Thus, while Lyttelton's and
Coke's Brigades were ostentatiously attacking Potgieter's from in
front, three other brigades (Hart's, Woodgate's, and Hildyard's)
were marched rapidly on the night of the 16th to the real place of
crossing, to which Dundonald's cavalry had already ridden. There,
on the 17th, a pontoon bridge had been erected, and a strong force
was thrown over in such a way as to turn the right of the trenches
in front of Potgieter's. It was admirably planned and excellently
carried out, certainly the most strategic movement, if there could
he said to have been any strategic movement upon the British side,
in the campaign up to that date. On the 18th the infantry, the
cavalry, and most of the guns were safely across without loss of
life. The Boers, however, still retained their formidable internal
lines, and the only result of a change of position seemed to be to
put them to the trouble of building a new series of those terrible
entrenchments at which they had become such experts. After all the
combinations the British were, it is true, upon the right side of
the river, but they were considerably further from Ladysmith than
when they started.
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