THE TREK FROM KORANNABERG TO GENERAL DE WET
We had heard from General de Wet. This was the reason for the meeting of
officers two days after the taking of Ladybrand. General de Wet had
ordered that the Harrismith Commando should proceed between Kroonstad
and Rhenoster River, and should be employed along the railway line in
interrupting the communications of the enemy, whilst the burghers of
Vrede were to go to him--but without encumbering themselves with their
waggons, and that the other commandos were to proceed farther west,
everywhere taking the towns and appointing magistrates.
On Saturday, the 8th of September, we separated. From Commandant
Hasebroek we parted at Korannaberg, whilst General Fourie hastened
forward with 100 men to interview General de Wet personally. The order
of General de Wet was not carried out by the men of Vrede and
Harrismith. They considered that they could not do away with their
waggons; but nevertheless resolved to proceed to the Chief-Commandant,
and then, when they should arrive where he was, to act according to
circumstances.
It was one of the most monotonous journeys imaginable. We were under the
command of General Hattingh as Acting Chief-Commandant, and from the 8th
to the 18th of September we did nothing but trek some distance every
evening. We never travelled so late into the night as when we were going
to Korannaberg, and, excepting that nothing occurred to afford an
agreeable variety, the life was not an unpleasant one. One can
understand that every excuse was seized for the enjoyment of some
diversity, and so it happened that a most decided breach of discipline
took place of firing shots contrary to the established rule of the
commandos. The temptation came in the shape of "wilde beests" (gnus).
One afternoon we reached a part of the country where that kind of game
still existed in considerable numbers, and the temptation was more than
some could resist. Wilde beests! those were animals about which our
fathers had so often told us, and which the majority of us had never
seen! Regardless, therefore, of the safety of the commando on the march
some of the burghers fired at the game. The reports of the rifles
frightened the horses, which had by now become frisky after the rest at
Korannaberg, and the young grass they had eaten. Some of them broke
loose, and bolted across the broad level plains, whither the owners
pursued them like madmen. How angry they were with the delinquents! But
it probably gave them some satisfaction when the officers, some days
after, punished this transgression with a fine.
Proceeding on our way, we first heard that the enemy had hemmed in
Commandant Hasebroek at Doornberg, and afterwards that he had escaped
with the loss of nearly all his waggons and his field-guns. We heard
later on that the enemy had been in strong force under General Hector
MacDonald, and that Commandant Hasebroek escaped with all his men, but
that General MacDonald had captured sixteen of his waggons at Vet River
on the 13th, and eighteen at Doornberg on the 17th of September. The
cannon, however, did not fall into the hands of the enemy. Commandant
Hasebroek concealed them in a dam so as not to have the trouble of
dragging about with him guns for which he had no ammunition. On Sunday,
the 16th of September, we were not far south-west of Senekal. From there
we trekked nearer to the town and then northwards; we crossed through
Sand River and camped at Bretsberg. On the previous day several of the
burghers had gone to the town, and many others intended doing so next
day, in order to purchase what they required. But before they could do
so, we heard that the English had entered the town from the direction of
Zuringkrans, so suddenly that no one was aware of their approach. The
men who were there escaped at the opposite end of the town just in the
nick of time, and reported to us what had occurred. The laager had now
to inspan hurriedly and trek, while a number of burghers hastened away
in the direction of the town to oppose the English should they advance.
The British fired from the forts at Senekal, and their shells burst on a
ridge along which the laager was trekking out of town.
Great was the indignation at the want of vigilance displayed by the
scouting corps in allowing the enemy to approach and take Senekal
without being noticed; but after the captain had given an explanation,
the council of war was satisfied and acquitted the corps of all blame.
The enemy did no more than hurl shells at us, and we went our way
unharmed.
On the 18th of September we had advanced to Modderfontein, where we were
just twenty-four miles from Senekal, Ventersburg, Kroonstad, and Lindley
respectively. An unpleasant surprise awaited us here. Early the
following morning we heard rifle firing and the dud--dud--dud of a
Maxim-Nordenfeldt, both directed against the scouting corps. The laager
again trekked in great haste, while the burghers went to meet the enemy.
Unfortunately the issue was not favourable as far as our losses were
concerned, for two of our men were killed and three were wounded. The
advance of the enemy was, however, stopped, and several of them were
killed, wounded, and captured.
