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THE RUSH
TO KIMBERLEY - THE 10TH HUSSARS CROSSING KLIP DRIFT
From: H. W. Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria, 1902 |
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Arthur Conan
Doyle,
The Great Boer War
London, Smith, Elder &
Co., 1902
CHAPTER XVIII
The Siege and Relief of Kimberley
It has already been
narrated how, upon the arrival of the army corps from England, the greater
part was drafted to Natal, while some went to the western side, and started
under Lord Methuen upon the perilous enterprise of the relief of Kimberley.
It has also been hown how, after three expensive victories, Lord Methuen's
force met with a paralysing reverse, and was compelled to remain inactive
within twenty miles of the town which they had come to succour. Before
describe how that succour did eventual]y arrive, some attention must be paid
to the incidents which had occurred within the city.
'I am directed to assure you that there is no reason for apprehending that
Kimberley or any part of the colony either is, or in any contemplated event
will be, in danger of attack. Mr. Schreiner is of opinion that your fears
are groundless and your anticipations in the matter entirely without
foundation.' Such is the official reply to the remonstrance of the
inhabitants, when, with the shadow of war dark upon them, they appealed for
help. It is fortunate, however, that a progressive British town has usually
the capacity for doing things for itself without the intervention of
officials. Kimberley was particularly lucky in being the centre of the
wealthy and alert De Beers Company, which had laid in sufficient ammunition
and supplies to prevent the town from being helpless in the presence of the
enemy. But the cannon were popguns, firing a 7-pound shell for a short
range, and the garrison contained only seven hundred regulars, while the
remainder were mostly untrained miners and artisans. Among them, however,
there was a sprinkling of dangerous men from the northern wars, and all were
nerved by a knowledge that the ground which they defended was essential to
the Empire. Ladysmith was no more than any other strategic position, but
Kimberley was unique, the centre of the richest tract of ground for its size
in the whole world. Its loss would have been a heavy blow to the British
cause, and an enormous encouragement to the Boers.
On October 12th, several hours after the expiration of Kruger's ultimatum,
Cecil Rhodes threw himself into Kimberley. This remarkable man, who stood
for the future of South Africa as clearly as the Dopper Boer stood for its
past, had, both in features and in character, some traits which may, without
extravagance, be called Napoleonic. The restless energy, the fertility of
resource, the attention to detail, the wide sweep of mind, the power of
terse comment - all these recall the great emperor. So did the simplicity of
private life in the midst of excessive wealth. And so finally did a want of
scruple where an ambition was to be furthered, shown, for example, in that
enormous donation to the Irish party by which he made a bid for their
parliamentary support, and in the story of the Jameson raid. A certain
cynicism of mind and a grim humour complete the parallel. But Rhodes was a
Napoleon of peace. The consolidation of South Africa under the freest and
most progressive form of government was the large object on which he had
expended his energies and his fortune but the development of the country in
every conceivable respect, from the building of a railway to the importation
of a pedigree bull, engaged his unremitting attention.
It was on October 15th that the fifty thousand inhabitants of Kimberley
first heard the voice of war. It rose and fell in a succession of horrible
screams and groans which travelled far over the veldt, and the outlying
farmers marvelled at the dreadful clamour from the sirens and the hooters of
the great mines. Those who have endured all - the rifle, the cannon, and the
hunger - have said that those wild whoops from the sirens were what had
tried their nerve the most.
The Boers in scattered bands of horsemen were thick around the town, and had
blocked the railroad. They raided cattle upon the outskirts, but made no
attempt to rush the defence. The garrison, who, civilian and military,
approached four thousand in number, lay close in rifle pit and redoubt
waiting for an attack which never came. The perimeter to be defended was
about eight miles, but the heaps of tailings made admirable fortifications,
and the town had none of those inconvenient heights around it which had been
such bad neighbours to Ladysmith. Picturesque surroundings are not
favourable to defence.
