Massacre of Elphinstone's army
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| Massacre of Elphinstone's army | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the first Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-42 | |||||||
 Major-General William Elphinstone |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Afghan tribesmen |  British Empire |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Akbar Khan | William Elphinstone | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| unknown | 4,500 regular troops, 12,000 civilian refugees | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| unknown | total annihilation | ||||||
| First Anglo-Afghan War |
|---|
| Ghazni –
Gandamak – Jellalabad – Kabul |
The massacre of Elphinstone's army was a victory of Afghan forces, led by Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mohammad Khan, over a combined British and Indian force, led by William Elphinstone, in January 1842. After the British and Indian troops captured Kabul in 1839, an Afghan uprising forced the occupying garrison out of the city. The British army, consisting of 4,500 troops and 12,000 civilians (dependents and camp-followes), left Kabul on January 6, 1842. They attempted to reach the British garrison at Jalalabad, 90 miles away, but were immediately harassed by Afghan forces. The last remnants were eventually annihilated near Gandamak on January 13. Only one survivor, the assistant surgeon William Brydon, managed to reach Jalalabad.
The reason for the disaster was a mixture of British arrogance and the total incompetence of the commanding officer, Major-General William Elphinstone.
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[edit] The British campaign
In 1838 the British East India Company feared an increased Russian influence in Afghanistan after Dost Mohammad had seized power from former ruler Shoja Shah in 1834. Dost Mohammad Khan had rejected earlier overtures from Russia, but after Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India, tried to force Afghan foreign policy under British guidance, he renewed his Russian relations. Lord Auckland followed the advice of State Secretary William Hay Macnaghten to support Shoja Shah, dismissing the advice of Alexander Burnes to support Dost Mohammad, and resolved to seek a military solution. He began to assemble his forces in late 1838.
The British troops, under the command of General Sir Willoughby Cotton with Macnaghten as his chief adviser, consisted of 20,000 soldiers and were accompanied by 38,000 civilian camp followers (men like cooks, grooms, barbers, tea cooker, tailors, armourer, cameleers, beggars and many others). Each British soldier was eligible for up to four servants, an officer had up to twelve. Many officers took large amounts of personal effects, including whole libraries and perfumeries, all stuffed in large trunks and loaded on 30,000 camels.
On March 1839 the British forces crossed the Bolan Pass and began their march to Kabul. They advanced through rough terrain, crossed deserts and 4000 meter high mountain passes but made good progress and took Kandahar on April 25, 1839. They also captured the till then impregnable fortress of Ghazni on July 22 in a surprise attack, suffering only 17 casualties. An Afghan had betrayed his sovereign and the British troops managed to blow one city gate and marched into the city in an euphoric mood. The fact that Ghanzi was well supplied eased the further advance considerably, if not made it possible at all.
Dost Mohammed fled and sought refuge in the wilds of the Hindu Kush. Shoja Shah was proclaimed emir and Kabul fell on August 6, 1839, without a fight. Dost Mohammed surrendered to MacNaghten on November 4, 1840
[edit] British occupation
Kabul at that time was a clean, pleasant city with spacious wooden houses surrounded by gardens. Macnaghten, established as Governor, soon sent most of his troops back to their garrisons in India and quickly established a Victorian era lifestyle. The occupying forces enjoyed themselves arranging cricket matches, horse races and hunting parties. In the evenings amateur dramatics were staged, where officers and their wives played Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was considered a special honour to be invited to Lady Florentina Sales' evening companies, at which salmon and stew with madeira, port wine and champagne was served.
The Afghan people never really came to terms with the British occupation. Akbar Khan, the son of Dhost Mohammed, easily assembled new followers amongst the tribes men in the rural areas, where British influence was slight. He soon started a guerrilla war, which kept the British forces permanently on the move.
Macnaghten dismissed all warnings from his officers and instead wrote to his superiors that, "this is the usual state of Afghan society". The British freedom of movement was more and more restricted during spring and summer 1841. Despite this, Robert Henry Sale, the husband of Lady Sale and then commanding officer, was called home to Jalalabad with his troops in the autumn of 1841, but left his wife behind. He was replaced by William Elphinstone, who took command of the remaining British troops.
[edit] General Elphinstone
William Elphinstone was born in 1782 and entered the British army in 1804. He commanded the 33rd Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Waterloo and was made a Companion of the Bath for his action in that battle. He was promoted to colonel in 1825 and to major-general in 1837. He was a man of high birth and perfect manners but is also regarded as "the most incompetent soldier who ever became general" as his colleague and contemporary general William Nott put it.
[edit] Afghan uprising
On November 2, 1841, Akbar Khan proclaimed a general revolt and the citizens of Kabul followed suit. Elphinstone and Macnaghten were caught by surprise. The British troops in and around Kabul were down to 4500 men, of which 690 were Europeans. The Afghans stormed the house of Sir Alexander Burnes, one of the senior British political officers, and murdered him and his staff. Elphinstone took no action to prevent the incident, encouraging further revolt. The British situation soon deteriorated when Afghans stormed the poorly defended supply fort inside Kabul on November 9. The British forces had refrained from occupying the citadel and instead occupied cantonments 1.5 miles (2.4 Km) outside Kabul, a badly chosen place. Macnaghten realized their desperate situation and tried to negotiate a free retreat for the troops and the 12,000 British and Indian civilians still at Kabul.
