At The Risk Of
Tedium I Have Repeated The Units Of This Force, Because There Are
No Operations During The War, With The Exception Perhaps Of Those
Of The Rhodesian Column, Concerning Which It Is So Difficult To Get
A Clear Impression.
The fluctuating forces, the vast range of
country covered, and the petty farms which give their names to
positions, all tend to make the issue vague and the narrative
obscure.
The British still lay in a semicircle extending from
Slingersfontein upon the right to Kloof Camp upon the left, and the
general scheme of operations continued to be an enveloping movement
upon the right. General Clements commanded this section of the
forces, while the energetic Porter carried out the successive
advances. The lines had gradually stretched until they were nearly
fifty miles in length, and something of the obscurity in which the
operations have been left is due to the impossibility of any single
correspondent having a clear idea of what was occurring over so
extended a front.
On January 25th French sent Stephenson and Brabazon to push a
reconnaissance to the north of Colesberg, and found that the Boers
were making a fresh position at Rietfontein, nine miles nearer
their own border. A small action ensued, in which we lost ten or
twelve of the Wiltshire Regiment, and gained some knowledge of the
enemy's dispositions. For the remainder of the month the two forces
remained in a state of equilibrium, each keenly on its guard, and
neither strong enough to penetrate the lines of the other.
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