The dead bodies of 10,560 Dervishes were counted on the battlefield.
The result of the battle was the practical annihilation of the Khalifa’s army—estimated at over 40,000 men—the consequent extinction of Mahdism in the Sudan, and the submission of nearly the whole country formerly under Egyptian authority.
The British troops were now quickly sent down-stream, and the Sirdar—shortly afterwards elevated to the Peerage under the name of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum—turned his attention to stamping out the remaining Dervishes, to reducing the country to some sort of order, and to exploring up-stream, with a view of meeting the French expedition under Major Marchand, which had been reported as having arrived at Kodok.
THE MAHDI’S TOMB, MORNING AFTER THE BATTLE OF 2ND SEPTEMBER, 1898.
Kodok.On the 10th September the Sirdar left Omdurman for the south with 5 gunboats, 2 Sudanese Battalions (XI and XIII), 100 Camerons, an Egyptian battery, etc., and having destroyed a Dervish force of 700 at Renk on the 15th, found, on the 19th, the French expedition entrenched at Kodok. This gallant little force of about 180 men had, after experiencing enormous difficulties in the swampy region of the Bahr el Ghazal, penetrated, with the help of its steam-launch, the “Faidherbe,” the country between the Nile-Congo watershed and Kodok, and had arrived at this latter point on the 10th July. On the 25th August they had been attacked by a Dervish force in 2 steamers, but had repulsed them, and were awaiting a second attack, when the Egyptian gunboats arrived and probably saved them from annihilation.[198]
The British and Egyptian flags were at once hoisted to the south of the French flag at Kodok, and the XIth Battalion, a gunboat and 4 guns were left at this point under Major Jackson. After much negotiation between France and England, which threatened at one time to lead to serious results between the two Powers, the French position was found to be untenable, and Kodok was eventually evacuated on the 11th December by Marchand and his companions, the latter proceeding to Jibuti, viâ the Sobat and Abyssinia, and eventually reached France in May 1899.
Sobat.The junction of the Sobat and Nile was reached on the 20th September, and a garrison (the XIIIth Battalion) left here under Captain Gamble. The Bahr el Jebel was found entirely closed by sudd, but a gunboat under Major Peake was sent up the Bahr el Ghazal, and hoisted the Egyptian flag a few miles north of Meshra el Rek.Meshra el Rek. Subsequently the Bahr el Zeraf was explored by Major Stanton for a distance of 175 miles, and the Sobat was explored by Majors Gamble, Maxse, Capper, etc., up to the 282nd mile, both these rivers and their tributaries being mapped and their courses laid down provisionally.
Blue Nile.Immediately after the occupation of Omdurman gunboats were sent to patrol the Blue Nile, and a force of 600 men (Xth Battalion) and the R.I.F. Maxim detachment was despatched under Major-General Hunter, on the 19th September, to occupy Sennar, Karkoj, and Roseires, which was done on the 23rd September, 1st October, and 30th September respectively.
Battle of Gedaref. (22.9.98).On the 22nd September, Colonel Parsons, who had left Kassala on the 7th, and crossed the Atbara in flood with a force[199] of about 1,400 men, to occupy Gedaref, came into collision with its garrison of about 3,200 men, a few miles north of the town, and, beating off two desperate attacks, with a loss of 53 killed and 61 wounded out of 1,347, advanced and occupied the place.