Conducted by Abdul Reschid, who, by the way, is fonder of strong liquor than a true Mahomedan should be, Sir F. Roberts and some twenty officers rode up to the citadel, which was found quite deserted. It is rectangular in shape, and has only one gateway facing towards Roza, the mound on which it stands falling down on the other sides almost perpendicularly. The walls are thirty feet high, and are built of brick and mud, each of the four corners boasting of embattled towers, which at a distance seem very imposing. The eastern half overlooking the city has been built within the last few years, and has some pretension to architecture, but the western section is just as it stood in 1840-41. An open courtyard is entered after the narrow gateway has been passed, and two tiers of rooms look down upon the blank space below, which shows no signs of being the keep of a citadel. Abdul Reschid explained that in the old rooms on the right the English prisoners were confined, while the Governor always lived in the new quarters commanding the city. Into these we accordingly went, and from the upper rooms a grand view was obtained of the surrounding country, thickly dotted over with villages embowered in orchards and vineyards. One could appreciate the fertility of the Ghazni province at once, and our hopes of plentiful supplies being forthcoming for the troops mounted high. At our feet lay Ghazni itself, with its encircling walls, and a more miserable-looking city could scarcely be imagined. The “houses” are low mud huts, nearly all of one story, and streets there appeared to be none. The 24th P.N.I. had marched in through the Cabul Gate directly in our wake, and their band woke the echoes of the place right cheerily as we listened to Abdul Reschid’s chatter concerning Hashim Khan and young Mahomed Ali Jan, who had fled four days before—not in fear, but because they had no wish to fight the British, their quarrel being with Abdur Rahman alone. Presently we rode down into the town, and found it as miserable as it looked from above. There was an attempt at a covered bazaar, the covering being twigs and branches of trees to afford shelter from the sun; but the street was so narrow that we had to go in single file, and in places one could step from shop to shop across the roadway without effort. I have called them shops out of courtesy, for Ghazni was once a great city, but they are really wretched stalls, in which grapes, fruit, corn, and attar are retailed. A few blacksmiths’ and shoemakers’ shops were alone worthy of the name, and after ten minutes’ inspection we rode out of Ghazni by a second gate, some 200 yards distant from the one by which we had entered. This gate was also in fairly good order, and a storming party entering by it would get entangled in the narrow streets, all commanded by the citadel above. Ghazni, while not so ruinous as it has been painted, is certainly rapidly decaying, and another generation will probably see it at its lowest ebb.
Our camp was pitched on a large sandy plain almost due east of the city, and to-morrow we begin our march to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, which we hope to reach on the 28th or 29th of the month, the rapidity of our movements depending now upon the capacity of the country to furnish forage for our cavalry and our transport animals. The excitement known to exist about Candahar has not extended northwards yet, and there seems more interest in Cabul affairs consequent upon the accession of Abdur Rahman than in the movements of Ayub Khan. Supplies of grain, flour and forage have been got in abundance to-day, and if we could only be sure that the crops of Indian-corn have been sown about the villages on the route our prospects would be very bright. We have hitherto got along wonderfully well; our troops are getting in better marching order daily, and our transport animals having been well rationed are as fit for heavy and continuous work as can ever be expected. The disappearance of Hashim Khan and Mahomed Ali Jan proves that the people have no stomach for fighting, for if the Sirdars could have raised an army in this district they would undoubtedly have tried to harry us on the march. Our force numbers in all over 18,000 men, soldiers and followers, and our line must straggle a little in spite of all precautions. The weakest link in our chain is the state of the dhoolie-bearers and followers, who lack the stamina of the sepoys, and are left more to their own resources than men under strict regimental discipline. Dr. Hanbury, Chief Medical Officer, is doing all he can to keep the kahars in health, and as ghee is not obtainable he has procured the issue of a small meat ration to all followers. The quantity will be increased if sheep can be got at the villages, and under this system break-downs are likely to be reduced to a minimum. To avoid placing in dhoolies men who are only foot-sore, Colonel Low is buying up all the donkeys he can find, and on these such men will be carried until they are again able to walk. There is really no sickness in the force, except mild forms of fever and diarrhœa, from which men are detained in hospital only a few days. No messengers have as yet arrived from Khelat-i-Ghilzai, but we expect to receive letters in a few days.
Camp Khelat-i-Ghilzai, 23rd August.
