Show WAR r victory confirmed official dispatches troops took forty prisoners ip ers north of general gatacre cut off i i sn retreat enemy at Co lesburg was h reprised by rapid march of british andon jan 2 tho war office has ved the following from capo ff ym under date col pit ja reports through the officer com eding at the orange river 1 defeated a hostile command the sunnyside Sunny side laager this day jan i p taking the laager and forty pals ners besides the killed and wound ia our casualties two killed ind lieutenant adle wounded am eu t nt dover farm 20 miles cst of belmont Bc lmont and ten miles from yi alie success of gen franchs frenchs Frenc hs column i at length confirmed officially tha la ar office this a als atch from cape town monday jan iu las follows frenca Fren cb deports at 2 p m today Cole as follows at arensburg Rens burg holding enemy T 1 front halt of tho first Suf folks siad a section ot tho royal borso ar aco I 1 started thence at 5 in december 31 taking with ae five squadrons of cavalry halt of ae second berks and eighty mounted mantry infantry carried wagons and CO guns I 1 baited for tour hours at farm and at this mom pk the kopie kopje ia westward of Co lesburg the en ys outposts were taken completely r surprise at day light we shelled w laager and enfiladed the right of U ff w position the infantry fire was hot S wo silenced tho guns on the right ank demonstrating with infantry K arth toward the junction where a 5 trong laager of the enemy was holding i till and a position southeast of coles 5 erg as far as the junction our on cute the line of retreat via th 3 abad and bridge somo thousands of with two guns arc reported to 0 o retiring towards Norval si all tons scouts proceeded sward Ach terland yesterday morning i ight about three killed and is V wounded details later 5 independent messages from 1 lansberg filed the evening of jan 1 gen franchs frenchs Frenc hs dispatch but tightly according to this they were till shelling aitho boer position at 5 clock monday evening and expected LO enter Co lesberg today the loises were three killed ind seven wounded no officers were or wounded the boors are sup ased to hae suffered heavily from bo accuracy of the british artillery artill cry re gen franchs frenchs Frenc hs statement that the boers were using a fifteen and woolwich ammunition evidently refers li l i 11 the british guns captured at storm erg tho boer strength in tho en with gen french was asti abed at from to men while the afternoon papers are disused to over rate the brilliancy of ico franchs frenchs Frenc hs success it will doubtless ave a good moral effect and it prompt y followed up as seems likely from he fact that tons guides are advancing on Ach terland it buy result in capturing Norval thus gaining a strategic ien aa abon gen french will be ale to threaten bethulia Be thulla bridge which a the main line ot retreat of the boers acing gatacre other official dispatches dated jan 1 bay gen huena position is un tem ged THE ADVANTAGE OF DEFENSE IN MODERN WAR the point made by tho richmond times in an article quoted by us yesterday that in cheso almos quick firing and long range arms have revolutionized the theory 0 war is undoubtedly true and sound the whole tendency of the recent development of anna as was torsein by military students at its beginning has been to increase tho power of the defense and to give it an advantage over the offense without a precedent in the history 0 war smokeless powder also contributes to tho same end direct assault on troops in protected positions armed with long range rifles that can be fired as fast as the trigger can be pulled and using powder has been rendered practically hopeless A comparatively small force in the defence may successfully cess fully vastly greater forces brought against it as the boers have done and die attil doing no ane bosy of their british assailants their own loss in every engagement of the kind navo been trifling they are able always to drive off the attacking lories whether they are defending themselves against greater or interior numbers troops led against their tiie continuous and of long range are led to wasteful slaughter comparatively secure against he fire of the enemy the boers pour a fire on the enemy which would make futino such auak by the bravest and best disciplined troops in the world this tremendous advantage of defense has ayen appreciated at its fual value oy general jouber aiom outset of iho blei har in preparation for gaining it the kiaus vaal had long been engaged in pio curling supplies of tho mosi impton Imp tOe patterns or modem arms and he ic ammunition tor them doubtless it was the knowledge of president kruger that he had secured the ad vantage which induced his early prediction that the slaughter of the war with the boers would humanity the british troops however seem to have gone ahead without any adequate conception of the great revolution which had taken place in modern war it is true that tor the first ame they encountered in south africa these favorable conditions for defense their previous training as far as they had had training in actual hostilities had been wholly with savage or deml cial llred enemies who were unable to profit by this vast advantage possible for tho defense tao british officers were convinced as also the london war office and all english opinion seems to have been convinced that tho task ot overcoming an enemy so insignificant in numbers as the boers would be as easy as it would have been formerly accordingly england began the south african campaign with armies eo insufficient that now they are all practically on the defensive themselves their offensive movements have been checked or defeated disastrously in every instance consequently for the time being there is a standstill in military operations the boers wisely retrain from direct assault knowing that their opportunity depends wholly on their advantage in the defense and the british having discovered by bitter ex peri ence the futility of direct attack on them aro simply holding their positions or falling back to others more secure while they wait for reinforcements and the organization of a new campaign and probably a very different manner of campaign from that in which they have failed thus far these reinforcements together with the probable concentration of their forces already in the field of war by the abandonment of some of the positions they now hold will doubtless be used to counterbalance the advantages of the defense by enabling the british with greater superior numbers to hold them in check while detaching forces to turn their positions and menace their communications the time spent itt preparing for such a campaign will be long necessarily for it involves the necessity tor greater increased armies and much preliminary training of raw troops it is not probable then that the patriotic ardor now displayed so splendidly in both england itself and all her colonies will bo taxed to the utmost before the subjugation of the boers can be effected As it is now the boers having taken the aggressive in the beginning are prepared to conduct their first defense ou british soil instead of assaulting thea british armies sent against them their tactics have been to await and repel assaults and doubtless the boors will in them meantime so far as possible they are neutralizing the armies of the enemy by keeping them shut up as at ladysmith Lady smith and kimberley or divided and powerless as in the cases of methuen and buller this situation may last throughout the winter by the aid of reinforce 1 ments and the concentration of the british columns lord roberts it may be assumed however will ultimately compel the wary boers to tall back on their own country and adopt purely defensive tactics there when this is accomplished the vast advantages of the defense in present warfare will continue with the boers it they have sufficient supply of ammunition they may ae able to hold out tor many months it not indefinitely being a pastoral people the interference of a condition of war with the course of their simple civilization is insignificant as compared with what it would be it they were a commercial and with a complex civi meanwhile the task imposed upon lord roberts at the advanced age for a soldier of ca acara will be wholly novel in his experience his military reputation has been won as a commander of comparatively small expeditionary forces in india and afghanistan against enemies with weapons and tactics which are not those of modern civilized war now ho becomes for the first time in his career ithe commander of a great army even as measured by the standard of large wars and tor such a responsibility experience has shown that few generals at any period of history have been fully equipped men competent to command brigades and divisions are many good commanders of corps are relatively few but generals capable of commanding an army of men and more are so rare that their names become immortal never before perhaps was this rarity so great as it Is now under the conditions brought about by the recent revolution in war so conducive to the advantage of the defense lord roberts therefore Is beginning practically a new career at the age of 67 in going to take command in south aari ca of the most numerous army the british have ever had in the field |