NATAL—LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR H. HILDYARD
On the Natal frontier affairs had become somewhat unsettled. The Boers who had been swept off from the Standerton line were dribbling across the frontier, and others round about Vryheid and Utrecht seemed to be waiting an opportunity to effect a concentration. At the end of July it became certain that the foe was gathering in good numbers to the east of Nqutu, and that many more might be creeping through the long grass to other parts of the country which had become more or less settled. On the 28th of July things came to a climax. Major F. A. Henderson (8th Hussars), who with 200 mounted men (8th Hussars and Natal Volunteer Composite Regiment) was scouring the locality around Nqutu, came on the foe and engaged them. The marauders were more than usually strong and more than usually tenacious. They launched themselves, in a mass of 400, with great dash against the small British force, in the hope to intercept the troops if possible during their retirement to Nondweni; but through the skill of the commanding officer and the dash of 20 men of the Natal Volunteers, who raced them for a kopje and won, the Boers were frustrated. The fighting lasted the whole day, and the Boers made frantic efforts to capture a gun of the 67th Battery R.F.A., but with great energy the piece of contention was galloped off under a brisk fusillade from the foe till it was safely out of their range.
Doggedly both parties battled together, with the result that Major Jervis-Edwards, a gallant officer whose loss was much deplored, and three men were killed, and five were wounded. Soon after this, the Boers becoming still more obstreperous, it was arranged that Lieut.-General Sir H. Hildyard’s command should be strengthened by the addition of the column of Colonel Stewart, whose departure for Dundee we may remember, and another under Colonel Pulteney. This column consisted of the Victorian Mounted Rifles (moved from the Delagoa line), a squadron of the 8th Hussars, the Dublin Fusiliers Mounted Infantry, and two guns. While this mobile column was sweeping from Utrecht to Kambuladraai, Colonel Stewart was marching from Dundee through Vryheid towards the same destination. A junction was effected on the 23rd of August, on which date a brisk encounter took place between Colonel Pulteney’s men and the Boers who were sneaking in the west of the Schurveberg. In the engagement two of the Victorians were killed and five wounded.
On the following days both columns retraced their steps to Vryheid and then, united under the command of Colonel Blomfield, moved to the junction of the Pivaan and Manzaan Rivers. The march over rugged and tormenting ground was one trying to the patience of man and beast, particularly as gangs of Boers under Scholtz at intervals prevented any chance of monotony by variations in the art of sniping and “potting.” The force returned to Vryheid on the 31st, little having been accomplished owing to the impracticable nature of the country. But two Boers were killed. Early in September Colonel Blomfield began a new scouring expedition, moving down the valley of the Umvalosi on to Bethel and Brakfontein. Here again, on the 4th September, he had a smart tussle with the enemy, and having dispersed them, moved to Nondweni and thence to Dundee.
CAPE COLONY—LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR J. FRENCH
Early in August the troops of General French were found on the line Beaufort West, Pearston, Drennan Station-Cameron Glen-Cathcart. They now began pushing steadily northwards, sweeping the enemy before them. Kruitzinger, thus pressed, was forced to retire in the direction of Middelburg and Steynsburg. His gang—dispersed by various frays with the British columns, and divided in desultory knots which succeeded in passing through the line of British blockhouses—reassembled north of the Zuursberg at Langedrift (fifteen miles north-west of Steynsburg). Here their number was swelled by bands under Erasmus, Wessels, and Pypers. There was now a somewhat formidable army of guerillas, and these on the 13th were encountered by Colonel Gorringe at Rooifontein. The gang were attacked, driven back past Venterstad into the Orange River, and in their retreat were so effectively hustled by Captains Nickalls and Sandeman, that they lost many of their number, among them Commandant Cachet, while the redoubtable Erasmus, together with Kruitzinger’s secretary, were captured. Colonel Hunter Weston about this time had also been engaged with Theron and had driven him and his to the right-about with characteristic despatch. While these frays were going forward, Lategan’s raiders, who had been pressed into the Orange River Colony, were there being forcibly tackled by Colonel Byng and General Plumer. So far so good. But there were other gangs that buzzed mosquito-like in a circle; and these, under Lotter and Botha, after being flicked northward from the Rhenosterberg (south-west of Middelburg), veered round and contrived to break through the pursuing columns and re-establish themselves in the hilly region of Spitzkop (thirty miles south of Middelburg). Smit’s gang, after being routed from the Rhenosterberg, scurried across the rail towards the north-west of Deelfontein, afterwards infesting the country between Carnarvon and Fraserburg; Lotter and Botha shifted to the Cradock district, while another troop of marauders under Theron created havoc and consternation between Aberdeen and Willowmore. Still, though the mosquitos continued to draw good British blood occasionally, they paid a fair price for it, and in the series of attacks which whisked them north 19 of the number were killed, 43 wounded, and 17 captured.
Lieut.-Col. Gorringe
It must here be noted that on the 17th of August, at Graaff Reinet, three of the rebel leaders, Van Rensburg, Fourie, and Pfeifer, who were captured at Camdeboo in July, were executed. Ten others were sentenced to penal servitude for life in the Bermudas. It was impossible to feel commiseration for these men, in view of the numbers of British homes they had robbed by the insane folly of resistance after the annexation of the Boer territories, and it was felt that unless some severe measures were adopted the system of lawlessness would continue for ever in the Colony.