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The River War

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The cavalry and the Camel Corps, instead of cutting at the flank,
contented themselves with making a direct pursuit after the enemy had
crossed their front, and in consequence several hundred Arabs made good
their escape to the south. Others swam the river and fled by the west bank.
The wicked Osman Azrak, his authority now no longer disputed, for his rival
was a corpse, galloped from the field and reached Suarda. The rest of the
Dervish force held to the houses, and variously prepared to fight to
the death or surrender to their conquerors.

The three brigades now closed upon the village and, clearing it
step by step, advanced to the water's edge. MacDonald's brigade did not
indeed stop until they had crossed the swampy isthmus and occupied
the island. The Arabs, many of whom refused quarter, resisted desperately,
though without much effect, and more than eighty corpses were afterwards
found in one group of buildings. By 7.20 o'clock all firing had ceased;
the entire Dervish camp was in the hands of the Egyptian troops,
and the engagement of Firket was over.

The Sirdar now busied himself with the pursuit, and proceeded with
the mounted troops as far as Mograka, five miles south of Firket.
The whole cavalry force, with the Camel Corps and Horse Artillery,
pressed the retreat vigorously to Suarda. Osman Azrak, however, succeeded
in transporting the women and children and some stores, with a sufficient
escort, to the west bank before the arrival of the troops. On the approach
of the cavalry he retired along the east bank, with a small mounted force,
without fighting. The Emir in charge of the escort on the other side
delayed, and was in consequence shelled at long range by the Horse battery.
The local inhabitants, tired of the ceaseless war which had desolated the
frontier province for so long, welcomed their new masters with an
appearance of enthusiasm. The main pursuit stopped at Suarda, but a week
later two squadrons and sixteen men of the Camel Corps, under Captain
Mahon, were pushed out twenty miles further south, and an Arab store
of grain was captured.

The Dervish loss in the action was severe. More than 800 dead were
left on the field, and there were besides 500 wounded and 600 prisoners.
The casualties in the Egyptian army were 1 British officer--Captain
Legge--wounded, 20 native soldiers killed and 83 wounded.

Firket is officially classed as a general action: special despatches
were written, and a special clasp struck. The reader will have formed
his own estimate of the magnitude and severity of the fight. The whole
operation was well and carefully planned, and its success in execution
was complete. The long and difficult night march, the accurate arrival
and combination of the two columns, the swift deployment, the enveloping
movement, proved alike the discipline and training of the troops and the
skill of their officers. The only point on which criticism may be made
is the failure of the Desert Column to intercept the flying Dervishes.
But it should be remembered they had marched far, and it was not at that
time certain what the powers of the mounted troops were. The brilliant
aspect of the affair caused great satisfaction in England, and the
further prosecution of the campaign was looked for with
increasing interest.




CHAPTER VII: THE RECOVERY OF THE DONGOLA PROVINCE



Countless and inestimable are the chances of war. Those who read
the story, and still more those who share the dangers, of a campaign
feel that every incident is surrounded with a host of possibilities,
any one of which, had it become real, would have changed the whole course
of events. The influence of Fortune is powerfully and continually exerted.
In the flickering light of conflict the outlines of solid fact throw
on every side the vague shadows of possibility. We live in a world
of 'ifs.' 'What happened,' is singular; 'what might have happened,' legion.
But to try to gauge the influence of this uncertain force were utterly
futile, and it is perhaps wise, and indisputably convenient, to assume that
the favourable and adverse chances equate, and then eliminate them both
from the calculation.

The 'Sirdar's luck' became almost proverbial in the Soudan. As the account
progresses numerous instances will suggest themselves. It was lucky that
the Dervishes did not harass the communications, or assail Akasha before it
was fortified. It was lucky that they fought at Firket; that they retired
from Berber; that Mahmud did not advance in January; that he advanced
in March; that he did not retire before the battle of the Atbara; that the
Khalifa did not hold the Shabluka; that he did not attack on the night
before Omdurman, and that he did attack at dawn.

