From Korti to Khartum: A Journal of the Desert March from Korti to Gubat, and of the Ascent of the Nile in General Gordon’s Steamers [Ill. Ed.]

By Col. Sir Charles W. Wilson

From 1884 to 1885, British Army officer Charles William Wilson took part in the Khartoum Relief Expedition, commanded by Garnet Wolseley. He was part of the advance rescue force led by Sir Herbert Stewart. After Stewart was mortally wounded Brigadier-General Wilson took command of this group of about 1,400 men. On two Nile steamers Wilson’s Desert Column reached Khartoum in the afternoon of 28 January 1885. It came two days too late: Khartoum had been seized by the Mahdists in the early hours of January 26. Between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants were slaughtered, among them Major-General Charles George Gordon.

This book, first published in 1886, is Charles William Wilson’s Journal of the march from Korti to Gubat, and of the voyage in General Gordon’s steamers to the junction of the two Niles. The Journal formed part of a daily journal that Wilson kept whilst employed in the Sudan, and sent home by nearly every mail. It was transcribed from his field-notes immediately following his return to Korti, whilst all the events which it describes were still fresh in his memory. Wilson released it to the public upon strong encouragement of his friends back home in England, allowing the reader to read for himself the vivid account “of courage […] of discipline […] of dash […] of endurance […].”

Richly illustrated with a special picture and map pack.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Borodino Books
• Release date: Jul 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787206267

Col. Sir Charles W. Wilson

Major-General Sir Charles William Wilson, KCB, KCMG, FRS (14 March 1836 - 25 October 1905) was a British Army officer, geographer and archaeologist. Born in Liverpool, he was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School and Cheltenham College. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers in 1855. His first appointment was as secretary to the British Boundary Commission in 1858, dutied to map the 49th parallel between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. He spent four years in North America, during which time he kept a travel diary. In 1864 he worked on the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem where he identified the eponymous Wilson’s Arch. He was appointed to the Ordnance Survey of Scotland in 1867. In 1867 he joined the Palestine Exploration Fund and had a leading role in the Survey of Western Palestine project. In 1868 he joined the Ordnance Survey of Sinai. In 1872 he was elected to the Society of British Archaeology. In 1874 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He became director of the topographical department at the British War Office, assistant quartermaster-general in the British Intelligence Department and, in 1876, received an Order of the Bath and then headed the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. From 1879-1882 he was consul-general in Anatolia. In the summer of 1882, he took part in Garnet Wolseley’s expedition to put down the rebellion of Colonel ‘Urabi. From 1884-1885, Wilson took part in the Khartoum Relief Expedition, commanded by Wolseley. He was part of the advance rescue force led by Sir Herbert Stewart. He was appointed director of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland and was director-general from 1886-1894. From 1895 until his retirement in 1898, he served as the director-general of military education. He served director of the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, then chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund from 1901 until his death in 1905, aged 69.

Book preview

This edition is published by BORODINO BOOKS – www.pp-publishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – [e-mail]

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1886 under the same title.

© Borodino Books 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

FROM KORTI TO KHARTUM:

A JOURNAL OF THE DESERT MARCH FROM KORTI TO GUBAT, AND OF THE ASCENT OF THE NILE IN GENERAL GORDON’S STEAMERS

BY

COL. SIR CHARLES W. WILSON K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.C.L., F.R.S., R.E.

