The epistles of Atkins

15 December 1899

Battle of Colenso

I.—ARMS AND THE MAN

His mood is more chastened when he says, about the supreme effort to recapture the guns at Colenso, " You might as well have tried to take a gentleman's honour from him." Such is the note of noble gravity with which the common soldier faces a warm i8

I.—ARMS AND THE MAN

On the road to Colenso, the troops would appear to be, in good part, their own cooks. We hear of them carrying bundles of wood tied to their belts, with which to light a fire and brew tea while halting. " We returned the compliment and partook of a ' billy ' of tea and a raw onion for supper." This is a banquet to the hungry warrior.

III.— BATTLE IN BEING

There is no need for the exercise at Colenso, of which a bandsman catches the music, " The scene though terrible was grand, and the crescendo in Rossini's * William Tell ' was fairly eclipsed by the effect of the guns." We estimate events, however novel, however strange, by the conditions of our everyday life and calling. What would Colenso have been like at night, in darkness instead of in daylight } A second commentator wonders ! It is splendid in the light of morning, with its roll of rifle fire, its roar of cannon, its bonfire of bursting shell. In the dark it would, the writer fancies, be grander, just as a veldt fire seems to burn fiercer then ; but always it is cruel, terrible, the magnificence of hell.

IV.— UNDER FIRE

" After they had told us all about the terrible struggle the British had to get to Ladysmith, one of our fellows quietly said that we had taken part in the battles of Colenso, Spion Kop, and Pieters Hill. You 92