Major Girouard was a young officer of the Royal Engineers and, like all white officers in the Egyptian service, held the rank of major.

He was a Canadian by birth, and proved, in every respect, equal to the onerous and responsible work to which he was appointed.
However, labour was cheap, and railway battalions were raised among the Egyptian peasants, their pay being the same as that of the soldiers.
Strong, hearty, and accustomed to labour and a scanty diet, no men could have been more fitted for the work.

They preferred it to soldiering; for although, as they had already shown, and were still further to prove, the Egyptian can fight, and fight bravely; he is, by nature, peaceable, and prefers work, however hard.

In addition to these battalions, natives of the country and of the Soudan, fugitives from ruined villages and desolated plains, were largely employed.
The line had now been carried three-quarters of the distance to Abu Hamed, which was still in the hands of the Dervishes.

It had been constructed with extraordinary rapidity, for the ground was so level that only occasional cuttings were needed.