Another Chapter
Must Be Devoted To The Movement Towards The South Of The Boer
Forces And The Dispositions Which Lord Roberts Made To Meet It.
CHAPTER 23.
THE CLEARING OF THE SOUTH-EAST.
Lord Roberts never showed his self-command and fixed purpose more
clearly than during his six weeks' halt at Bloemfontein. De Wet,
the most enterprising and aggressive of the Boer commanders, was
attacking his eastern posts and menacing his line of
communications. A fussy or nervous general would have harassed his
men and worn out his horses by endeavouring to pursue a number of
will-of-the-wisp commandos. Roberts contented himself by building
up his strength at the capital, and by spreading nearly twenty
thousand men along his line of rail from Bloemfontein to Bethulie.
When the time came he would strike, but until then he rested. His
army was not only being rehorsed and reshod, but in some respects
was being reorganised. One powerful weapon which was forged during
those weeks was the collection of the mounted infantry of the
central army into one division, which was placed under the command
of Ian Hamilton, with Hutton and Ridley as brigadiers. Hutton's
brigade contained the Canadians, New South Wales men, West
Australians, Queenslanders, New Zealanders, Victorians, South
Australians, and Tasmanians, with four battalions of Imperial
Mounted Infantry, and several light batteries. Ridley's brigade
contained the South African irregular regiments of cavalry, with
some imperial troops. The strength of the whole division came to
over ten thousand rifles, and in its ranks there rode the hardiest
and best from every corner of the earth over which the old flag is
flying.
A word as to the general distribution of the troops at this instant
while Roberts was gathering himself for his spring. Eleven
divisions of infantry were in the field. Of these the 1st
(Methuen's) and half the 10th (Hunter's) were at Kimberley, forming
really the hundred-mile-distant left wing of Lord Roberts's army.
On that side also was a considerable force of Yeomanry, as General
Villebois discovered. In the centre with Roberts was the 6th
division (Kelly-Kenny's) at Bloemfontein, the 7th (Tucker's) at
Karee, twenty miles north, the 9th (Colvile's) and the 11th
(Pole-Carew's) near Bloemfontein. French's cavalry division was
also in the centre. As one descended the line towards the Cape one
came on the 3rd division (Chermside's, late Gatacre's), which had
now moved up to Reddersberg, and then, further south, the 8th
(Rundle's), near Rouxville. To the south and east was the other
half of Hunter's division (Hart's brigade), and Brabant's Colonial
division, half of which was shut up in Wepener and the rest at
Aliwal. These were the troops operating in the Free State, with the
addition of the division of mounted infantry in process of
formation.
There remained the three divisions in Natal, the 2nd (Clery's), the
4th (Lyttelton's), and the 5th (Hildyard's, late Warren's), with
the cavalry brigades of Burn-Murdoch, Dundonald, and Brocklehurst.
These, with numerous militia and unbrigaded regiments along the
lines of communication, formed the British army in South Africa. At
Mafeking some 900 irregulars stood at bay, with another force about
as large under Plumer a little to the north, endeavouring to
relieve them. At Beira, a Portuguese port through which we have
treaty rights by which we may pass troops, a curious mixed force of
Australians, New Zealanders and others was being disembarked and
pushed through to Rhodesia, so as to cut off any trek which the
Boers might make in that direction. Carrington, a fierce old
soldier with a large experience of South African warfare, was in
command of this picturesque force, which moved amid tropical
forests over crocodile-haunted streams, while their comrades were
shivering in the cold southerly winds of a Cape winter. Neither our
Government, our people, nor the world understood at the beginning
of this campaign how grave was the task which we had undertaken,
but, having once realised it, it must be acknowledged that it was
carried through in no half-hearted way. So vast was the scene of
operations that the Canadian might almost find his native climate
at one end of it and the Queenslander at the other.
To follow in close detail the movements of the Boers and the
counter movements of the British in the southeast portion of the
Free State during this period would tax the industry of the
historian and the patience of the reader. Let it be told with as
much general truth and as little geographical detail as possible.
The narrative which is interrupted by an eternal reference to the
map is a narrative spoiled.
The main force of the Freestaters had assembled in the
north-eastern corner of their State, and from this they made their
sally southwards, attacking or avoiding at their pleasure the
eastern line of British outposts. Their first engagement, that of
Sanna's Post, was a great and deserved success. Three days later
they secured the five companies at Reddersberg. Warned in time, the
other small British bodies closed in upon their supports, and the
railway line, that nourishing artery which was necessary for the
very existence of the army, was held too strongly for attack. The
Bethulie Bridge was a particularly important point; but though the
Boers approached it, and even went the length of announcing
officially that they had destroyed it, it was not actually
attacked. At Wepener, however, on the Basutoland border, they found
an isolated force, and proceeded at once, according to their
custom, to hem it in and to bombard it, until one of their three
great allies, want of food, want of water, or want of cartridges,
should compel a surrender.
On this occasion, however, the Boers had undertaken a task which
was beyond their strength. The troops at Wepener were one thousand
seven hundred in number, and formidable in quality. The place had
been occupied by part of Brabant's Colonial division, consisting of
hardy irregulars, men of the stuff of the defenders of Mafeking.
Such men are too shrewd to be herded into an untenable position and
too valiant to surrender a tenable one.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 118 of 222
Words from 119036 to 120061
of 225456
