NIGHT ATTACK ON A BOER CONVOY BY MOUNTED INFANTRY UNDER COLONEL WILLIAMS
Drawing by John Charlton from a Sketch by a British Officer
On the 7th of August a movement was made to obtain possession of the Damhoek and Pampoen Kraal Passes. At the latter place a gang of forty Boers was effectively tackled by the Volunteer Service Company and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers under Major Mayne. The whole bunch was most skilfully surrounded and secured, and with them Mr. F. Wolmarans, chairman of the late Volksraad. The passes were occupied, and from the 10th to the 12th of August stray Boers were unearthed by Colonel Allenby in the southern slopes of the Magaliesberg, between Nooitgedacht and Grobelaar’s Pass. Nine Boers were brought in, fourteen rifles, some waggons, carts, and dynamite. About this time Major Butler (in command of the Carabineers) was detached from Colonel Allenby’s column to co-operate with General Gilbert Hamilton, who had been engaging in the incessant harrying of Liebenberg’s commando and other raiders east of Lichtenburg. Marching by night and by day, he had hunted and tracked, worried and pursued, but had never succeeded in bringing the enemy to open fight. Now, on his return to Ventersdorp on the 11th, he arranged, with the assistance of Major Butler’s men from the north, for a simultaneous attack upon Koperfontein and Basfontein. The attack was splendidly managed, and on the morning of the 14th, after some vigorous fighting, in which Lieutenant Till (6th Dragoon Guards) and one man lost their lives and 5 men were wounded, 10 prisoners, 27 waggons, and 100 cattle were captured. Three Boers were killed.
Major Butler and the Carabineers rejoined Colonel Allenby at Damhoek, while General Hamilton reconnoitred towards Tafel Kop and made more prisoners.
General Barton now watched the establishment of posts eastwards over the hill from Breedt’s Nek, while Colonels Kekewich and Allenby, having completely effected their sweeping operations, moved to Commando Nek for supplies. But of course the dispersed Boers were forced to hide somewhere, so, going north, they chose Zwartkopies, whence after some skirmishing they were driven by Colonel Allenby. Meanwhile Colonel Kekewich, moving at the same date (19th) from Commando Nek, ferreted along the bed of the Crocodile River and effected the capture of fourteen of the enemy together with their horses. So vigorous were the operations of both these officers that the Boers in the district began to feel that their days were numbered, and that they had better surrender with a good grace. This twenty-nine of them did at Beestekraal, where Colonel Allenby was operating, on the 23rd, while on the 25th sixteen more (including T. Kruger, a nephew of the ex-President) surrendered to Colonel Kekewich, who was then at the junction of the Crocodile and Elands Rivers. As most of the remaining raiders had now betaken themselves to the rugged and almost inaccessible country on the north, where pursuit would have been useless, Colonel Kekewich veered south, while Colonel Allenby moved west, with a view to watching the west of Magaliesberg in the direction of Rustenburg. September found them posted at points where they might work in combination against Kemp’s commando—Colonel Allenby at Bashoek (a northern fringe of the Magaliesberg) and Colonel Kekewich near Magato Pass.
At this date, owing to the unceasing exertions of General Barton, Colonels Kekewich and Allenby, and Lord Basing, together with the extension of the system of Constabulary posts, excellent results had been obtained in the area bounded on the north by the Magaliesberg, on the south by the Vaal, on the east by the Pretoria line, and on the west by the Frederikstad-Breedt’s Nek line of blockhouses. Scarcely a Boer was to be seen. The raiders were forced to the extreme limits, east and west, north and south, and against their safety in these outskirts, further operations were soon to be directed.
TRANSVAAL, S.W.
