CLOSE OF CAMPAIGN.--GORDON MEMORIAL SERVICE, KHARTOUM.
[Illustration: KHALIFA'S CHIEF EUNUCH (SURRENDERS IN BRITISH CAMP).]
Although the beginning of a campaign often drags, the ending is
usually abrupt. With the defeat and flight of Abdullah, Mahdism became
a thing of the past. True, there were several minor engagements fought
later against isolated recalcitrant bodies of dervishes who were too
loyal to their old leaders. But these affairs in no way affected the
result achieved upon the battle-field of Omdurman. During the night or
early morning of the 2nd and 3rd of September, Colonel Macdonald's
brigade advanced into the city to help to keep the peace, and to
secure the surrender of all the armed bands of the enemy. Large bodies
of dervishes were still moving about both within and without Omdurman.
I had myself seen many hundreds of natives set out about dusk to
revisit the battle-field in search of plunder, to rescue wounded
friends, and to bury their dead kinsmen. Those who showed a peaceable
disposition were not molested, but all with arms were arrested and
penned under guards in the Praying Square. Many prisoners were secured
on the battle-field, but relatively only a few thousands. On 3rd
September and following days enormous numbers surrendered, coming into
town or being sent in by the cavalry and friendlies. In fact, they
became so numerous that it was found almost impossible to deal with
them. When dervishes of the Jaalin and other tribes that had abandoned
Mahdism came in they were at once told to behave themselves, and were
allowed to go where they liked. The townsfolk and others who wished to
be let alone, turned their jibbehs inside out, at once a renunciation
of the Khalifa and his works as well as a sanitary gain. Some there
were who, averse to over-cleanliness, simply tore the dervish patches
off their dress, thus also resuming their fealty to the Khedive. The
roll of prisoners, however, in spite of convenient blindness in
letting all the lesser men who wished to escape do so, swelled to
about 11,000. In a house to house visitation the more important rebel
sheikhs and Baggara in hiding were caught and kept under arrest with
their followers. All the Greeks and the local chiefs whom Slatin Pasha
knew to be secretly inimical to the dervish rule, were from the first
secured safe permits and absolute liberty. Among them were many of the
Mahdi's relatives, former rulers of tribes, and Emirs once high in
power. Of wounded dervishes over 9000 were treated by the British and
Egyptian Army Medical Staffs, although the doctors' hands were busy
enough for two days with our own sick and wounded.
[Illustration: FRESH BATCH WOUNDED AND UNWOUNDED DERVISH PRISONERS,
OMDURMAN, 4TH SEPT. 1898.]
Within twenty-four hours after the Sirdar's entry Omdurman began to
assume the signs of orderly government. Thousands of the prisoners as
well as the natives were set to work to clean up the place. The
wounded were all carried into temporary hospitals and the dead were
decently interred in Moslem burial-places out upon the desert. Then
the thoroughfares were scrupulously scavengered by gangs of
yesterday's furious foemen, blacks and Baggara. The dead things were
put under ground, and the stagnant pools were drained or filled in.
Within a week it became actually possible to walk without an attack of
violent nausea in Omdurman. Visits were constantly paid to the
battle-field for the double purpose of rescuing any wounded
dervishes there might be and counting the dead. The large number of
the enemy who for days survived shocking wounds, to which a European
would have instantly or speedily succumbed, was appalling. These
wretched creatures had been seen crawling or dragging themselves for
miles to get to the Nile for water or into villages for succour. Food
and water were sent out to them by the Sirdar's orders on the day
after the battle, when it was seen that the natives gave neither heed
nor help to other than their own immediate kinsmen upon the field.
Even in the town rations were distributed to the needy. The gunboats
going up and down the river saw many sorry sights. Wounded dervishes
were lying by hundreds along the river's bank. Some, whose thirst had
maddened them, had drunk copiously, and then swooned and died, their
heads and shoulders covered with water and the rest of their bodies
stretched upon the strand. General Gatacre and Lieut. Wood on riding
to revisit the zereba near Kerreri, met a dervish, part of one of
whose legs had been blown off by a shell. The man was hobbling along,
leaning upon a broken spear handle, making for Omdurman, with his limb
burned and roughly tied up. They gave him food and water and passed on
meeting others. A mile away, the mounted orderly drew the General's
attention to an object upon the ground with the exclamation: "Blest if
it isn't that bloke's foot!" which sure enough was the case. A number
of officers were told off to count the enemy's dead upon the
battle-field. Sections of the ground were assigned to each. The actual
count was 10,800 dead bodies, which did not include all the slain,
for there were those who died in Omdurman, and afar upon the desert.
One of the officers wrote, "I won't enter into details of our day's
work. It suffices to say, that a piece of cotton-wool soaked in
eucalyptus placed in the nostrils and an ample supply of neat brandy
were only just sufficient to keep us on our legs for the six hours
that we were at the job." He and two others had undertaken to make a
sketch in addition to helping to count the slain. Unfortunately, the
sketch was lost.
