The Battle of Abu Klea, or the Battle of Abu Tulayh took place between the dates of 16 and 18 January 1885, at Abu Klea,
Sudan, between the British Desert Column and
Mahdist forces encamped near Abu Klea. The Desert Column, a force of approximately 1,400 soldiers, started from
Korti
Korti or Kurti is a town in northern-central Sudan. In the Meroitic period the city appeared as Cadetum, Cadata or Coetum in Roman sources. The town lies about from Khartoum, on the south side of the Nile at the terminus of the Wadi Muqaddam. I ...
, Sudan on 30 December 1884; the Desert Column's mission, in a joint effort titled "The Gordon Relief Expedition", was to march across the
Bayuda Desert
The Bayuda Desert, located at , is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 100,000 km2 of northeast Sudan north of Omdurman and south of Korti, embraced by the great bend of the Nile in the north, east and south ...
to the aid of General
Charles George Gordon
Major-General Charles George Gordon CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British Army officer and administrator. He saw action in the Crimean War as an officer in ...
at
Khartoum
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...
, Sudan, who was besieged there by Mahdist forces.
The place is generally known in British military records as Abu Klea, which arose as a contemporary British spelling of its Arabic name, Abu Tͅuleiħ'' (أَبُو طُلَيْح).
Background
The British forces consisted of 1,100 British of the Desert Column under Sir
Herbert Stewart
Major-General Sir Herbert Stewart (30 June 1843 – 16 February 1885) was a British soldier.
Early life
Stewart, the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Stewart, was born at Sparsholt, Hampshire. He was the grandson of Edward Richard Stewart an ...
, against a Sudanese force of approximately 12,000 fighters. While the main British force (the River Column), led by General Sir
Garnet Wolseley
Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, (4 June 183325 March 1913), was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, W ...
travelled by river from Korti to Khartoum, Stewart's column was to cut across country by column directly for Khartoum, since time was running short according to what little information was available from the garrison. The force was composed of four regiments of camel-mounted troops (Guards, Heavy, Light and Mounted Infantry), detachments of the various infantry regiments in Egypt and of the River Column, and a detachment of the
19th Hussars, mounted on horses. Four light field pieces and a small
Naval Brigade manning a
Gardner machine gun completed the force.
Units involved included:
*
19th Hussars
* Heavy Camel Detachment
* Guards Camel Detachment
* Mounted Infantry Detachment
* Light Camel Detachment
* 1st Battalion,
Royal Sussex Regiment
The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot a ...
*
Royal Marines Light Infantry
The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...
*
Royal Navy Brigade
Battle
![Photograph of British Camel Corps, two Sikh soldiers mounted in fighting order](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Photograph_of_British_Camel_Corps%2C_two_Sikh_soldiers_mounted_in_fighting_order.jpg)
The Desert Column arrived on the salient overlooking the wadi of Abu Klea not long before sunset, and Stewart decided not to attack that night. The British built a defensive position (or ''
zariba
A zariba (from ar, زَرِيْـبَـة, zarībah, lit=cattle-pen) is a fence which is made of thorns. Historically, it was used to defend settlements or property against perpetrators in Sudan and neighbouring places in Africa. An example wou ...
''), but were sniped at from the high ground around them by Mahdist rifle-units - mainly soldiers from southern Sudan - all night. They took several casualties. At first light Stewart ordered them to form a
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
, which they achieved with perfect discipline, though still under fire from enemy snipers. The square moved slowly towards the wells along the side of the wadi, over very difficult, undulating, rocky ground. Suddenly the square was ambushed by a huge Mahdist force that had been concealing itself in the wadi. The British guns were on the leading face of the square, and the Naval Brigade, with their Gardner machine gun, at the rear left hand corner, nearest the wadi. Several officers and men of
HMS ''Alexandra'' were killed at the battle. As the British halted to repel the Mahdist force, a gap opened up towards the rear left corner of the square. This was caused when Captain
Lord Charles Beresford RN, commanding the Naval Brigade, ordered the
Gardner gun
The Gardner gun was an early type of mechanical machine gun. It had one, two or five barrels, was fed from a vertical magazine or hopper and was operated by a crank. When the crank was turned, a feed arm positioned a cartridge in the breech, the ...
to be run out on the left flank of the
infantry square
An infantry square, also known as a hollow square, was a historic combat formation in which an infantry unit formed in close order, usually when it was threatened with cavalry attack. As a traditional infantry unit generally formed a line to adva ...
to provide covering fire. Colonel
Frederick Gustavus Burnaby
Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (3 March 1842 – 17 January 1885) was a British Army intelligence officer. Burnaby's adventurous spirit, pioneering achievements, and swashbuckling courage earned an affection in the minds of Victorian imper ...
then gave an impromptu order for the Heavy Camel Regiment to wheel out of the square in support of the Gardner gun. The gun had been tested and found very reliable in Britain, but had not been tested in a desert with loose sand getting into its mechanism. It fired seventy rounds and then jammed, and as the crew tried to clear it they were cut down in a rush by the
Dervish
Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...
es. Out of the forty men in the Naval contingent, Lieutenants Alfred Piggott and Rudolph de Lisle were killed along with Chief Boatswain's Mate Bill (Billy) Rhodes and five other seamen and seven more were wounded. Beresford was 'scratched' on the left hand by a spear as he managed to duck under the gun. The weight of the rush pushed the sailors back into the face of the square. Several Dervishes got inside the square, but found the interior full of camels and could not proceed. The troops in the rear ranks faced about and opened fire into the press of men and camels behind them, and were able to drive the Dervishes out of the square and compel them to retreat from the field.
