Battle of Tel el-Kebir

“ Lieutenant W. M. M. Edwards’ exploit at Tel-el-Kebir, where he captured a battery almost single-handed, is worthy of being related at some length. It was, perhaps, the most dashing thing done in the war. [208] At this hard-fought battle four miles of earthworks which the Egyptians had thrown up in front of their position had to be carried at point of bayonet. ”

“ Just before reaching the enemy’s position, the British army was in an irregular echelon; the left was forward and nearest to the enemy, and the right was about 800 yards back.
The Egyptians say their forces at Tel el-Kebir amounted to 20,000 men and 75 guns; but there seems reason to believe that they have under-estimated their numerical strength, and that they had from 25,000 to 30,000 men present. ”

“ If there is no exaggeration in the total numbers which, we are told, the rebel government collected after the bombardment of the 11th of July, and in the number of guns which were at their disposal at that date, it would appear likely that at least 30,000 men instead of 20,000 men must have been present at Tel el-Kebir; and it is somewhat a surprise to find that Arabi had only so small a force of artillery defending his lines, as 75 guns, when as many as 288 were apparently available at his orders. ”

“ Had it been the desire of the British Government to purchase Tel-el-Kebir in the manner stated, it is incredible that by the expenditure of a little additional capital an entirely bloodless victory should not have been obtained.
Further than this, Arabi himself, in all the explanations which he gave of the war, never once hinted at the means alleged by his apologists as having brought about his defeat. The story of the Egyptian officers being so heavily weighted with gold as to be unable to make good their retreat reads more like an Oriental fable than anything else. ”

“ The General agreed with this statement, and we remained with him three days, and then were sent to Abdin, and were treated kindly and well."
In the following telegram to Abdel-el-Al, in command at Damietta, the defeat at Tel-el-Kebir was thus described by Yacoub Pasha, the Under Secretary of State for War, who had been with Arabi in the insurgent camp:—
"At half-past ten (Turkish time) the enemy attacked the line of intrenchments, and firing commenced on both sides. We caused a large number of the enemy to perish beside the intrenchments. ”

“ The British army of about 11,000 infantry, seamen, and marines, 2,000 cavalry, with 60 guns, marched on Tel-el-Kebir, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, who finding the rebel entrenchments reaching at least 4 miles from the canal out into the desert, and that his force would have to attack without a scrap of cover, decided to make a night march from Kassasin to get within charging distance of the enemy's position. ”

“ By nature the fellah is unwarlike. Born in the valley of a great river, he resembles in many respects the Bengali, who exists under similar conditions; but the Egyptian has proved capable of greater improvement. He is Character of Egyptian soldier. stronger in frame, and can undergo greater exertion. Singularly unemotional, he stood steady at Tell el-Kebir after Arabi Pasha and all his officers, from general to subaltern, had fled, and gave way only when decimated by the British field artillery firing case shot. ”

“ Such was the position on which the Egyptian War Minister staked the fate of his army for the Tel-el-Kebir fight, having with him there some 26,000 men of his entire available army. About half of these, including some 6000 negroes, the best troops to be found in Egypt, were trained soldiers, the rest being recruits of one or two months’ standing, sent down in trains from the depot near Cairo, and drilled at first with clubs, until they were able to handle a rifle. ”

“ The information, received from spies and prisoners, was to the effect that the enemy's force at Tel-el-Kebir consisted of from 60 to 70 guns, twenty-four battalions of infantry (18,000 men) , and three regiments of cavalry, together with about 6,000 Bedouins, besides a force of 5,000 men with 24 guns at Salahieh,60 all under the immediate command of Arabi himself. ”

“ It was too [441] much for the black-hearted murderers of defenceless women and children, although they knew they had no mercy to expect. At Tel-el-Kebir, the Egyptians were soon shifted by the same means, and the trenches and batteries that they had thrown up with so much labour were made a little too hot for them. In fact it is as I have repeatedly called it, the “queen of weapons,” and will be so as long as we have an enemy to face.
COURAGE DOES NOT COURT DANGER NEEDLESSLY. ”