And all might have been otherwise, for the Sirdar offered before the
battle to treat with the Khalifa. Here is the copy of the letter, as
translated and published, bearing upon the subject.
"_30th August 1898._
"Viz., 11 Rabi Akhar,
"1316 (M.E.)
"From the Sirdar of the Troops, Soudan,
"To Abdulla, son of Mohamed El-Taaishi, Head of the Soudan.
"Bear in your mind that your evil deeds throughout the Soudan,
particularly your murdering a great number of the Mohammedans
without cause or excuse, besides oppression and tyranny,
necessitated the advance of my troops for the destruction of your
throne, in order to save the country from your devilish doings and
iniquity. Inasmuch as there are many in your keeping for whose
blood you are held responsible--innocent, old, and infirm, women
and children and others--abhorring you and your government, who
are guilty of nothing; and because we have no desire that they
should suffer the least harm, we ask you to have them removed from
the Dem (literally, enclosure) to a place where the shells of guns
and bullets of rifles shall not reach them. If you do not do so,
the shells and bullets cannot recognise them and will
consequently kill them, and afterwards you will be responsible
before God for their blood.
"Stand firm you and your helpers only in the field of battle to
meet the punishment prepared for you by the praised God. But if
you and your Emirs incline to surrender to prevent blood being
shed, we shall receive your envoy with due welcome, and be sure
that we shall treat you with justice and peace.
"(Sealed) KITCHENER,
"Sirdar of the Troops in the Soudan."
Colonel Maxwell was appointed Commandant of Omdurman, and his brigade
was quartered in the town, detachments occupying the principal
buildings. Among the places so held were the Arsenal, the Khalifa's
and his son the Sheikh Ed Din's houses, the Treasury, Tomb and Mosque
enclosure. The rest of the troops were moved two miles to the north of
the town, where a camp was formed along the river bank. Omdurman was
too abominably dirty to risk keeping a single soldier in the place
other than was absolutely necessary. Not an hour was wasted. The
Sirdar's practice was--abundant work for each day and all plans
prepared ahead for the next. The submission of sheikhs and their
followers had to be received, the pursuit of the Khalifa pressed,
wounded dervishes and prisoners provided for, as well as the thousands
of poor in Omdurman helped in various ways. Then there had to be
arranged-for the disposal of the spoils of war, repatriation for many
of Abdullah's enforced subjects, the formal re-occupation of Khartoum,
and the immediate despatch back to Lower Egypt of the British troops
whose services were no longer required. All this and much more was
done, nor am I aware that anything was neglected, not even the
correspondents, who were evidently too seldom far removed from the
General's thoughts. Hurrying into the town early on Saturday morning,
3rd September, to attend Howard's funeral, I found that within half an
hour after sunrise all the dead dervishes, with the murdered women and
children, had been removed to the native burial-grounds outside
Omdurman. In my rambles in the capital that day I visited the only two
passable dwellings in the place, Abdullah's and his son Osman's. Both
houses had a pretence of tidiness and comfort, particularly the Sheikh
Ed Din's. There were paved courtyards, doors, windows with shutters,
plastered walls, cupboards, benches, and ottomans. In each there were
several rooms furnished in a rude style with articles of European
manufacture. Of glass-ware, crockery, and large mirrors there was an
abundance. The Khalifa's favourite reception-room and a chamber in the
harem were almost covered with big looking-glasses. Angry Jaalin and
others who had forced an entrance on the previous day, or else mayhap
the Lyddite bombs, had smashed the mirrors and most of the domestic
ware into atoms. Spears and swords had been freely used to hack the
furniture and fittings about. A wealth of printed and manuscript books
and papers in Arabic characters were scattered, torn, and thrown into
a shed.
The kitchens, stables and outhouses were odorously barbaric in
squalor. They were in strange contrast to any of the rooms in the
rabbit warren of attached dwelling-places within the Khalifa's private
compound. Around the Mahdi's tomb were great splashes of human blood.
On the previous evening I had seen many dead dervishes lying in that
vicinity. In their credulous faith in Mohamed Achmed they had flocked
there for safety, only to be killed by our fire. Of 120 who were
praying around the tomb when a 50-lb. Lyddite shell burst, but
eighteen escaped alive, and these were sorely wounded. The tomb,
carefully stuccoed over inside and out, was built of stone and
well-burned bricks. The base of the square wall from which the
cone-shaped dome sprang was over six feet thick, the vaulted roof
tapering to about eighteen inches at the apex. Great holes had been
knocked in the north-east side, and the rubbish had tumbled in,
breaking the brass and iron grille round the catafalque. Beneath,
covered by two huge blocks of stone, lay Mohamed Achmed's remains.
