The Battle of Ginnis 1885 Sudan | The Last battle the British fought in their Redcoats

mention the battles of Blenheim Culloden Quebec Waterloo the Crimean War the Zulu Wars and the image of British Redcoats Springs to mind and yet in 1885 on the banks of the River Nile in Northern Sudan that image was played out for the very last time the British army donned their famous Redcoats for one last battle this time against the mardists a battle almost no one even remembers he put the brakes on the Mahdi and his successors plans to spread to their Islamic revolution to Egypt and marked the end of the first part of Britain's wars in the Sudan this is the story of the battle of Guinness fort in Sudan on the 30th of December 1885. I'm a great believer that battles don't just happen out of the blue there's always a backstory the reason why the battle was fought in the first place so here is the backstory to the Battle of Guinness with the capture of Khartoum by the mardi's Army in January 1885 and the death of General Charles Gordon the British efforts to relieve the city and rescue Gordon were thrown up into the air despite a lot of saber rattling and a military expedition to suikin on the Red Sea Coast the whole Nile Expedition under General Sagan at walzy was wound down and the British were evacuated but not entirely up in what is now Northern Sudan the Egyptians clung onto a tiny piece of their empire which prior to the maori's Revolt had stretched all the way down to the borders of modern-day Uganda this was not so much for Prestige although that wasn't to play but it's because the Egyptians are scared stiff that the Islamic ansarami of the Mahdi wanted to invade Egypt and that fear was not unfounded as the mahdi's puritanical Islamic message specifically demanded that the Egyptian rulers submit to his authority or perish by the sword just as they had when the Mahdi had started to sweep them out of Sudan the Egyptians asked the British for assistance the previous British prime minister the Anti-Imperialist William Gladstone had fallen from office that summer not least because he was held responsible for the death of Gordon in Khartoum the new conservative Administration under Lord Salisbury were more pro-empire despite the fact that they had vilified Gladstone for his hands-off approach to the whole Gordon in Khartoum Affair shrilly calling for a huge armed response now that they were in Power Salisbury and his conservatives were not quite as gung-ho they would help protect Egypt from the mahdi's brand of Islamic revivalism but were not interested in paying for or providing British Manpower for a protracted war of re-conquest in Sudan instead they were happy to provide troops to defend the southern border areas to protect British interests in Egypt in particular the Suez Canal along the border area forts were established to try and prevent the Mahdi from invading Egypt one of these was at kosher now called kosher about a hundred miles south of the main military base at Wadi Halford here a Garrison consisting of two companies of the Cameron Highlanders were supporting two companies of the ninth Sudanese regiment just in case you weren't confused enough there was a considerable body of Sudanese troops serving in the Egyptian Army who had no intention of joining the mahdi's calls during the Autumn of 1885 mardist forces emboldened by the fall of Khartoum and the evacuation of the British penetrated these Borderlands it seemed that Egyptian and British fears of a full-blown Invasion were about to be realized in November the Royal West Kents the green Howards of the Yorkshire regiment and the Royal Berkshire regiment were moved to reinforce wadihalfa the Berkshires had been given their Royal prefix following their actions at the Battle of tophrick earlier that year which was the subject of my last video they were joined by the second Battalion of the Durham light infantry 100 miles up the Nile the modest forces established a camper Guinness and laid Siege to the Cameron Highlanders and the Sudanese regiment in the nearby Fort at kosher or kosher The Garrison made a saute on the 15th of December and were ambushed by the modest often called dervish Warriors and forced to beat a hasty Retreat less than a week later The fort's Gardener machine gun was put out of action by dervish artillery fire things were starting to look less than Rosy for the Garrison the military commanders in Egypt decided that the siege needed to be lifted and the Mardis threat blunted the situation in Egypt was not as straightforward as some people think Egypt was in a strange political situation nominally she was part of the declining Ottoman Empire in reality the ottoman appointed viceroys or kidifs had been paddling their own canoes since the 1820s it was the kidneys for instance who were behind the building of the Suez Canal in an effort to modernize their country it was also that desire to put Egypt on an equal footing with the European powers that led them to build their empire by taking over most of the modern countries of Sudan and South Sudan and it was the kadiv's who through these schemes had bankrupted Egypt back in the 1870s Great Britain had bought the khadif share in the Suez Canal which now gave her a vested interest in the country and when her control of this vital Waterway to her Asian Empire had been threatened by a nationalist Revolt led by Egyptian Army Officer Colonel Arabi Pasha Britain had sent in her Army under General Sagan at walzy victory over Arabi pasture at the Battle of Tel El Kabir Nell meant that the British were to all intents and purposes in control of a province of the Ottoman Empire and nowhere was that to control more obvious than in the military for a start there was a British Army based in Egypt to protect British interests under