THE FIGHTING IN THE FREE STATE.
Our orders for Fourteen Streams were countermanded and we were
instructed to proceed to Brandfort in the Free State. We took the train
without delay and went on our way rejoicing. On reaching Smaldeel, a
small station thirty miles from Brandfort, we were ordered to stop and
wait for instructions; so we pitched our camp and put everything in
readiness for a hot time, for we learned that Lord Roberts and his army
of 90,000 men were advancing from Bloemfontein. Before our new arrivals
receive their baptismal fire I will relate what had taken place in the
Free State while we were engaged at Ladysmith.
[Illustration: GENERAL LORD ROBERTS, F.M. Notorious for destroying
women and children and for helplessness when confronted with an armed
foe.]
During the month of November while we were in daily skirmishes with
the English, who were trying to find a way of escape, there was heavy
fighting south of Kimberley. Unfortunately we had there one thoroughly
incompetent commander, General Prinsloo, of the Free State. General
Prinsloo had most excellent commandants and veldcornets, any one of
whom would have made every fight a victory in those parts. General de
la Rey was with Prinsloo, but the latter had higher rank, much to
our regret. General de la Rey is a remarkable man and the Napoleon of
the South African War. In due time I will give a short account of this
great and good man and the deeds he accomplished.
Generals Prinsloo and de la Rey, with their combined force of some
2,000 men and, I think, two guns and two maxim Nordenfelts, were
attacked on November 23rd by Lord Methuen with a force of 10,000 to
12,000 men and two or three batteries, together with several maxims. Of
course Lord Methuen had an overwhelming force as compared to that of
the Boers, yet, had Prinsloo acted with General de la Rey, the British
would have suffered a severe defeat.
Prinsloo left his position just at the moment of victory, and, by so
doing, came near getting General de la Rey and his men captured. They
had actually to fight their way out. The republican forces fell back
to Rooilaagte in the direction of Kimberley. Here the burghers to some
extent fortified themselves, and awaited the arrival of Methuen. He,
with his re-enforced army appeared and opened up their batteries on
the Boer positions in the early morn of November 25th. A very hard and
bloody battle was fought here, and it was Prinsloo again who gave way
at the wrong moment and allowed Methuen to credit himself with another
victory. Prinsloo was always bent on giving way just at the wrong
time, much to the disappointment and disgust of General de la Rey,
and this, too, in the face of the fact that General de la Rey always
took the brunt and did the hardest fighting. The world now has read
Methuen's reports of these fights and the Boer reports too, so it is
only necessary for me to say that the former's losses were exceedingly
heavy, while those of the latter were exceedingly small. Judging by
the losses, Methuen was badly defeated in both instances, but an
English officer does not care how many men are shot dead so long as
he does not lose a gun or have to retreat. To show the true character
of this lordly Methuen, I will say that every low and beastly epithet
his vulgar imagination could invent, he applied to the enemy, that he
might excuse himself for shooting some twenty or thirty Boers, some of
them wounded, whom he had captured. Of course he must add another lie,
English-like, by claiming the abuse of the white flag.
Now the time was ripe for the Boers to begin to shoot in retaliation
the British officers and soldiers at Pretoria, who were spending their
time playing football, etc. But the Boer is strictly governed by
his religion, and the whole world could not induce him to resort to
retaliation under any circumstances. I longed to be in chief command
just for a few hours, but, fortunately for many British, I was not.
The Boers were convinced that Lord Methuen would receive his punishment
on the Day of Judgment, and I was just as thoroughly convinced that I
did not believe in such long postponements in dealing with Englishmen.
The Boers fell back from Rooilaagte to Modder River, not many miles
from Kimberley. Here Generals Prinsloo and de la Rey were re-enforced
by the long expected General Piet Cronje, with about 500 men. He had
come all the way from Mafeking on the western border of the Transvaal,
but, tired as he and his men were, they were all ready and game for
fight. Before Cronje's arrival, General de la Rey had practically
assumed command over General Prinsloo, and placed the Boer forces in
position on the Modder River to give Methuen and his army another
fight. On his arrival, General Cronje, being known to be the best
fighter in the land, was given command over all the Boer forces. He
looked over the ground and having thoroughly approved in every detail
the dispositions of the men that General de la Rey had made, he calmly
awaited the arrival of Methuen. Lord Methuen will never forget the
battle of Modder River, and hundreds of his men will never remember it.
The English were then and are now as afraid of General Cronje, as a
baboon is of a snake, and I might say here, that if you bring a baboon
in contact with a snake, dead or alive, and prevent him from running
away, he will actually have a spasm. Methuen did not find out, however,
until it was too late, that Cronje was there, for otherwise he would
have asked for something like 20,000 men additional. Finally the 28th
of November came, and there was Methuen and his army.
After carrying out his usual program of bombarding for several hours,
Methuen advanced his lines, and the rifle firing began. After hours of
terrific fighting, during which Cronje and de la Rey had unmercifully
slaughtered, and in the end driven back the English, and during which
time the Free Staters, too, had covered themselves with glory, and just
at the moment when a great victory was really won, General Prinsloo
suddenly withdrew his men and allowed the English to turn his flank. He
seemed to be afraid to win a victory, and it is a marvel that General
Cronje or General de la Rey did not shoot him or drive him to his home
and put one of his thoroughly competent commandants in his place. The
result of this sudden withdrawal was that the Boer forces had to fall
back, and now we find them at Magersfontein.
_As Methuen had made but slow progress in killing Boers in honorable
fight on the battlefield, he now gave way to his savage inclination and
had some twenty or thirty wounded Boers whom he found in a farmhouse
near the battlefield, deliberately shot in cold blood._ Of course
Methuen had seen his men fall by the hundred, and no doubt he was
highly enraged at the sight, but it requires a brute to deliberately
take the lives of helpless, wounded men, and, in my experience with
the brute creation, which is considerable, I am sure that there are
exceedingly few brutes that would do such a thing. Even the sneaking
hyena would refrain unless he were dying of hunger. Now Lord Methuen
had learned that Cronje was on deck, and in the best of health, so he
called for all the re-enforcements at hand and brought up his decimated
force to something like 15,000 men and six batteries. Cronje was lucky
too, and increased his force to something more than 4,000, but not much
more. Methuen's were all trained and tried men, and, as the English
would put it, invincible; Cronje had his ordinary farmers who knew
nothing whatever about military training. No doubt Methuen did lots of
thinking, but I do not believe he called any council of war, because
he is too conceited and arrogant to do such a thing. He who deigns to
make a suggestion to a lord is very liable to be sent away and told to
attend to his own business. Although he is supremely arrogant, I think
he did some shaking in his boots because he knew that Cronje was in
front. For several days after his terrible smashup on Modder River,
Methuen spent his time in recuperating and awaiting re-enforcements.
Cronje and de la Rey spent their time in preparing for a fight at
Magersfontein. In front of the ridge on which they concealed their
small guns and maxims they put the Boers to work digging a trench.
The trench being finished, it was so well concealed that the English
could not see it. They knew that this scheme would work, because
Methuen would not think of sending out any reconnoitring parties to
find out just how the Boers were to make their fight. He would tell
you that it was unnecessary because he had a balloon, and from that
balloon he could see the Boers far behind their actual, but unknown to
him position. The Boers were not in the trenches by day, but were far
behind them. At night you could find everyone of them there, and in
perfect readiness for battle.