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: