The
Highlanders were dead-beat; the Coldstreams had had enough; the
mounted infantry was badly mauled. There remained the Grenadiers,
the Scots Guards, and two or three line regiments who were
available for a new attack. There are occasions, such as Sadowa,
where a General must play his last card. There are others where
with reinforcements in his rear, he can do better by saving his
force and trying once again. General Grant had an axiom that the
best time for an advance was when you were utterly exhausted, for
that was the moment when your enemy was probably utterly exhausted
too, and of two such forces the attacker has the moral advantage.
Lord Methuen determined--and no doubt wisely--that it was no
occasion for counsels of desperation. His men were withdrawn--in
some cases withdrew themselves--outside the range of the Boer guns,
and next morning saw the whole force with bitter and humiliated
hearts on their way back to their camp at Modder River.
The repulse of Magersfontein cost the British nearly a thousand
men, killed, wounded, and missing, of which over seven hundred
belonged to the Highlanders.
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