Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-06


London Telegraph. who was on the field Of
battle. has written this memorable descrip-
tion OF the first part Of the struggle;
1t was a magnificent spectacle that rose
before the sirdar's army as the Dervish
columns came sweeping into view. filling
the landscape between Surgham and I'm
Mutragan. In that great multitude we're
gathered the flercest. most %sanguinary
body OF iRvage warriors the world has
ever held or known. Arabs and blacks.
chosen BY Abdullah himself, picked out be-
cause OF their tried courage. strength and
devotion-the flower Of the fighting soudan
tribes.
"A great shout OF exultation went up
from the Dervish leRions when thew saw
ranged In the low ground before them the
Sirdar's small army, their imagined prey.
There was a mighty waving OF banners
and flashing OF steel when. breaking into
a run, they bent forward to close upon us.
The British division rose to their feet to
be ready and the Khedival troops closed
UP their ranks. ss
Never was there a Erander. more i'm
posing militant display seen than when the
great Dervish army rushed to engage.
needless Of life or death. The hour
was 6:35 a. m. Almost at first shot the
true range was found. Quick as thought
thereafter the eighteen guns on our left
began raining fire. iron and lead upon the
leading and main columns Of the en-
envy. $50
An AwfuI scene.
The air was torn with HURTING shell at
the first awful salvo, when shrapnei burst
In all directions, shifting the Dervishes as
with heavens thunderbolts and strewinR
the ground with maimed and dead. The
leading columns paused as IL they had re-
ceived a shock or had stopped to catch
breath. Hundreds had been slain in that
one discharge, and the fire was rapidly in
creasing, not slackening. Disregarding
their dead and wounded, the Dervishes
closed their ranks as with one accord and
came on with fresh energy. Surely there
was never wilder courage displayed.
There was marvellous VITALITY IN the
Dervish masses. Thousands we're knocked
over by the screaming, bursting shells
which made hills and plain ring with thun-
derous uproar. Never was a column OF
men so hammered and mutilated ana prob-
ably so surprised. They were torn and
thrown about as puppets before the bur.
ricane of shell fire n lain in windrows
like cut grain before the hail OF the Lee
Metfords. Twelve hundred short vaIra.
away Surgham's bare slopes were bainp
literally covered with corpses and writhine
wounded.
In sheer laundering brutishness the 70.
rocious dervishes tried to stem the storm
Wave followed wave of men. They surged
together, inviting greater disaster. but al
was striving to get nearer US. Their front
had covered the whole slopes of Jebel Surg
ham, and their left ~overlapped part OF the
Khaifa's right. Death was reaping a
gigantic harvest. Hecatombs of slain were
being spread everywhere in front. The fight
was terrible, the ~slaughted dreadful.
Cru"ia stage of Action.
For five, ten minutes, less or more
the drama being enacted was too fearful
and fascinating for one to take note Of
time-Yacoub and his legions stlll strove to
breast'the whirlwind of destruction involv-
ing them Still the crucial stage OF the
first action was not over. . So far
it had been a gunner's day, and to the
artillery in the preliminary stages If not
with one exc~eption-in the laEer, belonged
the full honors of the fight. At length.
with one MIN banner bearers and all of
the dervish columns remaining intact faced
10 the left and moved behind the western
hills, . 9
out of immediate danger ana reformed.
the Khalifa and Yacoub determined on a
second attack. With a rush like a noun
tain torrent, three columns spouted from
shallow avine and at q ~break-neck run
came forward. Part of wad-Melik's men
unrOG6 frOnn fha uuask elan- %
the Khalifa and Yacoub came upon US
from the southwest. and a smaller body
from the west.
I'm ha1f-delirium and full frenzy. on
rushed the dervishes. Our guns, knowing
the range to a nicety-for they were able
to see put down the day before
hurled at them avalanches Of shell. The
Vivid air blazed and shook, and the hail
Of Lee-Metfords cut like mighty scythes
lanes In the columns massed ten deem.
Greater resolution and bravery no men
ever possessed. In face Of destruction
and death, they continued their wild race.
But they were thinning or being thinned as
they drew nearer. When about LOO yards
away, a body OF horsemen. 200 or so, the
Khalifa's own horsemen, trtbesmen.
Taaisha Baggara, chiefs and emirs, setting
spurs to their horses, charged direct for
the zereba.
"Cannons and Maxlms smashed them
through, infantry bullets beat against and
pierced through them. At every stride their
numbers diminished, horses and riders being
literally blown over or cut and thrown
down. U~ndaunted, a remnant held on to
within 200 or 300 yards of Colonel Maxwelrs
line, where the last of the gallant foemen
tumbled and bit the dust. -
Then it was hat the remnant OF the
ARM Of the Khalifa began to melt away.
1t was more than human nature could
bear. The dense columns had shrunk to
companies. the companies to driblets. which
finally fled westward to the hills, leaving
the fields white with Jibbeh-clad corpses,
like a landscape dotted with snow drifts"
The Finish. y
After this there was one last avalanche
OF the dervishes on the i~mpregnable
British square, a particularly desperate at
tempt to overwhelm Colonel Hector Mac
Donald's brigade, They were again re-
pulsed with frightful slaughter. In COM
plete disorder then they retreated to Om-
durham pursued by the eager British and
Egyptians, Kitchener himself at the head
of his forces. The Khalifa's stronghold