Sixty-Six Casualties, Of
Which Nearly Half Were Killed, Were The Result Of This Action,
Which Seems To Have Depended, Like Most Of Our Reverses, Upon
Defective Scouting.
Buller, having called up his two remaining
divisions and having mended the railway behind him, proceeded now
to manoeuvre the Boers out of Laing's Nek exactly as he had
manoeuvred them out of the Biggarsberg.
At the end of May Hildyard
and Lyttelton were despatched in an eastern direction, as if there
were an intention of turning the pass from Utrecht.
It was on May 12th that Lord Roberts occupied Kroonstad, and he
halted there for eight days before he resumed his advance. At the
end of that time his railway had been repaired, and enough supplies
brought up to enable him to advance again without anxiety. The
country through which he passed swarmed with herds and flocks, but,
with as scrupulous a regard for the rights of property as
Wellington showed in the south of France, no hungry soldier was
allowed to take so much as a chicken as he passed. The punishment
for looting was prompt and stern. It is true that farms were burned
occasionally and the stock confiscated, but this was as a
punishment for some particular offence and not part of a system.
The limping Tommy looked askance at the fat geese which covered the
dam by the roadside, but it was as much as his life was worth to
allow his fingers to close round those tempting white necks. On
foul water and bully beef he tramped through a land of plenty.
Lord Roberts's eight days' halt was spent in consolidating the
general military situation. We have already shown how Buller had
crept upwards to the Natal Border. On the west Methuen reached
Hoopstad and Hunter Christiana, settling the country and collecting
arms as they went. Rundle in the south-east took possession of the
rich grain lands, and on May 21st entered Ladybrand. In front of
him lay that difficult hilly country about Senekal, Ficksburg, and
Bethlehem which was to delay him so long. Ian Hamilton was feeling
his way northwards to the right of the railway line, and for the
moment cleared the district between Lindley and Heilbron, passing
through both towns and causing Steyn to again change his capital,
which became Vrede, in the extreme north-east of the State. During
these operations Hamilton had the two formidable De Wet brothers in
front of him, and suffered nearly a hundred casualties in the
continual skirmishing which accompanied his advance. His right
flank and rear were continually attacked, and these signs of forces
outside our direct line of advance were full of menace for the
future.
On May 22nd the main army resumed its advance, moving forward
fifteen miles to Honing's Spruit. On the 23rd another march of
twenty miles over a fine rolling prairie brought them to Rhenoster
River. The enemy had made some preparations for a stand, but
Hamilton was near Heilbron upon their left and French was upon
their right flank.
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