"Chinese Gordon's options at Khartoum" Topic

I was curious what others thought of Charles Gordon's options when he reported to Khartoum. From what I've read he was supposed to observe & also conduct the withdrawal of Egyptian garrisons in the Sudan. He seems to have thought that this was impossible & instead relied on a siege and waited for British reinforcements.

My question is, what else could he have done? It seemed like he had months & months to evacuate Khartoum & the surrounding garrisons. Was it really as unrealistic as Gordon thought? The Dervish forces didn't seem concentrated enough to sweep away an evacuation of the Sudan when Gordon first took over. Did he have a death wish? Thanks for your opinion!

From my admittedly limited understanding, I believe that Gordon was indeed supposed to pull the forces out of the region. But when he got there he convinced himself that if he left the Dervish would masacre the civilians. He also thought he was too important for the British to allow him to be killed. So he decided to stay in Khartoum and call their bluff by demanding reinforcements. Unfortunately for his "ego", the reinforcements were not readily available. It is also my understanding that he was ordered to leave Khartoum numerous times and he refused because he thought his presence was what was keeping the Mahdi away.

What else could he have done?
He could have gotten the heck out of Dodge and come back with an organized relief force big enough to deal with the Mahdi. As they say, "Mad dogs and Englishmen…"

It has been a loooong time since I read anything on this topic (like, the late 1970s…) but I think Gordon's orders were to evacuate British and European troops and civilians, and arguably one of the reasons he hesitated was that following his orders promptly would have likely doomed the Egyptian troops. Given his previous experience leading non-European troops, he was possibly less willing to sacrifice them than others might have been.

You are right about his orders – except that "Chinese" Gordon was almost certainly a certifiable lunatic who had deep and profound beliefs, sometimes to the exclusion of reality

Cabel Carr has a great quote about him – "he was the sort who would jump into the water and trust to God, except he couldn't swim"

Lots of folks over the ages with profound beliefs about something that lead to their demise. Fetterman…Travis…Custer just to name a few americans.

But whatever his faults, Gordon was a courageous man who stood by his principals and gave his life for what he thought was right. He had plenty of opportunities to save himself, but chose not to. It's easy for us to mock him over a hundred years later from the comfort of our homes, but much harder to understand his motivations.

Gordon used his fame to embarrass the British government into intervening.

Without his stand The Mahdi may have swept to victory

I think that most wargamers would be proud if they performed half so well on the table top as Gordan did in the seige!

Send a less eccentric officer and relieve Gordon of command. A commander the British government knew would follow orders. Start immediate evacuation, follow the Nile back to Egypt. You might not be able to save the entire civilian population but the garrison could probably fight its way out. Would the Mahdi be content to occupy Khartoum and let the population go? Could the Mahdi have undertaken an immediate pursuit?

Gordon was a fine general but no the man for this mission.

I guess thats my point, he had almost a year to evacuate. Had he moved them immediately from Khartoum, I would imagine the majority of Madhists would sack the city for plunder first. I would think that the majority if people could have been saved. It seems that Gordon expected alot more out of his supervisors than he expected of himself. With that being said, he held off the Mahdi brilliantly with what he had.

The real villian of the piece was Gladstone.