The 44th Hill looking towards Jugdalluck, Afghanistan, 1879

Photograph by John Burke, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1879.

The British were well aware of recent history. Knowledge of the fate that had befallen General Elphinstone's ill-fated retreat from Kabul in 1842 deterred them from marching once again on the Afghan capital. Only the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari in September 1879 forced the British, for reasons of prestige, to return. In 1842 the 44th (East Essex) Regiment had made its last stand on a small conical hill near Gandamak, and when the British returned there in 1879, they found the bleached bones of their predecessors. John Burke took this evocative photograph from the top of '44th Hill'; in the distance is Jagdalak, another infamous scene of slaughter during the 1842 retreat.

From an album of 100 photographs by John Burke, 1878 (c).