The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-06 00:00:00

INDIAN DESPATCHES.

OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF MAJOR-GENERAL
SIR R. SALE'S FORCE AT JELLALABAD.
NOTIFICATION.-SECRET DEPARTMENT.

Bombay Castle, June 11, 1842.
The Hon. the Governor in Council is pleased to re-
publish for general information the following notification
issued at Allahabad on the 26th ult., under the orders of
the Right Hon. the Governor-General of India.
By order of the Hon. the Governor in Council,
J. P. WILLOUGHBY, Secretary to Government.
NOTIFICATION.-SECRET DEPARTMENT.

Allahabad, May 26, 1842.
The Right Hon. the Governor-General of India has
been pleased to direct the publication of the annexed
copies of the despatches from Major-General Pollock and
Major-General Sir R. Sale, K.C.B.
(Copy.)

FROM MAJOR-GENERAL POLLOCK, C.D., COMMANDING
TROOPS WEST OF INDUS, TO T. 11. MADDOUK, ESQ.,
SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT POLITICAL DEPARTMENT.
Camp Jellalabad, April 19, 1842.
Sir,—l have the honour to forward a letter from
Major-General Sir Robert Sale, K.C.8., detailing the
progress of events during the long and perilous siege sus-
tained by the force under his command.
2d. The gallantry of the Major-General and his small
force are too well known to Government to require any
commendations from me, but it is very pleasing to me to
be the channel through which their many trials are
brought to the notice of the Right Hon. the Governor-
General of India in Council.
I have had an opportunity of inspecting the works
thrown up for their protection, by the indefatigable exer-
tions of Sir R. Sale's force, and my surprise at their
strength and extent has been only equalled by my ad •
iniration of the excellent arrangements which must have
pervaded all departments, since, after a siege by greatly
superior numbers, of upwards of five months' duration,
I find the garrison in excellent health and spirits, and in
an admirable state of discipline, with a good supply of
ammunition, ready and anxious to take the field, and
most willing to advance on Caubul.
I have the honour to be, &c.,
(Signed) GEO. POLLOCK, Major-General,
Commanding Troops West of Indus.

TO T. H. MADDOCK, ESQ., SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT,

POLITICAL DEPARTMENT.

Jellalabad, April 16, 1842.
Sir,—The relief of this place having been at length
effected by the victorious advance through the passes of
the Khyber, of the army under Major-General Pollock,
C. 8., I conceive that I owe it to the troops who have so
long formed the garrison here, to address to you a re-
port, which may convey some notion of their conflicts
and the severity of their duties, labours, and privations.
It has before been made known to Government, that I
reached Gundamuck on the 30th of October, 1841, under
instructions from the authorities at Caubul, and there re-
ceived intelligence of the breaking out of a terrific insur-
rection at the Afghan capital on the 2d November. My
retracing my steps on that city was, in a military sense,
impracticable, since the first inevitable sacrifice would
have been of the lives of 300 sick and wounded, whom I
could not have left in depot with the treasonable irre-
gulars at Gundamuck, whilst my cattle was unequal to
the transport of my camp equipage, and my ammunition
insufficient for protracted operation. In the position
which I occupied, I could not absolutely command a
day's provisions or even water, and should have been
hemmed in on every side by hostile tribes, amounting to
30,000 or 40,000 men, part of whom might have seized
Jellalabad and reduced it to ashes, or holding it, have
left me no alternative but a disastrous retreat towards
Peshawur, I therefore came to the resolution of anti-
cipating any movement of this kind, and by possessing
myself of this city, establishing a point on which the
force at Caubul might retire, if hardly pressed, and re-
itorincr a link in- the chain of communication with our
pr~nces• Two marches brought me, after a successful
,
contest Futtahabad to Jellalabad.My breaking up
from Gun
m,..--,nck was followed by the imluet.iate defec-
tion of the irreign:•irs there, the destruction of the i.;,zn-
tonment, and a generu:„.l rising of the tribes.
.ht have
I found
the walls of Jellalabad state
.which
"
justified despair as to the pOSSIO2Iit of defending
them. The enciente was far t)0 extensive for my small
g

