Railway Map showing Lines from Pretoria to E. and S.E.
(Scale, 1 inch = 64 miles. By permission of the Publishers of “South Africa.”)
While these activities were taking place, and General Buller was slowly making his way into the Transvaal from the east (guarding every inch of the rail in his rear, so that when he should reach Heidelberg the Natal Field Force would be extended all along the line), General Ian Hamilton, in order to join hands with him, was moving with a mobile force viâ Springs to Heidelberg, which was occupied on the 23rd. Both armies thus approaching were now capable of frustrating concerted and combined action between the hostile bands of the Transvaal and those still lingering in Orange River Colony. Lord Dundonald’s Brigade, meanwhile, had been joined by Strathcona’s Horse, a picked body of sporting men who were tingling for fight.[6] This experience they soon enjoyed, as in the course of the march towards Heidelberg they came on a gang of Boers and had an animated encounter which cost them a man killed and two missing, including the officer who was in command of the party. Four Boer victims were left on the scene of the fray.
The Boers, though many were surrendering, were sustained in their dogged determination to fight by the exquisite inventiveness of Mr. Kruger, who, undoubtedly, is a Defoe or a De Rougemont lost to the world. He caused a proclamation to be issued, stating that the Russians had declared war on Japan, and that Great Britain was bound by treaty to support the Japanese, and must therefore withdraw her troops from South Africa. The proclamation also stated that Lord Roberts had no supplies, and implored the burghers to keep up their courage. About a thousand burghers accordingly collected in the neighbourhood of Sandspruit with the wily ambition of severing the lines of communication. The Komati Poort Bridge had been threatened, and the cauldron of Boer machination was simmering portentously in the neighbourhood of Machadodorp.
With Buller’s force on the east, Rundle’s on the south, Hunter’s to the west, it was hoped that the animated De Wet might be trapped as Cronje had been trapped. Still the wily one—slim by instinct, slimmer now by experience—contrived to become slippery as an eel whenever the fingers of the enveloping British hand began to curve in his direction. There was no doubt about it that this sometime butcher of Barberton, this late speculator in potatoes, who, it is stated, “went bankrupt in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a potato corner on the Johannesburg market,” was a born genius in the art of war. He was aware of his own potentialities, and is reported to have said that he gave Lord Kitchener—if he put his mind to it—ten days to catch him in, while to Lord Roberts he allowed three weeks, and to Lord Methuen the rest of a lifetime! And the statement was not all Boer bounce, as time proved.
General Hamilton from the west approached Heidelberg on the 22nd, and exchanged shots with the Boer patrols; but during the night the enemy disappeared and the troops occupied the town. The force consisted of General Gordon’s and General Broadwood’s Cavalry Brigades (the 9th, 16th, 17th Lancers, and Household Cavalry, 10th Hussars, and 12th Lancers respectively), two batteries Royal Horse Artillery, two batteries Field Artillery, two 5-inch guns, a brigade of Mounted Infantry under General Ridley, and the 21st Brigade (City Imperial Volunteers, Camerons, Sussex, and Derbys) under General Bruce Hamilton. It was found that the Boers had retreated to a crescent of hills turning south-east of the town, and from here they fired on patrols of the New South Wales Contingent. General Hamilton advanced on the Dutchman’s haunts, while General Broadwood, with a pom-pom and Field Battery, Roberts’s Horse, the Ceylon Mounted Infantry, and Marshall’s Horse, made a vigorous flank attack which sent the enemy scudding into space. The casualties were few. Among the wounded were Captain F. Whittaker, Roberts’s Horse, since dead; Captain H. Carrington Smith, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; Captain M. Browne, Roberts’s Horse; Lieutenant C. Livingstone Learmonth, Roberts’s Horse; Lieutenant E. Rex King, Roberts’s Horse. General Ian Hamilton unluckily fell from his horse and sustained a fracture of the collar-bone.
Generals Hunter and Hart, therefore, hurriedly joined General Ian Hamilton on the 25th at Heidelberg, the former replacing the latter in command there, as General Hamilton’s injury temporarily incapacitated him from resuming his duties. How General Hunter managed so opportunely to arrive on the scene must be described.
General Hunter, after taking Christiana, moved viâ Vryburg, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom, and Krugersdorp to Johannesburg. With Colonel Mahon—who had joined him and was in command of the Cavalry Brigade—he had been engaged in the task of pacifying the Wolmaranstad and Potchefstroom districts. Klerksdorp surrendered on the 9th of June (uselessly, as it afterwards appeared). A few days later Colonel Mahon’s Cavalry Brigade entered Potchefstroom after a bitterly cold night march. On the 15th General Hunter moved viâ Krugersdorp (which surrendered on the 18th), towards Johannesburg (Colonel Mahon preceding him and moving to Pretoria) and went to Springs in support of General Hamilton’s advance to Heidelberg.
General Hunter’s reduced force now consisted of the Dublin Fusiliers, part of the Somersetshire Light Infantry, and a small number of the Yeomanry. By the 25th he had taken over the command of General Hamilton’s column and at once proceeded to engage himself with the work that that officer was intending to accomplish. General Hart before this time had been at Frederickstad, some fifteen miles north of Potchefstroom on the rail and best road to Johannesburg, but speedily moved on to assist. The plan was to arrange for the permanent garrisoning of Frankfort in the Orange River Colony, Heilbron, Lindley, and Senekal, the taking of Bethlehem, and, if possible, the cornering of De Wet.
General Hunter marched from Heidelberg towards Frankfort with a view to finding out the haunts of the malcontents, but encountered no opposition, and reached his destination on the 1st of July. Two days later he was joined by the troops from Heilbron under General Macdonald. General Hart, with a battalion and a half of infantry, remained in Heidelberg and engaged in the repair of the railway bridge, which had been wrecked by the Boers.