Reply from Sir George White to the Queen:—
“Your Majesty’s most gracious message has been received by me with deepest gratitude and with enthusiasm by the troops.
“Any hardships and privations are a hundred times compensated for by the sympathy and appreciation of our Queen, and your Majesty’s message will do more to restore both officers and men than anything else.
“General Sir George White, Ladysmith.”
The following telegram was received by the Queen from Sir Redvers Buller:—
“Troops much appreciate your Majesty’s kind telegram.
“Your Majesty cannot know how much your sympathy has helped to inspire them.
“General Buller.”
An additional telegram was sent by the Queen to Sir Redvers Buller on the 2nd inst.:—
“Pray express to the Naval Brigade my deep appreciation of the valuable services they have rendered with their guns.
“V.R.I.”
Later on a special Army Order was issued as follows:—
Gallantry of Irish Regiments in South Africa—Distinction to be Worn on St. Patrick’s Day.
Her Majesty the Queen is pleased to order that in future, upon St. Patrick’s Day, all ranks in her Majesty’s Irish regiments shall wear, as a distinction, a sprig of shamrock in their headdress, to commemorate the gallantry of her Irish soldiers during the recent battles in South Africa.
Soon after this came the transformation scene. Seventy-three waggon-loads of supplies, eleven of which contained hospital comforts, began to wind into the town. Major Morgan and Colonel Stanley, like fairy godmothers in the story-book, waved the wand of office, and promptly the machinery began to revolve, and manna in the form of nourishing food-stuffs poured into the famished regions. The Boers, too, in the precipitate retreat had left welcome loads of grass, herds, and ammunition—the ammunition of the besieged was well-nigh exhausted—besides individual necessaries which came in handy. But of course, the machinery of relief, well as it worked, could scarcely work fast enough to make an appreciable result, and save invalids who were sinking from the protracted trial. It was amazing how the sick-list swelled. Many who had come into the town jocund and jaunty, found themselves in a few hours clutched by the fell fever. It was enough but to breathe the tainted atmosphere to fall sick, and those who were seized at once discovered all the horror of helplessness in an area where provision for the comfort of the suffering was well-nigh exhausted. Looking back on the past from the new standpoint, the gaps became more than ever remarkable; for, despite incessant fighting, shot and shell were responsible for less lives than famine and fever.