Chapter 11: An Arduous March.
Lisle had heard of the operations that had been carried on by thebrigade under General Gazelee, under the general supervision of SirWilliam Lockhart. The object was to cross by the Zolaznu Pass, topunish two of the hostile tribes on the other side; to effect ameeting with the Khuram column; and to concentrate and operateagainst the Chamkannis, a tribe of inveterate robbers. On the 26thGeneral Gazelee started, and the newly-arrived wing of the ScottishFusiliers, and two companies of the Yorkshires was to follow, onthe 28th.
The approach to the pass, which was four miles to the left, wasacross a very rough country; and as, after advancing four and ahalf miles, a severe opposition was met with, most of the day wasspent in dislodging the tribesmen from the villages, and turningthem out of the spurs which covered the approach to the pass.Finding it impossible to make the summit that night, they encampedand, although they were fired into heavily, but little damage wasdone.
At dawn the expedition started again but, by accident, theyascended another pass parallel with the Lozacca. At nine o'clockthe Ghoorkhas and Sikhs arrived at the top of the pass. It was verydifficult and, as the baggage animals gave great trouble on theascent, and were unable to go farther, the party camped on the topof the pass.
General Lockhart left the camp early that morning, but was alsoopposed so vigorously that he was obliged to encamp, three milesfrom the top of the pass, after having burnt all the villages fromwhich he had been fired upon. In the morning he joined the advanceparty, and went ten miles down the pass. On arriving there, hefound that the Queen's and the 3rd Sikhs had pushed on farther toDargai. This was not the place previously visited of this name,which appears to be a common one in the Tirah. Plenty of hay andstraw stores were found, and the troops were vastly morecomfortable than on the previous night.
It was here that Lisle had overtaken the column.
Next day the whole force was encamped at Dargai, where they werereceived in a friendly manner by the villagers; who expressedthemselves willing to pay their share of the fines imposed, andalso to picket the hills. The rear guard, of two companies ofGhoorkhas and two companies of Scottish Fusiliers, arrived late inthe day. They had met with great opposition. The tribesmen would,indeed, have succeeded in carrying off the guns, had not a companyof the Ghoorkhas come up and, fighting stubbornly, driven them off.
Next morning the headmen of the village were summoned, to explainwhy they had failed to pay the number of rifles they had promised;and fire was applied to one of their houses. This had aninstantaneous effect and, in a quarter of an hour, the rifles wereforthcoming and the fine paid.
The force then moved on to Esor, where helio communication with theKhuram column had been effected and, that day, Sir William Lockhartand Colonel Hill--who commanded it--met. The country traversed wasa beautiful one. It was admirably cultivated, and the houses weresubstantially built.
That day two columns went out: one under General Gazelee, tocollect the fines from one of the tribes; the other commanded byColonel Hill, to punish the Chamkannis. This was a small, butextremely warlike and hardy tribe. A short time before, they hadraided a thousand head of cattle from across our border, and gotclear away with them.
A portion of the force was told off, to work its way into thevalley by the river gorge, while the main body ascended the pathover the Kotal. They reached this at a quarter-past ten and, whilethey were waiting for the head of the column that had gone up thegorge to appear, fire was opened upon them. This, however, was keptdown by the guns. It was an hour before the column appeared, butthe whole force was not through the defile until it was too late tocarry out the destruction of the villages. The column thereforeretired, severely harassed, the while, by the enemy.
Next day Colonel Hill was again sent forward, with the BorderScouts, the 4th and 5th Ghoorkhas, part of the Queen's, and theKhoat Battery. They were over the Kotal at nine o'clock, and the5th Ghoorkhas and the scouts were sent to hold the hills on theleft. The Chamkannis had anticipated a sudden visit, and were inforce on the left, where they had erected several sangars.
The little body of scouts, eighty men strong, fought their way upthe hill; and waited there for the leading company of the 5th.Lieutenant Lucas, who commanded them, told off half his company tosweep the sangar, and then the remainder dashed at it.
The Chamkannis stood more firmly than any of the tribesmen hadhitherto done. They met the charge with a volley, and then drewtheir knives to receive it. The fire of the covering partydestroyed their composure and, when the scouts were within thirtyyards, they bolted for the next sangar.
Lucas carried three of these defences, one after another, and drovethe enemy off the hill. The Ghoorkhas scouts, who had been engagedthirty-six times during the campaign, had killed more than theirown strength of the enemy, and had lost but one man killed and twowounded; and this without taking count of the many nights they hadspent in driving off prowlers round the camp.
