The 1st Brigade of British, viz. the Camerons, the Lincolns, Seaforths, and Maxim battery resumed their quarters at Darmali, where they remained throughout the summer. By the month of August, however, when Wauchope joined them, casualties in action and deaths and invalidings from sickness had seriously affected the strength of the brigade, though officers and men upon the whole stood the climate well. 'The sick list had never touched six per cent. There were not fifty graves in the cemetery; and most of the faces at the mess table were familiar.' The Lincolns, who had come up over 1100 strong, still had 980; the other three battalions were each about 750 strong, and the Warwicks were expecting a further draft of men. The total strength of Wauchope's brigade would thus come to nearly 3500 men. With eager expectation they now awaited the order to advance on Khartoum. [Sidenote: Advance on Khartoum] The forward movement began on 3rd August, regiment after regiment first concentrating at Atbara fort, then being shipped by steamer up the Nile to Shabluka, where they were to reform and make the remainder of the journey in six marches on the west bank to Omdurman. Even with several steamers at the Sirdar's disposal it {153} was a tedious business, and occupied nearly a month. Wauchope's brigade passed up in the steamers on the 14th August, a four days' voyage, and on the 23rd, when paraded with the and Brigade, they were reported as 'in splendid condition.' On the 25th August, the 1st Brigade marched out of Wad Hamed, and the scene is described by one who saw it as a most imposing spectacle. The four battalions of which it was composed moved off with their baggage at the bugle-call, taking the road in four parallel columns. 'Many of the men were bearded, and all were tanned with the sun, acclimatised by a summer in the country, hardened by perpetual labours, and confident from the recollection of victory--a magnificent force, which any man might be proud to accompany into the field.' General Wauchope's men were worthy of their commander, and it was, we may be sure, with no little elation that he stepped out with them that day on the way to their final triumph. Keeping his forces well in hand, the Sirdar had the whole army encamped at Wadi Abid on the evening of the 29th, the British Division marching in by moonlight. They were now within twenty-eight miles of Omdurman, and the two following days' marches brought them within touch of the enemy and in sight of the Mahdi's tomb. The 2nd of September saw the last stand for Mahdism and its complete overthrow.