The Natal Wedge
[Sidenote: Map p. 50]
The northern section of Natal before the war[16] roughly assumed the
shape of a wedge driven in between the Transvaal and the Orange Free
State. The Drakensberg Range on the one side and the Buffalo River on
the other formed the cleaving surfaces, Majuba and Laing's Nek were the
cutting edge, and the base was the Tugela River.
In mechanics a wedge is an instrument which can be usefully employed
only under favourable circumstances. It has many disadvantages. It is
easily jammed. The driving power at the base must be considerable; much
of the force is absorbed by the friction on the surfaces; the progress
made is very slow; and if the surfaces encounter a more tenacious
material they will be perforated. A wedge is intended chiefly for
cleavage and disruption when less clumsy methods are not at hand.
The defects of a wedge as a mechanical power at once became apparent to
the British force which occupied Natal when war became inevitable. The
cutting edge was inaccessible and liable to injury which could not be
easily repaired; much trouble was anticipated from the presence of Boer
commandos in contact with the surfaces; the base did not appear to be
sufficiently well designed to receive the impact of the propelling
force; and there were grave doubts as to the soundness of the material
of which an important section of the wedge, namely Ladysmith, was
constructed.
It was therefore proposed by the military authorities that the Natal
wedge should not be used as an instrument in the war. To this the civil
government at Pietermaritzburg strongly objected on account of the evil
moral effect which the abandonment of a considerable proportion of the
Colony to the enemy would exercise upon the general situation in South
Africa, and of the loss of prestige which the evacuation would entail in
the minds of the natives, who numbered three-quarters of a million.
Under pressure from the Colonial Office, and against its own judgment,
the Army of Natal set itself to work upon the Wedge.
The mistake soon became manifest, although the artisans did their best.
The Wedge was not an effective instrument; its cutting edge was never in
operation; and in a very few weeks it was hewn into a mangled, cumbrous
and irregular mass, which could neither be advanced nor withdrawn and
which for nearly five months led a precarious and unhappy existence. Its
distress necessitated the recasting of the plan of the South African
campaign and a pernicious "moral effect" was not avoided. One British
Army besieged in an open town surrounded by heights, while another was
lying impotent upon the banks of the Tugela, eighteen miles distant, was
the result of a few weeks' work with the Natal Wedge, which had been
forced by the civilian strategists into the reluctant hands of the
troops.[17]
When Sir George White arrived in Natal on October 7 he found Sir W. Tenn
Symons carrying out the wedge policy of the Colonial Government. Part of
the latter's force was at Ladysmith and part was protecting the
collieries in the Dundee district. It was his intention to advance
northwards to Newcastle as soon as he was reinforced by the contingent
on its way from India, the full strength of which had not arrived at
Durban. The position at Dundee was strategically defective, as it was
exposed to a raid from the Transvaal border only twelve miles distant,
and it was actually further from the Orange Free State than Ladysmith.
Its defects as a tactical position were still more obvious as it was
commanded by hills.
Such, in a few words, was the situation with which White was called upon
to deal. He had two courses before turn; he could accommodate himself to
it or he could endeavour to modify it. He attempted the latter, and
failing he recurred to the former. He saw at once the insecurity of
Symons' detached force, but being unable to convince the Natal
Government of the necessity of withdrawing it he reluctantly allowed it
to remain.
Soon the Boer plan of campaign, which aimed at the isolation of the
British Troops in the wedge, began to unroll itself. Fourteen thousand
Transvaalers under Joubert, who had first tested the cutting edge by
sending a coal truck through the tunnel at Laing's Nek and who suspected
an ambush when he found it clear, were moving south on Newcastle, while
six thousand Free Staters under Martin Prinsloo were pouring through the
Drakensberg passes west of Ladysmith. The Natal Government now began to
feel uneasy about the safety of the colonial capital and even of Durban;
and informed White that undue importance had been attached to the
occupation of Dundee and that its retention was no longer desirable.
Thus in little more than a week White's original objection was
reconsidered and upheld. But again he allowed his better judgment to be
over-borne. Symons, whom he instructed to withdraw southwards unless he
felt his position to be absolutely secure, was at his own urgent request
allowed to remain. Next day, October 19, Elandslaagte, on the railway
between Ladysmith and Dundee, was occupied by a Boer commando, and it
was reported that 4,000 burghers were ready to cross the Buffalo River
at Jager's Drift during the night.
Symons' camp was pitched about a mile west of Dundee which lay between
it and Talana and Lennox Hills, which commanded the town from the east.
