By A Long Succession Of Captures Their Forces Were Much
Reduced In Numbers.
They were isolated from the world, and had no
means save precarious smuggling of renewing their supplies of
ammunition.
It was known also that their mobility, which had been
their great strength, was decreasing, and that in spite of their
admirable horsemastership their supply of remounts was becoming
exhausted. An increasing number of the burghers were volunteering
for service against their own people, and it was found that all
fears as to this delicate experiment were misplaced, and that in
the whole army there were no keener and more loyal soldiers.
The chief factor, however, in bringing the Boers to their knees was
the elaborate and wonderful blockhouse system, which had been
strung across the whole of the enemy's country. The original
blockhouses had been far apart, and were a hindrance and an
annoyance rather than an absolute barrier to the burghers. The new
models, however, were only six hundred yards apart, and were
connected by such impenetrable strands of wire that a Boer pithily
described it by saying that if one's hat blew over the line
anywhere between Ermelo and Standerton one had to walk round Ermelo
to fetch it. Use was made of such barriers by the Spaniards in
Cuba, but an application of them on such a scale over such an
enormous tract of country is one of the curiosities of warfare, and
will remain one of several novelties which will make the South
African campaign for ever interesting to students of military
history.
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