November 3–5, 1883 · Kordofan, western Sudan Theater
November 3–5, 1883
An Egyptian army of some 10,000 men under the British officer Hicks Pasha marched into the waterless Kordofan scrub to crush the Mahdi. Led astray by treacherous guides, exhausted and parched, it was ambushed in the forest of Shaykan and annihilated almost to the last man; Hicks and nearly his entire force were killed.
Commanders