Kabul Expedition (1842)
Battle of Kabul | |||||
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Part of the First Anglo-Afghan War | |||||
British and Indian troops outside Kabul in 1842 | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
| Emirate of Kabul | ||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||
William Nott Robert Sale |
Akbar Khan several tribal chiefs |
The Kabul Expedition was a punitive campaign undertaken by the British against the Afghans following the disastrous retreat from Kabul. Two British and East India Company armies forced through the Khyber Pass and advanced on the Afghan capital from Kandahar and Jalalabad to avenge the complete annihilation of the British-Indian military-civilian column in January 1842.
The British force defeated the Afghans twice in battle following which they were able to recover prisoners captured during the retreat. The British demolished parts of Kabul before withdrawing to India concluding the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Background
In the late 1830s, the British government and the
The British captured Kabul, and Dost Mohammed surrendered himself into British custody in November 1840. Over the next year, complacent British commanders withdrew some of their forces even as popular resistance grew. They also ceased paying subsidies to the
In November 1841, there was a popular uprising in Kabul, in which the Resident Political Agent
William Hay Macnaghten, the Minister to Shah Shujah's court, attempted to sow dissension within the insurgent ranks and even arrange for Akbar Khan to be assassinated, but Akbar Khan was informed of his planned treachery and murdered Macnaghten at a meeting on 23 December.[2] Finally, with his troops blockaded in an indefensible encampment outside Kabul, Elphinstone signed a convention with Akbar Khan by which his army was to evacuate Kabul, and was guaranteed safe passage to Jalalabad. The result was the slaughter of Elphinstone's army of 4,500 British and Indian soldiers and 12,000 camp followers by tribesmen in January 1842. Only one British surgeon and a handful of Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad. Elphinstone and several officers and their families surrendered themselves as hostages and were taken prisoner.
British situation
The British still held several garrisons in Afghanistan: at Kandahar under Nott, at Ghazni on the route between Kandahar and Kabul, and at Jalalabad under Sale. The captive General Elphinstone had sent orders to the other garrison commanders that they were to evacuate their positions under the terms of the capitulation he had agreed with Akbar Khan. (Elphinstone died in April, still a captive.) Nott and Sale ignored Elphinstone's order, but Colonel Thomas Palmer at Ghazni obeyed it, withdrawing from the easily defended citadel into vulnerable buildings in the city.[4] Shah Shuja still held the fortress of Bala Hissar in Kabul and was attempting to bribe chiefs and tribes to his cause, although he was no longer supported by the British. He even attempted to improve his standing within Afghanistan by demanding that the British comply with the terms Elphinstone had agreed with Akbar Khan.[5]
During the late winter and spring, there was fighting around all the British-held enclaves.
On 10 February, Nott led a force from Kandahar against the tribes blockading him. The Afghans, under a chieftain named Mirza Ahmed, bypassed him and attacked the city, setting fire to a gate to gain entry. They were driven off by the small garrison left by Nott, suffering heavy casualties.[6] Nott's supplies were running short, and a brigade under Brigadier Richard England which tried to reach him from Quetta with supplies was repulsed at Hykulzye. With Kandahar no longer directly threatened, Nott sent a substantial detachment to rendezvous with England and escort him to Kandahar.
On 6 March, the troops at Ghazni (the 27th Bengal Native Infantry) came under attack in their temporary quarters. After resisting for two and a half weeks, they were forced to surrender. The sepoys who refused to convert to Islam were murdered, and the British officers and their families became prisoners of Akbar Khan.[7]
Expedition
On 31 March, Pollock completed restoring the morale of the sepoys at Peshawar and forced his way through the Khyber Pass. He sent his troops up the heights on either side of the pass to outflank the defenders while his artillery demolished a barricade erected across the pass, and succeeded with very few casualties. He reached Jalalabad on 14 April, to find the siege already lifted. After wavering for some weeks, Sale had led a sortie by the garrison of Jalalabad on 19 February, to capture grazing sheep to replenish his supplies of food. He repeated the sortie on 7 April, defeating the besiegers and forcing them to raise the siege.
While Akbar Khan had been absent conducting the siege of Jalalabad, Shah Shuja had restored his authority around Kabul. After temporising for several weeks and secretly asking for British help from India, he reluctantly emerged from the Bala Hissar at the end of March to join the jihad proclaimed by Akbar Khan. He was assassinated by adherents of Nawab Zaman Khan, an influential chieftain who resented the favour shown by Shah Shuja to his rival Naib Aminullah Khan. One of the assassins was Shah Shuja's godson, Shuja' al-Daula.[8] Shah Shuja's son Futteh Jung proclaimed himself his father's successor, but had even less support than his father.
