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N«« Yort< 1 4609 us* (716) 482 - 0300 - Pho,» "" (718) 288- 5989 -Fa« South AIHca AMD The Boer-British War COMPIISIKO * u_ "'• CASTELL HOPKINS P I Entered according to Act of I'urlianitnt of Cwuda, at the l)«|>artni(nt of Agriculturt, Ottawa, in the year One Thouund Nine Hundred, by J. L. Nichoti & Co. Volume IL LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS CHAl'TER XII. Condensed History of Souih Africa, from u86 to .X.... v i , Africa, devmions, etc. '««>y -Varied cli„wtc of South CHAITERXIII. Side Lights from Both Armiei in the Conduct of the War. The Old Testament or the New FniriinH*. c«i; i it •• Speech-Rights of the Br^ish Must be ^rL^rd^.M^r'"" ''.'''"''"'■'■• Bishopof London-Feehngstoo DeepforWords-Kruur.rnnrH i ** Help-Boers' Panic at Moddcr River- P esTdent s? vv 5 T*"'" ™"^"'' -Boer Prayers Aid to Victory-EnuSl " .H f P ''" " ^'^' of Admonition Addres. to the Burghers-Warn^^f In'l'r^r '°^^^^ P*"^""'' Boers Captain Mah^n^T StTZe^L^";^; ^t^B'^rto^^^^^^ ''' How the British Treat Boer Prisoners A w a ^.^ . ^^ Q"<^en- Last Letter to His Mother '^";°";-''-^ ^^"""''«J ^-"^dian Volunteer's •••.., CHAPTER XIV. Africa A Great Country. The Great Continent of Africa-Early Changes in North,.rn Ar the British-Colonizin, Efforts of OthrNations The V T~^°'"'"'"'^" °^ ' ■ ' * . t CHAPTER XV. Boer Life in Times of Peace. The Boer at Home and Abroad-How the Auntie Manages H^r w u ,^ , it LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS CHAPTER XVI. Boer's Methods of Making War. Opposing Forces Underrated — British Ordinance — Expert Opinions — High Velocity or Rapidity of Fire— Fighting an Invisible Foe— Smokeless Powder and Intrench- ments — Black Powder as Decoys — Diary of a Boer — Variable Courage of the Boer — Censorship Not Effectual— Heavy Guns — A Boer Trick — How the Guns were Disabled— A Revolution in Tactics. , CHAPTER XVII. Invasion of the Orange State. The Country Bloemfontein to Pretoria — Torrents Quickly Formed — Adaptation to Defences and Surprises — Lord Roberts' Advantages — Forced Marches Alarm Boers — Interesting Developments — South Africa British or Dutch The Boers Self-deceived — Hopeless Appeal to the United States CHAPTER XVIII. The Siege of Maf eking and the Story of its Relief. Not of Military Importance— General Baden-Powell— Early Military Experiences How the Besieged Were Fed - Incidents of the Siege— Baden-Powell's Cheerful Reports— Heliographing Effect of Shells — Boers' Excellent Marksmanship Familiarity Between Sharpshooters — Grand-Father's Death and Funeral Terrific Fighting Through Loop-holes— Commands by the Megaphone— Mystery of the Relief Explained — An Exciting Race — How the Siege was xvaised. . . CHAPTER XIX. Boer and British Strategy Gxnpared. Parting from Home— Dangers of Transports— Napoleon's Campaign Compared— Boers' Preparation for War Unknown— American Hospital Ship " Maine "— Best Attention Given the Wounded on Both Sides— Red Cross and Hospital Trains— Modem Care of British and Boer Wounded— Work Done in a Few Days— Red Cross Regulations— The Bravery of the British— Disciplined Bravery — Colonial Contingents — Boer Strategy. .... CHAPTER XX. Contrasting Briton and Boer in Battle. Boers not Good at Assault— Relative Values of Boer and Briton — Value of Numerous LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS m Scouts-Obsolete Implements of War-Modern Requirements-Bombardment of Small Effect-Effect of Various Guns-Under Bombardment-Valient Sorties CHAPTER XXL Modem Modifications of War. Exa^erated Importance of Reverses-Boer Expectancy -British Non-Expectancv- Force of Arms Necessary-English Language Prohibited-Time Necessary to the Bntish-Unexpected Modernism of Boer Organization-Buller's Solid Soldiership-Invaders at a Disadvantage-Numbers of the Boers-The Total Free for Fighting CHAPTER XXIL The Boer and British War Unavoidable. The East India Company and Its Treatment of the Boers-The Grievance of the Boers-The Boer Reaches His Canaan-Motives for Emigration - Unexoected Development-The Issue of the War Not in Doubt -A False Charge -A Vans- action Advantageous to all Consemed-President Burgess on the Op^ition. CHAPTER XXIIL Transportation and Casualties. The Real Issue of the War-Buller>s Movements Foreordained-No Reliable Map, of the Seat of War-Invasion of the Orange Free State -Military Strength of the Bntish-The Difficult Task of the Under Secretary of War-Lrd R^seWs SrTH '"^"''^''^^ P"-»e'-Result of This War Must be Unity in Sol Afnca-Three Groups of Facts-The Third Chapter of the War. CHAPTER XXIV. Some Important Lessons of the War. A Mixing of Races-The Boer Assimilations-A Short and Simple Story-England's Disindmation to Spread- England Saves the Boers from Barbarism-Mr G^! stones Position-Gladstone Retains Control for Great Britain -The Queen's Proclamation-A Lamentable but Unavoidable Sacrifice-Telegraphic Messages are an Important Factor-Space, Time and Chance Computed-The Press a ^gerous Factor-A Record Breaker in Transportation-Nature's Resource, Conquered-The Modern Rifle-The Gun of Napoleon-The Battle at Wate ^-Reflection on Modern Arms-Advantages of the Besieged-The Spade tnth the Gun-Lessons of the American War-An Important Axiom-The K» of Defence and Attack ^ Ill 19 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS CHAPTER XXV. Equipment and Resources of Both Armies. Deficiencies in Providing for the Troops— Boers Working the Mines— A South African Storm— An African Landscape— English Forces Sent to Africa— Boer Forces and Resources— The Forts of Pretoria— Boer Music and Rifle— Scarcity of Water— The Briton as a Fighter— An Equipment for South Africa— Boer Causalties— Barbed Wire Entanglement— Construction of Barbed Wire Entangle- ments — Transport Food CHAPTER XXVI. Bi<^raphical Sketches of Leaders of Men. In India and Africa— In Ireland- Lord Roberts' Reply— Respect of Private Property —Personal Habits and Characteristics— Hard Work and Diamond Mines- Pressing North -Rhodesia— Supremacy of Boer of Briton— In Besieged Kimberiey— Rhodes a Masterful Manager— A Sketch of His Policy— The Raid Unfortunately Weak— Mr. Chamberiain's Great Peroration —His Promise for Equal Rights— General Joubert— England Rather than Holland -Personal Appearance— General Sir Redvers BuUer— Two Characteristic Anecdotes- General Baden-Powell— Lord Kitchener of Khartoum— General Cronje : Charac- teristics—Home Life of General Cronje— Cronje and the Jameson Raid— General Gatacre— President Steyn, of the Orange Free State: Personal Appearance, Etc. —General George S. White- Lieut.-General the Hon. N. G. Lyttelton, C.B.— Lieut General Sir H. E. Colville, K.C.M.G., C.B.— Lieut-General C Tucker, CB.-Major-General R. A. P. Clements, DS.O., A. D.C.— Lieut-General Sir C. F. Clery, KC.B.— Lieut-General Sir Charies Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.— Major-General H. J. T. Hildyard, C.B.— Major-General Sir Archibald-Hunter, K.C.B., D.S.O.— Brevet Major A. G. Hunter-Weston, R.E — Colonel the Earl of Dundonald, C.B., M.Voo.— Lieut-Colonel A. W. Thorneycroft -Captain the Hon. R. H. L. J. DeMontmorency, V.C— Major-General E. T. H. Hutton, C.B.— Lieut-Colonel Sam Hughes, M.P CHAPTER XXVn. Official Reports from the Front. The First Opportunity to Report— Battalion Joined the 19th Brigade A Very Trying March -Advanced Guard -Delays Frequent— Ordered to Attack the Headquarters' Imager — Battalion Crossed the River— Enemy Sniping — Enemy's Fire Severe— Maxim Gun in Position — " Stop Firing on the l^ft,"— To Finish the Business with the Bayonet— A General Advance— Instances of Individual Bravery— Excellent Service— Collection of Dead and Wounded— Capture of LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS t, Boer Officer— Operations 20th Inst.— An Intermittent Rifle Fire- The Day a Trying One— Action of 27th Ult.-Disposition of Battalion -Plan of Attack -Temfic Fire From the Enemy-The White Flag-Unconditional Capitulation of General Cronje-Scenes After the Surrender-CoL Otter's Diary-The Advance to be Made Over the Burned Veldt-Without Food-Pretoria at Last— Lord Robert's Telegram. " •-•••• 737-746 CHAPTER XXVIII. The Halt at Bloemfontein. Sanna's Post Disaster-Siege of Wepener-Sanr' Jver Battle-Roberts Enters Pretona-Surrender of Prinsloo- Reverse . Dolver Krantz-Attack on Rustenburg-Plot to Kidnap Roberts-Kruger Sails for Europe-Operations North of Pretoria Roberts' Proclamation-Chase Af^er Dewet-Battle of Nootigacht. 747-757 CHAPTER XXIX. Roberts Hands Over the Command to Lord Kitchener. Boers Near Cape Town-Dewet's Escape-Eastern Transvaal-A Hopeless StruRRle -Blockhouse System-Australians Defeated-Kitchener's Proclamation - Assisted by Disloyal Inhabitants -Capture of Scheepers. . . 758-766 CHAPTER XXX. Lord Kitchener's Proclamation. Attack on Fort Itala-Battle of Fort Itala-Attack on Fort Prospect- Attack bv Botha-Serious Disaster-The Blockhouse System -Substantial Progress- Sharp Fighting-Important Capture-Tafel Kop-Serious Reverse-Dewet Active-Boer Forces Reduced-Reduction of Great Britain's Forces-A Large Number of Boers-Operations Against Dewet-Battle of Heilbron-British Led into a Trap-Boers Rush an Outpost-Capture of a Convoy-Results of Operations-Methuen's Mishap-General Situation in South Africa-Movement Against Deiarey-Battle of Boschman's Kop-Hart's River Battle-Boers on AH Sides-The Brave Canadians-Nearly Every Man Hit-Boers Beaten Back-^ReportFrom Lieut.-Col. Evans-Escape of Major Ross-Discovery of Boer Magazme -400 Prisoners Taken— Peace Declared. . . 767-807 vt LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS CHAPTER XXXI. Peace Comes to South Africa after Terrible Cost. Tabulated Statement of British Losses-Number of Winners o» the Victoria Cross- Cost of War m Money to Great Britain-Territory Gained, Etc.-Stages of the War-Memorable Incidents-Chief Officers in the War, British and Boers- Peace Negotiations-Lord Milner. Lord Kitchener and the Boer Commission Meet-Lord Kitchener Cabled the Glad Tidings that Peace had Come-Full Text of the Terms of Peace-Under a New Government-Arrangements for Surrenders-A Distinct Surprise-Lord Kitchener's Speech at Johannesburg. 808-819 CHAPTER XXXII. Review Sketches of Important Events, Including the Battle of Magersfontein. A Herald of Disaste -Sang the Song of Death-Boer Trenches Ran Bloody- A Long Shallow ■;r 'e-The Flowers of the Forest-Spirit of Vengeance-How Four Canadians Won the Victoria Cross-McArthur Shot Through the Arm and Thigh-Closely Pressed-Greatest Gallantry Displayed-Great Presence of Mind - „ 830-830 CHAPTER XXXIII. Canadians at the War-Names and Addresses of Members of Second Contingent Strathcona's Horse etc-Fatal Casualties in Canadia;i Contingents-Pensions for Disabled Soldiers -Widows, Orphans, etc. . . 831 858 PROCLAMATION Whereas, SfpiT-a^k territories in south e, , , . Al-KICA, heretofore known as the Oranee Free State have been conquered by Her Majesty's forces, and it has seemed expedient to Her Majesty that the said territories should be annexed to, and should henceforth form part of Her Majesty's Dommions, and that should provisionally and until Her Majesty's pleasure is more fully known, be appointed Administrator of the said terntones with power to take all such measures and to make and enforce such laws as I may deem necessary for the peace, order and good government of the said territories. u 5^S^5A"*^°r*» ^' Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Kanda- har, K.P.. OCR, G.CS.I. G.C.I.E., V.C. Field-Marshal and Com- mander-m-Chief of the British Forces in South Africa, by Her Majesty s command, and in virtue of the power and authority conferred upon me in that behalf by Her Majesty's Royal Commis- sion, dated the 2istday of May, 1900, and in accordance with Her Majesty s instructions thereby and otherwise signified to me. do proclaim and make known that, from and after the publication hereof, the territories known as the Orange Free State are annexed to and form part of Her Majesty's Dominions, and that, provisionally and until Her Majesty's pleasure is fully declared, the said territories will be administered by me with such powers as aforesaid. Her Majesty is pleased to direct tha' the new territories shall henceforth be known as The Orange River CciOny. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN ■ c^ ^'r*!! "r^er '"y hand and seal at the Headquarters of the Army in South Africa, Camp South of the Vaal River, in the said territories this 24th day of May, in the year of our Lord, 1900. ROBERTS Field Marshal Commanding Her Majesty's Forces in South Africa. PROCLAMATION Whereas, Sfripa^k territories in south Republic have b^n^ ccSn^qVeTSf A\r^^^^^^^^^ TW^T ' !? should henceforth form part of Her Maiestv's SSSureTil *t L„^''-'lP~-ionally a^d until H^r JJ: e / tSS"w"rpIw -^ tna"ke^airS^.^''"'""*''l*°' °^ V^ -^^ enforce such law?as% ma;teem^eSj;rrThe'"4^^^ or£:nd good government of the said territories. ^ ' har K'?'^b*C*^r^ i'r^'r ^t^ ^',^/?!'' ^"°" ^^'^^ °f Kanda- JA^n:^S'c^•S;f•'BS£'•|^r^•^^^^^ Majesty's command, and in virtue of tl.e po^ Md^aSLri.^ Male^Jfin^ltL^thl ;'>i„'nh\"^^ "SS Vt "d ' nereoi, tne territories known as the South AfnVan pir^..kl:^ ^ annexed to and form part of Her Majest^s DoSon^ S" ha? hencetAh'iSJn S^^he^T^^ ntS ""'' ''' "^^ '^"''-'^- ^»^^" GOD SAVE THE QUEEN Jn Q^'y^A^r"^^'' 'liy,!?*"d a"d seal at the Headquarters of the Armv in South Africa, Belfast, in the said Territories, this ist day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1900. ^ ROBERTS Field Marshal Commanding ITer Majeity's Forces in South Africa. CHAPTER XII. Condensed History of South Africa. i486 The Cape of Good Hope discovered by Bartoolomeo Dias, and called varioasly Cabo Tormentoso (Stormy Cape), the Lion of the Sea, and the Head of Africa. Ita present name was given by John II. of Portugal. 1497 Nov. 19. The Cape was doubled, and the passage to India discovered, by Vasco da Gama. 1650 Cape Town, the capital, founded by the Dutch. 1685 A large number of Huguenot refugees, driven from Fiance by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, arrive at the Cape 1700 Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stell, representative of the Dutch East India Company, established the first settle- ment of graziers and cattle farmers among the Tulbagh Mountains, and thereby laid the foundations of the Dutch republics in South Africa. 1795 Republics proclaimed at Swellendam and Graaf Reinet, and the Government officials of the Dutch East India Company overthrown. '795 Sept.i6th. The Colony seized by the English under Admiral Elphinstone and General Clarke. March 25th. The Colony restored to the Dutch by the Peace of Amiens. Jan. 9th. Again seized by the British ; the Dutch settlers dissatisfied with the arbitrary rule of the Dutch East India Company, making but slight resistance. 1802 1806 s»s 3a6 CONDENSED HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA i8ia Five Boera hanRed at Slaghter'a Nek, as punishment for rebellion against British authority. 1814 Cape Colony finally ceded to Great Britain, with the assent of the European Powers. 1820 March. British emigrants arrive. 1834 The abolition of slavery and financial ruin of many Dutch farmers. Native uprising, resulting in defeat of the Zulus and Matebeles. 1836 The year of the Great Trek. The Dutch of Cape Colony, becoming discontented with British control, left their homes and ventured into the unknown wilderness north of the Orange River. The most important party, under the leadership of Andries Pretorius, and having with it the boy Paul Kruger, settled in what is now the South African Republic and Orange Free State. / >ther party, headed by Gerrit Maritz and Pieter Retief, founded the Republic of Natal after severe conflicts with the natives. 1836-38 Retief and others massacred by Dingaan, Zulu chief 1838 Dec. 16th. Defeat of Zulus. The day is still kept by the Dutch as a day of thanksgiving. The South African Republic founded by Maritz, Potgieter, and Pretorius. The British Government overthrows the Republic of Natal and takes possession of the country, many of the original Dutch Settlers retiring into the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Bishopric of Cape Town formed ; Dr. Robert Gray, first Bishop. British Government proclaims its authority over the Orange Free State, establishing its authority after the battle foue Colony promulgated. 1853 August. General Pretorious, head of the Transvaal Repub- lic, died. 1854 Jan. 30th. Independence of the Orange Free State recog- nized by Great Britain. 1854 March. A free state then formed by the Boers. 1854 July ist. The first Parliament meets at Cape Town. 1856 August. Uprising among the Zulus put down by Sir George Grey then Governor. Feb. 13th. Constitution of South African Republic pro- claimed. Dec. The first railway from Cape Town, about fifty-eight miles long, opened. Sir Philip Wodehouse appointed Governor of Cape Colony. 1867-70 Discovery of diamonds near the Orange River, and reports of gold in the Transvaal, renew interest in South Africa, and lead to disputes between the British, the Boers, and the native tribes. The farms on which diamonds were discovered, the site of Kimberley, claimed as British territory on behalf of a native chief who had ceded his right to Great Britain. The Orange Free State Government gives up its claim to the diamond fields, receiving /90.000 as compensa- tion from the British Government. 1870 July 12th. New harbor, breakwater, and docks at Cape Town inaugurated by the Duke of Edinburgh. 1858 1858 1861 5S8 1870 1871 1871 1871 187a 1872 »875 »8'/5 1876 1876 1876 1877 1878 1879 CONDENSED HISTORY OP SOUTH AFRICA Auguit. Sir Heniy Barkly appointed Governor of Cape Colony. "^ March. The energy of the Governor resolts in the repret- ■Ion of aggretsioni of the Governor of the Orange Free State. Oct. a7th. The colony of Griqaaland conititnted. Nov. 17th. The British flag raised over the diamond fields. Mr. T. F. Burgers elected President of the South African Republic. Sept. I St. Death of Bishop Gray. Nov. 1 1 th. Long debate in Cape Parliament begins upon the scheme of Lord Carnarvon, the Colonial Secretary, for a South African Confederation, to include the two republics. The proposal to transfer the conference upon the subject to England resented. Nov. 26th. The Cape Pariiament prorogued, and delegates sent to England. Aug. 5th. Conference of delegates in London begins. Nov. Sir H. Bartle E. Frere appointed Governor and Lord High Commissioner of South Africa. War between the Kaffirs and Boers. April i2th. The annexation of the South African Republic declared at Pretoria by Sir Theophilus Shepstone A deputation of Transvaal burghers, including Kruger, visits England to protest against the annexation. Unsuccessful. A second depuution. including Kruger and Joubert, sent to England. Again unsuccessful. Jan. 12th. The Zulu War begins. After annihilating a large portion of the British forces at Isandhlwana on Jan. 22th. they are finally defeated in July at Uiundi. i879 CONDBNSED HISTORY OP SOUTH AFRICA 5,9 March. Sir William Owen Unyon made Governor of Soath African Republic. 1879 May. Sir G. Wolwley appointed Governor of Natal, etc. 1879 Dec. The Transvaal declared a Crown colony. 1879 Dec. The Boers meet and claim independence. Doth Kruger and Pretoriout arrested for signing a document issued by a Boer Committee. 1879 Decasth. Telegraphic communication completed between the Cape and Great Britain. 1880 April a8th. Mr. Gladstone comes into office. 1880 June. Government proposition from Conference of Dele- gates to promote federation rejected by the Assembly. June. War with the Basutos. Aug. I St. Recall of Sir Bartle Frere. Aug. 2i8t. Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson appointed Gov- ernor and Lord High Commissioner for South Africa. Dec. The Boers meet and claim independence ; Bok, Kruger, and Pretorious arrested for signing a document issued by a Boer Committee. Dec. 16th. The Boers seize Heidelberg, and re-establis'i the South African Republic, with Paul Kruger as President. Dec. aoth. Fight at Bronkhorstspruit between Boers and British, and surrender of the latter. Dec. 27th. Potchefstroom seized by the Boers, who retired >vhen the place was shelled. Colonel Bellairs besieged there Dec. 29th. Captain J. M. Elliot killed while fording the Vaal River. Den. 30th. The South African Republic proclaimed b/ a t.iumvirate : Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorious. Jm. Troops sent from Great Britain. Sir George Colley (appointed Governor of Natal in 1880) takes command. 1880 1880 1880 1880 1880 1880 i8."'o 1880 1880 1881 m:'\ 530 188 1 I88I 188 1 188 1 I88I 188 1 1882 1883 1883 1883 1884 1885 1887 1888 1888 1889 CONDENSED HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Repulse of Sir George Colley's forces at Laing's Nek A ew days later another defeat at Ingogo. On Feb. a6th Sir Oeorge Colley. having .eized Majuba Hill with a small lorce, IS again defeated and loses his life. Feb. 28th. General Sir F. Roberts sent to Africa March^ Armistice proposed by the Boers and accepted by Great Britam. Peace proclaimed, the Boers disperse, and General Roberts recall 3d, April. Commissioners to carry oat Treaty of Peace ap. pomted. *^ August. The Pretoria Convention a^ree to cede ail terri- tory to .. The Transvaal State." subject to the suzerainty of the Queen and a British Resident. Sept Meeting of the Volks Raad. Treaty c onfirmed. Conflicts wjth the natives. Kruger again elected President. July. Peace with the natives concluded November^ Paul Kruger and others received by Lord Derby a.s Transvaal deputies. tioTt°"r ""kT^ °" "■'""'• '"^^^'"S Pretoria Conven- t.on o„d abohshtng ail limitations on Transvaal indepen- which might ..eem opposed to British interests RoLr- "^""^^ " ''™'"^*^ "''-«' 'y '■" «-'- Johannesburg founded. May Sth. Kruger again elected President Amalgamation of the Kimberleydiamondmines effected by Ahr h tr X *= """""' --'^"''fthe ISothschilds Marcn Defence Treaty entered into by the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. iSgi 1892 1892 1895 »893 CONDENSED HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA J"- Sir H. Brougham Loch appointed Governor and «igh Commissioner for South Africa. 1889 Oct. Famine in Johannesburg. 1890 Mr. Rhodes becomes Premier of Cape Colony 1890 Dec. General Joubert entertained in London Sir. H. B Loch and Mr. Rhodes visit London to discuss South African affairs with the Government Feb 2 ist. Great Fire in Cape Town March loth. Sir H. B. Loch opens the junction railway X80 . ';'7" ^=^f J^°'-y -d the Orange Free State. ' i89i April. Paul Kruger again elected President of the South African Repubhc for the fourth time May 4th. Mr^Rhodes resigns and reconstructs his Ministry CompaT'' ^'^'■''"'"'■""^ ^^''^'^' of British South Africa 1894 June^ ^"'-f -Ejects exempted from military service by the Transvaal Government. ^ •894 Aug. Revolt of the Kaffirs and their defeat 1 89 j Lord Ripon retires from the Colonial Office and is succeed ed by Mr. Chamberlain. succeed- Feb. and. Mr. Rhodes made Privy Councillor Feb^xith. The Swaziland Convention passed by the Volks iZl \T^u\ ^"t' ^^^^"^-'-d -nexed by the Assembly 1895 July. Delagoa Railway opened at Pretoria 1896 Jan. 2nd. The Jameson Raid. '''^ Rrodlf''" °^ '^' ^'""°" ^''^' '"^ ^^"^"^^ °f Mr. 1897 Defensive treaty between Orange Free State and South African Republic. -^outn .895 '895 I 532 1897 iSgS 1898 1899 1899 1899 1899 1809 1899 1899 1899 CONDENSED HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Lord Rosmead (Sir H. Robinson) retires from the Cape Governorship, and is succeeded by Sir Alfred Milner. Mr. Rhodes' party in the Cape Parliament is defeated, and Mr. Schreiner forms a new Ministry. Dec. Murder of Mr. Edgar by a Boer Policeman. Ma7.i?tcT"'"^ '^''°" ^'^ ^"^'^^ ^~t. May 31st. Conference at Bloemfontein between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner. July ioth-i9th. New Franchise Bill passed by the Ra. grantmg the seven years' franchise, but making its acoli- ca. on depend upon the pleasure of the Transvaal offid;is. lerence to examine the question. Aug. .9th. The Transvaal Government dechnes the British offer and proposestosubstitnteafive-yearfranchise. provided hatGreatBntanwil, pledge herself neveragaintoin'ervenl n Transvaal affa,rs, no longer to insist upon the assertion of su.eramty, and to concede arbitration from which Govern- eTcUded *'" ""' °'*° °™*' ^'^ ^"'"" *°«'<' "« „1? T',r ^'" ^""* <^°™™"«« «Pli« 'hat it cannot pledge ..self not to protect it, subjects in the Transvaal, and that .t st.ll maintains suzerainty. Proposals for a con- lerence renewed. Sept. 2nd. The Transvaal offers, conditionally, to enter into a conference, but withdraws the whole franchise offer and insists upon absolute abrogation of British suzerainty, and the formation of the Transvaal into -a sovereign inter- national state." Sept. .T3th Great Britian replies, practically renewing the Transvaal s own proposal of August 19th for a five years' CONDENSED HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 533 franchise, but leaving the suzerainty question as before, and suggesting that the Uitlanders in the Transvaal Legislature should be permitted to speak English. 1899 Sept. 19th. The Transvaal replies, withdrawing all former offers and gradually agrees to a joint commission of inquiry. 1899 Sept. 22nd. Great Britain announces the preparation of final terms. '899 Sept. 28th. The Orange Free Statevotes to ally itself with the South African Republic. ' 1899 Oct. 2nd. General Sir Redvers Buller chosen to the com- mand in South Africa. ii{99 Oct. loth. The Boer Ultimatum. Varied Climate of South Africa. The contrasts in the climate of South Africa are in part accounted for by the elevation of the continent. This appears ■• > very intelligible form in the heights above sea level of interior places associated with the war as follows: Pretoria, 4.471 ft • Johannesburg, .5.689; Heidelberg. 5.028; Standerton, 5.025' Volksrust. 5.433 ; Charlestown, 5,385; Laing's Nek. 5.399; New- castle, 3.892; Ladysmith, 3,285 ; Harrismith, 5.322 ; Pietermaritz- burg. 2,ai8; Kimberley. 4.012 ; Vryburg, 3.880; Mafeking. 4.194; Palapye, 3.0.1; Bulawayo, 4,469; Norval's Pont. 3.988; Bloem- fontein, 4,517; Viljoen's Drift. 