Chapter IV

EVENTS ON THE NILE FROM 1882 TO MAY, 1898.

[Sidenote: 1883.]

In December, 1882, Colonel Stewart (11th Hussars) arrived at Khartoum with orders to report on the situation. His valuable report,[164] dated 9th February, 1883, went thoroughly into the question of finance and administration, and recommended drastic reforms, stating that the Egyptians by themselves were totally incapable of governing such a huge tract as the Sudan.

[Sidenote: Fall of El Obeid, 17th January, 1883.]

Almost the first event of 1883 was the fall of El Obeid, on the 17th January. For six months Mohammed Pasha Said had held out, but was eventually obliged by famine to capitulate. The gallant commander was shortly afterwards killed by his captors, and the Mahdi transferred his headquarters to the town.

Meanwhile Abd el Gader Pasha, Governor of Khartoum, was doing his best to suppress the rebellion in the angle between the White and Blue Niles, and on the 24th February he beat the Emir Ahmed el Makashif at Meshra el Dai, and raised the siege of Sennar town for a time. In response to his former appeal to Cairo for reinforcements, troops were being collected, and Hicks Pasha was sent with a crowd of some 10,000, mostly undrilled, Egyptians to his support, arriving in Khartoum, _viâ_ Suakin and Berber, on the 4th March.

[Sidenote: Hicks arrives.]

Abd el Gader was, shortly before Hicks’s arrival, superseded by Ala el Din Pasha.

[Sidenote: Battle of Marabia.]

After a strong reconnaissance in force up the White Nile, during which Makashif was heavily defeated and killed at Marabia on the 29th April, Hicks began preparations for an advance into Kordofan on a large scale. He started in September from Dueim with about 8,200 men, marching on El Obeid _viâ_ Khor Abu Habl, this route having been recommended to him as holding much water. The Mahdi, informed of their approach, collected some 40,000 men and encamped in the forest of Shekan.

[Sidenote: Annihilation of Hick’s Expedition, 5th November, 1883.]

Misled and betrayed by their guides, and suffering terribly from want of water, Hicks’s force advanced into the forest on the 5th November, was set upon by the enemy in overwhelming numbers and annihilated, some 300 only escaping death.

The news of this disaster naturally raised the Mahdi’s influence to the highest pitch, and produced a corresponding depression on the Egyptian side. At Khartoum, which had been virtually in a state of siege since July, there was a panic, but De Coetlogon (left by Hicks with the depot), Power, Herbin, and Hansal (British, French and Austrian Consuls respectively), collected food and outlying garrisons, and strengthened the defences by the end of the year. Sennar was meanwhile again besieged.

[Sidenote: 1884. Gordon arrives.]

The effect of Hicks’s disaster on the Home Government was that it was decided that the Sudan should be abandoned and the garrisons evacuated. General Gordon was the man chosen to carry out this difficult task, and he, accompanied by Colonel Stewart, arrived in Khartoum on the 18th February, just a month after the proclamation in that town of the Government’s intentions.

Gordon was enthusiastically received at Khartoum, and proclaimed, in addition to the foregoing, that the suppression of the slave trade by Egyptian means was now abolished, and that the Sudan was now independent, with himself as Governor-General. A large exodus northward consequently took place.

Gordon quickly came to the conclusion that if the Sudan were evacuated, the only man capable of keeping it in order after the Egyptians had retired would be Zubeir Pasha. His request for him, however, was refused by the Government, so Gordon resolved to hold Khartoum at all costs and crush the enemy if possible.

[Sidenote: Fall of Berber, 20th May, 1884.]

