“presently they were seen by themselves, beyond the first works, and in front of the big redoubt, in the very midst of the foe. These gallant two! One was on his knee facing south-west; apparently he is conscious of having gone beyond support. The Egyptians in their trenches and ditches are in front, to right and to left of him. He glances back towards where kneels, a few yards behind him, his brave companion. But who can save you now, rash, gallant young Irishmen! You have turned from the front of your regiment and are cut off from all aid. My position on horseback enabled me to see the men, who, kneeling, were hid by the trenches from their own regiment. I saw an Egyptian officer move up behind the left of the leading man, and seizing his arm, strike him over the head or shoulder with his sword. A struggle ensued, but the smoke of battle hid them from further view. After the fight Colonel Gregorie found two dead bodies of his men among the others of his regiment in the place described: their names were Corporal Devine and Private Milligan.”
The good conduct of other soldiers is thus described by Colonel (then Lieutenant) Chichester—
“They stood back to back, tackled six Nubians, and accounted for them all. I now forget their names, but I was going to recommend them for reward, but afterwards heard that they had been killed later in the battle. A very brave reservist in my company was badly wounded and lay on the ground close to where I had fallen. He had eight bullet holes in his body, yet he only died the day that our transport full of wounded arrived at Plymouth. When the men came to attend him on the battlefield, he said, ‘Don’t mind me; look after others, worse hurt.’”
In sharp contrast to the gallant behaviour of this Irishman was the treachery of an Egyptian officer who lay injured on ground occupied by the XVIIIth. One of the men offered him water; he drank it, and then suddenly rolled over, snatched up a rifle and shot down one of the soldiers who were tending him. Prompt steps were taken to prevent this ruffian from doing more mischief!
After pursuing for some distance, Graham halted to re-form his brigade in readiness for further action. He had every reason to be proud of his command, for, as he reported to Lord Wolseley, “the steadiness of the advance of the 2nd brigade under what appeared to be an overwhelming fire of musketry and artillery will remain a proud remembrance.” As he rode from battalion to battalion he was greeted with many cheers, a tribute to the leader who, though a stern disciplinarian, had ever proved himself mindful of the comfort of his men, watchful of their safety, and who had now led them to decisive victory. By the time the second brigade had re-formed its ranks the troops on the left had also finished their work. The task set to Alison’s command had proved much harder than that allotted to Graham’s battalions. Not only were the fortifications which faced the Highland brigade far stronger than those attacked by the second division, but when the Highlanders had surmounted them they came under a very heavy fire from the inner works. But thanks to the timely aid of the guns, which pushed right into the entrenchments, the enemy was driven back in wild confusion, and in less than an hour Arabi’s army was shattered as completely as it had been surprised.
Lord Wolseley lost no time in reaping the fruits of his victory. As soon as the enemy’s works were in his hands the cavalry were ordered to continue their pursuit, and to strain every nerve to reach Cairo before Arabi had been able to burn it, as he had threatened to do if he was defeated; while the Indian brigade, which had completely driven the enemy from the cultivated country on the southern bank of the canal, was to push on to Zag-a-zig, and by occupying it, prevent the various detachments of Arabi’s troops in the Delta from coming to his assistance. Both enterprises were successful. At four o’clock on September 14, the cavalry after a magnificent forced march began to appear before the gates of Cairo, where Arabi, who was one of the first to quit the entrenchments of Tel-el-Kebir, had taken refuge. Without attempting to fight, or to carry out his plan for the destruction of the city, he surrendered at once, and with him the garrison of ten thousand men. The Indian brigade made itself master of Zag-a-zig, capturing much rolling stock, in which a great portion of the infantry was moved up to Cairo. With their arrival the war was over, and in ten days’ time every garrison in Egypt had been disarmed, and the men set free to resume the avocations of peace.
Not all the British infantry, however, went on at once to Cairo. Among the regiments left at Tel-el-Kebir was the second battalion of the Royal Irish, who thus had plenty of opportunity to admire the fifty-eight guns which had been taken on the 13th. In the engagement the Egyptians are believed to have lost about two thousand killed;[249] of the number of their wounded there is no record, but several hundred were tended by our army doctors, while many uninjured prisoners were taken, disarmed, and turned adrift. The British casualties were nine officers killed and twenty-seven wounded; of the other ranks forty-eight were killed, three hundred and fifty-five wounded, and thirty missing—in all, four hundred and sixty-nine.
In the Royal Irish the losses were:
| Killed | Captain C. M. Jones (attached from the Connaught Rangers) and three other ranks. |
| Mortally Wounded | Four private soldiers. |
| Wounded | Lieutenant A. G. Chichester and Lieutenant H. H. Drummond-Wolff (attached from the Royal Fusiliers) and fourteen other ranks.[250] |
After a week at Tel-el-Kebir the Royal Irish were moved by train to Cairo, where they were quartered in a barrack, the filth of which was so great that to this day the remembrance stinks in the nostrils of those who occupied it. The duty was heavy; there was much sickness among all ranks, and beyond ceremonial parades in honour of the return of the Khedive to the capital in which he had been reinstated by British bayonets, nothing of interest occurred during the three weeks the battalion spent in Cairo except a great fire, in the suppression of which it was employed. Lieutenant W. R. B. Doran (now Colonel Doran, C.B., D.S.O.), in a letter written at the time, thus described the part played on this occasion by the Royal Irish, who were fortunate to escape without any of the casualties which occurred among other corps—