Personal Records of the Kandahar CampaignWaller Ashe The Kandahar Campaign was the last phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). It began in late June 1880, when Ayub Khan, the governor of Herat, led an Afghan force toward Kandahar, then occupied by an Anglo-Indian army. A column of troops under Brigadier General George Burrows was sent from Kandahar to try to intercept Ayub Khan's force but was defeated in a fierce battle at Maiwand on July 27. The remnants of the British force struggled back to Kandahar, followed by Ayub Khan, who laid siege to the city. A column of approximately 10,000 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant General Frederick Roberts then was sent from Kabul to relieve the city. After marching some 480 kilometers to reach Kandahar, Roberts decisively defeated Ayub Khan at Baba Wali on September 1, thereby bringing the war to an end. The new Liberal government of Prime Minister William Gladstone, formed in April 1880, already had decided to terminate the war and had ordered the withdrawal to India of all British troops in Afghanistan, which the Kandahar Campaign delayed by some months. Personal Records of the Kandahar Campaign, by Officers Engaged Therein is a compilation of letters by officers serving with the armies of General Burrows and General Roberts, assembled by Waller Ashe, an author and retired British army major. The documents provide extensive and detailed accounts from the British perspective of this final phase of the war. Waller does not give the names of the men who wrote the letters, some of which may have been fictionalized or embellished by the compiler. The book contains an introduction by Ashe that summarizes the history of Afghanistan and of the two Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century. Ashe was an enthusiast for the British Empire and British military glory. He was also co-editor of The Story of the Zulu Campaign, published in 1880 and likewise compiled from the letters of officers who served in the campaign. |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdurrahman advance Afghan Afghanistan Ameer Argandab army artillery attack Ayub Ayub Khan Ayub's Baba Wali battery bayonets Bolan Pass brigade British Burrows Cabul camels camp Captain carried cavalry Central India Horse chief citadel Colonel column commanding Dost Mahomed Durani enemy feet fighting fire flank force Frederick Roberts front gallant galloped Gandigan garrison Ghazis Ghilzai Ghuzni Girishk Goorkhas Gough Government ground guard guns halt Helmund Herat hills horsemen India infantry jezails Kandahar Karez Khan Kokeran Kotal Kushk-i-Nakhud letters Logar Valley Lord Lytton Maiwand Majesty's Government Major Mazra Meanwhile miles mountain mules native Nuttall officers Pass Persian Peshawur Pir Paimal plain position Primrose Punjab Quetta rear regiments ridge Rifles river road Roberts sabres Scinde Horse sent Sepoys Shah Shere Shere Ali side Sikhs Sir Donald Sir Frederick Sirdar skirmishers slopes soldiers squadrons tent tribes troops Viceroy village walls wounded Yakub Khan
Popular passages
Page lxxiv - Highness' own views ; he had received from the British Government evidence of good-will, manifested by large gifts of money and arms, as well as by its successful efforts in obtaining from the Czar's Government its formal recognition of a fixed boundary, agreeable to himself, between his kingdom and the neighbouring khanates ; his subjects had been allowed to pass freely throughout India, to the great benefit of the trade and commerce of his country ; and in no single instance has the Ameer himself,...
Page lxvii - ... placing British Agents on the Afghan borders, and was of opinion that such a step should be deferred till the progress of events justified more specific assurances to Shere Ali, which might then be given in the shape of a treaty followed by the establishment of agencies at Herat and other suitable places. Her Majesty's Government however were unable to agree in this view ; they deemed it probable that if events were thus allowed to march without measures of precaution on the part of the British...
Page lvii - ... overlooking not only the fortress itself, but the level all around it, is the citadel, and within this fort a brother of Dost Mahomed built a palace which he called Koolah-i-Feringee, or the European Hat ; and which, very curiously, became, during the British occupation in 1839, the hospital of the I3th Light Infantry. The population, according to Burnes, consists of 60,000 souls. The Cabul river, which enters at the north of the gorge from the west, flows eastward, close under the northern wall...
Page 81 - Within five minutes Fraser fell mortally wounded, and was carried to the British camp by two grenadiers. Just previously to his being struck by the fatal bullet, one rifle-ball had cut the crupper of his saddle, and another had passed through his horse's mane close behind the ears. His aide-de-camp had noticed this, and said: "It is evident that you are marked out for particular aim; would it not be prudent for you to retire from this place?
Page 134 - England : the diameter of the nose-ring is as large as that of a crown-piece ; it is of gold wire, and very thin ; a pearl and two other precious gems are strung upon it, dangling over the mouth, and disfiguring the countenance.
Page lxi - Lawrence devolved the direction of the policy to be adopted in this new state of affairs, and that statesman considered that the objects of the British Government would be best obtained by abstaining from active interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, and by the friendly recognition of the de facto Rulers of that country, or of portions of it, without undertaking inconvenient liabilities on their behalf. On this basis Lord Lawrence thought that the British Government would have the greatest...
Page lxvi - ... object unless it were permitted by him to place its own officers on his frontier to watch the course of events beyond it. It was true that the Ameer's relations with the Russian Governor-General of Turkestan had of late become more intimate, and that a correspondence which that official had commenced with the Cabul Durbar in 1871, and which at one time had caused serious disquiet to the Ameer, was being carried on with increased activity, while his...
Page lxv - Asia had become sufficiently grave to suggest the necessity of timely precaution. Her Majesty's Government considered that the first step necessary was the improvement of their relations with the Ameer himself. With this object in view, they deemed it expedient that his Highness should be invited to receive a temporary Mission at Cabul, in order that an accredited British Envoy might confer with him personally upon what was taking place, might assure him of the desire of the Queen's Government that...
Page lxxii - ... persisted in his unfriendly isolation, and ultimately, having two years ago declined to receive a British Envoy, even temporarily, within his territory, on the ground that he could not guarantee his safety, nor thereafter be left with any excuse for declining to receive a Russian Mission, he has welcomed with every appearance of ostentation an Embassy from the Czar, despatched to his court at a time when there were indications that an interruption of friendly relations between this country and...
Page lxiv - ... his Highness, although conveyed in conciliatory language, was not favourable ; the policy which dictated it was unintelligible to his mind, and he received it with feelings of chagrin and disappointment. His reply to Lord Northbrook's communication was couched in terms of ill-disguised sarcasm ; he took no notice of the Viceroy's proposal to depute a British officer to examine the northern frontier of Afghanistan ; he subsequently refused permission to Sir Douglas Forsyth...