Lord Kitchener at Work
The nation at home, which at the close of 1900 was confidently expecting
the end of the war at an early date, was not long obsessed by its
optimism. Efforts not less vigorous than patriotic were made not only by
Great Britain, but also by the Colonies and South African Loyalists, to
give Lord Kitchener the troops he needed.
At the end of May, 1901, he had at his disposal a force which, including
all classes of irregulars, semi-combatants, and non-combatants, was not
less than 230,000; of whom more than one-third were mounted. The rule
hitherto observed, that the native races were to be employed in servile
capacities only, was relaxed, and in certain cases natives were allowed
to carry arms when acting as scouts or patrols.
It is impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy either the
actual or the potential strength of the enemy at this period. It has
been estimated that, excluding the burghers actually on commando, there
were less than 30,000 Boers able to take up arms if inclined to do so;
but this number must only be regarded as the maximum strength of a
possible and to a great extent an unreliable reserve upon which the
commandos in action, at no given moment much exceeding 12,000 burghers,
could draw to supply the wastage of war.
The war now entered fully into its "blockhouse and drive" phase. The use
of these expedients in combination was, it is believed, new to military
history. The principle of the blockhouse had already been tentatively
adopted in South Africa without much success, notably between
Bloemfontein and Thabanchu, where a line of posts was established which
on three occasions was cut by De Wet.[55] The chief defect of the
blockhouse is its vulnerability to shell fire; but by this time the Boer
artillery was a negligible quantity. Its adoption on a large scale dates
from the time of Lord Kitchener's taking over the command. The expedient
was, in the first instance, applied to the railways as a protection
against the raids to which they were subject; and after July, 1901, it
was extended to the open veld. Subsidiary lines of blockhouses, which in
general jutted out at right angles to the railways and in most cases ran
along the cross-veld roads changing direction as circumstances required,
were built. They acted as fences to obstruct or to deflect the movements
of the enemy and enclosed areas greatly differing in size.
The longest blockhouse line, which was, however, not completed until a
few weeks before the end of the war, extended from Victoria Road Station
to Lambert's Bay on the Atlantic, a distance of 300 miles. In the
vicinity of Johannesburg, and in the Central districts of the Orange
River Colony west of the railway, cordons of posts manned by the South
African Constabulary took the place of blockhouse lines. These posts,
which were established at wider intervals apart than the blockhouses,
were intended to act as bases for minor clearing operations. They
offered little or no obstruction to a Boer commando on trek. The
blockhouse lines were resolutely extended by Lord Kitchener in every
direction; and by the end of the war there was scarcely a district in
the spacious area of hostilities that was not impaled upon them or
helplessly clutched in their fatal grasp.
The "Drive" as a military weapon is as old as the time of Darius. The
first use of it in South Africa, on a large scale, was French's movement
through the Eastern Transvaal in February, 1901.[56] The "Drive" has
been criticized as an awkward attempt to perform, with one and the same
force, two distinct operations of war; namely, the coercion of the
non-military population and the defeat of the enemy's troops. The dual
task deprives the force set to it of mobility and power of initiative.
As a detail of abstract and orthodox military criticism the objection is
sound; but it ignores the special local circumstances of the case. In
the vast area on which the British Army was operating it was not
possible to separate the two objectives. Moreover, the purely military
resources of the enemy were waning; and the contest was resolving itself
into an effort to put pressure on the country at large, rather than to
smash the dwindling, evasive, and centrifugal commandos in the field.
French's "drive," from a military point of view, was not a success; but
it at least frightened Botha and the Transvaal Government. In May, 1901,
there was a conference near Ermelo at which it was resolved that
overtures should be made to Lord Kitchener; and but for Steyn, who was
communicated with in the Orange River Colony, and who had had no
experience of the "drive," it is probable that negotiations for peace
would have ensued. On the other hand, the "drive" has been approved as a
method of warfare particularly adapted for use by an army deficient in
mobility and incapable of acquiring accurate intelligence of the enemy.
* * * * *
During the two months preceding Lord Roberts' departure from South
Africa at the end of November, 1900, no events of great military
importance occurred in the Transvaal, except De Wet's Fredrikstad raid.
The opposition had, to all appearance, dissolved into impalpable matter.
Here and there some Boer atoms coalesced and were not pulverized; but
for many weeks there was little in the general situation to disturb the
optimistic belief, which was held not only by the people at home but
also by the Army in the field, that the end was not far off.
Botha and Steyn reached Pietersburg in September, where they were joined
by B. Viljoen, who arrived a few weeks later after a circuitous journey
from Komati Poort through the low veld. An important detail of Lord
Roberts' plan of campaign had not been carried out. He had hoped that
the Northern Transvaal would be denied to the Boers by Carrington, who
failed to carry out his part of the programme. Thus Pietersburg was a
fairly secure eyrie in which plans could be devised and from which a
swoop could be made either east or west of Pretoria.
Botha and Steyn soon came to the conclusion that the situation, though
serious, was by no means hopeless. Certain events of October and
November were encouraging. They not unnaturally argued that the
withdrawal of their two chief opponents, Lord Roberts and Sir Redvers
Buller, indicated infirmity of purpose on the part of the British
Government. The idea was mistaken, as the recall of these leaders, or at
least of one of them, was due to the fact that the British Government
was of opinion that the war was practically over. Again, they were
relieved of the inconvenient and harassing presence of Kruger, the dour,
reactionary old farmer, who had brought on the war and had now left his
country to its fate; who had learnt nothing and forgotten nothing since
he had set out on the Great Trek of 1836; and whose mind ran in a
channel so shallow that it could almost be heard rippling over the
stones. Also, it is probable that they had information that the majority
of the men of the Colonial and Irregular Corps, whose term of service of
one year would shortly expire, or had already expired, were declining to
re-enlist--yet another sign of infirmity of purpose. Moreover, the Boer
agents in Europe no doubt reported that all the regular infantry and its
reserves in Great Britain had been exhausted.
In November, 1900, the new plan of campaign was drawn up. L. Botha was
to invade Natal, after a raid into the Cape Colony by De Wet, for whom
Kritzinger and Hertzog would prepare the way and lay out the dâk. Steyn
hurried southwards with the scheme, and was picked up at Ventersdorp by
De Wet. Botha went to the high veld between the Natal Railway and the
Delagoa Bay Railway, leaving B. Viljoen north of the latter railway.
Beyers was ordered to join Delarey, who after the battle of Diamond Hill
went into his own country near the Magaliesberg and was now lurking in
the Zwartruggens.
French, after his unhappy cross-veld march to Heidelberg, was placed in
charge of the Johannesburg district. His passage had not overawed the
local commandos, which, like the armed men from the teeth of Cadmus,
soon sprang up out of the ground; and two attempts made by Smith-Dorrien
to coerce them failed. Hildyard, after the departure of Buller and the
dissolution of the Natal Army, was placed in charge of an extensive
district which included not only Natal but also the S.E. corner of the
Transvaal. Clery went home in October, 1900, and was succeeded in the
charge of the Natal Railway in the Transvaal by Wynne. Lyttelton, with
his Head Quarters at Middelburg, was posted on the Delagoa Bay Railway.
