20th August.
Appointment of General Hicks as Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition to Kordofan. Plan of campaign.
On the 20th August, General Hicks received a telegram from the Khedive appointing him Commander-in-Chief of the expedition to Kordofan, with the rank of General of Division. His original plan was to leave Kartoum about the 8th of September, and march up the White Nile as far Berair,[324] with 8600 infantry, 1400 cavalry and Bashi Bazouks, one battery of Krupp field guns, two batteries of mounted guns, and one battery of Nordenfeldts, and 5000 camels.
1883.
Leaving the river at Berair, he proposed to march first on Bara,[325] and then on El Obeyed, appearing before the last-mentioned place with 7000 men, which it was considered would be sufficient to overcome the Mahdi. About 3000 were to be employed in keeping open the line of communications. But the idea of establishing a line of fortified posts between the Nile and Kordofan was subsequently abandoned, and it was decided that the whole force should advance together, without attempting to keep up any communication with the rear. The reason for adopting this course was, that reports were brought in that large numbers of hostile Arabs were likely to reappear on the line of march after the passage of the army, and there would be great difficulty in inducing small bodies of Egyptian troops to escort convoys of stores between the posts.
The Egyptian officers attached to the force were inefficient, and, as a rule, apathetic; they carried little or no respect, and had but slight authority over their men. To bring the army into a state of efficiency, feed it, provide transport, and procure intelligence, taxed the energies of General Hicks and his small European Staff to the utmost. His greatest anxiety was regarding the water supply during the march, for Kordofan is the driest province in the whole Soudan. The wells along the roads across the desert contain but little water, except immediately after the rains, and it was feared that even then there would be insufficient for a large force accompanied by horses, mules, and several thousand camels.
On leaving the Nile, provisions for sixty days were to be carried with the army.
Rashid Pasha, who was to have commanded a brigade, telegraphed from Kassala that the Arabs in the neighbourhood were in a state of great excitement, and he thought it would be best for him to remain there till it had subsided.
9th September.
Departure of the army from Kartoum.