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.
From the first moment of complete investment here my belief (continues
Mr. Pearse, writing on 9th November) has been that the Boers would never
venture to push an infantry attack against this place to the point of a
determined assault. This opinion is strengthened by to-day's events. Yet
it is said that Joubert believes he could take Ladysmith by a _coup de
main_ at any time were it not for his fear of mines, which he believes
have been secretly laid at many points round our positions. His riflemen
certainly did not come close enough to test the truth of this belief
to-day, but contented themselves with shooting from very safe cover at
long ranges. If they could have shaken our troops at any point they
would doubtless have taken advantage of it to push forward and take up
other equally sheltered positions, whence they might have practised
their peculiar tactics with possibly greater effect. These methods,
however, lack the boldness necessary for an assault on positions held by
disciplined troops, and having no single objective they are gradually
frittered away in isolated and futile skirmishes, whereby the defenders
are to some extent harassed, but the defences in no way imperilled.
Our enemies began at five o'clock this morning with artillery fire from
Bulwaan and Rietfontein on Pepworth's Hill. This unusual activity so
early warned us that some movement of more than ordinary importance
might be expected. All preparations for the possibility of an attack
more determined than the feeble feelers of yesterday had been made in
good time, so that there was no hurrying of forces to take up or
strengthen positions that might be threatened, and the Boers were
evidently somewhat puzzled where to look for the masses of men who
showed no sign of movement They thereupon took to shelling the town as
if they thought our troops might be concentrating there, and under cover
of this vigorous bombardment their riflemen advanced, so far as caution
would permit them, against several points wide apart. It must have been
with the idea of a feint that they made the first attack from westward
against Observation Hill, which was held by outposts of the 5th
Lancers, dismounted and trusting to their carbine fire, the
ineffectiveness of which, when opposed to Mauser rifles of greater
accuracy at long range, soon became evident.
Two companies of the Rifle Brigade had, however, been moved forward to
support the cavalry, and their steady shooting checked the enemy's
frontal attack. Several officers and other picked shots, lying prone
behind boulders, took on the Boers at their own game with perceptible
effect at 1200 yards or more, thereby keeping down a fire that might
otherwise have harassed our men, who were necessarily exposed at times
in taking up positions to meet some change of tactics on the other side.
Boers never expose themselves when they find bullets falling dangerously
close to them. They will be behind a rock all day if need be, waiting
for the chance of a pot-shot, and stay there until darkness gives them
an opportunity to get away unseen. They give no hostages to fortune by
taking any risks that can be avoided. The game of long bowls and sniping
suits them best. When one place gets too hot for them to pot quickly at
our men without risk of being potted in turn, they will steal away one
by one, wriggling their way between boulders, creeping under cover of
bushes, doing anything rather than show themselves as targets for other
men's rifles.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF POSITIONS ROUND LADYSMITH, NOVEMBER 1899]
They have made the most of physical features, that in this country lend
themselves to such tactics, by occupying hills with heavy artillery, in
front of which are rough kopjes strewed with trap rock, and round
these the Boer riflemen can always move for advance or retirement well
screened from our fire. They have, however, to reckon sometimes with the
far-reaching power of shrapnel shells. When they ignore that we may
manage to catch them in a cluster.
So it happened to-day. After being beaten off from the direct attack on
Observation Hill they began feeling round its left flank by way of
kopjes, between which and our outposts there is a long bare nek, and in
rear of that the railway line to Van Reenan's Pass runs through a deep
cutting with open ground beyond. To effect a turning movement of any
significance the Boers had choice of two things: either they must show
themselves on spurs where there was scant cover, or take to the cutting;
and we knew by experience which they would prefer. In anticipation of
such a development one field-battery had been placed on the rough slope
that juts northward from Range Post, through which runs the main road to
Colenso in the south and to several of the Drakensberg passes in the
west. Up through a gorge deeply fretted by Klip River this battery
commanded the long bare nek. Two other guns, the Maxim-Nordenfelts of
Elandslaagte, manned by a comparatively weak detachment, took up a
position on their own account at the foot of King's Post near our old
permanent, but now disused, camp, whence they could bring a fire to bear
on the same point. All tried a few percussion shells by way of testing
the range and then turned to the use of shrapnel, which, admirably
timed, burst just beyond the nek, searching its reverse slopes and
enfilading the railway ravine with a hail of bullets, where apparently
the Boers must have been caught in some numbers. At any rate they are
said to have lost heavily there, and from that time the attack or rather
fusilade directed against Observation Hill began to slacken. We had not
many men hit considering that the skirmish had begun soon after daybreak
and continued with little cessation up to nine o'clock, when the Rifle
Brigade reported three wounded, one being young Lieutenant Lethbridge,
who is so badly injured that recovery in his case can hardly be hoped
for.