On October 24th the garrison, finding that no attack was made, determined
upon a reconnaissance. The mounted force, upon which most of the work and of
the loss fell, consisted of the Diamond Fields Horse, a small aumber of Cape
Police, a company of Mounted Infantry, and a body called the Kimberley Light
Horse. With two hundred and seventy volunteers from this force Major
Scott-Turner, a redoubtable fighter, felt his way the north until he came in
touch with the Boers. The latter, who were much superior in numbers,
manoeuvred to cut him off, but the arrival of two companies of the North
Lancashire Regiment turned the scale in our favour. We lost three killed and
twenty-one wounded in the skirmish. The Boer loss is unknown, but their
commander Botha was slain.
On November 4th Commandant Wessels formally summoned the town, and it is
asserted that he gave Colonel Kekewich leave to send out the women and
children. That officer has been blamed for not taking advantage of the
permission - or at the least for not communicating it to the civil
authorities. As a matter of fact the charge rests upon a misapprehension. In
Wessels' letter a distinction is made between Africander and English women,
the former being offered an asylum in his camp. This offer was made known,
and half a dozen persons took advantage of it. The suggestion, however, in
the case of the English carried with it no promise that they would be
conveyed to Orange River, and a compliance with it would have put them as
helpless hostages into the hands of the enemy. As to not publishing the
message it is not usual to publish such official documents, but the offer
was shown to Mr. Rhodes, who concurred in the impossibility of accepting it.
It is difficult to allude to this subject without touching upon the painful
but notorious fact that there existed during the siege considerable friction
between the military authorities and a section of the civilians, of whom Mr.
Rhodes was chief. Among other characteristics Rhodes bore any form of
restraint very badly, and chafed mightily when unable to do a thing in the
exact way which he considered best. He may have been a Napoleon of peace,
but his warmest friends could never describe him as a Napoleon of war, for
his military forecasts have been erroneous, and the management of the
Jameson fiasco certainly inspired no confidence in the judgment of any one
concerned. That his intentions were of the best, and that he had the good of
the Empire at heart, may be freely granted; but that these motives should
lead him to cabal against, and even to threaten, the military governor, or
that he should attempt to force Lord Roberts's hand in a military operation,
was most deplorable. Every credit may be given to him for all his aid to the
military - he gave with a good grace what the garrison would otherwise have
had to commandeer - but it is a fact that the town would bave been more
united, and therefore stronger, without his presence. Colonel Kekewich and
his chief staff officer, Major O'Meara, were as much plagued by intrigue
within as by the Boers without.
On November 7th the bombardment of the town commenced from nine 9-pounder
guns to which the artillery of the garrison could give no adequate reply.
The result, however, of a fortnight's fire, during which seven hundred
shells were discharged, was the loss of two non-combatants. The question of
food was recognised as being of more importance than the enemy's fire. An
early relief appeared probable, however, as the advance of Methuen's force
was already known. One pound of bread, two ounces of sugar, and half a pound
of meat were allowed per head. It was only on the small children that the
scarcity of milk told with tragic effect. At Ladysmith, at Mafeking, and at
Kimberley hundreds of these innocents were sacrificed.
November 25th was a red-letter day with the garrison, who made a sortie
under the impression that Methuen was not far off, and that they were
assisting his operations. The attack was made upon one of the Boer positions
by a force consisting of a detachment of the Light Horse and of the Cape
Police, and their work was brilliantly successful. The actual storming of
the redoubt was carried out by some forty men, of whom but four were killed.
They brought back thirty-three prisoners as a proof of their victory, but
the Boer gun, as usual, escaped us. In this brilliant affair Scott-Turner
was wounded, which did not prevent him, only three days later, from leading
another sortie, which was as disastrous as the first had been successful.
Save under very exceptional circumstances it is in modern warfare long odds
always upon the defence, and the garrison would probably have been better
advised had they refrained from attacking the fortifications of their enemy
- a truth which Baden-Powell learned also at Game Tree Hill. As it was,
after a temporary success the British were blown back by the fierce Mauser
fire, and lost the indomitable Scott-Turner, with twenty-one of his brave
companions killed and twenty-eight wounded, all belongmg to the colonial
corps. The Empire may reflect with pride that the people in whose cause
mainly they fought showed themselves by their gallantry and their devotion
worthy of any sacrifice which has been made.
