Dongola campaign, 1896.
The wonderful progress--political, economical and social--which Egypt
had made during British occupation, so ably set forth in Sir Alfred
Milner's _England in Egypt_ (published in 1892), together with the
revelation in so strong a light of the character of the khalifa's
despotism in the Sudan and the miserable condition of his misgoverned
people, as detailed in the accounts of their captivity at Omdurman by
Father Ohrwalder and Slatin Bey (published in 1892 and 1896), stirred
public opinion in Great Britain, and brought the question of the
recovery of the Sudan into prominence. A change of ministry took place
in 1895, and Lord Salisbury's cabinet, which had consistently assailed
the Egyptian policy of the old, was not unwilling to consider whether
the flourishing condition of Egyptian finance, the prosperity of the
country and the settled state of its affairs, with a capable and proved
little army ready to hand, did not warrant an attempt being made to
recover gradually the Sudan provinces abandoned by Egypt in 1885 on the
advice of Mr Gladstone's government.
Such being the condition of public and official sentiment, the crushing
defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa on the
1st of March 1896, and the critical state of Kassala--held by Italy at
British suggestion, and now closely invested by the dervishes--made it
not only desirable but necessary to take immediate action.
On the 14th of March 1896 Major-General Sir H. Kitchener, who succeeded
Sir Francis Grenfell as sirdar of the Egyptian army in 1892, received
orders to reoccupy Akasha, 50 m. south of Sarras, and to carry the
railway on from Sarras. Subsequent operations were to depend upon the
amount of resistance he encountered. On the 20th of March Akasha was
occupied without opposition by an advanced column of Egyptian troops
under Major J. Collinson, who formed an entrenched camp there. The
reserves of the Egyptian army were called out, and responded with
alacrity. The troops were concentrated at Wadi Halfa; the railway
reconstruction, under Lieutenant E. P. Girouard, R.E., pushed southward;
and a telegraph line followed the advance. At the commencement of the
campaign the Egyptian army, including reserves, consisted of 16
battalions of infantry, of which 6 were Sudanese, 10 squadrons of
cavalry, 5 batteries of artillery, 3 companies of garrison artillery,
and 8 companies of camel corps, and it possessed 13 gunboats for river
work. Colonel H. M. L. Rundle was chief of the staff; Major F. R.
Wingate was head of the intelligence department, with Slatin Bey as his
assistant; and Colonel A. Hunter was in command of Sarras, and south.
The 1st battalion of the North Staffordshire regiment moved up from
Cairo to join the Egyptian army.
In the meantime the advance to Akasha had already relieved the pressure
at Kassala, Osman Digna having withdrawn a considerable force from the
investing army and proceeded with it to Suakin. To meet Osman Digna's
movement Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. Lloyd, the Suakin commandant, advanced
to the Taroi Wells, 19 m. south of Suakin, on the 15th of April to
co-operate with the "Friendlies," and with Major H. M. Sidney, advancing
with a small force from Tokar. His cavalry, under Major M. A. C. B.
Fenwick, went out to look for Sidney's force, and were surprised by a
large number of dervishes. Fenwick, with some 40 officers and men,
seized an isolated hill and held it through the night, repulsing the
dervishes, who were the same night driven back with such heavy loss in
attacking Lloyd's zeriba that they retired to the hills, and comparative
quiet again reigned at Suakin. At the end of May an Indian brigade
arrived for garrison duty, and the Egyptian troops were released for
service on the Nile.
The dervishes first came in contact with the Egyptian cavalry on the
Nile near Akasha, on the 1st of May, and were repulsed. The army
concentrated at Akasha early in June, and on the 6th Kitchener moved to
the attack of Firket 16 m. away, where the amir Hamuda, with 3000 men,
was encamped. The attack was made in two columns: one, under Colonel
Hunter, marching along the river-bank, approached Firket from the north;
while the other, under Major Burn-Murdoch, making a detour through the
desert, approached it from the south. The co-operation of the two
columns was admirably timed, and on the morning of the 7th the dervish
camp was surrounded, and, after a sharp fight, Hamuda and many amirs and
about 1000 men were killed, and 500 prisoners taken. The dash and
discipline of the Egyptian troops in this victory were a good augury for
the future.
