The casualties were:—Two officers, Lieutenant Green, 59th Company Imperial Yeomanry, and Civil Surgeon Walker, killed; Captain Magniac, 59th Company Imperial Yeomanry, and Lieutenant Crawley, South Wales Borderers, wounded.
To the south of Middelburg General Campbell’s column was engaged with some 500 Boers, who were driven back with loss. Lieutenant Cawston, 18th Hussars, was dangerously wounded (since dead); Lieutenant Reade, King’s Royal Rifles, severely wounded. Eighteen men were killed and wounded.
Of the situation at the close of January and the beginning of February it is impossible to give more than a rough outline. Four main movements had been organised against the cliques of the enemy. Towards the east of the Transvaal, in order to make a complete clearance of the Boers from Delagoa line of communications, the following columns, each in touch with the other, had started on the 27th of January:—
General Smith-Dorrien’s from Wonderfontein, General Campbell’s from Middelburg, General Alderson’s from Eerstefabrieken, General Knox’s from Kaalfontein, Colonel Allanby’s (?) from Zuurfontein, General Dartnell’s from Springs, and Colonel Colville’s from Greylingstad. The southern columns were commanded by General French; those sweeping from the north by General Lyttelton.
In the Potchefstroom, Rand, and Krugersdorp districts, General Cunningham was operating against some 2000 of Delarey’s followers, while Generals Knox, Plumer, Bruce-Hamilton, and Maxwell, with Colonels White and Pilcher and Major Crewe, were all engaged in hunting De Wet in hope of forcing him into the arms of one or other of the corps concentrated on the Orange River. This irrepressible one was marching hot-foot with a force of 3000 men south of Thabanchu, and the excitement among the various British regiments preparing to intercept his plan of crossing the Orange River was intense.
The fourth movement for the clearance of Cape Colony was being developed by General Brabant and Colonel Girouard (chief of staff). These two were on the watch to prevent De Wet and his followers, two 15-pounders, a Maxim and a pom-pom (captured from Major Crewe’s column while crossing the rail between Edenburg and Springfontein), from co-operating with Hertzog’s band in the Cape Colony, and carrying out his threat to “give the farmers there a taste of what we ourselves have suffered through this war.”
The volunteers and town-guards in the districts of Oudtshoorn, Clanwilliam, Somerset East, and other parts of the Colony had exciting times, as the enemy, broken into mere marauding bands, looted and destroyed or damaged farms and property at every turn; but they bore these ills with spirit, and prepared themselves by night or day to give the aggressors a fitting reception. The marauders’ tactics were everywhere the same—they lived on the country, and worked east, avoiding contact with the mounted troops, and speedily dispersing before places which offered resistance to their attacks.
Ermelo was occupied by General French on the 6th, when fifty Boers surrendered. Botha and his tribe of 7000 had retired eastward, and in the dusk before dawn attacked General Smith-Dorrien at Bothwell. After fierce fighting the Dutchman was repulsed with considerable loss to himself, for General Spruit was killed and two field cornets, while General Raademeger was wounded. Many other Boers were seriously wounded, and twenty were left on the ground. Of the British party twenty-four were slain and fifty-three wounded.
At Petrusburg a column brought in some 3500 horses and cattle without sustaining any casualty. More captures were made at Lillefontein, east of Vryburg; 12 waggons and 200 cattle formed the bag, and the enemy was dispersed.
On the 11th, General French made a magnificent haul, a convoy being captured—50 waggons, 15 carts, and 45 prisoners—and this with the loss of one man only.