Paddle gunboats in the Gordon relief expedition

The relief force combined thousands of troops moving by boat and overland with armed steamers crewed by the Royal Navy. After Major General Stewart was mortally wounded, Brigadier Wilson's methodical organization slowed the final relief movement. The paddle gunboats reached Khartoum only after its fall and still offered enough mobile artillery that naval officers questioned the decision to withdraw. In the later 1896 expedition, Kitchener used river logistics and gunboats in a deliberate campaign to draw out and destroy the opposing army.