We had not, however, done with the enemy by repulsing him at one point.
His big guns opened again presently from Blaauwbank and Rietfontein to
the west and north. A smaller battery on Long Hill echoed the deep boom
from "Long Tom," who was carrying on a duel with our naval gun, and
throwing shells over the town, to burst very near Sir George White's
headquarters. Field-guns from the nek near Lombard's Kop joined in
chorus, shooting with effect on Tunnel Hill, held by the Liverpools,
several of whom were hit. Colour-Sergeant Macdonald went out of the
bomb-proof to mark where one shell had struck, when another burst on the
same spot, and he fell terribly mangled by jagged fragments of iron. His
comrades rushed to aid him, but he died in their arms, saying simply,
"What a pity it was I went out to see." In truth the shells did not want
looking for to-day. They were falling in rapid succession from one end
of Bulwaan on Helpmakaar Hill, where the Devons, thanks to having taken
wise precautions in making bomb-proof shelters, suffered little, though
"Puffing Billy" turned occasionally to hurl a 94-pounder in that
direction when tired of raking Cæsar's Camp and Maiden's Castle, where
the Manchesters had not only their flank exposed to this fire, but were
smitten in front by a heavy gun the Boers had mounted on Flat-Top
Mountain, some three miles off, and by smaller shells that came from
automatic guns hidden among scrub on the nearer slopes across Bester's
Farm. These did little harm, though the repeated thuds of their
discharge, like the rapid strokes of a Nasmyth hammer on its anvil,
might have shaken the resolution of any but the steadiest troops, seeing
that our field-battery on Maiden's Castle could not for a long time
locate the exact hiding-place of those vicious little weapons, and when
they did get a chance, the enemy's heavy artillery replied to their fire
with a more persistent cannonade than ever. The Manchesters stood
manfully the test of long exposure to this galling storm of iron and
lead, their fighting line continuing to hold the outer slopes, where
from behind boulders they could overlook the hollow between them and
their foes, and get occasionally shots at any Boer who happened to show
himself incautiously. That did not happen often, and their chances of
effective reply to the bullets or shells that lashed the ground about
them were few at first.
When an attack of riflemen did begin to develop with some show of being
pressed home, the Manchesters were still lying there ready to meet it
with a fire steadier than that of the Boers and if anything more deadly.
Being secure from flanking movements, since the Border Mounted Rifles
were on their right sweeping round Waggon Hill and some companies of the
60th in support, the Manchesters could devote all their attention to
that long front, and beat back every attempt of the Boers to cross the
valley where a tributary of the Klip River winds past Bester's Farm down
to the broad flats by Intombi Spruit. These hostile demonstrations were
never very determined or long sustained, and they slackened down to
nothing for a time just before noon.
At that hour a curiously impressive incident astonished many of us in
camp not less than it did the Boers. Guns, big and small, of our Naval
Battery having shotted charges were carefully laid with the enemy's
artillery for their mark, and at a given signal they began to fire
slowly, with regular intervals between. When twenty-one rounds had been
counted everybody knew that it was a Royal salute, in celebration of the
Prince of Wales's birthday. Then loud cheers, begun as of right by the
bluejackets, representing the senior service, ran round our chains of
outposts and fighting men, shaken into light echoes by the jagged
rocks, to roll in mightier chorus through the camps, thence onward by
river-banks, where groups emerged from their burrows, strengthening the
shouts with even more fervour, and into the town, where loyalty to the
Crown of England has a meaning at this moment deeper than any of us
could ever have attached to it before. "What do you make of it all?" was
the signal flashed from hill to hill along the Boer lines, and
interpreted by our own experts who hold the key. And well they might
wonder, for in all probability a Prince of Wales's birthday has never
been celebrated before with a Royal salute of shotted guns against the
batteries of a besieging force, and all who are here wish most heartily
that the experience may remain unique.
