The picture that evolves out of this single document is very different from that which is usually portrayed: "horses were trembling when the enemy fired their volleys at us," "we had to retreat here and there to avoid the fire of the enemy," "the colonel was late in ordering the trumpeter to issue the call to take the line formation." These and other statements in this single document show that what the soldiers experienced was fear, confusion, agony, a far cry from the neat and orderly impression one gets from the "battle piece." Most importantly, the account of the court martial goes on to reveal that Brigadier Ahmed Bey was not to be found in the position specified for him in the training manuals which give exact locations of every officer during battle. Zakī, in his account of the battle and in an attempt to explain this rather perplexing absence, says that that brigade lost its way in the fog. On investigation, however, it transpires that Brigadier Ahmed Bey had fled the battle scene with his entire brigade probably to await the result of the battle and then side with the victor.

XREF: Builds on the earlier claims (loc 902-904) that battle pieces and cartographic orders erased the chaos of real combat; this court-martial document is the primary evidence of that erasure. Builds on: "Battle pieces erase soldiers into abstract tactical units for commanders."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 906