GENERAL BULLER'S ADVANCE TO NEWCASTLE
The relief of Ladysmith caused the Boers to fall back towards the
Drakensberg, and Sir Redvers Buller, whose troops were thoroughly
exhausted, encamped his army to north and west of the dilapidated town,
and there remained stationary for several weeks. It was necessary that
the force should thoroughly recuperate and get into working order in
time to co-operate with the great central advance when Lord Roberts
should give the word. There was an immense amount to be done. The
mounted troops, many of them, needed to be remounted, and winter
clothing was required. The reconstruction of the transport also demanded
alteration, while it was necessary, in conjunction with Lord Roberts's
operations, to keep a wary eye on the Boers and prevent them from
crossing into the Free State and swelling the enemy's forces opposing
the great advance.
As with the departure of Sir Charles Warren to the western frontier,
some slight changes had taken place in the Natal Field Force, it becomes
necessary to inspect a rough table of the divisions at this time under
Sir Redvers Buller:--
NATAL
GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER.
SECOND DIVISION.
Lieutenant-General Sir C. F. CLERY.
2nd Brigade (Major-General Hamilton).
2nd East Surrey.
2nd West Yorks.
2nd Devons.
2nd West Surrey.
4th Brigade (Colonel C. D. Cooper).
1st Rifle Brigade.
1st Durham Light Infantry.
3rd King's Royal Rifles.
2nd Scottish Rifles (Cameronians).
7th, 14th, and 66th Field Batteries.
FOURTH DIVISION.
Lieutenant-General LYTTELTON.
7th Brigade (Brigadier-General F. W. Kitchener).
1st Devon.
1st Gloucester.
1st Manchester.
2nd Gordon Highlanders.
8th Brigade (Major-General F. Howard).
1st Royal Irish Fusiliers.
1st Leicester.
1st King's Royal Rifles.
2nd King's Royal Rifles.
Two Brigade Divisions Royal Artillery.
13th, 67th, 69th Field Batteries.
21st, 42nd, 53rd Field Batteries.
FIFTH DIVISION.
Lieutenant-General H. J. T. HILDYARD.
10th Brigade (Major-General J. T. Coke).
2nd Dorset.
2nd Middlesex.
1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
11th Brigade (Major-General A. S. Wynne).
2nd Royal Lancaster.
2nd Lancashire Fusiliers.
1st South Lancashire.
1st York and Lancaster.
19th, 28th, and 78th Field Batteries.
CORPS TROOPS.
2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
2nd Rifle Brigade.
1st King's Liverpool.
Imperial Light Infantry.
61st Field Battery (Howitzers).
Two Nordenfeldts (taken from the Boers).
Natal Battery 9-pounders.
Fourteen naval 12-pounder quick-firers.
4th Mountain Battery.
10th Mountain Battery, two guns.
Four 4.7 naval guns.
Naval 6-in. gun.
Part of Siege Train.
CAVALRY DIVISION.
1st Brigade (Major-General J. F. Burn Murdoch).
2nd Brigade (Major-General J. F. Brocklehurst).
3rd Brigade (Major-General the Earl of Dundonald).
5th Dragoon Guards.
1st Royal Dragoons.
5th Lancers.
13th Hussars.
18th Hussars.
19th Hussars.
A Battery Royal Horse Artillery.
South African Light Horse.
Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry.
Bethune's Mounted Infantry.
Natal Carabineers.
Natal Mounted Rifles.
Border Mounted Rifles.
Umvoti Mounted Rifles.
Natal Police.
Colt Battery.
ZULULAND.
Addison's Colonial Scouts.
For some weeks it appeared as though no move were contemplated; but on
the 7th of May the machinery began to revolve. General Clery's Division
proceeded from Ladysmith to Modder Spruit, while Lord Dundonald and
General Dartnell also prepared to move their troops out of camp at Bug's
Farm. Lord Roberts at this time had reached a point in the Free State
level with Ladysmith, and Sir Redvers Buller thus became included in the
scheme of advance, and was able to act in conjunction with him. The
Boers, numbering some 7000 or 8000, were swarming on the Biggarsberg
range, having prepared entrenchments on all points commanding the road
from Ladysmith to the Transvaal and as far as Helpmakaar. They knew well
by experience, however, the discomforts attendant on their position, for
their only clear way of escape was by Laing's Nek--the passes over the
Drakensberg on the west, and Zululand on the east being now closed to
them.
