_THE BAPTISM OF FIRE—LUMSDEN’S HORSE AT
OSPRUIT (HOUTNEK)_
How often ignorant critics have sneered at that phrase ‘the baptism of
fire,’ which expresses finely, with literary completeness and force, a
truth of which men who have never been in the front line of battle can
know nothing! However much the phrase may have been degraded by
melodramatic application, it is a gem in its clearness of thought and
perfection of finish. The soldier’s first fight is a plunge from which
he emerges a new being. Whether the change may be for better or worse
depends probably on temperament and previous associations. The fire of
battle does not purify a sinner or sear the soul of a saint, but neither
is quite the same after as he was before passing through it. He has seen
things which, in some subtle way, unfelt, perhaps, and certainly
unacknowledged, will influence the remaining years of his life. It is
not only because he has looked death in the face—that is a common enough
experience elsewhere and leaves no perceptible trace—but he has stood
where dear comrades fell beside him in the midst of scenes that at other
times would be heartrending, and, as if in a state of complete
detachment from himself, he has passed callous through it all. The
braver a man is, the more surely some consciousness of that strange
state clings to him. To call it selfish indifference or the numbness of
fear, as some insolent ignoramus might, would be to falsify the history
of war. Selfish men and cowards do not walk with eyes open into the very
jaws of death to help a wounded comrade, nor would dazed brains be
capable of the swift thought that characterises soldiers in the direst
danger. Yet men who at such times have done deeds worthy of the Cross
for Valour will [Blank Page] not be able to tell you what sensations
possessed them, simply because feeling in the ordinary sense was for a
moment, or for an hour it may be, dead. The mental faculties were clear
enough—so clear, indeed, that they took impressions, photographic in
sharpness and detail, of every immediate surrounding, yet with no power
of communicating those impressions in any sentient form. They knew, but
did not feel. There are people who will tell you gravely that the
Victoria Cross is an evil because it inspires men to do reckless things
out of sheer desire for the glory of that decoration. It is all
nonsense. I have known a great many Victoria Cross heroes, but not one
who gained that high distinction because he tried to or was conscious at
the moment of deserving it. There are soldiers of some countries in the
world to whom glory and the lust of fame are incentives to valorous
deeds. They love to think that the eyes of the world, and especially of
its fairer half, are on them as they march to battle, and for the sake
of these things they will volunteer to lead forlorn hopes; but once in
the fight they behave as Nature or Fate decrees. The mere outward
trappings of gallantry avail nothing then.
[Illustration:
MAP OF
HOUTNEK
shewing positions of
British and Boer troops
on 30th. April.
Drawn by Major Neville C. Taylor,
14th. Bengal Lancers.
_Contours shewn at intervals of 10 feet._
]
Of the curious duality that can only be described as detachment of mind
from body, memory recalls two conspicuous examples which occurred within
my knowledge, if not both within my actual range of vision, on the
battlefield of Elandslaagte. One was when the Imperial Light Horse were
rushing up the last slope to that wonderful rallying cry of theirs in an
onslaught that rolled like a resistless wave across the shot-torn crest
and crowned the day with victory. One trooper dropped out of the ranks
as if a bullet had struck him, yet he knew that only his legs had given
way, suddenly refusing to carry him any further. Speaking frankly of
this incident afterwards, he said that at the moment no thought in his
mind was so strong as the desire to be with those who were charging up
the stony heights, waved on by their intrepid Colonel, Chisholm. He had
no sensation that could be akin to fear, and yet he was powerless to
move a limb. Then suddenly a strange thing happened. A Mauser bullet
ploughed along his cheek and stung him. In another moment mind and body
were leaping together up that hill, each striving to be first in the
race, and behaving with a gallantry at which even brave men wondered.
But for that accidental shot the trooper might have stopped where he
fell and been branded as a coward. The other illustration occurred
almost simultaneously, but in a different way. Some wounded men of the
same dauntless corps were lying on an opposite slope exposed to a heavy
fire from some Boers who had crept back to a rocky ledge from which they
were raking the whole of that ground with a shower of nickel. John
Stuart, of the ‘Morning Post,’ and I went to help two or three who were
too badly hit to move, and succeeded in getting them from the bare veldt
to comparative safety behind small boulders. One of them told me
afterwards that his mind was full of nothing but profound gratitude and
admiration when he saw us tucking a comrade into one little sheltered
nook, and yet the words that his tongue all the while hurled at us for
our folly in not taking cover were quite unfit for publication. No man
can pass through experiences of that kind and be in all things the same
again. The ‘baptism of fire’ has changed him, though he may never admit
it to himself or betray it to his friends.
And the time was at hand when Lumsden’s Horse were to take their plunge
and emerge from it with the reputation of soldiers in whom trust could
be placed from that day forward. The share they had in operations that
extended over a front of nearly thirty miles, from Thaba ’Nchu to
Ospruit, was comparatively small. But for them it was the most eventful
episode of the campaign—their first fight, their passing of the
threshold beyond which was the secret of more of human life than they
had ever known. In that one day they were to look death in the face, to
see comrades, the friends of their youth, fall beside them, to have
thoughts of sorrow in their minds but no pang in their hearts. Grief was
to come days, perhaps months afterwards, when a chance word or the touch
of a hand might set the pent-up currents flowing in channels that war
had closed. Above all, they were to know the British soldier as he is in
fight—a creature of strange impulses, of wonderful tenderness, when he
might be expected to show the roughest qualities with which habit has
endowed him, and of sublime endurance. Writing after the plunge, one of
Lumsden’s Horse thanks God that he had seen it all:
For such is the British Tommy—taken from the lowest classes, so our
sixth-class paper editors take care to blazen forth. Drunken louts in
the streets, not allowed into a decent theatre, knocked about if a bit
drunk by an officious policeman—everything that is bad, in fact.
Change the scene, and what do we see? Mile after mile of ‘the thin red
line,’ now changed to ‘the dirty khaki rag’; the battered khaki
helmet, Tommy’s only pillow at night; the coarse, hard ammunition
boots. Dirt and vermin cover him from head to foot—no water to drink,
much less to wash with—a heavy marching kit, rifle, and cartridges,
and as for food, why, not enough to feed a dog. Ay! Many and many are
the dogs that would have refused Tommy’s South African _menu_ with
turned-up noses. Overhead at times a scorching sun; at others a
blinding, cold, blustering rain; and at night always the bleak, cold,
north-west wind. March! March! March! On they go, bravely, truly,
sturdily, hardly a grumble, while safely at home you have your
collar-and-tie renegade telling us of the atrocities these brave men
are committing. Lies! all lies, I say. I’ve met some of those people
since I came back, and my one wish has been to have them out against a
brick wall with six good brave Tommies to fire a volley. Yes. I am
glad, ay, more than glad, spite of wounds and hardships, that I have
seen our good brothers of the khaki as they ought to be seen—no swell
uniforms there, no pipeclay, no shining cuirasses and polished helmets
to ‘catch on’ with a non-military public. Ye gods, no! all khaki,
khaki; all one great army, be it a Colonial, be it a London slum, or a
Highland bracken born lot of men. They are all brothers in arms, one
in object, one in deeds of bravery and devotion to an Empire.
