page_title: John Shelton (British Army officer)
section_title: Retreat and massacre
hierarchical_section_title: John Shelton (British Army officer) / Service in Afghanistan / Retreat and massacre
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting&#160;: The Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuck, 1842.
context_page_description: Colonel John Shelton was an officer of the British Army who commanded the 44th Regiment of Foot during the First Anglo-Afghan War and was second-in-command to Major General Sir William Elphinstone. He was one of only a small number of British soldiers to survive the disastrous 1842 retreat from Kabul, in which a British army column of 4,500 men and 12,000 civilians was massacred by Afghan tribesmen as it attempted to march to Jalalabad. He was widely disliked as a tyrannical and ineffective commander whose failures led to the annihilation of his regiment and whose accidental death was cheered by his men, but he also had a deserved reputation for great physical bravery.
context_section_description: Shelton himself escaped the slaughter of his troops, though he sustained five wounds in the battle. His failure at Bimaru had a disastrous effect on morale. Mackenzie wrote that his incapacity "neutralised the heroism of the officers. Their spirit was gone and discipline had almost disappeared." No further attempt was taken to drive back the Afghans. Shelton, who was promoted to full colonel following the battle, advocated that a retreat to Jalalabad should commence before the winter snowfall came. Elphinstone, however, prevaricated for nearly a month before attempting to begin negotiations with the Afghan side. The British emissary, Sir William Hay Macnaghten, was killed two weeks into the negotiations and on 6 January the retreat got underway.
  Thousands died over the following five days as the slow-moving British column was repeatedly ambushed by the Afghans. By 11 January, 12,000 of the 16,500-strong column had become casualties and only 200 troops remained as the survivors entered the small village of Jagadalak. Shelton was among them, fighting vigorously despite only having one arm. Captain Hugh Johnson wrote: "Nothing could exceed the bravery of Shelton. He was like a bulldog assaulted on all sides by a lot of curs trying to snap at his head, tail and sides. Shelton's small band was attacked by horse and foot, and although the latter were fifty to one, not a man dared to come close ... We cheered him in true English fashion as he descended into the valley, notwithstanding we, at the time, were acting as targets for the marksmen of the enemy on the hills."
  Johnson accompanied Shelton and Elphinstone to a negotiation with the Afghan leader, Wazir Akbar Khan, but all three men were taken prisoner. A furious Shelton demanded that he should be allowed to return to his men and die fighting, but was refused. The remainder of the column was left to fend for itself but was massacred at Gandamak. Only one badly wounded European, Assistant Surgeon William Brydon, and a few Indian sepoys managed to reach Jalalabad on 13 January.
caption: An 1898 depiction of the last stand of survivors of the 44th Foot at Gandamak
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