4,760. W; 1: CHAPTER xm Side Lights from Both Armies in the Con- duct of the War the New T>,T ^"" """''='" *'■"• "hite light and develop^en, and 5r„Tlrab'^'™^r''^ ^"'^"°" -<> igno«n«andag.oo™rde".inV '° ' '"^'"•™ °' supe2;;iv:l: A^lt'^ ■? '""'- ""= ^""^1' ha« assumed .ha. when'.h. coun™ wa ""t" '" ->%oven,™e„. i, positive degree i„ rlZT n"^" ''' '"'' ''" " ''^^" •"" «'« is a soHH e„1i.;-al7^™r k '"'7'"°"^ "•^"^■^' England '"■y. ail parties combined for the Hion:>., j • England.. and moral power of the r ^ "''"'^'' Solid Unity .:„ t-, ^ " °' *^ Governmen. of .he Em- and Boers, showfg. hit Brit",! '"f ' '" *^ ^'' °' *= B"'"- American citizen sfn pl„r.a:: ^"'^ T "° "''™'"^- °- when there is difflcuii; ard:^:''^! "^ ^ '" T 'T passions are stirred and the people reX th P^'o^^est interests in the events of the L Th . '?"""' °' " 534 *'>^' ^'■^ ^Ps^-^h of Mr. Morely in i SIDE LIGHTS F/iOAf BOTH ARMIES 533 Scotland in the dark and troubled hours of the Boer war dissi- pated the idea that the statesmen of Great Britain could stand for the state if there was peril in the air and danger in the dark. Mr. Herbert Giaostone, M.P., son of the great statesman and orator, a man of highly respectable qualities, said in a speech to his constituents: " It was the duty of every patriot to avoid in any degree hampering the Government in the prosecution of the war in South Africa. (Hear! hear!) He would do nothing to weaken ttseir hands, but he would rather do everything to strengthen their efif&rts. He gave his whole-hearted support to our gallant troops. (Cheers.) He gave them unstinted sympathy and the most loyal confidence. But we owed it to our brave soldiers to see that the policy of the Government did not render useless those splendid and heroic sacrifices which our soldiers „ „ .. Mr. Herbert were now makmg for us. Even if our Government Gladstone's was to be changed at the present time that would Speech bring about no immediate change in South Africa, The war would have to be prosecuted with equal vigor ; but even if a chnnge of Gov- ernment was possible at present it was certainly not desirable, because the present Government were responsible for what had happened, and their bitterest enemy did not wish to change places with them. (Hear ! hear !) As there was no idea whatever that either the Liberal party or any great section of it were likely to seek to upset the Government in order to put themselves in their place, he felt he could speak with greater freedom. Although Liberals were asked to abstain from party politics, there was no such self-denying ordinance yet visible on the other side. (A laugh.) Conserva- tive papers and Conservative speakers indulged in the same old denunciations of Liberal politicians and Liberal policy. This was especially the case with regard to the action of the Liberal Govern- ment in restoring the independence of the Transvaal after Majuba II SfDE LIGHTS FROAf BOTH ARMIES li't'i: Tl ■■i ! "elre"erer-t/v that he voted for that policy, and he would never regret .t to h.s dying day. (Hear ! hear ')" rhat was spoken like a gentleman and one devoted to the vin ^on. by Her Majesty's Government .0 TZZl'llT'^: Englishmen robbed, oppressed, and in alU em, Cay ttl, 1 .'pon England would no. have submitted ve^ loTi to Z'J regard oahe rights or BriHsh subjectsby any tHbUrhU::;:Lt: Bimlr^*! ?T '" ' ^"''^ "'"""" '=«="'i"g ■•'■ and yet it ". r..«r ■V';= 7:' 't' °'""^"'°" "' "■■= 'overnment i England that the war could have been and sho„U have been avoided, and that the day of reckoning wffl when there must be a change of parties „, he 7 """' '°°" .he Empire. The British Le b«n " be"f'"'^"'r" "' American elections objectionable becaul ,h. „ ""^'■d'nng ^ «.grantly unjust^o those in por 1' rs":: ^.^a^ which England has boasted do t Im' "VeT^l^H"^ °' upon this occasion. °" <=*l>ib,t,on He bri[„l!;te?''"'' '" 'r'"" "" '"" "' ■"-Wef-malcing. He behttled the tyrannies suffered by the majority of white men n the Transvaal, scoffed at the fact that they were disar,^ed 7Z ^ne greatest aty in the Transvaal was surrounded witlTforL .hat the busies, streets that had made .ha. par. of t^worfd^b^ SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES 5.;? known to mankind, were under the mouths of cannon, and the in- habitants refused redress contemptuously. Still Mr. Morley said : "If the Government of the Boers had been so corrupt and oppressive, I wonder whether men by the thousand would have left their homes and their wives and their property and endangered their lives for the preservation of the independence ^Hx Motley's of that Government. ( Hear ! hear ! ) I do not think so. Mischievous Where were the Uitlanders' grievances? Men did Speech not get their votes soon enough ; ..hey did not get their dynamite cheap enough ; the black natives were not made to work hard enough — I should like nothing better than to go with you and with all other voters in the burghs through the list of these grievances coolly in (^etail with chapter and verse and tell you what the end of it would be." There would not have been war if the Boers had consented that nearly two-thirds of the white men of the Transvaal, paying nine-tenths of the taxes, possessing about that proportion of the capital, the great employers of labor, had been allowed one-fourth or even one-eight of the representation in the Volks Raad, and allowed to state their grievances in English, as the Dutch may state their desires and complaints in Dutch in Cape Town. Mr. Morley continued : " The great curse of the war, whether long or short, which has broken up the old South African system which existed a year ago, is that it has kindled passions and resentments War Like an which will make either the restoration of the old Earthquake system or the construction of a new system a thing of desperate difficulty. War is like an earthquake. It is useless to ask me to give you plans for rebuilding a city which an earthquake has shattered, until I know for certain that the subterranean wave which produced the earthquake has spent its force, until I know 538 SIDE UGHTS FHOAf BOTH ARMtES 'fl a great armed conflict U gomron ,? '^""°'' *•■"= practical men say what pUn you wM '" '"^"="' J-™ <^anno, as -oration of a better state oTt^tX: /"^ -"<' '- .-= "n, t ^'^ "'^ "° responsibility S o'r- "" '^ °^'='- ' ■ Wh !:;!"• K?'""; '"-"■ ^'"-^^ ^^.h, remarks., vvniie witn a sindeness nf a.'rv, j r pose unapproached in furda " .hT^ "f V'"" "^ '"■™«^ P"" .o the prosecution of the war Mr , . m T"' " ''"'""8 "«'f ■.is Scottish constituents TbeUttle ,h" ' '" '°"'' ''''"" "■ homage to his „„ righ.eo„s^s '^e nat.onal cause and pay are mourning their defd tens o Tth ^"'^ "' ^"''^'' "o-- fcat. for their nearest and dtres°„oh7T "" '^'''' "^ ^""" Mr. Money. hold in the I ndl oTe ^ "wTh "' T^' '■°"- ts^- -. -^ .»- soidierr \rrr.:iit •° -e pau.x^:-:rnitr::r::r™h^'"'^^^^^^^ in which we are en^a^eH .J u ? ^°"demn the conflict -..out, asshameS p^nlt r^r: ^^^^ >^ Of Arbroath— the countrymen of tU ,. ^^^ "'^" =>eep on the ve,d. at mZZII:'!!:!^ "t '"'^"""^ "-" reception. The fact, if it be a fact dof ' '"""^ ^ ^""^ more than what the French I " P™'"''''' amount to We are confiden thaT the nT. ""' '^™ =" ™''^^ '^-*''- Mr. Morieys jokes nd oph,: L" 1^ °^'^ '" "° '"-'" '" ness appears to have Crosse' Lttn ^Z ^ He" " '" '"'" ""'''■ -.s action by the i„ example set him on both" .m!'.^ " '""'- A-a, for Whom a space immediry::d:: ttd^ latf^:? SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES 539 opened with the hymn, *' Fight the good fight with all thy might," and was followed, after the supplicatory portion of the service, by Psalm xci. The lesson, which was read by Canon Scott Holland, was taken from I, St. Peter, v., 5-1 1, beginning with the verse, "All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility ; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." The Boers would, of course, claim this humility for them- selves, and they never hesitate to assert their vital piety. There is visible a certain competition in the religious fervor of the Britons and the Boers. The Bishop of London delivered an address in St. Paul's before the Second battalion of Volunteers in which he said : " This great church which rises over the City of London was planned at a time when London lay in ashes. And yet it was planned on a scale which corresponded not to the existing distress of London, but to London's conception of her j^^dress of the abiding greatness. Many a time, I doubt not, have Bishop of you, in some shape or another, asked within your- London selves, * Here and here, did England help me ; how can I help England, say ? ' Now that question has been answered. Now the call has come to you, and with simple steadfastness you say, ' Eng- land has need of me ; I rise and go.' You rise and go. You rise above yc xx ordinary selves, above the claims of every day. You go bearing England's honor with you. You go committing yourselves to God, with whom are all the issues of all our endeavors. You go to face unknown difficulties and dangers for your country's sake. You go lor your fathers who begat you, whose work you cannot refuse to carry on. You go for your children, who are to come after you, that you may hand down to them England's honor untar- nished during the brief period in which it was committed to your trust. My brothers, all England is with you in its good wishes and its prayers m Word. "" ""''' "•""'y «?••=«. which we have been trying to express in our pravers tn r«,i r- i who sees within us what we onr..!,, God- God prayed for youn^lves ,L >,! ^ """"' """• '^<"' h"' anoU,er. You ^H I .If T' '"" """= P"^''' '" »- who ^icice TnClX: B .L^vlt "" ^""■■'^'"■" °' '"^^ honor of England." *'"" '"^ '°-"«'« ">« Honored Sir and Brother.-The case U r~, ' me to remain silent Your H„„„ momentous for ent. Your Honor must impress upon all your offi- Divine H.!p "T, T '""''P^-dence and no, to surrender c- our lives, rere:o:r^L"^■""^'•"-"" -eat^hu. .„ ■ „„, ^^ Ctcu^re'dTr r ^" ""' " » regr.'-thtro^ trd:e:;:^hiiV:eta " '^1 '^^ r- ^- loss of a few. ^^''^ °"^y ^° ^a'nent the " If we retreat, it is owing to cowardice I Ko • . -t of cooperation has causfd us to e^c'::. Ir;!".:::" "" SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES 541 " My age does not permit me to join my sons, otherwise I would have been at the front by this time. " Your Honor's directions and advice must be before them continuously. For the decisive struggle is fast approaching which is to prove whether or not we shall surrender the country. •' By no means must we give up the country, even if it costs us half of our men. " Your Honor must impress upon the officers and burghers that they must resist to the death. In the name of the Lord, with this determination, and with a prayerful attack, I have confidence that we shall secure the victory. For Christ has said, 'Whosoever would keep his life shall lose it, but whosoever would lose it for truth's sake shall keep it '." President Stc 1 visited the state troops who had been in the fight at the Moduer River. It appears from the - journal of an American who has been some time Panicky at with the Boers, that in the course of this battle, Modder River which was the one in which Lord Methuen was worsted, the Orange State troops, having been frightened in two previous combatj by the heavy artillery fire of the British, became panicky, and though they had not suffered > ery much retreated to the bank and across the river. The excuse made for them was that they were led by men who had no confidence in themselves, and inspired none in their followers. It was reported by the Boers that the British at this moment " promptly seized their opportunity" and crossed the stream. The Boer forces are said to have numbered between four and five thousand, and they have put their loss at eight killed, twenty-two wounded and ten prisoners. Some lyddite shells had torn a few of the B- rs in a frightful way, and the American journalist says "helped to weaken the nerves of the Free Staters who had no leaders of their own they could trust." 543 ^jye UCHTS fROM BOTH ARMBS ."ankcd enough for ...H. t^' ^^tl^^^f 7" "" "^ mended the bravery shown k ? '"*^^"**' ^^^ they com- » co^peralion and love aln T u i "■"" "■"" ">-="= when each and evel one cor,- ! "'""" ""'' '"'■«'»"• »"« S..yn..Word. the'last \^T and ^ ' ' '^""= T '°'"^'" '" of Admonition „^^ "'^; '"'' ">at many of ,h. <„her, - '--p- results for our liberty L a pi? T"" °"'^ '"'' 'o '«'"'™'» results for our bro.hers"„ .he Mri,;"" ™'' ""^ "-' ""'or.una.e His e:p'ec^"d":b7.;ror" '"- ^"'* -■^'^ °- '^« ••• '- officers should accompauT he h. 'r°'"""'"''' ""■• ">« 'he After this serioril: SeTt St""'""'" "•' ■»"'-" sions of confidence in God in IZ::^:^.^^'' ""^ l^^»- I have no doubt but that.he God of oTr fath 7 '" ""' ""' "Ot forsalce us, bu. give us .he vic.ory st ^T "" ''"^ "'" Boer Prayer. ou. of his place ^,7' "°' °"^ ** '°""<' AidtoViLry one be L„d tal • k""' "^''*™'"'- ^' ^^^ Boers .' Hei^s :rhy:it:r " r^^ '" -''"•'"' •-- dan, to religious servL J .. " ""^ ^ M .hommc- beating back the Brit:;':::,.:rs/"'''t^ ''''-'■ ''"^' "■ Joubts about this, but there Z h "" """ ^"'' '"^'''^nJ mere can be no question that the Boers are SIDE LIGHTS FROM DOTH ARMIES 543 all marching one way, and they would never allow a Morlcy to dis- fiK'ure the Dutch language in war time, in opposition to the country ;h is done in England in English speech. The fact that there is a good deal of solicitude felt as to the attitude of the Cape Town Dutch at the British heailquarters of the army in South Africa appears in the general order issued January 1 : " The Commander-in-Chief wishes to impress upon all officers who may at any time be in charge of columns or detached com- mands the grave importance of doing all in their power, by good and conciliatory treatment, to secure compensation for the people of the country in all matters affecting either their own interests or those of the troops. In all cases in which supplies of any kind are required they must be paid for on ^^l*lt^ delivery, and a receipt taken. (3fficers will be held Property responsible that soldiers are never allowed to enter ^^^^ private houses or molest the inhabitants on any pretext whatsover. and that every precaution be taken to suppress looting or petty robbery by any person connected with the army. When supplies are absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the army and the inhabitants are unwilling to meet demands, commanding officers may. after careful personal investigation, and having satisfied themselves that such supplies are necessary and available, order them in such case to be taken by force, and a full receipt given. " Kitchener of Khartoum." Mafeking, December loth, Colonel Baden-Powell, command- ing, published in the "siege edition" of the Mafeking paper an address to the Boers in arms around the town, opening : " Burghers— I address you in this manner because I have only recently learned how you have been intentionally kept in the dark by your officers, the Government, and the newspapers, as to what 544 SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES \0 % «s happening in other parts of South Africa. As the officer commanding Her Majesty's troops on this border. I think it right to pomt out clearly the inevitable result of your remaining longer B..Poweirs ""^er arms against Great Britain. You are aware Burners*"**'* ^^^^ ^'''' ^'''''''"' ''''"' ^""^ ^^""^"^ ''^ ^^^ invasion urg ers ^f gntish territory by your forces without justifiable reasons. Your leaders do not tell you that so far your forces have only met the advance-guard of the British forces. The circum- stances have changed within the last week. The main body of the British are now daily arriving by thousands from England, Canada India and Australia, and are about to advance through the country. In a short time the Republic will be in the hands^'of the British, and no sacrifice of life on your part can stop it The question now that you have to put to yourselves, before it is too late, is: Is it worth while losing your lives in a vain attempt to stop the invasion or take a town beyond your borders, which, if taken, will be of no use to you ? " I may tell you that Mafeking cannot be taking by sitting down and looking at it, for we have ample supplies for several months." Colonel Baden-Powell proceeded to mention that the Boer artillery had not done much harm, that there would not be Euro- pean intervention, that the burghers should think of the safety of their families and farms, and added that the Boer leaders had caused the destruction of farms, and have fired on women and Warning children. Our men are becoming hard to restrain CroTe * '" consequence. They have also caused the in- °"J* vasion of Kaffir territory, looting their cattle and have thus induced them to rise and invade your country and kill your burghers. As one white man to another. I warned General Cronje. on November 14th, that this would occur. Yesterday I MAJOR WILLIAMSON AND OFFICERS. THE STRATHCONA FLAG. Ckatai. Iqr Gaurtn * Gmtip* LATEST NEWS FROM THE FRONT " °'If J'"!",r;5«^™«'='^' HOB«E." r..s™G J %%- TORONTO QUOTA TO FILL VACANCIES IN Isx CONiii^;^ EMBARKING HORSES AT QUEBEC FOR SOUTH pTiotM bjr Oautin 4 CntMl. AFRICA. I SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES 547 heard that more Kaffirs were rising. I have warned General Snyman accordingly. Great bloodshed and destruction of farms threaten you on all sides. " I wish to offer you a chance of avoiding it. My advice to you is to return to your homes without delay, and remain peaceful till the war is over. Those who do this before the 13th will, as far as possible, be protected, as regards yourselves, your families, and property from confiscation, looting and other pen- », U- » u- u t- . . Alternative aities, to which those remaming under arms will be Offered the subjected when the invasion takes place. Secret Boers agents will communicate to me the names of those who do. Those who do not avail themselves of the terms now offered may be sure that their property will be confiscated when the troops arrive. Each man must be prepared to hand over a rifle and 150 rounds of ammunition. The Boers were extremely indignant that this paper was sent to the Boer soldiers directly, as it had a considerable circulation among them, and was calculated to be very disagreeable. It was irregular to give so much useful information in a lump, but it answered the purpose of the gallant Colonel in disturbing the peace of mind of his enemies. British influences are keeping the Basutos from taking revenge on Mahan's the Boers, though the latter forced both natives Statement and British into their ranks and compelled them to fight more or less. The writings of Captain Mahan on the South African ques- tion are as acceptable to the British public as his works on Sea- Power. There is much commentation of his statement that it is " The Uitlanders, not the Boers, who should be compared with their forefathers who revolted against George the III. This pass- age from the Captains letter, reproduced in England from the New York Times, states that " the people of the Transvaal have * i n: ' 54X SIDE LIGHTS FROAf BOTH ARMIES •^\ been brought mto this dilemma because national liberty was in Kru^er s mmd mseparably associated with the right of the domi. nant m.nority. the sole possessors of political power-in other words an ohgarchy-to oppress the majority, tax it heavily, and refuse it representation." A writer. Fred J as. Tomkins. dating at Toronto, has been in commun.cat.onwuh colored people in Canada in the United States, and m Africa for the last forty years, and he remarks ■ 'The first fact to place before the public is their loyalty to the Queen, and to the British race. I would ask why this Loyalty of the people, panting for liberty, easily trained to arms Blacks to the brave m battle, patient, obedient, and loyal to the . ^"^^"' should not be employed in this exigency th.rst.ng as chey are to avenge the oppression of ages and to^assisi m the great conflict now being waged in Africa. I mav say that there would be no difficulty in raising as many contingents of black and colored men in Nova Scotia and in Ontario, men of intel- hgen:e men of eminent piety, for the negro race is a religious race, who W.11 be w.lhng to struggle to live. and. if it pleased God. to die for the mother country. In every part of the world the black man knows that this is his day and hour." Mr. Tomkins refers to the success of the colored soldiers in the northern armies during the war of the sections. He has been mis- informed when he states that two army corps of the National Army were entirely composed of colored soldiers, and he neglects to men- t.on.nthe.r behalf that one of the most distinguished regiments in the batt e of S.nt.ago was the .4th United States Infantry, com- posed of colored men. One of the most gratifying aspects of this war from Its very beg.nn.ng has been the the truly humane and often magnanimous treatment of prisoners on both sides. The following extract from I SIDE LIGHTS FROM BOTH ARMIES a letter from 549 was a Cape Town correspondent shows the spirit tl displayed alike by Briton and Boer. " The lot of the Boer prisoners is not a very hard one. The only task imposed on them is that of keeping their own quarters clean. They are allowed to receive visitors on cer- tain days of the week. Their friends may supply Br'iUsh ^reat them with any luxuries they desire in the way of Boer Prisoners deckK:hairs. clothes, cakes, fruit or tobacco, in fact anything except money and spirits. Their food is not luxurious, but sufficient and healthy. The meal I saw consisted of boiled beef, potatoes, pickles bread and coffee. " On the other hand, from the best information, we learn that our prisoners, confined near Pretoria, are as well treated and as well ed as the average Boer soldier. They have an enclosure suffi- ciently large to allow them to play cricket and football. From what I saw of the Boer leaders myself at the outbreak of the war and from their behavior since. I believe they intend to carry out this war in a civilized and humane spirit." I A Wounded Canadian Volunteer's Last Letter to His Mother, from South Africa. Dear mother, I now write to you, But this will be my last : A rifle bullet pierced me through, My strength is failing fast. Grieve not for me my mother dear : Though here I wounded lie ; For I'm a Christian volunteer And not afraid to die. I have no envy in my breast. Against my fellow-man : I know not what caused this contest, Nor why it first began. But this I know, if all were good And righteous in God's sight : There would be no such loss of blood. Nor cause for such a fight. But worldly men for wealth or fame, Would slay from pole to pole : And, after all could not obtain, The value of one soul. No more shall I behold the place. Where once I oft did roam : I ne'er shall see your smiling face, Nor my Canadian home. But mother we shall meet again. On Canaan's peaceful shore : Where there will be no grief nor pain And parting is no more. With me it's near the close of day, God bless us one and all : Farewell, adieu, I must away I hear the bugal call 550 — /. Woohty. CHAPJEKXIV. Africa a Great Country. THE giant continent of Africa-so near an island that a slen- der isthmus of sand only prevents the union of the seas around her burning shores-and through this sand a canal for oc;an steamers completes the circum-navigation of the enor- mous bulk-never loomed upon the world in its full proportions and mvited speculation as to its stupendous possibilities, as since the Dutch and British war advertised with bloodshed the progress and the demands of civilization, and illumined the ancient dark- ness that was the distinguishing characteristic of the vast dominion three times as extensive as all the States and Ter- The Gre ritories of the great American Republic, and with Continent of natural resources far exceeding those of Europe Afii>^ or South America. In larger measure than ever, the whole weld .s now mterested in the Greater Africa, and, while the immediate question ,s whether the more temperate and fruitful parts of the Afncan lands shall be modern Bri^-h ancient Dutch, there are other matters of moment rising in th. near future like headlands emerging from a fog. Northern Africa had a great part in the eariier history of the Globe. In pe.