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ATTACK ON
A PATROL OF SOUTH AFRICAN LIGHT HORSE
From: H. W. Wilson,
After Pretoria, 1902 |
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Arthur Conan
Doyle,
The Great Boer War
London, Smith, Elder &
Co., 1902
CHAPTER XXXII
The Second Invasion of Cape Colony (December 1900-April 1901)
During the whole war the
task of the British had been made very much more difficult by the openly
expressed sympathy with the Boers from the political association known as
the Afrikander Bond, which either inspired or represented the views which
prevailed among the great majority of the Dutch inhabitants of Cape Colony.
How strong was this rebel impulse may be gauged by the fact that in some of
the border districts no less than ninety per cent. of the voters joined the
Boer invaders upon the occasion of their first entrance into the Colony. It
is not pretended that these men suffered from any political grievances
whatever, and their action is to be ascribed partly to a natural sympathy
with their northern kinsmen, and partly to racial ambition and to personal
dislike to their British neighbours. The liberal British policy towards the
natives had especially alienated the Dutch, and had made as well-marked a
line of cleavage in South Africa as the slave question had done in the
States of the Union.
With the turn of the war the discontent in Cape Colony became less
obtrusive, if not less acute, but in the later months of the year 1900 it
increased to a degree which became dangerous. The fact of the farm-burning
in the conquered countries, and the fiction of outrages by the Brjtish
troops, raised a storm of indignation. The annexation of the Republics,
meaning the final disappearance of any Dutch flag from South Africa, was a
racial humiliation which was bitterly resented. The Dutch papers became very
violent, and the farmers much excited. The agitation culminated in a
conference at Worcester upon December 6th, at which some thousands of
delegates were present. It is suggestive of the Imperial nature of the
struggle that the assembly of Dutch Afrikanders was carried out under the
muzzles of Canadian artillery, and closely watched by Australian cavalry.
Had violent words transformed themselves into deeds, all was ready for the
crisis.
Fortunately the good sense of the assembly prevailed, and the agitation,
though bitter, remained within those wide limits which a British
constitution permits. Three resolutions were passed, one asking that the war
be ended, a second that the independence of the Republics be restored, and a
third protesting against the actions of Sir Alfred Milner. A deputation
which carried these to the Governor received a courteous but an
uncompromising reply. Sir Alfred Milner pointed out that the Home
Government, all the great Colonies, and half the Cape were unanimous in
their policy, and that it was folly to imagine that it could be reversed on
account of a local agitation. All were agreed in the desire to end the war,
but the last way of bringing this aboutwas by encouraging desperate men to
go on fighting in a hopeless cause. Such was the general nature of the
Governor's reply, which was, as might be expected, entirely endorsed by the
British Government and people.
Had De Wet, in the operations which have already been described, evaded
Charles Kiox and crossed the Orange River, his entrance into the Colony
would have been synchronous with the congress at Worcester, and the
situation would have become more acute. This peril was fortunately averted.
The agitation in the Colony suggested to the Boer leaders, however, that
here was an untouched recruiting ground, and that small mobile invading
parties might gather strength and become formidable. It was obvious, also,
that by enlarging the field of operations the difficulties of the British
Commander-in-chief would be very much increased, and the pressure upon the
Boer guerillas in the Republics relaxed. Therefore, in spite of De Wet's
failure to penetrate the Colony, several smaller bands under less-known
leaders were despatched over the Orange River. With the help of the
information and the supplies furnished by the local farmers, these bands
wandered for many months over the great expanse of the Colony, taking
refuge, when hard pressed, among the mountain ranges. They moved swiftly
about, obtaining remounts from their friends, and avoiding everything in the
nature of an action, save when the odds were overwhelmingly in their favour.
Numerous small posts or patrols cut off, many skirmishes, and one or two
railway smashes were the fruits of this invasion, which lasted till the end
of the war, and kept the Colony in an extreme state of unrest during that
period. A short account must be given here of the movement and exploits of
these hostile bands, avoiding, as far as possible, that catalogue of obscure
'fonteins' and 'kops' which mark their progress.
