The Story of the Guides

CHAPTER II.. The Fighting Around Mooltan and After.

THE FIGHTING AROUND MOOLTAN AND AFTER.

The Insurrection at Mooltan--Murder of Agnew and Anderson--Herbert Edwardes's great achievement--A guide or two with nerves of steel--Siege of Mooltan--Guides capture twelve guns--Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk--His historic charge--With seventy men routs a brigade--Arrival of Bombay troops--Mooltan stormed and taken--Lumsden attacks and annihilates Ganda Singh's force--Battle of Gujrat--Pursuit of the Sikhs--End of Second Sikh War 18

CHAPTER III.. The Capture of the Fort of Gorindghar.

THE CAPTURE OF THE FORT OF GORINDGHAR.

The fort described--Seventy-two guns and a battalion of infantry--British determine to capture it--Rasul Khan and Guides' infantry sent in advance--The strategy of the Subadar--Effects an entry--A day of anxiety--Plans for the night--The sudden onslaught--Capture of the fort--The Union Jack--Rasul Khan's reward 31

CHAPTER IV.. On the Frontier in the 'fifties.

ON THE FRONTIER IN THE 'FIFTIES.

Guides increased--Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, again--The night attack--Staunchly repulsed--Thirty against two hundred--With Sir Colin Campbell--Nawadand--The enemy attack in force--A cavalry picquet--Lieutenant Hardinge to the front--His splendid charge with twenty men--Hodson of Hodson's Horse--Attack on Bori--Lieutenant Turner's predicament--Gallantry of Dr. Lyell--Hodson's charge--Celebrated spectators 39

CHAPTER V.. The Story of Dilawur Khan.

THE STORY OF DILAWUR KHAN.

Men accustomed to look after themselves--Shooting for a vacancy in the Guides--No fiddlers and washermen--Rudyard Kipling's Bhisti--The brave Juma decorated--Enter Dilawur Khan--A noted outlaw--Lumsden pursues him--They "talk things over"--The outlaw enlists--The goose-step--Dilawur the doctrinarian--The sinking boat--Nearly killed as a Kafir--Becomes a Christian--His last duty--A brave but pathetic end 51

CHAPTER VI.. The Great March to Delhi.

THE GREAT MARCH TO DELHI.

The Mutiny of the 55th Native Infantry--Their tragic fate--The Guides start for Delhi--Daly's diary--A fight by the way--An average of twenty-seven miles a day--Arrival at Delhi--Every officer killed or wounded first day--The summer of '57--Return to the Frontier--A warm welcome--Three hundred and fifty out of six hundred left behind--Complement of officers four times over killed or wounded 65

CHAPTER VII.. Twenty Years of Minor Wars.

TWENTY YEARS OF MINOR WARS.

With Sir Sidney Cotton against the Hindustani fanatics--Fierce hand to hand fighting--Dressed to meet their Lord--Against the Waziris in 1860 under Sir Neville Chamberlain--Fierce attack on the Guides' camp--Lumsden stands the shock--The charge of the five hundred--The Guides clear the camp with the bayonet--Heavy casualties--Lumsden's last fight--A story or two--Lord William Beresford--The Crag picquet--Colonel Dighton Probyn--A boat expedition--Cavignari's methods--Surprise of Sappri 76

CHAPTER VIII.. The Massacre of the Guides At Kabul.

THE MASSACRE OF THE GUIDES AT KABUL.

The Cavignari mission--Escort of the Guides--Cordial reception--The clouds gather--Insubordination of Herati regiments--The storm bursts--Seventy men against thousands--Defence of the Residency--The fight begins--Cavignari's bravery and death--Messages to the Amir--The attempt of Shahzada Taimus--The enemy's guns arrive--The distant witness--The three officers lead a charge--Kelly's death--Another charge by Hamilton and Jenkyns--Jenkyns killed--Hamilton's last charge and heroic death--The last bright flash--Retribution 97

CHAPTER IX.. The Afghan War, 1878-80.

THE AFGHAN WAR, 1878-80.

The Guides under Sir Frederick Roberts--Their devotion to him--Under Sir Sam Browne at Ali-Musjid--Jenkins enlists an enemy--"No riding school for me"--Battle of Fattehabad--Wigram Battye's death--Hamilton's fine leading--He wins the V.C.--The Guides' march to Sherpur--They pass through the investing army--Assaults on the Takht-i-Shah and Asmai heights--Captain Hammond receives the V.C.--The final assault of the enemy on Sherpur--Defeat and pursuit--The second battle of Charasiab--A fine fight--Roberts marches to Kandahar 117

CHAPTER X.. War Stories.

WAR STORIES.

Fighting against his own people--The temptation--The sentry succumbs--Seventeen sent in pursuit--Their return after two years--Duffadar Faiz Talab's adventure--An unwilling General--His unhappy position--A narrow escape--Saved by a British officer 135

CHAPTER XI.. The Adventures of Shah Sowar and Abdul Majid.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHAH SOWAR AND ABDUL MAJID.

Shah Sowar meets "Smith"--They depart together--Sheikh Abdul Qadir, late Smith--A travelling Prince--The first pitfall--Escape--Tea and diplomacy--The Evil Spirit--The Chief with a thousand spears--The Englishman's disguise fails--Death in the morning--A hairbreadth escape--Abdul Majid--The fatal shoes--The compass down the well--A night with his jailer--A stroke for freedom--A later meeting--Peace and jollification 144

CHAPTER XII.. The Relief of Chitral.

THE RELIEF OF CHITRAL.

