Two Years on Trek Part 13

The Boer laager was not all composed of fighting men by any means; there were large numbers of non-combatants--women, children and Kaffirs, hangers-on who attended to the feeding of the commandos or drove sheep and cattle, and other nondescripts who did not belong to any commando, but who accompanied the Boers, all the same. Then there were a number of what they called "trek Boers;" these were Boers with their families, cattle, wagons, horses and all their belongings, who had quitted their farms and were moving or trekking with the commandos; these men had some splendid wagons and teams of magnificent oxen with them.

There were many Boers who spoke perfect English, and among them in particular two wearing the Red Cross badge; these two stated that they belonged to the Ident.i.ty Department of the Red Cross Society, and produced papers in proof of this. One of them, Mr. Nelson, informed me that their duties were to remain with the commando to which they were attached, and to keep a list of any men killed or wounded, forwarding a copy to Pretoria when an occasion offered.

This system appears to have been the only means by which any record was kept of the casualties among the Boers, but the killed and wounded were so few that no doubt it worked well enough.

There was a parson, or predikant, also accompanying the commandos. He was, of course, not a fighting man, but was very loyal to his own folk, and, when we asked him what he would have done if any fighting had taken place, he replied that under ordinary circ.u.mstances he helped to look after the commissariat arrangements, but that if we had attacked the camp he would have taken a rifle at once and a.s.sisted as well as he could to defend his country. We a.s.sured him that his sentiments did him credit.

For several hours that night the Boers collected in groups round their camp fires, singing hymns, and it was late before everything was quiet, and we were able to sleep. Mr. Raats had provided us with the guest chamber of his house, and this room was fully furnished in the most elaborate style, including even a bath. Our first step had been to throw up the narrow window and ventilate the room as much as possible; we should have preferred to sleep in the open, but as we had no kit except what we stood up in, this was not advisable.

Soon after daybreak the next morning the collecting of rifles was proceeded with: numbers of Boers came crowding in from the hills around, eager to surrender their arms and ammunition, and in a few hours we had acc.u.mulated a large heap on the ground. The ammunition we filled into bags and loaded on wagons, but the rifles were placed in a great pile and burned, as we had no means of carrying such a large number: they were rendered quite useless, as the barrels were made soft by the heat, and all the foresights, backsights and other attachments were melted off.

The Boers told us that they had left nine or ten wagons, mostly loaded with rifle ammunition, on the road about 3 miles off; the bullocks had been taken away by the Harrismith commando, and the wagons were left there with a few Boers in charge; they also said the road was terrible, and that it would take a long time to bring in the wagons, even if bullocks were sent out for this purpose.

A report to this effect being made to the General, the Engineer officer, Lieut. Evans, was sent out to destroy the wagons. This was done during the day by blowing them up; unfortunately, owing to some Kaffir putting a bag of powder in close proximity to the fuse, a premature explosion took place, and the old sergeant of the R.E. section, Sergeant Munn, was somewhat seriously injured, while Lieut. Evans himself was cut about a good deal.

During the morning the officers whom the General had detailed to a.s.sist me reported their arrival: they were, Captain Wroughton of our battalion; and Captain Tufnell, Lieut. Lambton and Lieut. Key, all from the Mounted Infantry; these, with Lieut. Bellamy, gave us one British officer to each of the five commandos: but, as Lieut. Bellamy had to return to his proper duty as a.s.sistant Provost Marshal, Lieut. Bond was applied for in relief of him.

As soon as the officers arrived we were able to get the Boers into some sort of organization. Each commando had its Boer commandant, who had under him his adjutant and secretary, both of whom usually spoke English; and the remainder of the Boers were distributed under the orders of a certain number of Field Cornets, corresponding to our section commanders, who knew all about the men, and had rolls of them and other information.

The commandants themselves knew nothing about their men, their names or other details, but left all that to the Field Cornets.

The five officers were posted to the commandos as follows:--

To Du Plooy's Commando Lieut. Bond, vice Lieut. Bellamy.

