BELMONT, GRASPAN, AND THE MODDER
It was a bright moonlight night when the men set out on their march.
Orders had been issued that absolute silence was to prevail, that no
matches were to be struck, that orders were to be delivered by signs
and not by word of command, and that at each halt the men were to kneel
down. The ground was undulating, and wherever it was possible the
column took advantage of the shadows thrown by the rising ground. The
sight of these bodies of men moving almost without sound across the
sandy soil, on which their feet fell noiselessly, was almost weird.
Occasionally there came a deep rumble of wheels as the guns passed
over a piece of rocky ground, and a murmur of annoyance could be heard
in the column, for all knew how important it was that they should get
as near as possible to the Boer position unheard.
The Grenadiers led the way in the right column, the Scots Guards were
on their left rear, the two battalions of Coldstreams were in reserve.
Unfortunately these positions were not maintained. The Scots Guards
came up abreast of the Grenadiers, but some distance to their left;
the Grenadiers, instead of maintaining their direction, bore to the
left and marched against Kaffir Kop; the Coldstreams diverged still
further to the left; thus, instead of being concentrated for the attack
on the central kopje, the brigade were scattered over a front of two
miles. No doubt the efforts of the various battalions to find out each
others' position delayed the advance, and they did not arrive until day
had broken. The sun was just rising over the eastern hills when the
Grenadiers came within three hundred yards of the foot of Kaffir Kop.
Suddenly some guns placed on an eminence to its right opened fire, and
at once a roar of musketry came from the top of the hill, while a heavy
flanking fire also opened from Gun Hill, and a storm of bullets swept
the line, many men falling at once, while the dust rose thickly around
them as the Mauser bullets pattered fast on the sand. The order had
been given that the troops were not to fire, but were to carry the hill
at the point of the bayonet.
The pause was a short one. Joined by some of the Northamptons, who
apparently had also missed their way, the Grenadiers fought their way
up the hill. The Boers here, as at Talana, on the other side, lost
heart as soon as they found to their astonishment that, in spite of
their tremendous fire, the troops whom they had despised still pressed
up the hill. They did not await their arrival at the crest, but fled
precipitately down into the valley behind it, and took up a fresh
position on another hill there. While the Grenadiers had been engaged
in this short but desperate conflict, the Scots Guards on their left
had effected the capture of the central kopje. They rushed to the
attack as bravely as their brothers-in-arms. The Boers on the summit
had opened as hot a fire upon their assailants as had the defenders
of Kaffir Kop, but the troops were not exposed to such a terrible
cross-fire, and the consequence was, their loss was comparatively small.
On the left the fighting had been sharp. The enemy had thrown out
outposts towards the railway from Table Hill, and the Northamptons were
soon engaged in driving them in. At the foot of the hill, however,
the Boers made a stand. They had thrown up some stone breast-works,
and held them until the Northamptons pushed forward to the right and
so took the defenders of the sangars in flank, and forced them to
quit their position and retire to the hill. The two regiments then
advanced to storm the position. The defence of the Boers here was more
feeble and half-hearted than that offered at Gun Hill and Kaffir Kop.
On gaining the summit the infantry halted until the guns came up and
opened fire on the next range of hills, where the Boers, driven from
their first line of defences, had now ensconced themselves, keeping
up a continuous fire from among the rocks. Two regiments advanced and
seized a ridge to the south, from which the Boers had been maintaining
a flanking fire; but they could advance no farther, for the Yorkshires
and Munsters, who should have been their supports, had been withdrawn.
This was an unfortunate tactical error. Had they been with their
brigade, and had this been strengthened by one of the Coldstream
battalions, our left could have pressed steadily on and have driven the
Boers by the south-east route, where they would have been harassed as
they passed by the fire of the Guards Brigade, and cut up by the little
body of cavalry that had arrived there from Witputs. The Coldstreams
came late into action, but they attacked and carried the hill called
Mont Blanc, while they aided the Scots Guards to capture another
eminence to the south of that hill. They were aided by the artillery
and by the guns of the Naval Brigade, which now, after tremendous
efforts by the marines and sailors, had been brought up.