The invasion was conducted by two main bodies, which shed off numerous small
raiding parties. Of these two, one operated on the western side of the
Colony, reaching the sea-coast in the Clanwilliam district, and attaining a
point which is less than a hundred miles from Cape Town. The other
penetrated even more deeply down the centre of the Colony, reaching almost
to the sea in the Mossel Bay direction. Yet the incursion, although so
far-reaching, had small effect, since the invaders held nothing save the
ground on which they stood, and won their way, not by victory, but by the
avoidance of danger. Some recruits were won to their cause, but they do not
seem at that time to have been more than a few hundreds in number, and to
have been drawn for the most part from the classes of the community which
had least to lose and least to offer.
The Western Boers were commanded by Judge Hertzog of the Free State, having
with him Brand, the son of the former president, and about twelve hundred
well-mounted men. Crossing the Orange Biver at Sand Drift, north of
Colesberg, upon December 16th, they paused at Kameelfontein to gather up a
small post of thirty yeomen and guardsmen under Lieutenant Fletcher, the
wellknown oar. Meeting with a stout resistance, and learning that British
forces were already converging upon them, they abandoned the attack, and
turning away from Colesberg they headed west, cutting the railway line
twenty miles to the north of De Aar. On the 22nd they occupied Britstown,
which is eighty miles inside the border, and on the same day they captured a
small body of yeomanry who had been following them. These prisoners were
released again some days later. Taking a sweep round towards Prieska and
Strydenburg, they pushed south again. At the end of the year Hertzog's
column was 150 miles deep in the Colony, sweeping through the barren and
thinly-inhabited western lands, heading apparently for Fraserburg and
Beaufort West.
The second column was commanded by Kritzinger, a burgher of Zastron, in the
Orange River Colony. His force was about 800 strong. Crossing the border at
Rhenoster Hoek upon December 16th, they pushed for Burghersdorp, but were
headed off by a British column. Passing through Venterstad, they made for
Steynsberg, fighting two indecisive skirmishes with small British forces.
The end of the year saw them crossing the rail road at Sherburne, north of
Rosmead Junction, where they captured a train as they passed, containing
some Colonial troops. At this time they were a hundred miles inside the
Colony, and nearly three hundred from Hertzog's western column.
In the meantime Lord Kitchener, who had descended for a few days to De Aar,
had shown great energy in organising small mobile columns which should
follow and, if possible, destroy the invaders. Martial law was proclaimed in
the parts of the Colony affected, and as the invaders came further south the
utmost enthusiasm was shown by the loyalists, who formed themselves
everywhere into town guards. The existing Colonial regiments, such as
Brabant's, the Imperial and South African Light Horse - Thorneycroft's,
Rimington's, and the others - had already been brought up to strength again,
and now two new regiments were added, Kitchener's Bodyguard and Kitchener's
Fighting Scouts, the latter being raised by Johann Colenbrander, who had
made a name for himself in the Rhodesian wars. At this period of the war
between twenty and thirty thousand Cape colonists were under arms. Many of
these were untrained levies, but they possessed the martial spirit of the
race, and they set free more seasoned troops for other duties.
It will be most convenient and least obscure to follow the movements of the
western force (Hertzog's), and afterwards to consider those of the eastern (Kritzinger's).
The opening of the year saw the mobile column of Free Staters 150 miles over
the border, pushing swiftly south over the barren surface of the Karoo. It
is a country of scattered farms and scanty population; desolate plains
curving upwards until they rise into still more desolate mountain ranges.
