[Illustration: GENERAL GROBLER]
The Boer army was capable of moving rapidly under almost any
conditions. The British army demonstrated upon many occasions that it
could not move more than two or three miles an hour when the column was
hampered with transport waggons and camping paraphernalia, and frequently
it was impossible to proceed at that pace for many consecutive hours. A
Boer commando easily travelled six miles an hour and not infrequently,
when there was a necessity for rapid motion, seven and even eight miles an
hour were traversed. When General Lucas Meyer moved his commandos along
the border at the outset of the war and learned that General Penn-Symons
was located at Dundee he made a night march of almost forty miles in six
hours and occupied Talana Hill, a mile distant from the enemy, who was
ignorant of the Boers' proximity until the camp was shelled at daybreak.
When General De Wet learned that Colonel Broadwood was moving westward
from Thaba N'Chu on March 30th, he was in laager several miles east of
Brandfort, but it required only several minutes for all the burghers to be
on their horses and ready to proceed toward the enemy. The journey of
twenty-five miles to Sannaspost, or the Bloemfontein waterworks, was made
in the short time of five hours, while Colonel Broadwood's forces consumed
seven hours in making the ten miles' journey from Thaba N'Chu to the same
place. The British column was unable to move more rapidly on account of
its large convoy of waggons, but even then the rate of progress was not as
great as that made by the trekking party of the three generals who were
similarly hampered.
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