[From an instantaneous photograph by the Biograph Co.
[Jan. 11, 1900.
All the 10th and 11th the troops were on the march, streaming westwards in an unending column. On the 11th the cavalry under Lord Dundonald pushed forward, in advance of the army, to seize Springfield bridge—a long, wooden structure which spans the Little Tugela, and which, according to spies' accounts, had been left standing by the Boers. The country through which the troopers rode was pleasant upland, recalling to many the Yorkshire moors or the fells of Cumberland, only that far away, to north and west, rose in a fantastic wonderland of rugged heights the summits of the Drakensberg. Valleys with verdant herbage ran up into the mountains and were lost in the browns and purples of the savage rocks. It was a scene of beauty in the soft glow of the afternoon sun, with the white mists of night already rising from the valley bottoms—a delectable country, but void and untenanted by man. The sparse farms were empty; the war had driven away their owners—some to the British Army to avoid being commandeered and insulted by the invader, others to the Boer forces in guilty alarm at the approach of the "rooineks." And, strangest of all, there was no trace of the enemy. His scouts and pickets were nowhere seen; as the troopers moved cautiously and inquiringly over the broken terrain, no volleys flashed out from the folds of the spruits. Would it be so when Springfield bridge was reached, or must a battle be fought before the British could win possession of the Little Tugela?
[Photo by Middlebrook.
Up which guns and ammunition had to be dragged by hand labour. Zwart Kop looks down on Potgieter's Drift from the east, as Spearman's Hill does from the south-west.
Dundonald seizes Potgieter's Drift.
At length the bridge came into sight. It was uninjured, and there was still no enemy. More than this, word came from the patrols in advance—Murray's Natal Mounted Scouts—that they had scoured the country beyond, up to Potgieter's Ford and the Big Tugela, and found it also empty. The bridge was crossed, and now it entered Lord Dundonald's head, in spite of his orders, which required him only to "seize Springfield Bridge," to push on yet further, and endeavour to secure Potgieter's. The danger was that this ostentatious abandonment of the district by the Boers might mean some devilish trick—some ambush of the kind to which our army had now grown accustomed in South Africa. In that event no support would be at hand, for the infantry and artillery of the Fifth Division would be nine miles behind at Springfield. Yet, weighing the chances, Lord Dundonald dashingly determined to take the risk. He detached 300 men with two guns to hold the bridge; with the South African Light Horse—a splendid body of men—a company of mounted infantry, and four guns of the 78th Field Battery, he struck out resolutely for Potgieter's Drift, and the great hill known as Spearman's Hill, which commands it. At 6 p.m. the goal was reached. There was still no enemy; only half-a-dozen Boers could be seen, and these, wonderful to relate, were washing themselves in the river, and scuttled off like terrified insects when the cavalry came into view. The 700 British troopers started to climb the hill, dragging with them the guns, with inconceivable toil, and as night fell reached the summit. It was found to be fortified with trenches, laboriously excavated, and stone walls or schantzes, raised by the enemy—evidence at once of Boer activity and insight. Messages were forthwith sent back to Pretorius' Farm to apprise General Buller of the success achieved and to ask of him immediate support. For if the Boers should attack—and even with the Tugela in flood they might know of drifts or have bridges ready—Spearman's Hill could scarcely be held by this handful of men. The night was an anxious one, but it passed without incident. With day the real danger vanished, and all eyes could drink in the wonderful panorama that lay below.