LATE DEPUTY ADJUTANT-GENERAL (INTELLIGENCE BRANCH), NILE EXPEDITION

SECOND EDITION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

PREFACE. 6

INTRODUCTION. 7

JOURNAL. 11

POSTSCRIPT. 84

APPENDIX. 87

APPENDIX I. 87

APPENDIX II. 90

APPENDIX III. 91

APPENDIX IV. 92

APPENDIX V. 94

APPENDIX VI. 96

APPENDIX VII. 97

APPENDIX VIII. 98

APPENDIX IX. 99

APPENDIX X. 100

THE WAR IN THE SUDAN ILLUSTRATION PACK 101

Egypt At The Time Of The Revolt 102

Personalities Of The Revolts 147

Images Of The Sudan 168

The Anglo-Egyptian War 177

The British-Sudan Campaign of 1884 185

The Rise and Fall of the Mahdi 213

Rudolf Slatin’s Adventures 299

The Captivity of Father Ohrwalder 319

MAPS 344

Map of the Dervish Empire 344

Map of the Nile from Cairo to Wady Halfa 345

The Bombardment of Alexandria – 11th July 1882 348

General Map of the Anglo-Egyptian War 349

Map Of The Delta Of The Nile, Illustrating The Egyptian Campaign Of 1882. 350

Map Of The Suez Canal, From Port Said To Lake Timsah. 351

Bird’s-Eye View Of The Suez Canal 352

Hand Sketch Of The Action At Kassassin (August 28) 353

Plan Of The Battle Of Tel-El-Kebir 354

Plan Of The Harbour And Town Of Suakim 355

Map Of The Country Between Egypt And The Soudan. 356

Plan Of The March To El Teb (Feb. 28-9, 1884) 357

Plan Of The Battle Of El Teb (Feb. 29, 1884). 358

Battlefield of Abu Klea – 17th January 1885 360

Map Of Khartoum And Vicinity. 363

Plan Of The Battle Of Abu Klea. 364

Plan Of The Battle Of Abu Kru (January 19, 1985). 366

Plan Of The Battle Of Abu Kru (January 19, 1885). 367

Plan Of The Battle Of Kirbekan (February 10, 1885). 368

Map Of The Environs Of Suakim 369

Plan Of The Battle Of Hasheen (March 20 1885) 370

Around Suakim 371

The Advance to Akasha – March- June 1896 374

The Action at Firket – 7th June 1898 377

The Capture of Dongola – September 1896 378

Rail and River toward Khartoum 381

The Nile from Merawi to Abu Hamed 384

The Nile from Abu Hamed to Shabluka 385

The Campaign on the Atabara – March and April 1898 388

The Battle of the Atabara (1) 391

The Battle of the Atabara (2) 392

Operations of Omdurman 1st September 1898 395

The Battle of Omdurman – The First Attack 396

The Battle of Omdurman – The Attack on Macdonald 397

Action Near Gudaref – 22nd September 1898 398

The Campaign on the Blue Nile – September-December 1898 401

Action Near Rosiares – 26th December 1898 402

The Shirkela Reconnaissance – January 1899 405

The Soudan 1896-1989 406

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 407

PREFACE.

THE Journal of the march from Korti to Gubat, and of the voyage in General Gordon’s steamers to the junction of the two Niles, forms part of a daily journal which I kept whilst employed in the Sudan, and sent home by nearly every mail. It was written up from the field-notes after my return to Korti whilst all the events which it describes were fresh in my memory. It was hastily written amidst many interruptions; sometimes the rough field-notes were copied; sometimes they were corrected to agree with more recent information. In preparing the Journal for publication, I have omitted several passages which were of interest only to myself and to my friends; and I have made many verbal alterations, which were rendered necessary by the haste with which it was written. The Journal was not written with a view to publication; but on my return to England, some friends, who had seen it, strongly advised me to publish, as they thought that some fuller account of the attempt to reach Khartum in General Gordon’s steamers than has yet appeared should be given to the public. My reluctance to publish has delayed its appearance.

I thought at the time that, if we had reached Khartum before it fell, the presence of two armed steamers with a small detachment of British soldiers (twenty) might have turned the scale in General Gordon’s favour. The fuller knowledge which I now possess of the condition of the garrison, and of the determination of the Mahdi to attack Khartum before the English arrived, leads me to believe that if the steamers had left Gubat a week earlier, the result would have been the same; and that even if it had been possible for them to have reached Khartum on the 25th January, their presence would not have averted the fall of the city.

The failure of the Relief Expedition to attain its object was deeply and sincerely regretted by everyone in the force—by no one more so than by myself, for General Gordon was not only a brother officer but a personal friend. It failed; but, to quote Lord Wolseley’s words, this was from no lack of courage or of discipline, of dash or of endurance;...all ranks worked as hard as human beings could, hoping to render the earliest possible assistance to their heroic comrade who was besieged in Khartum.

C. W. WILSON.

Dustern, October 31, 1885.

INTRODUCTION.

ON the 16th December 1884, Lord Wolseley reached Korti, and joined the camp which had been established on the previous day by Brigadier-General Sir Herbert Stewart. The troops then in camp were the Guards Camel Regiment, the Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment, and detachments of the South Staffordshire Regiment and of the Royal Engineers.

