It's the morning of September 12th,

1897.

And from his small signaling post in the

Sana mountain range, Isha Singh of the

36th seek regiment stares out beyond the

frontier of the British Empire

towards

Afghanistan. On both sides, Ishar sees

the enemy approaching. In the valleys

north and south of the ridge, the Pton

fighters of the Aphridi and Ojakai

tribes are gathering. There are hundreds

of them. No, thousands.

And they're all bearing down on Ishar's

tiny command at Saragari. With less than

two dozen men at his disposal, Ishar

cannot hope to hold out against such

numbers. He needs help, and he needs it

fast. As the sun climbs higher into the

sky to the east, Ishar calls to his

signaler, Sepo Gurmuk Singh. Quickly, he

says, get the message to Fort Lockhart.

We need reinforcements now. From his

signaling tower, Gurmuk relays his

commander's words along the ridge line.

As the enemy draws closer, he scans the

horizon, eagerly, awaiting the reply.

Within just minutes, it comes. A series

of mirror flashes from the nearby fort

tells Gormma everything he needs to

know. The fort is pinned down. There

will be no reinforcements.

No help is coming. Ishar gathers his men

together. They now have a choice. They

can attempt to flee, scattering back

across the jagged ridge to Fort

Lockheart. Perhaps they'll make it,

perhaps they won't. Or they can stand

and they can fight. They choose.

amazingly enough to fight. And so begins

one of the most uneven battles in

military history as 21 seek soldiers

take on a force of up to 14,000.

Afghanistan is the graveyard of foreign

aggressors. The American lev invasion of

2001 saw eight countries join forces

with the Afghan Northern Alliance to

crush the Taliban and root out al-Qaeda.

The action ended 20 years later with a

Taliban victory and an ignominious

retreat. 3,500

coalition troops lost their lives across

the campaign as well as perhaps 92,000

of their Afghan allies. Throughout the

1980s, the USSR fought a 9-year war

here, losing at least 14,000 soldiers in

the process. The war has been described

as the Soviet Vietnam, but for historian

William Mey, this does not do it

justice. The United States survived

Vietnam, me said. Soviets did not

survive Afghanistan. So, the soil of

Afghanistan is rich with foreign blood.

And in fact, this had been true long,

long before the Soviets and the

Americans arrived. For more than a

century before this, Afghanistan already

had its reputation. It was the place

where foreign superpowers came to die.

The first Anglo Afghan War of 1838 was

supposed to be a bit of smart

maneuvering from the British. By taking

Afghanistan, they would block any

potential Russian advance towards India.

But a series of bizarre decisions and

catastrophic miscalculations ended with

bitter defeat and the disastrous retreat

from Kabal in the winter of 1842. That

retreat ranks alongside the sandalwan

cartoon as one of the greatest

humiliations of British colonial

history. It's definitely a story for

another time. But some of the images of

the retreat from Kabul give us an idea

of what Imperial forces experienced in

Afghanistan. For example, the image of

the total destruction of the 44th East

Essex Regiment at Gandermak as British

troops were wiped out by Muhammad

Akbakhan's snipers. Or the image of

Assistant Surgeon William Briden riding

alone into Jalalabad, exhausted and half

dead, with part of his skull sheared off

by a sword strike. When asked where the

army was, Brighton apparently replied,

"I am the army." These images tell us

something very important. The colonial

powers of the world could not expect an

easy ride here. By the 1890s, the

British understood this well. And so the

imperial territories of South Asia

stretched from Balakistan in the west to

Burma and Malaya in the east and from

son in the south to Kashmir in the

north. They did not extend into

Afghanistan. The northwest frontier

province represented the very limits of

the British Empire. Here a string of

fortresses built by Ranjit Singh of the

seek empire decades earlier stared out

at the frontier and into the lands of

Afghanistan beyond. This was a dangerous

land. Local past groups carried out

sporadic attacks on imperial troops. But

in the main the frontier held firm.

