The Young Colonists Part 11

The campaign was arranged on a new plan. The numerous columns in which the strength of the force had been frittered away were abolished, and the following was adopted as the designation of the forces in the field, under the lieutenant-general commanding, viz.:--1st Division South African Field-forces, Major-General Crealock, C.B., commanding, consisting of all troops on the left bank of the Lower Tugela; 2nd Division South African Field-forces, Major-General Newdigate commanding, consisting of all troops in the Utrecht district other than those attached to the Flying Column under Brigadier-General Wood, V.C., C.B., which was designated as "Brigadier-General Wood's Flying Column."

Major-General Marshall a.s.sumed command of the cavalry brigade, and Major-General the Hon. H.H. Clifford, C.B., V.C., took up the command of the base of operations and superintendence of the lines of communication. The forces were divided as follows:--

First Division (General Crealock's), Lower Tugela Command.

Naval Brigade... 800 M. Battery, 6th Brigade, Royal Artillery... 90

Detachment, 11-7th Royal Artillery... 25 2-3rd Regiment... 836 57th Regiment... 830 3-60th Regiment... 880 88th Regiment... 640 91st Regiment... 850 99th... 870 Mounted Infantry, 2nd Squadron... 70 Army Service Corps... 50 Army Hospital Corps... 20 Royal Engineers... 150 8-7th Royal Artillery... 80 0-6th Regiment... 50 Lonsdale's Horse... 84 Cooke's Horse... 78 Colonial Volunteers... 105 Native Contingent:-- Foot... 2556 Mounted... 151

Total strength, effective and non-effective... 9215

Second Division (General Newdigate's.)

1st Dragoon Guards attached to 2nd Division... 650 17th Lancers attached to 2nd Division... 626 N-5th Royal Artillery... 76 N-6th Royal Artillery... 80 10-7th Royal Artillery... 70 10-6th Royal Artillery... 30 Royal Engineers... 60 2-4th Regiment... 790 Detachment, 1-13th Regiment... 63 2-21st (two companies at Maritzburg)... 820 1-24th Regiment... 530 2-24th Regiment... 586 58th (one company at Durban)... 906 80th (several companies in the Transvaal)... 300 94th (one company at Grey Town)... 870 Army Service Corps... 60 Army Hospital Corps... 30 Grey Town District Colonial Volunteers... 139 Natal Mounted Police... 75 Natal Carabineers... 27 Newcastle Mounted Rifles... 18 Buffalo Mounted Guard... 20 Native Contingent:-- Europeans... 41 Natives (foot)... 3128 Natives (mounted)... 243

Total strength, effective and non-effective... 10,238

General Wood's Flying Column.

11-7th Royal Artillery... 87 Royal Engineers... 13 1-13th Regiment... 721 90th Regiment... 823 1st Squadron, Mounted Infantry... 103 Army Service Corps... 9 Army Hospital Corps... 13 Frontier Light Horse... 173 Baker's Horse... 179 Transvaal Rangers... 141

1st Battalion, Wood's Irregulars:-- Europeans... 14 Natives... 377

2nd Battalion, Wood's Irregulars:--

Europeans... 5 Natives... 355

Natal Native Horse:-- Europeans... 4 Natives... 75

Total strength, effective and non-effective... 3092

Grand Total.

1st Division... 9215 2nd Regiment... 10,238 General Wood's Flying Column. 3092

Total, effective and non-effective: namely, Europeans, 15,660, and natives, 6885... 22,545

Out of this grand total there were about 400 sick and non-effective with the 1st Division, 300 with the 2nd Division, and 600 (including some of Wood's Irregulars, absent and not accounted for since the 28th of March) with Wood's Flying Column. So that altogether, deducting, say, 1500, Lord Chelmsford had at his disposal, from the middle of April, a total of 21,000 troops, of which over 15,000 were European. Colonels Pearson and Wood were made Brigadier-Generals, and the former was to command Number 1 Brigade, 1st Division, and Colonel Pemberton, 3-60th, the other. They both, however, had to give up their commands through sickness, and Colonels Rowland, V.C., C.B., and Clark, 57th Regiment, succeeded them.

