Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Marquess Wellesley regarded, quote, this wild expedition into a distant region of rocks and deserts, of sands and ice and snow, unquote, as an act of infatuation.

The Duke of Wellington pronounced with prophetic sagacity, quote, that the consequence of once crossing the indus to settle a government in afghanistan would be a perennial march into that country chapter one CHAPTER II.

The March to Kabul.

The two main objectives of the venturesome offensive movement to which Lord Auckland had committed himself were first the raising of the Persian siege of Herat, if the place should hold out until reached, the recapture of it if it should have fallen, and secondly the establishment of Shah Suja on the Afghan throne.

his garrison was discouraged by heavy loss and by the mines which the enemy were pushing forward at length when the gate of the fort had been fired and his wounded were dying for lack of medical aid he evacuated the fort and fought his way gallantly into cantonments bringing in his wounded and the women and children With this solitary exception, the Afghans had nowhere encountered resistance, and the strange passiveness of our people encouraged them to act with vigour.

From the enclosed space of the Shah Bagh, and the adjacent forts of Mahmud Khan and Muhammad Sharif, they were threatening the commissariat fort, hindering access to it, and besetting the south-western flank of the cantonments.

a young officer commanded the hundred sepoys garrisoning the commissariat fort he reported himself in danger of being cut off and elphinstone gave orders that he and his garrison should be brought off and the fort and its contents abandoned several efforts to accomplish the withdrawal were thwarted by the afghan flanking fire with the loss of several officers and many men the commissary officer urged on the general the disastrous consequences which the abandonment of the fort would entail containing as it did all the stores adding that in cantonments there were only two days supplies without prospect of procuring any more orders were then sent to warren to hold out to the last extremity which instructions he denied having received early in the morning of the fifth troops were preparing to attack the afghan fort and reinforce the commissariat fort when warren and his garrison reached the cantonments the gate of the commissariat fort had been fired but the enemy had not effected an entrance yet warren and his people had evacuated the fort through a hole cut in its wall thus with scarcely a struggle to save it was this vital fort allowed to fall into the enemy's hands and thenceforward our unfortunate people were to be reduced to precarious and scanty sources for their food from the fifth to the ninth of november there was a good deal of desultory fighting in the course of which after one failure mohammed sharif's fort was stormed by a detachment of our people under the command of major griffiths but this success had little influence on the threatening attitude maintained by the afghans on the ninth owing to the mental and physical weakness of poor general elphinstone brigadier shelton was summoned into cantonments from the ballahisar bringing with him part of the garrison with which he had been holding the latter post the hopes entertained that shelton would display vigour and restore the confidence of the troops were not realised he from the first had no belief in the ability of the occupants of the cantonment to maintain their position and he never ceased to urge prompt retreat on from the purely military point of view he was probably right the duke of wellington shared his opinion when he said in the house of lords after the first few days particularly after the negotiations at cabul had commenced it became hopeless for general elphinstone to maintain his position Shelton's situation was unquestionably a very uncomfortable one, for Elphinstone, broken as he was, yet allowed his second-in-command no freedom of action, and was testily pertinacious of his prerogative of command.

If in Shelton, who after his manner was a strong man, there had been combined with his resolution some tact and temper, he might have exercised a beneficial influence.

But before that, when the army marched around the country, they would just commandeer accommodation or they'd set up tents in the field.

But the Duke of Wellington felt that the military needed proper quarters for discipline and hygiene and health reasons.

So when the police were on the road, they would just be billeted in places or they would just go in and take over a barn or an outbuilding because there was nowhere else to go.

They were a long way from barracks.