" Potgieter's " Captain Wroughton.

" Joubert's " Lieut. Lambton.

" Crowther's " Lieut. Key.

" Jonker's " Captain Tuffnell.

Having thus a certain nucleus of organization to go upon, the officers went off, each to his own commando, to make themselves acquainted with their commandants and to ascertain the quant.i.ty of rations available, besides obtaining other information, such as the numbers of men, horses, wagons, Cape carts and bullocks, in each commando.

Of these commandos, that of Potgieter was the most important and the strongest in numbers, and the best looked after by the commandant and his Field Cornets; nearly all the burghers came from the Smithfield District, while those in the other commandos came from the districts of Bethulie, Thaba N'Chu and Winburg.

Jonker was not really a commandant, but, being the oldest Field Cornet, he was selected by us to organise and look after the burghers of the Harrismith commando, composed of those who had elected to surrender instead of going off with Olivier.

Commandant Du Plooy was the most respectable and reliable, as far as one could observe in the fortnight the Boers were under our charge; but all the commandants were men of standing and position, accustomed to be treated, as could be seen, with a good deal of deference by the burghers; they appeared to be all honourable men, and were most courteous in their address and manner of speaking on all occasions.

Commandant Joubert was a truculent old gentleman, who apparently failed to thoroughly grasp his position, and, while not exactly objecting to any orders which were given him, he showed his disapproval in other ways, and usually had a good deal to say on any matter that came forward.

General Bruce Hamilton rode over that morning and had an interview with the five commandants, and ascertained that they thoroughly understood the conditions upon which their surrender was accepted; these were, that each burgher was to be allowed a horse to ride to his destination, and that all private property was to be respected. The Boers had a great fear of being compelled to walk, and would have done anything sooner than go on foot, a thing to which they have never been accustomed. They were amazed at our infantry marching as they did every mile of the road, and frankly admitted that the Boers could have done nothing of the sort.

Lieut. Bellamy was busy all that day enquiring into the cases of the trek Boers and such other non-combatants as were willing to take the oath of allegiance to Her Majesty, or of neutrality, and to go quietly back to their farms: to these pa.s.ses were issued and the people allowed to go off at once. This reduced the crowd of wagons very considerably, as nearly all of these burghers had one, if not more, wagons, and usually one or two vans or covered carts in which the womenfolk travelled, if they were well-to-do people.

Several of them had droves of cattle and flocks of sheep also. The remainder of the wagons, which were almost entirely those that had been captured from our convoys on different occasions, were loaded with the burghers' kits and with their rations of meal and some coffee. They said they had been out of tea and sugar for a long time, that the coffee was merely roasted beans and mealies, and that tobacco was almost unknown.

However they had plenty of cattle, which largely made up for the absence of other food; as the Boer is a great meat eater, and, unlike other civilised people, can exist on meat alone for a considerable period.

There was one field gun amongst the wagons: this had belonged to U Battery, R.H.A., and had been captured by the Boers at Sanna's Post; several artillery ammunition wagons were also found, which, with some of the wagons which were loaded with gun and rifle ammunition, were all sent away to the General's camp.

The hills and ravines around Raats' farm were full of cattle and mules grazing, so we sent a number of the Boers to bring them in and to inspan them into the wagons and Cape carts, as it was now necessary to shift our camp to a better site where the commandos could be separated somewhat. There was plenty of s.p.a.ce about a couple of miles outside the Golden Gate, and in the afternoon each officer moved his commando and encamped it in a new spot.

Here the wagons, carts and horses were drawn up with some regularity, and the officers were enabled to check the numbers previously given in by the commandants, which were found to be substantially correct in every case.

Another important matter was the equalising of such rations as were in the possession of the Boers: stock was therefore taken by each officer, and Captain Wroughton arranged about the sharing of what flour and other stuff there was, and saw that the fat oxen were collected and put into a drove in charge of some of the burghers, until they were required for slaughtering.

