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.
The reconnaissance under General Brocklehurst, above described,
brought home to the garrison of Ladysmith their utter helplessness
to prevent the isolation and investment of the town. Any doubt that
may have lingered among them or the civil inhabitants was dispelled
by the action promptly taken by Sir George White to try and secure
the safety of these latter and his sick and wounded. The
circumstances are related by Mr. Pearse in a letter dated 5th
November:--
Sunday, _5th November_.--There can be no doubt about the first effects
of shell-fire on a beleaguered town. Let men try to disguise the fact as
they may, it gets on the nerves of the most courageous among us,
producing a sense of helplessness in the presence of danger. Nobody
likes sitting still to be battered at without power of effective reply.
Still less would he be content to stand inactive by while the wounded
and defenceless were being shelled. These considerations no doubt
influenced Sir George White yesterday when he sent a message to General
Joubert asking that non-combatants with sick and wounded might be
allowed to leave Ladysmith without molestation. It must have been
bitterly humiliating for a soldier in command of ten or twelve thousand
British troops, who have been twice victorious in battle, to feel that
one reverse had resulted in making him a suitor for so much favour at
the hands of an adversary. Whether the request ought ever to have been
made or not, to say nothing of whether we ought to have been in the
abject position of having to make it, is a question about which most
civilians are at variance with the military authorities, seeing that the
answer was a foregone conclusion. Its exact purport we do not know yet,
but it amounted to a flat refusal, as most of us had foreseen, and was
accompanied by alternative proposals which placed Joubert in the
position of a potential conqueror--dictating terms, and our acceptance
of these cannot be read by the Boers in any other light than as an
admission of weakness or pusillanimity. Of course we know that it means
nothing of the kind, but simply that Sir George White would not expose
sick and wounded, with helpless women, children, and non-combatants
generally, to the possible horrors of a prolonged bombardment. So long
as they remained in town he would be righting with one hand tied,
because he could not in that case place batteries in certain
advantageous positions without the risk of drawing fire from Boer guns
on Ladysmith and its civilian inhabitants. Whether this state of things
has been mended much by Sir George White's acceptance of Boer conditions
and Ladysmith's practical repudiation of them may well be doubted. As
the matter is generally understood, General Joubert, while declining to
grant Sir George's request, consented that a neutral camp for sick,
wounded, and non-combatants should be formed at Intombi Spruit, five
miles out on the railway line to Colenso, and practically within the
Boer lines. They were to be supplied with food, water, and all
necessaries from Ladysmith by train daily, under the white flag, and to
be on parole not to take any part thenceforth in this war.
As a set-off against these conditions, Joubert undertook that the camp
should not be fired upon by any of his men, or its occupants molested,
so long as they observed the regulations imposed upon them. And he
promised further that they should all be released, but still on parole,
whenever the siege of Ladysmith might be raised or the Boer forces
withdrawn. He gave no pledge, however, that his batteries should not be
placed in such a position that they would be screened by the hospital
camp from the fire of our guns, or that when he might choose to attack,
the Boer forces would not advance from a point where we could not shoot
at them without danger of sending shells and bullets among our own
comrades and fellow-subjects.
Ladysmith's most representative men were dead against the acceptance of
conditions which seemed to them all in favour of one side. They
expressed freely, and without reserve, doubts as to General Joubert's
good faith, and saw in his proposals only fresh instances of Boer
cunning. Their sturdy manhood rebelled against arbitrary terms dictated
by an enemy whose superiority, except in mere numbers, they naturally
enough declined to admit. The weaker spirits might yield, if they would,
out of timid respect for "Long Tom" and other heavy artillery, the
shells from which, though they have done little harm so far, have a
distinctly demoralising effect when they come screeching through the air
and crashing into houses day after day.