The work of destruction now began. Over sixty villages weredestroyed in the valley and, on the following day, the expeditionstarted to withdraw. The lesson had been so severe that no attemptwas made, by the tribesmen, to harass the movement.
The column marched down to the camp in the Maidan--the Adam Khels,through whose country they passed, paying the fine, and sopicketing many of the adjacent heights as to guard the camp fromthe attacks of hostile tribesmen. When they reached Bara theydecided to rejoin the Peshawar column, without delay, as theoutlook was not promising. The evacuation began on the 7th ofDecember, but the rear guard did not leave till the 9th. It wasdivided into two divisions in order, as much as possible, to avoidthe delay caused by the large baggage column. The 1st Division wasto march down on the Mastura Valley, while General Lockhart's 2ndDivision would again face the Dwatoi defile. Both the forces weredue to join the Peshawar column, on or about the 14th.
General Symonds, with the 1st Division, was unmolested by the way.It was very different, however, with Lockhart.
The movement was not made a day too soon. Clouds were gathering,the wind was blowing from the north, and there was every prospectof a fall of snow, which would have rendered the passage of theBara Pass impossible. The 3rd Ghoorkhas led the way, followed bythe Borderers, with the half battalion of the Scottish Regiment andthe Dorsets. Behind them came the baggage of the brigade andheadquarters, the rear of the leading column being brought up bythe 36th Sikhs. General Kempster's Brigade followed, in as closeorder as possible; having detached portions of the 1st and 2ndGhoorkhas, and the 2nd Punjab Infantry, to flank the whole force.
The Malikdin Khels were staunch to their word, and not a singleshot was fired till the force had passed through the defile. Thedifficulties, however, were great, for the troops, baggage, andfollowers had to wade through the torrent, two-thirds of the way.The flanking had used up all the Ghoorkhas, and the Borderers nowbecame the advance guard.
Everything seemed peaceful, and the regiment was halfway across thesmall valley, when a heavy fire was opened on the opposite hill.General Westmacott was in command of the brigade. The Bordererswere to take and hold the opposite hill, supported by a company ofDorsets and of Scottish Fusiliers. The battery opened fire, while aparty turned the nearest sangars on the right flank. By threeo'clock the whole of the crests were held, and the baggage streamedinto camp. Fighting continued, however, on the peaks, far into thenight.
No explanations were forthcoming why the enemy should have allowedthe force to pass through the defile, without obstruction, when adetermined body of riflemen could have kept the whole of them atbay; for the artillery could not have been brought into position,as the defile was the most difficult, of its kind, that a Britishdivision had ever crossed.
The day following the withdrawal of the rear guard, it rained inthe Bara Valley, which meant snow in the Maidan. The pickets on theheights had a bad time of it that night, as some of them wereconstantly attacked; and it was not till three in the morning thatthe baggage came in, the rear guard arriving in camp about
ten.
The camp presented a wonderful sight that day, crowded as it waswith men and animals. The weather was bitterly cold, and the menwere busy gathering wood to make fires. On the hills all round, theSikhs could be seen engaged with the enemy, the guns aiding themwith their work. The 36th Sikhs, as soon as they arrived, were sentoff to occupy a peak, two miles distant, which covered the advanceinto the Rajgul defile. The enemy mustered strong, but were turnedout of the position.
The next morning the villages were white with snow. A party wassent on into the Rajgul valley, where they destroyed a big village.
Immediately after leaving Dwatoi, the valley broadened out till itwas nearly a mile wide. On the right it was commanded by steephills; on the left it was, to some extent, cultivated. The 4thBrigade this time led the way, the 3rd bringing up the rear.
From the moment when the troops fell in on the 10th, till theyreached Barkai on the 14th, there was a general action from frontto rear. The advance guard marched at half-past seven. At eighto'clock flanking parties were engaged with the enemy in the hillsand spurs. Serious opposition, however, did not take place untilfive and a half miles of the valley had been passed.
Here the river turned to the right, and the front of the advancewas exposed to the fire of a strongly-fortified village, nestlingon the lower slope of a hill, on a terrace plateau. The village wasfurnished with no fewer than ten towers, and from these a veryheavy fire was kept up.
