End of three weary months at Elandslaagte -- A small Boer attack
-- The Advance of General Buller by Helpmakaar on Dundee -- We
under General Hildyard advance up the Glencoe Valley -- Retreat
of the Boers to Laing's Nek -- Occupation of Newcastle and
Utrecht -- We enter the Transvaal -- Concentration of the army
near Ingogo -- Naval guns ascend Van Wyk, and Botha's Pass is
forced -- Forced march through Orange Colony -- Victory at
Almond's Nek -- Boers evacuate Majuba and Laing's Nek -- Lord
Roberts enters Pretoria -- We occupy Volksrust and Charlestown.
_Monday, 7th May._--Still at Elandslaagte. Rumours of a possible
attack made us stand to guns before daylight, and it was well we did
so, as at 5.45 a.m. a party of Boers tried to rush the station and
were repulsed with slight loss on both sides; they managed to clear
off in the dim light. The attacking commando became afterwards known
as the "Ice Cream Brigade," being largely composed of Italians and
Scandinavians.
_Thursday, 10th May._--Rumours of a move. Poor Captain Jones is laid
up with jaundice, and indeed all in camp are a little off colour. Nice
letters to-day from my father and Admiral Douglas. The Middlesex and
Halsey's guns are shifted over to Krogman's farm. Self busy putting to
rights some of our wagon wheels which had shrunk from the tyres owing
to the great heat and drought.
_Friday, 11th May._--A great move this morning. The Dorsets trekked at
daylight to hold Indudo Mountain and Indumeni on our right. General
Clery's Division marched with Dundonald's Cavalry up Waschbank Valley,
and the 5" have been shifted to cover this advance. We were much
amused to-day in reading the first edition of the _Ladysmith Lyre_
(Liar), which perhaps I may be forgiven for quoting, with songs sung
by the garrison:--A duet by Sir George White and General Clery, "O
that we two were maying"; by Buller's Relief Force, "Over the hills
and far away"; by the Intelligence Officer, "I ain't a-going to tell";
by Captain Lambton, "Up I came with my little lot"; then a letter from
Ladysmith to Paradise Alley, Whitechapel:
"DEAR MARIA,
"This 'ere seige is something orful. We sits and sits and sits
and does nothing. Rations is short, taters is off, and butter is
gone. We only gets Dubbin. These blooming shells are a fair
snorter; they 'um something 'orrid. 'Opin' this finds you as it
leaves me,
"Your affectionate,
"MARTHA."
Among other amusing items was, "Mrs. K. says her dear Oom is getting
too English: he no longer turns into bed in his clothes and boots."
_Sunday, 13th May._--We got our marching orders at last about 11 a.m.,
and I was just in the act of mounting my horse in good spirits to ride
off and see my guns brought down over Elandslaagte Kop, when something
startled him and he bolted over the rocks near the camp; having only
one foot in the stirrup I overbalanced and came heavily on my head and
left shoulder and was knocked silly for twenty minutes with a gash
over my eye to the bone. I was carried to my tent and kindly stitched
up by Dr. Campbell of the Imperial Light Infantry, and being much
shaken I was obliged to hand over command of my guns to poor Steel
who was only just recovering from jaundice and had to trek off at 3
p.m. to Sunday's River Drift. By keeping very quiet in the 4.7 camp in
Hunt's tent I got over my fall better than I expected, and was able to
move on, with a bandaged head and a sore body, with the 4.7 Battery
when they marched at daybreak on the 17th to Waschbank Bridge which we
reached at about 11 p.m. after a very hot and dusty march--all done up
and cross, and self in addition bandaged up and feeling altogether
unlovely after a slow and horribly dusty ride of eighteen miles. The
position of affairs now seems to be this: General Buller with Clery's
Division (the 2nd) and the Cavalry have occupied Beith and moved on
Dundee from which the Boers fled on the 14th with 4,000 men and
eighteen guns. Thus, Buller is in Dundee; Lyttelton's Division (the
4th) is still near Ladysmith under orders to advance; and we (the 5th)
are to move to Glencoe with all speed up Glencoe Pass and along the
railway line route.
