The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-08 00:00:00

will lessen the wonder at their having done so, for,
like the illustrious band at Jellitlabad, men who could
patiently bear such privations as they have undergone,
and remain true to discipline, are equal to any service,
however, formidable it may appear. The garrison con-
sisted of Captain Craigie's Regiment of the Shah's
force, about 600 strong ; three companies of the 43d
Regiment of Native Infantry, about 250 men, under
Captain Webster and Lieutenant Trotter; forty
European Artillerymen, and about sixty Sappers and
Miners—in all 950 men. During the whole of the
six months they were completely cut off from all
communication: The snow was during two months very
deep on the ground, and more than once the thermo-
meter was 8 degrees below zero. As for doors or
windows to the cells inhabited by the officers, they
were out of the question. For three weeks in the
depth of winter the European artillerymen had no
meat—nothing but bread end water, and•the same for
six weeks preceding the relief ; while the Sepoys, for
nearly four months, had only three-quarter rations,
and could purchase nothing. The officers were li-
mited to half a sheep a day amongst eleven, and that
only an apology for a sheep, for they had neither
bhoosah, barley, nor grass to feed their small flock on.
For 12 days preceding the 21st of May not a man
could-go outside of the gates, so strictly were they
watched. The strength of the fort, or, as the writer
says, " the hill called Khelat-i-Ghilzie, for it does not
deserve the name of a fort," seems to have been much
overrated, as not more than one-half was surrounded
by a wall, the remainder resting for its defence on the
steepness of the ascent. The only artillery were three
old rattletrap brass guns that formerly belonged to
Dost Mohamed, mounted on condemned carriages.
Not above half the garrison were engaged on the
morning of the assault, which took place just as the
moon went down. The Ghilzies confessed to 410
' killed on the spot, the greater number of whom they
were enabled to carry off.
We now submit to our readers ,the narrative al-
hided to :—" We marched into quarters at Khelat-i-
Ghilzie in November, 1841. Our barracks were ex-
cellent, but the fortifications of the place were little
more than commenced on, and along some hundred
yards of the works there was neither wall nor ditch.
Directly we got news of the insurrection at Caubul,
the sepoys were set to work to strengthen the de-
fences of the post ; scarps, palisades, parapets, and a
ditch at the most accessible part of the works were
commenced on, and both officers and men continued
to work at them until the winter set well in, and the
frost rendered the ground so hard that there was no
longer any working it. On the 9th of December
about 1,500._ Ghilzies made their appearance, with
the intention, as, they said, of besieging us. They
took up their ground about two and a half miles
off, but their warlike efforts were confined to firing
a few shots into the place at night, and an at-
tempt
made by a party of their horse to cut off
some of our men, who were cutting bhoottah for
fuel, in which they were foiled by the sepoys of the
guard. A fall of snow compelled them to decamp
after nine days, and the only damage they did us was
to make all the chiefs in our neighbourhood ' yagee:*
Of all the chiefs whom we had paid and supported,
only one man adhered to us, and he a person of no
great influence. The winter now set in with seve-
rity, and the cold soon became excessive. We had no
doors fOr the barracks, and neither doors nor glass
for the windows of our quarters, which were large
and lofty rooms, some thirty-six feet long, and our
supply of firewood we were obliged to husband, so
that we never could keep our rooms warm. You must
recollect Khelat-i-Ghilzie, its situation is a very ex-•
posed one, situated in the throat of a tunnel ; high
winds prevail throughout the year, and in winter the
lower the temperature sunk the higher blew the north
wind. Snow lay for two months on the ground, and
the theienorneter- fell as low as 40 degrees below the
freezing point. With no doors to the - barracks,
and only such rough purdahs as grain bags, which,
were all we could get, you may conceive how much
our men suffered; a gale of wind always blowinge
when the temperature was below zero, and ,usually,
too, blowing most• strongly at night. I have never
experienced a winter so continuously cold. When
we entered the garrison, we had provision in flour for
the trOoPs for upwards of six months, but as we got
an increase of 300 Men to the post, when Colonel
Maclaren's brigade 'passed us on its return to Canda-
hare we had many additional mouths to feed, and we
knew not how long we might be tequired to hold the
post. We had a quantity of wheat in store, but with
the country all round ' yagee' we had not the means
of grinding it. We got possession of some mill-
stones, and tried to get up mills, but after getting all
the machinery in order, we found that all the water.
we could command was not sufficient to keep the
machinery in motion. We then tried a bullock mill,
which also failed, from our not being able to fabri-
cate the ircn wore of sufficient solidity, and we should
have been utterly nonplussed had not an-officer in the
garrison possessed a book on mechanics, in which was
eontained a description of a vertical hand-mill capable
of grinding sixteen maunds daily. This we succeeded
in constructing after two months and a-half's labour _
upon mills, and no little anxiety as to the result. We
were now easy in our minds, for this, with some
small hand-mills, gaVe us the means of supporting
our garrison for some two or three addi-
tional months, and we knew our men would fight
and hold the post Against all the Affghans in
the country as long .as, our provisionS lasted. We
had occasional communication With Candahar by
means of highly paid cossids, and we thus learned the
disastrous fate of our Caubul comrades. The tedium
of the winter was excessive, but it passed at last.
