Aliwal.
These were the troops operating in the Free State, with the addition of
the division of mounted infantry in process of formation.

There remained the three divisions in Natal, the 2nd (Clery's), the 4th
(Lyttelton's), and the 5th (Hildyard's, late Warren's), with the cavalry
brigades of Burn-Murdoch, Dundonald, and Brocklehurst. These,
with numerous militia and unbrigaded regiments along the lines of
communication, formed the British army in South Africa. At Mafeking some
900 irregulars stood at bay, with another force about as large under
Plumer a little to the north, endeavouring to relieve them. At Beira, a
Portuguese port through which we have treaty rights by which we may pass
troops, a curious mixed force of Australians, New Zealanders and others
was being disembarked and pushed through to Rhodesia, so as to cut off
any trek which the Boers might make in that direction. Carrington, a
fierce old soldier with a large experience of South African warfare, was
in command of this picturesque force, which moved amid tropical forests
over crocodile-haunted streams, while their comrades were shivering in
the cold southerly winds of a Cape winter. Neither our Government, our
people, nor the world understood at the beginning of this campaign how
grave was the task which we had undertaken, but, having once realised
it, it must be acknowledged that it was carried through in no
half-hearted way. So vast was the scene of operations that the
Canadian might almost find his native climate at one end of it and the
Queenslander at the other.

To follow in close detail the movements of the Boers and the counter
movements of the British in the southeast portion of the Free State
during this period would tax the industry of the historian and the
patience of the reader. Let it be told with as much general truth and
as little geographical detail as possible. The narrative which is
interrupted by an eternal reference to the map is a narrative spoiled.

The main force of the Freestaters had assembled in the north-eastern
corner of their State, and from this they made their sally southwards,
attacking or avoiding at their pleasure the eastern line of British
outposts. Their first engagement, that of Sanna's Post, was a great and
deserved success. Three days later they secured the five companies at
Reddersberg. Warned in time, the other small British bodies closed in
upon their supports, and the railway line, that nourishing artery