure, in which sick and wounded sepoys are placed; and in front of this again, outside the lines, is a small fort in which fifty men, of the 67th Foot, under Captain Smith, had been stationed during the night as an advanced post. The fort nearest to them in possession of the enemy is known as Kila Mir Akhor, named after the Afghan Master of the Horse, and to-day General Baker was ordered to destroy this. He took with him 400 of the 67th, under Major Kingsley, 400 of the 3rd Sikhs under Colonel Money, the 5th Punjab Cavalry, two mountain guns of Swinley’s Battery, and a party of Sappers and Miners. These moved out about eight o’clock; but the morning was so misty after last night’s fall of snow, that nothing could be seen twenty yards away. A wall of mist shut out the view on every side, and it was difficult to feel the enemy and to test their strength. Just as the guns were being got into action, a terrific fire from the two forts held by the Afghans was opened upon General Baker, and several men fell wounded. Lieutenant Montenaro, of the Mountain Battery, was laying a gun when a bullet struck him in the chest and lodged in the spine, inflicting a mortal wound. General Baker moved back the 67th in rear of the fort occupied by Captain Smith, to act as a reserve, and extended the 3rd Sikhs in skirmishing order through the orchards to open fire upon Kila Mir Akhor. The guns tried to get round on the left, but found no position to suit them in the orchards, and it was then reported that the fort was commanded from the south-eastern bastion. They were moved into this bastion, and, aided by two guns of F-A, shelled the place for some time. Covered by this fire, the 67th advanced to see if the fort were still held, as the fire from it had slackened. As they were not fired upon, the Sappers, under Lieutenants Nugent and Murdoch, pushed on with powder bags and got within the walls, which were surrounded by Major Kingsley and his men. The towers were mined and blown up, and the buildings set on fire. The enemy still held the further fort, which was of great strength, with walls 30 feet high, and beyond some skirmishers of the 67th checking the fire from its towers, it was left untouched. The enemy were crowded within it, and were reinforced by men from the Siah Sung Heights. Our cavalry and a company of the 67th kept a sharp look-out on General Baker’s left flank in the Kohistan direction, while the towers and bastions were being blown up, and Kila Mir Akhor having been destroyed, the force returned to cantonments. This kind of work is full of danger, as the Afghans make good shooting from loop-holes and behind orchard walls; and in this skirmish we had six of the 67th and six of the 3rd Sikhs wounded, besides Lieutenant Montenaro fatally hit.
There was again to-day constant firing at the walls by detached parties of the enemy, and several casualties occurred—horses, ponies, and camp-followers being hit. Our men do not answer the fire, except when certain of their aim, as one rifle discharged from the walls is the signal for twenty answering shots. The bullets go wide of their mark and drop into cantonments, doing, as I have said, some damage. A trooper of the 9th Lancers, while in the open, was badly hit in the chest; and one of the 3rd Sikhs, while on the Bemaru Heights, was also struck. The bullet was from a Snider rifle, and must have travelled 1,500 or 1,700 yards. The Ardal Pultun was running short of Snider ammunition, and the irregulars with them are equally short of lead. Slugs made of telegraph wire, revolver bullets, and, in some cases, even cartridges have been picked up within the walls. They were probably fired from Enfields, smooth-bores, or jhezails. They would make an ugly wound at short ranges, but they are mostly spent by the time they reach us.
Though we are cut off entirely from the outer world, our internal means of communication are perfect. The heliograph works from the head-quarters’ gateway to the eastern end of Bemaru, and telegraph offices have been opened about cantonments by Mr. Luke and Mr. Kirk in charge of the line. There is plenty of wire left even after so many hundreds yards have been used for entanglements, and branch lines have been laid from the chief office to the more distant quarters. General Roberts is thus kept informed of all that is going on, and much orderly work is saved by these means. Orders can he transmitted to General Macpherson and Colonel Jenkins in a few seconds, and troops warned for duty without the least delay. At night, lamps are used for heliographic signalling from the gateways and the heights whereon there are no telegraph offices; and though the light draws fire occasionally, the signallers have not yet been hit. Such of the cavalry as were picqueted in the open have been moved nearer to the line of barracks, so as to be out of fire, and there is now an open maidan where, a month ago, our tents covered the ground. The ordnance stores have also been moved to a safer spot than that formerly occupied, in rear of General Baker’s garden, and the office tents and post-office near head-quarters have been repitched on safer ground. There have been so many bullets singing about that away from the shelter of the walls there was positive danger in walking from point to point. On the northern line, the Bemaru Heights, no shots have been fired, as the enemy cannot get within range without laying themselves open to being cut off in the plain beyond by our cavalry.
We have heard from Luttabund to-day that none of the special messengers, conveying letters and telegrams, has reached there since the 15th. We are afraid after this to entrust important letters to the messengers, who may have taken them to the enemy, or been captured on the road to Luttabund. Beyond keeping a diary of events, such as I am now writing, nothing can be done; and it is hardly likely that beyond the mere fact of being invested and of stray shooting at the walls there will be anything left to chronicle for a few days.
