lry, send out two
squadrons to ascertain what the enemy was about. Thereupon one
squadron rode off to the hills on the west--known locally as South
Kerreri jebels, but marked on most maps as Um Mutragan. Besides being
misnamed, they are plotted in out of place and as if the range trended
east and west. It runs nearly north and south. Kerreri hills were low
and black, like most of the jebels thereabout. They stand fully two
miles west of the Nile. Another squadron, under Captain Hon. E.
Baring, proceeded south to Jebel Surgham, the low hill, about one mile
in front of the British division. I have written about it before.
Surgham was used for heliograph and flag signalling on the 1st, the
previous day, and is the last of the detached hills or ranges lying
near the river on the north towards Omdurman. The squadron going west
soon reached South Kerreri hill, and reported that the enemy were
still in camp. It was early, and not clear daylight, and the distance
to the Khalifa's encampment was greater from South Kerreri hill than
that from Jebel Surgham to where the dervishes lay in the bush and
hollows around Wady Shamba. Captain Baring's party, on the other hand,
met with small patrols of the enemy near Jebel Surgham. Turning the
hill at a few minutes past five o'clock, in the yet slanting daylight,
he at once detected that the Khalifa's army, which had apparently been
largely reinforced during the night, was marching forward to attack
us. Gallopers and orderlies came riding back furiously with the news
for the Sirdar. Sir Herbert Kitchener, Major-General Rundle, and the
whole headquarters staff were already mounted. Colonel Broadwood was
despatched to verify the startling report, and to bring in further
particulars. Meantime the preparations on our side for an advance
were suspended, and guns, Maxims, and infantry moved up and wheeled
into positions upon the firing line. Ominous was that silent march of
six paces to their front made by the British infantry to get close to
the zereba and the clearing for action of Maxims and cannon, and the
examining of the breeches of the Lee-Metfords. For the first time the
magazines were to be used. The Khedivial soldiers swarmed into their
trenches. Anon, the Tommy Atkinses were ordered to lie down behind
their hedge of cut mimosa to rest and wait. From a little distance, no
doubt, our camp looked silent, deserted, and as void of danger as any
other part of the plain. Standing a few yards