That eloquent passage, written by Trooper Burn-Murdoch, gentleman and
tea-planter, should be enough to silence the tongue of calumny and
convince any unprejudiced mind that whatever war may do it does not
brutalise. In illustration of that truth many other instances will have
to be given before this narrative runs its course to an end.
Now, however, it is necessary to describe briefly the general scope of
operations whereby Lumsden’s Horse were drawn, much sooner than they had
any hope of, into their first fight. Attempts had been made by Generals
Rundle, Ian Hamilton, and French to surround Boer forces that were
retiring sullenly from their futile siege of Wepener. But De Wet was in
command there, and his mobile ‘slimness,’ aided by secret information
from Free State burghers, who, having taken the oath of neutrality, were
allowed to live on their farms or to move about freely without any watch
being kept on them, frustrated every attempt to hem in the commandos.
General Brabant’s Colonial division, following Sir Leslie Rundle’s, was
still some distance off, and General Pole-Carew’s retirement to
Bloemfontein for fresh orders at this juncture unfortunately left a gap
open between General French’s left and the force under Sir Ian Hamilton,
which was by that time extended along the Modder valley near Sanna’s
Post, facing north-east. Through this opening the Boers slipped back to
the high ground round about Thaba ’Nchu. Pressed hard by French, they
were driven from the southern and western spurs of these hills, but
still clung to the commanding mountain itself, where they gathered
reinforcements day by day. Then French ceased to press, and the turn
came for Ian Hamilton to strike, in the hope that he might drive a wedge
across the lower ridges between Thaba ’Nchu and Brandfort, which would
not only tear the chain of Boer positions asunder, but also open the way
for a combined movement by which their left wing, under De Wet, should
be enveloped if he attempted to prolong his stand in the Thaba ’Nchu
range. It was cleverly designed; but we all know what often happens with
the best-laid plans, especially when there are spies free to move about
without danger to themselves. It was at this phase of the extended
operations that Sir Ian Hamilton began to advance towards Houtnek, where
he found himself confronted by a formidable gathering of commandos under
General Louis Botha, and they were being reinforced from all directions,
the Boers having regained hope and courage from the presence of a leader
whose reputation then stood incomparably high among them. Though the
numerical strength and boldness of his enemies were something of a
surprise to General Hamilton, he had in some measure prepared for the
unforeseen by calling upon General Tucker to make a diversion by which
the Boers under De la Rey’s command in Brandfort might be discouraged
from sending reinforcements to Houtnek. With the Seventh Division, or
rather in advance of it as a covering screen, the Mounted Infantry
brigade under Colonel Henry was ordered to co-operate, supported by
General Maxwell’s brigade of Infantry. Of the Mounted Infantry, to which
a post of honour was thus assigned, the 8th Battalion, commanded by
Colonel Ross, was to form the advance guard. Thus Lumsden’s Horse were
destined in their first fight to bear the brunt of the attack if it
should come; and, in high spirits at the prospect, they looked with an
interest they had never felt before towards the rugged line of low
kopjes far away across the broad plain with light from the setting sun
full upon them. That the orders were thus made known to all ranks twelve
hours before they could be acted on is a proof that they had not been
drawn up on the spur of sudden emergency, and, indeed, Sir Ian Hamilton
was only then feeling for his enemy in the direction of Houtnek. At this
point the picturesque pen of the ‘Englishman’s’ correspondent goes on
with the narrative:
On April 29 we got warning to be ready to take part in a general
attack early the next morning. So we bustled round and got everything
ready. At 5 P.M. I and two other men of my sub-section were ordered
out on outlying picket, leaving Trooper Thelwall to saddle our three
horses before daybreak as well as his own, when we were to march into
camp again and get mounted and ready to start with the rest. So, just
having time to get half a pint of tea and some dry bread, we hurried
out on picket for the night. And that was, practically speaking, the
last food I tasted until 8 o’clock the next night. Not what you could
call ‘’igh livin’,’ is it? It was bitterly cold, and, what with the
everlasting night wind and only one blanket, we pickets were not much
troubled with sleep that night. However, at 5 o’clock in the morning
of the 30th we rolled up our blankets and marched into camp, and at
once set to work at tightening up girths, adjusting saddles and kits.
I had just time to put some bread into my haversack, and half fill my
horse’s nosebag with cartridges and also two or three priceless
‘smokes,’ when we had to mount. So away went all chances of breakfast
that morning. Alas! some of us had no need for food and drink in the
evening. Just as old Sol began to rise up over the kopjes we marched
out of camp, up over the ridge, and down the other side towards the
open veldt. Here we paused for a while to allow the other troops to
join us. Taking advantage of this short halt, we got into our proper
sub-sections, dismounted, and had a last look at our girths, and
tightened up curbs, &c. Poor old mokes! How many of them, my own
included, were fated never to see another day dawn! Colonel Lumsden
now rode up to us and gave us a rough idea of what we were to do, and
informed us that our B Troop was to have the place of honour, and that
we were to take the lead. And, knowing us as he did, he had not the
slightest doubt that we would not fail to distinguish ourselves, &c.
To which our gallant ‘Oirish’ Captain Chamney began to reply in his
usual Indian after-dinner style, that he felt proud of his troop, and
fully conscious of the great honour that was bestowed upon us in being
allowed to take the lead; and he sincerely hoped that we would do
justice to the confidence bestowed on us. He would no doubt have
continued in this style for some time had not our good old Major
chipped in with his usual ‘down-in-his-boots’ aside: ‘Oh, that’s all
right, Chamney; damn it, man, of course you will.’ And these were the
last words I ever heard the good old man utter in this life.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN H. CHAMNEY]
Good old Showers, gruff as they make ’em, but a true white man’s heart
inside for all that. Never afraid to jump on an officer for all you
were worth if you thought he deserved it; and after those long hot
Indian parades, how many times have we heard your hearty laugh at the
head of the camp mess-table! For seven years our Colonel, and the man
who made the Surma Valley Light Horse second to none in India.
All the attacking forces being now mustered, we made a start and away
we marched. For some part of the time our route lay alongside a pretty
little lagoon, and then the road gradually lost itself in the great
open veldt. How peaceful it all seemed that morning! The few cattle
and sheep that were quietly grazing here and there on the scanty
tussocks would casually lift up their heads and gaze at us, and,
seeing that there were no strange dogs with us, would go on cropping
the grass, though possibly a sheep or two would scuttle out of the way
with a contemptuous wriggle of their tails. Time of war! one
says—humbug! one could not believe it on that quiet morning. The fresh
ozonised air, the soft, steady breeze, now pleasantly tempered by the
bright morning sun; and there, by the doorway of the quiet little
farmhouse, the farmer’s wife standing with her milk-pails all ready,
while she laughingly makes passing remarks to her departing ‘guests.’
