The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-12
Killed SCOTCH HEROES
CHARGE OF GORDON HIGHLANDERS
THROUGH A STORM OF LEAD.
Another Account of the Taking of
Dargai Ridge from the FanaticaI
Afridis of Northern India.
London Letter.

London Letter.
1t is two hundred years and more since the
first Gordon Highlanders took the Queens
shilling from between the teeth Of pretty
Lady Gordon and kissed her tempting lips
as they did it. Since then they have been
winning crosses and honors in every coun-
try where the British flag floats and now
they are doing it in the rocky Businesses of
the mountains of northwestern India. But
ia all the long list of daring deeds done by
the killed men of the north, none will be
more celebrated in song and story than their
charge at Dargai ridge. 1t was a month ego
that they were in this famous battle;
but from the mountains of India, far away
from all but military telegraph lines, news
comes slowly, and the details of the brave
fight they made are only now known.
In a rough way the story of Piper Find
later has been told. &c. too, is the bravery of
every man of his regiment known. But
though much credit has been given to them
much still is their due, for the hail of lead
through which they passed was almost as
fierce as that which made the six hundred
famous at Balaklava or gained for the
Highlanders the glory which came to them
at Waterloo. Like Balaklava, the attack and
eventual retreat frcm Dargai ridge has been
pronounced a military error, but be that as
it may, its name never will be forgotten at
the mess tables of the Highlanders. Dargai
ridge, swarming with Pathans, commands
the road to Chagru, and Sir William Lock
hart felt that without Chagru he could not
provision the army with which he is fighting
the fierce mountaineers. So it was that the
order went out that the Second Division,
under General Kempster, should capture the
ridge.
At the time the division was encamped on
the banks of the Shinware the British
forces were small. There was a regiment
of Ghurkas the little wiry mountaineers,
fitted by temper and habit for fighting and
liking nothing better than brush with
their Pathan brothers of the mountain-the
Afrdis. Besides this regiment there were
the Derbyshire Regiment, the Dorsetshire
Regiment, six batteries of the Bombay ma
tive artillery, and last of all, the Gordon
Highlanders.
The position of the Afridis was strong
one. Dargai ridge, where they We're in
trenched, is almost impossible save by
narrow road which twists and winds up
its rocky front and which for much of its
way is exposed to any attack which may
ridge itself presents front more than
mile in length. One end terminates in
sheer precipice of more than 200 feet; at the
other rises almost perpendicularly wall
of rock which forms part of the hills above.
From one end TO the other the top of the
ridge is covered with a mass Of broken
granite and powders, which formed the
best kind of breastworks, and from behind
which the Afridis commanded not only the
one road TO the ridge, but the compare
lively open country beyond it and stretch
ing to the banks of the Shinware. From
the British camp on the river bank
it was only a few miles march over rolling
ground to the rocky slope which terminates
in Dargai ridge.
BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT.
Sir William Lockhart's order directing the
storming OF the Pathan post was received
the night of Oct. 49, Twelve hours later
the six batteries and the four regiments of
foot soldiers set out on their march. From
the start the troops met resistance. The
country leading up to the ridge was filled
with Afridis. who had been joined by some
plainsmen. lean, lathy Sikhs, and these
men. hidden in underground, kept up an