The Boers Excelled All Their Previous Feats In The
Handling Of Artillery By Dragging Two Guns Up To The Summit Of The
Lofty Jammersberg, Whence They Fired Down Upon The Camp.
Nearly all
the horses were killed and three hundred of the troopers were hit,
a number which is double
That of the official return, for the
simple reason that the spirit of the force was so high that only
those who were very severely wounded reported themselves as wounded
at all. None but the serious cases ever reached the hands of Dr.
Faskally, who did admirable work with very slender resources. How
many the enemy lost can never be certainly known, but as they
pushed home several attacks it is impossible to imagine that their
losses were less than those of the victorious defenders. At the end
of seventeen days of mud and blood the brave irregulars saw an
empty laager and abandoned trenches. Their own resistance and the
advance of Brabant to their rescue had caused a hasty retreat of
the enemy. Wepener, Mafeking, Kimberley, the taking of the first
guns at Ladysmith, the deeds of the Imperial Light Horse - it cannot
be denied that our irregular South African forces have a brilliant
record for the war. They are associated with many successes and
with few disasters. Their fine record cannot, I think, be fairly
ascribed to any greater hardihood which one portion of our race has
when compared with another, for a South African must admit that in
the best colonial corps at least half the men were Britons of
Britain.
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