night-march lengthened
out to over seven hours, and landed us right into the enemy's position
in broad daylight. Of course, the guides went wrong, took the force a
roundabout way, and are accordingly blamed. But how is it that our
leaders, knowing that four hours should suffice to take them to their
objective, should have wandered on for seven without suspecting that
something was radically wrong? Then, also, at the end of that time our
troops walked, in daylight, in a column four deep, right under the
enemy's nose. No scouts or skirmishers were out, and it was here that we
lost so heavily, the Boers from covered positions firing volley after
volley right into the mass of men below. Again, the men, most of whom
had been on duty since 4 A.M. the previous (Saturday) morning, were
tired and hungry, and yet were asked to storm the position without rest
immediately after a long and tiring night-march."

The _Times_ correspondent attributed some of the misfortune to the fact
that "the Berkshire Regiment, by whom the redoubts now occupied by the
Boers at Stormberg had been built, and to whom every inch of the ground
was familiar, were left at Queenstown, instead of being employed to
recapture the works which they had so unwillingly evacuated about a
month previously. The consequence of no one knowing where he was going
or what he had to attack or when proximity to the enemy had been
reached, was that the infantry, marching in fours, were suddenly fired
into at a point where, after ascending but a few feet, their further
advance against the enemy was precluded by an unclimbable precipice. The
moment that the first shots were fired companies doubled straight at the
points whence the firing seemed to have proceeded, and commenced to
scale the hill. Soon, however, they came upon a perpendicular wall of
rock, from the summit of which the Boers were plying their rifles at
half-a-dozen yards' distance. Here fell Lieutenant-Colonel Eager, and
close to him Major Seton of the Royal Irish Rifles. Colonel Eager was
the man who reached the highest point attained by any of the attackers,
and was then shot down, where many another British officer has fallen
before now, at the head of his battalion, gallantly leading them as in
the days of old, when long-range weapons had not been invented."

Others hinted that it was the habit of the General to overwork his
troops--a habit so well known that it had earned for him in Egypt the
title of "Gene