To-day is the fifteenth from Cabul, and the eighth from Ghazni, and so far Sir F. Roberts’s march has been most successful. We have come through an enemy’s country without any show of opposition being made, and the merit of the march is therefore its unequalled rapidity. From Ghazni we have covered 136 miles in eight days, giving an average of 17 miles per day, continuous marching; while, taking Beni Hissar as our starting point, we have done 286 miles in fifteen days, or on an average 15·7 miles per day. For a regiment alone to do this would not be extraordinary, but for a force numbering 18,000 souls, with between 8,000 and 9,000 baggage animals, to cover this distance without a day’s halt, is a feat in marching which is perhaps unrivalled. Sir F. Roberts’s march upon Cabul last year proved what can be done by a determined General in the face of enormous difficulties, but our present work is a more remarkable achievement; and even if there should be no second Charasia at the end both officers and men will have deserved well of their country. When there is no butcher’s bill there is a tendency to underrate the importance of military movements; but it is to be hoped there will be little detraction in regard to the relief of Candahar. Only those who have shared in the march can form an idea of the discomfort and hardship involved; and I, as a non-combatant, with no one but myself to take care of, have had many opportunities of seeing how splendidly the men have behaved, and how officers have not spared themselves in carrying out the orders of the General directing the movement. The regiments forming the fighting line have, after marching for eight hours, often through sandy soil or over rough ground, to furnish on arrival at camp parties for all kinds of duty; one party for wood, another for bhoosa and green forage, a third for guards, while sentry-go and picquet duty at night have allowed what is technically known as only “three nights in bed.” Then the rear-guard work has been terribly heavy: regiments on this duty reach camp sometimes as late as nine o’clock, having been under arms since four o’clock in the early morning. The next day’s march begins at 4 A.M., and the men have had to turn out at reveillé (2.45 A.M.), load up their baggage animals, and fall in as if they had enjoyed a long night’s rest. The nights have luckily been deliciously cool, and the early mornings even bitterly cold; but two hours after sunrise the heat makes itself felt, and from eight o’clock until four the sun beats down upon the open treeless country with great fierceness. Marching, one does not feel it so much, but in the trying pauses when cast loads have to be replaced upon broken-down mules, and when waiting in camp for the tents to come up, the heat punishes the men fearfully. Blistered hands and faces were common enough during the first days of the march, and although these have come to be little regarded, there remain that bodily exhaustion and lassitude resulting from long exposure in the sun and a short allowance of sleep at night. The extremes of temperature may be appreciated when I state that the thermometer at 4 A.M. registers 45° in the open, and at 4 P.M. 105° in a double-fly tent. For the last two marches we have turned out at 1 A.M. and marched at 2.30, in order to get the main body into camp early in the day, and as we have had a bright moon to light up the road, the marching has been excellent. The rear-guard gets in by about three o’clock in the afternoon, and the troops have ample time to prepare their food before “turning in” at half-past seven.
It is well for us that food has been plentiful along the route, for without liberal rations no men could stand the constant call upon their powers; and we have been lucky also in getting plenty of green forage for our animals. The villages which were deserted when Sir Donald Stewart marched to Cabul, we have found all fairly well peopled; the villagers had sown their crops of Indian-corn, which we have been able to purchase for transport requirements. We expected to find a howling desert, whereas we have found a strip of cultivation, narrow enough, but still sufficient for our needs. We could not possibly have maintained our rate of rapid marching if this had not been so, for continuous work will break down the best mule ever bred if the animal be not properly fed. General Hugh Gough’s cavalry brigade has also been kept up to its efficient state, and the horses look nearly as fit as when they left Cabul.
I have already alluded to our followers as being the greatest drag upon us, and the kahars have undoubtedly had a struggle to keep up. They are such fatalists that they believe it is part of their kismut to wander off the road into obscure nullahs, there to fall asleep, and take the risk of being cut up by Afghans. Of late the troops of cavalry forming the rear-guard have quartered the country like beaters at a tiger hunt, and the sleeping kahars have been rudely wakened and brought along. Baggage animals with sore backs have been utilized for carrying the poor wretches into camp, a mule gone in the withers being quite equal to bearing a man astride his back. Wonderful to say, men straggle into camp long after midnight, unharmed and perfectly self-satisfied. They have enjoyed their sleep in obscure ravines, and have then resumed their march as if in a friendly country. Some of them tell strange stories of having been stripped by Afghans and then allowed to escape; but these are Mahomedans who have claimed fellowship in religion with the tribesmen. Our actual loss in dead and missing since we left Cabul is, I believe, as follows:—Died—Europeans, one; sepoys, four; kahars, five; followers, five; missing—forty-three. Of the men who have died, one private of the 72nd and one sepoy of the 23rd Pioneers committed suicide: three sepoys died from obstruction of the bowels caused by eating unripe Indian-corn, and then drinking large quantities of water. Of the missing many are known to have been kahars trying to get to the Khyber line, and Hazara syces who have gone to their own country. There were 494 soldiers in hospital on the 24th August.
