Men Who Were Not Fighters Could Have Found No Place In
Smith-Dorrien's Brigade Or In The Charge Of Paardeberg.
While the infantry had been severely handled by the Boer riflemen,
our guns, the 76th, 81st, and 82nd field batteries, with the 65th
howitzer battery, had been shelling the river bed, though our
artillery fire proved as usual to have little effect against
scattered and hidden riflemen.
At least, however, it distracted
their attention, and made their fire upon the exposed infantry in
front of them less deadly. Now, as in Napoleon's time, the effect
of the guns is moral rather than material. About midday French's
horse-artillery guns came into action from the north. Smoke and
flames from the dongas told that some of our shells had fallen
among the wagons and their combustible stores.
The Boer line had proved itself to be unshakable on each face, but
at its ends the result of the action was to push them up, and to
shorten the stretch of the river which was held by them. On the
north bank Smith-Dorrien's brigade gained a considerable amount of
ground. At the other end of the position the Welsh, Yorkshire, and
Essex regiments of Stephenson's brigade did some splendid work, and
pushed the Boers for some distance down the river bank. A most
gallant but impossible charge was made by Colonel Hannay and a
number of mounted infantry against the northern bank. He was shot
with the majority of his followers. General Knox of the 12th
Brigade and General Macdonald of the Highlanders were among the
wounded. Colonel Aldworth of the Cornwalls died at the head of his
men. A bullet struck him dead as he whooped his West Countrymen on
to the charge. Eleven hundred killed and wounded testified to the
fire of our attack and the grimness of the Boer resistance. The
distribution of the losses among the various battalions - eighty
among the Canadians, ninety in the West Riding Regiment, one
hundred and twenty in the Seaforths, ninety in the Yorkshires,
seventy-six in the Argyll and Sutherlands, ninety-six in the Black
Watch, thirty-one in the Oxfordshires, fifty-six in the Cornwalls,
forty-six in the Shropshires - shows how universal was the
gallantry, and especially how well the Highland Brigade carried
itself. It is to be feared that they had to face, not only the fire
of the enemy, but also that of their own comrades on the further
side of the river. A great military authority has stated that it
takes many years for a regiment to recover its spirit and
steadiness if it has been heavily punished, and yet within two
months of Magersfontein we find the indomitable Highlanders taking
without flinching the very bloodiest share of this bloody day - and
this after a march of thirty miles with no pause before going into
action. A repulse it may have been, but they hear no name of which
they may be more proud upon the victory scroll of their colours.
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