Three Brigades May Seem An
Imposing Force, But The Actual Numbers Did Not Exceed Two Strong
Regiments, Or About 1500 Sabres In All.
A wing of the Suffolk
Regiment went with them.
On October 13th Mahon's brigade met with a
sharp resistance, and lost ten killed and twenty-nine wounded. On
the 14th the force entered Carolina. On the 16th they lost six
killed and twenty wounded, and from the day that they started until
they reached Heidelberg on the 27th there was never a day that they
could shake themselves clear of their attendant snipers. The total
losses of the force were about ninety killed and wounded, but they
brought in sixty prisoners and a large quantity of cattle and
stores. The march had at least the effect of making it clear that
the passage of a column of troops encumbered with baggage through a
hostile country is an inefficient means for quelling a popular
resistance. Light and mobile parties acting from a central depot
were in future to be employed, with greater hopes of success.
Some appreciable proportion of the British losses during this phase
of the war arose from railway accidents caused by the persistent
tampering with the lines. In the first ten days of October there
were four such mishaps, in which two Sappers, twenty-three of the
Guards (Coldstreams), and eighteen of the 66th battery were killed
or wounded. On the last occasion, which occurred on October 10th
near Vlakfontein, the reinforcements who came to aid the sufferers
were themselves waylaid, and lost twenty, mostly of the Rifle
Brigade, killed, wounded, or prisoners.
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