Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure by Michael Asher

Author:Michael Asher [Asher, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780140258554
Google: j751AAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0140258558
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2005-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

10

The 19th Hussars under Lieut. Colonel Percy Barrow dashed up to the square to find it was all over. They had been tasked with skirmishing to the left, but had been held up by a company of dervishes and had been obliged to fight their way through. Barrow was not even aware that the square had broken. Stewart ordered him to pursue the enemy, but Barrow said his horses were too thirsty for a pursuit – in fact, they were almost uncontrollable with thirst. Bill Burge probably spoke for more than just himself when he expressed pleasure that the enemy had got away unmolested. ‘Of their kind they were the bravest of the brave,’ he commented. ‘They did not know the meaning of fear. I was glad, and relieved, too, and I do not think that there was either officer or man in the broken square who had not a feeling of thankfulness to see the backs and not the faces of them.’48

Water was now Stewart’s main priority, and he sent the Hussars to look for the wells instead. They were almost impossible to locate without a guide. The wells were narrow sinkholes in the bed of the wadi, virtually invisible until one was on top of them. It took Barrow’s scouts until 1700 hours to locate them, and by that time Stewart was already considering marching back to the zariba.

There were 106 wounded – far too many to carry on the cacolets. Instead, the Guards Camel Regiment, who had been least involved in the fight, and had taken no casualties apart from Surgeon McGill, volunteered to carry them on stretchers. They were carried straight to the wells. After they had drunk, the force was ordered to water by company. The water turned out to be chocolate-coloured, with the consistency of mud, but it was cool and delicious to men dying of thirst. It took eight hours to water the entire force. By the time the watering was complete, night had fallen. An edge of cold air, as sharp as a razor, replaced the heat of the day. Stewart reformed the square on high ground overlooking the wells for the night.

The men had not eaten since breakfast, and had had no proper meal in two days. Stewart instructed three hundred volunteers from the Camel Corps to return to the zariba, load up all the baggage and stores, and return before first light. The men left in the square had no blankets or greatcoats, and, already ravenous with hunger, soon began to quiver with cold. Some tried to nuzzle up against the camels for warmth. Others passed around pipes or shared cigarettes. No one slept, and when the baggage-column arrived at 0700 hours the following day, the men were too weak and cold to cheer.

Wilson spent the next morning examining captured documents and interrogating prisoners. The papers suggested that the concentration of dervishes at Abu Tulayh had been possible because of Stewart’s double journey to Jakdul. Had the Desert Column marched straight through, as Wolseley had originally intended, the road would have been open.

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