The surrender of Cronje had taken place on February 27th, obliterating
for ever the triumphant memories which the Boers had for twenty years
associated with that date. A halt was necessary to provide food for the
hungry troops, and above all to enable the cavalry horses to pick up.
The supply of forage had been most inadequate, and the beasts had not
yet learned to find a living from the dry withered herbage of the veld.
[Footnote: A battery which turned out its horses to graze found that
the puzzled creatures simply galloped about the plain, and could only be
reassembled by blowing the call which they associated with feeding, when
they rushed back and waited in lines for their nosebags to be put on.]
In addition to this, they had been worked most desperately during the
fortnight which had elapsed. Lord Roberts waited therefore at Osfontein,
which is a farmhouse close to Paardeberg, until his cavalry were fit for
an advance. On March 6th he began his march for Bloemfontein.
The force which had been hovering to the south and east of him during
the Paardeberg operations had meanwhile been reinforced from Colesberg
and from Ladysmith until it had attained considerable proportions. This
army, under the leadership of De Wet, had taken up a strong position a
few miles to the east, covering a considerable range of kopjes. On March
3rd a reconnaissance was made of it, in which some of our guns were
engaged; but it was not until three days later that the army
advanced with the intention of turning or forcing it. In the meantime
reinforcements had been arriving in the British camp, derived partly
from the regiments which had been employed at other points during these
operations, and partly from newcomers from the outer Empire. The Guards
came up from Klip Drift, the City Imperial Volunteers, the Australian
Mounted Infantry, the Burmese Mounted Infantry and a detachment of light
horse from Ceylon helped to form this strange invading army which was
drawn from five continents and yet had no alien in its ranks.
The position which the enemy had taken up at Poplars Grove (so called
from a group of poplars round a farmhouse in the centre of their
position) extended across the Modder River and was buttressed on either
side by well-marked hills, with intermittent kopjes between. With guns,
trenches, rifle pits, and barbed wire a bull-headed general might have
found it another Magersfontein. But it is only just to Lord Roberts's
predecessors in command to say that it is easy to do things with three
cavalry brigades which it is difficult to do with two regiments. The
ultimate blame does not rest with the man who failed with the two
regiments, but with those who gave him inadequate means for the
work which he had to do. And in this estimate of means our military
authorities, our politicians, and our public were all in the first
instance equally mistaken.
Lord Roberts's plan was absolutely simple, and yet, had it been carried
out as conceived, absolutely effective. It was not his intention to
go near any of that entanglement of ditch and wire which had been so
carefully erected for his undoing. The weaker party, if it be wise,
atones for its weakness by entrenchments. The stronger party, if it be
wise, leaves the entrenchments alone and uses its strength to go round
them. Lord Roberts meant to go round. With his immense preponderance
of men and guns the capture or dispersal of the enemy's army might be
reduced to a certainty. Once surrounded, they must either come out into
the open or they must surrender.
On March 6th the cavalry were brought across the river, and in the early
morning of March 7th they were sent off in the darkness to sweep round
the left wing of the Boers and to establish themselves on the line of
their retreat. Kelly-Kenny's Division (6th) had orders to follow and
support this movement. Meanwhile Tucker was to push straight along the
southern bank of the river, though we may surmise that his instructions
were, in case of resistance, not to push his attack home. Colvile's 9th
Division, with part of the naval brigade, were north of the river, the
latter to shell the drifts in case the Boers tried to cross, and the
infantry to execute a turning movement which would correspond with that
of the cavalry on the other flank.
The plan of action was based, however, upon one supposition which proved
to be fallacious. It was that after having prepared so elaborate a
position the enemy would stop at least a little time to defend it.
Nothing of the sort occurred, however, and on the instant that they
realised that the cavalry was on their flank they made off. The infantry
did not fire a shot.
