Note: This is the second part of an extended series on the wars in the Eastern Sudan which will appear in S&S on an occasional basis. Part one covered the rise of Osman Digna. Future parts will cover the campaigns of 1884-5, the skirmishes between 1885-8, the reoccupation of Tokar in 1891, and the securing of the border in 1898. With Mahaud Tahir Pasha's defeat at Andetteib (El Teb) on 5 November 1883 the Egyptian government was forced to bring in reinforcements to help secure Suakin from attack. Baker Pasha The reinforcements case from two main sources: from other Red Sea garrisons in Abyssinia and Somalia, and from Egypt itself. By the end of 1983 the Abyssinian and Somalia troops were deployed as follows (Wylde: 45-7 [a complete list of Egyptian infantry units is unavailable]): The total force in Abyssinia consisted of 1,015 Egyptians, 1,918 Sudanese and 649 irregulars (some of whom were recruited locally). The largest garrisons were at Massawa and Sannaheit. Somalia totalled 1,005 Sudanese and 2,425 irregulars, some of which were old Egyptian soldiers. The garrisons at Gallabat and Kassala, both being in the Sudan, were effectively isolated from Suakin and could not be drawn on. The Somali garrisons were so far away that they were not evacuated in time to be used in Baker's campaign. That left only about 3,000 regulars from Abyssinia that could be brought to Suakin, a force too small to be effective. The main body had to come from Egypt. In Egypt after Tel-el-Kebir the gendarmerie was raised from old soldiers in the Egyptian army to act as a semimilitary force in the provinces, guarding the border and patrolling the desert. They were given the same uniform and equipment as the old army, and up to 1883 officers were interchangeable between the army and the gendarmerie (Haggard: 24; Sartorius: 72, 77). General Valentine Baker was given command of the gendarmerie, a post he held until his death in 1887. Baker had served in the Turkish army during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, after having been dismissed from the British army for the attempted rape of a woman in a railway carriage in 1875. He rose to the rank of fariq before being seconded to the Egyptian army where he was first proposed to take overall command. The scandal of his dismissal followed his and Queen Victoria, among others, opposed his appointment. He got the gendarmerie instead. The gendarmerie originally totalled 6,000 men, organized into companies of 50 with three officers each. There Were 1,600 mounted gendarmes, 500 'Turks' and 400 "European" police (all natives of Egypt) for Cairo and Alexandria, and 3,500 other gendarmes. But in 1883 it was remodelled along the lines of the Irish Constabulary and the number of officers and horses were reduced. The Cairo and Alexandria battalions were then recruited entirely from the NCOs of the old army (Sartorius: 74, 77, 80). Baker was reluctant to take command of an expeditionary force to Suakin but agreed to do so when it was decided to raise a supplementary force of Turkish bashi-bazuks as well as some bazinqirs (slave riflemen) under Zubair Rahma Pasha. Before these troops could arrive some 600 Sudanese from Massawa (not included in the above figures) under Col. Kassis Effendi reached Suakin and were immediately sent out along with 200 Egyptian soldiers, 50 bashi-bazuk cavalry and one gun under Major Izzet Effendi and Capt. Ibrahim Effendi to capture Osman Digna. (1) The column set out on the night of 1st-2nd December and came upon a small party of Mahdists at the wells of Tamanieb in the morning. The cavalry had stayed close to the flanks of the column all the while and had done no scouting. The Sudanese infantry opened fire on the ansar, dispersing thee. The square then moved up, occupying the wells, with the Sudanese forming three sides of the square and the Egyptians forming the rear face. While the troops were watering, some 3,000 ansar suddenly attacked the rear face. The cavalry fled into the Sudanese in an attempt to get into the square, and then the Egyptians broke and fled into the backs of the Sudanese. The cavalry and the two Effendis retreated, but the Sudanese fought on for some hours, back to back, until almost all were killed. (2) The situation in Suakin was critical. The gun-vessel H.M.S. Ranger under Commander W.E. Darwall had been sent to Suakin in November 1883 and now became the town's main defence, moored along the causeway connecting the town to the mainland (Clowes: 350). Suakin itself contained only 300 mixed troops, mostly "old soldiers of the garrison", 2 Krupps, 3 mountain guns and some lBth Century smooth-bore cannons (Wylde: 7; Sartorius: 104). The Ranger was joined by the corvette Carysfort (Capt. Walter Stewart), the torpedo-depot ship Hecla (Capt. A.K. Wilson), and eventually the H.M.S. Coquette (Capt. Alexander Plantagenet) and the H.M.S. Woodlark from Aden (Clowes: 350-1). Baker's chief of staff, Col. Sartorius, arrived with the first batch of 650 gendarmes an 8 December 1883, and Suakin, at least, was considered secure (Sartorius: 92; Royle: 104). The force that set out from Egypt in stages underwent