Early that day violent hands were laid on the brass rails in the outer
windows and grille. The catafalque was stripped of its black and red
cloth covering, and the wood-work was totally destroyed. All the
yellow lettered panels, with texts from the Koran and the Mahdi's
prayer-book, as well as the blue and yellow scroll work, were smashed
or carried off by relic-hunters. The false prophet was so speedily
discredited that not a dervish amongst the tens of thousands but
regarded these and the subsequent proceedings with complete
indifference. To destroy utterly the legend of Mohamed Achmed's
mission, when the British troops had returned to Cairo the Mahdi's
body was disinterred. It had been roughly embalmed and the features
were said to be recognisable. The common people who saw the remains
almost doubted their senses, for it had been given out that the Mahdi
had merely gone off on a visit to heaven and would shortly return.
That his body was found surprised them, as they thought he had gone
aloft in the flesh, the object of the tomb being to mark the spot
where he took leave of the earth and would return to it. Perhaps it
may be deplored that Mohamed Achmed's remains were broken up, part
being cast into the Nile, whilst the head and other portions of the
body were retained for presentation, it is said, to medical colleges.
There were those who thought that the wisest course would have been to
expose the remains for all to see them who cared to, and then to hand
them over to the natives to bury in one of their cemeteries as if he
had been an ordinary man. But the Soudan is not Europe, nor are its
inhabitants amenable to measures eminently satisfactory to civilised
northern races. The tomb was subsequently levelled to the ground by an
explosion of gun-cotton and the debris was cleared away.
I had a good look over the Khalifa's war arsenal. There were plenty of
cannon, old and new, as well as machine guns, rifles, pistols, and
fowling pieces of all kinds. Musical instruments, war-drums,
elephants' tusks used as horns, coats of chain-mail old and new, and
steel helmets. Most of the latter are quite modern, being part of 600
supplied by a London firm of sword makers--Wilkinson & Co., Pall Mall,
to a former Khedive's body-guard. Somehow these plate and chain
crusader-like head-pieces seem all to have drifted south. There were
hundreds of dervish battle flags, including several duplicate black
silk banners such as the Khalifa carried during the action, and
thousands of native spears, swords, and shields. In short, it would be
easier to tell what was not in that extraordinary storehouse than what
was. Among other articles I saw were: Ivory, powder, percussion caps,
old lead, copper, tin, bronze, cloth, looms, pianos, sewing machines,
agricultural implements, boilers, steam-engines, ostrich feathers,
gum, hippopotamus hides, iron and wooden bedsteads, drums, bugles,
field glasses--Lieutenant Charles Grenfell's, lost at El Teb in the
Eastern Soudan in 1883, were found there--bolts, zinc, rivets, paints,
india-rubber, leather, boots, knapsacks, water-bottles, flags, and
clothes. There were three state coaches--one of them might at a pinch
have served for the Lord Mayor--and an American buggy. They needed a
little retrimming, but there was harness and material enough to have
rigged out the four vehicles in style. In short, the arsenal held the
jettisoned cargo of the whole aforetime Egyptian Soudan, with much
besides drawn from Abyssinia and Central Africa. Truly, the Khalifa
must have been a strange man, with a fine acquisitive instinct
abnormally cultivated.
[Illustration: NEUFELD, WITH ABYSSINIAN WIFE AND CHILDREN; ALSO FELLOW
PRISONER.]
Neufeld, quite contrary to Slatin Pasha's way of speaking, declared to
me that the Khalifa was not at all a bad sort of man, nor an
exceptionally cruel Arab task-master, and certainly not a monster. The
Khalifa, he said, had often come and chatted with him. Abdullah had
vowed to him, that if he were able to have his own way he would make a
close friend of him, and have him always near his person. The Khalifa
asserted he liked white men, admired their knowledge and ability, and
would, were he permitted, have many of them in Khartoum. As everybody
knew, he befriended the Greeks, because he could do that with safety,
for the natives were not so jealous of them as of other white men. The
Taaisha were, he declared, absurdly suspicious of his intercourse with
Neufeld, and were always bringing him tales, to try and get him to
kill all the white men without exception. His countrymen's jealous,
narrow fanaticism annoyed him, but what, he asked, could he do, for he
was very much in their power, and unable to afford to fly in their
faces? Abdullah often spoke thus, according to Neufeld, and, as the
latter also said, frequently that leader of the fanatical dervishes
exhibited keen interest in acquiring information about Europe and its
people. He hoped to make peace some day with the outside world, and be
allowed thereafter to rule the Soudan. All this, I submit, is rather
puzzling, in view of the filthy den the Khalifa kept Neufeld shut up
in, and the manner in which he loaded him with heavy leg-irons. During
his captivity, Neufeld had with him an Abyssinian girl, or rather
woman. She was taken prisoner with him. Thereafter she devotedly
ministered to his wants, fetched water and food, and made, under his
tuition, really eatable bread. Neufeld, who said he met me in 1884-85,
up the Nile, when he was attached to the army, gave me a piece of this
bread, and I found it quite palatable. Yeast is easily made in the
Soudan with sour dough and sugar.
