However, these personal controversies may be suffered to
remain in that pigeon-hole from which they should never have been
drawn.
On account of the crowding of four thousand troops into a space
which might have afforded tolerable cover for five hundred the
losses in the action were very heavy, not fewer than fifteen
hundred being killed, wounded, or missing, the proportion of killed
being, on account of the shell fire, abnormally high. The
Lancashire Fusiliers were the heaviest sufferers, and their Colonel
Blomfield was wounded and fell into the hands of the enemy. The
Royal Lancasters also lost heavily. Thorneycroft's had 80 men hit
out of 180 engaged. The Imperial Light Infantry, a raw corps of
Rand refugees who were enduring their baptism of fire, lost 130
men. In officers the losses were particularly heavy, 60 being
killed or wounded. The Boer returns show some 50 killed and 150
wounded, which may not be far from the truth. Without the shell
fire the British losses might not have been much more.
General Buller had lost nearly two thousand men since he had
crossed the Tugela, and his purpose was still unfulfilled. Should
he risk the loss of a large part of his force in storming the
ridges in front of him, or should he recross the river and try for
an easier route elsewhere?
