A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Afghanistan and the Anglo Russian Dispute

T >> Theo. F. Rodenbough >> Afghanistan and the Anglo Russian Dispute




The rapid march of General Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar in August,
1880, and the final dispersion of the forces of Ayoub Khan,
illustrated British operations in Afghanistan under the most
favorable circumstances. The forces included 2,800 European and
7,000 Indian troops; no wheeled artillery was taken; one regiment of
native infantry, trained to practical engineering work, did the work
of sappers and miners; for the transportation of sick and wounded
2,000 doolie-bearers, 286 ponies, and 43 donkeys; for transport of
supplies a pack-train of 1,589 yabus, 4,510 mules, 1,224 Indian
ponies, 912 donkeys--a total of 10,148 troops, 8,143 native
followers, and 11,224 animals, including cavalry horses; 30 days'
rations, of certain things, and dependence on the country for fresh
meat and forage. The absence of timber on this route rendered it
difficult to obtain fuel except by burning the roofs of the villages
and digging up the roots of "Southern-wood" for this purpose. The
manner of covering the movement rested with the cavalry commander.
Usually the front was covered by two regiments, one regiment on each
flank, at a mile from the column, detaching one or more troops as
rear-guard; once movement had commenced, the animals, moving at
different gaits were checked as little as possible. With such a
number of non-combatants the column was strung out for six or seven
miles, and the rear-guard leaving one camp at 7 A.M. rarely reached
the next--fifteen to twenty miles distant--before sundown.


[Illustration: Watch-Tower in the Khaiber Pass.]


_Routes_.--For operations in Afghanistan the general British base is
the frontier from Kurrachee to Peshawur. These points are connected
by a railway running east of the Indus, which forms a natural
boundary to the Indian frontier, supplemented by a line of posts
which are from north to south as follows: Jumrud, Baru, Mackeson,
Michni, Shub Kadar, Abazai, and Kohut; also by fortified posts
connected by military roads,--Thull, Bunnoo, and Doaba.

From the Indus valley into the interior of Afghanistan there are
only four lines of communication which can be called military roads:
first, from _Peshawur_ through the Khaiber Pass to _Kabul_; second,
from _Thull_, over the Peiwar and Shuturgurdan passes to _Kabul_;
third, from _Dera Ismail Khan_ through the Guleir Surwandi and Sargo
passes to _Ghazni_; fourth, by _Quetta_ to Kandahar and thence to
_Herat_, or by Ghazni to _Kabul_. Besides these there are many
steep, difficult, mule tracks over the bleak, barren, Sulimani
range, which on its eastern side is very precipitous and impassable
for any large body of troops.


[Illustration: Fort of Ali Musjid, from the Heights above Lala
Cheena in the Khaiber Pass.]


The Peshawur-Kabul road, 170 miles long, was in 1880 improved and
put in good order. From Peshawur the road gradually rises, and after
7 miles reaches Jumrud (1,650 feet elevation), and 44 miles further
west passes through the great Khaiber Pass. This pass, 31 miles
long, can, however, be turned by going to the north through the
Absuna and Tartara passes; they are not practicable for wheels, and
the first part of the road along the Kabul River is very difficult
and narrow, being closed in by precipitous cliffs.

As far as Fort Ali Musjid the Khaiber is a narrow defile between
perpendicular slate rocks 1,460 feet high; beyond that fort the road
becomes still more difficult, and in some of the narrowest parts,
along the rocky beds of torrents, it is not more than 56 feet wide.
Five miles further it passes through the valley of Lalabeg 1-1/2
miles wide by 6 miles long, and then after rising for four miles it
reaches the top of the Pass, which from both sides offers very
strong strategical positions. From thence it descends for 2-1/2
miles to the village of Landi Khana (2,463 feet), which lies in a
gorge about a quarter of a mile wide; then on to Dakka (altitude
1,979 feet). This pass, 100 to 225 feet wide and 60 feet long, is
shut in by steep but not high slopes, overgrown with bushes.


[Illustration: Fort of Dakka, on the Kabul River.]


On the eleven miles' march from Dakka to Hazarnao, the Khurd Khaiber
is passed, a deep ravine about one mile long, and in many places so
narrow that two horsemen cannot pass each other. Hazarnao is well
cultivated, and rich in fodder; 15 miles farther is Chardeh (1,800
feet altitude), from which the road passes through a well-cultivated
country, and on through the desert of Surkh Denkor (1,892 feet
altitude), which is over 8-1/2 miles from Jelalabad. From this city
(elsewhere described) onward as far as Gundamuck the route presents
no great difficulties; it passes through orchards, vineyards, and
cornfields to the Surkhab River; but beyond this three spurs of the
Safed Koh range, running in a northeastern direction, have to be
surmounted.


