The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
ground, a mark for the enemy. I saw the general's bugler drop close
beside him, and running up, implored both him and Burnaby to dismount,
but they would not. I had hardly returned to my place when I heard
another bullet strike, and saw Burnaby's horse fall, throwing its
rider. I went to help Burnaby to his feet, and as I picked him up, he
said a curious thing. He said, "I'm not in luck to-day, Charlie."
When it became evident that the enemy would not attack, Sir Herbert
Stewart decided to take the initiative. He ordered a square to be
formed outside the zeriba, in which the baggage and the camels were to
be left in charge of a small garrison.
In the centre of the square were to be camels, carrying water,
ammunition, and cacolets (litters) for the wounded. I do not know how
many camels there were. Count Gleichen says about 30; Colonel
Colville, in the official history, gives the figure as 150. In the
front of the square (looking from the rear of the square forward),
left, and nearly all down the left flank, were Mounted Infantry; on the
right front, and half-way down the right flank, Guards' Camel Regiment.
Beginning on the left flank where Mounted Infantry ended, and
continuing round the rear face, were the Heavy Camel Regiment. Then,
in the centre of the rear, was the Naval Brigade with Gardner gun. On
the right of rear face, the Heavy Camel Regiment extended to the angle.
Round the corner, lower right flank, were the Royal Sussex, then came
the Royal Marines, continuing to the Guards' Camel Regiment. Behind
the centre of the front ranks were the three screw guns. In case of
attack, I was directed to use my own judgment as to placing the Gardner
gun.
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The square was thus formed under fire. Bear in mind that the column
was upon the floor of a valley commanded by slopes and hill-tops
occupied by the enemy. The route of the square lay over the lower
slopes of the hills on the right, thus avoiding the hollow way on the
left commanded by the enemy's breastworks. Captain Campbell's company
of Mounted Infantry, and Colonel Barrow with his Hussars, went ahead to
skirmish on the front and on the left flank, and somewhat checked the
fire, while Lieutenant Romilly and a detachment of Scots Guards
skirmished ahead on the right.
It was about 10 a.m. when the square began to move. The enemy,
increasing their fire, kept pace with it. The route, studded with
rocky knolls, furrowed with watercourses, and sharply rising and
falling, was almost impassable for the camels. They lagged behind,
slipping and falling, and we of the rear face were all tangled up with
a grunting, squealing, reeking mass of struggling animals. Their
drivers, terrified by the murderous fire coming from the right, were
pressing back towards the left rear angle. By dint of the most
splendid exertions, the sailors kept up, dragging the Gardner gun. Men
were dropping, and halts must be made while they were hoisted into the
cacolets and their camels forced into the square. Surgeon J. Magill,
attending a wounded skirmisher outside the square, was hit in the leg.
During the halts the enemy's fire was returned, driving off large
numbers on the hills to the right. In about an hour we covered two
miles.
Then we saw, on the left front, about 600 yards away, a line of green
and white flags twinkling on long poles planted in the grass and scrub.
No one knew what these might portend. As the fire was hottest on the
right, we thought that the main body would attack from that quarter.
Suddenly, as we halted, more and yet more flags flashed above the
green; and the next moment the valley was alive with black and white
figures, and resounding with their cries. The whole body of them moved
swiftly and in {261} perfect order across our left front, disappearing
behind rocks and herbage.
The square was instantly moved forward some thirty yards on the slope,
in order to gain a better position. Ere the movement was completed,
the enemy reappeared.
{262}
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SOUDAN WAR (_Continued_)
VI. THE FIGHT AT ABU KLEA
"England well may speak with wonder
Of the small heroic band,
Fearlessly, though parched and weary,
Toiling 'cross the desert sand;
How they met the foeman's onslaught,
Firm, undaunted, with a cheer,
Drove ten times or more their number,
Down the vale of Abu Klea."
_Songs of the Camel Corps_ (Serg. H. EAGLE, R.M.C.C.)
Before the square was completely formed on the top of the knoll at the
foot of which it had been halted when the thousands of Arabs sprang
into view on the left front, the Arabs reappeared on the left rear,
about 500 yards distant. They were formed into three phalanxes joined
together, the points of the three wedges being headed by emirs or
sheikhs, riding with banners. The horsemen came on at a hand-gallop,
the masses of footmen keeping up with them. Our skirmishers were
racing in for their lives. The last man was overtaken and speared.
At this moment the left rear angle of the square was still unformed.
The camels were still struggling into it. Several camels, laden with
wounded, had lain down at the foot of the slope and their drivers had
fled into the square; and these animals were being dragged in by
soldiers. The appalling danger of this open corner was instantly
evident. I told the bugler to sound the halt, and having forced my way
through the press to the front of the square, and reported the case to
Sir Herbert Stewart, who said, "Quite right," I struggled back to the
rear.
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Then I ordered the crew of the Gardner gun to run it outside the square
to the left flank. At the same time, Colonel Burnaby wheeled Number 3
Company (4th and 5th Dragoon Guards) from the rear face to the left
flank. Number 4 Company (Scots Greys and Royals) had already wheeled
from the rear to the left flank, so that they were just behind me.
Five or six paces outside the square we dropped the trail of the gun.
