The Black Watch at the Battle of Tamai, Eastern Sudan, 13 March 1884
Original illustration from the history of the war in the Soudan circa 1886. Info from wiki: The Black Watch found themselves under intense attack from the Sudanese. The square was flooded with a rush of tribesmen and a brutal hand-to-hand fight resulted. The Black Watch eventually won the contest, driving the Sudanese out, and reforming their square. The British units then reformed, and resumed their advance, driving the shaken Mahdists out of the ravine and inflicting more casualties on them as they fled. Osman Digna's camp was captured later that day, but Osman Digna escaped. During this battle, the British suffered more losses than in any other battle of the Mahdist war, 214 soldiers being wounded or killed, ten of which were officers. The Mahdists also suffered heavily, losing 4,000 men. The British hoped that this defeat would deal a great blow to Osman Digna's prestige as well as weakening his forces, and that he would lose his hold over the Hadendoa. However this was not the case, and when later that year, Graham's force was withdrawn from the Sudan, he gradually recovered his influence. Therefore, Graham’s campaign came to be seen purely as a punitive exercise against the Sudanese to restore British military pride. Winston Churchill, who later participated in the Mahdist war, was critical of the British Government's attitude in Eastern Sudan: "The slaughter [Baker's defeat at El Teb] was complete. The British Government resolved to add to it. The garrisons they had refused to rescue they now determined to avenge." "But as they [Graham's force] fought without reason, they conquered without profit."[2] It has been suggested[3] that the objective of British operations in that sector was to avert a possible peril to navigation in the Red Sea. If the Mahdists had taken control of the whole of the Sudanese coast, they might have threatened ships travelling to India, thus endangering the British Empire
Size: 4825px × 3237px
Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 13, 1884, 19th, army, battle, black, british, century, combat, commanded, digna, eastern, engraving, era, forces, fuzzy, gerald, graham, hadendoa, hand, illustration, image, led, mahdi, mahdist, march, osman, picture, sir, sudan, sudanese, tamai, tribe, victorian, victory, war, watch, wuzzies
