Facsimile · p. 307
THE CEMETERY I serve to keep in remembrance the names of the brave men who were buried there. The Battle of the Atbara was fought on April 8th, i8g8, at Nakhela, a village on the right bank of the river, about 30 miles from its mouth. The position of Mahmud, the Dervish leader, "was more or less of an oval resting on the river, honey-"combedwith trenches, and surrounded by azeriba. It resembled " Abu Hamed on a larger scale, in that it lay at the bottom of a " kind of crater, of which the radius was about 600 yards, so that THE GRAVE OF A WAR-CORRESPONDENT AT ATliARA IN I099.
" it would be impossible to open fire at a greater range, which " was evidently the reason v/hich caused the Dervishes to take " up such a position." ' The fight lasted less than half an hour, and in this time 2,500 Dervishes were killed, including all the Amirs with the exception of Osman Dikna, who, as usual, escaped before the fight began, and many hundreds were wounded. At least 2,000 more were made prisoners, and all the Dervish stores, arms, and ammunition fell into the Sirdar's ' "Sudan Campaign," p. 151.
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