CHAPTER XIII.
FINAL ATTACK, AND CLEARANCE OF THE WATERKLOOF.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 12th of September, as we were leaving church, the 73rd regiment, from King Williams' Town, under Colonel Eyre, marched through the town on their way to join the force assembling for a grand and final attack on the Waterkloof. They encamped on the other side the river, on the Blinkwater road; though absolutely in rags, patched with every description and colour of cloth and leather, many a shirt tail dangling from under the lappels of their coats, they looked most soldier-like, and marched with the greatest regularity, the Rifle Brigade band playing them through the streets.
The following day a detachment of the 74th being ordered to reinforce Colonel Eyre's column, I unexpectedly found myself in orders to join him at day-break next morning, delighted, after having shared in all the former attacks, to be in at the last. At four in the morning of the 14th we left the barrack square by starlight, and marching through the sleeping town, halted outside the line of Colonel Eyre's camp-fires as day was breaking. The troops were already accoutred, and the tents struck, and in a few minutes we were advancing through the open bush along the foot of the Kromme to the Yellow-Wood River, where we remained two hours for breakfast. On one or two of the grassy ridges overtopping the forest on the mountain side mounted Kaffirs now and then showed themselves, watching our movements.
Three or four miles further on, we halted and bivouacked at the ruins of Nieland's farm, at the foot of the Pass where the severe engagement, under Colonel Fordyce, had taken place a year before.
The remaining three columns of attack, under Lieut.-Col. Napier, Lieut.-Col. Nesbitt, and Major Horsford, the two former under general command of Colonel Buller, on the north side of the Waterkloof, the latter at the extremity of the valley, were to move simultaneously at dawn next day in co-operation.
It was pitch dark, when, at four in the morning, we groped our way out of camp, the waggons and tents being left with a small guard under charge of an officer, and ascended a steep Pass which we had not visited since the severe struggle on the 9th September. As it became light, a few skulls and scattered bones were to be seen at the top of the path, though we must have passed many more lower down, where the fight had been hottest. After a stiff climb, halting frequently to breathe the men, who coughed violently, an oft remarked symptom of the telling effects of the hardships and exposures of the campaign, we reached the mountain summit, which was enveloped in a thick cold fog. We moved along the table-land towards the south scarps of the Waterkloof, the point of our operations, but the mist was so thick that we halted till the sun had fully risen, when it partially cleared off, and we observed an extended column of at least 400 Kaffirs moving along the narrow ridge connecting the Kromme heights, on which we were, with the peninsular and otherwise totally inaccessible Iron Mountain, to take possession of its towering krantz. Colonel Eyre immediately countermarching his column, moved us rapidly forward to the attack of the Iron Mountain, and we entered a little forest path leading along the connecting ridge, and so narrow that it barely afforded room for two abreast, continually obstructing the whole column for some minutes. After an hour's gradual ascent without opposition, we crowned the height, when the enemy, firing half a dozen shots, the balls whistling harmlessly over our heads, fled to the bush below, by paths so precipitous and narrow as to be impracticable for anything but Kaffirs and baboons, leaving behind them some two or three women and several horses, which we took. By this false move on their part, the enemy was placed in our hands; the Rifle Brigade being in the valley at the foot of the mountain in front, two parties were instantly despatched by the Colonel right and left to cut off escape by either flank. We made our way down by a path so smooth and steep that only the greatest precaution prevented a headlong career after the loose stones that bounded down before us into the deep valley; the ammunition and pack-horses sliding down on their hind quarters, and the rocket troop proving very troublesome from the difficulty of keeping the heavy apparatus off the horses' necks. The kloofs and forests thus enclosed, were completely scoured, and though the enemy by dispersing, and hiding in the thickest parts of the extensive thorny bushes, succeeded in a great measure in making their escape, many were killed, seventy-one women and children captured, secreted among the cavities of the rocks at the base of the krantz, and quantities of assegais, guns, and native ornaments taken. Half a dozen Rebels, Cape Corps deserters, killed in the attack of their stronghold, were hung on the nearest trees, as examples to any of their comrades who might chance to come that way.
At the ruins of Brown's farm, in the valley of the Waterkloof, Major Horsford's column, which had marched up the valley, joined ours. They had killed a good many Kaffirs, captured some horses, burnt and destroyed many huts, and stormed and destroyed a gunsmith's shop in the rocks, fortified and loop-holed, and well-stocked with tools and materials for the repair of fire-arms.
The whole valley was smoking from end to end with burning huts, as were the heights above us, crowned with the 60th and 91st, scarcely visible from their distance.