 During the night of 26 July , sometime after 10 : 00 pm , a messenger arrived with word that the enemy had reached the village of Khar , three miles from Malakand . A bugle call was immediately sounded within the camp . Lieutenant @-@ Colonel McRae , commanding the 45th Sikhs , two units from the 31st Punjab Infantry , two Guns from No. 8 Mountain Battery and one Squadron from the 11th Bengal Lancers , was to have been sent to Amandara Pass – a distance of four miles – with orders to hold the position ; however , the Pashtun column had already arrived at the South Malakand camp , surprising the British defenders , and began to open fire on the garrison with muskets . McRae immediately sent a small number of men under Major Taylor down a road from the " right flank " of the camp to ascertain the enemy 's strength and location ; McRae himself later followed with his own small group . Both parties aimed for a sharp turn in the oncoming road where , flanked by gorges , they hoped to hold the attacking force . McRae , with about 20 men , opened fire on the Pashtun tribesmen and began a fighting withdrawal 50 paces down the road before halting in an attempt to stop the attack . Taylor was mortally wounded in the incident and quickly died ; McRae suffered a neck wound . Nevertheless , by 2 : 00 am reinforcements under the command of Lieutenant Barff had enabled the British to repel the Pashtun attack . The official dispatches of General Meiklejohn noted that : 
