[5] The sacking of Khartoum and the killing of General Gordon and the massacre of thousands of civilians at the hands of Mahdist warriors in January 1885, together with the failure of the relief effort of General Wolseley's Nile Expedition, prompted the British government to revive plans to build a railway between the port of Suakin on the Red Sea and Berber on the River Nile some 300 miles north of Khartoum, to provide a supply route for Wolseley's force in further actions against Omdurman.

The British force included troops from: Indian contingent comprised troops from: After sending out a scouting detachment on 19 March to survey the area around Hashin some 7 miles inland, where it was believed that a number of Digna's men were camped,[8] General Graham led an expedition comprising 8,500 fighting men and 1,500 transport animals (mules and camels) to capture Dihilbat Hill near Hashin, and to establish a zeriba (a fortified enclosure) nearby.

[11] Graham's next objective was to attack Osman Digna's headquarters at Tamai, some 12 miles southwest of Suakin – a distance too great to be covered in a single day's march.

It was therefore decided to establish two supply depots en route, in the form of zeribas to store the equipment, water and rations to support the main assault, Graham assigning responsibility for this task to Major General Sir John McNeill.

Mimosa trees had to be cut down, arranged in line to form the walls of the enclosure, stacked up to a height and density to afford protection to the garrison enclosed within it, their trunks being tied together prevent them from being dragged away by the enemy.

Construction of the zeriba was the responsibility of the Royal Engineers and Madras Sappers with British and Indian troops assisting in the work of cutting the trees and dragging them into position.

Outside the zeriba, on the eastern side, the other half the Berkshire battalion guarded the camels and mules, preventing them from straying into the bush as they awaited the march back to Suakin.

McNeill immediately ordered all working parties to retreat back into the zeriba and to take up their arms, when at the same moment the Cavalry galloped into the clearing with large numbers of Arabs hard on their heels.

[22] Large numbers of Arabs who had forced entry into the southern redoubt were quickly dispatched by the half-battalion of Berkshires defending it, 112 bodies later being counted inside the enclosure Meanwhile, the Arabs succeeded in stampeding the transport animals towards the central square and the northern redoubt, thereby gaining cover for themselves as they attacked from the eastern side.

[25] Further isolated attacks were made by injured Arabs and by some feigning death, it being reported that "when our men sought to afford aid to some of the enemy who could not walk, the latter crawled towards them with their spears between their teeth, striving even yet to slay a Kaffir.

On 1 May, a reconnaissance party passed by the site to find that the zeriba had been burned and destroyed by the enemy, ending its short and rather purposeless existence.

[30] Within two months, the Gladstone government, in pursuing its anti-imperialist policies, took the opportunity provided by the Panjdeh crisis to abandon both the railway and Britain's military campaign in Sudan.

Galloway also claimed that intelligence reports that the enemy was planning a major attack on the 22nd March were not passed on to McNeill before he left Suakin.