Leaving De Wet in the Ficksburg mountains, where he lurked until after
the opening of the New Year, the story of the scattered operations
in the Transvaal may now be carried down to the same point--a story
comprising many skirmishes and one considerable engagement, but so
devoid of any central thread that it is difficult to know how to
approach it. From Lichtenburg to Komati, a distance of four hundred
miles, there was sporadic warfare everywhere, attacks upon scattered
posts, usually beaten off but occasionally successful, attacks upon
convoys, attacks upon railway trains, attacks upon anything and
everything which could harass the invaders. Each General in his own
district had his own work of repression to perform, and so we had best
trace the doings of each up to the end of the year 1900.
Lord Methuen after his pursuit of De Wet in August had gone to Mafeking
to refit. From that point, with a force which contained a large
proportion of yeomanry and of Australian bushmen, he conducted a long
series of operations in the difficult and important district which lies
between Rustenburg, Lichtenburg, and Zeerust. Several strong and mobile
Boer commandos with guns moved about in it, and an energetic though not
very deadly warfare raged between Lemmer, Snyman, and De la Rey on the
one side, and the troops of Methuen, Douglas, Broadwood, and Lord Errol
upon the other. Methuen moved about incessantly through the broken
country, winning small skirmishes and suffering the indignity of
continual sniping. From time to time he captured stores, wagons,
and small bodies of prisoners. Early in October he and Douglas had
successes. On the 15th Broadwood was engaged. On the 20th there was
a convoy action. On the 25th Methuen had a success and twenty-eight
prisoners. On November 9th he surprised Snyman and took thirty
prisoners. On the 10th he got a pom-pom. Early in this month Douglas
separated from Methuen, and marched south from Zeerust through
Ventersdorp to Klerksdorp, passing over a country which had been hardly
touched before, and arriving at his goal with much cattle and some
prisoners. Towards the end of the month a considerable stock of
provisions were conveyed to Zeerust, and a garrison left to hold that
town so as to release Methuen's column for service elsewhere.
Hart's sphere of action was originally round Potchefstroom. On September
9th he made a fine forced march to surprise this town, which had been
left some time before with an entirely inadequate garrison to fall into
the hands of the enemy. His infantry covered thirty-six and his cavalry
fifty-four miles in fifteen hours. The operation was a complete
success, the town with eighty Boers falling into his hands with little
opposition. On September 30th Hart returned to Krugersdorp, where, save
for one skirmish upon the Gatsrand on November 22nd, he appears to have
had no actual fighting to do during the remainder of the year.
After the clearing of the eastern border of the Transvaal by the
movement of Pole-Carew along the railway line, and of Buller aided by
Ian Hamilton in the mountainous country to the north of it, there were
no operations of importance in this district. A guard was kept upon
the frontier to prevent the return of refugees and the smuggling of
ammunition, while General Kitchener, the brother of the Sirdar, broke
up a few small Boer laagers in the neighbourhood of Lydenburg.
Smith-Dorrien guarded the line at Belfast, and on two occasions,
November 1st and November 6th, he made aggressive movements against the
enemy. The first, which was a surprise executed in concert with Colonel
Spens of the Shropshires, was frustrated by a severe blizzard, which
prevented the troops from pushing home their success. The second was a
two days' expedition, which met with a spirited opposition, and demands
a fuller notice.
This was made from Belfast, and the force, which consisted of about
fourteen hundred men, advanced south to the Komati River. The infantry
were Suffolks and Shropshires, the cavalry Canadians and 5th Lancers,
with two Canadian guns and four of the 84th battery. All day the Boer
snipers clung to the column, as they had done to French's cavalry in the
same district. Mere route marches without a very definite and adequate
objective appear to be rather exasperating than overawing, for so long
as the column is moving onwards the most timid farmer may be tempted
into long-range fire from the flanks or rear. The river was reached
and the Boers driven from a position which they had taken up, but their
signal fires brought mounted riflemen from every farm, and the retreat
of the troops was pressed as they returned to Belfast. There was all the
material for a South African Lexington. The most difficult of military
operations, the covering of a detachment from a numerous and aggressive
enemy, was admirably carried out by the Canadian gunners and dragoons
under the command of Colonel Lessard. So severe was the pressure that
sixteen of the latter were for a time in the hands of the enemy,
who attempted something in the nature of a charge upon the steadfast
rearguard. The movement was repulsed, and the total Boer loss would
appear to have been considerable, since two of their leaders, Commandant
Henry Prinsloo and General Joachim Fourie, were killed, while General
Johann Grobler was wounded. If the rank and file suffered in proportion
the losses must have been severe. The British casualties in the two
days amounted to eight killed and thirty wounded, a small total when
the arduous nature of the service is considered. The Canadians and
the Shropshires seem to have borne off the honours of these trying
operations.
In the second week of October, General French, with three brigades of
cavalry (Dickson's, Gordon's, and Mahon's), started for a cross-country
ride from Machadodorp. Three brigades may seem an imposing force, but
the actual numbers did not exceed two strong regiments, or about 1500
sabres in all. A wing of the Suffolk Regiment went with them. On October
13th Mahon's brigade met with a sharp resistance, and lost ten killed
and twenty-nine wounded. On the 14th the force entered Carolina. On the
16th they lost six killed and twenty wounded, and from the day that they
started until they reached Heidelberg on the 27th there was never a day
that they could shake themselves clear of their attendant snipers. The
total losses of the force were about ninety killed and wounded, but they
brought in sixty prisoners and a large quantity of cattle and stores.
The march had at least the effect of making it clear that the passage of
a column of troops encumbered with baggage through a hostile country is
an inefficient means for quelling a popular resistance. Light and mobile
parties acting from a central depot were in future to be employed, with
greater hopes of success.
Some appreciable proportion of the British losses during this phase of
the war arose from railway accidents caused by the persistent tampering
with the lines. In the first ten days of October there were four such
mishaps, in which two Sappers, twenty-three of the Guards (Coldstreams),
and eighteen of the 66th battery were killed or wounded. On the
last occasion, which occurred on October 10th near Vlakfontein, the
reinforcements who came to aid the sufferers were themselves waylaid,
and lost twenty, mostly of the Rifle Brigade, killed, wounded, or
prisoners. Hardly a day elapsed that the line was not cut at some point.
The bringing of supplies was complicated by the fact that the Boer women
and children were coming more and more into refugee camps, where they
had to be fed by the British, and the strange spectacle was frequently
seen of Boer snipers killing or wounding the drivers and stokers of the
very trains which were bringing up food upon which Boer families were
dependent for their lives. Considering that these tactics were continued
for over a year, and that they resulted in the death or mutilation of
many hundreds of British officers and men, it is really inexplicable
that the British authorities did not employ the means used by all armies
under such circumstances--which is to place hostages upon the trains. A
truckload of Boers behind every engine would have stopped the practice
for ever. Again and again in this war the British have fought with the
gloves when their opponents used their knuckles.
We will pass now to a consideration of the doings of General Paget, who
was operating to the north and north-east of Pretoria with a force which
consisted of two regiments of infantry, about a thousand horsemen, and
twelve guns. His mounted men were under the command of Plumer. In the
early part of November this force had been withdrawn from Warm Baths and
had fallen back upon Pienaar's River, where it had continual skirmishes
with the enemy. Towards the end of November, news having reached
Pretoria that the enemy under Erasmus and Viljoen were present in force
at a place called Rhenoster Kop, which is about twenty miles north of
the Delagoa Railway line and fifty miles north-east of the capital,
it was arranged that Paget should attack them from the south, while
Lyttelton from Middelburg should endeavour to get behind them. The force
with which Paget started upon this enterprise was not a very formidable
one. He had for mounted troops some Queensland, South Australian, New
Zealand, and Tasmanian Bushmen, together with the York, Montgomery, and
Warwick Yeomanry. His infantry were the 1st West Riding regiment
and four companies of the Munsters. His guns were the 7th and 38th
batteries, with two naval quick-firing twelve-pounders and some smaller
pieces. The total could not have exceeded some two thousand men. Here,
as at other times, it is noticeable that in spite of the two hundred
thousand soldiers whom the British kept in the field, the lines of
communication absorbed so many that at the actual point of contact they
were seldom superior and often inferior in numbers to the enemy. The
opening of the Natal and Delagoa lines though valuable in many ways, had
been an additional drain. Where every culvert needs its picket and every
bridge its company, the guardianship of many hundreds of miles of rail
is no light matter.
In the early morning of November 29th Paget's men came in contact with
the enemy, who were in some force upon an admirable position. A ridge
for their centre, a flanking kopje for their cross fire, and a grass
glacis for the approach--it was an ideal Boer battlefield. The colonials
and the yeomanry under Plumer on the left, and Hickman on the right,
pushed in upon them, until it was evident that they meant to hold their
ground. Their advance being checked by a very severe fire, the horsemen
dismounted and took such cover as they could. Paget's original idea had
been a turning movement, but the Boers were the more numerous body, and
it was impossible for the smaller British force to find their flanks,
for they extended over at least seven miles. The infantry were moved up
into the centre, therefore, between the wings of dismounted horsemen,
and the guns were brought up to cover the advance. The country was
ill-suited, however, to the use of artillery, and it was only possible
to use an indirect fire from under a curve of the grass land. The guns
made good practice, however, one section of the 38th battery being in
action all day within 800 yards of the Boer line, and putting themselves
out of action after 300 rounds by the destruction of their own rifling.
