The fact that this battle, which was
called the Battle of Pieter's Hill, and the surrender of General
Cronje and his forces to Lord Roberts, both took place on the
anniversary of the battle of Majuba Hill, made the whole of Buller's
column feel that the ill memory of that disaster had been effaced.
II - THE RELIEF OF LADYSMITH
After the defeat of the Boers at the battle of Pieter's Hill there
were two things left for them to do. They could fall back across a
great plain which stretched from Pieter's Hill to Bulwana Mountain,
and there make their last stand against Buller and the Ladysmith
relief column, or they could abandon the siege of Ladysmith and slip
away after having held Buller at bay for three months.
Bulwana Mountain is shaped like a brick and blocks the valley in
which Ladysmith lies. The railroad track slips around one end of the
brick, and the Dundee trail around the other. It was on this
mountain that the Boers had placed their famous gun, Long Tom, with
which they began the bombardment of Ladysmith, and with which up to
the day before Ladysmith was relieved they had thrown three thousand
shells into that miserable town.
If the Boers on retreating from Pieter's Hill had fortified this
mountain with the purpose of holding off Buller for a still longer
time, they would have been under a fire from General White's
artillery in the town behind them and from Buller's naval guns in
front. Their position would not have been unlike that of Humpty
Dumpty on the wall, so they wisely adopted the only alternative and
slipped away. This was on Tuesday night, while the British were
hurrying up artillery to hold the hills they had taken that
afternoon.
By ten o'clock the following morning from the top of Pieter's Hill
you could still see the Boers moving off along the Dundee road. It
was an easy matter to follow them, for the dust hung above the trail
in a yellow cloud, like mist over a swamp. There were two opinions
as to whether they were halting at Bulwana or passing it, on their
way to Laing's Neck. If they were going only to Bulwana there was
the probability of two weeks' more fighting before they could be
dislodged. If they had avoided Bulwana, the way to Ladysmith was
open.
Lord Dundonald, who is in command of a brigade of irregular cavalry,
was scouting to the left of Bulwana, far in advance of our forces.
At sunset he arrived, without having encountered the Boers, at the
base of Bulwana.