In India, Lord Ellenborough had softened his earlier attitude. His primary objective was to avoid the expense of a long war. He ordered Nott and Pollock to retreat, arguing that once the British had evacuated Afghanistan, negotiations with Akbar Khan for the release of the hostages could proceed calmly.[9] Ellenborough was opposed by his generals and by the government in Britain, all of whom insisted that stern retribution was required. He accordingly modified his orders. Pollock and Nott were again ordered to retreat, but Nott was allowed to retreat by way of Kabul if he chose, making a detour of over 300 miles (480 km), and Pollock was also permitted to move to Kabul to cover Nott's retreat. The late nineteenth-century historian John William Kaye wrote that, "No change had come over the views of Lord Ellenborough, but a change had come over the meaning of certain words in the English language."[10]
Battles of Khelat-i-Ghilzai and Tezin
Nott began his "retreat" on 9 August. He sent the bulk of his troops and camp-followers back to Quetta but began advancing north to Kabul with two British regiments (the
Pollock's army, which was widely termed the "Army of Retribution", meanwhile advanced from Jalalabad. The army consisted of four brigades, one of which was made wholly of British troops. It numbered about 8,000 men in total. After a sharp engagement on 13 September, they defeated some 15,000 tribesmen deployed by Akbar Khan at the Tezin Pass, and the way to Kabul was clear. Pollock's troops came across many skeletons and unburied bodies from Elphinstone's army and, in spite of orders from Ellenborough and Pollock to show restraint, they committed many brutal reprisals against villages and their inhabitants.[13] Pollock reached Kabul on 15 September, two days before Nott.
Rescue of the hostages
As the British advanced, the hostages in Akbar Khan's hands were treated less severely than previously, although they were moved to
Sack of Charikar and Kabul
A detachment from Pollock's army laid waste to
Not all of the Indian sepoys of Elphinstone's army had died in the retreat. Perhaps 2000, many of whom had lost limbs to frostbite, had returned to Kabul to be sold into slavery or to exist by begging.[16] Pollock was able to release many of them, but many others were left behind in the surrounding hills when his forces precipitately retreated in November 1842.[17]
Final evacuation
Pollock's army then retired through Jalalabad to Peshawar. Futteh Jung handed over power to another nominee and accompanied the retreating army.[18]
The withdrawal from Kabul was an arduous march, harassed from Gandamak onwards by Afghan tribesmen. Although the march was far better organised than Elphinstone's retreat, large numbers of stragglers were left behind to be rescued by the rearguard or abandoned to die. Part of one division commanded by General McGaskill was ambushed near Ali Masjid at the narrowest point of the Khyber Pass on 3 November and destroyed. Casualties mounted due to snipers and ambushes until the troops were within sight of Jamrud Fort and safety.[19]
Aftermath
On December 23 the army crossed the
Within three months of the final British withdrawal, the British allowed
The supposed Somnath Gates which had been laboriously carried back to India were paraded through the country, but were declared to be fakes by Hindu scholars. (Henry Rawlinson, a political agent attached to Nott's force, had already warned Ellenborough that this was the case.) They were eventually installed at Agra.[12]
An infantry battalion (the Khelat-i-Ghelzai regiment) and an artillery battery from Shah Shuja's army retreated to India with the British armies. They were taken into the East India Company's army and the artillery unit eventually became part of the British army. It survives to this day as T Battery (Shah Sujah's Troop) Royal Artillery.
See also
Order of Battle
The British order of battle was;[21]
General Pollock's Army
British Army
- 3rd Light Dragoons (Hussars)
- 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot
- 13th (1st Somersetshire, Prince Albert's Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot
- 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot
Bengal Presidency Army
- 1st Bengal Light Cavalry
- 10th Bengal Light Cavalry
- Two regiments of the Bengal Irregular Cavalry
- 6th Bengal Native Infantry
- 26th Bengal Native Infantry
- 30th Bengal Native Infantry
- 33rd Bengal Native Infantry
- 35th Bengal Native Infantry
- 53rd Bengal Native Infantry
- 60th Bengal Native Infantry
- 64th Bengal Native Infantry
- Two batteries of the Bengal Horse Artillery
- Three batteries of the Bengal Field Artillery
- Battery of the Bengal Mountain Artillery
Brigadier Nott's Army
British Army
Bengal Presidency Army
- 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry
- Skinner's Horse
- Regiment of Irregular Horse
- 16th Bengal Native Infantry
- 38th Bengal Native Infantry
- 42nd Bengal Native Infantry
- 43rd Bengal Native Infantry
- 12th Khelat-i-Ghilzai Regiment (Mughal, not Bengal)
- Two batteries of the Bengal Horse Artillery
- Two batteries of the Bengal Field Artillery
Notes
Citations
- ^ Hopkirk (1990), p.189
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), pp. 348–353
- ^ Hopkirk (1990), p.270
- ^ Allen (2000), p.44
- ^ Forbes (1892), Chapter VIII
- ^ Forbes (1892), p.107
- ^ Allen (2000), pp.44–45
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), pp.417–421
- ^ Hopkirk (1990), p.272
- ^ Hopkirk (1990), p.273
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), pp.444–445
- ^ a b "britishbattles.com". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
- ^ Allen (2000), pp.50–52
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), p.387
- ^ Hopkirk (1990), pp.276–277
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), pp.387–388
- ^ Dalrymple (2013), pp.462–463
- ^ Forbes (1892), p.69
- ^ Allen (2000), p.52-56
- ^ Dalrymple 2013, p. 468.
- ^ "Battle of Kabul 1842". www.britishbattles.com. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
References
- ISBN 0-349-11456-0.
- ISBN 978-1-4088-1830-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4264-2938-5.
- ISBN 0-19-282799-5.
- Norris, J A (1967). The First Afghan War 1838-1842. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521058384.
External links
- "britishbattles.com". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.