By the end of June the railway was advanced beyond Akasha, and
headquarters were at Kosha, 10 m. farther south. Cholera and fever were
busy both with the North Staffordshire regiment at Gemai, whither they
had been moved on its approach, and with the Egyptian troops at the
front, and carried off many officers and men. The railway reached Kosha
early in August; the cholera disappeared, and stores were collected and
arrangements steadily made for a farther advance. The North
Staffordshire moved up to the front, and in September the army moved on
Kerma, which was found to be evacuated, the dervishes having crossed the
river to Hafir. There they were attacked by the gunboats and Kitchener's
artillery from the opposite bank, and forced to retire, with their
commander, Wad Bishara, seriously wounded. Dongola was bombarded by the
gunboats and captured by the army on the 23rd of September. Bishara and
his men retreated, but were pursued by the Egyptians until the retreat
became a hopeless rout. Guns, small arms and ammunition, with large
stores of grain and dates, were captured, many prisoners taken, while
hundreds surrendered voluntarily, among them a brother of the amir Wad
en Nejumi. The dervish Dongola army had practically ceased to exist.
Debba was seized on the 3rd October, Korti and Merawi occupied soon
after, and the principal sheiks came in and submitted to the sirdar. The
Dongola campaign was over, and the province recovered to Egypt. The
Indian brigade at Suakin returned to India, and was replaced by
Egyptians. The North Staffordshire returned to Cairo. The work of
consolidation began, and preparations were made for a farther advance
when everything should be ready.
The Sudan campaign, 1897.
The railway up the right bank of the Nile was continued to Kerma, in
order to evade the difficulties of the 3rd cataract; but the sirdar had
conceived the bold project of cutting off the great angle of the Nile
from Wadi Halfa to Abu Hamed, involving nearly 600 m. of navigation and
including the 4th cataract, by constructing a railway across the Nubian
desert, and so bringing his base at Wadi Halfa within a few hours of his
force, when it should have advanced to Abu Hamed, instead of ten days.
Early in 1897 this new line of railway was commenced from Wadi Halfa
across the great Nubian desert 230 m. to Abu Hamed. The first-mentioned
line reached Kerma in May, and by July the second had advanced 130 m.
into the desert towards Abu Hamed, when it became necessary, before it
was carried farther, to secure that terminus by an advance from Merawi.
In the meantime the khalifa was not idle. He occupied Abu Klea wells and
Metemma; recalled the amir Ibrahim Khalil, with 4000 men, from the
Ghezira; brought to Omdurman the army of the west under Mahmud--some
10,000 men; entrusted the line of the Atbara--Ed Darner, Adarama, Asubri
and El Fasher--to Osman Digna; constructed defences in the Shabluka
gorge; and personally superintended the organization and drill of the
forces gathered at Omdurman, and the collection of vast stores of food
and supplies of camels for offensive expeditions.
Towards the end of June the chief of the Jaalin tribe, Abdalla wad Said,
who occupied Metemma, angered by the khalifa, made his submission to
Kitchener and asked for support, at the same time foolishly sending a
defiant letter to the khalifa. The sirdar sent him rifles and ammunition
across the desert from Korti; but before they arrived, Mahmud's army,
sent by the khalifa, swept down on Metemma on the 1st of July and
massacred Abdalla wad Said and his garrison.
On the 29th of July, after several reconnaissances, Major-General
Hunter, with a flying column, marched up the Nile from near Merawi to
Abu Hamed, 133 m. distant, along the edge of the Monassir desert. He
arrived on the 7th of August and captured it by storm, the dervishes
losing 250 killed and 50 prisoners. By the end of the month the gunboats
had surmounted the 4th cataract and reached Abu Hamed. Berber was found
to be deserted, and occupied by Hunter on the 5th of September, and in
the following month a large force was entrenched there. The khalifa,
fearing an attack on Omdurman, moved Osman Digna from Adarama to Shendi.
In the 23rd of October Hunter, with a flying column lightly equipped,
left Berber for Adarama, which he burned on the 2nd of November, and
after reconnoitring for 40 m. up the Atbara, returned to Berber. The
Nile was falling, and Kitchener decided to keep the gunboats above the
impassable rapid at Um Tuir, 4 m. north of the confluence of the Atbara
with the Nile, where he constructed a fort. The gunboats made repeated
reconnaissances up the river, bombarding Metemma with effect. The
railway reached Abu Hamed on the 4th of November, and was pushed rapidly
forward along the right bank of the Nile towards Berber.
