On March 10th The Colonial Force
Approached Aliwal, The Frontier Town, And So Rapid Was The Advance
Of Major Henderson With Brabant's Horse That The Bridge At Aliwal
Was Seized Before The Enemy Could Blow It Up.
At the other side of
the bridge there was a strong stand made by the enemy, who had
several Krupp guns in position; but the light horse, in spite of a
loss of some twenty-five men killed and wounded, held on to the
heights which command the river.
A week or ten days were spent in
pacifying the large north-eastern portion of Cape Colony, to which
Aliwal acts as a centre. Barkly East, Herschel, Lady Grey, and
other villages were visited by small detachments of the colonial
horsemen, who pushed forward also into the south-eastern portion of
the Free State, passing through Rouxville, and so along the
Basutoland border as far as Wepener. The rebellion in the Colony
was now absolutely dead in the north-east, while in the north-west
in the Prieska and Carnarvon districts it was only kept alive by
the fact that the distances were so great and the rebel forces so
scattered that it was very difficult for our flying columns to
reach them. Lord Kitchener had returned from Paardeberg to attend
to this danger upon our line of communications, and by his
exertions all chance of its becoming serious soon passed. With a
considerable force of Yeomanry and Cavalry he passed swiftly over
the country, stamping out the smouldering embers.
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