From the moment that Lord Roberts with his army advanced from Ramdam
all the other British forces in South Africa, the Colesberg force, the
Stormberg force, Brabant's force, and the Natal force, had the pressure
relieved in front of them, a tendency which increased with every fresh
success of the main body. A short chapter must be devoted to following
rapidly the fortunes of these various armies, and tracing the effect of
Lord Roberts's strategy upon their movements. They may be taken in turn
from west to east.
The force under General Clements (formerly French's) had, as has already
been told, been denuded of nearly all its cavalry and horse artillery,
and so left in the presence of a very superior body of the enemy. Under
these circumstances Clements had to withdraw his immensely extended
line, and to concentrate at Arundel, closely followed by the elated
enemy. The situation was a more critical one than has been appreciated
by the public, for if the force had been defeated the Boers would have
been in a position to cut Lord Roberts's line of communications, and the
main army would have been in the air. Much credit is due, not only to
General Clements, but to Carter of the Wiltshires, Hacket Pain of the
Worcesters, Butcher of the 4th R.F.A., the admirable Australians, and
all the other good men and true who did their best to hold the gap for
the Empire.
The Boer idea of a strong attack upon this point was strategically
admirable, but tactically there was not sufficient energy in pushing
home the advance. The British wings succeeded in withdrawing, and the
concentrated force at Arundel was too strong for attack. Yet there was
a time of suspense, a time when every man had become of such importance
that even fifty Indian syces were for the first and last time in the
war, to their own supreme gratification, permitted for twenty-four hours
to play their natural part as soldiers. [Footnote: There was something
piteous in the chagrin of these fine Sikhs at being held back from their
natural work as soldiers. A deputation of them waited upon Lord Roberts
at Bloemfontein to ask, with many salaams, whether 'his children were
not to see one little fight before they returned.'] But then with the
rapid strokes in front the hour of danger passed, and the Boer advance
became first a halt and then a retreat.
On February 27th, Major Butcher, supported by the Inniskillings and
Australians, attacked Rensburg and shelled the enemy out of it. Next
morning Clements's whole force had advanced from Arundel and took up
its old position. The same afternoon it was clear that the Boers were
retiring, and the British, following them up, marched into Colesberg,
around which they had manoeuvred so long. A telegram from Steyn to De
Wet found in the town told the whole story of the retirement: 'As long
as you are able to hold the positions you are in with the men you have,
do so. If not, come here as quickly as circumstances will allow, as
matters here are taking a serious turn.' The whole force passed over
the Orange River unimpeded, and blew up the Norval's Pont railway bridge
behind it. Clements's brigade followed on March 4th, and succeeded in
the course of a week in throwing a pontoon bridge over the river and
crossing into the Orange Free State. Roberts having in the meanwhile
seized Bloemfontein, communication was restored by railway between the
forces, and Clements was despatched to Phillipolis, Fauresmith, and
the other towns in the south-west to receive the submission of the
inhabitants and to enforce their disarmament. In the meantime the
Engineers worked furiously at the restoration of the railway bridge over
the Orange River, which was not, however, accomplished until some weeks
later.
During the long period which had elapsed since the repulse at Stormberg,
General Gatacre had held his own at Sterkstroom, under orders not to
attack the enemy, repulsing them easily upon the only occasion when
they ventured to attack him. Now it was his turn also to profit by the
success which Lord Roberts had won. On February 23rd he re-occupied
Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy's
position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the
cause of the death of Captain de Montmorency [Footnote: De Montmorency
had established a remarkable influence over his rough followers. To the
end of the war they could not speak of him without tears in their eyes.
When I asked Sergeant Howe why his captain went almost alone up the
hill, his answer was, 'Because the captain knew no fear.' Byrne, his
soldier servant (an Omdurman V.C. like his master), galloped madly off
next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his captain alive or
dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained by our cavalry. ],
one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British army.
