EGYPT. 



253 



who had flanked them by a wide detour, at- 

 tacked the retreating troops and captured five 

 Krupp guns, seventy railroad-cars, with large 

 quantities of war material, taking Mahsameh 

 Kailroad Station, and cutting oft' their line of 

 communications. 



The English had landed in Egypt twenty-four 

 thousand troops altogether, including the In- 

 dian force which debarked at Ismailia. One 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WILLIS. 



[He commanded the First Division. He was born in 1832, 

 and served during a part of the Crimean war.] 



brigade was left at Alexandria, while the 

 others joined the Indian contingent on the 

 canal. Sir Garnet Wolseley's situation in the 

 desert before Tel-el -Kebir was gloomy. He was 

 not able to advance upon the objective point 

 for lack of transport facilities. Kassassin was 

 seized on the 25th of August and held by Gen- 

 eral Graham, but the transports were twenty 

 miles behind. The blazing sun, the foul and 

 tepid water of the fresh-water canal, and the 

 malarial vapors caused prostration, dysentery, 

 and fever. In a week four hundred men were 

 sent home invalided. The horses of the Indian 

 auxiliaries were disabled with glanders. While 

 the army was waiting and suffering, mules were 

 being purchased in the United States. Mules 

 which were on the way to the seat of opera- 

 tions were stopped by an embargo of the Sul- 

 tan of Turkey. 



The deluded Arabi, thoroughly alarmed at 

 the change in the situation which brought an 

 overwhelming British army close to Zagazig, 

 the key of the Delta railway system, and 

 within striking distance of Cairo, determined 

 to strike quickly, as delay would only lessen 

 his chances. He took command of the Tel-el- 

 Kebir force in person, and massed his troops 

 there as rapidly as possible. On the 28th of 

 August he made an attack upon General Gra- 

 ham, who, with a mixed body of about two 



thousand men, had advanced to occupy the 

 Kassassin lock on the fresh-water canal. The 

 Egyptians brought up their forces under cover 

 of an artillery-tire, and in the afternoon ad- 

 vanced, under the immediate command of 

 Arabi Pasha, with the intention of turning 

 Graham's right flank. The English had, for- 

 tunately for them, thrown up field-works. 

 They posted their artillery in a position to 

 command the whole front of the line, and kept 

 up such a steady fire that the Egyptians wa- 

 vered after marching up very bravely, and re- 

 fused to make the final dash. The English 

 general seized the favorable opportunity and 

 ordered a general advance. The horse- artil- 

 lery took a position at close range. General 

 Drury Lowe's dragoons, when the enemy were 

 retreating in good order, rushed upon the 

 Egyptian artillery and seized the guns, which 

 they were unable to bring away, and then sa- 

 bered their way through and through the infan- 

 try, turning the retreat into a complete rout. 



Sir Garnet Wolseley had the forces on the 

 spot to cope with the Egyptian army, but felt 

 obliged to delay his advance while Arabi was 

 strengthening his defenses, and his own troops 

 and horses were suffering from the torrid cli- 

 mate, because the departments were defective. 

 While, during the next two weeks, he was or- 

 ganizing a commissariat and transport service, 

 and collecting railway material, preparatory to 

 commencing operations in "the interior, Arabi 

 made one more attempt to force the advanced 

 position of the British at Kassassin, and crush 



MAJOR-GENERAL G. GRAHAM. 



[He commanded the Second Brigade. He served with 

 distinction in the Crimea, and received several 

 wounds in that war and in the Chinese war. He 



entered the army in 1850, and attained the rank of 

 Major-General in 1880.] 



General Graham's command before the move- 

 ment on Tel-el-Kebir, which he knew would 

 not be put off much longer. At dawn on the 