a number of shifts in composition. Six hundred from the Alexandria battalion were sent and 800 from the Cairo battalion, but 280 Cairenes deserted on the way and only 520 arrived in Suakin. A number of Turks were also recruited but only 100 obeyed the summons (Sartorius: 86). Throughout the month of December various batches of gendarmes arrived in Suakin. There was a small contingent of 'European' police (about 50) under Major Maletta, an Italian (Sartorius: 147). The depletion of gendarmerie in Egypt itself meant that new recruits had to be found to increase their ranks quickly. These were all 'Turks' (Albanians, Circassians, etc.) living in Egypt, same 500 in all, who were first instructed in drill only after arriving in Suakin (Sartorius: 156, 167, 211). It had been decided to augment the gendarmes by raising some 1,600 semi-regular black riflemen, or bazingirs as they were known in the southern provinces of the Sudan, and send them to Suakin under the command of Zubair Rahma Pasha. Zubair had been an ivory and slave merchant an a far larger scale than Osman Digna and had conquered such of Bahr al-Ghazal and Dar Fur with his own bands of slave riflemen in the 1860's and 1870's. He had lost his prize of Dar Fur to the government and found himself a permanent 'guest' of the Khedive in Cairo for his pains. His son had been executed by Sessi during a revolt during Gordon's first governor-generalship. Because of his success with slave armies it was first thought that he would be equally successful with a smaller force raised and trained in a shorter period, but then it was decided politically unwise to send Zubair himself to Suakin. It was doubtful that he would have achieved such even if he had gone, His nephew, sent as an emissary to Osman Digna in December, failed completely to interest any of the Beia in cooing over to Zubair and the Egyptian government. Zubair paraded his first battalion of bazinqirs in front of the Khedive in Cairo on the 2nd of January, 1884. There were delays in their departure because of lack of transport, but finally six companies, along with their families, under the command of Khalil Ali were dispatched from Egypt an the 16th of January, arriving in Suakin a few days later (Royle: 104- 5; Sartorius: 199, 208). The second battalion was placed under the command of a well-educated, French-speaking Turkish officer who complained both of the quality of the retired Egyptian officers and NCOs allotted to the battalion, and of the quality of the troops themselves. He protested that his men were untrained and unfamiliar with their firearms, but because Baker had requested the immediate dispatch of all men, trained and untrained, they too embarked on 20 January and arrived at Suakin by the end of the month (Sartorius: 209; Royle: 105). In all there were some 1,200 bazinqirs sent to the Eastern Sudan, but unlike the experienced riflemen who had fought in the Southern Sudan and who were soon to join the Mahdi's army, they were bazinqir in name only. Despite the fact that the reinforcements from Egypt were supposed to provide the main force of operations in the Eastern Sudan, their lack of training and experience forced the commanders of the new expeditionary force to rely even more heavily on the experienced soldiers they were ostensibly coming to reinforce. These fell into three main groups: the 'old soldiers' of the Suakin garrison, the local bashi-bazuk irregulars, and the regular troops in the Abyssinian and Somali garrisons. The "old soldiers" were never a credible force. They numbered no tore than 320 by the beginning of February, were given no regular uniform and were detailed mainly to guard the gates of the town (Sartorius: 104, 225). The bashi-bazuks were potentially more useful, but in fact provided no core of disciplined men around which the rest of the force could be organized. They were all Albanians and were not normally drilled. When Col. Sartorius tried to institute regular drill, they refused and had to be disarmed by four companies of the Alexandria battalion and their leaders flogged before training could proceed. Some of their numbers included young boys and old, deaf, blind and lame men who had to be sent back to Egypt. Their numbers were expanded, however, by new batches from Egypt. Some had preceded Sartorius to Suakin and more came afterwards. The last batch of 200 arrived at Trinkitat direct from Suez only two days before the 2nd Battle of El Teb. The commander of all bashi-bazuks was Yusuf Bey, and they were employed in a number of reconnaissances around Suakin before the final march to Tokar (Sartorius: 96, 128-9, 139, 147, 151). There was only one contingent of bashi- bazuks which did command respect. These were local Abyssinian hillsen attached to the Massawa garrison and outposts. They were good at skirmish fighting, but as they were locally recruited in Abyssinia they were not available for the Tokar campaign, despite Baker's wish that he could have brought thee along (Wylde: 109). Only 24 came as volunteers to Suakin, a taken unit entirely (Sartorius: 214). This left the regulars of the Abyssinian garrisons. They