Methuen alone of all the British leaders had an opportunity during this
period of acting against definite objectives. Early in September he
quitted Mafeking and zigzagged in the western districts. After a minor
affair at Lichtenburg he was called south, and with the help of Settle,
who sallied from Vryburg, relieved Schweizer Reneke. His next efforts
were not so successful. A march to Rustenburg, with a view of
intercepting the wandering President of the Free State, brought him to
his destination early in October, only to find that Steyn was gone; and
subsequently he was unable to tackle Delarey effectively in the
Zwartruggens, a difficult district lying a day's march west of the
Magaliesberg. When he reached Zeerust a considerable portion of his
command was withdrawn under C. Douglas to reinforce French, and the end
of November found him again at Mafeking, too weak to work outside his
own district.
The Magaliesberg was patrolled by Clements and Broadwood, who made some
captures. Clements also was called on to furnish troops for French, who
lay at Johannesburg, having under his command several mobile columns as
well as the garrisons on the Klerksdorp railway and elsewhere.
Paget, who since August had been operating north of Pretoria, made an
attempt in the direction of Rustenburg to cut off Steyn, but was no more
successful than Methuen. His next divagation was to Eerstefabriken, a
few miles east of Pretoria, whence he was ordered away to see to B.
Viljoen, who was harassing the Delagoa Bay Railway, and whom, without
assistance from Lyttelton, he shifted from a strong position at
Rhenoster Kop in an affair which has been termed the last orthodox
pitched battle of the campaign.
* * * * *
Such, in brief, was the position in the Transvaal when Lord Kitchener,
after a flying visit to Bloemfontein for the purpose of co-ordinating
the activities against De Wet, returned to Pretoria on December 11,
1900. It would have offered greater difficulties to a man who was a
soldier first and an organizer afterwards than it did to the successor
of Lord Roberts. It may be likened to an archipelago in a stormy sea
infested by pirates who, though powerless to take possession of any of
the islands, made communication between them always dangerous and
sometimes impossible.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 240.]
Lord Kitchener's coming difficulties were heralded less than a week
after the departure of Lord Roberts by the loss of a large convoy which
was proceeding to Rustenburg, and for which Delarey, who was always to
be found where weak detachments came his way, was waiting. Ten days
later Clements suffered a disaster. He was based on Krugersdorp, but his
command had been weakened and his transport was deficient. He received
orders to act in the Hekpoort Valley, while Broadwood acted north of the
Magaliesberg. When he reached Noitgedacht Nek he found Delarey a few
miles away. At his urgent request a small portion of the troops which
had been taken from him was restored, with a few wagons; but they left
Krugersdorp too late to be of service.
Clements was under the impression that he had only Delarey to deal with,
and was unaware that Beyers was on his way to carry out the orders he
had received from Botha. The withdrawal of Paget to Eerstefabriken
cleared his front, and he marched on to the Magaliesberg. His movements
were not unnoticed by the Intelligence, which, however, failed to notify
them to Clements, who on December 11 was in presence of two Boer
leaders, whose united forces were twice as strong as his own. Unknown to
him they had met at Boschfontein near the southern approach to Breedt's
Nek; for when a commando was reported to be at hand, he did not doubt
that it was Delarey's force only.
Noitgedacht was tactically an unsound position which Clements, assuming
that his right was safe, had taken up in order to maintain heliographic
communication with Broadwood on the other side of the Magaliesberg. The
range rises more than a thousand feet above the camp selected by
Clements and is accessible only by a rough track. The ground on either
side of the Nek was occupied by pickets posted there mainly for
signalling purposes. These posts, however, were helpless if attacked, as
they were not only widely scattered, but could not be reinforced from
the main body in the valley below. Thus they were little or no
protection to the camp.
In the direction from which an attack might be expected Clements' camp,
which lay at the foot of the Nek, was protected by a low ridge jutting
out from the main range and ending in a detached kopje. This ridge was
held by mounted infantry. Another detached kopje, called Yeomanry Hill,
was occupied towards the S.E.
Delarey's general idea for the day's operation was simple: an advance by
himself along the low ground upon the camp, coincident with an advance
by Beyers on the other side of the range. Shortly before sunrise on
December 13 Delarey endeavoured to rush the mounted infantry posts on
the ridge, which in anticipation of an attack had been strengthened on
the previous evening. Their vigorous resistance foiled the enterprise
and Delarey was driven off.
Soon, however, the sound of firing on the heights showed that the
Northumberland Fusilier posts on each side of the Nek were in action.
They had been attacked by Beyers, but fortunately not as had been
intended by Delarey simultaneously with his own attack upon the ridge;
otherwise it is probable that it would have been successful. After a
desperate struggle, in which the Fusiliers lost heavily, they were
overpowered, and Beyers was in possession of the high ground overlooking
the camp. An attempt made by Clements to recover the Nek failed. Beyers'
burghers came plunging down like a cascade and broke upon the camp
itself.
Clements anticipated that Delarey would soon return to the charge and
ordered a retirement, which was effected under cover of the artillery
and a rearguard of mounted infantry. Shortly before noon he formed up on
Yeomanry Hill. Delarey renewed his attack, but met with such sturdy
resistance that his men could not be induced to push it home. In the
course of the afternoon Clements withdrew towards Rietfontein, having
lost in killed, wounded and prisoners more than two-thirds of his 1,500
men. An orderly retreat was effected, and the column, which had been
surprised by Beyers and had seen its camp in the possession of the
enemy, brought away, in the presence of superior numbers, all its ten
guns.
[Illustration: Noitgedacht Nek.]
Broadwood on the other side of the range, to communicate with whom
Clements had taken up an unsound position at Noitgedacht Nek, lost touch
with him, and like many a British officer before him in South Africa,
was groping in the Fog of War. Two days previously he had heard that
Beyers was approaching, and he knew that Delarey was not far off; yet in
his ignorance of the situation he allowed Beyers to wriggle in between
him and Clements and to meet Delarey. At the time when Clements was
defending himself against the combined attack of the two Boer leaders,
Broadwood was seven miles away, placidly patching a field telegraph
cable; and when at noon he discovered that Clements was in action he
made no attempt to create a diversion.
It would be inequitable to surcharge the Noitgedacht misadventure and
other "regrettable incidents" to any individual: they should rather be
surcharged, not to this or that responsible commander, but to
irresponsible Human Nature. The British Army was, to a great extent,
stale and veld-sick. It was informed that the war would soon be over,
and it had become slack and careless. Convoys were sent afield with
insufficient escorts to run the gauntlet of ever watchful and alert Boer
commandants; Intelligence news qualified by the reports of untrustworthy
native spies was transmitted circumferentially from column to column,
with the result that the leader to whom it was of the most importance
was sometimes the last to receive it; the scouting and patrol work was
casual and rash. It is, however, but just to say that when the occasion
called for it, the fighting qualities of the British soldier showed no
signs of deterioration.