[Illustration: The Ishbola Tepe, Khaiber Pass.]


Between Jelalabad [Footnote: The heat at Jelalabad from the end of
April is tremendous--105 degrees to 110 degrees in the shade.] and
Kabul two roads can be followed: the first crosses the range over
the Karkacha Pass (7,925 feet alt.) at the right of which is Assin
Kilo, thence through the Kotul defile, and ascending the Khurd Kabul
[Footnote: The Khurd Kabul Pass is about five miles long, with
an impetuous mountain torrent which the road (1842) crossed
twenty-eight times.] (7,397 feet alt.) to the north reaches the
high plateau on which Kabul is situated; the other leads over the
short but dangerous Jagdallak Pass to Jagdallak, from which there
are three roads to Kabul--the northernmost over the Khinar and the
third over the Sokhta passes; all these, more difficult than the
Khaiber, are impassable during the winter. It was here, as already
related, that the greater part of Elphinstone's command, in 1842,
perished. There is a dearth of fuel and supplies by this line of
communication. The second, or Thull-Kuram-Kabul, route, was taken by
General Roberts in 1878-9. It extends from Thull, one of the
frontier posts already mentioned, some forty miles into the Kuram
valley, and then inclining towards the west leads to the Kuram fort
(Mohammed Azim's), a walled quadrangular fortress with flanking
towers at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The Kuram valley is, up to
this point, well cultivated and productive; wood, water, and forage
abound. Winter only lasts with any severity for six weeks, and the
Spring and Autumn are delightful.

A short distance above the fort commences the ascent toward the
Peiwar Pass (8,000 feet alt.), twenty-four miles distant. The road,
thickly bordered with cedar and pine trees, is covered with boulders
and is very difficult, and from the village of Peiwar--one of many
_en route_, of the usual Afghan fortified type--it leads through a
winding defile to the top of the pass. Here the road is confined by
perpendicular chalk rocks, the summits of which are covered with
scrub timber and a luxurious growth of laurel. On the farther side
of the pass the road ascends to the height of the Hazardarakht,
(which is covered with snow in the winter), and then climbs to the
Shuturgurdan Pass (11,375 feet alt.), reaching a plateau on which
the snow lies for six months of the year; thence it descends into
the fertile Logar valley and reaches Akton Khel, which is only
fifty-one miles from Kabul. The total length of this route is about
175 miles.

The third, or Dera-Ismail-Khan-Sargo-Ghazni, route passes through a
region less frequented than those mentioned, and is not thought
sufficiently difficult for detailed description. Passing due west,
through seventy miles of mountain gorges destitute of supplies or
forage, it debouches, through the Gomal Pass, into a more promising
country, in which forage may be obtained. At this point it branches
to Ghazni, Kandahar, and Pishin respectively. A road exists from
Mooltan, crossing the Indus at Dera-Ghazi-Khan, Mithunkot, Rajanpur,
Rojan, Lalgoshi, Dadur to Quetta, and was utilized by General
Biddulph, from whose account of his march from the Indus to the
Helmund, in 1879, is gleaned the following. The main point of
concentration for the British forces, either from India or from
England via Kurrachee is thus minutely described.

"The western frontier of India is, for a length of 600 miles,
bounded by Biluchistan and territories inhabited by Biluch tribes,
and for 300 miles Biluch country intervenes between our border and
Afghanistan. The plains of the Punjab and Sind run along the
boundary of Biluchistan, and at a distance of from 25 to 50 miles
the Indus pursues a course, as far down as Mithunkot, from north to
south, and then winds south-west through a country similar to that
of Egypt. A belt of cultivation and beyond that the desert . . .
this line of hills (the Eastern Sulimani) extends as a continuous
rampart with the plains running up to the foot of the range, and
having an elevation of 11,000 feet at the Tukl-i-Suliman, and of
7,400 near Fort Munro (opposite Dera-Ghazi-Khan), gradually
diminishes in height and dwindles away till it is lost in the plains
near Kusmore, at a point 12 miles from the Indus. The strip of
low-land country on the west bank of the Indus up to the foot of
the hills is called the _Derajat_. It is cut up and broken by
torrents, the beds of which are generally dry wastes, and the
country is, except at a few places where permanent water is found,
altogether sterile and hot. If we view the physical aspect looking
north and north-west from Jacobabad, we notice a wide bay of plains
extending between the broken spur of the Sulimani, and a second
range of hills having a direction parallel to the outer range. This
plain is called the Kachi, extends in an even surface for 150 miles
from the Indus at Sukkur, and is bounded on the north by successive
spurs lying between the two great ranges. The Kachi, thus bounded by
barren hills on all sides but the south, is one of the hottest
regions in the world. Except where subject to inundations or within
reach of irrigation it is completely sterile--a hard clay surface
called _Pat_,--and this kind of country extends around to the east
of the spur of the Suliman into the Derajat country. Subject to
terrific heats and to a fiercely hot pestilential wind, the Kachi is
at times fatal even to the natives."