Some hours before sunrise on October 20 a British picket on Talana was
attacked. The incident was reported to Head Quarters, where it was not
deemed to be of much importance and the routine duties of the morning
were not interrupted. The artillery horses had been taken down as usual
to water, and some companies had even fallen in for skirmishing drill,
when the curtain of the morning mist upon the higher ground was raised
to the first scene in the Natal drama. The eastward hills, looming up
darkly into the brightening sky, were seen to be occupied in force by
the enemy under L. Meyer, and soon his shells were falling among the
tents.
The troops in camp, though taken by surprise, pulled themselves together
with admirable promptitude. The Boer guns were soon silenced, the
figures of men silhouetted along the sky line vanished, and the infantry
was ordered out to clear the hill. It was a formidable and dangerous
task, but it was facilitated by some of the features of the ground.
There was a dry river bed in which the troops could be formed up for
attack, and, half a mile beyond, a farmhouse and a plantation afforded
some cover; while a donga on the left at right angles to the river bed
apparently offered a covered way up the hill to the crest. In the
plantation occurred the first calamity of the war. Symons, who had come
up impatiently from the lower ground to hurry up the assault, which he
thought was being unnecessarily delayed, was mortally wounded. Three
days later he paid with his life for his adherence to a forward policy
in tactics as well as in strategy; and the command devolved upon Yule.
The donga on the left was found to be useless, as it led nowhere; and
the advance was made directly from the plantation towards a wall running
along the foot of the hill. Here a long halt was made in order to
reorganize the attack, and when the word was given the men pressed
forward and threw-themselves upon the rough front of the acclivity after
a rush across an open slope. The crest was attained and carried without
much difficulty; for all but a few stalwarts had quitted it when they
saw the British bayonets pricking upwards towards their hold.
It seemed now that the victory was won, but an unfortunate mistake
postponed it. The two field batteries on the plain, which had ceased
fire before the final infantry rush, changed position and came under a
heavy fire from the Boers who were still in possession of a section of
the Talana ridge. The light was bad and the guns re-opened upon the
crest line in the belief that the whole of it was still occupied by the
enemy. The practice was excellent, and in a brief space both sides were
driven off the hill by the shrapnel. A subsequent attempt to take it was
successful. The result of the battle, which lasted from sunrise until 2
p.m., might have been reversed but for the inaction of the main Boer
force posted on Lennox Hill under L. Meyer, and of another force on
Impati under Erasmus, who, though he could hear the noise of battle
pealing through the mist which lay upon the hill, abstained from
intervening.
The whole Boer force was now in full retreat along the line by which it
had advanced so silently the night before, and Yule ordered the two
field batteries up to the nek between Talana and Lennox to pound the
retreating burghers as they slowly trekked towards the Buffalo River;
but again an unfortunate misapprehension intervened. The officer in
command, being under the impression that an armistice asked for by Meyer
two hours before had been granted, refrained from opening fire and the
Boers escaped untouched. A serious misadventure marred the success of
the day. The 18th Hussars, who at the commencement of the action
received orders to hold themselves in readiness to advance when occasion
offers, soon appeared to the restless general to be losing their
opportunity, and were hustled into activity. They charged in various
directions and even made some prisoners; but one squadron lost its way
and was captured in an attempt to ride round Impati by a detachment of
Erasmus' force at a farm where it had taken refuge.
The fight for Talana Hill encouraged each belligerent. In England it was
received as an indication of the early and successful termination of the
struggle. The Boers regarded it as a reconnaissance in force from which
they had returned with slight loss, and they could boast that they had
reaped the first fruits of the harvest of war; a squadron of British
cavalry which, with the commanding officer of the regiment, was at once
dispatched into captivity at Pretoria, where its arrival was accepted as
a proof of a great Boer victory in Natal.
Talana Hill regarded as an isolated event in the Natal campaign was a
distinctly successful encounter, the credit of which is due entirely to
the infantry engaged in it. Twice the artillery blundered, and the
cavalry was inoperative. The extent of the loss suffered by the Natal
Field Force in the death of Symons must always be a matter for
speculation. But it is at least probable that if he had survived to take
part in the subsequent operations, his ardent, impetuous, Prince Rupert
like temperament would have beneficially impregnated with greater
audacity the stolid and ponderous tactics and strategy of the Natal
campaign.
The unreality of the Talana Hill victory soon became apparent. The
threat of Erasmus sitting on Impati still impended, and Yule moved his
camp next day to a site which he believed to be out of range. But in the
meantime Erasmus awoke from his trance and, on the afternoon of October
21, opened fire with a six-inch gun,[18] and again Yule was compelled to
shift his camp. He had already asked for reinforcements, but White was
unable to spare them, and recommended him to fall back upon Ladysmith.
