THE INVESTMENT OF LADYSMITH
Before going farther it may be interesting to inspect a rough table showing approximately the composition and total strength of the British and Boer forces at the various points mentioned:—
| LADYSMITH | |||||||
| British | Boer | ||||||
21st, 42nd, and 53rd FieldBatteries; Battalion of NatalArtillery; two guns of theNatal Naval Reserve; NatalMounted Volunteers; 5thLancers; 19th Hussars; 1stBattalion Liverpool Regiment;2nd Battalion GordonHighlanders; 1st BattalionDevonshire Regiment; 1stManchesters; several companiesof Mounted Infantry; MedicalCorps; Veterinary Corps; 23rdCompany Royal Engineers;reinforcements fromMaritzburg; Naval Brigade (750) Following from Glencoe:— 13th, 67th, and 69th FieldBatteries; 18th Hussars; NatalMounted Volunteers; 1stBattalion LeicestershireRegiment; 1st and 2ndBattalions King's RoyalRifles; 2nd Battalion DublinFusiliers; several companiesof Mounted Infantry; FieldHospital Corps | 13,550 | Combined Free State and Transvaal forces | 30,500 | ||||
| KIMBERLEY | |||||||
| Four companies of the LoyalNorth Lancashire Regiment;Battery of Royal GarrisonArtillery, consisting of six7-pounder mountain-guns; alarge party of RoyalEngineers; detachment of theArmy Medical Corps | 2500 | Free Staters, and probablysome Transvaal Boers, withfour field-guns, 3500; onOrange River, 2000;Reinforcements fromMafeking, 1000 | 6500 | ||||
| MAFEKING | |||||||
| Colonel Baden-Powell, with 500Cavalry, 200 Cape MountedPolice and B.S.A. Company'sMounted Police, 60 Volunteers,6 machine-guns, two7-pounders, 200 to 300townsmen used to arms | 1500 | 1000 Transvaal Boers underCommandant Cronje; 500Boers at Maritzani | 1500 | ||||
At Tuli, or moving towards Mafeking, was Colonel Plumer's column, which consisted of about 1000 men, and was opposed by an equal force of Boers.
At Palapye there was a British force of 700, which was watched by a Burgher force of about 1000.
The Boers had also a force estimated at 3000 in laager near Komati Poort.
At Estcourt there was a considerable force under Brigadier-General Wolfe-Murray, and at Pietermaritzburg other troops.
Distributed along the northern border of Cape Colony were some 5000 Free State Boers and about 1000 or 1500 British troops and police.
The Natal Field Force was now confronted with the bulk of the Boer commandoes, whose strength was vastly superior to its own, and whose courage was generally acknowledged to be splendid. The Dutch have ever a stoical stolidity which serves them in the hour of need as does the bulldog tenacity of the Briton, and therefore "those who knew" were not without apprehension in regard to the upshot of hostilities. It was plain to all who were in any way familiar with previous history and with local conditions that the struggle was likely to be both prolonged and bloody, and they urged on the attention of those at home the need of reinforcements. Yet the soldiers, particularly those who had recently arrived, were light-hearted and confident, full of satisfaction to be let loose from their hencoops in the ships, and keen to try conclusions with the Boers. At Ladysmith the state of affairs was becoming more and more complicated, and the invasion of the Free Staters into Cape Colony was now an accomplished fact. The enemy's tactics everywhere were acknowledged to be excellent, and where tactics failed tricks succeeded. The Boer dodges, though scarcely honourable, might be described by the Americans as "cute." For instance, an enterprising officer of the Transvaal artillery conceived the idea of utilising the flag of truce in a new and original fashion. Disguised as an ambulance driver, he arrived at Ladysmith, and improved the occasion by observing the effects of Boer artillery fire on the town.
The use of the white flag by the enemy was now beginning to be distrusted, for daily evidences of treachery were forthcoming. As one correspondent said in writing home of the subject, "Its advantages they seem to construe in too liberal a spirit, but of its obligations on the men who hoist it they do not appear to be aware." As in old times, they tried to use the white flag to assist them in going from cover to cover, or to create delay while guns were being adjusted in more convenient positions. Nor was this all. A wounded Boer accepted water with one hand from a British soldier, while he shot him with the other, and numberless accounts of dastardly deeds of a similar nature were reported and authenticated.