South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 6 (of 8) / From the Occupation of Pretoria to Mr. Kruger's Departure from South Africa, with a Summarised Account of the Guerilla War to March 1901

by Louis Creswicke

ORANGE RIVER COLONY

On 4th August Harrismith surrendered to General MacDonald, and simultaneously a squadron of the 5th Lancers from Besters and one of the 13th Hussars from Ladysmith arrived there, after having captured Van Reenen’s Pass and secured it for General MacDonald’s advance. The people of the town, mostly Scottish, were jubilant at the return of the “good old times.” They had expected to be relieved soon after the relief of Ladysmith, and had possessed their souls in patience through many weary weeks, made doubly weary by the fact that, the railway being broken and the wires cut, no news from friends was forthcoming, and supplies were not to be had.

THE DÉBÂCLE: ON THE TRACK OF A FLEEING COMMANDO
Drawing by H. C. Seppings Wright

A most interesting account of the arrival of the British troops was given by a smart Yeoman—a hoary veteran of twenty-two!—who had been present at engagements innumerable, and still cheerily endured all the varieties of hardship—cold, famine, and fatigue included—which had fallen to the share of the Yeomanry since the early days of June. This Yeoman, Sergeant H. T. Mackenzie (Yorks Imperial Yeomanry), was actually the first of the troops to enter the town, and thus he described his experiences: “We arrived in sight of the town at 9 A.M., and I was sent on with the advanced guard of twenty-five men under Major Coptam, and we had to make arrangements for the formal entry of the General. We posted sentries on the principal buildings, such as the Bank, Post-Office, &c. We had an awfully good time; the inhabitants crowded round us and insisted on shaking hands, and also brought us tea, cake, and bread and butter, which was much more to the point. I was treated to three lunches and half-a-dozen teas. There are three fine hotels, and I had excellent lunches!” The young trooper’s relish of these treats may be imagined when we remember that all the gallant fellows had been roughing it since the 1st of June, spending every day under fire, and living on three-quarter rations most of the time. Mr. Mackenzie went on to say: “By about ten o’clock the people had all put on their best clothes, and had raised several flags. Soon after, the procession entered, headed, of course, by the Highland Brigade. The General stopped at the Court-house and hoisted the Union Jack, while the band played ‘God Save the Queen,’ and we presented arms and tried to look imposing. This is rather difficult when you have not washed for a week and your uniform is in rags. However, the inhabitants seemed satisfied. The General then took up his stand under the flag, and we all marched by. We went through the principal street of the town, and then marched into camp, about three miles the other side of the town. I was left behind with the guard, and had a very good time.... The ladies brought us out afternoon tea on the verandah of the Bank, where we had a guard stationed.” The hoisting of the flag did not take place without a somewhat exciting scene, which was described in the letter before quoted. “The Llandrost, or Chief Magistrate, refused to take off his hat while ‘God Save the Queen’ was being played, so one of the doctors in Harrismith gently knocked it off. The Llandrost’s son then hit the doctor in the mouth, whereupon the doctor, being a Scotsman, promptly stretched him out. We then interfered, and MacDonald made them shake hands all round.”

Harrismith.
(Photo by Mr. Kemp.)

To insure the safety of General MacDonald’s advance, a simultaneous move, as we know, had been taken from the Ladysmith direction. The 13th Hussars received sudden orders to start minus baggage or tents and meet the 5th Lancers at the foot of the Drakensberg and secure Van Reenen’s Pass. They reached their destination in the drear dead of midnight. Shivering in every limb, and rolled only in the fur rugs from their saddles, the small band awaited the daylight; then a few men being left to guard the Pass they pressed on hot-foot to Harrismith, which was reached at 5 P.M., just twenty-four hours after leaving Ladysmith—a distance of fifty-four miles. Thanksgiving services were held on the 5th at both church and town-hall in honour of the arrival of the British troops, and the general joy in spite of the cold (Harrismith, about 5000 feet above the sea level, was in a state of mid-winter) was inspiriting to the least patriotic heart.

In other places the surrendering of Boers continued, as many as 130 having come into Bethlehem during the 8th and 9th of August. On the 15th, General Hunter in his northward march encountered the enemy south of Heilbron, where the Boers with six guns were strongly posted at Spitz Kop. (This must not be confounded with the kop of the same name captured by General Buller.) After some ferocious fighting the position was turned, but not before three men of the Highland Light Infantry were killed, and thirty-three were wounded. The wounded officers were: Lieutenant-Colonel Kelham, Highland Light Infantry; Second Lieutenant L. H. Gibson, Highland Light Infantry (since dead).

On the 24th, Colonel Ridley with 250 mounted men and twenty-five infantry of the Imperial Yeomanry, while reconnoitring found himself confronted by a huge force of the enemy. He took up a position in a farm, and there defied 1000 Boers with two guns. The situation was critical, but General Bruce Hamilton’s Brigade was despatched to the rescue, and arrived and dispersed the raiders. Colonel White, R.A., had also been despatched by General Kelly-Kenny, and had flung his small column into the fray, losing five men missing, one killed, while Lieutenant Jones (Yeomanry) was slightly wounded. The Boers proceeded to attack Winburg on the 26th, and General Bruce Hamilton had the satisfaction of beating them off minus their presiding genius, Olivier (who, it will be remembered, had refused to surrender with Prinsloo), and his three sons, all of whom were captured. Commandants Haasbrook, Roux, and Fourie, were the only prominent Boers now flitting about the Orange Colony, and one of these caused the wire between Winburg and Ladybrand to be cut, and made signs of attacking the latter place. This was on the 29th.