In earlier stages of the bombardment people showed little alarm after
they had got over the first shock of hearing a shell burst. Children
were allowed to play about the streets, and women went shopping,
according to the custom of their sex all the world over. Kaffir girls
stood in groups at street corners, swaying their bodies as they beat
noiseless time with their bare feet to the monotonous drone of
mouth-organs or Jews'-harps, which most of them carry strung about their
necks, wherewith to banish dull care in the many moments of leisure
snatched from toil, and beaming broad smiles on every dusky swain who
passed. But the rumour got about that General Joubert had threatened to
bombard the town indiscriminately if our guns fired lyddite at his
batteries, and this threat had unknown terrors for the simple, who did
not realise that, whether discriminately or indiscriminately, Boer
shells would continue to fall in Ladysmith streets all the same.
So far as I can find out, General Joubert never sent such a foolish
message, but the rumour--possibly put about by Boer agents--served its
purpose by inducing a timorousness in some minds, and men who had no
fear for themselves began to get very anxious about the safety of wives
and children. That was the keynote of a speech made by Mr. Farquhar at
the public meeting yesterday, when he, as Mayor of Ladysmith, made
official announcement of General Joubert's proposals. Mr. Farquhar is a
cautious Scotsman, whose sense of responsibility in such a crisis would
compel him to put the gravest phase of the case first. The Boer
conditions, however, met with nothing but indignant protests, nobody
venturing to raise his voice in favour of them except by way of comment
on the utterances of some fiery orator, who was for asking the General
to send back threats of dire punishment on every Boer if a shot should
be fired into the town. Mr. Charles Jones, who was a transport rider in
the Boer war of 1881, and carried Sir Evelyn Wood's despatches through
the enemy's lines to a beleaguered garrison, was first to express in
calm, manly words what was afterwards found to be the general feeling of
the townsmen present at that meeting. Mr. Jones has won the respect of
every Englishman who knows him by the steadfastness with which he stuck
to his post when others were seeking safety in migration to Maritzburg
or Durban. With firm faith in the leader under whom, as a volunteer, he
saw active service, Mr. Jones believes that we should see our
difficulties through, without asking or accepting doubtful favours from
a foe. Somebody in the crowd ventured to say, "But your wife and
children are not here now." "No," was the answer; "and I have no wish
nor right to speak for fathers and husbands, who are at liberty to do as
they please. But I can still say that if my wife and children were here,
I would rather they should trust to protection under the Union Jack with
British soldiers than under the white flag at Joubert's mercy."
There were men in that crowd who had to speak for those near and dear to
them. Anxious-eyed and pale, with muscles knit into hard lines on their
faces, one after another declared in voices that may have faltered, but
still rang true as steel, that they and theirs would face their fate
under the Union Jack. Archdeacon Barker, who has been ceaseless in his
ministrations among the afflicted since fighting began, gave eloquent
expression to the prevalent sentiment, as one who had kith and kin
about him, and finished by saying that he would neither go to the camp
selected by General Joubert, nor allow his wife and family to go. To
this conclusion the meeting also came by general agreement, the
dissentient minority being still free to do as they wished, except that
no man who had taken up arms in defence of Ladysmith could accept the
terms offered by General Joubert. Then the people gave three lusty
cheers, and ended by singing "God Save the Queen," with an effect, the
impressiveness of which was deepened by the thought that within a few
hours Ladysmith would be under bombardment from all the thundering
artillery our enemy could muster. But the resolution of this public
meeting made no difference to Sir George White's decision, which was a
practical acceptance of the terms formulated.
To-day has passed in peace, but marked by a very natural depression as
we have seen train after train laden with sick, wounded, and
non-combatants, go out to the neutral camp at Intombi Spruit, where
these people will have to remain under a white flag so long as this
humiliating investment of Ladysmith may last. To make the matter worse
they were sent out at first with insufficient supplies for urgent needs,
and with so few attendants that tents for all could not be pitched the
same night. Even now many non-combatants have to lie in small patrol
tents of thin canvas with a double slope, under the ridge of which
there is barely room for a child to stand upright, and the camp is
placed on ground so flat, near the river bank, that heavy rains might
convert it into a mere swamp. There, however, General Joubert decided
that the neutral camp must be pitched, and those who were too weak or
spiritless to help themselves, must needs be thankful for such gracious
concessions. Some, not quite satisfied with the protection this affords,
are digging burrows deep into clay banks by the river side, where they
will be even more liable to be flooded out. In strict justice it must be
said that many sick and wounded went out, not of their own free will,
but because, being under medical care, they had no option. The result of
this is that men suffering from slight ailments, or whose wounds would
not incapacitate them from duty longer than a week or so, are virtually
prisoners of war, only to be released at the pleasure of the Boers, or
until we reclaim them by force of arms. These are unpleasant things to
write, but they are true none the less.
