In This Case A Position Which The
Boers Had Been Preparing For Months, Scored With Trenches And
Topped By Heavy Artillery, Had Been Rendered Untenable By A Clever
Flank Movement, The Total Casualties In The Whole Affair Being Less
Than Two Hundred Killed And Wounded.
Natal was cleared of the
invader, Buller's foot was on the high plateau of the Transvaal,
and Roberts could count on twenty thousand good men coming up to
him from the south-east.
More important than all, the Natal railway
was being brought up, and soon the central British Army would
depend upon Durban instead of Cape Town for its supplies - a saving
of nearly two-thirds of the distance. The fugitive Boers made
northwards in the Middelburg direction, while Buller advanced to
Standerton, which town he continued to occupy until Lord Roberts
could send a force down through Heidelberg to join hands with him.
Such was the position of the Natal Field Force at the end of June.
From the west and the south-west British forces were also
converging upon the capital. The indomitable Baden-Powell sought
for rest and change of scene after his prolonged trial by harrying
the Boers out of Zeerust and Rustenburg. The forces of Hunter and
of Mahon converged upon Potchefstroom, from which, after settling
that district, they could be conveyed by rail to Krugersdorp and
Johannesburg.
Before briefly recounting the series of events which took place
upon the line of communications, the narrative must return to Lord
Roberts at Pretoria, and describe the operations which followed his
occupation of that city. In leaving the undefeated forces of the
Free State behind him, the British General had unquestionably run a
grave risk, and was well aware that his railway communication was
in danger of being cut. By the rapidity of his movements he
succeeded in gaining the enemy's capital before that which he had
foreseen came to pass; but if Botha had held him at Pretoria while
De Wet struck at him behind, the situation would have been a
serious one. Having once attained his main object, Roberts could
receive with equanimity the expected news that De Wet with a mobile
force of less than two thousand men had, on June 7th, cut the line
at Roodeval to the north of Kroonstad. Both rail and telegraph were
destroyed, and for a few days the army was isolated. Fortunately
there were enough supplies to go on with, and immediate steps were
taken to drive away the intruder, though, like a mosquito, he was
brushed from one place only to settle upon another.
Leaving others to restore his broken communications, Lord Roberts
turned his attention once more to Botha, who still retained ten or
fifteen thousand men under his command. The President had fled from
Pretoria with a large sum of money, estimated at over two millions
sterling, and was known to be living in a saloon railway carriage,
which had been transformed into a seat of government even more
mobile than that of President Steyn.
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