On February 10 the Field Marshal concentrated three divisions on the
Modder River: Kelly-Kenny (6th), Tucker (7th), and Colvile (9th). Then
he secretly assembled the cavalry, grouped into three brigades (those of
Broadwood, Porter, and Gordon), under General French. The latter,
supported by seven mounted batteries and six field batteries, started in
the night of the 11th-12th, reached Rooidam, continued by way of
Potgieter's Farm, brushed aside General Ferreira, and entered Kimberley
on Thursday, February 15, at half-past five in the evening.
The surprise was complete, as we know!
Meanwhile, Lord Roberts had not been idle. On the 15th, Maxwell's
Brigade occupied Jacobsdal, and Lord Kitchener was pressing Cronje, who
was retiring upon Paardeburg.
French, his raid accomplished, joined Kitchener by way of Koodoesrand,
and on the 17th the whole of Roberts' force surrounded the Boer General.
After a ten days' defence, more heroic than reasonable--for he might
have broken through with De Wet's help--Cronje, crushed by the terrible
fire of 90 cannon,[#] bore out Colonel de Villebois' prediction, being
forced to surrender unconditionally on February 27, at 7.30 a.m.
[#] Lord Roberts had 6 field batteries, 1 howitzer battery, 7 horse
batteries, and 5 naval guns--90 pieces in all, to be exact.
Lord Roberts telegraphed as follows to the War Office:
'PAARDEBURG, 7.45 a.m.
'General Cronje is now a prisoner in my camp. The strength of his force
will be communicated later. I hope Her Majesty's Government will
consider this event satisfactory, occurring as it does on the
anniversary of Majuba.'
It was afterwards announced by the War Office that the General had
surrendered two Krupp guns, one belonging to the Orange Free State, and
two Maxims, one of these also belonging to the Orange Free State, 4,000
men, of whom 1,150 were Free Staters, and 47 officers, 18 of them Free
Staters. Among the officers was the artillery commandant Albrecht,
formerly an Austrian officer.
In Natal, on the 28th, Lord Dundonald entered Ladysmith, the siege of
which had been raised at six in the evening, preceding a convoy of
provisions which arrived on the morning of March 2.
Lord Roberts did not linger long on the banks of the Modder River.
After giving his troops a short rest while he went with Kitchener to
visit Kimberley, where he was the guest of Cecil Rhodes, he continued
his march upon Bloemfontein. On the 7th he was at Poplar Grove, on the
10th at Abraham's Kraal--he called the battle fought here
Driefontein--and on the 13th he entered the capital of the Orange Free
State.
'BLOEMFONTEIN,
'_March_ 13, 8 p.m.
'By God's help, and thanks to the bravery of Her Majesty's soldiers, the
troops under my command have taken possession of Bloemfontein. The
British flag is now flying over the President's house, which was last
night abandoned by Mr. Steyn, the late President of the Orange Free
State.
'Mr. Fraser, a member of the former executive, the mayor, the secretary
of the late Government, the Landdrost and other functionaries, came to
meet me two miles out of the town, and handed me the keys of the
Government offices.
'The enemy has retired from the neighbourhood, and all seems calm. The
inhabitants of Bloemfontein gave our troops a hearty reception.
'ROBERTS.'
Lord Roberts's first operation was accomplished; he established a solid
base at Bloemfontein, accumulating a great quantity of provisions there,
a very wise measure to take before throwing his troops into a hostile
country, impoverished by five months of warfare, the resources of which
had already been heavily laid under contribution by the Boers. At the
same time his troops radiated round the former capital to drive off the
little commandos that were still hovering about in the neighbourhood.
The 9th Division, under General Colvile, was broken up to keep
communications open, and its chief returned to England.
Such was the situation when, on Monday, April 23, we received orders to
saddle at seven in the morning. We started at 8.30, with two days'
rations.
The direction is the same as before, towards the south. But after the
counter-order of last Monday, we feel no great confidence as to the
object of this new manoeuvre. We have christened these starts 'the
Monday morning exercises.'
This time, it seems, that while De Wet is busy at Wepener with Brabant's
Horse, which he is still surrounding, a strong column is to attempt to
cut him off from the north, by establishing a line between Bloemfontein
and the frontier of Basutoland. We are to oppose this movement and
enable De Wet to pass.