The enemy, disheartened at the manner in which they had been driven
from position after position, now gave way altogether. Their only
means of retreat was to cross the level ground to the north-east, and
had there been a strong force of cavalry, with a battery or two of
horse-artillery, under Lord Methuen's orders, their defeat would have
been converted into a disastrous rout. But half of the little force
were on the other flank, there was no horse-artillery, and although the
little party of Lancers and Rimington's Guides attempted to perform the
work assigned to them, they were unable to do so. The broken ground
running north from Table Hill was held by a strong body of Boers, who
covered the retreat of their waggons and guns. In no case could they
have overtaken the flying horsemen, for their chargers were worn out by
the heavy work of scouting they had carried on. Water, too, had been
short since they had left the Orange River, and after suffering a good
many casualties they fell back. The battle was virtually over by six
o'clock, having lasted about two hours.
Yorke had ridden with Rimington's Guides from Belmont, and, as they
were on the extreme left of the fighting-line, had seen little indeed
of the combat. That the British were gaining ground was evident from
the direction from which the roar of battle reached them, and when at
length the order came for them to advance, they had ridden forward
eagerly until checked by the heavy fire opened from the low line of
rocky eminences facing them. To have pressed on against riflemen hidden
among rocks would have been to incur certain and heavy loss, and might
have deprived the army of its already utterly insufficient cavalry
force; consequently Colonel Gough, who was in command, reluctantly gave
the order for them to retire. Yorke had the evening before handed over
his Kaffirs to the medical department as stretcher-bearers, and as
soon as firing ceased and it was evident that the battle was over, he
rode across the country to give what aid he could in the work.
He found that the greater part of the British wounded had already been
carried off by the troops, some in the ambulance waggons, some on
stretchers. By half-past ten the infantry were already in camp, and
by one all the wounded were being attended to in the hospitals. The
loss of the Grenadiers, 117 men killed or wounded and 10 officers,
exceeded that suffered by the whole of the rest of the division. The
Northumberlands and Northamptons had over 60 casualties among the men
and 6 among their officers; of these the Northumberlands had by far the
larger share. Yorke, after seeing the last of the wounded, Briton and
Boer, placed on ambulances, was now free, and fastening his horse to a
sagebush, he and Hans ascended the hill the Grenadiers had won.
On reaching the summit he saw that it had been carefully prepared for
defence, and had evidently been occupied for a long time. The wall was
not, as it had appeared, continuous, but was broken up into little
enclosures or forts, each sufficiently large for two or three men to
live and sleep in; straw, old sacking, and brushwood formed the beds.
In each were generally to be seen the ashes of a fire, a cooking pot,
meat tins, fragments of bread, and other signs of continued occupation.
Empty cartridge-cases littered the ground everywhere, while many still
loaded showed how hasty had been the flight of the Boers. Several dead
bodies lay in these little forts; they were for the most part of men
of the lower class, farm-servants and others, with rough ill-fitting
clothes and closely-cropped heads. Among them, however, were a few of a
very much superior class, clean and carefully dressed, but these were
quite the exception; and Yorke afterwards heard from the prisoners that
men of that class generally sent on their best horses, and rode in on
spare animals or in light carriages and carts, and as soon as they saw
that the fight was going against them, ran down the hill, jumped on to
their fresh horses, and rode off, leaving the unmounted men to fight
and die. Eighty-three Boers were found dead, but it was certain that
the bodies of many of the better-class Boers had been carried off when
they fell. More than fifty prisoners were taken, and twenty wounded;
sixty-four waggons and a considerable number of horses were captured.
The next day all the wounded were sent down by train. That afternoon
the troops moved forward again, knowing that another Boer force was
collected at Graspan, some seven miles to the North. The Ninth Brigade
and the Naval Brigade started in the afternoon for Swingspan, while the
Guards moved on somewhat later with the Naval guns, armoured train, and
baggage. Lord Methuen's intention was this time to attack the left of
the Boer position, which was planted along a low range of hills, the
highest and most commanding of which lay on their left.
The Ninth Brigade, with Rimington's horse and the Lancers, bivouacked
at Swingspan, a deep depression in a valley surrounded on all sides by
hills of volcanic origin. The march had been an uneventful one. The
cavalry had scouted the ground in front of them, but beyond beating up
a herd of springbok, and startling an occasional covey of partridges,
scaring up the little birds called dikkopfs, and sending the lizards
hurrying to their shelters, they saw no signs of life. The effect of
the previous day's fight was evident from the fact, that although the
line of march was everywhere commanded by low hills, no shot was fired.
