MY REPORT TO GENERAL COMMANDING ON STATE OF THE
ROAD--OFFEND THE STAFF, BUT RECEIVE PRESENT OF CHARGER FROM
GENERAL--SURPRISED AT CLOSE PROXIMITY OF KAFFIRS--OFFER TO
TAKE NEARER VIEW--AM SNUBBED IN CONSEQUENCE--ASSIGNED POST OF
ADVANCED-GUARD IN GENERAL ATTACK UNDER GENERAL NAPIER--ASCENT
OF THE WATER-KLOOF--ORDERED TO DISLODGE KAFFIRS FROM HORSE-SHOE
LINE OF BUSH--IN ACTION--HESITATION--SUCCESS--SECOND
ATTACK UNDER ARTILLERY-FIRE--THE MINIE RIFLE AGAIN--KAFFIR
DEVOTION--THEIR NATURE, AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM--AM THANKED IN
GENERAL ORDERS.
I gave a report in writing of my doings on the road, and my estimation
of the resources and failings as a military road, that it professed.
Amongst other things, I stated the fact of seeing a strong detachment
of the 12th Regiment uselessly guarding a fort of no possible influence
in the actual state of the war. This brought the staff down upon me;
but I was thanked by the General, who, as a token of welcome, presented
me with a fine chestnut charger.
The next day I was perfectly astounded at the close proximity of the
Kaffirs. There they were in shoals, perfectly unmolested, on the slopes
of the Water-kloof, and within twelve miles of thousands of British
troops. I had seen on many occasions the daring indifference of the
Kabyles of the Atlas Mountains, but that was displayed on chance
occasions; but here a badly-armed, undisciplined throng of naked
savages braved with impunity, day after day, week after week, the
energies of the British empire. I was utterly staggered for a moment
by such a display, but was not long in volunteering to make a closer
acquaintance with these sable heroes and their strongholds. I, however,
received a good snubbing for my pains. At last a grand expedition was
planned, under General Napier, to attack this said Water-kloof, and my
corps was assigned the post of advanced-guard. The first day we reached
Blinkwater Post, where I made the acquaintance of the commander,
W----d; he appeared to me one of the right sort, although rather
uselessly employed. This is one of the great faults of our service,
to place a brilliant, dashing officer to guard an exposed, permanent
position, when a good, stolid, ordinary being would have done quite as
well, if not better. The art of war is like the game of chess, and I
would not give much for the guiding hand that does not know the value
and place of each figure on the board.
The next day, after a somewhat tiring ascent, we crowned the heights
of the Water-kloof, without firing a shot or seeing many Kaffirs. I
was then ordered to attack the Horse-shoe--a half-circular line of
bush that fringed the precipitous heights. This was a difficult task,
from the formation of the ground and the disheartening reminiscences,
it was murmured, which were attached to the spot. Here it was that
Colonel Fordyce had been lately killed, and the 74th fearfully handled.
The Honourable R. C----, the staff officer who ordered the movement,
pointed in a somewhat vague manner to the centre of the half-moon as
the place on which I was to begin the attack. This undefined indication
left me a considerable margin; so I managed, in the mile of ground
I had to cover before coming within range of the Kaffir guns, to
oblique so much to the right, that I came very near that end of the
Horse-shoe. As I got within range, my men being in very loose order
(this being their first engagement, there was naturally some hesitation
and wavering along the line), a shot fired by some good marksman on the
enemy’s side, brought my orderly, David M‘Intyre, to the ground with a
ball through the chest.
The whole line stopped as if struck by an electric shock. Another
shot as effective as the last would, I felt sure, send them to the
right-about; so I ran to the front and shouted out, “We shall all be
shot if we remain here in the open! To the bush, my lads! to the bush!”
The sense of this order was obvious. We shouted “Hurrah!” as much to
drown our own fears as to frighten the enemy; and amidst a rattling
fire, more noisy than dangerous, we, for safety’s sake, gallantly
charged the foe. The Kaffirs and Hottentots were evidently taken by
surprise at this display of gallantry--latterly all the charges had
been on their side. The tables were turned, and instead of red-jackets,
it was for black-skins to fall back.
Once in the bush, what with cheering and firing, we kept up such a
hullabaloo, that the niggers must have thought all the white devils of
Christendom were let loose upon them. I, who knew where the row came
from, was astonished at the effect upon my own nerves, as the adjoining
rocks reverberated the sound of our advance. We literally chased the
foe like rabbits through the bush, and came out at the other end of
the Horse-shoe, rather disappointed than otherwise in not meeting with
more resistance. We then fell back on the main body, having performed
our task with a decided dash and very slight loss--two killed and five
wounded. As we were quite unmolested by the foe, it was admirable to
see the cool, collected manner in which my men retired--in fact, I was
not at all astonished when General Napier sent a staff officer to thank
us for our gallant and orderly bearing. We now proceeded to breakfast,
and had hardly begun, when the same officer came back and told me to
advance with my men and endeavour to dislodge the Kaffirs from some
rough boulders of rock on the edge of the kloof, some two miles on our
left. Now this order was unadvisable for many reasons: from the lie of
the ground it had no strategical importance; it neither threatened the
enemy’s stronghold, nor in any way interfered with movements we might
make to carry it.
My men had had a long march, which, combined with the efforts in
clearing out the Horse-shoe, had left us without any physical energy;
whilst there were whole battalions who had not fired a shot, and were
eager for an opportunity to distinguish themselves.
I, however, kept these reasonings to myself; and giving the men orders
to prepare for action, they sprang to their feet with far more alacrity
than I had a right to expect.