The result of this very decisive flight was to derange all calculations
entirely. The cavalry was not yet in its place when the Boer army
streamed off between the kopjes. One would have thought, however, that
they would have had a dash for the wagons and the guns, even if they
were past them. It is unfair to criticise a movement until one is
certain as to the positive orders which the leader may have received;
but on the face of it it is clear that the sweep of our cavalry was not
wide enough, and that they erred by edging to the left instead of to the
right, so leaving the flying enemies always to the outside of them.
As it was, however, there seemed every possibility of their getting the
guns, but De Wet very cleverly covered them by his skirmishers. Taking
possession of a farmhouse on the right flank they kept up a spirited
fire upon the 16th Lancers and upon P battery R.H.A. When at last the
latter drove them out of their shelter, they again formed upon a low
kopje and poured so galling a fire upon the right wing that the whole
movement was interrupted until we had driven this little body of fifty
men from their position. When, after a delay of an hour, the cavalry at
last succeeded in dislodging them--or possibly it may be fairer to say
when, having accomplished their purpose, they retired--the guns
and wagons were out of reach, and, what is more important, the
two Presidents, both Steyn and Kruger, who had come to stiffen the
resistance of the burghers, had escaped.
Making every allowance for the weary state of the horses, it is
impossible to say that our cavalry were handled with energy or judgment
on this occasion. That such a force of men and guns should be held off
from an object of such importance by so small a resistance reflects
no credit upon us. It would have been better to repeat the Kimberley
tactics and to sweep the regiments in extended order past the obstacle
if we could not pass over it. At the other side of that little
ill-defended kopje lay a possible termination of the war, and our crack
cavalry regiments manoeuvred for hours and let it pass out of their
reach. However, as Lord Roberts good-humouredly remarked at the end
of the action, 'In war you can't expect everything to come out right.'
General French can afford to shed one leaf from his laurel wreath. On
the other hand, no words can be too high for the gallant little band of
Boers who had the courage to face that overwhelming mass of horsemen,
and to bluff them into regarding this handful as a force fighting a
serious rearguard action. When the stories of the war are told round the
fires in the lonely veld farmhouses, as they will be for a century to
come, this one deserves an honoured place.
The victory, if such a word can apply to such an action, had cost some
fifty or sixty of the cavalry killed and wounded, while it is doubtful
if the Boers lost as many. The finest military display on the British
side had been the magnificent marching of Kelly-Kenny's 6th Division,
who had gone for ten hours with hardly a halt. One 9-pound Krupp gun was
the only trophy. On the other hand, Roberts had turned them out of
their strong position, had gained twelve or fifteen miles on the road to
Bloemfontein, and for the first time shown how helpless a Boer army was
in country which gave our numbers a chance. From now onwards it was only
in surprise and ambuscade that they could hope for a success. We had
learned and they had learned that they could not stand in the open
field.
The action of Poplars Grove was fought on March 7th. On the 9th the army
was again on its way, and on the 10th it attacked the new position which
the Boers had occupied at a place called Driefontein, or Abram's Kraal.
They covered a front of some seven miles in such a formation that their
wings were protected, the northern by the river and the southern by
flanking bastions of hill extending for some distance to the rear. If
the position had been defended as well as it had been chosen, the task
would have been a severe one.
