CHAPTER LXV.

THE BATTLE OF THE ATBARA.

The Sirdar's troops were left unmolested during the short rest which they took at Mutrus.

At 1 a.m. on the 8th April, the order was quietly given to fall in, and the men promptly obeyed without noise or bustle. Half an hour later the final march began, and the full moon being now well overhead, it was possible to see a considerable distance. There was no smoking or talking in the ranks, and the orders were given in a low voice or by a wave of the hand. The rumble of the gun-carriages and the dull thud of thousands of tramping feet were the only sounds which broke the stillness of the desert.

At 3 a.m. a huge column of flame was seen on the right. After burning a few minutes it dwindled away, and whether it was a beacon to notify to Mahmoud the approach of the army or whether it was the result of accident was never ascertained.

At 4 o'clock the troops were abreast of Mahmoud's position, where the camp fires could be seen burning. There was then a halt of half an hour. When the advance was resumed at 4.30, the men were no longer in square, but marched in attack formation, the British brigade on the left, Macdonald's in the centre, Maxwell's on the right, and Lewis's in reserve. The artillery and Maxims accompanied the infantry marching in the rear upon the right and left. The cavalry and Horse Artillery were away half a mile to the left.

In this formation the troops continued to advance till 6 a.m., when they halted in a commanding position 600 yards from the enemy's camp, which was plainly visible now that the sun began to rise. From the number of men seen running to and fro, and from other signs of activity, it was clear that the approach of the Sirdar's force had been perceived.

The enemy's works presented a sufficiently formidable appearance. Behind the long row of cut mimosa bushes forming the zeriba, and constituting the outer line of defence, were palisades of dôm palm logs stuck endways in the ground; and further back amongst the trees was an encircling trench, with numerous cross-trenches, a few earthworks, and a great many shelter huts made of palm branches and grass.

At 6.15, the guns were run into position, and opened fire. Two batteries of six guns each were placed on the extreme right of the Egyptians, and the like number on their left, at the interval between the Egyptian and British troops. In this way a cross-fire of twenty-four guns was brought to bear on the position.

The artillery was assisted by a rocket battery under Lieutenant Beatly, R.N.

The artillery fire, carefully directed, told with much effect on the zeriba, and soon many of the palisades were seen to be knocked away, whilst the shells at the same time made havoc with the earthworks. The rocket battery, after a few rounds, set fire to the grass huts forming the Dervish camp, causing a furious conflagration.

The Dervishes had hitherto kept well out of sight, but all at once, whilst the cannonade was in full operation, a large party of Baggara horsemen was observed galloping from the bush at the southern side of the zeriba and forming up, as if intending to charge the British left. On the Maxims opening on them, the Baggara at once turned and disappeared in the bush to the south.

The bombardment went on for an hour and a half, during which time there was no reply from the zeriba except a few bullets which were fired in the direction of Macdonald's and Maxwell's brigades, but, being aimed too high, the missiles passed harmlessly overhead.

The order to cease firing was now given, and the infantry, who had hitherto been lying down, interested spectators of the scene, formed up for the assault. The Camerons, extended in line, composed the front of the British brigade. Behind them, in column of companies, were the Warwicks on the left, the Seaforths in the centre, and the Lincolns on the right; continuing the line to the right was Macdonald's brigade, with six companies in line and the remainder behind in column of companies as a support. Still further to the right was Maxwell's brigade, with eight companies in line and four companies in support, and on the extreme right were one of Maxwell's battalions, the 8th, and one of Lewis's, the 15th Soudanese, also in column of companies. A squadron of cavalry was sent down towards the river on this flank. On the extreme left, in the rear of the Warwicks, Lewis's reserve brigade of two battalions was placed to prevent any flank attack on that side. The cavalry and Horse Artillery were placed half a mile off in the desert to the left of the whole force. The four batteries of artillery were posted on the right of the line, and the Maxims, twelve in number, were distributed between the right and left flanks and the centre.

At a quarter-past eight, the Sirdar and his staff having selected a post of observation, about 900 yards from the zeriba, and General Gatacre and most of the field officers having dismounted and placed themselves at the head of their men, the "advance" sounded. Then the pipes of the Highlanders skirled, the bugles of the other British regiments and the bands of the native battalions played inspiriting tunes, and the whole line, with bayonets fixed, advanced in quick time.