Regarding our transport, we have at work now 2,664 yaboos and ponies, as against 2,919 when we left Cabul; 4,426 mules as against 4,509; 934 donkeys as against 929; and 150 camels. Many of the donkeys and all the camels have been obtained on the road. Our total transport now consists of 8,174 animals of all kinds, while the Khelat-i-Ghilzai garrison will furnish 301 camels, 132 mules, ten ponies, and 265 donkeys. The garrison is made up of two companies of the 66th (141 men), the 2nd Beluchis (675), squadron 3rd Scind Horse (107 sabres), with two guns of C-2 R.A. (forty-seven men), two medical officers, one commissariat officer, and various details, amounting in all to a total of 1,005 men. They have stored in the fort a large quantity of tinned meat and soups, attar, corn, and bhoosa, which will be a most welcome addition to our stores. To-day, also, a wing of the Beluchis have moved out to Jaldak, our next stage, where they will collect supplies for the force. We are to halt here to-morrow to give men and animals a short rest.
Having summarized some of our difficulties and drawn attention to the merits of the march, considered apart from its ultimate ending, I will now give in detail the stages marched from day to day and the actual distances covered. On August 12th we left Ghazni and marched to Yergatta, just past the battlefield of Ahmed Khel—20 good miles. The brigades got into motion at 4 A.M., and the cavalry began the work which they have since performed daily, and which I will now allude to once for all. They were spread out all across the valley, and worked steadily along, examining every yard of ground and feeling for an enemy who has never yet shown himself. A bright moon favoured their movements, and when one got a little ahead of the infantry it was a weird sight to see a chain of phantom-like men and horses stretching away on either hand, until lost in the early morning mist. Too high praise cannot be given to General Hugh Gough and his fine cavalry brigade for the way in which this covering movement was done. The infantry could march along in perfect security with the knowledge that some 1,500 troops were in front and on the flanks, that the “eyes of our army,” as the Germans have it, were wide open. Sowars, when properly handled, make excellent Uhlans, as they are all light-weights and their horses seldom tire. Our more heavily accoutred English cavalry are of course handicapped at such cross-country work, but the 9th Lancers are so eager to reach Candahar and capture a few of Ayub’s guns that they make light of the burning sun and bitter fatigue; their want of knowledge of the language and habits of the people is more than compensated by extra vigilance and care in scouting. The cavalry marches were always several miles longer than those made by the infantry, by reason of their constant scouting; while before camp was pitched patrols were sent out five miles in advance on reconnoitring duty. A troop was detailed daily to act with our infantry rear-guard, and they were always last in, as they had to sweep all stray animals and followers before them. But for this arrangement many lives would have been lost, as the apathy of a tired kahar or other follower is extraordinary.
This first march out at Ghazni was very trying. After passing through the walled gardens about the town, and turning to take a farewell look at the Bala Hissar, most imposing when viewed from the south, we got into the open country, and before us was the plain stretching right away to Khelat-i-Ghilzai, with no break in its continuity. The hills which bound it may send out minor spurs, and the lower ranges on the east between the Ghazni River and the high Khonak mountains may seem at times about to close in upon the road; but there is not a kotal to be crossed, and the valley is always broad enough to allow of three columns of route.
The characteristics of the country north of Khelat-i-Ghilzai are very accurately detailed in official route books: the villages, with their orchards and patches of cultivation, are numerous enough for the first few miles. They then grow fewer and fewer, and the plain becomes a waste covered with the camel-thorn scrub and intersected by deep ravines running from the foot of the hills on either side down to the river bed. These are formed by the streams resulting from the melting snows, and their banks are so steep that they are at times formidable obstacles to baggage animals. Streams of water, chiefly from karez sources, cross the road at right-angles from time to time, and near these are generally a few fields of Indian-corn, lucerne and melon beds. In this first march, for example, we crossed a broad river bed three miles south of Ghazni, and then got upon a sandy plain which lasted almost as far as Nani, where a number of small streams furnish water for the crops. Here an hour’s halt was called (which only served to stiffen the men), and then we moved towards Ahmed Khel over an arid plain which led to the rolling hills on which Sir Donald Stewart fought his action. Nothing could be more desolate than the country of Ahmed Khel and the battlefield itself, but we got water at Yergatta, and a few fields of Indian-corn for our worn-out animals. The scarcity of wood all down the line of march was also a source of constant trouble—at Yergatta camel-thorn scrub having to be collected and burned. The order of march from Ghazni was: 2nd and 3rd Brigades leading, and 1st Brigade (with troop of cavalry) acting as rear-guard. The leading brigades marched in parallel columns of route and reached Yergatta about 3 P.M. A terrific dust-storm was blowing, and the task of getting in the baggage was unusually hard. The 1st Brigade lost its way in the storm, and the rear-guard did not arrive in camp until long after dark. Men and animals were alike exhausted by this long march, the longest save one made on the route.