On the 11th of May activities began. Dundonald's Cavalry Brigade and
Clery's Infantry Division were assembled in the neighbourhood of Sunday
River Drift south of Elandslaagte. The General's plan was to post his
left at Elandslaagte and swing his right flank round by Helpmakaar and
crumple the Boers up towards Dundee.
On the 12th Sir Redvers Buller, with the right column, moved towards
Helpmakaar, following the same route as that taken by General Yule in
his famous retreat from Glencoe, while General Hildyard (the central
column) made a demonstration by crossing Sunday River, near the railway
line, and Lyttelton's Division (the left column) prolonged the line
farther west. Meanwhile, the brigades of Clery and Dundonald--over ruts
and obstacles, mere apologies for roads--had reached Waschbank, and were
facing the frowning heights of the Biggarsberg, which loomed large and
ominous and threatening about fifteen miles in the distance.
The Biggarsberg region, now so pregnant with historical interest is so
called after one of the early pioneers of Durban, an Englishman, named
Edward Biggar, who in 1838 fought side by side with the Boers against
Dingaan. Of the great range in those days a Natalian writer said:
"Besides being the first eastern plateau terrace of the Drakensberg,
musically termed 'Quathlamba' by the natives residing in it, it consists
of two long lines of elevation, divided by great ravines abounding in
romantic cascades, dizzy precipices, and great pointed peaks towering
towards the heavens in fantastic forms, veritable mountain forts,--
'Which like the giants stand
To sentinel enchanted land.'
Majestic krantzes were round us bristling in great tree ferns, huge
aloes, and African Euphoboebia, the latter's bright scarlet blossoms
contrasting sharply with the dark green foliage, nursing the base of
isolated lofty hills, whose sunless pillars were hidden in earth's
depths, unknown to human search."
This picturesque range runs across North Natal south-east towards the
junction of the Tugela (the "Angry" River of the Kaffirs) and the Mooi
River, and some of the peaks tower above the land of Natal 5000 to over
7000 feet; and from these, on a clear day, may be traced the whole
crimson history of Buller's relief of Ladysmith. In the present onward
march great precautions had to be taken, as this--a comparatively short
cut to save a round of some thirty miles--was teeming with the enemy,
whose flank on the Biggarsberg it was the chief's design to turn. The
march was resumed the whole day under menace of the enemy, who hovered,
vulture-like, in the distant heights, and towards afternoon came into
the plains, attacking and wounding some of the British patrols. They
also succeeded in taking prisoners three of the South African Light
Horse, Australians lately joined, who, mistaking the enemy in their
kharki disguise for friends, walked unsuspectingly into their arms. By
nightfall the troops were encamped at Vermaak's Farm, with the Boers and
their guns not very far distant.
Sunday's proceedings were opened in the haze of the morning with a shell
from the hostile band, and after a time the naval guns woke up, spat
forth some four times, and reduced the Dutchmen to silence. The Mounted
Brigades, with a battery of Royal Horse Artillery, had moved on
beforehand, and by the time the passage at arms between the big guns
was in full swing, they and the transport were safely in a place of
shelter. The Mounted Infantry and the 2nd Brigade, under General
Hamilton, then engaged in the herculean task of getting up the rugged
steeps of the Biggarsberg, and there, securing a nek which was the key
to the summit, prevented the enemy from attempting to waylay the
advancing army. On the ridges taken by General Hamilton were formidable
trenches prepared for defence, which could now serve the foe no longer.
While this flanking process was taking place, Colonel Bethune, with his
composite force of Mounted Infantry, was co-operating in the direction
of Helpmakaar, thus threatening the Boers' left flank, and rendering
their position at Helpmakaar distinctly uncomfortable. The guns on both
sides worked furiously--those of the Boers with poor success; and at
dusk, when the troops bivouacked, there was reason to hope that by
morning the region of Helpmakaar would be purged of the enemy. And so it
proved.
With the dawn of day it was discovered that the Dutchmen were in full
retreat towards Dundee, pursued by the cavalry. But the enemy were
covered in their retreat by some 1500 Boers, whose tactics were
excellent. Each section as it fell back set fire to the grass, thus
drawing a veil of smoke between them and Dundonald's men, and
intercepting the rush of the pursuers, who more than once were almost
within a lance-length of them. They succeeded in getting clear away, in
spite of the magnificent dash of the pursuit, which covered some forty
miles. Then, having secured some kops, they made sufficient stand to
check our advance through the rippling sea of flame made by the veldt
fires, while their main body vanished, leaving open the road to Dundee.
