(_British War Office Bulletin_, Jan. 28, 1900.)
“I decided that a second attack on Spion Kop was useless[3] and that the enemy’s right was too strong to allow me to force it. Accordingly I decided to withdraw the troops to the south side of the Tugela River.”
[3] The proffer of an untenable post always is the bait of the Second Ambuscade.
“The richest and what was hitherto considered the most powerful nation in the world is today in the humiliating position of seeing its armies beaten back with heavy losses by two small states.”
(_Boston Globe_, Feb. 16, 1900, by =Franklin K. Young=.)
“Lord Roberts’ communications for nearly two hundred miles are exposed to the attack of an enemy, who at any moment is liable to capture and destroy his supply and ammunition trains and to reduce the British army to a condition wherein it will be obliged to fight a battle under most disadvantageous circumstances.”
(From United States War Department _Report on the British Boer War_. By =Capt. S. L’H. Slocum=, U. S. Attache with British Army.)
“Feb. 15, 1900. The main supply park of the army was attacked by the enemy near Watervale Drift.
“This park consisted of one hundred ox-wagons containing rations and one hundred more wagons filled with ammunition. One hundred and fifty of these wagons and three thousand oxen were captured by the Boers.
“The loss of these rations and munitions was a most serious blow. Lord Roberts was here confronted by a crisis which would have staggered and been the undoing of many commanders-in-chief placed as he was.
“He was in the enemy’s country, cut off from his base of supplies on the railroad and with an unknown number of the enemy in his rear and upon his line of communication. His transport was nearly all captured and his army was suddenly reduced to three days full rations on the eve of a great movement and the country afforded no food whatever. The crisis still further developed when a courier brought the report that the Boers were in position at Watervale Drift and commanding the ford with artillery.”
(_Boston Globe_, Feb. 25, 1900. By =Franklin K. Young=.)
“There is reason to believe that should worse come to worse, the Boer Army, should it be compelled to abandon its position, will be able to save its personnel by a rapid flight across the Modder. Of course, in this case, the Boers would lose their supplies and cannon.”