Since I finished my last letter, on February the 21st, I have found no time to sit down to write until now, because we have passed through a period of ceaseless struggle and emotion, and I have been seeing so many things that I could not pause to record anything. It has been as if a painter prepared himself to paint some portrait, but was so fascinated by the beauty of his model that he could not turn his eyes from her face to the canvas; only that the spectacles which have held me have not always been beautiful. Now the great event is over, the long and bloody1 conflict around Ladysmith has been gloriously decided2, and I take a few days' leisure on the good ship Maine, where everyone is busy getting well, to think about it all and set down some things on paper.
First and foremost there was the Monte Cristo ridge3, that we had captured on the 18th, which gave us the Green Hill, Hlangwani Hill, and, when we chose to take it, the whole of the Hlangwani plateau. The Monte Cristo ridge is the centrepiece to the whole of this battle. As soon as we had won it I telegraphed to the Morning Post that now at last success was a distinct possibility. With this important feature in our possession it was certain that we held the key to Ladysmith, and though we might fumble4 a little with the lock, sooner or later, barring the accidents of war, we should open the door.
As Monte Cristo had given Sir Redvers Buller Hlangwani, so Hlangwani rendered the whole of the western section (the eastern section was already in our hands) of the Colenso position untenable by the enemy, and they, finding themselves commanded and enfiladed, forthwith evacuated6 it. On the 19th General Buller made good his position on Green Hill, occupied Hlangwani with Barton's Brigade, built or improved his roads and communications from Hussar Hill across the Gomba Valley, and brought up his heavy guns. The Boers, who were mostly on the other side of the river, resisted stubbornly with artillery7, with their Vickers-Maxim guns and the fire of skirmishers, so that we suffered some slight loss, but could not be said to have wasted the day. On the 20th the south side of the Tugela was entirely8 cleared of the enemy, who retired9 across the bridge they had built, and, moreover, a heavy battery was established on the spurs of Hlangwani to drive them out of Colenso. In the afternoon Hart's Brigade advanced from Chieveley, and his leading-battalion10, under Major Stuart-Wortley, occupied Colenso village without any resistance.
The question now arose—Where should the river be crossed? Sir Redvers Buller possessed11 the whole of the Hlangwani plateau, which, as the reader may perceive by looking at the map opposite p. 448, fills up the re-entrant angle made opposite Pieters by the Tugela after it leaves Colenso. From this Hlangwani plateau he could either cross the river where it ran north and south or where it ran east and west. Sir Redvers Buller determined12 to cross the former reach beyond Colenso village. To do this he had to let go his hold on the Monte Cristo ridge and resign all the advantages which its possession had given him, and had besides to descend13 into the low ground, where his army must be cramped14 between the high hills on its left and the river on its right.
There was, of course, something to be said for the other plan, which was advocated strongly by Sir Charles Warren. The crossing, it was urged, was absolutely safe, being commanded on all sides by our guns, and the enemy could make no opposition15 except with artillery. Moreover, the army would get on its line of railway and could 'advance along the railroad.' This last was a purely16 imaginary advantage, to be sure, because the railway had no rolling-stock, and was disconnected from the rest of the line by the destruction of the Tugela bridge. But what weighed with the Commander-in-Chief much more than the representations of his lieutenant17 was the accumulating evidence that the enemy were in full retreat. The Intelligence reports all pointed18 to this situation. Boers had ridden off in all directions. Waggons19 were seen trekking20 along every road to the north and west. The camps between us and Ladysmith began to break up. Everyone said, 'This is the result of Lord Roberts's advance: the Boers find themselves now too weak to hold us off. They have raised the siege.'
But this conclusion proved false in the sense that it was premature21. Undoubtedly22 the Boers had been reduced in strength by about 5,000 men, who had been sent into the Free State for its defence. Until the Monte Cristo ridge was lost to them they deemed themselves quite strong enough to maintain the siege. When, however, this position was captured, the situation was revolutionised. They saw that we had found their flank, and thoroughly23 appreciated the significance and value of the long high wedge of ground, which cut right across the left of their positions, and seemed to stretch away almost to Bulwana Mountain. They knew perfectly24 well that if we advanced by our right along the line of this ridge, which they called 'the Bush Kop,' supporting ourselves by it as a man might rest his hand on a balustrade, we could turn their Pieters position just as we had already turned their entrenchments at Colenso.