Once over the curve every yard of the veld was commanded by the hidden
riflemen. The infantry advanced, but could make no headway against the
deadly fire which met them. By short rushes the attack managed to get
within 300 yards of the enemy, and there it stuck. On the right the
Munsters carried a detached kopje which was in front of them, but
could do little to aid the main attack. Nothing could have exceeded
the tenacity of the Yorkshiremen and the New Zealanders, who were
immediately to their left. Though unable to advance they refused to
retire, and indeed they were in a position from which a retirement would
have been a serious operation. Colonel Lloyd of the West Ridings was hit
in three places and killed. Five out of six officers of the New Zealand
corps were struck down. There were no reserves to give a fresh impetus
to the attack, and the thin scattered line, behind bullet-spotted stones
or anthills, could but hold its own while the sun sank slowly upon a
day which will not be forgotten by those who endured it. The Boers were
reinforced in the afternoon, and the pressure became so severe that the
field guns were retired with much difficulty. Many of the infantry had
shot away all their cartridges and were helpless. Just one year before
British soldiers had lain under similar circumstances on the plain which
leads to Modder River, and now on a smaller scale the very same drama
was being enacted. Gradually the violet haze of evening deepened into
darkness, and the incessant rattle of the rifle fire died away on either
side. Again, as at Modder River, the British infantry still lay in their
position, determined to take no backward step, and again the Boers stole
away in the night, leaving the ridge which they had defended so well.
A hundred killed and wounded was the price paid by the British for that
line of rock studded hills--a heavier proportion of losses than had
befallen Lord Methuen in the corresponding action. Of the Boer losses
there was as usual no means of judging, but several grave-mounds, newly
dug, showed that they also had something to deplore. Their retreat,
however, was not due to exhaustion, but to the demonstration which
Lyttelton had been able to make in their rear. The gunners and the
infantry had all done well in a most trying action, but by common
consent it was with the men from New Zealand that the honours lay.
It was no empty compliment when Sir Alfred Milner telegraphed to the
Premier of New Zealand his congratulations upon the distinguished
behaviour of his fellow countrymen.
From this time onwards there was nothing of importance in this part of
the seat of war.
It is necessary now to turn from the north-east to the north-west of
Pretoria, where the presence of De la Rey and the cover afforded by the
Magaliesberg mountains had kept alive the Boer resistance. Very rugged
lines of hill, alternating with fertile valleys, afforded a succession
of forts and of granaries to the army which held them. To General
Clements' column had been committed the task of clearing this difficult
piece of country. His force fluctuated in numbers, but does not appear
at any time to have consisted of more than three thousand men, which
comprised the Border Regiment, the Yorkshire Light Infantry, the second
Northumberland Fusiliers, mounted infantry, yeomanry, the 8th R.F.A., P
battery R.H.A., and one heavy gun. With this small army he moved about
the district, breaking up Boer bands, capturing supplies, and bringing
in refugees. On November 13th he was at Krugersdorp, the southern
extremity of his beat. On the 24th he was moving north again, and found
himself as he approached the hills in the presence of a force of Boers
with cannon. This was the redoubtable De la Rey, who sometimes operated
in Methuen's country to the north of the Magaliesberg, and sometimes
to the south. He had now apparently fixed upon Clements as his definite
opponent. De la Rey was numerically inferior, and Clements had no
difficulty in this first encounter in forcing him back with some loss.
On November 26th Clements was back at Krugersdorp again with cattle and
prisoners. In the early days of December he was moving northwards
once more, where a serious disaster awaited him. Before narrating the
circumstances connected with the Battle of Nooitgedacht there is one
incident which occurred in this same region which should be recounted.
This consists of the determined attack made by a party of De la Rey's
men, upon December 3rd, on a convoy which was proceeding from Pretoria
to Rustenburg, and had got as far as Buffel's Hoek. The convoy was a
very large one, consisting of 150 wagons, which covered about three
miles upon the march. It was guarded by two companies of the West
Yorkshires, two guns of the 75th battery, and a handful of the Victoria
Mounted Rifles. The escort appears entirely inadequate when it is
remembered that these stores, which were of great value, were being
taken through a country which was known to be infested by the enemy.
What might have been foreseen occurred. Five hundred Boers suddenly rode
down upon the helpless line of wagons and took possession of them. The
escort rallied, however, upon a kopje, and, though attacked all day,
succeeded in holding their own until help arrived. They prevented the
Boers from destroying or carrying off as much of the convoy as was under
their guns, but the rest was looted and burned. The incident was a
most unfortunate one, as it supplied the enemy with a large quantity of
stores, of which they were badly in need. It was the more irritating
as it was freely rumoured that a Boer attack was pending; and there is
evidence that a remonstrance was addressed from the convoy before it
left Rietfontein to the General of the district, pointing out the danger
to which it was exposed. The result was the loss of 120 wagons and of
more than half the escort. The severity of the little action and the
hardihood of the defence are indicated by the fact that the small body
who held the kopje lost fifteen killed and twenty-two wounded, the
gunners losing nine out of fifteen. A relieving force appeared at the
close of the action, but no vigorous pursuit was attempted, although
the weather was wet and the Boers had actually carried away sixty loaded
wagons, which could only go very slowly. It must be confessed that from
its feckless start to its spiritless finish the story of the Buffel's
Hoek convoy is not a pleasant one to tell.
