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[FIRST AFGHAN WAR] [FIRST SIKH WAR]. SALE, Florentia and Maj. Gen. Robert Sale. An archive of seven letter written during the First Afghan War, 11 August 1842 - 27 December 1842. Two letters by Robert Sale and five by Florentia Sale. Together 22½ pages 8vos and 4to, one of Lady Sale's letters has a signature clipped away.
A POIGNANT ARCHIVE FROM THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR AND THE FIRST ANGLO-SIKH WAR. Lady Sale's 3 October 1842 letter discusses her rescue--by her husband--no less from Kabul where she, her daughters, and a large contingent of British soldiers and their families had been hled hostage since the outbreak of the First Afghan War: "Oh how happy we were," she writes "when he [her husband] met us at the head of the Dragoons." Her relief at rescue was marred by news of a friend's death: "This sad news has damped our happiness in getting out of captivity." Her husband, however, would not survive the First Sikh War which began with the invasion of 20,000 Sikhs across the Sutlej River. Sir Hugh Gough led a 20,000 British foce, with Robert Sale as his Quartermaster General. He was severely wounded by cannon fire on 17 December 1845 and died on 21 December. Lady Sale continued to write, not knowing her husband was already dead: 21 December: "I write regularly daily but doubt you're receiving my letters...I begin to think I am growing very old--I feel all the hardness of human nature..." She learns of his wounds and writes on 26 December: "May God grant that your wound may not be a severe one or lay you up long..." In her last letter on 28 December, she laments the reports of casualties she is hearing: "How heavily Death & wounds have fallen on Married men..." (7)
A POIGNANT ARCHIVE FROM THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR AND THE FIRST ANGLO-SIKH WAR. Lady Sale's 3 October 1842 letter discusses her rescue--by her husband--no less from Kabul where she, her daughters, and a large contingent of British soldiers and their families had been hled hostage since the outbreak of the First Afghan War: "Oh how happy we were," she writes "when he [her husband] met us at the head of the Dragoons." Her relief at rescue was marred by news of a friend's death: "This sad news has damped our happiness in getting out of captivity." Her husband, however, would not survive the First Sikh War which began with the invasion of 20,000 Sikhs across the Sutlej River. Sir Hugh Gough led a 20,000 British foce, with Robert Sale as his Quartermaster General. He was severely wounded by cannon fire on 17 December 1845 and died on 21 December. Lady Sale continued to write, not knowing her husband was already dead: 21 December: "I write regularly daily but doubt you're receiving my letters...I begin to think I am growing very old--I feel all the hardness of human nature..." She learns of his wounds and writes on 26 December: "May God grant that your wound may not be a severe one or lay you up long..." In her last letter on 28 December, she laments the reports of casualties she is hearing: "How heavily Death & wounds have fallen on Married men..." (7)
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