Thereupon Sir Herbert Kitchener Ordered Maxwell To
Change Front To The Right And Storm Surgham Hill.
He sent Major Sandbach
to tell Lewis to conform and come into line on Maxwell's right.
He galloped himself
To the British division - conveniently halted by General
Gatacre on the northern crest of the ridge - and ordered Lyttelton with the
2nd Brigade to form facing west on Maxwell's left south of Surgham,
and Wauchope with the 1st Brigade to hurry back to fill the wide gap
between Lewis and MacDonald. Last of all he sent an officer to Collinson
and the Camel Corps with orders that they should swing round to their right
rear and close the open part of the "V". By these movements the army,
instead of facing south in echelon, with its left on the river and its
right in the desert, was made to face west in line, with its left in the
desert and its right reaching back to the river. It had turned nearly
a complete somersault.
In obedience to these orders Lyttelton's brigade brought up their left
shoulders, deployed into line, and advanced west; Maxwell's Soudanese
scrambled up the Surgham rocks, and, in spite of a sharp fire, cleared the
peak with the bayonet and pressed on down the further side; Lewis began to
come into action on Maxwell's right; MacDonald, against whom the Khalifa's
attack was at first entirely directed, remained facing south-west, and was
soon shrouded in the smoke of his own musketry and artillery fire.
The three brigades which were now moving west and away from the Nile
attacked the right flank of the Dervishes assailing MacDonald, and,
compelling them to form front towards the river, undoubtedly took much of
the weight of the attack off the isolated brigade.
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