Clements, having made his way once more to the Magaliesberg range, had
pitched his camp at a place called Nooitgedacht--not to be confused with
the post upon the Delagoa Railway at which the British prisoners had
been confined. Here, in the very shadow of the mountain, he halted
for five days, during which, with the usual insouciance of British
commanders, he does not seem to have troubled himself with any
entrenching. He knew, no doubt, that he was too strong for his opponent
De la Rey, but what he did not know, but might have feared, was that a
second Boer force might appear suddenly upon the scene and join with
De la Rey in order to crush him. This second Boer force was that of
Commandant Beyers from Warm Baths. By a sudden and skilful movement the
two united, and fell like a thunderbolt upon the British column, which
was weakened by the absence of the Border Regiment. The result was such
a reverse as the British had not sustained since Sanna's Post--a reverse
which showed that, though no regular Boer army might exist, still a
sudden coalition of scattered bands could at any time produce a force
which would be dangerous to any British column which might be taken at
a disadvantage. We had thought that the days of battles in this war
were over, but an action which showed a missing and casualty roll of 550
proved that in this, as in so many other things, we were mistaken.
As already stated, the camp of Clements lay under a precipitous cliff,
upon the summit of which he had placed four companies of the 2nd
Northumberland Fusiliers. This strong post was a thousand feet higher
than the camp. Below lay the main body of the force, two more companies
of fusiliers, four of Yorkshire Light Infantry, the 2nd Mounted
Infantry, Kitchener's Horse, yeomanry, and the artillery. The latter
consisted of one heavy naval gun, four guns of the 8th R.F.A., and P
battery R.H.A. The whole force amounted to about fifteen hundred men.
It was just at the first break of dawn--the hour of fate in South
African warfare--that the battle began. The mounted infantry post
between the camp and the mountains were aware of moving figures in front
of them. In the dim light they could discern that they were clothed in
grey, and that they wore the broad-brimmed hats and feathers of some
of our own irregular corps. They challenged, and the answer was a
shattering volley, instantly returned by the survivors of the picket. So
hot was the Boer attack that before help could come every man save
one of the picket was on the ground. The sole survivor, Daley of the
Dublins, took no backward step, but continued to steadily load and fire
until help came from the awakened camp. There followed a savage conflict
at point blank-range. The mounted infantry men, rushing half clad to the
support of their comrades, were confronted by an ever-thickening swarm
of Boer riflemen, who had already, by working round on the flank,
established their favourite cross fire. Legge, the leader of the mounted
infantry, a hard little Egyptian veteran, was shot through the head, and
his men lay thick around him. For some minutes it was as hot a corner
as any in the war. But Clements himself had appeared upon the scene, and
his cool gallantry turned the tide of fight. An extension of the
line checked the cross fire, and gave the British in turn a flanking
position. Gradually the Boer riflemen were pushed back, until at last
they broke and fled for their horses in the rear. A small body were
cut off, many of whom were killed and wounded, while a few were taken
prisoners.
This stiff fight of an hour had ended in a complete repulse of the
attack, though at a considerable cost. Both Boers and British had lost
heavily. Nearly all the staff were killed or wounded, though General
Clements had come through untouched. Fifty or sixty of both sides had
fallen. But it was noted as an ominous fact that in spite of shell fire
the Boers still lingered upon the western flank. Were they coming on
again? They showed no signs of it. And yet they waited in groups, and
looked up towards the beetling crags above them. What were they waiting
for? The sudden crash of a murderous Mauser fire upon the summit, with
the rolling volleys of the British infantry, supplied the answer.
Only now must it have been clear to Clements that he was not dealing
merely with some spasmodic attack from his old enemy De la Rey, but that
this was a largely conceived movement, in which a force at least double
the strength of his own had suddenly been concentrated upon him. His
camp was still menaced by the men whom he had repulsed, and he could
not weaken it by sending reinforcements up the hill. But the roar of
the musketry was rising louder and louder. It was becoming clearer that
there was the main attack. It was a Majuba Hill action up yonder, a
thick swarm of skirmishers closing in from many sides upon a central
band of soldiers. But the fusiliers were hopelessly outnumbered, and
this rock fighting is that above all others in which the Boer has an
advantage over the regular. A helio on the hill cried for help. The
losses were heavy, it said, and the assailants numerous. The Boers
closed swiftly in upon the flanks, and the fusiliers were no match for
their assailants. Till the very climax the helio still cried that they
were being overpowered, and it is said that even while working it
the soldier in charge was hurled over the cliff by the onrush of the
victorious Boers.
