Two Years on Trek Part 16

The next day's march was a short one of merely 8 miles to a pan, filled with very dirty water, which was all we had. Things looked lively that night, as the pickets brought in a Boer prisoner, who turned out to be one of our own wagon drivers; he had gone out of the lines to a farm, without permission, and probably to give information. Naturally he protested his innocence, but he was put in charge of a sentry, and warned that on the first bullet being fired into camp by the enemy, he would be shot dead by the sentry; luckily for him, the night was a peaceful one, although our camp was invaded--not however by the enemy.

Soon after midnight we heard a sentry calling out repeatedly in a mild sort of way "Guard, turn out!", and then we saw that he was one of the picket sentries, who had found himself suddenly overwhelmed by an advancing ma.s.s of Kaffirs, jabbering, chattering, and understanding no known language, but steadily moving on with their bundles.

In vain the sentry tried to stem the rushing tide of natives, but he might as well have tried to stop a house, so he retreated backwards, feebly yelling for a.s.sistance, and on arrival in camp the Kaffirs were stopped.

However, at c.o.c.k crow the infernal jabber and chatter commenced again; they were Basutos, who had been working on the railway and were now going home, all with plenty of money to spend on wives and cows, which they told us was their intention.

Twice during the night mounted men had arrived with orders, the upshot of it all being that we were to march as far as Israelspoort, about 6 miles further on, and to remain there, holding that position, until General Hunter and his escort, who were coming up behind, should have pa.s.sed; the baggage, however, was to go on into Thaba N'Chu.

Israelspoort was the place where Ian Hamilton's column had their first taste of fighting in April; a _poort_ is a spot where the road pa.s.ses over a neck or saddle in a ridge, and this particular one was commanded by huge kopjes on either hand. These were occupied by Mounted Infantry pickets, whom we relieved; and we sent on our baggage and waited for General Hunter, who arrived just after mid-day, and, after chatting a while, went on; we followed later, reaching Thaba N'Chu and camping at the eastern end of the town about two o'clock in the afternoon.

The town is a small one, situated in a recess among high hills which shut it in, but at some distance, on three sides; like Ventersburg and Bothaville, the surrounding district is a turbulent one, and there have always been restless Boers in the neighbourhood, who have frequently threatened the Waterworks and Bloemfontein.

Our Colonel had been left in command of the town, while the other half battalion marched to the relief of Ladybrand; the troops under him were not numerous, consisting only of half a battalion of the Bedfords, a battery and some Mounted Infantry.

Our wagons and a huge convoy arrived on the 10th of September, and with them, in addition to Captain Wroughton and Lieutenant Pearce, came Lieut. Montgomerie, who had been shot in the leg at Retief's Nek, but had since recovered, and now rejoined for duty. On the next day all the wagons, except our proportion, went off by road to join the Brigade, and we also received orders to march, at half-past nine that night, at which hour the moon was expected to show up.

It was a lovely night and the march was only a short one of about eight miles, but it took us four hours, all the same, as we had to wait occasionally to allow the lagging convoy to close up. Starting again at half-past nine in the morning we marched until mid-day, when we halted for an hour and a half, and eventually reached camp at Zamenskornst about three p.m. after a tramp of 17 miles.

All the troops which had marched to the relief of Ladybrand were camped on the opposite side of the spruit, including our other half battalion, who, of course, came and laughed at us for having missed all the hard marching they had had into Ladybrand. There was a wide, sandy spruit between the two camps, and the ox convoy started at early dawn, about three o'clock, to cross this: after them went our mule wagons and the battery and all the details, telegraph people and so on, so that the battalion, which furnished the rear guard, did not have to move until half-past seven.

The mounted troops comprised men of the Mounted Infantry of several Corps--Brabant's Horse, Rimington's Scouts, Kitchener's Horse--and there were also representatives of many other regiments, both regular and irregular, as General Hunter and his staff accompanied us, with interpreters and servants, guides, escort and men in charge of their baggage wagons.

At the entrance to camp at Allendale, about 12 miles away, there was another sandy drift, which tried the bullocks very much: two paths had been made, but of course it is unnecessary to state that whenever the drivers _could_ manage to cross their tracks and create a block or a collision, they invariably did so to the great delight of the baggage master, for whom, sometimes, the English language was not sufficiently copious, and who had to fall back on Hindustani.

However after much delay the last wagon was got across, and the rear guard pa.s.sed on into camp, which was not far off. We all turned in early, as at midnight we were to start again: it appears that the enemy were among the hills, which formed an excellent position at Doornberg, lying in the centre of a triangle formed by the three towns of Winburg, Ventersburg and Senekal, and was easily accessible from either, both from our point of view and from that of the enemy. Winburg was occupied by our troops, but the other two towns had not been consistently held throughout the campaign, and the enemy were able, therefore, to use these towns to some extent as bases.

