ABSTRACT
Logically a history of the Expedition up to the fall of Baghdad should include the operations by which soldiers secured and consolidated their hold on the city. The end of this stage of the campaign was the capture of the Turkish railhead at Samarrah. The control of the inundation was really the most vital of the four main objectives the author enumerated, for on it depended the issue of the other three. The river was rising, and in a normal flood season an enemy who held command of the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates at certain points north of Baghdad would be in a position to flood out an invading army and bring all further operations to a standstill. The Turks had evidently expected the attack on the river, where they were strongly entrenched with guns. Eventually, Persia was clear of the Turk, and there were no enemy left east of the Diala River.
