The Camerons no sooner got the word to advance than, with a wild rush, the pipers meanwhile playing 'The March of the Cameron Men,' they made for the zareba some three hundred yards ahead. Forward and forward, midst a rain of bullets, they reached the hedge of camel-thorn. In a few moments it was torn to pieces and scattered like brushwood, Gatacre being among the first to lay hands on the obstruction, and the Highlanders were inside the stockade and in the trenches, where now sprang out of the earth dusty, black, half-naked shapes, running and turning to shoot, but running away. 'It was a wild confusion of Highlanders, purple tartan, and black green too, for now the Seaforths had brought their perfect columns through the teeth of the fire, and were charging in at the gap.' The enemy scarcely waited to fight, so impetuous was the rush upon them, and they fled in the utmost confusion for the river, where they were cut down by the pursuing cavalry, and General Lewis's half brigade of Egyptians.
In the attack on the right, the Egyptian troops, led by British officers under Generals Hunter, Maxwell, and Macdonald, behaved with great gallantry, carrying all before them. The ground was easier on their side than that covered by Gatacre's men, and they entered the zareba a few minutes before the Highlanders, not a man flinching from the encounter. The battle of the Atbara—thanks to British discipline and drill—definitely placed the blacks and the once contemned Egyptians in the ranks of the very best troops in the world. In forty minutes the Dervish host had been driven out of their lair, thousands of them had been killed, and four thousand, including their leader Mahmoud, were prisoners in the Sirdar's hands. The way was now so far open to Khartoum, but the opportunity was not yet.
Reserves and supplies were needed, and a strong base had still to be secured before the final advance on the Khalifa's capital could be attempted. The whole force, British and Egyptian, accordingly retraced their steps down the Atbara river to El Hudi, where they struck across the desert to the various camps they had formerly occupied at Kenur, Darmali, Assilem, Berber, and Fort Atbara, at the junction of the rivers.
The 1st Brigade of British, viz. the Camerons, the Lincolns, Seaforths, and Maxim battery resumed their quarters at Darmali, where they remained throughout the summer. By the month of August, however, when Wauchope joined them, casualties in action and deaths and invalidings from sickness had seriously affected the strength of the brigade, though officers and men upon the whole stood the climate well. 'The sick list had never touched six per cent. There were not fifty graves in the cemetery; and most of the faces at the mess table were familiar.' The Lincolns, who had come up over 1100 strong, still had 980; the other three battalions were each about 750 strong, and the Warwicks were expecting a further draft of men. The total strength of Wauchope's brigade would thus come to nearly 3500 men. With eager expectation they now awaited the order to advance on Khartoum.
Advance on Khartoum
The forward movement began on 3rd August, regiment after regiment first concentrating at Atbara fort, then being shipped by steamer up the Nile to Shabluka, where they were to reform and make the remainder of the journey in six marches on the west bank to Omdurman. Even with several steamers at the Sirdar's disposal it was a tedious business, and occupied nearly a month. Wauchope's brigade passed up in the steamers on the 14th August, a four days' voyage, and on the 23rd, when paraded with the and Brigade, they were reported as 'in splendid condition.'
On the 25th August, the 1st Brigade marched out of Wad Hamed, and the scene is described by one who saw it as a most imposing spectacle. The four battalions of which it was composed moved off with their baggage at the bugle-call, taking the road in four parallel columns. 'Many of the men were bearded, and all were tanned with the sun, acclimatised by a summer in the country, hardened by perpetual labours, and confident from the recollection of victory—a magnificent force, which any man might be proud to accompany into the field.' General Wauchope's men were worthy of their commander, and it was, we may be sure, with no little elation that he stepped out with them that day on the way to their final triumph.
Keeping his forces well in hand, the Sirdar had the whole army encamped at Wadi Abid on the evening of the 29th, the British Division marching in by moonlight. They were now within twenty-eight miles of Omdurman, and the two following days' marches brought them within touch of the enemy and in sight of the Mahdi's tomb.
The 2nd of September saw the last stand for Mahdism and its complete overthrow.
Resting their base upon the river, where they were supported by five gun-boats, the British formed their camp within a few miles of Omdurman, the Sirdar taking the precaution to entrench in case of surprise. Early in the morning the Khalifa brought out his whole force, computed to be about fifty thousand men, making a dead onset upon the British position. If overpowering numbers could have achieved victory he had it in his grasp.