The Camerons, headed by General Gatacre and Colonel Money, and with a huge Union Jack (the regimental colours were all left in Cairo) in the centre, marched in advance of the British troops.

At intervals of every few yards the men halted, and "independent firing" was kept up. Then the line again moved forward, and the same thing was repeated. Suddenly, when the front rank had got within 200 yards of the zeriba, the return fire from the Dervishes commenced. It was mostly aimed too high, but here and there the bullets came dropping in, and the men in front began to fall, sometimes singly and sometimes in little groups of two or three together. Still the line swept onward, the troops, both British and Egyptian, preserving their formation as perfectly as if on parade.

As the Camerons reached some elevated ground sloping towards the zeriba, then only a hundred yards off, they became more exposed, and the bullets came more thickly. At last a halt was sounded, and for a minute or two "independent firing" was resumed with good effect, the Lee-Metfords making no smoke to obstruct the view, whilst, on the other hand, the little white wreaths from the Dervish fire indicated to the soldiers the points on which to direct their rifles.

The "advance" was then sounded, cries of "Come on, men!" were heard, and, amid ringing cheers, the Camerons rushed for the zeriba. The first to reach it were General Gatacre and Captain Brooke, his aide-de-camp. Seizing the bush with both hands, the General tried to pull it aside, nearly losing his life in the attempt. A Dervish rushed upon him with a spear; the General called out to his orderly, Private Cox, of the Camerons, "Give it to him, my lad!" and Private Cox bayoneted the Dervish, just in time.

Immediately after, the Camerons, closely followed by the Warwicks, Seaforths, and Lincolns, were up to the zeriba, and beginning to pull away the thorn bushes, being covered, as far as possible, by their comrades. Alternate companies dragged at the bushes, whilst the others replied to the Dervish fire. In a few minutes, the men succeeded in making gaps in the hedge sufficiently wide to allow of the troops entering, and, in a quarter of an hour from the advance being sounded, the zeriba was entered. It was found necessary to modify the original plan of attack. According to this, the Camerons having cleared a sufficient pathway, the battalions in their rear were to pass through their ranks, deploy, and join in a general advance by the whole line.

A deployment, however, in face of the rifle fire which was encountered, was not to be thought of, and it could hardly be expected that the Camerons, who had hitherto occupied the front rank, were going to stand aside and give place to the men of the other regiments. Realizing this, Gatacre called on the Camerons to push forward, and the battalion, headed by its officers, and with the Union Jack in front, dashed through the openings. Captain Findlay, a young officer of the Camerons, six feet two inches in height, was the first to enter the zeriba. With sword in one hand and revolver in the other, he sprang over the palisade and first trench, and fell mortally wounded.

The rush of the Camerons was closely followed by the Seaforths and the Warwicks, the men pushing on as nearly in line as the obstacles in their way would allow.

Here the real fighting began. The trenches were full of crouching Dervishes, firing point-blank as fast as they could load, and neither asking nor receiving quarter. It soon became, not so much a question of clearing the trenches as of killing every Dervish separately. The latter never lost an opportunity. Major Urquhart, of the Camerons, and one of the first to enter the zeriba, was shot dead, from behind, by a Dervish who, concealed amongst a heap of dead and dying, was waiting his chance to kill.

The enemy's riflemen were not particular in their choice of weapons, and Remingtons, Martinis, fowling-pieces, and elephant guns were brought into play indiscriminately. Major Napier, also of the Camerons, was so severely wounded with a shot from an elephant gun, as to have to be carried off the field. He died afterwards in Cairo. His regiment lost sixty men, either killed or wounded, in less than an hour.

The Seaforths also suffered severely. Lieutenant Gore, the first of his regiment to enter the enemy's lines, was shot through the heart, and Colonel Murray, of the same regiment, was shot in the arm by a round bullet from a fowling-piece.

Captain Baillie had his leg shattered, and died subsequently in Cairo. Sergeant-Major Mackay, also of the Seaforths, had an experience which is probably unique. When jumping the palisades, a Dervish spearman made a drive at him in mid-air, as he was, so to speak, "on the wing." Fortunately, the spear only tore the sergeant's kilt, and he then finished his assailant with pistol and claymore. The leading company of the Seaforths had eleven men killed or wounded.

