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About The Book: T. W. E. Holdsworth's "Campaign of the Indus" is a compilation of letters that provide a detailed account of Officer Holdsworth's experiences in Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842. The letters recount significant events during the campaign, including the remarkable feat of an English army crossing Central Asia, a region that had not been traversed by European troops since Alexander the Great's victorious march from the Hellespont to the Jaxartes and Indus. Officer Holdsworth decided to publish the letters, which were suggested by his friends, due to the historical significance of the campaign. About The Author: Arthur Howe Holdsworth (1780–1860) of Mount Galpin in the parish of Townstal and of Widdicombe in the parish of Stokenham, both in Devon, was an English merchant and politician. He was from a Devon mercantile and trading family, the son of Arthur Holdsworth, a Member of Parliament in Devonshire, prominent shipowner and merchant. He encountered frustration in other respects, including his failure in 1841 to have Dartmouth rather than the admiralty’s choice of Falmouth established as the packet station for the new West Indian mail service. In 1840 he published Campaign of the Indus, an edition of letters to him from his son Thomas, a lieutenant in the 2nd Foot serving in Bombay, and three years later he sought to explain to a doubtless fascinated public the Advantages which may be derived from working low-pressure marine engines by expansion. Among his several inventions was a system of water-bulkheads for preventing and combating fire in ships, for which he pursued a claim for compensation against the admiralty.