The Boers, after their habit, were content with the tactical victory at
Noitgedacht and refrained from endeavouring to improve upon it. French
and Clements took the field without delay, and although they failed in
their plan to pin Delarey and Beyers on to the wall of the Magaliesberg,
the Boer leaders were compelled to separate. Their brilliant and brief
co-operation did much to awake the British nation out of its torpor.
There was no longer any talk of reducing the Army of occupation by
one-half at the end of the year, and still more during the New Year; or
of quenching the smouldering embers of the war with Baden-Powell's new
South African Constabulary.
Late in December the pursuit of Delarey, who had retired from
Noitgedacht towards the S.W., was resumed. At Ventersdorp he and his 700
men, after eluding a ponderous force of nearly 6,000 men with 40 guns,
doubled back; and soon the same columns unsuccessfully encountered him
at Cyferfontein, where he ambushed a mounted detachment and then
disappeared.
Beyers, who went into the west after he was wrenched apart from Delarey,
soon reappeared upon the stage in the Hekpoort Valley with 1,200 men.
His position was precarious. In front of him was Paget, who had been
sent round to intercept him; while pressing on his heels was a
newly-formed mounted force under Babington, 2,000 strong. He extricated
himself cleverly by brushing past Paget and advancing boldly in what was
apparently the line of greatest resistance.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 240.]
No one but a Boer leader with a supreme contempt for his enemy would
have thought of placing himself within striking distance of Pretoria and
Johannesburg. Yet on January 11, 1901, he audaciously laagered within a
few miles of Johannesburg, unknown to the garrison. Next day he crossed
the railway at Kaalfontein, half-way between the two cities, and
disappeared in the Eastern Transvaal. That at this stage of the war it
was possible for 1,200 men to cut the railway, and with scarcely the
loss of a man to cross it, with guns and a long train of wagons, midway
between the two chief cities of the Transvaal, showed how much still
remained to be done.
The disturbances in the Orange River Colony brought about certain
changes and redistributions in the Transvaal commands, by which leaders
were, as in the circuits of Wesleyan ministers, removed from spheres
familiar to them. Clements went to Pretoria in succession to Tucker, who
was sent to Bloemfontein; E. Knox, who, fifteen months previously, had
been in command of the squadrons of the 18th Hussars which were not made
prisoners of war at Talana, took command of the column of Broadwood, who
was sent across the Vaal; Cunningham succeeded Clements in the
Magaliesberg district; Hart quitted Klerksdorp for the Orange River
Colony; and French went away into the west.
On the Boer side a new name which was destined often to be on men's lips
emerged from the crowd in January, 1901. A young lawyer named J.C.
Smuts, who had received his legal education in England, and whom Delarey
entrusted with a command, soon showed, and not for the first time, that
a shrewd, resourceful, energetic and determined civilian was, at least
in _guerilla_, more than a match for highly trained British officers.
A movement towards the south by Cunningham, with a view of checking
Delarey, soon brought Cunningham into trouble. After crossing the
Magaliesberg he was entangled by the Transvaal leader, and had to be
extricated by Babington before he could proceed to his destination at
Krugersdorp.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 292.]
Smuts, the new leader, went to the Gatsrand. His first exploit was to
snap up a weak and isolated British detachment at Modderfontein Nek, and
to establish his own commando on the position. When Cunningham reached
Krugersdorp he received orders to tackle Smuts. On February 2, having an
overwhelming superiority in guns and a considerable advantage in
numbers, he attacked Smuts; but the apprentice tactician had little
difficulty in meeting the regulation frontal holding attack combined
with a turning movement, and Cunningham withdrew.
In the Western Transvaal there were now three Boer leaders to be dealt
with: Smuts in the Gatsrand, Delarey in the Zwartruggens, and Kemp. The
latter had come down from the north with Beyers and had been with him
when the line was crossed at Kaalfontein. He had lately returned to his
own district of Krugersdorp. With Botha threatening in the east and De
Wet raiding in the south, few troops could be spared to help the columns
on the spot; but two additional columns, under the command of Shekleton
and Benson, and composed mainly of details, were assembled by Lord
Kitchener. One of these went astray, but the other joined Cunningham and
advanced against Smuts in the Gatsrand, only to find that he had escaped
at first towards the south, and had then changed direction and had
vanished in the N.W.
Methuen, who towards the end of November, 1900, had gone south from
Mafeking in order to deal with apprehended trouble in Griqualand West,
pushed up from the S.W. corner of the Transvaal and on February 18,
1901, came upon Delarey, who had escaped from Babington and had
reinforced a gathering of weak commandos near Hartebeestfontein.
Although outnumbered by more than 4 to 3, Methuen without much
difficulty compelled Delarey to withdraw, and went on to Klerksdorp.
Smuts reappeared and with Delarey made off to the N.W., the sanctuary to
which each of them had in turn repaired. Methuen was sent south to
Hoopstad in the Orange River Colony. He had hardly started when news
came in that an isolated garrison seventy miles away in the N.W. was
threatened.
Delarey had a definite objective in view when he disappeared, his native
town of Lichtenburg. The place was one of many for which Methuen, with
an attenuated force, was responsible; and now he had been called away to
a town in trouble in the opposite direction. Two columns nearer at hand
were called upon to relieve Lichtenburg, but in the meantime it had
relieved itself; for although Delarey succeeded in winning a footing
within it, the obstinate resistance which he encountered disheartened
him, and he withdrew on March 4 after twenty-four hours' fighting.
The next three weeks were occupied in the pursuit of Delarey by two
columns under Shekleton and Babington, at first in directions which he
had not taken. They started westward from Ventersdorp, not conceiving it
possible that, after the repulse at Lichtenburg, he would have the
audacity to throw himself across their left front in an attempt to reach
Klerksdorp. When the news that he had actually done so reached them they
changed direction southwards, Delarey opening outwards to let them pass
through towards Wolmaranstad, whither the Intelligence had in
imagination waybilled him. The British columns, unaware that he was on
either side of them, and still under the impression that he was on their
front towards the south, passed on and halted at Hartebeestfontein, when
a reconnoitring party sent out northwards discovered that he was in rear
of the columns.
The reconnoitring party had much difficulty in saving itself, as it was
charged by mounted Boers in mass, a tactical movement which hitherto had
not been tried by the enemy. Babington at once reversed the line of his
march, and on March 24 came up with Delarey at Wildfontein, midway
between Ventersdorp and Lichtenburg. Delarey was moving heavily and was
compelled to jettison his guns and his transport. These were picked up
by Babington, who, however, was not able to continue the pursuit and
returned to Ventersdorp.
