Black Week, Colenso and Stormberg

Black Week saw the British in South Africa suffer three defeats in six days at the hands of the Boers. Magersfontein we have already added, and today we complete the set with the battle of Stormberg (10 December 1899), the first of the three defeats, inflicted on a British army that had got badly lost during a night march, and the battle of Colenso (15 December 1899) at which the British commander in chief in South Africa, Sir Redvers Buller, revealed how little suited he was to battlefield command.