The fight of the mounted infantry men had been at half-past four. At
six the attack upon the hill had developed, and Clements in response
to those frantic flashes of light had sent up a hundred men of the
yeomanry, from the Fife and Devon squadrons, as a reinforcement. To
climb a precipitous thousand feet with rifle, bandolier, and spurs, is
no easy feat, yet that roar of battle above them heartened them upon
their way. But in spite of all their efforts they were only in time
to share the general disaster. The head of the line of hard-breathing
yeomen reached the plateau just as the Boers, sweeping over the remnants
of the Northumberland Fusiliers, reached the brink of the cliff. One by
one the yeomen darted over the edge, and endeavoured to find some cover
in the face of an infernal point-blank fire. Captain Mudie of the staff,
who went first, was shot down. So was Purvis of the Fifes, who followed
him. The others, springing over their bodies, rushed for a small trench,
and tried to restore the fight. Lieutenant Campbell, a gallant young
fellow, was shot dead as he rallied his men. Of twenty-seven of the
Fifeshires upon the hill six were killed and eleven wounded. The
statistics of the Devons are equally heroic. Those yeomen who had not
yet reached the crest were in a perfectly impossible position, as the
Boers were firing from complete cover right down upon them. There was
no alternative for them but surrender. By seven o'clock every British
soldier upon the hill, yeoman or fusilier, had been killed, wounded,
or taken. It is not true that the supply of cartridges ran out, and the
fusiliers, with the ill-luck which has pursued the 2nd battalion, were
outnumbered and outfought by better skirmishers than themselves.
Seldom has a General found himself in a more trying position than
Clements, or extricated himself more honourably. Not only had he lost
nearly half his force, but his camp was no longer tenable, and his whole
army was commanded by the fringe of deadly rifles upon the cliff. From
the berg to the camp was from 800 to 1000 yards, and a sleet of bullets
whistled down upon it. How severe was the fire may be gauged from the
fact that the little pet monkey belonging to the yeomanry--a small
enough object--was hit three times, though he lived to survive as
a battle-scarred veteran. Those wounded in the early action found
themselves in a terrible position, laid out in the open under a
withering fire, 'like helpless Aunt Sallies,' as one of them described
it. 'We must get a red flag up, or we shall be blown off the face of the
earth,' says the same correspondent, a corporal of the Ceylon Mounted
Infantry. 'We had a pillow-case, but no red paint. Then we saw what
would do instead, so they made the upright with my blood, and the
horizontal with Paul's.' It is pleasant to add that this grim flag was
respected by the Boers. Bullocks and mules fell in heaps, and it was
evident that the question was not whether the battle could be restored,
but whether the guns could be saved. Leaving a fringe of yeomen, mounted
infantry, and Kitchener's Horse to stave off the Boers, who were already
descending by the same steep kloof up which the yeomen had climbed, the
General bent all his efforts to getting the big naval gun out of danger.
Only six oxen were left out of a team of forty, and so desperate did
the situation appear that twice dynamite was placed beneath the gun to
destroy it. Each time, however, the General intervened, and at last,
under a stimulating rain of pom-pom shells, the great cannon lurched
slowly forward, quickening its pace as the men pulled on the drag-ropes,
and the six oxen broke into a wheezy canter. Its retreat was covered by
the smaller guns which rained shrapnel upon the crest of the hill, and
upon the Boers who were descending to the camp. Once the big gun was out
of danger, the others limbered up and followed, their rear still covered
by the staunch mounted infantry, with whom rest all the honours of the
battle. Cookson and Brooks with 250 men stood for hours between Clements
and absolute disaster. The camp was abandoned as it stood, and all the
stores, four hundred picketed horses, and, most serious of all, two
wagons of ammunition, fell into the hands of the victors. To have saved
all his guns, however, after the destruction of half his force by an
active enemy far superior to him in numbers and in mobility, was a feat
which goes far to condone the disaster, and to increase rather than to
impair the confidence which his troops feel in General Clements. Having
retreated for a couple of miles he turned his big gun round upon the
hill, which is called Yeomanry Hill, and opened fire upon the camp,
which was being looted by swarms of Boers. So bold a face did he present
that he was able to remain with his crippled force upon Yeomanry Hill
from about nine until four in the afternoon, and no attack was pressed
home, though he lay under both shell and rifle fire all day. At four
in the afternoon he began his retreat, which did not cease till he had
reached Rietfontein, twenty miles off, at six o'clock upon the following
morning. His weary men had been working for twenty-six hours, and
actually fighting for fourteen, but the bitterness of defeat was
alleviated by the feeling that every man, from the General downwards,
had done all that was possible, and that there was every prospect of
their having a chance before long of getting their own back.
