The First Anglo-Afghan War - Part Four: The Disastrous British Retreat from Kabul

The First Anglo-Afghan War - Part Four: The Disastrous British Retreat from Kabul

Imagine leaving Kabul in the depths of winter.

Snow was all across the mountains. Food was running short. Thousands of civilians were travelling alongside the soldiers.

Image info:

Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuck

Date: 1898

Artist: William Barnes Wollen

And somewhere ahead was Jalalabad, more than 90 miles away.

They had been promised safe passage.

Within days, the retreating column would be almost completely destroyed.

In Part Three, we saw how the growing resentment against the British occupation finally erupted into the Kabul uprising of 1841. British political officers were killed, including Sir William Macnaghten, and Major-General William Elphinstone's position became increasingly desperate.

Today I want to continue the story and find out what happened when Elphinstone finally agreed to abandon Kabul.

On the 6th of January 1842, approximately 4,500 British and Indian troops marched out of the city accompanied by around 12,000 camp followers.

These were not just soldiers retreating from a battlefield.

Among the column were servants, labourers, families, women and children with baggage animals carrying what supplies could still be taken.

They were heading for the British garrison at Jalalabad.

The agreement which they left Kabul under was supposed to provide them with protection.

It did not.

The column was soon being attacked as it struggled along narrow roads and through mountain passes. Afghan fighters occupied the surrounding heights, while cold and snow caused further suffering to the people who were already exhausted and badly supplied.

Some froze to death.

Others collapsed from exhaustion.

Many were killed in the repeated attacks.

And as the column became stretched out along the route, maintaining any kind of military order became increasingly difficult.

The retreat became a fight for survival.

Muhammad Akbar Khan, one of the principal Afghan leaders, continued negotiating with the British officers. At different points, British women, children and officers were handed over or taken into his custody.

Although becoming a captive must have been terrifying, it ultimately saved the lives of a number of people who otherwise might have remained with the doomed column.

Those who continued towards Jalalabad were disappearing in terrifying numbers.

Eventually, only a tiny remnant of the original force remained.

Near Gandamak, on the 13th of January 1842, surviving soldiers of the 44th (East Essex) Regiment found themselves surrounded.

They made a final stand.

The 44^th was the only British infantry regiment in Elphinstone’s retreating force and most of those who had survived that far were killed in the fighting at Gandamak. A handful survived or were taken prisoner.

But one exhausted figure was still moving towards Jalalabad.

His name was Dr William Brydon, an assistant surgeon.

DR William Brydon

Badly wounded and riding an exhausted horse, Brydon finally reached the British position at Jalalabad on the 13th of January.

The sight of him arriving alone became one of the most famous images of the entire war.

It also produced a story that has been repeated ever since: that Brydon was the only survivor of the Kabul retreat.

That is not quite true.

A number of people survived because they had been taken captive or held as hostages, while there were other survivors from the fighting. But Brydon's extraordinary arrival at Jalalabad came to symbolise the destruction of the retreating force.

Only a few years earlier, British forces had entered Afghanistan expecting to remove one ruler, install another and secure their political influence in the region.

Now an army had effectively disappeared along the road from Kabul.

It was one of the greatest military disasters of the Victorian era.

But Britain was not prepared to allow the story to end there.

Forces were already holding out at Jalalabad and Kandahar, and new armies would soon advance back into Afghanistan.

In Part Five, I want to find out what happened when the British returned towards Kabul - and whether their objective was rescue, revenge, restoring their reputation, or a mixture of all three.