MULLAHS AND MACHINE GUNS 163No further attempts to relieve Khartoum occurred, for no government
much cared what happened in the backward province. England, however,
produced considerable sentiment about the fate of General Gordon, who
had become something of a national hero. As early as February 1884 a
British brigade under General Graham had landed on the Red Sea coast
and attempted to crush the spreading rebellion. Two battles against the
local Hadendowah tribe were led by Osman Digna, a canny tribal leader.
In the first, El Teb, the British infantry shot down several hundred of their
opponents with little loss. This usefully dispelled the growing myth of the
invulnerability of the Mahdist forces. In the second, the March 13 Battle
of Tamai, Osman Digna prepared a clever ambush. His few riflemen ha-
rassed the British formation from a gully with enough shooting to con-
vince General Graham to order a regiment out of square to charge and
clear away the snipers. This was done, but when the advance of one part
disordered the British formation, Osman Digna loosed his massed swords-
men from another direction. It was a repeat of the same tactic used suc-
cessfully by the Mahdi at Shaykan. Although the attack was well timed
and boldly pressed home, the great difference between the proud regular
battalions of Britain and the feebly trained Egyptians was clear. Never the
less, the “fuzzy-wuzzies”—or so the British called the Hadendowah—
broke the great square for a few moments, a thing never before done. The
regulars then shot them down. Graham’s expedition came to nothing in
the end. He was unable to control more of the province than his guns
could reach, and he was wisely withdrawn.
A serious attempt to rescue General Gordon came in the fall of 1884,
as 5,000 British troops advanced down the Nile, fighting difficult logistics
as much as the Mahdists. These forces divided into two columns as they
crawled for Khartoum. One followed the Nile, and another cut across
through the desert. The Mahdi, who by early January had Khartoum in a
death grip, detached two armies to attack the invaders. Neither attack was
successful, but the partial actions so strained the fragile British logistics,
that they could not continue.
The stage was now set for the final act of the Sudanese Rebellion. On
the morning of January 25, 1885, the Mahdi himself gave a stirring speech
to his assault troops, and in a few minutes some 50,000 of them simply
overwhelmed the garrison of Khartoum. Gordon was butchered and his
head brought before the Mahdi.
The capture of Khartoum was the final act in the Mahdi’s rebellion. He
had swept away the corrupt “Turks” and their foreign helpers. The British
were unwilling to send armies into the Sudan to avenge their general, but
they would keep the memory of his murder for a more convenient time.