om the Baba Wali Kotal.

Ross's orders were to advance against Gundi Mulla Sahibdad, capture
the village, and then drive the enemy from the enclosures which lay
between it and the low spur of Pir Paimal hill. This duty he entrusted
to Brigadier-General Macpherson, and he directed Brigadier-General
Baker to advance to the west, to keep touch with the 1st Brigade, and
to clear the gardens and orchards in his immediate front.

Greig's 9-pounder and Robinson's 7-pounder (screw gun) batteries
covered the attack on Gundi Mulla Sahibdad, which was made by the
2nd Gurkhas, under Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Battye, and the 92nd
Highlanders, under Lieutenant-Colonel G. Parker, supported by the 23rd
Pioneers, under Lieutenant-Colonel H. Collett, and the 24th Punjab
Infantry, under Colonel F. Norman. The village was carried with the
utmost gallantry, Highlanders and Gurkhas, always friendly rivals in
the race for glory, by turns outstripping each other in their efforts
to be first within its walls. The enemy sullenly and slowly withdrew,
a goodly number of _ghazis_ remaining to the very last to receive
a bayonet charge of the 92nd. Meanwhile, Baker's troops had been
threading their way through the narrow lanes and loop-holed enclosures
which lay in the line of their spirited attack; the resistance they
encountered was most stubborn, and it was during this advance that the
72nd lost their dashing Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel F. Brownlow,[1]
Captain Frome, and Lance-Sergeant Cameron, the latter a grand specimen
of a Highland soldier.

In the 2nd Brigade, the 72nd Highlanders and the 2nd Sikhs bore
the brunt of the fighting; they were the leading battalions, and
frequently had to fix bayonets to carry different positions or to
check the desperate rushes of the Afghans.

After continued and severe fighting, both leading brigades emerged
at the point of the hill close to Pir Paimal, and, wheeling to their
right, they pressed rapidly on, sweeping the enemy through the
thickly-wooded gardens which covered the western slopes, until noon,
when the whole of Pir Paimal was in our possession.[2]

During the early part of the advance the Afghans collected in great
strength on the low hills beneath the Baba Wali Kotal, evidently
preparing for a rush on our guns; their leaders could be seen urging
them on, and a portion of them came down the hill, but the main body
apparently refused to follow, and remained on the crest until the
position wa