During this day the battalion had been moved to the same spot upon which the laager was encamped: several pickets were furnished round the prisoners, and sentries placed on the roads leading in and out of the pa.s.s.

All the burghers paraded with their horses the next morning, so that those which were fit for use by the mounted troops might be taken, and others given in their place. An Artillery officer came down to select these horses, and from the way he went about the business, carefully examining each animal all round and pa.s.sing his critical hand over fetlocks and back sinews, it was plain that he did not realise that he had about 1,200 horses to look through that morning. However, our time was precious, and we had plenty to do without meddling in other people's affairs, so the Artillery major was left to run his own show; it came to a climax a few hours afterwards, as we received orders to move before he had selected more than a few horses.

From that time on we were beset with people who either wanted another horse, or thought they saw their way to getting a better one. None of us had any peace; there was always someone who wished to exchange his horse for a better one, and on going down to the lines we were pretty certain to see several strangers "looking round," as they called it--but we soon knew what that meant. The Boer laager seemed to be considered a fair field for anyone to exploit, one officer going so far as to send his men down to take some of the Boers' blankets away from them!

A party of Basutos from across the border, which was only three or four miles away, came over to pay their respects to the General; they were a chief and his interpreter and a retinue of sorts. A more motley crew has never been seen; they were all mounted on ponies; the chief was an enormously fat young man, bursting out of a slate coloured tweed suit, and wearing a black pot hat; the interpreter was similarly rigged out in a suit of dittoes; but the retinue were equipped mostly with a simple tuft of feathers in their hair. Some of them had blankets, but, the day being close, they carried them strapped on to their saddles. Whilst the chief was making his salaams to the General the crowd of retainers strolled about, and eventually became such a nuisance that after the interview was concluded, the whole gang were requested to withdraw to their own territory.

The ammunition which could not be carried with us for want of the necessary transport was handed over to the Mounted Infantry and to our battalion to be destroyed. This was no easy matter, but some was burned and exploded, some buried, and a quant.i.ty thrown into the pools of water in the spruit.

Major Lean was very successful with five or six wagon loads of powder and ammunition which were given him to destroy; the powder was strewn broadcast over the ground, but the boxes of ammunition and the wheels and other woodwork of the wagons were piled, sandwich fashion, into a huge heap and set fire to just before leaving the camp. As the boxes burned the cartridges were exploded, and a terrific noise, like a general engagement or the last stage of the attack as practised at General's inspection, echoed and re-echoed among the hills for several hours. No doubt, a good many cartridges escaped destruction, but it was impossible in the time available to destroy the ammunition more thoroughly.

Amongst the Mauser ammunition which was given up in the bandoliers, there were many clips containing cartridges whose bullets were covered with bright green fat; this gave rise to the statement that the Boers had wilfully used poisoned bullets. This theory was regularly harped upon by some war correspondents in their letters, but a more disgraceful insinuation against our enemies never existed, nor one more erroneous from a musketry point of view.

It is quite plain to any unbia.s.sed person that any grease which might be upon the bullet when it is placed in the chamber of the rifle would be completely wiped off during the pa.s.sage of the tightly-fitting projectile through the barrel, from which it emerges as clean as when made, and bearing the marks of the grooving. Enquiries among the better cla.s.s Boers regarding this rumour elicited the fact that many of them were in the habit of dipping the cartridges in fat prepared from bucks which they had killed, with a view to lubricating the chamber and barrel of the rifle: the buck fat, after exposure to the air, turned green; the Boers were much amused at the ridiculous conclusion at which these correspondents had arrived.

CHAPTER XV.

TO WINBURG.

Escorting the prisoners--Authority of the Commandants--Strength of the commandos--Biddulph's Berg--Senekal--Sardines--Winburg--Release of old men and boys--Remainder of prisoners entrained.