The latest direct news from General Gordon that the Expedition possessed at that time, was contained in a letter,{1} dated November 4th, which had been brought by one of Major Kitchener’s messengers, who had succeeded in entering Khartum on the 3rd, and in returning to Debbeh on the 14th November. In his letter General Gordon gave the following important information: At Matammeh, waiting your orders, are five steamers with nine guns. We can hold out forty days with ease; after that it will be difficult. The Mahdi is here, about eight miles away. All north side along the White Nile is free of Arabs; they are on south and south-west and east of town some way off; they are quiet. I should take the road from Ambukol to Matammeh, where my steamers wait for you. On the back of the letter there was a small plan showing the distribution of the Mahdi’s army (20,000 men), and the number and position of his guns. Previous to our arrival at Korti we had beard of the presence of five of General Gordon’s steamers at Shendy; of the fighting round Khartum; of the frequent desertions from the Mahdi to General Gordon; of the sickness and want of food in the Mahdi’s camp; of the defection of some of the Baggara Arabs; and of other details which are mentioned in General Gordon’s Journal. There had been some raiding in the desert between Debbeh and Khartum, but no roving bands had been reported in the desert between Korti and Matammeh.

Between the 16th and 30th of December the camp at Korti presented a busy scene: troops were arriving daily by land and river; preparations were being made for the desert march; and the advanced boats of the river column were being sent on to Belal, at the foot of the Gerendid Cataract.{2} During this interval additional details were received with regard to the fighting round Khartum, and we heard that Gordon’s steamers had recently been up to the city with provisions;{3} that there was a force with firearms at Matammeh; and that the Mudir of Bahr Ghazal (supposed to be Lupton Bey) had surrendered and been sent to Obeid. We also obtained, through our own agents, information respecting the strength and distribution of the Mahdi’s army round Khartum, which agreed very closely with that given by General Gordon.

On the 30th December, Sir Herbert Stewart left with the Camel Corps to occupy the wells of Jakdul. On the 31st, a messenger, who had been sent to General Gordon on the 29th October, returned. He brought a piece of paper, the size of a postage—stamp, on which was written Khartoum all right; it was signed C. G. Gordon, and dated December 14, 1884. The messenger was told to deliver a verbal message,’ of which the following is the most important portion: "The enemy cannot take us except by starving us out. Our troops suffer from want of provisions; the food we still have is little—some grain and biscuit.{4} We want you to come quickly. Do not scatter your troops; the enemy is numerous; bring plenty of troops if you can. You should come by way of Matammeh or Berber; only by these two roads. Do not leave Berber in your rear. Keep the enemy in your front; and when you take Berber send me word, and come by the east bank. Do this without letting rumours of your approach spread abroad." The messenger also stated that General Gordon’s steamers had gone up the river to Wady Bishara to collect the crops on the islands in the cataract.{5}

On New Year’s Day the first boats of the Black Watch reached Korti; on the 3rd January General Earle, who had arrived on the 1st, left to join the advanced-guard of his force; and on the 4th, the South Staffordshire Regiment passed the Gerendid Cataract, and occupied Hamdab, where the river column was to assemble before making a forward movement. On the 5th, Lord Charles Beresford reached Korti with the First Division of the Naval Brigade; and on the same day Sir Herbert Stewart returned from Jakdul, where he had left the Guards Camel Regiment. The march of the latter had been most successful; it had taken the enemy completely by surprise; and there had been no opposition. The camels, with a few exceptions, looked little the worse for their forced march to Jakdul and back; but some of us, who had had previous experience of the ship of the desert, were afraid that more had been taken out of them than was apparent to the eye. Several prisoners, Awadiyeh Arabs from the neighbourhood of Matammeh, were brought in; they were not very communicative, but they confirmed the report that there was a force at Matammeh armed with rifles, and that General Gordon’s steamers were on the river below the cataract.

On the 7th January the Light Camel Regiment, under the command of Colonel Stanley Clarke, left for Jakdul with a convoy of 1000 camels; and on the 8th, Sir Herbert Stewart’s force commenced its march across the desert. Sir Herbert Stewart’s instructions{6} were to attack and occupy Matammeh, and then to return to Jakdul, whence he was to continue forwarding stores to Matammeh. The force at his disposal consisted of—

First Division of the Naval Brigade.

One squadron of the 19th Hussars.

The Guards Camel Regiment,{7} composed of selected men from the three regiments of Guards, and from the Royal Marines.

The Heavy Camel Regiment, the Heavies, composed of selected men from the three Household and seven other cavalry regiments.

The Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment, composed of selected men from various regiments, most of whom had served with the Mounted Infantry in South Africa or Egypt.

Half a battery Royal Artillery.

Detachment Royal Engineers.

400 men of the Royal Sussex Regiment (old 35th), of whom 150 were to be left at Jakdul.

One company of the Essex Regiment (old 56th), destined to form a post at Howeiyat.

The Bearer Company.

The Movable Field Hospital.

Transport details.