So swiftly did these things happen that the leading ranks of the enemy
were still 400 yards away.
They were tearing down upon us with a roar like the roar of the sea, an
immense surging wave of white-slashed black forms brandishing bright
spears and long flashing swords; and all were chanting, as they leaped
and ran, the war-song of their faith, "_La ilaha ill' Allah Mohammedu
rasul Allah_"; and the terrible rain of bullets poured into them by the
Mounted Infantry and the Guards stayed them not. They wore the loose
white robe of the Mahdi's uniform, looped over the left shoulder, and
the straw skullcap. These things we heard and saw in a flash, as the
formidable wave swept steadily nearer.
I laid the Gardner gun myself to make sure. As I fired, I saw the
enemy mown down in rows, dropping like ninepins; but as the men killed
were in rear of the front rank, after firing about forty rounds (eight
turns of the lever), I lowered the elevation. I was putting in most
effective work on the leading ranks and had fired about thirty rounds
when the gun jammed. The extraction had pulled the head from a
discharged cartridge, leaving the empty cylinder in the barrel.
William Rhodes, chief boatswain's mate, and myself immediately set to
work to unscrew the feed-plate in order to clear the barrel or to take
out its lock. The next moment the enemy were on top of us. The
feed-plate dropped on my head, knocking me under the gun and across its
trail. Simultaneously a spear was thrust right through poor Rhodes,
who was instantly killed at my side. Walter Miller the armourer was
speared beside the gun at the same time. I was knocked off the trail
of the gun {264} by a blow with the handle of an axe, the blade of
which missed me. An Arab thrust at me with his spear, and I caught the
blade, cutting my hand, and before he could recover his weapon a bullet
dropped him. Struggling to my feet, I was carried bodily backwards by
the tremendous impact of the rush, right back upon the front rank of
the men of Number 4 Company, who stood like rocks.
I can compare the press to nothing but the crush of a theatre crowd
alarmed by a cry of fire. Immediately facing me was an Arab holding a
spear over his head, the staff of the weapon being jammed against his
back by the pressure behind him. I could draw neither sword nor
pistol. The front ranks of our men could not use rifle or bayonet for
a few moments. But the pressure, forcing our men backwards up the
hill, presently enabled the rear rank, now occupying a position of a
few inches higher than the enemy, to fire over the heads of the front
rank right into the mass of the Arabs. The bullets whizzed close by my
head; and one passed through my helmet. The Arabs fell in heaps,
whereupon our front rank, the pressure upon them relaxing, fired, and
fought hand to hand with the bayonet, cursing as the rifles jammed and
the shoddy bayonets twisted like tin.
The enemy wavered and broke away, some retreating, but the greater
number turning to the rear face of the square, carrying some of the
Naval Brigade with them. The rest of my men manned the gun and opened
fire on the retreating enemy. But by the time the gun was in action
the retreating dervishes had hidden themselves in a nullah, and the
main body of the enemy had burst into the gap left by the camels in the
rear face. My men joined in the furious hand-to-hand fighting all
among the jam of men and camels. The ranks of the front face of the
square had turned about face and were firing inwards. Poor Burnaby
(who was "not in luck to-day") was thrown from his horse, and was
killed by a sword cut in the neck as he lay on the ground.
{265}
Fighting next to me in the square was "Bloody-minded Piggot"--Captain
C. P. Piggot of the 21st Hussars--using a shot-gun charged with
buck-shot. The Arabs were crawling and twisting under the camels and
in and out the legs of the men, whom they tried to stab in the back,
and Piggot was loading and firing, and the bluejackets kept calling to
him, "Here's another joker, sir!" I saw the bald head of an Arab
emerging from a pile of bodies, and as Piggot fired I saw the bald
crown riddled like the rose of a watering-pot.
One mounted sheikh, at least, won right into the square, where the
bodies of himself and his horse were found afterwards.
Numbers 4 and 5 Company, who had withstood the first rush until they
were pressed back upon the mass of camels, were still fighting in front
when they were attacked in rear. There, the left wing of the Heavy
Camel Regiment--Scots Greys, Royals, and 5th Dragoon Guards--did
desperate hand-to-hand fighting in the square, while the right wing and
the Royal Sussex by their steady fire kept off the rest of the enemy.
The stress endured only a few minutes. Every Arab inside the square
was slain. The camels, which had made the weak corner of the square,
afterwards saved it by presenting a solid, irremovable obstacle to the
enemy.
As the enemy retired, Sir Herbert Stewart gave the word, and our men
cheered again and again, and the retreating Arabs turned and shook
their fists at us.
Their desperate courage was marvellous. I saw a boy of some twelve
years of age, who had been shot through the stomach, walk slowly up
through a storm of bullets and thrust his spear at one of our men. I
saw several Arabs writhe from out a pile of dead and wounded, and
charge some eighty yards under fire towards us, and one of them ran
right up to the bayonets and flung himself upon them and was killed. I
saw an Arab, who was wounded in the legs, sit up, and hurl his spear at
a passing soldier. As the soldier stopped to load his rifle, the Arab
tried to {266} reach another spear, and failing, caught up stones and
cast them at his foe; and then, when the soldier presented his rifle