There Was Probably No Very
Great Difference In Numbers Between The Two Little Armies, But The
Boers Now, As Always, Were Working Upon Internal Lines.
The
monotony of the operations was broken by the remarkable feat of the
Essex Regiment, which succeeded by hawsers
And good-will in getting
two 15-pounder guns of the 4th Field Battery on to the top of
Coleskop, a hill which rises several hundred feet from the plain
and is so precipitous that it is no small task for an unhampered
man to climb it. From the summit a fire, which for some days could
not be localised by the Boers, was opened upon their laagers, which
had to be shifted in consequence. This energetic action upon the
part of our gunners may be set off against those other examples
where commanders of batteries have shown that they had not yet
appreciated what strong tackle and stout arms can accomplish. The
guns upon Coleskop not only dominated all the smaller kopjes for a
range of 9000 yards, but completely commanded the town of
Colesberg, which could not however, for humanitarian and political
reasons, be shelled.
By gradual reinforcements the force under French had by the end of
January attained the respectable figure of ten thousand men, strung
over a large extent of country. His infantry consisted of the 2nd
Berkshires, 1st Royal Irish, 2nd Wiltshires, 2nd Worcesters, 1st
Essex, and 1st Yorkshires; his cavalry, of the 10th Hussars, the
6th Dragoon Guards, the Inniskillings, the New Zealanders, the N.S.
W. Lancers, some Rimington Guides, and the composite Household
Regiment; his artillery, the R and O batteries of R.H.A., the 4th
R.F.A., and a section of the 37th Howitzer Battery.
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