NAM.2008-11-49-1

The Gordon Highlanders: Daybreak in the trenches. Watercolour with pencil underdrawing, signed lower right ‘Skeoch Cumming / 1886’, by William Skeoch Cumming, 1886. In a sangar in thick snow highlanders prepare for attack by an unseen enemy; in the far distance the sunrise is framed by mountains; in ornate gilt wooden frame, 1880 (c). Associated with 2nd Afghan War, Battle of Charasiab (1878-1880), 1879. In December 1879 temperatures plummeted and there were heavy snowfalls. The 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot defended the eastern perimeter of the Sherpur cantonment outside Kabul against overwhelming odds during its siege and the eventual Afghan attack. It seems likely that the artist here depicts daybreak at the eastern wall of the cantonment on Christmas Eve. Officers scan the horizon to discover that the Afghan tribes have dispersed.

Charasiab, Battle of, 1879 (2nd Afghan War 1878-1880)