The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-01-17
A Fight With the Ghilzais.

correspondent OF the Calcutta
Pioneer, after describing an expedition
against a body of Afghans under Sahib
Jal, where some twenty fugitives clam
be1ed to the top of conical hillock
one hundred feet high in the middle of
the plain where the actionowas fought,
says: This cavalry engagement was
no light matter for the Second Punjab
Cavalry. One man was killed on the
spot, and no less than twenty-seven
sowars were wounded-four danger
ously and ten severely-while twelve
horses were lost or disabled. Of the
enemy fifteen bodies were found on the
ground, including that of Sahib Jan,
who, when hotly pursued, begged
for quarter, declaring who he was as a
reason why mercy should be extended
to him. The jemadar engaged with
him did not spare him, and | saw his
body afterward with frightful marks of
the saber upon it. This was not the
end of the days work. The two stand
ards were still flying on the top of the
cone, and a part of head could be
seen now and again. A Sergeant of
the Fifty-ninth took two shots at the
head of one of the men, and at the Sec
ond shot hit him at 600 yards range.
But there were several men there, some
twenty it is believed, and several meth
DDS were tried to induce them to come
down. The head man of the village
was asked if he thought they would
surrender if their lives were promised
them; but he replied that they would
not believe in our promises. The bat
terry tried firing double SHELF at
high elevation, and one of these
was well pitched. 1t was finally
determined to take the place
by assault; and for this purpose Cap
tain Sartorius, with eight of his COM
pany (Fifty-ninth Regiment), advanced
slowly up the hill, their progress being
covered by others, who Kept firing at
the top to prevent the enemy from
showing himself till the last moment.
To onlookers this was an anxious time,
as indeed it must have been to the lit
tie storming party. We saw Captain
Sartorius a couple of yards in advance
and to the right of his men, sword in
hand, nearing the top of the cone. Di-
rectly the Ghazis saw him, they darted
out from their place of concealment-
"a sort of basin dug out from the apex
of the cone-and sprang down on the
soldiers like fiends. Captain Sartorious
guarded the first t,1Za0ar cut with his
revolver, which he had in his left hand,
receiving nasty cut in so doing. He
and one of his assailants closed and
tumbled together to the bottom of the
hill. He received another wound on
the right hand, losing his sword. Meth
er of the antagonists was disabled;
luckily Sartorius was up first, and
Selling rifle with fixed bayonet, which
he found on the ground near him, he
managed to transfix the Ghazi, who,
however, in spite of this, stopped down
and, with his dying effort. picked up
stone, which he flung in Sartorius' face.
When the Afghans rushed over the top,
the Fifty-ninth men, who behaved ad-
met them first with vollev
and then with the bayonet, and in this
dispatched most of them, one
soldier losing his life, however; he re-
received terrific tulwar wound through
the skull. Some two or three of the enc.
my ran down the back of the hill, but
in so doing were wounded by the fire of
the soldiers on the adjacent slope; four
teen dead bodies were found at the foot
of the hill. To the onlookers at about
five hundred yards, there appeared to
be sudden collision on the brow of
the hill, followed by simultaneous
rolling down of assailed and assailing,
for it was so steep that the slightest
impetus from above prevented ascent"