were needed desperately since Col. Sartorius decided soon after his arrival that Muhammad Tawfiq at Sinkat should be relieved before the advance to Tokar (Sartoriusi 137-8). Sinkat was besieged by at least 4,000 men, though some reports put the besiegers at 11,000 (Sartorius: 137-8; Colville: 19). Against this Tawfiq had to hold the town with only 150 bashi-bazuks, 300 Egyptian infantry and 32 gunners (Sartorius: 107). But Sulaisan Pasha assured Baker that Tokar was in more urgent need of relief, so Sinkat was left to fend for itself while the Tokar relief force was gathered together. Baker and his staff assembled in Suakin throughout the month of December. With Baker were Major-General (Egyptian rank) Sartorius Pasha (2nd in command), Col. Abd &I-Rassak (Egyptian Chief of Staff), Lt.-Col. Fitzroy Hay (European Chief of Staff), Major Harvey, 42nd Highlanders (ADC to Baker), Lt.-Col. Morice Bey, RMLI (Paymaster), and Dr. Leslie (medical department). Sartorius was commander of the Ist division and had under his Lt.-Col. Harrington (Rifle Brigade) as chief of divisional staff, Major Izzat Effendi, and Capt. Goodall as ADC. Major G.D. Giles (the war artist) commanded the "Turkish" (bashi-bazuk) cavalry, while Major Holroyd commanded the "Turkish" infantry. Capt. Forrestier Walker, who had served with Hicks before the march into Kordofan, now case as the correspondent of the Daily News and doubled as commander of artillery, while Col. Frederick Burnaby came along for the ride (Sartorius: 85-6, 157; Haggard: 126-7; Royle: 102). Baker had at his disposal the Egyptian gunboats Tor and Gefferiah, along with the troopships Zagazig, Tantah, Mahallah, Mansurah, and the small paddle steamer Deb el-Bar. The Royal Navy was represented by a squadron under Admiral Hewitt, now consisting of the H.M.S. Euryalus (flagship), Sphinx, Ranger, Woodlark and Coquette. To strengthen his force Baker transferred the Sudanese soldiers of Massawa and Sannaheit to Suakin, replacing thee with some of the Egyptian infantry. He could not wait for the arrival of the Harrar garrison, and Sulaiman Pasha ordered the return of one batch of Sudanese troops to Massewa for fear of an Abyssinian attack (Wylde: 53; Sartorius: 153). Fortifications Suakin itself had to be fortified. The main town was an an island, linked to the mainland by a causeway. At the end of the causeway wad the market town of El Geif. Just outside the milk market was an old three-roomed stone fort, surrounded by a trench and earthwork, containing two Krupp guns, three mountain guns and some 18th Century ssoothbores. Next to the fort was a stone barrack which could hold up to 400 men. To the north of El Geif was an unfortified mud and stone barrack which could hold two companies. Beyond this was a police station, inhabited only by day. There were no defences to the south, facing Tasaai and Tokar, The army headquarters tent was pitched in the silk market, and the troops were stationed around El Beif. There were no forts guarding the wells outside the town (Wylde: 7-8). In December, after Sartarius' arrival, a four foot deep, three foot wide trench was dug around El Geif, with a parapet of about five to six feet high. Six foot long stakes were placed in the trench. The trench connected up a series of small forts, which were detached buildings surrounded by ditches. A zariba of old sisasa bushes was placed around the outer edge of the parapet. Sartorius established the headquarters of the 1st division in a small two-storey building near the flag staff, with a small barrack occupied by the European police. Forts were placed at the wells, and at night they hung lanterns out an the town side so as not to be fired on. Baker added another series of small forts outside the lines in January 1884, and this kept the ansar further away from the town as they did not want to get caught between the redoubts and the main fortifications (Sartorius: 126-7, 131, 186, 197). Mahdist pressure on the various garrisons of the Red Sea continued. On 20 December 1883 the ansar seized part of the town outside Tokar, but Ibrahim Markavi, the garrison commander, drove thee off (Sartorius: 180). On the same day, Sartorius, Major Giles and Augustus Wylde (the British consul at Suakin) made a reconnaissance against the Hadendowa with 250 cavalry. They managed to capture some 260 camels and a number of other livestock, but learned later that they had seized the herds of some of their "friendlies" (Sartarius: 149-52). About a month later, on 22 January 1884, Baker himself led some 300 cavalry an another reconnaisance and also captured a good deal of cattle but had to retire to Suakin with the Beja camelmen harrying him part of the way (Sartorius; 201). Wars in Eastern Sudan Part 2: Baker & El Teb Re-inforcements Second Battle of El Teb Troops and Tactics Uniforms Illustration: Egyptian Troops from Eastern Sudan (166K) Wargame Ideas Footnotes and Bibliography Back to Table of Contents -- Savage and Soldier Vol. XIX No. 2 Back to Savage and Soldier List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by Milton Soong. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com