The loss did not disconcert Delarey. He retired with Kemp to a position
close to his lair in the Zwartruggens, where, however, he did not long
remain. At the same time, he sent Smuts to the Hartebeestfontein
district, out of which he had just been driven. The audacity of the act
was justified, for Smuts maintained himself against Babington during the
whole of April.
Early in May a determined effort was made to clear the district. Methuen
after he had relieved Hoopstad was recalled to Mafeking, and then went
to Lichtenburg. The British force on the Magaliesberg, commanded first
by Clements, then by Cunningham, and now by Dixon, was ordered to
operate from the north, while a strong column under Ingouville-Williams
was prepared at Klerksdorp. Thus each angle of the disturbed area was
held by troops ready to converge; and within it were Babington's
columns. Delarey was believed to be at Hartebeestfontein; but neither he
nor any other Boers could be found there when the troops entered it on
May 6. The Boer leaders had, as usual, adopted their usual strategy of
spreading false reports, and of dispersing their commandos as soon as
they were hard pressed. On the British side the subsequent operations
were conducted without method. The columns, having effected little, were
recalled to their bases; and the middle of May, 1901, saw Delarey, Kemp,
and J.C. Smuts still at large.
* * * * *
The first offensive action taken by Botha after he came down from
Pietersburg in November, 1900, was against Hildyard's posts in the angle
adjoining Natal. His movements against the garrisons of Vryheid and
other places in December failed, and he returned to the Central
Transvaal in order to co-operate with B. Viljoen in worrying the Delagoa
Bay Railway, on which Lyttelton's[57] force was strung out. Viljoen had
already made a daring and successful raid on Helvetia, from which he
brought away not only prisoners of war but also a heavy gun; although
the town was by no means isolated, being one of a line of posts running
from Belfast and Machadodorp to Lydenburg.
The exploit encouraged Botha to plan a general attack, in co-operation
with Viljoen, on a section of the railway each side of Belfast. It was
made on January 7, 1901. The chief effort was against Belfast, where
Smith-Dorrien was in command of a garrison too weak for effective
resistance. Viljoen advancing from the north met with some preliminary
success, but a fog prevented co-operation between him and Botha and the
attack failed. The attacks on the other posts on the railway were
repelled without much difficulty. The recrudescence of Botha, the
intrusion of Beyers from the west, the hovering presence of Viljoen
north of the Delagoa Bay Railway, and the rumour that an invasion of
Natal was in contemplation to synchronize with raids beyond the Orange
by De Wet, Kritzinger, and Hertzog, determined Lord Kitchener to try to
sweep up and reduce the Eastern Transvaal.
A force of five columns under the command of French was assembled a few
miles east of the Elandsfontein-Pretoria Railway and began its advance
on January 28. The general idea was that it should gradually extend its
front, like the cone of dispersion of a shrapnel shell, between the
diverging Natal and Delagoa Bay Railways, and then sweep eastward
towards the Swaziland and Zululand borders; upon which Botha's
commandos, if not already crushed by an enveloping movement on Ermelo,
would be finally impaled. To assist French when he had traversed about
one-half of the area, three columns were detailed to march southwards
from the Delagoa Bay Railway on Ermelo. One of these columns was,
however, sent away at the last moment under Paget to take part in the
operations against De Wet in the Cape Colony. The combined strength of
the seven columns against Botha was about 20,000 men, the majority of
the combatants being mounted. A break back by Beyers and Kemp, who
rejoined Delarey, was the opening incident of French's advance.
The first objective of French's movement was the town of Ermelo, where
Botha was acting as a sort of rearguard to cover the retreat of the
fugitive burghers, who with their families and their stuff were
endeavouring to escape from the Khakis. His contemplated attack on Natal
was, at least for the time being, impracticable; and he set himself to
the task of inflicting what damage he could on the threatening columns.
He ascertained that Smith-Dorrien's column was approaching Lake Chrissie
on February 5, and that the other column operating from the Delagoa Bay
Railway under W. Campbell, was too far away to give it effectual
support. The gap left by the withdrawal of Paget had not been filled up.
When Smith-Dorrien reached the Lake, Botha had already started to meet
him. Early in the morning of February 6 the British Camp was attacked,
but although the attempt was furthered by a stampede of Smith-Dorrien's
horses, Botha failed. He was compelled to draw off, but with the greater
portion of his burghers wriggled round to the rear of the columns.[58]
Thus when French reached Ermelo he found that he had nothing to strike
at. The Boer commandos had passed away. After a short halt he changed
direction half right, and projected his front on to a cross-veld line
reaching from the Swaziland border to Amersfort; then bringing round his
right he formed up his seven columns on February 18 along the Swaziland
border, with an eastward front of nearly forty miles extending
southwards from Amsterdam. Dartnell was on the right of the line and
Smith-Dorrien on the left.
Most of the fugitive commandos had, however, retired into the S.E.
corner of the Transvaal; a movement which Hildyard, who was in charge of
the district as well as of the whole of Natal, was not strong enough to
check. French was now based on Natal for supplies, and arrangements had
been made that two large convoys should be sent to him by way of
Utrecht. Bad roads, bad weather, and submerged drifts impeded the
progress of the painful trains, the first of which did not reach him
until March 2, ten days after it was due. Meanwhile he subsisted on
dwindled rations and on what he could pick up on the veld.
When, owing to a change in the routes by which he was supplied, French
was able towards the end of March to operate actively, he endeavoured to
isolate the S.E. corner of the Transvaal by disposing his force in two
lines. One line ran from Piet Retief to Vryheid and acted as the driving
force, and the other ran from Piet Retief along the Swaziland border and
acted as the stopping force. Within the angle enclosed by these lines
were commandos under Grobler of Vryheid, Emmett, and other leaders; but
all of them wriggled out with insignificant losses. The line along the
Swaziland border was rendered immobile by difficulties of supply, and
the driving line was exhausted. The closing incident of French's ten
weeks' campaign, the chief harvest of which was the capture, surrender,
wounding, or killing of 1,300 Boers, the seizure of a considerable
amount of ammunition, and the taking of eleven guns, was the return of
Smith-Dorrien to the Delagoa Bay Railway in the middle of April.
Botha's projected invasion of Natal had indeed been frustrated and
postponed, but he and all the other Boer leaders had escaped, unscathed
and undismayed. French's ponderous columns had trudged painfully across
the veld from Springs almost into Zululand, and had left things much as
they were at the beginning of February.
During the early months of the year 1901 Viljoen for the most part
contented himself with frequent attacks on the Delagoa Bay Railway, and
a vigorous effort to restrain his activity was not practicable. In March
Lord Kitchener formulated a plan for the subjugation of the Northern
Transvaal. His plan was to send a column with secrecy and dispatch to
Pietersburg, which would be occupied as a base from which the column
would work southwards along the line of the Olifant's River, in
co-operation with columns acting northwards from the Delagoa Bay
Railway.
