wn
forward moves were so stubbornly resisted, that General Sir William
Gatacre, while attempting to advance, recognised that in some bold and
well-conceived plan of action lay his only chance of success. Such a
plan he attempted to carry out, but with deplorable results, as we shall
see.

THE REVERSE AT STORMBERG

General Gatacre left Putter's Kraal and concentrated at Molteno the 2nd
Northumberland, 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, and Nos. 74 and 77 Batteries of
Field Artillery, with Mounted Infantry, Cape Mounted Rifles, the 12th
Company of Engineers, and details--in all about 2500 men. At 9 P.M. on
December 9th, began the march that was destined to be so ill-fated. The
night was black, the ground was rocky, and the guide, a local policeman,
from ignorance, under-estimated the distance and led the troops by a
circuitous route absolutely into the teeth of the enemy. Instead of
going north-east for nine miles, the men were led north-west, a detour
of twenty miles. A terrible night-march this, which none who undertook
it can ever forget. Tramp, tramp, through the long midnight hours, over
hills and down nullahs, through rivers and stumbling over stony kopjes
with bayonets fixed, in grim silence, with scarce a whisper allowed, and
with never a pipe as consolation lest the scent should betray the
stealthy advance. For seven long hours the force, like a phantom
procession, trudged and stumbled until they came to a small V-shaped
plateau surrounded by kopjes, which, unknown to them, was fronting the
enemy's position. This was on a high unscalable eminence called Rooi
Kop, that jutted black against the clear grey of early morning. From
here the Boers, chuckling doubtless at their own cunning, were slyly
watching the approach of the party; for it was now dawn. On nearing the
plateau below this eminence, the Irish Rifles, with General Gatacre and
his staff at the head of the column, were greeted, to their
astonishment, by a fierce tornado which was suddenly opened by the enemy
on the right. Though the column was marching in fours and utterly
unsuspicious of the position of the enemy, they gathered themselves
together with marvellous rapidity. Following the Rifles were over a
hundred of the Northumberland Fusiliers, and in the rear the artillery.
In a very short space of time General Gatacre got his column into line
for action, and a hot fight ensued, in which the Rifles--all honour to
them!--distinguished th