But after Firket all things were contrary. One unexpected misfortune
succeeded another. Difficulties were replaced by others as soon as they had
been overcome. The autumn of 1896 was marked by delay and disappointment.
The state of the Nile, the storms, the floods, the cholera, and many minor
obstacles, vexed but did not weary the commander. The victory at Firket was
succeeded by a long pause in the operations. The army had made one spring
forward; it must now gather energy for another. The preparations, however,
proceeded rapidly. A strong camp was formed at Firket. MacDonald's brigade
occupied Suarda two days after the fight, and this place now became the
advanced post, just as Akasha had been in the first phase of the campaign.
The accumluation of stores at Firket and Suarda began forthwith. Owing to
the arrangements which had been made before the engagement it was possible
to collect within one week of the action two months' supplies at Suarda
for the garrison of 2,000 men, and one month's at Firket for the 7,000
troops encamped there. Thereafter, however, the necessity of hurrying the
railway construction and the considerable daily demands of 9,000 men only
allowed this margin to be increased very gradually.

The army had now passed beyond the scope of a camel, or other pack-animal,
system of supply, except for very short distances, and it was obvious that
they could only advance in future along either the railway or a navigable
reach of the river, and preferably along both. From the Dal Cataract
near Kosheh there is a clear waterway at high Nile to Merawi. To Kosheh,
therefore, the railway must be extended before active operations could
recommence. A third condition had also to be observed. For the expulsion
of the Dervishes from Kerma and Dongola it was desirable that a flotilla
of gunboats should co-operate with the land forces. Four of these vessels
--the Tamai, El Teb, the Metemma, and the Abu Klea; and three steamers--
the Kaibar, Dal, and Akasha, which it was proposed to arm--had, since 1885,
patrolled the river from Assuan to Wady Halfa, and assisted in protecting
the frontier from Dervish raids. All seven were now collected at the foot
of the Second Cataract, and awaited the rise of the river to attempt the
passage. To strengthen the flotilla three new and very powerful gunboats
had been ordered in England. These were to be brought in sections over the
railway to a point above the Second Cataract, and be fitted together there.
It was thus necessary to wait, firstly, for the railway to reach Kosheh;
secondly, for the Nile to rise; thirdly, for the old gunboats to ascend
the Cataract; fourthly, for the new gunboats to be launched on the clear
waterway; and, fifthly, for the accumulation of supplies. With all of these
matters the Sirdar now busied himself.

The reconstruction of the railway to Akasha and its extension beyond
this place towards Kosheh was pressed forward. By the 26th of June Akasha
was reached. Thenceforward the engineers no longer followed an existing
track, but were obliged to survey, and to make the formation for
themselves. Strong fatigue parties from the Egyptian and Soudanese
battalions were, however, employed on the embankments, and the line grew
daily longer. On the 24th of July the first train ran across the
battlefield of Firket; and on the 4th of August the railway was working
to Kosheh.

Kosheh is six miles south of Firket, and consists, like most places in the
'Military Soudan,' of little more than a name and a few ruined mud-huts
which were once a village. On the 5th of July the whole camp was moved
thither from the scene of the action. The reasons were clear and apparent.
Kosheh is a point on the river above the Dal Cataract whence a clear
waterway runs at high Nile to beyond Dongola. The camp at Firket had become
foul and insanitary. The bodies of the dead, swelling and decaying in their
shallow graves, assailed, as if in revenge, the bodies of the living.
The dysentery which had broken out was probably due to the 'green' water of
the Nile; for during the early period of the flood what is known as
'the false rise' washes the filth and sewage off the foreshore all along
the river, and brings down the green and rotting vegetation from the spongy
swamps of Equatoria. The water is then dangerous and impure. There was
nothing else for the army to drink; but it was undesirable to aggravate
the evil by keeping the troops in a dirty camp.

The earliest freight which the railway carried to Kosheh was the first of
the new stern-wheel gunboats. Train after train arrived with its load of
steel and iron, or with the cumbrous sections of the hull, and a warship
in pieces--engines, armaments, fittings and stores--soon lay stacked by
the side of the river. An improvised dockyard, equipped with powerful
twenty-ton shears and other appliances, was established, and the work--
complicated as a Chinese puzzle--of fitting and riveting together the
hundreds of various parts proceeded swiftly. Gradually the strange heaps
of parts began to evolve a mighty engine of war. The new gunboats were in
every way remarkable. The old vessels had been 90 feet long. These were
140 feet. Their breadth was 24 feet. They steamed twelve miles an hour.
They had a command of 30 feet. Their decks were all protected by steel
plates, and prepared by loopholed shields for musketry. Their armament was
formidable. Each carried one twelve-pounder quick-firing gun forward,
two six-pounder quick-firing guns in the central battery, and four Maxim
guns. Every modern improvement--such as ammunition hoists, telegraphs,
search-lights, and steam-winches--was added. Yet with all this they drew
only thirty-nine inches of water.

