The Military Operations at Cabul, which Ended in the Retreat and Destruction of the British Army, January 1842: With a Journal of Imprisonment in AffghanistanJ. Murray, 1843 - 328 Seiten Stark eye-witness history of the 1842 retreat from Kabul, one of the greatest disasters in British military history. The author adds an account of his own imprisonment in an Afghan jail, and an appendix giving dates and details of the 100 British officers who died. |
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1817 LIBRARIES 44th foot Affghan horse Alexander Burnes Ameenoollah arms army arrived attack Bala Hissar Bengal BENGAL ARTILLERY Beymaroo body Brigadier Shelton British Cabul camp Candahar cantonments Capt Captain cavalry Charekar chiefs commanded commissariat Ditto Ditto Dost Mahomed Khan Elphinstone endeavoured enemy enemy's Envoy Envoy's escort European fire followers garrison gate ghans Ghazees Giljyes ground Gundamuk H. A. gun Haughton hill horse artillery hostages hour Jellalabad Jemadar Jugdulluk juzailchees juzails Khan's Khoord-Cabul Kohistan ladies Lawrence Lieut Mackenzie Mahomed Akber Khan Mahomed Shah Khan Major Griffiths Major Pottinger Major Swayne ments miles military morning mountain train murder native infantry night Nuwab Zeman officers party pass Peshawur rear received regiment retreat road rupees Sappers Seeah Sung sent Sepoys Shah Bagh Shah Shoojah Shah's shot Sir William Macnaghten Sirdar Skinner snow soldiers Tezeen tion treaty Trevor troops Troup valley village walls wounded Zeman Khan Zuman
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 195 - Dreary, indeed, was the scene over which, with drooping spirits and dismal forebodings, we had to bend our unwilling steps. Deep snow covered every inch of mountain and plain with one unspotted sheet of dazzling white ; and so intensely bitter was the cold, as to penetrate and defy the defences of the warmest clothing.
Seite 45 - It no sooner," says Lieutenant Eyre, " became generally known that the commissariat fort, upon which we were dependent for supplies, had been abandoned, than one universal feeling of indignation pervaded the garrison ; nor can I describe the impatience of the troops, but especially the native portion, to be led out for its recapture — a feeling that was by no means diminished by their seeing the Affghans crossing and recrossing the road between the commissariat fort and the gate of the Shah Bagli,...
Seite 33 - But the most unaccountable oversight of all, and that which may be said to have contributed most largely to our subsequent disasters, was that of having the commissariat stores detached from cantonments, in an old fort which, in an outbreak, would be almost indefensible. Captain Skinner, the chief commissariat officer, at the time when this arrangement was made, earnestly solicited from the authorities a place within the cantonment for his stores, but received for answer that " no such place could...
Seite 42 - Afghans to maintain a very strict watch at night. A man in Captain Johnson's employ was accordingly sent out to reconnoitre the place ; he returned in a few minutes with the intelligence that about twenty men were seated outside the fort near the gate, smoking and talking ; and from what he overheard of their conversation, he judged the garrison to be very small, and unable to resist a sudden onset. The debate was now resumed, but another hour passed and the General could not make up his mind. A...
Seite 208 - Affghan professions, that little or no confidence was placed in the present truce, and we commenced our passage through the dreaded pass in no very sanguine temper of mind. This truly formidable defile is about five miles from end to end, and is shut in on either hand by a line of lofty hills, between whose precipitous sides the sun, at this season, could dart but a momentary ray. Down the centre dashed a mountain torrent, whose impetuous course the frost in vain attempted to arrest, though it succeeded...
Seite 115 - Bemdru we formed squares to resist the distant fire of infantry, thus presenting a solid mass against the aim of perhaps the best marksmen in the world, the said squares being securely perched on the summit ' of a steep and narrow ridge up which no cavalry could charge with effect.
Seite 209 - Native Infantry, suffered severely ; and at last, finding that delay was only destruction, they followed the general example, and made the best of their way to the front. Another horse-artillery gun was abandoned, and the whole of its artillerymen slain. Captain Anderson's eldest girl, and Captain Boyd's youngest boy, fell into the hands of the Atfghans. It is supposed that 3,000 souls perished in the pass, amongst whom were Captain Paton, assistant quartermaster-general ; and Lieutenant St.
Seite 174 - Dangerous it is, but, if it succeeds, it is worth all risks ; the rebels have not fulfilled even one article of the treaty, and I have no confidence in them, and if by it we can only save our honour, all will be well ; at any rate, I would rather suffer a hundred deaths than live the last six weeks over again.
Seite 230 - Giljyes being too busily engaged in the plundering of the dead to pursue the living. But much delay was occasioned by the anxiety of the men to bring on their wounded comrades ; and the rear was much harassed by sudden onsets from parties stationed on the heights, under which the road occasionally wound. On reaching the Sourkab river, they found the enemy in possession of the bridge ; and a hot fire was encountered in crossing the ford below it, by which Lieutenant Cadet, of her Majesty's Forty-fourth,...
Seite 202 - At starting, large clods of hardened snow adhered so firmly to the hoofs of our horses, that a chisel and hammer would have been requisite to dislodge them. The very air we breathed froze in its passage out of the mouth and nostrils, forming a coating of small icicles on our moustaches and beards.