E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team LESSONS OF THE WAR Being Comments from Week to Week to the Relief of Ladysmith by SPENSER WILKINSON Westminster Archibald Constable & Company Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. 1900 PREFACE The history of a war cannot be properly written until long after its close, for such a work must be based upon a close study of the military correspondence of the generals and upon the best records, to be had of the doings of both sides. Nor can the tactical lessons of a war be fully set forth until detailed and authoritative accounts of the battles are accessible. But for the nation the lessons of this war are not obscure, at any rate not to those whose occupations have led them to indulge in any close study of war. Since the middle of December I have written a daily introduction to the telegrams for one of the morning papers. Before I contemplated that work I had undertaken for my friend Mr. Locker, the Editor of _The London Letter_, to write a weekly review of the war. Many requests have been made to me by publishers for a volume on the history of the war, with which, for the reasons given above, it is impossible at present to comply; but to the proposal of my old friends, Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co., to reprint my weekly reviews from _The London Letter_, the same objections do not hold. In revising the articles, I have found but few alterations necessary. My views have not changed, and to make the details of the battles accurate would hardly be practicable without more information than is likely to be at hand until after the return of the troops. S.W. March 9th, 1900 CONTENTS THE EVE OF WAR THE MILITARY ISSUES A WEEK'S CAMPAIGN PLAYING WITH FIRE HOW WEAK POLICY LEADS TO BAD STRATEGY TWO VIEWS OR TRUE VIEWS? BULLER'S PROBLEM FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS THE DELAY OF REINFORCEMENTS THE NATION'S PROBLEM MORE AWAKENING THE NATION'S BUSINESS WANTED, THE MAN THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR THE DECISIVE BATTLE SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS THE ELEVENTH HOUR TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN A COMMANDER CRONJE'S SEDAN THE BOER DEFEATS THE COLLAPSE OF THE BOER POWER THE EVE OF WAR