London, Longmans, 1899. . First edition; 2 vols, 8vo; 2 frontispieces, 45 illustrations, 34 maps and plans (some folding); original dark grey cloth gilt, gilt vignettes to upper covers and spines, occasional light foxing as usual, inner hinges neatly repaired, an attractive set; xxii, [i], 462; x, [iii], 499 pp. The River War was Churchill's second published book after The Story of the Malakand Field Force and is one of the scarcer Churchill titles.In vivid style the book describes the background to the war, the relationship of the Upper Nile to Egypt, the murder of General Charles George Gordon in the siege at Khartoum, the political reaction in England, and Kitchener's elaborate preparations for the war. While in the Sudan, Churchill participated in the Battle of Omdurman. Churchill comments at length on the mechanisation of war with use of the telegraph, railroad, and a new generation of weaponry.Churchill's 1899 account of his adventures during the war in the Sudan, titled The…