Moving in a very loose formation over a wide front, the Boers swept
southwards. On or about January 4th they took possession of the small town
of Calvinia, which remained their headquarters for more than a month. From
this point their roving bands made their way as far as the seacoast in the
Clanwilliam direction, for they expected at Lanmbert's Bay to meet with a
vessel with mercenaries and guns from Europe. They pushed their outposts
also as far as Sutherland and Beaufort West in the south. On January 15th
strange horsemen were seen hovering about the line at Touws River, and the
citizens of Cape Town learned with amazement that the war had been carried
to within a hundred miles of their own doors.
Whilst the Boers were making this daring raid a force consisting of several
mobile columns was being organised by General Settle to arrest and finally
to repel the western invasion. The larger body was under the command of
Colonel De Lisle, an oficer who brought to the operations of war the same
energy and thoroughness with which he had made the polo team of an infantry
regiment the champions of the whole British Army. His troops consisted of
the 6th Mounted Infantry, the New South Wales Mounted Infantry, the Irish
Yeomanry, a section of R battery R.H.A., and a pom-pom. With this small but
mobile and hardy force he threw himself in front of Hertzog's line of
advance. On January 13th be occupied Piquetburg, eighty miles south of the
Boer headquarters. On the 23rd he was at Clanwilliam, fifty miles
south-~vest of them. To his right were three other small British columns
under Bethune, Thorneycroft, and Henniker, the latter resting upon the
railway at Matjesfontein, and the whole line extending over 120 miles -
barring the southern path to the invaders.
Though Hertzog at Calvinia and De Lisle at Clanwilliam were only fifty miles
apart, the intervening country is among the most broken and mountainous in
South Africa. Between the two points, and nearer to De Lisle than to Hertzog,
flows the Doorn River. The Boers advancing from Calvinia came into touch
with the British scouts at this point, and drove them in upon January 21st.
On the 28th De Lisle, having been reinforced by Bethune's column, was able
at last to take the initiative. Bethune's force consisted mainly of
Colonials, and included Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, the Cape Mounted
Police, Cape Mounted Rifles, Brabant's Horse, and the Diamond Field Horse.
At the end of January the united forces of Bethune and of De Lisle advanced
upon Calvinia. The difficulties lay rather in the impassable country than in
the resistance of an enemy who was determined to refuse battle. On February
6th, after a fine march, De Lisle and his men took possession of Calvinia,
which had been abandoned by the Boers. It is painful to add that during the
month that they had held the town they appear to have behaved with great
harshness, especially to the kaffirs. The flogging and shooting of a
coloured man named Esan forms one more incident in the dark story of the
Boer and his relations to the native.
The British were now sweeping north on a very extended front. Colenbrander
had occupied Van Rhyns Dorp, to the east of Calvinia, while Bethune's force
was operating to the west of it. De Lisle hardly halted at Calvinia, but
pushed onwards to Williston, covering seventy-two miles of broken country in
forty-eight hours, one of the most amazing performances of the war. Quick as
he was, the Boers were quicker still, and during his northward march he does
not appear to have actually come into contact with them. Their line of
retreat lay through Carnarvon, and upon February 22nd they crossed the
railway line to the north of De Aar, and joined upon February 26th the new
invading force under De Wet, who had now crossed the Orange River. De Lisle,
who had passed over five hundred miles of barren country since he advanced
from Piquetburg, made for the railway at Victoria West, and was despatched
from that place on February 22nd to the scene of action in the north. From
all parts Boer and Briton were concentrating in their effort to aid or to
repel the inroad of the famous guerilla.
Before describing this attempt it would be well to trace the progress of the
eastern invasion (Kritzinger's), a movement which may be treated rapidly,
since it led to no particular military result at that time, though it lasted
long after Hertzog's force had been finally dissipated. Several small
columns, those of Williams, Byng, Grenfell, and Lowe, all under the
direction of Haig, were organised to drive back these commandos; but so
nimble were the invaders, so vast the distances and so broken the country,
that it was seldom that the forces came into contact. The operations were
conducted over a portion of the Colony which is strongly Dutch in sympathy,
and the enemy, though they do not appear to have obtained any large number
of recruits, were able to gather stores, horses, and information wherever
they went.