-.ce and in war, in the splendors of Egypt and Car thage. the soil of the former containing the most wonderful work^ of man, monumental of the era of which history was the written evi- thTfl* H rl" ^"'"" ^'^^tcoming with thesunshinefrom Asia, that flamed hke a great torch on the banks of the N ile, the mysterious at 55« AFRICA A GREAT COUNTRY river flowing forever from the immeasurable South-from the southern mto the northern temperate zone, crossing the Equator, draining a lake country incomparable in th. world until the New World was revealed, just before the navigators, seeking the road o I„d.a had rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Egypt and Car- tl.age were of the bloodiest despotisms of the ages when there were only points of light rising from the abyss of chaos ; and their conquest by the' Roman Empire wa. victory for the cause of pro- gressive promise, and compensating in part for the future fact that at last the invadors from Asia overwhelmed the Republics of urecce. The Greeks were such students and lovers of their own beauty, they lost regard for the strength of pplitical unity, so that the champions of Christian civilization, those Crusaders for the possession of the Holy Sepulchre, who beat back the deluge of Early Changes Mohammedanism for centuries-won Jerusalem in Northern for a time, and defended Constantinople. From " '"«<^»*valItalywithherfatalgifts,andbeyondinthe far West of Europe, marched hordes from the Empires Alexander overcame, established themselves on both sides of the Hellespont, and, making the city of Constantinople their capital, swept over not merely Macedonia. Athens, Corinth and Sparta, but established themselves on the banks of the Danube, and founded kingdoms in bpain and Morrocco. possessing both the pillars of Hercules. Northern Africa, from the mouth of the Nile to the Atlantic was, before this and for a time after, the scene of brilliant activities* of literary labors, of " cloud-capped towers " and gorgeous churches.' of famous orators of church and state and warriors; and we may say the inventors of historical writing. The production of the Alexandrian Library, whose conflagration was one of mankind's common misfortuner-the sombre smoke and flame of which still makes a sinister mark on the sky of the East. It is a long cry Dominance of the British AFRICA A GREAT COUNTRY 353 from the burning of the Alexandrian Library to Napoleon's Battle of the Pyramids and the bombardment of Alexandria by the British, when the Egyptians found their tactic masters. It was the dominance of Britair in Southern Africa and her wealth of world-wide commerce and supremacy on the seas, that gave her possession of the Isthmus of Suez, and the Cape of Good Hope— the two command- ing the continent. Holland was overpowered at one end of Africa and France at the other, because their uses for the ends of the earth were comparatively small when Great Britain was in the reckoning. France has more than she needs of Africa in Algiers and on the West Coast. She has not the surplus popula- tion to spare to cause her colonies to flourish. She is under the strain, however, of an effort to be equal in power on the land to Germany and on the sea to England— and the waste of men and money in the Sahara Desert is in the name of ambition that pur- sues a fantastic phantom. It was not long ago the fashion of the European nations that assumed themselves to be progressive-with the exception of Russia and Austria-to seek possessions in Africa. Before Russia had for her development the monstrous field of all Northern Asia and the tempting provinces of European Turkey, for a display of expanding dominion and expansive policy. Austria has her sorrow in conflicting peoples indisposed to dwell in unity. Colonizing and the elderly Emperor is growing weary of as- Efrortsof similating in his person, as they will not be recog- Other Nations nized in one government, his Empire, that lacks the stability of homogeneity-and the war of conquest in Russia and Herzegovina IS fresh in recollection as a costly ceremony. Italy was unfor- tunate m her Abyssinian enterprise, and retired from it without excessive sacrifice for the safety of her dignity. The German IS:: M4 APRtCA A GREAT COUNTRY Emperor l,a. had .ympathetic period. „i,h the Dutch Renublfc. offical Boerdom, and cabled Oom Paul after .„e Ja,„e«,n Aid hi. jncereconsratulatiou,; but .he tie. between the HolU„d.« ^ .he mountain, and the dominant Pru„u„. are no. c.o«. for thl Boer, canno, fairly be said to speak German. thougr.h°y 1 exceeding m personnel a cla.s tyrannical rale, everything in Z examples that art- Imperial. ' The German, have acquired title to a portion of the West African Continent, but it is far frnm ft,. . <■ „. Britons and Doers xle pl, \ ?^ '""'"" '*'™'" land and , h, ? Portuguese on the Eastern shore have land and a harhor more convenient for them th,„ if ,hey had exera^d legal sovereignty ov.r it, for it give, th.. a free Id to Strl^f TT '" "' "^ '"" "' P""" "S^'-^' 'he power h^rioref that IS most overbearing on these. On the West Coast of Africa we find Liberia, the only snot on he continent where the people can be said in ^y reasol e^ nL to govern themselves-which is accountable from American 3 ciationandeducation-andtheCongo State that^eporpoS andg™»sindustriallyu„derthepatronageof the Crown of Bdgut This leaves the heart-the huge central part of Africa ^h vory trade-the former reduced to Arabian adventure and .1,. atter to the limited supply of elephants passing awly lite the buf faloes of North Araerica-though the massacre of th- i!. .et hastened with American energy, l^trtrem LoJs LX "here and there a traveler" ha« ««„ * * j , =""""s country and better informed of thl, sTai^r W^ hin^^r' '"T"^' ^ave raged, and there has been ^..^^oXZ^:!, T^ AFRICA A GREAT COUSTIiY 553 prodigious land of the great hereafter, is a little better known than our frozen zones or the face of the moon that ihe hides as she waltzes around the earth, but it is the least explored portion of the earth's surface— with the possible exception of the interior of Australia. In the central portion of Africa, remote from the sea-^, are great rivers and forests, wild men and wild Central animals, lands of exceptional fertility, stored Portion of wealth for the abundant supply of as many in- ^^^ habitants as Asia sustains; and the natives have been so little in touch with Europeans that the conditions of their lives have not been changed radically for many centuries. There is, indeed, within some thousands of years, evidence of the progress of barbarism rather than of civilization. The state that seems to be in the most auspicious situation is that of Congo, and yet it is but a few years since Stanley fought his way from the Eastern lakes of Africa to the Atlantic with his elephant gun, through cannibal hordes; and then again found his way back through the pathless woods from the Congo country to the borders of the Soudan. There did not seem to be any particular reason, when the commerce of the South Seas had fallen into British hands, and the Indies were held by the title of the sword, by « ... ^ . r, . . , , , ' ' Southern ureat Uritam, that those by whom English was Commerce in spoken should refrain from overthrowing the British Hands Dutch corporate monopoly at the Cape, and the pompous but impracticable and impecunious Turkish ascendancy at Cairo. It was a natural and excellent thing to do and to have done, and there was but very little warfare in doing it. British rule greatly benefited the people of the Cape Colony, made Natal a province of prosperity, and it was the presence of professional philanthropy i ^^ AFRICA A GREAT COUNTRY that reduced the a.ce„dancy and varied the course of Briti.h .tate.man.h,p, «> far a. to .urrender right, in throl ^ irfirt,!:?:; '1 r ^^- "'-^ v:ne".fe:.tr .:: oTihe :::. • ''""^^'^ ''^^ ^^"'^ -^-^ - ^^p- the .a-t;^ Thestory of the trekkers and the motives of their m{,rror i. been made plain since thi. R^. i n . ^^^ °' ^heir migration hai at Khartoum ha» k ^** ' *"*^ ^he fate of Gordon BriU.h Egypt, and a ,o .av«l ,ha. coun.ry from the tyranny S«ri" own .mbeciles. It was British tn,o^ that were sacrificed to break the power of Cetvwavo rt. Zulu King, who menaceH the existence of .fc. n '^™^''' ""> °f the Transvaal. T. »a,donr „ .h ' T""'"'""''''' integrity of the province of Kata, and he'- ,' "'""T'"* ''^ of the British Empire ,;„^"''^f ""'"""""="-"« of .he rule ^estwardoftho Oce^r co:!;- d^^'lrZ^L^^-;^ fnt^<:r;errso^r3:^:-^^^^^^^ s::fKesh"::;rS^^^^^^ parableriche^of fh« I ^ * . « '"^ ^stonishmg and incom- paraoie riches of the land. As these ' • intruders " -ver*. tKo k it r the manhood on the snot f«,« *k- -* "'^"^^'^s ''ere the bulk of tenths of the taxes thevrT °'"' '"^ ^'^ P^^^" o^"'"- iney were m the majority and by far AFRICA A GREAT COUSTRY 357 the greatest producers, carrying on the greater industries, giving to the world wealth in precious metal and precious stones beyond all comparison. But this sort of intrusive and pretentious majority caused the war by asserting — not that the majority should rule, but that they should have one sixteenth part of political England's pow*r in the legislative division of the alleged Re- Just Rights public purely for the purposes of self- protection. The Colonial Secretary of England, brutally, according to the Boer accusation, insisted upon saying something to this effect. It was this assertion of the Uitlanders that drove the Presi I dents of the Orange and Transvaal States to the desperation of declaring war and entering upon the terrible struggle of 1899 and 1900, the story of which follows. The English possessions in Africa that are knjiortant arc located on the Eastern side of tne continent fronting the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, extending along the Nile from the Mediterranean to the great African lakes, so that the British have right of way for public improvements from the Crpe to Cairo, with the exception of a gap of aoo miles that may be closed with facility ; and it is the enterprise of the construction of a railroad through Africa on this line, that Mr. Cecil Rhodes, honored by President Kruger as his most formidable and bitter enemy, has been prominent in organizing — in finding the ways and means for the material work. There are persons to whom this seems a criminal intent, an assault upon many solemn and holy things — but it is one of the greatest ideas and projects of which fhe Cape and the world has heard. The Russian trans-Asiatic Cairo Railway and the American trans>American lines are the only works of man comparable with this magnificent African undertaking. The rail- roads built with British capital in Africa proclaim the practicability of the Cape to Cairo scheme — and it is a planned campaign for the 555 AFRICA A GREAT COUNTRY winning of one of the grandest vicfnW«« «f la d with steel AIr»a^ *i ' *"^ ^^°'« course is step, c, B -r^ „^r„t r;;!;', ""rrr ^' '^ "■' '°°'- Bn-.ishcc,„™„3i„ehe.a.„aheB:r.„droir"^''""''''°' Redv rrBX'whtst'e" ""'.T' '"^ '"'"'' °^ «"'"'"> -" ^ir The Forces °f the Soudan anrl T «rj r» l . M"c*w d.w, . . ..a" ■rrL?;;:L ttd '"^ "f"^ ™' the humiiiation of a n^=... , -.i, r ^ ' ^ *^ subjected to from England .ho„irbT.r°^"°' ""'^ ""■""^ ""e voyage •he acco™p,ishL« of ",»:""■""' "" "'' ^°""'^' ™" -™~ •ion that will hasten the '7''"'™*' ^'""" """"=«' ™"^''"<=- Until withinleft '!J '?r "' "-^'l^rt-of ">« globe. design of making ..e moon a ca;^':;::' '^ "™ '"""'^ i CHAPTER XV Boer Life in Times of Peace. OUT of doors, hunting, trekking, or attending to the numer- ous make-shift devices of his daily pioneer-life, the Boer is a loud-spoken, blustering, and cruel driver of man or beast under his control. Fond of an occasional break-away from the habitual discipline of his home life, he indulges in rough horse- play with kindred spirits, thoroughly enjoying the healthy strength of his manhood, without restraint or curb from the apron strings and sunbonnet of his good vrow at home. Within doors, all this ebullition of animal spirits is subdued. The noisy, blustering hunter, or the free and easy-going" kurveyor, " just home from the coast or township from one of Thg Boer at his long journeys, at once changes his nature into Home and a taciturn, automatic obedience to the passive Abroad authority of the mistress of his home. Within his four walls you see him the patient shoe- maker for the whole family, slowly and laboriously cutting out or sewing the veldtschoen (shoes) for him- self, wife, and children. No longer loud-spoken, he is silenced by the dominant expressions of his good wife. Quietness and slow movements, with or without occupation, must reign when indoors within her realm, except on the special occasion of a wedding feast or some other celebration which has received the sanction of " Tautje "—the housewife. " Tautje " or auntie, is herself the best of wives and mothers in snch a household ; but in her is concen- trated all the opposition to advancement, the objection to the 559 :^ I 560 BOER LIFE IN TIME OF PEA CE livelier Uitlander which, unfortunately, characterizes this peasant race W,thaunt.e, what istheuseofanythingsolongassheknows nothmg of ,ts uses? But let that auntiefirst understand the vale How the of some improvement, then she will permit some ^^H^' "u^^^ ^^^o^^^ion to be introduced by herself into Household ')]^--;f-'^- Auntie looks after the manufacture of the tallow candles and soap (used sparingly by her family), made m accordance with recipes handed down to her by her mother or grandmother before her. Surely, as they have been good enough for such worthy ancestors, they must be good enough for her household ! She has no patience with the daimfly- dressed hair-curled. piano-playing townsfolk who use oil. gas or electric hght whenever they can get it Auntie is not a very good cook, but she cooks a great deal ; in quantity rather than in quality does she satisfy the appetite of her lusty family. Boiled or stewed meat and potatoes are piled up in a dish in he centre of the table, from which each helps himself by hand or fork accordmg to his fancy. Not, however, until the word of command ''Kreech maal" is pronounced by the father of the family; then each may select the particular tit-bit his eyes have fastened on during the sometimes lengthy grace before meat. In the preparation of preserves the Boer vrow excels. Small Tangerine oranges are prepared in a rich syrup, t« which also are added figs, apricots, and wild honey. The whole flavored with brandy, forms a rich preserve' Auntie's pastry is solid and satisfying; her pud- dings are massive. All the cookery has to be done either over the fire or in the baking-pot. which, when placed over the embers has hot ashes and fresh fuel placed on the lid to give heat both above and below it. How the Cook- ingf is Done BOER LIFE LV TL\fES OF PEA CE 561 Sewing machines and washing days are unknown in the house- hold economy. If her man wants a new shirt, he can ride over to the nearest store (where they have a running account in exchange for farm produce) and buy a new clean one, for surely the old gar- ment, which has not been taken off since put on for the first time, is worn out, as the sleeves are quite gone ! Auntie rules her daughters with an iron will. Rebellion against her authority is unknown. This authority is long continued over the daughters, even after marriage, when the daughter's man has come to live on the same farm and built an addition to the farm house for himself and family. The marriage of her daughters is the great desire of every good vrow. She keeps her eyes open on all the eligible young men of the district whom she may have observed when at the last monthly " Naachtmahl " Auntie Rules (church going). Should such a young Boer be Supreme smitten by the sun-bonneted damsel in charge of her portly mother, his mode of courting is characteristic of his race. Without speaking to the lady of his choice or to any of her people, he makes lengthy preparations for his amorous excursion. His horse is carefully groomed, the first time, perhaps, in the animal's life ; new saddle, bridle, and saddle-cloth are purchased. The saddle-cloth, especially, must be bright, glaring, and highly- colored, with a splendid yellow or red fringe to stamp the ta.ste of the owner. A new suit of fine corduroy clothing, with a completely new kit from hat to shoes, is also necessary ; then, in bright spurs and well-shaped riding sjambok in hand, the ardent lover canters forth to seek a wife. The approach of a rider got up in this fashion at once conveys to the household the object of his visit. Prepara- tions are made for the hearty reception of so welcome a guest. All the daughters polish up their faces with a damp cloth, and a little mutton fat, hair is tightly plaited up and bound in ribbons ; 5«2 BOER LIFE IN TIMES OF PEA OB brass jewelry, purchased from .he traveling smoaze pedlar is donned, and the best frocks are p„, on. •■ Tautie ^IJT \ r trr-.'-: -v'°" "- ---••<""-: etf .ngcStte Th'^r ""u ■""" =°"" '"'° "- -"-"*- The we w t C ? ""''"^' " *^P'='^"'' ^"-"" and that of all h,s tnbe. H,s coffee is handed him by one girl • another puts more sugar in his cup, although already'^.wee.'ld he L P.«sed to eat sweet cooties and stickiness, tiireven he c^n'eat no mor . Thus, w,th coffee-drinking -oking and banter with IS the passes. The evenmg meal is served; then comes the critical ,„ K.^"' "'•''*/ '" °°^'" '° «°' ^"-^ "'a household ought to go to bed, so a candle is brought in as a reminder. Now is the L: when the young Boer must seize the opportunity of asking ■• MaTg I I BOER LIFE IN TIMES OF PEACE 365 ik oopsit " ? (may I sit up ?) with the girl of his choice, thus con- veying to the whole family his desire to pay court to the girl named. There is not often a refusal given at such a very proper request, for is not matrimony the great aim of all young Dutch girls, whilst a married daughter is a constant joy to her mother. Permission is readily given, and Deciding the family all retire, leaving the blushing maiden and amorous Boer to themselves. This private chat is limited by the length of the candle, for, should the candle be permitted to burn to the end, the girl thereby lets the lover know that his addresses are unacceptable and he must ride away forthwith. It is her duty, though, should he find favor in her sight, to blow out the light, thus declaring her surrender to the persuasive eloquence of the amorous visitor. The marriage at the neighboring town soon follows, when feasting, dancing and drinking are indulged in until late into the night of the wedding feast. The newly-married couple then take up their residence either in the home of the father of bride or bridegroom, as the case may be, until the necessary house has been built for their permanent occupation, or an additional flat-roofed room added to the parental home for the establishment of another shoot from the family tree. The harvest of the Boer farmer, as the result of cultivation of the few acres of enclosed land, is of the utmost importance with regard to the sustenance of himself and p„__ _ j family from one harvest time to another. As a rule, other his cultivated land Is not capable of producing Products much more than is required for the home consumption of his own "volk" (people). In the event of failure of his crops, or their destruction by locusts, the result is dire poverty and semi-starva- tiou; he is driven to the necessity of veiling his stuck or his shearing I I ! I i I" •ys IK .1 SM BOER LIFE IN TIMES OF PEACE of »ool prematurely. For ,hi. p„rpo.. h. take, a long j„„„™ «award. w,.h .he bale, of wool loaded upon hi, wagon, fo S he hope, real.ze a higher pricin ready cash at the .^por.*^ he can obtain .n exchange for good, pu,cha,ed from the Pm° practically already mortgaged hi, shearing. reanJh*'!," ?'* u '"'""'"'^ '°' "' ''""'^ "«■ *« ha, to be reaped by hand w.,h a sickle. It i, at once thre,hed out after hi. own fashion and taken away to be ground at the nearest of th" few flour mm, situated beaide the laige rivers of the conntn-! Here he camp, out with hi, wagon, accompanied by hi, v,„w Jd !ac^h ,,,.'"*""" """"^ (Boer'meala, iti, called) for each bag full of wheat delivered to the miller. Whether the meal be the gnnding of hi. own or other wheat he know, not So Orlndlnir, and '°"8 " it is in his own bag, he feels assured aU j^^ into the mill himself and saw them emptied. Thus the South African miller thrives, as hi. toll IS heavy and gnnding charge high, and speedily becomes rich, a, !,in T. t""T'^ ""'' """ '° ••'■"• "■"« ^'"B no o her mill within fifty miles. The method of threshing and winnowing is an excitinir .pectacl. The floorof the threshing krall (a circular ,.^^^4 baildmg. like a c^cus) is prepared by moisteningand beating do,™ .he virgin soil, which soon becomes baked hard by the dry attios- phere and blazing sun. A layer of ,8 inches of wheat stL with the ear as reaped, is laid over this threshing floor. All the hor«s and mules of tlie farm are then driven within the enclosure and fastened in. whilst the Boer, his sons, and black servants, an^rf with whips and sjamboks, mount .h<= walls, driving «,e ^Z^ 1 BOER LIFE IN TIMES OF PEA CE ,67 Stricken animals round and round without rest. The straw gets trodden lower by the persecuted animals, and more is thrown in until at ast all is trodden out; the straw is broken, crushed and cut mto loose chaff by the animals' hoofs, while the wheat proper has been separated from the husk, falling to the bottom of the loose accumulation. Exhausted '^'^^^''« *°<* bruised and hungry, the poor animals, which ^'°°°'^'°« have so labored, are then turned out to shift for themselves on the base veldt, or perhaps are treated to a few armfuls of the trodden chaff The mouths of the horses and mules that tread out the corn are truly not muzzled, but no time is allowed the poor creatures to get a bite during their hours of torture. The straw chaff IS carefully collected and stored for high feed, while the grain and husks, together with sand from the threshing floor, are swept mto a heap ready for winnowing. This operation is performed after the primitive fashion of aboriginal races. A windy day is selected ; the Kaffir women of the farm stand m rows, and with handfuls raised above their heads let the gram slowly fall to the ground, while the dust and chaff are earned away by the wind. Boers of advanced ideas are known to sift the threshings before winnowing. They are not, however, numerous, nor is the practice general. The harvest of the oats is different. Each sickleful, as cut by the Boer or his boy, is laid down separately on the ground, when It IS carefully bound up into bundles about six inches in diameter, then stored under cover OatsandGar- for sale as forage. This oat crop affords a very '''" '''■^"'*" important ready cash result for the Boer, as he can take a large load to the distant township, where it is sold on the public market at sometimes as much as two shillings per bundle in times of scarcity. A small stock is also kept for home consumption and 5M BOER LIFE IN TIMES OF PEA CB for sale to any traveler who may be passing the homestead, but always at highest retail rates, as everyone knows who has been obliged to call for forage when on a journey. Small crops of potatoes and onions aie also raised, mostly for family consumption, only small quantities of these finding their way to the public markets. Maize is perhaps the most profitable and prolific product of his land. With this he feeds his Kaffirs, serving it out to them in the cob, which they clean by hand. Pounding the grains of maize com in a wooden mortar, with a heavy iron-wood pestle, they are able to crush it into a rough meal, from which they can prepare their " koss," or mealy porridge. Boiled or roasted green mealies (corncobs), freshly picked, are ihdeed a luxury. Eaten from the cob, as a dog gnaws a bone, they are not to be despised by the daintiest palate. How these mealy cobs pass away many a miserable hour in camp on the open veldt! The cold, hungry trekker watches the roasting of them, carefully turning the cob round and round as each seed bursts forth like a floury potato ifi miniature. This, with a rasher of bacon or (luxury of luxuries) butter, pepper and salt, is a meal fit for the gods, satisfying the cravings of a hungry stomach, and warming up the half-frozen body of the man on trek who watches their preparation. I CHAPTER XVI. Boers' Methods of Making War. THE audacit}- of the Boers of which Lord Salisbury spoke at the beginning was the unexpected. The fortunes of war during four months cannot be accounted for, without obser- ving that the British and Boers alike underrated opposing forces and so had the nations and people of the vast majority of intelli- gent persons who form opinions in all enlightened countries. The British idea was that a few divisions would do the work they needed. They had not made out that the Orange State was a province of Oom Paul, that Natal and Cape Colony were swarming with spies, that the superiority of the Boers in Opoosin mobility would be so marvelous, and their armies Forces Under- in campaigning multiplied. The Boers had formed rated a contemptuous judgment of the English— did not believe they had a military spirit— thought they would shrink from blood-letting and find a way to sue for peace and pay for it if they were a few times sharply worsted. There was for sometime a controversy in England that largely occupied the public speakers and the public press— whether the Boer artillery outranged that of the British, and all the facts of the case were slowly arrayed and announced. A great deal in the course of this has been said of the mobility of the field guns and their comparative weight. The defenders of the Government dwelt upon the field ^uns as a compromise between mobility and 569 I I ti n I 570 mUNS' StETllons OF MAKING n'4R range. The liritish field gun we.Vh. .A .«,.»/ l the French nearly loA cwt andfh ^^ ' ' ^'™" ®* '"^'^ ] luj cwt , and there is a question of tli. ji— BrItWi Ord- «er of wheels And the varieti J„f • • "" holds that whe^Tt^alUhr 1 "J" °"'"'"" °' *« B"""" and the an^lc fire 8 In,^h /"""' 1' "■«'«». but with howitser. wo. or def.;„r ::^;o:: nt ^r:itt^:;:rr t =* an assault the howitzers would turn th. ^-f !*. ^ ""^^ before F tpec to them. The introduction of the Macazine r.fl^ ::: ^"M'rr.hrirei^^jr -^-r °' '^"^™-- -gle fire on then, be ran ^ Julf V^""""'"'' '"'^^ ordinary field g„„. whiC, ho ghTc^, «t .h" o"^ ' ? "' •■tele u»e against troops behindcover ■""' " °'™^ n-ade^aW art,,:" ?" -r' f"'' ""'" "-^'-'^ "^ «- «>« arfllery, an addmonal supply of field guns, seventy. of three field t::^' eirrhs-^ ^^'"^ ''"'°'' """"^O .ene of action. ^Z^:'!^^^-^'^ -- .o.he adequate supplies of the .„st formidable gu^lTd^r:!":' ■j WAR Bottns- m THODs op UA w k <,.,„„ „ J«r in«,,ed to pr«o.t the «,IM column (mntal n..h upon Boe, t«nch« ,. oJ the ke.ne.t u^r. and .n expert corr,.po„d«t «y. : 1 have not dwcovered • particle of evidence that the Boer field gun.h,vee»erplayedany.ffec.ivepartinthe war. •Civilian,' after much ,e«arch ha, been unable to produce .uch evidence. That our field gun. finng .hrapnel. which cea.e to be effective «K,n after .W mi ; '". • •"""'""'' °''™"' "'♦"'"'J'- Meanwhile, it i, .mpoMlble to Uke up a paper without finding the strongest te.t^ n.ony of the extreme efficiency of our field and horse artC " then, » r "n "J " "," """ '™° "*=" "« ^' 8- ouerLed them w. should hear of our teams being cut to pieces, and of Lr gun. bemg put out of action by the enemy-. '\, " art.1 ery fir. whilst driving up ,<, .aUe up their ""IX^ position opposite the enemy's trencher Where '''" i' there a jot of such evidence ? Remember that at the Tueela it was r,fle fire that disibled the guns. * un .1 v""" V ''° """^ " "'"' "«''° ^"'' "«»'■" •"" a«"l"y take op Ae.r pos.t,o„, wuhout any lo« from artillery fire and then the Ime. of mtrcnchments manned by the Boer infantry. High velocuy gun, have been tried in this coun.ryandfoundwant.nl Is It in rapiditv of fire ? w«n .i,. _• i.. l «"ung. with all nL. L / ' ""«*" ^ '"• ""« '" """non Z?. '" ? .u'"'"^ ^ "'""'"Shly satisfactory quick firing equip- -ent; sail there i, no evidence that the Boers are be^r off thl T^'T-'"' """"'"' '"^ "p'""^ of °- «- "y "oing J; as recorded by your correspondent with Lord Methuen's column seems most sa.,.fac.or>.. What enabled the Naval Drigade and Yorkshires to take the position at Graspan ? Let your corre po„' :i il 572 nOERS' METHODS OF MAKING WAR z:::!;'r "■-' -^^ -"^'"« »- ^^ 'ha„ ^rcti: There is , sense in which this is in the higher; decree comnh- me„.a.y .