Choice of Sunday.
On Sunday there was Church Parade, the troops assembling for divine service in full marching order upon the open veldt. It was a dramatic scene, which came vividly back to many memories when the bloody work of the following night and day had stretched so many of the worshippers lifeless upon the veldt. It seems unfortunate that Lord Methuen should have chosen Sunday for the beginning of the attack, seeing that, by a tacit understanding between the two opposed armies, this day was considered one of peace and rest. Putting Sabbatarian prejudices aside—and they must, as all men would allow, have at times to yield to real military necessities—it may be doubted if there was any necessity on this occasion which enjoined the immediate delivery of the attack. To have postponed it by twenty-four hours would have done no man any harm and would have spared the nation the sorrow of learning that many Boers had been killed by lyddite shells while engaged in prayer and worship. Just as after the battle of Bull Run, in the American Civil War, a popular explanation of the Northern defeat was that the Northern generals had desecrated the Sabbath by attacking on that day and had provoked the anger of God, so in England there were some who attributed the British repulse at Magersfontein to this profanation of a holy day.
1. Lieut. A. S. Grant. 2. Capt. Hon. J. F. T. Cumming-Bruce (killed). 3. Lieut. W. P. Nunnerley. 4. Major P. J. C. Livingston. 5. Lieut. H. C. W. Berthon (killed). 6. Capt. C. Eykyn. 7. Lieut. S. A. Innes (wounded). 8. Capt. E. J. Elton (killed). 9. Lieut. N. N. Ramsay (killed). 10. Lt.-Col. Coode (killed). 11. Capt. W. Macfarlane, Adjt. (killed).
Disposition of troops.
[Dec. 10, 1899.
Attack on Magersfontein kopjes.
On Sunday afternoon the last preparations were made. Messages had been flashed to Kimberley to convey the welcome news that the arrival of the column might be expected at any moment; trains were ready to bring away refugees from the diamond city; everyone was alert and confident. At 2 p.m., without kit, but with half-a-days' rations, the force moved out to battle. First went the Lancers, then the Highlanders with the five batteries of guns and howitzers, and last of all the Guards' Brigade, who followed at sunset. The Ninth Brigade, composed of the Yorkshiremen, Northumberlands, Northamptons, and Lancashires, had the task of guarding the camp. The column struck out to the north-east, deployed its guns, and opened a tremendous fire with lyddite shells and shrapnel upon the Magersfontein kopjes. "The lyddite explosions," writes Mr. Whigham, the Morning Post correspondent, "began along the top of the Magersfontein ridge, each shell throwing up a cloud of wreckage like a gigantic mushroom suddenly springing from the hill top, while the shrapnel of the field and horse batteries searched every nook and cranny of the rocks." Some of the earlier shells fell amidst a number of Boers assembled for prayer and are said to have killed forty, but after this there was little loss, for the reason that there was no enemy on the kopjes. The Boers were lining the trenches at the foot of the hills, where they were in perfect safety, as the artillery made no effort to search these works, which were, indeed, quite invisible. In consequence, they were able to watch this terrific bombardment with the same interest and amusement as if it had been a firework display. Not a shot did they fire in reply, and their calculated silence speedily produced an impression in the British Army that they either had abandoned or would at nightfall abandon their lines.
F. J. Waugh.] [After a sketch on the spot by W. B. Wollen, R.I.
LORD METHUEN WATCHING THE BOMBARDMENT OF MAGERSFONTEIN.