The beleaguered garrison--Two hundred miles from anywhere--Rapid mobilisation--Kelly's fine feat--Storming the Malakand--The Guides' charge in the Swat Valley--Roddy Owen--The Panjkora--Position of the Guides--The bridge breaks--The fight in retreat--Seven thousand held at bay--A battle on the stage--Colonel Fred. Battye mortally wounded--A night of suspense--Defeated by star-shells--Death of Capt. Peebles--Action of Mundah--Relief of Chitral 160

CHAPTER XIII.. The Malakand, 1897.

THE MALAKAND, 1897.

A sudden call on the Guides--Prompt departure and fine march--Days and nights of constant hand-to-hand fighting--Story of the trouble--Great bravery of the enemy--Repulsed again and again with slaughter--Reinforcements arrive--Sir Bindon Blood--Relief of Chakdara--Its splendid defence--A word for the British subaltern--The fight at Landaki--MacLean's heroic death--Three V.C.s in one day 172

CHAPTER XIV.. The Home of the Guides.

THE HOME OF THE GUIDES.

A camp to start with--The Five Star Fort--On the borders of Yaghistan--After the mutiny--The bastions--Godby cut down--The mess--The garden--The old graveyard--The Kabul memorial--Ommanney's assassination--The names of roads--Old leaders--The farm--Polo-grounds--Church--Daily life--Sport--Hawking--Climate--A happy home 185

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised the Guides, from a portrait made when he was commanding the corps Front.

Afridis on the war-path To face page 8

Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, who at the head of seventy men of the Guides' Cavalry defeated and drove into Mooltan a Brigade of Sikh Cavalry, from a picture by W. Carpenter. By kind permission of General Sir Peter Lumsden, G.C.B. " 24

A Picquet of the Guides' Infantry bivouacking " 40

A Scout of the Guides' Cavalry warning his Infantry Comrades. The small man on the right is a Gurkha " 70

A non-commissioned officer of the Guides' Infantry " 80

An Afridi of the Guides' Infantry " 92

The Memorial Arch and Tank to the memory of Sir Louis Cavignari and the officers and non-commissioned officers and men of the Guides killed in the defence of the Kabul Residency, September 3, 1879. In the foreground is a brass cannon captured during the Relief of Chitral " 104

Statue of Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, erected in Dublin Museum " 107

A Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry Types of men in the Guides' Infantry " 136

Types of men in the Guides' Cavalry, both in uniform and mufti " 144

Non-commissioned Officer and Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry " 162

Thirty-four wearers of the Star "For Valour," all serving at one time in the Corps of Guides. This is the highest distinction open to an Indian soldier for gallantry in action. The group illustrates the variety of tribes enlisted in the Guides--Afridis, Yusafzai Pathans, Khuttuks, Sikhs, Punjabi Mahomedans, Punjabi Hindus, Farsiwans (Persians), Dogras, Gurkhas, Kabulis, Turcomans, &c., &c., most of whom are here represented " 172

The old Graveyard at Mardan " 190

The Church at Mardan " 194

THE STORY OF THE GUIDES

CHAPTER I. First Steps in War

FIRST STEPS IN WAR

It is given to some regiments to spread their achievements over the quiet centuries, while to the lot of others it falls to live, for a generation or two, in an atmosphere of warlike strife and ever present danger. The Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat fortunate in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus their history lends itself readily to a narrative which is full of adventure and stirring deeds. The story of those deeds may, perchance, be found of interest to those at home, who like to read the gallant record of the men who fight their battles in remote and unfamiliar corners of the Empire across the seas.

To Sir Henry Lawrence, the preux chevalier, who died a soldier's death in the hallowed precincts of Lucknow, the Guides owe their name and origin. At a time when soldiers fought, and marched, and lived in tight scarlet tunics, high stocks, trousers tightly strapped over Wellington boots, and shakos which would now be looked on as certain death, Sir Henry evolved the startling heresy that to get the best work out of troops, and to enable them to undertake great exertions, it was necessary that the soldier should be loosely, comfortably, and suitably clad, that something more substantial than a pill-box with a pocket-handkerchief wrapped round it was required as a protection from a tropical sun, and that footgear must be made for marching, and not for parading round a band-stand.

Martinets of the old school gravely shook their heads, and trembled for the discipline of men without stocks and overalls. Men of the Irregular Cavalry, almost as much trussed and padded as their Regular comrades (who were often so tightly clad as to be unable to mount without assistance), looked with good-natured tolerance on a foredoomed failure. But Sir Henry Lawrence had the courage of his opinions, and determined to put his theories to practice, though at first on a small scale.

Not only were the Guides to be sensibly clothed, but professionally also they were to mark a new departure. In 1846 the Punjab was still a Sikh province, and the administration was only thinly strengthened by a sprinkling of British officers. Men, half soldiers, half civilians, and known in India under the curious misnomer of Political Officers,--a class to whom the British Empire owes an overwhelming debt--were scattered here and there, hundreds of miles apart, and in the name of the Sikh Durbar practically ruled and administered provinces as large as Ireland or Scotland. The only British troops in the country were a few of the Company's regiments, quartered at Lahore to support the authority of the Resident,--a mere coral island in the wide expanse. What Sir Henry Lawrence felt was the want of a thoroughly mobile body of troops, both horse and foot, untrammelled by tradition, ready to move at a moment's notice, and composed of men of undoubted loyalty and devotion, troops who would not only be of value in the rough and tumble of a soldier's trade, but would grow used to the finer arts of providing skilled intelligence.

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