(_Boston Globe_, Feb. 16, 1900, by =Franklin K. Young=.)
“Lord Roberts’ communications for nearly two hundred miles are exposed
to the attack of an enemy, who at any moment is liable to capture and
destroy his supply and ammunition trains and to reduce the British army
to a condition wherein it will be obliged to fight a battle under most
disadvantageous circumstances.”
* * * * *
(From United States War Department _Report on the British Boer War_. By
=Capt. S. L’H. Slocum=, U. S. Attache with British Army.)
“Feb. 15, 1900. The main supply park of the army was attacked by the
enemy near Watervale Drift.
“This park consisted of one hundred ox-wagons containing rations and one
hundred more wagons filled with ammunition. One hundred and fifty of
these wagons and three thousand oxen were captured by the Boers.
“The loss of these rations and munitions was a most serious blow. Lord
Roberts was here confronted by a crisis which would have staggered and
been the undoing of many commanders-in-chief placed as he was.
“He was in the enemy’s country, cut off from his base of supplies on the
railroad and with an unknown number of the enemy in his rear and upon his
line of communication. His transport was nearly all captured and his army
was suddenly reduced to three days full rations on the eve of a great
movement and the country afforded no food whatever. The crisis still
further developed when a courier brought the report that the Boers were
in position at Watervale Drift and commanding the ford with artillery.”