Next day Yule was encouraged by the news of a British success at
Elandslaagte; and with the object of intercepting the Boers who were
reported to be retreating on Newcastle, he endeavoured to seize Glencoe,
but Erasmus on Impati forbade the movement.
Shortly before midnight on October 19, Kock, a Free Stater who commanded
a force chiefly composed of foreign auxiliaries and who was working
southwards from Newcastle, sent on an advanced party to swoop down upon
the railway between Ladysmith and Glencoe, and Elandslaagte station was
seized. Early next morning Kock came in with his main body. White at
first made no serious attempt to clear the line beyond sending out a
reconnoitring force which he soon recalled, as he was reluctant to
employ troops away from the immediate neighbourhood of Ladysmith, which
had been already threatened on the N.W. by Free State commandos.
The news however of Yule's success at Talana changed the situation and
seemed to justify a more forward policy; and early in the morning of
October 21 French was sent out to re-occupy Elandslaagte and repair the
line. Although he succeeded in driving the enemy out of the railway
station and in holding it for a very brief period, he found himself
outclassed in artillery and too weak to stand up to the Boers, and
withdrew a few miles southward; at the same time asking White to
reinforce him. It was reported that Kock expected shortly to be
reinforced.
The main Boer position was on the northern limb of a horseshoe
arrangement of kopjes which develops close to the railway station and
swings round southwards and westwards, at an elevation generally about
300 feet above the normal level of the ground. Two posts were also held
north of the railway. The southern limb of the horseshoe was lightly
held, and against it French, without waiting for the arrival of all his
reinforcements, moved with his mounted troops, and easily cleared it.
Here he was joined by the Manchester Regiment, one of the battalions of
the brigade of infantry sent out by White under the command of Ian
Hamilton, and established himself on the left flank of the Boer position
on the two kopjes on the northern limb of the horseshoe.
The other two battalions, the Devonshire Regiment and the Gordon
Highlanders, simultaneously came into position, the former for a frontal
attack, and the latter as a reserve acting in the interval between the
Manchesters and the Devons; while the artillery advanced between the two
limbs and shelled the enemy's position on the kopjes. The artillery
preparation enjoined by the regulations had, however, to be curtailed
owing to the approach of night, but not before the two Boer guns on the
southern kopje were silenced; and then the main attack was delivered.
The Boers on the kopjes were reinforced by a body of German auxiliaries
under Schiel, who had been driven out of a position north of the railway
by the cavalry acting on the left and who circled round to the main
position, but the reinforcement did not avail them. Hardly pressed on
their left, they were unable to withstand the frontal charge of the
Devons led by Hamilton in person. The guns were captured and the
position occupied at sunset. By this time most of the Boers were in
retreat and their tracks were made devious by the cavalry, which so long
as light remained harried them hither and thither.
Suddenly a white flag was seen fluttering near the laager between the
kopjes. There is no reason to believe that it was treacherously raised,
but it compelled Hamilton to order the Cease Fire. Yet at once half a
hundred Boers started up and rushed as a forlorn hope upon the crest: a
remnant of stalwarts, who even succeeded in firing a round or two from
the guns which had just been taken from them. There was a moment or two
of doubt and bewilderment, but Hamilton with the help of a few junior
officers rallied the waverers, and earned the Victoria Cross, which on
account of his high military rank was withheld from him; the guns were
recovered, the laager rushed, and the tactical victory was complete.
Elandslaagte was as unreal a victory as Talana. The troops had not
rested many hours in their bivouacs on the ridge before they received
orders to return without delay to Ladysmith, which was still threatened
from the west by the Free State commandos; and by noon on October 22 not
only had Elandslaagte been hurriedly evacuated, but stores, ammunition
and even some prisoners had been left behind in the scuttle. Next day it
passed without effort into the possession of a small body of Free
Staters, who were astonished to find it abandoned.
Meanwhile Yule after the failure of his movement on Glencoe found his
position insecure and reluctantly resolved to retire on Ladysmith,
although it entailed leaving not only his supplies and ammunition but
also his wounded behind him. The victory of Talana had indeed been won
but the victors were exhausted by it and unfit to stand up to Erasmus on
Impati. It became necessary for Yule to disappear immediately and
stealthily.