When last mentioned Kritzinger's men had crossed the railway north of
Rosmead on December 30th, and held up a train containing some Colonial
troops. From then onwards a part of them remained in the Middelburg and
Graaf-Reinet districts, while part moved towards the south. On January 11th
there was a sharp skirmish near Murraysburg, in which Byng's column was
engaged, at the cost of twenty casualties, all of Brabant's or the South
African Light Horse. On the 16th a very rapid movement towards the south
began. On that date Boers appeared at Aberdeen, and on the 18th at
Willowmore, having covered seventy miles in two days. Their long, thin line
was shredded out over 150 miles, and from Maraisburg, in the north, to
Uniondale, which is only thirty miles from the coast, there was rumour of
their presence. In this wild district and in that of Oudtshoorn the Boer
vanguard flitted in and out of the hills, Haig's column striving hard to
bring them to an action. So well-informed were the invaders that they were
always able to avoid the British concentrations, while if a British outpost
or patrol was left exposed it was fortunate if it escaped disaster. On
February 6th a small body of twenty-five of the 7th King's Dragoon Guards
and of the West Australians, under Captain Oliver, were overwhelmed at
Klipplaat, after a very fine defence, in which they held their own against
200 Boers for eight hours, and lost nearly fifty per cent. of their number.
On the 12th a patrol of yeomanry was surprised and taken near Willowmore.
The coming of De Wet had evidently been the signal for all the Boer raiders
to concentrate, for in the second week of February Kritzinger also began to
fall back, as Hertzog had done in the west, followed closely by the British
columns. He did not, however, actually join De Wet, and his evacuation of
the country was never complete, as was the case with Hertzog's force. On the
19th Kritzinger was at Bethesda, with Gorringe and Lowe at his heels. On the
23rd an important railway bridge at Fish River, north of Cradock, was
attacked, but the attempt was foiled by the resistance of a handful of Cape
Police and Lancasters. On March 6th a party of Boers occupied the village of
Pearston, capturing a few rifles and some ammunition. On the same date there
was a skirmish between Colonel Parsons's column and a party of the enemy to
the north of Aberdeen. The main body of the invading force appears to have
been lurking in this neighbourhood, as they were able upon April 7th to cut
off a strong British patrol, consisting of a hundred Lancers and Yeomanry,
seventy-five of whom remained as temporary prisoners in the hands of the
enemy. With this success we may for the time leave Kritzinger and his
lieutenant, Scheepers, who commanded that portion of his force which had
penetrated to the south of the Colony.
The two invasions which have been here described, that of Hertzog in the
west and of Kritzinger in the midlands, would appear in themselves to be
unimportant military operations, since they were carried out by small bodies
of men whose policy was rather to avoid than to overcome resistance. Their
importance, however, is due to the fact that they were really the
forerunners of a more important incursion upon the part of De Wet. The
object of these two bands of raiders was to spy out the land, so that on the
arival of the main body all might be ready for that general rising of their
kinsmen in the Colony which was the last chance, not of winning, but of
prolonging the war. It must be confessed that, however much their reason
might approve of the Government under which they lived, the sentiment of the
Cape Dutch had been cruelly, though unavoidably, hurt in the course of the
war. The appearance of so popular a leader as De Wet with a few thousand
veterans in the very heart of their country might have stretched their
patience to the breaking-point. Inflamed, as they were, by that racial
hatred which had always smouldered, and had now been fanned into a blaze by
the speeches of their leaders and by the fictions of their newspapers, they
were ripe for mischief, while they had before their eyes an object-lesson of
the impotence of our military system in those small bands who had kept the
country in a ferment for so long. All was propitious, therefore, for the
attempt which Steyn and De Wet were about to make to carry the war into the
enemy's country.
