Lord Roberts Never Showed His Self-Command And Fixed Purpose More
Clearly Than During His Six Weeks' Halt At Bloemfontein.
De Wet,
the most enterprising and aggressive of the Boer commanders, was
attacking his eastern posts and menacing his line of
communications.
A fussy or nervous general would have harassed his
men and worn out his horses by endeavouring to pursue a number of
will-of-the-wisp commandos. Roberts contented himself by building
up his strength at the capital, and by spreading nearly twenty
thousand men along his line of rail from Bloemfontein to Bethulie.
When the time came he would strike, but until then he rested. His
army was not only being rehorsed and reshod, but in some respects
was being reorganised. One powerful weapon which was forged during
those weeks was the collection of the mounted infantry of the
central army into one division, which was placed under the command
of Ian Hamilton, with Hutton and Ridley as brigadiers. Hutton's
brigade contained the Canadians, New South Wales men, West
Australians, Queenslanders, New Zealanders, Victorians, South
Australians, and Tasmanians, with four battalions of Imperial
Mounted Infantry, and several light batteries. Ridley's brigade
contained the South African irregular regiments of cavalry, with
some imperial troops. The strength of the whole division came to
over ten thousand rifles, and in its ranks there rode the hardiest
and best from every corner of the earth over which the old flag is
flying.
A word as to the general distribution of the troops at this instant
while Roberts was gathering himself for his spring. Eleven
divisions of infantry were in the field. Of these the 1st
(Methuen's) and half the 10th (Hunter's) were at Kimberley, forming
really the hundred-mile-distant left wing of Lord Roberts's army.
On that side also was a considerable force of Yeomanry, as General
Villebois discovered. In the centre with Roberts was the 6th
division (Kelly-Kenny's) at Bloemfontein, the 7th (Tucker's) at
Karee, twenty miles north, the 9th (Colvile's) and the 11th
(Pole-Carew's) near Bloemfontein. French's cavalry division was
also in the centre. As one descended the line towards the Cape one
came on the 3rd division (Chermside's, late Gatacre's), which had
now moved up to Reddersberg, and then, further south, the 8th
(Rundle's), near Rouxville. To the south and east was the other
half of Hunter's division (Hart's brigade), and Brabant's Colonial
division, half of which was shut up in Wepener and the rest at
Aliwal. These were the troops operating in the Free State, with the
addition of the division of mounted infantry in process of
formation.
There remained the three divisions in Natal, the 2nd (Clery's), the
4th (Lyttelton's), and the 5th (Hildyard's, late Warren's), with
the cavalry brigades of Burn-Murdoch, Dundonald, and Brocklehurst.
These, with numerous militia and unbrigaded regiments along the
lines of communication, formed the British army in South Africa. At
Mafeking some 900 irregulars stood at bay, with another force about
as large under Plumer a little to the north, endeavouring to
relieve them.
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