Behind the line of hills which had been taken there extended a
great plain as far as Bulwana - that evil neighbour who had wrought
such harm upon Ladysmith.
More than half of the Pieters position
had fallen into Buller's hands on the 27th, and the remainder had
become untenable. The Boers had lost some five hundred in killed,
wounded, and prisoners. [Footnote: Accurate figures will probably
never be obtained, but a well-known Boer in Pretoria informed me
that Pieters was the most expensive fight to them of the whole war.
] It seemed to the British General and his men that one more action
would bring them safely into Ladysmith.
But here they miscalculated, and so often have we miscalculated on
the optimistic side in this campaign that it is pleasing to find
for once that our hopes were less than the reality. The Boers had
been beaten - fairly beaten and disheartened. It will always be a
subject for conjecture whether they were so entirely on the
strength of the Natal campaign, or whether the news of the Cronje
disaster from the western side had warned them that they must draw
in upon the east. For my own part I believe that the honour lies
with the gallant men of Natal, and that, moving on these lines,
they would, Cronje or no Cronje, have forced their way in triumph
to Ladysmith.
And now the long-drawn story draws to a swift close. Cautiously
feeling their way with a fringe of horse, the British pushed over
the great plain, delayed here and there by the crackle of musketry,
but finding always that the obstacle gave way and vanished as they
approached it. At last it seemed clear to Dundonald that there
really was no barrier between his horsemen and the beleaguered
city. With a squadron of Imperial Light Horse and a squadron of
Natal Carabineers he rode on until, in the gathering twilight, the
Ladysmith picket challenged the approaching cavalry, and the
gallant town was saved.
It is hard to say which had shown the greater endurance, the
rescued or their rescuers. The town, indefensible, lurking in a
hollow under commanding hills, had held out for 118 days. They had
endured two assaults and an incessant bombardment, to which,
towards the end, owing to the failure of heavy ammunition, they
were unable to make any adequate reply. It was calculated that 16,
000 shells had fallen within the town. In two successful sorties
they had destroyed three of the enemy's heavy guns. They had been
pressed by hunger, horseflesh was already running short, and they
had been decimated by disease. More than 2000 cases of enteric and
dysentery had been in hospital at one time, and the total number of
admissions had been nearly as great as the total number of the
garrison. One-tenth of the men had actually died of wounds or
disease. Ragged, bootless, and emaciated, there still lurked in the
gaunt soldiers the martial spirit of warriors. On the day after
their relief 2000 of them set forth to pursue the Boers. One who
helped to lead them has left it on record that the most piteous
sight that he has ever seen was these wasted men, stooping under
their rifles and gasping with the pressure of their accoutrements,
as they staggered after their retreating enemy. A Verestschagen
might find a subject these 2000 indomitable men with their
emaciated horses pursuing a formidable foe. It is God's mercy they
failed to overtake them.
If the record of the besieged force was great, that of the
relieving army was no less so. Through the blackest depths of
despondency and failure they had struggled to absolute success. At
Colenso they had lost 1200 men, at Spion Kop 1700, at Vaalkranz
400, and now, in this last long-drawn effort, 1600 more. Their
total losses were over 5000 men, more than 20 per cent of the whole
army. Some particular regiments had suffered horribly. The Dublin
and Inniskilling Fusiliers headed the roll of honour with only five
officers and 40 per cent of the men left standing. Next to them the
Lancashire Fusiliers and the Royal Lancasters had been the hardest
hit. It speaks well for Buller's power of winning and holding the
confidence of his men that in the face of repulse after repulse the
soldiers still went into battle as steadily as ever under his
command.
On March 3rd Buller's force entered Ladysmith in state between the
lines of the defenders. For their heroism the Dublin Fusiliers were
put in the van of the procession, and it is told how, as the
soldiers who lined the streets saw the five officers and small
clump of men, the remains of what had been a strong battalion,
realising, for the first time perhaps, what their relief had cost,
many sobbed like children. With cheer after cheer the stream of
brave men flowed for hours between banks formed by men as brave.
But for the purposes of war the garrison was useless. A month of
rest and food would be necessary before they could be ready to take
the field once more.
So the riddle of the Tugela had at last been solved. Even now, with
all the light which has been shed upon the matter, it is hard to
apportion praise and blame. To the cheerful optimism of Symons must
be laid some of the blame of the original entanglement; but man is
mortal, and he laid down his life for his mistake. White, who had
been but a week in the country, could not, if he would, alter the
main facts of the military situation. He did his best, committed
one or two errors, did brilliantly on one or two points, and
finally conducted the defence with a tenacity and a gallantry which
are above all praise. It did not, fortunately, develop into an
absolutely desperate affair, like Massena's defence of Genoa, but a
few more weeks would have made it a military tragedy.
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