The contract specified that these vessels should be delivered at Alexandria
by the 5th of September, but, by exertions, the first boat, the Zafir,
reached Egypt on the 23rd of July, having been made in eight weeks, and in
time to have assisted in the advance on Dongola. The vessels and machinery
had been constructed and erected in the works in London; they were then
marked, numbered, and taken to pieces, and after being shipped to
Alexandria and transported to the front were finally put together at
Kosheh. Although in a journey of 4,000 miles they were seven times
transhipped, not a single important piece was lost.

The convenience of Kosheh on the clear waterway, and the dirty condition
of Firket, were in themselves sufficient reasons for the change of camp;
but another and graver cause lay behind. During the month of June an
epidemic of cholera began to creep up the Nile from Cairo. On the 29th
there were some cases at Assuan. On the 30th it reached Wady Halfa.
In consequence of this the North Staffordshire Regiment marched into camp
at Gemai. Their three months' occupation of the town had not improved
their health or their spirits. During the sixteen-mile march along the
railway track to Gemai the first fatal case occurred, and thereafter the
sickness clung to the regiment until the middle of August, causing
continual deaths.

The cholera spread steadily southward up the river, claiming successive
victims in each camp. In the second week of July it reached the new camp
at Kosheh, whence all possible precautions to exclude it had proved vain.
The epidemic was at first of a virulent form. As is usual, when it had
expended its destructive energy, the recoveries became more frequent.
But of the first thousand cases between Assuan and Suarda nearly eight
hundred proved fatal. Nor were the lives thus lost to be altogether
measured by the number. [The attacks and deaths from cholera in the
Dongola Expeditionary Force were as follow: British troops - 24 attacks,
19 deaths; Native troops - 406 attacks, 260 deaths; Followers - 788
attacks, 640 deaths.] To all, the time was one of trial, almost of terror.
The violence of the battle may be cheaply braved, but the insidious attacks
of disease appal the boldest. Death moved continually about the ranks of
the army--not the death they had been trained to meet unflinchingly,
the death in high enthusiasm and the pride of life, with all the world to
weep or cheer; but a silent, unnoticed, almost ignominious summons,
scarcely less sudden and far more painful than the bullet or the sword-cut.
The Egyptians, in spite of their fatalistic creed, manifested profound
depression. The English soldiers were moody and ill-tempered. Even the
light-hearted Soudanese lost their spirits; their merry grins were seen no
longer; their laughter and their drums were stilled. Only the British
officers preserved a stony cheerfulness, and ceaselessly endeavoured by
energy and example to sustain the courage of their men. Yet they suffered
most of all. Their education had developed their imaginations; and
imagination, elsewhere a priceless gift, is amid such circumstances a
dangerous burden.

It was, indeed, a time of sore trouble. To find the servant dead in
the camp kitchen; to catch a hurried glimpse of blanketed shapes hustled
quickly to the desert on a stretcher; to hold the lantern over the grave
into which a friend or comrade--alive and well six hours before--was
hastily lowered, even though it was still night; and through it all
to work incessantly at pressure in the solid, roaring heat, with a mind
ever on the watch for the earliest of the fatal symptoms and a thirst that
could only be quenched by drinking of the deadly and contaminated Nile:
all these things combined to produce an experience which those who endured
are unwilling to remember, but unlikely to forget. One by one some of the
best of the field army and the communication Staff were stricken down.
Gallant Fenwick, of whom they used to say that he was 'twice a V.C. without
a gazette'; Polwhele, the railway subaltern, whose strange knowledge of the
Egyptian soldiers had won their stranger love; Trask, an heroic doctor,
indifferent alike to pestilence or bullets; Mr. Vallom, the chief
superintendent of engines at Halfa; Farmer, a young officer already on his
fourth campaign; Mr. Nicholson, the London engineer; long, quaint,
kind-hearted 'Roddy' Owen--all filled graves in Halfa cemetery or at the
foot of Firket mountain. At length the epidemic was stamped out, and by
the middle of August it had practically ceased to be a serious danger.
But the necessity of enforcing quarantine and other precautions had
hampered movement up and down the line of communications, and so delayed
the progress of the preparations for an advance.