We now proceeded on our way in peace--unmolested by the English. We
again crossed Valsch River, but this time somewhat farther up the
stream. Leaving Lindley to the east, we passed through Rhenoster River
by the same ford through which we had passed a little more than a month
before when going south. The nearer we approached to where we hoped to
meet General de Wet somewhere in the Heilbron district, the more
fervently we longed to see him. Everybody thought that the
Chief-Commandant would put everything right, and the days that
intervened before we should see him seemed to pass all too slowly. At
last (22nd September, Saturday) Vecht Kop came into view. In passing we
gazed at it with varied emotions, for we seemed to see the laager of
Sarel Celliers there, surrounded by Moselekatze's hordes. We seemed to
hear their battle-cry and their fierce assault; we witnessed their
repulse and the deliverance of the little laager. Then Vecht Kop
disappeared behind us, and other thoughts swayed us as we rode over the
positions where the fight of August 14 had taken place.
In the evening we outspanned on the farm of Petrus Schoeman and halted
for the night, expecting to hear from General de Wet every moment. The
following day was passed as usual, and at three o'clock the General rode
into the laager. At five o'clock the burghers assembled to be addressed
by the man whom all had longed so much to see since the unfortunate
affairs at Nauwpoort. The officers presented him with an address, with
which, however, he was not particularly pleased, saying that he was not
very partial to addresses.
He then spoke to the burghers in his pleasant, clear, and pithy manner.
He said that it was his firm conviction that God would help us, and
would not allow us to disappear as a nation. But this belief should not
make us careless; on the contrary, this conviction should be a spur to
every man to do his share of the work. Every man should do his duty,
which consisted in this, that each one should be prepared to sacrifice
his all on the altar of Liberty: money, goods, comfort, life! As we were
weak and our adversaries strong, the best way of fulfilling our duty
would be to keep harassing them. This we should do by making provisions
at Pretoria and Johannesburg dear, through continually interrupting
their communications. Further, the waggons should be done away
with--done away with immediately, and the burghers were to form separate
mounted commandos. He then related to us some of his experiences when he
was pursued by large British columns from Slabbert's Nek up to the bush
veld, and how matters stood in the Transvaal, and what had taken place
at the battle of Machadodorp. This address was listened to with rapt
attention, but it soon became apparent that most of the men had not
heard what they had wanted to hear.
On the following day a Council of War was held, General de Wet
presiding, and his proposition concerning the abolition of the waggons,
and of commandos acting independently, was accepted. In the afternoon
the Commandants called their men together and made known to them what
had been decided upon, at the same time commanding the burghers to free
themselves from the encumbrance of their waggons immediately; and as to
the Harrismith men--we, together with the Kroonstad burghers, were told
to employ ourselves by breaking up the railroad and to interrupt the
trains between Rhenoster and Sand River, our commanding officer was to
be General Philip R. Botha.
One could immediately perceive by the grumbling in the laager with what
dissatisfaction the commands of General de Wet had been received. It
could not be done, many declared, and the burghers of one ward of a
commando went the length of riding away immediately--not to lay down
arms to the enemy, oh no, but to procure fresh horses in their own
district, and to continue the war there. They had imagined De Wet to be
quite a different sort of man, and that he would save the cause in quite
another manner. They had thought that, like a _deus ex machina_, he
would put all things right in a wonderful--a magical way. Instead of
this we had in him a man whose motto appeared to be not "all _will_ come
right," but "all must be _made_ right." Instead of lulling us to sleep
to the tune of "Peace, Peace, live as comfortably as you can!" we had in
him a leader who demanded much work and great sacrifices from us. We had
not heard a lullaby, but a _reveille_ sounding in our ears. And this was
something so strange, after having fought for a year with no discipline
to speak of, that at first many could not bear it. There were therefore
those who were dissatisfied, and who said that these commands were
impracticable, and a few even went the length of riding away from the
laager, as I have already noted. The reason of all this is, that our
poor Africander people could never, since the days of Piet Retief,
recognise or follow a hero when he arose amongst us. But Christian de
Wet was a strong man, and what he willed came to pass. On the following
day most of the burghers packed their things, and prepared themselves to
exist in the future as mounted commandos; while a small number, with
weak and thin horses, separated from the others and formed a
laager--which was immediately dubbed by the inventive faculty of the
Africander mind, Ma'er Lager (Lean Laager). My son and I put what we
thought most necessary into a corn-bag and wallets, tied our blankets in
front of our saddles, and were ready to go with the mounted commando.
The waggons disappeared over a rise with a rumbling noise, and we rode
away in an opposite direction, the blue expanse overhead our only
covering. I must admit that I was not in a very optimistic mood.