The military situation at the time of the occupation of Pretoria
was roughly as follows. Lord Roberts with some thirty thousand men
was in possession of the capital, but had left his long line of
communications very imperfectly guarded behind him. On the flank of
this line of communications, in the eastern and north-eastern
corner of the Free State, was an energetic force of unconquered
Freestaters who had rallied round President Steyn. They were some
eight or ten thousand in number, well horsed, with a fair number of
guns, under the able leadership of De Wet, Prinsloo, and Olivier.
Above all, they had a splendid position, mountainous and broken,
from which, as from a fortress, they could make excursions to the
south or west. This army included the commandos of Ficksburg,
Senekal, and Harrismith, with all the broken and desperate men from
other districts who had left their farms and fled to the mountains.
It was held in check as a united force by Rundle's Division and the
Colonial Division on the south, while Colvile, and afterwards
Methuen, endeavoured to pen them in on the west. The task was a
hard one, however, and though Rundle succeeded in holding his line
intact, it appeared to be impossible in that wide country to coop
up altogether an enemy so mobile. A strange game of hide-and-seek
ensued, in which De Wet, who led the Boer raids, was able again and
again to strike our line of rails and to get back without serious
loss.
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