Nicholson's Nek
Until the 29th of October we retained our positions at Rietfontein. On
that date General Joubert joined us with a portion of the Transvaal
commandos. On his arrival it was settled that the Transvaalers should
proceed to the north of Ladysmith and occupy positions on the east of
Nicholson's Nek, whilst the Free-Staters were to go to the west and
north-west of that town.
A party of burghers, under Commandant Nel, of Kroonstad, were ordered to
station themselves on a kop with a flat top, called Swartbooiskop,[10]
an hour and a half to the south of Nicholson's Nek. After the battle
which was fought on the 30th of November this kop was christened by us
Little Majuba.
Just after sunrise on the 30th of November the roaring of cannon came to
our ears. The sound came from the extreme end of our position, where the
Transvaalers were stationed. No sooner did we hear it than the order to
off-saddle was given. I myself asked Commandant Steenekamp, who had
arrived the previous day from Bezuidenhoutspas, to go to General Croup's
laager, about two miles distant, and to request him to advance to where
the firing was taking place. To this request General Croup acceded, and
Commandant Steenekamp went there with three hundred men, of whom I was
one. Our way led past the kop to the south of Nicholson's Nek. What a
sight met our gaze on our arrival there!
The kop was occupied by the English.
This must be ascribed to the negligence of Commandant Nel, who had
orders to guard the kop. He excused himself by assuring us that he had
been under the impression that one of his Veldtcornets and a number of
burghers were occupying the hill.
What could we do now?
Commandant Steenekamp and I decided that we must storm the hill with the
three hundred men whom we had at our disposal. And this we did, and were
sufficiently fortunate to capture the northern point of the kop.
On reaching the summit we discovered that the British troops occupied
positions extending from the southern point to the middle of the
mountain.
The enemy, the moment we appeared on the ridge, opened a heavy rifle
fire upon us. We answered with as severe a fusillade as theirs. Whilst
we were shooting, twenty of Commandant Nel's men joined us and helped us
to hold our ground. When we had been engaged in this way for some time
we saw that the only possible course was to fight our way from position
to position towards the English lines.
I now observed that the mountain top was of an oblong shape, extending
from north to south for about a thousand paces. At the northern end,
where we were, the surface was smooth, but somewhat further south it
became rough and stony, affording very good cover. In our present
situation we were thus almost completely exposed to the enemy's fire.
The English, on the other hand, had excellent positions. There were a
number of ruined Kaffir kraals scattered about from the middle of the
mountain to its southern end, and these the enemy had occupied, thus
securing a great advantage.
Our bullets hailed on the English, and very shortly they retreated to
the southernmost point of the mountain. This gave us the chance for
which we had been waiting, for now we could take the splendid positions
they had left.
Whilst this was going on an amusing incident occurred. A Jew came up to
a burgher who was lying behind a stone, on a piece of ground where
boulders were scarce.
"Sell me that stone for half-a-crown," whined the Jew.
"Loop!"[11] the Boer cried; "I want it myself."
"I will give you fifteen shillings," insisted the Jew.
Although the Boer had never before possessed anything that had risen in
value with such surprising rapidity, at that moment he was anything but
ready to drive a bargain with the Jew, and without any hesitation he
positively declined to do business.
In the positions from which the English had retired we found several
dead and wounded men, and succeeded in capturing some prisoners.
The enemy were now very strongly posted at the south end of the
mountain, for there were in their neighbourhood many Kaffir kraals and
huge boulders to protect them from our marksmen. Their fire on us became
still more severe and unceasing, and their bullets whistled and sang
above our heads, or flattened themselves against the stones. We gave at
least as good as we got, and this was so little to their liking that
very soon a few white flags appeared in the kraals on their left wing,
and from that quarter the firing stopped suddenly.
I immediately gave the order to cease fire and to advance towards the
enemy. All at once the English blazed away at us again. On our part, we
replied with vigour. But that did not continue long. In a very short
time white flags fluttered above every kraal--the victory was ours.
I have no wish to say that a misuse of the white flag had taken place. I
was told when the battle was over that the firing had continued, because
the men on our eastern wing had not observed what their comrades on
their left had done. And this explanation I willingly accept.
Our force in this engagement consisted only of three hundred men from
Heilbron, twenty from Kroonstad, and forty or fifty from the
Johannesburg Police, these latter under Captain Van Dam. The Police had
arrived on the battlefield during the fighting, and had behaved in a
most praiseworthy manner.