Again the siege settled down to a monotonous record of decreasing rations
and of expectation. On December 10 there came a sign of hope from the
outside world. Far on the southern horizon a little golden speck shimmered
against the blue African sky. It was Methuen's balloon gleaming in the
sunshine. Next morning the low grumble of distant cannon was the sweetest of
music to the listening citizens. But days passed without further news, and
it was not for more than a week that they learned of the bloody repulse of
Magersfontein, and that help was once more indefinitely postponed. Helio
graphic communication had been opened with the relieving army, and it is on
record that the first message flashed through from the south was a question
about the number of a horse. With inconceivable stupidity this has been
cited as an example of military levity and incapacity. Of course the object
of the question was a test as to whether they were really in communication
with the garrison. It must be confessed that the town seems to have
contained some very querulous and unreasonable people.
The New Year found the beleaguered city reduced to a quarter of a pound of
meat per head, while the health of the inhabitants began to break down under
their confinement. Their interest, however, was keenly aroused by the
attempt made in the De Beers workshops to build a gun which might reach
their opponents. This remarkable piece of ordnance, constructed by an
American named Labram by the help of tools manufactured for the purpose and
of books found in the town, took the shape eventually of a 28 lb. rifled
gun, which proved to be a most efficient piece of artillery. With grim
humour, Mr. Rhodes's compliments had been inscribed upon the shells - a fair
retort in view of the openly expressed threat of the enemy that in case of
his capture they would carry him in a cage to Pretoria.
The Boers, though held off for a time by this unexpected piece of ordnance,
prepared a terrible answer to it. On February 7th an enormous gun, throwing
a 96 lb. shell, opened from Kamfersdam, which is four miles from the centre
of the town. The shells, following the evil precedent of the Germans in
1870, were fired not at the forts, but into the thickly populated city. Day
and night these huge missiles exploded, shattering the houses and
occasionally killing or maiming the occupants. Some thousands of the women
and children were conveyed down the mines, wbere, in the electric-lighted
tunnels, they lay in comfort and safety. One surprising revenge the Boers
had, for by an extraordinary chance one of the few men killed by their gun
was the ingenious Labram who had constructed the 28-pounder. By an even more
singular chance, Leon, who was responsible for bringing the big Boer gun,
was struck immediately afterwards by a long-range rifle-shot from the
garrison.
The historian must be content to give a tame account of the siege of
Kimberley, for the thing itself was tame. Indeed 'siege' is a misnomer, for
it was rather an investment or a blockade. Such as it was, however, the
inhabitants became very restless under it, and though there were never any
prospects of surrender the utmost impatience began to be manifested at the
protracted delay on the part of the relief force. It was not till later that
it was understood how cunningly Kimberley had been used as a bait to hold
the enemy until final preparations had been made for his destruction.
And at last the great day came. It is on record how dramatic was the meeting
between the mounted outposts of the defenders and the advance guard of the
relievers, whose advent seems to have been equally unexpected by friend and
foe. A skirmish was in progress on February 15th between a party of the
Kimberley Light Horse and of the Boers, when a new body of horsemen,
unrecognised by either side, appeared upon the plain and opened fire upon
the enemy. One of the strangers rode up to the patrol. 'What the dickens
does K.L.H. mean on your shoulder-strap?' he asked. 'It means Kimberley
Light Horse. Who are you?' 'I am one of the New-Zealanders.' Macaulay in his
wildest dream of the future of the much-quoted New-Zealander never pictured
him as heading a rescue force for the relief of a British town in the heart
of Africa.
The population had assembled to watch the mighty cloud of dust which rolled
along the south-eastern horizon. What was it which swept westwards within
its reddish heart? Hopeful and yet fearful they saw the huge bank draw
nearer and nearer. An assault from the whole of Cronje's army was the
thought which passed through many a mind. And then the dust-cloud thinned, a
mighty host of horsemen spurred out from it, and in the extended far-flung
ranks the glint of spearheads and the gleam of scabbards told of the Hussars
and Lancers, while denser banks on either flank marked the position of the
whirling guns. Wearied and spent with a hundred miles' ride the dusty riders
and the panting, dripping horses took fresh heart as they saw the broad city
before them, and swept with martial rattle and jingle towards the cheering
crowds. Amid shouts and tears French rode into Kimberley while his troopers
encamped outside the town.