Meanwhile the flood of Mahdism was spreading northwards, and after a fruitless attempt—owing to the rising of the Robatab tribe—on the part of Captain Kitchener and Lieutenant Rundle to communicate with and assist Hussein Pasha Khalifa, Governor of Berber, this town was attacked, and, after a certain amount of resistance, taken by the enemy on the 20th May. Captain Kitchener’s efforts, however, in negotiating with the Bisharin and Ababda in the Korosko-Abu Hamed desert with a view to stopping an advance through this desert were successful, and a reconnaissance on the left bank of the Nile along the Arbaîn route from Assiut to Sagiyet el Abd by Lieut.-Colonel Colvile and Lieut. Stuart-Wortley proved that the water supply along that route was absolutely insufficient for the advance of an enemy in this direction. It was therefore certain that if an advance northwards took place, it could only come by the Nile, and subsequent events have proved the correctness of this supposition.

Halfa and Korosko were fortified about this time, and English troops sent up to Aswan.

[Sidenote: Action at Debba.]

In June Heddai, victor of Berber, advanced down-stream in the direction of the Dongola province, but was beaten at Debba (5th July, 1884) by a force of Bashi Bazuks, and again at Tani. Mustafa Pasha Yawer, Mudir of Dongola, gave rise to some anxiety by his doubtful and temporising action with regard to the enemy, but these successes appear to have decided his line of action.

[Sidenote: Battle at Korti, 11th September, 1884.]

On 1st September he advanced with 400 men against Heddai, who had been reinforced by Mohammed Mahmud to the total number of 3,000, and in a smart action close to Korti totally defeated the Emirs, killing them both. Captain Kitchener, who had been sent to report on the Mudir, now pushed on, and entered into negotiations with the great Kababish tribe and their Sheikh Saleh for assistance in the forthcoming Nile expedition, which had just been decided on for the relief of Gordon.

[Sidenote: Gordon relief expedition.]

This expedition was put in hand in the beginning of August, and the command of it given to Lord Wolseley. It was composed of nine battalions,[165] a camel corps of four “regiments,”[166] and the 19th Hussars, besides light Artillery and other details. The major portion was despatched up the Nile in whaleboats, and it concentrated eventually in December at Korti.

[Sidenote: Fighting round Khartoum.]

During the advance of the expedition, Gordon employed every means to keep the enemy at a distance. On the 29th and 31st August his “fighting Pasha,” Mohammed Ali Pasha, defeated Emir Abd el Gader at Gereif and Sheikh el Obeid at Halfaya respectively, but five days afterwards was heavily defeated and killed by the latter at Um Dibban, whither he had followed him after a third victory at El Eilafun.

[Sidenote: Murder of Colonel Stewart, &c.]

This defeat was a heavy blow to Khartoum, and on the 10th September Gordon sent Stewart, Power, Herbin, and some Greeks downstream on the “Abbas” steamer to give an account of the state of affairs to the authorities. These officers were decoyed ashore and murdered on the 18th near Hebba, at the head of the 4th Cataract.

On the 29th September Gordon sent three steamers down to Shendi to meet the British expedition, and these[167] remained on the river under the command of Nushi Pasha, fighting and reconnoitring, until the 21st January, when the British desert column met them near Metemma.

After the defeat near El Eilafun, the Mahdi summoned all the tribes to the attack of Khartoum, and this city was closely invested. Omdurman, held by Faragalla Pasha, was repeatedly attacked, and was obliged by famine, on the fifth day of the new year, to surrender.

The garrison of Khartoum was now getting weaker and weaker through famine, and though Gordon despatched cheery messages to say he “could hold out for years,” he knew it would be all over with Khartoum if the expedition did not arrive in time.

[Sidenote: River column.]

On the 28th December a river column of four battalions,[168] one squadron, and details was sent upstream from Korti, under Major-General Earle, with the object of reaching Abu Hamed, communicating thence (for supplies) with Korosko (Major Rundle), and pushing on to seize Berber.

[Sidenote: Desert column.]

[Sidenote: 1885.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Abu Klea, 17th January, 1885.]

On the 30th December a desert column, chiefly composed of Camel Corps, total about 1,100 fighting men, left Korti to occupy Jakdul Wells, over halfway to Metemma. This done, Sir Herbert Stewart (in command) sent back for more troops and supplies, and the column, increased to about 1,800 fighting men, left Jakdul on the 14th January, 1885. On the 17th a force of about 11,000 of the enemy, under Abu Safia (or Abd el Mejid?) was encountered and heavily defeated near Abu Klea (Tleh) Wells, and the column pushed on to the Nile, which it reached, after another stiff fight near Abu Kru (Khrug), on the evening of the 19th. On this day Sir H. Stewart was mortally wounded.