Colonel Verner, of the Lincolns, a man of such gigantic stature that he could hardly be missed even by an indifferent marksman, had bad luck. One bullet cut his helmet strap and grazed his cheek, whilst a third hit him in the mouth, gouging away his upper lip, and taking off his moustache. The gallant officer refused to retire, and, with a bandaged head, continued with his men till the end.

As the men pushed on through the bush, several small mud-built forts had to be carried. Each of these mounted an old brass cannon, and was garrisoned by riflemen, who had necessarily to be slain.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians, away on the right, gallantly led by General Hunter, had entered a zeriba a little in advance of the British brigade, and steadily fought their way, step by step, across the trenches. Several of their English officers fell wounded, though, fortunately, none were killed. Some of their hardest fighting took place at a sort of inner zeriba or stockade, situated some thirty yards in the rear of the trenches, and strongly held. From this work a deadly rifle fire was directed upon the advancing troops, and one company of the 11th Soudanese, which was the first to try to take it, was nearly annihilated. Other companies of the same regiment then came on in support, and, after hard fighting, effected an entrance and occupied the place.

Once this position was taken, the combined troops had little difficulty in making their way across the entire zeriba, the Dervishes fleeing before them in scattered masses through the palm trees to the Atbara river.

Occasionally a group of fugitives would stop, under cover of the bank, and open a rifle fire on their pursuers, but after a few volleys all made off down the dry bed of the river, which formed the limit of the Anglo-Egyptian advance.

The battle of the Atbara was then won, and the order to cease firing was given. This was just twenty-six minutes from the final advance to the assault.

Then, on the banks of the river, the troops crowded together and indulged in mutual congratulations. The Soudanese soldiers wildly danced with joy, and, waving their rifles in the air, shook hands with every British soldier whom they came in contact with.

After a brief halt on the side of the Atbara, the force was re-formed, and marched back out of Mahmoud's works. As the troops returned, they were met by the Sirdar, who was greeted with enthusiastic cheers. When he had addressed a few observations to the men, they formed up in squares of brigades to the right of the scene of the original assault.

The cavalry, directly the fighting was finished, had been sent off to pursue the Dervish horsemen, but they had got too long a start, so Colonel Broadwood's men only followed for about two miles, where the track was lost in the bush, and the force returned.

The losses of the British brigade were five officers (including three who died subsequently) and twenty-one men killed, and ninety-nine officers and men wounded. The Egyptian loss was much more severe, fifty-seven men being killed and 386 wounded, including ten of the British officers.[164]

The total, 568, though heavy enough, would doubtless have been greater had Mahmoud's forces been provided with anything like proper ammunition. As it was, their cartridges, originally of poor quality, mostly turned out from the arsenal at Khartoum, had much deteriorated; consequently the fire on the Dervish side was comparatively ineffective.

The enemy's loss could not have been much less than 3,000 men in killed and wounded; 2,000 bodies were counted in the zeriba, and about 500 more on the south side of the works and in the bed of the river. With the exception of Osman Digna, who escaped with the cavalry, and Mahmoud, who was made prisoner, all the principal Emirs were killed. Mahmoud's ten guns (only two of which bore traces of having been fired), over 100 banners, together with an enormous quantity of rifles (including a Tower rifle of 1856), swords, spears, ammunition, and equipments, besides some grain and stores, fell into the hands of the conquerors; and 2,000 men were made prisoners.

It is difficult to arrive at the exact numbers of the Dervish force engaged in the fight. Mahmoud was known to have left Shendy with 18,900 men, but some of these had been killed in the fights with the gunboats, and others in the various skirmishes and reconnaissances. His losses from deaths and desertions must have been even more considerable. All his cavalry, which, according to his statement referred to later on, numbered 4,000, were undoubtedly absent when the real fighting began.

After allowing for these deductions, it is improbable that the total of his force present at the fight could have exceeded 14,000, approximately the same number as his opponents.

The remains of Mahmoud's army, numbering probably about 8,000 men, continued its flight up the Atbara to Adarama, a distance of about fifty miles, losing many men on the way. Here the fugitives divided into two parties, one of which went to Gedaref, and the other, joined by Osman Digna, to Abu Deleh.

