Roberts Insisted On Being Left Where He
Fell, For Fear He Should Hamper The Others.
In the meanwhile Captain Reed, of the 7th Battery, had arrived with
two spare teams of horses, and another determined effort was made
under his leadership to save some of the guns.
But the fire was too
murderous. Two-thirds of his horses and half his men, including
himself, were struck down, and General Buller commanded that all
further attempts to reach the abandoned batteries should be given
up. Both he and General Clery had been slightly wounded, and there
were many operations over the whole field of action to engage their
attention. But making every allowance for the pressure of many
duties and for the confusion and turmoil of a great action, it does
seem one of the most inexplicable incidents in British military
history that the guns should ever have been permitted to fall into
the hands of the enemy. It is evident that if our gunners could not
live under the fire of the enemy it would be equally impossible for
the enemy to remove the guns under a fire from a couple of
battalions of our infantry. There were many regiments which had
hardly been engaged, and which could have been advanced for such a
purpose. The men of the Mounted Infantry actually volunteered for
this work, and none could have been more capable of carrying it
out. There was plenty of time also, for the guns were abandoned
about eleven and the Boers did not venture to seize them until
four.
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