In going to take up the ground assigned to us as the point of attack,
we passed in front of the main body, and the General came up and shook
hands with me. This cheering token sent us on in good spirits to within
about a thousand yards of the rocks above named. I here sent a small
detachment down a slope of ground that led somewhat to our left, to
threaten, if possible, the flank and rear of the position in our front.
With the rest of the men I obliqued slightly to the right, with the
same object of turning the rear in that direction also.
We had advanced about half-way when the guns of Captain Rowley’s
battery opened fire over our heads. This caused considerable
uneasiness; the men were not accustomed to the hurling noise rushing
over their heads from the rear: some ducked, some stopped, others went
on; and the line, which hitherto had been so well kept, assumed a most
zigzag, mob-looking appearance.
I have often observed that even veterans waver and become confused
under this meteor-discharge overhead. The Kaffirs, however, did not
seem to be much frightened by the shot or the shell. They fielded
for the cannon-shot as they rebounded from the rocks as though they
were cricket-balls. These same balls were much prized as pestles for
grinding purposes.
As for the shells, they no sooner burst than, in derision, the Kaffirs
picked pieces up and pretended to throw them back at us. But now a
rocket that was intended to astonish the Kaffirs came so close over
us, that the whole line started and ducked their heads in the most
ridiculous fashion. This profound salaam, as we faced the foe, elicited
from them a tremendous shout of approval in return. I profited by this
humility of ours, and as my fellows had their faces so close to the
ground, I ordered them to lie down altogether. “Raise the sighting on
the rifles for six hundred yards. Take steady aim. Fire!”
At the first discharge the Kaffirs scuttled from the rocks in flying
order, leaving, however, several of their bodies on the ground. So the
Minie rifle did in one minute what six guns and rocket-tubes had been
attempting for the last quarter of an hour.
In the course of five minutes’ firing not a Kaffir was to be seen; even
the wounded who lay on the ground were left quite uncared for; and what
was far dearer still to a Kaffir’s heart, blankets and _karosses_ were
also left behind.
I then cautiously advanced to within a short distance of the rocks. The
men lay down once more, to wait for the flanking party to begin on our
left; but they had gone too far down, and when at length they began
firing, it had no influence on the Kaffirs behind the rocks facing
us. It was difficult now to know what to do. The enemy was far too
strong for us to carry the position by a front attack, and my flanking
party seemed, by the sound of the firing, to be rather going from than
approaching us. At this critical moment the recall sounded far away in
the rear, and never sound struck my ear more cheerfully before. We fell
back in the most orderly manner; and the Kaffirs, coming out in great
numbers from behind the rocks to survey our retreat, received a last
volley in return, which quickly sent them to the right-about.
The Minie rifle taught them this day a lesson which they ever after
identified with my men, and they never forgot its instructive teaching.
We were now sent to take up our quarters near the spot where the
attack had commenced in the morning. We were to remain there until
further orders. A body of the regular forces was also sent to take up
a position about a mile in the rear; while the main body marched back
again to headquarters at Fort Beaufort.
I immediately set to work, throwing up a defence against a night
attack; and before evening set in--there being an abundance of stone
material at hand--I had thrown up a tolerably strong defence. The next
day was the first at which I assisted at public prayers in the colony.
My men and I were perched on the huge boulders of rock that fringe
the Water-kloof height, and from the depths below arose, in childlike
strains, the glorious morning hymn--
“Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily course of duty run.”
These sable children were awakening their souls to their daily duty of
cutting white men’s throats. Something like awe crept over me at this
Heaven-beseeching. It was one of those mysterious results of missionary
instruction of which I do not profess to know the A B C; it was giving
to this would-be slayer the name of fratricide. I got up in a hurry and
left the spot. This awakening of Cain made me feel very much as Abel
must have felt had he been able to run away. But these poor Hottentots,
with a strong predilection for settling disputes with their white
brother, after the antediluvian fashion of knocking you upon the head
with a _knobkerrie_, were still much to be pitied, taken as they were
from their boundless homes and pent up in that wooded vale below,
singing of their freedom in Christ, like caged mocking-birds imitating
the hollow sound of words that convey soul-stirring thoughts to man. I
felt more sympathy for them than for those who had brought them to that
state.
In the course of a few days I had raised a barricade round my camp
strong enough to resist any number of Kaffirs; and having thus secured
a good base of operation, began to look about me as to how I could best
make use of it for offensive movements. Colonel N----, the officer
who commanded the regulars left on the heights, did not at this time
interfere in any manner with my proceedings, so I was left perfectly
free, and decided that, with the small body of men at my disposal,
night attacks were the only reasonable operations to be undertaken with
any hope of permanent success. The Kaffir, lithe, supple, and vicious
as a snake during the heat of the day, loses much of his treacherous
energy at night. Ignorant and superstitious, he would be already half
conquered by further increasing his dread of darkness; while the white
man during the refreshing coolness of night was at his best at the
Cape; and bugle-sounds allowed him to be governed almost as easily as
during the day. I accordingly proceeded cautiously to accustom the men
to the work. We now received in camp a copy of a general order thus
worded:--
“HEADQUARTERS, FORT BEAUFORT.
“General Napier speaks in the highest terms of the discernment
and gallantry displayed by Captain Lakeman, and the bravery and
good conduct of his men on this their first engagement with the
enemy.
(Signed) “A. J. CLOËTE,
_Quartermaster-General_.”
This was very gratifying, and we determined to obtain still further
recognitions of services rendered. In the course of a month we had so
far created a panic by our night attacks, that the Kaffirs evacuated
the whole of the table-land surrounding the Water-kloof, and retired to
the valley and rocky recesses below.