-Ghiljie, menaced
us to the right. This determined the Commander-in-Chief to expedite
matters, and the engineers having made a careful inspection of the
fortress, he resolved on carrying it by storm. The whole of the 22nd was
consumed in making the necessary preparations, the field hospital being
got ready while strong detachments of Cavalry scoured the country
around, in order to keep the enemy from our lines.

In order to give my readers a correct idea of the strength of the
fortifications, and the difficulties overcome by the intelligence and
courage of the officers and men of the British Army, I cannot do better
than to copy the official reports made by the principal Engineer
officers on the subject. They contain a full detail of the operations up
to the moment when the citadel fell into our possession.

_Memorandum of the Engineers' operations before Ghuznee, in July, 1839,
by Captain George Thompson, Bengal Engineers, Chief Engineer Army of the
Indus._

The accounts of the Fortress of Ghuznee, received from those who had
seen it, were such as to induce his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief to
leave in Candahar the very small battering train then with the Army,
there being a scarcity of transport cattle. The place was described as
very weak, and completely commanded from a range of hills to the north.

When we came before it on the morning of the 21st of July we were very
much surprised to find a rampart, in good repair, built on a scarped
mound about thirty-five feet high, flanked by numerous towers, and
surrounded by a faussebraye and wet ditch. The irregular figure of the
"enceinte" gave a good flanking fire, whilst the height of the citadel
covered the interior from the commanding fire of the hills to the north,
rendering it nugatory. In addition to this, the towers, at the angles,
had been enlarged, screen walls had been built before the gates, the
ditch cleared out and filled with water, stated to be unfordable, and an
outwork built on the right bank of the river so as to command the bed of
it.

The garrison was variously stated from three to four thousand strong,
including five hundred Cavalry, and from subsequent information we
found that it had not been overrated.

On the approach of the army, a fire of artillery was opened from the
body of the place, and of musketry from the neighbouring gardens. A
detachment of Infantry cleared the latter, and the former was silenced
for a short time by shrapnel