There could only be one direction for the advance, and that must be along the Pretoria to Pietersburg railroad.  This is the only line of rails which leads to the north, and as it was known to be in working order (the Boers were running a bi-weekly service from Pietersburg to Warm Baths), it was hoped that a swift advance might seize it before any extensive damage could be done.  With this object a small but very mobile force rapidly assembled at the end of March at Pienaar River, which was the British rail-head forty miles north of Pretoria and a hundred and thirty from Pietersburg.  This column consisted of the Bushveld Carbineers, the 4th Imperial Bushmen’s Corps, and the 6th New Zealand contingent.  With them were the 18th battery R.F.A., and three pom-poms.  A detachment of the invaluable mounted Sappers rode with the force, and two infantry regiments, the 2nd Gordons and the Northamptons, were detached to garrison the more vulnerable places upon the line of advance.

Upon March 29th the untiring Plumer, called off from the chase of De Wet, was loosed upon this fresh line, and broke swiftly away to the north.  The complete success of his undertaking has obscured our estimate of its danger, but it was no light task to advance so great a distance into a bitterly hostile country with a fighting force of 2000 rifles.  As an enterprise it was in many ways not unlike Mahon’s dash on Mafeking, but without any friendly force with which to join hands at the end.  However from the beginning all went well.  On the 30th the force had reached Warm Baths, where a great isolated hotel already marks the site of what will be a rich and fashionable spa.  On April 1st the Australian scouts rode into Nylstroom, fifty more miles upon their way.  There had been sufficient sniping to enliven the journey, but nothing which could be called an action.  Gleaning up prisoners and refugees as they went, with the railway engineers working like bees behind them, the force still swept unchecked upon its way.  On April 5th Piet Potgietersrust was entered, another fifty-mile stage, and on the morning of the 8th the British vanguard rode into Pietersburg.  Kitchener’s judgment and Plumer’s energy had met with their reward.

The Boer commando had evacuated the town and no serious opposition was made to the British entry.  The most effective resistance came from a single schoolmaster, who, in a moment of irrational frenzy or of patriotic exaltation, shot down three of the invaders before he met his own death.  Some rolling stock, one small gun, and something under a hundred prisoners were the trophies of the capture, but the Boer arsenal and the printing press were destroyed, and the Government sped off in a couple of Cape carts in search of some new capital.  Pietersburg was principally valuable as a base from which a sweeping movement might be made from the north at the same moment as one from the south-east.  A glance at the map will show that a force moving from this point in conjunction