Battles of the nineteenth century . l Engi-neers and departmentalcorps. Altogether, he hadabout <),ooo men under hiscommand. He had withhim two of tlie best amongthe voLinger generals of durarm\ : General French, whohail the reputation of beingone of the best of ourcavalrv leaders, and was to command later oiiGeneral Rullers cavalry division ; and GeneralSir Archibald Hunter, who had won his rank onthe battlefields of the Soudan, where from Toskito Khartoum he had in every fight been fore-most in the attack ; with the Egyptians andthe Soudanese the presence of the fightinggeneral had always
Battles of the nineteenth century . l Engi-neers and departmentalcorps. Altogether, he hadabout <),ooo men under hiscommand. He had withhim two of tlie best amongthe voLinger generals of durarm\ : General French, whohail the reputation of beingone of the best of ourcavalrv leaders, and was to command later oiiGeneral Rullers cavalry division ; and GeneralSir Archibald Hunter, who had won his rank onthe battlefields of the Soudan, where from Toskito Khartoum he had in every fight been fore-most in the attack ; with the Egyptians andthe Soudanese the presence of the fightinggeneral had always been taken for a presageof victory. In Natal, as in England, there was a leclingthat it would be an evil day for the Boerswhen they ventured to try conclusions withsuch a Iorce under such leaders. When, onOctober iQth, the screen ot Boer scouts pressedforward from the Drakensberg passes, it lookedas if an attack was coming from that the Iree Stale commandoes were eitherlacking in enterprise or, what is more prubablc,. COLONlil. at Elaitdslaagtr 20th, while Lucas Meyers commando was losingthe battle of Talana Hill on Jouberts left, andCommandant Erasmus was hanging back andarriving too late to be of any use in the centre,the right Transvaal columnunder Commandant Viljoenwas moving southwards,well to the west of therailway and in the hillyground between it and theDrakensberg. It is veryrough country, but there isa road, or rather waggontrail, that runs through apass in the Biggarsberg,north of Blackcraig Farm,the road following a gap inthe range between its highestsummit on the east and abold spur of the Drakens-berg on the west. At thispoint on the maps of Natalthere are two forts markedas if guarding the pass, butthey are only police posts,and had no military value. Viljoens van-guard under Commandant Kock had seized thepass on the morning of Wednesday, the it was over this pass of the Biggarsberg, ithad a fork of the trail before
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1901
