There Are Some Who Think That, Had We Held On There As We
Did At The Modder River, The Enemy Would Again Have Been
Accommodating Enough To Make Way For Us During The Night, And The
Morning Would Have Found The Road Clear To Kimberley.
I know no
grounds for such an opinion - but several against it.
At Modder
Cronje abandoned his lines, knowing that he had other and stronger
ones behind him. At Magersfontein a level plain lay behind the Boer
position, and to abandon it was to give up the game altogether.
Besides, why should he abandon it? He knew that he had hit us hard.
We had made absolutely no impression upon his defences. Is it
likely that he would have tamely given up all his advantages and
surrendered the fruits of his victory without a struggle? It is
enough to mourn a defeat without the additional agony of thinking
that a little more perseverance might have turned it into a
victory. The Boer position could only be taken by outflanking it,
and we were not numerous enough nor mobile enough to outflank it.
There lay the whole secret of our troubles, and no conjectures as
to what might under other circumstances have happened can alter it.
About half-past five the Boer guns, which had for some unexplained
reason been silent all day, opened upon the cavalry. Their
appearance was a signal for the general falling back of the centre,
and the last attempt to retrieve the day was abandoned.
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