force, embracing a circumference of upwards of 2,300
yards. Its tracing was vicious in the extreme ; it had
no parapet excepting for a few hundred, yards, which
there was not more than two feet high. Earth and
rubbish had accumulated to such an 'extent about the
ramparts, that there were roads in various directions
across and over them into the country. There was a
space of 400 yards together on which none 'Of the gar-
rison could show themselves, excepting at one spot ; the
population within was disaffected, and the whole enciente
was surrounded by ruined forts, walls, mosques, tombs,
and gardens, from which a fire could be opened upon
the defenders at twenty or thirty yards. •
The garrison took full possession of the town in such
a state on the morning of the 15th of November, and in
the course of the day the place and detached hills by
which on one side it is commanded were surrounded,
and surmounted by a force of not fewer than 5,000 in-
surgents. A general attack on the 14th of November
ridded us of these enemies, and a similar array brought
against us a fortnight afterwards was dissipated by a
second sally on the Ist of December. But we had seized
the town, having in our possession not quite two day's
provisions and corn for our men and horses, and beheld
the arduous task before us of striving to gender the
works defensible , and collecting supplies, for our maga-
zine from the midst of a fanatical and infuriated people,
with very narrow means in the way of treasure to pur-
chase them. I appointed Captain Broadfoot, Shah
Soojah's Sappers, Garrison Engineer, and Captain Abbott,
of the Artillery, Commissary of Ordnance. Captain
M'Gregor, Political Agent, gave me the aid of his local
experience, and through his influence and measures our
Dak communication with India was restored, and a great
quantity of grain collected, whilst the'unremitting and
almost incredible labours of the troops, aided by
the zeal and science of Captain Broadfoot, . put
the. WWII in an efficient state of defence.
Captain Abbott made the Artillery disposition in
the ablest manner, and used every exertion to add to
and encourage our resources, in the way of gun and
musket ammunition, in both of which we were deficient
for the purpose of a siege. Lead and powder werepro-
cured in and about Jellalabad, and a quantity of cart-
ridges discovered in an old magazine, and thus the
troops completed to two hundred rounds per man. It
is to be remarked, that I might, in the second week'of
November, have marched upon Pesh Bolak, relieved
from investment the corps of Jazalchess under Captain
Ferris, and with it operate .1 a doubtful retreat upon
Peshawur. But I felt it to be my duty to give support
to the last moment to our troops, struggling against
their numerous enemies at Caubul, and maintain for
them a point on which to retreat and rally if they met
with reverse.
On the 9th of January I was summoned by the leaders
of the Affghan rebellion to give up the place, in fulfil-
ment of a convention entered into by the political and
military authorities at Caubul, but as I was fully assured
of the bad faith of our enemies, I refused to do this, and
on the 13th received the melancholy intelligence of the
disastrous retreat of our troops froni the capital, and their
annihilation in the Ghilzie defiles by the rigours of the
climate and the basest treachery on the part of those in
whose promises they had confided. Almost at the same
time it became known to us that the brigade of four
regiments marched to my succour from Hindostan had
been beaten in detail, and forced to fall back upon Pe-
shawur; my position was most critical, and I might,
whilst our enemies were engaged in. plundering the
force from Caubul, have attempted, and perhaps effected,
though with heavy loss, a retreat across Khyber, but I
resolved at all hazards on not relinquishing my grasp
on the chief town of the valley of Ningrahar, and
the key of Eastern Affghanistan, so long as I had
reason to consider that our Government desired to re-
tain it. The discouragements of my garrison at this
moment were very great, their duties most, severe, their
labours unceasing, and the most insidious endeavours
made by the enemy to seduce the native portion of them
from their allegiance. But their fidelity was unshaken,
and their serenity amidst labours and privations un-
clouded. With reference, however, to the state of fana-
tical excitement and national antipathy which prevailed
around us, I had been compelled, as a measure of pru-
dence, to get rid, first, of the corps of Khyber Rangers,
and next, of the detachment of Jazalchees, and a few of
the Affghan Sappers and a body of Hindostanee gunners,
who had formerly been in the employnient of Dost Ma-
homed Khan. Works had, in the meantime, been com-
pleted, of which the annexed reports and plans of Cap
tain.Broadfoot contain ample details. Generally, I may
state, they consisted in the destruCtion of an immense
quantity of corer for the enemy, extending to the demo-
lition of forts and old walls, filling up ravines, and de-
stroying gardens and cutting down groves, raising the
parapets to six or seven feet high, repairing and widen-
ing the ramparts, extending the bastions, retrenching
three of the gates, covering the fourth with an outwork,
and excavating a ditch ten feet in depth and twelve
feet in width round the whole of the walls ; the
place was thus secure against the attack of any
Asiatic enemy not provided with siege artillery.
But it pleased Providence, on the 19th of February,
to remove in an instant this ground of confidence. A
tremendous earthquake shook down all our parapets,
built up with so much labour, injured several of our
bastions, cast to the ground all our guard-houses, de-
molished a third of the town, made a considerable breach
in the rampart of a curtain in the Peshawur force, and
reduced the Caubul gate to a shapeless mass of ruins.
It savours of romance, but it is a sober fact, that the
city was thrown into alarm, within the space of little
more than one month, by the repetition of full one
I hundred shocks of this terrible phenomenon of nature.
The troops turned with indefatigable industry to the