To know how this bolt was prepared and how launched, the narrative must go
back to the beginning of the month. At that period Methuen and his men were
still faced by Cronje and his entrenched forces, who, in spite of occasional
bombardments, held their position between Kimberley and the relieving army.
French, having handed over the operations at Colesberg to Clements, had gone
down to Cape Town to confer with Roberts and Kitchener. Thence they all
three made their way to the Modder River, which was evidently about to be
the base of a more largely conceived series of operations than any which had
yet been undertaken,
In order to draw the Boer attention away from the thunderbolt which was
about to fall upon their left flank, a strong demonstration ending in a
brisk action was made early in February upon the extreme right of Cronje's
position. The force, consisting of the Highland Brigade, two squadrons of
the 9th Lancers, No.7 Co. Royal Engineers, and the 62nd Battery, was under
the command of the famous Hector Macdonald. 'Fighting Mac' as he was called
by his men, had joined his regiment as a private, and had worked through the
grades of corporal, sergeant, captain, major, and colonel, until now, still
in the prime of his manhood, he found himself riding at the bead of a
brigade. A bony, craggy Scotsman, with a square fighting head and a bulldog
jaw, he had conquered the exclusiveness and routine of the British service
by the same dogged qualities which made him formidable to Dervish and to
Boer. With a cool brain, a steady nerve, and a proud heart, he is an ideal
leader of infantry, and those who saw him manoeuvre his brigade in the
crisis of the battle of Omdurman speak of it as the one great memory which
they carried back from the engagement. On the field of battle he turns to
the speech of his childhood, the jagged, rasping, homely words which brace
the nerves of the northern soldier. This was the man who had come from India
to take the place of poor Wauchope, and to put fresh heart into the gallant
but sorely stricken brigade.
The four regiments which composed the infantry of the force - the Black
Watch, the Argyll and Sutherlands, the Seaforths, and the Highland Light
Infantry - left Lord Methuen's camp on Saturday, February 3rd, and halted at
Fraser's Drift, passing on next day to Koodoosberg. The day was very hot,
and the going very heavy, and many men fell out, some never to return. The
drift (or ford) was found, however, to be undefended, and was seized by
Macdonald, who, after pitching camp on the south side of the river, sent out
strong parties across the drift to seize and entrench the Koodoosberg and
some adjacent kopjes which, lying some three-quarters of a mile to the
north-west of the drift formed the key of the position. A few Boer scouts
were seen hurrying with the news of his coming to the head laager.
The effect of these messages was evident by Tuesday (February 6th), when the
Boers were seen to be assembling upon the north bank. By next morning they
were there in considerable numbers, and began an attack upon a crest held by
the Seaforths. Macdonald threw two companies of the Black Watch and two of
the Highland Light Infantry into the fight. The Boers made excellent
practice with a 7-pounder mountain gun, and their rifle fire, considering
the good cover which our men had, was very deadly. Poor Tait, of the Black
Watch, good sportsman and gallant soldier, with one wound hardly healed upon
his person, was hit again. 'They've got me this time,' were his dying words.
Blair, of the Seaforths, had his carotid cut by a shrapnel bullet, and lay
for hours while the men of his company took turns to squeeze the artery. But
our artillery silenced the Boer gun, and our infantry easily held their
riflemen. Babington with the cavalry brigade arrived from the camp about
1.30, moving along the north bank of the river. In spite of the fact that
men and horses were weary from a tiring march, it was hoped by Macdonald's
force that they would work round the Boers and make an attempt to capture
either them or their gun. But the horsemen seem not to have realised the
position of the parties, or that possibility of bringing off a considerable
coup, so the action came to a tame conclusion, the Boers retiring unpursued
from their attack. On Thursday, February 8th, they were found to have
withdrawn, and on the same evening our own force was recalled, to the
surprise and disappointment of the public at home, who had not realised that
in directing their attention to their right flank the column had already
produced the effect upon the enemy for which they had been sent. They could
not be left there, as they were needed for those great operations which were
pending. It was on the 9th that the brigade returned; on the 10th they were
congratulated by Lord Roberts in person; and on the 11th those new
dispositions were made which were destined not only to relieve Kimberley,
but to inflict a blow upon the Boer cause from which it was never able to
recover.
