Text Appearing Before Image: ough to be sure of the nature or extent of the enemy's defences. On the morning of the 28th, as the troops broke up from their camp and began to move northwards along the veldt beside the railway, a native brought word that the Boers were in force along the river banks. But then native reports of the enemy's numbers had been generally found to be unreliable ; and as Methuen rode with his staff well to the front of the advance, he spoke of being over the river early in the day, and even pointed out a large white house surrounded by trees, near the railway bridge, as a good place for the staff to halt for breakfast and establish the headquarters. At that moment, Boer sharpshooters were watching his advance from the house, and waiting for the word to open fire. The force with Lord Methuen had been augmented on the eve of the battle by the arrival by railway of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the first battalion of General Wauchope's Highland Brigade to reach the front. This made up for the small infantry Text Appearing After Image: 86 THE BOER WAR. detachments lie had left on his hue of communications. At sunrise the Lancers had been sent out to scout in front. On the right marched the Guards Brigade, under Colville; on the left the Ninth Brigade, now under the command of Brigadier-General Pole-Carew. The Highlanders formed a link between the two brigades. Lord Methuen's artillery at the beginning of the battle consisted of the naval battery and the 18th and 75th Batteries R.A. The 62nd R.F.A. had been left at Belmont on the line of communications. In the course of the morning a telegraphic message was sent to call it up to the front, and the guns arrived at half-past four in the afternoon, after a march of twenty miles under the blazing sun. The horses were so tired that for the last few miles all the gunners walked in order to help them a little. The fact that the battery was left behind is one more proof that at the beginning of the day Methuen did not expect any serious opposition to his advance. Before describing the fight
Note About Images
Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
This image was taken from Flickr's The Commons. The uploading organization may have various reasons for determining that no known copyright restrictions exist, such as:
The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired;
The copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions;
The institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control; or
The institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.
Please add additional copyright tags to this image if more specific information about copyright status can be determined. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
No known copyright restrictionsNo restrictionshttps://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/false