In all, about 120 officers and 1900 men, with 300 natives, interpreters, camel-drivers, &c.

The Light Camel Regiment, the Lights, composed of selected men from nine Cavalry regiments, was employed almost entirely on escort duty with convoys.

When the column left Korti on the 8th, the position was nearly as follows:—

British.—The river column assembling at Hamdab; Jakdul held by the Guards Camel Regiment; General Gordon’s four steamers{8} on the Nile below the Shabloka Cataract; and Khartum and Omdurman holding out.

Enemy.—Birti held by the Monassir and dervishes from Berber; no one in the desert between Korti and Matammeh, except the Arabs living there; at Matammeh a force variously reported to be from 300 to 3000 men armed with rifles, and two guns; at Berber a force supposed to be small, but known to be partly armed with rifles, and two steamers; at Shendy a small force; and round Khartum. the Mahdi’s army of 20,000 men.

The plan of the Mahdi appears to have been to try and crush the British column at the end of its desert march; and as soon as the occupation of Jakdul was known, his troops were set in motion. The following dates show what occurred: Jakdul was occupied by Sir Herbert Stewart at 6.45 A.M. on the 2nd January; on the 4th, Muhammed el Kheir, the Emir of Berber, ordered his men to proceed to the assistance of the Emir of Matammeh.{9} Omdurman fell between the 6th and 13th, and the battle of Abu Klea was fought on the 17th. The enemy had thus thirteen days to concentrate his troops at Abu Klea. Matammeh, the immediate objective of the British column, was 176 miles from Korti, and only about 90 miles from Berber, and 98 miles from Khartum.

The country between Korti and Matammeh is not a desert in the true sense of the term. After the first twenty miles from Korti, there is an abundant supply of savas grass, excellent food for camels, at short intervals, and a fair quantity of wood—acacia and mimosa. There is good water at Howeiyat, Abu Halfa, Jakdul, and Abu Klea, as well as in some of the ravines in Jebel Jilif; and water would probably be found by digging in many of the dry water-courses. The torrents which descend from Jebel Jilif during the rainy season, have formed an alluvial plain, a few miles to the south-west of the road, on which crops of dura are raised every year; and judging from the numerous tracks seen, the Arabs of this district must possess large herds of cattle. The road throughout is excellent; there are no hills; the country is open; and, with the exception of a few patches of sand between Jakdul and Abu Klea, the ground is firm, and presents no difficulty to the passage of troops whether mounted or on foot.

The weather, up to the end of February, was almost perfect; the nights cold, and the midday heat always tempered by a cool breeze.

JOURNAL.

Jan. 8, 1885. — In the morning I received Lord Wolseley’s instructions{10} for Gordon and myself, which had been read to me yesterday. In the afternoon I joined Herbert Stewart’s column{11} with Dickson of the Royals, who was to be left at Khartum with Gordon, and Verner, Rifle Brigade, who was to sketch the road, and be left at Matammeh as intelligence officer. The column formed up on the desert behind the village of Korti, and after having been inspected by Lord Wolseley, moved off about two. We were all in high spirits at commencing, at last, the real business of the campaign, and started with many good wishes for success from those we left behind. We camped in the desert a little after sunset, in a long line, headquarters and advanced-guard in the centre, with the other divisions to the right and left. Outposts were thrown out, fires lighted, suppers cooked and eaten, and then we lay down to sleep, with réveillé at 12.30 A.M. to dream of.

Jan. 9th.—We had not much rest after all, for Dickson’s camel broke loose, and started off, with Dickson, Verner, and servants in hot pursuit. They first went over the Heavies, then doubled back on headquarters, and finally finished their hunt in the Naval Brigade. I think they roused up pretty nearly every one, and they were followed by a copious flow of that strong language which Tommy Atkins has inherited from his forefathers who fought in Flanders. By the time we had had a cup of chocolate the moon was well up, and there was a good light; yet as we were waiting for the order to march, Dickson and I with the guides a little in front of the centre, the whole of the right wing marched across our front, in a direction nearly at right angles to our proper road. Who originated the movement I never heard, but it caused a long delay and some confusion. It was cold enough before daylight to make ulsters and jerseys acceptable, but very enjoyable, and the sky was more than usually fine with moon, Venus, Southern Cross, False Cross, Sirius, Orion, Great Bear, and Pole-star above the horizon at the same time. The great column moving silently along under the moonlight was a sight not easily forgotten. Our marches yesterday and this morning had been over firm gravelly ground with sparse vegetation, a little grass, and a few mimosa; but a little before ten