"The Khalifa had been sitting for eight days in the mosque in communion with the Prophet and the Mahdi, and it was either on the Tuesday night or Wednesday morning immediately preceding the battle that the decision to move out of town was arrived at. On the Wednesday afternoon a grand parade of all the troops was held on the new parade ground, and, while it was being held, alarming news was brought by Abd-el-Baagi's messengers.... That night the rain came down in torrents, and the following day the army arose uncomfortable, and maybe a little dispirited, but Abdullah restored their good spirits by the relation of a vision. During the night the Prophet and the Mahdi had come to him and let him see beforehand the result of the battle; the souls of the faithful killed were all rising to paradise, while the legions of hell were seen tearing into shreds the spirits of the infidels.
"But all the time the gunboats were approaching, and soon shells were screeching through the air over the little shuddering group of prisoners. At night the soft thud of thousands of feet told of the host of fugitives entering the town. It was all very well for the Khalifa to order a salute to be fired in honour of a victory; other messengers were hurrying in with grave faces, and desiring to see one of the subordinate Emirs before facing Abdullah.
"Between ten and eleven at night a riderless horse from the British or Egyptian cavalry came slowly moving, head down, towards the Dervish lines. The Khalifa had related how, in one of his visions, he had seen the Prophet, mounted on his mare, riding at the head of the avenging angels, destroying the infidels. The apparition of the riderless horse was too much; at least one-third of the Khalifa's huge army deserted, terrified. When Yakoub told him of the desertions, Abdullah merely raised his head to say, 'The prophecy will be fulfilled, if only five people stay near me.' His Baggara and Taaishi stood by him, but they, too, were losing heart, for the Khalifa, on his knees, with head bowed to the ground, was groaning, instead of, as customary, repeating the name of the Deity. However, he pulled round a little as the night progressed, and invented visions enough to put spirits into the remaining but slightly despondent troops.
"When the day had gone hopelessly against him, and he had been persuaded to enter the town, he ordered the drums and ombeyehs to be sounded, and endeavoured to make a final stand at the large praying inclosure. But few obeyed the summons, and of those that came some slunk away, and others jeered at the disconsolate and discredited prophet. Finally he sent his secretary to collect his household, but the secretary did not return. Stopping two fugitives, he sent them to ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy, and they came upon the Sirdar and his staff not 1,200 yards away. Abdullah, warned in time, contrived to slip away, whilst the Sirdar changed his direction and made the complete circuit of Omdurman."
The gunboats which had been employed in clearing the streets having returned, the remainder of Maxwell's brigade, which had been left at the corner of the wall, was now pushed forward, and occupied all the main positions of the town. Guards were at once mounted over the principal buildings and the Khalifa's stores, and the Sirdar then proceeded to visit the prisons and release the European prisoners.
Amongst the captives liberated, besides Neufeld, were Joseph Ragnotti, Sister Teresa Grigolini, and thirty Greeks. Neufeld was in chains, which had to be filed off before he was restored to liberty.[175]
In the arsenal were found large stores of ammunition, with thousands of weapons of all sorts, including some sixty cannon, also Dervish spears, swords, banners, drums, flint-lock muskets, rifles, camel equipments, and military odds and ends of various kinds, many of them captured from Hicks's army nearly fifteen years before.
Whilst Maxwell's brigade was thus occupied, the British brigades and the remainder of the Sirdar's army had moved up from Khor Shambat, which they quitted at 4.30 p.m. On arriving at the wall they met with no opposition, and shortly after sunset marched into the town, amidst shouts of welcome from the populace. They continued their march, amid sickening stenches and scenes of misery and desolation, till they reached the open ground on the west side of the town. Here, as the various troops came up, they bivouacked for the night.
There was a certain amount of street fighting in the darkness, when isolated bands of Dervishes from time to time fired upon the Soudanese, who could not be restrained from retaliating. These struggles were attended by some loss of life, and no doubt partly account for the 300 or 400 dead bodies found in the town.
Of the services rendered by the gunboats during the day's fighting it is difficult to speak too highly. During the battle they guarded the left flank of the army, doing great execution with their guns on the dense masses of the enemy. As already related, when the Camel Corps were so hard pressed, one of the vessels was able, by dropping down stream, to turn back a large body of Dervishes coming round Kerreri Hill. As the Sirdar's victorious army advanced, the gunboats likewise pushed on, and went alongside the walls of Khartoum, helping to silence the fire from the houses near the river. Their services, however, did not end there, and at 8 p.m. they, together with the Egyptian cavalry and Camel Corps, started south in pursuit of the Khalifa, the gunboats proceeding up the White Nile. Unfortunately, they were unable to render much assistance owing to the state of the river, which, having overflown its banks, was, though two miles in breadth, only navigable near the middle.
In consequence of the flooded state of the country, which prevented the troops from communicating with the gunboats conveying the forage and rations of the troops, the latter were compelled to abandon the pursuit after following up the flying Khalifa for thirty miles over marshy ground.
The gunboats continued their course south for ninety miles, but were obliged to return without being able to come in touch with the Khalifa, who left the river and fled westward towards Kordofan.
At 4 a.m. on the 3rd September, the Anglo-Egyptian army marched out and bivouacked at a spot four miles south of Omdurman, whilst parties were told off to bury the soldiers who had fallen in the battle of the previous day.