While Botha’s bands were kept in hourly dread of being driven east against the Swazi border, or west between the troops and constabulary posts, where they would have been more than ever isolated and doomed to destruction, Colonel Urmston, with a small column, played the Cerberus, watching the line of constabulary posts in case of attack by such desperate Boers as might have become wedged between the posts and the columns, and keeping General B. Hamilton well informed as to their whereabouts.
Viljoen, hovering between Pilgrims’ Rest and Dullstroom, engaged the attentions of Colonel Park, while on the northern line Colonels Dawkins and Colenbrander hunted and hustled the enemy. By the 13th of November Dawkins had secured 124 prisoners, and by the 19th (when he had returned to Warmbaths by the Mafeking-Rhodesia route) Colenbrander had captured 54 prisoners of Beyer’s commando, including Field-Cornets Ross and Louw and Adjutant Pretorius, with their horses, waggons, and stock.
Colonel Colenbrander then devoted himself to the chase of Badenhorst’s commando, a spirited and an exhausting affair which lasted some days, during which Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts pushed perseveringly, through an almost waterless and decidedly uninviting region, on the tracks of the enemy. Eventually the column, almost spent with their prodigious activities, came suddenly on the quarry, and the 3rd of December found them in possession of all the waggons of the commando, and fifteen prisoners. Badenhorst and sixty followers tore into the jungle fringing the Poer Zyn Loop River, and thus escaped; but not for long. A large quantity of stragglers were driven up into the hills, and there seized by the 12th Mounted Infantry of Colonel Dawkins’ column, who displayed considerable prowess in the achievement. The total results of these “well-planned and carefully-executed operations were 104 prisoners, 50 horses, 50 mules, 500 cattle, 6 waggons, 6000 rounds of small arm ammunition, and the serious discomfiture of the enemy in a district in which he had long considered himself immune.”
TRANSVAAL (WEST)
Lord Methuen and Colonel Kekewich continued with unabating zeal their co-operations in the Rustenberg-Zeerust region, capturing many prisoners during their various marches. On the 13th of November, owing to a squadron of Imperial Yeomanry of Colonel Hickie’s force having been surrounded near Brakspruit, both officers moved by different routes to Klerksdorp to disperse the commandos threatening Colonel Hickie. But these rovers had quickly made off to the west. Still hunting them, Lord Methuen, with Hickie and Kekewich on his right, left Klerksdorp to operate to west of Hartebeestefontein and Kaffirs Kraal. He got in touch with the foe, chased him towards Wolmaranstad, and “doubled him up” at Rooiport. Liebenberg’s adjutant, his horses, stock, waggons, and twenty-six prisoners were the rewards of a fatiguing excursion. Lord Methuen returned to Klerksdorp on the 4th of December. Thus Colonel Hickie, whose column was covering the construction of the Schoonspruit blockhouse line, was relieved of the unwelcome attentions of the Boers, and the work on hand terminated without further interruption.
Colonel Pilcher
(Photo by Robinson, Dublin)
ORANGE RIVER COLONY
A magnificent programme for the sweeping up of infesting marauders in the region of Vrede and Reitz was planned out early in November. The difficulty and the extent of its plan may be gauged by the fact that the rendezvous and starting-points of the outermost columns engaged upon it were roughly at the angles of a parallelogram, whose diagonal was 175 miles in length, and of which no side was less than 100 miles, marked by the points Standerton, Harrismith, Winburg, and Heilbron; but of the details of this enormous movement, the energy and precision with which it was carried forth, nothing can here be said. It was arranged like an enormous and intricate game of chess, with tortuous and well-designed curves to keep the enemy from detecting the object of the manœuvres, but the whole thing was a failure. The weather, firstly, was atrocious, and highly favourable to such Boers who might wish to straggle and draggle to cover; secondly, the immensity of the converging movement rendered it impossible to entirely fill all gaps, and these gaps the Boers were naturally “slim” enough to discover and to make use of. Thus, when all the splendidly managed and patiently executed marches concluded by the arrival of the columns at their objective, they found most of the birds flown. But the Boer stock and transport had to be left behind, and there was some consolation in knowing that the machinations of the marauders would be hampered for want of supplies for some time to come. Ninety-eight prisoners were taken and twenty-two of the enemy were killed, and horses and cattle in large quantities were secured. The troops returned to their original points of departure without incident, save in the case of Colonels Byng and Wilson. On the 14th of November a party of 400 Boers, who had evaded the cordon before it was drawn, attacked the troops near Heilbron. Two hours of stiff fighting ensued, and the enemy, said to be commanded by De Wet, was successfully repulsed on all sides by Colonel Byng’s rearguard, which was brilliantly handled by Colonel Wilson of Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts. The Boers left eight dead on the field. Lieutenant Hughes was killed and three other officers of Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts were wounded.