It was difficult for the troops gathered round the pool to believe that
the smooth circle of hills around them was ages ago a number of active
volcanoes, and that the pool might itself have been a crater; but the
fact has been well ascertained. Fires were lighted, but these soon
burnt down, for the men were glad to stretch themselves on the sands
and fall to sleep as soon as the kettles were boiled and their bread
had been eaten. Pickets went up to the surrounding hills, and one of
these found in a sangar a field-glass and walking-stick, showing that
the Boers had occupied it but a short time before.
At three in the morning the troops were in motion again, and marched
for five miles towards a line of kopjes some three miles from the
railway-station. The station bore the two names of Enslin and Graspan,
by both of which the battle was afterwards called. The Lancers scouted
ahead, while Rimington's Guides watched the hills on the right. At last
the enemy's entrenchments were seen extending along a series of kopjes.
Their right was on two hills, one lying on each side of the railway,
the left upon a high conical hill three miles to the east of it. On
the ridges between were several guns, and through field-glasses the
Boers could be seen hurrying towards the eastern kopje, against which
they already perceived our main attack would be delivered. One of the
field-batteries at once advanced and opened fire against this hill.
The armour-plated train had moved to Graspan station, and the sailors
got out two of their twelve-pounder guns, leaving the others in the
waggons, as there were not hands enough to work them. Presently these
were joined by two batteries of artillery, and at half-past six all
opened fire. Two companies of the Northumberlands acted as a covering
party, and the rest were to line a low crest to the right and keep
touch with the other battalions of the brigade posted there to oppose
any movement that might be made from the Boer centre. Of such a
movement, however, there was but little probability, as the Boers from
that point were galloping with all haste to reinforce the defenders of
the hill which was about to be assailed.
For two hours the fight was purely an artillery duel, the Naval guns
and those of the two batteries being answered by six guns, a Hotchkiss,
and a Maxim. These were well hidden from sight behind the crest line,
and it was only by the light smoke that rose above them that our
gunners were enabled to direct their fire. The Guards were in rear, and
were held in reserve to take part in the fight wherever their services
might be most required. The Naval Brigade were upon the extreme right,
and it was upon them that the honour of the assault was to fall.
Entrenchments had been thrown up by the enemy along the whole range of
kopjes. It was evident that the Boers were in no way discouraged by
their defeat two days before, for a very large body of mounted men were
seen far out on our flank, in readiness to swoop down if we recoiled
in confusion after failing to carry their position. Rimington's Guides
were detached to watch and keep in check this force. At eight o'clock
the two batteries of Royal Artillery moved away to the right to
concentrate their fire on the kopje about to be attacked, and the Naval
guns were ordered to withdraw, as the Boers had now accurately obtained
their distance and were keeping up a tremendous fire with shrapnel upon
them.
The enemy's fire, however, was so incessant and well-directed, that the
officer in command, feeling that to attempt to withdraw the guns would
lead to the annihilation of the men engaged in the work, maintained his
position, the men throwing themselves on the ground at each flash of
the enemy's guns and then leaping up and working their own pieces. So
well were these served and directed that the guns opposed to them were
gradually silenced.
The Naval Brigade, composed of two hundred marines and forty
blue-jackets, at last advanced in skirmishing order, and pushed round
to the right of the kopje. Although they were within nine hundred yards
of it not a rifle was fired, and it seemed as if the fire of the two
batteries had completely cleared out its defenders. The Lancers had
moved still farther to the right, to prevent any body of Boers coming
down through a break in the hills there to take the Naval Brigade in
flank.
The ground over which they were moving was completely exposed. Having
gained the desired position, the Naval Brigade now moved direct for
the kopje, closing up somewhat as they converged upon its base.
When within six hundred yards from the summit, from every rock and
boulder a storm of fire flashed out, and a hail of bullets swept the
line. The men lay down and returned the fire, but that of the hidden
foe, enormously superior in numbers, was not to be checked. The North
Lancashires who were following the Naval men completely lost sight of
them, so great was the cloud of dust raised by the bullets ploughing
up the sand. It was evident that to remain inactive was to court
annihilation, and Captain Prothero, R.N., gave the word for the advance
at the double, and the men leaping to their feet rushed to within four
hundred yards of the base. Then a terrific fire was opened from a
projecting spur.
