The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
AEGOS POTAMOS.--This place is famous for the victory of Lysander
over the Athenian fleet, on the 13th December, B.C. 405, in the
last year of the Peloponnesian war. All the triremes of the
Athenians, 180 in number, were either lost or captured, without the
loss of a single ship on the side of Lysander.
AFGHAN WAR.--A fierce rebellion broke out on November 2nd, 1842,
at Cabul; Burnes and Macnaughten, the British ministers, with
other civil and military officers, were successively murdered, and
the whole country rose in arms under the treacherous Akbar Khan,
the son of the deposed king, Dost Mohammed, who determined on the
massacre of the whole British force. Pusillanimity and indecision
in the councils of the general-in-chief, led to an immediate
evacuation of the country. 4,500 fighting men, together with about
12,000 camp followers, besides women and children, set forward,
through ice and snow, on their lamentable retreat; and no sooner
had they cleared out of their cantonments, than the blood-thirsty
Afghans began to plunder the baggage, and fire upon the soldiery;
they continued without ceasing their revengeful assaults upon the
bewildered and desponding multitude, till there was nothing left to
plunder, and none left to kill. Out of a host of about 26,000 human
beings, only a few hundreds were rescued from death by captivity.
The ladies and the wounded had been given up to the enemy early
in the march, and Dr. Brydon was the only officer who made good
his retreat. In the following year, however, on the appointment of
Lord Ellenborough to the governor-generalship of India in the place
of Lord Auckland, the British national character was repaired,
the honour of their arms retrieved, and the unfortunate prisoners
rescued. General Pollock was despatched into Afghanistan with an
invading army; he advanced on Cabul with all possible rapidity;
while, on the other side, General Nott, who had held out at
Candahar during the recent difficulties, brought his forces also to
bear on the capital. Victory everywhere attended the British arms;
and the British officers and ladies, who had been taken prisoners,
were also rescued, at Bameean, on the road to Turkistan. These
disgraces having been so gloriously redeemed, it was determined
to evacuate a country which ought never to have been entered; the
fortifications and other works of Cabul having been destroyed,
the British troops set forward, on their return home, and, after
a march of about ten weeks, arrived safely on the banks of the
Sutlej, December 17th, 1842.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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