The force selected to proceed to Pietersburg was Plumer's Australian
column, which sixteen days after it desisted from the chase of De Wet in
the Orange River Colony was marching northwards out of Pretoria. Plumer
entered Pietersburg on April 8 without opposition, Beyers, who had been
falling back before him from Warmbaths, having evacuated the town.
Plumer halted for a few days in order to secure the railway and to make
arrangements for carrying out his orders to hold the line of the
Olifant's River. Before the end of the month he was in possession of all
the drifts from Commissie Drift downwards, and denied them to Viljoen.
The country in which Viljoen was acting is hilly and intricate, and Lord
Kitchener, by borrowing Sir Bindon Blood from the Indian Government, an
officer of great experience in frontier _guerilla_, paid Viljoen and the
Boer commandos the compliment of crediting them with the military
qualities of the dangerous, predatory, and enterprising hill tribes of
the underfeatures of the Himalayas. To Blood were given six columns
which were to work from Lydenburg and the Delagoa Bay Railway.
Viljoen was near Ros Senekal. He had three lines of retreat, northward
or southward along the Steelpoort River, or down the Blood River.
Blood's columns were disposed with the object of closing these exits.
The Transvaal Government, which for some months had been sojourning in
security at Paardeplatz, fled and joined Botha near Ermelo; but Viljoen
stood fast.
The total force under Blood exceeded 10,000 men. Three columns under
Beatson, Benson, and Pulteney, who had joined from Vryheid where he had
been serving under French's command, advanced northwards from the
Delagoa Bay Railway. On their right front they were supported by three
columns acting from Lydenburg, under Park, W. Douglas, and W. Kitchener.
Douglas was the only leader destined to encounter Viljoen, who on April
10 struck at him near Dullstroom, but was handsomely beaten and
compelled to return to the place from which he came. He was hedged in on
all sides; mutiny and disaffection were rife among his burghers; and he
saw that there was nothing to be done but make his escape as best he
could.
He was headed off by Benson in an attempt to get away up the Steelpoort
Valley, where next day 100 Boers gave themselves up to Blood. He next
tried the Blood River, and passing down the valley crossed the Olifant
on April 22, almost within sight of Beatson, who was watching the
drifts. A few days later he crossed the railway and joined Botha at
Ermelo. Early in May the active operations north of the Delagoa Bay
Railway ceased. As in French's campaign, so also in Blood's, the results
were chiefly negative. A glut of live stock was rounded up, a
considerable amount of ammunition and all the guns known to be in the
district were taken, and 1,100 Boers either surrendered or were made
prisoners. The columns were withdrawn, as troops were in request in the
districts lately driven by French; and Plumer, who had had no
opportunity of engaging actively in the movement, was recalled. He was
succeeded at Pietersburg by Grenfell.
At the end of May Dixon set out westwards from Naauwpoort in the
Magaliesberg district on a raiding expedition. He trekked for three days
and then ran unexpectedly into a Boer column at Vlakfontein. He was
attacked through a veil of smoke from a grass fire which the slim enemy
had lit to windward. In spite of this disadvantage he held his own and
compelled the Boers to retire, but soon, however, found it advisable to
retire himself and returned to Naauwpoort.
The column which had engaged Dixon was under the command of Kemp, whom
the Intelligence had after the Hartebeestfontein operations despatched
in imagination with Delarey to the south, where they were reported to be
concentrating. Kemp, however, had returned to the Zwartruggens. After
the Vlakfontein affair he found columns approaching him from all sides
and dissolved his command. Delarey had gone south, and was now in the
Orange River Colony.
The northward retreat of De Wet through the Orange River Colony in
March, 1901, drew in its trail a host of British columns, which plodded
sturdily across the veld with scanty results. He endeavoured to
systematize _guerilla_ by parcelling out the late Free State into
districts under commandants acting locally: Lord Kitchener retorted by
parcelling it out into a smaller number of districts, each district
being in charge of a general officer armed with columns with which to
worry the local commandants. Many divagations ensued; few profitable
results were attained.
Of these divagations the most conspicuous was a visit paid by Rundle to
the Brandwater Basin, wherein the enemy was reported to be once more
concentrated. There were, in fact, less than 1,000 burghers within the
Basin, but these pressed severely on him when, at the end of May, he
made his exit through the Golden Gate with one prisoner of war.
Exigencies elsewhere compelled Lord Kitchener to allow the Cape Colony,
to a great extent, to take care of itself. Some troops were sent down,
but they were insufficient to control the disaffection which was active
in the midland districts. Kritzinger remained in the Cape Colony;
paying, however, a brief visit to the Orange River Colony in April.
Early in June Delarey, De Wet, and Steyn met at Reitz, for the purpose
of considering a communication lately received from the Transvaal
Government, suggesting that overtures should be made to Lord Kitchener.
To this Steyn had already returned an unfavourable answer; but he
distrusted the wavering and wandering Transvaal Government, and he was
desirous of obtaining the support of Delarey, whom he knew to be the
most stalwart and implacable of the Transvaal leaders. It was arranged
that Steyn, Delarey, and De Wet should go north and meet Botha at
Ermelo.
Meanwhile Elliott, who was in charge of one of the districts parcelled
out by Lord Kitchener in the Orange River Colony, was engaged in a drive
from Vrede to Kroonstad. On June 6 he sent on a weak column under Sladen
to capture a Boer convoy near Reitz. It was taken without trouble, but
the news soon reached the triumvirate in camp not far off and they
determined to make an effort to recapture it. A small commando was
quickly mustered and Delarey and De Wet attacked Sladen, who after
several hours' hard fighting was relieved by another column from
Elliott's force. The prize was retained, but Delarey and De Wet got
away. They waited until Elliott had passed by, and then made for the
north with Steyn, crossing into the Transvaal near Standerton.
Meanwhile the Transvaal Government which they had gone to meet had been
again sent on its journeyings. The effects of French's drive had soon
passed away, and Lord Kitchener found it necessary to resume active
operations in the Eastern Transvaal, the chief object of which was the
capture of the Transvaal Government. It was hustled out of the Ermelo
district and pushed down towards Piet Retief, from which it returned to
Ermelo in the middle of June. Its drooping spirits were revived by an
affair at Wilmansrust, where a wandering Australian column was
overwhelmed by a commando under Muller which was lurking in the
district. On June 20 Steyn, Delarey, and De Wet met the Transvaal
Government in a Council of War near Standerton.
The allies at once determined to continue the war. Lord Kitchener had
permitted a communication to be sent to ex-President Kruger asking his
advice. Kruger's reply, as might have been anticipated, was in favour of
continuing the war. In his comfortable sanctuary in Holland he had
nothing to lose by urging those whom he had left behind to carry on the
struggle. In view of the tentacles with which Great Britain was grasping
South Africa and of the general situation, the decision of the Council
of War was a morally courageous act. There was in it, moreover, a
special as well as a general idea. Particular attention was to be given
to the cultivation of the numerous germs of mischief in the Cape Colony,
and this part of the plan was entrusted to the brilliant young lawyer,
J.C. Smuts, who returned with Delarey to the Western Transvaal.
