At the request of Sir Redvers Buller, on the 2nd of June, Christian Botha, brother of Commandant Louis Botha, accompanied by Fourie and Pretorius, met him near Majuba for the purpose of holding a conference regarding terms of surrender of Laing’s Nek. A proposition was made, of course involving unconditional surrender, and hostilities were suspended for three days in order that it might be digested by the Dutchmen. It was found unpalatable and rejected. Whereupon the belligerents resumed their warlike attitude. The interval had been utilised by the Boers, who had entrenched themselves for about ten miles from Pogwani east of the Buffalo, to the fringes of Majuba, and further westward still. The natural barriers of Natal—the historic barriers that had made the “grave of reputations”—were now terraced with trenches, and nodulous with gun-pits. Another Gibraltar, frowning with menace, was prepared to accommodate 5000 desperate Boers. But they had not calculated that a way round might be found, and that they in their fastnesses might be “turned” before they could utilise that cleverly arranged system of self-defence. Yet the unforeseen occurred, and we shall see.
The Last Battle of Majuba Hill—the Battle of Almond’s Nek.
(From a Sketch by Lieut. E. B. Knox, R.A.M.C.)
On the 6th of June Sir Redvers Buller began his new move. General Talbot Coke and the 10th Brigade and South African Light Horse, after some brisk skirmishing with the enemy, seized Van Wyk’s Hill, whereupon, during that day, and the following day, the 7th, two 4.7-in. guns and two 12-pounder naval guns were mounted on the eminence, while two 5-in. guns were perched on the south-western spur of Inkwelo. General Hildyard, who during the armistice had moved across from Utrecht to Ingogo, concentrated his Division for advance over Botha’s Pass, while General Clery kept an eye on Laing’s Nek, and beyond him General Lyttelton, co-operating, brushed the enemy away from the right flank, and kept clear the country between Utrecht and Wakkerstroom. Thus was prepared the way for General Hildyard’s brilliantly planned and admirably executed assault of the spur of the Berg between Botha’s Pass and Inkwelo, which took place on the 8th, with the result that the enemy, some 2000 strong, were outflanked and routed from their mountain strongholds, and the pass was captured without serious loss.
The 9th was spent in a general halt on the summit of the pass, getting the transport through the Drakensberg, hauling baggage up the steeps, and skirmishing with Boers who hovered on the outskirts of the hills. The labour entailed was prodigious, as the roads to the pass were intensely precipitous, the hill being over a mile long, and many of the transport waggons had to be double-spanned before they could make appreciable advance. The troops, too, were sorely tried, for at night they shivered in the crisp, frosty atmosphere, which appeared additionally numbing after the warm sunlight of midday. Still, with unquenchable zeal, they pursued their labours, climbing and clambering over boulder and slab, and looking down on the chasms below with genuine satisfaction at the thought of obstacles surmounted and decisive work to be accomplished. They had now secured a commanding position, which in a very short space of time they hoped to make unchallengeable.
On the 10th General Buller’s force, marching over the wide veldt, reached the junction of Gans Vlei, some ten miles north, while General Hildyard’s crossed the pass and concentrated on Klip River, situated some fifteen miles due west of Laing’s Nek, and in face of some rugged country on the way to Volksrust. The Dutchmen were there congregating, and preparing in the Almond’s Nek region to intercept the passage. The South African Light Horse, before the arrival of the main column, had captured a useful kopje, and they, and some squadrons of the Irregulars, made a dashing attack on the mass of Dutchmen who were barring the main road. A most animated engagement was fought, which cost the South African Light Horse six killed and eight wounded. The enemy after the encounter slowly retired, harassed by the 2nd Cavalry Brigade. The main column, frost-bitten and weary, bivouacked in the shadow of the captured kopje, the 11th Brigade immediately below, and further down, the 10th Brigade, while still lower down came the 2nd Brigade, commanded now by General Hamilton in place of General Hildyard, who, as we know, was raised to divisional rank.
On the 11th the advance was continued in the direction of Volksrust, and General Hildyard (Fifth Division) made a brilliant frontal attack against the Boers, who were now holding a formidable position with several guns at the east of Almond’s Nek, which place stands about seven miles north of Gans Vlei. After the artillery had been pounding a dangerous hoop of ridges for a considerable time, filling the whole atmosphere with reverberating roars, the 10th Brigade, the Dorsets in the firing line, the Middlesex in support, advanced on the right of the ridge beyond which were the Mounted Infantry, while the 2nd Brigade, the East Surreys and Queen’s leading, treading the open, made a bold dash for the foe. These, concealed among the steep boulders, proceeded to pour a thunderous and fiery welcome on all who approached. The stertorous rampage continued for hours. But, fortunately, in their fastnesses our big guns—two 4.7-in. monsters and six little “handy” 12-pounders—eventually searched them out, and subsequently a gallant charge—one of the most brilliant in the campaign—the charge of the Dorsets who, in a blizzard of lead, swarmed upon the position with fixed bayonets, decided the fortunes of the day. The superb manner in which those seasoned warriors launched themselves at miles and miles of entrenched positions—a veritable phalanx of church steeples—was beyond praise. Their great assault cost the valiant regiment ten killed and forty wounded. Some Boer prisoners were taken, and five or six Dutchmen bit the dust. But most of them had bolted before the gleam of the bayonets, and in their flight had set fire to the grass so as to render pursuit impossible. Simultaneously with the charge of the Dorsets, the 2nd Brigade was doing identical work, and doing it splendidly. They succeeded in capturing the whole of the position, in clearing the enemy entirely off the scene, and in rendering the formidable galleries of doom, the rows of trenches on Laing’s Nek, “full of emptiness.” The Irregulars under Colonel Gough, brave as ever and cool as cucumbers, had been also vigorously engaged on the right, so vigorously, so dauntlessly that two officers, Captain Mann (Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry), and Captain O’Brien (Composite Regiment) were mortally wounded. But, losses apart, the day’s work was in every way effective, as the Boers by evacuating Laing’s Nek left open the Volksrust Road, and virtually ceased from defacing British soil.
Thus in two marches Sir Redvers Buller had succeeded in effectively sweeping Northern Natal, a feat of which his army was very justly proud. There was no doubt that the Chief had now made himself master both of the tactics of the enemy and the peculiarities of the country over which he had to travel. He had bought his experience in a hard school, but in this march he applied it brilliantly, and exacted from all the applause that was his due. Through broken country and steep he had made a flank march of fifty miles with an immense force and tremendous transport, clearing the way before him with the loss of about 30 killed and 150 wounded. His strategy had been ingenious as masterly, for while he made a demonstration on their left and kept the Boers in expectation of attack in that quarter, he had wheeled his force to their right, and surprised them before they had time to gather themselves together sufficiently to frustrate the tactics of the advancing force.
Repairing Laing’s Nek Tunnel Blown up by the Boers.
(Drawing by J. J. Waugh, from a photo by Captain P. U. Vigors.)