_Friday, 18th May._--At 7 a.m. we trekked under General Hildyard and
had a very trying march with dust, dust, dust, sometimes a foot thick,
till arriving half-way to Glencoe we outspanned oxen. We found all the
railway bridges and the culverts of the line, some twenty-eight all
told, blown up along our line of march. The Boer positions we passed
on the road were extraordinarily strong, as usual; and one can well
understand why they held on to this place and the Biggarsberg ranges
on each side, a position ten times stronger than any Colenso. We
reached Glencoe about 5 p.m., and marching through it bivouacked for
the night a mile beyond the town on the level uplands. Here we
received orders to advance with all speed to Newcastle, where the
Commander-in-Chief is with the 2nd Division; so on we moved by
moonlight in a cloud of dust and passed the night on an awful rocky
place at Hatton's Spruit, trekking on in the morning towards
Newcastle; but when five miles on our march we received orders to move
back to Glencoe as the line had broken down and there were no supplies
for us at Newcastle. All disappointed, but back we had to go! The
weather is bitterly cold, and although we have our tents, we are, no
doubt for good reasons, not allowed to pitch them.
_Sunday, 20th May._--Took over my guns from Steel feeling rather low
with a plastered cut on my face. General Hildyard has congratulated us
all on the hard work and marching of the last few days. Both he and
his Staff have always a kind word for everyone, and I was greatly
pleased when they and Prince Christian, on seeing me with my faithful
guns once more, told me how glad they were that I had got so well over
my fall.
_Tuesday, 22nd May._--Busy getting my wagon wheels and guns right
after their trek over the bad road, and obliged to send them into
Dundee to be cut and re-tyred. I rode with Steel and Hunt to Dundee
which is five miles off; it is a small and miserable place with
tin-roofed houses, bare dusty surroundings, and awful streets. We saw
poor General Penn Symons' grave with the Union Jack flying over it,
and other graves marked by faded wreaths and wooden crosses. We had a
talk with the Chaplain who said that the Boers had passed through on
Sunday in full flight with all their guns. We rode back from this
desolate scene, amid the dust of ages and smell of dead animals,
wondering how poor General Symons ever allowed the Boers to occupy
Talana Hill which is only half a mile from the town and completely
commands it; in fact, there should never have been a Talana, and our
troops did splendidly to retake it.
_Wednesday, 23rd May._--Sudden orders to move off at 2 p.m., so all is
rush and hurry. I rode once more at the head of my guns, and all went
well with us except that one of the poor oxen broke a hind leg in the
trek chains down a steep bit of road and had to be left behind and
shot. For four hours after this our long line of march was stuck in a
drift, but at last, at 11 p.m., we got over it and at 1 a.m.
bivouacked at Dannhauser.
_Thursday, 24th May._--The Queen's birthday. God bless her. Up at
daylight, very cold, and no tents. Poor Captain Jones still very sick
with jaundice. Steel also, following my example, got a bad fall on the
rocks from his horse and is in Field Hospital. At noon we all paraded
in line with the Naval Brigade on the right; General Talbot Coke made
a speech and we gave Her Majesty three cheers from our hearts and
drank her health in the evening.
_Friday, 25th May._--Orders came to get our guns in position to defend
the camp, so off I had to go to do this on one flank and Halsey on the
other; and we lay out all day ready for an attack, with the cattle
grazing just in front of us. To our right about fifty miles off is
Majuba Hill.
_Saturday, 26th May._--We left Dannhauser at daybreak--oh, how
cold--marched with the 10th Brigade, and trekked on to Ingagane,
meeting on the road Lyttelton's Division (the 4th), which was hurrying
to the front. We reached Ingagane at 5 p.m., and met General Buller
and Staff just as we were going into camp for the night. The General
looked well; and the sight of him, somehow, always cheers one up, as
one feels something is going to be done at once.
_Sunday, 27th May._--Up at daybreak and awfully cold. We marched off
to Newcastle, the fine Lancashire Fusiliers, my father's old
regiment, doing rearguard just behind our guns. Met Archie Shee of the
19th Hussars who recognised me from old _Britannia_ days, where he and
I were together. He told me that my cousin Ernest St. Quintin of the
19th had gone home with enteric after the Ladysmith siege. On getting
to the top of the hills overlooking Newcastle we were much struck with
the view and the prettiness of the town which the Boers had hardly
wrecked at all--quite the best I have seen in Natal from a distance.
We went gaily down the hill and over a footbridge into camp where we
found all three Divisions together, barring a Brigade pushed on with
some 5" and 12-pounders to Ingogo. We hear that Lord Roberts is across
the Vaal, and that Hunter is pushing up through the Orange Free State
parallel with us, while the enemy are holding Majuba, Laing's Nek and
tunnel, and Pougwana Hill to the east of the Nek, with 10,000 men.
