s 11th Bengal Lancers (under Lieut.-Col. R.B. Adams.)
2 " Guides Cavalry " " "
4 Guns No.8 Mountain Battery.
50 Sappers of No.5 Company.
Hospital details.

Sir Bindon Blood ordered General Meiklejohn to assemble this force
before dark near the centre of the camp at a grove of trees called
"Gretna Green," to bivouac there for the night, and to be ready to
start with the first light of morning. During the afternoon the enemy,
encouraged by their success with the cavalry in the morning, advanced
boldly to the pickets and the firing was continuous. So heavy indeed did
it become between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, that the force
at "Gretna Green" got under arms. But towards morning the tribesmen
retired.

The reader may, perhaps, have in his mind the description of the
Malakand as a great cup with jagged clefts in the rim. Much of this rim
was still held by the enemy. It was necessary for any force trying to
get out of the cup, to fight their way along the narrow roads through
the clefts, which were commanded by the heights on either side. For
a considerable distance it was impossible to deploy. Therein lay the
difficulty of the operation, which the General had now to perform. The
relieving column was exposed to the danger of being stopped, just as
Colonel McRae had stopped the first attack of the tribesmen along
the Buddhist road. On the 1st of August the cavalry had avoided these
difficulties by going down the road to the North camp, and making a
considerable detour. But they thus became involved in bad ground and had
to retire. The "Graded" road, if any, was the road by which Chakdara was
to be relieved. Looking at the tangled, rugged nature of the country,
it seems extraordinary to an untrained eye, that among so many peaks and
points, one should be of more importance than another. Yet it is so.
On the high ground, in front of the position that Colonel McRae and
the 45th Sikhs had held so well, was a prominent spur. This was the key
which would unlock the gate and set free the troops, who were cramped up
within. Every one realised afterwards how obvious this was and wondered
they had not thought of it before. Sir Bindon Blood selected the point
as the object of his first attack, and it was against this that he
directed Colonel Goldney with a force of about 300 men to move, as soon
as he should give the signal to advance.

At half-past four in the morning of the