One of the gunboats was then sent to drive the Dervish force out. In this she signally failed, and after a cannonade on both sides lasting for an hour, she had to return with the commander and two men wounded.
In the meantime there was, it seems, a disagreement between the two Emirs, Abd-el-Halim wishing to capture the village, and Wad-en-Nejumi refusing to consent. The dispute ended in Abd-el-Halim collecting his own men, and as many others as he could prevail upon to follow him. Then he advanced rapidly down a khor leading to the centre of the village, his left being protected by riflemen posted on the ridge behind, to which they had been driven in the morning, and his right being covered by the fire from the captured houses.
The movement being perceived from the eastern bank, Colonel Wodehouse again opened fire with his artillery, but the Dervishes nevertheless still came on, and divided into three groups, one of which was directed towards Captain Kempster's position, the second taking the centre of the village, and the third advancing to the southern post.
Seeing the nature of this new attack, Wodehouse promptly ordered the 10th Battalion, then stationed near the northern post, to embark and reinforce the troops to the southern end of the village. Two of the first companies to land from the steamer had hardly advanced any distance before they were charged by the enemy's cavalry and spearmen, and forced back to the water's edge. There, aided by the fire from the gunboat, they maintained their position against heavy odds, until help came in the form of two companies of the 9th Soudanese and some of the Camel Corps.
Major Hunter, the rest of whose battalion had by this time landed, now assumed command of these detachments, and, advancing steadily, drove back the assailants, who frequently charged him, only, however, to be shot down to a man. Seeing a number of horse and spearmen rallying on the left, Hunter now halted his men in a position which, with the adjacent houses right and rear, formed a square, and remained on the defensive.
In the meantime, Captain Kempster, observing the enemy streaming down into the village, kept up a steady fire from his loopholed houses, to which the Dervish riflemen on the ridge replied. Hearing that a gun had been brought into position on the river bank to his left, he went with a party of men to seize it, but, finding that the post was too strongly held, he retired after some fighting, in which he lost seven of his men. The gun was shortly after captured by a party of the 13th Soudanese, though not without a severe hand-to-hand encounter. Wodehouse had now arrived on the west bank, and sent Major Hunter with some companies of the 9th to clear the ground to his left front. Though three times charged by the Dervish spearmen, he succeeded, and drove the enemy back through the khor by which they had advanced. Some fifty of the Arabs who remained in the captured houses were surrounded, and the houses being set fire to, the unfortunate inmates had no alternative but to come out and be killed.
This completed the work of the day, and at 6 p.m. Argin was completely cleared of the Dervish force, which left some 900 men killed in and around the village, besides 500 prisoners, men, women, and children.
The Egyptians engaged amounted to less than 2,000 men, and their loss was eleven killed and fifty-nine wounded.
The enemy's camp was found the next day still in its original position, and although Wodehouse, with the object of drawing the Dervishes, placed the 10th Soudanese opposite the entrance to the khor, there was no response.