The battle of the Atbara was a striking success. The Dervish force, like that of Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, was broken up and dispersed. The Dervishes, opposed to an enemy nearly equal in point of numbers, fought well during the brief period that the engagement lasted; but, with their imperfect organization, insufficient artillery, and defective weapons, they would have stood no chance even against a smaller army than that which the Sirdar brought against them. This, however, in no way detracts from the merit of the British and Egyptian troops, who, not less by their patient endurance and discipline than by their valour in the field, achieved so successful a result. But to go further, and, as many writers have done, to magnify a fight in which a disciplined army in less than half an hour routed a horde of starving savages, into a "brilliant victory," would be exaggeration.

No sooner was the fight over, than parties of men were told off to search the interior of the zeriba, which, from all accounts, presented a gruesome spectacle. Dead bodies, many of them mangled into mere fragments of humanity, were lying about everywhere. Not only men, but women also, were amongst the slain.

In the trenches, numbers of unfortunate black prisoners were found lifeless and chained hand and foot, with rifles in their hands. Others were discovered with forked pieces of timber round their necks, to prevent their escape. In one place the body of a Dervish chief was found pinned to the trunk of a tree by a rocket which had passed through his chest.

The slaughter was not confined to the human race alone. Hundreds of dead camels, donkeys, sheep, and goats had also fallen victims to the shell and rifle fire, and lay scattered about within the zeriba.

Whilst the search proceeded a party of the 10th Soudanese came upon the Emir Mahmoud, concealed in one of the grass shelter huts. He was at once seized, and limping slightly from a bayonet wound in the leg, was conducted before the Sirdar. Throughout the interview Mahmoud, who was a man nearly six feet in height, wore an air of complete indifference. Addressing him in Arabic, General Hunter, pointing to Kitchener, said, "This is the Sirdar," a piece of information which failed to produce any impression. The Sirdar then asked, "Why have you come into my country to burn and kill?" To this wholly unnecessary question Mahmoud, with sullen dignity, answered, "As a soldier, I must obey the Khalifa's orders, as you must the Khedive's."

A few more questions were put as to Mahmoud's emirs and men, to which he gave curt replies. Being asked, "Where is Osman Digna?" Mahmoud replied, "I don't know. He was not in the fight; he went away with the cavalry.[165] All the rest of my emirs stayed with me. I saw your troops at five in the morning, and mounted my horse and rode round the camp to see that my people were in their places. Then I returned to my quarters and waited. I am not a woman to run away." Then, no one having any more conundrums to put, the prisoner was led off by an escort.

The same afternoon, as soon as the wounded had been collected, and the mournful duty of burying the dead had been performed, the Sirdar's forces, less one Egyptian battalion, left to take charge of the spoils and to clear up the Dervish camp, marched back to the zeriba at Umdabbia, where they arrived before nightfall. From this point, all the troops, with the exception of Lewis's brigade, which returned to its former quarters at Fort Atbara, went, by easy stages, into summer quarters on the banks of the Nile. The British troops and those of Maxwell's brigade went into camp at Darmali, and Macdonald's to Berber, where on the 14th the Sirdar made his triumphal entry.

The whole town was _en fête_, and the main thoroughfare was spanned with palm branches and banners. The route was kept by the troops of the garrison, and a salute was fired as the Sirdar approached. The cavalry met him as he entered the town, and escorted him to an elevated platform, which had been erected in the centre of the town and draped with flags. Here the Sirdar and his staff took their place, whilst the troops, with colours flying and bands playing, marched past in review order. Behind the cavalry came the captive Mahmoud on foot, with his hands tied behind his back. The Dervish leader, though hooted by the crowd, showed no signs of depression, and walked with head erect, as if realizing that he was the most important feature in the show. An immense concourse of people witnessed the sight, and welcomed the troops with acclamations. The women were especially demonstrative, and many of them approached and threatened Mahmoud, to whom the expression "Kalb!" (dog) was freely used. When the display was finished, the troops went to their camp, and Mahmoud was sent down the river and interned at Wady Halfa.

Before leaving, Mahmoud had an opportunity of seeing an old acquaintance in Slatin Pasha, whom he had known in the days when Slatin was a captive at Omdurman. Slatin "had suffered many things" at the hands of Mahmoud, and their meeting, now that the relative positions of the two men were reversed, was mutually interesting.[166]

A week later the indefatigable gunboats, sent up the river, returned, and reported having fallen in with many of the fugitives from Nakheila at Aliab. The Dervishes refusing to surrender, an engagement ensued, in which 200 of them were killed and 70 made prisoners. Some of these reported that many hundreds of their number had died of thirst in the retreat across the desert after the battle.