Article - The Last Stand of General Gordon

This earth hath borne no simpler, nobler man” - Alfred Lord Tennyson’s epitaph for General Gordon

A celebrity of Empire in his day, Major-General Charles George Gordon was beloved by the British people and respected by both his superiors and subordinates. A devoutly religious man, he was seen as morally incorruptible by those who served alongside him, with one saying, “He is without the three strongest passions which make men good or bad - the love of money, the love of fame and the love of women”. He is best known for his legendary last stand at the Siege of Khartoum, an event which cemented his position as a famed and unforgettable Englishman.

The Mahdist War, 1881 – 1899, was a major uprising in Turko-Egyptian Sudan. Egypt was at the time an autonomous state paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire, though owning large shares in the Suez Canal meant Britain had much influence and interest in the region. The causes of the war were numerous: anger at foreign subjugation, religious fundamentalism, and the abolition of the slave trade on which the Sudanese economy thrived. Sudanese cleric Muhammad Ahmad took advantage of these tensions and, in June 1881, declared himself the Islamic Mahdi, "The Guided One." With this proclamation, he promised to rid the world of evil and establish a worldwide Islamic Caliphate, which would allow for the return of the Messiah and the culmination of the End Times. From 1870 he gathered followers, by 1881 the uprising had begun, and by 1883 the Mahdist army was a serious fighting force, experienced and well-armed.

With British influence and interest in Egypt came British concern about the uprising. Aware that the Egyptians could not fight the Mahdists themselves and unwilling to send British forces to fight in their stead, Britain suggested allowing a degree of Sudanese self-government, and an Egyptian withdrawal from Sudan. General Charles Gordon was selected to oversee an orderly withdrawal, and left England on January 18th, 1884.

February 18th, 1884. General Gordon arrived in Khartoum and took control of the 7,000-strong garrison of Egyptian troops. He had never intended to follow his orders, instead deciding to protect Khartoum and its inhabitants. Gordon was aware of the dire situation which lay ahead and so requested reinforcements from both the Ottomans and the British, but both requests were denied.

Gordon quickly set about fortifying the city. Paddle steamers were requisitioned and fitted with armour and cannons to aid in the defence of the northern and western faces of Khartoum, where the Blue and White Nile bordered the city. Facing open desert, the land to the South was filled with barbed wire, trenches, and improvised landmines. Gordon had hoped the tribes populating the desert would fight back, and slow the Mahdi down, but they instead rose to fight alongside him. The nearby garrisons of Sennar, Tokar, and Sinkat were under attack. For Gordon, his men, and the 27,000 civilians of Khartoum, it was now a waiting game.

By April, the northern tribes had united under the Mahdi, who now commanded an army of some 30,000. River traffic was being intercepted, telegraph wires had been cut, and Khartoum was largely cut off from the outside world. Messengers on foot could sometimes sneak through the Mahdist lines, but it was a difficult and dangerous task. Aware that his poorly disciplined Egyptian troops would falter the moment their pay dried up, Gordon issued siege money – Promissory notes - in order to keep them loyal. The city, now surrounded by the Mahdist forces, had only six-months’ worth of supplies, and the siege had begun.

September, 1844. Food was running low, and both civilians and soldiers were beginning to face the effects of starvation. An attempt was made by 800 men to reach and relieve the nearby garrison at Sennar, which was also under attack, while Colonel Stewart – Gordon's Second in Command – travelled upriver on a steamboat to deliver letters to Cairo. Both expeditions were failures and left no survivors. Local Sudanese civilians had fled to Khartoum seeking security, and the civilian population within the city swelled to 34,000. The Mahdi soon decided to ignore the nearby garrisons, and moved his entire army to Khartoum, almost doubling the size of the besieging force.

By October, it seemed General Gordon had accepted his fate, writing in his diary on the 24th, “I dwell on the joy of never seeing Great Britain again, with its horrid, wearisome dinner parties and miseries. How we can put up with those things passes my imagination! It is a perfect bondage. At those dinner parties we are all in masks, saying what we do not believe, eating and drinking things we do not want, and then abusing one another. I would sooner live like a Dervish with the Mahdi, than go out to dinner every night in London.”

25th – 26th January 1845. The Nile was low, and what was once a formidable moat became merely an inconvenient stream. To the North, 50,000 Mahdist warriors forded the river, and to the South, a separate force attacked the Massalamieh gate. This force took heavy casualties from the mines and other obstacles, but low morale and starvation meant the defenders could put up little resistance. This force eventually succeeded in bringing down the Massalamieh gate, giving them entry to and free reign of the city. Accounts of what occurred next are few, but within a few hours the entire garrison was destroyed, and at least 4,000 civilian inhabitants had been murdered. Those left – namely women and children – were taken as war booty by the Mahdist warriors and forced into slavery.

Gordon – a man of complex emotions and beliefs – had said of his time in Crimea that he had gone "hoping, without having a hand in it, to be killed," and it seemed his wish was to have finally come true. The only worthwhile account of his death comes in 1898, from a man named Khaleel Aga Orphali. Khaleel was Gordon's servant and had been with him for his last moments at Khartoum. From his recollections, in a brave yet futile last stand, Gordon battled the invaders on the stairs of the palace building. Wounded by a thrown spear, Gordon continued to fight, with his "life's blood pouring from his breast". Khaleel was knocked unconscious soon after, his last vision of a living Gordon being him taking a sword blow to the knee. Some hours later, Khaleel awoke beside the body of a decapitated Gordon. Gordon's head was taken to Omdurman, where it was shown to Rudolf Carl Von Slatin, a former associate of Gordons and prisoner of the Mahdi, where it was formally identified.

The Mahdi had won, and Sudan was his, though only briefly. The Mahdi died in June of that year, but the Mahdist state would last until 1899. The British public mourned the death of General Gordon and threw scorn on those they deemed responsible for his death. Even Queen Victoria felt great anger and sadness, with one of her letters reading, "Mr. Gladstone and the Government have - the Queen feels it dreadfully - Gordon's innocent, noble, heroic blood on their consciences."

Prime Minister Gladstone had approved the sending of troops in July 1884, but they did not arrive until late January. Only a few days after the fall of Khartoum, a small fraction of the British relief expedition was within sight of the city, but when it was discovered that the city had fallen, the British and Egyptian troops withdrew. The battles of Abu Klea (January 17) and Abu Kru (January 19) had slowed down the relief expedition, and it was the spotting of the advancing British by Mahdist forces that was, in the end, the catalyst for the final, deadly assault.

The Mahdi would die only months after the death of Gordon, but the Mahdist state did not die with him. Eleven years after the fall of Khartoum, the joint British-Egyptian reconquest of Sudan began. The campaign was commanded by Herbert Kitchener, and amongst his ranks were a young Winston Churchill and Douglas Haig. After a series of defeats, the Mahdist army would be almost totally destroyed at the Battle of Omdurman, 1898. The Mahdist state had fell, but the army would limp on until its total destruction in 1900. The victory was viewed by many in Britain to be rightful vengeance for the death of Gordon. Following the battle, Kitchener ordered the destruction of the Mahdi’s tomb, and his corpse was thrown into the Nile.

“A great man, a Christian and a soldier, a gentleman as well as a General, had perished in former days. Now here were his countrymen, who had travelled far and through many dangers, come to do him honour, to complete his work and, over his unknown grave, on the scene of his famous death, to pay the only tributes of affection and respect which lie in human power.” - Winston Churchill, after the Battle of Omdurman, 1889