The battalion camped on the 31st of July at Klerksvlei, but next day moved about three miles further on with a view of forming a guard to the prisoners, whose laager had then been established at Korfshoek. The march was commenced on the 2nd of August, when the laager with the battalion as escort, together with the Mounted Infantry and the guns, returned to Klerksvlei, proceeding the next day to Weltevreden, a long weary march of 15 miles. There was a halt of a couple of hours on the road after we had gone about 5 or 6 miles, as we met the Highland Brigade on their way to Harrismith. Some Mounted Infantry were also encountered on the look-out for horses: and we smiled as we saw them select some that had been handed over to us as useless the day before.

However, we said nothing. We got off again at last and marched back on the road by which we had come from Naauwpoort Nek. We halted once for a couple of hours to enable the wagons to cross a drift, and took the opportunity to have some food, and to water and graze our animals. At this spot, with a strongish breeze blowing, one of our companies, lying on the gra.s.s, seized the occasion to start a gra.s.s fire, which spread like a flash and necessitated our moving; endeavours were made to turn the course of the fire or to put it out, but without avail, so we had to inspan and trek pretty smartly. On our road we pa.s.sed the site of our former bivouacs, and marched on for another few miles before camping at Weltevreden. Next day we were afoot at eight o'clock, but halted a good many times during the day, princ.i.p.ally at drifts, of which there were several, and also on two occasions to allow the Eighth Division, under General Rundle, to pa.s.s us on their way to Harrismith. The troops of the Eighth Division were much interested at the sight of the Boer prisoners riding along, a huge column of 1,500 men; and I think the burghers themselves were also impressed at the sight of the numerous troops we pa.s.sed on our way, first the Highland Brigade and then the Eighth Division.

We bivouacked that night below Little Spitz Kop, a wretched place for a camp--bad water out of a dirty sluit, and the whole neighbourhood as black as your hat as the result of a gra.s.s fire.

The 5th of August was a terribly long day; we started at seven o'clock and trekked along steadily for mile after mile, halting at mid-day for a couple of hours to refresh man and beast, and eventually reaching Bethlehem at six in the evening, just after dark.

Stringent orders had been issued by General Hunter with regard to the safety of the prisoners, and these were read to commandants and explained by them to their burghers; the prisoners, however, were quite resigned to their fate, and I myself was sure that none would be missing when we arrived at our destination; and in this I was quite correct, as afterwards was proved. The burghers were at all times quite under the thumb of their commandants, whom they looked up to with unswerving fidelity and supported with implicit obedience; thus when they were informed that the commandant himself would be held responsible in the event of any man of his commando deserting, there was little doubt in my mind as to their compliance.

The battalion furnished a cordon of sentries round the Boer camp that night; they were relieved next day by the Bedford regiment, whom we found in camp next to us. There was a halt for the troops that day, but there was not much rest for us in the Boer laager, as there was a good deal of organising to do which there had been no opportunity of carrying out before. Seeing that the five officers under me were all very busy, the General decided to attach five more for duty, and they came and reported themselves during the day. This was a great addition to our administrative staff, as it enabled two officers to be apportioned to each commando, one of whom paraded and rode with the mounted men on the march daily, whilst the other rode with the wagons and superintended everything connected with them: by this means we were enabled to get things done with some regularity and precision, especially as Captain Tufnell volunteered to look after the whole of the wagons and Cape carts when in camp and on the march, while Captain Wroughton undertook the duties of Quartermaster and superintended the ration question: of these two tiresome jobs, I am not sure which was the most worrying.

The five officers who joined us were Lieut. Willett, of our regiment, and Lieuts. Greenwell and Veasey of the Bedfords, 2nd Lieut. Lord Murray of the Camerons, and Lieut. Henderson of the City Imperial Volunteers.

The services of Sergeant Flynn and Drummer Briggs were also lent to us to facilitate issuing orders and carrying messages.

The first thing to do was to have a proper roll call of the commandos; we had had no opportunity before then of doing this, although the adjutants of each commando had prepared rolls of their men, so a careful muster was taken by the officers, the numbers of the prisoners proving to be as follows:--

Commandant Jonker 239 burghers.

" Crowther 379 "