er his command, if small, was
suitable both in composition and spirit to that most difficult of
military operations, the surveillance and protection of a large area by
mobility alone. His dispositions, detailed in Chapter XVII., whilst they
denied a front of nearly forty miles to the enemy, effectually covered
the Hanover Road-Naauwpoort-Rosmead line of railway. The area occupied
by the Boers round Rensburg was, like that of the British, bisected by
the railway. It was roughly as follows:--On the west of the line lay
some 800 Transvaalers with a long-range gun; on the east about 2,000
Free Staters, with two guns, were partly entrenched, whilst 600 burghers
guarded the Boer Headquarters at Colesberg and their line of retreat.
Against the enemy, thus distributed, French now began a series of
reconnaissances and rapid movements in force, which, directed against
Schoeman's flanks and rear, and often against his convoys, left him no
peace. Some of these expeditions, notably an attack by the New Zealand
Mounted Rifles and a battery R.H.A. on December 18th against the Boer
left rear, led to brisk skirmishing; but the British losses were always
trifling, and Schoeman, continually forced to show his hand, eventually
wearied of his insecurity. On the 29th he abandoned Rensburg, and fell
back by night upon Colesberg. At daybreak on the 30th, French followed
in pursuit with the Carabiniers, New Zealand Mounted Rifles, and two
guns R.H.A. and, reaching Rensburg at 7 a.m., soon regained touch with
the enemy upon the ridges south-west of Colesberg. A demonstration by
the artillery disclosed a strong position, strongly held. Colesberg town
lies in a hollow in the midst of a rough square of high, steep kopjes,
many of them of that singular geometrical form described in Chapter III.
Smaller kopjes project within rifle range from the angles of the square,
whilst 2,000 yards west of its western face a tall peak, called Coles
Kop, rises abruptly from the encircling plain, and dominates the entire
terrain. The isolation of this hill was doubtless the reason why it was
not occupied by the Boers. They were in strength everywhere along the
hilly ramparts around Colesberg. French, therefore, perceiving the
formidable nature of this "natural fortress,"[260] contented himself
with seizing a group of hills (Porter's Hill) 2,000 yards south-west of
the south-western angle. Here he planted artillery, and, leaving Porter
with the above mounted troops in