‘Major Cavagnari and Sirdars, Jellalabad Durbar group’, 1879 (b/w photo)

‘Major Cavagnari and Sirdars, Jellalabad Durbar group’, 1879. Photograph by John Burke, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1879. Following the capture of Fort Ali Masjid on 21 November 1878 and the forcing of the Khyber Pass, Lieutenant-General Sir Sam Browne’s Peshawar Valley Field Force had occupied Jalalabad, 70 miles east of Kabul, on 20 December 1878. The photographer John Burke accompanied the army to Jalalabad and took a number of pictures there as the British waited throughout the early months of 1879 for the new Amir, Yakub Khan, to accept their peace terms. Cavagnari met with the local tribal leaders in an attempt to win their support for a treaty. From an album of 100 photographs by John Burke, 1878 circa.