„ .„e Boe« who have undoubtedly «t e.a:';es int:: Fighting an «"•= t^t must be accepted as teaching war to In»i«b!e Foe '° "'« =>™»d nations. I„ the American-Spanish - peopie a.:,: tnt^'X^ ^ ^ w^X a^I^eT The A„er,ca„ soldiers a. Santiago complained a "he Bri^^" ;oidiors as we,, asthe'repi^fofrr: rrBZh":!:" the remark is made that rfnrJn^ u u j *™^>^' inaae tnat during half-a-dozen enga/rements th*.« never ,a„a Boer. The Spaniards were up i„ the knowlXe o^he vaue of smokelesspowdcrinadegreegreat'erthan we I fhe ,:^'; nmgofc„rSpa„,shwar.andtheyhad,heartofhidi„:themih^,„" he„„p,„^egeta,o„.TheAmerica„sa.firstbur„e^.he^^^^^^^^^ .oncd powder, and aftorded good marks for the Mauser rifle, hat r.OERS' METHODS OF AfAKIXG WdR 573 were undiscoverable by smoke and had an astonishingly long range. In one particular the American artillery were more serviceable to the soldiers in Cuba than the British field pieces have been to them in South Africa. The American guns and gunners were much superior to those of the Spanish, and drove the enemy out of the thickets m which they found hiding places, and also searched the Spanish trenches. In South Africa the Boers are indefatigable in prepanng ditches, and have several stratagems that assist their resistance of superior forces. They have had the sharpness of imi- tating the Spanish in the use of barbed wire, and there is nothing that bothers the British more than to be entangled in wires. The Americans were speedily provided w..:; nippers and other instru- ments for breaking the tangles. The British seem to have been too deliberate about that. The Boers have, in smokeless several instances, quickly piled for their protection Powder and heaps of the rough stones, of which there is Intrench- such abundance in Africa, and they form almost "«"*« impenetrable breastworks of that material, giving rests for rifles and protection from shells. The stone walls of the Boers are often at the base of the hills, and behind them are riflemen who have car- tndges with smokeless powder, so that they give no sign of their presence save accumulations of stones until they have chances to take dead y aim at the approaching enemy. Above them on the hillside, often near the top, are intrenchments in which the rifle- men use black powder, and they are the first to fire upon the advancing Britons. If the customary front attack is made, the line of Boers behind the rocks with their smokeless powder have the opportunity of shooting down in the clear air their assailants This scheme of meeting the advancing column was so often at least par- tially successful, that one presumes it became familiar; and that some means will be taken to extinguish the fire at point blank r ■ iU DOERS' METHODS OF MAKING WAR distances of the invisible defenders of the stone walls. The Boer hadgreatrehance in his ambuscades at the bottom of a hill while the B^Powder smoke of rifles at a considerable elevation drew i^oys the attention of the artillery of the British and U^useventhelydditeshellswere wasted. Amongthestones^^^^^^^^^^^ Afnca shrapnel sheU are not so effective as in ground more open An enemy could be driven out of a thicket with shrapnel, but would not be disturbed if sheltered by fortifying rocks. The Ines are readily arranged to shelter the soldiers from shell fire, and the Bntish wall have to take advantage of the extraordinary object essons they have had. The American artillery, as a rule, made he Spanish positions untenable, and then our infantry were pushed forward confidently, and with constant success. There is truth in the saymg that rifles in the grasp of footsoldiers have as lon^ range m these times, as the equipment is up-to-date, as field guns- and this extends the area of danger of all .spectators of combats, sp far beyond the experiences of all wars up to this time, that it is difficult for even veteran observers to make correct conclusions as to tenable places. A very interesting inside view of the Orange State army was obtained by the capture of a Boer who had been at pains to keep a diary. There was no doubt of the fact that it was a re. ord the man had kept for his own edification. He was of some position and had been commandeered in the latter days of October and wrote in his book that he had sent his wife to Cape Town for safety. It is rather remarkable that the Boers all have the greatest confidence that the safest place in the country DIaiyofa IS the British capital of South Africa. The man Boer with the diary left Johannesburg on the 2nd of November, made his way to Bloemfontein and to the Boer Laager at Donkerpoort, where he found the Boers engaged in athletic sports, debating BOERS^ METHODS OF MAKING WAR 573 societies, singing and prayer meetings. They began the religious semces at 4.30 in the morning, with coffee at 5. There was no dnlhng except that of digging trenches. On the loth of November he assisted m dragging a dam for tortoises, and returned with a bagful, that made a delicious dish. The rapidity with which the Boers d.d everything astonished this recruit The camps of the Boers were full of rumors of what Sir Redvers Buller was about with h's 25 000 „en. In one place in the diary there was a note that the dpybeingSunday prevented any move." The writer had the opmion of the British army that the British officers were plucky and cool, "but that the soldiers were turned very easily " The n.,qht of the 20th of November this soldier thanked God in his diary that the rain was falling, and said many of the Boers took th.sas-asignoftheAlmicjhty'sfavor." This Variable because the pasturage would be good in a little Courage of time,andtheemptydamsreplenished with water, the Boer He gave the following curious opinion of the coming and going of courage among his comrades: " Another thing that struck me in the Boer character is the absolute fear he has before the fight and he cool and collected way he behaves when in it. When our laager left Kaffir R.ver we expected to be in action in a few days' time • the result was that out of our lot of 200 men over fifty applied to the doctor for a 'sick' certificate. Only one such was granted, so about 25 per cent, of our men funked it; this, I am told, happens vvith every commando, but it has been proved in many instances already that the very men who pretended .sickness when there was a chance of meeting the enemy were the pluckiest and coolest when under fire." A great deal has been said about the liberty of the press in course of the war. and much complaint made of the censorship of the news, but a great many thing., appear notwithstanding 575 BOERS' METHODS OF MAKING WAR all restrictions in the newspapers of England that would be valuable information to the commanders of the Boer armies; and that the wires are at work between the Transvaal and the conti- nent, gn-ng news that it is thought would be advantageous to the enemies of England, is certain. The London papers have pub- lished complete lists of the organizations of the British army in South Africa, giving the location of the several battalions and battenes. This would be extremely important if it were not that the telegraph is not habitually used in forwarding the lists to England, and therefore by the time the intelligence returned there were chances for the movements of the troops. However, a com- petent agent of the Boer Government cbuld. by telegraphing to the Boer Head Laager in front of Buller, give very clear accounts censorship ^^''^'^} *''"*'" ^" ^ ^^^^ of what Buller was doing, Not Effectual *" ^P'^^ °^ ^^^ alleged censorship. Occasionally there were articles undertaking to set forth Lord Robert's plans. If the truth should happen to be told, the Boers would probable think that the British could not be so foolish as to tell it, and take no advantage of the information. The Boers are not troubled by their newspapers. The presidents of the two republics that are fighting the British would make short work of publishers who told anything that is going on that would be of service to the enemy. Winston Churchill came out with a budget of valuable intelligence. One point is that the Boers do not pro- pose to make peace with the British without an indemnity to the amount of a hundred millions of dollars, and the turning over of the valuable gold and diamond mines. At least, Oom Paul and President Steyn would want to have an understanding with the stockholders after the manner of the dynamite ring in favor of the former. m Heavy Guns BOERS' METHODS OF MAKING WAR 577 One of the burning questions in England is touching the value of British artillery compared with that of foreign nations. The Boers, with great forethought and large expenditure were for years quietly f!;etting together some of the best guns that have been made in France and in Germany, and the British Government is ferociously denounced be- cause stories from the seat of war tell that British guns are inferior to those of the Boers. It is not likely that this contest will be concluded for some time. The difficult point in the question of the British guns do «s not seem to be so much as to that of the field guns as of the guns of position. The Boers have some heavier guns than the British have been able to use in the same manner, that the Boers pull about with great celerity, and it is a surprise to note that, according to the military experts and essayists, the British authorities have recognized the value of heavy batteries in the field for more than thirty years, but failed at first to put them into the African war. They had 40-pound Armstrong guns, and 8-inch and other mortars in the Afghan war in 1879-80; and there are now reported six heavy Indian batteries' howitzers throwing 60- pound shells far beyond the range of field guns. The calibre is 5.4 inches. They are drawn by elephants on the line of march, but by bullocks in action. The elephant will not stand fire, and even the mules have been found flighty. A correspondent of the London Mail, exceptionally intelligent, says of the attack by the Irish brigade tinder General Hart, at Colenso, that a small body of Boers were seen running when the British ap- proached the river within 500 yards. The flight of the Boers was deceptive, for just as the British forward line reached the river bank they were fairly riddled by bullets at a distance, it was estimated, of only 400 yards. The men quickly stretched themselves on the ground to gain the little shelter it afforded and A Boer Trick 1; .ii i 37« BOERS- METHODS OF H/AKIXO IIMfi return the fir. Bat what were they to fire at ? " There was „o one v..,ble J the .mokeles, powder did not betray from whence Colonel Long, who lost h,s guns, thought the cessation of the Boer fire meant that they were in the course of being beaten and ordered .he unfortunate movement of the artillery in the zone of Ind o!.' H t °. ^°*=" "' "■'' '■'<'" «8h«ng hard and well. wWch d d , " '° * '"''"°" '°° y^'^^ '"- «"= river wh,ch d.d not seem a very dangerous under,al«(«lXG THE COXTIXOKXT. r lot.*' lijt UrrnioUr. giirWi- *«<»OeOW •iSOlUTION TBT CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) A ^IPPLIED IM/^GE Inc 1653 Eoit Moid Strxl r^.f'*'- "•• 1'ork '4609 US* (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 2M-5989 - Fo, -if, — -^ J >r ■^nrr •v;'» ' pi R !«i if i-lf: 1 11; ! 1-' '■ ri •i ^1 ■ li; t i WINNIPEG'S FAHEWKLL TO ^lANITOBA'S COXTIXGKNT. Il|..t.i. I.y St,.,-I,- A C... SPECIAL CONTINGENT TO FILL VACANCIES AT THE FRONT. THE SIEGE OF MAFEKING-AND ITS RELIEF f>o i merest pretext, and one by which it was hoped to confuse the Boers. Upon the part of the enemy it must have been rather alarmmg to hear between some temporary stoppage in the firing a voice m thunderous tones crying out, " Men of the advanced trench, fix bayonets," an order which would be invariably followed by hearty cheering from the Cape Police and insults of an exceed- ingly personal character from the Cape boys." There was a mystery about the relief of Mafekin^r. h was noticed as if it had been the work of a magician that Lo'rd Roberts sometime before the relief announced the day on which it v.ould take place. One way of accounting for this is that his movements were with great precision, close counting of time and a full knowl- edge of all the elements, entering into the situation, „ so that he had uncommon advantages in making thrRelief close and prophetic calculations. In addition. Explained "B. P." had many ways of making himself and the surroundincr conditions known to the commander-in-chief. Frequently his runners got through-and often they were shot by the way There were carrier pigeons employed and heliographing. In some way the man of genius at Mafeking kept up intercourse with the outside worid. There was a mystery for several days as to the identity of the commander of the relieving expedition. The com- mand, consisting of 2000 men of the South African Light Horse, the Imperial Yeomanry and the Kimberiey Horse, left Kimberiey on May 4th with thirty-five wagons containing stores and ammuni- tion, with four guns of the Horse Artillery and two Maxims, moved west along the railway and make one long rush for Mafeking, cover- ing 130 miles in five days. One of the features was a special equip- ment of light-springed mule transports, and such was the rapidity of the advance that the Boers, whose business it was to interfere, could not find the aggressors, and were surprised. The movement ' ' 6o2 THE SIEGE OF MAFEKING—AND ITS RELIEF of the column was presently parallel with the enemy's positions on the Vaal, between the Vaal and Hart rivers, and reached Vry- burg May nth. The Boers then were on the right flank of the An Exciting British, and a race followed. The Boers succeeded Race in crossing the path of the column, and then the commander, Colonel Mahon. turned west during the night and was attacked in the rear, but the Boers were beaten off. It was an essential part of the plan of the expedition that the column under Colonel Mahon should unite with that of Colonel Plumer, and their forces met at Jamasibi. May 15th, relieving Mafeking three days later. Lady Sarah Wilson says of the first news of the relieving columns received in Mafekincr : " The first intimation at headquarters of what had occurred came through a telephone conversation, the officer on duty Lieutenant Colonel Hore, being suddenly interrupted by a con' fused din and a strange voice calling through the instrument : ' I am a Boer. We have taken Mafeking.' '"Have you, indeed?' was the prompt reply, followed by an aside to the orderly, ' Please disconnect the wire." The official report from Baden-Powell, dated May 13th, con- tains this: "Before dawn. May 13th, a storming party, 250 strong, per- sonally led by Eloff, rushed the pickets and reached the Stant and How the Protectorate camp from the westward, aloncr the S^ege was Maloppo Valley, a strong musketry demonstration being made at the same time along the eastern front of our position. Our western posts closed in and stopped the Boer supports following, thus cutting off Eloff's retreat while the town defences stopped his further advance. His force got divided in the darkness, and a strong party was placed ' THE SIEGE OF MAFEKINC.-aND ITS RELIEF 603 alTZy long "' '°'"^'''''' -Grounding them. Fighting continued "Soon after nightfall the two parties surrendered and the other was dnven out of the Staat under a heavy fire. Ten dead and nineteen wounded of the enemy were left behind, and ,08 prisoners were taken, including Eloff and nine officers. Seven- teen Frenchmen and many Germans were an.ong th^. prisoners. wounled" ""' '" "" '''"'''' "^ '"° ^'^^'^ ""^ "'"^ •"- And the following is Major-General Baden-Powell's official report of the relief to Lord Roberts : .. . , Mafeking, Mav 17th. I am happy to inform you that Mafeking was successfully relieved to-day. The northern and southern columns joined han I on May rjth. and attacked the enemy yesterday, and. after a small engagement, entirely defeated them with loss. The British casualties were three killed and thirty-two wounded "The relieving force marched into Mafeking at 9 o'clock this mornmg. and the relief and defence forces combined and moved out and attacked the enemy's head laager. We shelled them out and nearly captured Snyman. and took one gun, a flag and a large amount of ammunition, stores, etc. Five dead and fifteen wouded Boers were found." CHAPTER XIX. Boer and British Strategy Compared. NOT even in the Crimean War was there such a deep sentiment and touching sorrow in parting, as at the ports from which the soldiers were embarked for the long voyage to Africa starting from a point as far north as Labrador, crossing the torrid Parting from zone, from a parallel of latitude 650 miles north of Home New York, to a country where the summer is winter in England, literally speeding from " lands of snow to lands of sun," three weeks due south, with the prospects of many chances of that " longer journey " beyond the ends of the earth. It is remembered by informed persons who crossed the Pacific on the way from San Francisco to Manila, that they had intervals of thoughtfulness when some thousands of miles from land, no sails in sight and none expected, touching knowledge that deep in the hull of the steamer that Lore the fortunes of several C^sars (and It was hoped far from the furnaces that were daily consuming an enormous quantity of coal) were many hundreds of tons of fixed ammunition. " What supply of gunpowder food have you for your guns? "a passenger asked the captain of a battery of three-inch rifles, two of which were on the deck of the transport ready for a possible skirmish with a Spanish gunboat. "Eight hundred boxes," was the reply. Plain gunpowder was not so bad, but what shall one say of the variety of fulminating compositions-percussion contrivances, terrible chemistries, mysteries to all but the scientific experimenters and professional destroyers ? Fancy all this in the 604 ^OER AND DIUTISn STRATEGY COMPARED 605 tropics, where even the ships are hot, and ico is made with fire, and there arebunkersof coals thatmightevolvespontaneouscombustion! Why should not the shaking of the ship, with every turn of the screw, thrill the shells in the remotest recesses and set them o/T? Then there are storms. Lightning might strike a mast and go down through. In so vast an ocean there must be rocks not on the charts. Suppose the ship should be suddenly halted by the intrusion of a stony spear, and then a jar, a flash, and how high would a passenger go and know while he was goin- that he was flymg into the southern sky to land, as it were, in^'thc great ocean ! These reflections are suggested by the story of the cargo of the TaMlon Castle, that saifed from England for the Cape with a siege and pontoon train. " An account says in her Dangers of hold is a vast store of munitions of war, including Transports, thousands of shells and gun cartridges, cases of fuses, and tubes and lyddite exploders. There is, in fact, ammunition, great and small , for land and sea service alike. Not very pleasant, some may think, to be rocked m the cradle of the deep for sixteen or sevente^-. days with the knowledge that there is all this explosive mattr-.J down be ow. Experts, however, know well enough how to reduce the nsk to a minimum." The most cheering remark that follows this statement is that the service of transporting h uge cargoes of ammunition made up in the most modern manner has «' not been without accidents." The British ships that carried the shells of which so much is said passed through the torrid zone and encountered rough seas, but the vessels on the way from England to South Africa, like those that carried similar cargoes from our Pacific coast to the Philippines escaped all the mysteries of the perils by percussion. 6o6 nOER AND BRITISH STRA TEGY COMPARED Mr. Balfour said, in a speech January 8th. " The mobilization the "m rr^' '' * "'^^"^^ '^^ ^'°°° -•'- -- - thing wh eh the word had never seem or attempted before; yet it had been accomphshed without a hitch." The nearest approach to this was in the immense forces the Spamards sent to Cuba, a distances of 3.000. The Span ad had there over ,00.000 men for more than a year; the'unied States sent an army corps to the Phihppines from our Western The most critical time in the fortunes of Napoleon from whjch he emerged victorious, was between the battles of Essling and Wagram and Captain Mahan quotes Lanfrey saying that the words should be engraven upon the mind of every coLmander by ct^X' :r'''^'' "Neverhadthemaximofsacrificing Compared '^' ^''"'°'>^ '° '^^ P""^^P^1' of which Napoleon's and wh.Vh • . "°"'"P''°"^ ^ff^-"^ «o »nany admirable examples, and fi^ true m every art. been applied with more actfvit; were to h.m, for the moment, as though they did not exist. No secondary event had power to draw him orfrom the great task he had prmiarily assigned to himself." ^ Napoleon was the victor at Wagram because he pursued the ^InT^t 1 ''' ""'' ^"°'^' ^"' ^'^^^^^^ ^-^^o. at the Au tn ^ "' '"' ""^' ''"^ '^^' ^^^*- i-' before the .1. Tm '""^^^^e"™^"*^' that might have turned the tide, could reach he field of battle. After the Russian campaign NapoIe;n sacrificed m garrisons, attempting to hold possession of countries that he had s^ged and blotted out one by one by the allied powers, when if they had been withdrawn in good time and concentrated they would have been a grand army, prehaps able to give Napoleon victory at • nOER AM) lUUTlSlI STRArildY COMPARED 607 Leipsic, certainly equal to the defence of France in 1814 ; and probably the territory evacuated according to the Wagram precedent would have enabled Napoleon to reconquer the abandoned countries. The immense force of British poured into South Africa was now ordered to operate as one overwhelming force, to make sure of the relief of Kimberley and a crushing march upon Pretoria, and the holding of Ladysmith by 10,000 British troops made that city the pivot of the struggle, and its defence for months was a most ceaseless and serious embarrassment. They began with the mistakes of Napoleon after Moscow The genius in the field in 1814, after the allies crossed the Rhine, in defending France, exceeding that of his youth in Italy, was his personal compensation, thoufrh it ended in Elba. The extreme difficulty of the British position at the start of the war did not for a long time receive the attention demanded that the people might have rati'iS fo7 War knowledge. It was not within the understandmg Unknown of the executive department of the British Empire for a con- siderable time that there had been arranged an alliance between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State that would give unity to the forces of the two states, and the discovery was not made quickly that the Boers had so carefully prepared for war with the revenue exacted from the Uitlanders, and, indeed, that all arrange- ments were made to strike a sudden and heavy blow and deeply invade Natal and Cape Colony. No incident attracted greater attention in England than that of fitting up, by American ladies chiefly, the hospital ship Maine. The Queen graciously expressed her heartfelt sympathy with the enter- prise. The Duke of Con naught was present just before the depar- ture of the ship, and presented a flag sent by Her Majesty as a mark of her appreciation of the generosity of those who had i 60S n^E, AND nKlTlSH ,T,UTF.OY COMPARED found ,ho „,on y for ,h„ shin, and al«> a marl, „f ^ , v large number of Amencan ladL andt:.::ttt'h'^ .udc for .heir own kin now fighting l^CZm^ trD k "' an occasion .H^L^tdt n^.? Ll^^t '^^^^ " -^"^ Anwricu Randolph Churchill to accent , .k , . HotplulShIp who l„\l 1. J '.'"""Pt. > the name of a "Mate." ' *'"' '!"'' *''*«d ^th her. the thanks of the ■his splendid prlTLrch'".^:'""' """ ^""^ — '«' .he, fe,. honored by this kind ardTCht ^0?"'" ''"' ''^''"^ wiidtermr.:::, is aTirre'^^-''- "■" -"■ •- ™iU.e the British in their .