The Boer guns have preserved all along an absolute silence, which was
not broken on our side until ten at night, when a sentry set off his
rifle. This roused the whole camp, and soldiers everywhere stood to
their arms until the cause of this false alarm was discovered.
_November 6._--At daybreak this morning, Second Lieutenant Hopper, 5th
Lancers, came into camp, having got through the Boer lines by a ruse as
clever as it was sportsmanlike. He brought despatches from the General
commanding at Estcourt. His difficulties show that though a soldier may
get through the Boer lines, they are now tightening round us, and unless
a British force strong enough to break through can be assembled quickly,
we are in for a long siege here. Nobody gave the Boers credit for so
much enterprise, and if Sir George White made a mistake, as I think he
did, in not sending all the women and children away from Ladysmith when
Dundee was abandoned, this error probably arose from faulty information,
for which those who thought they knew the Boers and their resources were
in the first instance responsible.
Our defences begin to take shape, so that their strong and weak points
can be estimated. Southward is a long brown hog-backed hill, which the
local people call Bester's Ridge, though military authorities divide it
into Cæsar's Camp, with Maiden's Castle forming a spur in the inner
curve towards Ladysmith, and Waggon Hill. Altogether it is three miles
in length, and being the key of the position will want holding. For that
purpose the trusty Manchester battalion is placed there, having roughly
constructed sangars for rallying points. This ridge forms one horn of
the roughly-shaped horse-shoe which I have already spoken of, the toe of
which sweeps round from Maiden's Castle in low but rugged kopjes
overlooking slopes of open veldt to where Klip River loops the old camp
which, being constructed of corrugated iron, is called "Tin Town." That
would be a weak point, but that it is protected by an outlying kopje
known as Rifleman's Post on the far side of the river. This is occupied
by a small body of the King's Royal Rifles, the other companies of which
hold King's Post, an eminence from which the northern horn of the
horse-shoe bends along by Cove Ridge, Junction Hill, Tunnel Hill, and
Cemetery Hill, to Helpmakaar Hill. Here the Devons are posted at the
heel of the shoe, which juts into a scrubby flat pointing towards the
neck between Lombard's Kop and Bulwaan. These hills are respectively
four and five miles distant from our outworks. Bulwaan stands across the
opening afar off like a huge, bevelled, flat-topped bar placed, as it
might be, for a horse-shoe magnet to attract it. The whole curve of our
defensive works must stretch nearly nine miles. In addition, there is an
undefended opening nearly two miles long, where the straggling town lies
naked to its enemies, or rather screened by nothing more formidable than
belts of mimosa, Australian willow, and eucalyptus trees. Between the
town and Bulwaan, however, flows Klip River, with many windings through
a broad plain, mostly pasturage, but with mimosa scrub closing it in
towards the gorge where river and railway converge at Intombi Spruit.
Long as our defensive line is for 10 or 12,000 men to occupy
effectively, it must be held at all costs, and a post must be kept on
Observation Hill north-west of the Cove Ridge, for if once the Boers got
possession of that kopje they might make other positions untenable. As
matters stand, they have planted guns on an outer ring of hills, whence
they can throw shells into the town. Sir George White was blamed for
giving up Lombard's Kop and Bulwaan, but these could not have been held
without weakening more important points. They seemed, moreover, too far
off to serve as artillery positions for the enemy's smaller guns, and
almost inaccessible for big Creusot 94-pounders. Against attacks by
riflemen from that direction the hard plain is a sufficient obstacle.