Other unexpected hindrances arose. Sir H. Kitchener had clearly recognised
that the railway, equipped as it then was, would be at the best a doubtful
means for the continual supply of a large force many miles ahead of it.
He therefore organised an auxiliary boat service and passed gyassas and
nuggurs [native sailing craft] freely up the Second Cataract. During the
summer months, in the Soudan, a strong north wind prevails, which not only
drives the sailing-boats up against the stream--sometimes at the rate of
twenty miles a day--but also gratefully cools the air. This year,
for forty consecutive days, at the critical period of the campaign,
the wind blew hot and adverse from the south. The whole auxiliary boat
service was thus practically arrested. But in spite of these aggravating
obstacles the preparations for the advance were forced onwards, and it
soon became necessary for the gunboats and steamers to be brought on to
the upper reach of the river.

The Second Cataract has a total descent of sixty feet, and is about
nine miles long. For this distance the Nile flows down a rugged stairway
formed by successive ledges of black granite. The flood river deeply
submerges these steps, and rushes along above them with tremendous force,
but with a smooth though swirling surface. As the Nile subsides, the steps
begin to show, until the river tumbles violently from ledge to ledge,
its whole surface for miles churned to the white foam of broken water,
and thickly studded with black rocks. At the Second Cataract, moreover,
the only deep channel of the Nile is choked between narrow limits,
and the stream struggles furiously between stern walls of rock. These dark
gorges present many perils to the navigator. The most formidable, the
Bab-el-Kebir, is only thirty-five feet wide. The river here takes a plunge
of ten feet in seventy yards, and drops five feet at a single bound.
An extensive pool above, formed by the junction of two arms of the river,
increases the volume of the water and the force of the stream, so that the
'Gate' constitutes an obstacle of difficulty and danger which might well
have been considered insurmountable.

It had been expected that in the beginning of July enough water would
be passing down the Second Cataract to enable the gunboats and steamers
waiting below to make the passage. Everything depended upon the rise of the
river, and in the perversity of circumstances the river this year rose much
later and slower than usual. By the middle of August, however, the attempt
appeared possible. On the 14th the first gunboat, the Metemma, approached
the Cataract. The North Staffordshire Regiment from Gemai, and the 6th and
7th Egyptian Battalions from Kosheh, marched to the 'Gate' to draw the
vessel bodily up in spite of the current. The best native pilots had been
procured. Colonel Hunter and the naval officers under Commander Colville
directed the work. The boat had been carefully prepared for the ordeal.
To reduce, by raising the free-board, the risk of swamping, the bows were
heightened and strengthened, and stout wooden bulwarks were built running
from bow to stern. Guns and ammunition were then removed, and the vessel
lightened by every possible means. A strop of wire rope was passed
completely round the hull, and to this strong belt the five cables were
fastened--two on each side and one at the bow. So steep was the slope of
the water that it was found necessary to draw all the fires, and the
steamer was thus dependent entirely upon external force. It was luckily
possible to obtain a direct pull, for a crag of black rock rose above the
surface of the pool opposite the 'Gate.' On this a steel block was fixed,
and the hawser was led away at right angles until it reached the east bank,
where a smooth stretch of sand afforded a convenient place for the hauling
parties. Two thousand men were then set to pull at the cables, yet such was
the extraordinary force of the current that, although the actual distance
in which these great efforts were necessary was scarcely one hundred yards,
the passage of each steamer occupied an hour and a half, and required the
most strenuous exertions of the soldiers. No accident, however, occurred,
and the six other vessels accomplished the ascent on successive days.
In a week the whole flotilla steamed safely in the open water
of the upper reach.

And now for a moment it seemed that the luck of the expedition
had returned. The cholera was practically extinct. The new gunboat Zafir
was nearly ready at Kosheh, and her imposing appearance delighted and
impressed the army. On the 23rd of August all the seven steamers which had
passed the Cataract arrived in a stately procession opposite the camp.
Almost at the same time the wind changed to the north, and a cool and
delicious breeze refreshed the weary men and bore southward to Suarda
a whole fleet of sailing boats laden with supplies, which had been lying
weather-bound during the previous six weeks at the head of the rapids.
The preparatory orders for the advance tinkled along the telegraph.
The North Staffordshire Regiment were, to the intense relief of officers
and men, warned to hold themselves in readiness for an immediate move.
The mounted troops had already returned to the front from the camps
in which they had been distributed. At last the miserable delay was over.

