And Yet The Column
Still Plodded Aimlessly On In Its Dense Formation, And If There
Were Any Attempt At Scouting Ahead And On The Flanks The Result
Showed How Ineffectively It Was Carried Out.
It was at a quarter
past four in the clear light of a South African morning that a
shot, and then another, and then a rolling crash of musketry, told
that we were to have one more rough lesson of the result of
neglecting the usual precautions of warfare.
High up on the face of
a steep line of hill the Boer riflemen lay hid, and from a short
range their fire scourged our exposed flank. The men appear to have
been chiefly colonial rebels, and not Boers of the backveld, and to
that happy chance it may be that the comparative harmlessness of
their fire was due. Even now, in spite of the surprise, the
situation might have been saved had the bewildered troops and their
harried officers known exactly what to do. It is easy to be wise
after the event, but it appears now that the only course that could
commend itself would be to extricate the troops from their
position, and then, if thought feasible, to plan an attack. Instead
of this a rush was made at the hillside, and the infantry made
their way some distance up it only to find that there were positive
ledges in front of them which could not be climbed. The advance was
at a dead stop, and the men lay down under the boulders for cover
from the hot fire which came from inaccessible marksmen above them.
Meanwhile the artillery had opened behind them, and their fire (not
for the first time in this campaign) was more deadly to their
friends than to their foes.
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