Transcriber's Notes

Photo Bassano, Old Bond Street.Captain J. McD. Baird.

He died on the morning of the 4th of March, and was buried in the dead of night outside the main gate of the fort while the enemy were firing all round. A little over two months later, when the advance brigade of the Relieving Force arrived in Chitral, General Gatacre read a funeral service over his grave, and Major Aylmer, R.E., who had served together with Baird in the Hunza Campaign three years before and won his Victoria Cross there, erected a tombstone to his memory and with his own hands carved an inscription. His comrades and fellow-countrymen will know then that, far away though he now lies, his grave has not been neglected, but will ever be cared for by the soldiers who follow after him.

After poor Baird I think the subject on which the officers of the garrison spoke most feelingly was the devotion and noble spirit of discipline and determination shown by the Sikhs. There were but a hundred of them in a garrison of nearly four hundred, but the officers said that without them they could never have held out, and that but for these Sikhs not one of them would have been there now. They only grew more enthusiastic as the siege became closer and times seemed harder. With calm self-reliancethey stood proudly at bay like a rock with the waves beating against it. And so great was the sense of discipline which their stern old native officer Gurmukh Singh instilled into them, that when during an attack the sick struggled out of hospital to join in the fight he would not excuse even their impulsive bravery, but told them that a soldier's first duty was to obey, that they had been ordered to hospital and there they must stay. It was the discipline ingrained into these men that saved the garrison. As long as a Sikh was on sentry, and while Sikhs were holding a threatened point, Captain Townshend had nothing to fear. The enemy would never catch a Sikh off his guard and could never force their way through a post of Sikhs while one remained alive. They saved the garrison, and the officers gratefully acknowledged their service.

Company of the 14th Sikhs which formed part of the Garrison of Chitral during the Siege.

The skill of the enemy was, too, a subject on which the officers specially dwelt. The Chitralis had not previously been considered of much account as a fighting race; but even they, once their blood was up, fought hard and well, and their Pathan allies were as skilful and brave astroops of a regularly-trained army. Umra Khan's men were born warriors; unlike the Chitralis, who by nature prefer polo and sport and dancing to fighting, the Pathans from their childhood upwards think of little else than warfare. They are for ever raiding upon one another, attacking each other's villages, and besieging and defending the forts scattered over their country nearly as thickly as public-houses in England. They therefore showed every ingenuity in the siege of Chitral. To make the most of their ammunition they never fired a shot without clearly making out an object to aim at, and usually with the rifle resting on a stone so as to enable them to aim correctly. The skill which they displayed in the construction of trenches and breastworks to approach the walls; the sagacity they evidenced in repeatedly attacking the water-way and in setting fire to the towers and walls of the fort; and the courage and determination they showed in their attempts to carry out these objects, excited the highest admiration of the besieged.

No less remarkable was their well-directed effort to undermine the walls; and at the closeof the siege the defenders found a huge pent roof, which was to have been borne along and placed against the walls of the fort so as to cover the assailants, and huge scaling-ladders, capable of carrying three men abreast. With the aid of these contrivances the enemy had hoped, when the mine had been successfully fired, to have made one last desperate assault upon the devoted garrison before the Relieving Force could arrive. They calculated that the defenders must be getting very short of supplies, for Mr. Robertson in his negotiations with them had always been careful to lead them into this belief. They thought, too, that the native troops must be low at heart, and ready to throw up the sponge at any day. They considered, therefore, that if one great effort could be made they would be able to first crush the Chitral garrison, and then annihilate Colonel Kelly, who they knew had with him only a handful of men with no supplies and no transport to speak of, and who was now in the middle of the worst defiles of the country. But the carefully-planned and brilliantly-executed sortie under Harley had effectually frustrated this last supreme effort of the besiegers, and Colonel Kelly's force had, by their skilful tactics and bravery in action, thwarted the enemy's most cherished plans. Just on the brink of a disaster the British forces came out triumphant; and once again in our fair island's story it was shown that British officers, even though unsupported by a single British soldier, and with only their own stout hearts and strong right arms to trust to, and to the influence they could exercise over men of subject races, had been able to uphold the honour of their race; and the story of the defence and relief of Chitral will be handed down to posterity as one of the most brilliant chapters in the annals of Indian military history.

HOUSE OCCUPIED BY SHER AFZUL DURING THE SIEGE OF CHITRAL FORTNow the British Agency

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Transcriber's NotesObvious punctuation errors repaired.You can click on the frontispiece and the map to obtain larger images.Hyphen removed: breast[-]works (p. 159), sharp[-]shooter (p. 44), wood[-]work (p. 161).Hyphen added: water[-]way (p. 141).p. 17: had make an attempt -> had made an attempt.p. 77: holding it own -> holding its own.p. 80: has to been carried up -> has to be carried up.p. 209: loopholes of sangers -> loopholes of sangars.

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

You can click on the frontispiece and the map to obtain larger images.

Hyphen removed: breast[-]works (p. 159), sharp[-]shooter (p. 44), wood[-]work (p. 161).

Hyphen added: water[-]way (p. 141).

p. 17: had make an attempt -> had made an attempt.

p. 77: holding it own -> holding its own.

p. 80: has to been carried up -> has to be carried up.

p. 209: loopholes of sangers -> loopholes of sangars.

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