Our enemy's astonishment, however, had the effect of producing a
temporary cessation of hostilities. The bombardment was not carried on
with its previous vigour, possibly because some detachments, taken
unaware by the prolonged artillery fire from our side, had been
partially disabled. But the rifle attack against Maiden's Castle and
Cæsar's Camp was kept up until near sunset.
In the midst of this cross-fire a flag, with the Geneva emblem of mercy
on it, was hoisted at the topmost twig of a low mimosa bush in front of
Bester's Farm, which must not be confounded with the other Bester's away
to westward, near the Harrismith Railway, and giving its name to a
station on that line. There are many branches of the Bester family
holding farms in Natal, and nearly all are under a cloud of suspicion at
this moment because of their known sympathy with the Boers. That
red-cross flag was taken as a sign that the farmstead had been occupied
as a hospital, and we respected it accordingly, but, as on other
occasions in this curiously conducted campaign, the Boers, who stretch
the Geneva Convention for all it is worth in their own favour, made it
cover something else. While our soldiers scrupulously avoided firing
anywhere near the farmstead that bore that emblem of neutrality, they
saw herds of cattle and horses being driven off, and these were followed
presently by a trek waggon on which also the red-cross flag waved
conspicuously.
In that waggon were several women carrying white sunshades, and among
them, it is said, the redoubtable Miss Maggie who used to ride her
bicycle through our lines to the enemy's, even after war had been
declared and Free State burghers had crossed the border into Natal. If
that is so, she and many of her relations have crossed our lines
finally, to throw in their lot with the Boers, accompanied by very
valuable herds of live-stock. The only Besters who remained in our hands
as hostages have, I believe, been allowed to take refuge with sick and
wounded at Intombi Spruit camp, where they at least are safe enough
under the protection of their Boer friends. Other curious flags were
seen about the same place to-day. Lieutenant Fisher of the Manchesters,
who though wounded soon after sunrise refused to quit his post, and with
half a company held one shoulder of Waggon Hill until the last attack
had spluttered out, sent a careful report to his colonel before the
ambulance men took him to their field hospital. In this report he gives
details of some curious movements among the enemy. One contingent,
apparently some foreign legion, showing traces of elementary discipline
and evidently not numbering in its ranks many Boers of the old school,
advanced boldly across ground that afforded them little cover, and there
began to "front form" in fairly good order. They were well within range
of Lee-Enfield rifles, and a few volleys well directed sent them to the
right-about in anything but good order. Soon after, a second column
advanced with even more bravado, headed by a standard-bearer, who
carried a red flag. These were said to be Irishmen, who, having elected
to serve a republic, and being debarred from fighting under the green
banner of their own country, yet not quite ready to acknowledge the
supremacy of another race, may have flaunted the emblem of liberty by
way of compromise. More probably, however, they were a mixed lot owning
no common country, but willing or unwilling to serve under any colours
with equal impartiality. Two or three shrapnels bursting in front of
them to a vibrato accompaniment of rifle fire many were seen to fall,
but whether badly hit or not nobody on our side could say. At any rate,
these adventurous auxiliaries are likely to learn discretion from the
wily Boer after such an experience.
The attack, such as it was, had failed on both the positions threatened.
It was never pressed home with energy at any point, and unless the Boers
prove to be as good at concentration as they are in mobility, there is
not the remotest chance for them to achieve even a temporary success by
rifle attack against infantry whose discipline and steadiness have not
been shaken in the slightest degree by shell fire yet. What losses our
foes suffered we have no means of knowing, but they were probably much
heavier than our own, which numbered five killed and twenty-four
wounded, mostly by shells, in the twelve hours of intermittent
fighting.