The only signs of war, maybe, are those few fences with their wires
cut down; and these you would suppose had been broken down by some
restless calves or light-hearted foal. From our ranks could be seen
and smelt the little clouds of tobacco-smoke which rose up in the
clear air like so many stray wandering bits of cumulus clouds, while
back in the rear could be heard the quaintly sad airs of ‘Bearer Ganga
Dīn’ and ‘Who’s dat a-callin’?’ as some of our musically inclined
troopers gave vent unconsciously to their feelings. What a lovely,
jolly morning that was! All those dire hardships, cold, hunger, and
wet, we had known only too well; but to-day—light, warmth, and the
indescribable freshness of the open veldt, while under us were our
plucky Indians, Arabs, and Walers, fresh as English daisies and keen
as the air we breathed.
Some miles ahead of us—though seemingly quite close, owing to the
intensely clear atmosphere—lay a long range of low-lying hills all
lighted up with various shades of colouring, the hues of which kept
ever changing from moment to moment as the sun rose higher in the
heavens. Still further on, and filling up the whole background of this
typically African landscape, lay the razor-backs and table-topped
peaks of the Basuto hills, from the tops of which soft filmy wisps of
cloud drifted silently away into that great blue ‘nothingness.’ All
peace! Peace on earth, it seemed to us that fair morn. Nor could we
poor troopers realise that ere God’s life-giving sun should set that
night great Mars would look down on many of us poor mortals writhing
in the agonies of cruel death-dealing wounds and the tortures of the
surgeon’s knife and probe, while some poor souls, like these vanishing
vapoury clouds, would have left this little world for the infinite
beyond. Nor could the mind of our well-loved Major, as he rode at the
head of those men he had known for long, long years, have realised
that in a few short hours his true British heart would have ceased to
beat, and his life’s blood would be mingled with the dust of that
great continent where so many good men and true had already given up
their lives for an Empire’s cause. Thank God for the impenetrable veil
that He casts over our future! One scene especially struck me by its
beauty, and that was when a battery of Artillery toiled over a
tussocky ridge right into the blazing disc of the sun. As gun after
gun topped the ridge the whole team, horses and men, were shut out
from our sight by the powerful blaze of light in a most curious way;
while here and there a khaki-clad helmeted Artilleryman stood
silhouetted against the sky-line, over which the khaki gun-carriages
disappeared into a glaring sea of gold.
As we were now approaching some suspicious-looking kopjes, we opened
out into extended order as usual, and Lumsden’s Horse were told off to
take, and _hold_, a certain line of kopjes some two miles off. So we
promptly set to work, approaching them very ‘cannily,’ with scouts
well out in advance.
Arriving at the base of the kopjes without opposition, we dismounted
and skirmished up to the tops, but found that the Boers had cleared
out, though, judging by the several ‘sangars’ built of rocks, these
must have been held in force. Our scouts in the meantime had advanced
along the plain on the other side of the kopjes, and just as we
arrived on top the enemy opened on them with a continuous rattle of
rifle fire, and I saw several of the poor beggars limping back over
the plain pulling their wounded horses after them, while all around
them, to use whaler’s language, the sandy plain kept ‘spouting’ as the
deadly bullets struck and ricocheted. From where we were it was
utterly impossible to tell from what direction the bullets were
coming, so we could do little in the way of keeping down the Boer
fire. However, we did our best. But as the enemy soon ceased firing we
reserved our ammunition for later use.
Away to our left the Artillery were now having a great duel, while the
pom-poms on both sides were making things generally cruel for the
Mounted Infantry, and also for those who were holding their horses.
Pom-pom-pom! pom-pom! and immediately whack, whack, whack! would echo
the vile bursting shells. Then boo-m-m came the big hidden Creusot—and
oh, the sound of its messenger, wo-o-o-o-ough! It would come soaring
up with a dreadfully mournful sound, while the whole atmosphere seemed
to vibrate with its spinning. Wugh! it would sound, as it burst far
out of harm’s way, and then one could stand up in the ‘Who’s afraid?’
style, to lie down again promptly as No. 2 came along. How did I feel?
you ask. Well, to be strictly honest, I didn’t like it. I don’t
believe any man really does, if it comes to that. Afterwards a wounded
man described his feelings very well to me; he said, ‘Do you know, I
just felt as if I were outside the headmaster’s room, in for a dashed
good caning.’ And I think that hits off the sensation exactly.
But now the picturesquely vague must give place to the explicit, and it
would be impossible to summarise the position at this stage more clearly
than in the terse words of Colonel Lumsden’s official despatch:
On the evening of the 29th Colonel Ross received orders that the corps
was to make a demonstration next morning at daylight on the right
flank of the Boer lines for the purpose of drawing them from their
position and enabling the 14th Brigade, under General Maxwell, which
was to have come up on our right, to get behind and cut them off.
The Mounted Infantry portion of General Tucker’s division, under
Colonel Henry, joined hands with us at 5 A.M., half a mile from our
camp. A portion of my corps was ordered to occupy Gun Kopje, a
position believed to be held by the Boers, about four miles distant on
our right front, the remainder extending and taking up positions on
our left. I went forward with the right flank, Major Showers
accompanying me. This portion consisted of the Adjutant, Captain
Taylor, Captains Rutherfoord, Clifford, and Chamney, Lieutenants Sidey
and Pugh, and four sections, the others having been detached by order
of Colonel Ross to hold various points. Mr. Pugh was sent out in
advance with the scouts, and it was when on this duty that Private
Franks was shot. Mr. Pugh very pluckily assisted him in getting on his
horse and endeavoured to take him out of the fire; but Franks was
unable to stay on his horse, and, dropping to the ground, had to be
left. Mr. Pugh and the remaining scouts were only just able to save
themselves by galloping up and joining us on the kopje at the extreme
right, to which we had just advanced, and which we held from 7 A.M.
until ordered to retire at about 1 o’clock.
Early in the morning I ordered Corporal Chartres with eight men to
occupy a kopje about 800 yards to our right and prevent the Boers
turning our flank. There they held their ground until ordered to fall
back. It was a small party for this important position, but in the
circumstances no more could be spared, I having only about sixty men
with me, twenty of whom, under Lieutenant Sidey, were detached by
Colonel Ross to protect the Vickers-Maxim (commonly styled ‘pom-pom’)
in the centre of the position.
The following was then the general disposition:
There were four ridges diverging northerly towards the enemy. The
extreme spur of the right ridge was held by myself with four sections
Lumsden’s Horse as described; the second held by Lieutenant Crane and
one section, he being directed there at the outset by Colonel Ross;
the third and fourth by the rest of the brigade, the two pom-poms and
our Maxim being at the head of the re-entrant between the second and
third ridges, with Captain Noblett and three sections on its left.
