The Rooineks Had Come Back After Many Days To Try Again.
A
halt was called, for the ten days' supplies which had been taken
with the troops were exhausted, and it was necessary to wait until
the railway should be repaired.
This gave time for Hildyard's 5th
Division and Lyttelton's 4th Division to close up on Clery's 2nd
Division, which with Dundonald's cavalry had formed our vanguard
throughout. The only losses of any consequence during this fine
march fell upon a single squadron of Bethune's mounted infantry,
which being thrown out in the direction of Vryheid, in order to
make sure that our flank was clear, fell into an ambuscade and was
almost annihilated by a close-range fire. Sixty-six casualties, of
which nearly half were killed, were the result of this action,
which seems to have depended, like most of our reverses, upon
defective scouting. Buller, having called up his two remaining
divisions and having mended the railway behind him, proceeded now
to manoeuvre the Boers out of Laing's Nek exactly as he had
manoeuvred them out of the Biggarsberg. At the end of May Hildyard
and Lyttelton were despatched in an eastern direction, as if there
were an intention of turning the pass from Utrecht.
It was on May 12th that Lord Roberts occupied Kroonstad, and he
halted there for eight days before he resumed his advance. At the
end of that time his railway had been repaired, and enough supplies
brought up to enable him to advance again without anxiety.
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