The River Column was a unit of British soldiers during the Mahdist War. Background In the deserts of the Sudan, in 1881 a province of Egypt, a man named Muhammad Ahmad, who claimed to be the long-awaited Mahdi of the Islamic religion, rose up against the Egyptian governors. He and his Arab followers, clad in turbans, skull-caps, white, colorfully patched jibbehs and wielding swords and spears, as well as shields, defeated several Egyptian garrisons. After a short war with Britain, culminating in the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, Egypt had its army officered partly by Englishmen. One of these men, Colonel William Hicks, led an army of 10,000 along the Nile and then into the vast deserts. There, the thirsty square of white-uniformed Egyptians was wiped out by the Mahdi's men, called Dervishes, who now had guns. Gordon is sent to Khartoum British Major-General Charles George Gordon, a colorful, experienced soldier who had served many countries besides his own, was sent to Egypt to evacuate the city of Khartoum. On the Nile, it was the base of government for the Sudan and was threatened by the Mahdists. When Gordon and his adjutant, Colonel John Donald Hamill Stewart, reached Khartoum, they realized that the place was quite defensible. Instead of evacuating, Gordon fought. He soon became besieged by the Mahdi and the Arabs. In Britain, although the Government, led by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, did not want to send troops, the public clamored for it. Finally, General Lord Garnet Wolseley was sent to the Sudan with an ample number of British troops. The Gordon Relief Expedition The Columns General Wolseley decided that, as he was not able to move all of his troops along the Nile and get to Khartoum quickly, that he would send a quick Camel Corps to reinforce Khartoum. It would travel along the shorter route through the desert. The second column, the larger River Column, would relieve the city once the men reached it. The troops were all wearing white sun helmets and some of the River Column wore red tunics. Others of the Relief Expedition wore grey and later khaki. The Desert and River Columns arrived in and set out from Korti in late 1884. The River Column moved out slowly, commanded by Major General William Earle and Brigadier General Henry Brackenbury. They were hampered by all of the different cataracts of the Nile as they