THE CAPE COLONY
On the 2nd of February the general disposition of troops in the Cape Colony stood thus: Those under Crabbe, from Beaufort West, and those under Capper and Lund, from Sutherland, converging towards Fraserburg, where a concentration of the enemy had taken place; those under Haig and under Kavanagh and Wyndham moving from Clanwilliam upon Calvinia; the intervening space watched by Doran, forty miles north-east of Clanwilliam, and by Callwell near Sutherland. Crewe’s Colonial troops occupied both the Elandsvlei and Sutherland.
On the 30th January Colonel Crabbe’s column (acting as a screen to a convoy of donkey waggons which, under its own escort, was some distance in the rear) was suddenly menaced by a swarm of Boers. Their attitude and their numbers warned the Colonel to take up a defensive position at Rietfontein (twenty-five miles east of Fraserburg). That done, he there fought tenaciously, determined to hold his own till Colonel Capper and Major Lund could arrive from Sutherland to his support. Foiled in their effort to overpower Crabbe’s men, the Boers promptly decided to assail the convoy. This, guarded by 60 District Mounted Rifles and 100 men of the 4th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, under Major Crofton, was halted on the night of the 4th some forty miles south-east of Fraserburg. The Boers in great strength rushed on the British prize. All through the night fighting was fierce and sustained, and in the end the Boers were triumphant. They secured and destroyed the waggons. Though Colonel Crabbe promptly rushed to the scene he was unable to act. The waggons were wrecked, and the assailants too strong to be handled by his column unaided. He awaited the troops under Colonel Capper and Major Lund, and with them proceeded to trounce and disperse the rebels, and hunt them north-east of Fraserburg. The losses during these engagements were considerable, Major Crofton, another officer, and 11 men being killed, and 1 officer and 47 men wounded. On the 5th of February there was a tussle at Calvinia between Theron’s men and Colonel Haig’s, when the Boers were driven north with the loss of two killed and two wounded. Considerable loss on our side was sustained on the 6th. Colonel Doran, with 100 men, then on the hunt for Gelhenhuis, a rebel leader, was assailed by the enemy during his return march to Calvinia. In the pitch darkness his little band had to fight a prolonged rearguard action to cover their withdrawal over the mountains. This conflict led to the loss of 3 officers and 7 men killed, 17 men being wounded.
The main body of rebels—some 600 of them—heartened by their capture of the convoy on the night of the 4th, assembled on the 16th thirty miles east-north-east of Fraserburg, with a view to earning fresh laurels. But their hopes were nipped in the bud. General French had his eye on them. The congregating evil must be arrested, and the columns under General Stephenson were disposed upon a general line from Nelspoort Station, by Beaufort West, to Rhenosterfontein (fifteen miles north-west of Beaufort West), Colonel Doran on the right, Colonel Capper and Major Nickalls in the centre, and Colonel Crabbe and Major Lund on the left. An advance to north-west towards Williston was begun on the 17th—but the Boers were shy. No sooner did they come in contact with our troops than they dispersed. Some were wounded and some captured on the 18th, among them being Judge Hugo, who subsequently died of his injuries; but the rest got off. Malan’s group doubled round Doran’s right flank and scuttled over the rail towards the midlands, another gang fled north-west, and one J. T. Smith, with a rebel crew, broke through the blockhouse line, with some loss, to the north and then to the north-east of Victoria West.
The pursuit of Malan to the east now occupied the column under Major Wormald and two squadrons of the 9th Lancers. This force had already chased the remnants of Kruitzinger’s band, under Wessels, out of the midlands well to the west. Colonel Haig, with Colonels Kavanagh and Williams, skirmished and hunted in the Calvinia and Van Rhynsdorp districts, and on the 13th Bouwer’s laager was rushed by Kavanagh’s braves, and eleven prisoners, with horses, rifles, and ammunition, &c., were secured.
In the midlands the enemy straggled about on the hills for the most part of the month. The rebels daily found an increasing difficulty in procuring food and necessaries from their quondam sympathisers, and their diminished popularity served somewhat to damp their activities; but early in March Fouché and Myburg made a dash across the East London Railway, whither they were chased to the south of Steynsburg by Colonels Price and Baillie.
Colonel Crewe
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CLOSE OF HOSTILITIES—MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY 1902