The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-09-07
A GREAT VICTORY.
Anglo-Egyptian Army Annihilates
the Dervish Horde.
a Stubborn Contest on the Nubian Desert
The KhRlifa's Forces are Put to
Flight and Leave $4,000 Dead on
the FieId-A MAhdist Strong
hold Captured.


Omdurman, Opposite Khartoum. Oh
the Nile, Nubia, Sept. BY camel
post to Nazri.-The sirdar, Gen. Sir |
Herbert Kitchener, with the Khalifa's |
black standard, captured during the |
battle, entered Omdurman, the capital |
of Mahdism, Friday afternoon, at the |
head of the Anglo. Egyptian column,
after completely routing the dervishes |
and dealing death blow to the mahdi. |
Our losses were 500, while thousands |
of dervishes were killed or wounded.
Thursday night the Anglo-Egyptian |
army encamped at Agaiza, eight miles
from Omdurman. The dervishes we're
three miles distant. At dawn Friday
our cavalry, patrolling toward 0mdur-
man, discovered the enemy advancing
to the attack in battle array, chanting
war songs. Their front consisted of
infantry and cavalry, stretched out for
three or four miles. Countless banners
fluttered over their masses and the
copper and brass drums resounded
through the ranks of the savage war
riors, who advanced unwaveringly.
At 7:20 a. m. the enemy crowded the
ridges above the camp and advanced
steadily in enveloping formation. At
TAO our artillery opened fire, which
was answered by the dervish rifemen.
Their attack developed on our left and
they swept down the hillside with the
design of crushing our flank. But the
whitening fire maintained for Is min
utes by all our line frustrated the at
tempt; and the dervishes baked,
| swept toward our center, upon which
| they concentrated fierce attack. A
large force of horsemen, trying to face
a continuous hail of bullets from the
Cameron Highlanders, the Lincoln
shire regiment and the Soudanese, was
literally swept away, leading to the
withdrawal of the entire body, whose
dead strewed the field.
The bravery of the dervishes can
hardly be overestimated. Those who
carried the flags struggled to within
a 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 toward ON.
durman. AS our troops surmounted
the crest adjoining the Nile the
Soudanese on our right came in con
tact with the enemy, who had reform.
ed under cover of IA rocky eminence
and had massed beneath the black
standard of the Khalifa in order to
make supreme effort to retrieve the
| fortunes of the day. A mass $4,000
strong bore down on the Soudanese.
| Gen. Kitchener swung around the
center and left of the Soudanese and
seized the rocky eminence and the
Egyptians, hitherto in reserve, Joined
the firing line in ten minutes and
before the dervishes could drive their
attack home. The flower of the
Khalifa's army was caught in de-
preston and within a zone of wither-
ing cross fire from three brigades, with
the attendant artillery. The Mahdists
strove heroically to make headway,
but every rush was stopped, while
their main body was literally mown
down by deadly cross fire. Defiantly
the dervishes planted their standards
and died beside them. Their masses
gradually melted beneath the leaden
hail. Finally they broke and fled, leav-
ing the field white with corpses.
At 11:15 the sirdar ordered an ad
vance and our whole force drove the
scattered remnant of foe into the
desert, our cavalry cutting off their
retreat to Omdurman.
Among the chief incidents of the
battle was a brilliant charge by the
Twenty-frst Lancers. Galloping down
on a detachment of the dervishes they
found the dervishes massed behind and
were forced to charge home against
appalling odds. The lancers hacked
through the mass, rallied and kept the
dervish horde at bay. Lieut.. Grenfell,
nephew of Gen. Sir Francis Grenfell,
was killed, four other officers were
wounded, 81 men were killed and 20
wounded.
The heroic bravery of the dervishes
|
after time their dispersed and broken
forces reformed and hurled themselves
upon the Anglo-Egyptians, their emirs
conspicuously leading and spurning
death. Even when wounded and in
death agonies, they raised themselves
to fire last shot.
Among the wounded is Col Rhodes,
the correspondent of the London
Times and brother of Cecil Rhodes.
London, Sept. 5.-The war Office
has received the following dispatch
from Gen. Kitchener, dated Saturday
evening: "The remnant of the Khal-
ifa's force has surrendered and ] have
now very large number of prisoners
on my hands. Our cavalry and gun
boats are still pursuing the Khalifa
and his chiefs, who, with only about
14O fighting men, are apparently max
ing for Kordofan."
The war correspondent of the Daily
Telegraph with the Anglo-Egyptian
forces says:
"Khalifa Abdullah with his harem
and Osman Digna, his principal gen.
eral, managed to escape; but thou
sands of prisoners are in our hands.
1t is estimated that $4,000 of the
enemy were slain"
PanuO Arrives at New York