The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-05
the correspondent of the London Times
and brother Of Cecil Rhodes.
BEFORE THE BATTLE
Story of the Advance Upon the Der
wish Stronghold.

wish Stronghold.
LONDON, Sept 4.-The Daily Tele-
graph issues a special edition with the
following details of the movements on
Wednesday and Thursday, telegraphed
from Nazri:
This "wednesday morning. the
Anglo Egyptian troops began the adj
vance in three brigades, side by side.
with front a mile wide, the army
giving the impression OF vast square
with faces each a mAle long. Our
cavalry occupied Jebel Sheikh Pail,
three miles ahead, at o'clock, and an
hour later our infantry had arrived at
the banks of the river, which was
flooded at that point fully a mile in
land.
Here the force halted, while the gun
boats proceeded. The cavalry and
camel corps trotted forward, but only
a few scouts were seen under the COM
mand of Abdel Baki, Dervish emir,
who fell back rapidly without a con-
test. In village which we passed a
number of charred and mutilated
bodies were found-bodies of natives
suspected of spying and killed by the
Dervishes.
"At 7 o'clock the Maxims fred few
rounds, scattering a body Of Dervishes
in the bush. Then there was lull un-
til noon, although the cavalry and
camel forces were in advance in the
hills. The gunboats shelled the Der
wish horsernen, who were pushing for
ward upon the Egyptian right, and the
lancers on the left trotted to intercept
the enemy, the camel corps support
ing. But the Dervishes slipped back
to their camp in the bush, a mile in
land, a camp consisting of an old re-
doubt at Kerreri.
1.-THE lancers advanced to the hill
passes and got within mile of Kerreri
Then two officers went ahead and dis
covered that there were many guns in
the Dervish camp. They were f1red
upon and eventually the entire mount
ed force returned to Sur Urah, inside
the Zereba.
During the afternoon the gunboats
shelled the Dervish camp for several
hours, apparently doing much damage.
A number Of Dervishes who had fed to
the bush to escape the shells surren-
dered during the evening. Among the
refugees were the Sheikh Of Kerreri,
and a grandson Of Kurshid Pasha
This Thursday morning, in spite Of
a fierce rain storm, which continued
al last night and until 8 O'Clock today,
the army advanced at o'clock and
found Kerreri deserted The lancers
on the left and the Egyptian cavalry
and camel corps on the right advanced
six miles ahead of the infantry, which
marched in square, Brig. Gen Lit
tleton's battalions leading. The lancers
got within mile Of Omdurrnan and
cav the dome of the Mahdis tomb
Q<ubbet ell MahdD, Tut island and the
palm trees Of Khartoum.
Drawn up in five divisions, with q
wing thrown back, was the Khalifa 8
army, its spears and swords glistening
i'll the sun, arrayed northwest of the
town in the desert. The tents of the
camp were on the north of the town.
In the center division was an enormous
number of banners, including one of
blue and one OF black.
"A number of mounted Dervishes
galloped forward and our dismounted
troopers fired upon them, hitting sew
erai and driving off the remainder.
The squadrons of our cavalry push
ed to within 800 yards of the enemy,
who then advanced, our lancers and
the Egyptians retiring. The gunboats
are now Thursday afternoon) bonn
harding the forts at Omdurman and
Khartoum"