On the 21st a reconnaissance in force of Metemma was carried out. Gordon’s four steamers arrived during the action, and Colonel Sir C. Wilson being now in command, after proceeding next day on a reconnaissance towards Shendi, left Gubat on the morning of the 24th with two steamers for Khartoum.

[Sidenote: Fall of Khartoum, and death of Gordon.]

On arriving there at noon on the 28th, Khartoum was found to have fallen two and a quarter days previously, the town having been taken by assault, and Gordon having been killed, just before dawn on the 26th. The two steamers were both wrecked in the Sixth Cataract on the way back, and Sir C. Wilson and his party were only extricated by Lord C. Beresford (on a third steamer) after a hard fight with a shore battery[169] near the tail of the cataract.

The desert column, now under Sir R. Buller, short in transport and in numbers, retired to Abu Klea (Tleh), at which point they beat off the pursuing enemy (16th February), and eventually reached Korti during March.

[Sidenote: Battle of Kirbekan, 10th March.]

The river column had meanwhile ascended the 4th Cataract with extreme difficulty, and met the enemy near Kirbekan. Here a decisive action was fought (10th March), in which the Mahdists were thoroughly beaten, but General Earle was killed. The command devolved on Brigadier-General H. Brackenbury, and the column reached Huella (or Khulla), within 30 miles of Abu Hamed, on the 23rd February, having destroyed the village of Stewart’s murderers on the way.

FIELD MARSHAL VISCOUNT WOLSELEY.]

Here orders were received to turn back, and the column retired, reaching Merowe on the 5th March.

When the news of the fall of Khartoum reached England, it was first determined to operate on the Sudan from the Suakin side, and a British expedition was sent there, together with a force of navvies, to construct a railway to Berber (_v._ p. 257). Preparations were also begun for another Nile campaign in the autumn, and the troops of the late expedition were encamped for the summer along the river.

[Sidenote: Retirement of expedition, June, 1885.]

After some months the Government decided to proceed no further with the Sudan operations, and the whole force was withdrawn, leaving the country unoccupied south of Kosha. A temporary native Government was established at Dongola, but it proved of no value, and fell to pieces on the advance of the enemy.

[Sidenote: Battle of Ginnis, 30th December, 1885.]

The Mahdists pushed gradually forward, and by the end of November came into touch with our frontier field force, now composed of 1,700 British and 1,500 Egyptian troops. A harassing month of skirmishes ensued, which was put an end to by the decisive victory of our troops, under Sir F. Stephenson, at Ginnis, on the 30th December. Abdel Mejid was wounded, and the enemy’s losses amounted to 800 out of 6,000.

[Sidenote: Death of the Mahdi.]

Meanwhile the Mahdi had died of typhus fever on the 22nd June. On proclaiming himself Mahdi he had nominated four Khalifas to succeed him in order, and had also sketched out a broad plan for the invasion of Egypt.

[Sidenote: The Khalifas.]

The first of the Khalifas, Abdalla Ibn el Sayid Hamadalla el Taaishi, a Baggara of the Taaisha tribe (as his name implies), succeeded the Mahdi, and consolidated his position by tyranny, cunning, and crime.

The second Khalifa, Ali wad Helu, was a Sheikh of the Degheim and Kenana Arabs.[170] He was fanatical and religious, but his quarrels with Abdalla did not dispose him in his favour.

The third Khalifaship, which was offered to and refused by the Sheikh el Senussi, was filled[171] by one Adam wad el Wazir, but appears to have lapsed. The fourth Khalifa was Mohammed el Sherif, son-in-law of the Mahdi. His men having been mostly killed under Wad el Nejumi, at Toski (1889), he was thereafter often imprisoned by Abdalla, and was of comparatively small account. He was, however, considered to be, strictly speaking, next in succession to Abdulla.

