Meanwhile Lord Charles had ordered the Gardner gun to be run outside the square to the left flank, and he laid the gun himself to make sure. As he fired, he states, "I saw the enemy mown down in rows, dropping like ninepins.... I was putting in most effective work on the leading ranks, and had fired about thirty rounds, when the gun jammed." Then Lord Charles, with the captain of the gun, William Rhodes, chief boatswain's mate, "set to work to try and unscrew the feed-plate in order to clear the barrel, or to take out its lock. The next moment the enemy were on top of us. The feed plate dropped on my head, knocking me under the gun and across its trail." Rhodes was instantly killed by a spear thrust, as was also the armourer, Walter Miller. On struggling to his feet, Lord Charles was "carried bodily backwards by the tremendous impact of the rush, right upon the front rank of the men of No. 4 Company, who stood like rocks." So great was the pressure that the front ranks could not use rifle or bayonet for a few moments; then the pressure forcing the white men back enabled the rear rank to fire over their heads into the mass of the Arabs. "The Arabs fell in heaps, whereupon the front rank, the pressure upon them relaxing, fired, and fought hand to hand with the bayonet, cursing as the rifles jammed and the shoddy bayonets twisted like tin." The men of the naval brigade joined in the furious hand-to-hand fighting--indeed, all round this was the feature of the fight at Abu-Klea, the heavy Camel Regiment, Scots Greys, Royals, and 5th Dragoon Guards desperately fighting in the square, while the Royal Sussex kept the enemy at bay with their steady fire. Every Arab who penetrated the square was killed; outside their comrades wavered, and then sullenly retired, until at half-past 2 the battle was won. Of the naval brigade 8 were killed and 7 wounded out of the 40 who went into action. Among the killed were Lieutenants Alfred Piggott and R. E. de Lisle. Every man handling the Gardner gun outside the square was killed excepting Lord Charles Beresford, whose providential escape has enabled us to learn the graphic details of the desperate battle of Abu-Klea, which, as Colonel the Hon. Reginald Talbot (who commanded the heavy Camel Regiment at the battle) wrote, "was an Inkermann on a small scale." I have already described the fight towards the river, and the fact that the expedition had been undertaken in vain--for Khartoum had fallen. The bar for ABU-KLEA was issued to all the survivors. =Suakin, 1885.=--In the fight at Hasheen, 14 miles from Suakin, on March 20th, 1885, a naval brigade and marines from the fleet in the Red Sea took part and were awarded the bar for SUAKIN.