Moving almost at the same time, was Maxwell’s (late Chermside’s) Brigade (Seventh Division), which marched eastward and seized the hills covering the waggon-bridge over the Modder River at Kranz Kraal—the bridge whose utility to the Boers has been described.
Meanwhile General Brabant with his Mounted Division and General Hart’s Brigade from Rouxville, had reached the vicinity of Bushman’s Kop, some fourteen miles from Wepener. The bulk of the Boer force had opposed themselves to this advance, and during this time the strain on Colonel Dalgety at Wepener had naturally been relaxed. By Monday, the 23rd, the Colonial Division, supported by Hart’s Brigade, had turned the Boer position, after having kept up a running fight all day. The casualties of the fight were twenty-five wounded. Some of these were removed to Basutoland, under arrangement with the resident Commissioner at Mafeteng. General Brabant was moving in a north-easterly direction, keeping Basutoland on his right flank, his operations being watched with amazing interest by the natives in this region. He was now some eight miles from Wepener and sixty from Bloemfontein, and in heliographic communication with Dalgety, a circumstance which caused the Boers round Wepener to grow uneasy as to their positions.
To return to General Pole-Carew. On the morning of Monday, the 23rd, the Boers, as we know, were found to have evacuated their main position at Leeuw Kop, and the Mounted Infantry took possession of the hill from which the enemy had been routed by the infantry. General French by then had moved on independently of his transport. Boers were known to be in the southern fringes of the Leeuw Kop position, but, without engaging them, General French pushed on, posting the 16th Lancers to keep an eye on his flank, till they should be relieved by the mounted troops which were following. Meanwhile, slowly in the rear, screened by the 4th Mounted Infantry, General Pole-Carew advanced his division and baggage train, and sent Roberts’s Horse to relieve the 16th Lancers on the hill they were holding. The relievers came in for nasty attentions from a Maxim, but in spite of this they behaved with great gallantry, made for the kopje on which the Boers were ensconced, and finally cleared the summit. But this was not accomplished without lamentable loss. Major Brazier Creagh, 9th Bengal Lancers, who but recently had succeeded to the command of the regiment, was mortally wounded. Presently, to the assistance of Roberts’s Horse came the 14th Hussars, squadrons of which regiment distributed themselves in hope of cutting off the enemy in retreat, but the Dutchmen, with all smartness, plied their guns till it was deemed best to retire, leaving the 2nd Coldstreams in the original position gained.
The Operations at Dewetsdorp. (A Sketch from the Right of the Boer Position, by Major A. Festing.)
The cavalry soon became engaged. The Boers were espied in a long, low kopje to the east and west of the Dewetsdorp Road, the wide, flat ridge of which General French meant to seize. The 9th Lancers advanced to secure it, but the Boers instantly raced for the most advantageous position, with the result that while the troopers planted themselves on one edge of the plateau the Boers did likewise on the other. An animated combat ensued, the Lancers fighting most pluckily. The Boers offered determined resistance, whereon a “pom-pom” was ordered to the rescue of the Lancers, who were losing heavily. This weapon disturbed the efforts of the Dutchmen to sweep onwards, and soon they were put to flight, the “pom-poms” of the British harrying them in their retreat. The cavalry engagement was a pretty affair but costly, the dashing Lancers, enfiladed with a cruel fire, losing one officer, Captain Denny, K.D.G.’s, three wounded, and thirty-two men killed and wounded. The wounded officers were Captain H. F. W. Stanley, 9th Lancers, Lieutenant V. R. Brooke, 9th Lancers, and Lieutenant the Hon. A. W. J. C. Skeffington, 17th Lancers.
| (Corporal) | (Officer) |