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| The force chosen to replace Shah Shujah on the
throne of Afghanistan was called the Army of the Indus. It consisted of
9,500 troops, both Indian and British, of the Honourable
East India Company's forces and about 6,000 men in Shah Shujah's
army. Before they left, the army was paraded in front of Ranjit Singh and
Lord Auckland at the city of Ferozepore not far from Ranjit's capital at
Lahore. It was an impressive sight. There were nine regiments of foot,
a regiment of Queen's cavalry, two companies of 'John Company's' horsemen,
artillery, engineers, military bands and vast quantities of baggage. Apart
from the military necessities of ammunition and food, the British in India
went to war with as many of the comforts of home as their pack animals
and coolies could carry. On the march to Kabul one regiment's officers
had two camels just to carry their cigars. One brigadier needed sixty camels
for his own personal baggage. To handle all the mundane tasks of military
life the British took along their servants. Every regiment had 600 native
stretcher-bearers. Every platoon had cooks, water carriers, men who polished
brasses and men who washed clothes. The cavalry units had grooms and blacksmiths.
Every officer was allowed up to ten servants and often they had many more.
Some had a servant just to prepare their tobacco water pipes. Added to
all these were the servants' families, musicians, entertainers and companies
of prostitutes. When the army moved off in early 1838, there were the 16,500
fighting men and a vast crowd of around 38,000 camp followers.
The shortest route would have been through the Khyber Pass but Ranjit Singh was unwilling to allow such a force to traverse his domains, so it was decided to cross the Indus and march south into Sind. In Sind there were some Amirs whose fealty was claimed by Shah Shujah and he wanted to take this opportunity to teach them a lesson. The Army of the Indus dutifully did this, the unruly Amirs hastily swearing allegiance to Shah Shujah when faced with such an army. By the spring of 1839, the army had arrived at the Bolan Pass. It was 55 miles long and controlled by Baluchi chieftains. Burnes was able to buy their acquiescence and the journey through the pass went unhindered. The army had been expected to live off the country but the winter had been hard and it was difficult to buy provisions. Again Burnes' purse came to the rescue and he was able to buy a flock of 10,000 sheep from the Baluchis, albeit at grossly inflated prices. With bellies full of mutton the army continued on its way. The Baluchis, although eager to empty Burnes' purse of its gold gave him little encouragement in his endeavour. Always they warned Burnes about proceeding with the expedition saying Shah Shujah was deeply unpopular in Afghanistan and Dost Mohammed greatly admired. Success would be difficult , if not impossible, for Burnes to effect. The first test of Shah Shujah's acceptability would come at Kandahar. The second city in Afghanistan and its southern capital, it was ruled by a brother of Dost Mohammed. With the warnings of the Baluchis and Macnaghten's refusal to pay heed to them fresh in his mind, Burnes was happy to hear that as the Army of the Indus approached the city, its ruler had fled north to Kabul. On April 25th 1839 Shah Shujah rode into Kandahar at the head of his own troops. As he rode through the streets the people threw flowers in front of his horse and cheered. Macnaghten felt vindicated and decided to hold a ceremonial durbar outside the city where the inhabitants could show their gratitude to Shah Shujah for 'liberating' them. It was a grand affair and General Keane marched his troops, with banners flying and bands playing, past the reviewing stand. Only about a hundred Kandaharis came out of the city to watch and this was a more telling judgement on Shah Shujah than the rapturous crowds that had greeted his armed entry into the city. If Macnaghten was perturbed by the lack of enthusiasm for Shah Shujah, he hid it well and as the army progressed he bought the allegiance of the tribes whose territories the army traversed with great quantities of gold. |
The Bolan Pass, gateway to Afghanistan |
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The next city they came to was very different
from Kandahar. Ghazni was a great fortress built on a mountainside with
high walls sixty feet thick. Throughout Asia it was known to be impregnable.
The British, never ones to be impressed by Asiatic hyperbole, were unpleasantly
surprised when they came upon the town. The walls were high and thick and
the British had not brought their siege guns with them. The light fieldpieces
they were equipped with were enough for any set-piece battle but useless
against such towering masonry. To send back for and haul forward the heavy
guns would take many weeks and time was pressing. Another way had to be
found and only one seemed to have any chance of success. If the engineers
could blow up one of the city's gates and a storming party were rushed
through then surely the place would fall. It would be an extremely dangerous
undertaking for the engineers though, and only those with great courage
could be called on to do the deed. Luckily there was such a man in the
Army of the Indus. Henry Durand, Liuetenant of the Bengal Engineers was
given this unenviable task. Still recovering from a fever he prepared his
charges and his party of sappers. It was also lucky that there was a clever
Kashmiri by the name of Mohan Lal on Burnes staff and it seems he had an
old aquaintance inside the city. Somehow he made contact with the man and
learned that all of the city's gates had been walled up from the inside
and would thus be impervious to even the biggest charges placed against
their outside. Only the Kabul gate was left unwalled.
General Keane planned a series of attacks on the other side of the city with the intention of drawing defenders away from the Kabul gate so Durand would have a chance of setting his charges. The attack took place at night in a strong gale and everything went according to plan. The Afghans were diverted, Durand was able to lay his charges and after an anxious few moments when he was unable to light the fuse, successfully got a spark and as the fuse burned scrambled back to safety. The gate disappeared in a great explosion of smoke and fire and the British storming party rushed through the now empty gateway and into the city. A bugler became confused and mistakenly blew the retreat, and this caused the support troops to hesitate leaving the storming party alone inside the city for a few desperate minutes. The mistake was soon rectified and the troops charged forwards. Inside the city the Afghans fought with great courage but they were little match for the disciplined redcoats, veterans of a hundred other sieges. In less than an hour the city was taken, the British losing only 17 men , the Afghans more than 500. Hearing news of the fall of Ghazni, a force of 5,000 Afghan horsemen sent from Kabul to stop the advance of the Army of the Indus, turned round and retired. Great amounts of food and other stores were found in Ghazni and at a stroke the logistical problems which seemed to be the only danger facing Keane's command disappeared and the army halted for a well-earned rest. By June 30th, the army was ready to continue on its march and within a week found itself outside Kabul without meeting any serious resistance. The city itself fell without a shot being fired. The next day, with Macnaghten by his side, Shah Shujah rode into the city he had left so many years before. There was no joyous welcome, or even the pretence of one as at Kandahar. Instead the crowds watched silently as the procession entered the city. It was obvious to all that British gold and British steel were all that would keep Shah Shujah on his throne. |