An almost complete reconstruction of the Free State Government was
rendered necessary by an episode which occurred soon after Steyn's
return to his own country. When he and his colleagues crossed the Vaal
they found Elliott again engaged on a drive. On the night of July 10
they were surprised at Reitz by Broadwood, who had joined Elliott's
command, and all except Steyn were captured. De Wet was away, otherwise
it is improbable that a man of such infinity of resource and strength of
will would have allowed his friends to be taken tamely in their
slumbers.
* * * * *
The task set to Smuts was, to all appearance, impossible of fulfilment.
Not only had he to collect a sufficient force in the Gatsrand under the
eyes of British columns, but he had also to conduct it through the whole
length of the Orange River Colony, and run the gauntlet of Elliott, C.
Knox, Rundle, and Bruce Hamilton. By the middle of July he had recruited
340 burghers, who travelled south in four parties with British columns
at their heels and mustered near Hoopstad on August 1.
Here they entered the precincts of the area into which Lord Kitchener
was endeavouring in one grand drive to sweep the Boer remnants of the
S.W. Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. Elliott was wheeling round
from Reitz through Vredefort and Klerksdorp and advancing on the line of
the Modder River, behind which stood Bruce Hamilton.[59] A considerable
amount of transport and live stock was taken; also 500 Boers, among whom
Smuts and his commando were not.
He had succeeded on August 3 in wriggling by night through Elliott's
driving line and was now in rear of it. He now divided his force into
two commandos, one of which, under Van der Venter, made for the south by
way of Brandfort. With the other he boldly trailed behind Elliott and
followed him to the Bloemfontein-Jacobsdal line of Constabulary posts,
through which he passed without injury. He then found himself entangled
in Bruce Hamilton's columns, and although he succeeded in reaching
Springfontein, he was soon forced to retreat nearly seventy miles in the
direction of Bloemfontein. Nothing daunted, he made another dash for the
south, and having evaded two pursuing columns entered Zastron on August
27, where he found Van der Venter waiting for him. His daring and
adventurous ride ranks as one of the most notable personal exploits of
the war. He had not only cut Elliott's line from front to rear, but had
afterwards enfranchised himself amid the swarm of Bruce Hamilton's
columns. The lawyer Smuts was the De Wet of the Transvaal.
Kritzinger after fifteen weeks' activity in the Cape Colony had returned
to Zastron a few days before Smuts' arrival. His incursion into the
Colony in May occurred at an opportune moment, for the local rebels were
being severely worried. He made at first for the Zuurberg, but being
soon expelled from it and from the adjacent mountainous district north
of Sterkstroom, circled back to the Orange and snapped up Jamestown. He
now flung his grenades on all sides. One rebel leader reached the
Transkei districts; others prowled between Graaff Reinet and the
Capetown Railway. Kritzinger himself captured a small British detachment
near Maraisburg.
As in February when Lyttelton was brought down, so again in July the
situation in the Cape Colony was sufficiently serious to call for
outside assistance. French was sent down from the Transvaal; Lord
Kitchener himself came to Middelburg. The measures concerted between
them, a series of northward drives by the operation of which the rebels
would be plastered against the railways, which were rapidly blockhoused
for the purpose, met with indifferent success. The disaffected midland
districts were swept, but the leaders escaped. Kritzinger crossed the
Orange in August, and at Zastron awaited the arrival of J.C. Smuts with
new schemes for mischief.
The presence of these leaders attracted columns from several quarters
and they were betimes theoretically surrounded. Kritzinger, however,
refused to consider himself surrounded and even worked freely in
co-operation with Brand: nor had J.C. Smuts any intention of resigning
his commission. He crossed the Orange on September 3. A fortnight later,
Kritzinger and Brand parted company. Kritzinger marched on the Orange,
and near a drift of that river pounced upon and overwhelmed a weak
detail of the force under Hart, who was acting as warden of the Cape
Colony marches. Brand made for the Bloemfontein-Thabanchu line of posts,
which was the sport of every Boer leader who chose to hack at it, and
which recently had scarcely impeded the progress of Van der Venter to
the south for an hour. On September 19, near Sannah's Post, he ambushed
and destroyed a party of mounted infantry engaged in raiding a farm. Two
guns and nearly 100 prisoners of war were taken by Brand.
Smuts' arrival in the Cape Colony, like Kritzinger's four months before,
stimulated a waning cause. Lotter, who had escaped French's drives, had
just been taken; the other rebel leaders were isolated and comparatively
innocuous. Fresh hopes were kindled, activities were renewed, when it
was noised among the rebel bands that Smuts the Transvaaler had swooped
down like an eagle from the north.
These hopes were not delusive. Smuts made for the south, pursued by some
of French's columns. Near Tarkastad on September 17 he ambushed and
overwhelmed a detachment of regular cavalry and won a footing in the
midlands, where rebellion again raised its head from the ground.
Smuts noticed and encouraged the promising movement and returned to the
Zuurberg, out of which, however, he was soon hustled. He went away to
join a rebel leader named Scheepers, who had been working freely 200
miles away to the S.W. in the districts bordering the sea. Scheepers,
however, was taken prisoner near Prince Albert Road Station on the
Capetown Railway before Smuts reached him; but Smuts continued his
movement. Smuts had entrusted the inflammatory work in the midlands to
local leaders before he left the district, and now set himself to
trespass beyond the furthest point reached by Scheepers, and to make a
bold entry into the extreme S.W. corner of the Cape Colony. Early in
November he penetrated into the Ceres district, where he was less than
100 miles in a direct line from Capetown. He had brilliantly performed
the task set to him by Botha and Steyn at Standerton in June. He had
been in contact with and had evaded the majority of the units of Lord
Kitchener's widely disseminated army at one time or another during his
ride of 1,100 miles, and in fourteen weeks had passed from the Gatsrand
in the Transvaal to within a few days' march of Capetown.
Meanwhile Lord Kitchener was doing his best to deal with the accruing
winter discontent. He had a plan of his own; and he was also furnished
with a plan that had been drawn up by the civilian authorities in
Downing Street and South Africa, who thought that the walls of Jericho
would fall to the sound of a Proclamation. In August, 1901, a legal
document was served on the Boers, much in the same way that a writ is
served upon a debtor. In it they were declared to be helpless and
incapable of carrying on the struggle, and their leaders were threatened
with perpetual banishment. It had little effect on the enemy, except to
brace him up for further efforts; and Lord Kitchener, it is believed,
had no faith in it.
Lord Kitchener's plan was the extension across the veld of the system of
blockhouse lines which at first ran only along the railways, and the
formation of pens or enclaves into which the attenuated roving bands of
Boers were to be herded and dealt with severally and severely. The work
of extension was taken in hand in July, 1901. The Boers in the veld
watched it with the detachment and unconcern of a wild bird on the
branches looking down upon the fowler laying his snares in the field
below.
