The River War
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The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan was a 1899 book written by Winston Churchill while he was still an officer in the British army, a first-hand account of the conquest of the Sudan by the English-Egyptian force under Lord Kitchener. The young Churchill, as much a journalist and adventurer and political candidate as soldier, had placed himself into Lord Kitchener's campaign up the Nile, obtaining a post in the 21st Lancers, against Kitchener's wishes.
In vivid style the book describes the background to the war, the relationship of the Upper Nile to Egypt, the murder of General Charles George Gordon in the siege at Khartoum, the political reaction in England, and Kitchener's elaborate preparations for the war. While in the Sudan Churchill participated in the Battle of Omdurman, the last British cavalry charge in battle.
As with Churchill's first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, Churchill comments at length on the mechanization of war with use of the telegraph, railroad, and a new generation of weaponry.
[edit] External links
- The book can be downloaded in text format here