^Ur„tr^,^rMf "al '" wounaed B<^« and , ea.'d I' ""* '"^ ^"^ "" »' "•« lowed ?r " '° "'" """ "'• Boers have fol- Bert Attention '°"='' ""e example, and the horrors of wPr are GiTea the to a considerable extent m,„v . j \ Wounded on h„,i, ,:j .,. T """gated, because on Both Side. '""' "^^ ">= •»« practicable attention has been given the wounded fallen into th. 1, a . cnem.es. There might have been a irrea, l^r , ' °' oped if the British had not taken thfil , """^"^ '^'™'- was becoming civilisation T. t '^"'° '" * "«""" ">« «ags of truceM C'Red Cr^sf r '7 """ ■"■''^«"*"« battle theydonotresnectamh, 1 '"'^'' ^"^ '" '^' ''»' "f 'W engaged '^ IZ^rJ^:^; 2Tt^ "'^"■^ "■»" for wounded men. They draw th ' ,ine \ " u"^ "" "" '=""8 their own possession. ' "'"'" "'' ™™'^<^'l "= ■» BOER AXn nimiSI! strategy C0MPAREI> 609 A Red Cross off.ccr writes of the hospital trains that they proved •'excellent and efficient." and «ivcs thi. account of them " One tram carries ninety-tn , and the other ninety-six officers and men Iy,ng down in five c..riaf;cs with passage down the centre, all communicating with one another, and Red CroM .nd wuh carriages fitted, one for carrying arms and Ho'^Jt!., " kits, one fitted as kitchen and pharmacy, and a Trains saloon carriage accommodatirg eight first-clas, and fifteen second- class passengers, two medical officers and two nursing sisters being provided for m this saloon with a portion of the other male attendants on the wounded. " The ventilation is admirable, and I was only able to suggest he provision, which I agreed to pay for. of movable bed trays for the patients who could sit up to eat their food from. I also provided an ice-chest for one train." This officer found 102 wounded men who had made the journey of 500 miles within seventy hours of the time they were picked up on the field of battle, and says of them : "Hound all -surgeons, nurses and aUendants-quietly but LtroT'l'V'"''"^ '" newly-arrived wounded, operations bulets AH^f. "': photographs being taken to localize the l>ullets. All the wards looked bright and cheerful, and. being thoroughly well-equipped, the wounded were as comfortable as they could possible be, and gratefully said they were so " Sonie urgent necessities for special articles, such as a special form of force-pump for spraying operating chambers, ^^dern Care have arisen, and I have arranged with the P. M. O. of British and for their prompt purchase at the cost of the ^oer Wounded British Red Cross Society. I have also provided money for postage of letters from the Jck and wounded to their relations ! n ffi- 6io noun A sn iwinsii snu rnc, y comi'a mi) and friends, and I m\\ provide continuous supplies <,f writing paper and enveloiHJS for their use. "I made a special point of visiting the Boer wounded prisoner, .n t.,e hospual. With the sanction of the P. M. O. I asked all of them .f they had any want of anything. They one and all expressed their .satisfaction with their treatment, and with the provision made for them and their needs in every way •• Day by day pressing application for help in one shape or another m a.d of the sick wounded have had to be dealt with and and have been promptly dealt with by the help of willing workers among the ladies and gentlemen of the Good Hope Society and bt. John Ambulance Association centre here, who are working in complete co-operation with and through me. " To give an idea of the work done, I may just mention that dunng the last three or four days the following articles have been WorkDoneIn «ent to No ,. Stationary Hospital. De Aar. which is Z7 T u ^°° ";*'" ^'^^^ ^^^ ^°""' ^"^ ^^-« »>-" "ent wuhm a few hours of receiving telegraphic applications: Fifty bedsteads with spring wire-wove mattresses. Fifty beds, pillows and pillowcases. Fans.mosquito nettingandgau^e to protectpatientsfrom flies t»ames, sponges, tobacco, eau de Cologne " A card from three ladies in War^-ickshire, advising friends who desire to help soldiers in the field, contains this sen iW statement of thmgs needed: ''We have ascertained that while heavy articles cannot be carried by the soldiers, new socks are always needed and alwayr welcome, and that knitted caps will be urgently required for sleeping out on the veldt, where the nights by March will be intensely cold. We propose that every Warwick^ shire man at the front shall receive from home two pa7. of socks a .sleeping cap, and a packet of tobacco. Contributions may be , DOER AND JiimiSlI STlUTliCY (OMI'Milili r,„ •cnt not later than January 30tli,carriaijc paid, u> Miss Chamber- lain, Highbury, Moor Green, Ilirniingham, and should consist of •ocks, sleeping- caps, or money." One of the incidents in the 8ie.;e of Mafekin- was a note from the Boer general, Cronje, saying the Geneva Convention did not authorize tli-s Red Cross flag to fly fn.m several ^^^ Crots buildings in a town at once. And he thouj,'ht no RegulaUont dynamite mines, or natives-meaning original Africans- should be used in the war. Colonel Baden-Powell replied that the Geneva Convention makes no stipulation as to the number of Red Cross stations permissible. Mafeking possessed three, ^t was only necessary /or the enemy to respect the hospital, the convent, and the women's laager, all <.f which were beyond the limits of the town. The Boers continued to .shell the Red Cross. As to the notice Colonel Baden-Powell said the Boers had fired upon natives, burned their kraals and raided their cattle, and that the natives only de- fended their lives and property. It is natural that the people of England speak with extreme earnestness and even effusion of the bravery of their men in South Africa, though they had mysteries of misfortune to contend with fighting invisible foes, making the first experiment in modern history in bayonet charges upon entrenched marksmen equipped with magazine rifles having a range greater than that of modern artillery until a very little while ^^^ Bravery ago. The pride of the British race was justified °^*^« British in the bearing of the men with the guns and the swords under extremely trying circumstances in which the visible duty was that of sacrifice-death and agony near and ghastly; the rewards of reputation unreal and the glory of fame a far-away phantom. The majority of men are brave on all continents, and there 6" ''"ERANDnRmSHSTHATEGYCO^fPAmD -Hit^:^ ^TC r-= - f r j;'xr :r :: ..etween ™en of ^^^0 Cr;:,''^^ ">= "--"-s of European countries a ,d Zr J^ T " ""' '" ^'•"=" "' "'°=^ believing. The Aralr^d zl'^T.^'^ '"' '" '"= '>^'>" <" Asiatic races and African trih '^'^'" '"""^' "f 'he if well instructed and rXj,: ^r-'^^^'r''*"" *--""■ and America. Tl,e Boer, ! u ""'" °^ ^°"hern Europe Islands. The blvl! o th '' ^^ "= ""= ""^ °' "■* British -dinthewiider'X'jl tr^^Ict^LT dl" '" '''='"' .ha. ciai^s Motherhood .i.h .wrhi:: tf^fr^r OUcipUne. -""""d.ngs. and the sympathy of the generous „ ■^ *e amb,t,on for elevation is their due. The than „, the co!^"! thr- f' 1 "'"" *'^ "'^ >« ■»<>- vain heroic, and crowns the H T^'^' =""' """-^ '"« «"■«"= word honor of !«; P * j 1 ° '•r'"\'"=™"™ -"■ «he stainless white man's burdeT ' "'^ "^ ''^''" •>' "*« The London journals have constantly civen a „ , ^ , , prom.nence and expressed themselves in ,L r ^ t '^'*' °' congratulation as to the colonial oninlZ Thf? ^"^ second Canadian contingent was abon ,:. T ."°"" *=" *'' of comment. At the same tiZ T '" "°'"'' ^ S^^^' <'=»1 Imperial Oover„mentrd\::;ereTe:s:tt^f '"' '^= was rece ved with a trr^of ^- i r ^^'^^ Battery 'ho..h there was L^Jtl^^Z^TZ T TT departure of the battery A M.Ih I *""^ °^ *^e .; .n of Victorians for ^.Jl^t^l Afrlct ha^ " '^^ =='- Place. Mr. Seddon, .he Premier of Mew ztl^^.'-rlXrhT DOER A ND BRITISH STRA TEG Y COM PA RED 613 telegraph from Wellington as saying that fighting men were not fault finders, and were those especially wanted in the interests of the Empire. They were nommally fighting the Boers, but actually fighting those who were jealous of the growing Colonial power of the British. Colombo, in Ceylon, also Contingents reported the formation of a crops of mounted volunteers for service in South Africa. Calcutta reported proofs of the loyalty of native chiefs and the Indian volunteers were daily expressing, December 30th, 1S89, the keenest desire to embark for the campaign. Many of the Indian princes placed horses at the disposal of the Government, and it was decided to accept them. The Sixteenth Lancers left Ambala for Bombay and South Africa on the first day of the year 1900. The native states' Imperial Service troops were said, at Calcutta, to be most anxious to lend assistance in any way, and their loyalty was stirred by the enormous difficulties th^ campaigning had revealed. A similar spirit prevailed among the native officers of the Indian army, but they did not seem quite to understand who the Boers were, but were deeply interested in the fact that England was employing a very great army. In conducting themselves on the defensive, the British troops were steadfast and bold, through longsufiering tenacious, and held their own with indomitable resolution. The Boers as besiegers were persevering, and wonderfully vigilant for untrained troops, keen as sharp-shooters, and hard hitters with the long-range big guns. They were commanded by generals who did not squander the blood of the men unless there was °^ Strategy the most urgent demand for a dash in one place that others might be relieved to appear in another part of the extensive field of com- bat. There was a heavy strain on the Boers when General Buller first advanced, proposing to relieve Ladysmith, and the bloody struggle to rush the town January 6th, that the Boers, who were f I lit li ^ ! •! 6m ROBR and BRITISH STRATEGY COMPARED oeleagnenng it, should be free to reinf^r^ .u fronting the British ^y „„ t^e Cll ""^ """■ per o?th! F"°,"r ™'"'"'™ """^'""O" °f ">» in.patie„ttem. Sut^A^^Trap^^^^rtrir'^ir^ speech of Mr BalfouT TV > '"*'' '° ^^'J' »' *« n-ent. that ^^"Z..:^::^^ZZ^:^' :' ^^ <^vem. people should be so unreasonable as to " ask for mor« " • the shape of intelligence • anH th^ t- T °^^ '" why r.L British'^i^i^jht „::xt\:7Tr "'r army have trodden the «nn ^f *i, . " °*^ °"'" made war upon us ?" ° f""^ """'■"'^ "''"='• >■"= CHAPTER XX. Contrasting Briton and Boer in Battle. THE Boers have had a great deal of credit for their skill in constructing and constancy in holding trenches, and they deserve it ; but when it has happened to be their turn to attack the intrenched Briti they have failed. The desperate effort of the Boers to storm Ladysmith was a signal defeat, and their only ideas of capturing besieged towns has been to bombard them and trust to fever and starvation. The Boers' work as besiegers was decidedly inferior to their service as defenders. The labor they performed in digging trenches was carried on day and night to arrest Boers Not Buller's advance on Ladysmith ; and it was rather Good at with the spade and its application in localities with A***"^' which the Boers were familiar, that checked the British columns for a time, than the Spanish rifle the Transvaal troops carried. The Boers were not so victorious on the aggressive as they were industrious and ingenious on the defensive. Evidently, if it had been their part to attack the British lines, their incompetency as aggressors would soon have sent them home discomfited. An examination of their works about the several towns they have undertaken to capture, while it shows faithfulness in constructing batteries and trenches for their own position, does not indicate a very clever engineering capacity, and there is an absence of impetuosity in their attacks. The shelling that has been done at Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith has abounded in the 6iS 6.6 m^snm mnoN and bobh ,n battle nervou. people under fire, the boom of 1 K ° '"""""^ orthe He,, are so aU™^ ."rji^et H^r ^"''''^ ^'^'"" n>™ as the Boers and „ J T """^^ ^"^ ^ood marks- riflemen to hi. maHnotb"' "• ""'^ '^""^ °' S"'-" to discover enemls and ^he '"T'^""-'''"""" ^"^ "■=■' '-''""y beenlorturedbvXl '^^ ^^^'^"'^^ with which they have tobee„tra;:e'ii:jrm:rr;r„tr^^"'r"^^^^^^^ the British tr^s ^A^^^ZT "'"^'^"'^ "' Value, of They were not L ! I '" '""""?• Boer and ' . ' '°' == '°"g time able to make th^ BHtou -.^ua.ntance of ,he count.y they we. cld „;„': and surveyed the forbidrn landT""'"'"^ ^"'"^ ''" '«'»<'"» information, but even wiA h "etSon T '''"^r" ^="^'^' Man to man, the Boer is Lt a b ° - "^ '''"""'• indeed, if the tests of comba s at .. ' "'='" '"^ ^"'™ = the better men are the British Tl ''"""^ "' '° '>^ "^^'•■ been of a higher order than theij rcl"^''^ *" *= ^"^^ "- letter is correct in saying thath/nl^' ''"' " ^'P^ ^own hampered by preconS „L Boer officers have been "less different ccndftionTxhe ° "' '"T" ''" ^"'"""^ •""'" -^^ Boers has been.asaruieexceo.oru''' =°»"'^"<'-^ »' the ■hat of timidity, the reronnC l^fr ""^'■™™""'''' '™-"^' n.en. forwhilethe miiitaty character „r^^ n"""^ "' economizing the material is hable ^ L f / ^°" "■°°P= ''^ '"""'"t. success ha. been chafed to .thltr- ^'^ ^""'" -"' "^ -pt themse.es readVt:„e,:t:t:;r."^:t:L~ ; 1 -' i^^'-i ' m p' I J ^^^■^ Tv H;. P^ M- COWTSASTINO BRITON AND BOER IN BA TT, B 6,0 remember in this association that the generals of the Boors are a! a f men" oT '''■ """"• ^°"'"" ^'^ ^™i^' '^ -"P't are men who saw service many years atm R.,^ ♦!, . nf-w«,i . , '*"/ years ago. iiut the conservat sm of elderly generals does not take into account the fact th.t T patiet" -f"? ""r ?°'°"^ -"-Pondent said with pathetic patience. -In time the Imperial officers will fall value «f mw..h the African idea of nn.orons small N^^rl bodies of auxiliary scouts, continually on the alert Scouts harassing the enemy and patrolling the surrounding country, as »ell as supporting and protecting the artillery " ^ ^MZtotrn^^T ^"^ """■'' '" i"»ff««"'le mark on the hurried offafr ' ^u""'' """^ °'^ "^ London Volunteers dLtK rJ ' "'"""'' "'"■'■" ^ f^" ''='y= ^f" landing in the sold er! .:nd'"'~"t k'' "'""''' "'^^ ^"^ ""^ "'-'■''« dent oAhe ° 7""^ fl''™"^ **' " ""-P" To-, the correspon- iTlf .t ? "^""'"^ "^■"^ dusty land knocks the newL, "eAfrican "?'=''''''"" °" accoutrements, and already o tht men "," " T"^ "' '"''"' ''"P '■"" "'^ '='«= -d hands get a vav t 7, r'" '" '"^ "'' ""^ "^-PP^- ""'' -"V -"-o- 'o get away to the front." "Thf frTt'' ^^P '"'" '" ""^ '^="^' -^*-'-' =ay.s: „h„. """/""""g feature of the military situation is the fine physical condition and the wonderful spirits of the troops. None ' midnight. The men have retained the most perfect discipline and Ii I 6ao CONTRASTING BRITON A ND BOER IN BA TTLE are ready again to go through the same trial of pluck and endur- ance." The sword has been from the beginning of wars one of the most forward of weapons, associated with spears, shields and battle-axes. There have been two-handled swords, alarming in appearance, used much as battle-axes, and there have been dress swotds worn for ornamentation and distinction only. The sword that has been most serviceable in actual warfare was that of the Romans. It was short, strong, double-edged, with a cross hilt and angular point. The Roman, with shield on his left arm for defence, struck upward to penetrate the trunk or chest of his enemies. The Roman sword was an easily wielded and practical weapon. It was a stabber. The Boer and Briton war appears to have decreed that the sword shall be put up, but its retirement is not to be accepted as Obsolete testimony that wars are to be no more. The sword Implements shall not devour forever in form, but it will cease of war to be borne as a badge of office, because it has already ceased to devour, and lags superfluous on the field. It is not of the slightest utility in actual warfare. Even in the equipment of cavalry the lance is more efiective than the sword. Officers find the sword a mere badge, showing the possession of rank ; and so far as it is distinguishable, it is not desirable as an attraction for sharpshooters, on the contary. The infantry officer of the future will not be accompanied after a little time has passed with a halberd or mace. The chances are, the officers will carry rifles, and, of course, they will have to be of the same caliber, using the same cartridges that are provided for the '•"fles of the enlisted men; and the officer, instead of carrying a bayonet, for which there is very little use, though there is always a great deal of talk about it, will wear a revolver for close quarters, and he will, therefore, be even better armed than those under his direc- Z, lo 7 T "u- "'"■ " "■'''^"'"' "«'- '■"""<' h-= a field useful field glasses now occupy very little snace I^ i. T sary that each soldier should carry a fi 1 1 "°' "^"'- fo™, b^ause .he .„o word, .he ^h"! ""'""" ""'■ been taught must describe the characteristics of the M-x^n. soldier of the hereafter are, " mobile " and "invisi ""J"'""**. «hi' 1, "T"" ^ '^^^ ^"^ " "■' »""■« '■■■"= obscure One "At the distances at which modern rifle fire isefi-ective a UtfU condition^ oS ii^ a::^^^^: ;« ^ 'r ^"^ optical rules Tk^ . "L "^^^^'"'"ea by a few elementary pucaj rules. The general effect of a soldier's uniform nn^ • a hot five mmute.- at.entionfrom a Vickers-Nordenfelt quick-firer 6ta CONTIiASTI.XG niUTOS ASD DOER IN BATTLE Broad patches of color, differing markedly from the background, or from the rest of the uniform, are no less dangerous. The dark greycoat shows very plainly on the soldier's back when lying down, and has been, no doubt, responsible for many straight shots. Still more fatal has been the dark-green kilt, which proved such an excellent target to the Boers at Elandslaagte and Magert- fontein." The inhabitants of the besieged cities appeared to find a fierce bombardment rather entertaining than otherwise ; that is, when they became accustomed to it. At Lady- ^S^Efftct ^'"''*'' "P *° November 25th, the besieging Boers had fired 2,680 shells, and of this number 1,070 fell in the town, 750 into the camps, and the rest were aimed at the naval batteries. Under all this fir" " but eight soldiers were killed by shells. The correspondent who had the art above all others of giving with his lead pencil the symphony of a bombardment was Mr. Stevens, who died of fever in the city, and he had pet names for the Boer banging at the town. The list given in one letter was " Long Tom," "Fiddling Jimmy," "Puffing Bill," "Silent Susan," " Lady Annie" and "Bloody Mary." "Silent Susan" was so called because the shells she sent arrived before the report. The artist adds this touch, "a most disgusting habit in a gun." Long Tom was " a friendly old gun, and there were none but the kindest feel- ing towards him. It was his duty to shell us, and he did ; but he did it in an open, manly way. Behind the half-country of light red soil they had piled up around him you could see his ugly phiz thrust up and look hungrily about him. A jet of flame and a spreading toadstool of thick white smoke told us he had fired. After the punctilious reply, you waited until you saw the black smoke jump behind the red mound, and then Tom was due in a CONTK.ISTING BRITON AXD IWBK /.v lirn' I' «co«d or .wo A rod fl«h-a j„mpofr.d.brown dus. .„d .,„k. ' possible humanity. entorccd task w,th all mountain guns turned cannibal. The cattle, dul; " "" the s,ege. had of course to pasture on any waste ^^^^'ot land inside the lines they could find, and gathered ^"'"^ ^"" in dense, distracting, noisy herds • hn^ thr.,, u *u- The same writer says of the sonnH or ft "The .ilky breath of .he Mauser b.M ".""""J""'*' = all are familiar The onlv' ''"'7"-'"«= <'~"«of .hericoche.. of .he .pound Vilke's Max'"" '„'' ''''"" "= "'^'^^ - "•« respeced by eve; one' " '""^ ' """^■"""^ ' " """'-""'^'y n>a„ipn,a,o„of«„„rbro rfroJpreforT'^'""" '" '"^ besiegers nn.i, all was ready, a^.h!" ftL ''''"''' ''"'" writes : '^ • ""^ 8'°">"8 correspondent I; 1 ^4 co\'Th\Lsri\(! liKirox Axn iiohr is n.i tti.r " On the .liHtant sky li,,., a trnncndouM cloud of Hmoke harled tHcIf ,„to tl.0 air. Tho v.ry foun,lation u,>on vhich Mafeking r.st« ..cnecl to .,uiver. all curi.«ity wa, «et at rest, and there wa, no lnn«er any doul.t as to the nature of the new ordnance the Wr. h.ul wuhthcn. With a terriflc.-.npact the shell ntruck some structures near the railway, and the rtyiuK fragments of steel spread over the town, burying thems..lves in buildinfi,, striking the veldt tw.> miles distant, creatine a dust, a horrible confusion, and an instant terror. The principal Iw.tel was recked by a shell The two heaviest of the IJoerguns were a 64-|v,und howitzer and a aipound .nu//el-h>adingsie«eKun. Soon the shells were Hying In- t«> Mafeking at the rate .>f ,00 a day. Kcuter's corrc8,Hmdent at Mnfcking says Cronje was ghK a, ,. wa, im,K„riblc. to hury th™ in ,|,o day.mc ll,,. ^, vice, wcro conduced in .,,. |i«l,t of a din,ly.b„rnL |,,„,„ ' ,7;," rector and th= |{„,„an Catholic chaplain. " ^ ""' Perhap, the hottert day during the ,ic«., „f Mafclcin-r w., the head Boer po,.t,„„ near the race coun,c. Then, at a Lai of a .hrdl „,cch fro™ a whi,Ue. .ho I.r.tish party c cerod, ™.hod nto .ho B,«r camp, and with the bayonet, killed a numbe in .heir IrLvitr "'"•■' "' " '-'"' "'-«- ■■" »-'«^ ">"/ B- CHAPTER XXI. Modern Modifications of War. 1 B..t.sh War than ,. did with .he Spanish-American comba. The most distinguishing feature of the press at lar^c has been sentimental and sensational exaggeration. The world L C comeacustomed to remarkable extravagance in the accounts given of the senes of skirmishes in Africa, all of which have been Exaggerated described as battles and in many cases the strongest Impo«.„c.or descriptive words in the language employed. The ''""'^"''™)''°«"nore men in killed and wounded ■n ten minutes at the battle of Gn>velotte, August .8 Z a„d ZlXT^l "'r '"^ '^''"'''-^ -0 '"ebattle: r: part If th: r; ''^t°* ^''"' '" '°""' ^'"- '- i" '"« ■900. The Boers hurried up the war and rushed an informal but unequivocal deda^tion that the war was on, that they ™ ht by a hurried movement for which they had carefully and eneritilllv prepare . gain the advantage of positions and occupy hi r de e„ tfe lines of a country guaried by a series of immrse natural fortresses. As the Boer authorities had absolutely deter mined that they would not do anything for the UitlandL that wou d give them political or any other rights, and, therefo'.hey must eventual^- fight, they accepted the challenge and gain«i ma^y strong places by the suddenness of their movement V Zl MODERN MODIFJCATJONS OF WAR . 627 show ,ha. .he Boer, ImZ T;" "°'"^™'="'- ""^^ o*''" P^"?- angr, e™p„asi„ .hi: ^t et r?: ";? ^T, ' «"^' ""' "' Africa ,„ovi„,, i„,o places .0 a^ack T f! T 7"' '" '^""' to have accused their a„ta.o„t ,T ^ "'"'' "'"' ""=>■ '<^'--"' commenced .he Boer plpX: V"" " '"' '"'" '"'"""'" than .ha. of .heir a„.aS t1 "" "" ""' ""^ ^'"'''""^ was au.hori.a.iveIy as'ened Ld ""^T"'""' °' **^ ''""^'■ in his Lord Mayors Z^ s ch Th^B "' u°^' '^"^"-^ in active service because .hey wte Jell T ""='""-'-' pec. British acquiescence in I , " "''>' ""''' "°' <='- consideration for se:::;.; a^^ t "••'"''.''!,'' "'^" ■"=" '"'" Wow. The expla„a.io„ offered by l!! TvT 'V'"'' ""^ ""' tage a. which .he British a™ts ^t ^ I . 7 ''''= '''"''™- woulda.any .i„,e have crossed. h,??'"""'^ "" ^"^"^ headlong ac.ivity i„s. as Tr I " ""'' "P™"" "«= ™^ "«>> were ent° ring upo I IZbT ' "" '''^'"'' "■" "«= «"■«" facts. The LLta^: oc'l?";"^""^ "^^ ^^^""'"^ '° '•■' hands or the Boers b^y the':!::;: "j 2^,:^' '''-' '" "■' reactt^rthellt atT'^ "^'^ ^ --- nego.ia.ions in which they hadt "'"f """^ '""'"" '""""^ before declaring war sneeLd 1 2" d" / '"^^'•"''' ^"^ J"" .ime have thought of allol „g TJZ,^:^" ""=^ -."'" « -V Volks Raad to speak .h^ I, "'"""'y of represen.atives in .he speak .he language of .he majority of .he white men, 628 MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR including the Boers in the Transvaal State. The Boers considered it a joke that there was any sort of expectation on the part of the English-speaking people, who were in the majority, though they had been after the Jameson Raid disarmed and were helpless under the guns of the Boers. It becomes clear in this light that there never was a possibility of a concession by the Boer Government that would give the Uitlanders any more rights than the native blacks. Both British and Blacks were to be held iron handed. The Boers would as soon have consented to the Kafifi 'king in their Volks Raad as to the British speaking there the tongue of the majority of the whites. This was not positively understood by the British people at large. They had an anticipation that Force of Arms they were to gain something for the inhabitants of Necessary the gold fields, carrying on the great industries that had given the Transvaal State its world-wide reputation and vastly increased its consequence. It has been from the first a fact that the only way to give relief to the great colony of white men occupying the gold fields in Africa, to give them a standing better than that of the enslaved natives, was to overcome the Boer policy by force of arms. There has been no alternative, and all who are well informed as to the African situation have known that this was a matter of the utmost gravity. There has for years been impending a great war in Africa. It could not be postponed without sub- mitting to the barbarous despotism of the Boers. The military system of the Boer country is even more comprehensive and searching than that of Germany. For about a year before the outbreak of hostilities, they provided themselves with 149,000 Mauser rifles, which were supposed to be about four good guns for each burgher ready to be commandeered. When all was ready to fight at a signal, the grim humor about English-speaking in the T » MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR 629 Boer Congress was indulged. In the carefully prepared memo- randum, addressed by F. W. Rietz, State Secretary of the South African Republic, to Conyngham Greene. Ksq.. C. R British Agent at Pretoria, dated " Ministry for Foreign En.iun r Affairs, Pretoria, September .5. 