Another drive by Elliott during August and September, this time through
the eastern districts of the Orange River Colony, affected little.
Kritzinger remained in his corner between the Orange and the Caledon and
could not be extracted from it; De Wet was still at large. In the
Transvaal the leaders were marking time. Viljoen after the Standerton
conference withdrew beyond the Delagoa Bay Railway, but was soon driven
out of the mountains. He lost heart, handed over his command to Muller,
and went down to the low veld adjoining the Pietersburg Railway.
In the Western Transvaal Delarey and Kemp were alert. Kemp in the
Zwartruggens foiled an attempt to cast a net around him, and in
conjunction with Delarey attacked Methuen on the Marico River without
success on September 5. A pale of blockhouses denied them access to the
"protected area."[60] Muller effected a trifling success in the middle
north. Beyers in the Pietersburg district was unable to prevent Grenfell
reaching a point but sixty miles from the Limpopo and there making
prisoners of a local commando.
No organized attempt was made to disturb Botha in the Ermelo district. A
column under Benson did indeed set out from the Delagoa Bay Railway in
August, but it was recalled by the alarm of a Boer raid on the line at
Bronkhorst Spruit. Benson subsequently did useful raiding work in the
Carolina district, but was not strong enough to tackle Botha.
* * * * *
Botha had never abandoned the scheme of an invasion of Natal which was
drawn up at the end of 1900. His first attempt to carry it out was
frustrated by French, but it was uppermost in his mind during the winter
of 1901. Early in September he left the Ermelo district, in which Lord
Kitchener had never been able to operate effectively, and made for Piet
Retief with 1,000 men. Columns, faint yet pursuing, started from each
railway, and ignorant of his movements trudged wearily across the veld
to the S.E. Botha, after passing through the defile between the
Swaziland border and the Slangapiesberg, turned to the south, his
ultimate objective being Dundee. In the corner abutting on Zululand were
commandos under Emmett and Grobler of Vryheid.
Lyttelton on his return from leave took over the Natal command from
Hildyard. He disposed his columns as best he could, having regard to the
contradictory reports which reached him of Botha's movements and
intentions. The first encounter occurred on September 17 at Blood River
Poort. A mounted column under Gough and Stewart had been sent out from
Dundee across the Buffalo to bring away a convoy from Vryheid. Gough
soon came into touch with a body of the enemy. It was, he thought, only
a local commando, and when he saw it off-saddle he left Stewart in
support and went out to surprise it. The nature of the ground prevented
a complete surprise, but he partially effected it, only to be surprised
himself by the sudden charge of Botha's main body, which was supposed to
be a day's march distant. After a brief combat, in which Stewart was
unable to intervene, Gough lost the whole of his command of nearly 300
men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, as well as three guns. Stewart
escaped to the Buffalo.
The crick-crack of Botha's Mausers at Blood River Poort echoed
throughout South Africa. Troops from all quarters were hurried to the
spot; search parties discovered some columns under W. Kitchener which
had lost themselves on the high veld; and so rarified was the military
atmosphere, that not only columns but even general officers were scarce.
Bruce Hamilton and Clements were brought in.
Botha seems to have regarded his success as unreal. He hesitated to
follow it up, and soon the Buffalo in flood effectually barred the way
to Dundee. He now proposed to enter Natal through Zululand, below the
junction of the Tugela and the Buffalo. On the point of the angle which,
at that time, the Transvaal thrust into Zululand were two British posts,
Forts Prospect and Itala. Botha was beginning to be doubtful about the
eventual success of his Natal raid, but thought that as he was on the
spot he might as well be doing something. He therefore ordered these
posts to be taken, entrusting to his brother C. Botha the attack on
Itala, and to Emmett and Grobler the attack on Prospect. The failure of
each attack with considerable loss on September 26 made Botha reconsider
his position. There was no more thought of another campaign on the
Tugela, and he determined to retire.
Lyttelton's dispositions continued for some days to be directed against
the Natal raid upon which Botha was supposed to be still engaged, and
the discovery that he had abandoned it was not made until October 1. His
capture did not seem to be a very difficult task, as his only way of
escape was the Piet Retief defile by which he had entered the district
three weeks before.
There was, however, an intermediate barrier, the irregular Pondwana
range lying eastward of Vryheid, where he might be arrested. Lyttelton's
plan was that Clements and B. Hamilton should press towards this barrier
from the S.W., while W. Kitchener acted as a stop on the north side of
it. The range is pierced by several neks, at one of which, lying between
the main heights and the Inyati spur, Botha was checked by Kitchener on
October 2. He then made a cast eastward to another nek and by abandoning
his transport succeeded three nights later in getting round Kitchener's
left. He easily kept Kitchener off in a rearguard action and made for
Piet Retief. Neither Clements nor B. Hamilton was ever in the running,
and Kitchener was hampered by the necessity of watching several neks
along a front of twenty miles.
There was, however, one more barrier for Botha to cross or to turn, the
Slangapiesberg between Wakkerstroom and Piet Retief; but it scarcely
delayed him for an hour. Except one column, which was covering the
building of a blockhouse line and which he evaded without difficulty,
there was nothing to oppose him. When a column under Plumer came upon
the scene he had passed away on October 11 through Piet Retief towards
Ermelo. His movements had bewildered his opponents, who intent on
frustrating a raid on Natal, had omitted to bar and bolt the door by
which he had entered. His capture would, in all probability, have ended
the war.
When Botha left for the south he instructed B. Viljoen to carry on for
him; but when he joined the itinerant Transvaal Government at Amsterdam
he was disappointed to find that little or nothing had been done in his
absence, thanks chiefly to the mobile energy of Benson, who hovered like
a hawk over the terrorized laagers. Moreover, the pale of Constabulary
posts which formed the eastward section of the great ring fence
enclosing the "protected area" had been advanced. It now ran from
Greylingstad to Wilge River Station on the Delagoa Bay Railway, and
encroached upon the area in which Botha could act with reasonable hope
of success.
The return of Botha, however, infused some spirit into the hustled
commandos of the high veld, and he gladly accepted a suggestion that
Benson should be attacked. The Ermelo and Carolina men who had
accompanied him to Natal returned to find that their districts had been
roughly handled by Benson and were eager for reprisals. On October 25
Botha narrowly escaped capture by two columns which had been sent after
him from Standerton.
Benson left Middelburg, the base to which he returned from time to time,
on October 20, with a column 1,600 strong, to renew his operations on
the high veld. When he reached the Bethal district he noticed ominous
signs of the revived spirit. He was hampered with a considerable
transport, his supplies were dwindling, and he did not think himself
justified in risking an encounter. He therefore decided to return to the
Delagoa Bay Railway. H. Grobler of Bethal, who had suggested to Botha
the attack on Benson, was in the vicinity with 700 burghers, and Botha
himself was again in the field.
