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Updated: May 24, 2025
At Ginnis, twenty miles from Ferket, they passed the ground where, on the 31st of December, 1885, on the retirement of General Wolseley's expedition, Generals Grenfel and Stevenson, with a force of Egyptian troops and three British regiments, encountered the Dervish army which the Khalifa had despatched under the Emir Nejumi, and defeated it.
It was because he was anxious to effect a complete surprise that he did not even bring up the North Staffordshires. "There were two roads to Ferket one by the river, the other through the desert. The river column was the strongest, and consisted of an infantry division, with two field batteries and two Maxims.
As they neared Ferket the officer said: "There was a sharp fight out there on the desert. A large body of Dervishes advanced, from Ferket. They were seen to leave by a cavalry patrol. As soon as the patrol reached camp, all the available horse, two hundred and forty in number, started under Major Murdoch.
This had been a very important station, before the last advance, as all the stores had been accumulated here when the army advanced. Here had been a strongly entrenched camp, for the Dervishes were in force, fifteen miles away, at Ferket. "It was a busy time we had here," said one of the officers, who had taken a part in the expedition.
The total strength of the desert column, consisting of the cavalry brigade, camel corps, a regiment of infantry, a battery of horse artillery, and two Maxims in all, two thousand one hundred men were to make a detour, and come down upon the Nile to the south of Ferket, thereby cutting off the retreat of the enemy.
Our loss was very slight; but the fight was a most satisfactory one, for it showed that the Egyptian cavalry had, now, sufficient confidence in themselves to face the Baggara. "Headquarters came up to Akasheh on the 1st of June. The spies had kept the Intelligence Department well informed as to the state of things at Ferket.
"Carrying two days' rations, the troops started late in the afternoon of the 6th, and halted at nine in the evening, three miles from Ferket. At half-past two they moved forward again, marching quietly and silently; and, at half-past four, deployed into line close to the enemy's position.
But little by little the line crept on; the locomotives carried the piles of food, stores, and ammunition further and further south, until on June 6, 1897, the first blow was dealt by the surprise and destruction of the Dervish force at Ferket. There a halt was called; for news came in that an unprecedented rain-storm further north had washed away the railway embankments from some of the gulleys.
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