Major-General Clifford, V.C., C.B., had the following staff for the management of the base of the operations and the maintenance of the lines of communication between Zululand and Natal:--

Lieutenant Westmacott, 77th Foot, aide-de-camp; Major W.J. Butler, C.B., a.s.sistant-adjutant and quartermaster-general, stationed at Durban; and Captain W.R. Fox, Royal Artillery, deputy a.s.sistant-adjutant and quartermaster-general.

On the arrival of the boys with the waggons at Pieter-Maritzburg, they reported themselves at the headquarters of the transport corps, and were told that they were not to go down to Durban, but were to load up at once and accompany the Dragoon Guards, who were to march the next morning for the front.

This time the lads were mounted, as their fathers thought that they would gain more benefit from their experience if they were able to move about instead of being confined to the sides of their waggons, and it was a satisfaction to their mothers that, in case of any untoward event again happening, they would be in a better position for making their escape.

General Newdigate's columns were encamped at Landmann's Drift; the cavalry, under General Marshall, was also there. The march was altogether without incident.

Some days pa.s.sed quietly, when a small party of horse made an expedition to Isandula; they reported that nearly a hundred waggons were still standing upon the field of battle. On the 17th of May, three days later, the rumour ran through the camp that the cavalry were to start on the 19th, to bury the dead and bring away the waggons. The Army Service Corps and waggons were to accompany the party, which was to consist of the Dragoon Guards and Lancers, with a party of native mounted scouts.

In the afternoon of the 18th the two boys went to Colonel Marshall's tent; they waited patiently until he came out, accompanied by two or three other officers.

"We have come to ask, sir, if you will allow us to go with your column.

We are in charge of waggons here, but they are not going. We were at the battle, and saw the whole thing, and were taken prisoners afterwards and carried to Umbelleni's kraal, where we were liberated when Colonel Wood's cavalry attacked the Zlobani hill. We are well mounted, sir, and are good shots; so, if you will let us go, we could keep with the scouts and not be in your way."

"How did you see the fight?" General Marshall asked.

"We had gone up to the top of the hill, sir, before it began, and fortunately the natives did not notice us."

"Oh, yes, you can go," the general said. "Probably you can give us a better account of the action than any one else, as others who escaped were occupied by their own business, and could not mark the general progress of the battle. So you were taken prisoners! Well, I am going out now, but if you will call in this evening at about half-past eight, I shall be glad to have a talk with you."

In the evening the boys called upon the general, one of the most popular and dashing officers in the service. Three or four of his staff were there, and all listened with great interest to the boys' account of their adventures.

"You seem to have plenty of pluck and coolness, youngsters," the general said, when they had finished. "In future you need not trouble to ask for permission to accompany me whenever the cavalry go out, providing we have natives mounted with us; you must go as recruits, and can either keep with them or ride with my orderlies."

Much pleased with the permission given, the lads returned to the waggons, and the next morning they started on their way.

The column bivouacked that night at Dill's Town, and reached Rorke's Drift between three and four o'clock in the morning, and were there joined by the Natal Carabineers and Colonel Harness, R.A., with guns.

At daybreak on the 20th the reconnoitring force crossed the river. No signs of the enemy were seen until they neared Isandula; then signal-fires blazed up on the hills to the right, and spread quickly from hill to hill far into the interior. Pushing steadily on, the plain of Isandula was reached by ten o'clock. The whole scene of the conflict was overgrown with long gra.s.s, thickly intermixed with growing crops of oats and Indian corn. Lying thickly here, and scattered over a wide area, lay the corpses of the soldiers. The site of the camp itself was marked by the remains of the tents, intermingled with a ma.s.s of broken trunks, boxes, meat-tins, papers, books, and letters in wild disorder.

The sole visible objects, however, rising above the gra.s.s, were the waggons, all more or less broken up.

The scouts were placed in all directions to give warning of the approach of any enemies. The Army Service Corps set to work to harness the seventy pairs of led horses they had brought with them to the best of the waggons, and the troops wandered over the scene of the engagement, and searched for and buried all the bodies they found, with the exception of those of the 24th Regiment, as these, Colonel Glyn had asked, should be left to be buried by their comrades. The bodies of the officers of Colonel Durnford's corps were all found together, showing that when all hope of escape was gone they had formed in a group and defended themselves to the last. The men of the Royal Artillery buried all the bodies of their slain comrades who could be found, but the shortness of the time and the extent of the ground over which the fight had extended rendered anything like a thorough search impossible.

