Lessons of the War | Page 5

collect some thirty thousand men, who on the eve of hostilities
were posted in separate columns upon the various routes leading from
the Free State and from the Transvaal into the triangle of northern Natal.
This triangle is like a letter _A_, the cross-stroke being the range of
hills known as the Biggarsberg, which is intersected near the centre on
a north and south line by the head-stream of the Waschbank River
forming a pass through which run the railway and the
Dundee-Ladysmith road. North of the Biggarsberg the gates of the
frontier are Muller's Pass, Botha's Pass, the Charlestown road, Wool's
Drift, and De Jager's Drift, of which Landman's Drift is a wicket-gate.
At each of these points, except perhaps Muller's Drift, of which I have
seen no specific mention, the Boers had a column waiting. South of the
Biggarsberg are on the east Rorke's Drift, and on the west the passes of
Ollivier's Hoek, Bezuidenhout, Tintwa, Van Reenen, De Beers,

Bramkock, and Collins. At all these points there were Boer gatherings,
though on the west the Free Staters, having their headquarters at
Albertina, were likely to put their main column on the road leading
through Van Reenen's Pass to Ladysmith.
By Thursday morning the Boer advance had developed. The columns
from Botha's Pass, Charlestown, and Wool's Drift had advanced
through Newcastle, where they had converged, and moved south along
the main road. The Landman's Drift column had moved towards
Dundee, the Rorke's Drift column had pushed some distance towards
the west, and the forces from Albertina had showed the heads of their
columns on the Natal side of the passes.
The British force was divided between Dundee and Ladysmith. The
Biggarsberg range, the cross-line of the A, is about fifty miles long. It
is traversed from north to south by three passes. In the centre runs the
railway through a defile. Twelve miles to the west of the railway runs
the direct Newcastle-Ladysmith road; eight miles to the east runs the
road Newcastle-Dannhauser-Dundee-Helpmakaar. A third road runs
from De Jager's Drift through Dundee to Glencoe and thence follows
the railway to Ladysmith. Dundee is about five miles from Glencoe on
a spur of the Biggarsberg range. Between the two places by the Craigie
Burn was the camp of Sir Penn Symons, who had under him the eighth
brigade (four battalions), three batteries, the 18th Hussars, and a portion
of the Natal Mounted Volunteers, in all about four thousand men.
Thirty-five miles away at Ladysmith, the junction of the Natal and Free
State railways, as well as of the Natal and Free State road systems, Sir
George White had a larger force, the seventh brigade, three field
batteries, a mountain battery, the Natal battery, two or three cavalry
regiments, the newly-raised Imperial Light Horse, and some Natal
Mounted Volunteers. It is not clear whether there were more infantry
battalions and it seems probable that one battalion and perhaps a
battery were at Pietermaritzburg. The Ladysmith force was at least six
thousand five hundred strong, and its total may have been as high as
eight thousand.
The Boer plan was dictated by the configuration of the frontier and of
the obstacles and communications in Northern Natal. The various
columns to the north of the Biggarsberg had only to move forward in
order to effect their junction on the Newcastle-Dundee road, and their

advance southwards on that road would enable them at Dundee to meet
the column from Landman's Drift. The movement, if well timed, must
lead to an enveloping attack upon Sir Penn Symons, whose brigade
would thus have to resist an assault delivered in the most dangerous
form by a force of twenty thousand men. From the point of view of the
Boer Commander-in-Chief, the danger was that the Glencoe and
Dundee force should escape his blow by retiring to Ladysmith, or
should be reinforced by the bulk of the Ladysmith force before his own
combined blow could be delivered. It was essential for him to keep Sir
George White at Ladysmith and also to cut the communications
between Glencoe and Ladysmith. Accordingly, on Wednesday, the 18th,
the Free State forces from Albertina, the heads of whose columns had
been shown on Tuesday, moved forward towards Acton Homes and
Bester's Station, and led Sir George White to hope for the opportunity
to strike a blow at them on Thursday, the 18th. At the same time a
detachment from the main column was pushed on southwards, and was
able on Thursday, while Sir George White was watching the Free State
columns, to reach the Glencoe-Ladysmith line near Elandslaagte, to
break it up, and to take position to check any northward movement
from Ladysmith. Everything was thus ready for the blow to be struck at
Dundee, but by some want of concert the