It was repulsed
with severe loss by the Jaalin riflemen. A second attack followed
immediately. The enemy had meanwhile surrounded the whole town, and just as
the Jaalin ammunition was exhausted a strong force of the Dervishes
penetrated the northern face of their defences, which was held only by
spearmen. The whole of Mahmud's army poured in through the gap, and the
garrison, after a stubborn resistance, were methodically exterminated.
An inhuman butchery of the children and some of the women followed.
Abdalla-Wad-Saad was among the killed.
A few of the Jaalin who had escaped from the general destruction
fled towards Gakdul. Here they found the Camel Corps with their caravan of
rifles and ammunition. Like another force that had advanced by this very
road to carry succour to men in desperate distress, the relief had arrived
too late. The remnants of the Jaalin were left in occupation of Gakdul
Wells. The convoy and its escort returned to Korti.
But while the attention of the Khalifa was directed to these matters,
a far more serious menace offered from another quarter. Unnoticed by the
Dervishes, or, if noticed, unappreciated, the railway was stretching
farther and farther into the desert. By the middle of July it had reached
the 130th mile, and, as is related in the last chapter, work had to be
suspended until Abu Hamed was in the hands of the Egyptian forces.
The Nile was rising fast. Very soon steamers would be able to pass the
Fourth Cataract. It should have been evident that the next movement in the
advance of the 'Turks' impended. The Khalifa seems, indeed, to have
understood that the rise of the river increased his peril, for throughout
July he continued to send orders to the Emir in Berber - Yunes - that he
should advance into the Monassir district, harry such villages as existed,
and obstruct the frequent reconnaissances from Merawi. Yunes, however,
preferred to do otherwise, and remained on the left bank opposite Berber
until, at length, his master recalled him to Omdurman to explain his
conduct. Meanwhile, determined with mathematical exactness by the rise of
the Nile and progress of the railway, the moment of the Egyptian advance
arrived.
At the end of July preparations were made, as secretly as possible,
to despatch a flying column against Abu Hamed. The Dervish garrison,
under Mohammed-ez-Zein, was not believed to exceed 600 men, but in order
that there should be no doubt as to the result it was determined to employ
a strong force.
A brigade of all arms was formed as follows:-
Commanding: MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER
Cavalry . . . . . . . One troop
Artillery . . . . . . No. 2 Field Battery
[This battery consisted of six Krupp guns, two Maxims, one Gardner gun,
and one Nordenfeldt - an effective medley.]
Infantry . . . . . . . MACDONALD'S BRIGADE
- 3rd Egyptian
- IXth Soudanese
- Xth "
- XIth "
Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter, the officer to whom the operation
was entrusted, was from many points of view the most imposing figure in
the Egyptian army. He had served through the Nile Expedition of 1884-85,
with some distinction, in the Khedive's service. Thenceforward his rise
was rapid, even for an Egyptian officer, and in ten years he passed through
all the grades from Captain to Major-General. His promotion was not,
however, undeserved. Foremost in every action, twice wounded - once at the
head of his brigade - always distinguished for valour and conduct, Hunter
won the admiration of his comrades and superiors. During the River War
he became, in spite of his hard severity, the darling of the Egyptian Army.
All the personal popularity which great success might have brought to the
Sirdar focussed itself on his daring, good-humoured subordinate, and it
was to Hunter that the soldiers looked whenever there was fighting to be
done. The force now placed under his command for the attack upon Abu Hamed
amounted to about 3,600 men. Until that place was taken all other
operations were delayed. The Sirdar awaited the issue at Merawi.
The railway paused in mid-desert.
The troops composing the 'flying column' concentrated at Kassingar,
a small village a few miles above Merawi, on the right (or Abu Hamed) bank
of the Nile. General Hunter began his march on the 29th of July. The total
distance from Kassingar to Abu Hamed is 146 miles. The greatest secrecy
had been observed in the preparation of the force, but it was known that
as soon as the column actually started the news would be carried to the
enemy. Speed was therefore essential; for if the Dervish garrison in
Abu Hamed were reinforced from Berber, the flying column might not be
strong enough to take the village. On the other hand, the great heat and
the certainty that the troops would have to fight an action at the end of
the march imposed opposite considerations on the commander. To avoid the
sun, the greater part of the distance was covered at night. Yet the
advantage thus gained was to some extent neutralised by the difficulty of
marching over such broken ground in the darkness.
Throughout the whole length of the course of the Nile there is no more
miserable wilderness than the Monassir Desert. The stream of the river is
broken and its channel obstructed by a great confusion of boulders, between
and among which the water rushes in dangerous cataracts. The sandy waste
approaches the very brim, and only a few palm-trees, or here and there a
squalid mud hamlet, reveal the existence of life. The line of advance lay
along the river; but no road relieved the labour of the march. Sometimes
trailing across a broad stretch of white sand, in which the soldiers sank
to their ankles, and which filled their boots with a rasping grit;
sometimes winding over a pass or through a gorge of sharp-cut rocks, which,
even in the moonlight, felt hot with the heat of the previous day - always
in a long, jerky, and interrupted procession of men and camels, often in
single file - the column toiled painfully like the serpent to whom it
was said, 'On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat.'
The column started at 5.30 in the evening, and by a march of sixteen and
a half miles reached Mushra-el-Obiad at about midnight.