British Empire troops largely seeks and

seo from other parts of India had

succeeded in bringing the land under

control or at least they thought they

had. For a while the British opted to

invest rather than invade. They paid a

subsidy to the local Ephridi Pushton

tribes people and in return the Ephreddy

would protect the nearby Kyber pass the

critical artery connecting Central and

South Asia. But in 1897 this fragile

alliance broke down. The Afridi launched

a campaign of their own in the past and

British forces lost control of this key

strategic asset. Working together with

the Araxai and Chamani Pashon tribes,

the Afridi could call on a force of

50,000 men and could potentially drive

Britain's Imperial troops back from the

frontier. Two attacks on Fort Gulstan on

the Sulleane mountain range on the 3rd

and 9th of November 1897 were repulsed

by Imperial troops. But the assaults

were enough to rattle the British and in

response they sent a relief column from

Fort Lockheart on the Somana Range

several miles away to the east. After

these defeats, the Paston decided to

change their tactic. They realized that

these two forts could not see one

another and so could not communicate

directly. The forts depended on a

signaling post located on the rocky

ridge between them, the post of

Saragahi. Saragahi was not undefended

though. A small garrison at the post was

led by Havda Isha Singh a Punjabi seek

who was known for his strong willed

ferocious attitude. It seems Ishar was

both an enormous asset to the British

and also a bit of a pain in the rear

end. In the words of Major General James

Lunt, Isha was a somewhat turbulent

character with an independent nature.

But General Lunt certainly admired the

Halvida. He went on to say Isha Singh in

camp a nuisance in the field

magnificent.

Alongside Isha were two other NCOs,

Corporal La Singh and Lance Corporal

Chanding. Serving under these three men

were 18 SEO including the signaler

Gurmuk Singh. In addition, there was one

non-combatant, a cook named Dart. This

meant 22 men in total protecting a

crucial line of communication between

the two forts. There's some disagreement

as to what weaponry these men carried.

The author J. Singh Soal believes the

men were armed with state-of-the-art

Martini Henry rifles. In Singal's words,

the most efficient rifle of the time,

robust, accurate, and simple to use.

Another historian, Amarinda Singh,

disagrees, though. He believes that the

seek troops at Sanagahi carried older

versions of the rifle. It had been

common practice to give out inferior

weaponry to native troops to prevent a

rerun of the mutiny in 1857. Either way,

the odds were against Ishar and his men.

The Pastian rebels were using their own

copies of captured British Martini

Henry's constructed by their own skilled

gunsmiths, and they outnumbered the

Sikhs by more than 500 to one. Even

worse than this was the ammo situation.

Ishar's garrison had only 400 rounds of

ammunition. If this was not enough to

repulse an attack, they'd need to rely

upon their bayonets and their strength

in hand-to-hand face-to-face combat. So,

when centuries first saw thousands of

Pton warriors of the Ephridi and Orai

tribes massing in the valley to the

north on September 12th, their blood

must have run cold. Victory was not

going to be possible here. But neither

was surrender nor retreat. To quote

Singh Sahal, "Fleeing or asking for safe

sanctuary would not have been considered

an option. Their marshall creed called

for them to take a stand. From beyond

the walls of the post, the Pton's tribes

made overtures to the seed detachment."

To quote the military historian Push

Pindar Singh Chopra, the tribesmen

called to the Seikhs up the hill.

Listen, why are you fighting us? This is

not your war. All we want is the British

out of here. But Isha and his men put

little stock in these words. The Aphi

had made and broken many promises

before. Like the promise to govern the

Kaiba pass for the empire from the

perspective of the 36 Sikhs leaving

their post and throwing themselves at

the mercy of their enemy was suicide. To

quote Singh Chopra again, to the

Afghans, the Seikhs gave a very abusive

answer. History does not record what

this crude answer was, but the meaning

is clear. No surrender today. As the

tribes gathered beyond the walls of the

signaling post, Gurmuk Singh took to his

helioraph signaling device. He sent an

urgent message to Lieutenant Colonel

John Horton stationed at Fort Lockheart.

The message was short and stark. Enemy

approaching the main gate, need

reinforcement. Horton's reply was

similarly concise. Unable to break

through, hold position. This would have

sent a shock wave of realization through

the men at Saragahi. They were going to

have to fight and very likely die alone.