The battery shelled the spur; while the Sikhs, in open order,skirmished up the terraces to the plateau and, after a briskfusillade, took the village and burnt it.
A mile farther, the head of the column reached the camping place,which was a strong village built into the river cleft. On the leftthe 36th Sikhs and part of the Ghoorkhas cleared the way; while theBombay Pioneers, and the rest of the Ghoorkhas, became heavilyengaged with the enemy in some villages on the right. All along theline a brisk engagement went on. The camp pickets took up theirpositions early in the afternoon, and a foraging party went out andbrought in supplies, after some fighting.
Kempster's Brigade had not been able to reach the camp, and settleditself for the night three miles farther up the valley. It, too,had its share of fighting.
All night it rained heavily, and the morning of the 11th broke coldand miserable. It was freezing hard; the hilltops, a hundred feetabove the camp, were wrapped in snow; and the river had swollengreatly. The advance guard waded out into the river bed, and thewhole of the brigade followed, the Ghoorkhas clearing the sides ofthe valley. In a short time they passed into the Zakka-Khel sectionof the Bara Valley.
Curiously enough, the opposition ceased here. It may be that theenemy feared to show themselves on the snow on the hilltops; orthat, being short of ammunition, they decided to reserve themselvesfor an attack upon the other brigade. Scarcely a shot was fireduntil the valley broadened out into the Akerkhel, where some smallopposition was offered by villagers on either bank. This, however,was easily brushed aside.
The advance guard of the 3rd Brigade almost caught up the rearguard of the 4th and, by four in the afternoon, its baggage wascoming along nicely, so that all would be in before nightfall. Therear guard of the brigade, consisting of the Gordons, Ghoorkhas,and 2nd Punjab Infantry, had been harassed as soon as they startedand, as the day wore on, the enemy increased greatly in numbers. Asthe flanking parties fell back to join the rear guard, they were sopressed that it was as much as they could do to keep them at bay.
When about three miles from camp, the baggage took a wrong road. Intrying a piece of level ground, they became helplessly mixed up inswampy rice fields. The enemy, seeing the opportunity they hadwaited for, outflanked the rear guard, and began pouring a heavyfire into the baggage. The flanking parties were weak, for thestrain had been so severe that many men from the hospital escortand baggage guard had been withdrawn, to dislodge the enemy fromthe surrounding spurs.
The Pathans were almost among the baggage, when a panic seized thefollowers. As night began to fall, the officer commanding theGordons, with two weak companies of his regiment, two companies ofthe Ghoorkhas, and a company of the 2nd Punjab Infantry and someGhoorkhas, found himself in a most serious position. The guns hadlimbered up and pushed on, and the rear guard remained, surroundedby the enemy, hampered with its wounded, and stranded with doolies.As the native bearers had fled these doolies were, in many cases,being carried by the native officers.
The enemy grew more and more daring, and a few yards, only, dividedthe combatants. Captain Uniacke, retiring with a few of theGordons, saw that there was only one course left: they mustentrench for the night. He was in advance of the actual rear guard,attempting to hold a house against the fire of quite a hundredtribesmen.
Collecting four men of his regiment, and shouting wildly, he rushedat the doorway. In the dusk the enemy were uncertain of the numberof their assailants and, in their horror of the bayonet, they firedone wild volley and fled. To continue the ruse, Captain Uniackeclimbed to the roof, shouting words of command, as if he had acompany behind him. Then he blew his whistle, to attract the rearguard as it passed, in the dark.
The whistle was heard and, in little groups, they fell back withthe wounded to the house. It was a poor place, but capable ofdefence; and the Pathans drew off, knowing that there was loot inabundance to be gained down by the river.
As night wore on the greatest anxiety prevailed, when transportofficers and small parties straggled in, and reported thattribesmen were looting and cutting up followers, within a mile ofcamp; and that they had no news to give of the men who composed therear guard. So anxious were the headquarter staff that a company ofthe Borderers were sent out, to do what they could.
Lieutenant Macalister took them out and, going a mile up the river,was able to collect many followers and baggage animals, but couldfind no signs of the rear guard. Early in the morning a company ofthe 2nd Punjab Infantry went out, as a search party, and got intocommunication with the rear guard. They were safe in the house; butcould not move, as they were hampered with the wounded, and weresurrounded by the enemy. Two regiments and a mountain batterytherefore went out and rescued them from their awkward predicament,bringing them into camp, with as much baggage as could be found.
