The
Force With Which Paget Started Upon This Enterprise Was Not A Very
Formidable One.
He had for mounted troops some Queensland, South
Australian, New Zealand, and Tasmanian Bushmen, together with the
York, Montgomery, and Warwick Yeomanry.
His infantry were the 1st
West Riding regiment and four companies of the Munsters. His guns
were the 7th and 38th batteries, with two naval quick-firing
twelve-pounders and some smaller pieces. The total could not have
exceeded some two thousand men. Here, as at other times, it is
noticeable that in spite of the two hundred thousand soldiers whom
the British kept in the field, the lines of communication absorbed
so many that at the actual point of contact they were seldom
superior and often inferior in numbers to the enemy. The opening of
the Natal and Delagoa lines though valuable in many ways, had been
an additional drain. Where every culvert needs its picket and every
bridge its company, the guardianship of many hundreds of miles of
rail is no light matter.
In the early morning of November 29th Paget's men came in contact
with the enemy, who were in some force upon an admirable position.
A ridge for their centre, a flanking kopje for their cross fire,
and a grass glacis for the approach - it was an ideal Boer
battlefield. The colonials and the yeomanry under Plumer on the
left, and Hickman on the right, pushed in upon them, until it was
evident that they meant to hold their ground.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 621 of 842
Words from 166218 to 166468
of 225456
