On the 29th of October the rebels were found in force at the Jugdulluck Pass, and for some time they checked the advance of the column; but the skirmishers of the Thirteenth Light Infantry, sprang forward with distinguished gallantry, and driving the Affghans from almost inaccessible heights protected by breast-works, enabled the British force to surmount every obstacle in the defile, and to arrive at Gundamuck on the following day. Lieutenants P. R. Jennings, A. E. F. Holcombe, and David Rattray were severely wounded on this service; four privates were killed, and forty-two wounded. Lieut.-Colonel Dennie, Captains Wilkinson, Havelock, Wade, (Brigade-Major) and Fenwick, were specially mentioned by Major-General Sir Robert Sale in his despatch.
The troops under Major-General Sir Robert Sale remained at Gundamuck until the 5th November, when they proceeded and captured the fort of Mamoo Khail in the neighbourhood, and returned on the 6th to Gundamuck; there intelligence was received of the breaking out of a violent insurrection at Cabool, on the 2nd of November, and of the probability that the rebellion would become general. Under these circumstances, two forced marches on Jellalabad were made, with a numerous enemy pressing on the flanks and rear; a body of insurgents were beaten at Futtehabad by the rear-guard under Lieut-Colonel Dennie; and Jellalabad, the chief town in the valley of Ningrahar, was seized by the British troops on the 12th November, to establish a post upon which the corps at Cabool might retire, if necessary, and to restore a link in the chain of communication with India. The Affghan irregulars, left at Gundamuck, revolted, and a general rising took place among the tribes.
Major-General Sir Robert Sale, on taking possession of Jellalabad, found the fortress in a very dilapidated state, and the inhabitants disaffected to the government of the Shah. The Affghans collected to about ten thousand, and the walls of the fort being without parapets, and the garrison having only one day and a half supplies, on half rations, a sally was made on the 14th November, which routed the enemy, and enabled the troops to collect provisions, and erect works for the defence of the fortress. On this latter duty, the Thirteenth Light Infantry were conspicuous for the alacrity and indefatigable perseverance they evinced under circumstances of the most disheartening and trying character. The demolition of ruinous forts and old walls, filling up ravines, destroying gardens, cutting down groves, raising the parapets to six or seven feet high, repairing and widening the ramparts, extending the bastions, retrenching three of the gates, covering the fourth with an outwork, and excavating a ditch ten feet in depth and twelve in width round the whole of the walls, were works of great labour, which called forth the efforts of every individual. While thus employed another array of many thousands of Affghans on the 27th of November again invested the place, but they were completely routed and dispersed by a sally of the garrison on the 1st December.
1842
On the 9th of January, 1842, the garrison was summoned to give up the fortress, by the leader of the Affghan rebellion, in fulfilment of a convention entered into at Cabool; but Major-General Sir Robert Sale, being fully assured of the bad faith of the insurgents, refused; the annihilation of the troops from the capital, in the Ghilzie defiles, by the severity of the climate, and the basest treachery on the part of those in whose promises they had confided, proved the correctness of the major-general’s estimation of the Affghan character.
By the indefatigable exertions of the troops, under the direction of Captain Broadfoot, garrison engineer, and Captain Abbott, commissary of ordnance, the works were brought into a state of defence against any Asiatic enemy not provided with siege-artillery; but the place was kept in a continual state of alarm by the occurrence of one hundred shocks of an earthquake in the course of a month, and on the 19th of February a tremendous shock occasioned the parapets to fall, injured the bastions, made a breach in the rampart, destroyed the guard-houses, reduced other portions of the works to ruins, and demolished one-third part of the town. With that unconquerable spirit of perseverance for which the troops had already been distinguished, they instantly turned to the repair of the works. Sirdar Mahomed Akbar Khan, Barukzye, the assassin of the late Envoy, and the treacherous destroyer of the Cabool force, flushed with success, approached with a numerous body of troops to overwhelm the little garrison of Jellalabad: he attacked the foraging parties on the 21st and 22nd of February; but was astonished at finding the works in a state of defence, and he established a rigorous blockade. From that time to the 7th of April, the reduced garrison was engaged in a succession of skirmishes, in which the Thirteenth Light Infantry had opportunities of distinguishing themselves; particularly detachments under Captains Pattisson and Fenwick, Lieutenants George Wade and W. Cox.
On the 5th April, 1842, information was received that the force under Major-General Pollock had experienced reverses in the Khyber, and had retraced its steps towards Peshawur; and on the 6th a feu-de-joie and salute of artillery were fired by Mahomed Akbar, which were stated to be in honour of the event. It was also reported that the Affghans were sending reinforcements to assist in defending their frontier passes. These reports were accompanied by others of a fresh revolution at Cabool, which was considered by some as the cause of the rejoicing; and it was also rumoured that the Ghazees had been defeated in Khyber, and that the Sirdar had retreated into Lughman. Major-General Sir Robert Sale resolved to anticipate the last-mentioned event, by a general attack on the Affghan camp, with the hope of relieving Jellalabad from blockade, and facilitating General Pollock’s advance to its succour. Directions were accordingly given to form three columns of infantry, the central consisting of the Thirteenth (mustering five hundred bayonets) under Colonel Dennie, C.B.; the left consisting of a similar number of the thirty-fifth native infantry under Lieut.-Colonel Monteath, C.B.; and the right composed of one company of the Thirteenth, one of the thirty-fifth native infantry, and the detachment of Sappers under the command of Lieutenant Orr (the severity of Captain Broadfoot’s wound still rendering him non-effective), amounting to three hundred and sixty men, was commanded by Captain Havelock of the Thirteenth; these were to be supported by the fire of the guns of number 6 field battery under Captain Abbott, the whole of the small cavalry force being under Captain Oldfield and Lieutenant Mayne.
At daylight, on the morning of the 7th April, the troops issued from the Cabool and Peshawur gates. The Sirdar, Mahomed Akbar Khan, with his force of about six thousand men, was formed in order of battle for the defence of his camp; its right resting on a fort, and its left on the Cabool river; even the ruined works within eight hundred yards of the place, recently repaired, were filled with Ghilzie marksmen, who were evidently prepared for a stout resistance. The attack was led by the skirmishers and column under Captain Havelock, which drove the enemy in the most satisfactory manner from the extreme left of his advanced line of works, which it pierced at once, and proceeded to advance into the plain; the central column at the same time directed its efforts against a square fort, upon the same base, the defence of which was obstinately maintained. Colonel Dennie of the Thirteenth, while nobly leading his regiment to the assault, received a shot through his body, which, to the deep regret of officers and men, shortly after proved fatal.
The rear of the work having been finally gained by passing to its left, orders were given for a combined attack upon the enemy’s camp; this was brilliant and successful. The artillery advanced at the gallop, and directed a heavy fire upon the Affghan centre, while two columns of infantry penetrated his line near the same point, and the third forced back his left from its support on the river, into which some of his horse and foot were driven. The Affghans repeatedly attempted to check the advance by a smart fire of musketry,—by throwing forward heavy bodies of horse, which twice threatened in force the detachments of infantry under Captain Havelock, and by opening three guns, screened by a garden wall, which were said to have been served under the personal superintendence of the Sirdar; but in a short time the Affghans were dislodged from every point of their positions, their cannon taken, and their camp involved in a general conflagration.