The official history of the controversial Sudan campaign of 1884, one of
Victorian Britain's less happy colonial military exploits. The author,
Colonel Colvile, himself took part in the campaign and his work was
vetted by the War Office and his brother officers before publication.
The first volume in this facsimile three-volume publication deals with
the events leading up to the campaign itself. The legendary General
Charles Gordon, with inadequate back-up and delusions of his own
abilities, found himself besieged in the Sudan's capital, Khartoum, by
the fanatical followers of the Mahdi, a Muslim religious leader who had
proclaimed himself a prophet foretold by Mohammed, destined to unite the
whole world in one Islamic stat.e. Very late in the day, a reluctant
William Gladstone, Liberal prime minister, was prodded by public opinion
into mounting an expedition under Lord Garnet Wolseley to go to Gordon's
rescue. Volume 1 closes with the forces of the Mahdi spreading across
the Sudan, and threatening Gordon in Khartoum, while Wolseley moves
slowly south down the Nile.Volume 2 opens with the Anglo-Egyptian
relieving force held up on its journey south by its steamers repeatedly
running aground. When it finally reached Khartoum, it was only to learn
that the city has fallen and Gordon had been killed. The retreat from
Khartoum was as fraught with danger as the advance had been, with both
the Camel Corps and the River Column, marching on subsidiary punitive
expeditions, and led until his death by General Earle, and then by
Colonel Brackenbury, fighting desperate actions against the Dervish
followers of the Mahdi. Volume 2 ends with the decision to evacuate the
Sudan and the death of the Mahdi - vengeance for Gordon's death would
have to await the advent of Kitchener at Omdurman thirteen years later.
The third volume in this publication contains ten campaign maps. The two
first volumes are also profusely illustrated with diagrams, battle plans
and engravings. Taken together, these volumes present an authoritative
and indispensible picture of one of Britain's most famous wars of
Empire.