The men fell fast, but again made a rush to within two hundred yards
of the base of the hill. Prothero had fallen wounded; Ethelston, the
second in command, was killed, Major Plumbe of the marines called upon
his men, who nobly responded; he himself was shot dead before he had
gone ten yards, and Lieutenant Saunders of the _Powerful_ now rushed to
the front. The Maxim gun that had accompanied them remained immovable,
every one of the men who worked it having fallen. They reached the base
of the kopje and there threw themselves down to breathe. They had left
half their comrades and nearly all their officers behind them. The
din was appalling, the two British batteries maintaining a continuous
fire on the face and summit of the hill. The Yorkshire Light Infantry,
followed by the North Lancashires, came rushing forward to the support
of the naval men, and in open order with bayonets fixed they and the
marines began to make their way up.
The Boers did not await the onslaught, but deserted their entrenchments
and rocks and fled, the greater portion making their way along a valley
through which ran a road to the north, only a few joining their friends
along the line of hills. In the centre of the position a handful of
desperate men defended the rocks to the last, and were bayoneted
there. Seeing that the position they had deemed impregnable had been
captured the Boers began to retreat, drawing off their guns with them.
Again the weakness in cavalry prevented pursuit; and indeed both the
Lancers and Rimington's Guides were too far away to be brought up
in time for a successful pursuit of the mounted men, who formed the
majority of the enemy's force. As to those unprovided with ponies, they
had but to scatter over the hills where cavalry could not follow them,
lie hidden among the boulders, and make off after nightfall.
The loss had been heavy. Of the Naval Brigade six officers and
ninety-nine men were killed or wounded; the Yorkshires had fifty-three
casualties, and the North Lancashires twenty. The Guards' Brigade were
not engaged; they closed up at the end of the action, but were not
called upon to fire a shot.
All but two of Yorke's Kaffirs who had been away came into camp after
the battle was over. They had left the waggons while the fight was
going on, and had hidden among the rocks until night fell. None had
gained any information as to the Boer position on the Modder. None of
the Boers whom they had heard conversing had been there. They had been
told that the British would never get across the river, and even if
they did so they would assuredly never be able to break through the
strong position at Magersfontein, where Cronje intended to arrest their
further advance. They had heard that no natives had been allowed to
accompany the Boers who were posted on the Modder River, and that all
new-comers had been directed to Graspan, a step which Yorke concluded
was designed to prevent spies or well-wishers to the British from
seeing the preparations that were made. He reported as usual to the
quartermaster-general.
"It is a pity that we can't get some news as to what they are doing,
Mr. Harberton, but certainly you have done all that is possible that
way."
"I will try and go in disguise, sir, if you will give me leave."
"I do not think there is any chance whatever that your attempt would
be successful. It is evident that Cronje is determined that his plans
shall be kept secret. I have no doubt that you could, as you have
already done, join any commando you wished, with a fair chance of a
plausible story being believed. But the fact that all the new arrivals
were sent on here, and that even Kaffir drivers are not allowed to
approach the river, shows that no ordinary story would pass muster for
a moment. You would simply be going to your death."
"It has been tougher work than we expected, Harberton," one of the
officers of the Tigers said to Yorke the next day. "Of course we
thrashed them, but the loss has been heavy, and as these kopjes are
scattered all over the country, we may have to fight any number of
battles like this. You see, the beggars only have to ride off on their
ponies and take up a fresh position; necessarily we are kept at a
distance out of fire; and before we can take up the pursuit and cross
the hills they have been defending, they have got a couple of miles
start of us. Besides, their horses are ever so much fresher than ours,
so they could go on at that game for a very long time, and there can
be no doubt their losses are much lighter than ours as we are always
fighting in the open, while they are so hidden behind rocks that we
don't get sight of them until they begin to bolt. However, we shall be
stronger to-morrow, for I hear that the Argyle and Sutherlands will be
up. That will a good deal more than fill up the vacancies caused by our
casualties at Belmont and here."
