Major-General Chelmaford and the Zulu War.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3139, 11 March 1879, Page 2

Major-General Chelmaford and the Zulu War.

The English Press and public opinion, according to a cable despatch received on ■ Saturday, is greatly incensed against Lord Chelmsford, the General command* ing the Zulu forces. The cause of this feeling may be inferred from the lucid account of the disaster given in the special despatch from the Press Agency's correspondent at Cape Town, published in another column. When th« news of the defeat first reached us many people, including some experienced in military matters, believed it would tun out that the disaster was caused by the indiscretion of some subordinate officer 1 anxious to distinguish himself and careless of the risk. But details of the affair show that the Commander-in-Cbief is personally responsible for it, having pushed on prematurely with the main Body of his force, leaving the Zulu army on his flank, and ex- ■. posing a handful of men, left to guard the ford, to be cut to pieces by overwhelming numbers of the enemy.* The disaster was occasioned by a want of judgment in pressing forward too fast, and not taking' sufficient precautions to discover the whereabouts of the enemy. Upon hear* ing of it, Lord Chelmsford immediately ' fell back with the main body of his force, and occupied the field of carnage. We have learned by wire that the Queen has telegraphed her special sympathy fo? the Commanderin-Chief, but this will hardly save him his command of the* expedition, and Lord Napier, of Magdala, the most experienced officer in the service of the country has already been mentioned as his successor. Major-General Lord Chelmsford—the Hon. F.Thesiger of the Kaffrarian war, his title in the peerage, having come to him recently through the death of his father—has seen a good deal of service. He is a brave officer, and much symyathy will be felt for him in this misfortune.—Star.