Shortly after our arrival the Boers took up a position on a kopje
about 1,500 yards directly in front, and quickly opened rifle fire on
our position. Fortunately the men had time to ensconce themselves
behind rocks, and, consequently, though bullets fell fast about them,
they were able to maintain a steady fire on the enemy without exposing
themselves. It was here, I deeply regret to say, that Major Showers
met his death. He was at the extreme right of the firing line and
under a hot flanking fire from the Boers, who had moved a party into a
donga some 300 or 400 yards to their left.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN NEVILLE C. TAYLOR]
I personally begged him not to expose himself, as also did Captains
Chamney and Rutherfoord; but he would stand erect, using his field
glasses and presenting a most conspicuous mark for the enemy’s fire,
which resulted fatally to him shortly after noon, a Mauser bullet
entering his right side half way down and coming out through his left
arm above the elbow. In risking his own life he had drawn a heavy fire
on the spot where he fell, and it was with much danger and difficulty
that Captain Powell, with Captain Chamney and others, succeeded in
removing him from the summit of the hill to a place of safety about
thirty yards down. I should like to take this opportunity of adding a
few words by way of tribute to the memory of Major Showers. When he
heard of the corps being raised, he was in command of the Surma Valley
Light Horse in Cachar, with the rank of Colonel, and was looked upon
as one of the smartest commanders of Volunteer Cavalry in India. He
wrote me and said, ‘If you will take me as your second in command, I
will gladly forfeit my rank and come as Major.’ I may have made many
fortunate selections in choosing my officers, but I never made a wiser
one than in selecting Colonel Showers. A better or a braver man never
breathed, and his loss to me so early in the campaign was irreparable.
Shortly after the commencement of the Boer attack the whole of the
left were forced to retire owing to their flank being turned, taking
one pom-pom and our Maxim with them. Captain Noblett was consequently
obliged, at about 11 A.M., to conform to this movement, having no
support, and took his men out of the shell fire with great difficulty
but had only a few casualties.
Lieutenant Crane, receiving no orders to retire, and being detached
from me and unable to communicate with me or I with him, deemed it his
duty to retain his position as long as possible, which resulted in
close fighting and the loss of nearly half his section.
[Illustration: L.-SERGT. J.S. ELLIOTT]
[Illustration: R.U. CASE (KILLED)]
[Illustration: SERGT. F.S. McNAMARA]
[Illustration: C.A. WALTON]
[Illustration:
A.F. FRANKS
(KILLED AT HOUTNEK)
]
[Illustration: J.S. SAUNDERS]
[Illustration: R.N. MACDONALD]
[Illustration: L. GWATKIN WILLIAMS]
[Illustration: CORPL. A. McGILLIVRAY]
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS
One pom-pom and Lieutenant Sidey had been sent to the neck of the
right ridge to support us, we having been instructed to hold our
position until further orders. This pom-pom retired at about 12.30,
and at 1 o’clock Lieutenant Sidey and I both received our orders to
retire. This was carried out very deliberately, and the last of our
men got out of a most trying position within twenty minutes of having
received our orders, by moving away under cover of the ridge.
As we had kept up a decreasing fire until the men got mounted, the
Boers, fortunately for us, did not discover our retirement before we
were out of range, otherwise we should have suffered heavily. While
retiring, Private Burn-Murdoch’s horse was brought down by a stray
bullet, causing him a heavy fall and a nasty wound in his head.
Captain Chamney, who was near by at the time, with some assistance got
Murdoch on to his own horse and pluckily rode with him off the field.
[Illustration:
_Photo: Hughes & Mullins_
H.C. LUMSDEN (KILLED IN ACTION,
HOUTNEK, APRIL 30, 1900)
]
Captain Taylor, with much gallantry and coolness, remained with the
led horses, and saw the last of the men mounted and clear away before
he himself left, bringing up the rear with Captain Clifford and some
late stragglers, including one man who would stay for a last shot.
The whole brigade rendezvoused at 2 P.M. behind a kopje about three
miles in rear and waited till 3, when we returned to our various
camps.
For some reason the main attack on our right under General Maxwell had
not been delivered, and the object of the day was not achieved. My
corps alone had the regrettable number of eighteen casualties out of
about 180 engaged. This was mainly accounted for by the position we
held. The Maxim under Captain Holmes did good service, coming into
action at 1,000 yards at a critical moment and checking the Boer
advance for some time. The enemy’s ‘Long Tom,’ however, soon found the
Maxim out, and, as the shells were bursting among the men with the gun
horses, they were ordered to retire only just in time, all the team
being more or less wounded.
I cannot speak too highly of the gallant behaviour of my officers and
men throughout the day. Individual instances of heroism were numerous,
and I much fear that, especially in Mr. Crane’s section, many of the
casualties were caused by men endeavouring to assist their wounded
comrades. Mr. Crane himself was wounded in the groin, and I understand
Private Daubney’s and Private Case’s deaths were due to their
declining to leave their wounded officer. Judging from the number of
empty cartridge cases found beside them, they must have kept up a fire
on the advancing Boers to the last. Here Corporal Angus McGillivray,
Privates Leslie Gwatkin Williams, Firth, and R.N. Macdonald were taken
prisoners, along with Lieutenant Crane. Here fell Private H.C.
Lumsden.
The same evening about 4 o’clock Dr. Powell, with the ambulance
tonga, and Private Godden went out under the Red Cross flag to
search for the wounded, but in the gathering darkness were only able
to reach the body of Major Showers, who died previous to the
retirement from our position on the right where he fell. Captain
Powell, in endeavouring to return to camp, lost his way and had to
remain during the night on the veldt, reaching camp soon after
daylight next morning. Shortly after his arrival he returned with
another search party, but found that the Boers had already buried
the bodies of Privates Case, Daubney, and Lumsden, after having read
the burial service over them. A stone had been put over the head of
Private Lumsden with his name scratched on it. The reason for this,
as narrated by Transport-Sergeant Stephens, is interesting. When
drivers were sent out with carts the following day, they met several
English-speaking Boers, ‘who would not talk much about the fight,
but said they were sorry our Colonel was killed. They had found some
papers in the pockets of young Lumsden, whom they took to be the
Colonel.’ The remains of Major Showers, being found still unburied,
were brought back and interred with military honours at the foot of
the kopje behind our camp. Private Franks, whose wounds had been
dressed by Captain Powell, had to be left on the hill near the body
of Major Showers, where he was found by the Boers shortly afterwards
and received every attention, but died during the night and was
buried by them in the morning. The Boers, subsequent to the fight,
were most courteous in their attentions, and returned papers, rings,
watches, money, &c., found on the bodies.
I wish specially to mention a very plucky action done by Private C.A.
Walton, who is wounded and a prisoner in Pretoria. He was one of the
men in charge of the led horses in the No. 3 Section of A Company when
Sergeant Walker took temporary command of the section in Lieutenant
Neville’s absence on sick leave. On the order to retire Sergeant
Walker had to run some distance to his horse, and came back much
exhausted. The enemy being quite close on them, and Sergeant Walker’s
horse having been lost, Private Walton insisted on giving up his own
horse to the Sergeant, saying that he could run. While doing so he was
shot twice, and had to be left on the ground, although Sergeant Walker
did his utmost to take him along with him.
After our return to camp I was much gratified to receive from Colonel
Ross, the Corps Commander, and Colonel Henry, the Brigade Commander,
congratulations on the behaviour of my officers and men throughout the
day, and on the morning following General Tucker, the Divisional
Commander, came over in person for a similar purpose; but at the same
time read me a lecture on the inadvisability of allowing my men to
attempt to bring off their wounded comrades when under fire. He
pointed out that it only drew fire on the wounded men and endangered
their own lives for no adequate result, as the Boers were a very
humane foe, who treated the wounded carefully. The troopers, he said,
must remember that their first duty as soldiers was to their Queen and
country.
