MAGERSFONTEIN AND PAARDEBERG.
At last the day came. It was Dec. 10th when Methuen and his big army
came up and without delay began with their usual introduction, by
turning six batteries upon the supposed position of the Boer force.
For two days this formidable array of field and lyddite guns continued
to roar and keep the very heavens filled with heavy steel shells that
tore up the earth generally. No reply was sent back from any part of
Cronje's lines, so Lord Methuen alone can lay claim to making all that
deafening noise that so frightened birds and beasts during the 10th
and 11th; but when you say noise, you have the sum total of the work
accomplished by his vigorous display of fireworks. It was in the very
early morning of the 12th, that Lord Methuen decided that the fearful
Cronje and his "dirty" Boers were either demolished or so terribly
demoralized that they had fled for safety miles to their rear, because
he had not heard a murmur from them for two days. Any man with a little
grain of sense would, at least at this early hour in the morning, have
sent in advance a well extended line of skirmishers to find out if the
enemy were near at hand or had actually fled. No; this way of doing
business would never meet with the approval of an English lord who had,
by the accident of birth, inherited the brains of all past generations
in his family line; so he moved his lines forward in close order.
When Methuen's lines arrived within about seventy-five yards of
Cronje's trenches, the demolished or absconded "dirty" Boers sent a
greeting in the form of a long, dazzling line of fire, which instantly
died away, and with it General Wauchope and almost his entire Black
Watch, the crack regiment of the English army. Never in all history
was such a bloody and disastrous battle fought and won in such a short
time. Methuen's men, one and all, regardless of orders or order, fled
as fast as their legs could carry them, and the Boers did not fail to
apply the whip and spur at every stride they made. Although the battle
was now virtually over, yet some hard fighting took place during the
day. Methuen could not reconcile himself to his most disastrous and
disgraceful defeat at the hands of such a small force of Boers, so
spent the greater part of the day in losing more before he finely
concluded that he would have to return to his old camp on Modder River.
It is not my purpose to give long descriptions of battles in this
narrative, for I know they are tiresome, but, painful to me as it may
be, I must say something of that little band of Scandinavians who were
with Cronje in that great victory. I knew personally almost every one
of that band of sixty men. The Scandinavian is quiet, gentlemanly,
and the most tractable soldier in camp, but the most daring, reckless
and fearless soldier I have ever seen, when it comes to fighting. Not
satisfied with the early morning's work, this little body moved out, on
its own account, after the sun was well up, and deliberately attacked
Methuen's army. They actually engaged a force of at least fifteen to
one against them, and fought till they were practically exterminated as
a body. Sure it is that each one of that reckless little band accounted
for at least one Englishman before he forfeited his own life. Having
practically wiped them out, the English set to work to rob and strip
them, and punch their bodies full of holes. General Cronje captured
a small bunch of prisoners during the day, but sent them to Pretoria
to play football. Early in the afternoon, Methuen, having satisfied
himself that he had murdered enough of his own men, decided to retreat,
and did so, but at a much more rapid pace than he had expected, for
now Cronje's guns were turned upon him, and induced him to move more
rapidly, and quickly vanish in the distance. Here was a fearful
slaughter of English, the greatest so far during the war, but only
because this great battle was fought just three days before that of
Colenso, near Ladysmith, where General Louis Botha so terribly defeated
General Buller and his fine army.
After Lord Methuen reached his old camp on Modder River, I have an idea
that he did some really hard thinking, for he must make a report, and
in that report he must show that his defeat was a victory, because a
lord cannot be defeated. Unfortunately, I have never seen his report,
but it is safe to conclude that he saw the Boers in overwhelming
numbers and that some Colonial had proved traitor to him and led him
into an ambush. I merely mention this as a guess, because it is the
usual method adopted by the British officer to hide his incapacity.
Methuen's soldiers are not through to this day damning him for his
conduct in this battle, but we all know that soldiers' words are but
naught in England when a lord speaks. It is an awful shame, but very
true.
Methuen returned to his old camp fully convinced that he had had
enough. He had no desire to try his luck again against Cronje and he
never did. Cronje stopped just where he was for several weeks, looking
for another advance of Methuen, or some other English army. He did not
care how many came, for he was there to fight. I must say this about
General Cronje that he may be thoroughly understood. He is stubbornness
itself, will take advice from no one, is absolutely fearless, and
constantly craves a fight with the English. I do not believe the
world's history can show his equal as a commandant, but as a general he
is an absolute failure. He must have some one over him, and under no
circumstances must he be allowed to command. Order him to take a kopje,
and he is sure to take it. Order him to hold a position, and he is sure
to hold it. Order him to retreat, and he will do it. But put him in
supreme command, and the combined influence of the immortal gods could
not induce him to retreat, it matters not what the odds against him,
or what the circumstances might be. Every drop of blood that courses
through his body literally burns with patriotism, and of the whole
Africander race I believe that General Piet Cronje would be the first
to step forward and lay down his life for the freedom and independence
of his people.
