t's brigade had occupied Colenso,
and the heavy guns had been pushed up to more advanced positions. The
crossing of the river was the next operation, and the question arose
where it should be crossed. The wisdom which comes with experience shows
us now that it would have been infinitely better to have crossed on
their extreme left flank, as by an advance upon this line we should have
turned their strong Pieters position just as we had already turned their
Colenso one. With an absolutely master card in our hand we refused to
play it, and won the game by a more tedious and perilous process. The
assumption seems to have been made (on no other hypothesis can one
understand the facts) that the enemy were demoralised and that the
positions would not be strongly held. Our flanking advantage was
abandoned and a direct advance was ordered from Colenso, involving a
frontal attack upon the Pieters position.

On February 21st Buller threw his pontoon bridge over the river near
Colenso, and the same evening his army began to cross. It was at once
evident that the Boer resistance had by no means collapsed. Wynne's
Lancashire Brigade were the first across, and found themselves hotly
engaged before nightfall. The low kopjes in front of them were blazing
with musketry fire. The brigade held its own, but lost the Brigadier
(the second in a month) and 150 rank and file. Next morning the main
body of the infantry was passed across, and the army was absolutely
committed to the formidable and unnecessary enterprise of fighting its
way straight to Ladysmith.

The force in front had weakened, however, both in numbers and in morale.
Some thousands of the Freestaters had left in order to defend their own
country from the advance of Roberts, while the rest were depressed by as
much of the news as was allowed by their leaders to reach them. But
the Boer is a tenacious fighter, and many a brave man was still to
fall before Buller and White should shake hands in the High Street of
Ladysmith.

The first obstacle which faced the army, after crossing the river, was
a belt of low rolling ground, which was gradually cleared by the advance
of our infantry. As night closed in the advance lines of Boers and
British were so close to each other that incessant rifle fire was
maintained until morning, and at more than one point small bodies of
desperate riflemen charged right up to the bayonets of our infantry. The
morning found us still holding our position