“ It is an easier and kindlier duty to set forth facts than to proclaim opinions and pronounce judgments. Before Tel-el-Kebir was fought in September 1882 and the Egyptian army beaten and disbanded, the insurrection headed by the Mahdi or False Prophet had begun. In the disrupted condition of affairs which succeeded Arabi Pasha's defeat by British arms the dervish movement made further rapid progress. To Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., at the close of 1882, was assigned the task, as Sirdar or Commander-in-Chief of the Khedivial troops, of forming a real native army. ”

“ Continuous lines are condemned by European military writers as essentially weak, because once broken at any point they are probably lost to their entire extent. Tel-el-Kebir was to prove the truth of this tactical axiom.
One open work for guns was erected on the south slope of the desert ridge. The soil being light, cover was easily obtained. The trenches were about deep enough to allow of a man firing easily over the parapet, and an exterior ditch, some four feet deep, was dug at most parts of the line outside the mound. ”

“ It is active folk-lore which can be thus pursued through the different shapes the story of a historical event assumes in a short time if spread over a wide surface. The soldiers who fought at Tel-el-Kebir or in Burmah, when returning home, will be also authors of wondrous tales, relating the adventures, the customs of the nations they fought, and they will always have a great and obliged number of listeners gathered around them. ”

“ This further: in action there are no soldiers less prone to needless blood-spilling, or men readier to forgive and forget, than "Tommy Atkins." Official returns exist setting at rest the fiction about Tel-el-Kebir and the Soudan battles. At Tel-el-Kebir many thousand prisoners were made, and in other engagements our hands were always full of dervish [Pg 337] wounded. At El Teb, Tamai, Abu Klea, Abu Kru, Gemaizeh, Atbara, and elsewhere, wounded dervishes fell into our hands, and received every attention from the medical staff. ”

“ Accordingly an attack was made that day on Kassassin.
On this occasion Arabi himself was on the ground, though the attacking forces were commanded by Ali Pasha Fehmi. The Egyptian force turned out in great strength, comprising seventeen battalions of infantry, several squadrons of cavalry, thirty guns, and some thousands of Bedouins.
The Egyptian attack was meant to be from two sides: on the west by an advance of the garrison of Tel-el-Kebir, and on the north by a body, variously estimated at from 1,500 to 5,000 men, from Salahieh. ”

“ What did Arabi infinitely more harm than this and facilitated the rapidity of Wolseley's advance, was the tampering with his officers through the instrumentality of certain emissaries despatched in disguise to Cairo and Tel-el-Kebir, who, armed with money and promises of promotion and advancement when the "rebellion" should have been put down, succeeded in detaching not a few from their loyalty. ”

“ The British have forced him back step by step from Alexandria, until he anticipated a direct attack on Cairo from that direction; but suddenly your friends changed their tactics, and brought over a large force which they have landed at Port Said and Ismalia, whence a [Pg 287] steady advance has been going on ever since. Arabi has summoned all his forces together, and mobilized them in the direction of Tel-el-Kebir, at which place he means to make a big stand. The position he has taken up is supposed to be impregnable, and success is anticipated by all his people. ”

“ The cavalry charge completed the confusion of the enemy, and in a short time the plain was covered with bodies of the flying Egyptians making their way back to Tel-el-Kebir, from which they had started in the morning, confident in their power to annihilate the little British force at Kassassin. Large numbers were killed, and the rout would have been even more complete had not the horses of the cavalry been too much exhausted with their long day’s work under a broiling sun, to permit the pursuit being vigorously continued. ”

“ The cavalry of Kabal, being like us troops, know very well the laws of war, and therefore those who are led astray, must expect to be killed, destroyed, &c., which they deserve, as they are not children. Still quarter is given them, as they may have been misled by the insurgents, and those who are found wounded after a battle are not destroyed. ”

