In the wake of the destruction of the British Residency in Kabul, the 6th Dragoon Guards were ordered to Afghanistan from India in September 1879. Travelling via the Khyber Pass, the regiment reached the British fortress at Jalalabad in November. After the British occupied Kabul the following month, the 6th Dragoon Guards escorted the Afghan Emir Yakub Khan to Basawal on his way to exile in India. For the remainder of the war, the 6th Dragoon Guards maintained the garrison at Jalalabad and two mobile columns operating in the tribal areas around the city and the Khyber Pass.
