Contradictory Statements as to the Numbers of the Egyptian Army—Reason for abiding by the Reports of the British Officers—Colonel Alderson’s Detail of the Retreat—General Jochmus’s Statement—Lieutenant Loring’s Mission.

It appears rather difficult to get at the exact amount of Ibrahim’s army, either when it left Damascus, or when its two divisions arrived at Gaza and Akaba. In the Levant Papers are several statements upon the subject; but they are rather contradictory^[64]. This is not to be wondered at, as the framers of some of them must have been sorely puzzled to account for the numbers, who, in spite of famine, cold, and “the sword of the fierce and revengeful Haouranees^[65],” unquestionably made their appearance^[66] at the places I have named. I shall, therefore, prefer to abide by the statements of the British officers at Gaza, who had no former reports to bolster up, and who undoubtedly have described things precisely as they fell under their observation.

By Colonel Bridgeman’s report^[67], Ibrahim brought to Gaza 15,000 infantry and 6000 or 7000 cavalry. Lieutenant Loring, who was charged by me with superintending the evacuation, gave the infantry at 23,550 men, and the cavalry 6440, independent of Souliman’s division of 5000 men, and 175 pieces of artillery^[68] who marched from El-Mezereib to Akaba and Suez, by the way of Maan, at which latter place he provisioned himself for his march, arrived safely at Cairo, and by all the information I received at Alexandria, and what Souliman Pacha communicated to Colonel Napier at the former place, he did not lose a gun, and the Colonel was himself an eye-witness to the excellent state of his cavalry. This enumeration of Lieutenant Loring’s does not include the noncombatants.

Colonel Alderson, who was with the naval officer, carried up the amount of Ibrahim’s army to 33,000 men^[69], besides Souliman’s force. He remarks, in a private document with which I have keen favoured:

“It appears Ibrahim commenced his retreat from Damascus on the 29th of December to El-Mezereib: at the latter place he divided his forces into five columns^[70]: 1st, the artillery and guns^[71], women, &c., via the Desert and Suez, under Souliman Pacha; 2nd, the cavalry, consisting of ten regiments, under Achmet Menekli Pacha; two of them (the cavalry of the Guards) were recalled to join Ibrahim, after he recrossed the Jordan, near Jericho; the 3rd and 4th, each consisting of five regiments of infantry; and lastly Ibrahim himself, with three regiments of foot guards, the two cavalry regiments of the guard as before stated, and from 300 to 400 Arnauts, Henadi, and 300 rifles. Each of these last four divisions had orders to make the best of their way to Gaza.

“When they left Damascus they had only sixteen days’ provisions, in addition to which they obtained a small supply of flour at El-Mezereib. The cavalry were sixteen days on the march, the infantry twenty-seven and twenty-eight, and Ibrahim’s corps thirty-four. Small supplies were occasionally received from the villages, but they avoided the great towns, and made for the Dead Sea, which they kept sight of, and approached as near as the nature of the country would allow.”

Colonel Alderson, who was an eye-witnessan eye-witness of their arrival at Gaza, and collected all the information he could, states that Ibrahim left Damascus with 62,499 souls, including women and children; there arrived at Gaza, independent of women and children, 27,000 regular troops, of which 4250 were cavalry, and 3200 irregulars; the garrison of Gaza consisted of 2800 men. Thus, then, 33,000 men either embarked from Gaza or marched from thence between the 23rd of January and the 19th of February, besides 9215 under Souliman Pacha, who marched to Suez.

Colonel Alderson’s account stands thus:

Be it remembered this loss of human life took place after the submission of Mehemet Ali on the 11th of December, and the greater part after his submission had been accepted by the Porte. The poor sufferers had taken no interest in the contest, but had been dragged from their homes to gratify the ambition of Mehemet Ali; why, then, after his submission were they not allowed to retire in safety? Where was the merit of forcing Ibrahim through the Desert, when he might have taken the shortest road to Gaza, where he had depÔts of provisions? These men lost their lives, not in open war with the Turkish army, which they never saw, but were plundered and butchered by the Arabs; therefore there was no great credit due to those who were the authors of such measures, barbarous in themselves, and, as I have already shown, contrary to the opinion of Austria, (who would most probably be supported by the Allied Powers,) who had declared they would disavow any attack on Ibrahim Pacha^[72].

General Jochmus, in his letter to Sir Robert Stopford, dated the 15th of February^[73], states the remains of Ibrahim’s army to be 19,000 men; and from the reports of the Turkish and European staff-officers sent to ascertain the numbers, the estimate, he says, is quite correct. General Jochmus makes his calculation from the reports of his officers, which must be received with caution. Captain de L’Or gave Ibrahim’s losses in five days at 10,000 men; this was considered by the English officers very much exaggerated, nor do I see how Ibrahim and Souliman, who were both good generals, could have met with such a loss, unpursued as they were by a regular army, and having nearly 10,000 cavalry to cover their retreat and protect them from the few irregulars that followed them, and who, if they did not behave better than those Colonel Napier had under his command^[74], would never have come within sight of them, and it is more than probable, picked up the stragglers only.

Lieutenant Loring, in his report^[75]; states that he did not reach Caiffa till the 15th of January; the weather had been very boisterous and the steamers were hardly seaworthy. Having procured horses at Acre, he proceeded along the coast, through Tortura and Cesarea, and arrived on the 17th at Jaffa, where were stationed the greater part of the Turkish forces, having returned from their demonstration on Gaza the day before.

On the same evening, by the advice of General Michell, he proceeded to Jerusalem in company with Major Wilbraham and Selim Bey, who was the bearer of a letter from the Seraskier to Ibrahim; he was also provided with a firman to the Governor and Scheiks to assist them on the road. On arriving at Jerusalem they found Hassan Pacha had marched on Halil (Hebron) with 8000 men and six pieces of artillery.

Thither they proceeded and arrived the same evening. On acquainting Hassan Pacha with their mission, he was easily persuaded to return to Jerusalem; they then pushed forward, but instead of getting information from the authorities, Abder Rahman, the scheik of the El-Halil district, plainly told them that he would neither give them information nor assistance, and there is no doubt whatever he was acting under orders from the Turkish authorities. Abder Rahman must have known where Ibrahim’s army was, because he had just returned from Maan, to which place he had accompanied the Baron Dumont on his excursion to destroy the magazines; in which, however, the Baron failed, as Souliman’s division had passed through the day before and pretty nearly cleared the stores. Finding it impossible to advance with any prospect of meeting Ibrahim, they returned to Gaza, where they found Achmet Menekli Pacha had arrived with the greater part of the cavalry. He made bitter complaints of the conduct of the Arabs, and Lieutenant Loring immediately proceeded to Jaffa to remonstrate with the Turkish authorities on the conduct of their officers. From Jaffa he returned to Gaza with Captain Stewart and Colonel Rose, accompanied by Rechid Pacha, and everything appeared settled in an amicable manner with Achmet Pacha to facilitate as much as possible the evacuation of Syria.

Mr. Loring was present some hours after, when Rechid Pacha, to the utter astonishment of the British officers, declared his intention of immediately returning to Jaffa, confessing at the same time that he had sent orders for the advance of the Turkish troops to endeavour to cut off the communication between the division at Gaza and those hourly expected from the Desert. As has been already shown^[76], the spirited remonstrance of Captain Stewart and Colonel Bridgeman put a stop to this infamous proceeding.