Chapter 15 - Page 2

12-pounder guns;
one squadron 13th Hussars;
Royal Engineers.

Cavalry
1st Royal Dragoons
14th Hussars
Four squadrons South African Horse
One squadron Imperial Light Horse
Bethune's Mounted Infantry
Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry
One squadron Natal Carabineers
One squadron Natal Police
One company King's Royal Rifles Mounted Infantry
Six machine guns

This is the force whose operations I shall attempt to describe.

About sixteen miles to the westward of Colenso there is a ford over
the Tugela River which is called Potgieter's Drift. General Buller's
apparent plan was to seize this, together with the ferry which runs at
this point, and so to throw himself upon the right flank of the
Colenso Boers. Once over the river there is one formidable line of
hills to cross, but if this were passed there would be comparatively
easy ground until the Ladysmith hills were reached. With high hopes
Buller and his men sallied out upon their adventure.

Dundonald's cavalry force pushed rapidly forwards, crossed the Little
Tugela, a tributary of the main river, at Springfield, and established
themselves upon the hills which command the drift. Dundonald largely
exceeded his instructions in going so far, and while we applaud his
courage and judgment in doing so, we must remember and be charitable
to those less fortunate officers whose private enterprise has ended in
disaster and reproof. There can be no doubt that the enemy intended
to hold all this tract, and that it was only the quickness of our
initial movements which forestalled them. Early in the morning a
small party of the South African Horse, under Lieutenant Carlisle,
swam the broad river under fire and brought back the ferry boat, an
enterprise which was fortunately bloodless, but which was most coolly
planned and gallantly carried out. The way was now open to our
advance, and could it have been carried out as rapidly as it had begun
the Boers might conceivably have been scattered before they could
concentrate. It was not the fault of the infantry that it was not so.
They were trudging, mud-spattered and jovial, at the very heels of the
horses, after a forced march which was one of the most trying of the
whole campaign. But an army of 20,000 men cannot be conveyed over a
river twenty miles from any base without elaborate preparations being
made to feed them. The roads were in such a state that the wagons
could hardly move, heavy rain had just fallen, and every stream was
swollen into a river; bullocks might strain, and traction engines
pant, and horses die, but by no human means could the stores be kept
up if the advance guard were allowed to go at their own pace. And so,
having ensured an ultimate crossing of