Colonel H. Gough pursued with his cavalry, and possessed
himself of several more guns which the Afghans had relinquished in their
precipitate flight. The decisive success of the Peiwar Kotul combat had
not cost heavily; the British losses were twenty-one killed and
seventy-two wounded.
His sick and wounded sent back to Fort Kuram, General Roberts advanced to
Ali Khel, and thence made a reconnaissance forward to the Shutargurdan
Pass, whose summit is distant from Cabul little more than fifty miles.
Its height is great--upwards of 11,200 feet--but it was regarded as not
presenting serious obstacles to the advance by this route of a force from
the Kuram valley moving on Cabul. A misfortune befell the baggage guard
on one of the marches in the trans-Peiwar region when Captains Goad and
Powell lost their lives in a tribal onslaught. The somewhat chequered
experiences of General Roberts in the Khost valley need not be told in
detail. After some fighting and more marching he withdrew from that
turbulent region altogether, abjuring its pestilent tribesmen and all
their works. The Kuram force wintered in excellent health spite of the
rigorous climate, and toward the end of March 1879 its forward
concentration about Ali Kheyl was ordered, which was virtually
accomplished before the snow had melted from the passes in the later
weeks of April.
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