The British losses at the battle of Nooitgedacht amounted to 60 killed,
180 wounded, and 315 prisoners, all of whom were delivered up a few days
later at Rustenburg. Of the Boer losses it is, as usual, impossible
to speak with confidence, but all the evidence points to their actual
casualties being as heavy as those of the British. There was the long
struggle at the camp in which they were heavily punished, the fight on
the mountain, where they exposed themselves with unusual recklessness,
and the final shelling from shrapnel and from lyddite. All accounts
agree that their attack was more open than usual. 'They were mowed down
in twenties that day, but it had no effect. They stood like fanatics,'
says one who fought against them. From first to last their conduct was
most gallant, and great credit is due to their leaders for the skilful
sudden concentration by which they threw their whole strength upon the
exposed force. Some eighty miles separate Warm Baths from Nooitgedacht,
and it seems strange that our Intelligence Department should have
remained in ignorance of so large a movement.
General Broadwood's 2nd Cavalry Brigade had been stationed to the north
of Magaliesberg, some twelve miles westward of Clements, and formed
the next link in the long chain of British forces. Broadwood does not
appear, however, to have appreciated the importance of the engagement,
and made no energetic movement to take part in it. If Colvile is open
to the charge of having been slow to 'march upon the cannon' at Sanna's
Post, it might be urged that Broadwood in turn showed some want of
energy and judgment upon this occasion. On the morning of the 13th his
force could hear the heavy firing to the eastward, and could even see
the shells bursting on the top of the Magaliesberg. It was but ten or
twelve miles distant, and, as his Elswick guns have a range of
nearly five, a very small advance would have enabled him to make a
demonstration against the flank of the Boers, and so to relieve the
pressure upon Clements. It is true that his force was not large, but it
was exceptionally mobile. Whatever the reasons, no effective advance was
made by Broadwood. On hearing the result he fell back upon Rustenburg,
the nearest British post, his small force being dangerously isolated.
Those who expected that General Clements would get his own back had not
long to wait. In a few days he was in the field again. The remains of
his former force had, however, been sent into Pretoria to refit, and
nothing remained of it save the 8th R.F.A. and the indomitable cow-gun
still pocked with the bullets of Nooitgedacht. He had also F battery
R.H.A., the Inniskillings, the Border regiment, and a force of mounted
infantry under Alderson. More important than all, however, was the
co-operation of General French, who came out from Pretoria to assist in
the operations. On the 19th, only six days after his defeat, Clements
found himself on the very same spot fighting some at least of the very
same men. This time, however, there was no element of surprise, and the
British were able to approach the task with deliberation and method. The
result was that both upon the 19th and 20th the Boers were shelled out
of successive positions with considerable loss, and driven altogether
away from that part of the Magaliesberg. Shortly afterwards General
Clements was recalled to Pretoria, to take over the command of the 7th
Division, General Tucker having been appointed to the military command
of Bloemfontein in the place of the gallant Hunter, who, to the regret
of the whole army, was invalided home. General Cunningham henceforward
commanded the column which Clements had led back to the Magaliesberg.
Upon November 13th the first of a series of attacks was made upon the
posts along the Delagoa Railway line. These were the work of Viljoen's
commando, who, moving swiftly from the north, threw themselves upon the
small garrisons of Balmoral and of Wilge River, stations which are about
six miles apart. At the former was a detachment of the Buffs, and at
the latter of the Royal Fusiliers. The attack was well delivered, but
in each instance was beaten back with heavy loss to the assailants. A
picket of the Buffs was captured at the first rush, and the detachment
lost six killed and nine wounded. No impression was made upon the
position, however, and the double attack seems to have cost the Boers a
large number of casualties.