As arsenals mayhap date back to the eras of Tubal Cain and Vulcan, it
was to be expected the Khalifa would also have his modern smithy. He
made his own gunpowder, shells, and bullets, and the metallic cases
for his troops' Remington rifles. The country was laid under
contribution to supply copper for that purpose, and he essayed the
filling of percussion caps with fulminate, not over successfully I
hope. He had his cartridge manufactory, and a very well equipped
engineer shop as well. Yea, the potentate was setting up a Zoo,
wherein I saw three young lions chained to posts by neck collars, as
though those savage beasts were watch-dogs. As for the engineer shop,
with foundry and smithy attached, the Beit el Mauna, it was part of a
cleverly planned square of buildings with a river frontage and a
spacious yard. The designer was one El Osta Abdullah, a former
employee of General Gordon's in Khartoum Arsenal. There were several
steam engines; the principal one driving the main shafting was of 28
horse-power. The fly-wheel was 4 feet in diameter. There were five
lathes, one cat-head lathe--36 inch, three drills, and other tools
including a slotting machine, all in perfect going order. The
machinery had formed part of the dismantled Khartoum Arsenal, and had
been removed into Omdurman to be nearer the watchful eyes of Yacoub,
who superintended the workshops, though destitute of mechanical
knowledge. El Osta was the foreman and had numbers of natives, free
and prisoners, under him. There were plenty of crucibles for iron as
well as brass smelting. The blasts of furnaces and smithy fires were
served from fanners driven by machinery. There were paint shops and
stores, the floors of which were laid in bricks. In truth, the arsenal
was in process of extension. Two more engines for the shop were in
course of completion. The steamers disabled or wrecked in the 1885
campaign had all been recovered and overhauled by the dervishes. They
were sagacious enough to make use of all the skilled labour to be
found amongst the Turkish and Egyptian prisoners who fell into their
hands. Although the Khalifa's river steamers, recaptured by the
Sirdar, could steam fully as well as ever, their hulls and decks were
dreadfully rotten and dilapidated, not a pound of paint nor any fresh
timber having been used upon them in all the intervening years.
"Is that mean, dirty compound, with those squalid mud-huts, facing the
Khalifa's big wall, Osman Digna's house?" I asked. "Yes," said my
native informant, "that is the house of the robber-chief, Osman
Digna." I entered and found within only a few wretched slaves and poor
Hadendowas. Osman, like the Khalifa, had given us the slip, leaving
behind such of his people as he thought of no value, and hurrying away
with all his women and treasure towards the south. They had horses and
camels, and upon the best of them they decamped. Several of the
notorious Osman Digna's tribal retainers were caught. These wretched
Hadendowas were, I was told, glad to be permitted subsequently to
return to their own country. Over 300 Abyssinians were amongst our
prisoners. They had volunteered or been coerced into joining the
dervish ranks. All of them were surprised to find themselves kindly
treated. In due course, those who cared to go--men, women and
children--were provided with free passages back to Abyssinia. The
Sirdar held several receptions, whereat the principal native leaders
and sheikhs attended. Amongst others delighted at the overthrow of the
Khalifa were all the survivors of the old Khedivial army, who had been
abandoned to their fate for years. Of these were the whilom Governor
of Senaar, a native artillery officer who had been with Hicks Pasha,
and Gordon Pasha's native medical attendant.
During the week after the battle the British and Khedivial troops, by
brigades, made triumphal marches into and through Omdurman. Proceeding
from our camp with flags flying and bands playing, they went along the
main thoroughfares to the Tomb and Mosque, returning by a circuitous
route to quarters. The ex-dervishes and other natives flocked in
thousands to see the finely-equipped and well-disciplined battalions
led by the Sirdar. It was an exhibition of power they quite
understood, and one which won from them open praise at the gallant
bearing of our soldiery. The immediate effect was to produce a feeling
of deep respect for the authority of the new order of things.
When it was found that the Khalifa had escaped by the south end of
Omdurman, Colonel Broadwood, with his two regiments of Egyptian
cavalry and the Camel Corps, started in pursuit. Gunboats also
proceeded up the White Nile to head off the fugitives. Unfortunately
as there had been a very general rainfall, the desert routes towards
Kordofan were not absolutely waterless. The cavalry soon found that
they were upon a hot trail; and men, women, and children, who had been
unable to keep pace with the flying Khalifa and Osman Digna, were
picked up. Some of these, no doubt, had purposely given their master
the slip. It was in that way that Abdullah's chief wife, the Sheikh Ed
Din's mother, was caught and brought in by the "friendlies." One poor
woman, just confined, had the babe, a male, taken away by her lord,
whilst she was left to shift for herself. Happily, her life was saved.
