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[Illustration: SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.S.I.
_From a Photograph by Window & Grove_]
Four Months Besieged
THE STORY OF LADYSMITH
BEING UNPUBLISHED LETTERS
FROM
H.H.S. PEARSE
THE 'DAILY NEWS' SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
_WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS MADE BY THE
AUTHOR_
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1900
_All rights reserved_
PREFACE
The siege of Ladysmith will long remain in the memories of the age. The
annals of war furnish the record of many fierce struggles, in which men
and women have undergone sufferings more terrible and possibly shown a
devotion rising to sublimer heights. But the Boer War of 1899-1900 will
mark an epoch, and throughout its opening stage of four months the minds
of men, and the hopes and fears of the whole British race, centred upon
the little town in mid-Natal where Sir George White with his army
maintained a valiant resistance against a strenuous and determined foe
without, and disease and hunger and death within, until, to use his own
words, that slow-moving giant John Bull should pass from his slumber and
bestir himself to take back his own. For that reason alone the story of
Ladysmith will remain memorable. But it is a story which is brilliant in
brave deeds, which tells of danger boldly faced, of noble self-sacrifice
to duty, in calm endurance of many and growing evils--a story worth the
telling. Yet so far it has been told only in the necessarily disjointed
telegrams and letters of the press correspondents in the town. Native
runners who were captured and otherwise went astray, and the ruthless
pencil of the censor, were accountable for many gaps. Two or three of
the letters contained in the following pages escaped these perils, and
were published in the columns of the _Daily News_. The rest of the book
now appears for the first time.
The volume consists of pages from the letters and diaries of Mr. Henry
H.S. Pearse, the Special Correspondent of the _Daily News_. Mr. Pearse
was in Natal when the war broke out, and he was in Ladysmith during the
whole of the siege. He was fortunate enough to enjoy good health
throughout, and though he had some narrow escapes he was never hit. His
letters contain a complete story of the siege.
_April 1900._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I PAGE
INTRODUCTORY
The declaration of war--Sir George White and the defence of
Natal--The force at Glencoe--Battle of Talana Hill--General
Yule's retirement--Battle of Elandslaagte--Useless victories--
The enemy's continued advance 1
CHAPTER II
LOMBARD'S KOP AND NICHOLSON'S NEK
General White forced to fight--The order of battle--Leviathan--
The Boers reinforced--A retrograde movement--How Marsden met his
death--Naval guns in action--A night of disaster--Who showed the
white flag?--A truce declared--A humiliating position 5
CHAPTER III
LADYSMITH INVESTED
The exodus of the townsfolk--Communications threatened--Slim
Piet Joubert--Espionage in the town--Neglected precautions--A
truce that paid--British positions described--Big guns face to
face--Boers hold the railways--French's reconnaissance--The
General's flitting--A gauntlet of fire--An interrupted telegram--
Death of Lieutenant Egerton--"My cricketing days are over"--Under
the enemy's guns--"A shell in my room"--Colonials in action--The
sacrifice of valuable lives 15
CHAPTER IV
EARLY DAYS OF THE SIEGE
Moral effects of shell fire--General White appeals to Joubert--
The neutral camp--Attitude of civilians--Meeting at the Town
Hall--A veteran's protest--Faith in the Union Jack--An impressive
scene--Removal of sick and wounded--Through the Boer lines--How
the posts were manned--Enemy mounting big guns--More about the
spies--Boer war ethics--In an English garden--Throwing up
defences--A gentlemanly monster--The Troglodytes--Humorous and
pathetic--"Long Tom" and "Lady Anne"--Links in the chain of fire--
A round game of ordnance 30
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST BOER ASSAULT
Joubert's boast--The preliminaries of attack--Shells in the town--
A simultaneous advance--Observation Hill threatened--A wary
enemy--A prompt repulse--Attack on Tunnel Hill--The colour-sergeant's
last words--Manchesters under fire--Prone behind boulders--A Royal
salute--The Prince of Wales's birthday--Stretching the Geneva
Convention--The redoubtable Miss Maggie--The Boer Foreign Legion--
Renegade Irishmen--A signal failure 58
CHAPTER VI
A MONTH UNDER SHELL FIRE
The first siege-baby--An Irish-American deserter--A soldierly
grumble--Boer cunning and Staff-College strategy--An ammunition
difficulty--The tireless cavalry--A white flag incident--What
the Boer Commandant understood--The Natal summer--Mere sound
and fury--Boer Sabbatarianism--Naval guns at work--"Puffing
Billy" of Bulwaan--Intrepid Boer gunners--The barking of
"Pom-Poms"--Another reconnaissance--"Like scattered bands of Red
