It Began With A Heavy Shell-Fire And With A
Demonstration Of Rifle-Fire From Every Side, Which Had For Its
Object The Prevention Of Reinforcements For The True Point Of
Danger, Which Again Was Caesar's Camp At The South.
It is evident
that the Boers had from the beginning made up their minds that here
lay the key of the position, as the two serious attacks - that of
November 9th and that of January 6th - were directed upon this
point.
The Manchesters at Caesar's Camp had been reinforced by the 1st
battalion 60th Rifles, who held the prolongation of the same ridge,
which is called Waggon Hill. With the dawn it was found that the
Boer riflemen were within eight hundred yards, and from then till
evening a constant fire was maintained upon the hill. The Boer,
however, save when the odds are all in his favour, is not, in spite
of his considerable personal bravery, at his best in attack. His
racial traditions, depending upon the necessity for economy of
human life, are all opposed to it. As a consequence two regiments
well posted were able to hold them off all day with a loss which
did not exceed thirty killed and wounded, while the enemy, exposed
to the shrapnel of the 42nd battery, as well as the rifle-fire of
the infantry, must have suffered very much more severely. The
result of the action was a well-grounded belief that in daylight
there was very little chance of the Boers being able to carry the
lines.
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