As I have said relatively little about the Egyptian cavalry, I will
let one of their officers tell what they did. Colonel Broadwood had
under him a magnificent body of officers, British and Egyptian.
Captain Legge of the 20th Hussars was the brigade-major. The narrative
in question was given to me a few days after the victory.
"The Sirdar's orders on the morning of the battle to Colonel Broadwood
were, to take up successive positions on his (the Sirdar's) right
flank, and to prevent the enemy's left from overlapping too far. The
fear was that the dervishes might attack upon the north or weakest
side of the zereba. After rejoining the infantry towards the end of
the assault made on Macdonald's brigade we were formed into two lines.
Turning our backs to the Nile, that is, facing west, we galloped in
pursuit of the retreating dervishes. For four miles we rode forward
without check. Then we wheeled to the left, towards Omdurman, and
swept the country on the right front of the Sirdar over a width of
four miles. We were shot at repeatedly, and sometimes heavily, by
bands of fugitives, but we never drew rein, using lance and sword upon
all who showed fight. In that draw we made 1000 prisoners, breaking
the Remingtons of those who had rifles and sending our captives under
escort of a squadron to the Sirdar. When close to Omdurman we came
across a large body of dervishes full of 'buck.' Four of our squadrons
went for them. They charged clean through them, wheeled, and charged
back again. That took the sting out of them, though there were still
individual dervishes who would keep trying to charge us. Colonel
Broadwood came up at that juncture with the supports, whereupon the
enemy all bolted for the hills. At 2 p.m. we reported to headquarters,
and, following the infantry, went to water our horses at the Nile. The
same afternoon we passed through part of Omdurman and went out upon
the open desert to the south-west. At 6.30 p.m. Slatin Pasha brought
us orders to start immediately in pursuit of the Khalifa. We went on
as best we could until 8.30 p.m., without food or water. Trying to run
in towards the river to procure both, for a gunboat was to carry our
supplies, we found it was impossible to get within two miles of the
Nile owing to the overflow having turned the margin into boggy land.
Besides, the bushy inaccessible ground was teeming with hostile
dervishes. We had missed our way. Without off-saddling, we bivouacked
where we were, forming square. At 4 a.m. we mounted and rode on,
going until 8.30 a.m., when we got down to the river. There Slatin
Pasha quitted us, returning to Omdurman. We halted for an hour,
watered and fed our poor horses, and had a bite for ourselves. Then we
remounted and rode fifteen miles farther south. We had reached a point
just thirty-five miles south of Omdurman. Our horses had been going
almost continuously for four days previously, the forage was finished,
and the animals exhausted, so we again halted. Supplies had been
ordered forward to that spot, but the overflow prevented us from being
able to get near enough the native boats to draw upon them for stores.
We decided to bivouac there and take our chance of being able somehow
to get at the boats. Next morning we were ordered back into Omdurman.
Slatin Pasha had learned from fugitives and natives that the Khalifa
was still twenty-five miles ahead of us. Abdullah had with him 100
Taaisha Baggara, and had procured fresh camels and horses, so was
'going strong,' too good for us to catch up. The riverside country
people could not credit that we had defeated the Khalifa and taken
Omdurman. On our way back we picked up six of Osman Digna's
Hadendowas. They said Osman was riding with the Khalifa, showing him
the tracks and bypaths, with all of which he was familiar. We heard
that neither Osman nor the Khalifa was wounded, and that Sheikh Ed Din
was likewise untouched."
It has been too readily accepted that the Black, although an
incomparably fine infantry-man, would not make a good trooper. There
are Blacks and Blacks as there are "Browns and Browns." Many of the
negroid races of the Central Soudan are excellent horsemen. The dash
of the Khalifa's mounted men was superb. So it came about that after
Omdurman the Sirdar decided to reinforce the Egyptian cavalry with a
newly raised squadron or two composed entirely of Blacks. Ex-dervishes
of suitable smartness and physique were permitted to join the new
body, the ranks of which were filled in a very short time, for
hundreds eagerly volunteered. The accounts I have since heard of the
1st Black Cavalry are eminently favourable. There can be no doubt
about one thing,--whatever may be said of fellaheen troopers, the
Blacks will charge home.
Another matter that merits a little more detail is the action fought
by Major Stuart Wortley's "friendlies," and the work accomplished by
the flotilla under Commander Keppel, R.N. It was the gunboats that
transported the British infantry from their camps at Dakhala and
Darmali so smartly to Wad Habeshi. Their assistance in that respect
reduced the campaign from one of months to days, and lessened the
risks to the troops. Eight steamers arrived at Dakhala on one
occasion, and the transport department did its duty so well that they
were loaded and despatched back up stream within twenty-four hours.