He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men,
but soon expanding to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he
confirmed the reputation for desperate valour which he had won in the
Soudan, and added to it proofs of the enterprise and judgment which go
to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance
he ascended a small kopje accompanied by three companions, Colonel
Hoskier, a London Volunteer soldier, Vice, a civilian, and Sergeant
Howe. 'They are right on the top of us,' he cried to his comrades, as he
reached the summit, and dropped next instant with a bullet through his
heart. Hoskier was shot in five places, and Vice was mortally wounded,
only Howe escaping. The rest of the scouts, being farther back, were
able to get cover and to keep up a fight until they were extricated by
the remainder of the force. Altogether our loss was formidable rather in
quality than in quantity, for not more than a dozen were hit, while the
Boers suffered considerably from the fire of our guns.
On March 5th General Gatacre found that the Boers were retreating in
front of him--in response, no doubt, to messages similar to those which
had already been received at Colesberg. Moving forward he occupied the
position which had confronted him so long. Thence, having spent some
days in drawing in his scattered detachments and in mending the railway,
he pushed forward on March 12th to Burghersdorp, and thence on the 13th
to Olive Siding, to the south of the Bethulie Bridge.
There are two bridges which span the broad muddy Orange River, thick
with the washings of the Basutoland mountains. One of these is
the magnificent high railway bridge, already blown to ruins by the
retreating Boers. Dead men or shattered horses do not give a more vivid
impression of the unrelenting brutality of war than the sight of a
structure, so graceful and so essential, blown into a huge heap of
twisted girders and broken piers. Half a mile to the west is the road
bridge, broad and old-fashioned. The only hope of preserving some mode
of crossing the difficult river lay in the chance that the troops might
anticipate the Boers who were about to destroy this bridge.
In this they were singularly favoured by fortune. On the arrival of a
small party of scouts and of the Cape Police under Major Nolan-Neylan at
the end of the bridge it was found that all was ready to blow it up, the
mine sunk, the detonator fixed, and the wire laid. Only the connection
between the wire and the charge had not been made. To make sure, the
Boers had also laid several boxes of dynamite under the last span,
in case the mine should fail in its effect. The advance guard of the
Police, only six in number, with Nolan-Neylan at their head, threw
themselves into a building which commanded the approaches of the bridge,
and this handful of men opened so spirited and well-aimed a fire that
the Boers were unable to approach it. As fresh scouts and policemen came
up they were thrown into the firing line, and for a whole long day they
kept the destroyers from the bridge. Had the enemy known how weak they
were and how far from supports, they could have easily destroyed them,
but the game of bluff was admirably played, and a fire kept up which
held the enemy to their rifle pits.
The Boers were in a trench commanding the bridge, and their brisk fire
made it impossible to cross. On the other hand, our rifle fire commanded
the mine and prevented any one from exploding it. But at the approach of
darkness it was certain that this would be done. The situation was saved
by the gallantry of young Popham of the Derbyshires, who crept across
with two men and removed the detonators. There still remained the
dynamite under the further span, and this also they removed, carrying it
off across the bridge under a heavy fire. The work was made absolutely
complete a little later by the exploit of Captain Grant of the Sappers,
who drew the charges from the holes in which they had been sunk, and
dropped them into the river, thus avoiding the chance that they might be
exploded next morning by shell fire. The feat of Popham and of Grant was
not only most gallant but of extraordinary service to the country; but
the highest credit belongs to Nolan-Neylan, of the Police, for the great
promptitude and galantry of his attack, and to McNeill for his support.
On that road bridge and on the pontoon bridge at Norval's Pont Lord
Roberts's army was for a whole month dependent for their supplies.
On March 15th Gatacre's force passed over into the Orange Free State,
took possession of Bethulie, and sent on the cavalry to Springfontein,
which is the junction where the railways from Cape Town and from East
London meet. Here they came in contact with two battalions of Guards
under Pole-Carew, who had been sent down by train from Lord Roberts's
force in the north. With Roberts at Bloemfontein, Gatacre at
Springfontein, Clements in the south-west, and Brabant at Aliwal, the
pacification of the southern portion of the Free State appeared to be
complete. Warlike operations seemed for the moment to be at an end, and
scattered parties traversed the country, 'bill-sticking,' as the troops
called it--that is, carrying Lord Roberts's proclamation to the lonely
farmhouses and outlying villages.
