The value of Mounted Infantry under modern conditions of war was established by the phenomenal success of the relatively small force of Mounted Infantry in Egypt in 1882. This corps, raised and organised by an officer of the 60th,[52] owed much of its success to the officers and men drawn from the 3rd Battalion who had similarly served in the Boer war; its high reputation for individual gallantry and initiative was universally acknowledged, and there was no engagement in the war, from the preliminary skirmishes before Alexandria in July, until the capture, by a _coup de main_, of the citadel of Cairo at mid-night of the 14th–15th September, in which the Mounted Infantry did not take a distinguished share.[53] [Sidenote: 1884–85, NILE EXPEDITION.] At Cairo, early in 1884, the inception and scheme of organisation for the Mounted Camel Regiments was also the work of an officer of the 60th Rifles. The Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment in particular which rendered such distinguished service with the Desert Column, under the late _General Sir Herbert Stewart_, was raised and equipped by the same officer, and was largely composed of officers and men of the 60th. Two out of the four companies were commanded by officers of the 60th (Fetherstonhaugh[54] and Berkeley Pigott,[55] both of whom had served with the 3rd Battalion in South Africa), and six out of the sixteen subaltern company officers were also Riflemen.[56] In June, 1886, a comprehensive scheme for raising and training Mounted Infantry in England was first proposed, before a public audience, by an officer of the 60th, under the powerful wing of _Lord Wolseley_, and in November of the same year Mounted Infantry were raised and trained under Captain Lewis Butler at Shorncliffe from detachments of the 2nd Battalion and other regiments, under the effective supervision of _Colonel Sir Baker Russell_.[57] When, in 1887, it was subsequently decided to form a regiment of Mounted Infantry for service with the Cavalry Division, composed of detachments from nearly all infantry battalions on home service, the command and organisation was again given to an officer of the 60th, and, out of the eight companies composing the original regiment, the 60th and Rifle Brigade found two, or one-fourth of the whole corps. The Mounted Infantry movement therefore may be said to owe its inception, and in a large measure its success, to the officers of the 60th, and to their riflemen.