Cold Open

It’s the early hours of November 2nd, 1841, at a mansion in Kabul, Afghanistan.

36-year-old diplomat Sir Alexander Burnes peeks over the balcony and grimaces at what he sees below. A few dozen Afghan men carrying torches and large knives are marching along the street, and Sir Alexander is sure he knows their destination: his house.

The British invaded Afghanistan three years ago. Their plan was to install a puppet ruler in the country to safeguard their colonies in neighboring India. Ever since the British have occupied Afghanistan to prop up their chosen leader. But the British are not popular here, and there’ve been whispers that the Afghans may rise up in revolution. As the most prominent British official in Kabul, Sir Alexander knows he’ll be at the top of any list of targets for retribution.

At the sound of splintering wood, Sir Alexander risks another glance over the balcony. The mob has broken into the stables next door.

Soon, the acrid smell of burning timber fills the air. They’ve set fire to the stables, and knowing that his house might be next, Sir Alexander takes a deep breath and then stands up in full view. He hopes that showing himself will calm the crowd. And inspired by his bravery, another British official also steps forward from his hiding place and joins Sir Alexander on the balcony. Then, Sir Alexander holds his hands up in the air, gesturing for calm. But the crowd isn’t in the mood.

A gunshot echoes through the street. The official next to Sir Alexander slumps to the ground, a bright red stain blossoming over his white shirt. Sir Alexander ducks and scurries back inside. All he can do now is arm himself and hope that British soldiers are on their way.

When British troops do arrive, they find Sir Alexander Burnes’s residence in ruins, and Sir Alexander himself hacked to death in the courtyard. The murder of the most senior British official in Kabul will mark a new low in the relationship between Britain and the Afghan people. But worse is still to come. Soon, the British will be forced out of the Afghan capital entirely, and of the thousands who flee the city, only a single man will survive to reach safety on January 13th, 1842.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is January 13th, 1842: The Sole Survivor of the Retreat from Kabul. 

Act One

It’s July 1839 near Ghazni, Afghanistan, two years before the death of Sir Alexander Burnes.

58-year-old British General Sir Willoughby Cotton dismounts from his horse and takes out a telescope. Peering through it, General Cotton examines the thick walls that surround the city of Ghazni. He turns to the officers accompanying him and shakes his head.

Thirteen years ago, Dost Mohammad Khan seized control of Afghanistan and installed himself as emir. That was not a welcome development for the British. Dost Mohammad was aligned with Britain’s rival power, Russia. The British feared that with him in charge in Afghanistan, their valuable colonies in neighboring India would be under threat. So, the British government decided to invade Afghanistan and put a friendlier figure on the throne. Eight months ago, an army under the command of General Cotton crossed the border from India. Since then, General Cotton’s troops have made slow but steady progress through Afghanistan, but the high walls protecting Ghazni will be their toughest test so far.

General Cotton hands the telescope to his officers. They all take a look and come to the same conclusion. Launching an attack on Ghazni would cost thousands of lives, and General Cotton can’t afford to lose so many men.

So, the General returns to his camp feeling discouraged. But his mood improves later that evening when an Afghan deserter is brought in by British guards. The Afghan reveals that one of Ghazni's city gates is in poor condition and won’t withstand a prolonged assault. This gives General Cotton some hope, their prolonged siege could be avoided, and he orders his engineers to plant explosive charges by the gate under the cover of darkness.

A few days later, on July 23rd, the explosives are in place and General Cotton's army is ready. On his command, the charges are detonated, and the gate crumbles. With the enemy surprised and thrown into confusion by the devastating explosion, British troops flood into the city almost entirely unopposed.

The fall of Ghazni is the turning point of the war. Because General Cotton now controls a fortified city less than 100 miles from Kabul, and he can use it as a staging point to attack the capital. Recognizing that Kabul won’t withstand the British for long, Afghanistan’s ruler Dost Mohammad Khan chooses to flee and eventually goes into exile. British troops then march into Kabul a few weeks later, and they install their chosen man, Shah Shujah Durrani, as the new emir.

But Shah Shujah doesn’t have a secure grip on the throne. Most Afghans were happy with Dost Mohammad Khan as their ruler, while Shah Shujah is seen as little more than a puppet. And to the horror of the Afghans, the British seem to be settling in for permanent occupation. Their officers are buying mansions in the capital. And even the mostly Indian rank-and-file soldiers of the British Army are soon allowed to bring their wives and children to join them.

And without the backing of his people, Shah Shujah relies on ruthless force to suppress opposition. He executes anyone he suspects of disloyalty. Even those who survive his purges are subjected to Shah Shujah's favorite punishment: mutilation. He orders noses, ears, and hands to be cut off for even the most trivial of offenses. He increases taxes, leaving ordinary Afghans struggling to feed themselves. But no matter how bad things get in Kabul, Shah Shujah believes no one will try to overthrow him when he has the British Army behind him.

This confidence is misplaced. The British are more vulnerable than they seem. In an attempt to ease tensions in Kabul, British forces have withdrawn from the city to a poorly fortified camp just outside the walls. And to reduce costs, the bribes the British previously paid to Afghan tribal leaders for their support have been scaled back.

The conditions are now right for a revolt. Soon, Shah Shujah’s opponents begin assembling in the mountains around Kabul. With Dost Mohammad Khan in exile, his son Wazir Akbar Khan takes his place as leader of the rebels, and he’s determined to avenge his father’s defeat, while the British ignore the growing rumors of rebellion until it’s too late. In November 1841, Wazir's rebels attack the house of the most prominent British official in Kabul and slaughter everyone they find inside.

But even after the gruesome death of Sir Alexander Burnes, the British still fail to stamp down the rebellion—allowing it to spread further. A week after the attack on Sir Alexander, the main British supply depot in Kabul is looted by the rebels. Then they occupy a strategic hill overlooking the British camp and begin peppering it with gunfire. The British will soon realize that their position in Kabul is unsustainable. And they will decide to evacuate their troops and all civilians who wish to accompany them. But that move won’t only doom the unpopular regime of Shah Shujah. It will also lead to thousands of deaths and one of the most devastating defeats ever suffered by the British Army.

Act Two

It’s January 6th, 1842, at the British camp outside Kabul, two months after the beginning of the uprising in Afghanistan.

59-year-old General Sir William Elphinstone watches from horseback as thousands of British and Indian soldiers, along with their servants, wives, and children, trudge out of camp. They all have an arduous trek ahead of them. They must cross 100 miles of snowbound mountains to reach safety in the city of Jalalabad. And as the most senior officer in camp, General Elphinstone feels it’s his responsibility to be the last person to leave.

The General has only been in his post a few months. He wasn’t an obvious choice to take command in Kabul. The situation in the city was tense and the camp needed a strong leader, but General Elphinstone is plagued by rheumatism and gout, and he often couldn’t get out of bed due to the pain. So, when the Afghan revolt began, General Elphinstone was slow to react. And as the crisis worsened, he sent representatives to negotiate with the new rebel leader Wazir Akbar Khan. But Wazir was not in the mood to talk and killed the British envoys. Only when General Elphinstone agreed to a series of humiliating conditions did Wazir offer him and his people safe passage out of Kabul. And today, that evacuation is beginning.

By the time the last person leaves the British camp, more than 16,000 people are on the march—and only a quarter of them are soldiers. General Elphinstone knows that the bloated column is vulnerable to attack. He just hopes that Wazir lives up to his part of the agreement and holds off the other Afghan fighters.

But it doesn’t take long before General Elphinstone realizes he’s been duped. When his large group first stopped for the night, just five miles from Kabul, the food, fuel, and tents that Wazir promised to supply the British are nowhere to be found. With no shelter, the British must scrape away snow and sleep on the bare ground. The following day, when they reach the first mountain pass, the column comes under attack from Afghan guerillas. Snipers stationed in the foothills take aim at the slow-moving group. Terrified civilians who fall behind are cut down by sword-wielding warriors. Others are stripped to their clothing and left to freeze to death in the snow.

Initially, Wazir feigns ignorance of the British suffering. He claims that the supplies didn’t arrive because the British Army left Kabul earlier than he expected, and he says he has no influence over the tribal chiefs attacking him in the mountain passes. But Wazir soon reveals that his true intention is to disrupt the British retreat. After several days on the road and thousands of British and Indian casualties, Wazir invites General Elphinstone and his second-in-command to discuss a ceasefire. But this is yet another trick. When the British officers arrive, they’re swiftly disarmed, and Wazir announces they’re now prisoners.

Deprived of their two most senior commanders, the British column struggles on as best it can, but it's very difficult. When it reaches one very narrow pass, the remaining soldiers and civilians must squeeze through a gap just four yards wide. It’s the perfect spot for an ambush, which soon turns into a massacre.

Less than a week after leaving Kabul, the main British force has dwindled to less than 100 soldiers. Most of these men are killed or taken prisoner in a dramatic last stand. But a dozen men on horses and ponies manage to escape. This small group continues over the frozen mountains. But one by one they fall, either killed in close quarters during more ambushes or picked off at a distance by snipers. Eventually, only Assistant Surgeon William Brydon is left alive.

But William is still miles from safety when he’s spotted by another Afghan-mounted warrior. Exhausted, William tries to duck out of the way of the warrior’s swinging sword, but he’s not quick enough. The sword catches him on the side of the head, and he falls from his saddle, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Satisfied that another British soldier has been accounted for, the Afghan warrior rides away to search for other stragglers.

But William is not dead. Bleeding heavily, he’ll drag himself up off the ground back into the saddle, and resume his ride to Jalalabad, hoping that others in the column will join him there. But he’ll soon discover that out of an army of thousands, he is the last man standing.

Act Three

It’s January 13th, 1842, near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a week after the British evacuated their camp outside Kabul.

30-year-old Assistant Surgeon William Brydon sways unsteadily in the saddle, his chin slumped on his chest as his pony slowly picks its way along a rocky track.

Since becoming separated from the rest of the British force and losing his comrades to enemy attacks, William has continued on the road to Jalalabad alone. But with the enemy hiding around every corner, he’s had to stay alert. Only a few hours ago, William was spotted again, and he had to whip his pony into one last gallop to escape his armed pursuers. Now both he and his pony are exhausted. If another attack comes, neither of them will have the energy to resist.

William's pace on the pony slows, and he thinks about resting for the night. But a distant sound rouses him. He looks up, groggy and confused. Mounted soldiers gallop toward him. But William is too tired to react. So instead, he gives himself up to his fate, raising his arms as he sits in a settle. When the soldiers rein in their horses, however, they address him in English. And with a start, William realizes they’re British. Then he looks in the direction they came from. He can see his destination: the city of Jalalabad.

The soldiers carry William the rest of the way and rush him to the infirmary. There, medical officers ask him where the rest of the army is, and William replies weakly, “I am the army.”

William will soon become famous as the only survivor of the catastrophic retreat from Kabul. But in fact, he is not the only soldier to make it out alive. In the weeks that follow, others will also stagger into Jalalabad. Most will be Indian soldiers forced to hide in the hills or play dead until their Afghan pursuers moved on. But they will only number a handful. The vast majority of the 16,000 people who set off from Kabul are now either dead or prisoners of the Afghans.

This humiliation will not go without response. The British will form “An Army of Retribution.” And in the fall of 1842, it will return to Kabul, rescue the British soldiers and civilians in captivity, and then sack the city. But after that, the British won’t stay in Afghanistan. Having achieved their objectives, they’ll return to their colonies in India. And only then will the First Anglo-Afghan War come to an end, a conflict in which the British tried and failed to extend their empire to another nation, and an occupying army of thousands was reduced to a single man named William Brydon, who rode to the gates of Jalalabad on January 13th, 1842.

Outro

Next on History Daily. January 14th, 1967. A mass gathering in San Francisco, California kicks off a counterculture phenomenon: the Summer of Love.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.