We last saw De Wet when, after a long chase, he had been headed back from
the Orange River, and, winnining clear from Knox's pursuit, had in the third
week of December passed successfully through the British cordon between
Thabanchu and Ladybrand. Thence he made his way to Senekal, and proceeded,
in spite of the shaking which he had had, to recruit and recuperate in the
amazing way which a Boer army has. There is no force so easy to drive and so
difficult to destroy. The British columns still kept in touch with De Wet,
but found it impossible to bring him to an action in the difficult district
to which he had withdrawn. His force had split up into numerous smaller
bodies, capable of reuniting at a signal from their leader. These scattered
bodies, mobile as ever, vanished if seriously attacked, while keenly on the
alert to pounce upon any British force which might be overpowered before
assistance could arrive. Such an opportunity came to the commando led by
Philip Botha, and the result was another petty reverse to the British arms.
Upon January 3rd Colonel White's small column was pushing north, in
co-operation with those of Knox, Pilcher, and the others. Upon that date it
had reached a point just north of Lindley, a district which has never been a
fortunate one for the invaders. A patrol of Kitchener' s newly raised
bodyguard, under Colonel Laing, 120 strong, was sent forward to reconnoitre
upon the road from Lindley to Reitz.
The scouting appears to have been negligently done, there being only two men
out upon each flank. The little force walked into one of those horse-shoe
positions which the Boers love, and learned by a sudden volley from a kraal
upon their right that the enemy was present in strength. On attempting to
withdraw it was instantly evident that the Boers were on all sides and in
the rear with a force which numbered at least five to one. The camp of the
main column was only four miles away, however, and the bodyguard, having
sent messages of their precarious position, did all they could to make a
defence until help could reach them. Colonel Laing had fallen, shot through
the heart, but found a gallant successor in young Nairne, the adjutant. Part
of the force had thrown themselves, under Nairne and Milne, into a donga,
which gave some shelter from the sleet of bullets. The others, under Captain
Butters, held on to a ruined kraal. The Boers pushed the attack very
rapidly, however, and were soon able with their superior numbers to send a
raking fire down the donga, which made it a perfect death-trap. Still hoping
that the laggard reinforcements would come up, the survivors held
desperately on; but both in the kraal and in the donga their numbers were
from minute to minute diminishing. There was no formal surrender and no
white flag, for, when fifty per cent. of the British were down, the Boers
closed in swiftly and rushed the position. Philip Botha, the brother of the
commandant, who led the Boers, behaved with courtesy and humanity to the
survivors; but many of the wounds were inflicted with those horrible
explosive and expansive missiles, the use of which among civilised
combatants should now and always be a capital offence. To disable one's
adversary is a painful necessity of warfare, but nothing can excuse the
wilful mutilation and torture which is inflicted by these brutal devices.
'How many of you are there?' asked Botha. 'A hundred,' said an officer. 'It
is not true. There are one hundred and twenty. I counted you as you came
along.' The answer of the Boer leader shows how carefully the small force
had been nursed until it was in an impossible position. The margin was a
narrow one, however, for within fifteen minutes of the disaster White's guns
were at work. There may be some question as to whether the rescuing force
could have come sooner, but there can be none as to the resistance of the
bodyguard. They held out to the last cartridge. Colonel Laing and three
officers with sixteen men were killed, four officers and twenty-two men were
wounded. The high proportion of fatal casualties can only be explained by
the deadly character of the Boer bullets. Hardly a single horse of the
bodyguard was left unwounded, and the profit to the victors, since they were
unable to carry away their prisoners, lay entirely in the captured rifles.
It is worthy of record that the British wounded were despatched to Heilbron
without guard through the Boer forces. That they arrived there unmolested is
due to the forbearance of the enemy and to the tact and energy of
Surgeon-Captain Porter, who commanded the convoy.
Encouraged by this small success, and stimulated by the news that Hertzog
and Kritzinger had succeeded in penetrating the Colony without disaster, De
Wet now prepared to follow them. British scouts to the north of Kroonstad
reported horsemen riding south and east, sometimes alone, sometimes in small
parties They were recruits going to swell the forces of De Wet. On January
23rd five hundred men crossed the line, journeying in the same direction.
