These journals, recording Gordon's heroic stand at Kartoum (Khartoum), form a remarkable documentary of one of the most famous military operations of the nineteenth century. Having established his reputation with successful campaigns in China, Egypt and South Africa, Gordon was called upon to undertake the evacuation of British troops from the Sudan following the annihilation of Hicks Pasha's forces by the Mahdi in 1883. Gordon succeeded in evacuating European and Egyptian troops but refused to abandon the Sudanese who had been loyal to him. In April 1884, the Mahdi's forces finally closed on Khartoum where Gordon, the only surviving Englishman, directed his native troops in a ten month siege. His journals, smuggled out before the fall of the town, record the day to day events during the final months of the siege (September-December 1884), in which the garrison was under constant enemy fire, surviving on starvation rations, and living in vain hope of the arrival of a relieving column. 'General Gordon's Journals are sufficiently characteristic to enable those who read them with care to know their author perfectly,' states the introduction to this work.
Certainly all his fine qualities are in evidence. Brace and compassionate, Gordon was far from being typical of the military type and much of his early career had been devoted to philanthropic work amongst London's poor. His Khartoum journal reveals a love and concern for the native children, as well as a devotion to the troops under his command. It is a dreadful irony that military tardiness found the relieving forces arriving two days too late to save Khartoum, and General Gordon.
- ISBN10 1850770387
- ISBN13 9781850770381
- Publish Date 1 December 1984
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Darf Publishers Ltd
- Edition Facsimile edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Language English