Since They Would Not Run Their Loss Was
Heavy, And It Was A Strange Sight - The Last Vivid Impression Of The Day -
To Watch Them Struggling Through The Deep Sand, With The Dust Knocked Up
Into Clouds By The Bullets Which Struck All Round Them.
Very few escaped,
and the bodies of the killed lay thickly dotting the river-bed with heaps
of dirty-white.
Then at 8.25 the 'Cease fire' sounded, and the battle
of the Atbara ended.
Forthwith the battalions began to re-form, and in every company the roll
was called. The losses had been severe. In the assault - a period not
exceeding half an hour - eighteen British, sixteen native officers and 525
men had been killed or wounded, the greater part during the passage of
the zeriba.
The actual pursuit was abortive. Colonel Lewis, with his two battalions,
followed a line of advance which led south of the zeriba, and just before
reaching the river bank found and fired upon a few Dervishes retreating
through the scrub. All the cavalry and the Camel Corps crossed the Atbara
and plunged into the bush on the further side. But so dense and tangled
was the country that after three miles of peril and perplexity they
abandoned he attempt, and the routed Arabs fled unmolested. The Baggara
horse had ridden off during the action, headed by the prudent Osman Digna
- whose position in the zeriba was conveniently suited to such a
manoeuvre - and under that careful leadership suffered little loss.
The rest of the army was, however, destroyed or dispersed.
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