Part 56 (2/2)

The cavalry were directed to push on, and at daylight to engage the enemy and keep him occupied until the arrival of the infantry. These instructions were ably carried out, and a block-house situated on the hills overlooking Sarras was seized, as well as the railway station and a block of buildings adjacent. This operation was performed under fire from another block-house on the hills to the eastward, held by the enemy's riflemen.

At 5.15 a.m. a cavalry patrol was pushed along the destroyed railway line, but before it had advanced a quarter of a mile it came across the main body of the Dervishes, and retired to the railway station, from behind which a heavy fire was now directed on the enemy's position.

Messages were at once sent back to Colonel Chermside, who was by this time advancing with all haste with the remainder of the column.

At 6.30 the two guns of the Camel Battery came up, and, after firing twenty rounds, breached the second block-house, which was then promptly stormed and taken. The guns were then turned on the enemy's main position, which was sh.e.l.led with satisfactory results.

Chermside, with the infantry, had by this time arrived, and the enemy having evacuated their camp and retired into a narrow ravine about 200 yards from the river, two companies were detached to turn the left of their position, the remainder being retained as support near the railway station.

The cavalry had been previously sent to take part in the turning movement, and succeeded in doing this simultaneously with the front attack which was now made, driving in with considerable loss some fifty Arabs. The enemy's second line, seeing the cavalry in their rear, made no attempt to join the first line, but made straight for the river and escaped. In the meantime, as the two detached companies had neared the enemy's left, the spearmen with wild yells rose from the ravine, and dashed down the bank on them. The shock was so great that the small Egyptian force was compelled to fall back on its supports, nevertheless fighting all the way. They were promptly reinforced, and again advanced.

The enemy contested every inch of the ground, fighting hand to hand, and falling almost to a man. Many of them were killed in the river, and others, in attempting to turn the left of the infantry, fell under the fire of the reserve of the fighting line. Here their leader, Nur-el-Kanzi, was killed.

At a quarter to 11 a.m. the enemy's whole position, with ten standards and a considerable quant.i.ty of arms and ammunition, was captured. Nearly their whole fighting force of 200 men was annihilated, whilst the Egyptian loss was but twenty-one killed and thirty wounded.

The Dervishes from the first were hopelessly outnumbered, and the fight was princ.i.p.ally interesting as being the first action fought by the modern Egyptian soldier independent of British support.

After the action the whole of the Egyptian troops withdrew to Wady Halfa, where for a short time they were allowed to enjoy peace and tranquillity.

This state of things was not destined to last. On the 18th June another descent was made on Sarras, to which its former inhabitants had returned. The Dervishes, on this occasion, contented themselves with plundering the houses, and carrying off the women and any other objects of value they could lay hands on, after which they again retired south.

At a council of emirs held at Omdurman early in August, it was decided to resume the advance on Egypt. By the end of the month, a force of 2,000 men, under the Emir Mohammed Ahmed-el-Has.h.i.+m, left Ferket for Sarras, which, on the 27th September, was again occupied. On the 19th October the Dervish force at Sarras, having been joined by reinforcements from Dongola, amounted to 2,500 men. On the 25th a message was received from Khor-el-Musa, the outpost fort, four and a half miles from Wady Halfa, that a body of 1,000 Dervishes was in sight and marching on Halfa. Colonel Wodehouse, then in command, advanced with the mounted troops and came in view of the enemy watering their camels near the Abka Pa.s.s. The 9th Soudanese Regiment had meanwhile taken up a position on the hills three miles south of Khor Musa. The mounted force, having completed its object, prepared to fall back on the infantry. At this moment, it was sighted by the enemy's cavalry, which, followed by their infantry, approached and opened an ill-directed fire. Wodehouse's camels had difficulty in moving rapidly over the rocky ground, and delayed the retiring force. Taking advantage of this, the Dervishes dashed into the midst of the Egyptian mounted troops, and several hand-to-hand encounters took place. The retirement on the infantry supports was gradually effected, and the 9th Soudanese then checked and eventually drove them back with loss. The Egyptian casualties were one man killed and two wounded.

After this skirmish, the Dervish force retired to Gemai, which it adopted as a permanent outpost, the main body remaining at Sarras. The idea of a direct attack by the Mahdists on Wady Halfa seems to have been for the moment abandoned.

After a time the difficulty of keeping a large body, like that at Sarras, supplied with food became apparent to their leaders. Small-pox, too, broke out in their camp, and numbers of deaths occurred daily.

Under these untoward circ.u.mstances, and with the continued troubles in Darfur on his hands, the Khalifa was once more obliged to postpone the execution of his project of invasion.

On the 4th June, 1888, the last detachment of British troops, viz., one company of the Welsh Regiment, was withdrawn from a.s.souan, and the protection of the frontier was intrusted solely to the Egyptian army.

The skirmish in which Colonel Wodehouse defeated the enemy was followed by a series of desultory raids, not only in the vicinity of Wady Halfa, but at many points between that place and a.s.souan, raids which spread terror in the hearts of the villagers. The Egyptian troops, by establis.h.i.+ng posts along the Nile and by patrolling the river by gunboats, did their best to repress and punish these forays. One of the most serious of these was the midnight capture and recapture of the Egyptian fort of Khor Musa on the 29th August, 1888. At this date, the Dervish force was still occupying Sarras, which had become a sort of central point for the raiders, and from this point the attack on the fort was directed. The fort itself was a native house on the river bank converted into a fortification.

In the darkness of the night, some 500 Dervishes arrived close to the fort, and a small party, detached from the main body, crept quietly up under the river bank unperceived until close under the walls. The sentry at the south-western corner, hearing a noise, challenged, and was immediately shot. The corporal of the guard, hearing the report of a rifle and a shout outside the walls, at once opened the western gate on the river, and was shot down. The a.s.sailants then streamed through the gate and killed the whole of the guard. The garrison, suddenly roused, turned out, and finding the south end of the fort full of the enemy, fought their way into the northern section. Here, for two hours, they made a stubborn resistance, firing from every available spot, though without much effect, the enemy being protected by the intervening walls.

The defence, thus far, had been conducted by a native major, who, on the first alarm, had telephoned to Wady Halfa for a.s.sistance. The news reached Colonel Wodehouse at 11.30 p.m., and, without delay, he despatched reinforcements by train, as well as a detachment of cavalry as a guard. The gunboat _Metemmeh_ also got under way, and at 1.30 a.m.

opened fire on the portion of the fort held by the enemy.

Lieutenant Mach.e.l.l, who arrived with the troops, posted his men in such a way as to prevent any possibility of the enemy escaping, and with fifty men crept stealthily round, until they arrived at the western gate, which had been left open. Here his men, rapidly forming up, fired a volley straight into the ma.s.s of the enemy collected inside. The latter, completely surprised, attempted to climb the wall, but only to be met at the point of the bayonet by the men waiting below to receive them. Mach.e.l.l then dashed in through the gate and, forming his men into a rough line, repulsed the a.s.sailants, who, finding their retreat cut off, fought with the energy of despair. Soon all within the adjoining inclosure were either killed or wounded, and the fort was again in the possession of the Egyptians. The bodies of eighty-five, mostly Baggara and Jaalin Arabs, were found in and around the fort, and many others fell in the line of retreat. The Egyptian loss was also severe, amounting to nineteen killed and thirty-four wounded.[145]

The reverse sustained by the Dervishes, on this occasion, was a serious discouragement to their leaders, whilst, at the same time, it gave increased confidence to the riverain population.

CHAPTER LVII.

WAD-EN-NEJUMI AND COLLAPSE OF THE INVASION.

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