The operation upon which we were now engaged was an extensive "round up," to use a Bush phrase, which exactly expresses what we were about to do. There were columns, each preceded by clouds of mounted troops, coming from the north, the east and the south, and we were in great hopes that at last we had got the enemy properly cornered, as it did not seem possible for him to escape anywhere, the country being open rolling veldt all round the position which he was occupying at Doornberg.

Having, therefore, a rough idea of the plans upon which we were working, we were prepared for some long marches, and we were not disappointed.

Leaving Allendale at midnight, on a moonlight and starry night, we marched off to the north: as bad luck would have it, we were following a battery, which is an annoying thing on a night march, when, as everyone knows, each unit has to keep touch with the troops in front so as not to lose distance.

All troops open out on the march to a certain extent, which is greater than that fixed in the drill books, but which actual experience in marching shows is quite necessary; when, therefore, the head of a column of all arms on the march is halted for the usual ten minutes every hour, those in rear do not stop dead in their tracks as they should, but continue closing up until they have resumed their proper parade ground intervals.

This was exemplified on this occasion, when we tramped for two hours and fifty minutes without a halt, the early part of the march being a constant succession of checks, caused by the frequent "backing and filling" of the battery in front of us. Nothing is more annoying on the march than these checks, which throw you out of your stride and bring you up all standing, and nothing is more easily avoided by the common sense adoption of wider and more elastic intervals between units and companies.

About eight o'clock the column halted, as we were all staggering for want of sleep; so we had breakfast and slept and rested until half past two in the afternoon, when we continued on our way to Klein Saxony, about 2 miles short of Winburg.

With a couple of companies of the Composite Battalion, which had been formed of all the details attached to the Brigade, and some Yeomanry and two guns, I was detailed to look after the rear; and this small army of mine did not reach camp until half-past seven. We had a long rest, however, as we did not start the next day until the afternoon, at half-past one, when we proceeded on our way, skirting Winburg on the east and then marching in a straight line to Marais Farm, where we had once before camped, when with the Boer laager.

On the 17th of September, the Brigade moved off again, early in the morning, towards Doornberg, camping at Rooikraal, about 13 miles distant--very pleasant camp, with plenty of gra.s.s and good water, which we enjoyed after all the miles and miles of burnt up veldt we had trekked across since leaving Frankfort. The following morning we thought that the great closing in movement was actually taking place around the huge dark ma.s.s of flat topped mountain which we could see, lowering in the distance, on the other side of a smiling gra.s.sy valley, as we moved off at six o'clock, marching some 10 miles. We then halted under the lee of a razor-backed ridge, being careful not to show ourselves over the sky-line, and a few pickets and look-out men were posted. We could see, or thought we could see, an occasional mounted man on the hills opposite, but they must have been our own men; for we heard later that the Boers had escaped during the night out of the net which had been so carefully drawn round them, and had trekked off to the east.

It was said at the time that their escape was due to the laxity of a certain Brigade, operating from the east, who either did not move at all, or else moved too late, to shut in the Boers at the only loophole by which they could have cleared off. Finding a drift practically unguarded, or rather held by a ridiculously small force, without the support of the Brigade which it should have had, the Boers pushed through during the night successfully, and were miles away when dawn broke.

Disappointed, we camped at the spruit near by, and marched the following morning towards Senekal, camping about 11 miles from that town, on the same spot upon which we had camped on the 10th of August, when with the Boer laager. This was a disgusting camp, with remains of our dead animals strewn about, and water like pea soup, drawn from a succession of mud holes. During the march we had pa.s.sed a Krupp ammunition wagon which the Boers had abandoned; the wheels of it being the only part made of wood had been burned by our Mounted Infantry, who were following up on the enemy's tracks.

Senekal was reached the next morning, the 20th of September, just as General Rundle's Division, the Eighth, was leaving; we camped to the east of the town and remained there for two days, making a long trek, however, of 14 miles on the 23rd towards Lindley. Our bivouac the next day was at Kruisfontein, which we reached after a march of about 12 miles; this place was a couple of miles south of Wit Kop, a huge, isolated flat topped kopje rising out of the plain and dominating the surrounding country. Towards this kopje we marched the following day and camped at its foot, the two companies remaining there until the next day, when the Brigade moved at six o'clock into Lindley, camping to the north of the town about a mile out on the Heilbron road and beyond the drift.

For two days we remained at Lindley, but the morning of the 28th saw us on the road again, marching towards Heilbron, one half of our battalion being baggage guard to the usual gigantic convoy and the other half being rear guard.