With deep regret I append a list of the casualties:
Killed: Major Eden C. Showers—buried at Spytfontein; Privates R.J.
Clayton Daubeny, H.C. Lumsden, R.N. Case, Alfred F. Franks—buried by
the Boers.
Wounded: Lieutenant Crane; Paymaster David S. Fraser; Sergeant-Major
Cyril M.C. Marsham, bullet wounds through shoulders and thigh;
Lance-Sergeant J.S. Elliott, shell wound of right foot; Sergeant F.S.
McNamara, bullet wound in thigh; Private J.H. Burn-Murdoch, fracture
of frontal bone by fall from his horse, which was shot under him
during retirement.
Of these Sergeant-Major Marsham, Lance-Sergeant Elliott, and Private
Burn-Murdoch are in hospital at Karree Siding, and Sergeant McNamara
rejoined for duty at Kroonstad.
Though General Tucker was constrained, by the wisest military
considerations, to rebuke men who, while displaying magnificent
qualities of courage and self-sacrifice in attempts to save their
wounded comrades, might have endangered the lives of others, we may be
sure that he made a mental reservation and wished in his heart that he
might have regiments of such men to lead. If the records of his own
gallant career have been truthfully kept, he won promotion in the
Bhootan expedition of 1866 and in fights against the Zulus twelve years
later, and paved the way to a Knight Commandership of the Bath, not so
much by obeying the dictates of caution as by brilliant leadership and
by conspicuous valour that was almost reckless in its disregard of
personal danger. But he knew, with the intuition of a soldier’s quick
sympathies, that the corps to whose Colonel his words were addressed
wanted no incentive to boldness, but rather a lesson in self-restraint.
He had seen a great deal of their gallantry in that action for himself,
and his brigadiers had told him more. Lumsden’s Horse, at any rate, had
no reason to be ashamed of the way in which they had taken their
‘baptism of fire.’
The devotion of Corporal Firth in sticking to his wounded officer,
Lieutenant Crane, under a withering fire was a deed of valour that
should be famous throughout the Empire.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT C.E. CRANE]
All the men with Lieutenant Crane behaved very well. Two
non-commissioned officers and eleven troopers went with him to hold the
isolated kopje on the right flank. Of this gallant party of fourteen,
three were killed, four were wounded and taken prisoners, four escaped
with their clothes riddled with bullet-holes but otherwise unhurt; one,
Corporal Firth, could have escaped, but preferred to remain with his
wounded officer, to bind up his wounds if possible, to go with him into
captivity perhaps, to share death with him if need be. Troopers Reginald
Macdonald and Leslie Gwatkin Williams also performed deeds of splendid
self-sacrifice. Of those who escaped, Sergeant-Major Marsham (wounded),
Bugler McKenzie, Sergeant Walker, Lance-Sergeant J.S. Elliott (wounded),
and Trooper Radford, whose parting shot while he sat in the saddle
brought a Boer down, are deserving of the highest praise for the way in
which they stuck to the led horses and rode off with them under heavy
fire.
These men were not tried veterans; they were taking their parts in the
first battle of their first campaign. But several of them had been
friends from their youth up, and all of them were Anglo-Indians—men
whose exile from the land of their birth serves but to intensify their
love for England and her greatness. Loyalty to friend and country! This
is the magic touchstone of the soldier’s discipline and heroism.
[Illustration:
_Photo: J. Charlesworth_
J.H. BURN-MURDOCH
]
Should any cynic dare to say that the men who did these deeds were
thirsting for glory, or inspired by a hope of winning the Cross for
Valour, or even conscious of doing more than a common soldier’s duty
demanded, let him read the narrative of their actions, as told by
themselves or their comrades, and be answered! In the whole literature
of war I know nothing more realistic than Trooper Burn-Murdoch’s
description of the incident in which he was a half-unconscious
participator; when lying wounded he was taken from under fire by Captain
Chamney, and finally carried out of action on horseback in that
officer’s arms. The story is too characteristic of the battlefield to
bear mutilation. For the sake of space, though with reluctance, some
picturesque passages must be sacrificed; but, for the rest, as Trooper
Burn-Murdoch told it originally in his letters to the ‘Englishman,’ he
shall tell it again here:
The kopje which we had to hold looked down on a sloping plain, and at
a distance varying from 700 to 1,100 yards off, and running nearly
parallel with our kopjes, was a deep dry river bed or donga. This
donga ran right up towards the Boer position. In my humble opinion we
should have done better to have placed some dismounted men in this
donga, and so prevented the enemy using it as a zigzag trench or
covered way towards our position. Instead of this, we literally stuck
to the kopje. And in the early part of the fight I noticed, and drew
my mates’ attention to the fact, that a lot of Boers were riding
towards this river bed, but never seemed to cross it.
As the day wore on our position on these kopjes became somewhat too
warm to be pleasant. And, judging by the whistle of the bullets, we
seemed to have the enemy on our left flank as well as in front. It was
about this time that our gallant Major, who scorned to take cover, got
two mortal bullet wounds through his lungs; our doctor very pluckily
set to and cut off his tunic and plugged the bullet-holes, quite
regardless of the heavy fire he was subjected to. But it was of no
use; in a few moments the brave old soldier breathed his last. All he
said was, ‘Ah, well, I’m done for ... it’s not so bad as I should have
expected.’ But there was no time now to think of him or any other poor
wounded comrade.
On we went, blazing away for dear life at the well-hidden enemy. Flat
on our empty stomachs, wriggling from one stone to another, never
daring to raise one’s head above a few inches from the ground. Whish!
whish! phew! phew! came those deadly nickels, then ping-r-r-r would
sound the ricocheting shots as they struck the stones and rocks a few
inches from our faces, and shot up into the clear blue sky behind us
with a shriek of unquenched bloodthirstiness. Thicker and thicker they
came—and now we saw that the enemy were straight in front of us,
having, as I had expected, ridden up under the cover of the river bed.
Orders now came for us to retreat slowly from the right. So as soon as
my turn came I let blaze a few rapid parting shots, and then ‘sniped’
back over the ridge to where Trooper Ducat was holding my
sub-section’s horses. I can tell you that was an exciting little bit
of a sprint, and the bullets striking all around me did not tend to
retard my movements. However, I got back all right, and a few seconds
later Trooper Stevenson turned up. As Trooper Thelwall had not joined
us, I waited a few minutes with his horse. And rather an anxious wait
that was. As he did not, however, arrive, I presumed that some Boer
bullet had found him out. But I tied his horse to a stump in case he
did come, and then, mounting, I galloped after the rest. It was
uncommonly lucky that I did tie up his horse, as he afterwards, during
a slight lull in the firing, managed to make a bolt over the kopje and
down to his horse. One often hears it said that Mounted Infantry do
not need to be much of riders so long as they can shoot straight. All
I can say is, let a bad rider try to mount a fresh horse, with a large
kit on the saddle and a heavy rifle in his left hand, and bullets and
pom-pom shells whistling and cracking around, and he will agree with
me in saying that every Mounted Infantryman ought to be a very fair
rider before he can be of much use in a fight.
