TRANSVAAL, E.—LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR BINDON BLOOD
General Viljoen’s commando being still to the fore, north of the Delagoa line, the operations of July were mainly directed against him. General Blood, taking command of General Babington’s column, and followed by General W. Kitchener, moved on the 10th of July from Springs to Middelburg. Here, later, he was joined by Colonel Campbell, who had been engaged in conducting a reconnaissance north of the line from Elands River Station towards Wagen Drift. Though the utmost energy and activity prevailed on all sides, the results were disappointing. Owing to the vast expanse of country and the Boers’ intimate acquaintance with all its nooks and crannies, they were able to play the game of hide-and-seek with impunity, taking care never to be caught in the open, and to avoid every chance of a collision.
Colonel Benson in his operations, however, had better luck. Moving from Dullstroom on the 9th of July, with Colonel Park on his right, he soon managed to discover the whereabouts of Viljoen’s commando. Promptly the Dutchman was routed from his position at Middelkraal by the 2nd Scottish Horse, a glorious set of “irregulars,” many of them hailing from Australia, who were first and foremost in every “ticklish” exploit. Indeed there was no end of their pluck; and on this occasion a mere handful of them, under their smart leaders Major Murray and Captain Lindley, contrived to keep at bay the hostile herd till the arrival of supports. Having dispersed the guerillas, Colonel Benson dealt in an equally effective manner with Muller’s men on the west, a party of raiders who were now driven north from the neighbourhood of Witpoort. Reports presently said that Viljoen was still lingering somewhere in the west, consequently the 18th Mounted Infantry pushed off in pursuit, and succeeded in catching and capturing the tail of his convoy and some fifteen waggons. While the Colonel moved his main body—on the 11th—in the direction of Paardekloop, the 2nd Scottish Horse circled around towards the Tautesberg, unearthing and capturing prisoners and horses by the way and discovering vehicles hidden in the kloofs, which Viljoen had evidently deposited there for a “rainy day.” This notable leader was discovered on the 15th of July at Laatstedrift, on the right bank of the Olifant River, whither Colonel Benson had moved after the arrival of a convoy brought by General Spens from the railway to Brinkwater. An inspiriting feature of this discovery was the wonderful tenacity of Lieutenant Kelly of the Scottish Horse, who, though wounded in the stomach at the onset, had no sooner located the enemy than he crawled under heavy fire to inform the officer commanding! A smart engagement followed—an engagement creditable to both sides—and after some close fighting both the enemy’s flanks were turned, and they were sent scuttling across the river into the thick bush country on the west. In the course of these varied operations 20 Boers were captured and 17 killed or wounded; 110 horses, 64 waggons, and a large quantity of ammunition were secured. More prisoners had also been seized by General Spens in the course of his move with the convoy to Brinkwater and back to Middelburg, where he arrived on the 20th. Soon after this date he proceeded to take command of another column.
General Beatson meanwhile, on the night of the 7th of July, had done some highly effective work. His surprise visit to the laager of Commandant Trichard, which was located some twenty-five miles north of Middelburg, resulted in the breaking up of the marauding gang and the dispersal of them into the rugged country round Olifant River. The commandant himself merely escaped by “the skin of his teeth.” Further pursuit being useless, the General returned to Middelburg and assisted in the hunt for Viljoen, who was not to be caught, however, for he had warily doubled back to his friendly kopjes on the right bank of the Olifant. Returning to Bronkerspruit Station along the Wilge River General Beatson, while searching in all the adjacent kloofs, came on twenty-five waggons containing ammunition and clothing. As the duties of most clearing columns were very much alike, some quotations from an officer’s letter may serve to show the nature of the work and of the country to be cleared of Boers and supplies:—
“The usual proceeding is as follows: On the first day we occupy the high ridges on each side of one of the huge valleys, or kloofs, as they are called. This the Boers, with the exception of a few ‘snipers,’ who wound or kill one or two of our advanced scouts, do not attempt to oppose. Then begins the difficulty. From each side the ground slopes down very steeply—in many places it means recourse to hands and knees—for about a mile; then comes a sheer precipice about 100 feet deep, and at the bottom a valley about 100 to 500 yards broad, with a stream in the middle and very thickly wooded. On each side of the main valley the cliffs are broken by smaller kloofs running up them, and they contain any number of caves and huge boulders. On the whole, one of these valleys makes about as difficult a bit of country to clear as any you could imagine. The Boers lie hidden among the rocks and in caves, and ‘snipe’ from them heavily at any man attempting to climb down the precipitous sides. We generally spend a day or two in shelling and advancing as far as the edges of the precipices, and then on the night before we send our infantry down into the valley most of the Boers escape. They dispute every inch of the way until they see that the position is untenable for them. Then off they go.”
The writer of the letter mentioned a particular instance of this kind of work, in which the Boer women hung white flags all over their laager, and some Boers took advantage of the fact that the British gunners duly respected the flags to hide among the rocks round the laager, and to “snipe” the troops as they advanced. He continued:—
“We slept out at night; it was fearfully cold; we had no blankets, and only half rations. We were ordered on the next morning to get the guns down a long spur jutting out into the valley. This appeared to be impossible, as the ground was fearfully steep and stony, and there was no road. However, with the aid of 50 Highlanders and a lot of rope, we managed to get down after two hours’ hard work. The position was a beautiful one, being only 1700 yards from the place occupied by the Boers on the previous day. We would probably have had some casualties from rifle fire, being on exposed ground, but the Boers appeared to have left during the night. Our infantry entered the kloof from both sides, and spent two days in collecting cattle and in blowing up 50,000 rounds of Boer rifle ammunition. The Boer families were brought in, and made more comfortable than they had ever been before. The Boers all say that they do not mind deserting their wives, as they know that we look after them, and make them more comfortable at Middelburg than they were when living on the veldt.”
In the course of General Beatson’s operations on the 11th of July he had the misfortune to lose his intelligence officer, Lieutenant Anderson, R.E., a brilliant and zealous soldier, who was shot while galloping ahead with an advance party of Victorians and Mounted Infantry in hot chase after a gang of Boers.
BOERS CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF CUTTING THE TELEGRAPH WIRES
Drawing by Wal Paget
With troops refitted, General Kitchener and Colonel Campbell now sped north from Middelburg, bent on getting in touch with the quarry. General Kitchener was successful. At Blaauwbank, on the 29th, a brisk engagement—a brilliant chase by the 19th Hussars, followed by the 18th in support, and a rush with fixed bayonets—resulted in the recapture of the two pom-poms taken from the Victorians on the 11th of June, and the seizure of 32 prisoners and 20 waggons of Viljoen’s commando. The commandant himself made haste to withdraw to north and north-west of the Olifant.
On this day (29th) General Sir Bindon Blood, with Colonel Benson’s column, moved from Wonderfontein to Carolina. The march was not without incident, for by night, at Mooitley, the troops of Colonel Benson made a smart swoop upon a Boer laager, and possessed themselves of 17 prisoners, 50 horses, and 10 waggons. A few days later another descent on the marauders in the same neighbourhood swelled the list of captures by 29 prisoners (five of whom were Botha’s despatch riders), 70 horses, and 5 carts.
August opened with more surprises, skirmishes, and surrenders in other directions. At Diepkloof, on the Kruis River, General Kitchener, on the 3rd, dispersed a small commando, leaving two dead Boers on the field, and taking 13 prisoners. Colonel Park, between Lydenburg and Dullstroom, had also some exciting tussles, after which he proceeded to scour the country between Roos Senekal and the Tautesberg.