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Hello Iain,
I very much doubt if Sir Arthur was actually there, I know that he served in the Orange River Colony as a Doctor in 1900, but, I suspect he was far to busy playing cricket at the MCC, ,with has friends, to worry about what was happening to the Irish Brigade!
Packenham was not there either, infact, he had not been born, but a number of people who were actually there in Natal do make reference to it, in both published and unpublished sources, in the contempory press and in diaries etc.
Regards Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

I find it very strange that neither Conan Doyle nor Packenham make mention of the river being dammed but it would not suprise me if it were as Mnr Botha was a very clever and cunning opponent!

regards, Iain

A long winded rant so here goes. From my readings and research Hart clearly was in a position of command at the wrong place at the wrong time which resulted in many men paying the ultimate price. All very well using Hart as a scape goat.............it was Buller who made the decision to a force a passage at the Tulgela.........the 5th Brigade was ordered to cross at Bridle Drift, work their way down the bank of the river towards Colenso kopjes. From my readings the Buller clearly underestimated the opposition. If they knew the intensity of the shell fire and sniper fire I certainly hope he would have reviewed his plan of action. With regards to the Connaught Rangers, the few who made it to the bank of the river, found it "deep and broad and quite impassable" and when you cut out all the vague weak talk that one reads there was basically total confusion at the loops outer river bank with various battalions mixing into each other. Only 6 Connaughts reached the river bank - a captain, a lieutenant and four men - four of them where wounded and eventually captured. It's recorded when they reached the bank they found no shelter, where knackered, had wounds and ceased firing when they quickly relised they where in a no win situation. As a result the Boers spared these men, a gesture that the Connaught Rangers recorded in their official history of the 1st Btn. As for the river being dammed, I doubt this, has history added this feature as an excuse ?.............yes they had time to raise the water levels but the Boers had a trench net work with good riflemen, shell fire to repel anything thrown at them and what was thrown at them they successfully repelled it. In my opinion they had more to fight for but thats for another topic !!Unfortunately it had to be Harts men who where subjected to his orders.