The next day was passed in quiet, but on the 27th, after the wounded
had been sent off by train, the force moved forward to the pools of
Honeynest, eight miles south of the Modder. The march had been short,
for the heat was great, and after halting the troops revelled in the
luxury of a bath, the fact that the water was thick and muddy scarcely
detracting from their enjoyment. The next morning one of Rimington's
Guides came in and reported that he had been fired at from an
apparently empty house near the river, and half an hour later another
of Yorke's Kaffirs came in and told Yorke that the Boers with whom he
had been, had made a long detour after the battle and had arrived at
the Spytfontein kopjes. He found that there were very strong works
there, but that they were not strongly occupied; and he had learned
that a part of the force had some days before moved towards the Modder,
but that no communication was allowed between them and Spytfontein.
Yorke at once went and reported the news. "That is important," the
officer said. "I shall be glad if you will come with me at once to Lord
Methuen, and you may as well bring your native with you, the general
may wish to question him further."
The general indeed considered the information of such importance
that he sent at once for one of Rimington's Guides, who spoke Kaffir
perfectly, and through him asked the native many questions. There
can be no doubt that the news that the main body of the Boers had at
any rate moved forward towards the Modder influenced him in deciding
upon the course he adopted. It had before been open to him to leave a
battalion to hold the railway bridge, to prevent any Boers who might be
there from crossing, and so cover the line of communication, while with
the rest of his force he made a detour through Jacobsdal, and, making a
wide sweep, as French's cavalry did later on, come down upon Kimberley
from the north; but the fact that a large main Boer army was massed,
if not at the Modder, at some place near, altered the situation. The
river was fordable at many points, and were he to move away Cronje
might throw his whole force across, crush the detached battalion, and
take possession of the railway. It was, therefore, imperative that the
direct advance upon Kimberley should be adopted.
A quarter of an hour afterwards the general, with two staff officers,
rode down to within a short distance of the Modder, but all appeared
still there. The banks were fringed with bushes; a few horses,
doubtless belonging to a party of Boer scouts, grazed quietly
near these. A mile away to the right were the hotels and gardens
of the village; far beyond them were the hills of Spytfontein and
Magersfontein. There was high ground two or three thousand yards
behind the river. To the right of the railway the Riet River joined
the Modder. No signs of any large body of the enemy, no earth-works
or other preparations for defence, could be perceived. Although he
and his staff were within easy range of the river-bank not a shot was
fired, and Lord Methuen came to the conclusion that the passage would
be opposed at most by a comparatively small body of the Boers, and that
not until he had advanced some distance would he come upon a position
where Cronje was prepared to give battle. Accordingly he decided to
lose no time.
Yorke had ridden out with a party of Rimington's men and ascended a
low hill, from which they obtained an excellent view of the country.
The Riet came down at a sharp angle to the point of its junction with
the Modder. It was fringed on both sides with willows, and an enemy
lying along this line would take in flank a force advancing towards the
broken railway bridge. But even with their field-glasses they could see
no sign of life near its banks. Albrecht, Cronje's engineer officer,
knew his work, and had done it well. A very large body of Boers had
been at work night and day for a fortnight, and within the line of
willows and bushes deep trenches had been dug from which the Boers
could fire with scarcely any danger to themselves. Gun emplacements
had been formed on the northern bank both of the Riet and Modder, and
had been so arranged that the guns could be easily shifted from one
point to another whenever our gunners discovered their exact position
and got the range. The houses and walls had all been loopholed. On
the hills behind some very heavy guns had been placed, batteries had
been erected on the rising ground near the village, and trenches dug
everywhere close to the farther side of the rivers. Nearly ten thousand
men were lying down in absolute stillness, eagerly awaiting the moment
when their unsuspecting enemies should fall into the trap so carefully
prepared for them. The Transvaal commandos held the line from the
railway bridge, and far up the bank of the Riet, while west of the
bridge to the village the Free State men were posted.
"It looks all right," one of the officers with the party said. "I
cannot make out a single soul stirring."
"I think it almost too still," another one said. "There must anyhow
be some Boers about, and we should see them moving if there was not
an imperative order for them not to show themselves. It is impossible
to believe that they will allow us to cross the river without firing
a shot, or that, as they have known for some time past that we were
coming, they should have made no preparations for defence."
"Perhaps only a few hundred of them are there," another said. "They may
have got such a strong position farther on that they prefer to fight
us there. If they were to keep us from crossing, they would not have
gained much; but if they were to defeat us somewhere on the other side
of the river, the disaster might be a terrible one, for a force could
come down behind us and cut off our retreat."
"But they can never defeat us," the first speaker said.