Before the end of the month, having gathered together about 2,500 men with
fresh horses at the Doornberg, twenty miles north of Winburg, the Boer
leader was ready for one of his lightning treks once more. On January 28th
he broke south through the British net, which appears to have had more
meshes than cord. Passing the Bloemfontein-Ladybrand line at Israel Poort he
swept southwards, with British columns still wearily trailing behind him,
like honest bulldogs panting after a greyhound.
Before following him upon this new venture it is necessary to say a few
words about that peace movement in the Boer States to which some allusion
has already been made. On December 20th Lord Kitchener had issued a
proclamation which was intended to have the effect of affording protection
to those burghers who desired to cease fighting, but who were unable to do
so without incurring the enmity of their irreconcilable brethren. 'It is
hereby notified,' said the document, 'to all burghers that if after this
date they voluntarily surrender they will be allowed to live with their
families in Government laagers until such time as the guerilla warfare now
being carried on will admit of their returning safely to their homes. All
stock and property brought in at the time of the surrender of such burghers
will be respected and paid for if requisitioned.' This wise and liberal
offer was sedulously concealed from their men by the leaders of the fighting
commandos, but was largely taken advantage of by those Boers to whom it was
conveyed. Boer refugee camps were formed at Pretoria, Johannesburg,
Kroonstad, Bloemfontein, Warrenton; and other points, to which by degrees
the whole civil population came to be transferred. It was the reconcentrado
system of Cuba over again, with the essential difference that the guests of
the British Government were well fed and well treated during their
detention. Within a few months the camps had 50,000 inmates.
It was natural that some of these people, having experienced the amenity of
British rule, and being convinced of the hopelessness of the struggle,
should desire to convey their feelings to their friends and relations in the
field. Both in the Transvaal and in the Orange River Colony Peace Committees
were formed, which endeavoured to persuade their countrymen to bow to the
inevitable. A remarkable letter was published from Piet de Wet, a man who
had fought bravely for the Boer cause, to his brother, the famous general.
'Which is better for the Republics,' he asked, 'to continue the struggle and
run the risk of total ruin as a nation, or to submit? Could we for a moment
think of taking back the country if it were offered to us, with thousands of
people to be supported by a Government which has not a farthing?... Put
passionate feeling aside for a moment and use common-sense, and you will
then agree with me that the best thing for the people and the country is to
give in, to be loyal to the new government, and to get responsible
government... Should the war continue a few months longer the nation will
become so poor that they will be the working class in the country, and
disappear as a nation in the future... The British are convinced that they
have conquered the land and its people, and consider the matter ended, and
they only try to treat magnanimously those who are continuing the struggle
in order to prevent unnecessary bloodshed.'
Such were the sentiments of those of the burghers who were in favour of
peace. Their eyes had been opened and their bitterness was transferred from
the British Government to those individual Britons who, partly from idealism
and partly from party passion, had encouraged them to their undoing. But
their attempt to convey their feelings to their countrymen in the field
ended in tragedy. Two of their number, Morgendaal and Wessels, who had
journeyed to De Wet's camp, were condemned to death by order of that leader.
In the case of Morgendaal the execution actually took place, and seems to
have been attended by brutal circumstances, the man having been thrashed
with a sjambok before being put to death. The circumstances are still
surrounded by such obscurity that it is impossible to say whether the
message of the peace envoys was to the General himself or to the men under
his command. In the former case the man was murdered. In the latter the Boer
leader was within his rights, though the rights may have been harshly
construed and brutally enforced.
