The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-07-05

OrusnlnG Defea1 IN bne Suuan-ho"
His Soldiers Allowed Themselves to Be
Slaughtered without Resistance.
Probably in no battle of modern times
was an army ever less prepared to face an
enemy than were the Egyptian troops
which Valentine Baker Pasha led to the
relief of the beleaguered garrison Of Tokar
at the beginning Of February, 1884.
The force consisted of 400 infantry
under General Sartorius, 800 Egyptian
cavalry, $50 Turkish cavalry and 1900
Sudanese. The Egyptians were an I'M
trained, cowardly lot, many of them there
against their will, some having been
brought to the front in chains, while their
arms were only old and wornout muskets.
No one knew better than Baker and the
members of his staff, of which was one,
how liable we were to get beaten if we
were attacked by the forces of Osman
Digna. Only the night before the battle
Baker said that if the enemy attacked us
on our march to Tokar in any force he had
no doubts as to the disastrous results.
tYou see, - he said, "all we have to rely
upon is the Turkish cavalry and few of
the drilled Sudanese But if panic en-
sues on an attack they have not stamina
Oh, for just one troop of the old Tenth
hussars and regiment of the British line,
and we would relieve Tokar tomorrow
On Sunday evening we encamped about
two miles from Trinkitat with the expec-
tation of making an early morning start
Baker invited all the European officers to
dine, and though we were all more or less
cheerful, still we had pressntiment of
coming disaster, though we scarcely
thought how terribly it would be realized
the next day.
AT about O'Clock the next day, the 4th
of February, we had breakfast, and by 2
o'clock our disastrous march was started
| Three hundred baggage camels preceded
our column; then came the infantry, while
our cavalry skirmished on each flank, pro-
tecting us from sudden attack We had
not proceeded half a mile before we noticed
small bodies of the enemy, who retreated
on our approach At 8 o'clock we sighted
quite large body, and, halting, got one
of our Krupp guns unlimbered and fired a
few rounds at the enemy, causing them to
retreat
We had not continued our march ten
minutes when there appeared on our right
flank about dozen Arab horsemen, who
at about 300 yards distance proceeded to
ride down our lines with the evident in
tention of estimating our force. The
Turkish cavalry were sent in chase, but
the Arabs rode off without one getting hit
by the fire from our infantry or the cav
airy being able to overtake them. Imne-
diately after similar thing happened on
our left flank, and while our attention
was distracted thus a large force of the
enemy suddenly appeared In front. Or
ders were at once given to form a square;
but, though for days our troops had been
mainly drilled in that one formation, when
the critical time arrived they failed Ia
mentally. Three sides were formed after
fashion, but the enemy poured in on the
fourth, their long hair streaming, and to
the distorted eyes of our troops they looked
like an immense body of invincible devils.
Our men, if they can be dignified by the
name, implored for mercy many of them
on their knees, but none was shown.
Hacking and killing was the enemy's pro-
gramme, and it was carried out to the let
ter, while our left flank continued firing
aimlessly, killing many of our own cavalry
At the time of the attack was with
Baker Pasha and Abdul Russac an Egyp-
tian staff officer, with the Turkish cavalry,
away from the main body The first thing
w obN Neto OiiS A-s5t l'uiebtA CASdSONJ
and we at once made for the main body,
rom which we were cut off by the enemy,
@ho, however, were not nearly as danger
Gus as our own men, who fired right at us
as we endeavored to force our way into
our own ranks We had a hand to hand
tussle with the enemy, in which poor Abb
dul Russac was killed, but at last did sue
coed in getting through By this time our
men had completely given way, and then
commenced q rout that beggars descrip-
ton. General Sartorius did his best to
hold his men and was ably seconded, not
only by the European officers, but also by
the Egyptian but all to no purpose. Mo
rice Bey, DIR. Leslie and Captain Walker
were killed, as well as several Egyptian
officers, in endeavoring to stand against
the enemy, who were probably 1000 or
1880 strong.
never saw such abiect displays of cow
ardice in my life Men just stood or knelt
like sheep and let the enemy kill them,
and yet they had arms in their hands with
which they could have protected them
selves had they chosen and had not the
long haired Arabs shouting and gesticu-
lating as they charged down upon them,
taken the last vestige of nerve out of them
One regiment of English infantry could
have held the enemy at bay, and with q
troop of good cavalry have wiped them off
the face of the earth Officers struck at
men with the fiat of their swords even
prodded them with the points, but to get
them to rally was hopeless An attempt
was made by the cavalry at one point to
cover the retreat but only made matters
worse, for they turned and charged right
over our own men in their efforts to escape
During the retreat l scarcely ventured
to say word to Baker Pasha, who was
riding along gloomily and preoccupied
occasionally giving an order to head off
crowd and to try and rally them, but to
stop that mob was like trying to stay the
tides of the ocean. Nothing could induce
them to rally For five miles the carnage
and butchery were kept up, right into
Trinkitat, where the survivors might have
been killed with the greatest of ease, as
they stood huddled up on the seashore,
but the enemy withdrew, not knowing
that an English gunboat which had been
there the day before had left for Suakin.
We estimated that fully 1000 men had
been killed, including five European and
30 native officers, and as soon as possible
afterward the troops were transported to
Suakin, Baker being lent for duty with
the British t.oops The defeat at the Wells
of Teb had one good result-it forced the
Egyptian government TO arm all its troops
properly
Tho blame for the defeat was laid by
many at Baker Pashas door, but those
who did so could not have really known
the nature of the men he commanded, to
say nothing Of how abominably they were
armed Not that on that occasion it mat
tered what sort of arms they had, for they
would have thrown the best weapons down
and have fallen into the hands of the enc
by. The finest general that ever lived
,ould have done no more than Baker did
with such material as he had to work up
on.-E. G. B. in New York Post