It is easy (thank goodness!) to be wise after the event. I find every
one very discontented over this action, and especially the cavalry part
of it. Had we made a good wide cast instead of a timid little half-cock
movement, and come round sharp, we should have intercepted the Boer
convoy. As it is, we lose two more hours at this last stand which brings
us till late in the afternoon, and soon afterwards, on approaching the
river, we see five miles off the whole Dutch column deliberately
marching away eastward. Our failure stares us in the face, and we see
with disgust that we have been bluffed and fooled and held in check all
day by some sixty or eighty riflemen, while the main body, waggons,
guns, and all, are marching away across our front. "The day's
proceedings," says one of our officers to me with laughable
deliberation, "afford a very exact representation of the worst possible
way of carrying out the design in hand."
LETTER XIV
BLOEMFONTEIN
My last letter was written after Poplar Grove, and we marched in here
six days later on the 13th. Of the fighting on the way I can give you no
account, as I was knocked up with a bad chill and had to go with the
ambulance. Unluckily we had two nights of pouring rain, and as I had
left behind my blanket and had only my Boer mackintosh (with the red
lining), I fared very badly and got drenched both nights and very cold.
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