1899." he says: l:^X^^''- 'The Government has noticed with surprise the l^'^ited assertion that it had intimated to the British Agent that the new members to be chosen for the Volks Raad would be allowed to use their own language ; if it is thereby intended that this Government would have agreed that any other than the official language of the country would have been used in the deliberations of th, Volks Raad, It wishes to deny the same in the strongest manner. Leavinjj as.de the fact that it is not competent to introduce any such radical change, it has up to now not been able to understand the necessity or even the advisability, of making a recommendation to the Volks Raad m the spirit of justice ; hence also the immediate and express denial g.ven to Her Majesty's agent by the State Attorney to a question on that subject." That final slap in the face of the British Government by the Boers was reserved. The Boer, being migratory and possessing many wagons, ponies and cattle, and under an iron rule beside which the Kaiser or the Czar is in authority a tame and restricted .mperalist-could take the field and find ambuscades, throw up earth works and dig rifle pits to hold advanced ground, and go to the front with full ranks while the British were on the seas thousands of miles away. The Boer riflemen ^. could, with the aid of British-built railroads, pass s^a^Tto^thr" the frontiers, fortify themselves formidably with a B"tish few days' work while the British would require as many weeks to locae the forces of their enemies and prepare to attack them. It IS plain that the Boers did not gain as much territory as they 630 MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR I expected to seize. The English were alert, and the fortunes of small military affairs magnified in the newspapers, partly in ignorance, partly in malice, and partly in sensational enterprise, do not possess the significance to the student of the plucky stands made at exposed points and the steady, sturdy qualities that held with desperate devotion besieged positions. It is safe to assume that the Boers believed when they made war and got the Orange Free State under the yoke with themselves that they would at least divide Natal and disturb exceedingly Cape Colony; and they expected European Continental intervention that would open for them a port for free trade in contraband articles of war. They were early halted in the march that they thought would go far in triumph for them. The besieged British maintained the best history and tradition of their forces, and it is a tale with two sides that the repulse of columns of relief did not result in the swift surrender of the beleaguered garrisons. In Great Britain the sense of discomfiture has been in excess of the proportions of disaster, because the people have not accustomed themselves to contemplate the butchers' bills of costly victories Unexpected ^"*^ ^^^ results of partial or total failures. The Modernism of British have not for a long time had the experi- Boerorganiza- ence of confronting as enemies others than Asiatic and African half-civilized people or some of the feebler races. India, Abbysinia, Zululand, Egypt and the Soudan have been the scenes of the exploits of the British military forces, but a British army has not faced first-rate armies of white men with European equipment and instruction since Inkerman and Balaclava. They had some experience of Boers, but were not prepared to find them competent artillerists as well as excellent riflemen, and they have suffered some sharp repulses in the way of instruction. It is absurd, however, to count the ' :iure of Sir ', .t: MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR 631 ' Redvers Ruller to cross the river in the face of a force nearly or quite as numerous as his own, and the loss of a small percentage of Buller's army is not to be considered a crushing defeat. The repulse was rough. The awkwardness of the loss of artillery has been celebrated beyond the actual extent of the calamity. The startling fact appears to be that the Boer infantry had the better guns and that the British loss of guns was in recklessly pushing them to the front under the long range rifle fire of marksmen. The rushing of the artillery into the zone of fire of the Boers was an experiment in the efficacy of modern weapons, those on the offensive naturally paying the expenses, and it shows solid soldiership in Sir Redvers that he did not sacrifice his men in the struggle for guns, when the fact that the army could not cross the river became apparent. The affair was more serious than the incident of the stampede of the mules that caused a heavy loss of troops surrendered, but in both cases there has been a tendency in the losers to brag of the size of the misfortune rather than to diminish it. But the British have not as yet seemed anxious for a mag- nanimous s.tatesmanship to relieve the Empire from the terrors of war. It is very creditable to the energy, intelligence, foresight and general ability of the Boers that they have made their artillery so useful. It seemed certain that they would be outclassed in that respect very soon, but they have held their own marvelously. They have had help irom both France and Germany. The greatest apparent ovcisight of the British management is in delay- mg the dispatch of a siege train and the use of railroads to place far-reaching big guns where they could be serviceable. Why there was not a first-class siege train with all the equipments at Cape Town is a mystery that will require elucidation. It looks like a case of mistaken economy. The outcry about the deficiency of Buller's solid Soldiership 63a MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR Invaders at a Disadvantage the British Army in cavalry seems to be greater than the evidence of weakness in that arm warrants. With rifles that do deadly execution at a distance of a mile, the mark afforded by mounted men is one that it is hardly possible to miss; and South Africa is full of cover for riflemen just suited for cavalry receptions. The horse is an animal that is tender in Africa, and the actual decisive fighting clearly was to be done at last by infantry with, of course, the assistance of the cavalry and the artillery ; but the generalship is called for to give the infantry equal chances with military genius to guide the columns of invasion into a country. The invaders are often placed at a disadvantage because they cannot flank defences and force the fighting on terms that approximate to equality. The fashion of announcing by vehement artillery firfe that an infantry charge is about to be made squarely in front of rifle pits and deep trenches guarded sometimes, as the Spanish lines were at Santiago, was abandoned only after several costly lessons. The Boers had greater mobility than the British, in the style of their warfare, as well as in handling troops, concentrating where wanted, and with inferior forces being superior in numbers where the fighting of moment was going on. When we consider the unprecedented breadth of the fire zone of a battlefield, it is essential that military aggressors should be commanded by generals of a high class, or the defence will be always successful. Touching the question of numbers in the South African fields, there are surprising margins of doubt as to the Boer population of Numbers of the Transvaal, but in 1878, when the British were in the Boers authority, Sir Theophilus Shepstone is quoted as saying there were 8,000 Boers able to bear arms. Has the popula- tion been multiplied by five in thirty-two years ? Sir Jacobus de Wet computed the Boer population at Ji.cxao. A close analysis after MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR 533 thorough examination by a writer whose correspondence is made conspicuous in British papers, says of the numbers of the Boer people that " they cannot now exceed 80,000. There would, there- fore, be about 40.000 males, and accordmg to the proportion of the United States population, which most nearly assimilates to that of South Africa, a little over half of these are between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five. This gives about 22.000 capable of bearing arms. To send them all into the field would be to leave all the farms and towns without a single man under fifty.five to look after them. We may therefore safely deduct the 2,000. " The Orange Free State never had so large a population as the Transvaal, and 70,000. I am certain, is a decided The Total overestimate. But 70,000, treated in the same Free for way, gives 17,500 men free for fighting, or a total F»8»»t>n8 of 37.500. Even this, I am confident, is largely in excess of the actual number in the field, for there must be more than 4.000 men left at home in two such huge territories." Adding 5,000 Boers who live in Natal and joined the com- mando, and 5,000 British subjects forced into the field, and 5,000 European volunteers, and we have 47,000 fighting men in all, and there must have been, when Buller undertook his second expedition, not more than 40.000 available Boer troops ; and each division wa^ expected to be reinforced when closely confronted by the British by the familiar process of " mobility ". An estimate of the population of South Africa made by a member of the Legislative Assembly of Cape Colony, and published in October, 1899, gives the figures of the census of 1891, quotes the white population of the South Afri- can states and colonies as 634,775, -nd states it now at 820,000, the mcrease going chiefly to the British side. The following figures are those for which the United Chambers of Commerce are respon- sible. The use of the word " English " means •' non-Dutch " : 634 MODERN MODIFICATIONS OF WAR Total VVhitei. "Dutch." ••English.'* Cape Colony with Bechuanaland . . .460,000 265,200 194800 ^'""'°»^nd 650 300 '350 Orange Free State 93.700 78,100 15,600 Natal with Zululand 52,000 6,500 45,500 ^""7^^ "3,650 80,000 123,650 M Rhodewa . . . , ,0,000 1,500 8,500*1 820.000 431,600 388,400 '.i» = nearly ail atluit inai.:s;. FAMOUS OFFICERS OF THE BKlTlbH AKMY. FAiVOUS BOEK LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA. CHAPTER XXII. The Boer and British War Unavoidable. THE thoughtful study of the war in South AfrJm • • • that there was no help for it shirt of 1 .f -°— "i,' of the British and the Boe s If h R • ."^V" '^"^ '''''"''' stable for a generation til "'^ P°'"^>' ^^"^ ^"^^^ d generation, the preservation of peace at thi. »• would have been oossible Tk« ^ t ^ ""* '""*-' war inevitable. statesmanship made The organized emigration of the Boers frnm n »• u ;rew out of racial and personal qualUies Tat Zne^^ ;er as a people with great distinctness. The Cape u h •ndebted to the British for release from slaved Th """"" were the Holland East India Company ThT °^"^^^ settlers of the Cape were not allowed to sell the J»^«E"tIndU products of their farms exceot tn th. r Company and orices the To T ^ * Company at Its Treatment pnces the Company decreed, and they had to buy <>{ the Boers 1 he Company's goods at the Comoanv's nr.V«e tu to be had from Holland. Be.Zem b! !- B -T" "" '"''^' There „ere middlemen co.n;Tn; Ij^^^Z T"''" Company refused to permit the tillers of ZT i ■""" on a continent of , ..fecc^ ^^::Z^, '" . '^ H" '~"" of land that dictated the policy of fh, r , ^"'"'y greed of the monopolists There nev '"'• "" "^ '"""^'''■•■ .ban the ancestors of he Boer, sX H ' "°" """ '^"""^ took the countn Thel the n , T f ™"'' ""'" ""= ^""'^ hen the Dutch settler, got titles to land, fair 637 63S THh: BOER AND BRITISH WAR UNAVOIDABLE The Grievance of the Boera hearing in the courts, comparative freedom of trade, a postal sys- tern and a school system, and their way of appreciation was to become jealous of the generosities of civilization. To be sure, the British system was a little lower than an angelic administration, but it was a wonderful improvement upon the Dutch Company. The grievance of ti.e Boers that aroused their hostility most intensely toward the British was the compensated abolition of slavery. The slaveholders received from Great Britain, or at least receipted for the amount of $6,000,000. Of course, they did not think they got money enough for their black slaves, and they were so incapable of caring for themselves that a great portion of the cash paid the emancipated Africahs got into the pockets of agents who cultivated extravagantly and bought cheaply claims for slave property — a process of wrongdoing not unknown in broader lands of freedom, for there has been no case of satisfaction among slaveholders on British territory with the details of the distribution of the $100,000,000 the British paid to free all the slaves within their jurisdiction. The disconsolate Boers trekked to the Orange State at first, and tried for a time to appropriate Natal, but the British were too early and strong for them there — that is, the advanced squatters The Boer ^^''^ British rather than Dutch, and so the Reaches His freemen on wheels whipped up and pushed on Canaan finally reaching the promised land. This was their Canaan. The Canaanites had no rights except to be servile, or killed if they did not like it, and their massacre or enslavement was according to the Gospel of the Boers on behalf of liberty. The British were the Egyptian who pursued, and were bafifled by the movement northward with processions of oxen to turn the wheels The movers were not in a hurry. They were in THE BOER AND BRtTiSH WAR UN A VOID. ■IB/.E ^39 ' ».m.l,... The head o( ,he f.„„ly ,„„!, alony hi, wif. :,„,| chiWren «',°"- '-'"-all the lines gold, marked by r nrolds w th" T'T ' ™'' '" *^'"°"''^ -<= range, over th v^te ' a"n!"b' TT"'^' '" "■=■""""'"■" Africa. '^ "'' '^'"''= "■" "''■■^ of Southern The issue of the war is not in doubt Th. ki j , , has not been shed in vain Th The blood of brave men Boers in their resoundin k """" "' ""= '"^'''^ "-"I "•= -all, wiHp: rtrrfuu LTo"; :" i. ""''"^ ""'=^' «'-' -" ♦k 8^^ °' '^"°wl^"dire upon what ha.= K the irreat maiorifv r>( r^ i ^ "^^ ^*^*^" to earth^nd inrilrrcHteTor' r^t? "" "' '"^ .Hnnder of big g„us, Africa wi^'rHdv" rt ::^T T. "" '"' world over, and its surpassing greatness Id '""' °' accelerated velocity thlteOoToT' '""^"'' ™'"-'= -" « is the world aLthe:„ii„^;r';"roT:h"* "■^: •-; preach to every creature," will have a ^ope 7 fi "" "'' grandeur of attainment richly c„mpen«t7n7 he ^'^ "'" ""' strife for the sacrifices of warfare ^ '"""' '"^'^'^ ''" peop^ wh:!e^\:!::;!Lt::it^^ '- a and robbed, is a complaint st^ineTb;: .^l "a„T "^^^ ^"T" secrets of the earth and the skies J, . '■'"°"- ^''^ out The Boers were warned „h ^ T "''° ''"<' '""•" fo. oppression of the natl s of AfricTn f'' '^^'"« '^^'=''"- British subjecu, but theylack:. th g .^ ^'T' "^^ ""' "" tne gut ot prospecting m large i ii ■3 C>4- T//A- BOEk AND BRITISH WAJi UNAVOIDABLE affairs. The political perspective was not within the range o( their vision or the accomplishment of their arts. It was out of si^ht for them that their broad farms should be undermined by diamond and gold diggers, and themselves pursued across the Continent by locomotives more formidable than the monsters of the forests, and A False '^ ^^^^ ^^^ found truthful teachers, even of the Charge superficial lessons of the average fortunes of men, they would have known that the policy of selfish rule by a minority class of majorities, both below and above their level in civilization, or evading and fighting taxation themselves and imposing it upon others, could not be everlastinr^' bound to destruction by violence, if it were not surrendered according to the dictates of the common wisdom of men who know enough to govern themselves. The discovery of the diamond fields on the borders of the Orange Free State caused the complication handsomely adjusted by the English, who paid ^90,000 to the State to settle the dis- A Transaction puted claim. The transaction was advantageous to Advantageoous all concerned. With this money the State built to All its first and best railway. This State had the wise Concerned guidance of John Rand for a quarter of a century, and has latterly had the misfortune, in the hands of President Steyn, to be hypnotized and victimized by the indomitable Kruger. Not only did the English release the Dutch settlers of the Cape from the grinding and relentless despotism of the Company that kept them in poverty and helpless dependence; they also relieved the Transvaal in later days from the peril of the crusading propensities of the Zulu kings at the cost of a sanguinary war— the Boers looking on with "grim" dignity. We infer it was dignity. They were always grim, even when roaring with laughter. Cetywayo menaced the Transvaal with forty thousand warriors. THE BOER AND BRmSH WAK UNA VOIDABLE 6„ The British n,oved forward and took possession of the disputed tern ory and assumed the duties of government. Then o^ no grea e offense than that they were not i„ haste ,o call a Boer >eg.sla.ure. there .as an a.Htation against British rule, and Pau Kruger appeared upon the scene. President Burgess lo pr^ ceded Kruger ,n his last address to his Volksraad sM „" fhTs oppos..,o„ : ..You have ill-treated the natives, yo,. have ho^t-n hTpe^iV": r.%";;r --^--ow you have 'to';^ p a,ty. The fourth pomt which we have to take nto account affects our relations with our English neighbo^ U .3 asked, what have they to do with our posi^on, I «11 1 a much as we ave to do with that of our Kaffir neighbors. As , tt e as we can allow barbarities among the Kaffirs on our borde:.. as little can they allow that in a State IZ^tTcn th. on the,r borders anarchy and rebellion should OpTotSon ' prevad. • . . To-day a bill for /,,,co was laid before me for s,gnature, but I would sooner have cut off my right hand . hi Xtt'^rbe ' "7= 7 '"' ^"^'-' «-""" " - -'ha sl d R t? "" "'"'■'= ^'" ^ => P'^''"y 'o pay it with fact tta h r" '■ ■; '■™'"«»'y -iW ' P-- upon him (Kruger) the fact that by showmg how our danger lay in want of unity the Brit sh Government wou d have ra„.„ ,„ . ■ "'"'/. tne British ne would not hear of retirin•««»„. ab,e „a. hr«,t f ovr ir r r t *'-: '="'- been accepted from the cZ ■ """ "•"■« ''«' mounted men- and M w ti- " ''^^ """'°""'«' »"<> 4,698 9.K .he day of the !^L? "^ ""• " ^"^ '"'="» "" 0-=""'" mou„ted4tt'i:r roiTn^^rTort r ^•^°" cK »i . ^^ ^°^^^ complement that will shortly be there (January ust\ L, • , ^ / ^'"t*^ 8th Division or theUTJ.pJ'^'"^'^" ScreiThof unmounted and '^r^ m^^^, ^^ sl^^^^a ""3, The three weeks included the first wf-^t of i^ u . • of .he Natal State, shifting *e stage f I:, /^r'"--''- British to the Boer t*.rri^« t. ^v. arama from the apby the InteUfeenrn "^^ °'*"'' ^"'"''' =^"'"«« made 'o^aliX^anX^ttrr^^^^ "^ .ogether in u::;:;:7;™«^«l|;---nd put =0,000, numl^r „f „en liltelv f, ^ L ^™ ^'^ estimated the men likely ,0 ,om the enemy from the Colonies at «3» TRANSPORTATION AND CASUALTIFS 4tOoo, makinff a total of cc nrv^ «^ j .u foreiKnen likdv tn / "'?°' *"^ ^'^^ estimated numbe; of lurciKnen, nkely to come mto the country or who ha^ i^ • ^ country, likelv to inin ♦!,. ^ **^ ^*=" •" the « .h.^n;a,riVLir„ h whr; ir* ""''"«• """' ■" »"«° republic. .oulcchefieU """ '^•""' •■" "-»« '»° in 18S8 the men actua )■ in iIm n,„;,\. a, •/ "o. colors was „o 7,,. a„H n. kl = Army serving with the the peace army tl'th. n V ' "^' "'"="'" " '""'"-of " The recr^ "Uo ca ""Tn." f '•"'• "'• '^^"'"'^'" '"''^'d^ The DMHcalt ="'« acquitted himself brilliantiv doi„,r „„.(, , Task of the store public confidence in h r ^ "" S?;',t^- •-= nation. ThrourhiJ-JL teTtr^r rebellion in IreC tV;,,^!?;^'''".^, '^^'r ^ '-»- 'f the b..nc , his ancesto , n'dtMs 1 „;:''/: ''" " ^'""'"^ ''-" held .,. .. remarkable extent H °"" ° , '"^"""^ ^^^ ^ >■" of the House. I .elevated th ^'^C'' "' "■" '"^'' "-'-" was an excellent offit o pe orrLrl"'^ "" f"":""'"'' ^"^ "■^' fyrant that at last rules. """^ *'""= '^"' '» ">« ofhult^::r„'ourtrf '^'f "^ "■" ■""= »"««-is..fuii he made ^^^^'^::::^'c''rir"''^'^ ^.^^ar.debaC:?rort;:— ;-^^^^^^^^^^ t TRANSPOHTA TION AND CASVAU^ES .„ the politicians of Pari{»,« » • "®*^®""'** °* *«« country than AMc.; and hu' he h» ,H ""'-q-", of the war i„ South of aspiring members of his nartv luJ ""^'"^ ''"^"''°" campaign of occupation of 'Znia;dTer'^ ^""'^" Pe.inent s.d, for the comprehension oHhe "aT^ ^°^'"^ ^' ^ Z\ . ^r* '^"''' ^' * ^*'"^W« *"vice to Lord Rose- . „ ^- ^^^ P«°PJe of the provinces of Bosnia ^"^'^ Op'^^on and Herzegovina turned over to Austria in fh. n r ^ , following the last Russo-Turkish wa fil . . l ^°"^«'-^"<=« South AfriVa Tu 6 *rce acate and the Transvaal of and the rainfall. The war in tW. " ^*"ca, from the heat -a. .u ,..™ „. rr„ X=;:r r - ; '■ ill 656 TRANSPORTATION AND CASUALTIES much like that in the recent British experience at Belmont, where Sir George White got a detachment of his troops into an untenable position. One of the Austrian columns, an army equal to that of Sir Redvers BuUer on the Tugela, was driven back with great loss. The total invading force at first, as it was not expected there would be any formidable resistance, amounted to 72,633 men, 12,863 horses and mules, and iii guns. It was the presumption of the Austrian authorities, civil and military, that this array was over- whelming, but before the war, which lasted about three months, was ended, there were four Austrian army corps in the field, num- bering altogether 208,000 men, 38,600 horses and 480 guns. The Austrian loss, including wounded, before peace was made, was 179 officers and 5,000 men killed and wounded, and in addition to this there were 2,233 deaths from disease and wounds. A writer who closely studied this Bosnian and Herzegovinan struggle of mountaineers against regular troops, and the instruc- An Instructive '''^® Parallel it is to the experience of the British, Parallel remarks: "It is certainly remarkable that the campaign mentioned by Lord Rosebery should not be more frequently referred to at the present time. In many particulars, especially in those of a technical military character, its similarity with that in which we are now engaged in South Africa is striking. It is not at all improbable that we should have suffered fewer disappointments had we studied in good time the Austrian operations to which Lord Rosebery has directed our attention. A study of them even now will be found instructive." Those who closely follow the history of the war between the Britons and Boers, should have a care to bear in mind that it has been for some tinic before the while people in South Africa that tho future of that country must be a confederacy of the Colonic* TRAXSPORTA TION AND CASUALTIES 6,7 be oneeo„„,ry,excepti„g,p.rhaps, .he Portuguese Colony which , ^n qu«e c ear to the Dutch, and they have lived up to ii Th" IvVk! ^v ^"'' "'"""■^ "^ ■■" l"™ repeatedly ^ «h,b,ted by those in (avor of a belittled England S?""!!"'^ The Boers have a„ i^^^nse capacity fo." ^ol' ZTtyZ^ «teen,, and the fact that they had defeated the ^ tha 'thev Lr t'?''"" '"'■""■"''' '" '"^'^ "■'"<>^">= -nviction the Ch ri„? "°:' '■'='"=""'== '•'^ P™'>'-" - Afrikander,and the Dutch element would prefer that they shouldbe the ruling class and ,n Natal, as well as ,n the Transvaal and Orange Free State Ittsa cur,ous matter that the only African Province oT State in :t tha toft' T '''' " f^''"' '"''-•'' -- ^" <>"•" -"''- was that of the Transvaal, and the fact .s that their predominance in of carrying on great works, disturbed the stolid despotism of the Boe., who would not consent to any rational co^'prom^se , a" frri« d T.""""""^ country a ballot, no matte'r ho^ much restncted. The result of the war must be unity in South Africa ; i ■ f 658 TRANSPORTATION AND CAUSALTIES Either the Boers or the British are to have authority indisputable within the borders of these great territories. The Boers have trampled always upon the native races, and they have the most violent propensities to assail and to disregard all humanities. With respect to the immigrants from British India, one of the things the rulers there have failed to do has been to protect their Indian sub- jects and their own people in Africa. The history of the war, studied from the original troubles, may be considered in three groups of facts : First, the aggressive advance of the native forces of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State upon Natal and Cape Colony-driving before them a great number of fugitives from the British settlements. This was done in a way that cannot be characterized by a word less Three Groups ^^""^'^ than savagery. There was an eager- of Facts "^^^ *° onfiscate the property of the British and to drive them out of the land that they had made profitable. The war brought to the public mind that the white people were in the majority but disarmed, and in the presence of a minority thoroughly armed and with expert knowledge of the use of their weapons. It is the only instance in the history of the world in which the majority of the white people of a country have been domi- neered over, their rights disregarded, their property confiscated themselves msulted and abused, and forced to submit to this from' the mmority. It is something unique in human experience. The second scene of the situation was the attack upon the several towns of Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith, and the advance into Natal over the Tugela, capturing Colenso. Then came the actual fight- ing, and presently there were three British towns besieged, an extensive part of the country that had belonged to the British people overran, and there was attention as to their conflict of arms TRANSPORTATION AND CASUALTIES ««, Ae Boe„ „i„ „ai„tai„i„g .he aggressive. The Boers. »he„ sir Wrs ca.e wUh heavy feces, were compelled .o st d I" he defens,ve and gather as co,„ma„ded to prevent the relief „" the bes,eged to^s. S,r Redvers suffered serious reverses frt w atever may be .aid of his generalship and the condi.io„r r^unj hnn he was cool and his inforn,atio„ comprehensive ; but he had a hard part thrust »Pon him-that of talcing a «eat „»„ u, uponhimsel, acceptingtheblameof failure fathefthZ:^^^^^^^^^ o force h.s way at a tremendous sacrifice of life. While his cce" s has n n Vr"""'^ '" '"^" '"^'P'^ ""•"'<*• " - ^'- 'hat he ha no. lacked hero™. «ood sense and solid judgment. I, wl his fe lure to n,ake good his advance upon Ladysmi.h, when hTfe attempted ,t, .ha. reduced his par. .o secondary proportions. 1, ^ t""!! 5 •"" " ""^ ""™' °' Lord Roberts of Kanda- har. a„a Lord K.tche,..r of Khartoom. ,t was demonstrated by the severe eicpenence of Sir Redvers Buller that Th. -n. w movmg an army sufficient to overpower the Cta«^, Boers around Ladysraith, in other words, to force the War &e passage over the sixteen miles of most difficul. country between Colenso and Ladysmi.h. wa. impossible withourl^ excess,ve sacrifice^ Roberts and Kitchener took the field "take the aggressive The fate of the British Empire in a great degt -a very deeded degree so far as mihtary character is concern^!! and the presfge of Great Britain are at the foundation ofle pro. d.g.ous commerce and resources, and hold the world-wide poX^- r TT' l"'"'^ '° ''''■ ^"'^ '""--' f-« and fabr^tas wtrrnd th" T'^' °' '"^ ^'^'■^"'^'^"- '■"«- -" Soudan wars, and the speedy success of Roberts, .elieving Kimberlev and capturmg Cro„^=. w. followed by Buller. hard-eLed su r n he rehefof Udysmith. and the Boers were forced to retreat o, all lines to concentrate. " CHAPTER XXIV. Some Important Lessons of the War. npHE racial questions have produced the war of the Britons i and Boers and profoundly influenced the military operations '" South Afnca. There is not to be found a more re- Mrical' ■".'"«''"« "/."