With High Hopes Buller And His Men Sallied Out Upon Their
Adventure.
Dundonald's cavalry force pushed rapidly forwards, crossed the
Little Tugela, a tributary of the main river, at Springfield, and
Established themselves upon the hills which command the drift.
Dundonald largely exceeded his instructions in going so far, and
while we applaud his courage and judgment in doing so, we must
remember and be charitable to those less fortunate officers whose
private enterprise has ended in disaster and reproof. There can be
no doubt that the enemy intended to hold all this tract, and that
it was only the quickness of our initial movements which
forestalled them. Early in the morning a small party of the South
African Horse, under Lieutenant Carlisle, swam the broad river
under fire and brought back the ferry boat, an enterprise which was
fortunately bloodless, but which was most coolly planned and
gallantly carried out. The way was now open to our advance, and
could it have been carried out as rapidly as it had begun the Boers
might conceivably have been scattered before they could
concentrate. It was not the fault of the infantry that it was not
so. They were trudging, mud-spattered and jovial, at the very heels
of the horses, after a forced march which was one of the most
trying of the whole campaign. But an army of 20,000 men cannot be
conveyed over a river twenty miles from any base without elaborate
preparations being made to feed them. The roads were in such a
state that the wagons could hardly move, heavy rain had just
fallen, and every stream was swollen into a river; bullocks might
strain, and traction engines pant, and horses die, but by no human
means could the stores be kept up if the advance guard were allowed
to go at their own pace. And so, having ensured an ultimate
crossing of the river by the seizure of Mount Alice, the high hill
which commands the drift, the forces waited day after day, watching
in the distance the swarms of strenuous dark figures who dug and
hauled and worked upon the hillsides opposite, barring the road
which they would have to take. Far away on the horizon a little
shining point twinkled amid the purple haze, coming and going from
morning to night. It was the heliograph of Ladysmith, explaining
her troubles and calling for help, and from the heights of Mount
Alice an answering star of hope glimmered and shone, soothing,
encouraging, explaining, while the stern men of the veld dug
furiously at their trenches in between. 'We are coming! We are
coming!' cried Mount Alice. 'Over our bodies,' said the men with
the spades and mattocks.
On Thursday, January 12th, Dundonald seized the heights, on the
13th the ferry was taken and Lyttelton's Brigade came up to secure
that which the cavalry had gained. On the 14th the heavy naval guns
were brought up to cover the crossing. On the 15th Coke's Brigade
and other infantry concentrated at the drift. On the 16th the four
regiments of Lyttelton's Brigade went across, and then, and only
then, it began to be apparent that Buller's plan was a more deeply
laid one than had been thought, and that all this business of
Potgieter's Drift was really a demonstration in order to cover the
actual crossing which was to be effected at a ford named Trichard's
Drift, five miles to the westward. Thus, while Lyttelton's and
Coke's Brigades were ostentatiously attacking Potgieter's from in
front, three other brigades (Hart's, Woodgate's, and Hildyard's)
were marched rapidly on the night of the 16th to the real place of
crossing, to which Dundonald's cavalry had already ridden. There,
on the 17th, a pontoon bridge had been erected, and a strong force
was thrown over in such a way as to turn the right of the trenches
in front of Potgieter's. It was admirably planned and excellently
carried out, certainly the most strategic movement, if there could
he said to have been any strategic movement upon the British side,
in the campaign up to that date. On the 18th the infantry, the
cavalry, and most of the guns were safely across without loss of
life. The Boers, however, still retained their formidable internal
lines, and the only result of a change of position seemed to be to
put them to the trouble of building a new series of those terrible
entrenchments at which they had become such experts. After all the
combinations the British were, it is true, upon the right side of
the river, but they were considerably further from Ladysmith than
when they started. There are times, however, when twenty miles are
less than fourteen, and it was hoped that this might prove to be
among them. But the first step was the most serious one, for right
across their front lay the Boer position upon the edge of a lofty
plateau, with the high peak of Spion Kop forming the left corner of
it. If once that main ridge could be captured or commanded, it
would carry them halfway to the goal. It was for that essential
line of hills that two of the most dogged races upon earth were
about to contend. An immediate advance might have secured the
position at once, but, for some reason which is inexplicable, an
aimless march to the left was followed by a retirement to the
original position of Warren's division, and so two invaluable days
were wasted. We have the positive assurance of Commandant Edwards,
who was Chief of Staff to General Botha, that a vigorous turning
movement upon the left would at this time have completely
outflanked the Boer position and opened a way to Ladysmith.
A small success, the more welcome for its rarity, came to the
British arms on this first day. Dundonald's men had been thrown out
to cover the left of the infantry advance and to feel for the right
of the Boer position.
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