Volume 47, Number 11 · June 29, 2000
Under Siege
By Neal Ascherson
Ladysmith
by Giles Foden
Knopf, 291 pp., $25.00
A hundred years ago, on February 28, 1900, the South African town of Ladysmith was relieved from being under siege. The half-starved British garrison, which had held out against the Boers and their Prussian-made artillery for 118 days, watched in disbelief as the enemy's ox wagons set out on their long retreat over the mountains toward the Transvaal. That evening, the first cavalry patrol from the relief army commanded by General Redfers Buller splashed through the Klip River shallows and into Ladysmith.
Review, 3502 words
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