Major Cook, V.C., as good a soldier as ever served, and a universal favourite in the force, died this evening. Lieutenant Montenaro still lives, but paralysis has declared itself, and his death must be a matter of a few hours. Our loss of officers is painfully great, and the total casualties of all ranks since December 10th must now be nearly 300. The 9th Lancers have been the worst sufferers: they have lost three officers killed and four wounded, and twenty-one men killed and seventeen wounded, or forty-eight casualties in their ranks. The 5th Punjab Cavalry is the only regiment whose officers have escaped scot-free during the five days’ fighting, from the 10th to the 14th.
20th December.
Waiting for the attack has grown so terribly monotonous, that we daily curse the tactics pursued by Mahomed Jan, who only sends out 200 or 300 sharp-shooters to blaze away their ammunition at our sentries. It has become so apparent that no real assault is likely soon to take place, that we are half-inclined to go out and deal with the enemy. But, fortunately for them, they are in Cabul, and street fighting with our small force would be almost a useless sacrifice of life. We could burn the city down certainly; but there are political considerations which tie our hands, as to destroy Cabul means much more than burning so many thousand houses. We have still no news of General Gough’s brigade, although the 20th has come and gone, and now even the most sanguine among us do not expect the investment to be at an end till Christmas Day. Our little garrison at Luttabund has had a small fight of its own, but has come well out of the scrimmage, having killed fifty of the assailants. Mahomed Jan is afraid to split up his force, or he would before this have detached 5,000 or 6,000 men to hold Butkhak, and advance thence to carry the Luttabund Kotal. It is the presence of our troops at Luttabund and Jugdulluck which has no doubt kept the Tezin Ghilzais in check; and as Asmatullah Khan seems to be quietly waiting in the Lughman Valley for further news of Afghan successes, the march of our reinforcements should be made without a shot being fired—at least as far as Luttabund. A small convoy of yaboos, in charge of their Hazara drivers, carrying food to Colonel Hudson, was sent from Sherpur last night, and reached Luttabund safely. Another will be sent to night; but as parties of the enemy have been seen taking the road to Butkhak, it is not unlikely that it will be intercepted. The Hazaras are very plucky; they go out willingly for a small reward, and we are now using a few of them to carry letters and despatches. They pass out of the north-west corner, make for the border of the lake, and thence work along the northern edge of the plain between Sherpur and Butkhak, avoiding the latter place as much as possible. We are anxious as to the safety of the bridge over the Logar river, halfway to Butkhak. It is believed at present to be intact; and unless it is very thoroughly blown up, its strong masonry piers and arches can be easily repaired. Luckily, we are not fighting an enemy with many resources. There is no one from Mahomed Jan downwards who understands, in the first place, how to make an investment really worthy of the name. To deal with walls such as we have to defend, the only mode to harass the garrison successfully is to concentrate an enfilading fire so as to sweep the parapet. We have not had time to make traverses of sand-bags on the bastions or walls; and our men would suffer greatly if the bullets, instead of passing harmlessly over the parapet at right-angles, were directed so as to rake it from gate to gate. If the enemy threw up earthworks during the night at some distance from the corner bastions, and fired in a line parallel to the ditch, they could not fail to do some mischief. As it is, not a man on the walls has yet been wounded, and our answering volleys, when fired, have always been effective. Four men out in the open were shot down by one volley from the marksmen at the south-west bastion, the range being 450 yards. A Martini rifle, resting in a neatly-cut channel on the parapet, is, in the hands of cool, collected soldiers, a most deadly weapon at these short ranges; and as no one is allowed to fire without an officer’s permission, the shooting is nearly always good. One of the many rumours from the city was that powder-bags were to be brought to blow in the gates. In only one case, at head-quarters, has an attempt been made by us to permanently close the gateways. There is a strong guard at each, and the open space is usually blockaded with Afghan ammunition waggons, strong abattis outside being so arranged as to check a rush. On either side of the waggons, which can be easily drawn away when troops are sent out, are low walls built up of flour-bags, from behind which ten or twelve men can command the entrance if it comes to close fighting. At the head-quarters’ gate strong doors have been placed on hinges let into the wooden supports to the mud wall on either side, and gun carriages are closely jammed against these. Twelve picked men are on duty day and night on the wall commanding the entrance, and their orders are to reserve their fire until the enemy with their powder-bags are within twenty yards of the gateway. A strong wooden platform, with a parapet of sand-bags, stretches from wall to wall six feet above the gun-carriages, and this post is entrusted to the care of the thirty Ghoorkas who came up with Sir Michael Kennedy as escort. Even if the door were blown in, the ghazis at the head of a storming party would have to face a heavy fire from above, which they could not return while clambering over the barricade. This gateway would probably be the one first assailed, as the Afghans know quite well that General Roberts and his Staff have their quarters within it.