Therein lay the true reason of their retirement25, and in attributing it either to Lord Roberts's operations or to the beating we had given them on the 18th we made a mistake, which was not repaired until much blood had been shed.
I draw a rough diagram to assist the reader who will take the trouble to study the map. It is only drawn26 from memory, and its object is to show how completely the Monte Cristo ridge turned both the line of entrenchments through Colenso and that before Pieters. But no diagrams, however exaggerated, would convince so well as would the actual ground.
Plan of the Colenso Position
Plan of the Colenso Position
In the belief, however, that the enemy were in retreat the General resolved to cross the river at A by a pontoon bridge and follow the railway line. On the 21st, therefore, he moved his army westward27 across the Hlangwani plateau, threw his bridge, and during the afternoon passed his two leading infantry28 brigades over it. As soon as the Boers perceived that he had chosen this line of advance their hopes revived. 'Oh,' we may imagine them saying, 'if you propose to go that way, things are not so bad after all.' So they returned to the number of about nine thousand burghers, and manned the trenches29 of the Pieters position, with the result that Wynne's Lancashire Brigade, which was the first to cross, soon found itself engaged in a sharp action among the low-kopjes, and suffered a hundred and fifty casualties, including its General, before dark. Musketry fire was continuous throughout the night. The 1st Cavalry30 Brigade had been brought in from Springfield on the 20th, and on the morning of the 22nd both the Regular and Irregular Cavalry were to have crossed the river. We accordingly marched from our camp at the neck between Cingolo and Monte Cristo and met the 1st Cavalry Brigade, which had come from Chievejey, at the pontoon bridge. A brisk action was crackling away beyond the river, and it looked as if the ground scarcely admitted of our intervention31. Indeed, we had hardly arrived when a Staff Officer came up, and brought us orders to camp near Hlangwani Hill, as we should not cross that day.
Presently I talked to the Staff Officer, who chanced to be a friend of mine, and chanced, besides, to be a man with a capacity for sustained thought, an eye for country, and some imagination. He said: 'I don't like the situation; there are more of them than we expected. We have come down off our high ground. We have taken all the big guns off the big hills. We are getting ourselves cramped up among these kopjes in the valley of the Tugela. It will be like being in the Coliseum and shot at by every row of seats.'
Sir Redvers Buller, however, still believing he had only a rearguard in front of him, was determined to persevere32. It is, perhaps, his strongest characteristic obstinately33 to pursue his plan in spite of all advice, in spite, too, of his horror of bloodshed, until himself convinced that it is impracticable. The moment he is satisfied that this is the case no considerations of sentiment or effect prevent him from coming back and starting afresh. No modern General ever cared less for what the world might say. However unpalatable and humiliating a retreat might be, he would make one so soon as he was persuaded that adverse34 chances lay before him. 'To get there in the end,' was his guiding principle. Nor would the General consent to imperil the ultimate success by asking his soldiers to make a supreme35 effort to redress36 a false tactical move. It was a principle which led us to much blood and bitter disappointment, but in the end to victory.
Not yet convinced, General Buller, pressing forward, moved the whole of his infantry, with the exception of Barton's Brigade, and nearly all the artillery, heavy and field, across the river, and in the afternoon sent two battalions37 from Norcott's Brigade and the Lancashire Brigade—to the vacant command of which Colonel Kitchener had been appointed—forward against the low kopjes. By nightfall a good deal of this low, rolling ground was in our possession, though at some cost in men and officers.
At dusk the Boers made a fierce and furious counter-attack. I was watching the operations from Hlangwani Hill through a powerful telescope. As the light died my companions climbed down the rocks to the Cavalry camp and left me alone staring at the bright flashes of the guns which stabbed the obscurity on all sides. Suddenly, above the booming of the cannon38, there arose the harsh rattling39 roar of a tremendous fusillade. Without a single intermission this continued for several hours. The Howitzer Battery, in spite of the darkness, evidently considered the situation demanded its efforts, and fired salvoes of lyddite shells, which, bursting in the direction of the Boer positions, lit up the whole scene with flaring40 explosions. I went anxiously to bed that night, wondering what was passing beyond the river, and the last thing I can remember was the musketry drumming away with unabated vigour41.
