Battle of Tamai The Battle of Tamai ( or Tamanieh ) took place on March 13 , 1884 between a British force under Sir Gerald Graham and a Mahdi st Sudanese army led by Osman Digna . Despite his earlier victory at El Teb , Graham realised that Osman Digna ' s force was far from broken and that he still enjoyed support among the local population . Accordingly , a second expedition departed from Suakin on 10 March in order to defeat the Mahdists definitively . The force was composed of the same units that had fought at El Teb : 4 , 500 men , with 22 guns and 6 machine gun s . The Mahdists had roughly 10 , 000 men , most of them belonging to Osman Digna ' s Hadendoa tribe ( known to British soldiers as " Fuzzy Wuzzies " for their unique hair ) . Battle . On the night of the 12th the British formed an encampment , not far from Osman Digna ' s positions . From around 1 o ' clock until dawn , Mahdist riflemen approached the camp and opened fire , but their shooting was imprecise , and they inflicted few casualties . At dawn , the artillery was brought to bear against the Mahdist skirmishers and they were driven back . The infantry ( which included the Black Watch ) then formed into two infantry square s each of brigade - size and advanced . One square was commanded by Colonel Davis , with General Graham , and the other by Colonel Buller . A scouting party discovered that the main body of the Mahdist force was hidden in a nearby ravine , whereupon General Graham ordered the 42nd Black Watch to charge , leaving a wide gap where they had been stationed in one of the squares . A sudden onslaught of Mahdists rushed into this gap . At one point , one Black Watch defensive square found themselves under intense attack from the Sudanese . The square broke and was flooded with a rush of tribesmen and a brutal hand - to - hand fight resulted . The Black Watch nearly fled , but were mustered by able non - commissioned officer s to stand and fight and eventually won the contest , driving the Sudanese out , and reforming their square . It is one of the most embarrassing events for the Black Watch , even to this day . Even now , if Welsh soldiers yell out " Broken Square " at a Scotsman , particularly associated with the Black Watch , a fight is liable to ensue . Finding themselves in danger of being cut off , the British units fell back in disarray but was quickly reformed in good order . The Mahdist advance was halted by volleys from the other ( Buller ' s ) square , which had survived the attack , and by dismounted cavalry units that had not been engaged until then . The concentrated flanking fire they inflicted caused huge casualties among the Mahdists , who were forced to retreat . The British units then reformed , and resumed their advance , driving the shaken Mahdists out of the ravine and inflicting more casualties on them as they fled . Osman Digna ' s camp was captured later that day , but Osman Digna escaped . Aftermath . During this battle , the British suffered more losses than in any other battle of the Mahdist war , 214 soldiers being wounded or killed , ten of which were officers . The Mahdists also suffered heavily , losing 4 , 000 men . For their conspicuous bravery during the battle , Private Thomas Edwards of the Black Watch and Lieutenant Percival Marling of the KRRC were awarded the Victoria Cross , the highest decoration in the British Army . The British hoped that this defeat would deal a great blow to Osman Digna ' s prestige as well as weakening his forces , and that he would lose his hold over the Hadendoa . However this was not the case , and when later that year , Graham ' s force was withdrawn from the Sudan , he gradually recovered his influence . Therefore Graham ’ s campaign came to be seen purely as a punitive exercise against the Sudanese to restore British military pride . Winston Churchill , who later participated in the Mahdist war , was critical of the British Government ' s atittude in Eastern Sudan : It has been suggested that the objective of British operations in that sector was to avert a possible peril to navigation in the Red Sea . If the Mahdists had taken control of the whole of the Sudanese coast , they might have threatened ships travelling to India , thus endangering the British Empire .