A
Soldier's Training Is To Take Chances, And To Do The Best He Can
With The Material At His Disposal.
Again, Colonel Carleton and
Major Adye knew the general plan of the battle which would be
raging within a
Very few hours, and they quite understood that by
withdrawing they would expose General White's left flank to attack
from the forces (consisting, as we know now, of the Orange
Freestaters and of the Johannesburg Police) who were coming from
the north and west. He hoped to be relieved by eleven, and he
believed that, come what might, he could hold out until then. These
are the most obvious of the considerations which induced Colonel
Carleton to determine to carry out so far as he could the programme
which had been laid down for him and his command. He marched up the
hill and occupied the position.
His heart, however, must have sunk when he examined it. It was very
large - too large to be effectively occupied by the force which he
commanded. The length was about a mile and the breadth four hundred
yards. Shaped roughly like the sole of a boot, it was only the heel
end which he could hope to hold. Other hills all round offered
cover for Boer riflemen. Nothing daunted, however, he set his men
to work at once building sangars with the loose stones. With the
full dawn and the first snapping of Boer Mausers from the hills
around they had thrown up some sort of rude defences which they
might hope to hold until help should come.
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