[Sidenote: 1886.]

During 1886 the frontier of Egypt was withdrawn to Wadi Halfa, and the enemy, checked but not daunted by the fight at Ginnis, worried and raided, and tore up the railway to their hearts’ content. Numerous small skirmishes occurred, but no serious fighting was destined to take place for another three years.

Although the Khalifa was anxious to carry out at once his plans for the invasion of Egypt, he was prevented by three causes: firstly, a revolt in Darfur and Kordofan (_v._ p. 255); secondly, attacks by the Abyssinians (_v._ p. 258); thirdly, attacks by the Kababish.

[Sidenote: 1887. Action at Sarras.]

During 1887 the only fighting of importance on the Nile was Colonel Chermside’s action of the 28th April, in which Nur el Kauzi and 200 Arabs were killed at Sarras. A misfortune, however, occurred in the defeat and death, at Matassi Wells, of Sheikh Saleh and many of his Kababish, who had repeatedly, by harassing their left flank, prevented Mahdist reinforcements from coming down the river. This great tribe was now split up and hunted down by the enemy until it had been greatly reduced in numbers.

About this time Charles Neufeld, a German merchant, was captured in the western desert and sent to Omdurman.

[Sidenote: 1888.]

The small English force was now (1st April, 1888) withdrawn from the frontier, and the task of defending it devolved entirely on the Egyptian Army. A glance at the history and constitution of the latter will not be out of place here.

[Sidenote: The Egyptian army.]

After the defeat of Arabi and his army in 1882, Sir Evelyn Wood, aided by a small but competent staff of officers, began the formation of a new Egyptian Army. By January, 1883, it consisted of 8 Egyptian battalions (forming 2 brigades, the first under British and the second under native officers), 1 regiment of cavalry, and 4 batteries of artillery.

The IXth Sudanese battalion was raised at Suakin in May, 1884, and in March, 1885, Sir Francis Grenfell became Sirdar.[172] The remaining battalions were raised as follows:—

Xth Sudanese, January, 1886.

XIth Sudanese, January 1887 (formed from the Reserve).

XIIth Sudanese, November, 1888.

XIIIth Sudanese, June, 1886.

XIVth Sudanese, March 1896 (disbanded 1902).

15th Egyptian, March 1896 (formed from the Reserve).

16th Egyptian, March, 1896 (formed from the Reserve).

17th Egyptian, 1896 and 1897 (disbanded 1900).

18th Egyptian, 1897 (not complete) (disbanded 1900).

Besides the above, there were in 1898 10 squadrons of cavalry, 5 batteries artillery, 8 companies of camel corps, 3 companies garrison artillery, &c., besides 13 gunboats. The army has now been reduced.

[Sidenote: Invasion by Wad el Nejumi.]

At the end of 1888 the Khalifa made great preparations for the invasion, and a large force was collected under Wad el Nejumi.

[Sidenote: 1889.]

By the end of May, 1889, Nejumi had reached Sagiet el Abd with some 4,000 fighting men and 7,000 camp followers, the Egyptian frontier force being then about 6,000 men.

[Sidenote: Battle of Argîn, 2nd July, 1889.]

On the 2nd July, Colonel Wodehouse, O.C.F.F.F., engaged the enemy at Argîn,[173] and, although with much inferior numbers, advanced with determination to the attack, and inflicted a loss of 1,400.

[Sidenote: Battle of Toski, 3rd August, 1889.]

A British brigade was now being sent upstream, but General Grenfell (the Sirdar), who had previously concentrated his Egyptian forces at Toski, found Nejumi on the 3rd August attempting to cross his front, and was therefore obliged to attack him without waiting for the British, whose advance parties had reached Korosko.[174] He stopped him at Toski,[175] on the 3rd August, and with 2 Egyptian and 4 Sudanese battalions (besides cavalry and artillery) routed him completely. Wad el Nejumi was killed, and his forces were practically destroyed. Thus ended the Mahdi’s dream of the conquest of the world.

