Therefore, an examination of the relation borne by this single factor to the whole, of which it was a part, may very fitly precede immediately the narrative of the particular occurrences which locally centred around it.
The considerations of any and every nature which made Ladysmith a railroad junction, a cross-roads, at which met three important {p.179} lines of communication--one with Durban, one with the Transvaal, and one with the Orange Free State--constituted it at the same time, necessarily and consequently, a position of strategic importance.

Even had a mistake been made in selecting it as a railroad centre--which I have never seen asserted--the decision alone would have given it value; but, if the choice was sound, all the considerations which dictated it go to increase that value.

It does not follow, of course, that such a position must under no circumstances be abandoned, that something better than its tenure might not have been done for the British campaign; still less is it to be concluded that the only, or the best, way to hold the place was by occupying the town itself, or the particular lines ultimately established around it by Sir George White.
These are questions of detail, which, however important, are separable in thought and in decision from the general fact stated--that Ladysmith, being a railroad crossing, the only very important one on the Natal theatre of operations, was necessarily a strategic point not lightly to be surrendered.
Nor {p.180} was Sir George White, in deciding to hold the place, constrained only by the demands of an immediate emergency.

The thoughts and reasonings of that gallant and distinguished officer have been sequestrated from public knowledge by the same causes that obscure most of the early happenings of the siege; but, from speeches made by him shortly after his return to England, it is clearly apparent that not only a present military exigency, but also the considerations above mentioned, were present in his mind, as indeed they could not fail to be with any instructed and intelligent officer.
"Natal was the object on which the Boers had set their hearts.

It was not only the actual point which they attacked, but it was also their sentimental object.