TRANSVAAL (EAST)
General Bruce-Hamilton at the end of October assumed the direction of operations in the Eastern Transvaal, and the columns under his command were those of Colonels Allenby and Campbell at Standerton, of Colonel Barter at Leeukop (forty-six miles west of Bethel), of Colonel Mackenzie (late Benson’s) at Brugspruit. Colonels Williams and the Hon. C. G. Fortescue were moving west of Middelburg. Under the auspices of these troops and of those of General Spens, the Standerton-Ermelo line of blockhouses was constructed, and the constabulary posts to the line Brugspruit Station, Waterful Station, were established. At the conclusion of these useful operations General Bruce-Hamilton, having forced the enemy in a corner as it were and prepared for the further advance of his columns to the east, made Bethel his headquarters.
A concentration was afterwards arranged for the purpose of hemming the guerillas against the Eastern Transvaal Frontier, and consequently some of these struggled to break through the sweeping columns and the constabulary posts, while others, in knots, returned and pervaded the Delagoa Railway. They had of course to be dealt with, and Colonel Wools-Sampson, whose services had been invaluable to the lamented Colonel Benson, again applied himself to the locating of the offensive intruders. His information was brief and to the point. General B. Hamilton, with portions of General Spens’ and Colonel Sir H. Rawlinson’s columns, surprised the marauders at dawn on the 4th of December at Oshoek, twenty miles south-west of Ermelo. Owing to the dash and enterprise with which the 8th Battalion Mounted Infantry closed with the enemy and prevented their escape, the captures amounted to 93 prisoners, 116 horses, 26 waggons, 29 Cape carts, besides ammunition and telegraph and signalling apparatus.
While this exciting affair was going forward between Ermelo and Carolina, Colonel Williams was chasing some Boer banditti under Viljoen, Prinsloo, and Erasmus, who were fleeing westwards in the direction of Knapdaar. The pursuit was carried to Welte-Vreden, where the enemy (in a strong position and numbering some 500) commanded the passages over the Olifants River. Colonel Williams’ small force was unequal to a decisive engagement, therefore he drew off, having killed 5 and taken 12 Boers, 8 waggons, and 3500 rounds of ammunition in the course of his westerly pursuit. On the 7th, Colonel Rawlinson made a grand night march from Ermelo (General B. Hamilton’s headquarters), and took 8 prisoners, while at the same time Colonel C. Mackenzie, moving from Carolina to Waterval, vigorously chased the enemy towards the Komati Valley, capturing 16, together with their horses, mules, and cattle.
While Botha’s bands were kept in hourly dread of being driven east against the Swazi border, or west between the troops and constabulary posts, where they would have been more than ever isolated and doomed to destruction, Colonel Urmston, with a small column, played the Cerberus, watching the line of constabulary posts in case of attack by such desperate Boers as might have become wedged between the posts and the columns, and keeping General B. Hamilton well informed as to their whereabouts.
Viljoen, hovering between Pilgrims’ Rest and Dullstroom, engaged the attentions of Colonel Park, while on the northern line Colonels Dawkins and Colenbrander hunted and hustled the enemy. By the 13th of November Dawkins had secured 124 prisoners, and by the 19th (when he had returned to Warmbaths by the Mafeking-Rhodesia route) Colenbrander had captured 54 prisoners of Beyer’s commando, including Field-Cornets Ross and Louw and Adjutant Pretorius, with their horses, waggons, and stock.
Colonel Colenbrander then devoted himself to the chase of Badenhorst’s commando, a spirited and an exhausting affair which lasted some days, during which Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts pushed perseveringly, through an almost waterless and decidedly uninviting region, on the tracks of the enemy. Eventually the column, almost spent with their prodigious activities, came suddenly on the quarry, and the 3rd of December found them in possession of all the waggons of the commando, and fifteen prisoners. Badenhorst and sixty followers tore into the jungle fringing the Poer Zyn Loop River, and thus escaped; but not for long. A large quantity of stragglers were driven up into the hills, and there seized by the 12th Mounted Infantry of Colonel Dawkins’ column, who displayed considerable prowess in the achievement. The total results of these “well-planned and carefully-executed operations were 104 prisoners, 50 horses, 50 mules, 500 cattle, 6 waggons, 6000 rounds of small arm ammunition, and the serious discomfiture of the enemy in a district in which he had long considered himself immune.”