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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 62
symmetrical than it is in fact. The intelligence officers familiar with Natal were besieged in
Ladysmith. The Field Intelligence Department in Pietermaritzburg had prepared a blue-print map (one
inch to the mile) from available data that showed upward of a dozen drifts across the river, but which
also had large blank areas. Daunted by the challenge here, Buller planned to have Major-general G.
Barton’s 6th Brigade make a show at Colenso while the main force made a night march to Potgieter’s
Drift, some eighteen miles (29km) to the west to cross and hurry on to Ladysmith. However, the
losses at Magersfontein and Stormberg made him cautious about so dramatic a venture and the
exposure of his supply lines, so he decided to fight at Colenso.
Early in the morning of 14 December the British began shelling the hills beyond the Tugela. The
Royal Navy had, as a result of the efforts of Captain Percy Scott, created 4.7-inch field guns out of
their shipboard armament as well as 12-pounders, and a battery under Commander A. H. Limpus
bombarded the Boers, with, as far as one can tell, little result given the British ignorance of their
positions. In order to cross the Tugela by a drift (ford) and engage the Boer right, the Irish Brigade –
1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Border, 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 1st Connaught Rangers –
were marched forward in mass of quarter columns, a parade-ground formation, not to the drift to the
west but right into the great meander known as the Loop. Here they were subjected to murderous fire
from trenches on the surrounding banks and from guns on the hills above. On the right Colonel Long,
with 14th and 66th Field Batteries, Royal Artillery, accompanied by the six naval 12-pounders of
Lieutenant F. C. A. Ogilvy, pushed ahead, east of the railway to a position some 1,000 yards (914m)
from the river. His guns were just coming into action when a storm of fire burst on them, not only
from in front but also from above on Nhlangwini. In the centre Major-general H. J. T. Hildyard’s 2nd
Brigade – 2nd Devonshire, 2nd Queen’s, 2nd East Surrey and 2nd West Yorkshire – gained Colenso
village quite easily as they moved forward in rushes using natural cover. On the extreme right
Colonel Lord Dundonald’s 2nd Mounted Brigade was attempting to assault Joubert’s
Wakkerstroomers. It became clear to Buller that the Boers were too well placed to be defeated and
that his men were suffering as much from the heat and lack of water as from enemy action. Added to
that was the near despair induced by attempting to fight an invisible enemy, one whose positions were
well concealed and not even revealed by gunsmoke as a result of using smokeless powder. Buller
gave orders for Hart to withdraw and went himself to supervise the extraction of Long’s guns from
their exposed site. Two of the Royal Artillery’s guns were brought out but further attempts were met
with heavy losses. Seven Victoria Crosses were won in these attempts, including a posthumous
award to Lieutenant Freddy Roberts, before Buller called a halt. British killed, wounded and missing
amounted to some 1,140 men while the Boer losses were trivial, at around forty men.
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