The Long,
Deployed Line Were To Advance Steadily Against The Entrenchments,
Subduing By Their Continual Fire That Of The Enemy.
They were then to
tear the zeriba to pieces.
Covered by their musketry, the dense columns
of assault which had followed the line were to enter the defences
through the gaps, deploy to the right, and march through the enclosure,
clearing it with the bayonet and by fire.
At twenty minutes to eight the Sirdar ordered his bugles to sound the
general advance. The call was repeated by all the brigades, and the clear
notes rang out above the noise of the artillery. The superior officers -
with the exception of Hunter, Maxwell, and MacDonald - dismounted and placed
themselves at the head of their commands. The whole mass of the infantry,
numbering nearly eleven thousand men, immediately began to move forward
upon the zeriba. The scene as this great force crested the ridge and
advanced down the slope was magnificent and tremendous. Large solid columns
of men, preceded by a long double line, with the sunlight flashing on their
bayonets and displaying their ensigns, marched to the assault in regular
and precise array. The pipes of the Highlanders, the bands of the
Soudanese, and the drums and fifes of the English regiments added a wild
and thrilling accompaniment. As soon as the advance masked the batteries,
the guns were run forward with the firing line, in order effectually to
support the attack. The deployed battalions opened a ceaseless and
crushing fire on the entrenchment, and as the necessity of firing delayed
the advance of the attacking columns, the pace did not exceed a slow march.
The Dervishes remained silent until the troops were within 300 yards.
Then the smoke-puffs spurted out all along the stockades, and a sharp
fusillade began, gradually and continually growing in intensity until the
assaulting troops were exposed to a furious and effective fire.
From 250 yards up to the position losses began to occur. The whole
entrenchment was rimmed with flame and smoke, amid which the active figures
of the Dervish riflemen were momentarily visible, and behind the filmy
curtain solid masses of swordsmen and spearmen appeared. The fortunate
interposition of a small knoll in some degree protected the advance of the
Lincoln Regiment, but in both Highland battalions soldiers began to drop.
The whole air was full of a strange chirping whistle. The hard pebbly sand
was everywhere dashed up into dust-spurts. Numerous explosive bullets,
fired by the Arabs, made queer startling reports. The roar of the rifles
drowned even the noise of the artillery. All the deployed battalions began
to suffer. But they and the assaulting columns, regardless of the fire,
bore down on the zeriba in all the majesty of war - an avalanche of men,
stern, unflinching, utterly irresistible.
Two hundred yards from the entrenchment and one hundred and fifty from
the thorn bushes independent firing broke out, running along the line from
end to end. Shooting continually, but without any hurry or confusion,
the British and Soudanese battalions continued their slow, remorseless
advance; and it was evident that, in spite of the fierce fire of the
defence, which was now causing many casualties, the assault would
be successful.
The loss during the passage of the zeriba and in the assault of
the entrenchments was severe. Captain Findlay and Major Urquhart, of the
Cameron Highlanders, were both mortally wounded in the fight at the
stockades, and expired still cheering on their men. Major Napier,
of the same regiment, and Captain Baillie, of the Seaforth Highlanders,
received the wounds, of which they subsequently died, a few yards
further on. At all points the troops broke into the enclosure. Behind the
stockade there ran a treble trench. The whole interior was honeycombed
with pits and holes. From these there now sprang thousands of Dervishes,
desperately endeavouring to show a front to the attack. Second-Lieutenant
Gore, a young officer fresh from Sandburst, was shot dead between the thorn
fence and the stockade. Other officers in the Lincoln and the Warwickshire
regiments sustained severe wounds. Many soldiers were killed and wounded
in the narrow space. These losses were general throughout the assaulting
brigades. In the five minutes which were occupied in the passage of the
obstruction about four hundred casualties occurred. The attack continued.
The British brigade had struck the extremity of the north front of
the zeriba, and thus took the whole of the eastern face in enfilade,
sweeping it with their terrible musketry from end to end, and strewing
the ground with corpses. Although, owing to the lines of advance having
converged, there was not room for more than half the force to deploy,
the brigades pushed on. The conduct of the attack passed to the company
commanders. All these officers kept their heads, and brought their
companies up into the general line as the front gradually widened and
gaps appeared. So the whole force - companies, battalions, even brigades -
mixed up together and formed in one dense, ragged, but triumphant line,
marched on unchecked towards the river bed, driving their enemies in
hopeless confusion before them. Yet, although the Dervishes were unable to
make head against the attack, they disdained to run. Many hundreds held
their ground, firing their rifles valiantly till the end. Others charged
with spear and sword. The greater part retired in skirmishing order,
jumping over the numerous pits, walking across the open spaces,
and repeatedly turning round to shoot. The XIth Soudanese encountered
the most severe resistance after the defences were penetrated. As their
three deployed companies pressed on through the enclosure, they were
confronted by a small inner zeriba stubbornly defended by the Emir Mahmud's
personal bodyguard. These poured a sudden volley into the centre company at
close range, and so deadly was the effect that nearly all the company were
shot, falling to the ground still in their ranks, so that a British officer
passing at a little distance was provoked to inquire 'what they were doing
lying down.' Notwithstanding this severe check the regiment, gallantly led
by their colonel and supported by the Xth Soudanese, rushed this last
defence and slew its last defenders.
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