But I must say of General Cronje that he is a man wrapped up in his own
conceit. He considered himself the only great fighter in South Africa,
and, when captured, he is the very man to say that the Boers should
surrender because the great Cronje can no longer lead them. In this
respect he is a fool, but fools often become wise men by experience. If
I should hear that General Cronje was condemning his fellow countrymen
for prolonging the war after his capture, I should not be surprised,
because he is so eaten up with his own importance.
Such is the man, General Piet Cronje, and may he live long, and have,
as a commandant, one more crack at the British, and then I think all
will be well for South Africa!
After the Battle of Magersfontein, General de la Rey was sent to
Colesberg to take command of the forces against General French. General
Piet De Wet and General Schoeman had been fighting French daily, and
had been gradually driven back to their strong defensive position at
Colesberg. The Boer forces were about 2,500 strong, but were divided
into small commands in order to guard a wide extent of country. General
French had only 15,000 men and thirty guns, so he made but small
progress in his advance on Colesberg. The Boers hotly contested every
inch of ground, and almost every one of the little commands did some
daring work. Early in January, General de la Rey arrived and at once
assumed command. Hot skirmishes were now the general order of the day
all along the lines, and on January 25th, west of Colesberg, General
de la Rey had made it so warm for him, that, instead of continuing
to advance, General French changed his mind and retreated. De la Rey
followed him, but never came in touch with him again because he had
left for Cape Town. It seems that after the Battle of Magersfontein,
Lord Roberts became much frightened at the presence of Cronje and
called for help.
French was ordered to report to him at once, and left early in January
to help Roberts out of his troubles. General Clements took French's
place, but could do no better than his predecessor against de la Rey.
On February 11th, the Battle of Slingersfontein was fought. It lasted
for many hours and was stubbornly contested by both sides, but in the
end de la Rey proved too much for him, and General Clements fled to
Arundel, forgetting to take his camp with him. The burghers were hungry
and thirsty and this camp amply satisfied all their wants. General de
la Rey was now directed to return to the Modder River and co-operate
with General Cronje against General Roberts and his mighty army. During
his short period of operating about Colesberg he had captured some 500
prisoners, driven French's army back and made good his record of never
having been defeated.
In a few weeks after Magersfontein, General Cronje saw that the
British were appearing in thousands in all directions, and he finally
made up his mind to move his little command to Paardeberg. His very
stubbornness prevented his moving earlier, but he was satisfied. He
saw that he was being gradually but surely surrounded by an enormous
army, yet he never quailed. He was begged by such patriots and great
and competent generals as Christian De Wet, de la Rey, Phillip Botha
and even Com.-Gen. Joubert, of the Transvaal, to get out of the ring
nearly completed about him while he had an opportunity. He utterly
ignored all of them, practically told them to go to Hades, and silenced
them, for he was there to fight, and was going to fight. He did fight,
and can history show anything to compare with it?
[Illustration: GENERAL LORD KITCHENER. One who believes that the only
way to establish permanent peace in South Africa is to destroy the Boer
women and children.]
I am not going into the details of this nine days' fight, but will give
the main features and the result. Here was a common, ordinary farmer,
without any military training or education, in command of a little
more than 4,000 equally untrained farmers, and four or five old Krupp
guns. With him were a great number of refugee Boer women and children,
who had come to him for protection against the insults and outrages of
the British soldiery. Sad to relate, this is the actual truth, yet we
still hear Anglo-Americans speaking of the civilized English. Opposed
to him was the very flower of the English Empire. There were Lord
Roberts, Lord Kitchener, General Kelly-Kenny, that able commander,
Hector MacDonald, General French and many other stars of the British
army. Altogether they had some 50,000 men around General Cronje. These
men were all tried military men, trained and educated. Besides, Lord
Roberts had 120 cannon, field guns and lyddite guns. The British may
tell you that there were mountains there higher than Mount Everest, but
believe me, there are no mountains there whatever. General Cronje and
his little band of patriots were on the banks of the Modder River,
where infantry, cavalry and artillery could manoeuvre without any
difficulty. It was, I think, on the 18th of February that Roberts began
with all his guns to bombard Cronje. Almost continually for nine days,
120 cannon were busy trying to destroy that little band of patriots.
