So complete was the defeat of the Affghan army on the 13th of September, that Akbar Khan escaped from the field accompanied only by a solitary horseman.
The enemy acknowledged to have lost fifty-three chiefs and persons of consequence, and 700 men. The casualties on the part of the British amounted to 185.
Major-General Pollock, in his despatch dated 14th of September, again acknowledged the services of Lieut.-Colonel Bolton and Major Skinner, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment.
No impediments now existed to the advance of the British on the city of Cabool. On the 15th of September the army arrived at Cabool, and encamped on the race-course. On the following day the place was occupied and the standard of England hoisted on the highest pinnacle of the battlements of the Bala Hissar (Upper Fort), on which occasion the flank companies of the THIRTY-FIRST formed part of the guard which garrisoned the citadel. The British colours were hoisted daily as long as the army remained at Cabool.
All the objects of the campaign having been gained, and the rescue of the prisoners effected,—among whom were several officers and ladies (Lady Sale, the partner of the gallant defender of Jellalabad being among the number), also three serjeants, three drummers, and thirty rank and file of Her Majesty’s forty-fourth regiment,—the Anglo-Indian army commenced its march towards Hindoostan on the 12th of October, after having destroyed the grand bazaar of Cabool, named the Chahar Chuttah, where the remains of the British Envoy had been exposed to public insult by the infuriated Affghans.
The THIRTY-FIRST regiment was again constantly engaged in desultory skirmishes with the Ghilzees and Afreedee tribes which infested the passes.
At the Jugdulluck Pass the Affghans again made head, and a severe action occurred on the 18th of October, in which the THIRTY-FIRST regiment sustained some loss, but the Ghilzees were put to flight with great slaughter. Lieutenant Thomas Pender, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, received a severe wound near Seh Baba, from the effects of which he died on the 18th of November.
Major-General McCaskill, in his despatch dated 20th of October, 1842, recording the attacks on his division by the predatory tribes of the mountains between Tezeen and Gundamuck, stated that,
“Throughout these affairs the conduct of the troops employed, including the second and sixteenth Native infantry, temporarily attached to me, has deserved my highest approbation, and I feel it to be my duty to record, that in the advance to Cabool, and in retiring from it, the bravery of that portion of the fourth brigade which took part in the active operations, namely, Her Majesty’s THIRTY-FIRST regiment, and a wing of the thirty-third Native infantry,—the remaining wing and the sixth Native infantry having been detained to garrison Jellalabad and Gundamuck,—as well as their endurance of privations and fatigue, have been beyond all praise. No troops could, in every respect, have behaved better; and I feel myself to be deeply indebted to Brigadier Monteath, C.B., and to Lieut.-Colonel Bolton, of Her Majesty’s THIRTY-FIRST, and to Lieut.-Colonel Richmond, of the thirty-third Native infantry, for the able and gallant manner in which they have been led.”