On 1st September some excellent work was done by an effective co-operation between the gunboats and the Friendlies. At 5.30 a.m. the Sultan, Sheikh, Melik, Fatteh, and Nasr steamed up the right bank of the river and met Major Stuart-Wortley. It was arranged that the gunboats should steam on ahead and shell the villages and forts from the river, while the Friendlies advanced along the bank. At 9.30 the vessels engaged and utterly destroyed a fort to the south of Halfayah. The villages of Hejra el Sharg and Halfayah were next shelled, and as a body of Dervish cavalry emerged into the open ground, some forty or fifty of them were knocked over by shrapnel.

On land, meanwhile, the Irregulars had not been idle. Notwithstanding the shells of the gunboats, several of the villages south of Halfayah were found to be held in considerable force by the enemy. Major Stuart-Wortley drew up his men for the attack, but an unexpected hitch occurred, as the Mersalamieh and Gimiab contingents posted in front did not seem at all disposed to advance against the Dervishes, who were waiting for them behind the shelter of numerous mud-houses. Instead of rushing to the attack, they suddenly halted and danced a "fantasia" instead! Major Stuart-Wortley did not waste time over these faint-hearted warriors, but brought up his trusty Gaalin, who, supported by the other tribes, gallantly attacked house after house, and routed the enemy, killing a large number, including Isa Zachnieh, a cousin of the Khalifa, and losing themselves over sixty killed and wounded.

The Gaalin made very little use of their rifles in the desperate fighting which practically cleared the right bank of the Dervishes. They loaded their guns and fired them into the air, calling upon Allah to direct the course of the bullets! Then throwing their Remingtons on one side, they gripped their broad-bladed spears, and used them so effectively that after the fight the Dervish casualties stood at three hundred and fifty killed, wounded none! At one moment Major Stuart-Wortley and Lieutenant Wood were in great danger. A troop of Baggara horsemen suddenly charged down upon the spot where they were standing, and the Ababdeh Arabs who were with the two officers, instead of waiting for the cavalry, simply turned tail and fled. Immediately after this fighting round Halfayah, two hundred and fifty Shukriyeh Friendlies were dispatched up the Blue Nile in pursuit of the Dervishes who had fled.

By 11.30 on the 1st, the fighting on the right bank was to all intents and purposes over. Five hundred Gaalin and one hundred and seventy-five British infantry, made up of details from the Guards, Rifle Brigade, Highlanders, etc., were embarked on the five gunboats. The original plan had been to land Stuart-Wortley's levies on Tuti Island, but this was abandoned owing to the close proximity of the Omdurman forts—a fact not disclosed on the Intelligence maps—and the presence on the island of a large force of Dervishes.

R. V. Darbishire 1898.

{Click on map for larger image.}

1. Khartum. 6. Mosque.
2. Omdurman. 7. Mahdi's Tomb.
3. Gordon's House. 8. Khalifa's House.
4. Tuti Island. 9. Khojali.
5. Great Wall.10. Hejra el Sharg.

Meanwhile Major Elmslie's battery of howitzers had taken up a position on the bank opposite the centre of Omdurman, and at 1.30 opened fire on the Mahdi's tomb, at a range of three thousand one hundred and fifty yards. The two first shells missed their mark, but played havoc with the neighbouring buildings; the third wrecked the apex of the dome, and carried away the gilded ornaments which surmounted it. Later on three other shells crashed into the structure, tearing enormous holes in the stonework, and utterly destroying the whole of the interior. Subsequently the howitzers abandoned their artillery practice on tombs and their violation of the dead, and engaged in the more satisfactory demolition of the Omdurman ramparts. Vast breaches were torn in the big wall which ran along the river, and many of the principal buildings were utterly destroyed.