Elphinstone's army isn't massacred?

Vinization

The Massacre of William Elphinstone's army during the 1842 retreat from Kabul was, relatively speaking, one of the worst disasters suffered by the British military: 4.500 British troops and more than 10.000 civilians were driven from Kabul and were either killed or captured by Afghan tribesmen or died from exposure to the harsh winter weather.

Was there any way this force could make it to Jalalabad (its intended destination) or take up refuge somewhere else and receive reinforcements from India? How could the lack of such a humiliating defeat affect British politics?
 
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Chris Smith

Disclaimer: my most detailed understanding of that retreat comes from GM Fraser's FLASHMAN, which is the first in his series of historical novels, and addresses Kabul, Burnes, McNaughton, Elphinstone, and the Retreat, in detail. Though it's fiction, Fraser was a close reader of primary sources, and *he* certainly makes it sound like the level of strategic and political incompetence was so great that there was, in fact, basically no way for the troops & civilians to make it to Jalalabad. This is a painting--admittedly, romanticized--of Dr Joseph Brydon, who was the only combatant who made it back (a number of the civilians were captured by the Afghans, and later exchanged).

Elphinstone was a fucking idiot, by all accounts. Kabul expedition (and retreat) were an absolute litany of errors from a command staff who had mostly achieved rank through purchase (Elphinstone had served with Wellington in the Peninsula, but Fraser is pretty persuasive in suggesting Elphy-Bey was senile and incompetent).
 

Vinization

Chris Smith said:
Elphinstone was a fucking idiot, by all accounts. Kabul expedition (and retreat) were an absolute litany of errors from a command staff who had mostly achieved rank through purchase (Elphinstone had served with Wellington in the Peninsula, but Fraser is pretty persuasive in suggesting Elphy-Bey was senile and incompetent).
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What kind of errors? A thread I read before making this one suggested having the British hole up in the main citadel of Kabul and wait for reinforcements, is that plausible? Alternatively, what about having the colonial goverment in India continue to pay subsidies to the tribes which lay between Kabul and the Khyber Pass?
 
Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony

I wonder too, how this effects the great revolt in India. i haven't studied enough about to have proof but in my mind, a defeat of such epic proportions within living memory (a decade & a half prior to the revolt), certainly emboldened the rebels
 

Vinization

Marc Anthony said:
I wonder too, how this effects the great revolt in India. i haven't studied enough about to have proof but in my mind, a defeat of such epic proportions within living memory (a decade & a half prior to the revolt), certainly emboldened the rebels
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It may also make the British authorities more arrogant.
 
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