What Held Lord Roberts's Hand For Some Few Days After He Was Ready
To Strike Was The Abominable Weather.
Rain was falling in sheets,
and those who know South African roads, South African mud, and
South African drifts will understand how impossible swift military
movements are under those circumstances.
But with the first
clearing of the clouds the hills to the south and east of
Bloemfontein were dotted with our scouts. Rundle with his 8th
division was brought swiftly up from the south, united with
Chermside to the east of Reddersberg, and the whole force,
numbering 13,000 rifles with thirty guns, advanced upon Dewetsdorp,
Rundle, as senior officer, being in command. As they marched the
blue hills of Wepener lined the sky some twenty miles to the south,
eloquent to every man of the aim and object of their march.
On April 20th, Rundle as he advanced found a force with artillery
across his path to Dewetsdorp. It is always difficult to calculate
the number of hidden men and lurking guns which go to make up a
Boer army, but with some knowledge of their total at Wepener it was
certain that the force opposed to him must be very inferior to his
own. At Constantia Farm, where he found them in position, it is
difficult to imagine that there were more than three thousand men.
Their left flank was their weak point, as a movement on that side
would cut them off from Wepener and drive them up towards our main
force in the north. One would have thought that a containing force
of three thousand men, and a flanking movement from eight thousand,
would have turned them out, as it has turned them out so often
before and since. Yet a long-range action began on Friday, April
20th, and lasted the whole of the 21st, the 22nd, and the 23rd, in
which we sustained few losses, but made no impression upon the
enemy. Thirty of the 1st Worcesters wandered at night into the
wrong line, and were made prisoners, but with this exception the
four days of noisy fighting does not appear to have cost either
side fifty casualties. It is probable that the deliberation with
which the operations were conducted was due to Rundle's
instructions to wait until the other forces were in position. His
subsequent movements showed that he was not a General who feared to
strike.
On Sunday night (April 22nd) Pole-Carew sallied out from
Bloemfontein on a line which would take him round the right flank
of the Boers who were facing Rundle. The Boers had, however,
occupied a strong position at Leeuw Kop, which barred his path, so
that the Dewetsdorp Boers were covering the Wepener Boers, and
being in turn covered by the Boers of Leeuw Kop. Before anything
could be done, they must be swept out of the way. Pole-Carew is one
of those finds which help to compensate us for the war. Handsome,
dashing, debonnaire, he approaches a field of battle as a
light-hearted schoolboy approaches a football field. On this
occasion he acted with energy and discretion. His cavalry
threatened the flanks of the enemy, and Stephenson's brigade
carried the position in front at a small cost. On the same evening
General French arrived and took over the force, which consisted now
of Stephenson's and the Guards brigades (making up the 11th
division), with two brigades of cavalry and one corps of mounted
infantry. The next day, the 23rd, the advance was resumed, the
cavalry bearing the brunt of the fighting. That gallant corps,
Roberts's Horse, whose behaviour at Sanna's Post had been
admirable, again distinguished itself, losing among others its
Colonel, Brazier Creagh. On the 24th again it was to the horsemen
that the honour and the casualties fell. The 9th Lancers, the
regular cavalry regiment which bears away the honours of the war,
lost several men and officers, and the 8th Hussars also suffered,
but the Boers were driven from their position, and lost more
heavily in this skirmish than in some of the larger battles of the
campaign. The 'pom-poms,' which had been supplied to us by the
belated energy of the Ordnance Department, were used with some
effect in this engagement, and the Boers learned for the first time
how unnerving are those noisy but not particularly deadly fireworks
which they had so often crackled round the ears of our gunners.
On the Wednesday morning Rundle, with the addition of Pole-Carew's
division, was strong enough for any attack, while French was in a
position upon the flank. Every requisite for a great victory was
there except the presence of an enemy. The Wepener siege had been
raised and the force in front of Rundle had disappeared as only
Boer armies can disappear. The combined movement was an admirable
piece of work on the part of the enemy. Finding no force in front
of them, the combined troops of French, Rundle, and Chermside
occupied Dewetsdorp, where the latter remained, while the others
pushed on to Thabanchu, the storm centre from which all our
troubles had begun nearly a month before. All the way they knew
that De Wet's retreating army was just in front of them, and they
knew also that a force had been sent out from Bloemfontein to
Thabanchu to head off the Boers. Lord Roberts might naturally
suppose, when he had formed two cordons through which De Wet must
pass, that one or other must hold him. But with extraordinary skill
and mobility De Wet, aided by the fact that every inhabitant was a
member of his intelligence department, slipped through the double
net which had been laid for him. The first net was not in its place
in time, and the second was too small to hold him.
While Rundle and French had advanced on Dewetsdorp as described,
the other force which was intended to head off De Wet had gone
direct to Thabanchu.
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