-^ Wood of the racs of Europe. Asia and Afnca than in the Afncan southern states and provinces. There are many types of the natives in the contested territory, the most d^sfnct he Hottentots. Kaffirs and Zulus, and each of these has several shades of development and distinciion. The Cape Dutch were largely Holland stock, but the Cape was a stopping place for TMuTrof '"'^^r™''^"" Europ^eamen^L'ry of tt AMWng of sea and willing to drift towards barbarism with the around ,l,.r "^^T^ P^P'^-'he vagabondage that eddied around the Cape, the currents flowing from Northern Europe and Southern As,a. There, on the extremity of Africa was the rest- mg-place when voyaging to and from the Indies, and there was victZ f r "' °' '"'"""''"' '''^"^- There came the ™t,ms of rel.g,ous persecution in France and the poor girls from the almshouses of Amsterdam and the mirtures of Europeans Afncans and Asiatics, including the higher and lower types of the human race. Probably the Dutch would have held their original ndvantage ,f,t had not been for their narrow-gauge method of graspmg the earnmgs of others for the corporations that were the orga„,zat,o„s of Dutch interests and that with one hand rob^d the „at,ves broadly and freely, and with the other picked the «0 SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR «, pockets of white men boldly and ereadilv Th. the Dutch Ua;- r • ^'"""y- The corporations of tne Uutch Inda Companies were not conciliatory; they were ..paeons and wtth industrions fmgality provided themsell w th thanTr f ''""«'' '''"■ '"'"=2*'' ""« => broadeTZple ved them, and had mmgled with their strength traits of generosity and an .mmense skill in deahng with the people they found aTtLt et: ed to^e E ^'-^ "TT " '" ''' '"°™-' -'™'- ' Zn K '"'^' ""'"^^ "'°>' '°« il, regarding self, protection part of a soldier's duty, and holding it courageous to avoid, sacrifice, not indispensable. Much has been done in the few month, of African war that takes this general direction, and it is on.ou. there are certain results fron African experiences that will 1^ found revolutionary and many questions, near and far, to be taken into grave consideration. The problems involved in military changes are a. .urely in sight a. anything in social organization or application of principles that the administration of government may be abreast with progressive intelligence. Nothing is more difficult nowadays in war than the entangling alliance, of the press with men of direct military responsibility. Telegraphic The wires that carry th«} news of all the markets P«:tor P'°P*"y °^ enlightened men, are each year visibly increased in numbers and connections, and the course of movement seems to be into greater facility in the communion of information. Though the Transvaal is without a seacoast. that state abuts on a Portuguese Colony, and there is a cable along the Eastern shore of Africa within easy reach of the seat of government, indeed connected by rail and wire, and this cable IS the shorter channel of communication between the land systems of telegraphy that unite E rope, Asia and Africa. There IS freedom for the circulation of the Boers' current history Their version of what goes on in Africa is a regular and important part of the news service of the wired world, and nowhere is this information more eagerly sought than in England. The fact that wire touches wire and that the news of the day and the night has a specific value and is imparted in a telegraphic atmosphere amply justifies the exercise of a severe discretion by British generals in SOME IMPORT A ST LESSOSS OF THE WA E 66g restraining the diffuMon of military purposes. It i. not in ...Hsible that a despatch from a BrJthh ramp to London may be returned to Pretoria within a few hr urs and communicated to the Boer army confronting the British from whose midst the intelligence was sent forth. The secrets <,f a plan of campaign can girdle the earth in such time that the fate of armies and of nations mar depend upon intercepting their flight, or changing their purport so as to prevent the enemy fro.n obtaining vital or fatal infor- matton. So swift and certain is the circulation of news that space time and chance are computed and measurable. There are appearances that on both sides strategy of falsification i. familiar The mancKuvres by Buller. coincident with the movement of Lord Koberts into the Orange Free State, appear to have been an elaborate case of putting up fiction, and giving countenance to rumor through words that must have had official Swure Time ongin. to impress the Boers that they had again to and ciiance meet the British general on the Tugela. Whether Computed this was underdone or overdone will some day be history Now It is rather conjecture, but the knowledge that Boers were quickly served w.th British despatches was taking advantage os and .here were columns of Bntt.h troops tramping, and cannonading resound- ing in the mountains, such as had accompanied other demonstra- tions. There are changes in the management of wars indicating that there are broader fields for tactitians and deeper mysteries for Tl?l-r '''""''""•'^ ^'''' '^^" •" '^^'^ ^-hen the whole world did not each day demand the confidence of commanding generals. Both Roberts and Buller misled the Boer commanders, and the two Bnt.sh armies were strictly at once cc' mns of assault Unquestionably there is conflict between military reserve and freedom of the press, and the alternative seems to be the most ngorous censorship, or a greatly enlarged freedom in transmission 670 SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR to the people that which would interest them, with the exception of the refusal of all unofficial despatches when pi ans of changing positions are in course of execution. A purpose may be disguised by a com- petent commander permittingtheextravagances or sensational inven- tions to counteract themselves by annihilating public confidence. Fortunately, truth has a wonderful way of making itself known, and might— ought to go along with light and right. General Grant, at Fort Donelson, found in the haversack of a Confederate prisoner, three days* rations, and knew that meant that the army in Donelson were attempting to retreat. He acted at once upon this material information and the revelation of the purpose of the Con- federates was influential in securing a national victory that won Western Kentucky and Central Tennessee. When General Jo Johnston saw in the shipping news of the New York Tribune that The Press a a cargo of hay had been landed at Newbern, Dangerous N. C, he knew it was for Sherman and where Factor Sherman was go! .5 as well as Sherman did, and delivered a dangerous stroke upon the left wing of Sherman's army. The problem of the transportation for armies increases with the extended possibilities of campaigning. When General Wash- ington was compelled to retreat before the British from Brooklyn to New York, the superior force that confronted him was greater than any that had ever before crossed the Atlantic, but the miles it traversed were three times multiplied in the army the United States sent to the Philippines and twice as large. The British ex- ceeded precedents in transporting to South Africa from the North Sea and the British and Irish Channels within three months 200,000 men. The Spanish Armada was not a great fleet compared with the British steamers that bore this immense array from zone to zone. The expedition of Napoleon to Egypt, the march of Alexander through Asia, the transportation of the reinforcements of the British SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR 673 in India that suppressed the mutiny— sending by steamers the great French army that was in service in the Crimea alhed with the British— the despatch from Spain to Cuba of more than 100,000 men assembled in that colony at one time, are instances of con- siderable armaments expedited on adventures beyond . „ 1 . ., 1 ,. "'A Record seas, but the men and supphes earned from Eng- Breaker in land to the Cape to meet increasing emergencies, is Transporta- an army and navy movement surpassing all examples. " The requisite quays, steamers, coal stations and food, clothing and ammunition, supplied the British army in Africa, exceed all accomplished up to date in the stories of warring States and Empires. The Canadian, ,ew Zealand and Australian contingents centering at the Cape of Good Hope to sustain the British Empire menaced there, is a marvel beyond the dreams of the Persians, Greeks and Romans. This transportation was made possible only by the extraordinary accomplishment of the mechanics of the age. Associated with these manifestations of sea power and military mobility on a scale unparalleled, are the hospital ships and trains ; the myriads of mules and horses from Australia and the Americas, as well as Europe ; clothing adapted to hot days and cold nights ; the armored trains, forts on wheels ; ship guns, snatched from British men-of-war, landed, entrained and despatch- « ^ , ed to exchange business salutes with the big guns of Resources the Boers on the mountains ; the traction engines Conquered that draw strings of wagons and make haste with howitzers and lyddite shells to the front ; the balloon observations, the most satis- factory in military utility— and the Boers and the British alike em- ployed sky-scrapers for investigation of the military situations and heliograph literature was written with shafts of lio!it on cloudy skies— the wireless telegraphy, that without sound or flash speeds I ) t ■ 674 SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR voiceless but luminous messages through the viewless air. These are the things that tell us in the midst of the barbarisms of war- fare, that civilization has conquering resources, and that there is compensation in science that more than offsets in the grim games of war the rude forces inherent in the methods of barbarians. The range of the modern rifle issued to infantry is so great that it may be said one armed with it can shoot anything he can see. It takes very good sight to define the form of a man at the distance of a mile. With an arm of precision and an eye that detects a figure at the distance of a mile or more, so that it becomes a mark, and with a fine mechanism of sights for long range the zone of fire from the infantry rifle broadens beyond a mile, as there are many of the rifles, with which armies are equipped, effective at that and greater distances. Occasionally a generation ago there were reports The Modem of miraculous shots doing execution a mile away ; ^*'** but a musket, such as used in military organiza- tions, was seldom found reliable beyond 200 or 300 yards. At the battle of Colenso, Colonel Long lost his batteries because he was rash enough, as it turned out, to rush at a gallop with his guns to a position within 800 yards of the River Tugela, and at that dis- tance a rifle in the hands of a Boer marksman in a ditch beyond the river was a better weapon than a field piece in open ground. If we take up the Napoleonic oatiles and make out the posi- tions of the contending forces, it is cloar that such combats as those conducted by Napoleon with such consuiimate skill would, with the modern equipments, be impossible. It is related that he used the money received from the United States for the million square miles of land he sold in providing his army with an improved musket; and that upon his urgency and under his keen supervision there was turned out a more formidable arm for the French infantry than was possessed by others. The new musket SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAK 675 gave the French fire a sweep over a broader field, and the balls were heavier and deadlier than those that contended with forces the Corsican commanded. The deadly range of the new weapon was made known in the Austerlitz campaign, especially in the great battle that closed it with remarkable distinction. The Gun of The Prussians were much indebted to the needle gun Napoleon for the defeat of the Austrians at Sadowa, though the Austrian artill- ery was better at that time than that of the Prussians, and the Aus- trians, with their field guns, checked and staggered the first attack of the Prussian army. In the Franco- Prussian war the Chassepot was a shade supe- rior to the improved needle gun of the Germans, but the German artillery outranged and was of quicker fire, and in other respects stronger than the French field guns, and habitually gave a decisive impluse to the drift of destiny on the stricken fields. In the war of the States and sections of that country, the National forces were.as a rule, better equipped than the Confederates, though not to a striking degree, but the difference was slight at the start and imperceptible at Gettysburg. The Confederates under Stonewall Jackson had a mobility as much greater than that of the National armies as the Boers have displayed over the British in their surprising facilities for dispersing when one fight was over and won, and concentrating somewhere else for another combat. If at Waterioo such rifles as the Boers and British fought with in South Africa had been in hand, if the battle had opened with the troops placed as they were in the later and The Battle at more momentous hours of the da}-, the fortunes Waterloo of the day would have been decided one way or the other, and very possibly against the British, in the space of half-an-hour. for the fire line with magazine rifles, the Mauser, for instance, should have been fatal to nearly everybody ; but we must understand that ft' ff ! 676 SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE IV A R there will necessarily be a total change in the management of troops on battlefields, and the lessons of the South African war will be regarded as the essential studies of all the military schools, and change the formations of battle lines and the entire mechanism of military engagements. At the battle of Lutzen, the famous figure of Napoleon was in plain view of the glasses of the allies opposed to him, and his white horse and gray coat and cocked hat could be distinguished with naked eyes by many of the troops fighting him. If in this engagement the troops had been armed as they are now, there would have been mathematical and speedy certainty of Napoleon's death on thespot. A charge, corresponding to that of the Virginians at Gettysburg, would now terminate in the annihilation of the Reflections on advancing column before it could move half way Modem Arms from the belt of trees from which it emerged to the stone wall that, though crossed for a moment by the spray of the grand rush, marked its failure. The long range of the magazine rifles in the Boer-Briton war has been a factor in all the engagements, and the Boers have been the men who, at the opening of their campaign of aggressive resist- ance to the British, were educated to give the improved weapons the greatest possible scope and efScacy.while at the same time they neglected no reasonable device to take all the chances of safety. The rifle that at 1,600 yards will swiftly wither a charging battalion, makes the defence of a position selected by a competent commander almost invincible, if the defenders of the line have time to prepare entrenchments, so that they may be invisible. It was this iron wall of fate against which Sir Redvers Buller launched his squadrons, battalions and batteries, and it will probably be some time well comprehended that there was no ordinary generalship in his extrication of his columns with a loss tl though severe, was SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR 677 not destructive of the organization of his army, but of the fact that there was a certain decline in the inherent energy of his columns as the various failures of his movement for the relief of Ladysmith occurred there is no rational question, though they won at last a costly triumph. The British were able to hold out so long at Mafeking, Lady- smith and Kimberley, because they swept the surrounding coun- try with their great and small arms, even including within their lines pastures for thousands of cattle and horses. One of the mysteries of the siege of Ladysmith that perhaps may lead to In- vestii-ations of a rigorous character to discover its origin is that 3,000 cavalry, sorely needed for outside service, were held in the garrison of the town, and whilethey were an element that had quite a positive influence upon the Boers in restraining them from wild nding around the country and the close neighbor- ah« * hood of thecity-it seemsimprobablethatthe3.ooo 2.e Sd mounted men in a pen. however large, could not have been much better employed elsewhere. Still the range of the guns at Lady- smith-and those that were most serviceable were transferred from the warships at Durban just in time to be placed and associated with the navy guns with the cavalry mobility-was limited. There was so large an area defended that the bombardment was diffused and comparatively ineffective; and yet, when the Boers undertook to storm Bntish entrenchments and made the effort with pertinacity and daring, striking the weaker points of the lines of defense, they were repulsed with heavy loss. The sieges, as well as the combats in the fields and among the mountains in this remarkable struggle, all go to show that hereafter the history of war and one may add. the history of diplomacy also, will be largely changed owing to the grave sense that those responsible for public affairs' must have from the African experiences that are object lessons for i ■ !' The Spade with the Gun 678 SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OP THE WAR the world of an unexpected and until now unheard of capacity fof defense. Aggression in war has manifestly become more difficult through the increased power of the weapons placed in the hands of soldiers. It was one of the lessons of the great war in the United States of the North and South that had in the later campaigns a plain influence upon movements that the soldier must use not only the rifle but the spade, and this is going back to the old Roman method of making war by fortifying encampments even though they are to be occupied only for a single night Toward the last of the combats between the National and Confederate troops, the moment the day's march, if the situation was critical, was ended the men began to prepare defenses. ' They cut down trees and dug rifle pits and made ready to be secure from sudden assaults. If this line of precaution had been taken before the battle of Shiloh by the National army, there would have been but one day of the battle, and that closed in the defeat of the Confederates, because instead of breaking into the lines of the Union army at the first advance they could not have gained ground at any point, however gallantly they were led. Another lesson is that it is with Americans, or forces of equal hardihood and bravery a vain sacrifice of valor and waste of precious blood to assault a line of entrenchments. Lessons of "^^^ ™°^' remarkable incident illustrating this pro- the American position, and it has become an elementary instruc- tion, was the repulse of Grant at Cold Harbor. He frankly acknowledged the lesson. The most striking example of the teachings of the war in conducting military operations was that of the siege of Petersburg, the last struggle before "the surrender." SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OP THE WAR 679 There was another point of extreme interest and of most valuable suggestion in the American war, and that was the cam- paign of Sherman from Dalton to Atlanta. At Dalton, Sherman's army suffered in an attack, successful at first, that was pressed too far. and from that point until Sherman swung around Atlanta and won the c.ty. he constantly " flanked." as he was enabled to by superior force, the Confederate army, under Johnston an equally capaUe commander, who knew just when he had to yield a position as well as Sherman did how to strike his enemy's flank and drive him. It IS an axiom in weighing the chances of military adventure that the topography of the country must be taken into the highest consideration; and therefore it is proper to guard criticism of the Briush generals in their attacks on the lines of the Boers and not press too far the saving strategy of Sherman upon their attention because the rivers between Chattanooga and An t ^ . ' Aflo«».« » . . * ^° Important Atlanta are not supplemented by extraordinary Axiom defensible mountain ranges as in Natal, where half-a-dozen serious mistakes apparently were called for, before the British generals understood that they should have started with a change of tactics as radical as had appeared in the soldier's equipments. I<€verses were for a time the characteristic feature of the British aggressive movements-excepting in cases of sorties from the beleaguered towns. The rifle is the key to the stories of successful defenses of towns by the British as well as of the kopjes by the Boers. Add to the wide area the rifle searches, the mobility of men on horseback, the training of whose lives has fitted them for the eff-ective handling of modern arms, and it becomes evident that those on the defensive will inflict the penalty of death upon assail- ants, unless they can be so posted as to give them the benefit of shelter; and the more the subject is examined the greater the 1 . 68o SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THE WAR increase of the impression that the new weapons are revolutionary m contnbuting immeasurably to the resources of national and The Key personal self-defense. It may be— must be, added «d°?S^k ^^' ^^""forth until the nations learn war no more, the armies of the people of the highest c.v,l.zat.on must adopt the fighting style of those of inferior cultivation in taking advantage of trees and stones and irregulari- ties on the battlefields and meet the barbarians on terms of equality by the arts of native understanding of the protection of men whose lives are precious to their country and essential to the cause they are engaged in-and the officers, trained to chivalrous devotion and to the assertion of themselves as superior to precautions, must abandon the custom of promenading conspicuously before marks- men ^v-hose business it is to pick them off. Indeed, those who com- mand and those who obey in military organizations in the wars of the future will have to take the advice Washington gave Brad- dock on the Monongahela. That was as good in South Africa the other day as it was in Western Pennsylvania, when the world was a century and a half younger. CHAPTER XXV. Equipment and Resources of Both Armies. IT is not unusual for British armies to be badly provided and to 1 suffer heavy losses in their far distant operations, especially in the first stages of campaigning, even when the soldiers are near the ships. The Crimean war afforded examples of the same deficences that have so largely given distinction to the South Afncan war. The British troops lacked supplies in front of Sebastopol, m sight of fleets bearing the flag of England, and they were plunged in muddy camps with sorry subsistence and SK:kened and perished with privations, the very relations of whi'ch by the great war correspondent Russell caused Eng- land to shudder with shame and to be heated S'ISSh!** with anger ; and the charge of Balaclava was even t^T4^^ a wilder blunder than the march of the Highland brigade into the trap prepared for them by the Boers, who were signalled v^th a antem that the time for the slaughter had arrived, Lt thell had been lured to the shambles. ^ The people of the city of Johannesbarg, having been disarmed Enel^h' " r' ' f' '"^"^ '" ""■'"' ' reaf commnnitTo, eered that theyhavesubm.tted to disarmament by those who were ther declared enemies and knowing well the animosities and re- morseless nature of the Boers abandoned their homes as the war storm darkened and burst. The fact is. the armed people banis^^ 6Si i I 68a EQUIPMENT AND RESOUIicnS OF liOTIl ARMIES the unarmed. The military caste expelled the civilians, who were helpless though a vast majority. It is the most odious triumph of mere militarism known in modern times, and is itself the strongest testimony of the tyranny of the Boers. A correspondent who visited the deserted golden city early in the war tells of the conduct of the military minority, the domineering, vulgar, ruling caste in these terms : " The Boers of Johannesburg have already come into posses- sion. They have looted theCliinese shops, and poor John, having only British protection to look to, was badly treated. For the zarps, left nominally to protect the town, times are delightful. I heard of half a-dozen of them who straightway got married, and began their honeymoon in some of the best villas." It was apprehended that the Boers would do all in their power to make an end to gold mining in the Johannesburg district.' Boers President Kruger has had prejudices in respect Working to British gold, and regarded the production of * *"*' the precious metal on his domains to supply outsiders as the gravest form of offending his political sov- ereignty and pecuniary policy. Advices from Lorenzo Marques, January 28, 1900, declared : " The Transvaal Government are working the mines at great profit, and on the tonnage basis ; the surplus over the outlay is quite up to the old level. The explana- tion is that the richest ore is crushed and that the natives are only paid £1 a head monthly against ^3 formerly, while coal is obtain- able for the mere cost of mining and transport. The skilled work- men employed are chiefly British, American, German and Swedish subjects. It is estimated that the Government already owe the mines over ;/;= ,000,000, yet the salaries of the chief officials have been reduced 80 per cent, and no goods brought or commandeered are any longer paid for." nQUlPMEXT AM) KESOVRcns OF BOTH ARMIES 683 The word '• mobility " and aho •• immobility " have had a new force in the English language since the South African war deveU oped. Mobility has had frequent application of a striking nature to the situation. The British armies in Africa got away from the commonplace precedents, as if there was, on the part of their com- manders, an extreme reluctance to believe in anything new. The Imperialism of Great Britain has not mustered the whole of the male population into the army, so that they are not in the sense of the nations conscripted into .he army, armed and hammered into hardihood by compulsory service. The British army in Africa had much to learn. The school has been expensive. They are in a country strange to nearly all of them, and there is a certain weirdness about the scenery, the A South African Storm air and color of the landscape. Queer moun- tains standing like enormous altars for the ceremonies of some awful superstition ; rivers that are commonly obstructive, never navigable, and often not fordable; streams that become tor- rents that melt the land away, and astounding electrical phe- nomena, floods of lightning that flame around the sky. A soldier writes of a South African storm : " It began with a dust storm, when we were having an Alfresco mess. We retired hurriedly, for we were simply blinded by it. Tlicn came rain drops the size of gooseberries. We had to hold on to the tent pole to prevent the tent from being blown away. The lightning was simply wonderf u i , huge flashes every few seconds, but not much thunder." The correspondent of the Toronto Globe with the first Canadian regiment in South Africa, speaks of tlie land as green with a " sterile shade ever running at close range into yellows and reds, and at a distance into a purple, which is not to be confounded with the shadows which envelop a tree-clad hill at home. A tree- less land is the part we have seen, and often you may search the i if' • .J * 6S4 BQVlPMnST A ND RESOURCES OP ROTH A RMIES whole horizon in vain for anything larger than a buih. Hill shapes stand out naked in the clear, bright air, and there again is unfamiliarity. I have already noted the strange uniformity with which the mountoins are all flat-topped, like monstrous beheaded pyramids, and the kopjes are generally conical and boulder-studded, the two kinds of hill, the one kind of veldt and the one type of river-bed, dry and torrent-charged in alternation. What catches the eye here is the wonderful coloring. The veldt- pronounced • felt • if you please— is bare and grassless, studded over with little bushes, sometimes a sort of sage green, sometimes thorny and of a light mauve, sometimes a species of thistle, a land- scape of naked earth and rock, thirsty with the absence of run- ning water, riven here and there into strange, yet ever-recurring shapes, flattened into plains of stark uniformity. A certain savage An African and impenetrable simplicity characterizes it. Here, Landscape in Belmont, the plain over which the British ad- vanced is almost precisely of the appearance of powdered red brick of the coarser sort. The kopjes are covered with boulders of a stone which, red in texture, turns a uark purple when burned by the sun. The mountains are usually purple, but the railway from Cape Town to De Aar is bordered by towering mountains, which show some wonderful shades. One face of rock is a pearly grey, another is a marvelously lovely rose pink. The sun's rays, when low, often cast an exquisite rosy shade over the veldt, and to the colors of the soil and the rocks must be added the sunsets. "All is strange and there is something sinister in it, and remarkable creatures stalk about, ostriches and giraffs quite at home. Even the stars are strange. The earth is new and the heavens also. " The troops sent to South Africa in October in thirty-two steamers were men— and "men " included officers— 28,793; horses EQUIPMENT AND KKSOVNCES OF nOTli ARMIES 685 3.690; machine guns, 3a ; field guns, 42. The passage from the ports of England to Cape Town occupied from 17 to 30 days- average trip 23J days. The troops shipped in November in 3/ steamers, average about 22} days, were, men. 29,175; horses, 5.546; machmeguns 22; field guns, 73. The total troops for- warded in Decemberwere 19,447; horse. -';5; machine guns, 12; field guns, 48. During the first two w eks: ;f ]%r,,,.,,y ^x,^^^ ^^^^ embarked from England, men 18,564 ; !.orsc., , ,7 ; ,, mxd.ne guns 9; field guns. 19. The total of troops en,barl.cJtromKi..,nd and landed in South Africa between October 2 . x8gc„ nnd. J.u aary 10 i900» were, men, 77,4,5; horses, u.