[Sidenote: 1890.]

The victory of Toski had the effect of crushing for several years any important movement northwards on the part of the Dervishes, and the recapture of Tokar in February, 1891 (_vide_ p. 258), caused the Khalifa still more to draw in his horns.

[Sidenote: 1891.]

The Shilluks were meanwhile giving the Dervishes considerable trouble in the neighbourhood of Kodok, and in 1891 Zeki Tumal was sent against them. Two steamers had stuck in the sudd in the winter of 1888, and had been taken by the Shilluks; desperate efforts were now made by the Dervishes to effect their recapture (_vide_ p. 260).

In August, 1891, the Nuers were used as allies by the Dervishes, and succeeded in killing the Mek of the Shilluks. Soon afterwards, however, the Nuers turned against their allies and expelled them from the country south of Kodok, whilst the Shilluks inflicted a severe defeat on their enemy near Kodok, in December, 1891, and again in January, 1893. The war was waged with indecisive results till 1894, when the Dervishes finally crushed the Shilluks and murdered their King’s wife. After that the Dervishes merely kept a small tax-collecting outpost at Kodok, and the riverain tribes remained fairly quiet.

During 1891 the Khalifa, alarmed at a rumour of an Egyptian advance, pretended to be desirous for peace, but in December of that year he showed his true hand. He had long been aiming at making the Khalifate a hereditary succession, and finding an excuse for quarrelling with the Khalifa Sherif, he threw him into prison and loaded him with chains.[176] He would, no doubt, have liked to do the same with the remaining Khalifa, Ali Wad Helu, but the latter Sheikh had too powerful a following of Degheim and Kenana, and Abdalla desisted. At the same time, however, he effected a clean sweep of all disaffected Emirs, and by executing some and exiling the majority he succeeded in consolidating his own dominion. His nearest relations were his brother, Yagub, and his son, Osman Sheikh el Din; of these two he intended his son to succeed him.

[Sidenote: 1892.]

In 1892 raids recommenced on the frontier, and in December a serious raid was only stopped by a fierce fight at Ambugol, in which Captain Pyne was killed, together with 26 of his men.

[Sidenote: 1893.]

In July, 1893, another big raid was made by Osman Azrak on the oasis of Beris, and 11 natives were taken prisoners. As the Kharga, Beris, and Dakhla oases were thus threatened, posts were established at these places. In November the Dervishes raided Murrat Wells, and killed Saleh Bey, Sheikh of a section of the Ababda.

[Sidenote: 1894.]

In 1894 little occurred of importance on the Nile, though the year was memorable for the capture of Kassala by the Italians (_vide_ p. 259).

[Sidenote: 1895.]

[Sidenote: 1896.]

In the beginning of 1895 Sheb oasis was attacked, but the raiders were repulsed, and at the end of the year an attack was made on Adendan, a village north of Halfa. These raids, however, were soon to be avenged, for in March, 1896, it was determined to retake Dongola, and the Egyptian Army was concentrated along the frontier by the end of that month. This decision was mainly taken with a view to assisting the Italians, who had been heavily defeated at Adua (1st March, 1896) by the Abyssinians, and whose right flank was threatened by the Dervishes.

[Sidenote: Escapes from Omdurman.]

Reference must here be made to the successful escapes of three Europeans from Omdurman: Father Ohrwalder in December, 1891; Father Rossignoli in October, 1894; and Slatin Bey in February, 1895. These gave most valuable accounts of affairs at Omdurman, and besides corroborating information already gained, the latter, in particular, threw a vivid light on the state of the Dervish power.

[Sidenote: Egyptian advance.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Firket, 7th June, 1896.]

[Sidenote: Cholera.]

[Sidenote: Occupation of Dongola, 23rd September, 1896.]