On January 29th, in the act of breaking south, De Wet's force, or a portion
of it, had a sharp brush with a small British column (Crewe's) at Tabaksberg,
which lies about forty miles north-east of Bloemfontein; This small force,
seven hundred strong, found itself suddenly in the presence of a very
superior body of the enemy, and had some difficulty in extricating itself. A
pom-pom was lost in this affair. Crewe fell back upon Knox, and the combined
columns made for Bloemfontein, whence they could use the rails for their
transport. De Wet meanwhile moved south as far as Smithfield, and then,
detaching several small bodies to divert the attention of the British, he
struck due west, and crossed the track between Springfontein and
Jagersfontein road, capturing the usual supply train as he passed. On
February 9th he had reached Philippolis, well ahead of the British pursuit,
and spent a day or two in making his final arrangements before carrying the
war over the border. His force consisted at this time of nearly 8,000 men,
with two 15-pounders, one pom-pom, and one maxim. The garrisons of all the
towns in the southwest of the Orange River Colony had been removed in
accordance with the policy of concentration, so De Wet found himself for the
moment in a friendly country.
The British, realising how serious a situation might arise should De Wet
succeed in penetrating the Colony and in joining Hertzog and Kritzinger,
made every effort both to head him off and to bar his return. General
Lyttelton at Naauwpoort directed the operations, and the possession of the
railway line enabled him to concentrate his columns rapidly at the point of
danger. On February 11th De Wet forded the Orange River at Zand Drift, and
found himself once more upon British territory. Lyttelton's plan of campaign
appears to have been to allow De Wet to come some distance south, and then
to hold him in front by De Lisle's force, while a number of small mobile
columns under Plumer, Crabbe, Henniker, Bethune, Haig, and Thorneycroft
should shepherd him behind. On crossing, De Wet at once moved westwards,
where, upon February 12th, Plumer's column, consisting of the Queensland
Mounted Infantry, the Imperial Bushmen, and part of the King's Dragoon
Guards, came into touch with his rearguard. All day upon the 13th and 14th,
amid terrific rain, Plumer's hardy troopers followed close upon the enemy,
gleaning a few ammunition wagons, a maxim, and some prisoners. The invaders
crossed the railway line near Houtnek, to the north of De Aar, in the early
hours of the 15th, moving upon a front of six or eight miles. Two armoured
trains from the north and the south closed in upon him as he passed, Plumer
still thundered in his rear, and a small column under Crabbe came pressing
from the south. This sturdy Colonel of Grenadiers had already been wounded
four times in the war, so that he might be excused if he felt some personal
as well as patriotic reasons for pushing a relentless pursuit. On crossing
the railroad De Wet turned furiously upon his pursuers, and, taking an
excellent position upon a line of kopjes rising out of the huge expanse of
the Karoo, he fought a stubborn rearguard action in order to give time for
his convoy to get ahead. He was hustled off the hills, however, the
Australian Bushmen with great dash carrying the central kopje, and the guns
driving the invaders to the westward. Leaving all his wagons and his reserve
ammunition behind him, the guerilla chief struck north-west, moving with
great swiftness, but never succeeding in shaking off Plumer's pursuit. The
weather continued, however, to be atrocious, rain and hail falling with such
violence that the horses could hardly be induced to face it. For a week the
two sodden, sleepless, mud-splashed little armies swept onwards over the
Karoo. De Wet passed northwards through Strydenburg, past Hopetown, and so
to the Orange River, which was found to be too swollen with the rains to
permit of his crossing. Here upon the 23rd, after a march of forty-five
miles on end, Plumer ran into him once more, and captured with very little
fighting a fifteen-pounder, a pom-pom, and close on to a hundred prisoners.
Slipping away to the east, De Wet upon February 24th crossed the railroad
again between Krankuil and Orange River Station, with Thorneycroft's column
hard upon his heels. The Boer leader was now more anxious to escape from the
Colony than ever he had been to enter it, and he rushed distractedly from
point to point, endeavouring to find a ford over the great turbid river
which cut him off from his own country. Here he was joined by Hertzog's
commando with a number of invaluable spare horses. It is said also that he
had been able to get remounts in the Hopetown district, which had not been
cleared - an omission for which, it is to be hoped, someone has been held
responsible. The Boer ponies, used to the succulent grasses of the veldt,
could make nothing of the rank Karoo, and had so fallen away that an
enormous advantage should have rested with the pursuers had ill luck and bad
management not combined to enable the invaders to renew their mobility at
the very moment when Plumer's horses were dropping dead under their riders.