The Afghan diplomats invited Macnaghten for tea on December 23, but at the moment the British delegation dismounted from their horses, they were seized and slain by Akbar Khan. Macnaghten's body was dragged through the streets of Kabul. The life guard, which was supposed to protect him, had not shown up. Elphinstone had already partly lost command of his troops and his authority was badly damaged.
To the utter horror of all his officers Elphinstone again ignored the murder and instead signed a capitulation on January 1, 1842, which had some unfavourable conditions. For example the British troops had to hand over their gunpowder reserves, their newest muskets and most of their cannon. However, the Britons were promised a safe retreat, and the the troops and civilians, amongst them children, women and elderly people, began to move out on January 6. They planned to escape to Jalalabad, 90 miles way through snowy mountains.
[edit] The massacre
The injured and ill people were left behind, as Akbar Khan had guaranteed their safety. But when the last British soldier had left Kabul their tents where set on fire and all where massacred.
The first dangerous passage was the Khord-Kabul pass just 15 Miles behind Kabul. But instead of hurrying and securing the pass, Elphinstone ordered a rest after just 6 miles. Any effort to maintain military organization on the retreat failed. It was so slow that it was two o'clock in the morning before the last reached the resting place. This gave the Afghans the opportunity to seize the pass themselves.
When the Britons laboured their way up the narrow pass the next day, they were shot at from all sides by Ghilzais armed with the captured British muskets and the traditional Jezails. By the evening of December 9 around 3,000 of Elphinstone's column had died; frozen to death or shot, or in some cases committed suicide. The column had moved only 10 miles (16 Km). A few hundred soldiers deserted back to Kabul but none were spared by the Afghans. Elphinstone had ceased giving any orders and sat silently on his horse. On the evening of January 11 Lady Sale and other officer wives gave up and accepted being taken hostage by Akbar Khan, whom they mistrusted deeply. All the Indian servants and wives of sepoys were massacred, as they promised no ransom.
On the same day Akbar Khan persuaded Elphinstone and his second in command, Brigadier Shelton, to also become hostages. It was a uniquely degrading act in British military history, that senior officers surrendered to save their lives, while their soldiers had to struggle on and face almost certain death. Elphinstone died on April 23 as a captive.
On 12th January the remaining troops, now led by Brigadier Anquetil, reached the Jugdulluk crest, only to find it blocked by tribesmen. A desperate attack was mounted but only a few soldiers, mostly of the 44th Regiment of Foot, overcame the obstruction. All others were left for dead. The remnants dragged on and made a last stand near the village of Gandamack on January 13. The force was down to fewer than forty men and almost out of food and ammunition. They were surrounded on a hillock and when a surrender was offered by the Afghans, one British sergeant gave the famous answer "Not bloody likely!". All but two were slain.
Only one soldier managed to reach Jalalabad. On January 13 William Brydon, an assistant surgeon, rode through the gate on his dying horse. Part of his skull was sheared off by a sword. An Afghan shepherd had granted him refugee and, when the shooting was over, put him on his horse. It is said that he was asked upon arrival what happened to the army and he answered "I am the army". Brydon later published a memoir of the death march.
[edit] Aftermath
The annihilation of about 16,000 people left Britain and India in shock and Lord Auckland suffered a stroke upon hearing the news. In fall 1842 an “Army of Retribution” led by Sir George Pollock, with William Nott and Robert Sale commanding divisions, levelled Kabul and Sale personally rescued his wife Lady Sale and some other hostages from the hands of Akbar Khan. However, the slaughter of 16,000 people by Afghan tribesman was humiliating for the British authorities in India.
The leadership of Elphinstone is seen as a notorious example of how the ineptitude and indecisiveness of a senior officer could compromise the morale and effectiveness of a whole army. Elphinstone completely failed to lead his soldiers, but exerted enough authority to prevent any of his officers from exercising proper command in his place.
Historians still debate whether Akbar Khan ordered the massacre, sanctioned it or was just unable to prevent it. Some of the British officers and families taken hostage were later to claim that Akbar Khan had called out "Spare them!" in Persian, but "Kill them!" in Pushtu to the tribesmen. Either way, the British reaction to such an atrocity must have been clear to him. He died near the end of 1842, possibly poisoned by his father Dost Mohammad, who may have feared his ambitions.
Dost Mohammed remained a British prisoner till the end of 1842 when he was set free by the British authorities who, after they took their revenge on Kabul, had resolved to abandon any attempts to intervene in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. After Shoja Shah was assassinated in April 1842, Dost Mohammed quickly reestablished his authority and died on June 9, 1863.
German poet Theodor Fontane learned of the massacre during his visit to England in 1844. The events occupied him his whole life and 54 years later, just before his death, he wrote a striking ballade about the disaster.
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- Lady Florentia Sale (1843), A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan: A Firsthand Account by One of the Few Survivors, reprint, ISBN 0-9720-4282-2
- Claire E. J. Herrick, "Brydon, William (1811–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 26 Aug 2006
- Stephen, Leslie, (1889), Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XVII, London Smith, Elder & Co
- Claus Christian Malzahn (2005), Die Signatur des Krieges, MSB Matthes&Seitz Berlin, ISBN 3882218533
- Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Oxford University Press, (1990), ISBN 0-19-282799-5
