News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-04-09
i SnuARE IN THE DESERT.
The Mode of Fighting the Arabs Adopted
hy the English in the SOndnn.


Mr.. Burleigh, of the London ze1e-
graph, gives the following description
of the fight of the British eotnmn at
Metemneh to reach the Nile; 1 have al
ready compared the march OF the Brit.
ish phalanx that day to the advance OF
gladiators. Like trained men, they
delivered their blows, quick, straight
and strong; Their was no noise, no
tumult-ail was done with quiet, stern
resolve to win if possible: No chance
was thrown away, and every blow was
effectiye-neither too much or too lttle.
It was the combat of handful OF
skilled. heroic men against horde OF
unframed sayages; the Few gong
forth dauntlessly to engage tne"sanelsi
and open way for themselves anu
others to the river. Again and again
the dense masses of Arabs, brandishing
their weapons and wildly beating their
tom-toms, as at the previous battles,
gathered to rush upon the square.
Promptly at sight of their array our
men halted, the front ranks lying down
or kneeling whilst volley upon volley
were sent into the savage hordes, caus-
ing them to reel and tumble and stink
away behind the crests of the rolling up
land. In one hour the square, had
travelled mile from the zereba, beset
and fighting its way inch by inch. Yet
SO well delivered was their fire that no
Arab out of all the half-dozen of threat
ened rushes had got within 200 yards
of their lines. We then turned into
some bunch grass in a long, broad de-
preston, where Arab sharpshooters lay
thickly. These were promptly killed
or elected, and as there was another
threatening charge impending, the
square took ground slowly to the right
firing the while and moving away from
the grass covers. When it had got
nearly two miles out the enemy delivered
their grand final combined onset. In
long lines they swept over the crest in
the full force of the square overlapping
and outfanking the little body of Eng
lish troops, whose front did not exend
more than 100 yards. Upon the left an
other line of Arabs, among them many
horsemen, yelled and rushed against our
flank. There was rattle of rifles as
three sides of the square opened fire
upon the now seething, rushing mass of
fully 10000 Soudanese. The roar of
the Martini Henrys became continuous,
and the men left behind in the zereba
and the outwork, seeing this was the
critical moment, exerted themselves to
scatter the Arab onrush. For full five
minutes the battle ragged furiously, till
the square was enveloped in rolling
cloud of smoke; then our fire slack
ened, for the Arabs had beaten retreat,
worsted, utterly broken by the deadly
rife blaze, moi a man of them succeeded
in getting nearer than twenty-five yards
to the square, and the majority of the
foremost men in the charge persisted at
seventy-five or one hundred yards away.
1t was complete victory of discipline
and civilized arms and complete rout
of the enemy, many of whom now made
off toward Khartoum and Berber. In
half an hour the firing all around had
nearly ceased, and, carrying their
wounded with them, the gallant square
walked down to the river, which was
reached about 5 p. m. There they
bivouacked in hollow, and the men
had once more full ration of water for
tea or coffee.