The Boer force was now so scattered that, in spite of the advent of Hertzog,
De Wet had fewer men with him than when he entered the Colony. Several
hundreds had been taken prisoners, many had deserted, and a few had been
killed. It was hoped now that the whole force might be captured, and
Thorneycroft's, Crabbe's, Henniker's, and other columns were closing swiftly
in upon him, while the swollen river still barred his retreat. There was a
sudden drop in the flood, however; one ford became passable, and over it,
upon the last day of February, De Wet and his bedraggled, dispirited
commando escaped to their own country. There was still a sting in his tail,
however; for upon that very day a portion of his force succeeded in
capturing sixty and killing or wounding twenty of Colenbrander's new
regiment, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. On the other hand, De Wet was finally
relieved upon the same day of all care upon the score of his guns, as the
last of them was most gallantly captured by Captain Dallimore and fifteen
Victorians, who at the same time brought in thirty-three Boer prisoners. The
net result of De Wet's invasion was that he gained nothing, and that he lost
about four thousand horses, all his guns, all his convoy, and some three
hundred of his men.
Once safely in his own country again, the guerilla chief pursued his way
northwards with his usual celerity and success. The moment that it was
certain that De Wet had escaped, the indefatigable Plumer, wiry, tenacious
man, had been sent off by train to Springfontein, while Bethune's column
followed direct. This latter force crossed the Orange River bridge and
marched upon Luckhoff and Fauresmith. At the latter town they overtook
Plumer, who was again hard upon the heels of De Wet. Together they ran him
across the Riet River and north to Petrusburg, until they gave it up as
hopeless upon finding that, with only fifty followers, he had crossed the
Modder River at Abram's Kraal. There they abandoned the chase and fell back
upon Bloemfontein to refit and prepare for a fresh effort to run down their
elusive enemy.
While Plumer and Bethune were following upon the track of De Wet until he
left them behind at the Modder, Lyttelton was using the numerous columns
which were ready to his hand in effecting a drive up the south-eastern
section of the Orange Biver Colony. It was disheartening to remember that
all this large stretch of country had from April to November been as
peaceful and almost as prosperous as Kent or Yorkshire. Now the intrusion of
the guerilla bands, and the pressure put by them upon the farmers, had
raised the whole country once again, and the work of pacification had to be
set about once more, with harsher measures than before. A continuous barrier
of barbed-wire fencing had been erected from Bloemfontein to the Basuto
border, a distance of eighty miles, and this was now strongly held by
British posts. From the south Bruce Hamilton, Hickman, Thorneycroft, and
Haig swept upwards, stripping the country as they went in the same way that
French had done in the Eastern Transvaal, while Pilcher's column waited to
the north of the barbed-wire barrier. It was known that Fourie, with a
considerable commando, was lurking in this district, but he and his men
slipped at night between the British columns and escaped. Pilcher, Bethune,
and Byng were able, however, to send in 200 prisoners and very great numbers
of cattle. On April 10th Monro, with Bethune's Mounted Infantry, captured
eighty fighting Boers near Dewetsdorp, and sixty more were taken by a night
attack at Boschberg. There is no striking victory to record in these
operations, but they were an important part of that process of attrition
which was wearing the Boers out and helping to bring the war to an end.
Terrible it is to see that barren countryside, and to think of the depths of
misery to which the once flourishing and happy Orange Free State had fallen,
through joining in a quarrel with a nation which bore it nothing but sincere
friendship and goodwill. With nothing to gain and everything to lose, the
part played by the Orange Free State in this South African drama is one of
the most inconceivable things in history. Never has a nation so deliberately
and so causelessly committed suicide.
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