What confuses me about Khartoum, was it was apparent that Col. Stewart and the ship defeat the garrison at Barbar and gets through. But towards the end the Mahdi shows Gordon Pasha the severed heads of Stewart and others notables.
He (Stewart) returned with Gordon to Khartoum in February 1884 and was wounded during the siege. Stewart led an attempt to break the blockade aboard the Steamer Abbas in September 1884, along with the British consul F Powers of The Times and other residents of Khartoum. The attempt failed when the Abbas run aground somewhere between Abu Hamad and Meroë. All passengers and crew were killed.