The forces of the khalifa remaining quiet, the sirdar visited Kassala
and negotiated with the Italian General Caneva for its restoration to
Egypt. The Italians were anxious to leave it; and on Christmas day 1897
Colonel (afterwards General Sir Charles) Parsons, with an Egyptian force
from Suakin, took it formally over, together with a body of Arab
irregulars employed by the Italians. These troops were at once
despatched to capture the dervish posts at Asabri and El Fasher, which
they did with small loss.
Sudan campaign, 1898.
On his return from Kassala to Berber the sirdar received information of
an intended advance of the khalifa northward. He at once ordered a
concentration of Egyptian troops towards Berber, and telegraphed to
Cairo for a British brigade. By the end of January the concentration was
complete, and the British brigade, under Major-General Gatacre, was at
Dakhesh, south of Abu Hamed. Disagreement among the khalifa's generals
postponed the dervish advance and gave Kitchener much-needed time. But
at the end of February, Mahmud crossed the Nile to Shendi with some
12,000 fighting men, and with Osman Digna advanced along the right bank
of the Nile to Aliab, where he struck across the desert to Nakheila, on
the Atbara, intending to turn Kitchener's left flank at Berber. The
sirdar took up a position at Ras el Hudi, on the Atbara. His force
consisted of Gatacre's British brigade (1st Warwicks, Lincolns,
Seaforths and Camerons) and Hunter's Egyptian division (3 brigades under
Colonels Maxwell, MacDonald and Lewis respectively), Broadwood's
cavalry, Tudway's camel corps and Long's artillery. The dervish army
reached Nakheila on the 20th of March, and entrenched themselves there
in a formidable zeriba. After several reconnaissances in which fighting
took place with Mahmud's outposts, it was ascertained from prisoners
that their army was short of provisions and that great leakage was going
on. Kitchener, therefore, did not hurry. He sent his flotilla up the
Nile and captured Shendi, the dervish depot, on the 27th of March. On
the 4th of April he advanced to Abadar. A final reconnaissance was made
on the 5th. On the following day he bivouacked at Umdabia, where he
constructed a strong zeriba, which was garrisoned by an Egyptian
battalion, and on the night of the 7th he marched to the attack of
Mahmud's zeriba, which, after an hour's bombardment on the morning of
the 8th of April, was stormed with complete success. Mahmud and several
hundred dervishes were captured, 40 amirs and 3000 Arabs killed, and
many more wounded; the rest escaped to Gedaref. The sirdar's casualties
were 80 killed and 472 wounded.
Preparations were now made for the attack on the khalifa's force at
Omdurman; and in the meantime the troops were camped in the
neighbourhood of Berber, and the railway carried on to the Atbara. At
the end of July reinforcements were forwarded from Cairo; and on the
24th of August the following troops were concentrated for the advance at
Wad Hamad, above Metemma, on the western bank of the 6th
cataract:--British division, under Major-General Gatacre, consisting of
1st Brigade, commanded by Colonel A. G. Wauchope (1st Warwicks,
Lincolns, Seaforths and Camerons), and 2nd Brigade, commanded by Colonel
the Hon. N. G. Lyttelton (1st Northumberlands and Grenadier Guards, 2nd
Lancashire and Rifle Brigade); Egyptian division, under Major-General
Hunter, consisting of four brigades, commanded by Colonels MacDonald,
Maxwell, Lewis and Collinson; mounted troops--21st Lancers, camel corps,
and Egyptian cavalry; artillery, under Colonel Long, 2 British
batteries, 5 Egyptian batteries, and 20 machine guns; detachment of
Royal Engineers. The flotilla, under Commander Keppel, R.N., consisted
of 10 gunboats and 5 transport steamers. The total strength was nearly
26,000 men.
Battle of Omdurman.
