THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 248, 10 December 1880, Page 4

THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN.

The following letter was addressed by one of the eoldiere at Candahar to his sister in Sydney :— "Candahar Citadel, September 30, 1880. — My dear Sister,— l received your letter of tbe 3rd August, and am sorry you suffered so much anxiety on the part of me and Don. I wish I could have cent you a telegram to ease your mind ; but that was impossible, ss the authorities take all tbe use of the wire, which has lately been restored ; but if we bad gained the day your anjriety would have been tbe same.

Let us thank God things are bo worse than they have been ; but, to tell you the truth, the day after the battle, when I began to realize the condition of our poor regiraeot, I felt sorry I was not among the deud, and I think I^ Da " sometimes have the feeling still. When you come to read the list of names of those 10 officers and 276 of our poor fellows, and in each and every one of them recall their little anecdotes, social meetings, antics together, when we would have to share food, bed, blankets, &c, together— good friends, who would go through fire if they thought they could do you a good turn ! Yes, dear sister, people mourn at home at a sad loss ; but I am sure if I had known as much on the afternoon of the 27tb July as I do on the 23rd September, my feelings would not admit of my coming io. Dear Bister, lo^day 20 men of oure came in who bad been sent out to Maiwand with a brigade to reconnoitre the country, bury the dead, search the villages, t&ke sketches of the field, and also with a view of seeing whose fault it was we got into such a mess. They came in this morning, and sad wore their tales of how they found our poor fellows. Some bad 27 cuts about them, others had been sot fire to, some h&d even had their stomachs opened and their clothes put in. Our colonel wkb found, or rather only his, head. As the

brigade marched from Kandahar on the 3th instant, they had power to do as they liked— burn village?, hang offenders, &c. As they advanced, the villagers rushed from place to place und {gave alarm, so by the time our fellows reached Maiwand, the villagers, (o gain favor, had buried our dead in a rough form. Some graves contained. 53, another 42, another 35, and several sis; in their baste they had dragged the bodies to the bole, and by the time they had got them tbete some were armless, others legleßß, and everywhere were 1 indications of decayed bodies. A good many of our poor fellows were recog-: nized by the name on their jackets. Some poor fellows had letters in their pockets from mothers and wives; the others were stripped, and not one had either boots, trousers, or drawers on. The horses had no shoes, ;and they bad buried our poor fellows 'with the natives. It was the. duty of these 20 men to dig up these graves, try to recognize the men, and give them Christian burial, Strange to jay, some were easily recognized; others hsd a tuft of grass in their hands. Poor things, they mast have suffered before the blessings of death took them. Through having to put up some sort of a reading-room I could not go out, but I promised a friend, in fact several, 10 rupees if they would only bring in something of my poor brother's clothes, or anything I could recognize as belonging to him ; but they could had nothing. They only found 14 of the 66th on the road to Kandahar, and these had been bleaching in the sun 45 days. The, men told me this, morning that they found 53 men of our regiment buried where the last stand was made, and were the colours were lost. We made two desperate stands in gardens surrounded by walls; in the first 43 were killed, end in the second 53, and out of 70 wbioh went in only a few pot away; for, when leaping over the walls, we had to jump into their midst. The papers cay 100, and none escaped; but that is wrong. A few escaped , and ■ I was among them, and how I did escape I know not. After leaping the wall I made my way to where the General was but he soon told us to j make our way to Kandahar. The remainder you know. After our men had carefully buried their comrades, the whole brigade paraded with the 7th Fusiliers and band, our men of the 66th in front, the artillery, and all in solemn manner mftrched past the graves play ing the Dead March. The minister read the burial service. The, enemy's position was visited, and it was found to be impregnable, when their 36 gun* were safe from fire. All the officers exclaimed with amazement, 'Burrows bad better to have led us on to a billiard table.' Dear sister, we are ordered home to England. We expect to lea**e here in 10 days for India, where we shall remain two months to settle all claims on the Indian Government. The deceaeei men's claims have to be met, &. I.ezpeot to see dear mother by next Maroh. I must tell you, dear sister, that before the burial party left Maiwand they erected a nice stone monument, with inscription, to denote the spot where many of onr regiment: fell defending the. colours. Wit&ffond love, from your affectionate brother,

•' Alfred Leach."