The complete and unabridged First Edition of Winston Churchill's enthralling history of the 1896-1899 reconquest of the Sudan by Lord Alfred Kitchener, which saw the destruction of the Dervish Empire, those fanatical followers of the 'Mahdi'- the Islamist leader responsible for the 1885 siege of Khartoum and death of the famous British General Charles Gordon. Widely regarded as the most authoritative account of the Sudan War-which the author dubbed the River War, on account of the importance of the Nile River in the region-this work was originally published in two volumes. This was later condensed down to a single volume, a work which cut out swathes of Churchill's highly relevant observations and commentary. The River War Volume I is the first part of a new edition of the original two volume set which contains the complete and unabridged text of the original First Edition. This meticulously researched history was backed up by the author's personal presence during the military