The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-08
WITH KITCHENER'S ARMY
HOW BRITISH TROOPS WE'RE TRANS
PORTED TO FORT ATBARA.
Some Hardships Endured That Our
Cuban Army Knew Nothing Otto
Miles In n Desert without water.
;. W. Stevens. in London Mail.

Gradually Fort Atbara transformed itself
from an Egyptian camp TO a British
Parts of the Fourth Egyptian Brigade
came in from the north but started south
again almost Immediately. The steamers
which had taken up the blacks began to
drop down to the Atbara: as soon as they
tied up, new battalions were packed into
them, and they thudded up river again.
OF the four battahons of Collinson Bey's
command, the first left in detachments on
Aug. S. and the first installment of the
seventeenth had preceded them on Aug. Z.
Three companies Of the Fifth, with a COM
pany of camel corps. reached Berber from
Suakin on Aug. 8; they had marched the
zSS miles of desert in fifteen days. This was
the record for marching troops. and ii is
not likely that any body but Egyptians
will ever lower it. One day. after a thirty
mile stage, the half battalion arrived at a
Well and found il dry. The next was thirty
miles further. Straightway the men got up
and made their march sixty miles before
they camped. They say that when, as here.
native officers are in command of a desert
march, they put most of their men on the
baggage camels; no doubt they do. but the
great thing is that the troops get there.
The Fifth joined its other half in Berber
and marched in 10 Fort Atbara on Aug. o;
on Aug. IL was pdcheu mo StSdAiSAS dt4A
sent up to Wad Habashi. On Aug. 3 ar
rived the first half of the newly-raised
Eighteenth and two companies Of the Sew
enteenth- These had been pulling steamers
and native boats up from Merawi; they, too.
had broken d record, doing in twenty days
what last year had taken 1wenty-slX at the
least and forty at the most. Among their
steamers was the luckless Teb, which had
run INTO rock just before Dongoa. and in
81 had turned turtle in the fourth cataract.
The Sirdar had now taken the precaution Of
remaining her the Hair
The four steamers had, of course, arrived
days before, and were already broken 10
harness. The syassas We're stlH behlnd'
fighting with the prevailing south wind; be-
tween Abu Hamed ana ADeidleh the trees
on the bank were sunk under the flood, so
that 1T was almost Impossible 10 tow. one
day the wind would be northerly, and that
day the boats would sail forty mics, the
next it would be dead contrary, and, sweat
ing from III the morning TO 10 at night,
they would make five But II had to be
done, and it was done. The first arrivals
of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth We're
picked up by train south of Abu Hamed; on
Aug. Ii and Is the rest came in to find their
comrades already gone. rms completed the
Fourth Brigade, and with its completion the
whole strength OF the Egyptian army was at
the Atbara or forward.
A BRITISH CAMP.
So that the camp became British. The
two halves of the Rife Brigade. the first
half of the Guards and the Thirty second
SACCCS1AfS
after that there was a lull. But ON Aug.
We had an exciting day-exciting at least
by the standard of Fort AtDara. Late the
night before had come the balance of the
British artillery. the Thirty-seventh field
battery, with six howitzers a de-
Iachment of the Sixteenth Company, East
ern Division. Garrison Artillery. with two
forty-pounders and a detachment Of inc
Royal Irish Fusiiiers, with four MaXimS.
They were getting the forty Founders into
position for shipment on the bank. All
gunners are fine men, and garrison gum
ners are the finest men of all gunners;
these were pushing and pulling their un-
calmly darlings in the tire-deep sand as il
they were couple OF perambulatOrs. Ihey
are old guns these forty-pounders; their
short barrels tell you that. They were la
their second decade when they FIRST camo
to Egypt IN 1SS2, and, once in hhartu!li.
they likely to spend the rest Of their
lives there. But for the present they were
the heaviest guns with the force, and they
must <be nursed and cockered till they had
knocked a hole or two in tie khalifa's wall.
So the gunners had laid out ropes, and
now solid figures in grey flannel shirts.
khaki trousers and green-yellow putties-
braces swinging from their waists, accord
ing TO the ritual of cavalry and gunners
and all men who tend beasts-were ham
mertng away at their pegs and establishing
their capstan with which the enormous na-
bieS were TO be lowered into their boats.
Before they breakfasted all in ordor;
before they dined the guns were in tho
boats specially made to take them; before
they sdpped they were well on the water
way to Kharum
The Irish Fusiliers were picked from
fine regiment which had very hard luck in
not being brought up in the Second Brigade.
Set faces, heavy mOustaches necks IKE
bulls. the score or 80 Of men were the sd
miration of the whole camp. But most cur
iOsity went naturally 70 the hOwitzers. They
were hauling them out OF the trucks when
i got doWn-little Vubby 1ive-inch creatures,
in Jackets like a Maxims, on carriages like
a field guns, carriage and gun jacket alike
painted pea SOUP color The two trucks full
nf we hQn ed n n y u nd
platform; the gunners wheeled out gun and
timber and limbered up; crowd OF Egyp-
tianS seized hold, and-hallah honi hallah
hoh!-they tugged away with them. The
cry of the Egyptian when doing combined
work is more like that of Brunnhilde and
her sisters in the 'Walkure" than any civ
tlized noise l can remember to have heard,
The howitzers were to fire a charge OF
lyddite, whose bursting power is equal to
high trajectory The effect would be some
thing like that OF bombs dropped from q
balloon. Lyddite appears to Dc an impartial
as well as an energetic explosive n you
stand within eight hundred yards behind 10
1t is as like as not TO throw back bit Of
she'll into your eye; after when you VIII
use no other When they tried II In Cairo
at knocking down a wall it did indeed
knock down a good deal of 1t, but left
good deal standing That however. was be-
cause percussion fuses were used the delay
fuses were all sent up the Nile. By delay
ing the explosion the smallest fraction of a
second, till the shell has penetrated. its
deVilishness, they trusted, would be in
creased a hunpredfOld. mis- was lyud1te
first appearance in war; we all looked for
ward to Il with keen anticipation. The fur
ther forward : looked personally, the bet
ter l should b pleased
SUNSTROKE IN THE SPINE.
On the afternoon OF this same less-un-
eventful-t han-usual 9Th. a train snorted in
with the second four companies of the
Guards. The Guards paraded in their bar
rack square fill the beholder with admira-
ton tempered with a sense OF his own un-
worthiness; emerging from rooted trucks
they were less imposing. OF course it was
the worst possible moment to see them, and
the impression formed was less good than
that of other corps. Falling in beside the
train they were certainly taller than the
average British soldier, but hardly better
built. They We're mostly young, mostly pale
or blotchy, and their back pads-did you
know before that IL was possible 10 get
sunstroke In the spine-were sticking out all
over them at the grotesquest angles. Many
of the officers wore thick blue goggles and
The half battalion marched Imply Only
RENE mDer that they had hardly stretched
their legs since they embarked at Gibraltar
just three weeks before. The wonder was
that they could march at all
Avery different show was that of the
cumberland Fusilers came In. To be sure
they appeared with advantages. The
Guards Band played in these companies.
and you do not know how band drives
out limpness until you have tried But. al
lowing for that, the Fifth still made a very
fine entry. The men were not tall but they
were big around the chest. and averaged
eli Stxri pp M