Gathering up my reins, I kept up a good gallop towards our next kopje,
and was just congratulating myself that I was too skinny a target for
any Boer bullets when poor old Demon came down with a fearful crash,
shot by a Mauser bullet. I suppose I must have been stunned by the
fall, as I have no recollection of seeing him again. When I came to, I
found that my neck was fearfully stiff and sore, likewise all the left
side of my head. And pain—by Jove! pain was no word for it. I lay
there cursing and crawling about for some time, and was momentarily
expecting to have a ‘sighting shot’ into me, when, bang! and I
remembered no more. I have since heard that after this two of our
chaps came along and, dismounting, turned me over and left me as a
‘green ’un.’ I remember dimly wondering what time of day it was, as
all things seemingly were so dim and dark that I could not see. I then
thought of tying up my head with my field dressing; but whether I did
so or not I could not swear, as I was more or less ‘silly.’ It must
have been a pom-pom or some other kind of shell bursting near me that
did the damage. Recovering a certain amount of sensibility, I was
endeavouring to get under some cover when Captain Chamney rode up. He
shouted out to me apparently from a long distance off, as I could just
hear him, ‘Hello, Mud’ook, what the tivil are you doing here? Badly
hurt are ye? Come on, then, get a hold of my stirrup an’ I’ll take ye
along wi’ me; ye’r far and away too good a man to leave behind.’ I
told him, of course, to go on, as I was all right and would get behind
a rock and have a rest; but the good old ‘Oirishman’ told me to get up
at once as he ordered. And a good job it was, too, he did _order_ me
to do so, or I’d have been resting there now. Just then Trooper Ducat
came galloping up, and the two of them got me between them and trotted
me along some hundreds of yards—it seemed miles to me. At last I got
nearly unconscious, merely rolling along in a sort of mechanical
style. But, try as much as I could, what with loss of blood and
giddiness I could go no further, and as I was a mere dead weight on my
two companions they halted, and I next remember myself sitting behind
Captain Chamney with my blood sopping down his neck and khaki tunic,
my head resting on his shoulder, and my hands locked round his body.
How I got there I don’t know. I suppose they lifted me up somehow.
Anyhow, there I was, and the good old commandeered Free Stater carried
us well. I don’t remember much of that ride. Somebody else rode up
alongside of me—I think it was Trooper Stevenson—and he, being Scotch,
and therefore ‘economical,’ had pluckily picked up my rifle. So, with
Ducat on one side and Stevenson on the other, alternately digging me
in the ribs, I managed to hold on until we got to cover; and here
Ducat, who, luckily for me, was a doctor, bound me up and gave me a
drink. Gad! I was thirsty. Shortly afterwards one of Danjeboy’s
Nepaulese ambulance tongas, which we had brought over from India with
us, galloped up, and I was put inside. I don’t think that worthy
Ghoorka driver liked the sound of Mausers any better than I did, for
he simply galloped the whole way. Over stones, over scrub, over ruts.
I shall never forget that ride. However, I got to the camp all right,
and willing hands carried me to my tent, where I lay till dark with
only a greatcoat for a pillow and a good solid piece of natural veldt
for a bed. Towards evening Ducat came in, and with great kindness went
and made me some cornflour, which I was able to eat. This was the
first food I had had, barring three or four mouthfuls of stale bread,
since 5 o’clock the night before.
Dr. Powell came back from the fight later. He had been tending the
wounded and dying there. Tired and weary as he was, he at once set to
and tied my head up, first shaving off some of my hair. I don’t
remember much after this. I remember Sergeant Elliott (of Edinburgh)
was brought into the tent with his foot shattered by a pom-pom, and we
groaned out a duet throughout that night. In the fight Elliott was
holding some horses when a pom-pom shell burst in their midst,
shattering Elliott’s foot and finishing off several horses, including
his own. Managing to get hold of another mount, he rode up and
reported himself to Captain Noblett, by whom he was of course ordered
to the rear. So, badly wounded as he was, Elliott rode those five
miles back to camp unaided. Next day or the day after—I do not
remember exactly, as I was unconscious for two or three days, off and
on—the ambulance waggons drove up, and into them we were shoved.
Colonel Lumsden, Captain Noblett, Captain Chamney, and Sergeant
Hewitt, I think, all were there, seeing us off and helping us to ‘keep
our peckers up.’ My one complaint was that Captain Chamney wanted to
shave off my moustache when he was doing the V.C. trick on the veldt.
I asked him why he wanted to. He was much surprised at the question,
and told me in answer that ‘there were too many Boers doing the
shaving for him to think of it himself.’ I must have imagined the
whole thing, I suppose, when I was lying ‘silly.’
[Illustration:
_Photo: Harrington_
HERBERT N. BETTS, D.C.M.
]
Another incident which was referred to briefly by Colonel Lumsden, who
for obvious reasons did not make much of it, is thus described in detail
by Trooper Preston:
Lumsden’s Horse was to do the work of advance guard and scouts. No. 2
Section, B Company, was chosen for the scouting, and immediately sent
out, and very soon the whole of the 8th Mounted Infantry was spread
over the plain. One sub-section (Troopers Franks, Were, Powis, and
myself) were scouting ahead of everyone else. For the first three or
four miles the ground was fairly level, with a few small kopjes with
trees on them. Then there was a ridge of kopjes with a steep valley
behind, and then another ridge. The scouts got to the first ridge of
kopjes before seeing anyone, then two shots were heard in the
distance, and a man on a big roan horse was seen galloping away. As
the scouts rode between two kopjes on the first ridge, about sixteen
men were seen to come out from the top of the ridge; immediately the
scouts halted, looked at them through their field-glasses, and saw
they were dressed in khaki. Before the scouts started they had been
told to look out for some of General French’s men on their right. One
of the officers coming up then (Lieutenant H.O. Pugh) looked at them,
and saw the same as the others—that they were dressed in khaki. The
scouts then rode round the kopje, intending to meet them. By this time
the sixteen men had got down into the valley, and were making up the
steep hill on the other side to the top of the kopje. Trooper Franks
and I then went down the valley, intending to see who they were, while
the other two went on to the right. The men had by this time got on to
the sky-line, some dismounting and others sitting still. We rode half
way down the valley (which was about two hundred yards across), and
then halted and looked through our glasses. The men on the top then
shouted out something and began to fire at us, so we turned and
galloped for our lives. Trooper Franks, after riding about three
hundred yards, began reeling in his saddle and tumbled off. Lieutenant
Pugh and a few men then galloped up to him and found he was shot
through the back and stomach. The bullets meanwhile were raining about
them. Franks begged us to leave him, saying that as soon as we were
gone the Boers would stop firing; so Lieutenant Pugh gave the order to
leave him and return to the others, who by this time were lining the
ridge behind, Lumsden’s Horse having the highest kopje to hold. As
soon as our Colonel heard Franks was wounded he started off on foot,
with Troopers Betts, Percy Smith, and Chapman, to fetch him. The Boers
immediately advanced down their side of the valley, and began firing
at the Colonel and his party. However, they were prepared for this,
and after a few shots the Boers retired, the Colonel bringing Franks
in on his own horse and walking beside.[5] Then we got the word passed
to retire from the right. Perfect order was maintained, the men
retiring one by one, the others keeping up a continuous fire until
their turn came. At last everyone had got away except Lieutenant Crane
and three or four more, whom the order to retire never reached. The
Colonel and Adjutant were among the last to go away. The behaviour of
the men was just as if they had been accustomed to that kind of thing
all their lives, smoking, and firing at the same time, others lying
behind rocks and writing letters to their relations and sweethearts.