“ Moreover, Ninet had ceased to be at headquarters before the real campaign began, having remained on at Kafr Dawar when these were transferred to Tel-el-Kebir. Such knowledge as I have of the war I will nevertheless briefly give.
On the day of the bombardment the Egyptian artillerymen fought well, and for a far greater number of hours than either Sir Beauchamp Seymour or any of his officers had thought possible. They were, however, at a terrible disadvantage through the antiquated character of the forts they were called upon to defend. ”

“ At daylight on the 25th the British troops were formed up across the desert at Magfar in order of battle, and advanced to the attack on Tel-el-Mahuta. But the Egyptians at once lost heart, and were observed to be retiring in haste, partly by rail; and, being followed by the cavalry and horse artillery, they not only evacuated their strong position at Mahuta, but were driven out of Mahsamah, eight miles further on, where seven Krupp guns, large numbers of rifles, and a quantity of ammunition, food, stores, camp equipment, and seventy-five railway waggons fell into our possession. ”

“ For a time he had a victorious career, completely annihilating force after force of Egyptian troops. During his investment of Sinkat and Tokar, Baker Pasha was despatched with a force of 3,600 men to the relief of those two towns. But here another terrible slaughter of the Egyptian troops took place in the battle—or rather, the massacre—of El-Teb. An eye witness says of this: "Inside the square the state of affairs was almost indescribable. Cavalry, infantry, mules, camels, falling baggage and dying men were crushed into a struggling, surging mass. ”

“ Nine British officers and 48 men were killed, 27 officers and 385 men wounded or missing. For his brilliant conduct of the war Sir Garnet Wolseley was raised to the peerage.
The following troops were engaged at Tel-el-Kebir: One batt. Grenadiers, Coldstreams, and Scots Fusilier Guards; 18th, 42nd, 46th, 60th, 72nd, 74th, 75th, 79th, 84th, and 87th; detachments of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards; 4th and 7th Dragoon Guards; 19th Hussars; a batt. of Marines; Marine Artillery, and a brigade of Seamen. ”

“ The lance is good, but it wastes time."
They tried the carbine, and still the enemy melted away—fled up the hills by hundreds when there were only twenty bullets to stop them. On the heights the screw-guns ceased firing—they had run out of ammunition—and the Brigadier groaned, for the musketry fire could not sufficiently smash the retreat. Long before the last volleys were fired, the litters were out in force looking for the wounded. The battle was over, and, but for want of fresh troops, the Afghans would have been wiped off the earth. ”

“ Wearied in waiting for an opportunity of practising his well-disciplined cavalry and artillery upon a detachment of Turkish infantry, Ibrahim, on the 21st instant, broke up from Zachle and Malaka in full retreat on Damascus, where he now is with 30,000 men, including 7000 cavalry and artillery. He has pushed a corps of 3000 irregular cavalry to El Mezereib, on the road towards Mecca,—the only route now open to him for a final retreat into Egypt,—whither I calculate on his going the moment he receives from Alexandria the political news brought by the Oriental. ”

“ Egyptian arms and tactics had not made much progress since the great campaigns of the Theban conquerors; the military authorities still complacently trusted to their chariots and their light troops of archers at a period when the whole success of a campaign was decided by heavily armed infantry, and when cavalry had already begun to change the issue of battles. ”

“ It is a noble spectacle, that of resolute men reduced to extremities without fleeing from danger. On March 20 the French army went out from Cairo; diminished by death and sickness it numbered no more than 12,000 men, who formed themselves into squares, according to the old tactics of the troops of Egypt, in front of the ancient ruins of Heliopolis. Kléber estimated at 70,000 or 80,000 men the Turkish army which was to assail him. "My friends," said he in passing along the ranks, "you possess in Egypt only the ground which you have beneath your feet! If you retreat a step, you are lost!" ”