_Monday, 28th May._--Moved off with the 5th Division under General
Hildyard towards Utrecht. After an eight-mile march we crossed the
bridge over Buffalo River and Drift unopposed by Boers, and entered
the Transvaal at last. We were the first of the Natal force to do so,
so I record it proudly. At 9 p.m.--a very cold night--orders came for
an advance on Utrecht, my guns and some Infantry under Major Lousada
being left to hold the bridge and drift here. I visited all the
salient points of defence and outposts from Buffalo River to
Wakkerstroom Road and carefully selected my gun positions, then
brought the guns, each with an ammunition wagon, up the ridge, a steep
pull up, and placed them one commanding the Utrecht Road and one
Wakkerstroom Road--unluckily one mile apart, which could not be
helped. I put my chief petty officer, Munro, in command of the left
gun and took the right one myself, riding between the two to give
general directions when necessary. At night as no Boers appeared we
withdrew the guns and wagons behind the ridge.
_Wednesday, 30th May._--Drew the guns out of laager at sunrise and
again got into position and arranged details of defence with Major
Lousada so far as my own work was concerned. All was quiet however
to-day, and we saw no Boers nearer than Pougwana. And so it went on
for the next few days, during which the Landrost of Utrecht, after
twenty-four hours' armistice, delivered up the town to General
Hildyard, saying that he had done the same in 1881 to a British force
which had never occupied it after all. So history repeats itself.
_Saturday, 2nd June._--Marched along the right bank of Buffalo River
towards Ingogo, while Lyttelton's Brigade moved on our right on the
other side of the river towards Laing's Nek. After a pleasant trek
across the open veldt, and therefore no dust, we reached De Wet's farm
near Ingogo in the evening and bivouacked; a grand day marching right
under Majuba and Prospect and yet no sign of the enemy. Had a short
talk with General Hildyard and Prince Christian on the march, as they
rode by my battery, reminding the latter that I had first seen him
when I was in the Royal yacht in 1894 and took his father and himself
about in her steam launch at Cowes--a very different scene to this.
The Prince said he knew all along he had seen me before somewhere.
_Tuesday, 5th June._--Rode to Ingogo and saw the spot where the fight
took place in 1881, the huge rocks from which our fellows were
eventually cut up by Boer rifle fire, the monument set up to the 3rd
Bn. Royal Rifles, and some graves higher up of which one was to a
Captain of the R.E. Poor, unlucky, but gallant Sir George Colley; he
went from Ingogo to Majuba and there met his untimely death. The view
from here of Laing's Nek was glorious at sunset, Majuba frowning on
one side with Mount Prospect and Pougwana on the other, and the bed of
the Ingogo River below in a green and fertile valley. The Boer
position is very strong although our heavy Artillery ought to be able
to force it.
_Wednesday, 6th June._--All on the move, as the armistice which
General Buller was trying to arrange with Chris Botha is up, the
latter replying: "Our heavy guns and Mausers are our own and will be
moved at our convenience; the armistice is over." We hear that Lord
Roberts is in Pretoria and that Kruger has fled; but how
unsatisfactory that this does not end the war. In fact, marching to
Pretoria was the feature and romance of the war, and now must commence
anxious and weary guerilla tactics which may last a long time. About
dark in came orders to the Naval guns to move on and occupy Van Wyk
to-night: and off we went through large grass fires and along awful
roads, getting to the foot of the hill at about 1 a.m. with no worse
mishap than the upset of one of my guns twice on huge rocks hidden in
the long grass.
Captain Jones ordered me to go on up the hill during the night,
leaving the 4.7 guns at the bottom; so we commenced a weary climb up
Van Wyk (6,000 feet) on a pitch-dark night lighted only by the lurid
gleams of grass fires which the enemy had set going on the slopes of
the mountain. With thirty-two oxen on each gun it was only just
possible to ascend the lower slopes, and thus we made very slow
progress. But as Colonel Sim R.E. kindly showed me a sort of track up,
on we toiled for six hours, my men not having had a scrap of food or a
rest since starting while the night was deadly cold and dark. In the
gray dawn, just as we were attempting the last slope which was almost
precipitous, the wheels of one of the guns gave out and there we had
to leave it till daylight, pressing on with the sound one and getting
it up to the top exactly at daylight (7th June) in accordance with our
orders, taking the gun and limber up separately, with all my oxen and
100 men pulling. We found the position was held by the 10th Brigade,
and very heavy sniping going on down the N.W. slopes--a regular
crackle of musketry.
I soon got my gun along the crest into an emplacement prepared by the
Royal Engineers, and opened fire at once at 7,000 yards at a Boer camp
on the slopes of an opposite kop; but finding the camp practically
deserted we did not waste much fire on it. My men were now half dead
with fatigue and cold, so we all got a short rest in a freezing wind.