But J Singh Sahal believes the men at

Salagari may have actually retained some

hope. As he says, Lieutenant Colonel

Horton was not one to leave a single

soldier behind, let alone allow the

strategic communications post to be

threatened. Help was expected, as was

reinforcement.

The question was when that help would

come, and no one could be sure. By 9:00

a.m., the Pton had grown tired of

talking, and they'd launched their first

assault on the signal post. This meant

rushing the post from three sides and

then charging over the broken ground up

the slopes of the ridge. The remaining

side was a sheer cliff face and so was

unassalable. The cliff was both a

blessing and a curse for the Seikhs. It

was one less side to defend, sure, but

it also meant that they were backed into

a corner. The first assault went badly

for the past. The seikhs were in a far

better position and laid down withering

fire onto the advancing tribesmen. As

the Pton retreated, they left behind at

least 60 bodies, lifeless on the

mountain side, as well as a number of

wounded. Isha and his men had won round

one, but they used up 25% of their

rounds in the process. High in his

tower, Gurmuk Singh apprised Lieutenant

Colonel Horton of the situation. The

first attack had been repulsed, but

there were more attacks expected.

Further down the slope, the Pton

commanders realized this was not going

to be as easy as they thought. The

terrain put them at a real disadvantage,

but they could still use it to help

shield their advance. The next assaults

would do exactly that. Crouching behind

rocks and wriggling across the folds of

the ground, a new wave of Paston

fighters advanced on the post. These

fighters also had another weapon on

their side. Out there among the dead and

dying on the ridgeel line lay two

tribesmen. They were uninjured and ready

to play a decisive role. As their

comrades retreated, these two had

remained, mapping out the defenses and

spotting potential weak points.

According to the official report on the

battle, the two hidden tribesmen quote

remained close under the walls of the

northwest bastion where there was a dead

angle and were quote fully cognizant of

the defects in the flank defense. This

northwest wall faced Fort Gullistston a

short distance away and at Gullistston

Major D'vor was watching the events at

Saragahi with great anxiety. To the

major's horror, he actually saw the two

Pton saboturs at work. They'd begun

digging beneath the foundations of the

post, threatening to undermine the

structure and breach the defenses. The

men at Saragahi could not know this. The

defenders watched the tribesman

approaching on three sides, taking

careful aim and making every shot count.

Fort Galiston's own signaler sent

message after message across the ridge,

trying desperately to warn the defenders

at Saragahi. His mirror glinted sharply

in the midm morninging sun, but there

was no response. It's possible that Gmuk

Singh simply could not see the messages

relayed from Galis. The past had set

fire to the brush along the northwest

side of the post, and by now this had

spread into a significant blaze. As

smoke settled like a shroud across the

northwest ridge, it blotted out the

signal at Gullis. From his tower, Gurmuk

Singh could contact Fort Lockheart, but

not Fort Gulliston. It's also possible

that Gurm simply could not communicate

with both forts at once. It usually took

three men to run a signaling post. One

to operate the heliggraph signaling

device, one to interpret the responses,

and a third to write everything down. It

seems unlikely that Ishar would have put

three of his mega command in the tower.

And instead, it's possible that the

other two sepo were deployed in fighting

positions and Gmuk was doing the job of

three men by himself. Despite the

difficulties, Gmuk sent a number of

messages to Fort Lockhart. And these

messages give us an idea of how

effectively the Sikhs were fighting. A

message received at midday stated that

one of the SEOs had been killed. The

defenses remained intact, though three

of their rifles had been damaged by

gunfire. The first victim of the assault

is believed to be Sepo Bagwan Singh.

Rather than leave their comrade out

there in the midday sun, the seikhs went

to great efforts to bring Bagwan back to

the inner buildings. Corporal L Singh

and Sipo Jiwa Singh apparently carried

the body of their brother back. The

corporal may have been seriously wounded

in this act of honor. Things though were

about to take a significant turn for the

worse. The two men secreted beneath the

northwest wall were still working hard

to undermine the defenses. Despite their

mountain casualties, the past would soon

have a weak point to aim for Lockheart.

