In Order To Draw Part Of The Boer Fire Away They
Ascended From The Northern Side And Carried The Hills Which Formed
A Continuation Of The Same Ridge.
The movement was meant to be no
more than a strong demonstration, but the riflemen pushed it until,
breathless but victorious, they stood upon the very crest of the
position, leaving nearly a hundred dead or dying to show the path
which they had taken.
Their advance being much further than was
desired, they were recalled, and it was at the moment that Buchanan
Riddell, their brave Colonel, stood up to read Lyttelton's note
that he fell with a Boer bullet through his brain, making one more
of those gallant leaders who died as they had lived, at the head of
their regiments. Chisholm, Dick-Cunyngham, Downman, Wilford,
Gunning, Sherston, Thackeray, Sitwell, MacCarthy O'Leary,
Airlie - they have led their men up to and through the gates of
death. It was a fine exploit of the 3rd Rifles. 'A finer bit of
skirmishing, a finer bit of climbing, and a finer bit of fighting,
I have never seen,' said their Brigadier. It is certain that if
Lyttelton had not thrown his two regiments into the fight the
pressure upon the hill-top might have become unendurable; and it
seems also certain that if he had only held on to the position
which the Rifles had gained, the Boers would never have reoccupied
Spion Kop.
And now, under the shadow of night, but with the shells bursting
thickly over the plateau, the much-tried Thorneycroft had to make
up his mind whether he should hold on for another such day as he
had endured, or whether now, in the friendly darkness, he should
remove his shattered force. Could he have seen the discouragement
of the Boers and the preparations which they had made for
retirement, he would have held his ground. But this was hidden from
him, while the horror of his own losses was but too apparent. Forty
per cent of his men were down. Thirteen hundred dead and dying are
a grim sight upon a wide-spread battle-field, but when this number
is heaped upon a confined space, where from a single high rock the
whole litter of broken and shattered bodies can be seen, and the
groans of the stricken rise in one long droning chorus to the ear,
then it is an iron mind indeed which can resist such evidence of
disaster. In a harder age Wellington was able to survey four
thousand bodies piled in the narrow compass of the breach of
Badajos, but his resolution was sustained by the knowledge that the
military end for which they fell had been accomplished. Had his
task been unfinished it is doubtful whether even his steadfast soul
would not have flinched from its completion. Thorneycroft saw the
frightful havoc of one day, and he shrank from the thought of such
another. 'Better six battalions safely down the hill than a mop up
in the morning,' said he, and he gave the word to retire.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 155 of 435
Words from 80234 to 80749
of 225456