Sir Redvers Buller, quite blue with cold, rode up about 9 a.m. with
his Colonial guide, and carefully surveyed the position through my
long telescope. Prince Christian also came up later to talk over the
Boer position and seemed in great spirits. After a good look round we
could not see many signs of the enemy in front, and he was just going
off to report this, but at that moment the spurs of the berg opposite
to us became alive with them at 6,000 or 7,000 yards off; they came in
a long line out of a dip and donga and advanced in skirmishing order
with ambulances in rear and a wagon with what looked like a gun on it.
I opened fire at once and put my first two shells at 6,000 yards right
into some groups of horsemen; we saw them tumbling about, so after
about a dozen shots from my gun off they went like greased lightning,
seeming to sink into the earth and evidently quite taken aback to find
we had a gun in such a position. In a few minutes not a sign of them
was left, and the Commander-in-Chief riding up appeared much pleased
and congratulated us on our straight shooting; he seemed very
satisfied that we had got the guns up Van Wyk at all, and rode off
leaving us quite rewarded with his appreciation, besides that of
General Hildyard and his Staff who were with him.
Up to about noon we had nothing but long range sniping going on, but
to make all sure the 4.7 guns were sent up the hill by an easier and
more circuitous road than we had come, and took up position in
emplacements close to us. We on our part were busy all day completing
our ammunition up to 100 rounds a gun from the wagons which we had
been obliged to leave in the night half-way down the hill. Horribly
cold! I slept in the open under a limber.
_Friday, 8th June._--An attack on Botha's Pass arranged for 10 a.m.
The 10th Brigade and Naval guns are to hold Van Wyk and cover the
advance, with a range of 8,000 yards from the pass itself, and about
three miles of valley and road between to search with our fire; the
11th Brigade is to attack in the centre, advancing along the valley to
the foot of the pass; the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division to attack on
the right, in echelon, and clear the slopes and spurs of the berg on
our right flank; we ourselves to form the left of the line.
Our first objective was a conical high kop, called Spitz Kop, about
3,000 yards on our right and this was occupied without resistance by
the South African Light Horse; our guns searched all the valleys and
dongas up to the pass with a furious fire for some two hours assisted
by May's batteries below us. We could hear General Clery pounding
Laing's Nek with the two 4.7 guns on Prospect Hill and four 5" guns on
our right, although Majuba and Pougwana were shut out by Mount Inkwelo
from our actual view; and we knew that General Lyttelton had been
detached to operate to the N.E. of Wakkerstroom. The attack developed
about noon and we saw below us our Infantry and field batteries spread
out in the plain like ants while we still pointed our guns ahead of
them on to the top of the berg and pass. Up to the foot of the berg
our men met with no resistance, but at last a furious fire of rifles
and Pom-poms broke out on our right centre from Boers concealed in
dongas and trenches on the spurs. Our gallant 11th Brigade, with the
pressure eased by our fire and by the advance of the 2nd Brigade, took
the hills and pass in grand style, and with small loss comparatively
to ourselves. About 4 p.m. the enemy, driven up to the sky-line, lit
large grass fires and cleverly slipped off towards the N.E. under
cover of the smoke. We saw and fusilladed the Pom-poms through this
smoke at 10,000 yards with the 4.7's, and at 5 p.m. we had the whole
ground in our possession. Our troops in the valley were pushed on all
night, and we ourselves also received orders to descend Van Wyk and
press on. A shocking night; very wet and bitterly cold, with a heavy
Scotch mist settled over us. Down Van Wyk we came, although delayed by
our escort of Dublin Fusiliers losing their way all night in the fog,
but the Dorsets helped us instead. We had a tough job coming down the
steep hill in the mist but I had some fifty men on each of my guns to
drag back and steady them, and we eventually got down to the lower
ground without accident, but very much worn out and only just before
daylight.
_Saturday, 9th June._--At 6 a.m. moved on for Botha's Pass Road at
full speed, and skirting a crest of hills overlooking a deliciously
cool river, we soon came to the valley where our attack was advanced,
and eventually got up the pass at dusk, at the tail end of a huge
column all racing to get up first. If the Boers had properly
entrenched the place it would have been impregnable. We bivouacked in
Orange River Colony at the top of the pass, all in good spirits at our
success and at being in a new country.
_Sunday, 10th June._--Off at daybreak through delightful hard roads
and veldt as compared with mountainous Natal; we can now realize Lord
Roberts' fine forced marches on seeing the difference between these
and the Natal roads. Our bullocks slipped along at the rate of three
miles an hour, and passing farms flying white flags and flat veldt
country we bivouacked for the night on Gansvlei Spruit, finding the
boundary here of the Transvaal (a bend of the Klip River) quite close
to us.