Indians"--A futile endeavour--A night alarm--Recommended for the
V.C.--A man of straw in khaki--The Boer search-light--Shelling
of the hospital--General White protests--The first woman hit--
General Hunter's bravado--"Long Tom" knocked out--A gymkhana
under fire--Faith, Hope, and Charity--Flash signals from the
south--A new Creusot gun 69
CHAPTER VII
THE SORTIES OF DECEMBER
Retribution--Sir Archibald Hunter's bold scheme--A night attack--
Silently through the darkness--At the foot of Gun Hill--A broken
ascent--"Wie kom dar?" "The English are on us!"--Major Henderson
thrice wounded--Destroying "Leviathan"--Hussars suffer under
fire--Rejoicings in town--Sir George White's address to the
troops--Boer compliments--A raid for provender--A second sortie--
The Rifles' bold enterprise--An unwelcome light--Cutting the
wires--Surprise Hill reached--The sentry's challenge--Rifles'
charge with the bayonet--Boer howitzer destroyed--The return to
camp--Cutting the way home--Serious losses 103
CHAPTER VIII
AFTER COLENSO
The Town-Guard called out--Echoes of Colenso--Heliograms from
Buller--The Boers and Dingaan's Day--Disappointing news--Special
correspondents summoned--Victims of the bombardment--Shaving
under shell fire--Tea with Lord Ava--Boer humour: "Where is
Buller?"--Sir George White's narrow escape--A disastrous shot--
Fiftieth day of the siege--Grave and gay--"What does England
think of us?"--Stoical artillerymen--The moral courage of
caution--How Doctor Stark was killed--Serious thoughts--Gordons
at play--Boers watch the match--A story by the way--"My name is
Viljoen"--How Major King won his liberty--A tribute to Boer
hospitality--"We rely on your Generals"--General White and
Schalk-Burger--A coward chastised--"Sticking it out" 128
CHAPTER IX
A CHRISTMAS UNDER SIEGE
Husbanding supplies--Colonel Ward's fine work--Our Christmas
market--A scanty show--Some startling prices--A word to cynics--
The compounding of plum-puddings--The strict rules of
temperance--Boer greetings "per shell"--A lady's narrow escape--
Correspondents provide sport--"Ginger" and the mules--The sick
and wounded--Some kindly gifts--Christmas tree for the children--
Sir George White and the little ones--"When the war is over"--Some
empty rumours--A fickle climate--Eight officers killed and
wounded--More messages from Buller--Booming the old year out 155
CHAPTER X
THE GREAT ASSAULT
Why the Boers attacked--Interesting versions--A general surprise--
Joubert's promise--Boer tactics reconsidered--Erroneous estimates--
Under cover of night--A bare-footed advance--The Manchesters
surprised--The fight on Waggon Hill--In praise of the Imperial
Light Horse--A glorious band--The big guns speak--Lord Ava falls--
Gordons and Rifles to the rescue--A perilous position--The death of
a hero--A momentary panic--Man to man--A gallant enemy--Burghers
who fell fighting--The storming of Cæsar's Camp--Shadowy forms in
the darkness--An officer captured--"Maak Vecht!"--Abdy's guns in
play--"Well done, gunners!"--Taking water to the wounded--
Dick-Cunyngham struck down--Some anxious moments--The Devons charge
home--A day well won 180
CHAPTER XI
WATCHING FOR BULLER
Sir Redvers Buller's second attempt--A message from the Queen--Last
sad farewells--Burial of Steevens and Lord Ava--At dead of night--
Relief army north of the Tugela--Water difficulties surmised--A
look in at Bulwaan--Spion Kop from afar--What the watchers saw--
The Boers trekking--Buller withdraws--The "key" thrown away--
Good-bye to luxuries--Precautions against disease--"Chevril"--The
damming of the Klip--Horseflesh unabashed--One touch of pathos--
Vague memories of home--Sweet music from the south--Buller tries
again--Disillusionment--The last pipe of tobacco 209
CHAPTER XII
AFTER ONE HUNDRED DAYS
Boer pæan of victory--Rations cut down--Sausage without mystery--
The "helio" moves east--Sick and dying at Intombi--Famine prices
at market--Laughter quits the camps--A kindly thing by the enemy--
Good news at last--Heroes in tatters--The distant tide of battle--
Pulse-like throb of rifles--Two sons for the Empire--British
infantry on Monte Cristo--Boer ambulances moving north--"'Ave you
'eard the noos?"--Rations increased--Bulwaan strikes his tents--
"With a rifle and a red cross"--Buller "going strong"--Cronje's
surrender--A sorry celebration--"A beaten army in full retreat"--
"Puffing Billy" dismantled--General Buller's message--belief at
hand 224
CHAPTER XIII
RELIEF AT LAST
The beginning of the end--Buller's last advance--Heroic
Inniskillings--The coming of Dundonald--A welcome at Klip River
Drift--A weather-stained horseman--The Natal troopers--Cheers
and tears--A grand old General--Sir George White's address--
"Thank God, we have kept the flag flying!"--"God save the Queen"--
Arrival of Buller--Looking backward--Within four days of
starvation--Horseflesh a mere memory--Eight hundred sick and
wounded--A word of tribute--Conclusion 237
ILLUSTRATIONS
Sir George Stewart White, V.C., G.C.S.I. (from a
photograph by Window & Grove) _Frontispiece_
