The "crown jewel" of the career
of Britain's most able Victorian
general, Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
was the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

Sent from England in August, 
1882, Wolseley was ordered to 
depose Egyptian nationalist 
strongman Colonel Ahmed Arabi 
and return the British puppet, 
Khedive Tewfik, to power.
 
After seizing the supposedly 
neutral Suez Canal, Wolseley 
led his army - including Guards 
units that hadn't left Britain 
since the Napoleonic Wars - on 
Cairo from the east.  Arabi 
entrenched 25,000 men, mainly 
conscripts and reservists, at 
Tel-el-Kebir.

Wolsey marched 17,000 men and 
60 guns six miles in the dark 
of a moonless night for the 
coming assault, refusing to 
waste his troops in a daylight 
attack across open desert in 
the face of the modern Egyptian 
artillery.  On September 19, 
1882, the battlefield was set.

With bayonets fixed and unloaded
rifles, the British infantry 
closed to within 300 yards of 
the Egyptian lines before they 
were spotted.  As the Egyptian 
infantry began frantically 
firing, the British charged.  
The Highlanders stalled in front
of the trenches held by Egyptian
Regular troops; other British 
units found weaker opposition 
towards the northern end of the 
lines.  The British infantry 
forced the defenders back in 
hand-to-hand combat.They were 
followed by the artillery which 
established positions that 
enfiladed the Egyptian trenches.
The cavalry rounded the northern
end of the position, turning 
its flank, and the left side of 
Arabi's army collapsed and ran. 

By the first light of day, the 
battle had ended.  Arabi, one 
of the first to flee, was 
captured in Cairo, which 
surrendered without a shot.

The British Army lost less than 
500 casualties at Tel-el-Kebir.