[Illustration: Entrance to the Bolan Pass, from Dadur.]


The range of mountains bounding the Kachi to the westward is a
continuous wall with imperceptible breaks only, and it bears
the local names of Gindari, Takari, and Kirthar. Through this
uniform rampart there are two notable rents or defiles, viz.: the
_Mulla_ opening opposite Gundana, leading to Kelat; and the _Bolan_
entering near Dadur, leading to Quetta, Kandahar, and Herat. The
Bolan is an abrupt defile--a rent in the range,--the bottom filled
with the pebbly bed of a mountain torrent. This steep ramp forms
for sixty miles the road from Dadur, elevation 750 feet, to the
Dasht-i-Bedowlat, elevation 6,225 feet. This inhospitable plateau
and the upper portion of the Bolan are subject to the most
piercingly cold winds and temperature; and the sudden change from
the heat of the Kachi to the cold above is most trying to the
strongest constitutions. Notwithstanding the difficulties of the
road, the absence of supplies and fuel, and the hostile character of
the predatory tribes around, this route has been always most in
favor as the great commercial and military communication from
Persia, Central Asia, and Khorassan to India.

The causes which led to the establishment of a British garrison at
Quetta are not unlike those which are urged as good Russian reasons
for the occupation of territory in certain parts of Central Asia.
Briefly stated, it seems that after the conquest of the Punjab, the
proximity of certain disturbed portions of Biluchistan, and the
annoyance suffered by various British military expeditions, in
1839-1874, from certain tribes of Biluchis--notably the Maris and
Bugtis,--made it desirable that more decisive measures should be
adopted. In 1876 a force of British troops was marched to Kelat, and
by mutual agreement with the Khan a political agency was established
at Quetta, ostensibly to protect an important commercial highway,
but at the same time securing a military footing of great value. But
the character of the lords of the soil--the Maris, for instance--has
not changed for the better, and the temporary general European
occupation of the country would afford an opportunity to gratify
their predatory instincts, which these bandits would not hesitate to
utilize. The Maris can put 2,000 men into the field and march 100
miles to make an attack. When they wish to start upon a raid they
collect their wise men together and tell the warriors where the
cattle and the corn are. If the reports of spies, sent forward,
confirm this statement, the march is undertaken. They ride upon
mares which make no noise; they travel only at night. They are the
most excellent outpost troops in the world. When they arrive at the
scene of action a perfect watch is kept and information by single
messengers is secretly sent back. Every thing being ready a rush of
horsemen takes place, the villages are surrounded, the cattle swept
away, the women and children hardly used--fortunate if they escape
with their lives. The villagers have their fortlets to retreat to,
and, if they reach them, can pull the ladders over after them and
fire away from their towers.

Dadur is an insignificant town at the foot of the Bolan. From here
the Kandahar road leads for sixty miles through the Pass--a gradual
ascent; in winter there is not a mouthful of food in the entire
length of the defile.

Quetta, compared with the region to the south, appears a very Garden
of Eden. It is a small oasis, green and well watered.

From Quetta to Pishin the road skirts the southern border of a vast
plain, interspersed with valleys, which extend across the eastern
portion of Afghanistan toward the Russian dominion. A study of the
Pishin country shows that it is, on its northwestern side supported
on a limb of the Western Sulimani. This spur, which defines the west
of the Barshor valley, is spread out into the broad plateau of Toba,
and is then produced as a continuous ridge, dividing Pishin from the
plains of Kadani, under the name of Khoja Amran. The Barshor is a
deep bay of the plain, and there is an open valley within the outer
screen of hills. A road strikes off here to the Ghilzai country and
to Ghazni. Though intersected by some very low and unimportant hills
and ridges, the Pishin plains and those of Shallkot may be looked
upon as one feature. We may imagine the Shall Valley the vestibule,
the Kujlak-Kakur Vale the passage, the Gayud Yara Plain an
antechamber, and Pishin proper the great _salle_. Surrounded by
mountains which give forth an abundant supply of water, the lands
bordering on the hills are studded with villages, and there is much
cultivation; there is a total absence of timber, and the cultivation
of fruit-trees has been neglected. The Lora rivers cutting into the
plain interferes somewhat with the construction of roads.