Another incident calling for some mention was the determined attack made
by the Boers upon the town of Vryheid, in the extreme south-east of the
Transvaal near the Natal border. Throughout November this district had
been much disturbed, and the small British garrison had evacuated the
town and taken up a position on the adjacent hills. Upon December 11th
the Boers attempted to carry the trenches. The garrison of the town
appears to have consisted of the 2nd Royal Lancaster regiment, some five
hundred strong, a party of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 150 strong, and
fifty men of the Royal Garrison Artillery, with a small body of mounted
infantry. They held a hill about half a mile north of the town, and
commanding it. The attack, which was a surprise in the middle of the
night, broke upon the pickets of the British, who held their own in a
way which may have been injudicious but was certainly heroic. Instead
of falling back when seriously attacked, the young officers in charge of
these outposts refused to move, and were speedily under such a fire that
it was impossible to reinforce them. There were four outposts, under
Woodgate, Theobald, Lippert, and Mangles. The attack at 2.15 on a
cold dark morning began at the post held by Woodgate, the Boers coming
hand-to-hand before they were detected. Woodgate, who was unarmed at the
instant, seized a hammer, and rushed at the nearest Boer, but was struck
by two bullets and killed. His post was dispersed or taken. Theobald and
Lippert, warned by the firing, held on behind their sangars, and were
ready for the storm which burst over them. Lippert was unhappily killed,
and his ten men all hit or taken, but young Theobald held his own
under a heavy fire for twelve hours. Mangles also, the gallant son of
a gallant father, held his post all day with the utmost tenacity. The
troops in the trenches behind were never seriously pressed, thanks
to the desperate resistance of the outposts, but Colonel Gawne of the
Lancasters was unfortunately killed. Towards evening the Boers abandoned
the attack, leaving fourteen of their number dead upon the ground, from
which it may be guessed that their total casualties were not less than
a hundred. The British losses were three officers and five men killed,
twenty-two men wounded, and thirty men with one officer missing--the
latter being the survivors of those outposts which were overwhelmed by
the Boer advance.
A few incidents stand out among the daily bulletins of snipings,
skirmishes, and endless marchings which make the dull chronicle of
these, the last months of the year 1900. These must be enumerated
without any attempt at connecting them. The first is the long-drawn-out
siege or investment of Schweizer-Renecke. This small village stands upon
the Harts River, on the western border of the Transvaal. It is not easy
to understand why the one party should desire to hold, or the other to
attack, a position so insignificant. From August 19th onwards it was
defended by a garrison of 250 men, under the very capable command of
Colonel Chamier, who handled a small business in a way which marks him
as a leader. The Boer force, which varied in numbers from five hundred
to a thousand, never ventured to push home an attack, for Chamier, fresh
from the experience of Kimberley, had taken such precautions that
his defences were formidable, if not impregnable. Late in September a
relieving force under Colonel Settle threw fresh supplies into the town,
but when he passed on upon his endless march the enemy closed in once
more, and the siege was renewed. It lasted for several months, until a
column withdrew the garrison and abandoned the position.
Of all the British detachments, the two which worked hardest and
marched furthest during this period of the war was the 21st Brigade
(Derbyshires, Sussex, and Camerons) under General Bruce Hamilton, and
the column under Settle, which operated down the western border of the
Orange River Colony, and worked round and round with such pertinacity
that it was familiarly known as Settle's Imperial Circus. Much hard and
disagreeable work, far more repugnant to the soldier than the actual
dangers of war, fell to the lot of Bruce Hamilton and his men. With
Kroonstad as their centre they were continually working through the
dangerous Lindley and Heilbron districts, returning to the railway line
only to start again immediately upon a fresh quest. It was work for
mounted police, not for infantry soldiers, but what they were given to
do they did to the best of their ability. Settle's men had a similar
thankless task. From the neighbourhood of Kimberley he marched in
November with his small column down the border of the Orange River
Colony, capturing supplies and bringing in refugees. He fought one brisk
action with Hertzog's commando at Kloof, and then, making his way across
the colony, struck the railway line again at Edenburg on December 7th,
with a train of prisoners and cattle.
Rundle also had put in much hard work in his efforts to control the
difficult district in the north-east of the Colony which had been
committed to his care. He traversed in November from north to south the
same country which he had already so painfully traversed from south to
north. With occasional small actions he moved about from Vrede to Reitz,
and so to Bethlehem and Harrismith. On him, as on all other commanders,
the vicious system of placing small garrisons in the various towns
imposed a constant responsibility lest they should be starved or
overwhelmed.
The year and the century ended by a small reverse to the British arms
in the Transvaal. This consisted in the capture of a post at Helvetia
defended by a detachment of the Liverpool Regiment and by a 4.7 gun.
Lydenburg, being seventy miles off the railway line, had a chain of
posts connecting it with the junction at Machadodorp. These posts were
seven in number, ten miles apart, each defended by 250 men. Of these
Helvetia was the second. The key of the position was a strongly
fortified hill about three-quarters of a mile from the headquarter
camp, and commanding it. This post was held by Captain Kirke with forty
garrison artillery to work the big gun, and seventy Liverpool infantry.
