[THE SUDAN CAMPAIGN] History of the Sudan campaign. Compiled in the Intelligence Division of the War Office. Pt. 1. Events leading up to the Nile Expedition, and its history to the departure of the desert column from Korti...

COLONEL [SIR] H[ENRY] E[DWARD] COLVILE, (1852-1907)., Harrison and Sons, St. Martin's Lane, London, 1889.

COMPLETE TITLE: [THE SUDAN CAMPAIGN] History of the Sudan campaign. Compiled in the Intelligence Division of the War Office. Pt. 1. Events leading up to the Nile Expedition, and its history to the departure of the desert column from Korti, with appendices and a sketch map.

Original red cloth bdg. Roy. 8vo. (23 x 16 cm). In English. [xiv], 277 p., 5 military plans, (3 foldings), and 1 folding map of Sudan Campaign's military plan (57x39,5 cm). Fading on cloth, an ex-library stamp on colophon, light soiling to extremities. Otherwise a good copy.

First edition of the first volume of this rare set on the Sudan Campaign, including an eyewitness account of Colvile, an English colonel (later major-general) during the campaign. The presented first volume includes that the forces of the Mahdist movement spreading across Sudan, and threatening General Charles Gordon in Khartoum, while Lord Garnet Wolseley moves slowly south down the Nile. The second and third volumes (including maps only) are missing. 

By 1882 the Mahdist Army had taken complete control over the area surrounding Khartoum. Then, in 1883, a joint British-Egyptian military expedition under the command of British Colonel William Hicks launched a counterattack against the Mahdists. Hicks was soon killed and the British decided to evacuate Sudan.  Fighting continued however and the British-Egyptian forces which defended Khartoum in a long siege were finally overrun on January 28, 1885. Virtually the entire garrison was killed. General Charles Gordon, the commander of the British-Egyptian forces, was beheaded during the attack. In June 1885 Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi died.  As a result the Mahdist movement quickly dissolved as infighting broke out among rival claimants to leadership. Hoping to capitalize on internal strife, the British returned to Sudan in 1896 with Horatio Kitchener as commander of another Anglo-Egyptian army.  In the final battle of the war on September 2, 1898, at Karari, 11,000 Mahdists were killed and 16,000 were wounded. (Source: Black Past online).

Henry Edward Colville was born at Kirkby Hall, Leicestershire, as the son of Charles Robert Colville and Hon. Katherine Sarah Georgina Russell. Trained at Eton, Colville entered the Grenadier Guards in 1870, followed by his assignment in 1880 as A.D.C. to General Sir Leicester Smyth commanding the forces in South Africa. Colville served in the Intelligence Department of the Suakin Expedition of 1884, distinguishing himself at the Battles of El Teb and Tamai. He was employed on special service in Sudan prior to the Nile Expedition of 1884-85 and after having served in that Expedition, he received the assignment of Chief of the Intelligence Department of the Frontier Force. Following the Battle of Ginnis in the Mahdist War, Colville was promoted to the rank of Colonel and was attached to the Intelligence Department at headquarters. In 1893 he was appointed Commissioner (Acting) for Uganda where he commanded the Unyoro Expedition receiving numerous awards and a promotion to Major General on April 12, 1898. Prior to his retirement in 1901, Colville served as Commander, Infantry Brigade, Gibraltar and Guards Brigade, and 9th Division, South Africa 1899-1900. (Source: Ladysmith & District Historical Society Online).