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26. THE BULLOCK’S HUMP, AND MILITARY CANTONMENTS, CANDAHAR.
THIS view, taken from the Heraut Gate of the city, represents the military cantonments of Candahar, and the Bullock’s Hump, a hill which derives its name from assuming, at an immense elevation, that peculiar form. It rises from a branch of the Paropamisan mountains, which bound the Douraunee country on the north. To its left, and overlooked by it, is the difficult Pass of Baba Wullee (a celebrated saint in these parts), leading into the fertile valley of the Urghandaub, the low ridge taken possession of by the Afghaun Joan of Arc and the Douraunees (as mentioned elsewhere), and the site of ancient Candahar. The Barracks, garrisoned by H.M. 40th Foot, 2nd and 16th Bengal Grenadiers, were built, with the usual impolicy that attended our military arrangements in Afghaunistaun, nearly a mile from the city which contained our sinews of war, viz., ammunition, treasury, and commissariat. The country between the two positions being intersected by ravines and water-courses, orchards, garden enclosures, and burial-places, was peculiarly adapted to the guerilla warfare of the enemy, who might at any time have cut us off completely from the city garrison. Besides, as the lines of the men, which lay nearer the Babawullee range, and were commanded by it, were a quarter of a mile from their officers’ quarters, the latter might by a sudden night attack (which was of constant occurrence) have been separated from the former, or have been cut up in detail, as they scampered across the wide plain to fall in with their regiments. The soldiers’ squares, too, were at a long distance from each other, and that of the 16th entirely separated from the other two by a broad canal. The misery of our isolated position was fully felt by us, as, on our being ordered out against the enemy, or on forage duty into remote districts, or long marches to the rescue, of other garrisons and armies, we were always under the necessity of relinquishing our quarters, and of carrying all our baggage, tents, &c., into Candahar. In case, too, of its garrison going out, we took their duties, vacating our own barracks, which for the time were taken possession of by the Afghauns, who turned our rooms into stables, destroying and defacing everything, and carrying away or burning the wood-work of our door and window frames; acts of wanton mischief, which of course greatly inconvenienced us on our several returns. In illustration of the change of masters, our cantonments, and on one occasion the city itself, well-nigh underwent, I give the following example, hoping that those officers who were present at the same siege with myself will be kind enough to judge leniently of any error that may occur in my relation of it.
On the 7th of March, 1842, General Nott moved out of Candahar, with nearly the whole of his force, consisting of six regiments of infantry, Leeson’s and Haldane’s Cavalry, and sixteen pieces of cannon, to disperse the Afghaun Army, under Suftur Jung (breaking the battle ranks), a son of the Shauh’s who had deserted from us, Meerza Ahmed, and other powerful Douraunee chieftains. He left behind him the 2nd Bengal Grenadiers (who received orders to vacate cantonments) eight hundred strong, detachments of 1st and 2nd Shauh’s Infantry amounting at the utmost to four hundred men, two unmanageable eighteen-pounders (we had no cattle to draw them), and a useless Shauh’s gun on the ramparts. With this force we were to garrison the city, upwards of four miles in extent, to give guards to the numerous gates, to protect the treasury, ammunition and commissariat storehouses, the citadel, ramparts, hospitals, dwelling- houses, and other public and private property, and to supply the many minor guards of an army averaging from seven to eight thousand fighting men. For four days the hostile force led the General on, when the main body, detaching a portion to inveigle him further out, turned his flank unperceived, and came down upon the little garrison. Up to the morning of the 9th everything outside the city appeared as tranquil as usual, when we observed vast bodies of horse and foot collecting in our neighbourhood from all quarters. Parties of them, aware apparently of our crippled state, in being unable to leave the town from our want of cavalry and guns, had the boldness to gallop their horses up, almost within musket-shot of the walls, and then brandish their swords and spears, and fire their rifles at us. They ransacked and burnt the villages close to us, carried off the camels and provisions, and committed one or two murders near the gates. This continued all that day, but on the 10th still more important changes appeared to be taking place. Immense masses of cavalry and infantry continually poured in through the different mountain passes, all of which seemed to concentrate themselves among the ruins of ancient Candahar, our cantonments, and the adjoining villages. Drums (doog-doogees) and volleys of musketry announced each several arrival throughout the day, interrupted at intervals by the shrill clear notes of the muezzin, or call of the faithful to prayers. Meanwhile bodies of horse kept moving round the city to reconnoitre, and place pickets opposite the gates. These we immediately barricaded with piles of grain and flour-bags, and fortunate it was for us that we took this precaution.