The object of the expedition was not to fight, and as at any moment the Zulus might appear in force upon the field, a start was made as soon as the waggons were ready. Forty of the best waggons were brought out, with some water-carts, a gun-limber and a rocket-battery cart. Twenty waggons in a disabled condition were left behind. Some seventy waggons were missing, these having been carried off by the Zulus, filled either with stores or with their own wounded. Having accomplished this work the cavalry rejoined headquarters at Landmann's Drift.

On the 27th of May the column advanced, Newdigate's division leading the way. By two o'clock in the afternoon the men had crossed the Buffalo and marched to Kopje-allein through a bare and treeless country. One of the most popular figures in the camp was the Prince Imperial of France, who, having received a military education at Woolwich, and being anxious to see service, had applied for and obtained leave to accompany the expedition. The young prince had been extremely popular at Woolwich, and was indeed an immense favourite with all who knew him--high-spirited and full of life, and yet singularly gentle and courteous in manner. He was by nature adapted to win the hearts of all who came in contact with him. His abilities too were of the very highest order, as was proved by the fact that, although suffering under the disadvantage of being a foreigner, he yet came out so high in the final examination at Woolwich as to be ent.i.tled to a commission in the Royal Engineers. When it is considered how keen is the compet.i.tion to enter Woolwich, and that all the students there, having won their places by compet.i.tive examinations, may be said to be considerably above the average of ability, it will be seen that, for one who had previously gone through an entirely different course of education, and had now to study in a language that was not his own, to take rank among the foremost of these was a proof both of exceptional ability and industry.

A splendid career was open for the young prince, for there is little doubt that, had he lived, he would sooner or later have mounted the throne of his father, and there are few pages of history more sad than those which relate to his death in a paltry skirmish in a corner of Africa. To Englishmen the page is all the more sad, inasmuch as, had the men accompanying him acted with the coolness and calmness generally shown by Englishmen in a moment of danger, instead of being carried away by a cowardly panic, the Prince Imperial might yet be alive.

At Kopje-allein Newdigate's column was joined by that of General Wood.

Three days were spent in carefully exploring the country, and on the 1st of June the division, as nearly as possible 20,000 strong, with a baggage-train of 400 native waggons, moved forward and encamped near the Itelezi River. The flying column of General Wood went on one march ahead, and the country was carefully scouted by Buller's horse for twenty miles round, and no Zulus were found.

CHAPTER NINE.

ULUNDI.

On Sunday, the 1st of June, General Wood with a small escort was out reconnoitring in advance of his column, which was about five miles in front of the force of General Newdigate. The morning was clear and fresh, the ridges of the hills on either side were dotted with Buller's hors.e.m.e.n. They crossed the river by a ford, and having ridden about another mile forward they observed some of the vedettes on the high ground signalling that hors.e.m.e.n were approaching.

Riding on to see who they could be, they were joined by Colonel Buller and a dozen of his men, and together they rode forward to meet the five men who were seen approaching. In a few seconds Lieutenant Carey and four troopers of Bettington's Horse rode up, and when they had told their story English soldiers had the shame and humiliation of knowing that an English officer and four English troopers had escaped unwounded from a Zulu ambush, in which they had left a gallant young prince, the guest of England and the hope of France, to be barbarously slain.

Early in the morning the prince had learnt that a patrol was to be sent out in advance of the column, and had applied for and obtained permission to accompany it. Colonel Harrison, acting as quartermaster-general, granted the permission, and had an interview with the prince.

Six men of Bettington's Horse and the same number of Shepstone's Basutos were to form the party; but unfortunately the Basutos did not come up at the appointed time, and the patrol consisted therefore only of the prince, Lieutenant Carey, the six men of Bettington's Horse, and one Zulu. Considering the importance of the safety of the prince, a grave responsibility attaches to the staff-officer who allowed him to go with so small a party.

After an hour's ride they reached the crest of a hill and dismounted to fix the position of some distant points by the compa.s.s. Here Colonel Harrison overtook them, and remarked that the whole of the escort was not with them, and that they had better wait for the Basutos to come up.

The prince said--