. Forty-one years in India : from subaltern to commander-in-chief . ar portion of the column, and had ascertained thatthe elephants with the guns were close at hand. Their arrival was most opportune, for the enemy hadbeen reinforced, and, having discovered our numericalweakness, were becoming bolder; they charged down thehill, and were now trying to force their way up to ourposition, but our Mountain guns were quickly broughtinto action, and under their cover another attempt wasmade to drive the Afghans from their position. The 23rdPioneers, under the command of Colonel Currie, the twofront co
. Forty-one years in India : from subaltern to commander-in-chief . ar portion of the column, and had ascertained thatthe elephants with the guns were close at hand. Their arrival was most opportune, for the enemy hadbeen reinforced, and, having discovered our numericalweakness, were becoming bolder; they charged down thehill, and were now trying to force their way up to ourposition, but our Mountain guns were quickly broughtinto action, and under their cover another attempt wasmade to drive the Afghans from their position. The 23rdPioneers, under the command of Colonel Currie, the twofront companies led by Captain Anderson, moved downthe slope, and were soon lost to view in the thick wood atthe bottom of the dell; when they reappeared it was,to my great disappointment, on the wrong side of thehollow : they had failed in the attack, and Anderson andsome men had been killed. The enemys position, it wasfound, could only be reached by a narrow causeway, whichwas swept by direct and cross fires, and obstructed bytrunks of trees and a series of MY SIKH ORDERLIES. 1878] THREATENING THE ENEMYS REAR 145 It was evident to me that under these circumstances theenemy could not be cleared out of their entrenchmentby direct attack without entailing heavy loss, which I couldill afford and was most anxious to avoid. I therefore re-connoitred both flanks to find, if possible, a way round thehill. On our left front was a sheer precipice ; on the right,however, I discovered, to my infinite satisfaction, that wecould not only avoid the hill which had defeated us, butcould get almost in rear of the Peiwar Kotal itself, andthreaten the enemys retreat from that position. At this juncture I was further cheered by the arrival ofLieutenant-Colonel Perkins and Major McQueen, who, withthe 5th Punjab Infantry, had worked their way up thesteep mountain-side, in the hope of getting near to thePeiwar Kotal and co-operating with me. They were, how-ever, checked by the deep ravine I hav
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