[135] “About four o’clock on the morning of the 9th,” says Brigadier Shelton, “I got a note from Elphinstone calling me into cantonments, desiring me to take the Shah’s 6th Infantry and a 6-pounder gun with me. I left the Balla Hissar between six and seven, and marched in broad daylight without the enemy attempting to dispute my passage. I was all prepared for opposition had any been made. I was cordially received, but could read anxiety in every countenance, and they had then only three days’ provisions. I was sorry to find desponding conversations and remarks too generally indulged, and was more grieved to find the troops were dispirited. Never having been much in cantonments, I went round and found them of frightful extent—the two sides of the oblong, including the two mission compounds, about 1400 yards each, the two ends each 500, with a rampart and ditch an Afghan could run over with the facility of a cat, with many other serious defects. The misfortune of this was that so many troops were necessary for the actual defence of the works, that only a few could be spared for external operations. I was put in orders to command cantonments, and consequently, in course of my inspections, gave such orders and instructions as appeared to me necessary. This, however, Elphinstone soon corrected, by reminding me that he commanded, not I.”—[Statement of Brigadier Shelton.—MS. Records.]
[136] “On the 9th,” says General Elphinstone, in the memorandum which I have before quoted, “not finding myself equal to the duties, particularly at night, when I could not go about on horseback, I recalled Brigadier Shelton from the Balla Hissar, but I regret to be obliged to disclose that I did not receive from him that cordial co-operation and advice I had a right to expect; on the contrary, his manner was most contumacious; from the day of his arrival he never gave me information or advice, but invariably found fault with all that was done, and canvassed and condemned all orders before officers, frequently preventing and delaying carrying them into effect. This and many other instances of want of assistance I can corroborate by the evidence of several officers still living. Had I been so fortunate as to have had Sir Robert Sale, than whom I never met any officer more disposed to do everything for the public service []. I wish I could say the same of Brigadier Shelton,—he appeared to be actuated by an ill-feeling towards me. I did everything in my power to remain on terms with him. I was unlucky also in not understanding the state of things, and being wholly dependent on the Envoy and others for information.”—[MS. Records.]
[137] In a public letter to the Secretary to Government written by General Elphinstone from Badeeabad, on February 23d, 1842, he says, “I beg to be allowed to express my sense of the gallant manner in which the various detachments sent out were led by Brigadier Shelton, and of the invariably noble conduct of the officers on these occasions.” I am not aware whether this letter has been published. I have never seen it in print.
[138] MS. Records. On the 10th of November, Captain Macgregor received the first official intelligence of the outbreak, in a letter from Sir William Macnaghten, urging him to bring back the brigade to Caubul.—[Captain Macgregor’s Narrative.—MS. Records.] This was of course, a previous letter.
[139] Two horse-artillery guns, one mountain-train gun, Walker’s Horse, her Majesty’s 44th Foot, under Colonel Mackrell; the 37th Native Infantry, under Major Griffiths; the 6th Regiment of Shah’s Force, under Captain Hopkins.—[Eyre’s Journal.]
[140] “I was occupied,” says Brigadier Shelton, “in telling off the force, about 10 A.M., when I heard Elphinstone say to his aide-de-camp, ‘I think we had better give it up.’ The latter replied, ‘Then why not countermand it at once?’—which was done, and I returned, as you may conceive, disgusted with such vacillation. About two hours after he again consented to attack it.”—[Statement of Brigadier Shelton: MS. Records.]—Eyre says that the force assembled, not at 10, but at 12 A.M.; and as Brigadier Shelton’s statement was written from memory, it is less likely to be correct in such small matters as these. The point is of little consequence.
[141] H.M.’s 44th, the 37th N.I., and Shah Soojah’s 6th Infantry.
[142] “We had only four or five days’ supplies for the cantonment. The Balla Hissar as well as the cantonment was in a state of siege. We could not hope for provisions from thence, nor would the place have afforded us either food or shelter, and, in the opinion of the military authorities, to return thither would have been attended with ruin. A disastrous retreat seemed the only alternative, but this necessity was averted by the attack, on the 10th ult., of a neighbouring fort, which had intermediately furnished us with a scanty supply of provisions, but which subsequently espoused the cause of the rebels.”—[Unfinished Report of Sir W. H. Macnaghten.—MS. Records.]
[143] “November 11th.—About six hundred maunds of wheat, found in one of the forts yesterday, captured and brought into cantonments. November 12th.—Busily employed purchasing provisions. The fight of the 10th had a good effect in giving the villagers some confidence in bringing their stores for sale.”—[Captain Johnson’s Journal. MS. Records.]
[144] Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten.