Parwan Campaign (1840)

Parwan Campaign
Part of First Anglo-Afghan War
Date October 2 – November 1840[1][2] Location Parwan Province Result Barakzai Afghan Victory[3][4] British defeated in ~13 battles[5]
Belligerents
Barakzai Emirate of Kabul Kohistani Rebels	Durrani Durrani Kingdom British Empire East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Dost Mohammad Khan Mohammad Afzal Khan Mir Masjidi Khan	Robert Sale Percival Lord † Fraser (WIA) Edward Connolly † Ponsonby (WIA) Timur Mirza
Strength
400 (at Parwan Darra)[5]	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Heavy, hundreds killed and wounded.[6]

The Parwan Campaign took place from October–November 1840, as a result of Dost Mohammad Khan's rebellion against Shah Shuja and the British backed regime. The Parwan campaign had over 13 battles, with each and every one of them ending in an Afghan victory, including a final confrontation at Parwan Darra, with Robert Sale forced to abandon the campaign and return to Kabul.

In 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan to restore Shah Shuja Durrani, a former ruler of Durrani descent. The British wished to restore Shah Shuja to the throne as a puppet and to counter-act growing Russian influence in the region. The British successfully invaded and forced Dost Mohammad Khan to flee from Kabul, which prompted in him leading to a growing insurgency with the Mir Wali of Khulm in northern Afghanistan.^[7][8]

Khan found allies elsewhere, where he allied with the leaders of the Kohistan rebellion that had tried to depose him prior, from Sultan Muhammad Khan of Nijrab and Mir Hajji. After a year of British occupation, they realized their mistake of opposition toward Dost Mohammad, and now called for his restoration, seeking to support him. They had disagreed with previous actions by the Shah Shuja.^[9]

Robert Sale was tasked with ending the rebellion, and while planning, he was accompanied by one of Shah Shuja's sons, Timur Mirza.^[10] The rebels believed that they did not owe allegiance to Dost Mohammad, in-fact, they were indebted to the Sadozai dynasty who had helped bring them to rule in the region under Zaman Shah Durrani.^[11] And now, having heard of Sale's attack on Jalgah, Mir Masjidi accused Ghulam Khan and the British of perfidy, fully defecting to Dost Mohammad's side alongside a group of pirs.^[11]

In over 13 different skirmishes and battles, the British were defeated and unable to halt the Afghan resistance.^[5]

On 2 November 1840, Dost Mohammad finally confronted Sale's forces, halting his advance and engaging battle at Parwan Darra.^[11] Dost Mohammad held a strong defensive position with over 400 cavalrymen, with his forces dug in on a ridge overlooking Sale's advance.^[11][5] Sale sent Captain Fraser and his Bengal horse force to attack the enemy infantry, however, only a handful of men followed the order, leaving the British officers to charge against the Afghan force alone and essentially without any support.^[11] Dr. Lord, earlier political officer of Bamiyan who offered Dost Mohammad terms of surrender was killed amongst this fighting that broke out.^[6] According to Dalrymple, Lord led a cavalry charge which was too late to realize that the rest of the force fled from the field.^[5] Fortunately, Fraser survived this charge and returned to British lines, however, with his sabre nearly severed at the wrist.^[6]

Dost Mohammad, seeing what had happened ordered his cavalry to lead a counter-attack, whereupon the disorganized Bengal horse force was routed, with the Afghan Cavalry chasing them in pursuit and killing many.^[6] The 2nd Bengal Horse was disgraced for their inability to follow orders, and was later disbanded, being completely erased from records.^[6] Nonetheless, following this route, Sale ordered his infantry and Qizilbash to storm the heights, and after heavy fighting and heavy casualties, they secured the ridge, to their dismay where they saw Dost Mohammad withdraw his forces in good order.^[6] Both sides withdrew, and later, the Afghans re-occupied the ridge, which was left undefended.^[6] With the ridge position, they fired onto the British camp below. As the following day came, Timur Mirza and Burnes urged Sale to abandon the campaign.^[6] This was due to the Afghan troops loyal to Shah Shuja who had not deserted, already being on the edge of mutiny, as well as Sale losing hundreds of men and many more wounded with nothing to show for it.^[6] With supplies running low as well, he obliged and returned to Charikar, crossing the Panjshir river, with those villages he had campaigned for at great cost quickly being reoccupied.^[6]

Despite Sale having little to show for the campaign and the trail of devastation left by him, Sale called Parwan Darra a victory.^[6] However he was unable to conceal the fact of the 2nd Bengal horse defying orders, and as a result, many British officers were killed.^[6] Atkinson, the armies surgeon general, called the encounter a “disaster”, Kaye also called the battle a defeat.^[6] However, early in the evening of 2 November 1840, a horsemen identified as Sultan Muhammad Khan Safi rode up to Macnaghten, as with this, he was followed by another lone horsemen, who came up to Macnaghten.^[6] This horsemen was no other than Dost Mohammad Khan.^[6]

Despite his victory at the battle of Parwan Darra, Dost Mohammad surrendered due to rising plots of assassination against him by his Kohistani allies. This shocked even the British, with Dost Mohammad Khan perhaps not realizing how close he was to total victory.^[12] After his surrender, he would be exiled to British India. However, following his exile, he would return to rule after his son, Wazir Akbar Khan led an active resistance that saw British withdrawal in 1842.^[12][13][14]

• First Anglo-Afghan War
• Dost Mohammad Khan
• Sher Ali Khan