In Order To Draw The Boer Attention Away From The Thunderbolt Which
Was About To Fall Upon Their Left Flank, A Strong Demonstration
Ending In A Brisk Action Was Made Early In February Upon The
Extreme Right Of Cronje's Position.
The force, consisting of the
Highland Brigade, two squadrons of the 9th Lancers, No.
7 Co. Royal
Engineers, and the 62nd Battery, was under the command of the
famous Hector Macdonald. 'Fighting Mac' as he was called by his
men, had joined his regiment as a private, and had worked through
the grades of corporal, sergeant, captain, major, and colonel,
until now, still in the prime of his manhood, he found himself
riding at the head of a brigade. A bony, craggy Scotsman, with a
square fighting head and a bulldog jaw, he had conquered the
exclusiveness and routine of the British service by the same dogged
qualities which made him formidable to Dervish and to Boer. With a
cool brain, a steady nerve, and a proud heart, he is an ideal
leader of infantry, and those who saw him manoeuvre his brigade in
the crisis of the battle of Omdurman speak of it as the one great
memory which they carried back from the engagement. On the field of
battle he turns to the speech of his childhood, the jagged,
rasping, homely words which brace the nerves of the northern
soldier. This was the man who had come from India to take the place
of poor Wauchope, and to put fresh heart into the gallant but
sorely stricken brigade.
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