The History of the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own) Formerly the 95th

by William Henry Cope

On the 3rd the Riflemen in advance forded the Kei river, here about 350 yards wide, and knee deep, and waited on the other bank for the Division. After breakfast, rifles were fired off and cleaned from the effects of the last night’s rain, and they marched towards Butterworth. On reaching a hill, afterwards well known to Riflemen by the name of Mount-Misery, they halted and bivouacked for the night. On the next morning at daylight they resumed their march, and arrived at the Missionary Station of Butterworth at six in the evening: a distance of nearly thirty miles. The Missionary’s house and the church were in ruins, having been burnt down; but every wall and corner which remained was occupied by the weary soldiers, glad of even such insufficient shelter. For scarcely had the outlying picquets been posted, when heavy and continuous rain came on, and lasted throughout the night.

On the 5th Captain Gibson’s company rejoined. The rain still continuing the men suffered much. They were glad to gather stones on which to lie, to keep them off the streaming ground; and even these were sometimes washed away by the rills formed in paths and tracks. This rain continued during the whole of the 6th and until the afternoon of the 7th; nearly seventy hours of incessant rain.

On the 6th five days’ ration of biscuit, which had from December 29 been reduced to six ounces a day, was served out to the men; but hunger takes no account of Commissariat measurement, and long before the expiration of the five days, the Riflemen were picking gum off the trees, and eating it to assuage their need.

At this time Sir Peregrine Maitland being recalled, left the army; and the command of the division again devolved on Colonel Somerset.

Fine weather having at last come on, the men wrung out and rinsed their wet shirts and dried them in the sun. In the evening the rifles were inspected and the ammunition examined; for much of it had been damaged by the wet. On the 8th at six in the morning, they marched for Spring-Flats where they arrived at eleven. After a halt of three hours, during which the weakly men and those who had sore feet fell out of the ranks and were marched to the Kei under an officer of another regiment, they resumed their march for Kreili’s Corner, and halting at six o’clock, bivouacked for the night.

At dawn on the 9th, intelligence having come in of a quantity of cattle, said to be a few miles ahead, they marched towards Kreili’s Corner; and with a halt of one hour for breakfast, and two for dinner, continued their march till eight in the evening, when they bivouacked.

Next day at daylight they moved on in the hope of coming up with the cattle; but nothing being seen of them, the cavalry pushed on at ten o’clock; while the infantry continued their march till two in the afternoon. At four the cavalry appeared with 12,000 cattle which they had captured at Kreili’s Corner; and 100 men of the Battalion were detailed as a cattle guard. Rain now began again; and the ration consisted of fresh beef only, the biscuit being all consumed, and that without salt to season it. Firewood too was scarce; and there were no tents.

On the 11th the Riflemen halted in bivouack, rain still continuing; and on the 12th marched for Spring-Flats under a burning sun. Many Kaffirs were on the surrounding hills; but few ventured within range. One however was shot by one of the cattle guard, when attempting to steal cattle. On the 13th a company of the Rifle Brigade and one of another regiment were sent to the Kei river with the captured cattle; but on their arrival the river was found to be unfordable, and the current running at a rapid rate. They had therefore to return; and on their arrival at the second hill (Mount-Misery) an order reached them to send out a patrol in search of Captain Gibson, for whom great fears were entertained. This officer, and Assistant-Surgeon Howell, had accompanied the party of weakly and disabled men which had marched from this place on the 8th. While this party were halted on January 11 near the ford of the Kei, waiting for the fall of the river to enable them to cross, some cattle were observed grazing on the hills about three miles off. Captain Fraser, of the 6th Foot, who was in command of these invalids, directed all the men who were able to march to proceed, under Captain Gibson, to endeavour to capture these cattle, which were beyond the bank which reached from the river half way up the hills.

After the party, which was accompanied by Assistant-Surgeon Howell and by Lieutenant the Honourable W. J. G. Chetwynd of the 73rd Regiment, had marched about an hour by a rather wide path through the bank, they arrived at a bend in the path. Unhappily the officers, unsuspicious of any attack, were marching ahead of their men, between seventy and 100 yards from the leading files. When therefore they took the bend in the road, they were entirely hidden from them. At this moment the Kaffir Chief, Pato, observing their defenceless position, rushed upon them with about 200 of his followers, and before the detachment could come up, killed all three officers.