Kitchener the
organiser, French the cavalry leader - to these two men, second only
to their chief, are the results of the operations due. Henderson,
the most capable head of Intelligence, and Richardson, who under
all difficulties fed the army, may each claim his share in the
success.
CHAPTER 20.
ROBERTS'S ADVANCE ON BLOEMFONTEIN.
The surrender of Cronje had taken place on February 27th,
obliterating for ever the triumphant memories which the Boers had
for twenty years associated with that date. A halt was necessary to
provide food for the hungry troops, and above all to enable the
cavalry horses to pick up. The supply of forage had been most
inadequate, and the beasts had not yet learned to find a living
from the dry withered herbage of the veld. [Footnote: A battery
which turned out its horses to graze found that the puzzled
creatures simply galloped about the plain, and could only be
reassembled by blowing the call which they associated with feeding,
when they rushed back and waited in lines for their nosebags to be
put on.] In addition to this, they had been worked most desperately
during the fortnight which had elapsed. Lord Roberts waited
therefore at Osfontein, which is a farmhouse close to Paardeberg,
until his cavalry were fit for an advance. On March 6th he began
his march for Bloemfontein.
The force which had been hovering to the south and east of him
during the Paardeberg operations had meanwhile been reinforced from
Colesberg and from Ladysmith until it had attained considerable
proportions. This army, under the leadership of De Wet, had taken
up a strong position a few miles to the east, covering a
considerable range of kopjes. On March 3rd a reconnaissance was
made of it, in which some of our guns were engaged; but it was not
until three days later that the army advanced with the intention of
turning or forcing it. In the meantime reinforcements had been
arriving in the British camp, derived partly from the regiments
which had been employed at other points during these operations,
and partly from newcomers from the outer Empire. The Guards came up
from Klip Drift, the City Imperial Volunteers, the Australian
Mounted Infantry, the Burmese Mounted Infantry and a detachment of
light horse from Ceylon helped to form this strange invading army
which was drawn from five continents and yet had no alien in its
ranks.
The position which the enemy had taken up at Poplars Grove (so
called from a group of poplars round a farmhouse in the centre of
their position) extended across the Modder River and was buttressed
on either side by well-marked hills, with intermittent kopjes
between.