Any body of Boers attempting to cross that open could be met by
overwhelming infantry fire and the shrapnel of field-batteries. The idea
that Bulwaan is beyond effective range of anything but the heaviest
artillery has, however, been dispelled to-day. The enemy got a high
velocity 40-pounder into position there, and its shell, travelling
faster than sound, whistles over the town, to burst near the balloon
detachment which is moving with the guy ropes up a valley towards the
outer defences. This gun must have a range of nearly six miles, and we
have nothing that can reach it but our naval 4.7-inch and 12-pounders
mounted on Junction Hill, both of which have enough to do in keeping
down the fire of "Long Tom" of Pepworth's Hill.
_November 8._--In previous letters and telegrams I have referred
frequently to the presence of known Boer sympathisers who were suspected
of being in constant communication with our enemies. No steps were taken
to test the truth of these suspicions until numberless facts, which the
most sceptical could not ignore, proved that every movement made by our
troops within or near the camp was known very soon afterwards to Boers
outside, who could not have discovered these things by mere observation
without the aid of secret agents. Several people were understood to be
shadowed, but nothing came of this except an order that no person should
be allowed to remain in Ladysmith without an official permit. This was
practically set at naught by farmers, who considered themselves free to
enter and leave the town without let or hindrance, until it was
practically surrounded by Boers, and they often gathered about the hotel
doors listening furtively to every scrap of gossip or news that fell
from officers.
At length the course was taken that might have saved much trouble if put
into practice days earlier, by making peremptory the order that all
non-residents who could not show the necessary permit to remain should
clear out within twenty-four hours, or be subject to arrest and
imprisonment. At the same time a warning went round that none would,
after the allotted time, be allowed to pass our outposts coming or
going, and so perforce many who would have been glad to get away
remained, having missed their last chance of going southwards by train.
What has become of them since then I do not know, unless they have taken
refuge with non-combatants, and sick and wounded, in the neutral camp.
At any rate, they are not here now, and that is something to be thankful
for, though they could give little information to the enemy, except that
shelling has done surprisingly little harm, and killed or wounded very
few in proportion to the enormous number of projectiles thrown. This in
spite of good guns, aimed with most accurate skill, is attributable
solely to the fact that the shells were too weakly charged to burst with
much destructive effect.
But the spies--for they were certainly nothing less--had done their work
in locating every point of military importance or personal interest in
Ladysmith, and it is hardly possible to doubt that this knowledge was
imparted to Boer gunners, who promptly began training their heaviest
artillery in the direction of supply depots, ordnance stores,
headquarters, intelligence offices, and other places not visible from
the enemy's positions, though within easy range of, and therefore
commanded by them, if the gunners knew exactly where to aim so that
projectiles might drop over intervening houses and trees. When the most
destructive shell burst in my bedroom most people regarded it as an
accidentally erratic shot, intended for some other mark. Those who
suggested that time and place had been deliberately chosen because
Colonel Frank Rhodes, Doctor Jameson, Sir John Willoughby, General
French with his staff, and other officers, were known to have lunched in
the Royal Hotel on several previous days, met with nothing but ridicule.
Colonel Rhodes especially made light of the idea that any gun could
shoot so accurately as to get within a few feet of hitting the exact
mark aimed at from a range of nearly five miles. Since then, however,
the hotel has been nearly struck several times, and on each occasion
about the same hour, so that the most sceptical are now changing their
opinions in favour of a belief that the Royal Hotel has been marked for
destruction. Out of consideration for other guests, therefore, Colonel
Rhodes, "the Doctor," Sir John Willoughby, and Lord Ava have taken up
their quarters elsewhere.
