The Utmost Secrecy Preserved
A railway map of South Africa pointed out to intelligent people plainly the railway line upon which Lord Roberts could advantageously muster his men to strike the enemy in their homes. Some of the bridges were blown up, some of the rails removed, but the surveys remained. The engineers had marked out the eligible pathway. The Modder River, the scene of the early successes and final fatality of Lord Methuen, reappeared in the war correspondence. A letter from Modder River camp, February 18th, said all the soldiers worked like slaves and the generals of divisions carried out the campaign planned, without faltering or blundering and there was "the utmost secrecy," so that the common people, regimental commanders, and newspaper correspondents did not obtain the slightest inkling of what the immediate future was to bring forth. Even the senior officers, who were assigned the important duty of taking the Sixth Division from Modder River, had but a hazy idea of what they would have to do after the railway had landed their troops at Enslin siding. Consequently, the spies, with which this camp undeniably has been infested, were not only unable to help their paymasters, but, even by the absence of news of our movements, lulled the Boer commanders into fancied security.
Each Step Carefully Considered
The time when General Lord Roberts was ready to move was one of critical conditions. The second attempt to relieve Ladysmith by direct movements had just failed like the first, but with greater losses. The total cost of the second effort counted in men was 1,800. The plan of operations had been carefully concealed, and executed with energy, and as one of the expert writers put it, "there was no undue haste, and the troops were not brought under the enemy's rifle fire in close formation, or forced to attempt the passage of a river, of which the water level was not known, in face of a strongly intrenched position held by an unshaken enemy. Each step was carefully considered, and no unnecessary risk was run."
The fighting quality of the British troops was well illustrated, but the lines of the Boers remained unbroken and unshaken, and the strategic consequences of this failure were more serious than when the first experiment was tried. Still, Ladysmith heliographed January 27th, "We can hold on here." The initial move of Roberts in force was successful. The invisible and invincible foe in inaccessible trenches did not rise to the occasion. The blow that was struck had not been foreseen and the spot selected fortified by the enemy. There was a change described as magical. The magic was that of a free hand and a clear head, and the magician a general capable of generalship. All at once the British columns, cavalry, infantry and artillery were "mobile". The horses "got a move on". The wagons did not stall and tangle—the field guns, big and little, trundled along merrily. The long complained of cavalry materialized under General French, going out and seeking the enemy aggressively and rushing him wherever they found him. There was something new about this. Speaking of the brilliant promise of the advance of Roberts, a military correspondent said:
A Remarkable Cavalry Movement
"What is particularly interesting is the presence of General Kelly-Kenny's Division—the Sixth—in this quarter. It was beginning to be understood that General French had brought with him a number of his cavalry from the neighborhood of Colesberg, but the fact that the whole of the Cavalry Division is now under Lord Roberts' control, together with an Infantry Division, the headquarters of which were only a few days ago at Thebus, near Steynsburg, is distinctly surprising and gratifying. The movement must have been carried out with extreme secrecy, and is calculated to greatly disconcert Boer calculations."
Kimberley Relieved
The Cavalry Division of General French described as "a magnificent force of regular and irregular horsemen and mounted infantry, whose goal was Kimberley," covered twenty-six miles in twenty-four hours through a fearful heat, and few fell out even when the burning sun was succeeded by terrific tropical rain, accompanied by the continuous and blinding lightning. The road was soon like a morass, but French plodded doggedly on and reached the Modder River at Klip Drift just before midnight. That was business, and Lord Roberts entered Jacobsdal, February 15th. Kimberley was entered February 16th. This telegram was dispatched from that town while French was still invisible.
"At 2 o'clock this afternoon a heliograph message from a range of kopjes to the left of Alexandersfontein announced that General French's column was approaching. The enemy were immediately observed to be fleeing with their guns."