Lord Chelmsford was woefully deficient in knowledge of the enemy's movements. An immense army lay in wait to destroy his camp while he, with scattered forces, pursued a Will-o'-the-wisp foe which found no difficulty in luring him on to destruction. He had mounted men, but does not seem to have used them efficiently as scouts. Colonel Buller, the able head of his intelligence branch, was in quite another part of the country. Lord Chelmsford either completely despised the enemy, which was a blunder in itself, or he was incapable of appreciating his real position, and of taking the evident means of preserving the column under his charge. He evidently wanted that genius or instinct so absolutely necessary to constitute a great military leader. A really great general, like a poet, is born, not made; and it was the misfortune of the British army not to have secured one on this important occasion. No entrenchment or laager was either made or ordered to be made at Isandhlwana, although it must be admitted that if the general had been as lucky in subordinates there as at Rorke's Drift, a very different issue of the day would have been the result. Nothing could surpass the madness of Colonel Durnford in scattering his troops at the very moment when, by means of laagering, or at least forming a hollow square, it would have been possible to resist the attack of the enemy. It is a libel on our soldiers to hint that they did not behave well. The short service system is in no way responsible for the disaster. The gallant 24th, as well as the other troops, fought with the utmost bravery, and, if they had been commanded by such a man as Wood or Pearson, undoubtedly would have gained a brilliant victory. A few hundred Dutchmen, without breech-loading guns, had behind a rough fortification of waggons defied an entire Zulu army. Chard and Bromhead, with 100 infantry soldiers, at the back of mealie-bags and biscuit-boxes, were able to drive back immensely superior forces. It is therefore preposterous to imagine that our troops at Isandhlwana, assisted by well-served large guns, could not easily, if properly commanded, have been able to hold their own, at least until the rest of the column arrived. [Sidenote: _Lord Chelmsford criticised._] In ten days' time Lord Chelmsford was so unfortunate as to sustain a most signal defeat, in which half his force was literally butchered, and his large quantity of ammunition and stores captured by the enemy. His flank was turned and his column surprised by an army of naked savages, without artillery, about whose movements his ignorance was as profound as it was surprising. A similar success to that gained by Colonel Pearson would have virtually concluded the war. A march to Ulundi by a strong flying column would have been possible, and Great Britain might then have saved the blood of many of her best soldiers, and fully three million pounds sterling of her treasure.