The Boers, finding themselves outflanked, decided to make no stand,
either at Dundee or Glencoe, and both these places, of now historical
interest, were occupied in the course of the 15th, and the 16th was
spent in resting after the fatigues of the preceding days. Dundee was a
sad and deserted-looking place. Though the coal-mines were untouched,
its houses were denuded of furniture, and bore evidences of Boer
occupation and Boer mischief. Wall papers hung in shreds, doors were
unhinged and broken, windows were merely gaps, and the word dilapidation
was marked everywhere. The inhabitants, such few as remained, gave the
troops a cordial welcome.
[Illustration: GENERAL BULLER'S ADVANCE TO NEWCASTLE.]
On Thursday the 17th the force was again up and doing, the earliest
birds being the Mounted Infantry. They journeyed along towards
Dannhauser Station, midway between Dundee and Newcastle. On the
afternoon of the 18th the troops swarmed into the pleasing green-girt
town of Newcastle, after a long and fatiguing march along a
fire-blackened plain, devilishly prepared by the departing Boers for the
purpose of showing up the advance of the kharki-clad legions. Joy and
welcome was writ on every face, and hearty cheers greeted the arrival of
the army. Sir Redvers Buller was presented with a banner which had been
secretly worked by the ladies of the locality in anticipation of his
coming. The town they found had been rechristened Viljoensdorp by the
Boers, whose labours there had also been anticipatory. They had
destroyed the large water-tanks for supplying the engines at Glencoe,
Dannhauser, and Newcastle, but the inconveniences were merely temporary,
and repairs were actively set on foot. Report came in that the Dutchmen
were full of activity, swarming in the direction of the famous Laing's
Nek and Majuba Hill, therefore on the afternoon of Saturday the 19th,
Lord Dundonald, with naval guns, went ahead to unearth them. They,
however, remained buried wherever they were, and the desperately-fatigued
men and horses of the Mounted Brigades returned towards Ingogo Station,
while some of the troops encamped on the battlefield. But their fatigues
or its grievous memories scarcely damped their spirits, for they were on
the confines of the Transvaal, and Pretoria, the land of promise, seemed
near at hand.
Sir Redvers Buller forthwith issued the following proclamation:--
"The troops of Queen Victoria are now passing through the
Transvaal. Her Majesty does not make war on individuals, but
is, on the contrary, anxious to spare them, as far as may be
possible, the horrors of war. The quarrel England has is with
the Government and not with the people of the Transvaal.
Provided they remain neutral no attempt will be made to
interfere with persons living near the line of march, every
possible protection will be given them, and any of their
property that it may be necessary to take will be paid for.
But, on the other hand, those who are thus allowed to remain
near the line of march must respect and maintain their
neutrality, and residents of any locality will be held
responsible both in persons and property if any damage is done
to the railway or telegraph, or if any violence is done to any
member of the British forces in the vicinity of their homes."
On this, many Natal Dutch gave themselves up and others were captured,
but it was again observed that those farmers who tendered their
submission tendered with it, not Mausers, but other weapons of more
ancient pattern.
Affairs at this time were going on most satisfactorily, the troops,
after a 120-mile march, accomplished in nine days, including a day's
halt and two days' fighting, had almost cleared Natal of the invaders,
and were in possession of the country from Van Reenan's Pass to the
Buffalo River. A message of congratulation on their efforts was received
from the Queen, and the General expressed his satisfaction at the
successful work accomplished. One unfortunate affair damped the spirits
of the advancing army.
