Battle of Toski
In late June 1889, reports came that Wad al-Nujumi was advancing into Egypt with a force of about 4,000 fighting men. Immediately, a Flying Column of about 1,940 men and four steamers under Colonel Wodehouse was formed to make contact with the enemy. This they did at the village of Argin, where, by fortifying the village, setting the guns across the river overlooking the village, and skillfully using the steamers filled with men to rush reinforcements from one sector to the next, the Flying Column repelled the Mahdist attack. The force then spent the rest of July trailing Wad al-Nujumi and preventing him from reaching the river, while the Sirdar, Sir Francis Grenfell, gathered a larger force of Egyptians and called In British reinforcements.
The Egyptian force was concentrated at Toski and reformed into two brigades. Grenfell hoped to delay action until the British arrived, but it turned out he needn't have worried, On August 3rd, two days after the Sirdar's arrival at Toski, a battle was unexpectedly precipitated.
At first, the Mahdist rifle fire was so heavy that the Camel Corps and cavalry were forced out of two defensive positions. But in a series of rushes, the Sudanese and Egyptian battalions were able to storm and seize the Mahdist hill-tops. The last hill was taken by a united charge of the IXth, Xth and XIIIth battalions. The ensuing Mahdist retreat was harassed by the Egyptian cavalry aided by the 20th Hussars, the only incident where British troops came into action in the nearly two-month-long expedition.
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