[546] Page 87.
[547] When the reserve battalion was holding Block Drift, a very daring act was performed by two private soldiers of the regiment. A despatch arrived for the Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, escorted by 18 mounted burghers, with a request from the commandant at Fort Beaufort, that it should be sent on as soon as possible. The communication between Block Drift and Fort Cox, where the Governor was, was completely cut off; and accordingly volunteers were called for to carry the despatch. Two men immediately came forward, Robert Walsh and Thomas Reilly, and to them the despatch was entrusted. They left Block Drift shortly after dark, and proceeded on their perilous journey—dressed in uniform and with their muskets. All went well for the first six miles, although they found themselves in the vicinity of the Kaffirs. Suddenly, on entering a wooded valley at the foot of the Amatola mountains, they came right upon a Kaffir encampment, and had hardly time to throw themselves on the ground in the thick underwood, when they found to their horror that the natives had heard their footsteps, as the latter rushed into the thicket in all directions to look for the intruders. Fortunately a porcupine was sighted, and the Kaffirs evidently satisfied, returned to their camp, muttering that it was an “Easterforke,” Anglicé porcupine, that had alarmed them. Walsh and Reilly, holding their breath, saw the Kaffirs prepare to eat their supper, after which they began to post their sentries! One was put within six yards of the gallant fellows, who, not quite discouraged, still kept quiet. The remaining Kaffirs rolled themselves up in their blankets, and went to sleep. The sentry stood for a few minutes,—looked round, then sat down for a few more minutes, looked round again, and then wrapped himself in his blanket, and slept peacefully too. Walsh and Reilly, as may be imagined, did not give him the chance of waking, but made off. They then made a wide circuit, and after numerous escapes from detection, once having been challenged by a Kaffir sentinel (who was not asleep), they came to the Keiskama river, and knowing that all the fords were guarded by the Kaffirs, they had to cross by swimming, finally reaching Fort Cox shortly before daylight. Here their dangers were not over, for the sentries, not expecting anything but Kaffirs, treated them to some rapid file firing. Again they lay down in shelter until daybreak, when, being recognised as British soldiers, they were warmly welcomed and delivered their important despatches. Poor Walsh was afterwards killed in action, and Reilly was discharged with a pension after 21 years’ service, though it is to be regretted that neither received at the time any public reward of their gallant night’s work, which in these days would certainly have been rewarded with the Victoria Cross.
[548] During the advance of the enemy on Block Drift, at the beginning of the war, and when this post was commanded by Lt.-Colonel (then Major) Campbell, he took up a position on the top of the school-house, rifle in hand; four men were employed in loading his arms for him, and he brought down two of the enemy successively in a few minutes. When a third fell dead, a soldier of the reserve battalion 91st Regiment could restrain himself no longer; forgetting Col. Campbell’s rank as an officer, in his delight at his prowess as a soldier, the man slapped his commanding officer on the back with a shout of delight, and the exclamation, “Weell done, Sodger!” Was not such a compliment worth all the praise of an elaborate despatch?—The Cape and the Kaffirs, p. 198.
[549] Among the arrangements for the protection of the colony a force was organised in 1848, by placing soldiers discharged from various regiments, including the 91st, on certain grants of land in British Kaffraria, and thus forming military villages.
[551] When the force was retiring in the direction of their camp, each regiment covered by a company in skirmishing order, that of the 91st was under Lt. Bond. This officer was very short-sighted, and by some means or other was separated from his men, and was nearer the enemy than his skirmishers. Suddenly he was attacked by two Kaffirs, armed, one of whom seized him by the coat. At that time men wearing only side arms were always told off to carry stretchers for the wounded. One of these men, John Sharkie by name, suddenly saw Lt. Bond in the clutches of the savages. He rushed up, struck one of them on the head with his stretcher, killed him dead, and drawing a butcher’s knife which he carried in a sheath, plunged it into the throat of the other. Lt. Bond, who then realised the extent of his escape, coolly adjusted his eyeglass, which he always carried, looked steadily at Sharkie, then at the Kaffirs, and said, “By God, Sharkie, you’re a devilish plucky fellow; I will see you are properly rewarded for your bravery;” and he kept his word.
[554] On Nov. 12, 1860, Colonel Campbell became Major-General.
[555] We must mention here that on the 1st of Nov. of this year Quartermaster Paterson took his final leave of the regiment, which, as a private, he joined in 1832, and from which he had never been absent since joining it. He was with it in St Helena, Africa, Greece, the Ionian Islands, and India, from which last place he now left the regiment as an invalid. In his long and varied service he always proved himself a worthy soldier.