On 20th March (1896) an advanced Sudanese brigade occupied Akasha, and on the 1st May a cavalry skirmish with the enemy took place near this spot. The railway was quickly pushed on across the Batn el Hagar, and on the 7th June the Sirdar surprised and almost annihilated the Dervish garrison at Firket, pushing his cavalry on to Suarda. Cholera now travelled up the river from Cairo, and for 10 days caused considerable casualties. The railway meanwhile reached Kosha on the 4th August, and the Egyptian forces, reinforced by a British battalion,[177] pushed on to the Dongola Province. At Hafir the enemy were in force, but (19th September) were driven out by gunboats and artillery, and on the 23rd of the same month the army marched into Dongola, the enemy, under Wad Bishara, refusing to meet them in the open, and bolting southwards in a disorganised rabble. The retreat was quickly turned into a rout by the pursuing troops, and the river was occupied up to Merowe.

[Sidenote: 1897.]

[Sidenote: Capture of Abu Hamed, 7th August, 1897.]

[Sidenote: Occupation of Berber, 6th September, 1897.]

The railway to Kerma was completed on the 4th May (1897), and prior to its completion the construction of a new railway from Halfa to Abu Hamed was commenced across the Korosko Desert. Abu Hamed was taken after a sharp fight on the 7th August by a flying column[178] under Major General Hunter, and Berber was occupied by friendlies on the last day of that month, the Dervishes evacuating it at our approach. The occupation was quickly confirmed by the regular troops (6th September), and four gun-boats were dragged, under circumstances of exceptional difficulty, up the 4th Cataract (August).

[Sidenote: 1898.]

The army was then placed in occupation of the river from the Atbara to Dongola, but, in consequence of the intention of the enemy to recapture Berber, it was concentrated about this place in January, 1898. The railway meanwhile reached Abu Hamed on the 4th November, 1897, and was pushed forward along the right bank towards Berber.

In March a British brigade[179] was despatched to reinforce the Egyptian troops, and the army moved up the Atbara to intercept Mahmud, who, with Osman Digna and a large force, was making for Berber.

[Sidenote: Battle of the Atbara, 8th April, 1898.]

The resulting battle of the Atbara (8th April) caused the total destruction of Mahmud’s force[180] and the capture of its commander. During the spring and summer further preparations were made for the final destruction, with the help of two British Brigades, of the Khalifa’s power.

[Footnote 164: Foreign Office Bluebook, Egypt, No. 11, 1883.]

[Footnote 165: 1st battalions R.I., Sussex, S. Stafford, Black Watch, West Kent, Gordon Highlanders, Cameron Highlanders; 2nd battalions D.C.L.I. and Essex.]

[Footnote 166: Drawn from Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry, Brigade of Guards, and Mounted Infantry.]

[Footnote 167: The “Tel Howeiya,” “Bordein,” “Mansura,” and, subsequently, the “Safieh.”]

[Footnote 168: S. Stafford, Black Watch, D.C.L.I. Gordons.]

[Footnote 169: One of whose shots burst the boiler of the steamer.]

[Footnote 170: Originally from Sennar; horse-breeding tribes.]

[Footnote 171: The third Khalifa was never actually appointed and the Khalifaship always remained vacant (Slatin Pasha).]

[Footnote 172: Sir H. Kitchener succeeded as Sirdar in the spring of 1892.]

[Footnote 173: Three miles north of Wadi Halfa, on the left bank.]

[Footnote 174: One squadron of the 20th Hussars was the only British force present.]

[Footnote 175: Twenty miles north of Abu Simbel.]

[Footnote 176: The Khalifa Sherif was not released till July, 1895 (_vide_ also p. 268).]

[Footnote 177: North Staffords.]

[Footnote 178: No. 2 Battery Field Artillery, 3rd Egyptian battalion, IXth, Xth and XIth Sudanese battalions.]

[Footnote 179: 1st battalions Warwickshire and Lincoln Regiments, and Seaforth and Cameron Highlanders.]

[Footnote 180: The Dervishes were estimated to have lost over 3,000 killed. Our losses were—British, 3 officers and 22 men killed, 10 officers and 82 men wounded; Egyptian—57 men killed, and 5 British officers, 16 Native officers, and 365 men wounded. Total, 560 casualties.]