Small, brown, and wrinkled, with puckered eyes and alert manner, Lord
Roberts in spite of his sixty-seven years preserves the figure and energy of
youth. The active open-air life of India keeps men fit for the saddle when
in England they would only sit their club armchairs, and it is hard for any
one who sees the wiry figure and brisk step of Lord Roberts to realise that
he has spent forty-one years of soldiering in what used to be regarded as an
unhealthy climate. He had carried into late life the habit of martial
exercise, and a Russian traveller has left it on record that the sight which
surprised him most in India was to see the veteran commander of the army
ride forth with his spear and carry off the peg with the skill of a
practised trooper. In his early youth he had shown in the Mutiny that he
possessed the fighting energy of the soldier to a remarkable degree, but it
was only in the Afghan War of 1880 that he had an opportunity of proving
that he had rarer and more valuable gifts, the power of swift resolution and
determined execution. At the crisis of the war he and his army disappeared
entirely from the public ken only to emerge dramatically as victors at a
point three hundred miles distant from where they had vanished.
It is not only as a soldier, but as a man, that Lord Roberts possesses some
remarkable characteristics. He has in a supreme degree that magnetic quality
which draws not merely the respect but the love of those who know him. In
Chaucer's phrase, he is a very perfect gentle knight. Soldiers and
regimental officers have for him a feeling of personal affection such as the
unemotional British Army has never had for any leader in the course of our
history. His chivalrous courtesy, his unerring tact, his kindly nature, his
unselfish and untiring devotion to their interests have all endeared him to
those rough loyal natures, who would follow him with as much confidence and
devotion as the GROGNARDS of the Guard had in the case of the Great Emperor.
There were some who feared that in Roberts's case, as in so many more, the
donga and kopje of South Africa might form the grave and headstone of a
military reputation, but far from this being so he consistently showed a
wide sweep of strategy and a power of conceiving the effect of scattered
movements over a great extent of country which have surprised his warmest
admirers. In the second week of February his dispositions were ready, and
there followed the swift series of blows which brought the Boers upon their
knees. Of these we shall only describe here the exploits of the fine force
of cavalry which, after a ride of a hundred miles, broke out of the heart of
that reddish dustcloud and swept the Boer besiegers away from hard-pressed
Kimberley.
In order to strike unexpectedly, Lord Roberts had not only made a strong
demonstration at Koodoosdrift, at the other end of the Boer line, but he had
withdrawn his main force some forty miles south, taking them down by rail to
Belmont and Enslin with such secrecy that even commanding officers had no
idea whither the troops were going. The cavalry which had come from French's
command at Colesberg had already reached the rendezvous, travelling by road
to Naauwpoort, and thence by train. This force consisted of the Carabineers,
New South Wales Lancers, Inniskillings, composite regiment of Household
Cavalry, 10th Hussars, with some mounted infantry and two batteries of Horse
Artillery, making a force of nearly three thousand sabres. To this were
added the 9th and 12th Lancers from Modder River, the 16th Lancers from
India, the Scots Greys, which had been patrolling Orange River from the
beginning of the war, Rimington's Scouts, and two brigades of mounted
infantry under Colonels Ridley and Hannay. The force under this latter
officer had a severe skirmish on its way to the rendezvous and lost fifty or
sixty in killed, wounded, and missing. Five other batteries of Horse
Artillery were added to the force, making seven in all, with a pontoon
section of Royal Engineers. The total number of men was about five thousand.
By the night of Sunday, February 11th, this formidable force had
concentrated at Ramdam, twenty miles north-east of Belmont, and was ready to
advance. At two in the morning of Monday, February 12th, the start was made,
and the long sinuous line of night-riders moved off over the shadowy veldt,
the beat of twenty thousand hoofs, the clank of steel, and the rumble of
gunwheels and tumbrils swelling into a deep low roar like the surge upon the
shingle.
