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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 149
strike from Cape Colony towards the capitals of the Boer Republics but instead was forced to
divide his forces in order to relieve this siege and the siege at Kimberley. In Natal this led to the
battles of Colenso, Spioenkop and the Tugela Heights, costly engagements which were detrimental to
Buller’s reputation, before Ladysmith was relieved. The Boers, meanwhile, had foregone their
greatest strength, that of mobility, and thus commited themselves to a long war, one they could not
win.
The importance of Ladysmith to the British was its function as the principal military depot and
camp in Natal. The town was located at the junction of the main road and rail routes between Durban
and the Boer Republics. Harrismith, the railhead in the north-east of the Orange Free State, lay on the
other side of the Drakensberg mountains to the northwest of Ladysmith while the railway to
Johannesburg ran north-east and then due north through Dundee and Langs Nek to Volkrust in the
Transvaal. Although it was therefore important as a supply centre, and thus not to be abandoned
lightly, the town was vulnerable to attack. It lies in a bowl of hills and approach from the south is
barred by the Tugela River and the high hills on its northern bank.
In the months before the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899, the British sent 10,000 men
from India as reinforcements to the 13,000 or so already in South Africa in August. These new forces
were sent to Natal, the assumed objective of the Boers if war broke out, and a new General Officer
Commanding, Natal, was appointed and also set out from India, Lieutenant-general Sir George White,
with Colonels Ian Hamilton and Sir Henry Rawlinson on his staff. In Britain General Sir Redvers
Buller, V.C., was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army Corps it was planned to send out.
Buller was familiar with the terrain and the Boers, and was outspoken in his view that no attempt
should be made to garrison towns north of the Tugela River. He was ignored, as he only became
Commander-in-Chief on mobilisation on 22 September.
White permitted Major-general Sir William Penn Symons to occupy Dundee where he was
attacked by the Boers whom he defeated in the Battle of Talana (20 October), but at the cost of his
own life. The successor to the command there, Brigadier-general Yule was forced to abandon the
town and lead a perilous but very successful withdrawal to Ladysmith, leaving the field to
Commandant-general Piet Joubert’s force. Further south, at Elandslaagte, on 21 October Majorgeneral Sir John French defeated Commandant-general Kock’s forces, but again had to withdraw to
Ladysmith. The peril that forced these retreats was the approach of the Orange Free State commandos
under Chief-Commandant Martinus Prinsloo from Harrismith, threatening to cut them off. White
checked them at Rietfontein (also known as Modderspruit) on 24 October to ensure Yule’s safe
arrival in Ladysmith and then fell back to Ladysmith, which the Boers interpreted as due to their
prowess. By 28 October Commandant L. P. Steenkamp had occupied hills on either side of
Nicholson’s Nek, north of Ladysmith, Assistant Commandant-general
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