About dusk, an Afghan, driving a donkey laden with wood, prayed the officer on guard at the Heraut Gate for admittance, as his life and property were in danger from the enemy. On being refused, he flung the load from the animal, and retired. This was the first step towards their attempt on the city, for the faggots concealed combustibles, which gradually ignited, and fired the gate. This was not at first perceived by the officer on duty, who, though keeping the strictest watch, could not see the working evil, as his bastion far overhung the entrance under which the bundle had been tossed. At eight P.M. we were startled by a sudden roar of musketry, followed by the fierce and well-known yell of the Affghauns; the whole of the city became as instantly lighted up by a tremendous sheet of fire which burst out at the Heraut Gate. To draw up the weakened regiment in the citadel square, and tell off extra guards for the gates, public stores, &c., and a hundred rank and file, with a company of the Shauh’s 1st for the point of attack, was the work of a moment, when to our dismay a second gate broke out in flames. Receiving orders for the different gates, I galloped down to find the fierce tug of war at the Heraut one commenced in earnest. The Afghauns were tearing down the blazing planks, the red-hot bars and hinges of the fallen gate, and climbing over, with most determined recklesness, the weak and imperfect barricades of grain-bags. They were met as gallantly by our little party, who shot down ten immense fellows as they mounted the burning pile within the gate, and by the aid of buhistees (watermen) quenched the glowing sacks, while the enemy fed the flames with oil and wood. While all was excitement below, above the gate a trusty band of marksmen, consisting of invalids and wounded of H.M. 40th Regiment, Artillery, and picked men of the garrison, dealt our terrible havoc among the dense masses, who charged steadily up to replace those swept away. Mass succeeded mass, and the only light, through the intense darkness without, that aided our aim and showed us their compact and terrible ranks, was the kindled match of their own juzzails. The brass Shauh’s gun was once opened upon them from the ramparts with deadly effect. But the fire was not repeated, as the recoil was so great that we feared the bastion and rampart would be shaken down, and bury us in their fall. Still that stormy sea of daring souls rolled on, and where we heard the dull sound of their footfalls there our pieces were levelled. Between the fires we listened to them dragging away their dead and wounded, and abusing their chiefs for having inveigled them into such a trap; for the Shauhzauda, Atta Mahommed, and their priests had gulled their soldiery into believing our bullets had been charmed by their incantations, and would have no effect. These adventurous spirits were said to be intoxicated with bhang, but any way they merited their soi-disant title of Ghazees, for they fought like demi-gods. It was a grand sight to see their turbans, arms, and standards glancing so near us from amidst “the flames, driven upward, which sloped their pointing spires, and rolled in billows,” or in the glare of smouldering timber, but unpleasant to reflect that a dozen bags of roasting flour were our only separation from instant destruction. After trying the other gates, and calling aloud, without effect, to Timoor Shauhzauda, and all good Moosulmauns, to win heaven by joining them from within the city, (had but thirty of the disaffected townspeople rushed down, and caused the slightest diversion, we must have been all sacrificed,) they assembled their masses at one A.M., and marched away. To our surprise, they moved off (for Afghauns) in good order, throwing out their flanking parties, advance and rear-guards, and imitating in other respects the movements of a regular army, doubtless the effects of their education, as in their force of ten thousand men brought against us the Douraunee Horse and Jaunbauz Cavalry had been disciplined by British officers. The siege lasted nearly five hours; and so near a crisis was it at one time, that Meerza Ahmed and the Prince Suftur Jung were heard to congratulate each other on their success, and allude to the particular portions each chief was to receive of the doomed city. The whole of that terrible night their followers were dragging away the killed and wounded; yet, when morning dawned, sixty of their dead and dying choked up the fatal gate. Among them were two Moollahs, with their sacred green silk standards, ambroidered with texts, and surmounted by gilded crescents. Two Douraunee Chiefs were also discovered almost within the gateway; and so determined were they to “do or dee,” that their standards were found fixed firmly in the ground, with four dead horses, and their riders killed beside them. Against the city walls were raised piles of black pebbles, for the purpose of stoning us as they poured in; a style of fighting at which the Afghauns are terribly expert. On our return to cantonments, we found the fresh graves of eight hundred bodies, and political information estimated their loss at one thousand to twelve hundred men.
I need not remark on the dreadful position our troops outside the walls, with General Nott, would have been placed in had our arms on that eventful siege proved unsuccessful, and it is therefore with deep regret that I have to record how, on the return of our late chief to Candahar, our victory was treated with the utmost scorn and contempt, ―the commanding officer insulted and threatened for allowing the enemy to besiege us―the little garrison accused of negligence, inactivity, and unsoldier-like behaviour―the officer on guard at the Heraut Gate subjected to a court of inquiry on his conduct, and the whole affair reported to Government in a meager and unjust form.
[Keywords]
dugdugi/ mu’azzin/ musalman/ Herat/ Qandahar/ Arghandab/ Durrani/ Baba Wali/ Safdar Jang/ Mirza Ahmad/ jazayel/ Shahzada Ata Muhammad/ Ghazi
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