It may be a mere coincidence, but since their departure shells have
fallen less frequently in this part of the town, though a great many
have passed close over the Town Hall, on which a Red Cross flag floats,
denoting its use as a refuge for sick and wounded, and the Convent
Hospital, conspicuously placed on a ridge behind, has been completely
wrecked inside. Fortunately, however, the convalescent patients and
nurses were got away before that happened. It will probably be pleaded
in justification of the Boers that these buildings, being directly in
the line of fire behind our naval batteries, were liable to be hit by
high shots from "Long Tom." The same excuse, however, cannot be made in
other cases when shells fell among houses that are not in line with any
defensive work, camp, or arsenal. One cannot suppose that a mere desire
for wanton destruction of life and property directed the shots, which
were probably aimed on the off-chance of hitting officers known or
believed to be living in those houses. That would be sufficient
justification according to all the accepted ethics of war, and some
military men contend even that the Boers would be quite right to shell
Ladysmith until it was reduced to ruins if they hoped to accelerate
thereby the work they have taken in hand. It must be remembered that
Joubert's main object just now is to gain possession of the town, which
it is said he has sworn to capture, and if he thought that end could be
hastened by ceaseless bombardment of the place, involving possible
slaughter of many unarmed people, there is nothing in the law of nations
to prevent him, so long as a military force remains here ostensibly for
the defence of Ladysmith.
So runs the argument, but it would be preposterous to assume that
General Joubert thinks he can reduce British troops to submission or
bring about an evacuation by such feeble means. Sir George White has,
from humane motives, yielded points to his adversary which most of us
would have thought worth fighting for, but he is every inch a gallant
soldier, as we who have watched him under heavy fire all know full
well, and nobody here needs to be assured that he will never surrender
Ladysmith or abandon its stubborn defence as long as there is any reason
for holding it.
Ample provision is made for the safety of all non-combatants, where they
will not be exposed to shell fire from any quarter, or other dangers
except unlikely accidents, and against these no foresight can guard
entirely. There are some people who continue to take all risks rather
than forsake their property by day or night. These, however, are
comparatively few. The great majority got away while there was yet time,
leaving their houses, full of furniture, locked up or in charge of
Kaffir servants. Curiously enough, they were in many cases the first to
suffer loss by shell fire, and are probably now congratulating
themselves on the timely desertion that enabled them to escape worse
evils.
Mr. Fortescue Carter, the most famous of Ladysmith's townsmen, whose
_History of the Boer War in 1881_ is well known, had scarcely left his
home, next door to the Intelligence Department's headquarters, when
shells began to fall in his beautiful garden among rose trees,
hollyhocks, dahlias, verbenas, and other familiar English flowers, which
he cultivated with much care. Neighbours might be content to surround
their houses with fences of almond-scented oleander, and let the hundred
varieties of South African shrubs bloom in wild profusion under the
shadowing eucalyptus tree, but his gardens were laid out with
well-ordered primness, and in them he delighted to see growing the
fragrant flowers that reminded him and his visitors of home life in
England. All this is in danger of becoming a shell-fretted wilderness
now. "Long Tom" once having turned his attention in this direction
continued to pound away until two shots struck the house itself, and,
bursting inside, shattered the dainty contents of several rooms to
atoms.
Meanwhile, in a picturesque, vine-trellised cottage, not fifty yards
off, ladies went about their domestic duties as usual, apparently
oblivious of all danger. One I saw quietly knitting in the cool, shaded
stoep, and her busy needles only stopped for one moment, when a shell
burst in the roadway beyond, then went on again as nimbly as ever. After
the first shock, some people, who seem least fitted to bear a continuous
strain on their nerves, become so accustomed to the hurtling of huge
projectiles through the air that they show no sign of fear when danger
is close to them. Women are often braver than men in these
circumstances. There is one whose courageous example alone keeps native
servants and coolie waiters at their posts, but she, when little more
than a child, saw some of the horrors of the Zulu War, and she speaks
with pride of her father as one of the few farmers who, refusing to quit
their homes, kept wives and families about them, and fought like heroes
in defence of all they held dear.
Not all in Ladysmith are of this heroic temper, but very few make open
parade of fear if they have any, and though precautions are taken
against exposure to unnecessary risks, there is no sign of panic yet.