Since the Modder covered the enemy's right the turning movement could
only be developed on their left, and Tucker's Division was thrown
out very wide on that side for the purpose. But in the meanwhile a
contretemps had occurred which threw out and seriously hampered the
whole British line of battle. General French was in command of the left
wing, which included Kelly-Kenny's Division, the first cavalry brigade,
and Alderson's Mounted Infantry. His orders had been to keep in touch
with the centre, and to avoid pushing his attack home. In endeavouring
to carry out these instructions French moved his men more and more to
the right, until he had really squeezed in between the Boers and Lord
Roberts's central column, and so masked the latter. The essence of the
whole operation was that the frontal attack should not be delivered
until Tucker had worked round to the rear of the position. It is for
military critics to decide whether it was that the flankers were too
slow or the frontal assailants were too fast, but it is certain that
Kelly-Kenny's Division attacked before the cavalry and the 7th Division
were in their place. Kelly-Kenny was informed that the position in front
of him had been abandoned, and four regiments, the Buffs, the Essex, the
Welsh, and the Yorkshires, were advanced against it. They were passing
over the open when the crash of the Mauser fire burst out in front of
them, and the bullets hissed and thudded among the ranks. The ordeal was
a very severe one. The Yorkshires were swung round wide upon the right,
but the rest of the brigade, the Welsh Regiment leading, made a frontal
attack upon the ridge. It was done coolly and deliberately, the men
taking advantage of every possible cover. Boers could be seen leaving
their position in small bodies as the crackling, swaying line of the
British surged ever higher upon the hillside. At last, with a cheer, the
Welshmen with their Kent and Essex comrades swept over the crest into
the ranks of that cosmopolitan crew of sturdy adventurers who are known
as the Johannesburg Police. For once the loss of the defence was greater
than that of the attack. These mercenaries had not the instinct which
teaches the Boer the right instant for flight, and they held their
position too long to get away. The British had left four hundred men on
the track of that gallant advance, but the vast majority of them were
wounded--too often by those explosive or expansive missiles which make
war more hideous. Of the Boers we actually buried over a hundred on the
ridge, and their total casualties must have been considerably in excess
of ours.
The action was strategically well conceived; all that Lord Roberts could
do for complete success had been done; but tactically it was a poor
affair, considering his enormous preponderance in men and guns. There
was no glory in it, save for the four regiments who set their faces
against that sleet of lead. The artillery did not do well, and were
browbeaten by guns which they should have smothered under their fire.
The cavalry cannot be said to have done well either. And yet, when all
is said, the action is an important one, for the enemy were badly shaken
by the result. The Johannesburg Police, who had been among their corps
d'elite, had been badly mauled, and the burghers were impressed by one
more example of the impossibility of standing in anything approaching
to open country against disciplined troops, Roberts had not captured the
guns, but the road had been cleared for him to Bloemfontein and, what
is more singular, to Pretoria; for though hundreds of miles intervene
between the field of Driefontein and the Transvaal capital, he never
again met a force which was willing to look his infantry in the eyes
in a pitched battle. Surprises and skirmishes were many, but it was the
last time, save only at Doornkop, that a chosen position was ever held
for an effective rifle fire--to say nothing of the push of bayonet.
And now the army flowed swiftly onwards to the capital. The
indefatigable 6th Division, which had done march after march, one more
brilliant than another, since they had crossed the Riet River, reached
Asvogel Kop on the evening of Sunday, March 11th, the day after the
battle. On Monday the army was still pressing onwards, disregarding all
else and striking straight for the heart as Blucher struck at Paris in
1814. At midday they halted at the farm of Gregorowski, he who had tried
the Reform prisoners after the Raid. The cavalry pushed on down Kaal
Spruit, and in the evening crossed the Southern railway line which
connects Bloemfontein with the colony, cutting it at a point some five
miles from the town. In spite of some not very strenuous opposition from
a Boer force a hill was seized by a squadron of Greys with some mounted
infantry and Rimington's Guides, aided by U battery R.H.A., and was held
by them all that night.
On the same evening Major Hunter-Weston, an officer who had already
performed at least one brilliant feat in the war, was sent with
Lieutenant Charles and a handful of Mounted Sappers and Hussars to cut
the line to the north. After a difficult journey on a very dark night
he reached his object and succeeded in finding and blowing up a culvert.
There is a Victoria Cross gallantry which leads to nothing save
personal decoration, and there is another and far higher gallantry of
calculation, which springs from a cool brain as well as a hot heart,
and it is from the men who possess this rare quality that great warriors
arise. Such feats as the cutting of this railway or the subsequent
saving of the Bethulie Bridge by Grant and Popham are of more service to
the country than any degree of mere valour untempered by judgment.
Among other results the cutting of the line secured for us twenty-eight
locomotives, two hundred and fifty trucks, and one thousand tons of
coal, all of which were standing ready to leave Bloemfontein station.