On October 23 soon after midnight the maimed and harassed force slipped
quietly away and trudged wearily to the south. When the mist rolling
aside next morning disclosed the evacuation the Transvaalers on Impati
occupied the town almost simultaneously with the reoccupation of
Elandslaagte by their allies the Free Staters; and thus the battlefields
of two British victories were redeemed by the defeated. It is no
reproach to Yule that military necessity compelled him to leave behind
the wounded of Talana Hill. The death of Symons on October 23 was a
pathetic episode of the Natal Campaign. He passed away of his mortal
wound while the Boers were looting the camp in which he was lying and
wondering, in the rare intervals of conscious thought, why the troops
whom he had led so gallantly had been taken from him; and for half a
year his grave lay lonely in the enemy's country before another British
soldier could stand beside it.
The retreat of Yule's force was effected without more trouble than that
which was caused by the nature of the country and the alternations of
the climate. Van Tonder's Pass--a difficult defile which would have been
impassable under opposition--was crossed, and a sudden spate on the
Waschbank river only temporarily checked the retirement. A column was
sent out from Ladysmith by White to check the Free Staters who had
re-occupied Elandslaagte and to prevent them falling on Yule, and on
October 24 they were engaged with success at Rietfontein. The sound of
the artillery in this action was audible to Yule on the Waschbank, but
he was unable to account for it.
On the afternoon of October 25 Yule was within one day's march of
Ladysmith. He proposed to halt for the night; but suddenly a patrol from
a column sent out by White to help him in appeared, and he received
orders to press forward to Ladysmith.
The exhausted men resumed their march, and the misery of that night's
journey was probably never exceeded during any subsequent movement in
the war. Sodden, hungry, weary, disheartened; men and transport animals
inextricably intermingled; the column plodded onwards in the rain and
the night. A halt at daylight next morning brought in some of the
stragglers and gave a little rest to those who were still in the ranks;
and by mid-day the men of Talana Hill had trudged into Ladysmith.
The urgency of the immediate resumption of the march had arisen from
White's anxiety for the safety of Yule's force. Rietfontein had indeed,
like Talana and Elandslaagte, been a tactically successful engagement
and had similarly been followed by a retreat; but Yule was exposed to an
attack by Erasmus, to whom he had given the slip at Dundee during the
night of October 22 and who was known to be endeavouring to overtake
him. Erasmus was believed to be acting from the direction of
Elandslaagte; but fortunately for Yule his movements were not
judiciously directed and his information was imperfect.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 139.]
All the detached members of the Natal Wedge had now been driven in and
the reconnaissances sent out by White on October 27 and the following
days showed that the Boers had lost no time in pressing on to Ladysmith.
The Transvaalers were apparently in force N.E. of the town on a section
of the arc in which Lombard's Kop, Long Hill, and Pepworth Hill were the
chief physical features; the Free Staters were approaching from the N.W.
and a small force of them under A.P. Cronje was already in touch with
the Transvaalers; their main body, however, seemed to be making for the
Tugela in order to isolate Ladysmith from the south. On October 29 White
assumed the offensive with the greater part of his command, and
endeavoured to cut through the still unconsolidated investing line and
to thwart the co-operation of the allies.
The general idea was that an infantry brigade, supported on its right
flank by cavalry acting towards Lombard's Kop, should attack the enemy,
who was presumed to be in force on Long Hill and Pepworth Hill. On the
left flank of the attack a column would endeavour to pass through the
Boer line, and having seized Nicholson's Nek due north of Ladysmith
would either close it against the retreating enemy or hold it as a post
through which a mounted force could debouch in pursuit on to the more
practicable ground beyond.
Some difficulty in drawing and loading up ammunition delayed the start
of the column, which under the command of Carleton was to secure the
left flank of the operations; and fearing that daylight on October 30
would find his vulnerable force still on the march he determined soon
after midnight to halt short of Nicholson's Nek, from which he was then
two miles distant. He had succeeded in passing through the enemy's
picket line, and was perhaps not justified in discontinuing his advance,
although his instructions were to take Nicholson's Nek only "if
possible." But an error of judgment made by a commanding officer on a
dark night in a strange country acting under instructions which left him
a free hand must not be judged severely, and had it not been for a
disaster which could not be foreseen, he would probably have been
commended for his prudence.
Kainguba Hill, which rises on the left of the road to Nicholson's Nek,
seemed to offer a suitable stage on the journey and towards it the
column was diverted. While the men were climbing the steep and stony
hillside a panic suddenly seized the transport mules. It may have been a
spontaneous emotion, or it may have originated in an alarm raised by the
Boers who were holding the crest. The animals stampeded down the slope,
and carrying with them not only the reserve ammunition but also the
signalling equipment, the water carts, and the component parts of the
mountain artillery, charged through the rear of the column. The timely
exertions of the officers checked the general scare that was imminent;
and with the exception of a few score of infantry men and gunners the
column reached the summit before daybreak, having lost almost everything
needed for a successful occupation of it.
