Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/878

872 == GORDON, WOLSELEY, AND SIR CHARLES WILSON. ==

of her Majesty's officers, of honourable antecedents, and who has lately been engaged in a most responsible service, is at present exposed to imputations, the justice of which it is no less important to the public than to himself to investigate. Everybody knows that Sir Charles Wilson, after crossing the desert with Stewart's column, went up the Nile to Kartoum in the hope of finding Gordon still in possession of the city, and that he only reached it to find it in the hands of the Mahdi. Upon these facts a charge has now been made against him to this effect, that his object was, or should have been, to relieve Gordon and save the city, and that these ends would have been fulfilled had he not unnecessarily delayed to begin his voyage. He is, in fact, accused of having caused the death of Gordon and the fall of Kartoum, by want of due promptitude. This we propose to inquire into, and we will begin with a plain statement of the course of events as set forth chiefly in papers first presented to Parliament; and we do this from a sense of what is due to an officer still absent on service, and unable to enter on his own defence.

On the 18th January, Sir Herbert Stewart, after his first action at Abu Klea, followed by a halt for the night at the wells, resumed his movement towards the Nile. On the morning of the 19th, when between three and four miles from the river, his advance was opposed by the enemy in considerable numbers, whose sharpshooters caused several casualties in our force, besides mortally wounding its commander. The command thereupon devolved upon Colonel Sir Charles Wilson, R.E. Sir Charles proceeded immediately to strengthen the position in which the force was at the time, constructed some field-works under a heavy fire, left his hospital, stores, and other impedimenta there with a garrison to defend them, and with the rest of his troops marched for the Nile. On the way he fought a gallant action with a large force of the enemy, which he completely defeated and drove off – not without fresh losses to his own force – and then marched to the Nile, and bivouacked on its bank. Next day, the 20th, he placed a village near the spot in a condition of defence, and left a small garrison to hold it, while the troops marched back to the position of the day before, and brought away the wounded and most of the stores; not all, however – and he was forced to leave the remainder, protected by one of the small works he had thrown up, till next day. That day, the 21st, several events occurred. He made a reconnaissance in force of the neighbouring town of Metammeh, and found it strongly occupied by the enemy, who had placed it in a state of defence, with loopholed walls, and three guns in position. During the reconnaissance four of Gordon's Egyptian steamers appeared, and landed men and guns to take part in the operation. And the remainder of the stores left in the desert were brought in, and the force being now completely assembled, the camp was moved down to the water's edge, and the village he had previously occupied was held as a fortified outpost.

Here it is to be specially noted that Wilson, hitherto in a quite