In spite of the barbed-wire entanglements, the Boers most gallantly
rushed this position, and their advance was so rapid, or the garrison so
slow, that the place was carried with hardly a shot fired. Major Cotton,
who commanded the main lines, found himself deprived in an instant of
nearly half his force and fiercely attacked by a victorious and exultant
enemy. His position was much too extended for the small force at his
disposal, and the line of trenches was pierced and enfiladed at
many points. It must be acknowledged that the defences were badly
devised--little barbed wire, frail walls, large loopholes, and the
outposts so near the trenches that the assailants could reach them as
quickly as the supports. With the dawn Cotton's position was serious,
if not desperate. He was not only surrounded, but was commanded from Gun
Hill. Perhaps it would have been wiser if, after being wounded, he had
handed over the command to Jones, his junior officer. A stricken man's
judgement can never be so sound as that of the hale. However that may
be, he came to the conclusion that the position was untenable, and that
it was best to prevent further loss of life. Fifty of the Liverpools
were killed and wounded, 200 taken. No ammunition of the gun was
captured, but the Boers were able to get safely away with this
humiliating evidence of their victory. One post, under Captain Wilkinson
with forty men, held out with success, and harassed the enemy in their
retreat. As at Dewetsdorp and at Nooitgedacht, the Boers were unable
to retain their prisoners, so that the substantial fruits of their
enterprise were small, but it forms none the less one more of those
incidents which may cause us to respect our enemy and to be critical
towards ourselves. [Footnote: Considering that Major Stapelton Cotton
was himself wounded in three places during the action (one of these
wounds being in the head), he has had hard measure in being deprived
of his commission by a court-martial which sat eight months after the
event. It is to be earnestly hoped that there may be some revision of
this severe sentence.]
In the last few months of the year some of those corps which had served
their time or which were needed elsewhere were allowed to leave the seat
of war. By the middle of November the three different corps of the City
Imperial Volunteers, the two Canadian contingents, Lumsden's Horse, the
Composite Regiment of Guards, six hundred Australians, A battery R.H.A.,
and the volunteer companies of the regular regiments, were all homeward
bound. This loss of several thousand veteran troops before the war was
over was to be deplored, and though unavoidable in the case of volunteer
contingents, it is difficult to explain where regular troops are
concerned. Early in the new year the Government was compelled to send
out strong reinforcements to take their place.
Early in December Lord Roberts also left the country, to take over the
duties of Commander-in-Chief. High as his reputation stood when, in
January, he landed at Cape Town, it is safe to say that it had been
immensely enhanced when, ten months later, he saw from the quarter-deck
of the 'Canada' the Table Mountain growing dimmer in the distance. He
found a series of disconnected operations, in which we were uniformly
worsted. He speedily converted them into a series of connected
operations in which we were almost uniformly successful. Proceeding
to the front at the beginning of February, within a fortnight he had
relieved Kimberley, within a month he had destroyed Cronje's force, and
within six weeks he was in Bloemfontein. Then, after a six weeks' halt
which could not possibly have been shortened, he made another of his
tiger leaps, and within a month had occupied Johannesburg and Pretoria.
From that moment the issue of the campaign was finally settled, and
though a third leap was needed, which carried him to Komatipoort,
and though brave and obstinate men might still struggle against
their destiny, he had done what was essential, and the rest, however
difficult, was only the detail of the campaign. A kindly gentleman, as
well as a great soldier, his nature revolted from all harshness, and a
worse man might have been a better leader in the last hopeless phases of
the war. He remembered, no doubt, how Grant had given Lee's army their
horses, but Lee at the time had been thoroughly beaten, and his men had
laid down their arms. A similar boon to the partially conquered Boers
led to very different results, and the prolongation of the war is
largely due to this act of clemency. At the same time political and
military considerations were opposed to each other upon the point, and
his moral position in the use of harsher measures is the stronger
since a policy of conciliation had been tried and failed. Lord Roberts
returned to London with the respect and love of his soldiers and of his
fellow-countrymen. A passage from his farewell address to his troops may
show the qualities which endeared him to them.
'The service which the South African Force has performed is, I
venture to think, unique in the annals of war, inasmuch as it has been
absolutely almost incessant for a whole year, in some cases for more
than a year. There has been no rest, no days off to recruit, no going
into winter quarters, as in other campaigns which have extended over
a long period. For months together, in fierce heat, in biting cold, in
pouring rain, you, my comrades, have marched and fought without halt,
and bivouacked without shelter from the elements. You frequently have
had to continue marching with your clothes in rags and your boots
without soles, time being of such consequence that it was impossible
for you to remain long enough in one place to refit. When not engaged
in actual battle you have been continually shot at from behind kopjes
by invisible enemies to whom every inch of the country was familiar,
and who, from the peculiar nature of the country, were able to inflict
severe punishment while perfectly safe themselves. You have forced your
way through dense jungles, over precipitous mountains, through and over
which with infinite manual labour you have had to drag heavy guns
and ox-wagons. You have covered with almost incredible speed enormous
distances, and that often on very short supplies of food. You have
endured the sufferings inevitable in war to sick and wounded men far
from the base, without a murmur and even with cheerfulness.'
The words reflect honour both upon the troops addressed and upon the man
who addressed them. From the middle of December 1900 Lord Kitchener took
over the control of the campaign.