Royan Island had not only been made a depot of stores, but a
sanatorium where sick officers and men were sent as a "pick 'em up."
An order from the Sirdar on the 30th of August was wired to Royan, to
find 235 men and 8 officers who were well enough to man the gunboats,
to be in short amateur marines. At that date there were 327 sick upon
the island. Most of them were eager to get to the front, but the
doctors would not certify that any of them were able to bear the
fatigue of marching. There was therefore great rejoicing among the
more convalescent, for they had begun to despair of seeing the fight.
The hospital state showed that there were then at Royan 46 men of the
Warwicks, 69 of the Lincolns, 62 of the Seaforths, 36 of the Camerons,
19 of the Grenadier Guards, 42 of the Northumberland Fusiliers, 42 of
the Lancashire Fusiliers, and 21 of the Rifles. From 25 to 40 men were
marched on board each of the gunboats the same day. Captain Ferguson
of the Northumberland Fusiliers became marine officer on board the
"Sultan," Lieutenant Allardice went to the "Sheik," Lieutenant Seymour
of the Grenadier Guards to the "Melik," Captain Ritchie to the
"Nazir," Lieutenant Arbuthnot to the "El Hafir," and Lieutenant
Jackson and other officers respectively to the "Tamai," "Fatah,"
"Metemmeh," etc.
On the 31st of August the "Melik" kept abreast of the cavalry acting
as a screen. At noon of the same day the "Sultan" and the "Melik" and
"Nazir" were sent to shell the dervish tents and tukals seen to the
east of Kerreri village. The enemy were found in some force, about
3500 strong. Eight or ten shrapnel were fired into their zerebaed
camp. Right in the middle of the tents the first shell burst. The
dervishes struck their camp instantly, and mounted men and footmen ran
to the hills, their flight quickened by the gunboats' Maxims. Their
zereba was burned. South Kerreri village was found unoccupied. The
steamers proceeded a little further up stream, had a look at Tuti
Island, and on the west bank caught sight of a body of dervishes, Emir
Zaccharia's men, who also had a taste of shrapnel and Maxims.
On the 1st of September at 5.30 a.m. the steamers "Sultan," "Melik,"
"Sheik," "Nazir," "Fatah," "Tamai," and "Abu Klea" went again up the
river to destroy the forts and land the 50-pounder Lyddite howitzer
battery on Tuti Island, whence it was to shell Omdurman. Major Stuart
Wortley and part of his force were also to be transferred to that
island to support Major Elmslie's battery and clear off any dervishes.
It was found, as I have already stated, that Tuti was unsuitable as a
position, and the Lyddite guns were landed instead upon the east or
right bank of the river. The "Sultan" opened the attack, firing at the
forts and pitching shells into Omdurman. In a short time the other
gunboats came to her assistance, and the mud forts, of which there
were a dozen or more, were promptly silenced. Several of the dervish
gunners' shells, however, only missed the steamers that were their
target by a very few yards. Happily the embrasures of the forts were
so badly made, that the enemy had but a small angle of fire. It was in
more than one instance impossible for the dervish guns to train except
straight to their front. The flotilla passed down behind Tuti Island,
going by the east bank, and were brought-to below the island. There
the 37th R.A. Battery was landed, and the Lyddite shell fire was
directed against the great wall and the Mahdi's tomb, the range of the
latter being 3200 yards. Many dervishes were seen in and around
Omdurman, and a number were noticed upon the right bank. Two of the
gunboats remained all night to protect the Lyddite battery, using
their electric search-lights to detect any lurking dervishes. The
steamers fired that day several hundred shells and 8000 rounds from
their Maxims. Captain Prince Christian Victor was attached on board
the "Sultan," and Prince Teck, who had a sharp attack of fever and had
temporarily to abandon his squadron in the Egyptian cavalry, saw that
and the next day's battle from one of the other gunboats.
On the 2nd of September the "Melik" ran a little way up stream before
sunrise and then returned. In the first stage of the battle the
"Nazir," "Fatah," "Sheik," "El Hafir" and another protected the south
front of the Sirdar's camp, whilst the "Sultan," "Melik" and "Tamai"
guarded the north end of it. There were over 100 shells were fired
from the "Sultan" at 3000 to 2800 yards ranges. The "Melik" found the
enemy's columns with their quick-firing 15 pounders at under 1500
yards range on one occasion. During the second phase of the battle,
the "Melik" dropped again down stream, and struck Sheikh Ed Din's
column as the enemy advanced to attack Macdonald's brigade, treating
the dervishes to all her artillery. When Omdurman was occupied by the
troops the flotilla again rendered valuable help. After the action the
gunboats were sent, part up the White, part up the Blue Nile, to carry
the good news and break up any dervish camps. The "Sultan," "Melik,"
"Sheik," "Nazir," and "Fatah" proceeded up the White Nile. Commander
Keppel went 115 miles south of Omdurman. He saw but few of the enemy.
