nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47suffered heavy losses, Shelton too had lost many men. Following the fall of
Old Charikar the day before this battle, thousands more Kohistanis arrived
in Kabul bringing with them captured British artillery pieces, muskets
and ammunition. Reinforced, Mir Masjidi reoccupied Behmaru, cut the
supplies to the cantonment and sent his ghazis to dig in on the summit
of Tepa-yi Behmaru. Once entrenched, they fired at will down into the
cantonment, making it exceedingly dangerous for anyone to venture into
the open.
Despite Shelton’s objections, Elphinstone ordered him and his regi-
ment, the 44th Foot, to take Tepa-yi Behmaru and clear it of snipers. Before
dawn on 23 November 1841 Shelton’s men took control of the eastern slopes
without meeting any opposition, then when day broke he opened fire with
his single artillery piece on the Kohistanis in Behmaru village below. When
the enemy fled for shelter into the houses, Shelton sent in a storming
party only for them to be ambushed in the narrow lanes. Assailed on all
sides from the houses and rooftops, the storming party retreated back
up the hill. The noise of battle woke the Muhammadzais and Ghilzais in
the Shah Bagh. Grabbing their weapons they rushed up the eastern flank
of the adjacent Qal‘a-yi Musa‘ hill and tried to storm the western side of
Tepa-yi Behmaru.
Shelton now had to divide his forces, leaving one section to defend
the eastern flank of the hill in case Mir Masjidi tried to storm its slopes,
while he went to confront the Ghilzais and Barakzais on the western side.
Exposed on the bare hillside with no cover and with the enemy out of
range of their Brown Bess muskets, the 44th in their red coats were easy
targets. As his men dropped like flies Shelton ordered them, inexplicably, to
form two squares. This was the standard European infantry defence when
faced with a cavalry charge or advancing infantry, but the worst possible
option when it came to counteracting sniper fire. The battle quickly became
a turkey shoot, yet despite men falling all around him, Shelton ordered
them to hold their ground. For a while the enemy were held at bay with
grapeshot, but the overheated gun seized and the Ghilzai swarmed up the
slope. After a brief hand-to-hand struggle the 44th Foot fled back down
the hill in full view of the cantonment onlookers. In the rout that followed
many soldiers were killed and the death toll would have been even higher
if Sardar ‘Osman Khan had not ordered his men to hold their fire.
In the aftermath of this disaster, Shelton informed Elphinstone he was
no longer able to mount further forays from the cantonment due to the
lack of men. From this point onward, the high command’s deliberations
were about how best to negotiate a face-saving withdrawal and with which