Soldiers, every one of whom may be very valuable as a fighting unit
before this siege closes, are ordered to protect themselves by such
shelter trenches or bomb-proofs as can be constructed out of loose
stones, sandbags, forage bales, or other material that lies ready at
hand. The works have to be built under shell-fire, but when finished
they will be an inestimable advantage to regiments that occupy day and
night hill-crests where they might be enfiladed by long-range artillery
fire. That risk must, of course, be taken if the enemy's riflemen should
harden their hearts for a determined frontal attack upon any position
supported by flank fire from guns, but until such a critical moment
arrives the men not actually on duty as sentries or outlying pickets
will be little harassed by bursting shells or flying splinters or
showers of shrapnel bullets, if they dig themselves good pits to lie in,
with sufficiently thick coverings overhead.
The 1st Devon battalion, which, as one of the best here, and trusted for
its steadiness in all circumstances, was given the most vulnerable point
to hold, has busied itself in the formation of works that promise to
make Helpmakaar Hill impregnable, though its long, low spur is exposed
to artillery fire from Bulwaan and Lombard's Kop and the scrub-screened
nek between them. The works there show what can be done under
difficulties by a good regiment toiling cheerfully to carry out the
orders of good officers. The original breastworks were traced by
engineers who had in view rather the necessity of throwing up light
defences against rifle fire than the probability that these works would
be battered at by heavy artillery from one side and taken in reverse
from another. It soon became evident that the entrenchments if left in
that state would be untenable, and yet they could not be abandoned
without serious risk that Boers might then be able to advance under
cover near enough to threaten other posts, if not to command by rifle
fire, within twelve hundred yards or so, the heights on which naval guns
are mounted. Only by holding the contours of extreme spurs on Helpmakaar
Hill could the Devons hope to sweep by rifle fire a wide zone of
slightly undulating veldt, and thus command all possible approaches from
Lombard's Kop or Bulwaan in that direction. So they stuck generally to
the lines traced by engineers for their outer defences, but deepened the
trenches, widened the banks in front of them, built bomb-proof
traversers overlaid with balks and earth to neutralise the effects of
enfilading fire, and then began to form for themselves dug-out huts in
which to sleep, with solid earth roofs supported on railway sleepers.
All this means enormous labour, carried on frequently under a galling
cannonade from the enemy's smaller guns, and interrupted occasionally by
the necessity of having to keep down the rifle-fire that comes from a
distant kopje, while standing on the front of these works.
Yesterday, watching a cavalry patrol that tried in vain to feel for a
way through the scrubby nek into more open ground beyond, General
Brocklehurst and his staff were nearly hit by a shell from some
newly-mounted battery the exact position of which could not be located,
for its smokeless powder made no flash that anybody could see in broad
daylight, nor generated even the faintest wreath of vapour. Its
projectile travelled faster than sound, so that the range could not have
been great, but there was nothing by which our own batteries might have
been directed to effective reply. We all abused "Long Tom" at first
because of his unprovoked attack on a defenceless town, but by contrast
with what is known among Devon men as the "Bulwaan Sneak," and among
bluejackets as "Silent Susan," the big Creusot gun with its loud report,
the low velocity of its projectiles, and the puff of white smoke giving
timely warning when a shot is on its way, is regarded as quite a
gentlemanly monster.
Following the example thus set by regiments on the main defensive
positions, others temporarily in reserve have begun to build or dig for
themselves splinter-or bomb-proof retreats, in which they may take
shelter when the shelling becomes too hot. The Imperial Light Horse were
first to hit upon the idea of burrowing into the river-banks. They began
by forming mere niches, in which there was only just room enough for
three or four men to stand huddled together when they heard a shell
coming. Finding, however, that the soil could be easily dug out, they
set gangs of natives to work lengthening the tunnels and connecting them
by "cross drives," in the planning of which several Johannesburg mine
managers found congenial occupation. This went on until the river-bank
for a hundred yards in length was honeycombed by dark caves, in which a
whole regiment might have been hidden with all its ammunition, secure
from shell fire, the walls and roofs being so formed that they needed no
additional support. There was no danger of the stiff alluvial soil
falling in even if a shell had buried itself and burst above the
entrance to any of these cool grottoes.
