El Obeid had fallen before the ill-fated expedition left Khartoum; but the fact that Slatin Bey, an Austrian officer in the Egyptian service, was still maintaining himself in Darfur provided it with an object.  On the 9th of September Hicks and his army (the actual strength of which was 7,000 infantry, 400 mounted Bashi Bazuks, 500 cavalry, 100 Circassians, 10 mounted guns, 4 Krupps, and 6 Nordenfeldt machine guns) left Omdurman and marched to Duem.  Although the actual command of the expedition was vested in the English officer, Ala-ed-Din Pasha, the Governor-General who had succeeded Raouf Pasha, exercised an uncertain authority.  Differences of opinion were frequent, though all the officers were agreed in taking the darkest views of their chances.  The miserable host toiled slowly onward towards its destruction, marching in a south-westerly direction through Shat and Rahad.  Here the condition of the force was so obviously demoralised that a German servant (Gustav Klootz, the servant of Baron Seckendorf) actually deserted to the Mahdi’s camp.  He was paraded in triumph as an English officer.

On the approach of the Government troops the Mahdi had marched out of El Obeid and established himself in the open country, where he made his followers live under military conditions and continually practised them in warlike evolutions.  More than forty thousand men collected round his standard, and the Arabs were now armed with several thousand rifles and a few cannon, as well as a great number of swords and spears.  To these proportions had the little band of followers who fought at Abba grown!  The disparity of the forces was apparent before the battle.  The Mahdi thereupon wrote to Hicks, calling on him to surrender and offering terms.  His proposals were treated with disdain, although the probable result of an engagement was clear.

Until the expedition reached Rahad only a few cavalry patrols had watched its slow advance.  But on the 1st of November the Mahdi left El Obeid and marched with his whole power to meet his adversary.  The collision took place on the 3rd of November.  All through that day the Egyptians struggled slowly forward, in great want of water, losing continually from the fire of the Soudanese riflemen, and leaving several guns behind them.  On the next morning they were confronted by the main body of the Arab army, and their attempts to advance further were defeated with heavy loss.  The force began to break up.  Yet another day was consumed before it was completely destroyed.  Scarcely five hundred Egyptians escaped death; hardly as many of the Arabs fell.  The European officers perished fighting to the end; and the general met his fate sword in hand, at the head of the last formed body of his troops, his personal valour and physical strength exciting the admiration even of the fearless enemy, so that in chivalrous respect they buried his body with barbaric honours.  Mohammed Ahmed celebrated his victory with a salute of one hundred guns; and well he might, for the Soudan was now his, and his boast that, by God’s grace and the favour of the Prophet, he was the master of all the land had been made good by force of arms.