[Illustration: SOME NOBLEMEN AT THE FRONT.
In the uniform of the City Imperial Volunteers.]
[Illustration: AMERICANS IN THE BOER ARMY BESIEGING LADYSMITH.
This photograph shows Mr. Webster Davis, rifle in hand, amidst the American mercenaries serving with the Boer army. Mr. Davis was formerly Assistant Secretary of the Interior Department of the United States Government. He proceeded to South Africa during the course of the war, and after following some of the Boer commandos into the field, he returned to America, where he took a prominent part in a pro-Boer agitation, making public speeches in favour of the independence of the Boer Republics.]
Further preparations for the relief of Ladysmith--Burial of Lieutenant Roberts--Destruction of Colenso road-bridge--Picket surprised by Boers--Fifth Division reaches Natal--Want of howitzers--Arrival of a balloon and traction engines--Christmas in camp--Disposition of relief force--Boer positions--Mr. Winston Churchill escapes--Boer attack on Cæsar's Camp--Messages from Ladysmith--Relief force attacks Colenso--Advances on Springfield and Hussar Hill--Fail to draw the Boers--Further message from Ladysmith--Storm ends a desultory movement--The flag still flying in Ladysmith--Heroes in rags--Mud everywhere--Composition of the relief force--The army moves--Hampered by baggage--Difficulties of the march--Dundonald seizes Zwart Kop--The pont intact--The Boers entrenching--General Buller's plan of attack--The crossing of Potgieter's Drift.
[Sidenote: Further preparations for the relief of Ladysmith.]
After the disastrous reverse at Colenso a long pause followed before the relief army in Natal again took the field. The pause was necessary to allow of the bringing up of reinforcements in men and artillery, since, on the one hand, the battle of Colenso had demonstrated clearly that General Buller's 25,000 men were not equal to the work of forcing a passage to Ladysmith, and on the other the transference of ten British guns to the enemy had fatally weakened the British artillery. It is to be noted, however, that the Boers made little use of the captured guns; they professed to regard them, perhaps correctly, as of antiquated pattern with insufficient range, and preferred their own Krupps, Creusots, and Maxims, not being hampered by an organisation which considers it part of its duty to remain always a little behind rivals and competitors in its armaments. In this and in other directions the "simple farmers" showed that their simplicity was superior in its shrewdness to the learning of the British artillerists.