Commander-in-Chief:  The sirdar

  British Brigade:  Major-general Gatacre

1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (6 companies)
"      "     Lincolnshire Regiment
"      "     Seaforth Highlanders
"      "     Cameron Highlanders

  Egyptian Infantry Division:  Major-general hunter

1st Brigade 2nd Brigade 3rd Brigade lieut.-Col.  Maxwell lieut.-Col.  Macdonald lieut.-Col.  Lewis 8th Egyptians 2nd Egyptians 3rd Egyptians XIIth Soudanese IXth Soudanese 4th " XIIIth " Xth " 7th " XIVth " XIth "

  Cavalry:  Lieut.-Col.  Broadwood

   8 squadrons
   2 Maxim guns

  Camel Corps:  Major Tudway

   6 companies

  Artillery:  Lieut.-Col.  Long

   Detachment, No. 16 Company, E Division R.A.,
      with 6 five-inch B.L. howitzers
   Egyptian Horse Battery (6 guns)
   Nos. 1, 2, and 3 Field Batteries Egyptian Army (18 guns)
   British Maxim Battery (4 guns)
   Rocket Detachment (2 sections)

Mahmud had early intelligence of the movement of the Anglo-Egyptian army.  His original intention had been to march to Hudi.  But he now learned that at Hudi he would have to fight the Sirdar’s main force.  Not feeling strong enough to attack them, he determined to march to Nakheila.  The mobility of the Arabs was now as conspicuous as their dilatory nature had formerly been.  The whole Dervish army—­horse, foot, and artillery, men, women, children, and animals—­actually traversed in a single day the forty miles of waterless desert which lie between Aliab and Nakheila, at which latter place they arrived on the night of the 20th.  The Sirdar’s next object was to keep the enemy so far up the Atbara that they could not possibly strike at Berber or Railhead.  Accordingly, at dawn on the 21st, the whole force was ordered to march to Ras-el-Hudi, five miles nearer the Dervishes’ supposed halting-place.  The detour which the Arabs would have to make to march round the troops was nearly doubled by this movement.  The utter impossibility of their flank march with a stronger enemy on the radius of the circle was now apparent.

The movement of the Anglo-Egyptian force was screened by seven squadrons of cavalry and the Horse Artillery, and Colonel Broadwood was further instructed to reconnoitre along the river and endeavour to locate the enemy.  The country on either bank of the Atbara is covered with dense scrub, impassable for civilised troops.  From these belts, which average a quarter of a mile in depth, the dom palms rise in great numbers.  All the bush is leafy, and looks very pretty and green