About two o'clock the advanced guard and the main body halted and camped, the convoy and the baggage guard closed up and we all settled down: and then we heard that we were all to return to Lindley the following day, as General Hunter had received orders to garrison most of the towns in his district, which comprised the north eastern portion of the Orange River Colony, and that a beginning was to be made by leaving the 21st Brigade at Lindley.

So the next morning, the 29th of September, back we went to Lindley, arriving about 11.15 a.m. The rear guard had marched back during the night, escorting the baggage of Colonel Le Gallais' troops, and experiencing great trouble with their wagons, three of which we found derelict on the road; we succeeded in tinkering up two of them and bringing them along with us.

General Hunter and Colonel Le Gallais left the same afternoon, and our Brigade took up its quarters on the east of the town, and threw out pickets on the hills surrounding the hollow in which Lindley is situated. In the afternoon about four o'clock, when A company, then on picket to the south west, was about to be relieved by B and E companies, who were then on their way out; a good deal of firing was heard from that direction, and I was sent up by the General to see what was the matter and to deal with it. Two guns and a pom-pom went out also, and on reaching the hill it appeared that one of the sentries of A company had been shot dead by some Boers who had ridden up within a few hundred yards, fired at him, and then ridden off to take up a position behind a rocky kopje (about 2,200 yards from one picket and 1,500 from the other), from which they kept up an annoying fire. Our men had occupied some trenches and sangars which had been made by our predecessors, Paget's Brigade, I believe, some time previously, and which were all of inferior construction and badly situated. Two of our men were in consequence soon hit, but the remainder kept up a continuous rifle fire on the enemy, invisible behind their kopje.

The guns and the pom-pom soon came into action against this rocky hill, and after a few sh.e.l.ls the enemy's fire ceased.

The General had now come up, and the Boers, seeing a little group on the top of the hill, opened fire on us from a spur to our right front, which ran down to meet the rocky kopje alluded to above, and which apparently afforded the snipers a means of retreat secure from observation.

At 2,000 yards B company replied to this fire, and the Boers, moving further away, every now and then sent a few shots in our direction, which, however, failed to reach us, and struck the ground in front.

It was getting dusk, and the enemy were using black powder, so we were able to locate them, and kept them moving by our fire delivered at 2,500, and then at 3,000 yards, beyond which the Lee-Metford is not sighted.

And so this little incident closed, but unfortunately it had caused us three casualties.[11]

Some time afterwards we discovered the reason of this attack; it appeared that the Boers had seen the column of Colonel Le Gallais and General Hunter's escort moving away from the town that afternoon, and had jumped to the conclusion that nearly all the troops had left Lindley; so they came on boldly, as they did on the occasion of our first departure from the town in May--but to be disappointed this time.

The Brigade now settled down in Lindley, the pickets entrenched their posts, and everything was done according to c.o.c.ker. A large convoy of those wretched ox wagons, after storing in the town all the rations they had been carrying, went off to Kroonstad with an escort supplied by the Camerons and the Bedfords; the sick and wounded were sent away by this convoy, and all the mule wagons which could be spared, the whole being in charge of Captain Wroughton.

However, in a couple of days the escort returned, bringing with them a five-inch gun, under Captain Ma.s.sie, R.A., and we learned then that they had met General Hector Macdonald's Highland Brigade at Kaalfontein Bridge, about 20 miles out, and that he had taken on the convoy and sent the escort back with the cow gun and some mails for our Brigade.

A visit was also paid to Groonvlei, a farm about five miles to the north along the Heilbron road, with an escort, and several wagon loads of wood were brought in, there being none in the town.

Finding an empty house which was suitable for the purpose, a Soldiers'

Club was started, under the management of Mr. Leary, the active and energetic padre who will always be remembered in our battalion for the way he looked after our casualties at Retief's Nek. Things were made as comfortable as possible, and tea and such eatables as could be got (except biscuit, which was studiously avoided) were sold in the evenings. Open air concerts of a rough and ready kind were regularly held on three evenings a week, cricket, football and hockey matches, and games such as quoits were played as often as could be arranged with the few materials, at hand, and preparations made to lighten the tedium of what promised to be a long stay in Lindley.

FOOTNOTE:

[11]

KILLED.

Private G. Latter, A Company.

WOUNDED.

Lce.-Corp. A. White, A Company.

Private H. Beeney, A Company.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE RAILWAY NEEDS REPAIR.

Wit Kop--Half the battalion goes on tour---Kaffir Kop--Clearing the country--Necessity for it--Mobile columns required--Kaalfontein Bridge--Rearguard attacked at Doornkop--The line blown up--A repairing expedition.

Everything was quiet in Lindley for a few days, and then, on the 3rd of October, the General sent for me at half-past nine at night and told me that he had ordered two companies of ours, under me, to proceed at five o'clock the next morning to Wit Kop, where, apparently, some of our mounted troops were in difficulties, having been engaged with the Boers most of the day.