The Royal Hotel, Ladysmith (showing the ruins of
Mr. Pearse's bedroom wrecked by a shell from "Long
Tom," 3rd Nov. 1899) _Face page 26_
A shell-proof resort (a culvert under a road used
as a living place by day for civilians, who returned
to their houses when the shelling ceased after sunset) 50
The British position at Ladysmith (looking north towards
Rietfontein and the Newcastle Road) 96
The British position at Ladysmith (looking nearly due south) 128
The British position at Ladysmith (looking south-east) 162
The British position at Ladysmith (looking eastward) 202
PLANS
Sketch-map of positions round Ladysmith, Nov. 1899 _Face page 60_
Siege of Ladysmith, after two months of bombardment 175
The environs of Ladysmith 180
Military map of Ladysmith _End of vol._
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The declaration of war--Sir George White and the defence of
Natal--The force at Glencoe--Battle of Talana Hill--General Yule's
retirement--Battle of Elandslaagte--Useless victories--Enemy's
continued advance.
Before taking up the history of the siege proper it will be well here to
pass briefly in review the events which led up to the isolation and
investment of Ladysmith. When war was declared by the Government of the
Transvaal in its despatch of the 9th October 1899, it found Her
Majesty's Government in very great measure unprepared. A month earlier,
however, reinforcements of 10,000 troops had been ordered to Natal from
India and elsewhere, and the major part of these were already in the
Colony. General Sir George White, who had arrived at Durban on 7th
October, had strongly advocated the abandonment of the northern district
of Natal, but allowed himself to be overborne by the urgent
representations of Sir W.F. Hely-Hutchinson, who believed the withdrawal
would involve grave political results. Sir William Penn Symons believed
that the districts in question could be defended by a comparatively
small force, and he was allowed to make the experiment. At that time
there were with him at Glencoe three battalions of infantry, a brigade
division of the Royal Artillery, the 18th Hussars, and a small body of
mounted infantry. The enemy crossed the borders immediately upon the
expiry of the term stipulated in the ultimatum, and on the 20th October
was fought the battle of Talana Hill.
This first battle of the campaign demonstrated at once the soundness of
Sir George White's views. General Symons's little army worthily
maintained the military traditions of their race, and in the face of a
terrible fire from modern rifles, in the hands of the stubbornest of
foes, rushed the enemy's position and swept him from the heights. But
victory demanded heavy toll. The gallant commander nobly expiated the
mistaken judgment which had led him so seriously to underrate the
strength of the invaders, and nearly forty officers killed, wounded, and
taken prisoners, figured on a list of about 430 casualties. So heavy a
price was paid for a brief success and the knowledge that the enemy was
too strong to make it safe to hold the Glencoe position longer.
General Yule, who now took command of the column, abandoned his camp on
the 22nd October, and withdrew by a circuitous route to Ladysmith,
which was reached on the 26th. In the meantime, however, on the 21st,
the Boers marched from the north-west, having cut the railway and
captured a train of supplies at Elandslaagte to the north of Ladysmith.
Sir George White therefore ordered out a force, under General French, to
clear them from the line and to restore communication. Here again the
hostile positions were stormed with reckless gallantry, and the Boers
were swept back in headlong flight, suffering heavy losses. But again
our loss, especially in officers, was very serious, and again it soon
became apparent that victory, quite apart from the price of it, had not
improved our position. The Boers, thrust back for the moment at one
point, steadily continued their advance. General White's force was again
engaged on the 24th October, when, in order to prevent the enemy
crossing the Newcastle road from west to east, and falling on the flank
of General Yule's retiring column, an attack was made in force upon the
enemy at Rietfontein, near Elandslaagte, and the Boers, after six hours'
fighting, were driven from the hills.
The object aimed at was thus secured. Whether, had the effort been
pushed home, a definite check might at this stage have been imposed upon
the Boer advance, is doubtful. Stopping where it did, it did not prevent
the steady and unceasing movements of the enemy to surround Ladysmith.
One more fight and they were to circle the town in a ring of metal
which was long to withstand all the blows that could be levelled against
it. The battle of Lombard's Kop, or Farquhar's Farm, as it is officially
styled, ended in disaster to the British arms, and drew tight the
threads in the entanglement of Ladysmith. The evil fortunes of the day
were described vividly by Mr. Pearse in a letter written on the
following day.