The columns were
encumbered with wounded, most of whom were already in a high state
of fever, and whose sufferings were painful to witness. It was not until
after midnight that the camp was reached. The infantry had been
continuously under arms - marching, fighting, or sweltering in the sun -
for thirty hours, and most of them had hardly closed their eyes for two
days. Officers and soldiers - British, Soudanese, and Egyptian - struggled
into their bivouacs, and fell asleep, very weary but victorious.
British and Egyptian casualties on the Atbara included 20 officers
and 539 men killed or wounded. The Dervish loss was officially estimated
at 40 Emirs and 3,000 dervishes killed. No statistics as to their wounded
are forthcoming.
. . . . . . . . . .
As the battle of the Atbara had been decisive, the whole Expeditionary
Force went into summer quarters. The Egyptian army was distributed into
three principal garrisons - four battalions at Atbara camp, six battalions
and the cavalry at Berber, three battalions at Abadia. The artillery and
transport were proportionately divided. The British brigade encamped
with two battalions at Darmali and two at the village of Selim,
about a mile and a half distant.
For the final phase of the campaign three new gunboats had been ordered
from England. These were now sent in sections over the Desert Railway.
Special arrangements were made to admit of the clumsy loads passing trains
on the ordinary sidings. As usual, the contrivances of the railway
subalterns were attended with success. Sir H. Kitchener himself proceeded
to Abadia to accelerate by his personal activity and ingenuity the
construction of the vessels on which so much depended. Here during the heat
of the summer he remained, nursing his gunboats, maturing his plans,
and waiting only for the rise of the river to complete the downfall
of his foes.
CHAPTER XIII: THE GRAND ADVANCE
All through the early months of the summer the preparations for the final
advance were steadily proceeding. A second British brigade was ordered to
the Soudan. A new battery of Howitzer artillery - the 37th - firing enormous
shells charged with lyddite, was despatched from England. Two large
40-pounder guns were sent from Cairo. Another British Maxim battery of four
guns was formed in Cairo from men of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Three new
screw gunboats of the largest size and most formidable pattern had been
passed over the indefatigable railway in sections, and were now launched on
the clear waterway south of the Atbara encampment; and last, but not least,
the 21st Lancers [The author led a troop in this regiment during the final
advance to Omdurman; and it is from this standpoint that the ensuing
chapters are to some extent conceived] were ordered up the Nile. Events now
began to move rapidly. Within three weeks of the arrival of the
reinforcements the climax of the war was over; within five weeks the
British troops were returning home. There was no delay at the Atbara
encampment. Even before the whole of the second brigade had arrived,
some of its battalions were being despatched to Wad Hamed, the new point of
concentration. This place was a few miles north of Shabluka, and only
fifty-eight miles from Omdurman. It was evident, therefore, that the
decisive moment of the three years' war approached. The Staff, the British
infantry, one squadron, the guns, and the stores were carried south in
steamers and barges. The Egyptian division marched to Wad Hamed by
brigades. The horses of the batteries, the transport animals of the British
division (about 1,400 in number), the chargers of the officers,
some cattle, and most of the war correspondents were sent along the left
bank of the river escorted by two squadrons of the 21st Lancers
and two Maxim guns.
All the thirteen squadrons of cavalry remained three days at Wad Hamed.
After the fatigues of the march we were glad to have an opportunity of
looking about, of visiting regiments known in other circumstances, and of
writing a few letters. This last was the most important, for it was now
known that after leaving Wad Hamed there would be no post or communication
with Cairo and Europe until the action had been fought and all was over.
The halt was welcome for another reason. The camp itself was well worth
looking at. It lay lengthways along the river-bank, and was nearly two
miles from end to end. The Nile secured it from attack towards the east.
On the western and southern sides were strong lines of thorn bushes,
staked down and forming a zeriba; and the north face was protected by a
deep artificial watercourse which allowed the waters of the river to make
a considerable inundation. From the bank of this work the whole camp could
be seen. Far away to the southward the white tents of the British division;
a little nearer rows and rows of grass huts and blanket shelters,
the bivouacs of the Egyptian and Soudanese brigades; the Sirdar's large
white tent, with the red flag of Egypt flying from a high staff, on a small
eminence; and to the right the grove of palm-trees in which the officers of
the Egyptian cavalry had established themselves. The whole riverside was
filled by a forest of masts. Crowds of gyassas, barges, and steamers were
moored closely together; and while looking at the furled sails, the tangled
riggings, and the tall funnels it was easy for the spectator to imagine
that this was the docks of some populous city in a well-developed
and civilised land.
But the significance of the picture grew when the mind, outstripping the
eye, passed beyond the long, low heights of the gorge and cataract of
Shabluka and contemplated the ruins of Khartoum and the city of Omdurman.
There were known to be at least 50,000 fighting men collected in their last
stronghold.