The casualties of the day amounted to a hundred and fifty animals,and a hundred followers killed. Of the combatants two officers werewounded, and fourteen Gordons were wounded, and four killed.
Owing to the necessity of sending out part of the 4th Brigade, tosupport the cut-off rear of the 3rd Brigade, it was impossible tocontinue the march that day. Next morning, the order of the brigadewas changed. The 23rd was to lead, handing over a battery ofartillery to the 4th, for service in the rear guard. It was alsoordered that flanking parties were to remain in position, until thebaggage had passed. The advance guard consisted of the 2nd PunjabInfantry, and the 1st and 2nd Ghoorkhas. The others were told offto burn and destroy all villages on either side of the nullah. Thebaggage of the whole division followed the main guard.
Directly the camp was left, the sides of the nullah enlarged and,for half a mile, the road lay through a narrow ravine. The drop wasrapid; for the river, swollen by the fallen snow, had becomeliterally a torrent; and the scene with the baggage was one ofextreme confusion. The recent disaster had given a frenzied impulseto the generally calm followers, and all felt anxiety to pressforward, with an impetus almost impossible to control. The mass ofbaggage became mixed in the ravine, but at last was cleared offand, when the valley opened, they moved forward at their greatestspeed, but now under perfect control.
After this the opposition became less, and the village of Gulikhelwas reached by the 3rd Brigade. The village stands on the left bankof the Bara. Immediately below it a nullah becomes a narrow gorge,almost impassable in the present state of the river. It is severalmiles long. There was, however, a road over a neighbouring saddle.The path up from the river was narrow, but sufficient to allow twoloaded mules to pass abreast. It wound for some seven miles, over alow hill, un
til the river bed was again reached.
The next ford was Barkhe. The advance guard was well up in thehills by midday, when it met the Oxfordshire Regiment, which hadcome out seven miles to meet the force; but the baggage of adivision, filing out of the river bed in pairs, is a seriousmatter, and there was necessarily a block in the rear.
General Westmacott moved as soon as the baggage was off but, longbefore it was through the first defile, his pickets were engaged,and a general action followed. The enemy, fighting withextraordinary boldness, kept within a few yards of the pickets.Followers with baggage animals were constantly hit, as they came upbut, at half-past ten, the rear guard regiments marched out ofcamp, under cover of artillery fire.
The fighting was so severe that, within an hour, the ammunition ofthe 3rd Ghoorkhas was expended and, shortly afterwards, the tworegiments of the rear guard were forced to call up their firstreserve ammunition mules. The march was continued at a rapid pace,until they reached the block caused by the narrowness of the path.Here the whole river reach became choked with animals and doolies.The wounded were coming in fast, when the Pathans, taking advantageof the block, attacked in great force, hoping to compel theretreating force to make their way down the long river defile.
General Westmacott, however, defended his right with energy; therear-guard regiments supporting each other, while the batterieswere in continual action. The Borderers, Sikhs, and Ghoorkhas stoodwell to their task, till the last of the baggage animals were gotout of the river bed.
The country now had become a rolling plateau, intersected byravines and thickly covered with low jungle, in which the enemycould creep up to within three or four yards of the fighting line.Progress was, consequently, very slow. To be benighted in such acountry would have meant disaster, so General Westmacott selected aridge, which he determined to hold for the night. The wearied menwere just filing up, when a tremendous rush was made by theAfridis. For a moment, it seemed as if they would all be envelopedand swept away; but the officers threw themselves into the ranks,magazines were worked freely, and the very bushes seemed to meltaway before the hail of shot. The tribesmen were swept back in thedarkness, and they never tried a second rush. Their firing alsoslackened very much, and this permitted the men to form a camp, andsee to the wounded.
That day the rear guard lost one officer killed and three wounded,eighteen men killed, eighty-three wounded, and six missing. Thenight in camp was a terrible experience. The troops had beenfighting since early morning, the frost was bitter, and they hadneither water, food, nor blankets. General Westmacott passed thenight with the sentry line.
Early in the morning the action recommenced and, stubbornlycontesting each foot, at times almost in hand-to-hand conflict withtribesmen in the bushes, the rear guard fell back. The summit ofthe Kotal was passed; but the enemy continued to harass theirretirement down to the river, where the picket post of the 9thGhoorkhas was reached. The retirement from the Tirah had cost ahundred and sixty-four killed and wounded. As a militaryachievement, this march of Lockhart's 2nd Division should have aprominent place in the history of the British army.