The gallant little band were nearly cut off on their return, but fought
their way through with the loss of two horses, and so got back in
triumph.
The action of Driefontein was fought on the 10th. The advance began on
the morning of the 11th. On the morning of the 13th the British were
practically masters of Bloemfontein. The distance is forty miles. No one
can say that Lord Roberts cannot follow a victory up as well as win it.
Some trenches had been dug and sangars erected to the north-west of
the town; but Lord Roberts, with his usual perverseness, took the wrong
turning and appeared upon the broad open plain to the south, where
resistance would have been absurd. Already Steyn and the irreconcilables
had fled from the town, and the General was met by a deputation of the
Mayor, the Landdrost, and Mr. Fraser to tender the submission of the
capital. Fraser, a sturdy clear-headed Highlander, had been the one
politician in the Free State who combined a perfect loyalty to his
adopted country with a just appreciation of what a quarrel A l'outrance
with the British Empire would mean. Had Fraser's views prevailed, the
Orange Free State would still exist as a happy and independent State. As
it is, he may help her to happiness and prosperity as the prime minister
of the Orange River Colony.
It was at half-past one on Tuesday, March 13th, that General Roberts and
his troops entered Bloemfontein, amid the acclamations of many of the
inhabitants, who, either to propitiate the victor, or as a sign of their
real sympathies, had hoisted union jacks upon their houses. Spectators
have left it upon record how from all that interminable column of
yellow-clad weary men, worn with half rations and whole-day marches,
there came never one jeer, never one taunting or exultant word, as they
tramped into the capital of their enemies. The bearing of the troops was
chivalrous in its gentleness, and not the least astonishing sight to the
inhabitants was the passing of the Guards, the dandy troops of
England, the body-servants of the great Queen. Black with sun and dust,
staggering after a march of thirty-eight miles, gaunt and haggard, with
their clothes in such a state that decency demanded that some of the men
should be discreetly packed away in the heart of the dense column, they
still swung into the town with the aspect of Kentish hop-pickers and the
bearing of heroes. She, the venerable mother, could remember the bearded
ranks who marched past her when they came with sadly thinned files back
from the Crimean winter; even those gallant men could not have endured
more sturdily, nor have served her more loyally, than these their worthy
descendants.
It was just a month after the start from Ramdam that Lord Roberts and
his army rode into the enemy's capital. Up to that period we had in
Africa Generals who were hampered for want of troops, and troops who
were hampered for want of Generals. Only when the Commander-in-Chief
took over the main army had we soldiers enough, and a man who knew
how to handle them. The result was one which has not only solved the
question of the future of South Africa, but has given an illustration of
strategy which will become classical to the military student. How brisk
was the course of events, how incessant the marching and fighting,
may be shown by a brief recapitulation. On February 13th cavalry and
infantry were marching to the utmost capacity of men and horses. On the
14th the cavalry were halted, but the infantry were marching hard. On
the 15th the cavalry covered forty miles, fought an action, and relieved
Kimberley. On the 16th the cavalry were in pursuit of the Boer guns all
day, and were off on a thirty-mile march to the Modder at night, while
the infantry were fighting Cronje's rearguard action, and closing up all
day. On the 17th the infantry were marching hard. On the 18th was the
battle of Paardeberg. From the 19th to the 27th was incessant fighting
with Cronje inside the laager and with De Wet outside. From the 28th to
March 6th was rest. On March 7th was the action of Poplars Grove with
heavy marching; on March 10th the battle of Driefontein. On the 11th
and 12th the infantry covered forty miles, and on the 13th were in
Bloemfontein. All this was accomplished by men on half-rations, with
horses which could hardly be urged beyond a walk, in a land where water
is scarce and the sun semi-tropical, each infantryman carrying a weight
of nearly forty pounds. There are few more brilliant achievements in the
history of British arms. The tactics were occasionally faulty, and the
battle of Paardeberg was a blot upon the operations; but the strategy of
the General and the spirit of the soldier were alike admirable.