Comparison of British and Boer losses.
In view of the terrific nature of the Boer fire the British losses were by no means heavy. Four officers and sixty-six men were killed, twenty officers and 393 men were wounded, of whom thirty-one died of their wounds, and two were missing—it is to be feared drowned in valiant efforts to cross the river. This made a total of 485 casualties in a total force which at the close of the battle mustered over 9,000. Therefore the British losses were a little over five per cent. It is impossible to do more than guess at the Boer casualties; probably they were much less than ours, inasmuch as the enemy was the defending force and quite invisible; sixty killed and 300 wounded will be about the truth. It was said, indeed, by prisoners and non-combatants that the Boers lost 160 in killed alone, but this figure is wholly conjectural and very untrustworthy. Their official accounts only acknowledged the loss of seventeen killed and wounded among the Transvaalers, which was certainly an absurd underestimate. The son of the Boer General Delarey was among those placed hors de combat.
BRITISH SOLDIERS OCCUPYING THE ENEMY'S POSITIONS AT MODDER RIVER.
AN AMMUNITION TRAIN LEAVING PRETORIA FOR THE FRONT.
Nov. 28, 1899.] No Flanking Movement Possible.
Though the battle of the Modder River was not in any sense a great victory, it was a victory extremely creditable to the stubbornness and fighting qualities of the British soldier and to the resolute determination of the much decried British general. To dislodge from the strongest possible entrenchments a force which was at least equal, and perhaps superior in strength, to the British division, which was composed of brave, self-reliant marksmen, mounted, and so without fear for their line of retreat, and which was in artillery quite as strong as Lord Methuen, was a most brilliant feat of arms.
[Photo by H. C. Shelley.