Early In December Lord Roberts Also Left The Country, To Take Over
The Duties Of Commander-In-Chief.
High as his reputation stood
when, in January, he landed at Cape Town, it is safe to say that it
had been immensely enhanced when, ten months later, he saw from the
quarter-deck of the 'Canada' the Table Mountain growing dimmer in
the distance.
He found a series of disconnected operations, in
which we were uniformly worsted. He speedily converted them into a
series of connected operations in which we were almost uniformly
successful. Proceeding to the front at the beginning of February,
within a fortnight he had relieved Kimberley, within a month he had
destroyed Cronje's force, and within six weeks he was in
Bloemfontein. Then, after a six weeks' halt which could not
possibly have been shortened, he made another of his tiger leaps,
and within a month had occupied Johannesburg and Pretoria. From
that moment the issue of the campaign was finally settled, and
though a third leap was needed, which carried him to Komatipoort,
and though brave and obstinate men might still struggle against
their destiny, he had done what was essential, and the rest,
however difficult, was only the detail of the campaign. A kindly
gentleman, as well as a great soldier, his nature revolted from all
harshness, and a worse man might have been a better leader in the
last hopeless phases of the war. He remembered, no doubt, how Grant
had given Lee's army their horses, but Lee at the time had been
thoroughly beaten, and his men had laid down their arms.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 643 of 842
Words from 172063 to 172331
of 225456