their own Commander effectively it was an army of occupation the regiments now heading down to wadihalfa were part of this setup then you had a specifically Egyptian Army which was being reformed after the urabi pasture Uprising and a series of humiliating defeats down in Sudan the commander of this Egyptian Army the soda was a British officer Major General Francis grenfell the 44 year old grenfell came from a wealthy family which had its roots in Cornwall and used that wealth to purchase his commission back in 1859 when he was 18. he was also one of the last officers to be able to purchase a promotion to the rank of Captain his military service had seen him at the Battle of alundi the final battle of the Zulu War in 1879 and the Battle of telol Kabir where Woolsey had defeated urabi Pasha in April 1885 he had succeeded General's Evelyn wood as surdar of the Egyptian Army and it was to grenfell as commander of the Egyptian Army that the khadif looked to remove that dervish threat from the fort at kosher in this endeavor he would command a joint British Egyptian Army of approximately 3500 men grenfell formed his army into three brigades the first brigade under Major General Butler consisted of the first Royal boxers the first Royal West Kents the second Durham light infantry and an Egyptian artillery Detachment escorted by 60 of their own troops the second Brigade was a much more International contingent and the British contributed the second Brigade was a much more International contingent the British contributed the first Battalion of the Yorkshires the green Howards and a unit from the Royal artillery this unit under Lieutenant Colonel whitesley were armed with two and a half inch mountain guns these are also known as screw guns as they could be broken into parts and carried on several mules before being screwed together for Action which made them versatile artillery pieces in rough Terrain there would also be both British and Egyptian members of their respective camel cause and nearly 300 men from the first Egyptian regiment they would be joined by The Garrison at kosher Fort the Cameron Highlanders and the ninth Sudanese whilst the 150 men of the Sudanese regiment were part of the Egyptian Army they were at this time considered very distinct not only because they physically came from Sudan but because they were generally seen as accomplished soldiers whereas the troops from Egypt proper were a cause for concern not only were these particular men not tested in battle but the track record of Egyptian troops fighting the modests was not impressive a huge Egyptian Army numbering nearly 10 000 had been effectively wiped out by the mahdi's forces just a few years earlier and another Egyptian Force had been routed at the first battle of el teb trying to reinvigorate the Egyptian Army was the main challenge for the surdas generals Evelyn wood and now grenfell and to date the success had been limited to say the least the Battle of Guinness would be the first test for the new Egyptian Army apart from their Sudanese battalions since the fall of Khartoum at the beginning of the year completing grenfell's Army was the Cavalry Brigade under Colonel Blake Blake's command consisted of one troop of the British 20th huzars the Egyptian camel Corps a contingent of British mounted infantry and of 50 strong contingent of Egyptian cavalry the Cavalry Brigade had arrived in the kosher area on the 22nd of December and had several skirmishes with the modest horses while they awaited the arrival of the two Infantry brigades grenfell at the head of those brigades arrived on the 29th of December effectively lifting the siege of the fort the following morning the 30th of December 1885 he marched out to meet the mardists the anglo-sudon campaign of 1884-85 had seen more and more British regiments finally moving over from their traditional Redcoats to car key despite red tunics standing out to like a sore thumb in most of the theaters where Queen Victoria's soldiers fought there was still something powerfully symbolic about the traditional Redcoat I guess this still is it was a hard image to shake off Victorian artists insisted on depicting British soldiers in red even when they were actually wearing khaki in the Boer War 14 years later those of you who've watched my video about the failed Nile expedition to rescue Gordon might recall that General Woolsey had ordered the small party from the Royal Sussex regiment on the boat's heading to Khartoum to wear their Scarlet tunics in an attempt to impress both the Defenders and the attackers grimfell decided that a similar tactic was needed at Guinness to both impress and intimidate the mardists he ordered his British units to swap their car key and gray surge uniforms for their traditional Redcoats which they Judy did all except the Durham light infantry who'd left theirs in Cairo whilst there are reports that some British soldiers wore red during a rebellion in Zulu land a couple of years later and that the Connaught Rangers did likewise at the Battle of dongola in kitchener's Sudan campaign it is generally accepted that this was the last major battle in which the British army were to go into action in their traditional red tunics and just after 6am grimples artillery opened fire on the martist positions the attack seemingly catching them by surprise grenfell adopted a two-pronged attack the second Brigade would storm the village of kosher whilst the first brigade would move past them to pin down the martist camp at Guinness one mile upriver the Cavalry would provide a screen to the east to prevent any dervish flanking actions from the desert the attack on crochet was carried out by the Garrison from the formerly besieged Fort the Cameron Highlanders and the ninth Sudanese they attacked straight along the