With such generals as Hunter and Hector Macdonald the Sirdar had worked his way up the Nile valley, overcoming all difficulties, with his Egyptian force of some ten thousand men and forty-six guns. The arrival of the British Division in two brigades under General Gatacre in March and April added largely to the strength of the force. The command of the First Brigade was afterwards given to Colonel Wauchope, now promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. How different his journey up the Nile on this occasion from his experience fourteen years before with the weary whale-boats! Now, thanks to the energy of the Sirdar, he could travel to Berber in a saloon carriage. Speaking of this afterwards, he said he was never so struck in his life as when he saw that railway across the desert, which did so much for the expedition. Before his arrival at the front, however, one brilliant fight had taken place. Mahmoud had been discovered securely, as he thought, entrenched some seventeen miles up the river from Abador, or about forty from Atbara camp; and it was not fitting, notwithstanding the difficulties of transport by camels for twelve thousand men, that so large a British force should sit down within so short a distance of an enemy and not attempt to drive him out of his position. The forward order was given, and on 8th April, after a long night-march, the troops found themselves facing Mahmoud's zareba at Nakheila, on the Atbara. The story of the attack has been given with all the graphic skill of an eye-witness, by G. W. Steevens in his {150} book, _With Kitchener to Khartoum_. When the sun rose behind the Sirdar's men, it revealed a stockade made up of timber, and a ten-foot hedge of camel-thorn, with entrenchments behind--a formidable enough obstacle to face. Without delay arrangements were made for the attack. The enemy's base rested on the river, and the Sirdar, determined that he should not escape, formed his force in a semi-circle round him. At 6.20 the first gun announced the advent of battle, and for an hour and twenty minutes Mahmoud's zareba was pounded with shot, shell, and rocket, after which the Egyptian and British troops advanced to the attack all along the line. Maxwell's, Macdonald's, and Hunter's Egyptians deployed on the right. Gatacre's British Division had the Cameron Highlanders in the place of honour, formed in line along their whole front; then, in columns of their eight companies, the Lincolns on the right, the Seaforths in the centre, and the Warwicks--two companies short--on the left. The orders to these were, not to advance till it was certain the Dervish cavalry, hovering to the left of the zareba, would not charge in flank. Behind all was Lewis's brigade ready for any emergency that might occur. Stirring addresses having been made by the leading officers, the Sirdar called upon the men to 'remember Gordon,' and all being ready, 'the word came, and the men sprang up.