TOFREK. March 22nd., 1885.
Reading edition
Two days after the engagement at Hasheen, Major-General Sir John McNeill, V.C., an officer who had served in India, New Zealand, and in the Ashantee Expedition, moved out of Suakin at daybreak, with a squadron of the 5th. Lancers, the 49th. Regiment, a battalion of Marines, the three Infantry Regiments of the Indian Contingent (under Brigadier-General Hudson), a detachment of Engineers, and a Naval Brigade, with four Gardner guns, in the direction of Tamaai. His purpose was to construct some zarebas, about six miles out, to be garrisoned by the 49th., while the other troops were to return to Suakin. Though the enemy were seen to be in force on the hills, and spies and prisoners had reported the intention of Osman Digma to attack the British advanced zarebas, no intimation of this seems to have reached General McNeill.
Between ten and eleven o’clock in the morning the troops commenced making their zarebas, a large one in the centre for the camels, and two on the angles of this, each to contain a battalion, and two Gardner guns manned by the Naval Brigade. So little was an attack expected, that one zareba being completed, with the guns mounted, and the others in progress 629of formation, the camels and baggage animals which brought the supplies, were beginning to slowly to move off on their return to Suakin, and a portion of the troops were at breakfast. The working parties were in the bush hacking at the tough underwood, with a picket or two and a few cavalry scouts thrown out, but none more than about thirty yards in advance, when suddenly the outposts came rushing in, breaking through the working parties, with the enemy at their heels uttering the most frightful yells. “Stand to your arms” resounded on all sides, but the men were scattered, many working at a distance from the piles of arms, but all did their best to get into proper position and to form in squares. Everything was in favour of the enemy, before whose furious onset the whole assemblage of transport animals plunged forward upon the zareba. “There was a multitude of roaring camels heaped one upon the other, with strings of screaming mules entangled in one moving mass. Crowds of camp followers were carried along by the huge animal wave—crying, shouting, fighting. Mingled with this mass of brutes and terrified natives, which swept all before it, were the Arab swordsmen, hewing and slashing at men and animals with the ferocity of demons. They hamstrung every animal they could reach and cut the helpless camp followers to pieces, amidst a shower of bullets from all sides, and there can be little doubt but that many men and camels were killed by our own fire in the confused mêlée.” The British force found itself suddenly engaged in a most desperate hand to hand conflict with masses of a fanatical and fearless enemy. The 17th. Native Infantry gave way before the terrific rush of the Arabs, their commanding officer, Major Von Beverhoudt, being killed in an attempt to rally his men; and sixty of the enemy got inside the square of the Marines, to be all shot or bayonetted. Half of the 49th. were in the zareba, and the remainder in a rallying square outside. On the first rush of the enemy about one hundred and twenty of them entered the zareba at the corner, and were all killed after a desperate conflict. The Gardner guns, under Lieutenant Paget, now came into action, and checked the advance of the enemy by a rain of bullets, while a steady fire from the zareba and the squares outside, mowed 630down the charging masses of the Arabs like grass. The Soudanese saw that their attack had failed, and sullenly withdrew, vanishing into the bush from which they had so suddenly burst forth.
In this brief but furious action the 49th. had Lieutenant Swinton and twenty-five men killed; the Naval Brigade, Lieutenant Seymour and six men; the Engineers, Captain Romily, Lieutenant Newman, and thirteen men killed; the total casualties (exclusive of the loss of the Indian contingent) being five officers and ninety-four men killed; six officers and one hundred and thirty-six men wounded; and one officer and seventy men missing. The Indians had about one hundred and twenty men killed and wounded, and the Departmental Corps and camp followers suffered heavily. Upwards of eight hundred camels and transport animals were also killed.
When the clouds of smoke and dust had cleared away, the ground in and around the zarebas was seen to be thickly strewn with the bodies of the enemy, in every conceivable attitude. It was computed that nearly one thousand five hundred Arabs lay there, for the most part dead.[226] Outside the zareba the dead and wounded camels and baggage animals lay literally in heaps. The enemy still swarmed in the bush, and were active all night in removing their slain and wounded, and searching for their standards, of which three were captured[227] during the fight.
The next morning General Graham arrived from Suakin, with the Guards and Mounted Infantry, and a new zareba was constructed away from the vicinity of the reeking battle-field. The wounded were sent in the afternoon to Suakin, escorted by the Grenadier Guards and Indians, and were taken on board the hospital ship “Ganges.”
The withdrawal of the Nile expedition commenced in May, 1885, and on the 25th., the advanced post of Merawi was evacuated by the 42nd. Regiment. Garrisons of British troops and Egyptians however held various places in Upper Egypt, which presently were attacked by the Dervishes. In December, three thousand of them attacked Mograkeh, occupied by the 79th. and two hundred Egyptians, but were repulsed with heavy loss. On the 30th. of the same month, General Sir F. Stephenson, with a force of British and Egyptian troops, consisting of about four thousand five hundred men, moved out early in the morning and attacked the Arabs, about six thousand strong, who were entrenched at Ginnis. With General Stephenson, were Generals Grenfell, Butler, and Huyshe, and Colonel Ardagh. The action commenced at six a.m., and by nine o’clock the enemy were totally defeated and their position captured, with four guns and twenty banners.
The British loss was trifling. Lieutenant Soltau, of the 49th. Regiment, was killed; and one officer and twenty-one men wounded; and of the Egyptians about twenty men were killed and wounded. The loss of the Arabs was computed to be about six hundred killed. In these operations the 19th., 38th., 49th., 79th., and 106th. Foot, were engaged.
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