At the end of May he made a trip in a gunboat to Shendy and Metemma, which he much enjoyed. In June he took a fortnight's leave to Alexandria and Cairo. It was while staying there that he received official intimation of his having been advanced to Major-General's rank, for hitherto his name had appeared in the Army List as a Colonel with the temporary and local rank of Major-General. According to regulations, a medical examination was necessary before this promotion could be confirmed. The idea that there could be any question about his health amused Gatacre greatly, and he offered, as a test, to run a hundred yards' race with the Principal Medical Officer. The challenge was politely declined, and an appointment made for the formal examination. [Sidenote: Promotion] In August Gatacre had the great satisfaction of finding himself in command of a Division in the field. A second Brigade of British troops was being sent up, and Colonel Wauchope[6] and Colonel Lyttelton[7] arrived from England to take {209} over the First and Second Brigades respectively. But however gratifying this promotion might be, it lifted him farther from the soldiers and the fighting, and it is owing to this circumstance that his name was so little mentioned in the story of the fight before Omdurman. This elevation, however, made no difference to his work or his activity. On August 17 he writes from Dakila: [6] The late Major-General Andrew Wauchope, C.B. [7] General the Hon. Sir Neville Lyttelton, G.C.B. "We are very busy now with embarkations and detrainments of troops arriving from the north; we are up nearly every night, as trains arrive at most unearthly hours; this of course is unavoidable. My first Brigade has gone on, and the embarkation of the second commences at daybreak to-morrow morning.... We move by steamers towing barges to Wad Bishara, about 145 miles, and thence by route march." Wad Bishara is just below the Sixth Cataract, and lies on the western bank about fifty-five miles north of Omdurman. The defeat of the Dervish army at the battle of Omdurman took place on Sunday, September 2, 1898. The story was told with much detail in the newspapers at the time, and has since been elaborately set out in _The River War_, but, notwithstanding the existence of many records, this book would not be complete without some account of such an important event. Though far from being a comprehensive narrative, the General's letter is interesting in itself: "_September_ 7, 1898. "On the morning of September 1 we marched twelve miles through jungle, finding everywhere {210} traces of the flight of the Dervish outposts--dead animals, men, etc., who had been killed by them, probably people attempting to desert.