Lieutenant Colonel Horton had a good

view down into the valley to the north.

And so his signaler had more bad news

for the men at Saragahi. There were more

passion than first realized, perhaps as

many as 14,000 men who were massing in

the valleys below and preparing to pour

up onto the ridge. What's more, Afridi

and Ojakai snipers were deploying on the

nearby hillsides, armed with

longbarreled gazile musketss. These

snipers could accurately hit targets up

to 500 m away and could pick off the

defenders one by one. It was these

gziles that had been the ruin of the

British forces half a century before.

Despite fighting bravely, the Seikks

were running out of time. Eventually,

the Pastion were going to overrun the

signaling post. Horton realized he had

to make a move. He had to do something

to help the men at Sagardi. But with his

own position far from secure, he could

only spare a few men. 14 troopers of the

Royal Irish Regiment sied forth from

Lockheart to snipe at the Pastton from

afar. The idea was to lure the tribesmen

away from the post and buy some time for

the 36th Sikhs. But the Pton did not

take the bay. Instead, they focused

their attention on the front gate of the

signaling post. Those who reached the

gate attempted to set it on fire,

burning their way through into the

compound, but time and time again, their

attacks were pushed back. The Sikhs were

holding firm at Saragahi. Perhaps if

they could keep on stalling the

tribesmen, they might just be able to

hold out until relief arrived. But their

supplies were running low. As the

non-combatant dad shuttled back and

forth with water and rifle rounds, it

became clear the situation was growing

dire. At 2 p.m., Gummuk Singh signaled,

"Low on ammo. Need ammo urgently."

Again, Fort Lockheart could only tell

the defenders to keep on waiting. Then,

just after 3 p.m., disaster. After 6

hours of fighting, the efforts of the

two hidden diggers came to fruition.

Major Dvu watched helplessly as the

northwest wall began to collapse. The

two diggers began battering the

fortification with rocks and sticks to

help the collapse on its way. Quickly, a

gap appeared in the wall some 7 ft wide.

And this was what the enemy had been

hoping for. They let out an almighty

yell and charged up the hillside. Some

of the past aimed for the breach in the

wall while others charged the gate to

the compound. Now Isha and his men

understood what was going on. They

rushed down desperately to defend the

breach and fought the tribesmen back

with their bayonets. As Singhow tells

us, as the tribesmen crowded over their

own dead and injured to get into

Saragahi, the few seeks that were left

inside put up a stubborn defense. Of

course, it couldn't last. The sheer

weight of numbers supported by Jezar

fire from the nearby hills gradually

pushed the Seikhs back. It's difficult

to know precisely what happened next.

It's believed that Ishar Singh now

ordered his men to retreat to an inner

perimeter and as his men fell back,

Ishar covered them by fighting on alone.

He may have cut down several more

tribesmen before he himself fell beneath

their blades. The remaining Sikhs now

sought out new fighting positions,

places where they could make their last

stands. One SEO locked himself in a

guard room and took pot shots at his

asalants through loopholes in the wall.

Paston accounts say that this single SEO

took out at least 20 of the tribesmen

with his rifle. When the Paston realized

they couldn't rush the position, they

simply set the guard house on fire and

the SEO died in the flames. The

remaining Sikhs were now inside the

tower, fighting a losing battle with the

tribesmen. As the Pton advanced higher

and higher, Gormuk Singh remained at his

post, signaling to Fort Lockheart.

Gormuk must have known it was nearly all

over. As he listened from the upper

floor of the tower, the shouts and

gunshots from his comrades grew

increasingly quiet. Meanwhile, the

voices of the Pton grew closer and

closer. He sent out his last message to

Fort Lockheart. Down to one, request

permission to dismount and join the

fight. Realizing that all was lost, the

signal at Lockheart sent out his somber

reply.

Permission granted. Barricading himself

in his signaling shed, Gormuk now took

up a fighting position. At the start of

the day, the odds had been 14,000 to 22.

