force. These troops had been reduced by her Majesty's 13th, the 35th and 37th Bengal Native Infantry, a squadron of the 5th Cavalry, and some details of Artillery and Sappers, which constituted the force of Sir Robert Sale. Of these the 37th had been left in position at Khoord Cabul, to keep open the communication, when Sir Robert pushed on for Gundamuk and Jellalabad; consequently, there now remained at Cabul only one British regiment, two regiments of native infantry, part of a regiment of native cavalry, and some Foot and Horse Artillery; for of the Shah's contingent we make no account, at a period when a severe winter was rapidly approaching, and the hostility of the Affghans was such that our officers and soldiers were hourly insulted and threatened by them in their very cantonments, and ill treated and assassinated even if they straggled to any distance from them.
But, as if the paucity of numbers was not enough to encourage Affghan aggression, the way in which our troops were scattered was altogether at variance with the rules of military discipline, especially in what might now justly be deemed an enemy's country. Some were in the Bala Hissar, or royal residence, a fortified eminence which overlooked the city, and others in a cantonment two or three miles distant, and separated from it by the Cabul river, and by a broad canal. The situation of this cantonment was low and swampy, commanded by adjacent hills and buildings; while the numerous camp-followers rendered the extent too great for the number of troops appointed to defend it. It had a low rampart and a narrow ditch; its form was a parallelogram; it had round flanking bastions at each corner, but every one of these bastions was commanded by some fort or hill.[1] A still more serious error had been committed in making a weak fort at some distance the depository of all the Commissariat stores. Some of the British officers resided within the town, and parts of the Commissariat establishment
- ↑ "Military Operations at Cabul," by Lieutenant Eyre, Bengal Artillery.
