page_title: Kabul Expedition (1842)
section_title: Developments in March and April
hierarchical_section_title: Kabul Expedition (1842) / Developments in March and April
caption_attribution_description: Interior of the City of Kandahar, from the house of Sirdar Meer Dil Khaun This lithograph is taken from plate 23 of 'Afghaunistan' by Lieutenant James Rattray. He sketched Kandahar in December 1841 from the rooftop of the former residence of the province's governor, Sirdar Meer Dil Khaun, who was brother to the Emir. Pictured on the left is the tomb of Ahmed Shah and on the right the Bala Hissar (fort) and citadel. The houses in the foreground were dilapidated due to frequent earthquakes. Afghans believed that ancient Kandahar had been built by Alexander the Great. Rattray's drawing shows the fourth city on the site, built 95 years earlier by Ahmed Shah. Vast ruins of the earlier cities remained. Rattray wrote that Kandahar, a Durrani capital, was situated in a well-cultivated and fertile irrigated plain circled by mountains: "Every hill and building around rejoices in some singular title and each has its legend." The city was oblong-shaped, and its ramparts spanned four miles, inset with six gates. Four main streets forming bazaars ran through it and met in the centre, a point marked with a domed building. Because streams ran through the city, there was plentiful water and foliage. Kandahar was divided into numberless walled divisions, in which each particular clan took up its abode. Among the peoples congregating here were Persians, Uzbegs, Bhaluchs, Hazaras, Jews, Armenians, Hindus, Ghilzais, Durranis and Arabs. The Durranis were the largest and most powerful of these groups, and generally regarded as the most polished and liberal-minded Afghans. The Popalzais, a branch of the Durranis, were superior still, and from them sprang the Saddozis, the sacred royal house of Afghanistan.
context_page_description: The Battle of Kabul was part of a punitive campaign undertaken by the British against the Afghans following the disastrous retreat from Kabul. Two British and East India Company armies advanced on the Afghan capital from Kandahar and Jalalabad to avenge the complete annihilation of a small military column in January 1842. Having recovered prisoners captured during the retreat, the British demolished parts of Kabul before withdrawing to India. The action was the concluding engagement to the First Anglo-Afghan War.
context_section_description: During the late winter and spring, there was fighting around all the British-held enclaves.
  On 10 February, Nott led a force from Kandahar against the tribes blockading him. The Afghans, under a wily chief named Mirza Ahmed, bypassed him and attacked the city, setting fire to a gate to gain entry. They were driven off by the small garrison left by Nott, suffering heavy casualties. Nott's supplies were running short, and a brigade under Brigadier England which tried to reach him from Quetta with supplies was repulsed. With Kandahar no longer directly threatened, Nott sent a substantial detachment to rendezvous with England and escort him to Kandahar.
  On 6 March, the troops at Ghazni (the 27th Bengal Native Infantry) came under attack in their temporary quarters. After resisting for two and a half weeks, they were forced to surrender. The sepoys who refused to convert to Islam were murdered, and the British officers and their families became prisoners of Akbar Khan.
  On 31 March, Pollock completed restoring the morale of the sepoys at Peshawar and forced his way through the Khyber Pass. He sent his troops up the heights on either side of the pass to outflank the defenders, and succeeded with very few casualties. He reached Jalalabad on 14 April, to find the siege already lifted. After wavering for some weeks, Sale had led a sortie by the garrison of Jalalabad on 19 February, to capture grazing sheep to replenish his supplies of food. He repeated the sortie on 7 April, defeating the besiegers and forcing them to raise the siege.
  While Akbar Khan had been absent conducting the siege of Jalalabad, Shah Shuja had restored his authority around Kabul. After temporising for several weeks and secretly asking for British help from India, he reluctantly emerged from the Bala Hissar at the end of March to join the jihad proclaimed by Akbar Khan. He was assassinated by adherents of Nawab Zaman Khan, an influential chieftain who resented the favour shown by Shah Shuja to his rival Naib Aminullah Khan. One of the assassins was Shah Shuja's godson, Shuja' al-Daula. Shah Shuja's son Futteh Jung proclaimed himself his father's successor, but had even less support than his father.
caption: A sketch of Kandahar, in December 1841
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