"No, we may feel pretty sure of that; but the Boers are so confident
in their own fighting powers that they may very well believe that they
will do so, and, of course, their dispositions will be in accordance
with their belief and not with ours. There is the general with his two
staff officers riding back. You see, not a shot has been fired at them."
"It certainly looks as if they did not intend to dispute the passage
of the river," another officer said; "though they may have left a few
hundred men as a rear-guard when the force retired. It is evident that
the Boers prefer hill-fighting."
At four o'clock the next morning the troops moved forward, the infantry
leading the way, followed by the cavalry and artillery. When they
reached the level plain sloping gradually towards the river, and some
three miles across, the advanced guard were fired upon by the Boers
at the extremity of their position on the Riet. The Lancers galloped
forward in that direction, two batteries following them, and at seven
o'clock opened fire, and drove the Boers from their advanced posts. The
cavalry then threatened to cross the river, but were forced to retire
before a heavy rifle-fire, and took up their position further back in
order to cover the right flank should the Boers take the offensive.
Three Boer guns now began to exchange shots with our batteries, but
one of them was effectually silenced, and the others fired only
occasionally.
In the meantime the infantry had been advancing in open order. To the
right of the railway were the 2nd Coldstreams, the Grenadiers, the
Scots Fusiliers, and a wing of the 1st Coldstreams. On the left of the
line were the North Lancashires, the Yorkshires, Northumberlands, the
Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, with half a battalion of the 1st
Coldstreams in reserve. On that side was one battery of artillery;
the naval guns took up their position close to the line. So far Lord
Methuen had no reason to suppose that he was opposed by a larger force
than that which had established itself on the further bank of the Riet.
Accordingly there was no check to the advance. The noise of battle
there had ceased, and parties of the enemy could be seen in retreat.
Cronje's plan had so far succeeded admirably. He had led his enemy to
believe that they had but a small force opposed to them, and that this
was already in retreat, and therefore, tempted them on to the plain,
where they would be exposed to a murderous fire along their whole
front, and which would be swept also by the strong force on the Riet.
Not a shot was fired until the leading companies of the Guards were
within a thousand yards of the river, when from the screen of trees and
bush a line of fire burst out, and a hail of bullets swept the plain.
Though many fell, no confusion was caused by this terrible surprise.
The Guards, at once lay down and steadily returned the fire of their
invisible foes. There was no shelter to be taken, no favouring rock or
bush. The plain was perfectly even and bare. Some were fortunate enough
to find an ant-hill between them and their foe, others some scrub eight
or ten inches only in height, but most of them lay on the bare sand.
It was well for them that they had marched that day without their
greatcoats, for these would have shown up clearly upon the light sand,
whereas at a thousand yards the khaki-clad figures could scarcely
be made out by the keenest-sighted Boer. The scream of the bullets
overhead was unceasing; the dust was knocked up as if by a hail-storm
driven by a mighty wind; and even above the rattle of the musketry and
the roar of cannon, the quick thud of the machine-guns firing one-pound
shells--afterwards called by the men pom-poms--added a new horror to
warfare.
The Scots Guards had suffered most from this outburst of fire, because
they were nearest to the Riet, and therefore more exposed to the
flanking fire of the Transvaalers there than were the battalions to
their left. Their Maxim was almost immediately disabled by the pom-pom,
and most of the men serving it killed. To remain in the position
meant annihilation, and they fell back a few hundred yards to an old
reservoir.
The Grenadiers and the 2nd Coldstreams were fortunate in finding some
little protection under a very slight rise in the ground. All through
the day the Guardsmen lay prone in the positions in which they had
first halted. To retreat under that ceaseless hail of fire would have
been as dangerous as to advance. There was nothing to do but to lie
still and suffer. The sun beat down upon them with withering heat. Most
of them lay with their rifles under them, for the breaches and barrels
were too hot to handle. They were parched by a terrible thirst, and
many were wounded, but neither water nor stretcher could be carried
to them through the hail of bullets. The streams of balls from the
pom-poms tried them even more than the bullets. At times there was a
slight lull in the firing, but the slightest movement caught the eyes
of the watchful foe, and then it broke out again with renewed fury. It
was clear from the first that nothing could be done on this side of the
railway, and that the coming of darkness could alone bring relief.
Happily, however, things were going better to the left of the railway.
