Their efforts were by no means lost, as they engaged the attention of a considerable body of Boers during the day and were able to bring some prisoners back with them.
The battle of Talana Hill was a tactical victory but a strategic defeat.
It was a crude frontal attack without any attempt at even a feint of flanking, but the valour of the troops, from general to private, carried it through.

The force was in a position so radically false that the only use which they could make of a victory was to cover their own retreat.
From all points Boer commandoes were converging upon it, and already it was understood that the guns at their command were heavier than any which could be placed against them.

This was made more clear on October 21st, the day after the battle, when the force, having withdrawn overnight from the useless hill which they had captured, moved across to a fresh position on the far side of the railway.

At four in the afternoon a very heavy gun opened from a distant hill, altogether beyond the extreme range of our artillery, and plumped shell after shell into our camp.

It was the first appearance of the great Creusot.