But I overestimate our numbers, for it was not the _whole_ of the
Heilbron contingent that reached the firing line. We had to leave some
of them behind with the horses at the foot of the kop, and there were
others who remained at the first safe position they reached--a frequent
occurrence at that period.
I took careful note of our numbers when the battle was over, and I can
state with certainty that there were not more than two hundred burghers
actually engaged.
Our losses amounted to four killed and five wounded. As to the losses of
the English, I myself counted two hundred and three dead and wounded,
and there may have been many whom I did not see. In regard to our
prisoners, as they marched past me four deep I counted eight hundred and
seventeen.
In addition to the prisoners we also captured two Maxim and two mountain
guns. They, however, were out of order, and had not been used by the
English. The prisoners told us that parts of their big guns had been
lost in the night, owing to a stampede of the mules which carried them,
and consequently that the guns were incomplete when they reached the
mountain. Shortly afterwards we found the mules with the missing parts
of the guns.
It was very lucky for us that the English were deprived of the use of
their guns, for it placed them on the same footing as ourselves, as it
compelled them to rely entirely on their rifles. Still they had the
advantage of position, not to mention the fact that they out-numbered us
by four to one.
The guns did not comprise the whole of our capture: we also seized a
thousand Lee-Metford rifles, twenty cases of cartridges, and some
baggage mules and horses.
The fighting had continued without intermission from nine o'clock in the
morning until two in the afternoon. The day was exceedingly hot, and as
there was no water to be obtained nearer than a mile from the berg,[12]
we suffered greatly from thirst. The condition of the wounded touched my
heart deeply. It was pitiable to hear them cry, "Water! water!"
I ordered my burghers to carry these unfortunate creatures to some
thorn-bushes, which afforded shelter from the scorching rays of the sun,
and where their doctors could attend to them. Other burghers I told off
to fetch water from our prisoners' canteens, to supply our own wounded.
As soon as the wounded were safe under the shelter of the trees I
despatched a message to Sir George White asking him to send his
ambulance to fetch them, and also to make arrangements for the burial of
his dead. For some unexplained reason, the English ambulance did not
arrive till the following morning.
We stayed on the mountain until sunset, and then went down to the
laager. I ordered my brother, Piet de Wet, with fifty men of the
Bethlehem commando, to remain behind and guard the kop.
We reached camp at eight o'clock, and as the men had been without food
during the whole day it can be imagined with what delight each watched
his _bout span_ frizzling on the spit. This, with a couple of
_stormjagers_ and a tin of coffee, made up the meal, and speedily
restored them. They were exempted from sentry duty that night, and
greatly enjoyed their well-earned rest.
To complete my narrative of the day's work, I have only to add that the
Transvaal burghers were engaged at various points some eight miles from
Nicholson's Nek, and succeeded in taking four hundred prisoners.
We placed our sentries that evening with the greatest care. They were
stationed not only at a distance from the camp, as _Brandwachten_,[13]
but also close round the laager itself. We were especially careful, as
it was rumoured that the English had armed the Zulus of Natal. Had this
been true, it would have been necessary to exercise the utmost vigilance
to guard against these barbarians.
Since the very beginning of our existence as a nation--in 1836--our
people had been acquainted with black races, and bitter had been their
experience. All that our _voortrekkers_[14] had suffered was indelibly
stamped on our memory. We well knew what the Zulus could do under cover
of darkness--their sanguinary night attacks were not easily forgotten.
Their name of "night-wolves" had been well earned. Also we Free-Staters
had endured much from the Basutos, in the wars of 1865 and 1867.
History had thus taught us to place _Brandwachten_ round our laagers at
night, and to reconnoitre during the hours of darkness as well as in the
day-time.
Perhaps I shall be able to give later on a fuller account in these
pages--or, it may be, in another book--of the way we were accustomed to
reconnoitre, and of the reasons why the scouting of the British so
frequently ended in disaster. But I cannot resist saying here that the
English only learnt the art of scouting during the latter part of the
war, when they made use of the Boer deserters--the "Hands-uppers."
These deserters were our undoing. I shall have a good deal more to say
about them before I finally lay down my pen, and I shall not hesitate to
call them by their true name--the name with which they will be for ever
branded before all the nations of the world.
[Footnote 10: About nine miles: distance reckoned by average pace of
ridden horse--six miles an hour.]
[Footnote 11: Clear off.]
[Footnote 12: Hill.]
[Footnote 13: Literally, watch-fire men. They were the furthest
outposts, whose duty it was to signal by means of their fires.]
[Footnote 14: Pioneers.]