Benson began to retire before sunrise on October 30. Bad weather and
Grobler pressing in rear worried the forenoon march, and ere the midday
halt had been called Botha came up with 500 men after a forced march.
While the convoy was being parked at Bakenlaagte, the pressure on the
rearguard increased, and it was forced back to a ridge about two miles
S.E. of the park. Benson came up and ordered a second retirement of the
rearguard to a position, to which the name of Gun Hill has been given,
nearer the park, and posted two field guns on the hill.
Botha soon occupied the ridge, and then charged Gun Hill with his main
body under Grobler, at the same time sending parties to attack the
flanking posts. Two detachments of British infantry stranded between the
ridge and the hill were overwhelmed by the charge. Most of the mounted
sections got away to the hill, hotly pursued by the Boers, who leaving
their horses at the foot, at once began to climb the slope. They
clutched each shoulder of the hill, swarmed up the front, and soon
silenced the guns. An attempt to bring up the teams from the reverse
slope failed.
In less than half an hour Grobler had won Gun Hill with a loss of 100
men. Benson was mortally wounded. The flanking posts were too much
engaged in defending themselves to be able to assist the defenders of
Gun Hill. An attempt to intervene made by a few companies on the march
to the camp where the convoy was parked was unsuccessful. The Boers, as
usual, were satisfied with a casual tactical success, and made no effort
to follow it up strategically. They were soon driven off Gun Hill by
shell fire from the camp, but after nightfall returned to bring away the
guns. In the British casualties were 120 prisoners of war.
Wools-Sampson, who succeeded Benson in command, maintained himself for
two days, and was then relieved by columns from the south. He returned
to the Delagoa Bay Railway.
* * * * *
The exigences of the military situation called for the withdrawal of
most of the troops operating against Kemp and Delarey in the Western
Transvaal; and by the middle of September, 1901, these leaders had
practically but one column to evade, namely the force formerly commanded
by Dixon and now by Kekewich. He left Naauwpoort on September 13, and
after some preliminary work on the Magaliesberg passed through Magato
Nek, and with a force of less than 1,000 men advanced into the
Zwartruggens, a wild, difficult, and confusing district admirably
adapted to Boer _guerilla_.
On September 29 Kekewich took up a position at Moedvil near the right
bank of the Selous River. He was compelled to place all his westward
outposts, except one double picket, on the right bank, as the veld on
the left bank was bushy and rose gradually from the river and would have
absorbed more men than he could spare for outpost duty.
Delarey was accurately informed of Kekewich's movements, and it is said
had actually reconnoitred the camp unobserved a few hours after
Kekewich's arrival. He quickly formulated his plan of attack, in which
he seems to have followed, on a smaller scale, the familiar tactics of
the British leaders whom he had met in battle, notably at Diamond Hill,
but with a certain innovation of his own.
He divided his force into four columns, two of which were told off to
grapple Kekewich's flanks and command his line of retreat, and two to
make a frontal but not merely holding attack on his centre. Early in the
morning of September 30 Delarey put his columns in motion. He started
with certain points in his favour. All Kekewich's outposts save one were
on the right bank and in the vicinity of the camp, and in fact Delarey
took him by surprise. The movements of the Boer columns were, however,
not well co-ordinated. The flanking columns were not in position when
the centre columns, which do not seem to have been challenged by the
post on the left bank, reached the river and concealed themselves in the
deep bed. This might not have marred the success of Delarey's plan if
the columns in the river-bed had not been discovered by a patrol which
gave the alarm and brought them prematurely into action.
The situation now resolved itself into an attempt to storm the position.
The centre columns sprang out of the river while it was still dark,
mounted the steep bank and opened fire up the slope on to the camp on
the skyline above. A stampede of the horses ensued, but a resolute front
was quickly formed and the attack was checked. An alarm that the enemy
was threatening the rear of the camp was proved to be unfounded by a
scratch gathering of details which was hastily mustered; it then wheeled
round, and picking up reinforcements on the way charged the Boer left at
the river. The charge was irresistible, and the sun had hardly risen
when Delarey's whole line fell away.
No limit can be assigned to the British soldier's power of resistance
when he finds himself in a tight place, but it would probably have gone
hard with him if Delarey's tactical scheme had been accurately carried
out, and if the flanking columns, one of which was under the command of
Kemp, had been further in advance when the centre columns were
discovered. A panic among the horses which threw the camp into
confusion, supervening on an unexpected attack while the dawn had
scarcely shown above the Magaliesberg, was soon followed by a cry that
the position had been turned. Yet at that critical moment of the dark
hours, when animal courage is supposed to be at its lowest ebb,
Kekewich's men never wavered, and although they were only called upon to
deal with a blundered manoeuvre, yet it exacted from them a toll in
casualties of nearly one fourth of their strength. Kekewich was wounded,
and the loss of horses and transport pinned him to the ground until he
was relieved by a column from the south, which had marched to the sound
of the battle.
A few days later Kekewich went to Rustenburg, out of which he again
sallied forth on October 13 into the Zwartruggens in search of Delarey.
Methuen had already left Mafeking on the same errand. On October 24
Delarey fell in with one of Methuen's columns on its way to Zeerust. The
column, which was impeded by wagons slowly progressing along a bad road
in a defile, was pounced upon unexpectedly and hewn in twain; but if, as
usual, the scouting was poor the defence was excellent. After a struggle
which lasted two hours Delarey was driven off, the severed portions of
the column were re-united, and not one of the seven guns was lost.
* * * * *
By the end of 1901 all the precedents of European warfare had been
discredited. Tactics and strategy, as practised by the experts, had done
their best, and were now in bankruptcy. The war had drifted into its
final mechanical phase: the coercion of brute force by brute force of
higher potential. It was now mainly a question of putting as many men as
possible on horseback to ride down the enemy. Field guns not being
needed, the Royal Artillery was formed into a corps of Mounted Rifles.
Ian Hamilton, who had gone home with Lord Roberts, returned to South
Africa a year later as Chief of the Staff to Lord Kitchener.
Notes:
[Footnote 55: These posts, however, were small entrenched forts at
considerable distances apart for the protection of the road to
Basutoland, rather than blockhouses.]
[Footnote 56: See p. 326.]
[Footnote 57: Lyttelton went to the Cape Colony in February, 1901, to
direct the operations against De Wet, and was subsequently sent into the
Orange River Colony. After a few months' leave he returned to South
Africa in September and took over Hildyard's command in Natal.]
[Footnote 58: He was next heard of at the abortive peace conference held
at Middelburg, where he met Lord Kitchener at the end of February.]
[Footnote 59: Bruce Hamilton succeeded Lyttelton in the Orange River
Colony when the latter went home on leave.]
[Footnote 60: The "protected area" was a district round Pretoria and
Johannesburg which was enclosed by a ring of blockhouses and
Constabulary posts in August, 1901.]