Egyptian finance, the prosperity of the
country and the settled state of its affairs, with a capable and proved
little army ready to hand, did not warrant an attempt being made to
recover gradually the Sudan provinces abandoned by Egypt in 1885 on the
advice of Mr Gladstone's government.

Such being the condition of public and official sentiment, the crushing
defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa on the
1st of March 1896, and the critical state of Kassala--held by Italy at
British suggestion, and now closely invested by the dervishes--made it
not only desirable but necessary to take immediate action.

On the 14th of March 1896 Major-General Sir H. Kitchener, who succeeded
Sir Francis Grenfell as sirdar of the Egyptian army in 1892, received
orders to reoccupy Akasha, 50 m. south of Sarras, and to carry the
railway on from Sarras. Subsequent operations were to depend upon the
amount of resistance he encountered. On the 20th of March Akasha was
occupied without opposition by an advanced column of Egyptian troops
under Major J. Collinson, who formed an entrenched camp there. The
reserves of the Egyptian army were called out, and responded with
alacrity. The troops were concentrated at Wadi Halfa; the railway
reconstruction, under Lieutenant E. P. Girouard, R.E., pushed southward;
and a telegraph line followed the advance. At the commencement of the
campaign the Egyptian army, including reserves, consisted of 16
battalions of infantry, of which 6 were Sudanese, 10 squadrons of
cavalry, 5 batteries of artillery, 3 companies of garrison artillery,
and 8 companies of camel corps, and it possessed 13 gunboats for river
work. Colonel H. M. L. Rundle was chief of the staff; Major F. R.
Wingate was head of the intelligence department, with Slatin Bey as his
assistant; and Colonel A. Hunter was in command of Sarras, and south.
The 1st battalion of the North Staffordshire regiment moved up from
Cairo to join the Egyptian army.

In the meantime the advance to Akasha had already relieved the pressure
at Kassala, Osman Digna having withdrawn a considerable force from the
investing army and proceeded with it to Suakin. To meet Osman Digna's
movement Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. Lloyd, the Suakin commandant, advanced
to the Taroi Wells, 19 m. south of Suakin, on the 15th of April to
co-operate with the "Friendlies," and with Major H. M. Sidney, advancing
with a small force from Tokar. His cavalry, under Major M.