Their work over in the Marokani range and the valley of the Harts River, Lord Methuen and General Fetherstonhaugh by parallel routes moved to Klerksdorp. General Fetherstonhaugh marched (on the 9th) his two columns along the right bank of the Vaal, searching in every hole and cranny for nests of marauders and destroying such supplies as he found. Colonel Hickie unearthed few Boers; but Colonel Williams, by a knowing dodge worthy of De Wet himself, set a trap which enclosed a whole convoy plus eighteen prisoners, cattle, and vehicles. His manœuvre was this. Report spoke to the fact that the convoy of Commandant Vermaas on the 19th was trekking towards Katdoornplaats, north of Wolmaranstad. Accordingly, he sent off his convoy under escort towards Leeuwfontein, thus giving the effect that he was on the march in that direction. Meanwhile he reserved his alert Colonials (the New South Wales Mounted Rifles and Bushmen) for an enterprise after their own heart. In the dead of night they were ordered to proceed towards their goal, and at early dawn when they reached Katdoornplaats they traced the tale of Boer departure and the direction of it by the wheel-tracks in the soil. Not a moment did they lose. Off on a gallop of twelve miles they went, lessening, as they plunged onward, the distance between themselves and the lumbering convoy. At last they were even with it; the ping of bullets told the Boers that their flight was a failure and that they had met their match. And so it came to pass that this mettlesome force, after an expedition during which they covered sixty miles in twenty-seven hours, returned to headquarters with the spoil before named, every one of the captured vehicles being brought away with them. Among the prisoners was the late Landdrost of Bloemhof and a telegraphist with complete tapping apparatus.
While these columns were moving on Klerksdorp, which they reached on 22nd and 23rd of August, Lord Methuen, on the left, had been skirmishing his way along, fighting both with the gang of Delarey and with that of Vermaas, fights of no limp nature, for he came into Klerksdorp on the 22nd with 13 prisoners, 23 voluntarily surrendered Boers, 400 trek oxen, 1848 cattle, 43 waggons, 19 carts, 76 horses, and 8 mules. He had lost one man, and one officer and eight men had been wounded in the various frays. In addition to these commandos which were trounced on the journey, report said that General Kemp with some 800 followers was flitting between the kopjes and crevices on the south-west of Olifant’s Nek. An effort therefore had to be made to meet this hostile multitude, and to this end the various troops moved by the 1st of September to situations which were supposed to enclose the marauders and afford them no loopholes of escape. Unfortunately, Lord Methuen’s men were covering a wide expanse of ground, and were forced to move to block a reported attempt to escape towards Lindley Poort; and through the gap thus created between the columns of Lord Methuen and those of Colonel Hickie, the Dutch leader contrived to bolt. But in his dashing feat only his mounted men could follow him, and consequently a large body of Boers with waggons, carts, ammunition, indeed all his effects, were left behind, and by degrees were unearthed from their burial-places in the kloofs and taken possession of.
Lord Methuen, on the 2nd of September, marched from Brakfontein to Roodival (on his return journey to Zeerust), and while proceeding to the north-west he suddenly espied a convoy in the distance. A mad chase ensued, followed by a brisk fight, in which 6 Boers were left dead on the field. Of prisoners 22 were taken, together with waggons, carts, cattle, and ammunition in enormous quantities. Passing on, Lord Methuen spent the following days in capturing more vagrants; but on the 5th his troops came in for stiff work. They were now in the country of scrub and jungle in the Marico Valley, and round them on their right were Delarey and Field-Cornet Van Tonder, whose convoy had been captured, while on the left were Commandants Botha and Liebenberg. In addition to these was the Marico commando under Commandant Lemmer and Field-Cornet Louw, who attacked the rearguard. A stirring action followed, the brunt of which was sustained by the 5th Imperial Yeomanry and the Welsh Squadrons. Eleven Boers were killed, 8 wounded, and 11 prisoners, while 10 waggons and 5 carts were captured. This haul was somewhat increased by the contributions of Colonel Von Donop, who with his detached column had taken a more southerly route through Quaggashoek and the lead mines, where he collected 3 Boers, 39 vehicles, and some cattle. The total British casualties on the march between Brakfontein and Zeerust were 1 officer and 12 men killed, and 2 officers and 28 men wounded.