Description

James Abbott (1807‒96) was a British army officer who went to India in 1823. He participated in the Anglo-Indian invasion that precipitated the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839−42). He reached Kandahar in April 1839 and was a member of a political mission to Herat. In December 1839 he was sent on a mission to the Khanate of Khiva (in present-day Uzbekistan), which was under attack by a Russian military expedition and which had requested British help. The Russian expedition was ostensibly aimed at freeing Russian slaves held by the ...