of Kordofan for El Obeid. On 5 November the army, misled by possibly treacherous guides and thirst-stricken, was ambushed in dense forest at Kashgil, south of El Obeid. With the exception of some 300 men the whole force was killed. (See the Battle of El Obeid). According to the story of Hicks's cook, one of the survivors, the general was the last officer to fall, pierced by the spear of the Khalifa Mahommed Sherif. After emptying his revolver the pasha kept his assailants at bay for some time with his sword, a body of Baggara who fled before him being known afterwards as "Baggar Hicks" (the cows driven by Hicks), a play on the words baggara and baggar, the former being the herdsmen and the latter the cows. Hicks's head was cut off and taken to the Mahdi. Cultural depictions Hicks was played by Edward Underdown in the 1966 film Khartoum. Notes References Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan, book iv., by Francis Reginald Wingate (London, 1891) With Hicks Pasha in the Soudan, by John Colborne (London, 1884). The Road to Shaykan: Letters of General William Hicks Pasha written during the Sennar & Kordofan Campaigns, 1883. edited with an introduction and notes by M.W. Daly. University of Durham 1983 Khartoum, the Ultimate Imperial Adventure by Michael Asher (London, 2005) 1830 births 1883 deaths British East India Company Army officers British Indian Army officers Pashas British military personnel killed in the Mahdist War British military personnel of the Abyssinian War British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British people of the Mahdist War