Prompt action was necessary to deal with the rising. As quickly as possible a strong laager was formed at Bulawayo, the chief town, and a corps of mounted men enlisted. The nucleus of this force was a little company of twenty-three Rhodesians, got together by Captain Grey and known throughout the war as Grey’s Scouts. The rest of the body comprised troopers from the Africander Corps and various Rhodesia Horse Volunteers.
Fine fellows were these; hard as nails, and the best riders and best shots in the colony. For three months, until the arrival of imperial troops, they harried the Matabele without mercy, holding their own against tremendous odds. In this campaign the fighting was very different from that experienced in the former war. The natives had learned the futility of attacking fortified places, and the engagements were fought out in the bush.
Many a tale is told of gallant rescues of isolated settlers who were in danger of being annihilated at this time, and many an instance is recorded of splendid devotion shown to each other by the Colonials. “Never desert your comrade,” was the motto of the troopers, and faithfully did they live up to it. Witness the story of Trooper Henderson.
Hearing that a party of whites at Inyati, about forty miles from Bulawayo, were in peril, Captain Pittendrigh rode out with a few men to the rescue, but on their way they learned that their errand was vain; the party had been massacred. A body of Matabele having been encountered during the journey, and news coming of a large impi being in front, the little force halted at a store by the Impembisi River near the Shiloh hills. Here they fortified themselves against attack while two daring despatch riders hastened back to Bulawayo for reinforcements.
The much-needed help came. Early the next morning thirty men of the Bulawayo Field Force galloped up. They had to report passing through a number of Matabele at Queen’s Reef, in the vicinity, and further that two members of their party were missing, Troopers Celliers and Henderson. The mystery of their disappearance was not cleared up until three days later, when both men came into Bulawayo, Celliers wounded, on horseback, and Henderson, much travel-stained, on foot.
Celliers told the story of their adventures. In the affray with the Matabele at Queen’s Reef his horse had been shot in five places and he himself badly wounded in the knee. Becoming separated from their comrades in the darkness, the two men had hidden in the bush. Then, Celliers’ horse having dropped dead and his wound making it impossible for them to think of following the others, Henderson placed his comrade on his horse and set off with him for Bulawayo.
Their way led through a difficult piece of country which was known to be overrun with Matabele, and Henderson had to exercise the greatest caution in proceeding. Long detours had to be made; now and then, as natives were sighted, they had to conceal themselves among the hills. But though some parties of Matabele warriors passed unpleasantly close, the two men escaped discovery. For three whole days they wandered thus, without food, save a few sour plums, Celliers’ wound all the time causing him great agony; and never was sight more welcome than when the white buildings of Bulawayo greeted their eyes.
That plucky rescue brought a well-deserved Victoria Cross to Trooper Herbert J. Henderson, making him the eighth Colonial to receive the decoration. Celliers, it is sad to record, died from the effects of the amputation of his injured leg.
This affair of the Shiloh patrol occurred in March. In April there was a brisk action fought on the Umguza River by Bisset’s Patrol, among whom were twenty of Grey’s Scouts. Mr. F. C. Selous, who accompanied this force and had a narrow escape of being killed by the Matabele, tells the story of how Trooper Frank Baxter, of the Scouts, here won the V.C., though he lost his life in doing so.
The enemy had been driven from their position with considerable loss, and the troops were retiring from the Umguza, when a party of Matabele warriors who had been lying in ambush to the left of the line of retreat suddenly opened a brisk fire upon them. The foremost of the Scouts galloped past, while Captain Grey and a few of those in the rear halted to return the fire. Trooper Wise was the first to be hit, a bullet striking him in the back as he was in the act of mounting. His horse then stumbled, and breaking away galloped back to town, leaving Wise on the ground.