Once Lord Kitchener thought he would play a Khartoum act. He recalled
the time when he charged upon and murdered some 10,000 to 15,000
unarmed negroes at Khartoum, and saw no reason why he could not do the
same thing with 4,000 Boers. He forgot that the negroes were armed
only with sticks, while the Boers had mausers. He advanced boldly, had
hundreds and hundreds of his men slaughtered, and then fled as rapidly
as he could. After the battle had been raging for two or three days,
General Cronje asked for an armistice to bury his dead. Lord Roberts
positively refused. During the whole war the Boers never once denied
the English an armistice for that purpose, although they knew that
the English, in every instance, took advantage of it to strengthen
their position. There is a wide difference between a Boer savage and
a civilized Englishman. Give me the former, but deliver me from the
latter!
As Roberts had captured Cronje's ambulance wagons and would not
allow any doctor to go and attend to his wounded, and as he was not
permitted to bury his dead, of course, the condition of the camp
became such that the women and children could not endure it; and the
Boers too were suffering on account of it, so Cronje's commandants
and veldcornets forced him to hoist the white flag on February 27th.
The battle was over and Lord Roberts had Cronje and his 4,000 men
as prisoners of war. No doubt General Cronje would have been shot
had there not been about 750 British officers and 4,000 soldiers as
prisoners of war in Pretoria. This alone saved the old patriot's life,
and we all know it.
On receiving the first news of the capture of the great Cronje and his
army by the wonderful Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief, A.B.C.D.E.,
etc., all London took a holiday, went crazy mad, and the papers put
out their posters showing that Cronje with 15,000 or 20,000 or 30,000
"dirty" Boers had been captured. When they finally learned that Cronje
had only 4,000 men against Lord Robert's big army, all slunk their
heads and retired to their homes. What Lord Roberts considered his
greatest victory the world at large considered his greatest defeat.
What the English losses were we do not know, and I know that the
English people do not know either, for Mr. Chamberlain says that the
death lists are not yet completed. If the complete returns are ever
made known, I think we shall see that Roberts had as many men put out
of action as Cronje had in his command. General Cronje had about
seventy men killed and about three times that number wounded.
I will now go to Stormberg and Aliwal North, the two really most
important points on the Free State border, for here was the easy and
natural way for the English to reach Bloemfontein.
At the beginning of the war the English occupied and well fortified
Stormberg, and this was the only sensible thing they did. After a
few weeks occupation, they, for some reason unknown to me, abandoned
this position and fell back to Molteno. Of course the Boers lost no
time in taking possession of the good work the English had done and
abandoned. Generals Olivier and Grobler were there, and old General
Hendrik Schoeman was near at hand. Schoeman was a fraud and afterwards
joined the English to be blown up by a supposed empty lyddite shell in
his home in Pretoria while engaged in a plot with others against his
people. That empty shell had a little lyddite caked in the bottom, and
Schoeman, having struck a match and lighted his pipe, threw the still
burning match into the empty shell. An explosion followed, tearing out
the side of the building, killing Schoeman, another traitor by the name
of Van Der Merwe, and Schoeman's daughter, and seriously wounding old
man Viljoen. This proves that it is a good thing for traitors to make
useful souvenirs of empty lyddite shells. It was a source of regret to
all, however, that Miss Schoeman should have entered the room just as
the explosion took place, and lost her life.
Both Grobler and Olivier were good officers and did good work. The
total Boer force was less than a thousand with which they had to oppose
General Gatacre and 3,000 men. Besides, Gatacre had six or eight
cannon, as well as several maxims. Few shots were fired by either
side until the 10th of December, when General Gatacre attacked. The
fighting was very hot while it lasted, but it did not continue long
before Gatacre saw his little army cut into pieces, and in a rapid and
disorderly retreat to Molteno. In addition to his severe loss in dead
and wounded, two cannon and over 600 of his men were taken. Before this
battle all the English and Colonial papers were full of the wonderful
deeds and the great capacity of this distinguished soldier, General
Gatacre, and it was certain that he would make a skip to Stormberg and
then a jump and land in Bloemfontein, leaving nothing but dead Boers
behind him. The British officer is a wonderful genius on paper, but a
very weak sister on the battlefield. General Gatacre did a great deal
in this district towards the ultimate independence of South Africa; for
the number of men he arrested, charged as spies and then shot, is very
great, and all their names are dearly cherished in the hearts of the
Africanders. This battle finished the great Gatacre; at any rate, we
never heard of him again during the war.