Where Were The Clouds Of Skirmishers
Which Should Precede Such An Advance?
The recent examples in the
field and the teachings of the text-books were equally set at
naught, as they had been, and were to be, so often in this
campaign.
There may be a science of war in the lecture-rooms at
Camberley, but very little of it found its way to the veld. The
slogging valour of the private, the careless dash of the regimental
officer - these were our military assets - but seldom the care and
foresight of our commanders. It is a thankless task to make such
comments, but the one great lesson of the war has been that the
army is too vital a thing to fall into the hands of a caste, and
that it is a national duty for every man to speak fearlessly and
freely what he believes to be the truth.
Passing from the misadventure of the 5th Brigade we come as we move
from left to right upon the 4th, or Lyttelton's Brigade, which was
instructed not to attack itself but to support the attack on either
side of it. With the help of the naval guns it did what it could to
extricate and cover the retreat of the Irishmen, but it could play
no very important part in the action, and its losses were
insignificant. On its right in turn Hildyard's English Brigade had
developed its attack upon Colenso and the bridge. The regiments
under Hildyard's lead were the 2nd West Surrey, the 2nd Devons
(whose first battalion was doing so well with the Ladysmith force),
the East Surreys, and the West Yorkshires.
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