But between the men on the
hillside and the somnambulists of the column, six hundred, about
equally divided between the Irish Rifles and the Northumberland
Fusiliers, had been left as prisoners. Two guns, too, had been lost
in the hurried retreat.
It is not for the historian - especially for a civilian
historian - to say a word unnecessarily to aggravate the pain of
that brave man who, having done all that personal courage could do,
was seen afterwards sobbing on the table of the waiting-room at
Molteno, and bewailing his 'poor men.' He had a disaster, but
Nelson had one at Teneriffe and Napoleon at Acre, and built their
great reputations in spite of it. But the one good thing of a
disaster is that by examining it we may learn to do better in the
future, and so it would indeed be a perilous thing if we agreed
that our reverses were not a fit subject for open and frank
discussion.
It is not to the detriment of an enterprise that it should be
daring and call for considerable physical effort on the part of
those who are engaged in it. On the contrary, the conception of
such plans is one of the signs of a great military mind. But in the
arranging of the details the same military mind should assiduously
occupy itself in foreseeing and preventing every unnecessary thing
which may make the execution of such a plan more difficult.