The country was much overflowed, the river was nearly 6 miles wide in
several places, the wooded banks and bush being under water.
On the 2nd of September Major Stuart Wortley and his friendlies had a
brisk engagement with Emir Isa Zaccharia. Major Elmslie had begun the
day's battle at 5.30 a.m. with a salvo of his six guns, throwing the
50 lb. Lyddite shells into Omdurman. Wortley's friendlies, later on,
advanced in fine style, in open order, and drove about 800 Jehadieh
out of a village. About 350 were killed, including their leader. The
remainder bolted off towards the Blue Nile, pursued by the Jaalin and
others. At the close of the action Major Wortley, Captain Buckle,
Lieut. C. Wood, and two non-commissioned English officers walked down
towards the point from which Major Elmslie's battery was firing. They
were seen and charged by about twenty-five dervish horsemen. Luckily,
heavy, boggy land intervened, and Lieut. Wood and Major Wortley
dropped the leading horsemen, when some of the Jaalin rallied and came
to their assistance. The rout of the Baggara was completed, the
dervish horsemen leaving eleven dead upon the field.
On Sunday morning, 4th September, the Press were invited by
Headquarters to go over by steamer to Khartoum. We were told that an
official ceremony which we ought not to miss was about to take place.
There were an unusual number of correspondents. The previous
restrictions and military objections to their presence had been made
ridiculous by the widest throwing open of the door to all. The Sirdar
and Headquarters embarked upon the "Melik." We found that
representative detachments from all the commands in the army were
being ferried over in boats and giassas towed by the steamers. From
every British battalion there were present eighty-one officers and
men. The 21st Lancers were represented by ten officers and twenty-four
non-commissioned officers and men. Two officers and seven men were
sent by each battery of artillery, and two officers and five men from
the Maxim batteries. There were also representative sections from the
Khedivial forces. As the steamers drew up alongside the stone-wall
quay before the ruined Government House where General Gordon made his
last stand, the soldiers were seen to be already in position. There
was but little space between the quay wall and the buildings, for the
debris of bricks and stone from the overturned structure nearly
blocked up the former open promenade facing the muddy Blue Nile. The
ruined walls and forts looked picturesque in their deep setting of
dark-green palms, mimosa, and tall orange-trees. Compared with
treeless, brown, arid Omdurman, Khartoum wore an air of romance and
loveliness that well became such historic ground. An odour of blossom
and fruit was wafted from the wild and spacious Mission and Government
House gardens, which even the dervishes had not been able to wreck
totally.
[Illustration: DISTANT VIEW, KHARTOUM (FROM BLUE NILE).]
Two flagstaffs had been erected upon the top of the one-storied wall
fronting the Blue Nile. The Sirdar ranged facing the building and the
flagstaffs. Behind him were the Headquarters Staff, the Generals of
division, and others. To his left, formed up at right angles, were the
representative detachments of the Egyptian army, the 11th Soudanese,
with their red heckles in their fezzes, in the front line. Upon the
Sirdar's right were the detachments of Gatacre's division, each in
its regimental order of seniority. Standing a few paces in front of
the Sirdar, but facing him, upon a mound of earth and bricks, were the
four chaplains attached to the British infantry--Presbyterian, Church
of England, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan. _En passant_, though it is
an army secret, in nothing was the Sirdar's power and strong will more
manifest than in securing the presence that day in amity of the four
representatives of religion. One of the reverend gentlemen, presumably
on the strength of the superior claims of his orthodoxy, refused to
join in any service in which clergymen of any other denomination bore
a part. The Sirdar sent a peremptory order, without a word of
explanation, for that cleric to embark forthwith and return to Cairo.
Instead, he hastened to Headquarters and made his peace, and had the
order withdrawn. Upon their right was a small body of Royal Engineer
officers, Gordon's own corps. A hundred natives or more had gathered
on the outside, wondering what was going to happen. The Sirdar himself
had been the first to land upon the quay and walk towards the
building, the windows of which Gordon had caused to be filled in to
stop entrance of the dervish bullets from Tuti. There were plenty of
marks of the enemy's musketry fire, as well as the dents of shell and
round shot. The former official entrance was within a littered
courtyard upon the opposite side of the building. It was whilst
descending the interior stairway to meet the dervishes that Gordon was
hacked and slain by the fierce fanatics and his body cast into the
courtyard.
