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{{Battlemap|war=Retreat from Kabul to Gandamak|link=http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=p&msa=0&msid=101241150585833319689.00046bda10060121205ab&ll=34.431833,69.833221&spn=0.825721,1.411743&z=10}}
'''This was an event during the [[1st Afghan War]]'''
== Summary ==
After a winter in [[Jalalabad]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuja_Shah_Durrani Shah Shuja], restored as Amir of [[Afghanistan]], returned to [[Kabul]] in the spring of 1841 with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hay_Macnaghten Sir William Macnaghten] the British Envoy and Minister at the Afghan Court. A reduced force of British and Indian troops moved out of the Bala Hissar fortress into a cantonment where their families joined them. The cantonment at Sherpur was poorly located and difficult to defend.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/kabulinsurrecti00eyregoog#page/n112/mode/2up/search/cantonment The Kabul Insurrection of 1841-42] Eyre's description p 94</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willoughby_Cotton [Willoughby Cotton|Sir Willoughby Cotton]] was replaced as military commander by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Keith_Elphinstone William Elphinstone]. Described as an elderly invalid,<ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/kabulinsurrecti00eyregoog#page/n106/mode/2up/search/Elphinstone ibid] p 88</ref> though in fact barely 60 years old, Elphinstone was unfitted to cope with the increasingly grave situation.
In October 1841 Sir Robert Sale took his brigade out of Kabul (see [[General Sale's March from Kabul to Jalalabad]]) and a general uprising began on 2 November. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Burnes Sir Alexander Burnes] the senior political agent, his brother Lieut Charles Burnes and his assistant Major William Broadfoot were murdered. Elphinstone took no decisive action. The British were besieged in the cantonment and were unable to get supplies for men or animals. They were therefore forced to negotiate terms with the Afghan chiefs. Attacks and reprisals continued until on 23 December Sir William Macnaghten was lured to a meeting with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar_Khan Mohammad Akbar Khan] on the promise of a new treaty. He and Captain Trevor were murdered and their heads paraded through the city.
