The mishaps of Sanna’s Post—the capture of the Yeomanry and other corps—were thought to have been occasioned by the absence of a general staff—a general staff trained by years of practice to the exigencies of life in the field. Such a staff of trained and picked officers was educated by Napoleon for his use under his personal supervision, while Lord Roberts, with a gigantic army of 200,000 men, had a merely improvised machine. He had certainly Lord Kitchener at his elbow, but this officer’s duties developed into those of the “handy-man”—now organiser, now fighter, now administrator in rebellious districts—thus depriving the Chief of the clockwork apparatus that should be represented by the General Staff, at a time when generals and troops, like engines and railway carriages, had to be timed to arrive and depart from stations on the hard-and-fast principles of Bradshaw.
At this date with Lord Roberts in Pretoria were two and a half infantry divisions, a cavalry division, and a mounted infantry division, Wavell’s Brigade having been left at Johannesburg, while the other half proceeded to the Capital.
General Hunter’s Division, joined by Colonel Mahon’s force, was operating at Ventersdorp, while Colonel Plumer without opposition occupied Zeerust, the officials agreeing to take the oath provided they were protected from their fellow-countrymen. Elsewhere, across the Orange River Colony, the troops were fairly well expanded. General Colvile with the Highland Brigade was near Heilbron, and south of him Lord Methuen, while at Lindley was General Paget. At Senekal and Hammonia were General Clements and General Rundle respectively. South of these again, Generals Chermside and Brabant were operating.
It was imagined that the combined vigilance of these officers had entirely protected the communications in the Orange River Colony, but on the 7th of June the unquenchable Dutchmen succeeded in cutting line and telegraph wire north of Kroonstad, and in taking prisoners most of the 4th Battalion of the Derbyshires (Sherwood Foresters), who were guarding the district. Of the battalion, the Colonel, a lieutenant, and thirty-four rank and file were killed, five officers and ninety-nine men were wounded, and the rest, save six, made prisoners!
The story ran thus: At dusk on the 4th, the Derbyshire Militia Regiment arrived at Roodeval and pitched their camp in the lee of a string of kopjes that shelved away to the west, and terminated in a high hump which, jutting out of the plain, commanded rail, camp, and the surrounding hills. Owing to the darkness it was impossible to do much in the way of reconnoitring, and though some scouts and natives warned the commanding officers that Boers had been espied in the vicinity, little notice was taken. The pickets, which had been posted on a range of kopjes north of the camp, were strengthened, and some few shots fired at distant snipers. Then the party laid themselves down to rest, and slept placidly. Before dawn they were awakened by the furious crackling of musketry, and even as the men turned out with their rifles, they dropped. One after another as they left their tents fell victims to the unseen foe. The fact was, the pickets had been attacked and driven in, and the enemy occupied the range which commanded the British troops. Presently the early morning was humming with shot and shell, the Boers now having brought four big guns and a pom-pom to bear on the unfortunate camp and the bald plain that surrounded it. Valiantly the militiamen, raw and unfledged warriors as they were, fought; long, bloody, and disastrous hours passed, and they, falling thick as autumn leaves, continued to hold out in a completely defenceless position till the plain was littered with dead and wounded—more than eighty of them now lying in a trap from which it was impossible to escape. Colonel Baird-Douglas,[1] wounded in four places, fought like a lion, encouraging his men, and vowing to shoot the first who should display a white flag. Then he dropped exhausted and breathed his last. Finally 420 prisoners were taken, including the following officers of the 4th Derbyshire Regiment:—
Captain J. Humber, Captain C. P. Piers, Captain A. M. W. Mohun-Harris, Captain E. M. Wilmot, Captain R. C. Fenwick, Captain and Adjutant R. Britten, Lieutenant P. C. Shepard, Second-Lieutenant A. C. Hewitt, Second-Lieutenant J. L. Heymann, Second-Lieutenant H. L. Napier, Second-Lieutenant H. M. Milward, Second-Lieutenant J. H. W. Becke, Second-Lieutenant J. H. Mathias, Second-Lieutenant H. S. Anderson, Second-Lieutenant E. N. T. Collin, Hon. Lieutenant and Quartermaster M. M’Guire. Among the killed were:—Lieutenant-Colonel Baird-Douglas and Lieutenant Horley. Among the wounded:—Colonel Wilkinson, Captain Bailey, Second-Lieutenants Hall and Lawder, Lieutenant Blanchard, Canadian Infantry (attached to 4th Derbyshire).
It was said that after the capture the commandants, on bringing the prisoners to the station, were seen cordially shaking hands with a railway official as though exchanging congratulations. This circumstance was one of many which bore witness to the innumerable acts of treachery and duplicity with which commanding officers had to contend.
| Colour-Sergeant. | Sergeant-Major. |
On the same day, in the same locality, there was another engagement, which resulted in the capture of a number of the Railway Pioneer Corps. According to an account in the Bloemfontein Post, the corps was awakened at 5.26 in the morning by an unusual stir among the sentries. A moment afterwards a voice was heard asking, “Can any one speak Dutch?” A man, evidently a burgher, approached Captain Grant McDonnel and Lieutenants Blanchard and Hayes with a note from the Boer commandant in the vicinity, stating that he had 1200 men and five guns with him, and adding that he would give the British force ten minutes in which to surrender. The bearer, after delivering the note, went back to a large body of Boers mounted on horses, who had by this time approached so close as to be plainly visible.