There was still a steady splutter at dawn on the 23rd, and before the light was full grown the guns joined in the din5. We eagerly sought for news of what had passed. Apparently42 the result was not unfavourable to the army. 'Push for Ladysmith to-day, horse, foot, and artillery' was the order, 'Both cavalry brigades to cross the river at once.' Details were scarce and doubtful. Indeed, I cannot yet give any accurate description of the fighting on the night of the 22nd, for it was of a confused and desperate nature, and many men must tell their tale before any general account can be written.
What happened, briefly43 described, was that the Boers attacked heavily at nightfall with rifle fire all along the line, and, in their eagerness to dislodge the troops, came to close quarters on several occasions at various points. At least two bayonet charges are recorded. Sixteen men of Stuart Wortley's Composite Battalion of Reservists of the Rifle Brigade and King's Royal Rifles showed blood on their bayonets in the morning. About three hundred officers and men were killed or wounded. The Boers also suffered heavily, leaving dead on the ground, among others a grandson of President Kruger. Prisoners were made and lost, taken and rescued by both sides; but the daylight showed that victory rested with the British, for the infantry were revealed still tenaciously44 holding all their positions.
At eight o'clock the cavalry crossed the river under shell fire directed on the bridge, and were massed at Fort Wylie, near Colenso. I rode along the railway line to watch the action from one of the low kopjes. A capricious shell fire annoyed the whole army as it sheltered behind the rocky hills, and an unceasing stream of stretchers from the front bore true witness to the serious nature of the conflict, for this was the third and bloodiest45 day of the seven days' fighting called the battle of Pieters.
I found Sir Redvers Buller and his Staff in a somewhat exposed position, whence an excellent view could be obtained. The General displayed his customary composure, asked me how my brother's wound was getting on, and told me that he had just ordered Hart's Brigade, supported by two battalions from Lyttelton's Division, to assault the hill marked '3' on my diagram, and hereinafter called Inniskilling Hill. 'I have told Hart to follow the railway. I think he can get round to their left flank under cover of the river bank,' he said, 'but we must be prepared for a counter-attack on our left as soon as they see what I'm up to;' and he then made certain dispositions46 of his cavalry, which brought the South African Light Horse close up to the wooded kopje on which we stood. I must now describe the main Pieters position, one hill of which was about to be attacked.
It ran, as the diagram shows, from the high and, so far as we were concerned, inaccessible47 hills on the west to the angle of the river, and then along the three hills marked 3, 2, and 1. I use this inverted48 sequence of numbers because we were now attacking them in the wrong order.
Sir Redvers Buller's plan was as follows: On the 22nd he had taken the low kopjes, and his powerful artillery gave him complete command of the river gorge49. Behind the kopjes, which acted as a kind of shield, and along the river gorge he proposed to advance his infantry until the angle of the river was passed and there was room to stretch out his, till then, cramped right arm and reach round the enemy's left on Inniskilling Hill, and so crumple50 it.
This perilous51 and difficult task was entrusted52 to the Irish Brigade, which comprised the Dublin Fusiliers, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers53, and the Imperial Light Infantry, who had temporarily replaced the Border Regiment—in all about three thousand men, supported by two thousand more. Their commander, General Hart, was one of the bravest officers in the army, and it was generally felt that such a leader and such troops could carry the business through if success lay within the scope of human efforts.
The account of the ensuing operation is so tragic54 and full of mournful interest that I must leave it to another letter.
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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fumble
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| vi.笨拙地用手摸、弄、接等，摸索 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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evacuated
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| 撤退者的 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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trekking
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| v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的现在分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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25
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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29
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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31
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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32
persevere
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| v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠 | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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42
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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tenaciously
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| 坚持地 | |
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bloodiest
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| adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的 | |
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dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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50
crumple
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| v.把...弄皱，满是皱痕，压碎，崩溃 | |
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51
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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52
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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54
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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