Two rivers, the Riet and the Modder, intervened between French and
Kimberley. By daylight on the 12th the head of his force had reached
Waterval Drift, which was found to be defended by a body of Boers with a
gun. Leaving a small detachment to hold them, French passed his men over
Dekiel's Drift, higher up the stream, and swept the enemy out of his
position. This considerable force of Boers had come from Jacobsdal, and were
just too late to get into position to resist the crossing. Had we been ten
minutes later, the matter would have been much more serious. At the cost of
a very small loss he held both sides of the ford, but it was not until
midniglit that the whole long column was brought across, and bivouacked upon
the northern bank. In the morning the strength of the force was enormously
increased by the arrival of one more horseman. It was Roberts himself, who
had ridden over to give the men a send-off, and the sight of his wiry erect
figure and mahogany face sent them full of fire and confidence upon their
way.
But the march of this second day (February 13th) was a military operation of
some difficulty. Thirty long waterless miles had to be done before they
could reach the Modder, and it was possible that even then they might have
to fight an action before winning the drift. The weather was very hot, and
through the long day the sun beat down from an unclouded sky, while the
soldiers were only shaded by the dust-bank in which they rode. A broad arid
plain, swelling into stony hills, surrounded them on every side. Here and
there in the extreme distance, mounted figures moved over the vast expanse -
Boer scouts who marked in amazement the advance of this great array. Once or
twice these men gathered together, and a sputter of rifle fire broke out
upon our left flank, but the great tide swept on and carried them with it.
Often in this desolate land the herds of mottled springbok and of grey
rekbok could be seen sweeping over the plain, or stopping with that
curiosity upon which the hunter trades, to stare at the unwonted spectacle.
So all day they rode, hussars, dragoons, and lancers, over the withered
veldt, until men and horses drooped with the heat and the exertion. A front
of nearly two miles was kept, the regiments moving two abreast in open
order; and the sight of this magnificent cloud of horsemen sweeping over the
great barren plain was a glorious one. The veldt had caught fire upon the
right, and a black cloud of smoke with a lurid heart to it covered the
flank. The beat of the sun from above and the swelter of dust from below
were overpowering. Gun horses fell in the traces and died of pure
exhaustion. The men, parched and silent, but cheerful, strained their eyes
to pierce the continual mirage which played over the horizon, and to catch
the first glimpse of the Modder. At last, as the sun began to slope down to
the west, a thin line of green was discerned, the bushes which skirt the
banks of that ill-favoured stream. With renewed heart the cavalry pushed on
and made for the drift, while Major Rimington, to whom the onerous duty of
guiding the force had been entrusted, gave a sigh of relief as he saw that
he had indeed struck the very point at which he had aimed.
The essential thing in the movements had been speed - to reach each point
before the enemy could concentrate to oppose them. Upon this it depended
whether they would find five hundred or five thousand waiting on the further
bank. It must have been with anxious eyes that French watched his first
regiment ride down to Klip Drift. If the Boers should have had notice of his
coming and have transferred some of their 40-pounders, he might lose heavily
before he forced the stream. But this time, at last, he had completely
outmanoeuvred them. He came with the news of his coming, and Broadwood with
the 12th Lancers rushed the drift. The small Boer force saved itself by
flight, and the camp, the wagons, and the supplies remained with the
victors. On the night of the 13th he had secured the passage of the Modder,
and up to the early morning the horses and the guns were splashing through
its coffee-coloured waters.
French's force had now come level to the main position of the Boers, but had
struck it upon the extreme left wing. The extreme right wing, thanks to the
Koodoosdrift demonstration, was fifty miles off, and this line was naturally
very thinly held, save only at the central position of Magersfontein. Cronje.
could not denude this central position, for he saw Methuen still waiting in
front of him, and in any case Klip Drift is twenty-five miles from
Magersfontein. But the Boer left wing, though scattered, gathered into some
sort of cohesion on Wednesday (February 14th), and made an effort to check
the victorious progress of the cavalry. It was necessary on this day to rest
at Klip Drift, until Kelly-Kenny should come up with the infantry to hold
what had been gained. All day the small bodies of Boers came riding in and
taking up positions between the column and its objective.