Misfortune continued relentlessly to pursue the column. A position was
taken up on the hill on the supposition that it could only be attacked
from the south, but at daylight C. de Wet, who here came upon the stage
which afterwards he often filled so effectively, threatened it from the
north with a Free State commando. A gesture made by an officer in order
to attract attention was interpreted as a signal to retire; another
officer thinking that his company was left alone on the summit, though
it was in fact within seventy yards of an occupied sangar, raised the
white flag; and almost at the same moment a bugle sounded the Cease
Fire. Neither the white flag nor the bugle call was authorized by
Carleton; but a glance at the situation showed him that they could not
be repudiated and after a gallant struggle to maintain an indefensible
position he surrendered. Nearly a thousand men were led away into
captivity.
The main infantry attack was made by a force of five battalions with six
field batteries under the command of Grimwood. He marched out of
Ladysmith soon after midnight, but had not covered half the distance to
the point of attack when an unfortunate incident deprived him of all his
artillery and of two of his battalions. The guns marching in the centre
of the column and acting under orders which were not communicated to
Grimwood, diverged to the right and were followed by the two battalions
in rear; and the absence of nearly half the force was not discovered by
him until daybreak, and after he had taken up the position assigned
south of Long Hill. Daybreak also revealed the fact that Long Hill which
was assumed to be the Boer left was not occupied, and that Long Tom from
Impati had been emplaced on Pepworth Hill. The cavalry brigade under
French upon whom Grimwood relied to protect his right flank was two
miles away in his rear; and finding himself attacked on that flank
instead of from the front he was compelled to swing round and almost
reverse his front. Thus far the general scheme of attack had signally
failed. Carleton on the left had not reached Nicholson's Nek and was in
trouble; Grimwood with nearly half of his command gone astray, and
having discovered that the enemy's left was not on Long Hill but on
Lombard's Kop, had to improvise a scheme of his own; while French
instead of conforming to Grimwood was compelling Grimwood to conform to
him. At 8 a.m. Grimwood was suffering severely from artillery fire, and
French whose cavalry now prolonged Grimwood's line southwards was with
difficulty holding his own. The enemy, whom the general idea destined to
be outflanked and rolled up towards the north and pursued by mounted
troops issuing from Nicholson's Nek, was instead attacking vigorously
from Lombard's Kop on the east and seemed likely to outflank White; the
infantry reserves under Ian Hamilton were almost expended; and the
British artillery was unable to silence the Boer guns.
All through the forenoon Ladysmith and the little garrison left behind
for its defence was the target of Long Tom on Pepworth Hill. The
fugitives from Kainguba brought in disheartening reports and the Boers
seemed to be threatening from the north. W. Knox, a Horse Artillery
officer who had been left in command, anticipated an attack which he had
little chance of meeting successfully with the scanty force at his
disposal and sent an urgent message to White, who at noon ordered the
battle to be broken off and the troops to retire to Ladysmith.
The retreat was effected in confusion. Grimwood's force was the first to
be withdrawn and was saved from disaster by the gallant stand made by
two field batteries as it crossed the level ground. The cavalry
scampered home in Grimwood's track. A dramatic episode brought the
battle of Lombard's Kop to a close. Just as the baffled troops were
entering Ladysmith a battery of naval guns, which had arrived from
Durban that morning and had gone immediately into action, succeeded in
silencing Long Tom and some other guns on Pepworth Hill, nearly four
miles distant. In the evening Joubert sent in a flag of truce to White
to announce Carleton's surrender.
The Natal Wedge disappeared in the smoke of the battle of Lombard's Kop
and was never again heard of as an instrument in the Natal campaign. The
Boers filled the gaps in the investing line without difficulty, and on
November 2 the Siege of Ladysmith began. The last man to leave the town
was French, who went forth to win honour on distant fields.
Notes:
[Footnote 16: In 1902 the Vryheid and Utrecht districts of the Transvaal
were annexed to Natal and the wedge disappeared.]
[Footnote 17: They were indeed authorized as early as October 18 to
throw it aside but by that time they were committed to its use.]
[Footnote 18: "Long Tom," which was afterwards sent to Ladysmith and
subsequently to bombard Rhodes in Kimberley.]
[Illustration: Sketch map of Northern Natal.]