[Illustration: Entrance to the Khojak Pass, from Pishin, on the Road
to Kandahar.]


The Plain of Pishin possesses exceptional advantages for the
concentration and rendezvous of large bodies of troops, and has
already been utilized for that purpose by the British.

From the Khoja Amran, looking toward Kandahar, the plains, several
thousand feet below, are laid out like a sea, and the mountains run
out into isolated promontories; to the left the desert is seen like
a turbulent tide about to overflow the plains.

The rivers on the Quetta-Kandahar route do not present much
impediment to the passage of troops in dry weather, but in flood
they become serious obstacles and cannot be passed until the waters
retire.

The ascent from the east through the Khojak Pass is easy, the
descent on the west very precipitous. A thirteen-foot cart road was
made, over the entire length of twenty miles, by General Biddulph in
1878-9, by which the first wheeled vehicles, which ever reached
Khorassan from India, passed.

From Kandahar (elsewhere described)--which is considered by General
Hamley and other authorities, one of the most important strategic
points in any scheme of permanent defence for India--diverge two
main roads: one a continuation of the Quetta-Herat route bearing
N.W., and one running N.E. to Kabul.

Gen. Biddulph says: "The position of Kandahar near to the slopes of
the range to the westward of the city renders it impossible to
construct works close at hand to cover the road from Herat. The high
ridge and outlying hills dividing Kandahar and its suburbs from the
Argandab valley completely command all the level ground between the
city and the pass. Beyond the gap a group of detached mountains
extends, overlooking the approaches, and follows the left bank of
the Argandab as far down as Panjwai, fifteen miles distant.
Positions for defensive works must be sought, therefore, in front of
that place on the right bank of the river. To the N.E. of Kandahar
the open plain affords situations for forts, well removed from the
hills, at a short distance, and at Akhund Ziarut, thirty miles on
the road to Ghazni, there is a gorge which would, if held, add to
security on that quarter."

The country between Kandahar and the Helmund has the same general
characteristics--plains and mountain spurs alternately,--and while
generally fit for grazing is, except in a few spots, unfit for
cultivation.

According to the eminent authority just quoted, the great natural
strategic feature of this route is the elevated position of Atta
Karez, thirty-one miles from Kandahar. He says: "On the whole road
this is the narrowest gateway, and this remarkable feature and the
concentration of roads [Footnote: The roads which meet at Atta Karez
are: the great Herat highway passing through Kokeran and crossing
the Argandab opposite Sinjari, whence it lies along the open plain
all the way to Atta Karez; the road which crosses the Argandab at
Panjwai; and the road from Taktipul towards Herat.] here, give to
Atta Karez a strategic importance unequalled by any other spot
between India and Central Asia."

General Biddulph examined this position carefully in 1879, and
discovered a site for a work which would command the valley of the
Argandab and sweep the elevated open plain toward the west and
northwest.

Abbaza is a village at the crossing of the Herat road over the
Helmund, forty-six miles west of Atta Karez. On the west bank lies
the ancient castle of Girishk. The country between the Argandab and
the Helmund is rolling and inclining gradually from the hills toward
the junction of these rivers. The plateau opposite Girishk is 175
feet above the river, which it commands.

The Helmund has already been described. There are numerous fords,
but, at certain times, bridges would be required for military
purposes. The land in the vicinity of the Helmund is very fertile
and seamed with irrigating canals.

From Girishk a road _via_ Washir runs through the hills to Herat;
this is said to be cool, well supplied with water and grazing, and
is a favorite military route. A road, parallel, to the south, goes
through Farrah, beyond which both roads blend into one main road to
the "Key." Still another road, by Bost, Rudbar, and Lash, along the
course of the river, exists. Although not so direct, it is an
important route to Herat; upon this road stand the ruins of the
ancient city of Bost in a wonderful state of preservation; here, as
elsewhere in this region, the remains of fortifications testify to
the former military importance of the spot. The citadel of Bost is
built on the debris of extensive works and rises 150 feet above the
river.