![MACDONALD(1887) p263 SKETCH MAP OF BATTLE FIELD OF ABU-KLEA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/MACDONALD%281887%29_p263_SKETCH_MAP_OF_BATTLE_FIELD_OF_ABU-KLEA.jpg)
The battle was short, lasting barely fifteen minutes from start to finish. Casualties for the British were nine officers and 65 other ranks killed and over a hundred wounded. The Mahdists lost 1,100 dead during the fifteen minutes of fighting, made all the worse by only 5,000 of the Dervish force being engaged. Among the Dervish dead was Musa wad Helu, one of the Mahdist chiefs. British national hero Colonel
F. G. Burnaby
Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (3 March 1842 – 17 January 1885) was a British Army intelligence officer. Burnaby's adventurous spirit, pioneering achievements, and swashbuckling courage earned an affection in the minds of Victorian imper ...
of the
Royal Horse Guards was killed by a spear to the throat.
Frank Rhodes (brother of
Cecil
Cecil may refer to:
People with the name
* Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
* Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
Places Canada
*Cecil, Alberta, ...
) distinguished himself when several horses were shot under him during the engagement, earning him a
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...
. Gunner
Alfred Smith fought bravely to save his officer, Lieutenant Guthrie, and was awarded a
VC. Another action happened two days later at ''Abu Kru'' (the
Battle of El Gubat) and the advance rescue force leader Major General
Sir Herbert Stewart
Major-General Sir Herbert Stewart (30 June 1843 – 16 February 1885) was a British soldier.
Early life
Stewart, the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Stewart, was born at Sparsholt, Hampshire. He was the grandson of Edward Richard Stewart and ...
was mortally wounded by Remington rifle fire by the Mahdists that night. He knew it was a mortal wound, and he transferred command to a inexperienced leader, Brigadier General
Sir Charles Wilson (the column's intelligence officer). Wilson was slow to organize his forces, and in tarrying another day, it was he who was the cause of that advance detachment's delay.
A report in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' newspaper says that Burnaby "fell while reforming a broken British square" (this being one of only two recorded cases of a British square breaking in the 19th century).
Aftermath
The column was too late to save
Khartoum
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...
; the Mahdists captured it two days before the column arrived, leading to the death of
General Gordon. The British then withdrew from the Sudan, leaving the
Dervishes
Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...
of the Mahdi to rule Sudan for the next 13 years. The official public blame for this failure was left with
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Gladstone for delaying several months, to the considerable anger expressed in public of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
, to authorize a rescue. Gladstone lost public confidence and much authority and within two months he resigned.
The battle was celebrated by the
doggerel
Doggerel, or doggrel, is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is deri ...
poet
William McGonagall
William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.
He wrote about 2 ...
:
Ye sons of Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
, come join with me,
And sing in praise of Sir Herbert Stewart’s little army,
That made ten thousand Arabs flee
At the charge of the bayonet at Abou Klea
and so on for 19 stanzas.
And also the battle and one of its notable participants is mentioned in the song "Colonel Burnaby", which has as its chorus:
Weep not my boys, for those who fell,
They did not flinch nor fear.
They stood their ground like Englishmen,
and died at Abu Klea
The rhymes in these poems show varying attempts at pronouncing "Klea" from the English spelling, and the rhyme with "fear" shows British English
arhotic pronunciation.
More celebrated and of higher literary quality, but taking substantial liberties for the exact events, is the mention of the battle in verse two of
Sir Henry Newbolt
Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...
's poem ''
Vitai Lampada'':
…The sand of the desert is sodden red,
Red with the wreck of a square that broke;
The Gatling
The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon.
The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cy ...
's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England’s far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of the schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!”
![176 (Abu Klea) Battery Royal Artillery emblem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/176_%28Abu_Klea%29_Battery_Royal_Artillery_emblem.png)
"The wreck of a square" is a severe exaggeration, and Newbolt conflated Abu Klea with other events such as the
Battle of Tamai; most of the dead were Mahdists. Newbolt's reference to the
Gatling
The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon.
The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cy ...
is wrong, as the British force at Abu Klea had the American
Gardner machine gun. The
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
unit which took part in the battle still exists today, re-numbered as
176 Battery, and has the
honour title "Abu Klea", awarded in 1955 in recognition of the Victoria Cross won by Gunner Smith.
See also
*
''Khartoum'' (film)
*
''The Four Feathers'', a film from 2002, where the battle is portrayed very different from reality and as a disastrous defeat instead of a victory.
References
*
Asher, Michael, "Khartoum - The Ultimate Imperial Adventure" Penguin, 2004. Includes a vivid description of the battle from the perspective of both British and Mahdist forces.
* Craig, Simon, "Breaking the Square: Dervishes vs. Brits at the 1885 Battle of Abu Klea", ''
Military Heritage'', volume 3, No. 3 (December 2001), 78-84. (Describes the failed British attempt to rescue major general Charles Gordon and friendly forces at Khartoum from the Dervishes led by the Mahdi.)
* Churchill, Winston Spencer. ''
The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan'', Middlesex: The Echo Library, 2007. 43-48.
*
White-Spunner
* Snook, Col Mike, "Beyond the Reach of Empire: Wolseley's Failed Campaign to Save Gordon and Khartoum." (London, 2013). .
External links
The Battle of Abu KleaFull text of the poem, from McGonagall Online.
Abu CleaPainting by Karl Kopinski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Klea
1885 in Sudan
Conflicts in 1885
Battles of the Mahdist War
January 1885 events