With the spring our labours on the defences re-com-
menced, and as soon as the weather became mild, the
hostile chiefs of the two great Ghilzie tribes in our
neighbourhood made their appearance. These gen-
tlemen had spent the winter in a more sheltered loca-
lity, and, as long as they were not near us, the vil-
lagers brought in commodities for sale, but, with their
appearance, all supplies ceased. On two occasions
we were obliged to chappow sheep—the first was a
peaceable affair; we secured a whole flock without let
or hindrance ; but, on the second occasion, we had to
fight for them, and had a few men wounded. We
had forty-three European Artillerymen in the garri
son, and it was chiefly for them that the animal food
was required. The supply of all the necessaries ran
out in winter, and on two different occasion's they
were for some days on bread and water, yet they
never grumbled, worked as well as if they had been
highly fed, and bore all their privations with the most
admirable good humour. The hostile Ghilzie chiefs at
first brought only a few hundred men with them, and
took up their quarters at a safe distance of soiree miles
from us ; but during all April they were receiving
accessions to their force, and with these accessions
their boldness increased, until they diminished their
distance to less than a mile from the place. As they
approached, our range necessarily became more
limited, and we had neither cavalry nor the means of
moving a gun, and the country round lihelat-i-Ghil-
zie is full of ravines, and exceedingly favourable to
the skulking mode of fighting which these gentry
most approve of, We were latterly, as the invest-
ment became more close, obliged to confine ourselves
to the narrow space within our defences ; these by the
continued labour of our men had become very respect-
able, and such as we deemed no Afghan without the
aid of guns would have attempted. In this, however,
we were agreeably disappointed. Towards the middle
of May de enemy commenced to dig trenches round
the place, working at them all night. By the 26th
they had completely surrounded us with them, the
nearest being within 250 yards of our defences.
These were all loopholed, and afforded the enemy
perfect cover ; they were constructed, too, with some
skillas to position, as the advanced .trenches were in
variably protected by two or three trenches in their
rear, and they were uniformly placed, so as to have i
the advantage of any natural cover afforded by the
ground. From these trenches the hottest fire any
of us had ever seen Affghans keep up, was
poured upon any one who exposed himself; obviously
picked marksmen were selected for the duty, for they
fired exceedingly well for Affghans, and at ranges ce
from 600 to 700 yards their long jezails threw.balls
with great accuracy. They were so completely shel-
tered in these trenches that we seldom hail an oppor-
tunity of firing at them excepting when parties were
relieving each other, and then the double barrels and
rifles of the officers came into play. Such had been
the monotony of our previous existence, that it was
a matter of great amusement firing at these gentry,
and it was seldom that any fellow got into the nearer
trenches in day-light without running the gauntlet of
a few double barrels. On the evening of the 20th of
May the enemy were unusually quiet, and so few of
them.visible that it was a matter of doubt whether
the greater number of them had not decamped. A.
few of them were observed, by
.means of our teles-
copes, at a distant fort practising escalading with
scaling•ladders, and this was the rstintimation we
had of their having constructed these articles. Offi-
cers and men had, for several nights previously, kept at
their posts; there was bright moonlight and the night
passed with unusual quietness until, towardsmorning,
the moon went down. The attention of the officer on
duty was then suddenly arrested by the clatter of
horses' feet, indicating the close presence of a large
body of horse, and the word was passed round to get
ready. Shortly afterwards the whole northern face
of the works was assaulted by dense masses of the
enemy. The morning was so dark that they were
within 100 yards before they were observed, though
we were on the look out for them, and they came on
with greet boldness, shouting " Allah! Allah !" They
were received with discharges of grape, and a hot fire
of musketry, which must have done heavy execution
•among their dense masses; still they pressed on,
pushing their attack with the greatest vehemence et
the north-east and north-west angles of the works,
where the ascent was most easy, and the defence ap-
parently* most accessible. At the north-east angle
the defences consisted of a ditch, scalp of some
seven or eight feet in height, a slope of some eight

* Mutinous, riotous.