join the force already stationed at the encampment. With the arrival of the reinforcements, supplies were plentiful in the camp. By 6:00 PM on the afternoon of 3 February, the entire force was raised outside of the entrenchments in two lines of contiguous quarter-distance columns. Led by Outram, the army marched through the night to the village of Chahkootah. A few hours before the British army arrived, a Qajar cavalry picket had stopped at the village before continuing their patrol. At 4:00 PM on 4 February, Outram resumed the march with arms loaded. By the morning of 5 February, the British army travelled towards Borazjan, where the Persian army had been entrenched with 18 guns. Charles Murray, the Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia, had given Outram the aid of Mirza Agha, the Persian Secretary of Her Majesty's Mission to Persia. Mirza Agha, who's appointment was the subject of dispute between the British Foreign Office and the Persian government, accompanied Outram on the expedition to Borazjan. Capture of Borazjan Shortly before 1:00 PM, the approaching British army saw the Persian garrison's vedettes and reconnoitering parties. By the time the British regiments had gotten into their positions, the Persian army decided to withdraw from Borazjan and avoid a direct confrontation there. The Persian army under command of Gen. (Amir-Nuyan) Mehr Ali Khan Shoja ol-Molk was misinformed by his reconnaissance units that the British were advancing with 13,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and 28 guns. The Persian justification for the hasty withdrawal was to prevent high casualties from the overestimated size of the British forces and the expected explosion of the unsecured ammunition stored at Borazjan. To cover its retreat, the Persian army left behind a rear-guard, which confronted a few of the British cavalry. The hasty Persian withdrawal left great amounts of ammunition and grain in the hands of their enemy. Southern Persian Army In his dispatches, Outram had sized the Persian garrison in Borazjan at 8,450 regular infantry and cavalry, with 17 guns and a mortar. The general noted that Tehran had planned to extend its reinforcements to 12 regiments of regular infantry with 35 guns, while the provincial governors were preparing to conscript 4,000 irregular infantry from among the local tribes. Outram's sense of urgency in his letter to the Governor-General of India dated 14 February 1857 was visible through his concern for the prospective loss of Bushehr should Iran raise a