How Winston Churchill got his taste for war Churchill was at the camp to welcome the Lancers on their return and noted, with a degree of envy: "They were vastly pleased with themselves. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. Churchill's galloping around with the Lancers provided good material for his Telegraph dispatches, for which he was paid £5 each (about £300 today). From Blood's camp at Ghosam, Churchill sent three articles to London, where they appeared on consecutive days in the editions of October 7-9 under the same heading, The War in the Indian Highlands. All the articles were signed "By A Young Officer," and Churchill did his best to post "picturesque forcible letters," as the newspaper's editor had demanded, even when he had not seen a great deal. His dispatch of September 5 pays tribute to the bravery of the Pashtuns. Their swordsmanship, neglecting guards, concerns itself only with cuts and, careless of what injury they may receive, they devote themselves to the destruction of their opponents. But he is less well disposed to the mullahs who incited the violence in the first place, and is appalled by their habit of trading their womenfolk to buy rifles. "This degradation of mind is unrelieved by a single elevated sentiment," he writes. Their religion is the most miserable fanaticism, in which cruelty, credulity, and immorality are equally represented. Their holy men - the Mullahs - prize as their chief privilege a sort of droit de seigneur. It is impossible to imagine a lower type of beings or a more dreadful state of barbarism. Churchill's next article, written on September 9, opens with the somewhat pitiful observation, "I cannot recall any incident that occurred" - hardly the kind of insightful journalism that wins Pulitzers. He justifies this less-than-compelling remark by reminding his readers that, to obtain a clear idea of a soldier's life on active service, they "must mentally share the fatigues of the march and the monotony of the camp." In the final article written from Ghosam on September 12, Churchill explains the challenge of marching in the heat of an Indian summer: "The soldiers of India naturally feel the effects of the climate less than those from cooler lands. This, of course, the British infantryman will not admit. The dominant race resent the slightest suggestion of inferiority. Continuing in this jingoistic vein, he tells how he meets soldiers from the Queen's Regiment after they have completed a 14-mile march carrying their arms and ammunition. Not one had fallen by the way. They looked strained and weary, but nothing would induce them to admit it. An easy march," they said. Should have been here long ago if the native troops had not kept halting. This is the material for empire‑building. Churchill was simply reflecting the view of his imperial contemporaries that British officers such as himself were superior to the Indians who served under them. Nothing is so remarkable as the ascendancy which the British officer maintains over the native soldier. The dark Sowars [Indian cavalrymen] follow the young English subaltern who commands them with a strange devotion. He is their 'butcha" - the best in the regiment - as brave as a lion. None ride so straight as he; no one is so confident. In this dispatch, Churchill sets aside his rivalry with Viscount Fincastle, and uses a recent incident at Landakai, where The Times correspondent won the Victoria Cross, to support his argument. "It is an excellent instance of the actions by which the ascendancy of the British officer is maintained over the gallant Asiatics he commands," Churchill writes. The example of these men calmly endeavouring to rescue their brother officers within fifty yards of a hundred rifles, and surrounded by a ferocious mob of swordsmen, probably does more to preserve the loyalty of the Indian soldier than all the speeches of Westminster. On September 14, Churchill moved seven miles west to Nawagai with the 3rd Brigade and Blood's divisional headquarters, while the 2nd Brigade marched towards the Rambat Pass, aiming to cross it the following day. But as the 2nd Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Patrick Jeffreys, a highly decorated soldier who had fought in the Zulu wars and Burma, established camp at Markhanai, 11 miles south of the pass, it came under sustained attack. Blood ordered Jeffreys to move against the tribesmen the next day. The following morning Jeffreys began moving up the Mohmand Valley with three columns, but he was met with strong resistance from the local Pashtun tribesmen, forcing him to withdraw. By nightfall, the general and his small escort had been cut off, and defended themselves with some difficulty until relief arrived. The action resulted in the British sustaining nearly 150 dead and wounded, some of them subalterns no older than Churchill. As Blood later recalled in his memoirs: "As soon as I heard of General Jeffreys" mishap, I sent for Churchill and suggested his joining the General in order to see a little fighting. He was all for it, so I sent him over at once and he saw more fighting than I expected, and very hard fighting too. The knight of the pen had become a knight of the sword.