[Illustration: 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]
I spent half an hour in one of them, and found the air there delightful
by contrast with scorching sunshine outside. What it will be, however,
after many people have been crowded together for some time is less
pleasant to contemplate, but even for that the resourceful Imperial
Light Horse are prepared, and they already begin to talk of air-shafts
so cunningly contrived that light and air may enter, but shells be
rigidly excluded. Civilians in their turn emulate the Light Horse, but
with unequal success, and their excavations assume such primitive
forms that future archæologists may be puzzled to invent satisfactory
explanations of curious differences in the habits of the cave-dwellers
of Ladysmith, as exemplified by the divergent types of their underground
abodes.
And, indeed, these habits are strangely various even as presented to the
eyes of a contemporary student. Some people, having spent much time and
patient labour in making burrows for themselves, find life there so
intolerably monotonous that they prefer to take the chances above
ground. Others pass whole days with wives and families or in solitary
misery where there is not light enough to read or work, scarcely showing
a head outside from sunrise to sunset. They may be seen trooping away
from fragile tin-roofed houses half an hour before daybreak carrying
children in their arms, or a cat, or monkey, or a mongoose, or a cage of
pet birds, and they come back similarly laden when the night gets too
dim for gunners to go on shooting. There would be a touch of humour in
all this if it were not so deeply pathetic in its close association with
possible tragedies. One never knows where or at what hour a stray shot
or splinter will fall, and it is pitiful sometimes to hear cries for
dolly from a prattling mite who may herself be fatherless or motherless
to-morrow. We think as little as possible of such things, putting them
from us with the light comment that they happen daily elsewhere than in
besieged towns, and making the best we can of a melancholy situation.
There are, I believe, many good reasons why Sir George White should
allow his army to be hemmed in here defending a practically deserted
town, apart from the ignominy that abandonment would entail, and it is
probably sound strategy to keep Boer forces here as long as possible
while preparations are being matured for attacking them from other
directions. On the latter point one cannot express an opinion without
full knowledge of the circumstances such as we cannot hope to get while
communications are cut off. But nobody can pretend to regard our present
inaction following investment as anything but a disagreeable necessity,
or affect a cheerful endurance of conditions that become more
intolerable day after day. Now and then we have hopes that the Boers may
risk everything in a general attack with the object of carrying this
place by storm, when they would most certainly be beaten off and lose
heavily.
They did something to encourage this hope yesterday. It began with a
heavy artillery duel between "Long Tom" and the naval gun that is known
as "Lady Anne." After vain attempts to silence our battery, the enemy's
fire, generally so accurate, became wild, several shells going so high
that they struck the convent hospital hundreds of yards in rear. This,
at any rate, is the most charitable explanation of acts that would
otherwise be inexcusable. The Red Cross was at that time, and for days
before, flying above the convent, in which Colonel Dick-Cunyngham and
Major Riddell were patients, under the care of nursing sisters.
Fortunately, good shelter was found for them in the convent cellars
until they could be removed to safer quarters, but before this much of
the upper rooms had been reduced to ruins by persistent shelling. When
the Boers thought they had sufficiently demoralised our defensive forces
by artillery "preparation," a brisk attack by riflemen began to develop
against Maiden's Castle, Cæsar's Camp, and Waggon Hill, a continuous
range forming the southern key to our position, and held by the
Manchester Regiment. Brigadier-General Hamilton and his staff were there
from the outset, ready, if need be, to call up the Gordons in support.
This necessity, however, never arose, though the attack, as I can
testify from personal observation on the spot, was pushed for some time
with great persistence, the Boers trying again and again to creep up by
the western slopes of Waggon Hill, while shells raked the whole face of
Cæsar's Camp to Maiden's Castle, and burst repeatedly among the tents of
the Manchester battalion, without doing serious harm.
