While Buller’s men were at ease, confident in their innate superiority and their commander’s wisdom, Buller himself was tense as he watched them make their way toward the seemingly empty hills. After a week of devastating losses, he was still no closer to Ladysmith, and he knew that every move he made, every miscalculation, every slip of the tongue or sword, was being watched not only by the Boers and the British but by most of the Western world.
