Gordon of Khartoum : Saint or Megalomaniac

As soon as Gordon got back the King of Belgium reinstated his offer of command of the Congo which Gordon agreed to and started packing. The situation in Sudan, meanwhile, had become a major British headache. The people of Sudan had risen up to follow a religious leader, Mohammed Ahmed. He proclaimed himself the Mahdi, a prophesied leader who would destroy the slave trade and give the people a pure Sharia run state. One would have thought this would please the missionary zeal of
Victorian England but it proved rather too popular and threatened to spread to Egypt. The next thing the natives would begin to think they could rule themselves. The Egyptians, or at least the Khedive, had fallen into financial turmoil to which England, then under Disraeli, had responded by bailing them out and installing a team of 'advisors' who, under Sir Evelyn Baring, effectively governed Egypt. By the
end of 1883 the Mahdi was close to controlling most of Sudan and Britain ordered Egypt to withdraw all troops, a difficult task as there were thousands occupying the various forts and garrisons around the country, many cut off. Clearly there was only one man who could save the situation and Victoria pressed the Prime Minister, Gladstone, to let Gordon do his thing It should be stressed that Gladstone
was reluctant, he knew that Gordon was a loose cannon and his brief was, specifically, only to go to the Sudan and assess the best way of achieving the evacuation of the troops, civilians and dependents with the minimum loss of life.

Meeting with Sir Evelyn in Cairo at the beginning of 1884 Gordon both misrepresented his orders and argued forcefully that he could not go a thousand miles into the desert with his hands tied. The result was that he was appointed governor with executive powers and arrived in Khartoum on February 18th. Sir Evelyn Baring was a very able official who became iconic, a member of the banking family he
steered Egypt into the twentieth century as well as any foreign oppressor could but, on this occasion, he does seem to have misread his ability to control Gordon. Faced with a country in open revolt Gordon immediately offered the leading slave-trader, Sebehr Rahma, release from the prison in which he had placed him during his earlier tenure, and materiel to raise an army to defeat the Mahdi. A remarkable
action for an Evangelist. The Egyptian army was more concerned with an uprising led by an army colonel in Alexandria and thus the main body of troops was deployed in the north. Just prior to Gordon's arrival, however, the Mahdi's army, known as the Ansar, meaning helpers, and referred to as dervishes in the West, had overrun 4000 Egyptian troops on the Egyptian border. Armed only with spears or swords they helped themselves to the rifles and ammo. They then went on to defeat another
force of 8000, led by William Hicks, an Englishman. With over 40000 armed men the Mahdi now controlled Western Sudan. In the Eastern part of the country a parallel insurrection by the Hadendoa were so enthused by the Mahdist victories that they overwhelmed yet another Egyptian force, this time commanded by Colonel Valentine Baker, near the Red Sea, effectively leaving only a tenuous connection between Khartoum and Cairo to the north.

Probably inspired by his reception, many of the local tribes thought Gordon was their saviour, he determined, against orders, to fight back, theorizing that Sebehr Rahma still commanded enough loyalty to win back Darfur. The telegraph lines were still open so he dispatched his ideas to London where they were summarily turned down and his original orders to evacuate were reinforced. Unfortunately the
Beja, to the north, now joined in the general melee, making evacuation too dangerous, at least in Gordon's view. Over 2000 of the sick, wounded, women and children had managed to get out but a contingent of Egyptian troops sent to clear the route deserted after firing one round. He asked for reinforcements (not forthcoming) and began to fortify, the siege beginning in a somewhat desultory
fashion on March 18th 1884. Under his command was an able officer, Colonel Stewart who initially led sorties of 200 or so native soldiers as a counteroffensive but the troops ran as soon as they got near the enemy, cited as cowardice on their part it was more likely empathy.

Gordon had surrounded the city with mines which kept the Ansar from mounting an attack while Stewart effectively utilized the few remaining steamers as gunboats to go on forays against the camped Ansar army. Gordon, both by example and oratory, did manage to inspire the populace to manufacture gunpowder, arms and defenses; but, as with any siege, their main enemy was the dwindling supply of food. As the year wore with no relief from Egypt or Britain Stewart went further abroad, at one point recapturing Berber. Unfortunately he was killed in a later skirmish while trying to retake Dongola, a fact that the Mahdi was kind enough to write to Gordon of, with a certain relish and anticipation no doubt.

Back in England public opinion, including Queen Victoria, was building up a head of steam. The people felt, encouraged by anti-government press, that Gordon had been abandoned; there was agitation for an expeditionary force to be sent to his relief. Gladstone and the Liberal government, on the other hand, took the view that Gordon had disobeyed instructions. Gordon had been dispatched to oversee the evacuation, instead he had turned the episode into a personal crusade. The British
government's view was one of logic; why become embroiled in a religious war in a country they did not want to free, at great expense in money and lives, a man that had got himself in trouble. But, heroes are not formed from logic. The siege dragged on through the summer until, finally Gladstone bowed to public (and regal) pressure and ordered Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley to form a Nile Expeditionary
Force. Wolseley was in Alexandria, left over from the successful squashing of the colonel's abortive insurrection, but it still took them until November to get themselves together. Was this on Gladstone's orders? Ambling through Egypt they finally reached the Sudan towards the end of the year where they sent a forward column of camel troops to 'rush' to Gordon's relief. At Metemma, on January 20th 1885, they found four steamships that Gordon had sent at the beginning of the siege. They also received conflicting reports; initially of the dire need for haste and then, two days later a runner came to say that Gordon could hold out for a year if necessary. We do not know what motivated this last message; supreme confidence, morale building or misinformation on the grounds that the messenger would be
intercepted. In any case when they arrived at Khartoum on the 28th it was to find that they were 2 days too late.

The city was in the hands of the Mahdi, along with Gordon's head which was stuck on a spear in a tree to serve as an inspiration to his followers "...where all who passed it could look in disdain, children could throw stones at it and the hawks of the desert could sweep and circle above." The Mahdi's army was decimated and Khartoum retaken while, back in Britain, Gordon was beatified, an icon for all that was great in Victorian England. He died two days before his 52nd birthday to be
immediately eulogized in the fantastic painting by William Joy, 'General Gordon's Last Stand'. Which perhaps exemplifies heroism, not what is but what we want to believe, and the rendition sums up this beliefs of a nation and an era.