Disposition of the Boer forces.
[Oct. 1899.
The main Boer forces threatened Natal, which colony, from its passionate loyalty to the mother country, was peculiarly odious to Mr. Kruger. The Transvaalers were assembled, 15,000 to 20,000 strong, at Zandspruit, just across the frontier of the extreme northern angle of Natal; the Free Staters, 10,000 or more strong, were to the west of the many passes which cross the Drakensberg range, threatening the whole north of the colony. The lie of the frontier hereabouts gave the enemy great advantages. Natal sends up a narrow wedge-shaped strip of country between the Free State and the Transvaal. From Ladysmith, at its base, to the most northerly point, this wedge is 50 miles long. How to defend the wedge with a small force was the British problem. If a force were placed at the northernmost point it would be liable to be cut off and surrounded by the Free Staters crossing the passes and seizing positions in its rear, while the Transvaalers attacked in front. If stationed farther south the same risk remained, though it would be easier to retire. If the whole wedge were abandoned the political effect would be disastrous.
LAING'S NEK.
The "Nek" is the ridge between the two hills; it was the scene of a battle in 1881, and over it the Boers swarmed into Natal in 1899.
ELANDSLAAGTE: THE SCENE OF THE BATTLE.
Positions of the British at Dundee and Ladysmith.
Before the landing of the reinforcements, receiving news of the secret Boer conspiracy to invade the colony, General Sir Penn Symons, in command in Natal, decided to abandon the extreme north of the wedge, where lie the ill-omened battlefields of Laing's Nek, Majuba, and the Ingogo, and to place as large a force as he could spare at the small town of Dundee, 35 miles from Ladysmith and connected with it by railway. When the reinforcements from India arrived in the first week of October, and General White took over the command in Natal, this detachment was strengthened, and the main force established at Ladysmith. The Dundee force, under Symons, was 4,600 strong with 18 guns; the Ladysmith division, under White, numbered about 7,500 men with 24 guns. The latter was reinforced by Natal troops and volunteers in the first ten days of war, till on October 20 it may have reached 9,000. Meantime, this weak little army remained almost unconscious of the storm which was about to burst upon it, for the opinion generally held by British officers was that, owing to his bad transport and defective organisation, the enemy would not be able to move south for some weeks.