After a quiet day, the force marched into Swaikot. Next morning thetroops in camp there gathered on each side of the road, cheeringtheir battle-grimed comrades, and bringing down hot cakes to them.It was a depressing sight. The men were all pinched anddishevelled, and bore on their faces marks of the terrible ordealthrough which they had just passed.
The advance guard were followed by the wounded. The 4th Brigadefollowed. They were even more marked by hardship and strife thanthose who had preceded them. Then the rear guard marched in, andthe first phase of the Tirah expedition was at an end.
The expedition had carried out its object successfully. The Afridishad been severely punished, and had been taught what they hadhitherto believed impossible, that their defiles were notimpregnable, and that the long arm of the British Government couldreach them in their recesses. The lesson had been a very severeone, but it had been attained at a terrible cost. It is to be hopedthat it will never have to be repeated.
But while the regiment were resting quietly in their cantonment,there had been serious fighting on the road to Chitral. After somehesitation, the government had decided that this post should remainin our hands, and a strong force was therefore stationed at theMalakand. This, after clearing the country, remained quietly at thestation; until news was received of the attack on our fort atShabkadr, near Peshawar, by the Mohmunds and, two days later, newscame that a large council had been held by the fanatics of varioustribes, at which they decided to join the tribes in the UpperValley of Swat.
On the 14th of August the force set out from Thana, under SirBindon Blood, on their march for the Upper Swat. The 11th BengalLancers were sent forward in order to reconnoitre the country. Theenemy were found in force near Jelala, at the entrance to the UpperSwat river, their advance post being established in some Buddhistruins on a ridge. The Royal West Kent, however, advanced and drovethem off.
Then news came that several thousand of the enemy occupied a front,of some two miles, along the height; their right flank resting onthe steep cliffs, and their left reaching to the top of the higherhills. The battery opened fire upon them; and the infantry, cominginto action at nine o'clock in the morning, did much executionamong the crowded Ghazis.
The 31st and 24th Punjab Infantry, under General Meiklejohn, had along and arduous march on the enemy's left. The movement wassuccessfully carried out; and the enemy, knowing that their line ofretreat towards the Morah Pass was threatened, broke up, a largeportion streaming away to their left. The remainder soon lost heartand, although a desperate charge by a handful of Ghazis took place,these only sacrificed their lives, without altering the course ofevents.
The enemy gathered on a ridge in the rear but, by eleven, theheights commanding the road were in the hands of our troops, andthe Guides cavalry began to file past. When they got into the passbehind the ridge, the enemy were more than a mile away; and couldbe seen in great numbers, separated by several ravines.
Captain Palmer, who had pushed forward in pursuit, soon foundhimself ahead of his men. Near him were Lieutenant Greaves and,thirty yards behind, Colonel Adams and Lieutenant Norman. Seeingthat the enemy were in considerable force, Colonel Adams directedthe troop of cavalry who were coming up to hold a graveyard,through which they had passed, until the infantry could arrive.Owing, however, to the noise of the firing, Palmer and Greaves didnot hear him; and charged up to the foot of the hill, hoping to cutoff the tribesmen who were hurrying towards them. Palmer's horsewas at once killed, and Greaves fell among the Pathans.
Adams and Fincastle, and two soldiers, galloped forward to theirassistance, and were able to help Palmer back to the shelter of thegraveyard. Meanwhile Fincastle, who had had his horse killed, triedto help Greaves on to Adams' horse. While doing so, Greaves wasagain shot through the body, and Adams' horse wounded. The twotroopers came to their assistance; and Maclean, having firstdismounted his squadron in the graveyard, pluckily rode out withfour of his men. In this way the wounded were successfully broughtin; but Maclean was shot through both thighs, and died almostinstantly. The loss of the two officers, who were both extremelypopular, was greatly felt by the force.
The infantry and guns now having arrived, the enemy retired to avillage, two miles in the rear. Here they were attacked by asquadron of the Guides, who dispersed them and drove them up intothe hills. In the meantime our camp had been attacked, but theguard repulsed the assailants, with some loss.
The enemy had lost so heavily that they scattered to the villages,and sent in to make their submission. This fight effectually cooledthe courage of the natives, and the column marched through theircountry unopposed, and the tribesmen remained comparatively quietduring the after events.