The Boers did not follow us up, and we reached camp safely, but very
sad for the losses we had sustained.
Another version of these incidents, with such minor differences as help
to give a clear conception of the whole scene, is furnished by the
Special Correspondent of the ‘Indian Daily News,’ who, after describing
the lucky escape of one scout, writes:
Trooper A.F. Franks, of the same sub-section, the very best of fellows
and liked by everyone, was not so lucky, poor fellow. He accompanied
Lieutenant H.O. Pugh in advance, but, seeing nothing, Franks suggested
that he should go forward to the top of the donga or nullah in which
they were standing; but on reaching the top he was confronted by
thirty or forty of the enemy about three hundred yards away. They
beckoned to him and spoke to him in Dutch, presumably inquiring who he
was; without waiting for a reply, however, they opened fire, and
Franks then turned and retired. He had not gone far before he was
struck, the bullet going through his back and coming out just below
the heart. He managed to stick on his saddle till he reached
Lieutenant Pugh, who caught his horse by the head and led him towards
the kopje above mentioned as occupied by us. Franks was in such pain
that he was unable to bear the jolting of the horse, and so he had to
be laid down on the plain for the time being. Lieutenant Pugh and
other men who had come up in the meantime then retired to the kopje to
report the state of affairs to Colonel Lumsden. All this time, of
course, the bullets were whistling about, and the wonder is that not
more of us were shot. Two men were then sent in search of our doctor,
and Colonel Lumsden, as soon as he heard what had happened,
immediately ordered his horse and, accompanied by his orderly, Percy
Smith, of A Company, and Private H.N. Betts, of B Company, on
horseback—Private Chapman, of B Company, having previously gone down
on foot on the same errand of mercy—rode forward to the spot. On
reaching it our gallant Colonel insisted on dismounting and placing
Franks on his horse, saying the animal was a quiet one, and,
notwithstanding the urgent requests of the others that he would allow
them to give up one of their horses to him, he insisted on walking the
whole distance, quite regardless of the hail of bullets round him.
Progress was naturally slow, as Franks complained of severe pain, but
at last the kopje was reached, none of the party getting a scratch.
They had a narrow escape; the Boers had evidently got the range to a
nicety. They then started a brisk rifle fire on the kopje we were on,
which we returned at every opportunity, but they kept themselves so
well under cover that we had very poor chances of doing them any
serious damage from our side. They gradually crept up closer and
closer, coming down by twos and threes from a kopje about two thousand
yards away, and taking up their position eventually behind a slope
eight to nine hundred yards distant. A regular artillery duel, several
of their shells bursting among the pom-poms and our own Maxim, but not
doing much damage. I fancy our guns did a bit of killing, though the
Boers afterwards acknowledged to four wounded only; our Maxim gave a
very good account of itself. I understand our only casualties in this
direction were two or three wounded horses. We were told afterwards
that the day’s operations were only intended to be a reconnaissance in
force to find out the enemy’s strength and position, after which large
forces from the left and right would attempt to surround them. This
being the case, at about 12 (we had been under fire for about four
hours) a general retirement was ordered from the right. The Boers,
seeing us retiring, were evidently emboldened to throw aside their
usual cautious tactics, and advanced on us rapidly, very nearly
rushing the kopje on which we were before we could get away. The
writer’s horse, which had been tied to a tree, got away, and he would
have been badly left, as in the hasty retreat we were obliged to make
it was impossible to say who had gone on and who was left behind, but
fortunately ‘Molly Riley,’ Mrs. Barrow’s well-known paper-chaser, was
standing near a bush close by, and Private Were, who was just going
off, stopped behind and helped to get hold of ‘Molly Riley.’ We then
started to gallop off, but just then another man came running towards
us much exhausted with scrambling down the kopje, and Were, saying he
was quite fresh, pluckily got off and lent him his horse. Fortunately
at that moment Captain Taylor, our Adjutant, galloped up with a spare
horse, and, Were getting mounted, we all made away for our lives. We
halted at a place some distance off, and it was only then we heard of
our long tale of casualties. A Company suffered very heavily on the
left flank, where part of them were lying in an exposed position.
Besides this, there were several men missing, and it was not till we
got into camp in the evening after roll-call was taken that the exact
extent of our loss was known. Franks was left on the kopje with an
orderly, as it was impossible to move him, and we heard next day that
he was taken to the Boer hospital, and died there at 12 o’clock the
same night. Among the wounded was Paymaster-Sergeant D.S. Fraser, well
known in sporting circles in Calcutta. He had his horse shot under
him, and was himself wounded in the thigh and captured by the Boers.
Our ambulance went out next day and found that the Boers had buried
all the dead, except Major Showers, whose body was brought back to
camp and buried there. The service was a very impressive one, and was
conducted by the Military Chaplain attached to the regiment camped
close by. It was calculated to bring home to us all the stern
realities of war.
Yet in a trooper’s diary immediately after the most pathetic entry we
find it recorded that when rations were to be distributed by a process
of division and subdivision ‘B—— argued at great length that one-fourth
of two-thirds could not be the same as two-thirds of one-fourth,’ and
the discussion took a heated turn. Such are the trifles that seem
important to men who have just come out of a battle in which perhaps
they were more than once close to the jaws of death. ‘Linesman,’ in
those brilliant impressions of the war in Natal—always truthful in fact,
but not invariably just in deduction—has recorded a very similar
incident at Vaal Krantz, when, from a fire that was deafening,
bewildering in its intensity of concentration on the British front,
some died, some were carried away on dripping stretchers before they
could learn the full gamut. And the survivors? The few within the
writer’s ken—quarrelled! During a lucid interval in the shelling, the
regimental cooks had contrived to make and distribute tea to the men
lying prone in their shelters. The distribution was not perhaps
impartial. The menace of a 94-lb. shrapnel would make a liquor-measure
uncertain with the eyes of a hundred Government inspectors glued upon
it! So there arose a bickering. Tom down below must obviously have
taken more than his share, else how came it that Mick above had to
content himself with less? ‘Peace!’ yelled the monstrous shrapnel at
the height of the argument; ‘Shut up!’ snapped the pom-pom shells;
‘Silence!’ boomed the far-off 40-pounder. Not a bit of it. No
foreign-made projectile ever fired shall stop a Briton well under way
with a grievance. That argument flourished amazingly under the shower,
and only died away when the glaring sun overhead began to induce an
unforgiving slumber.