A colour-sergeant with only fourteen men defended the crest of Waggon
Hill until nightfall, when the Boers retired sullenly. To repeated
offers of reinforcements the sergeant warmly replied that he had men
enough for the job, and proved it by repelling every attack, the Boers
declining to face the steady fire that was poured upon them whenever
they showed themselves. Colonel Hamilton, however, had a firm conviction
that the Boer movement against that flank was only a feeler for more
determined enterprises to follow, and he accordingly stiffened the
defensive lines there by mounting half a field battery in strong
earthworks during the night, and sending up bodies of mounted infantry
to support the Manchesters.
As the sun was setting in clouded splendour behind Mount Tinwa's noble
crags and peaks, throwing their dark shadows across the lower hills near
us, a flash so quick, that it could hardly be seen, darted from out the
gloom there, and with the crashing report that followed came a shell
plump into one of our most crowded camps. This was evidently from a gun
newly mounted on Blaauwbank. Two other shells burst in quick succession
about the same place, but fortunately nobody was hit. Then, satisfied
with having got the range to a nicety, our enemy left us in undisturbed
quiet for the night, but with an uncomfortable consciousness that fresh
links were being forged in the chain of artillery fire by which
Ladysmith is now completely girdled, for two batteries that cannot be
exactly located have been shelling steadily all day from each end of
Bulwaan, with accurate aim and far-reaching effect, as if to disprove
all the theories that led to the error of abandoning that position.
This morning fallacious prophecies were further shattered by a shell
from works placed far back on the table top of Bulwaan. It did not
demolish anything else, but it makes us very chary now about predicting
what the Boers can or cannot do. Through telescopes they had been
watched building that strong fort, and everybody knew it was being
thrown up as an emplacement for heavy artillery, yet few people thought
that another gun, akin to "Long Tom" in calibre and range, could have
been mounted there so soon, until they saw the dense cloud of smoke from
a black powder charge, and heard the familiar gurgling screech of a big
shell, followed by the thundering report.
"Puffing Billy" was the appropriate name bestowed on this new enemy by
Colonel Rhodes, who has an amusing faculty for applying quaintly
descriptive phrases to every fresh development in this state of siege. I
am told on high authority that the word "siege" is not quite applicable
to our case here, but if the Boers are not sitting down before Ladysmith
in a very leisurely way, intent upon keeping us under bombardment as
long as they may choose to stay, I do not know the meaning of such
movements. It was we who provoked "Puffing Billy" to his first angry
roar by a trial shot from one of our big naval guns into the Bulwaan
battery. "Long Tom" presently joined in the chorus, and it took our two
4.7 quick-firers all their time to keep down that cross-fire. Though
"Lady Anne's" twin-sister had been mounted some days, her voice was
seldom heard, until this morning, when, after a few rounds, "Long Tom"
paid silent homage to her sway, and in celebration of that temporary
knock-out, Captain Lambton christened his new pet "Princess Victoria,"
but the bluejackets called it by another name, to indicate their faith
in its destructive effect.
It was interesting to watch these weapons at work. Their gunners would
wait until they saw a flash from "Long Tom" or "Puffing Billy" and then
fire, their shells getting home first by two or three seconds, owing to
the greater velocity imparted by cordite charges. Soon after ten o'clock
the enemy's artillery fire from different directions grew brisker. The
damage, whatever it may have been, inflicted on "Long Tom," or his crew,
having been made good under cover of a white flag, which the Boers seem
to think they are at liberty to use whenever it suits them, Rietfontein
called to Bulwaan, and Blaauwbank in the west echoed the dull boom that
came from the distant flat-topped hill in the east. Then along our main
positions, against the Leicesters and Rifles on one side, and the
Manchesters on another, an attack by rifles developed quickly.
Intermittently these skirmishes lasted most of the day, our enemy never
pressing his attack home, but contenting himself with long-range
shooting from good cover. Neither heavy guns nor small arms did much
damage. Major Grant, R.E., of the Intelligence Staff, was slightly
wounded as he sat coolly sketching the scene of hostilities as he saw it
from the front of Cæsar's Camp. A lieutenant of the Manchesters and
three men of the Leicester Regiment were also hit by rifle bullets or
shell splinters, but none very seriously.