Next morning the advance was resumed, the column being still forty miles
from Kimberley with the enemy in unknown force between. Some four miles out
French came upon their position, two hills with a long low nek between, from
which came a brisk rifle fire supported by artillery. But French was not
only not to be stopped, but could not even be retarded. Disregarding the
Boer fire completely the cavalry swept in wave after wave over the low nek,
and so round the base of the hills. The Boer riflemen upon the kopjes must
have seen a magnificent military spectacle as regiment after regiment, the
9th Lancers leading, all in very open order, swept across the plain at a
gallop, and so passed over the nek. A few score horses and half as many men
were left behind them, but forty or fifty Boers were cut down in the
pursuit. It appears to have been one of the very few occasions during the
campaign when that obsolete and absurd weapon the sword was anything but a
dead weight to its bearer.
And now the force had a straight run in before it, for it had outpaced any
further force of Boers which may have been advancing from the direction of
Magersfontein. The horses, which had come a hundred miles in four days with
insufficient food and water, were so done that it was no uncommon sight to
see the trooper not only walking to ease his horse, but carrying part of his
monstrous weight of saddle gear. But in spite of fatigue the force pressed
on until in the afternoon a distant view was seen, across the reddish plain,
of the brick houses and corrugated roofs of Kimberley. The Boer besiegers
cleared off in front of it, and that night (February 15th) the relieving
column camped on the plain two miles away, while French and his staff rode
in to the rescued city.
The war was a cruel one for the cavalry, who were handicapped throughout by
the nature of the country and by the tactics of the enemy. They are
certainly the branch of the service which had least opportunity for
distinction. The work of scouting and patrolling is the most dangerous which
a soldier can undertake, and yet from its very nature it can find no
chronicler. The war correspondent, like Providence, is always with the big
battalions, and there never was a campaign in which there was more
unrecorded heroism, the heroism of the picket and of the vedette which finds
its way into no newspaper paragraph. But in the larger operations of the war
it is difficult to say that cavalry, as cavalry, have justified their
existence. In the opinion of many the tendency of the future will be to
convert the whole force into mounted infantry. How little is required to
turn our troopers into excellent foot soldiers was shown at Magersfontein,
where the 12th Lancers, dismounted by the command of their colonel, Lord
Airlie, held back the threatened flank attack all the morning. A little
training in taking cover, leggings instead of boots, and a rifle instead of
a carbine would give us a formidable force of twenty thousand men who could
do all that our cavalry does, and a great deal more besides. It is
undoubtedly possible on many occasions in this war, at Colesberg, at Diamond
Hill, to say 'Here our cavalry did well.' They are brave men on good horses,
and they may be expected to do well. But the champion of the cavalry cause
must point out the occasions where the cavalry did something which could not
have been done by the same number of equally brave and equally well-mounted
infantry. Only then will the existence of the cavalry be justified. The
lesson both of the South African and of the American civil war is that the
light horseman who is trained to fight on foot is the type of the future.
A few more words as a sequel to this short sketch of the siege and relief of
Kimberley. Considerable surprise has been expressed that the great gun at
Kamfersdam, a piece which must have weighed many tons and could not have
been moved by bullock teams at a rate of more than two or three miles an
hour, should have eluded our cavalry. It is indeed a surprising
circumstance, and yet it was due to no inertia on the part of our leaders,
but rather to one of the finest examples of Boer tenacity in the whole
course of the war. The instant that Kekewich was sure of relief he mustered
every available man and sent him out to endeavour to get the gun. It had
already been removed, and its retreat was covered by the strong position of
Dronfield, which was held both by riflemen and by light artillery. Finding
himself unable to force it, Murray, the commander of the detachment,
remained in front of it. Next morning (Friday) at three o'clock the weary
men and horses of two of French's higades were afoot with the same object.
But still the Boers were obstinately holding on to Dronfield, and still
their position was too strong to force, and too extended to get round with
exhausted horses. It was not until the night after that the Boers abandoned
their excellent rearguard action, leaving one light gun in the hands of the
Cape Police, but having gained such a start for their heavy one that French,
who had other and more important objects in view, could not attempt to
follow it.
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