for a success. We had
learned and they had learned that they could not stand in the open
field.

The action of Poplars Grove was fought on March 7th. On the 9th the army
was again on its way, and on the 10th it attacked the new position which
the Boers had occupied at a place called Driefontein, or Abram's Kraal.
They covered a front of some seven miles in such a formation that their
wings were protected, the northern by the river and the southern by
flanking bastions of hill extending for some distance to the rear. If
the position had been defended as well as it had been chosen, the task
would have been a severe one.

Since the Modder covered the enemy's right the turning movement could
only be developed on their left, and Tucker's Division was thrown
out very wide on that side for the purpose. But in the meanwhile a
contretemps had occurred which threw out and seriously hampered the
whole British line of battle. General French was in command of the left
wing, which included Kelly-Kenny's Division, the first cavalry brigade,
and Alderson's Mounted Infantry. His orders had been to keep in touch
with the centre, and to avoid pushing his attack home. In endeavouring
to carry out these instructions French moved his men more and more to
the right, until he had really squeezed in between the Boers and Lord
Roberts's central column, and so masked the latter. The essence of the
whole operation was that the frontal attack should not be delivered
until Tucker had worked round to the rear of the position. It is for
military critics to decide whether it was that the flankers were too
slow or the frontal assailants were too fast, but it is certain that
Kelly-Kenny's Division attacked before the cavalry and the 7th Division
were in their place. Kelly-Kenny was informed that the position in front
of him had been abandoned, and four regiments, the Buffs, the Essex, the
Welsh, and the Yorkshires, were advanced against it. They were passing
over the open when the crash of the Mauser fire burst out in front of
them, and the bullets hissed and thudded among the ranks. The ordeal was
a very severe one. The Yorkshires were swung round wide upon the right,
but the rest of the brigade, the Welsh Regiment leading, made a frontal
attack upon the ridge. It was done coolly and deliberately, the men
taking advantage of every possible cover. Boers could be seen leaving
their position in small bodies as the crackling, swaying line of the
British