It Is Surely A
Curious Instance Of The Occasional Symmetry Of History That Final
Destruction Should Have Befallen The Last Remains Of The Mahdist Movement
So Close To The Scene Of Its Origin!
The news which had reached Khartoum set all wheels in motion.
The IXth and XIIIth Soudanese Battalions were mobilised
On the 13th of
November and despatched at once to Abba Island under Colonel Lewis.
Kitchener hurried south from Cairo, and arrived in Khartoum on the 18th.
A field force of some 2,300 troops - one troop of cavalry, the 2nd Field
Battery, the 1st Maxim Battery, the Camel Corps, IXth Soudanese, XIIIth
Soudanese, and one company 2nd Egyptians - was immediately formed, and the
command entrusted to Sir Reginald Wingate. There were besides some 900 Arab
riflemen and a few irregular mounted scouts. On the 20th these troops were
concentrated at Fashi Shoya, whence Colonel Lewis had obliged Ahmed Fedil
to withdraw, and at 3.30 on the afternoon of the 21st the expedition
started in a south-westerly direction upon the track of the enemy.
The troops bivouacked some ten miles south-west of Fashi Shoya,
and then marched in bright moonlight to Nefisa, encountering only a
Dervish patrol of about ten men. At Nefisa was found the evacuated camp
of Ahmed Fedil, containing a quantity of grain which he had collected
from the riverain district, and, what was of more value, a sick but
intelligent Dervish who stated that the Emir had just moved to Abu Aadel,
five miles further on.
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