banks of the Nile into the town the rest of the second Brigade provided covering fire from the raised grounds to the east and meanwhile a Nile Steamboat called the Lotus commanded by Lieutenant Alexander Perkins from the Royal Navy provided additional covering fire with a mounted Gardner gun having fought their way through the houses of kosher the Camerons and the Sudanese were now joined by the rest of the second Brigade in the Palm Groves just beyond the town by now the mardist Army numbering 6000 were fired up and ready for a fight streaming out of their camper to Guinness to take on grenful's three and a half thousand men in the Palm grows between Guinness and kosher they ran into the Yorkshire regiment the men of the green Howards have missed the Nile Expedition having been placed on Garrison duties in Egypt now was their moment to show what they were made of and they didn't disappoint frustrated at their lack of progress the Mardis now swung towards the first brigade up on The High Ground where they managed to use the terrain to launch a surprise attack on the camel core but before they could exploit the element of surprise the Durham light infantry had moved forward and opened well-controlled volley fire into the mardist advance unlike previous battles between the British and dovish armies at places such as Abu clear grenfell shooter defensive square and instead formed his men into an 800-foot extended line the withering Firepower from an 800-foot front was something that most of the mardi's troops had never experienced before and they started to fall back beyond their Camp to atab but before they could make this into a defendable position grenfell sent the Cavalry forward and the mounted infantry cleared the Defenders with a Bayonet charge it was now 10 a.m and the dervish Army were fleeing South into the desert and along the banks of the Nile as the Victorious British Egyptian Army made their way back through kosher they were fired upon by some dervish Rifleman holed up in a house they were pinned down until Lieutenant Colonel whitesley brought one of his screw guns forward to end the resistance the Battle of Guinness had lasted four hours and had cost them artists 400 dead and many more wounded Grim Falls anglo-egyptian Army had lost 10 men dead and about 40 wounded somewhat ironically considering these liked losses the Yorkshire regiment had lost one man injured at Guinness were to lose 84 of their Battalion to typhoid and some stroke when they got back to Wadi haltha afterwards and likewise the Durham light infantry would lose 50 men in wadihulfur 2. the Battle of Guinness 30th of December 1885 is pretty much lost to the Sands of History it wasn't a close Run Battle like Abu clear the losses were not on the sort of jaw-dropping scale of onderman in 1898 and no Victoria crosses were won and it went according to plan which a lot of battles failed to do it was the last time that British troops fought a battle in their traditional red tunics now it does seem that the sixth dragoons and the Royal Scots wore them during the Zulu rebellion of 1888 but there were no set peace battles there just a few light skirmishes and whilst there are claims that the coronal Rangers might have worn Redcoats in 1896 I've struggled to find conclusive proof to corroborate to that and even if it's true they would have been the only unit wearing red at Guinness the majority of the British apart from the Durham light infantry wore their Redcoats it was the first time that the new Egyptian Army had successfully faced the mardists it was also the first time that the British and Egyptian armies had fought side by side they do so again in the future not least at the battles of atbara and omdaman in kitchener's Sudan campaign above all the victory at Guinness had for the time being halted the Mardis Steamroller and Egypt was safe which was good news for the khadif whom the modest wished to depose and the British and their interest in the Suez Canal taken in the round Francis grenfell had won a battle pretty much according to his plans with an international Army including untried Egyptians and taken the lightest of casualties he hadn't done a bad job and this impressive turnaround of the Egyptian Army would continue at the Battle of toski in 1889 when he would smash a Sudanese modest invasion of Egypt but that is in the future as he surveyed the battlefield at Guinness grenfell could see in the distance the modest streaming away across the desert what he was unaware of was that a boat full of dervish banners arms and important refugees was desperately following them up the Nile seeking safety but the British were in Hot Pursuit two days later a small party of Durham light infantry would catch up with that boat and what happened then would be the beginning of another fascinating history story one which I'll tell you about in my next video the golden thread of history that connects us to our past and to each other keeps on weaving thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed that story check out my other videos about British and British military history and don't forget to keep your eyes open for my next video about the Durham light infantry and that boat but until then thanks for your support keep well and I'll see you very soon foreign

Channel: The History Chap

Views: 324,396

Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, military history, the battle of ginnis, the battle of ginnis 1885, battle of ginnis, battle of ginnis 1885, general grenfell, general francis grenfell, mahdist war, charles gordon, general charles gordon, general gordon, general charles gordon of khartoum, general sir garnet wolseley, sudan war, british empire

Id: aW2b-MLvek4

Length: 17min 44sec (1064 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2023