8,000 Afghans at bayonet point. While Macpherson's brigade advanced close under the ridge, Baker's troops swept wider on the left; Colonel Money having been assigned to take possession of the Kharoti hill. From the northern end of the hill, Colonel Money could see Ayub Khan abandon his camp at Mazra in the face of the advancing forces of Macpherson and Baker. Roberts had by now ordered MacGregor's 3rd brigade to Pir Paimal village to where he himself and General Ross (commander of the whole infantry division) were to move. Here, General Ross, unable to discern the situation, ordered the forward brigades to halt and replenish their spent ammunition. However, this delay provided Ayub Khan some respite. When the British finally entered the camp at 1pm, it was deserted, save for the smartly abandoned detritus of an army in retreat. Ayub Khan's army was now in full rout. Although the plan for General Gough's cavalry to intercept the retreating Afghans did not work in practice, it was clear the British had achieved a decisive victory. Aftermath The Battle of Kandahar brought a close to the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Ayub Khan had been decisively beaten. He had lost the whole of his artillery, his camp, enormous quantities of ammunition, and about 1,000 men killed. Ayub Khan became a fugitive along with the small remnants of his battered army. The British appointee Abdur Rahman was thus securely established as emir of Afghanistan, under a protected state which gave Britain control of Afghanistan's foreign policy, while the British government of India retained the frontier territories ceded by the Treaty of Gandamak. Having thus achieved many of their war aims, the British withdrew from Afghanistan, the last troops leaving in April 1881. Ayub Khan subsequently raised a fresh rebellion against Abdur Rahman, but was swiftly defeated and taken as a political prisoner by British India. He was later poisoned in India after people were calling for his return. This political settlement was to endure until the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. Roberts left Kandahar on 9 September 1880 and marched to Quetta with part of his division. On the 15 October 1880, at Sibi, he resigned his command, and sailed from Bombay on the 30th, taking sick leave in England. The exploits of General Roberts in Afghanistan greatly boosted his reputation as a skillful and enterprising soldier. Many years later, Roberts' heroic march was commemorated