clothing." The army still consisted of 690 Europeans,[1] 2,840 native infantry,[2] and 970 cavalry;[3] in all 4,500 fighting-men, with not less than 12,000 followers, besides women and children, who rendered the preservation of order almost impossible. It was a mingled mass of Europeans and Asiatics, of combatants and non-combatants, of men of various climes, creeds, complexion, and habit; part of them peculiarly unfitted to endure the hardships of a rigorous climate; which hardships, however, had to be shared by them in common with some whose sex ordinarily exempts them from participating in such scenes, and others whose tender age might well entitle them to the like privilege.[4]
The advanced guard, consisting of her Majesty's 44th regiment, with some cavalry and artillery, moved off about half-past 9 A.M., and from that hour till the evening the throng continued to pass through the gates of the cantonments, which were immediately occupied by hordes of fanatical Affghans, rending the air with their exulting cries, plundering, destroying, and committing every kind of atrocity. The advance party, under whose escort the ladies, including Lady Macnaghten and Lady Sale, proceeded, was not molested; but a fire of juzails was opened on the retiring troops of the main body, to which Lieutenant Hardyman, of the 5th Light Cavalry, and about fifty rank and file, fell victims, and a quantity of baggage, ammunition, and Commissariat stores were lost. The cantonments were no sooner cleared than all order was abandoned; troops, camp-followers, and baggage, public and private, became intermingled in one disorderly mass, and confusion, universal and inextricable, prevailed. Thus commenced this inauspicious march.
During the whole of the siege the troops had been on half rations, consisting of a pound of wheat per diem, with
- ↑ Her Majesty's 44th Foot and one troop of Horse Artillery.
- ↑ 5th, 37th, and 54th Bengal Native Infantry, 6th Shah's Infantry, and Sappers and Miners.
- ↑ 5th Light Cavalry, 5th Shah's Irregular do.; Anderson's, Skinner's horse; one rissala, 4th Irregular do., 1 do.; body-guard; besides artillery, 9 guns.
- ↑ Thornton.