In the meantime the colonial division of that fine old African fighter,
General Brabant, had begun to play its part in the campaign. Among the
many judicious arrangements which Lord Roberts made immediately after
his arrival at the Cape was the assembling of the greater part of
the scattered colonial bands into one division, and placing over it a
General of their own, a man who had defended the cause of the Empire
both in the legislative assembly and the field. To this force was
entrusted the defence of the country lying to the east of Gatacre's
position, and on February 15th they advanced from Penhoek upon
Dordrecht. Their Imperial troops consisted of the Royal Scots and
a section of the 79th R.F.A., the Colonial of Brabant's Horse, the
Kaffrarian Mounted Rifles, the Cape Mounted Rifles and Cape Police, with
Queenstown and East London Volunteers. The force moved upon Dordrecht,
and on February 18th occupied the town after a spirited action, in which
Brabant's Horse played a distinguished part. On March 4th the division
advanced once more with the object of attacking the Boer position at
Labuschagne's Nek, some miles to the north.
Aided by the accurate fire of the 79th R.F.A., the colonials succeeded,
after a long day of desultory fighting, in driving the enemy from
his position. Leaving a garrison in Dordrecht Brabant followed up his
victory and pushed forward with two thousand men and eight guns (six
of them light 7-pounders) to occupy Jamestown, which was done without
resistance. On March 10th the colonial force approached Aliwal, the
frontier town, and so rapid was the advance of Major Henderson with
Brabant's Horse that the bridge at Aliwal was seized before the enemy
could blow it up. At the other side of the bridge there was a strong
stand made by the enemy, who had several Krupp guns in position; but
the light horse, in spite of a loss of some twenty-five men killed and
wounded, held on to the heights which command the river. A week or ten
days were spent in pacifying the large north-eastern portion of Cape
Colony, to which Aliwal acts as a centre. Barkly East, Herschel, Lady
Grey, and other villages were visited by small detachments of the
colonial horsemen, who pushed forward also into the south-eastern
portion of the Free State, passing through Rouxville, and so along the
Basutoland border as far as Wepener. The rebellion in the Colony was
now absolutely dead in the north-east, while in the north-west in the
Prieska and Carnarvon districts it was only kept alive by the fact that
the distances were so great and the rebel forces so scattered that it
was very difficult for our flying columns to reach them. Lord Kitchener
had returned from Paardeberg to attend to this danger upon our line of
communications, and by his exertions all chance of its becoming serious
soon passed. With a considerable force of Yeomanry and Cavalry he passed
swiftly over the country, stamping out the smouldering embers.
So much for the movements into the Free State of Clements, of Gatacre,
and of Brabant. It only remains to trace the not very eventful history
of the Natal campaign after the relief of Ladysmith.
General Buller made no attempt to harass the retreat of the Boers,
although in two days no fewer than two thousand wagons were counted upon
the roads to Newcastle and Dundee. The guns had been removed by train,
the railway being afterwards destroyed. Across the north of Natal lies
the chain of the Biggarsberg mountains, and to this the Transvaal Boers
had retired, while the Freestaters had hurried through the passes of the
Drakensberg in time to make the fruitless opposition to Roberts's
march upon their capital. No accurate information had come in as to the
strength of the Transvaalers, the estimates ranging from five to ten
thousand, but it was known that their position was formidable and their
guns mounted in such a way as to command the Dundee and Newcastle roads.
General Lyttelton's Division had camped as far out as Elandslaagte with
Burn Murdoch's cavalry, while Dundonald's brigade covered the space
between Burn Murdoch's western outposts and the Drakensberg passes.
Few Boers were seen, but it was known that the passes were held in some
strength. Meanwhile the line was being restored in the rear, and on
March 9th the gallant White was enabled to take train for Durban, though
it was not until ten days later that the Colenso bridge was restored.