From Kosheh to Kerma, the first Dervish position, the distance by river
is 127 miles. A study of the map shows that by land marches this can be
shortened by nearly forty-one miles; thirty miles being saved by cutting
across the great loop of the Nile from Kosheh to Sadin Fanti, and eleven
miles by avoiding the angle from Fereig to Abu Fatmeh. From Kerma to
Dongola, which latter town was the objective of the expedition, a further
distance of thirty-five miles must be traversed, making a total of 120
miles by land or 161 by river. The long desert march from Kosheh to Sadin
Fanti was the only natural difficulty by land. Although the river from
Kosheh to Kerma is broken by continual rapids, it is, with one interval,
freely navigable at half Nile. The Amara Cataract, ten miles beyond Kosheh,
is easily ascended by sailing boats with a fair wind, and by steamers
without assistance. From Amara to the Kaibar Cataract stretches a reach
of sixty-five miles of open water. The Kaibar Cataract is, during the
flood, scarcely any hindrance to navigation; but at Hannek, about thirty
miles further on, the three miles of islands, rocks, rapids, and
broken water which are called the Third Cataract are, except at high Nile,
a formidable barrier, Once this is passed, there is open water for more
than 200 miles at all seasons to Merawi. The banks of the river, except
near Sadin Fanti, where the hills close in, are flat and low. The Eastern
bank is lined with a fringe of palm-trees and a thin strip of cultivation,
which constitutes what is called 'the fertile province of Dongola.'
On the other side the desert reaches the water's edge. Along the right bank
of this part of the river the army was now to move.

The first act of the advance was the occupation of Absarat,
and on the 23rd of August MacDonald's brigade marched thither from Suarda,
cutting across the desert to Sadin Fanti, and then following the bank of
the Nile. The occupation of Absarat covered the next movement. On the 26th
Lewis's brigade was ordered to march across the loop from Kosheh to Sadin
Fanti, and reinforce the brigade at Absarat. The distance of thirty-seven
miles was far too great to be accomplished without a system of
watering-places. This the Sirdar rapidly organised. Water-depots were
formed by carrying tanks and water-skins on camels to two points in the
desert, and replenishing them by daily convoys. But now a heavy calamity
descended on the arrangements of the General and the hopes of the troops.

During the afternoon of the 25th the wind veered suddenly to the south,
and thereupon a terrific storm of sand and rain, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, burst over the whole of the Nubian desert, and swept along
the line of communications from Suarda to Halfa. On the next day a second
deluge delayed the march of Lewis's brigade. But late on the 27th they
started, with disastrous results. Before they had reached the first
watering-place a third tempest, preceded by its choking sandstorm, overtook
them. Nearly 300 men fell out during the early part of the night, and
crawled and staggered back to Kosheh. Before the column reached Sadin Fanti
1,700 more sank exhausted to the ground. Out of one battalion 700 strong,
only sixty men marched in. Nine deaths and eighty serious cases of
prostration occurred, and the movement of the brigade from Kosheh to
Absarat was grimly called 'The Death March.'

The 'Death March' was the least of the misfortunes caused by the storms.
The violent rains produced floods such as had not been seen in the Soudan
for fifty years. The water, pouring down the broad valleys, formed furious
torrents in the narrower gorges. More than twelve miles of the railway was
washed away. The rails were twisted and bent; the formation entirely
destroyed. The telegraph wires were broken. The work of weeks was lost in
a few hours. The advance was stopped as soon as it had been begun.
At the moment when every military reason demanded speed and suddenness,
a hideous delay became inevitable.

In this time of crisis the success of the whole campaign hung
in the balance. Sir Herbert Kitchener did not then possess that measure of
the confidence and affection of his officers which his military successes
have since compelled. Public opinion was still undecided on the general
question of the war. The initial bad luck had frightened many. All the
croakers were ready. 'A Jingo Government'--'An incapable general'--
'Another disaster in the Soudan'--such were the whispers. A check would be
the signal for an outcry. The accounts of 'The Death March' had not yet
reached England; but the correspondents, irritated at being 'chained to
headquarters,' were going to see about that. And, besides all this, there
were the army to feed and the Dervishes to fight. In this serious
emergency, which threatened to wreck his schemes, the Sirdar's organising
talents shone more brilliantly than at any other moment in this account.
Travelling swiftly to Moghrat, he possessed himself of the telephone,
which luckily still worked. He knew the exact position or every soldier,
coolie, camel, or donkey at his disposal. In a few hours, in spite of his
crippled transport, he concentrated 5,000 men on the damaged sections of
the line, and thereafter fed them until the work was finished. In seven
days traffic was resumed. The advance had been delayed, but it was
not prevented.

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