out to reconnoitre, and found large bodies of horsemen moving in the direction indicated; but the haze and mirage prevented our sowars making any estimate of what force was covered by the cavalry. This was about 10 o'clock, and yet even with the aid of telescopes little could be seen of Ayub's army. Spies reported that the guns were there; but this news was looked upon by the General with great mistrust, natives being so given to exaggeration. General Burrows moved his troops at once rapidly towards Maiwand, meaning to occupy one of the large walled enclosures wherein to stow his 3,000 baggage animals and their loads, thus leaving the brigade freedom of movement in attacking the Afghan army. It was too late. Before the intervening village of Mundabad was gained, a large number of white-clothed figures, irregulars who follow their moollahs' dictation and their ghazis' lead, were seen pouring out from Maiwand itself. The enemy's cavalry ceased to retire, and along the slopes of the low hills above Garmao could be distinguished masses of men in some sort of organized formation. The haze still lay over the country, and it was impossible to make out in detail the strength of the army thus suddenly confronting the weak brigade. The ground on which the action which followed was fought is thus described to me by an officer present:"A small stream, rising in the hills immediately north of Maiwand, formed almost the only drainage line intersecting the barren waste in our front. It ran successively past the villages of Mundabad, Karezak, and Mushak, eventually disappearing in a karez. Between this stream and the dry bed of the Khusk-iNakhud river the ground was level and cultivated, dotted occasionally with high walled enclosures, but generally open." General Burrows had with him, approximately, 1,500 rifles, 550 sabres, and 12 guns, of which 6 formed the smooth-bore battery, manned by one officer and 42 men of the 66th Foot. He resolved to force the fighting; and four guns of the Horse Artillery Battery (E-B) with the cavalry crossed the dry nullah forming the bed of the Khusk-i-Nakhud stream, followed by the 66th Foot, 1st Bombay Grenadiers, and Jacob's Rifles with the smooth-bore guns. The baggage crossed in rear under an escort of two companies of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, and two horse artillery guns. The nullah having been crossed, the troops advanced about a mile and

The Battle Described.

553

formed up in line in the following order :-66th Foot on extreme right, guns in the centre, with a wing of Jacob's Rifles and the Sappers as escort, Grenadiers on left, a wing of Jacob's Rifles in reserve behind the guns. The cavalry were at first on the extreme left guarding the flank of the Grenadiers.

It was not until nearly noon that the action began. Lieutenant Maclaine with two horse artillery guns and a small cavalry escort galloped out on the extreme left, and got his guns into action at a range of 1,800 yards, firing shrapnel at the Afghan cavalry. General Burrows disapproved of his boldness, and ordered the guns to retire, an order which Lieutenant Maclaine was very loth to obey. However, the guns were withdrawn, and by the time they had resumed their place in the line the enemy's strength had begun to be developed. Large numbers of irregulars, led by the usual ghazis, were seen swarming over the low hills, and they presently moved down upon the 66th, evidently meaning to turn the right flank. To check this, General Burrows ordered his right to be thrown back on the front extended, Ayub's cavalry being on the move to the left as if to carry out a flanking movement in that direction. Accordingly two companies of Jacob's Rifles were sent to the extreme left, while the remaining companies of that regiment and the detachment of Bombay Sappers and Miners filled up the gap between the 66th on the right, and the guns in the centre. Two guns were placed in position to support the 66th on the right, the remaining ten between the Grenadiers and the main body of Jacob's Rifles. Every rifle was thus in the line of attack, it not being possible to form any reserve worthy of the name with such a small force. The cavalry (3rd Scind Horse and 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry), under General Nuttall, formed up in rear of the left centre of the line, where they remained during the action. Our guns began shelling the enemy, whose artillery did not reply for quite half an hour, confirming the idea that Ayub's guns were far in rear. By half-past twelve, however, this delusion was cleared away, for some five batteries opened upon the brigade, and their shells fell

Major-General Greaves, Adjutant-General in India, in his remarks upon General Burrows' despatch, points out how fatal it was to form up with both flanks en l'air before an enemy vastly superior in numbers.

with fair accuracy. The effect of our own artillery fire could not be followed, as the haze continued. Under cover of their thirty or more guns the irregulars advanced to within 600 or 700 yards of the 66th; but the Martini fire from the latter swept them down wherever they appeared; and so cowed were they that, planting their standards, they sought cover in a dry ravine, firing upon our men without doing much damage. Our infantry were lying down under such cover as the ground afforded, and two of the smoothbore guns were sent to the left to shell the Afghan cavalry. Then came the fatal mistake in the action: instead of following the usual tactics which our generals have found so successful all through the war-taking the initiative and attacking with his infantry-General Burrows entered into an artillery duel, which lasted for two hours. The brigade had twelve guns (six of which were inferior smooth-bores, worked by volunteers from the horse artillery, and infantry men trained during the halt at Khusk-iNakhud); the Afghans had nearly three times that number, and their gunners were unusually expert. "They soon got our range," says an officer present, "and shot and shell came crashing into us." Shrapnel, round-shot, and afterwards grape, were freely used by the enemy; and while our infantry were fairly safe at first, the horses of the cavalry and the gun-teams suffered severely. The latter had to be renewed constantly; and it was evident that in a trial of strength with artillery the brigade was greatly over-matched. Little did our men know that the Herati regiments suffered so from their shell-fire that twice they retired and were quite ready to have fled at the first direct attack. The enemy's artillery fire was so well sustained that casualties soon began to be reported all along the line. Harris, of the Staff, and Blackwood, commanding E-B Battery, were among the first hit; but Blackwood, after having his wound dressed (he was hit in the thigh), returned to his battery-a rare example of true bravery and endurance. The want of water told heavily upon all our men, and the slackness resulting therefrom was only too plain-men leaving the ranks to get water from the nullah in rear or from the watercarriers. Our three regiments were still out of range of any musketry fire, except stray shots from irregulars; but the artillery fire had a demoralizing effect upon the sepoys. Jacob's Rifles are