reparation of their walls, but at the moment of the great
convulsion, Sirdhar Mahomed Akbar Khan, Burultzye,
the assassin of the late Envoy, and treacherous destroyer
of the Caubul force, having collected a body of troops,
flushed with a suecess consummated by the sliest means,
had advanced to Murkhail, within seven miles of our
gates. He attacked our foraging parties with a large
body of horse on the 21st and 22d of February, and soon
after establishing hi§ head-quarters to the westward, two
miles from the place, and a secondary camp to the east-
ward, about one mile distant, entered the town and esta-
blished a rigorous blockade. From that time, up to the
7th of April, the reduced garrison was engaged in a suc-
cession of skirmishes with the enemy, who, greatly su-
perior in horse, perpetually insulted our walls by attacks
and alerts, and compelled us daily to fight at disadvantage
for forage for our cattle. The most remarkable of these
affairs were those of the cavalry under Lieut. Mayne,
commanding a detachment of Shah Soojah's 2d Cavalry,
and Jemadar Deena Singh, sth Light Cavalry already
reported ; a sally under Colonel Dennie, C. 8., to defeat
it suspected attempt of the enemy to drive a mine, on the
11th of March; the repulse of an assault upon the trans-
verse walls to the northward of the place, on the 24th of
the same month, by detachments under Captain Broad-
foot (who was severely wounded) and Captain Fenwick,
her Majesty's,l3th Light Infantry; the capture of bul-
locks and sheep by Lieutenant Mayne on the 30th and
31st of January; and the seizure of large flocks of the
latter, in the face of Mahomed Akbar's army, by a force
of infantry under Captain Pattison, of her Majesty's 13th
Light Infantry, and of cavalry under Captain Oldfield,
on the Ist instant. These successes were crowned by
Providence by the issue of the brilliant, and decisive at-
tack on the camp of the Sirdhar, on the 7th instant.
I have to notice as a measure of defence, my having
enrolled, as a provisional battalion, a large body of our
camp followers. and armed them with pikes and other
weapons. On all occasions of assault and sally these men
were available to make a shoev upon our curtains, and I
have pledged myself to them to recommend to Govern-
ment that they should enjoy all the pecuniary advantages
of native soldiers beyond the Indus, I at the same time
held forth to the troops of Shah Soojah's force the ex-
pectation that they would be put, during the special
service, on the same footing with their comrades of the
Bengal army.
From the time that the brigade threw itself into Jel-
lalabad the native troops have been on half, and the fol-
lowers on quarter rations, and for many weeks they have
been able to obtain little or nothing in bazaars to eke
out this scanty provision. I will not mention as a priva-
tion the European troops from the same period having
been without their allowance of spirits, because I verily
believe this circumstance, and their constant employment,
have contributed to keep them in the highest health and
the most remarkable state of discipline. Crime has been
almost unknown amongst them, but they have felt se-
verely, although they never murmured, the diminution
of their quantity of animal food and the total want of'
ghee, flour, tea, coffee, and sugar ; these may seem small
matters to those who read of them at a distance, but they
are serious reductions in the scale of comfort of the hard
working and fighting soldier in Asia. The troops have
also been greatly in arrears of pay, besides their severe
duties, in heat and cold, wind and rain, on the guards of
the gates and bastions. The troops, officers and men,
British and Hindostanee, of every arm, remitted fully
accoutred on their alarm posts, every night from the Ist
of Marcie to the 7th of April. The losses of officers and
men in carriage cattle, camp equipage, and baggage, be-
tween Caubul and Jellalabad, were heavy, and their
expenditure, during the siege and blockade, in obtaining
articles of mere subsistence and necessity, has been
exorbitant.
I feel assured that Major-General Pollock will consider
it a most pleasing duty to bring the series of labours,
privations, and conflicts, imperfectly sketched in the
foregoing details, to the notice of the head of the Su-
preme Government in India, and through his Lordship
to that of the Court of Directors and our Sovereign, as a
claim for.public acknowledgment and substantial reim-
bursement and reward.
The report of Captain Broadfoot, in his capacity of
Garrison Engineer, will meet with attentive perusal. I
have already stated how much I have been indebted to
his scientific attainments, as well as his distinguished
activity and resolution during the siege. His fertility in
resource obviated great difficulties in procuring iron,
timber, and charcoal, and to the foresight of his arrange-
ments we owe our having had a very ample supply of
tools. The corps under his command performed, from
Bootkhak, the duties equally of good sappers and bold
light infantry soldiers, and the Affghan Huzaree and
Eusilyze portion of it have been singularly faithful in
time of general defection. The two infantry regiments,
under the lamented Colonel Donnie and Lieut.-Colonel
Monteath, have vied with each other in the steady per-
formance of the duties of that arm ; and it would be im-
possible for me to discriminate in favour of either, in
awarding praise to the squadron of sth Light Cavalry, un-
der Captain Oldfield, and the Resellah 2d Shah Soojah's
Cavalry, under Lieutenant Mayne ; Lieutenant Plowden
of the former has been distinguished on several occa-
sions. The artillery practice of No. 6, light field bat-
tery, has ever been excellent, and has been equalled by
that of the mountain train. Captains Abbott and Back-
house, and Lieut. Dawes, have proved themselves excel-
lent officers of ordnance. I have more than once brought
it to notice that Captain M'Gregor, Political Agent, has
cheerfully rendered very able assistance in serving the
--gn-g in every crisis of pressing danger. Of his labours
in his OM „v)artment I ought not perhaps to attempt to
b
constitute miself-aj9dgeut I know that they have
been unremitting, „Alley „stilt in obtaining for my