_British Generals_.--Perhaps the most prominent of modern British
commanders, next to Lord Wolseley--is the young and successful
soldier, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Roberts, G.C.B., C.I.E.,
commanding the Anglo-Indian Army of the Madras Presidency. He has
already seen service in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and has been
appointed to the command of one of the principal divisions of the
British forces intended to oppose the threatened advance of the
Russians on Herat. It was said of him by one of the most brilliant
military leaders of the age,--Skobeleff: "For General Roberts I have
a great admiration. He seems to me to possess all the qualities of a
great general. That was a splendid march of his from Kabul to
Kandahar. I think more highly of him than I do of Sir Garnet
Wolseley, but there is this to be said of _all_ your generals, they
have only fought against Asiatic and savage foes. They have not
commanded an army against a European enemy, and we cannot tell,
therefore, what they are really made of."

The Commander-in-chief of the Army of India, General Sir Donald M.
Stewart, G.C.B., C.I.E., to whom has been intrusted the conduct of
the British forces in Afghanistan, is also a very distinguished and
experienced officer--probably more familiar with the nature of the
probable field of operations than any other in Her Majesty's
Service.

Like the United States, the great latent power of England is
indisputable, and so long as superiority at sea is maintained, time
is given to render that latent power active. For the first year of
the coming struggle England must lean heavily upon her navy. Nearly
all the regiments of infantry are below the average peace limit, and
if filled up simultaneously to a maximum war strength will include
more than fifty per cent, of imperfectly trained men, and as the
practice has been to fill up those corps ordered abroad with men
transferred from other small regiments, it may come to pass that
so-called "regular" regiments will consist largely of raw material.
Colonel Trench of the British Army says "the organization of the
regular cavalry is very defective," and especially complains of the
maladministration we have just noted. Demands for cavalry for the
Soudan were met by a heavy drain on the already depleted strength of
regiments in England. The Fifth Dragoon Guards, which stood next on
the roster for foreign service, gave away nearly two hundred horses
and one hundred men. Colonel Trench says that the reserve cavalry
have no training, and that there is no reserve of horses. It is
doubtful if more than seventy per cent. of the enlisted strength and
fifty per cent. of the horses, on paper, could be put in the field
now.

Allusion has already been made to the notorious weakness of the
British transport system. [Footnote: Captain Gaisford, who commanded
the Khaiber Levies in the Afghan campaign, recommended reforms in
the system of transport and supply. He advocated certain American
methods, as wind and water-mills to crush and cleanse the petrified
and gravelled barley, often issued, and to cut up the inferior hay;
the selection of transport employes who understand animals; and more
care in transporting horses by sea.] If this has been the case in
the numerous small wars in which her forces have been engaged for
the last twenty-five years, what may be expected from the strain of
a great international campaign.

On the other hand, Great Britain can boast of an inexhaustible
capital, not alone of the revenues which have been accumulating
during the last quarter of a century, but of patriotism, physical
strength, courage, and endurance, peculiar to a race of conquerors.



IV.

THE RUSSIAN FORCES AND APPROACHES.


A mere glance at the ponderous military machine with which Russia
enforces law and order within her vast domain, and by which she
preserves and extends her power, is all that we can give here.

No army in the world has probably undergone, within the last thirty
years, such a succession of extensive alterations in organization,
in administrative arrangements, and in tactical regulations, as that
of Russia. The Crimean War surprised it during a period of
transition. Further changes of importance were carried out after
that war. Once more, in 1874, the whole military system was
remodelled, while ever since the Peace of San Stefano, radical
reforms have been in progress, and have been prosecuted with such
feverish haste, that it is difficult for the observer to keep pace
with them. [Footnote: Sir L. Graham (_Journal Royal U. S.
Institution_).]

The military system of Russia is based upon the principles of
universal liability to serve and of territorial distribution. This
applies to the entire male population, with certain exemptions or
modifications on the ground, respectively, of age or education.
Annually there is a "lot-drawing," in which all over twenty, who
have not already drawn lots, must take part. Those who draw blanks
are excused from service with the colors, but go into the last
reserve, or "Opoltschenie."

The ordinary term of service is fifteen years,--six with the colors
and nine with the reserves; a reduction is made for men serving at
remote Asiatic posts; the War Office may send soldiers into the
reserve before the end of their terms. Reduction is also made, from
eleven to thirteen years and a half, for various degrees of
educational acquirement. Exemptions are also made for family reasons
and on account of peculiar occupation or profession. Individuals who
personally manage their estates or direct their own commercial
affairs (with the exception of venders of strong liquors) may have
their entry into service postponed two years. Men are permitted to
volunteer at seventeen (with consent of parents or guardians); all
volunteers serve nine years in the reserve; those joining the Guards
or cavalry must maintain themselves at their own expense. The total
contingent demanded for army and navy in 1880 was 235,000, and
231,961 were enrolled; of this deficit of 3,039, the greater number,
3,000, were Jews.

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