Reorganisation of Troops in the Orange River Colony
The eastern district, as before, remained in charge of General Rundle, who, with the original 8th Division and some Mounted Infantry and Yeomanry, protected the line Frankfort-Reitz-Bethlehem-Ficksburg.
By the end of March recruiting for General Baden-Powell’s Police ceased. The work of training, clothing, mounting, and equipping was carried on with all speed, and the recruits who arrived from England promptly displayed their grit and their zeal by withstanding the assaults of the Boers, who invariably attacked such districts as they fancied were in charge of the “raw” element. The new-comers were no fledgelings, however, for the members of the Constabulary were mostly gentlemen or farmers of a high class, selected with a view to making good colonists.
CHAPTER II
CAPE COLONY—PURSUIT OF RAIDERS—MARCH AND APRIL—CHASING KRUITZINGER
While the pursuit of De Wet was going forward, our troops under General Settle, and subsequently under Colonel Douglas Haig (Colonels Henniker, Gorringe, Grenfell, Scobell, and Crewe), worked unceasingly against the Boer raiders who were making themselves obstreperous in various parts of the Colony. Pearston was occupied by seven hundred of the enemy with two guns, who captured sixty rifles and 15,000 rounds of ammunition, in spite of the gallant defence of the tiny garrison. The invaders, a part of Kruitzinger’s commando, were promptly swept away by Colonel Gorringe, who reoccupied the place on the 5th, and caused the fugitives to be pursued. Accordingly the commando broke into three parties and fled eastward over the railway.
About the same time one hundred raiders, under Scheepers, made a desperate attack upon the village of Aberdeen—an attack which happily failed owing to the smartness of the garrison. This consisted of a portion of the 4th Derbyshire Militia, Town Guard, and twenty men of the 9th Lancers, under Colonel Priestly. The Boers, however, succeeded in penetrating into the town, and releasing some of their compatriots who were in gaol. They further tried to loot the stores, but were not given the opportunity, so promptly did the Town Guard send them to the right-about. Colonel Parsons arrived on the scene in the afternoon, followed, the next day, by Colonel Scobell and some Colonials, and soon, though not without sharp fighting, the kopjes surrounding the place were purged of the raiders. The sharpshooters of the Imperial Yeomanry under Major Warden were untiring in the energy of their pursuit of the enemy from hill to hill, and the detachment of the 6th Dragoons under Captain Anstice helped in the discomfiture of the foe. These escaped by means of the thick bush and dongas, which afforded them timely cover.
It was now necessary to prevent Scheepers and his Boers from entering Murraysburg. To circumvent him, Colonel Scobell—commanding a force of Cape Mounted Rifles, Cape Police, Diamond Fields Horse, and Brabant’s Horse, with some guns—marched hot foot at the rate of fifty-nine miles in less than twenty-five hours. Meanwhile Captain Colenbrander, commanding the Fighting Scouts, moved promptly from Richmond towards Murraysburg, located Scheepers’ hordes in an adjacent village, and attacked them. The enemy were repulsed with the loss of five of their number, while the British party had no casualties.
Kruitzinger’s commando, continuing its depredations, seized Carlisle Bridge with a view to pressing towards Grahamstown, but the activity of Colonels De Lisle and Gorringe frustrated all effort to get to the sea. The invaders gave a vast amount of trouble, however, burning farms and securing horses, and several encounters took place. In one of these, a few miles from Adelaide, Captain Rennie and some of the Bedford detachment of the Colonial Defence Corps gave an excellent account of themselves. The Boers lost one man killed, one taken prisoner, and three wounded, together with six horses.