The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-27
SLAUGHTERED LIKE SHEEP.
Some of the Horrors of the Soudan
Being Revealed.
(From the Saturday Review.)

(From the Saturday Review.)
When Osman Digna first arrived in
the Suakin district as the mahdfs apos-
tie, it was found that the dervishes
were not men who could be fought In
the manner customary to civilization.
1t was not a matter of maneuvring or
coming into action at 1000 yards" or
anything of that kind The dervish
method Of fighting was something
much more simple. The enemy being
sighted, banners are raised, swords are
drawn, spears are poised and the whole
force goes straight at him. That was
what Mahmud Pasha Taher and Com
mander Moncrien had not realized
when, on Nov. 4, 1SS3 they took $50
Egyptians from Suakin toward Tokar.
| One hundred and fifty dervishes COM
pletely routed them. Moncrieff was
among the killed. Suakin was para
lyzed. stiff with terror.
Then poor Valentine Baker, our
former dashing colonel of hussars, was
commissioned by the khedive to re-
trieve this disaster. His Egyptians
were slaughtered at Ell Teb like sheep:
they fled, they knelt on the desert,
raising their hands in prayer. stretch
ing forth their necks to the sword.
There was no quarter for Egyptians or
English; their heads rolled in the sand
their bodies were smitten through and
through with spears. Hicks had per-
shed with great army in far away
Kordofan. 1t was the same there.
England was reused. Two armies led
by English officers had suffered com
plete defeat, in one case humiliation.
Gerald Graham was sent out, and now
for the first time the English private
soldier joined battle with the dervlsh
for the first time he learned what man
ner of fighting man was the fuzzy
wuzzy And from that time must be
dated the 'unwritten chapters" of
Soudanese warfare. From that time
Tommy Atkins became familiar with
slaughter in a form new to him-the
slaughter of women and the slaughter
OF wounded men. 1t sounds terrible.
All warfare is terrible Soundan war
fare is a horror beyond words.
After one of those early hattles-a
tremendous fight, hand to hand, bay
onet to spear, in a whirlwind of dust
through which the fighters caught
glimpses of flashing steel and waving
banners, While the heavy air was rent
With the rattle of musketry and
screams of passion-a party of soldiers,
with reporter or two among them,
were standing over one of the enemy's
dead. Why, it's a woman!" said one
of the soldiers. some Tommy who had
bloomin' shame it seems now. don't
it?" One of the reporters thought the
same, and said so. But there was also
present an officer, long resident at SUI
akin, who knew the ways of the faith
full, and he said to the reporter: "You
see what she's got in her hand?" "A
stick" Yes; and do you know what
she would have done with it?" The
reporter did not know, but he pre-
ia VIC 10 iob .x-ff
No, she was not going to fight with it.
She intended to use 1t on some woun-
ded unbeliever in an indescribabie man.
ner, so that when he appeared in the
next world he should look ridiculous.
Every soldier to whom that explana-
ton of the dead women with sticks"
was given, changed his views as to the
pity of their slaughter. In any case,
as the women came q with the men
in headlong charge, and could not be
distinguished from them. down they
went. This slaughter of women was
not taken up to any extent as a SUBJ
ject by Exeter Hall, owing, presuma,
bly,, to the circumstances under which
they were KILLED, but it was one of
the first motives which led commanders
in the field in the Soudan to become
anxious as to the special kilograms of
the war correspondents attaches to
headquarters.
This slaughter of women was bad
enough; but worse remained behind
the slaughter of wounded men, In these
same early battles, before the dervish
realized, as there is reason to believe
he did eventually realize, that the inf
del was, unlike himself, capable of hui
mainly, no quarter was universal on
both sides. For the infdel of course,
wounded or not, there never was any
quarter; no wounded man ever escaped
,dervish sword or spear The English
troops soon realized this After the des-
perate struggle at McNeilrs zereba,
after the severest of the fighting was
over, an officer of one of the regiments
was crossing the blond-stained inclos,
ure. A wounded defTish who was w.
ing as if dead, seeing the young off,
Ger pass near, raised himself on one
hand and with the other threw his
spear In a moment the officer lay
gasping out his life, and In another
moment the dervish received the s'coup
de grace from one of the men The
regiment did not forget the incident.
The effect of the dervish mode of at
tack upon the English regiments was
remarkable. There could be no severer
ordeal for any troops. Incredible though
1t seemed, these men of the desert new
Ell hesitated to charge with sword and
spear They were moved down by the
Martini Henry rifle and by the CAT
ling guns, but those who escaped the
deadly hail still came right up to the
bayonets, into the zereba or the square,
and there died fighting But those who
We're not slain outright what OF them?
Was there any mention of the dervish
wounded in those early battles? There
was not; there could not be-