Provision against accident or interruption, casual or hostile, has therefore to be elaborate in framework and solid in joint.

"Lord Roberts had 45,000 men when he arrived at Bloemfontein, and he increased that number to 75,000 by April 30." Six thousand horses, besides mules, were at the same time sent up.

To supply men and animals with daily food, and to accumulate on the spot twenty-five days' provisions and supplies of military stores for the further advance to the Vaal, there had to be brought daily to Bloemfontein, besides the reinforcements of men, 1020 tons by a single-track railroad on which many bridges had been destroyed.[41] And Bloemfontein was 750 miles from Cape Town, and 250 from De Aar, the nearest secondary base so far established.
[Footnote 41: These figures are taken from a speech made by the Under Secretary of War in Parliament, June 29, 1900.] The {p.309} good effect of Roberts's advance upon the general fortune of the war, and the correct military principle of the original plan, by him resumed, were clearly and quickly evident.

Men from the Boer forces before Ladysmith were assembling already around Paardeberg before Cronje surrendered, seeking to relieve him, and Roberts on his march to Bloemfontein fought not only them but others from Colesberg and Stormberg, and generally from the regions over which French and Gatacre had vainly striven to advance.

How far this helped Buller in his actual fighting before Ladysmith cannot certainly be said.