Battle of Kassala
| Battle of Kassala | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mahdist War | |||||||
 General Oreste Baratieri | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Italy |
 Mahdist Sudan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Oreste Baratieri Captain Francesco Carchidio Malvolti † [3][4][5][6] |
Mussaed Gaidum[7] (Emir of Kassala) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Italian troops:[3] 56 Italian officers 41 Italian NCOs 2,526 Askari troops |
Mahdi troops:[3] 2,500 Mahdist infantry 600 Baqqara cavalry | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
28 killed[3][8] 41 wounded[3][9] |
1,400 dead & wounded[3] hundreds were killed and drowned[9][10] | ||||||
The Battle of Kassala was fought on July 17, 1894, between an Italian colonial troop and Mahdist Sudanese forces.[11]
Prelude
Governor Oreste Baratieri sought to capture Kassala, so as to forestall Mahdist attacks on Eritrea.[12] In July 1894, Baratieri saw his moment when the Atbarah River started to rise, and marched his small army of "56 Italian officers, 41 NCOs and 2510 Askari led by 16 Bukbashis" towards Kassala.[12]
Battle
An account of the capture of Kassala was published in The New York Times on July 20, 1894:[13]
" Rome, July 19.- ...The attack upon the earthworks of the Mahdists was at once ordered and a fiercely contested battle ensued. The Mahdists fought desperately, but were finally driven from their position, leaving hundreds of dead and wounded in and about the intrenchments. Being hotly pursued, the Mahdists scattered under a continuous fire, and many of them in their efforts to escape plunged into the River Adbara, hoping to reach the other side. ...Hundreds of the enemy were drowned, and it is believed that none succeeded in reaching the opposite bank."
Aftermath
The Italians captured two flags and a number of cannons,[13] in addition, the Italians freed many slaves, including "several white men and about a hundred of the remnants of the former Egyptian garrison; also a number from the tribes around, such as the Beni-Amer."[12]
On July 23 the General Oreste Baratieri left, leaving a garrison of a thousand men with two guns under Colonel Turitto.[12] Three years later – in 1897 – the Italians gave back to the British the control of Kassala, returning to their Italian Eritrea, in order to get international recognition of their colony of Eritrea.
Sources
- ^ Swazey, Arthur (1894). The Interior: Vol.25. Chicago.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A-E. Westport.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c d e f McLachlan, Sean (2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896. Colchester.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Fichera, Alfio (2005). Colpo grosso dei 4 pensionati. Milan.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Istituto per la storia del risorigimento italiano (1936). Rassegna storica del risorgimento: Vol.23. Rome.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Fitz-Hardinge Berkeley, George (1935). The campaign of Adowa and the rise of Menelik. London.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ von Frobel, Guido (1894). Militär-Wochenblatt: Vol.79. Berlin.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Milkias, Paulos (2005). The Battle of Adwa: reflections on Ethiopia's historic victory against european colonialism. New York.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Smith, Alfred Emanuel (1894). New Outlook: Vol.50. New York.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ The Christian work (1894). Christian work: illustrated family newspaper: Vol.57. New York.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Conquest of Kassala, with map of the battle (in Italian)
- ^ a b c d Anthony D'Avray, Richard Pankhurst (2000). The Nakfa documents: Aethiopistische Forschungen 53. Wiesbaden.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b "ITALIAN VICTORY IN AFRICA". The New York Times.