While the army moved along the west bank of the river, a force of Arab
irregulars or "Friendlies" marched along the east bank, under command of
Major Stuart-Wortley and Lieutenant Wood, to clear it of the enemy as
far as the Blue Nile; and on the 1st of September the gunboats bombarded
the forts on both sides of the river and breached the great wall of
Omdurman. Kitchener met with no opposition; and on the 1st of September
the army bivouacked in zeriba at Egeiga, on the west bank of the Nile,
within 4 m. of Omdurman. Here, on the morning of the 2nd of September,
the khalifa's army, 40,000 strong, attacked the zeriba, but was repulsed
with slaughter. Kitchener then moved out and marched towards Omdurman,
when he was again twice fiercely attacked on the right flank and rear,
MacDonald's brigade bearing the brunt. MacDonald distinguished himself
by his tactics, and completely repulsed the enemy. The 21st Lancers
gallantly charged a body of 2000 dervishes which was unexpectedly met in
a khor on the left flank, and drove them westward, the Lancers losing a
fifth of their number in killed and wounded. The khalifa was now in full
retreat, and the sirdar, sending his cavalry in pursuit, marched into
Omdurman. The dervish loss was over 10,000 killed, as many wounded, and
5000 prisoners. The khalifa's black flag was captured and sent home to
Queen Victoria. The British and Egyptian casualties together were under
500. The European prisoners of the khalifa found in Omdurman--Charles
Neufeld, Joseph Ragnotti, Sister Teresa Grigolini, and some 30
Greeks--were released; and on Sunday the 4th of September the sirdar,
with representatives from every regiment, crossed the river to Khartum,
where the British and Egyptian flags were hoisted, and a short service
held in memory of General Gordon, near the place where he met his death.
The results of the battle of Omdurman were the practical destruction of
the khalifa's army, the extinction of Mahdism in the Sudan, and the
recovery of nearly all the country formerly under Egyptian authority.
The khalifa fled with a small force to Obeid in Kordofan. The British
troops were quickly sent down stream to Cairo, and the sirdar, shortly
afterwards created Lord Kitchener of Khartum, was free to turn his
attention to the reduction of the country to some sort of order.
Captain Marchand at Fashoda.
He had first, however, to deal with a somewhat serious matter--the
arrival of a French expedition at Fashoda, on the White Nile, some 600
m. above Khartum. He started for the south on the 10th of September,
with 5 gunboats and a small force, dispersed a body of 700 dervishes at
Reng on the 15th, and four days later arrived at Fashoda, to find the
French Captain Marchand, with 120 Senegalese soldiers, entrenched there
and the French flag flying. He arranged with Marchand to leave the
political question to be settled by diplomacy, and contented himself
with hoisting the British and Egyptian flags to the south of the French
flag, and leaving a gunboat and a Sudanese battalion to guard them. He
then steamed up the river and established a post at Sobat; and after
sending a gunboat up the Bahr-el-Ghazal to establish another post at
Meshra-er-Rek, he returned to Omdurman. The French expedition had
experienced great difficulties in the swampy region of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal, and had reached Fashoda on the 10th of July. It had been
attacked by a dervish force on the 25th of August, and was expecting
another attack when Kitchener arrived and probably saved it from
destruction. The Fashoda incident was the subject of important
diplomatic negotiations, which at one time approached an acute phase;
but ultimately the French position was found to be untenable, and on the
11th of December Marchand and his men returned to France by the Sobat,
Abyssinia and Jibuti. In the following March the spheres of interest of
Great Britain and France in the Nile basin were defined by a declaration
making an addition to Article IV. of the Niger convention of the
previous year.
During the sirdar's absence from Omdurman Colonel Hunter commanded an
expedition up the Blue Nile, and by the end of September had occupied
and garrisoned Wad Medani, Sennar, Karkoj and Roseires. In the meantime
Colonel Parsons marched with 1400 men from Kassala on the 7th of
September, to capture Gedaref. He encountered 4000 dervishes under the
amir Saadalla outside the town, and after a desperate fight, in which he
lost 50 killed and 80 wounded, defeated them and occupied the town on
the 22nd. The dervishes left 500 dead on the field, among whom were four
amirs. Having strongly entrenched himself, Parsons beat off, with heavy
loss to the dervishes, two impetuous attacks made on the 28th by Ahmed
Fedil. But the garrison of Gedaref suffered from severe sickness, and
Colonel Collinson was sent to their aid with reinforcements from
Omdurman. He steamed up the Blue Nile and the Rahad river to
Ain-el-Owega, whence he struck across the desert, reaching Gedaref on
the 21st of October, to find that Ahmed Fedil had gone south with his
force of 5000 men towards Roseires. Colonel Lewis, who was at Karkoj
with a small force, moved to Roseires, where he received reinforcements
from Omdurman, and on the 26th of December caught Ahmed Fedil's force as
it was crossing the Blue Nile at Dakheila, and after a very severe fight
cut it up. The dervish loss was 500 killed, while the Egyptians had 24
killed and 118 wounded. Two thousand five hundred fighting men
surrendered later, and the rest escaped with Ahmed Fedil to join the
khalifa in Kordofan.
