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ACHIEVEMENTS OP FIELD ARTILLERY. 
The battle affords a splendid example of what discipline and courage 
can effect even against overwhelming numbers. The enemy's strength 
was estimated at some 20,000, and to face it we had but 1300 rifles. 
The greatest credit is surely due to our gallant infantry, nor must the 
services of our cavalry either be overlooked. Nevertheless it is strictly 
true to say that the honours of the day rested with the guns, and that, 
had they not stemmed the first rush, as they did almost alone, our 
losses, even supposing that no worse result had ensued, must have been 
immensely heavier. As it was, it is not too much to say that no 
artillery has ever been called upon to repel a more determined charge 
upon them, a charge which no Europeans would probably ever have 
ventured to make at all, and which they certainly would never have 
delivered with the same ferocity and recklessness. 
The effect of their fire, too, was something of which the Artillery 
may be proud. The estimate made at the time was that of the 1100 
Afghans, actually counted on the ground, who were killed, 400 were 
slain by artillery fire. An officer of the Horse Artillery, 1 after the 
fighting was over, walked to where his guns had at first stood and 
counted on that spot alone 118 dead Ghazis palpably slain by artillery 
projectiles. 2 
The cavalry regiment which hurried on with reinforements from 
General Barter's brigade only arrived in time to take up the pursuit, 
for the fight was over in little more than an hour, but after our men 
had been called back the wild Hazaras persecuted their demoralised 
foes relentlessly. It says much for the discipline and physique of 
our battalions that, after such a trying experience, they should have 
marched as they did nine miles further that day with ease. 
The effect of their victory was great and far reaching. The terror our 
guns produced was so abiding that the spirit of the enemy was broken, 
and Ghazni, for the bombardment of which the heavy guns had been 
brought, was abandoned without a struggle. Never before had the 
Afghans suffered so severely, and never had they received a sharper 
evidence of our superiority. Hardly a house between Kabul and 
Kandahar, but held a wounded man for weeks to come, and the villagers, 
cowed by our success, no longer dared to refuse to place their resources 
at our disposal. Ahmed Khel, in fact, paved the way for Lord 
Boberts's famous march later in the year, and but for its result, his 
force would scarcely have moved without molestation, or found the 
supplies along the road it did. 
And now, among the barren hills of that wild region, there stands a 
shrine dedicated to the memory of 1100 “ martyrs," who perished at 
our hands that day. It keeps a story of reckless bravery green in the 
hearts of a race, our foemen by creed and instinct, but to us it means 
something too, and surely every Englishman who should chance to visit 
that lonely spot will associate it with a no less splendid example of 
1 Lieutenant (now Major) P. F. Hamilton. 
2 The Field and Horse Artillery fired on an average SO rounds per gun. Lieutenant Hamilton 
says—“All our case shot went, and we could have done with three times as many.” Captain 
Corbett (now Lieut.-Colonel) B.H.A. was wounded, and so were three drivers, according to the 
same authority, but as a rule the enemy’s bullents flew too high, possibly owing to the smoke of 
the rapid fire which hid the battery more or less. 
