it was judged
impossible to fire, and the mounted brigade withdrew to camp, arriving
there about 4.30 p.m. The 7th, Henshaw's, battery had expended 532
rounds in all.

[Sidenote: Casualties.]

The total casualties on the British side throughout were 74 officers
and 1,065 men; of these seven officers and 136 men were killed; 47
officers and 709 men were wounded, and 20 officers and 220 men
returned as prisoners or missing.[242] The Boer losses were six
killed, one drowned, and 22 wounded, the relative smallness of these
figures being largely due to their admirable system of entrenchment
and to the invisibility of smokeless powder.

[Footnote 242: For detailed casualties, see Appendix 6.]

[Sidenote: Two views of the course of the day.]

The British Commander's plan for the passage of the Tugela was
undoubtedly so hazardous that only the most exact sequence of the
phases of its execution, as conceived by Sir R. Buller, could have
brought it to a successful issue.[243] Imperfect knowledge of the
topographical conditions of the problem, and of the dispositions of
the enemy, combined with misapprehension of orders, sufficed to wreck
it at the outset.

[Footnote 243: This is Sir Redvers' own view. On the other
hand Botha, after the war, said that the loss of the guns and
the mistakes as to Hart's brigade deprived him of the
opportunity of inflicting a ruinous defeat upon the British
army. He had hoped to induce his assailants to cross the
river without a shot being fired.]

[Sidenote: Good points in a day of misfortune.]

The gallant conduct and bearing of the regimental officers and men
were conspicuous through this day of ill-fortune. The reservists, who
formed from 40 to 50 per cent. of the men of the infantry battalions,
displayed a battle-discipline which supported that of their younger
comrades, while the newly-raised colonial corps gave a foretaste of
the valuable services which such units were destined to render
throughout the war.

[Sidenote: The heavy Naval guns and telescopes.]

The influence of the telescopes and long-ranging heavy guns of the
navy has been noticed in the course of the narrative; but the subject
is an important one and it was not only at Colenso that this influence
was felt. It will be more convenient to deal with the general question
when other instances of the same kind have been recorded.

CHAPTER XXIII.

LORD