Operations in the Sudan, 1899.
On the 25th of January 1899 Colonel Walter Kitchener was despatched by
his brother, in command of a flying column of 2000 Egyptian troops and
1700 Friendlies, which had been concentrated at Faki Kohi, on the White
Nile, some 200 m. above Khartum, to reconnoitre the khalifa's camp at
Sherkela, 130 m. west of the river, in the heart of the Baggara country
in Kordofan, and if possible to capture it. The position was found to be
a strong one, occupied by over 6000 men; and as it was not considered
prudent to attack it with an inferior force at such a distance from the
river base, the flying column returned. No further attempt was made to
interfere with the khalifa in his far-off retreat until towards the end
of the year, when, good order having been generally established
throughout the rest of the Sudan, it was decided to extend it to
Kordofan.
Death of the khalifa.
In the autumn of 1899 the khalifa was at Jebel Gedir, a hill in southern
Kordofan, about 80 m. from the White Nile, and was contemplating an
advance. Lord Kitchener concentrated 8000 men at Kaka, on the river, 380
m. south of Khartum, and moved inland on the 20th of October. On
arriving at Fongor it was ascertained that the khalifa had gone north,
and the cavalry and camel corps having reconnoitred Jebel Gedir, the
expedition returned. On the 13th November the amir Ahmed Fedil debouched
on the river at El Alub, but retired on finding Colonel Lewis with a
force in gunboats. Troops and transport were then concentrated at Faki
Kohi, and Colonel Wingate sent with reinforcements from Khartum to take
command of the expedition and march to Gedid, where it was anticipated
the khalifa would be obliged to halt. A flying column, comprising a
squadron of cavalry, a field battery, 6 machine guns, 6 companies of the
camel corps, and a brigade of infantry and details, in all 3700 men,
under Wingate, left Faki Kohi on the 21st of November. The very next day
he encountered Ahmed Fedil at Abu Aadel, drove him from his position
with great loss, and captured his camp and a large supply of grain he
was convoying to the khalifa. Gedid was reached on the 23rd, and the
khalifa was ascertained to be at Om Debreikat. Wingate marched at
midnight of the 24th, and was resting his troops on high ground in front
of the khalifa's position, when at daybreak of the 25th his picquets
were driven in and the dervishes attacked. They were repulsed with great
slaughter, and Wingate advancing, carried the camp. The khalifa Abdullah
el Taaisha, unable to rally his men, gathered many of his principal
amirs around him, among whom were his sons and brothers, Ali Wad Helu,
Ahmed Fedil, and other well-known leaders, and they met their death
unflinchingly from the bullets of the advancing Sudanese infantry. Three
thousand men and 29 amirs of importance, including Sheik-ed-din, the
khalifa's eldest son and intended successor, surrendered. The dervish
loss in the two actions was estimated at 1000 killed and wounded, while
the Egyptian casualties were only 4 killed and 29 wounded. Thus ended
the power of the khalifa and of Mahdism.
On the 19th of January 1900 Osman Digna, who had been so great a
supporter of Mahdism in the Eastern Sudan, and had always shown great
discretion in securing the safety of his own person, was surrounded and
captured at Jebel Warriba, as he was wandering a fugitive among the
hills beyond Tokar.
The reconquest of Dongola and the Sudan provinces during the three
years from March 1896 to December 1898, considering the enormous
extent and difficulties of the country, was achieved at an
unprecedentedly small cost, while the main item of expenditure--the
railway--remains a permanent benefit to the country. The figures
are:--
Railways LE.1,181,372
Telegraphs 21,825
Gunboats 154,934
Military 996,223
------------
Total LE.2,354,354
Towards this expense the British government gave a grant-in-aid of
L800,000, and the balance was borne by the Egyptian treasury. The
railway, delayed by the construction of the big bridge over the
Atbara, was opened to the Blue Nile opposite Khartum, 187 m. from the
Atbara, at the end of 1899. (R. H. V.)