Battles of the nineteenth century . halted at Newcastle till the beginningof June, and he was occupied in repairingthe railway, concentrating his army, bringingup supplies, and preparing for the attack onthe formidable positions held bv the Boers inhis front. The situation on the Natal border was forawhile almost precisely the same as it hadbeen in January, 1881, during General CoUeysunfortunate campaign. The chief differencewas that more powerful forces were in the fieldon both sides. The Boers were on the historic ground at Laings Nek ; but, warned by thestory of 1S81, they had occupied and
Battles of the nineteenth century . halted at Newcastle till the beginningof June, and he was occupied in repairingthe railway, concentrating his army, bringingup supplies, and preparing for the attack onthe formidable positions held bv the Boers inhis front. The situation on the Natal border was forawhile almost precisely the same as it hadbeen in January, 1881, during General CoUeysunfortunate campaign. The chief differencewas that more powerful forces were in the fieldon both sides. The Boers were on the historic ground at Laings Nek ; but, warned by thestory of 1S81, they had occupied and entrenchedMajuba on their right and Mount Pogwane,across the Buffalo River, on their left. Someof Bullers troops were actually encamped onthe very ground at Mount Prospect whereCoUevs headquarters camp had been pitchednineteen years before. Bullers advance hadbrought his troops to historic ground rich ininspiring memories for both sides in the , Lord Roberts had advanced fromKroonstad to Johannesburg and NORVALS rONT BRIDGE, AFTER ITS DESTRUCTION. 342 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 1HK AI)\ANCE ACKOSS THK \AAI. TO JOHANNESBURG. LORD ROBERTS haltjd lor ten days atr Kroonstad to rest his army and reor-i i;anise it, and to wait for the raihvayto he repaired behind him. The haltwas badlv needed. .Ml the way back toRloenifontein the veldt was strewn with of dead horses and transport cattle. Insome of the cavalry regiments per cent, ofthe horses had died or were utterly e.\haustedand unfit f(M-work. Food was already scarce, andthe supplies of it depended on a single line ofnarrow Kauge railwav running through a haltdesert country. In reckoning up the difficultiesthat Roberts had to surmount, one mustnot nut of account the character ot theraihvay on which he had for so long to dependtor all the supplies needed by his army. How ithad to be worked is well described in a letterwritten by one of the civilian surgeons withthe army in the Fre
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