“Cronje’s conduct was heroic and imbecile in the extreme. As the commander on the ground he is entitled to all the glory and must assume all the blame. One of the ablest of the Boer generals, he is the only one in the whole war to make a mistake.
“Cronje’s first duty was to decide whether he should stand or run; he decided to run, which was proper, but having so decided he should have run at once and not have stopped running until safe on the north bank of the Vaal River.
“Properly he sent his siege guns and trains off to the north across the Vaal and improperly held his position in force on the British front, instead of withdrawing his personnel after his material.
“This blunder, like all blunders of a commander-in-chief, quickly produced blunders by his subordinates. Commander Ferrera permitted French to get around Cronje’s left flank without a battle. The presence of this force on his rear cut Cronje off from his natural line of retreat across the Vaal and compelled him to flee toward Bloemfontein.
“Even now Cronje was all right; he easily and brilliantly out-manoeuvred the British and gained the protection of the Modder River. But a second time he blundered. Instead of first executing Ferrera and then abandoning everything and devoting all his efforts to saving his men, he neglected an obvious and imperative military duty and clung to his slow-moving cannon and wagons.
“Finally he took position on the Modder and resolved to fight the whole British army. This was fatal.
“Then for the fourth time he blundered. Having made his decision to fight he should not have surrendered to the British on the anniversary of Majuba Hill. On the contrary, surrounded by the mightiest army the British empire ever put in the field and enveloped in the smoke of a hundred cannon, Cronje, upon a rampart formed by his dead army and with his last cartridge withstanding the destroyers of his country, would have presented to posterity a more spectacular and seemingly a more fitting termination of the career of the Lion of South Africa.”
“Mere hope of attaining their desires, coupled with ignorance of the processes necessary to their accomplishment, is the common delusion and the certain destruction of the inexperienced.”—Plato.