Ten o'clock was the official hour notified for the ceremonial, which
commenced upon a signal from the Sirdar. A British band played a few
bars of "God Save the Queen." Whilst all were saluting, Lieutenant
Stavely, R.N., and Captain J. Watson, A.D.C., standing on the west
side of the wall ran up a brilliant silk Union Jack to the top of
their flagstaff, hauling the halyard taut as the flag flapped smartly
in the breeze. It had barely begun to ascend when Lieutenant Milford
and Effendi Bakr, at the adjacent pole, ran up the Egyptian flag.
Thereupon an Egyptian band played at some length the Khedivial hymn.
At its close the Sirdar called for three cheers for "The Queen," which
were given voluminously, even the natives shouting, though, perhaps,
they didn't quite know why. Three cheers for the Khedive were also
heartily given. Meantime the "Melik's" quick-firing guns were rolling
out a royal salute, and, as usual with them, making things jump aboard
the lightly built craft and smashing glass and crockery in all
directions.
[Illustration: HOISTING FLAGS, KHARTOUM.]
Ere the echo of cannon had died away another ceremony had begun. The
British band played softly the "Dead March in Saul," and every head
was bared in memory of Gordon. His funeral obsequies were at last
taking place upon the spot where he fell. Then the Egyptian band
played their quaint funeral march, and the native men and women,
understanding that, and whom it was played for, raised their
prolonged, shrill, wailing cry. Count Calderai, the Italian Military
Attache, who stood near the Sirdar, was deeply affected, whilst Count
von Tiedmann, the German Attache, who appeared in his magnificent
white Cuirassier uniform on the occasion, was even more keenly
impressed, a soldier's tears coursing down his cheeks. But there!
Other eyes were wet, and cheeks too, as well as his, and bronzed
veterans were not ashamed of it either. Sadness and bitter memories!
So the Gordon legend, if you will, shall live as long as the English
name endures. A brief pause, and in gentle voice and manner the Rev.
John M. Sims, Presbyterian Chaplain--Gordon's faith--broke the
silence. In his brief prayer he said: "Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth." Then he observed, "Let us hear God's
word as written for our instruction," reading from Psalm XV. the
following verses: "Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall
dwell in Thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth
not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a
reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is
contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth
to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money
to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these
things shall never be moved." "And to God's great name shall be all
the praise and glory, world without end. Amen." When Mr Sims had
concluded, the Rev. A. W. B. Watson, Church of England Chaplain,
recited the Lord's Prayer. Following him the Rev. R. Brindle, Roman
Catholic Chaplain, prayed, saying: "O Almighty God, by whose
providence are all things which come into the lives of men, whether of
suffering which Thou permittest, or of joy and gladness which Thou
givest, look down, we beseech Thee, with eyes of pity and compassion
on this land so loved by that heroic soul whose memory we honour
before Thee this day. Give back to it days of peace. Send to it rulers
animated by his spirit of justice and righteousness. Strengthen them
in the might of Thy power, that they may labour in making perfect the
work to which he devoted and for which he gave his life. And grant to
us, Thy servants, that we may copy his virtues of self-sacrifice and
fortitude, so that when Thou callest we may each be able to answer, 'I
have fought the good fight,'--a blessing which we humbly ask in the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
When Father Brindle had concluded, the pipers, accompanied by muffled
drums, played the Coronach as a lament. The weird Highland minstrelsy
seemed quite in keeping with the place and solemn scene. Then the
Khedivial band played a hymn tune, "Thy Will be Done," and the sad
ceremony was closed to the boom of minute guns. Generals Rundle,
Gatacre, and Hunter then stepped forward and congratulated the Sirdar
upon the successful completion of his task, and the commanding
officers and others, following their example, did the same. Sir
Herbert acknowledged their greeting, and announced that the men would
be allowed to break off for half an hour or so to go over the ruins
and gardens if they wished. Everybody availed himself of the
opportunity. In a few minutes a throng of officers and men who had
scrambled over the debris filled the roofless rooms and packed the
stairway where Gordon was struck down. I was surprised to find that
even the youngest, most callow soldiers knew their Khartoum and the
story of Gordon's fight and death. So deep and far had the tale
travelled. There were speculations and suggestions as to how the end
exactly came about that were a revelation to me, so full of
information and pregnant of observation were many of the men's
remarks. Throng succeeded throng in the rooms and stairways, whilst
others went to explore the outhouses and the gardens. The passion
flowers and the pomegranates were in bloom, but the oranges and limes
were in fruit. Leaves and buds were plucked by all of us as souvenirs.
Brigade-Major Snow, who was with the Camel Corps in 1884-85 across the
Bayuda desert, produced a tiny bottle of champagne that was to have
been drunk in Khartoum when we got there. He opened it, and shared the
driblet with a few of the old campaigners. By one p.m. we were all
back again in Omdurman, leaving behind two companies of the 11th
Battalion to hold Khartoum for the two flags, the hoisting of which,
side by side, the Egyptians regarded as natural and most proper.