Scenes and Adventures in Affghanistan

by William Taylor

The result of this reconnaisance was a report to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, that if he decided upon the immediate attack on Ghuznee, the only feasible mode of proceeding, and the only one which held out a prospect of success was a dash at the Cabul gateway, blowing the gate open by bags of powder.

His Excellency decided upon the attempt, the camp was moved that evening to the Cabul road, and the next morning, the 22nd, Sir John Keane in person reconnoitred the proposed point of attack, approved of the plan, and gave orders for its execution. Preparations were made accordingly, positions for the artillery were carefully examined, which excited the jealousy of the garrison, who opened a smart fire upon the party.

It was arranged that an explosion party, consisting of three officers of Engineers, Captain Peat, Lieutenants Durand and McLeod, three Serjeants, and eighteen men of the Sappers in working dresses, carrying 300℔s. of powder in twelve sand bags, with a hose seventy-two feet long, should be ready to move down to the gateway at daybreak.

At midnight the first battery left camp, followed by the other four, at intervals of half an hour. Those to the right of the road were conducted to their positions by Lieutenant Stuart, those to the left by Lieutenant Anderson. The ground for the guns was prepared by the Sappers and Pioneers, taking advantage of the irregularities of the ground to the right, and of some old garden walls to the left.

The Artillery was all in position, and ready by 3 A. M. of the 23rd, and shortly after, at the first dawn, the party under Captain Peat moved down to the gateway, accompanied by six men of her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, without their belts, and supported by a detachment of the same regiment, which extended to the right and left of the road; when they arrived at the ditch, taking advantage of what cover they could find, and endeavouring to keep down the fire from the ramparts, which became heavy on the approach of the party, though it had been remarkably slack during the previous operations; blue lights were shown, which rendered surrounding objects distinctly visible, but luckily they were buried on the top of the parapet instead of being thrown into the passage below.

The explosion party marched steadily on, headed by Lieutenant Durand; the powder was placed, the hose laid, the train fired, and the carrying party had retired to tolerable cover in less than two minutes. The Artillery opened when the blue lights appeared, and the musketry from the covering party at the same time. So quickly was the operation performed, and so little was the enemy aware of the nature of it, that not a man of the party was hurt.

As soon as the explosion took place, Captain Peat, although hurt by the concussion, his anxiety preventing him from keeping sufficiently under cover, ran up to the gate, accompanied by a small party of her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, and ascertained that it was completely destroyed. There was some delay in getting a bugler to sound at the advance, the signal agreed on for the assaulting column to push on, and this was the only mistake in the operation.

The assaulting column, consisting of four European Regiments (her Majesty's 2nd regiment, Bengal European regiment, her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, and her Majesty's 17th regiment) commanded by Brigadier Sale, the advance under Lieutenant Colonel Dennie, accompanied by Lieutenant Sturt, Engineers, moved steadily through the gateway, through a passage inside the gateway, in a domed building, in which the opening on one side rendered everything very obscure, and making it difficult to find the outlet into the town. They met with little opposition; but the party of the enemy seeing a peak in the column, owing to the difficulty in scrambling over the rubbish in the gateway, made a rush, sword in hand, and cut down a good many men, wounding the Brigadier and several other officers. These swordsmen were repulsed, and there was no more regular opposition; the surprise and alarm of the Governor and Sirdars being so great when they saw the column occupying the open space inside the gate, and firing upon them, that they fled, accompanied by their men, even the garrison of the Citadel following their example. Parties of the Affghans took refuge in the houses, firing on the column as it made its way through the streets, and a good deal of desultory fighting took place in consequence, by which some loss was sustained. The Citadel was occupied as soon as daylight showed that it had been abandoned by the enemy, and the whole of the works were in our possession before 5 A. M.

We lost seventeen men, six European and eleven Natives killed—eighteen officers, and one hundred and seventeen Europeans, and thirty Natives wounded—total one hundred and eighty-two. Of the Affghans more than five hundred and fourteen were killed in the town, that number of bodies having been buried, and about one thousand outside by the Cavalry, one thousand six hundred prisoners were taken, but I have no means of estimating the number of wounded.

There were nine guns of different calibres found in the place, a large quantity of good powder, considerable stores of shot, lead, &c., &c., and a large supply of attar and other provisions.