THE BATTLES OF GUNDET AND GURAE, God bless the men of Great Ethiopians who kept defending their country GUNDET: “On 14 November, Alula crossed the Mereb river and immediately engaged forward Egyptian posts. The main Ethiopian army under the emperor (Yohannis IV) crossed the river on the night of 15-16 November. Meanwhile, Shalaqa Alula had disengaged his forces; he had completed a flanking action from the west against troops advancing from Addi Quala; and had appeared in the Egyptian rear, blocking their line of retreat. “ “On the morning of 16 November 1875, the Egyptians found themselves surrounded in a steep valley, and the battle soon turned into a massacre from which only a few of the 3,000 Egyptians managed to escape. Two thousand two hundred Remington rifles and sixteen cannons were captured by the Ethiopians, who lost some 550 dead and 400 wounded. Among the latter of whom was Alula’s brother Basha Tessema, whose wound remained unhealed for a long period.” GURAE: THIS BATTLE ENDS EYGPTS AMBITIONS AGAINST ETHIOPIA, On March 10th, Rashid Pasha and Osman Bey Neghib led an attack on the Ethiopians which was repulsed with loss, and both officers were killed while leading their men. From one of the accounts, this attack would appear to have been a sortie from the fort of 5,000 picked troops and artillery (Loring, p. 413). The Ethiopians then withdrew to loot the dead and collect the rifles, etc. which the panic-stricken Egyptian troops had abandoned. Most of the artillery was lost, as well as considerable quantities of rifle ammunition. After the withdrawal of the Ethiopians, the Egyptian troops got entirely out of hand, and burnt the dead and wounded enemies. The Ethiopians retaliated by a cold-blooded massacre of about 600 prisoners whom they had taken. Among these prisoners killed were Dr. Muhammad Ali Pasha and Neghib Bey Muhammad. Dr. Badr (who had been educated in Edinburgh) escaped by the assistance of an Ethiopian girl who discovered him, wounded. On March 12th, an amnesty was arranged, and Monsieur Sarzac (the French consul at Massowah) went over the battlefield… the survivors of the Egyptian army were collected, and reached Massowah in May.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 07:51:32 +0000
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