CHAPTER XLIX THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN, 1898-THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN, SEPTEMBER 2, 1898 HE Egyptian army of to-day is a creation of the past sixteen TH years. It was made new out of unpromising material by the patience and skill of the British officers in Egypt. It is an ideal army for fighting, the officers young and brave, the men admirably trained, obedient and courageous. For the wonder of discipline is that it can turn the cringing Egyptian fellah into a brave soldier when he is properly led. The soul of the army is the Sirdar. Here we have him described to the life by one who knew him well:' "Major-General Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener is forty-eight years old by the book; but that is irrelevant. He stands several inches over six feet, straight as a lance, and looks out imperiously over most men's heads; his motions are deliberate and strong. Steady passionless eyes shaded by decisive brows, brick-red, rather full cheeks, a long mustache beneath which you divine an immovable mouth; his face is harsh and neither appeals for affection nor stirs dislike. The brain and the will are the essence and the whole of the man. In 1890 he succeeded Sir Francis Grenfell as Sirdar; in 1896 he began the conquest of the Soudan. His officers and men are wheels in the machine; he feeds them enough to make them efficient, and he works them as mercilessly as he works himself. And if you suppose, therefore, that the Sirdar is unpopular—he is not. No general is unpopular who always beats the enemy." The problem of the conquest of the Soudan was twofold. First, Mr. G. W. Steevens, the famous war correspondent, who lately died of fever in the siege of Ladysmith in South Africa. FF-VOL. II. the Egyptian army had to be created. This was done by long years of patient drill. The army existed, it would fight, it would not run away howling as at the massacre of Hicks Pasha's army in 1883. The next point was to bring the army face to face with the enemy a thousand miles up the Nile. The question was one of supply and of transportation. The Sirdar hit on exactly the right solution. He determined to take every advantage of the river, to supplement it with camel transport, and to build a railway. "The Sirdar's plan was to advance a small force and to intrench it to cover the railway construction. This small force could be supplied by camel convoys. When the railway had proceeded as far as safety permitted he would rapidly bring up his whole force and drive the Dervishes out of Ferket. When the railway reached Ferket he would bring up a big reserve of supplies, wait till high Nile, then put it into boats which could sail right up to Dongola, thus supplying his force. To carry his force across the river, tow barges, to bombard river forts, to enfilade fortifications, to make life in the river bank unbearable for the enemy to do all these things he would have gunboats drawing two feet of water. Any one who has seen the Desert will understand what a mistake in supplying the army would mean. The Desert stopped the Romans, Greeks and Persians. Simple as the plan looks, it was not so simple to execute, but luckily Sir Herbert Kitchener was as capable to execute as he was to plan." General Kitchener required from March, 1896, to June, 1898, for the construction of the five hundred and fifty miles of railway to Atbara. At that point he collected a flotilla of steamers, barges and boats. The battle of Atbara was fought and won on April 8, 1898, and the railway was completed to this point in the middle of June. On August 31st the army was in touch with the enemy. The Anglo-Egyptian army camped, on the night of September 1, 1898, near the Nile at the little village of Agaiga, within seven miles of Omdurman. To the north and west lay the heights of Kerreri where the Egyptian cavalry were stationed. To the south, extending to the river, lay the great hill of Gebel Surgham. The infantry brigades occupied a half circle around the village. The five gunboats lay close to the river banks, with steam up. In front This was the place and of the position was an open plain, five miles or so wide, extending from hill to hill-from Kerreri to Gebel Surgham. There were twenty thousand men in line facing the plain. Beyond them, still invisible, were fifty thousand Dervishes. the time for the decisive battle. Would or should we have to go out to find them? question in every mind. It was soon settled. advance. The Dervishes were coming to attack us here. Far away in the distance we heard their cries and the tap of their war-drums. It was now about half-past six in the morning of September 2d. They came on in the distance, looking in their white loose dresses like an army of banners. They were armed with guns, spears, swords; any weapon would serve them in a holy war against the infidel. If they died what matter? Paradise awaited them. The British infantry fire began when they were more than a mile away. Still the Dervishes came on in compact masses. The artillery tore through them with shell, making huge gaps instantly closed up. The infantry fire was steady, continuous, fatal. No white troops would have stood up before it for a moment, but still the Dervishes came on with mad rushes. They dropped by hundreds and by thousands. The ground grew white with the mantles of the dead. The Dervishes were not driven back. They were all killed where they stood. At about half-past nine the British brigades slowly echeloned forward out on to the plain, thinking the battle well over. Hardly had they moved into the open when they found themselves face to face with new hordes. The Khalifa had divided his army into three divisions. The first had attacked the village and had been annihilated there. The second moved toward Kerreri heights to envelop the British right; the third lay behind Surgham hill to bar the road to Omdurman. The Egyptian cavalry fell back before their fierce attack and the army of the green flag occupied the hill of Kerreri. The British infantry on the left swung round to face the third divis ion of the Khalifa's army, where his black banner waved. The Twenty-first Lancers moved far out to the westward of our extreme left and prepared for a charge. Their scouts had been forward a thousand yards and reported the ground clear. But the scouts had not been far enough. Between them and the enemy there yawned a deep ravine lined thickly with Dervishes. Into this, through it, beyond it, the Lancers rode, leaving twenty-four of their number dead and with more than fifty wounded. Like the charge of the Light Brigade, it was a blunder, but a blunder retrieved in both cases by magnificent gallantry. The Dervishes threw themselves against the infantry brigades with vain valor, and the slaughter of the first attack was repeated. Once more the the British lines moved forward. They were far out in the plain now-Lyttleton and Maxwell at the hill Gebel Surgham, the cavalry and the reserves on the right, General Macdonald's Egyptian division in the center. The brunt of the attack fell on Macdonald. The Khalifa with his division attacked the British center from the southwest, the division of Ali Wad Helu attacked from the north and west; twelve thousand Dervishes against the Egyptian division of three thousand. But Wauchope's brigade (all British) pushed forward and filled up the gaps between Macdonald and the rest of the British line. An eyewitness says: "The fire discipline of the British was a treat to watch; exactly as on parade they changed from volley firing to independent, and back to volley firing, as might be ordered, coolly and without any hurry. Their shooting, too, was admirable. The Egyptian troops were as steady, but they cannot shoot so well. Although the Dervishes were falling in hundreds their advance seemed, at first, to be unchecked; numbers dropped, but others were rushing on and coming nearer and nearer till it almost seemed as if they would reach us; but within three hundred yards of the British and within two hundred of the Egyptian brigade scarcely a Dervish could live. So rapid was the British fire that above the sound of the explo sions could be heard the swish of our bullets going through the air just like the swish of water. It literally swept away the line of charging Dervishes." Over 11,000 were killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4,000 taken prisoners in the Dervish forces. The Anglo-Egyptian army of 22,000 |