[Illustration: GENERAL BULLER'S ADVANCE: PURSUING THE BOERS AFTER THE
FIGHT ON HELPMAKAAR HEIGHTS
Drawing by J. Nash, R.I., from a Sketch by G. Foucar]
On the 17th, Colonel Bethune was detached, with about 500 men, from
Dundee. His column consisted of five squadrons of mounted infantry, two
Hotchkiss and two Maxim guns. His instructions were to show his force in
N'qutu, in the centre of British Zululand (to which a magistrate and
civil establishment were about to return), and afterwards to rejoin Sir
Redvers Buller at Newcastle. The orders were executed, and Colonel
Bethune moved towards Newcastle on the 20th May, _via_ Vryheid, due
north of the road which leads to Utrecht. About six miles north-west of
Vryheid, the Boers were ambushed in the thick shrub that abounds in the
neighbourhood, with the result that E squadron of Mounted Infantry,
which had pushed ahead to reach Vryheid before dark set in, suffered
severe loss. Few escaped to tell the tale, the outline of which was as
follows: The Boers no sooner saw the troopers approaching than they
jumped from their hiding-place and surrounded them. Captain Goff (6th
Dragoon Guards), who was commanding the squadron, dismounted his men and
made a valiant stand, but the Boers poured a volley on them,
incapacitating most of the horses and many of the men. The commanding
officer was shot dead. Still the party continued to reply to the fire of
the enemy till, ammunition running short, they knew resistance would
soon be unavailing. Meanwhile, the scene of confusion was horrible. The
Boers had set the crisp, dry grass into a blaze, and behind the smoke of
it were able to fire with impunity at the helpless British force. The
rest of the column had hastened towards the scene of the disaster, but
what with the crackling glare of the flamboyant grass, the suffocating
clouds of smoke, and the deceptive darkness of the gloaming, Colonel
Bethune dared not open fire at close quarters lest he should injure his
own already wounded force. Gallantly the men of D squadron dashed into
the mêlée, and rescued from thence such troopers as survived. Lieutenant
Capell, who gave his horse to an injured trooper, was taken prisoner,
and Lord De la Warr, while going to the relief of another, was slightly
injured in the leg.
He afterwards gave to a correspondent of the _Central News_ an
interesting narrative of his experiences on that eventful day. He was
acting as aide-de-camp to Colonel Bethune, and was directed to take
messages to the captains of E and D squadrons, in the thickest of the
fight. His instructions were to order them to retire, but when he came
upon the scene he found that E squadron was already practically
surrounded. He was able, however, to deliver his order to Captain Ford
of D squadron, and then set out to return to Colonel Bethune through a
heavy fire. In galloping back he saw Trooper Cooper, of Durban, lying
wounded in the grass, which was then blazing. The flames were gradually
making their way towards the wounded man, who was unable to move. A
horrible death in a few minutes was certain, unless succour could be
rendered him. Earl De la Warr instantly dismounted, crept up through the
smoke, and was in the act of rescuing the man when he was pounced upon
by about twenty Boers, who fired at him at close range. He was wounded,
though not severely, and just managed to drag himself away from the
burning grass. His horse had bolted, and he was only rescued when he had
practically given up all hope.
The following casualties among officers occurred: Killed--3rd Dragoon
Guards, Captain W. E. D. Goff; Bethune's Mounted Infantry, Lieutenant H.
W. Lanham and Lieutenant W. McLachlan. Wounded--Bethune's Mounted
Infantry, Captain Earl De la Warr and Lieutenant De Lasalle.
Missing--Bethune's Mounted Infantry, Lieutenant A. E. Capell.
The whole of the wounded were taken by the enemy, and Colonel Bethune
had no resource but to retire on N'qutu.
The Boers were falling back from Natal, and the British at this date
were in possession of Christiana, Kroonstad, Lindley, and Newcastle.
Thus, it will be seen, we were sweeping up, like an incoming tide, from
all quarters. Sir Redvers Buller now halted to concentrate his army,
collect supplies, and repair the rail, in order that his next move
should be both rapid and effective. That being the case, his programme
for the celebration of the Queen's Birthday took an unique form. The
General decided that the men should spend "a record day" in repairing
the rail. This they did with a will, as, indeed, they did all things at
the behest of their much-respected chief. Repairs on all sides were
prosecuted with ardour, the railway engineering staff working away at
bridging operations on the Ingagane River at Waschbank, till, by the
28th, the line was clear to Newcastle. To clear the right flank Generals
Hildyard and Lyttelton had been directed to Utrecht and Vryheid
respectively, and the month closed with the entry into Utrecht, the
first Transvaal town to be taken by the Natal Field Force. In the
skirmishing which occurred, Captain St. John and Lieutenant Pearse had
their horses shot under them, and Lieutenant Thompson had the misfortune
to be wounded and taken prisoner. The town, however, was not really
occupied till some weeks later.
Their part of the strategical programme accomplished, General Hildyard's
Division left for Ingogo, while that of General Lyttelton marched to
Coetze's Drift, due east of Ingogo, for the purpose of clearing the
country between Vryheid and Wakkerstroom.