Unfortunately, These Barbarian Campaigns, In
Which Liberties May Be Taken With Impunity, Leave An Evil
Tradition, As The French Have Found With Their Algerians.
Our own
close formations, our adherence to volley firing, and in this
instance the use of our artillery all seem to be legacies of our
savage wars.
Be the cause what it may, at an early stage of the
action Long's guns whirled forwards, outstripped the infantry
brigades upon their flanks, left the slow-moving naval guns with
their ox-teams behind them, and unlimbered within a thousand yards
of the enemy's trenches. From this position he opened fire upon
Fort Wylie, which was the centre of that portion of the Boer
position which faced him.
But his two unhappy batteries were destined not to turn the tide of
battle, as he had hoped, but rather to furnish the classic example
of the helplessness of artillery against modern rifle fire. Not
even Mercer's famous description of the effect of a flank fire upon
his troop of horse artillery at Waterloo could do justice to the
blizzard of lead which broke over the two doomed batteries. The
teams fell in heaps, some dead, some mutilated, and mutilating
others in their frantic struggles. One driver, crazed with horror,
sprang on a leader, cut the traces and tore madly off the field.
But a perfect discipline reigned among the vast majority of the
gunners, and the words of command and the laying and working of the
guns were all as methodical as at Okehampton.
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