[Illustration: Naval 12-pounders advancing after Almond's Nek.]
[Illustration: 4.7 on a bad bit of road.]
_Monday, 11th June._--Off at 5 a.m., and got our Naval guns in
position to attack, but found that the Boers had evacuated the ground
in front of us. Up and on at a great rate over the grassy veldt, the
guns now marching in four columns and keeping a broad front. At about
1 p.m. sudden firing in front and the familiar whirr of Boer shells
made us come into action at 4,500 yards on Almond's Nek Pass, through
which our road lay. The Boers were evidently in possession, judging by
the warm greeting of Pom-poms and the Creusot 5", which played on us
without much damage. The troops were now all halted, and formed up for
attack which was to commence in an hour's time. The Commander-in-Chief
(Buller) directed the operations, carried out at 2 p.m. by the
Infantry advancing in long extended lines, the 10th Brigade in the
centre, the 11th on the right, and the 2nd on the left, the field
batteries and Naval guns covering the advance with lyddite. The 10th
Brigade, which had 3,000 yards of plain to cross and a small kop to
take, dislodged the Boers and their Pom-poms quietly and steadily
under a heavy rifle and gun fire, the noise being terrific, as the
hills and ravines were smothered by shrapnel and lyddite; in
half-an-hour the Boers were on the run again and their fire was
silenced, after treating us with Pom-pom and 45-lb. shrapnel, one
piece of which narrowly escaped my left foot--a detail interesting to
myself to recall. The attack of the Queen's, East Surreys, and Devons,
on the left of the pass, and especially of the Dorsets on the conical
hill, was most gallant and irresistible. Thus, about 5 p.m., at dusk
we were in possession of the ridges 5,000 feet high on the left and
right of the pass, which we thought a great achievement, while the
Cavalry and Horse Artillery were pushed on to complete the Boer rout,
but darkness coming on prevented this. General Buller and his Staff
rode along our guns evidently very pleased, and indeed the force had
won a brilliant little victory which cleared our way effectually and
turned Laing's Nek besides. The Boers lost, as we thought, about 140
killed, of whom we buried a good many, while our casualties in killed
and wounded were 137; but we afterwards learnt from an official Boer
list found in Volksrust that their losses on this occasion reached
500, chiefly from our shrapnel fire. General Talbot Coke who directed
the centre attack congratulated Captain Jones on the fine shooting of
the Naval guns, as did also General Buller who said it had enabled
them to take the position in front of us with such small loss. Again
bitterly cold, and we bivouacked for the night on the battlefield.
_Tuesday, 12th June._--On again an hour before dawn through Almond's
Nek; a thick mist came down, but all being eventually reported clear
ahead we marched on towards Volksrust and bivouacked.
_Wednesday, 13th June._--All our men in high spirits; the 11th
Brigade, with the Naval guns, moved on Volksrust, while the 10th
Brigade and Royal Artillery guns marched to Charlestown, and we thus
occupied the two towns simultaneously. Volksrust is a cold-looking,
tin-roofed town; all houses and farms are showing the white flag, the
men are gone, and the women are left behind weeping for their dead. We
captured here a store of rifles and ammunition besides wagons and
forage, not to mention Boer coffins left in their hurried flight.
_Thursday and Friday, 14th and 15th June._--At Volksrust resting on
our laurels, and all in good heart, although feeling this bitter
mid-winter cold. General Hildyard sent for names to mention in his
despatches, and I believe I am one. As commanding the _Tartar_ guns I
was also very pleased to be able to mention six of my men, and am full
of admiration of the way in which my bluejackets have worked, shot,
and stood the cold and marching. To sum up our recent operations, they
are:--March from Elandslaagte to Glencoe, reoccupation of Newcastle;
crossing of Buffalo Drift and occupation of Utrecht; ascent of Van Wyk
at night with guns; turning and capture of Botha's Pass; march through
Orange River Colony and Transvaal in pursuit of the Boers; taking of
Almond's Nek and occupation of Volksrust and Charlestown, with the
strong position of Laing's Nek turned and evacuated by the enemy who
are in full flight. This is all very satisfactory, and we hear of
congratulations from the Queen and others to General Buller. The Boers
have, however, with their usual cleverness and ability, got away their
guns by rail, but we hope to get them later. We are now busy refitting
wagons and gear for a further advance. I hope the services of the
bluejackets in these operations, which have been invaluable, will
receive the recognition they deserve at the end of the campaign.