The victory of Atbara during the Omdurman Campaign of 1896 was followed by an interval of three months during which one misfortune succeeded another and no further advance could be undertaken as storm, flood and sickness tested the troops to the uttermost. Cholera was the first unwelcomed visitor; the North Staffords moved southwards to Gemai where the dread disease overtook them and spread to every other camp. On July 5th, the camp at Firket was abandoned and the garrison moved six miles upstream to Kosha, but cholera soon appeared there in its most virulent form. No man knew whether he might see the rise of another sun and death stalked among the army, claiming many of the bravest and best. The troops moved out into the desert where they lived in straw huts in temperatures mounting to 129 degrees in the shade but still the disease persisted and by the time it subsided in the middle of August, more than 900 soldiers and camp followers had died; only 19 British soldiers succumbed to the disease. It was reported that Colonel Rundle kept a bottle of "Cholera mixture', for his Staff, the ingredients of which were brandy, chlorodyne and Worcester sauce in equal parts; anyone feeling symptoms of cholera was required to drink a tumblerful -- no one drank and no one died! Violent dust-storms, followed by torrential rain, occurred at the end of July and in a country where rain is almost unknown, on August 25th, a storm occurred which swept away part of the railway line near Sores. Every ravine was filled with a rushing torrent as tents and huts collapsed in a sea of liquid mud; the movement of troops became impossible. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 121 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1972 by Donald Featherstone. 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