We arrive in the plain watered by the Onspruit about five in the
evening. We bivouac there with Lorentz's Germans, with whom we are
still grouped. The nights begin to be cold. During the evening 1,000
men and two 75 millimetre Creusot guns arrive.
In Botha's camp, close by, there are still from 300 to 400 men, a Krupp
gun, an Armstrong, and a Nordenfeldt.
On the morning of the 24th a reinforcement of from 200 to 300 men
arrives. Our total strength is from 1,500 to 1,800 men.
We remain in bivouac, but on the 25th our provisions are exhausted, and
they re-victual us by driving a flock of sheep across the plain. Each
group of five or six men takes one. Part of the flesh is grilled over a
fire of cow-dung--the only fuel available in the Veldt--and the rest,
cut into quarters, is slung on the saddles for next day.
For the last two days the luminous balloon of the English has been
visible all the evening till midnight.
In the afternoon we get orders to start for the Waterworks, to the east
of Bloemfontein, which the English have recaptured from General Lemmer.
We are to take provisions for several days; but the English, it seems,
are close behind us. They have come down into the plain, and the road
from here to Brandfort is very insecure.
At three o'clock in the afternoon Wrangel, two former officers in the
German army, Couves, De Loth, and I, set out to fetch a trolley loaded
with necessaries for the two corps.
We arrive at Brandfort towards midnight. Captain D----, whom we meet
here, gives us the news from France. The Theatre Francais was burnt
down on March 9, and Mdlle. Henriot was one of the victims of the
catastrophe. We also hear of the explosion at Johannesburg. A telegram
says that the fort blew up on the 24th. But we learn later that it was
Begbie's factory and not the fort that exploded. Another telegram,
relating to the fight at Boshof, says that Prince Bagration is not dead,
but wounded only. A lieutenant of marines named Gilles was killed.
This is all we have in the way of details, for the official list of the
losses of April 5 has not yet appeared.
As regards the explosion, the following information may be of interest.
The citadel of Johannesburg was not constructed with a view to defending
the town, but, on the contrary, with the idea of bombarding it. This
curious arrangement calls for some explanation.
On January 1, 1896, Dr. Jameson, coming from the east, was checked at
Krugersdorp with his contingent, which prevented the execution of his
_coup de main_. But at the news of his arrival a number of Uitlanders,
for the most part English, had armed. Forming themselves into
commandos, and reinforced by a battery of Maxims smuggled in among
machines for use in the mines, they bivouacked on the heights of
Yeoville, commanding Johannesburg, to await and join the men of the
Chartered Company.
After this escapade the Transvaal Government, in order to work upon the
loyal sentiments of its good city of Johannesburg, presented it with a
fort, which, situated in a prominent position in the town, would have
been capable in a very few minutes of correcting any ill-timed
manifestations of sympathy to which its inhabitants might be inclined to
give way in the future.
The Begbie factory was used for the manufacture of projectiles. With
comparatively primitive methods and absolutely inexperienced workmen,
the making and charging of shells of all the patterns in use in our own
artillery had been carried on here. Every evening from 700 to 800 were
despatched in every direction.
For a long time past, directly after war was declared, the English who
had been expelled had publicly predicted an explosion at this factory.
On February 2 a telegram from Durban announced that this explosion had
taken place. The manager, Mr. Gruenberg, had even vainly called the
attention of the police to a house close to the powder magazine.
To be brief, a terrible explosion took place on the 24th, killing some
hundred persons, and destroying a quarter of the town.
This was in the main what the inquiry that took place afterwards brought
to light:
A little mine containing black powder had been dug in the suspected
house, close to the dynamite reserve of the powder magazine. The authors
of the explosion had afterwards connected the mine with the electric
light of their rooms; then they had departed quietly to a place of
safety, having still half a day to spare. In the evening, at five
o'clock, when the electric light works turned on the current to
distribute light in the town, the explosion was produced automatically.
The guilty persons were never discovered.
* * * * *
We spent our evening discussing all this news, and then went to bed in
our encampment. On the morning of the 26th we loaded a trolley, to which
we had harnessed eight strong mules, with cartridges, biscuit, and a few
other necessary provisions. We started at two o'clock in the afternoon,
and arrived late in the evening at a farm where an ambulance was
installed.
We bivouacked several hundreds of metres off, as we were urgently
recommended to do by the doctor, who was accompanied by his wife. He
took advantage of the Geneva Convention to protect his domestic peace,
no doubt with an eye to Wrangel, who is a very pretty fellow!