The two batteries of artillery had galloped across to that side, and
pushing on with extreme bravery, had opened a heavy fire upon the
village and the Boer entrenchments. They were exposed not only to a
continuous musketry fire, but to a cannonade from the Boer guns on the
heights, more numerous and of heavier metal than their own; but they
maintained their ground, aided by the four 12-pounders of the naval
men. At half-past eleven, however, one of the batteries had to fall
back, having lost heavily, and having nearly exhausted its ammunition.
Twenty-five horses were killed as they dragged the guns back, and the
officers' chargers had to be harnessed in their places.
It was due chiefly to the artillery that the day was finally won. Not
only did they keep down the fire of the Boer marksmen by a hail of
shrapnel, and shake the courage of the Free State men, but our men,
lying themselves helpless, were cheered by the knowledge that our guns
might yet be preparing a way for them to advance and to come within
striking distance of their lurking foes.
Until two o'clock but little progress had been made on the left by the
sorely-tried troops. The advance had been brought to a stand-still when
it reached a point abreast of that obtained by the Guards. The frontal
fire was as heavy, but they were not, like their comrades, scourged
by a flanking fire, for although a party of Boers had pressed some
distance round the extreme left, where there was rough ground that
afforded some shelter, these were kept in check by the fire of the
North Lancashires.
At two o'clock relief was furnished to the gunners by the arrival of
another battery, which had made a tremendous march from Belmont, and
had now come up in time to take part in the desperate struggle. They
at once came into action, and aided in sweeping the Boer position
with shrapnel. Lord Methuen moved as many troops as could be spared
from the right to aid in the left attack, where alone success seemed
possible. The fire of the newly-arrived battery speedily drove the
Boers established on our extreme left across the river, and the fire
from the Free Staters, in their trenches among the willows on the south
side, began to slacken, affording ground for the belief that here also
they were becoming demoralized by the fire to which they were exposed,
and were crossing the stream. The Yorkshires, Northumberlands, and
Highlanders sprang to their feet, and with a rush charged a farmhouse
strongly held which had covered the approach to the drift. The Boers
here fled at once, and the troops, without halting, dashed forward,
cheering loudly, delighted that at last they had become the assailants.
Closely following the Boers, they reached the weir, erected across the
river to deepen the water above, and made their way across holding by
an iron bar above it.
The feat was performed under a tremendous fire. Though man after man
fell, those behind crept forward until four hundred men had crossed
and established themselves on the northern bank. Two hundred of the
Lancashires followed them. It was a great success, and decided the
fortune of the day, although for a time this still hung in the balance.
General Pole-Carew, who was in command of the brigade, led them along
the bank, pressing on towards the Boer centre. Cronje, however, drew
supports from his left, and after winning their way for three-quarters
of a mile, the pressure brought to bear against the British was too
great to be withstood. Opposed by a greatly superior force in front,
and suffering from a flanking fire from the entrenched slopes above
them, the troops fell slowly back again, but maintained themselves near
the dam against all the efforts of the Boers to drive them across it.
So the fight went on until darkness fell and the fire ceased. The
troops could do no more. They had been at work since four in the
morning, without breakfast; they had suffered tortures from heat and
thirst during their long hours of inactivity, they had throughout the
day been exposed to a terrible fire, which they had been unable to
return effectually; and General Colville, who had succeeded to the
command at half-past five, when Lord Methuen had been wounded, felt
that he could ask no more of them, and contented himself with making
preparations for passing the whole force early next morning across the
dam Pole-Carew had won. But in the morning the Boers had gone. With
his right turned, and the Free Staters utterly demoralized, Cronje
felt that he could not hope to prevent the main body of the British
from crossing, in which case they would be placed between him and
Kimberley, and it would be impossible for him to regain the position
he had so carefully prepared. The Boers, therefore, silently left the
entrenchments they had occupied and marched away to Spytfontein.
Had the men from the Free State possessed the hardihood of those from
the Transvaal, it is morally certain that no passage of the river could
have been effected; but the military system which, north of the Vaal
was vigorous though irregular, and made every man a soldier, was but
a shadow in the Orange Free State. At peace with their neighbours,
fearing no attack, on good terms with the British Government, whose
territory adjoined their own to the south and west, and for the
most part to the east, save where Basutoland, wholly under British
influence, touched them, it seemed there was no occasion to maintain
a military organization. They had given themselves up to peaceful
pursuits, and although a pastoral people, were immeasurably in advance
of their neighbours north of the Vaal. The majority, too, wholly
disapproved of the war into which the ambition of their president had
forced them, and in such a mood might well be shaken by the terrible
bombardment they had to face.