The Ladysmith garrison had been sent down to Colenso to recruit their
health. There they were formed into a new division, the 4th, the
brigades being given to Howard and Knox, and the command to Lyttelton,
who had returned his former division, the second, to Clery. The 5th and
6th brigades were also formed into one division, the 10th, which was
placed under the capable command of Hunter, who had confirmed in the
south the reputation which he had won in the north of Africa. In the
first week of April Hunter's Division was sent down to Durban and
transferred to the western side, where they were moved up to Kimberley,
whence they advanced northwards. The man on the horse has had in this
war an immense advantage over the man on foot, but there have been times
when the man on the ship has restored the balance. Captain Mahan might
find some fresh texts in the transference of Hunter's Division, or in
the subsequent expedition to Beira.
On April 10th the Boers descended from their mountains and woke up our
sleepy army corps by a brisk artillery fire. Our own guns silenced
it, and the troops instantly relapsed into their slumber. There was no
movement for a fortnight afterwards upon either side, save that of Sir
Charles Warren, who left the army in order to take up the governorship
of British Bechuanaland, a district which was still in a disturbed
state, and in which his presence had a peculiar significance, since he
had rescued portions of it from Boer domination in the early days of the
Transvaal Republic. Hildyard took over the command of the 5th Division.
In this state of inertia the Natal force remained until Lord Roberts,
after a six weeks' halt in Bloemfontein, necessitated by the insecurity
of his railway communication and his want of every sort of military
supply, more especially horses for his cavalry and boots for his
infantry, was at last able on May 2nd to start upon his famous march
to Pretoria. Before accompanying him, however, upon this victorious
progress, it is necessary to devote a chapter to the series of incidents
and operations which had taken place to the east and south-east of
Bloemfontein during this period of compulsory inactivity.
One incident must be recorded in this place, though it was political
rather than military. This was the interchange of notes concerning peace
between Paul Kruger and Lord Salisbury. There is an old English jingle
about 'the fault of the Dutch, giving too little and asking too much,'
but surely there was never a more singular example of it than this.
The united Presidents prepare for war for years, spring an insulting
ultimatum upon us, invade our unfortunate Colonies, solemnly annex all
the portions invaded, and then, when at last driven back, propose a
peace which shall secure for them the whole point originally at issue.
It is difficult to believe that the proposals could have been seriously
meant, but more probable that the plan may have been to strengthen the
hands of the Peace deputation who were being sent to endeavour to secure
European intervention. Could they point to a proposal from the Transvaal
and a refusal from England, it might, if not too curiously examined,
excite the sympathy of those who follow emotions rather than facts.
The documents were as follow:--
'The Presidents of the Orange Free State and of the South African
Republic to the Marquess of Salisbury. Bloemfontein March 5th, 1900.
'The blood and the tears of the thousands who have suffered by this war,
and the prospect of all the moral and economic ruin with which South
Africa is now threatened, make it necessary for both belligerents to
ask themselves dispassionately and as in the sight of the Triune God for
what they are fighting and whether the aim of each justifies all this
appalling misery and devastation.
'With this object, and in view of the assertions of various British
statesmen to the effect that this war was begun and is carried on with
the set purpose of undermining Her Majesty's authority in South Africa,
and of setting up an administration over all South Africa independent
of Her Majesty's Government, we consider it our duty to solemnly declare
that this war was undertaken solely as a defensive measure to safeguard
the threatened independence of the South African Republic, and is
only continued in order to secure and safeguard the incontestable
independence of both Republics as sovereign international States, and to
obtain the assurance that those of Her Majesty's subjects who have taken
part with us in this war shall suffer no harm whatsoever in person or
property.
'On these conditions, but on these conditions alone, are we now as in
the past desirous of seeing peace re-established in South Africa, and
of putting an end to the evils now reigning over South Africa; while,
if Her Majesty's Government is determined to destroy the independence
of the Republics, there is nothing left to us and to our people but
to persevere to the end in the course already begun, in spite of the
overwhelming pre-eminence of the British Empire, conscious that that
God who lighted the inextinguishable fire of the love of freedom in our
hearts and those of our fathers will not forsake us, but will accomplish
His work in us and in our descendants.