Ridiculous, of course, such a scene must seem to civilians who have been
fed on the heroics of a melodramatic school, or on the still falser
‘revelations’ of writers who, having never seen a battle, mix their own
pusillanimous imaginings with so-called ‘psychological’ studies and
ironically brand that mixture with the ‘red badge of courage’; but it is
true to the nature of soldiers who are not always thinking great things
while they do them, and who have often a laugh or an oath on their lips
when their thoughts take a flight too serious for words. Burn-Murdoch
has told us how, in the midst of a duel that was practically for life or
death between some Boers and Lumsden’s Horse in this fight at Ospruit,
men laughed outright at something that seemed to them ‘tearfully funny,
coming as it did like the comedian’s joke in the middle of a tragedy.’ A
soldier should make the best of valets because he is never a hero to
himself. Yet he has a firm and never-to-be-shaken faith in the heroism
of others. Lumsden’s Horse, many of them in imminent peril at the
moment, watched their Colonel’s action in going out to bring the wounded
Trooper Franks from a shot-withered slope to some place of comparative
safety, and they afterwards declared it to be a valorous deed well
worthy of the Victoria Cross. To that conclusion Sir Patrick Playfair
also came when the story was told to him, and he said so. Thereupon
Colonel Lumsden was much upset lest somebody might say that he, too, had
been trying to win the coveted distinction. So he hastened to write a
‘disclaimer’ in these words:
What Sir Patrick really means, and heard about from some of my men,
referred to the death of poor Franks, who was lying wounded on the
veldt about 800 yards from the point we held on the extreme right of
the fighting line. We could see him plainly through our glasses
writhing evidently in great pain; and, as I asked for some volunteers
to ride down and bring him in, I did not care to request them to do a
thing I would not do myself, so rode down with my galloper, Trooper
Percy Smith, now a captain in the Middlesex Regiment and a D.S.O., and
Trooper Betts and Trooper Chapman, the latter of whom afterwards
obtained a commission in the Johannesburg Police.
On reaching the spot we found Franks lying in great danger and pain.
Having a quiet pony, ‘Harry Stuart,’ I dismounted, and we placed the
wounded man on my horse, and while he was held by two of his comrades
we walked back to camp under a pretty heavy fire from some Boers who
were galloping on our left rear and firing at us. It was a foolish
thing on my part to have done, but, as I said, we were all new to the
game together, and I did not care to ask my men to risk their lives in
an action in which I would not chance my own. That is all. There was
nothing in it.
Yes, that is all! But let England, mother of nations, thank God for the
sons who, doing such a deed, can say and think ‘there was nothing in
it’!
Cold reason may bid us approve General Charles Tucker’s words of wise
caution, but all the time our hearts will be beating time to a noble
refrain, the notes of which have thrilled the nerves of British soldiers
in all ages, urging them to risk their own lives rather than forsake a
stricken comrade, and to die like gentlemen before they would let the
stain of dishonour rest on them or their regiment. People who talk
glibly of the necessity for encouraging initiative among junior officers
may hold that Lieutenant Crane should have conformed to the general
retirement, instead of holding his isolated post with untimely
resolution, waiting for the orders that could not reach him, when the
Boers began to close in on his front and flanks. Apparently no blame
attaches to anybody for neglecting to recall Lieutenant Crane and his
party at a time when they might have extricated themselves without
serious loss. Colonel Ross says that the orderly whom he sent with the
message was either killed or wounded, and so the recall never reached
Lieutenant Crane. That it was sent both Colonel Ross and his Staff
officer, Captain Williams (who has since been killed), were quite
positive. In justice to Lieutenant Crane, it must be remembered that a
company officer can know very little of what is going on at other points
of a fighting line beyond the immediate limits assigned to him, and the
privilege of initiative might be strained to a dangerous extent if every
section-leader should consider it discreet to retire directly he found
himself pressed sorely or somebody else giving way on either flank. In
Colonel Lumsden’s words—so eloquent because of their undemonstrative
simplicity—Lieutenant Crane ‘deemed it his duty to hold his position as
long as possible.’ How many thousands of times in the course of our
‘rough island story’ has the Empire had cause to be thankful to the men
who could thus interpret duty as a thing above all personal
considerations, calling for self-sacrifice to the end! It was part of
the white man’s burden which Lieutenant Crane and his comrades of No. 2
Section had taken upon them long ago, when they settled as
indigo-planters in the wilds of Behar, Mozufferpore, and Saran, where
Europeans are few and natives many. In such districts the Sahib’s lot
may be to face a riotous multitude of frenzied fanatics at any moment,
and he must fight it out single-handed, dying if need be under cruel
torture, but never showing fear. That was the training-school from which
No. 2 Section of A Company came. They were indigo-planters to a man,
self-reliant and imbued with a high sense of the Sahib’s responsibility
to the race from which he springs. Knowing this, we cannot wonder that
the leader deemed it his duty to fight for the ground he had been
ordered to hold rather than give way an inch, no matter what odds were
against him; or that, when he fell wounded, with Clayton Daubney, Henry
Lumsden, and Upton Case dead beside him, others chose to share his fate
instead of leaving him to the tender mercies of their enemies. To such
men no thought of surrender could have come. Corporal Firth had a chance
of getting away, but he went back to where his wounded officer and some
old comrades from Mozufferpore were lying under heavy fire, and elected
to stay with them as they held the Boers in check until nearly every
cartridge was expended. Not before Daubney, Case, and Lumsden had been
killed, Cyril Marsham, Stewart McNamara, Helme Firth, Gwatkin Williams,
McGillivray, and Macdonald wounded did the Boers succeed in making any
prisoners among the little band of indigo-planters, whom they had by
that time practically surrounded within point-blank range. No white flag
was hoisted and there were no ‘hands up,’ but rifles dropped from the
nerveless grip of men who had fought till they were faint with loss of
blood and there was no power in the numb fingers to press a trigger.
Others laid down the weapons that were useless when their last cartridge
had been fired; and then the Boers, closing in upon them, made prisoners
of all who survived. If anybody blundered, the mistake was nobly atoned
for. It is a story of which Lumsden’s Horse and the whole Empire may be
proud.
An early version of this incident, not quite accurate in some details,
furnished a noble theme for the pen of Sir A. Conan Doyle, who, in his
history of ‘The Great Boer War,’ writes, with a patriot’s enthusiasm and
an enthusiast’s glorious disregard of fettering figures, as follows:
Before entering upon a description of that great and decisive movement
(the advance on Pretoria), one small action calls for comment. This
was the cutting off of twenty[6] men of Lumsden’s Horse in a
reconnaissance at Karree. The small post under Lieutenant Crane found
themselves by some misunderstanding isolated in the midst of the
enemy. Refusing to hoist the flag of shame, they fought their way out,
losing half[7] their number, while of the other half it is said that
there was not one who could not show bullet marks upon his clothes or
person. The men of this corps, Volunteer Anglo-Indians, had abandoned
the ease and even luxury of Eastern life for the hard fare and rough
fighting of this most trying campaign. In coming they had set the
whole Empire an object-lesson in spirit, and now on their first field
they set the Army an example of military virtue. The proud traditions
of Outram’s Volunteers have been upheld by the men of Lumsden’s Horse.