Battle of Ginnis The Battle of Ginnis ( also known as the Battle of Gennis ) was a minor battle of the Mahdist War that was fought on December 30 , 1885 , between soldiers of the Anglo - Egyptian Army and Mahdi st Sudanese warriors of the Dervish State . The battle was caused by the Mahdist blockade of the Ginnis - Kosha fort , which British commanders hoped to relieve . The fighting resulted in a British victory . Background to battle . The situation . In 1884 , a Sudanese religious fanatic , Muhammad Ahmed , also known as " The Mahdi " , planned and executed a series of attacks that left a British general , William Hicks , and thousands of ill - trained Egyptian soldiers dead at the hands of angry Arab rebels called Dervishes or ( more accurately ) Mahdists . The Sudan was controlled by an Anglo - Egyptian administration , and it was decided that something must be done . General Charles Gordon was sent by the British government to be the Egyptian Army ' s Governor - General there . General Gordon and his aide , Colonel John Donald Hamill Stewart , carried orders from both governments to evacuate the town from the Mahdi . Instead , Gordon built up the town ' s defenses and prepared for a siege . The British government sent two relief columns , the slow River Column and the mobile Desert Column , to rescue Gordon , Stewart , and the Egyptian garrison . After both columns won hard - fought battles , Kirbekan and Abu Klea , respectively , it was found that Stewart had been murdered by wandering Arabs north of Khartoum after his steamboat ran aground and that , through the treachery of an Egyptian deputy commander , Khartoum had fallen and Gordon was killed , the columns retreated , leaving behind a series of forts . One of these forts was near the towns of Kosha and Ginnis , in northern Sudan , where a detachment of Cameron Highlanders and Egyptian - Sudanese troops from the Ninth Sudanese Battalion were stationed . Thousands of Mahdist warriors , led by their provincial Amirs , began raiding in the vicinity of Ginnis . They besieged the fort , and at one time the garrison ' s Gardner gun was dismounted by a Mahdist artillery barrage . General Evelyn Wood , the British commander in Egypt as well as the Sirdar ( commander ) of the Egyptian Army , became concerned about the siege and the raids and eventually ordered Major General Francis Grenfell and a force of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade were sent to rid the area of Mahdists . Grenfell ' s Force . The First Brigade consisted of the 1st Berkshires , the West Kent Regiment , the 2nd Durham Light Infantry , an Egyptian artillery battery escorted by sixty Egyptian troops , and a Royal Engineer detachment . This brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Butler . Colonel Huyshe ' s Second Brigade was composed of the Yorkshire Regiment , six companies of the Cameron Highlanders , 152 Sudanese soldiers , 278 men of the 1st Egyptian Battalion , a mule battery of the Royal Artillery , and detachments from both the British Camel Corps and its Egyptian counterpart . Three Gardner gun s were also brought along by the 2nd Brigade . The cavalry brigade , led by Colonel Blake , was formed by another detachment of the Egyptian Camel Corps , a British Mounted Infantry company , and 57 Egyptian cavalrymen . All of the British troops were dressed in scarlet coats and the Egyptians were dressed in white or khaki . Some Egyptian officers preferred their traditional blue coat . British soldiers and officers wore white sun helmets while the Egyptians wore red fez zes . Battle . The opening clashes . At 5 : 00 on the morning of December 30 , 1885 , General Grenfell and his troops marched out of their bivouack , which was located between the Ginnis - Kosha fort and a smaller fort further south on the Nile . The First Brigade was at the head of the column , with the Camel Corps and Second Brigade following . The Second Brigade took up positions overlooking Kosha , while the fort garrison , seizing the opportunity , sortied and stormed the town . On the Nile , the steamer " Lotus " , which had mounted a Gardner gun , reported that a large body of Dervishes was moving out of Ginnis in the direction of Grenfell ' s column . The Camerons and Sudanese , followed by the Second Brigade and covered by the " Lotus " , moved to investigate and counter this threat . The main battle . As the Second Brigade fought through the palm groves near Ginnis , Dervish riflemen fired several volleys at the First Brigade . Although the firing was inaccurate , the smoke it created allowed spearmen to surprise the Camel Corps . In the ensuing skirmish , that detachment was forced to withdraw , but the Durham Light Infantry moved forward and repulsed the Dervish attack . As the First Brigade prepared to attack the main Dervish camp near Ginnis , the Second Brigade entered the town itself . Fighting its way through the streets , it took control of it . Nearby , the First Brigade ' s attack forced the Dervishes to retreat from their camp and pull back into the Atab Defile . At this point , Grenfell ordered Colonel Blake ' s cavalry brigade to dislodge the Arabs in the Defile . With the Mounted Infantry taking the Atab Defile with a bayonet charge , and a general pursuit began . Blake halted his men , though , and the Dervishes fled to the desert . As the 1st Egyptian Battalion marched through Kosha , the men noticed that some Dervishes , probably seeking shelter during the retreat from the town , had holed up , with their weapons , in a house . With a screw gun from the Mule Battery covering them , the Egyptians stormed the house . This encounter marked the battle ' s end . Consequences . Importance . The Anglo - Egyptian victory at Ginnis effectively ended the First Sudan Campaign ( and the first third of the Mahdist War ) that had begun with the destruction of an Egyptian force near Fashoda in 1881 . A few more campaigns , consisting mainly of defensive or relief operations , were fought until a large Anglo - Egyptian army , commanded by Sirdar ( General ) Sir Herbert Kitchener , a former intelligence officer , and General Sir Reginald Wingate , reconquered the Sudan in a massive campaign from 1896 until 1898 . The main Mahdist resistance ended in the large - scale Battle of Omdurman in 1898 .