Battle of Kandahar (1880)
The Battle of Kandahar, 1 September 1880, was the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The battle in southern Afghanistan was fought between the British forces under command of General Roberts and the Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan. It ended with a British victory.
This article is about the 1880 battle. For other battles in Kandahar, see Battle of Kandahar.Background[edit]
In May 1879, after the death of the Amir Sher Ali Khan, Sir Louis Cavagnari negotiated and signed the Treaty of Gandamak with his successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan. The treaty obliged the Afghans to admit a British resident governor at Kabul; a position Cavagnari himself took up in July. However, on 3 September, Cavagnari and the other European members of the mission were massacred in a sudden rising of Afghan rebel troops.
After Yakub Khan had been dethroned and exiled by the British for suspected collusion in the murder of Cavagnari, feelers were put out for two replacement candidates: his younger brother, Ayub Khan the Governor of Herat, and his nephew, Abdur Rahman Khan. However, in May 1880, a new British Liberal government recalled the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton and replaced him with Lord Ripon who had instructions to bring all troops out of Afghanistan. These plans for the evacuation were disrupted by Ayub Khan, who after stirring up anti-British feeling,[2] had sallied out of Herat in early June with 10,000 followers. 1,500 British and Indian troops, together with Afghan levies, were sent to intercept this force.
The British, commanded by Brigadier George Burrows, met Ayub Khan at Maiwand, on 27 July. However many of the Indian troops in British service were new, inadequately trained recruits, and crumpled under pressure; the Afghan levies had already switched sides, unwilling to fight against their countrymen.[2] Despite a heroic last stand by the 66th Regiment, and inflicting 2,500 casualties on his enemy, General Burrows was defeated by a determined adversary.
