at, had a brisk
engagement with the rearguard upon October 6th. The Boers shook
themselves clear with some loss, both to themselves and to their
pursuers. On the 10th those of the burghers who held together had
reached Luneburg, and shortly afterwards they had got completely away
from the British columns. The weather was atrocious, and the lumbering
wagons, axle-deep in mud, made it impossible for troops who were
attached to them to keep in touch with the light riders who sped before
them. For some weeks there was no word of the main Boer force, but at
the end of that time they reappeared in a manner which showed that both
in numbers and in spirit they were still a formidable body.

Of all the sixty odd British columns which were traversing the Boer
states there was not one which had a better record than that commanded
by Colonel Benson. During seven months of continuous service this small
force, consisting at that time of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders,
the 2nd Scottish Horse, the 18th and 19th Mounted Infantry, and two
guns, had acted with great energy, and had reduced its work to a
complete and highly effective system. Leaving the infantry as a camp
guard, Benson operated with mounted troops alone, and no Boer laager
within fifty miles was safe from his nocturnal visits. So skilful had
he and his men become at these night attacks in a strange, and often
difficult country, that out of twenty-eight attempts twenty-one resulted
in complete success. In each case the rule was simply to gallop headlong
into the Boer laager, and to go on chasing as far as the horses could
go. The furious and reckless pace may be judged by the fact that the
casualties of the force were far greater from falls than from bullets.
In seven months forty-seven Boers were killed and six hundred captured,
to say nothing of enormous quantities of munitions and stock. The
success of these operations was due, not only to the energy of Benson
and his men, but to the untiring exertions of Colonel Wools-Sampson,
who acted as intelligence officer. If, during his long persecution by
President Kruger, Wools-Sampson in the bitterness of his heart had vowed
a feud against the Boer cause, it must be acknowledged that he has most
amply fulfilled it, for it would be difficult to point to any single man
who has from first to last done them greater harm.

In October Colonel Benson's force was reorganised, and it then consisted
of the 2nd Buffs, the 2nd Scot