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Auction: 20003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 718

The scarce and intriguing Ghuznee Medal to General C. M. Carmichael, C.B., who led the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry in the First Afghan War and was awarded the Order of the Durrani Empire for his role in the capture of Ghuznee, 1839

An outspoken critic of Lord Auckland's handling of that conflict, Carmichael wrote several letters on the subject which are held by The National Army Museum

Carmichael's younger brother, Colonel George M. Carmichael Smyth, is remembered as the man who commanded the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry at Meerut on 10 May 1857, and whose unpopular insistence on the use of greased cartridges led directly to the Indian Mutiny

Ghuznee 1839, the reverse field contemporarily engraved 'Bt-Colonel C. M. Carmichael 3rd Bengal European Cav', with silver top riband bar, very fine

[C.B.] London Gazette 20 December 1839.

[Afghanistan, Order of the Durrani Empire, 3rd Class] London Gazette 9 February 1841.

Charles Montauban Carmichael, christened Charles Montauban Carmichael Smyth, was born in London on 21 December 1790. He was the fourth son of Dr. James Carmichael Smyth F.R.S. of Aithernie, a prominent physician who attended King George III during his long bouts of illness. Charles's older brother Henry became stepfather to William Makepeace Thackeray, and may have inspired the character Colonel Newcombe in Thackeray's The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family (1848). Charles's younger brother George, the physician's eighth son, is famous for all the wrong reasons (of which more later).

Educated at Charterhouse School 1801-05, Carmichael was admitted to Barasat Cadet Institution, Bengal on 17 March 1806. After training there he was commissioned a Cornet in the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry on 21 June 1806, with a gratuity of 1,200 rupees. Advanced to Lieutenant on 12 April 1810, he took part in the reduction of Kalinjar, a key Mughal stronghold, in 1812. Carmichael was present at the battles of Rewah and Alwar in 1813-14, which led to the deposition of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh. He served as Adjutant of the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry throughout the Third Mahratta War, including the Siege and Capture of Hattras in 1817. His service papers note that he 'shared Deccan Prize Money'. Granted furlough on Christmas Day 1818, he was promoted to Captain on 27 March 1821, returning to India on 30 October 1822. He was Brigade Major of the Meywar Field Force during the expedition against the Bhils in 1823-25. Between 16 July 1824 and 17 October 1838, he commanded the 4th Local Horse in a series of campaigns against the Thugs. His service papers note that on 30 May 1833:

'An outlay of 300 rupees [was] sanctioned to reward the distinguished services of the Native Officers and Men of the 4th Local Horse in the apprehension of Thugs.'

Major-General Ramsey inspected the 4th Local Horse on 4 March 1837, praising Carmichael as 'a very zealous, steady and good officer who has the good of his Regiment at heart.' Raised to Lieutenant-Colonel on 1 November 1838, Carmichael returned to the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry on 1 January 1839. He commanded this regiment during operations around the fortress of Ghuznee during the opening phase of the First Afghan War (1838-39). Sir John Keane, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Indus, ordered Carmichael's cavalry to watch the south and west walls of the fortress to stop Afghans escaping on the night of 23 July 1839, when it was taken by storm. Keane observed that this role was performed 'greatly to his satisfaction.' After Ghuznee fell, the resolve of Dost Mahommed's followers broke. Carmichael led his Regiment in the advance on Kabul, a tortuous journey in which men starved due to lack of supplies.

Carmichael was made a Companion of the Bath for his services at Ghuznee, although Keane later published a letter in the Agra Newspaper complaining of Carmichael's 'unmilitary appearance in public'. He was also permitted to accept and wear the insignia of the Third Class of the Order of the Durrani Empire, which Shah Shoojah, the man installed by the British as a puppet ruler at Kabul, gratefully conferred on British officers. He was permitted furlough on 1 December 1840.

Prior to 1841, Carmichael is generally referred to in documents as 'Smythe', but he officially dropped that part of his surname (London Gazette, 2 March 1841). He married Mary Eliot, daughter of Allan Graham, on 4 March 1871. The following year, no doubt hearing of the massacre of the 44th Foot at Gandamak in London newspapers, he wrote to the H.E.I.C.'s Court of Directors, complaining bitterly of the privations his men had been forced to endure in Afghanistan. They replied on 27 March 1842, with the words: 'It appears from the report of the Commander-in-Chief on the subject that the Lieutenant-Colonel [Carmichael] has no just grounds of complaint.'

Carmichael then returned to India, arriving at Bombay on 15 November 1843. He transferred to the 9th Bengal Native Cavalry on 1 April 1844, but was then furloughed for four years, controlling the regiment's affairs from afar. During this period he wrote prolifically on Indian history, authoring A History of the Reigning Family of Lahore (Calcutta and London, 1848). He returned to India briefly in 1849 but played no active role in the Second Sikh War. On 5 May that year he was furloughed permanently. He nevertheless commanded a succession of Indian cavalry regiments, rising to Colonel on 6 September 1851, and Major-General on 28 November 1854. What he thought of the 1857 rising at Meerut, in which his old regiment, the "old and steady 3rd", butchered European officers and their families, can only be imagined.

Though Carmichael was not at Meerut on 10 May 1857, it is noteworthy that the Colonel of the 3rd Bengal Native Cavalry on that fateful day was none other than George M. Carmichael-Smyth, his younger brother. In Patrick Cadell's excellent article 'The Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny' (Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 33, No. 155 (Autumn 1955)), Colonel George M. Carmichael-Smyth comes in for heavy criticism: eyewitness accounts reveal that he was deeply unpopular among the sepoys, whom he forced to bite the greased cartridge in front of their comrades. Such tactlessness was arguably the spark that set Oudh aflame.

Charles Carmichael was promoted to Lieutenant-General on 14 April 1862, and General on 18 January 1870. His memoirs are entitled A Rough Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Irregular Horse of the Bengal Army, by 'An Old Cavalry Officer' (Paris, 1854). He died at the Hotel du Louvre, Boulogne on 21 November 1870; sold with copied research.


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Sold for
£1,500

Starting price
£750