e outset of the Afghan War ended with so easy a
triumph for the British arms that it is needless to describe them in
much detail. They were planned to proceed at three points on the
irregular arc of the south-eastern border of Afghanistan. The most
northerly column, that of General Sir Samuel Browne, had Peshawur as its
base of supplies. Some 16,000 strong, it easily captured the fort of Ali
Musjid at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, then threaded that defile with
little or no opposition, and pushed on to Jelalabad. Around that town
(rendered famous by General Sale's defence in 1841-2) it dealt out
punishment to the raiding clans of Afridis.

The column of the centre, acting from Kohat as a base against the Kurram
Valley, was commanded by a general destined to win renown in the later
phases of the war. Major-General Roberts represented all that was
noblest and most chivalrous in the annals of the British Army in India.
The second son of General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., and born at
Cawnpore in 1832, he inherited the traditions of the service which he
was to render still more illustrious. His frame, short and slight,
seemed scarcely to fit him for warlike pursuits; and in ages when great
stature and sturdy sinews were alone held in repute, he might have been
relegated to civil life; but the careers of William III., Luxemburg,
Nelson, and Roberts show that wiriness is more essential to a commander
than animal strength, and that mind rather than muscle determines the
course of campaigns. That the young aspirant for fame was not deficient
in personal prowess appeared at Khudaganj, one of the battles of the
Mutiny, when he captured a standard from two sepoys, and, later on the
same day, cut down a third sepoy. But it was his clear insight into men
and affairs, his hold on the principles of war, his alertness of mind,
and his organising power, that raised him above the crowd of meritorious
officers who saved India for Britain in those stormy days.

His achievements as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Delhi and
elsewhere at that time need not be referred to here; for he himself has
related them in clear, life-like, homely terms which reveal one of the
sources of his personal influence. Englishmen admire a man who is active
without being fussy, who combines greatness with simplicity, whose
kindliness is as devoid of ostentation as his religion is of
mawkishness, and with whom ambition is ever the handmaid of patriotism