108 
ACHIEVEMENTS OE FIELD ARTILLERY. 
are more or less abnormal. Difficulties of transport, tbe nature of the 
country, or the devoted fanaticism of a countless enemy have often com¬ 
pelled us to abandon all that the experience of Europe has taught us, and 
to fall back on formations and tactics primitive but effective. The ex¬ 
ploits of a couple of mountain guns at the corner of a square, or field 
pieces in line with the infantry, like the battalion guns of a bygone 
period, have vindicated the training and pluck of our gunners and their 
officers on many a sandy waste, bleak hill side, or sun-scorched desert. 
But just as many gallant feats on a small scale have been omitted from 
our previous campaigns, so must these of more modern days, fresh as 
they are in our own memory, now be left. No breath of disparage¬ 
ment, however, hangs round such omission, but rather that of keen 
regret at being compelled to leave what we would most willingly have 
enlarged upon. 
The Last Afghan War, 1879-1880. 
Yet there was a battle fought in the Afghan campaign of 1880 which 
should have complete notice in these pages, and deserves mention even 
among the classic achievements of artillery. For, on the occasion we 
refer to, not only did the batteries engaged play a share in the fighting 
such as was distinctly and unmistakeably predominant, but they dis¬ 
played qualities on the march, which led up to the fight, such as are 
unsurpassed in the records of any army, and, moreover, they faced odds 
such as none but English batteries have ever opposed successfully. 
The battle of which, therefore, artillery has so much reason to be 
proud is that of Ahmed Kehl, about which in this country far too little 
has yet been heard. Yet the battle, and the trying march which 
preceded it, are especially remarkable and interesting to us, because in 
them a battery armed with every type of field piece was represented. 
The giant’s share of the fighting fell, it is true, to Horse and Field 
Artillery, but the prompt intervention of a heavy battery was also 
invaluable at a most critical moment, while, although the Mountain 
Battery (11th) 1 with its 7-prs. was too far to the rear on the line of 
march to arrive in time to take part in the actual fighing at Ahmed 
Kehl, it showed its good qualities on many weary miles of road, and in 
the subsequent action on the 23rd of April did excellent service. 
When at the end of March 1880, Sir Donald Stewart started to 
march to Cabul, it must be remembered that the inhabitants of the 
districts he passed through had not as yet felt the power of our arms, 
and were ready, therefore, to actively obstruct, and, by refusing 
supplies, render our progress as difficult as possible. Five days’ 
rations were carried with the force, and while its path lay through the 
province of Kandahar no great difficulties were experienced. Once, 
however, that it was fairly beyond the pale, signs of trouble were soon 
apparent. A holy war had been preached along its path, and even 
those incapable or unwilling to bear arms might accomplish much 
against the invaders by merely abstaining from assisting them. Thus 
it was that the tillers of the soil disappeared as the hated column 
1 Now the 2nd Battery Eastern Division. 