Now, after almost an entire day of

bloody struggle, there were perhaps

around 13,600

to one. Gome's comrades had slain

hundreds of tribesmen. But now he must

face the remnants of that massive force

all by himself.

It's possible that Gmuk killed as many

as 40 of the Afghans. As the tribesmen

attempted to rush through the choke

point, he found himself in a strong

position,

but he couldn't last. After repeated

attempts to storm Gormick's stronghold,

it's believed the Paston decided instead

to just set fire to the signaling shed

and burn Goum out. With his final

moments now growing nearer, Gum yelled

repeatedly, "Bleshal Satriakal," which

translates to something like, "One will

be blessed eternally." Who says that God

is the ultimate truth? Sing Jal believes

Gurmuk fought on until he knew all was

lost. With just a single rifle round

remaining, he turned the gun on himself

and put that last bullet through his own

head. He was

19 years old.

The entire garrison including the cook

dudad now lay dead. The battle of

Saragahi perhaps the most uneven last

stand in the history of human conflict

was over and Ishar's 22 seeks had

written themselves into the history

books. It's believed that between 180

and 450 past died in the assault on

Sagahi. Some sources put the number as

high as 1,400, but most agree that this

is unlikely. While this barely made a

dent in the 14,000 strong force bearing

down on the ridge, it did buy some

significant time for the defenders

elsewhere. Once the Pton had burned down

the signaling post, they began advancing

along the ridge to Gullistston. The fort

was home to Major Dvau's garrison of

three officers and 175 seek troops. In

addition, there were a number of

civilians at Gullistan, including the

major's pregnant wife and their

children. The bloodshed was not over.

Seek forces would distinguish themselves

for a second time that day at Galiston

and they would continue distinguishing

themselves for the following two days

before relief finally arrived. The seek

defenders inflicted massive casualties

on the advancing tribesmen. Hundreds of

Pton fell on the approaches to the fort

while the Seikhs at Gullistan lost only

two men. The British soldier J. A

Lindsay had this to say as the

victorious 36th seek regiment marched

back along the ridge from Gullistston on

the morning of September 15th. They

carried the standards they had captured

from the enemy. They are a splendid core

and have made a great name for

themselves.

The battle of Saragahi was one of the

opening engagements in the

seven-monthlong Ti campaign. By April

the following year, the British Empire

forces under William Lockheart and

Prattup Singh had succeeded in subduing

the Pton uprising, but at a heavy cost.

British troops suffered 1,150

casualties across the campaign, perhaps

indicative of the attitude towards

Britain's colonial troops at the time.

It's unknown how many Indian soldiers

lost their lives in putting down the

uprising. Against the bloody backdrop,

the events of September 12th, 1897 could

have faded into obscurity. It was a

relatively small engagement with

relatively few casualties, and it was a

rare defeat in an eventual victorious

British campaign. But the nature of the

fighting and the astonishing bravery

shown by those men at Salagahi, hundreds

of miles from home, ensures that those

events have never been forgotten. 10

years later, the Camperound Chronicle

carried this memorial. The magnificent

defense of the native soldiers for

nearly 9 hours until totally annihilated

was unparalleled in the events of the

Frontier War of 10 years ago and is now

historical. September 12th is therefore

a day memorable in the history of the

Indian frontier regiments. Up on the

sunbaked frontier stations, the memory

of the brave men who fought until death

for the honor of the British service is

kept alive by a general holiday on every

anniversary of the defense. All of the

defenders were awarded the Indian Order

of Merit. Their grieving families were

given 50 acres of land and 500 rupees

each. To this day, three good rowers

serve as memorials to the bravery of

those men. One is at the battle site

itself with two others at Amitritza and

Filispur. Selagi Day is still observed

each year on the anniversary of the

battle. It is the regimental battle

honors day of the seek regiment and part

of their proud history. For General

Lunt, Isha Singh may have been a

nuisance in camp, but for some 9 hours

on September 12th, 1897, the Halvadar

and his comrades defended the imperial

frontier with incredible skill and

bravery. And Queen Victoria herself

could not have asked for finer men to do

the job.