Some of our spies state that the men now holding Cabul have seriously contemplated an assault; but that their ranks are split up by quarrels as to the right of tribal sections to appoint a new Amir. Old Mushk-i-Alam still continues to prophesy that a repetition of the victory of 1841-42 is sure to come to pass; and, as a first step towards this, Mahomed Jan has had the coolness to “open negotiations.” One would be inclined to look upon his self-assurance as ludicrous, were it not that he has the gratification of seeing us shut up in Sherpur, as if at his mercy. The propositions offered are of such a “mixed” order that they seem, at first sight, scarcely serious. One is that we should at once retire to India, after having entered into an agreement to send Yakub Khan back to Cabul in the state befitting an Amir; and we are to leave two British officers of distinction as hostages for the faithful carrying out of our contract. Another is made on behalf of the Kohistanis, who offer to accept Wali Mahomed as Amir, if we will march away without concerning ourselves further with Afghan matters. The leaders, who have been bold enough to make these proposals, think, perhaps, that we are as weak as our unfortunate army thirty-eight years ago, and that by frightening us into concessions they will be able to cut us up in detail as we toil back to Peshawar. As all the advantages of arms, equipment, and ample supplies are now on our side, we only laugh at the terms so considerately offered. “We have a lakh of men: they are like dogs eager to rush on their prey! We cannot much longer control them!” is said to have been one of the messages sent to shake our faith in our own strength; but such absurd vapouring is taken at its real value, and contemptuously passed over. Yet a few days, and we shall have 6,000 men hammering at the gates of Cabul; and unless our soldiers belie themselves, there will be a great revenge taken for the humiliation our army has had to endure. The idea of creating a new Amir has turned the heads of our foes to an extent that is absurd when it is remembered that they are merely in Cabul on sufferance for a few days until our reinforcements come up. The Kohistanis, who have nominated Wali Mahomed, are at loggerheads with the Ghilzais from Logar and Wardak, who wish to put Yakub Khan’s son, young Musa Jan, on the throne. They are politicians enough to know that Yakub himself will never he sent back as ruler of Afghanistan, and nothing would suit them better than to have an infant as Amir, and their own chiefs as a Council of Regency. Such a government would be on lines which would give full scope to ambitious men, and the country would be plundered for the benefit of the Ghilzais and their friends. In this wrangling about the Amirship, the more warlike work, ready at hand, is forgotten, though the more fanatical have held councils of war and told off leaders to various sections which are to assault Sherpur at a given signal. There is, however, but little attention paid by the rank and file to the commands of their leaders; and though when a ghazi rushes upon his death, a handful of desperate men will follow him, the great majority hang back when they see the task before them.
The firing into cantonments to-day was of the usual desultory kind, and our mountain guns pitched a few shells into such gardens as contained fairly large bodies of men. Two Highlanders were wounded while on picquet duty at the line of entrenchment from the commissariat godowns to the Bemaru gorge. Kila Mahomed Sharif, so well known during the disastrous winter of 1841, still stands near the site of our old cantonments between Sherpur and the Cabul river, overlooking the road from the Bala Hissar. From this fort, which is only 700 yards from the 72nd Gateway, men fired at the southern wall all day, while others could be seen, with rifles slung across their backs, superintending the carrying away of the bhoosa stored by the 5th Punjab Cavalry in a village near for winter consumption. Hazara coolies were made to do this work, and also to dismantle the cavalry quarters in the “King’s Garden,” which, as before stated, we have abandoned. This morning three 18-pounders and an 8-inch howitzer, part of the siege train given to Shere Ali by the Indian Government, were got into position on the bastions east and west of the 72nd Gateway, and to-morrow these will open upon Kila Mahomed Sharif and the villages in rear. We want 40-pounders at least to batter down the thick walls of the fort; but still the heavy guns now ready to be fired will probably have a good effect upon the enemy. Round shot will be used for these 18-pounders, and bits of iron, bullets, &c., have been sewn up in canvas to serve as canister if the enemy make any demonstration in force. There was no difficulty in getting the guns and howitzer up the bastions, twenty or thirty men at the drag-ropes moving them easily into position. It is strange that guns which were given to Shere Ali as a reward for his fidelity to the British should now be turned against the Afghans, who have shown themselves unable to appreciate the value of an alliance with India. Now that the siege train has returned to our possession we shall, perhaps, be less confiding in handing over munitions of war to a nation which has treated us so treacherously.
Beyond throwing out our usual cavalry videttes, we have done nothing to-day to show the enemy we are on the alert. The cavalry have been terribly hard worked since the 10th, and horses and men have suffered in consequence. At one period the saddles were never taken off the horses of the 5th Punjab Cavalry for sixty hours, and the other regiments have been nearly in the same condition. Lieutenant Montenaro died this evening from the effect of the wound received yesterday. This makes the tenth officer we have lost in as many days, and there are still eleven others under treatment for wounds.