All The Water
In The Tanks Was At Once Distributed, And Thus Refreshed The Infantry
Struggled On And Settled Down At Midday Around A Fine Pool Of
Comparatively Pure Water.
At Gedid, as at Nefisa, a single Dervish, and this time a sullen fellow,
was captured, and from him it was learned that the Khalifa's army was
encamped seven miles to the south-east.
It was now clear that his position
was strategically most unfavourable. His route to the north was barred;
his retreat to the south lay through waterless and densely wooded
districts; and as the seizure of the grain supplies which had resulted from
Fedil's foraging excursions rendered his advance or retirement a matter of
difficulty, it seemed probable he would stand. Wingate, therefore, decided
to attack him at dawn. Leaving the transport under guard by the water with
instructions to follow at four o'clock, the troops moved off at midnight,
screened in front at a distance of half a mile by the cavalry and their
flanks protected by the Camel Corps. The road was in places so thickly
wooded that a path had to be cut by the infantry pioneers and the artillery.
At three o'clock, when about three miles from the enemy's position,
the force was deployed into fighting formation. The irregular riflemen
covered the front; behind them the XIIIth and IXth Soudanese; and behind
these, again, the Maxims and the artillery were disposed. Cautiously and
silently the advance was resumed, and now in the distance the beating of
war drums and the long booming note of the Khalifa's horn broke on the
stillness, proclaiming that the enemy were not unprepared. At a few minutes
before four o'clock another low ridge, also comparatively bare of scrub,
was reached and occupied as a position. The cavalry were now withdrawn from
the front, a few infantry picquets were thrown out, and the rest of the
force lay down in the long grass of the little ridge and waited
for daylight.
After about an hour the sky to the eastward began to grow paler with the
promise of the morning and in the indistinct light the picquets could be
seen creeping gradually in; while behind them along the line of the trees
faint white figures, barely distinguishable, began to accumulate.
Sir Reginald Wingate, fearing lest a sudden rush should be made upon him,
now ordered the whole force to stand up and open fire; and forthwith,
in sudden contrast to the silence and obscurity, a loud crackling fusillade
began. It was immediately answered. The enemy's fire flickered along a wide
half-circle and developed continually with greater vigour opposite the
Egyptian left, which was consequently reinforced. As the light improved,
large bodies of shouting Dervishes were seen advancing; but the fire was
too hot, and their Emirs were unable to lead them far beyond the edge of
the wood. So soon as this was perceived Wingate ordered a general advance;
and the whole force, moving at a rapid pace down the gentle slope,
drove the enemy through the trees into the camp about a mile and a half
away. Here, huddled together under their straw shelters, 6,000 women and
children were collected, all of whom, with many unwounded combatants,
made signals of surrender and appeals for mercy. The 'cease fire' was
sounded at half-past six. Then, and not till then, was it discovered how
severe the loss of the Dervishes had been. It seemed to the officers that,
short as was the range, the effect of rifle fire under such unsatisfactory
conditions of light could not have been very great. But the bodies thickly
scattered in the scrub were convincing evidences. In one space not much
more than a score of yards square lay all the most famous Emirs of the once
far-reaching Dervish domination. The Khalifa Abdullah, pierced by several
balls, was stretched dead on his sheepskin; on his right lay Ali-Wad-Helu,
on his left Ahmed Fedil. Before them was a line of lifeless bodyguards;
behind them a score of less important chiefs; and behind these, again,
a litter of killed and wounded horses. Such was the grim spectacle which
in the first light of the morning met the eyes of the British officers,
to some of whom it meant the conclusion of a perilous task prolonged over
many years. And while they looked in astonishment not unmingled with awe,
there scrambled unhurt from under a heap of bodies the little Emir Yunes,
of Dongola, who added the few links necessary to complete the chain.
At Omdurman Abdullah had remained mounted behind the hill of Surgham,
but in this his last fight he had set himself in the forefront of the
battle. Almost at the first discharge, his son Osman, the Sheikh-ed-Din,
was wounded, and as he was carried away he urged the Khalifa to save
himself by flight; but the latter, with a dramatic dignity sometimes
denied to more civilised warriors, refused. Dismounting from his horse,
and ordering his Emirs to imitate him, he seated himself on his sheepskin
and there determined to await the worst of fortune. And so it came to pass
that in this last scene in the struggle with Mahdism the stage was cleared
of all its striking characters, and Osman Digna alone purchased by flight
a brief ignoble liberty, soon to be followed by a long ignoble servitude.
Twenty-nine Emirs, 3,000 fighting men, 6,000 women and children
surrendered themselves prisoners. The Egyptian losses were three killed
and twenty-three wounded.
. . . . . . . . . .
The long story now approaches its conclusion. The River War is over.
In its varied course, which extended over fourteen years and involved the
untimely destruction of perhaps 300,000 lives, many extremes and contrasts
have been displayed. There have been battles which were massacres,
and others that were mere parades. There have been occasions of shocking
cowardice and surprising heroism, of plans conceived in haste and emergency,
of schemes laid with slow deliberation, of wild extravagance and cruel
waste, of economies scarcely less barbarous, of wisdom and incompetence.
But the result is at length achieved, and the flags of England and Egypt
wave unchallenged over the valley of the Nile.
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