Far Away On The Horizon A Little
Shining Point Twinkled Amid The Purple Haze, Coming And Going From
Morning To Night.
It was the heliograph of Ladysmith, explaining
her troubles and calling for help, and from the heights of Mount
Alice an answering star of hope glimmered and shone, soothing,
encouraging, explaining, while the stern men of the veld dug
furiously at their trenches in between.
'We are coming! We are
coming!' cried Mount Alice. 'Over our bodies,' said the men with
the spades and mattocks.
On Thursday, January 12th, Dundonald seized the heights, on the
13th the ferry was taken and Lyttelton's Brigade came up to secure
that which the cavalry had gained. On the 14th the heavy naval guns
were brought up to cover the crossing. On the 15th Coke's Brigade
and other infantry concentrated at the drift. On the 16th the four
regiments of Lyttelton's Brigade went across, and then, and only
then, it began to be apparent that Buller's plan was a more deeply
laid one than had been thought, and that all this business of
Potgieter's Drift was really a demonstration in order to cover the
actual crossing which was to be effected at a ford named Trichard's
Drift, five miles to the westward. Thus, while Lyttelton's and
Coke's Brigades were ostentatiously attacking Potgieter's from in
front, three other brigades (Hart's, Woodgate's, and Hildyard's)
were marched rapidly on the night of the 16th to the real place of
crossing, to which Dundonald's cavalry had already ridden.
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