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 recapture Berber; but Mahmud, finding that Kitchener had so far anticipated him on the Atbara as to make a march on Berber impossible without fighting, established his army in a strong zariba on the river. The zariba was stormed by the combined Anglo-Egyptian force on 8 April, Mahmud himself was captured with 4,000 other prisoners, and his army dispersed.

The British government had for some time been aware that a small French expedition under Major Marchand had started from the Congo for the White Nile; and this fact, together with the completeness of the success won on the Atbara, decided the Cabinet to authorize an advance on Omdurman at the next high Nile, and to increase the British force under Kitchener to the strength of a division. By the end of August 8,200 British and 17,000 Egyptian troops were concentrated under Kitchener's command at the head of the Sixth Cataract, about 120 miles north of Omdurman. The greater part of this distance was covered without opposition, and by 1 September the whole force was assembled on the Nile some seven miles north of Omdurman, to find a Dervish army of 50,000 men, under the Khalifa himself, encamped in the plain between it and the Dervish capital. The battle of Omdurman, which took place on 2 September, was fought in two phases. In the first the Dervishes in a determined advance upon the Anglo-Egyptian troops, who were in position on the river bank, were mowed down by artillery, rifle, and machine-gun fire. Kitchener then ordered an advance on Omdurman, and during this movement the Khalifa's reserve attacked the first Egyptian brigade under Colonel (Sir) Hector Archibald Macdonald [q.v.], and the situation, which was for a time critical, was saved by the steadiness of the brigade and the prompt arrival of support from the British division. Organized resistance then ceased and the Dervish army was dispersed with enormous loss. The Khalifa fled to Kordofan; and on 4 September the British and Egyptian flags were hoisted over the ruins of Gordon's palace in Khartoum, which for twelve years had been Kitchener's goal. The next step was to convince Major Marchand, who with seven French officers and eighty native troops had arrived at Fashoda, that he could not hoist the French flag in the khedive's dominions. For this purpose Kitchener went with an escort up the White Nile. The interview was conducted with perfect courtesy and the Egyptian flag was hoisted over Fashoda with the customary salute. After a fierce but brief outburst of popular wrath in France, the French government gave way, and the last serious incident with France which preceded the entente cordiale was amicably settled.

Kitchener then came home to be received with great enthusiasm. He had wiped out the unpleasant memory of the sacrifice of Gordon, and had removed an outstanding menace to Egypt, at the cost of 60 British and 160 Egyptian lives. He was hailed by Lord Salisbury as not only a distinguished general but a first-class administrator. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Kitchener, of Khartoum, received the thanks of parliament, and was fêted in England, Scotland, and Wales. The first use which he made of his popularity was to raise a fund for the establishment and endowment of a college at Khartoum, which should at once perpetuate Gordon's memory and fulfil one of Gordon's plans for the benefit of the Sudan. He returned as governor-general of the Sudan, with sufficient money for that purpose and with the task of creating a civil administration for the country. Throughout the River War Kitchener's part had been rather that of a brilliant improviser of ways and means than of a commander in the field or of a profound student of war. He had left most of the fighting to Hunter, though he was present himself at the principal actions, and his triumph was one of firmness of purpose and of driving power in the face of great natural difficulties. In the light of the subsequent collapse of Mahdism it is easy to underrate his achievement; but up to the time of the final advance on Omdurman the Dervishes were a name of terror, and it required courage, character, and judgement of a high degree to persuade a government, rendered doubtful and cautious by previous failures, to authorize the successive steps which led to the overthrow of the Khalifa.

The greater part of the year 1899 was devoted to completing the pacification of the Sudan, and to hunting down the Khalifa, who was at large in Kordofan with a dwindling band of followers. This last task was brought to an end by Sir Reginald Wingate, who was destined to be Kitchener's successor as sirdar, on 22 November when the Khalifa was killed in a final stand. Within a month of this event Kitchener was called to other and more important duties.

The critical weeks which followed the outbreak of the South African War in October 1899, culminating in the second 309