Frank Craig.] [From a sketch by G. D. Giles.
THE CROSSING OF THE RIET.
Showing the kopjes south of the river which the enemy tried, too late, to seize.
De Kiel's Drift secured.
[Feb. 12-13, 1900.
For the moment the Horse Artillery were ordered to silence the Boer gun—a task which it achieved with the greatest expedition. Then the general boldly determined to try a new kind of strategy, which was nothing more nor less than to walk his men round the Boers, and leave them disconsolately holding their kopje against no one, and reflecting sadly upon the fact that at last the "rooineks" could move as fast as or faster than themselves. But not wishing as yet to disclose his real intentions, he directed General Gordon with one brigade to go through all the elaborate ritual of an attack, shelling the kopjes and holding the enemy's attention. While this display was in progress, General French with his two other brigades, turned, leaving Waterval Drift on his left, and rode rapidly east, cutting loose from all his communications, towards De Kiel's Drift, five miles higher up the Riet. Here signs of the enemy's presence were again unmistakably felt, but the river was reached and forded just in the very nick of time. In fact, the Boers rode up only five minutes after the passage had been secured. On the south side were two high kopjes, which appeared as if they had been simply designed for Boer warfare, and which in the hands of the enemy might have caused no small amount of trouble and loss. These General French seized and occupied with dismounted men without a moment's delay. As word was passed back along the line that the river had been gained, the men pressed forward with inconceivable eagerness to the streak of green foliage which told at last there was water to drink, and that the object of the day's march had been won. The drift was a very difficult one, the road winding round between the kopjes and dropping sharply to the stream. Still higher up, Roberts' Horse crossed under fire, and in so doing lost four killed or wounded. The Boers, when they saw that De Kiel's Drift was lost and that the British cavalry were upon their line of communication, fled in the utmost confusion, yet managed to remove the two guns which they had with them. Could only the Horse Artillery have come rapidly into action after crossing the drift, they might have been severely punished. But the day had been suffocatingly hot, and the men and horses were so ungovernably eager to drink, that delay was inevitable. As the sun went down General French established his headquarters at a farm near the ford, whence he found that the inmates had fled in such haste that they had left behind them hot coffee, upon which the general and the staff rioted.
[Copyright 1900 by Underwood & Underwood.
The necessity for bringing up fodder for the horses from the immense stores accumulated at Orange River Camp occasioned some delay in the advance on Kimberley.
Sunset on the veldt.
Cronje's optimism.