Owing to the absence of war correspondents with Colonel Plumer’s force this officer’s unceasing efforts to match the Boers and rescue Colonel Baden-Powell received none of the publicity they deserved. It has been possible only from private sources to gauge the terrible tension of the situation, and the truly noble activity that was maintained in the face of a most alarming outlook. Of the heroism of the commander little has been said, but from a few lines written by a trooper we may understand how his gallant conduct stimulated his men. He said: “It was a good fight, and our men behaved very well. Plumer was slightly wounded, but behaved splendidly. He sent his horse away and walked behind the dismounted men, encouraging them when they were retreating.”
Colonel Bodle and Captain Rolt (adjutant) were also slightly wounded.
Some splendid service was rendered by Sergeant-Major Manning (5th Dragoon Guards), on whom the whole work of staff officer afterwards devolved.
Another writer shows the trying circumstances in which Colonel Plumer’s campaign was conducted, circumstances which, when the historian of the future sets to work, cannot be disregarded:—
“On the 31st ult. we got as far as six miles from Mafeking, but had to retire after four hours’ heavy fighting, losing 48 killed, wounded, and missing. We have had a very rough time indeed, always fighting against much superior odds armed with splendid artillery, living on short rations, without tents or any other shelter, wet through with the rain, and scorched with the sun, and yet the people at home never give us a thought. We have been so hard up for tobacco that men have been smoking tea leaves. We have not had a thing from home, not even the Queen’s chocolate, and yet we have done as much in our small way as the troops down south. Of course, we have had no big battles, as we have not the men or guns, but we have had constant patrols and skirmishes, nearly always losing men killed or wounded, or both. We have also suffered very heavily with fever and dysentery, and all our hospitals are full.”
These lines in their bald simplicity are quoted because they, like the work they describe, were originated with no view to effect nor applause, and serve exactly to describe the modest deeds of perpetual valour which were perpetrated by our countrymen, and which by force of circumstance were left to waste their smartness “on the desert air.”
Lobatsi Railway Station