Not so much with the Commander-in-Chief as with his impetuous subordinates rested the blame for this disastrous day. The entanglement of the guns it was which had the greatest part in piling up the British losses and converting what was almost a success into a humiliating defeat. Had the British artillery been stronger, even this rash move might not have proved so calamitous as it ultimately was. Forty guns might have beaten down the Boer fire, which twelve guns were utterly unable to check.
Our losses.
The total British losses were 132 killed, 765 wounded, and 228 missing or prisoners; a total of 1,125. The heaviest sufferers were the two field batteries—the 14th losing 50 and the 66th Battery 42 men, out of a probable total present in each case of 140 men. The Dublin Fusiliers lost 218 men out of about 1,000. As the force actually engaged did not number more than 15,000, when all deductions had been made, the casualties were a high percentage. The loss in killed was unusually small, and a very great number of the wounded were only very slightly injured—for the most part shot in the foot. As to the enemy's losses it was impossible to speak with any accuracy. Very few Boers were seen during the fighting, and it would appear that at the outside 200 or 250 were killed and wounded, mainly by the British artillery fire. Thus our troops suffered heavily without inflicting serious casualties upon the enemy.
[Photo by Major Brazier-Creagh, R.A.M.C.
[Dec. 15, 1899.
It is noteworthy that in the fighting no estimate whatever could be arrived at as to the Boers' strength. Whether they numbered 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000, no one knew, and no one could even guess. It was evident that the trenches and the position generally were very strongly held. The ranges are believed to have been carefully measured, and wire entanglements had been constructed close to the enemy's works, so that storming them would have been a matter of exceptional difficulty, even without the swift and deep river as a further obstacle in their front. It does not appear that the Boers weakened their force surrounding Ladysmith during the action. The garrison there probably did not expect a battle, and so made no move.
[Photo by the Biograph Company.
General Buller was able to keep up communication with Ladysmith, as Lord Methuen was with Kimberley, by means of the heliograph, an apparatus for reflecting sunlight in flashes indicating letters and words.