Considering the incessant fire to which, for some twelve hours, the
British troops had been exposed, it is remarkable that our casualties
should not have exceeded four hundred and fifty. Of these one hundred
and twelve were contributed by the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders,
and sixty-nine by the Coldstreams.
But even to the troops lying helpless all day, the hours had not
passed more slowly and painfully than to the cavalry in their enforced
inactivity. They had dismounted to ease their horses, and the men and
officers of Rimington's Guides stood in little groups ready to mount at
a moment's notice.
"It is awful," one of the officers said; "it is simply awful! One would
think that not a single man exposed to that storm of fire would be
found alive at the end of the day. What maddens one is the thought that
all this might have been spared us, if we had not blundered into it as
if we had been going to a picnic. Why, if only a troop of us had been
sent down yesterday afternoon, or early this morning, to reconnoitre,
we should have been spared all this. We could have dismounted here and
made our way down in very open order, on foot, say fifty yards apart,
and pushed on till we got to the willows, and through them to the river
bank; or, better still, we could have entered the willows to the right
here and searched them thoroughly right round across the railway and as
far as the village.
"As it turns out, of course, we should have lost three-quarters of
our number; but those who got back would have told of the hidden
rifle-pits, and the fact that the Boers were gathered there in great
force. But somehow, it was taken for granted that there would not be
any serious resistance. Even when the troops went forward, there were
no scouts pushed out in front of the attacking line. We have just
fallen into the trap they set for us. It was the same at Belmont and
at Graspan. We only found out where the enemy were in force when they
opened a blaze of fire at us.
"I was chatting with a private in the infantry, who, before he joined
the army, was a volunteer in one of the London battalions, and he told
me that when Lord Methuen was in command of the district there was no
one more particular than he as to patrols being thrown out far ahead
and the ground being thoroughly scouted. He was very popular, for
though strict, he was always kind and considerate. As to his bravery
there is no question, and the way in which he is exposing himself
to-day, galloping about from point to point open to Boer fire, is
splendid; but I fancy his staff will be thinned out before the end of
the day."
"Those fellows must be well in hand," another said, "or they would
never have held their fire when he rode up to within four hundred yards
of them yesterday. They could have made a certainty of picking him and
the two officers with him off at that distance, and if only half a
dozen had fired it would have seemed that there might still only be a
little party left behind.
"The beggars seem to have more idea of discipline than we gave them
credit for. They must have been sitting as quiet as mice until they
opened fire, for, watching the bushes closely with my glass, I did not
see as much as a leaf stir."
And so they talked until they saw the rush of the men of the Ninth
Brigade down to the river, and although they could not make out exactly
what was doing, they concluded by the gradual disappearance of the
troops and the roar of musketry that they must have succeeded in
crossing the river. The relief was intense, and the men shouted and
cheered and waved their hats in the greatest delight. The officers
joined in a lively argument as to what was likely to take place.
All agreed that it would be next to impossible to move troops over
to support those who had crossed, for by their own feelings of
exhaustion, brought on by hunger, thirst, heat, and excitement, they
felt sure that the troops, who had gone through a far more severe
ordeal, would need food, drink, and at least some hours' rest before
they could again take up the stern work. At the same time, all saw that
if the Boers hurled themselves on the little force on the other side of
the river, assistance must be sent, whatever the state of the men might
be.
"They have only to call for volunteers," one officer said, "and I doubt
if a man would hold back. After what they have gone through, it would
almost galvanize a dead man into life to know that there was a chance
at last to meet face to face the men who had been making a target of
them. But I expect the Boers must be nearly as done up as we are. They
were in their places before daylight, and although I don't suppose our
bullets have disposed of many of them, their nerves must be so shaken
up by our artillery fire that I can't think there can be much fight
left in them. We know that their fire on the left has been slackening
for some time, and the fact that our fellows have been able to fight
their way across is another proof of it. Besides, as we saw at the last
two fights, they lose heart directly they see their retreat threatened,
and they must know that they will be cut off altogether from the place
they have fortified farther on, if we can but maintain our footing, for
success on our left would put us between them and Kimberley."