For some time, as we know, Ladybrand had been a centre of attraction for the enemy. It is situated in the heart of their grain country, and now, they, being what is vulgarly known as out at elbows, naturally made plans to capture the place. It is some seventy-two miles due east of Bloemfontein, near to Thabanchu, and within a cart drive of Maseru, and in the shadow of the purple mountains of Basutoland.

On Sunday the 2nd of September, Commandant Fourie, with some 3000 Boers, nine guns, and a pom-pom, invited Major White, Royal Marine Light Infantry, and his gallant band of 150 men to surrender. A refusal caused the hostile artillery to open fire, while the enemy approached on both flanks, surrounding the garrison. The Boers on one side had made for Lilleyhoek, those on the other for Vandermuelen’s Farm, adjoining the town, which they viciously bombarded. The British force, consisting of one company of the Worcester Regiment, with Lieutenant Moss and Second Lieutenant Dorman, and forty-three rank and file of the Wiltshire Yeomanry with Lieutenants Awdry and Henderson, was entrenched on the mountain, and in the caves below it opposite the town, but within rifle range of it. They had a good supply of food, plenty of water, and had fortified several houses in the town, and therefore had a firm conviction that they could and would hold out till reinforcements should arrive from Thabanchu.

On the following day the Boers, their numbers swelled by others on parole, drew closer, and during the whole day a duelling with small arms was maintained. Meanwhile the foe placed a big gun at a point in the church square, and from thence attacked the garrison. They also fired from windows, walls, and every available shelter; but fortunately both Dutch and English inhabitants had sought refuge in Maseru. The garrison meanwhile held on doggedly, and repulsed the Boers in two attempts to charge.

These, it was imagined, “put their backs into it,” because, disgusted at the loss of their Commandant, Olivier, they proposed to secure supplies—clothing, groceries, and stock—before returning to their farms to recuperate. Any way, they worked with a will, determining to make hay while the sun shone, for report said that Bruce Hamilton with a relief column was marching in ten-league boots to the rescue. (The infantry covered eighty miles in four days and a half!)

Early the next morning the foe plied guns and small arms, and the noble little garrison, puny in size but large in spirit, replied with intense vigour and activity. Finally the big gun of the opposition stopped, whether from lack of ammunition or other causes, none knew. The fighting continued, however, and was viewed with interest, yet not without anxiety, by Sir Godfrey Lagden and the Basuto Chief, Lerothodi, from a point of vantage on an opposite mountain. Efforts were made to obtain news by heliograph, but these were unsuccessful, and the tug-of-war dragged on. But soon there were evidences that the Boers lay in fear of the arrival of the relief column, and were becoming concerned whence would come the attack. This concern increased, and by nightfall of the 4th, after looting stores and appropriating horses in the town, the Boers retreated in the direction of Clocolan with the loss of twenty-four killed and thirty-five wounded. The British casualties were few. Lieutenant Dorman, Worcester Regiment, was slightly wounded, but the injuries of Sergeant-Major Clifford, Wiltshire Yeomanry, were severe. All the officers behaved heroically, and the gallantry of Lieutenant Moss was especially remarkable.

The routed Boers soon betook themselves to the railway line in the region of Brandfort. As it was evident some mischief was brewing, General Kelly-Kenny communicated with General MacDonald, who brought the Highland Brigade from Winburg, whither he had gone to co-operate with General Hunter’s scheme for enclosing the raiders. On the 13th the gallant Scot, assisted by Lovat’s dashing Scouts, caught the enemy, drove them across the Vet River, and pursued them north of the Winburg-Smaaldeel Railway, the scattered rabble fleeing before the braw men of the north in such haste and panic that their track was marked with the trail of their effects. A magnificent “bag” was the Highland Brigade’s reward: 7 prisoners, 31 waggons, 270 trek-oxen, 6 cases of dynamite, gun and rifle ammunition, groceries, blankets, clothing, besides useful odds and ends of all kinds. The British casualties were nil.

On the 14th and 15th two notable lieutenants, in different parts of the Orange Colony, decided to maintain the high traditions of the British Army. The first, Lieutenant Power, 8th Company Derbyshire Yeomanry, and his patrol, was attacked some six miles out of Bethlehem. Field-Cornet Froeman, in command of the Boers, sent a letter calling on the young officer to surrender, and threatening, if he refused, to attack him in a quarter of an hour, adding that he would guarantee no quarter, no lives would be spared. The note was promptly returned by the bearer with two words scrawled on the back, “No surrender.” Fortunately in the nick of time reinforcements appeared, and Froeman vanished. In the second case, at Bulfontein in the west, the garrison, consisting of sixteen Police and Yeomanry under Lieutenant Slater, Imperial Yeomanry, was attacked by a hundred Boers. Undaunted by the superior number of the foe, the doughty sixteen held out until the following day, when relief arrived. The warlike proceedings at this date were degenerating into acts of brigandage, raids, and marauding excursions, and these continued through October and on.