Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-09-10
IDEALS A DEATH BLOW
TO AFRICAN MAH0ISM
General Kitchener's Army Fights
Hard Battle at On
durham.
THE BRITISH ENTER THE CITY
Dervishes Are Slaughtered by the
Wholesale by British
Bullets.
lE BRITISH ENTER THE CITY
FOUGHT WITH DeSPERTe BRAVERY
Dispatches Received Telling mat
the Victory IL Compictc---Mcs-
sagcs OF Congratuiation
Hrc Sent.

Omdurman, Opposite Khartoum
Nubia, Sept. 6.-General Sir Herber
Kitchener, with the khalifa's blaci
standard, captured during the battle
entered Omdurman, the capital o.
Malidham, at A o'clock Saturday aft
ernoon at the head of the Anglo-Egyp'
ton column, after completely routing
the deryishes and dealing a ~deathblo"
60 mahdism. Roughly, u losses were
200, while thousands of the dervishe'
were killed or wounded.
Friday night the Anglo-Egyptian
army encamped at Again, eight miles
from Omdurman, II the deryishes
were three miles distant. At dawn ol
day our cavalry, patrolling toward
Omdurman, discovered the enemy ad'
vancing to the attack in battle array.
chanting war songs. Their front con
sisted of infantry and cavalry
stretched out for three or four miles
Countless banners floatcd over their
masses and the copper and brass
drums resoundcd through the scrried
ranks Of the savage warriors, who ad
yanced unwaveringly with all their
old time ardor.
At 7:2O O.. III. the enemy crowded
| the ridges above the camp and adj
vanccd steadily in enveloping forma'
ton. At TAO our artillery opened fire,
which was answered by the dervish
riAemen. Their attack developed on
our left and in accordance with their
traditional tactics, they swept down
the hillside, with the design OF crush
ing our flank. But the whitening fire
maintained for fifteen minutes by all
our line frustrated the attempt and
the dervishes baked, and swept
toward our center. upon which they
concentrated n fierce attack.
Desperate Bravery of Dervishes.
A large force of horsemen, trying
TO face a continuous hail Of bullets
from the Cameron highlanders, the
Lincolnshire regiment and the Sou
danese, was literally swept away,
leading to the withdrawal OF the en-
tire body, whose dead strewed the
field. The bravery of the dervishcs
can hardly he oycrstated. Those who
carried the flag struggled to within IA
few hundred yards OF our fighting
line, while the mounted emirs abso-
lutely threw their lives away in bold
charges.
When the dervishes withdrew be-
hind the ridge in front Of their camp,
the whole force marched in eohelon of
battalions toward Omdurman. As our
troops surmonnted the crest adjoining
the Nile the S~oudanese ON our right
came into contact with the enemy,
who had reformed under cover Of a
rocky cminence, and had massed be-
meath the black standard Of the kha-
lifa in order to make a supreme eff
fort TO retrieve the fortunes Of the
day. A mass of $4,000 strong bore
down on the Soudancsc.
General Kitchener swung round the
center and left OF the Soudanesc and
seized the rocky emincnce, and the
regiments hitherto in reserve joined
the firing line in ten minutes, and be,
fore the dcrviSheS could drive their at
tack home.
The flower of the khalifa's army
was caught in a depression and within
a zone of whitening crossfire from
three briRades. with the attendant ar
tillery. The devoted mahdists strove
heroically 10 make Roadway, but ev-
cry rush was stopped, while the main
body was literally moved down by n
sustained deadly crossfirc. Dcfantly
the dervishes planted their standards
and died beside them. Their dense
masses gradually melted TO compa-
and the companies TO driblets
beneath the lcaden hail. Finally they
broke and fed, leaving the field white
with iibba clad corpses, like Il snow
drift dotted meadow.
At 11:1j General Kitchener ordered
an advance and our whole force in
line drove the scattered remnant OF
the foe into the desert. our cavalry
cutting off their retreat to Omdtr-
man.
brilliant thnrges by Lancers.
Among the chief incidents of the
battle was n brilliant charge bv the
Iwenty-first lancers, under Lieuten-
ant Colonel Martin. Galloping down
n detached body of the enemy. they
found the dervish swordsmen massed
behind and were forced to charpe
home against appalling odds. The Ian
ers hacked through the mass. rallied
and kept the dervish horde ut bav.
Lieutenant Grenfell, nephew of Gen
Sir Francis Grenfell. was killed.
four other officers were wounded, 81
were killed and 30 wounded.
The Egyptian cavalry were i'm close
throughout with the Baggara
horsemen. For a short period the en-.
envy captured and held the gun, but il
was brilliantly retaken. The heroic
bravery of the dervishes evoked uni
admiration. Time after time
their dispersed and broken forces re-
formed and hurled themselves upon
the Anglo-Egyptians, their emirs con.
spicuously leading and spurning
Even when wounded and in
death agonies they raised thmselves to
fire a last shot.
Among the wounded is Colonel
Rhodes, the correspondent of the Lon
Ion Times, a brother of Cecil Rhodes.
Lost But Two Officers.
Cairo, Sept. 6.-General Kitchener
saying:
AL -. n-slsI M