He Had Already Made Up The Day Spent At Abu Haraz.
He Now Decided To Improve On The Prescribed Itinerary, Accelerate His Own
Arrival And Anticipate That Of The Dervish Reinforcements.
Accordingly the
troops marched all through the night of the 6-7th with only a short halt of
an hour and a half, so as to attack Abu Hamed at dawn.
After covering
sixteen miles of bad ground, the 'flying column' reached Ginnifab,
144 miles from Kassingar and only two from the Dervish post, at 3.30 on
the morning of the 7th of August. A halt of two hours was allowed for the
troops to prepare themselves. Half the 3rd Egyptian Battalion remained as
escort to the transport and reserve ammunition, and then the force
moved off in the darkness towards the enemy's position.
The village of Abu Hamed straggles along the bank of the Nile,
and consists of a central mass of mud houses, intersected by a network of
winding lanes and alleys, about 500 yards long by perhaps 100 yards wide.
To the north and south are detached clusters of ruined huts, and to the
south there rises a large, ragged pile of rocks. The ground slopes
gradually up from the river, so that at a distance of 300 yards the village
is surrounded on three sides by a low plateau. Upon this plateau stand
three stone watch-towers, which were erected by General Gordon. The Dervish
garrison were strongly posted in shelter trenches and loop-holed houses
along the eastern face of the village.
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