The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-05
HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN.
Brilliant Advance Up the Nile-Strength
 ofOppostmg Forces.

HISEORY OF TILE CA hRAIGN.
 Brilliant Advance Up the e-Strength ofOppostng Forces.
 Before the revolt of the Mahdi in 1882, the Khedival possessions comprised the
 whole of East Soudan and Nubia from
 Wadai to the Red Sea and from Upper
 Egypt, 1,400 miles to Lake Albert Ny
 anza, about 1,000,000 square miles, with a population of 10000 900. Emin Pasha held a part of this territory until the Stanley expedition of 1889, although Gordon had perished with the fall of
 Khartoum.
 After 1886 and until the British gov ernment in the winter of 1895 planned | the present expedition, Egyptian Sou dan was practically divided, as follows: The District of Dongola of about 100000 square miles, was in the possession of | the Dervishes; Berber, Saulzin, and Zei- | lah were held nominally by the Eng | fish, and Kassala and Massowah by the | Italians.
 The alleged scheme of the Nile ex- /! petition, as planned in 1895. was simply | to restore the integrity of the Khedival | possessions
 l In early summer of 1896 the expedi- 1 tion, with Sir Herbert Kitchener as the | Sirdar, began it's advancesup the Nile | with a force of about 30,000, 10000 of which were British troops. The object l i've point was Dongola, which was f1n- | ally captured in the fall of that year. | Sir Herbert then returned to England | for time, while preparations were | made for a grand but deliberate ad- 1 vance an Orn6ur1na0
 The March Resumed.
 | The army winter at Dongola and later | than in the previous summer, again in | 1897, took up it's march southward. The | direct objective mark was Abu Hamed, | just where the Nile, after flowing north | turns southWestward for 200 miles be- | fore resuming it's course to the Medi- | terranean. Abu Hamed was captured | August after a brisk fight, in which ! two British officers were killed. The Dervishes met with heavy loss. This | gave the British command of both ends of the railroad which runs across the | desert from Wady Halfa. Berber, 200 miles from Khartoum, was evacuated without resistance September 6. 1 Sir Herbert then rested as he had l done during the previous fall and be- | gan to extend the railroad southward,
 while complete and regular communi- | cation was kept up with the cities in | the north and canal trains were estab- | lished between Wady Halfa and Abu | Hamed. Overland caravan communi- | cation with Saukin on the Red Sea was
 also opened, and a telegraph line was | set up.
 | It will be recalled that after the de- | feat inflicted by the Abyssinians on the | Italians two years previous, the latter 1 had still chung on to Kassala, and on
 December P, 1897, that place was taken l over by the British by a previous ar engagement with the Italian government
 and telegraph line was run out from
 Massowah, the Dervish outposts on the | Upper Atbara were occupied, and ev- | erything was made ready for a crush | ing blow early in the spring of the
 present year. The opportunity came in April.
 Brilliant Victory.
 Early in March Sir Herbert's gun
 boats, by flank movement were able i to destroy the Dervish forts at Shendi 1 and the fortified town of Metamma,
 nearly one hundred miles up the Nile
 from Berber. This move forced the
 main Dervish force, which had occu-
 pied these towns as a base, to move
 northward. Their enemy thus obtained | a position in their rear
 | On April their camp near the At
 bara River was attacked by Sir Her l bert's combined forces in so sudden and
 intrepid a manner that the Dervish rout
 was complete, over 2,000 being killed; | the Chief Emir in command, Mahmoud
 Ahmed and 4,000 of his followers were
 made prisoners. The rest of his army
 was forced to flee across the desert, without arms or supplies of any kind,
 in hopeless confusion.
 | Following this brilliant feat the An | glo- o-Egyptian forces rested on their | laurels to await a rise in the Nile, which should occur about the middle of July. | The railroad was completed from Abu 1 Hamid to Berber; the whole army was | assembled at the camp at Atbara, re- | Inducements were hurried forward, | both from Cairo and across the desert
 from Suakin, and the gunboats were
 put in their best fighting form. | In due time the Nile rose and the march began. The nglo-Egyptian
 forces were assisted by flotilla of ten | steamers, all armed with the latest | quick-tiring guns and Maxims, and l three unarmed steamers. These passed
 the Fifth Cataract on July IS, and then | cruised as far as Shabluka, at the foot of the sixth cataract. It was thought 1 that the rapids of Merreh, some thirty miles north of Khartoum, would pre- ! vent their further advance; but this | seems not to have been the case. A few days ago it was reported that i Sir Herbert Kitchener's outposts had | been extended as far as Kerreri, ten or | twelve miles north of Omdurman, and
 a couple of miles from the west bank of the Nile. It has been the general supposition that the Khalifa would | make a stand at a strong strategic | point just south of Kerreri, where it
 was reported he had established for | tified camp. If beaten then, it was | said, he would fall back upon Omdur- man. There are seeral forts on the east ] bank of the river, lust north of the