'We hesitated to make this declaration earlier to your Excellency as
we feared that, as long as the advantage was always on our side, and
as long as our forces held defensive positions far in Her Majesty's
Colonies, such a declaration might hurt the feelings of honour of the
British people. But now that the prestige of the British Empire may be
considered to be assured by the capture of one of our forces, and that
we are thereby forced to evacuate other positions which we had occupied,
that difficulty is over and we can no longer hesitate to inform your
Government and people in the sight of the whole civilised world why we
are fighting and on what conditions we are ready to restore peace.'
Such was the message, deep in its simplicity and cunning in its candour,
which was sent by the old President, for it is Kruger's style which we
read in every line of it. One has to get back to facts after reading
it, to the enormous war preparations of the Republics, to the unprepared
state of the British Colonies, to the ultimatum, to the annexations, to
the stirring up of rebellion, to the silence about peace in the days of
success, to the fact that by 'inextinguishable love of freedom' is meant
inextinguishable determination to hold other white men as helots--only
then can we form a just opinion of the worth of his message. One must
remember also, behind the homely and pious phraseology, that one is
dealing with a man who has been too cunning for us again and again--a
man who is as wily as the savages with whom he has treated and fought.
This Paul Kruger with the simple words of peace is the same Paul Kruger
who with gentle sayings insured the disarmament of Johannesburg, and
then instantly arrested his enemies--the man whose name was a by-word
for 'slimness' [craftiness] throughout South Africa. With such a man the
best weapon is absolute naked truth with which Lord Salisbury confronted
him in his reply:--
Foreign Office: March 11th.
'I have the honour to acknowledge your Honours' telegram dated March 5th
from Bloemfontein, of which the purport was principally to demand
that Her Majesty's Government shall recognise the “incontestable
independence” of the South African Republic and Orange Free State as
“sovereign international States,” and to offer on those terms to bring
the war to a conclusion.
'In the beginning of October last peace existed between Her Majesty and
the two Republics under the conventions which then were in existence.
A discussion had been proceeding for some months between Her Majesty's
Government and the South African Republic, of which the object was to
obtain redress for certain very serious grievances under which British
residents in the Republic were suffering. In the course of those
negotiations the Republic had, to the knowledge of Her Majesty's
Government, made considerable armaments, and the latter had consequently
taken steps to provide corresponding reinforcements to the British
garrisons of Cape Town and Natal. No infringement of the rights
guaranteed by the conventions had up to that time taken place on the
British side. Suddenly, at two days' notice, the South African Republic,
after issuing an insulting ultimatum, declared war, and the Orange Free
State with whom there had not even been any discussion, took a similar
step. Her Majesty's dominions were immediately invaded by the two
Republics, siege was laid to three towns within the British frontier, a
large portion of the two Colonies was overrun with great destruction to
property and life, and the Republics claimed to treat the inhabitants
as if those dominions had been annexed to one or other of them. In
anticipation of these operations the South African Republic had been
accumulating for many years past military stores upon an enormous scale,
which by their character could only have been intended for use against
Great Britain.
'Your Honours make some observations of a negative character upon
the object with which these preparations were made. I do not think it
necessary to discuss the questions which you have raised. But the result
of these preparations, carried on with great secrecy, has been that
the British Empire has been compelled to confront an invasion which has
entailed a costly war and the loss of thousands of precious lives. This
great calamity has been the penalty which Great Britain has suffered for
having in recent years acquiesced in the existence of the two Republics.
'In view of the use to which the two Republics have put the position
which was given to them, and the calamities which their unprovoked
attack has inflicted upon Her Majesty's dominions, Her Majesty's
Government can only answer your Honours' telegram by saying that they
are not prepared to assent to the independence either of the South
African Republic or of the Orange Free State.'
With this frank and uncompromising reply the Empire, with the exception
of a small party of dupes and doctrinaires, heartily agreed. The pens
were dropped, and the Mauser and the Lee-Metford once more took up the
debate.