^y, r.achim -uns, 63; field guns, 156. These were conveyed in 8 ; slu„s ud 80 of the ships performed the voyage on an average of 2 2i da v? httu . a the last port of call in the British Islands and Cape Tow.. The colonial contin- gent amounted in the middle of January to 1.650 infantry; 700 mounted infantry; 108 lancers; F^efsent total, 2.458 men and 825 horses. On the 15th to Africa and ,6th of January 4,000 men and 400 horses were embarked. The totals of troops landed from England in South Africa on January loth were 79.873 men. i,.96o horses. 63 machine gimsand 156 field guns. There was estimated in South Africa of regular troops. South African levies, naval brigades, ,04,373 men, ,7,960 horses, with 77 machine guns and 212 field guns These were the figures on January 15, ,900; and at that time there were troops on the way to Africa 23,582; and besides there were volunteers and yeomanry, additional colonial contingents, cavalry and artillery amounting in all to55,282 men. In round numbersinthe British army were 160,000 men. ,00 machine guns. 348 field guns, mcludmg those who were in Africa when the war commenced and rfiat had arnved and that were on the way or already embarking, January 15th. They were organized into 65 battalions of regulS I i ■I- 686 r.QUIPMENT A ND RESOURCES OF BOTH A RMIES infantry, 7 battalions of militia and 9 of cavalry, with 37 batteries and I siege train. There were sent from Australia and Argentina 3,825 horses and 63,ocx5 mules. An Englishman, writing to the Ca/>e Times, tells of the Boers in the districts of the colonies that they have overrun. " The Boers are gloatingly triumphant, and do everything to impress on the Britishers the notion that the latter are a conquered people and that their lives and property are at the disposal of the conquerors." The Cape Times makes the following estimate of the Boer forces : 'I'ransviialcrs . . ., 40,000 Mercenaries . . ... , , 4,500 Uiilanders, naturaliml since i.S.;7 ^^^^ Uitlanders, naturalized before 1897 -'qq^, Total Transvaalers ,^ ,^^ Free Staters . . ... 27,^00 roreigners . Cape rebels ... 4.500 34,500 This gives the B9ers 87,000 men, but losses have to be deducted. Mr. R. L. Tottenham, a gentleman who has been intimate with Boer and British colonists, soldiers and Transvaal politicians andhas.nformedhi.^selfof the numbers andmilitaryresourcesofthe people of Oom Paul and the Orange Free State, and whose writings are accepted in London journals as highly intelligent, says that the Boer strength is 83.000 men heavily augmented by Cape Colonists, so that they have in war quite 100,000 fighting men, and no lines of communication to guard, and that the grass is good, the crops grow- ing, vegetables plenty, cattle and sheep galore, game in many dis- tricts, and particularly in the Orange Free State, in any quantity. EQUIPMENT A ND RE SOURCES OF BOTH A RMIES 6S7 Mr. Tottenhamgoes on to say that the Boers had in January 206 guns- 45 field guns in Natal, also 8 siege guns and 1 5 captured guns there. 4 «ege guns at Laing's Nek, 4 guns of mountain battery captured 18 guns at Kimberley, 18 at Mafeking, 16 at Stormberg, 24 in Pretoria forts, and 4 at Johannesburgh , altogetlier 206, of which 50 belong to the Free Slate ^°*'" Forces Artillery. They have also many Maxims, Nor- *""* R«»o"rees denfeldts and Hotchkiss guns. Their entire force, except a few camp care-takers and soldiers that are not expected to be mobile are mounted infantry, and there is no derth of ammunition or explosives ; the dynamite factory turns out magnificent nitro- powders, and there is no want of lead. iron, nickel, antimony, manganese, or of hands skilled in the fashioning of them, trained in continental foundries. Fuse, detonators, percussion caps, etc can be turned out in millions. Small arms they have in enormous numbers. "They have sufficient skilled labor to replace damaged gun machinery, cast field guns, and do the work of any small-arm repairs. The laths, as well as mrny of the artisans of the ma- chine shops in Johannesburg and along the reef, are available. "Pretoria is described as far the best fortified and supplied town in South Africa. Stores and ammunition for two years' siege, with 30000 men within its limits, have been provided. Twenty-four heavy guns frown down from her forts, constructed by the best continental experts. ^^^ '^O'^ These will be augmented from the guns now °^ ^^^^°^^ in the field, for it is not possible to presume that all these will have been taken, and it is only a question of how long the garrison will hold out. (Written in January.) The forts cannot be taken by direct as.sault. This is the task which has been set Great Britain through her even-handed clemency and the ' ■'! t| • M i § r 688 EQUIPMENT AND RESOURCES OF BOTH ARMIES pernicious influence of the Little Englanders and hysterical sympathizers with conspirators against the British Empire. Even after all this has been done there is still a possibility of the Boers endeavoring to force a way to the north, aided by their Matabele allies, whom they have been secretly aiding for years. In the hope of European complications the Boer leaders will protract the struggle long after all hope of success has passed." An American who has lived in South Africa, after stating that the Boers have no martial music in the ordinary sense, says they have martial music of the most impressive kind in the extraordinary sense, and remarks: " Each night before • turning in ' and each morning before breakfast, and also before going into battle, if there is opportunity, Boer Music the entire army, with heads uncovered, join in and Rifle singing • Old Hundred.' Each note is prolonged six beats and the effect is solemn and even awful, so much of resolu- tion, of stem and relentless resolve do they put into the singing." This American says the Boers have a better gun than the Mauser, for many are armed with the sporting Mannlicher, and they can, with their knowledge of air currents, hit a small object almost every time at 4,500 yards. "President Kruger has been buying these arms in large quan- titles ever since the Jameson raid and the practical failure of the British to punish the raiders. General Joubert took me into a storehouse at Pretoria filled with thousands of these rifles. ' Isn't it a beauty ? ' he said, picking up one of them and patting it affectionately. 'At twenty yards it will shoot through fifty inches of pine.' " The Mannlicher bullet travels with a velocity of 2,000 feet per second. At 4,000 yards it will pierce two inches of solid ash and three inches of pine. At a thousand yards the bullet, if it BQUrPMENT AND RESOL'RCI-S OF BOTH A KMIES 6.,, »pl.rt.ng. Th„ „fle ha, a barrel thirty inches long and weighs e:ght pound. It, clibre is thirty. It U hair-trifgered T fa pm^^gnp, and the Boer carries it slung over his^sholer by the 2" ""^ '1' T ^'"'. ""-■ """""y"^" l-ave been putting away fcher " '"'' """"""^ '"""=="" "■* 'he Man,' and Jt™ 'r""" ""^'i "■'' " ""''' '■"= """* e^'" «><■ ="«>°^< level and almost open veld, over which the two Republics spread, Z Boe„ have left two physical allies-femine and fire " times mfinuely more precous. " Every year witnesses a terrible and never find a drop of water. I„ Johannesburg Sccl.,.f thewnter was glad to pay twentyfour cents for a «^r r^allrjauhlte"''"""'"""^ ^°"'«' -' '^-^ two or thr- 1, ^^"^ °"'- There are only wo or three large rivers ,n the whole country and in the dry season eve, they degenerate into shallow pool, ^hese ar calS raal and Free State are high plateaus that the sun bakes to a crisp and where the water evaporates as it falls. ^ co„nl7''t^°'"'!"'""''"''^'"S"'°'-°"Sfcly acquainted with the country, have a knowledge of the formation of the rocks and plants and know where to dig down a few fee. and gTt Jatet "t this way a commando can alwavs secure .n I cofl-ee-their only drink Wth ' T If ^^ """ '° "'"''= Boer can campai^trever. ' """'"' '"' ""==^- '"^ 69a EQUIPMENT A ND RESOURCES OF BOTH A RMIES " Coffee he drinks four times a day and so hot that if ' thrown on a dog it will take off his hair.* Biltong is a strip of meat, buffalo, ox, hartbeeste, dried in the wind or sun. It seemed to have peculiar nourishing properties. Mealies are like our Indian corn." There has been more sensationalism in the English press than we could, upon the calculation of experiences, have anticipated. This has been more noticeable than in any of the wars of Eng- land from the Crimean to the Soudan, it appears in the frequency with which small affairs have been magnified and upon the im- measurable praise of the quality of the British soldiers. They are brave, certainly, but no more brave than their fathers or their cousins. Europe has more brains for war then are found in Asia or in Africa, but no better fighting blood, and the British Islanders have no advantage over several of the natives of the nations of the continent as fighting men. They are equal to any, but that is about the situation. There are brave men found on all the rivers. The sensationalism is most apparent in the frequent celebration of bayonet charges that are more or less imaginary. During the Civil war in the United States the range of the rifles in the hands of the troops on both sides was not more than one-fourth the present, and yet actual collisions, hand-to-hand fighting of masses of men occured but three or four times, and it is doubtful whether there was positively known a case in which men were killed with the bayonet. It is very rarely that the shock of cold steel is more than a dream and a demonstration. The stories of sticking the Boers with lances and bayonets and huriing them over theherdsof the British soldiers were chiefly imaginary with the exception of two or three sorties from Ladysmith. And they were of a charac- ter so surprising that they should not be hidden in a fog of fancies. Tbe Brition as a Fighter 11 ^QV'P^EST AMD ^BSOVRCBS OF BOTH ARmjtS 603 They are sufficiently memorable .0 be celebrated in a class bv themselves The Boers have no „se for bayonets, and th H^d 8un sennce .s no. out of the ordina.y. The^ are mar Jen ha^e SeBrilrTT "u" ""■" ^'""^^"'^ -"«--- 8un than he Bnush. The Bns ae »en,e„d„a, bombardment, carried on by the British artillery ft. dsta^.ned"""''/^ .'"'" ^''="'' " '^ '"^^^ '"^y - d.sheartened, and .f they credited the roundabout information they certamly would be disappointed. 'nlormation th. Jv f T "° "P"" '" "•' "« "f ^"b^^ "i^e to entanele the Bntish when they charge for close work. ^ •• I. ™ fi^J"' *''"" ""' ^""'"'"'' "'sl-'-ders. writes :_ It was not fighting, ,t was suicide. Men were hung on the mre like crow, and were simply riddled with bullets •• A young officer of the Highland Brigade stale, ; •• We should have been • done ■ if we had gone on the other day b.,k.° ^? I thmk, three lines of trenches „p a kopje a^d t^!^:^ wl'nT""' ™" ^""'"«'™"« -ght feet high in front of the least donrwe'f'^.H?'"'™ ""'"^ "' "'^ -""ink there is the ^ceste had". T "":"'" '" ""= "">' " ^ ="- '- "« lences we had to get over during oar charge. We lost a .» ■ 706 niOGRA Pine A L SKE TCHES OF LEA DERS OF MEN of the African continent. One of the stories written from the seat of war was that the campaign of Lord Roberts was devoted especi- ally for th. relief of Kimberley that Rhodes might be no longer a prisoner there. The circulation of such a report is evidence of the creative intensity of the literary faculty in Southern Africa. It is quite impossible that Lord Roberts should have made a cam- paign the object of which was personal to Mr. Rhodes, but that such a thingshould beconjectured andputin print is significant of the conspicuity of the uncrowned King of Rhodesia and the masterful manager of the diamond market, who feeds the worid with diamonds wanted for decoration or investment to the extent that the market Rhodes a will bear without breaking. There does not seem to M^'l? ^ ^"^ """'' *° *^^ quantity of African diamonds 8^*' but there is evidence of the existence of a despotic discretion that regulates the supply specifically by the demand. In a Kimberiey letter, of January 22nd, Mr. Cecil Rhodes is mentioned as authority that the whole wage-earning force of the De Beers turned soldiers instead of diamond diggers, and are now receiving the same pay as before. The white population of Kim- beriey is 14,000. Of the employees, 6,000 are from Natal. The military authorities were thoughtful and wise and a very large amount of supplies was accumulated anJ so arranged that the absolute necessities of life were through the siege rt normal prices, but eggs, fowls and vegetables and fruits are not considered necessities, and were at famine prices. Mr. Rhodes remained until he had the pleasure of entertaining Lord Roberts at dinner. Joseph Chamberlain. Joseph Chamberiain has earned and presumably enjoys the wrathful enmity of the British subjects who devote themselves as politicians to belittling the greatness of their country. There was FAMOUS OFFICERS OF THE BKITISH ARMY. 1 i .4;^» —I'll FAMOUS OFFICEKS OF TJIE BRITISH ARMY "'OORAPHrCAL SKETCHES OP LBAnnKS OF ^^n^■ ,00 •chool, and exceedmsly interested the children .vho .hronged to K eet and hear him. He conducted an important private bit I w.th sasactv ,nd good fortune. He took .tirrin/and intei "« parts ,„ pubh. affairs, and was in a broad and clear sense a Li^ra ■n pol«.cs and charged with beiuR a Radical. He wa. objectionable ment ,„ ,he govern.ng society of the Empire, whose fir.t .,„d often ha. T >" » "' "''"''""' '''o™"'™ " "Can't you le" sta^.d M Gladstone's pohcy of building up the popularity of the En,p,re .„ I,.,a„d. That policy was indefinite wLn it touched the aw-mak-ng po.nt and seemed to go too far towards humoring the Insh aspiration for a separate nationality. Mr. A Sketch of Cham^rf,i„ ^, f„^ ,,^ „„^__^,.^^ ^J^^J^ A Sl^chor of the Empire, with England the dominant factor of i, He has been accused of failing .0 understand the African questions ,h^ have resulted in war, but one who has followed him in the 1 books and in Parliament, is aware that no one knew more about them than he did, and that noone was in manner and with 1 h^ more indulgent or better informed than he, in the negotit^ot while there seemed to be possibilities to preserve the peace. raid Th' T "'"'"' "'" *" ^Vmpathi«d will, the Jameson laid. The only reason why he should not have done so is that «,e inadequacy of preparation forecast the inability of performance The raid was the msufHcient expression of a ju.t cause. Sir Wiliam Harcourt, in his speech i.. the House of Commons critidz ■ng the war, said of -he Jameson filibuster expedition • "The First Lord of the Treasury said you were nut able to remonstrate against them or to make preparations agah.st them } ! I ; I hi :f i|! 1, i 710 UIOGRA PHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN Why? Because of the raid. (Cheers) Yes. Sir, the curse of the raid hangs round us still. (Renewed cheers.) It has been one of the principal causes of this war. (Cheers.) The raid and its authors have been ever since the evil genius of South Africa." The misfortune of the raid was that it was not strong enough to enforce the principle behind it, so as to make a respectable fight. At the same time.it was pusillanimous for the British Empire toper- mit the great English-speaking communities of the Transvaal to be treated as an inferior, cowardly and contemptible class—to allow the armed Boers to impose upon, oppress and degrade Britons, as was the old Dutch policy in dealing with the Kaffirs. The London Times said of the speech of Mr. Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, reviewing the Opposition oration of Sir William Harcourt : " He lifted the whole question of the war The Raid high above the mists and the miasma of party Unfortunately strife, and into the serener air of Imperial Weak statesmanship. His speech is conspicuous for dignity, candor, breadth of view, clearness of purpose, and silent disdain of the trivial sophistries wherewith little men prove their incapacity to treat great affairs. He put the raid and other things in their proper place when he said, 'the raid the Bloemfon- tein Conference, the franchise question, all these are not causes. They are only incidents and consequences of the disagreement that has been going on for a long time.' How long is the time and how profound the disagreement may be judged by the fact so steadily ignored by the Opposition that Mr. Gladstone, within three years of the Majuba Convention, was obliged to take all the risk! of civil war, of Dutch opposition, and all of the other fearful results that pusillanimity can anticipate from the present war, by sending an expedition to compel the Boers to keep their engaee- ments." r 5 h BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OE LEADERS OE ME\ 71, Mr. Chamberlain's peroration on this occasion xvas extraordin- arly excellent. He said : " Never before in the history of our l.mpire has it so realized Its itrength and its unity. (Hear! hear!) The splendid, and, above all, the spontaneous rally of the Colonies to the Mother Country affords no slight compensation even for the sufferings of war (Hear! hear!) What has brought them to your side ? What has brought these younger nations to Great Britain, induced them to sprmg to arms even before you called upon them ? (Sir. J. Brunner -' Liberal policy.' laughter.) It is that Imperial instinct which you deride and scorn. (Cheers.) Our Colonies, repelled in the past by mdifference ard apathy, have responded to the sympathy wh.ch has recently been shown to them. (Ministerial cheers ) A sense of common interest, of common duty, an assurance of mutual support and pride in the great edifice of „ ^^ which they are all members have combined to con- Udn" . G^.J*'"" sohdate and establish the unity of the Empire ; and Peroration these peoples, shortly-very shortly as time is measured in history -about to become great and populous nations, now for the first time claim their share in the duties and responsibilities as well as in the privileges of the Empire. (Cheers.) Accordingly you have the opportunity now that you are the trustees, not merely of a kingdom but of a federation, which may not, indeed be distinctly outlined, but which exists already in spirit at any rate You are the trustees ; they look to you as holding the headship of your race; and we owe to them an infinite debt of gratitude for the moral as well as material support that they have given us (Cheers.) This is a question in which their interest is indirect They see it with clearer vision than we do. Their eyes are not distorted by party politics. Sir. I will never believe that these free communities would have given their support and approval to any IJ I. S I i ! 712 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEX cause which was not just and righteous (cheers) and which was not based on the principles on which their own institutions have been founded. (Cheers.) Whatever may be the future, I say that we shall have to congratulate ourselves on the compensations as well as upon the evils of war. In Africa, these two races, so interesting, so admirable each of them in its own way, so different in some things, will now, at any rate, have learned to respect one another. (Cheers.) I hear a great deal about the animosities which will remain after the war. I hope I am not too sanguine when I say I do not believe in them. When matters have settled down, when equal rights are assured to both the white races, I believe that both will enjoy the land together in settled peace and prosperity. Mean- His Promise w^*^^» we are finding out the weak spots in our for Equal armour and trying to remedy them; we are finding * ** out the infinite potential resources of the Empire ; and we are advancing steadily, if slowly, to the realization of that great federation of our race which will inevitably make for peace and liberty and justice." The promise that Mr. Chamberlain made, speaking for the Gov- ernment, as to the future South African question, was that, " So far as in us lies there shall be no second Majuba. Never again, with our consent while we have the power shall the Boers be able to erect in the heart of South Africa a citadel from whence proceed disaffec- tion and race animosities. Never again shall they be able to endanger the paramountcy of Great Britain. Never again shall they be able to treat a Briton as if he belonged to an inferior race." General Joubert. The most distinguished of the Boers, after President Kruger, is General Joubert, of French stock, as his name tells. The rumor has been largely circulated in the United States that he was in this BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN 713 country during the war of the States and Sections, and that his sddierly abilities and character gave him distinction on the Con- federate side. This is an error. He is the great-great-grandson of one of the Huguenots. Pierre Joubert. who fled from religious persecution in France. The general was born in Cape Colony. He IS a man of striking appearance, thin lips and keen eyes intensely patriotic and a violent hater of the British. It is said of him that he has strong prejudices even against the Hollanders and once when it was suggested that Holland might resume her South African sovereignty he " preferred to be under a mi-hty power hke Britain" that he "could respect," and that it would not do at all to be slaves of such a nation as Holland. It is said that, on his return from England, where he accompanied Presi- dent Kruger on a mission of adjustment, Joubert England said that " England was a very mighty nation, but Rather than not almighty." There are several cases of cruelty Holland charged to him that possibly might not be proven if they were investigated. There are many evidences that he has decided military talents, and there is no question he manages Boers so as to get an astonishing amount of hard work and hard fightine out of them. ^ Joubert and Kruger have not been the best of friends. "One who knows them" says the reason is Kruger admires Joubert's ability shrewdness and education ; Joubert envies Kruger his place, his power and his money. Piet Joubert is nicknamed " Slim Piet," which he takes as a great compliment. Slim, in the common Dutch parlance, means something between smart and cunning ; the American expression " cute ' ,s the nearest equivalent. Joubert is an honest man according to his lights, but they are dim. He never has deliberately swindled any one; but being a man of business first, and a farmer '^1 ill ? i^r ■ ! •■ ?■ if " "1; ; ( .4 714 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN or a generalissimo afterwards, he takes the keenest delight in getting the best of a deal, whether it be in mining shares, gold claims, water rights or oxen. It is this pride in the conscious sen- timent of *' smartness " that is such a prominent feature throughout the Boer character. One of Joubert's foibles is being photographed. Probably he is the most camera'd man in the Transvaal. Owing to this harmless little peculiarity his features are thoroughly well known, and may be critically examined as typical of the highest class of Boer intellect. A broad, straight, furrowed brow, from which the whitening hair is carefully brushed back, overhangs a pair of powerful, clear and honest grey eyes, which look the stranger straight in the face, Personal ^^^ "^ "°' ^^^^^^ ^"^ furtive as are those in the Appearance ^^^^ °^ '^^ average Boer. The mouth is cold and hard, with no trace of a smile ; the corners droop slightly, and the general expression is not amiable. The nose is the striking feature ; it inspires respect, for it is built on strong, commanding lines, and broadens out at the base into powerful but sensitive nostrils. The face, as a whole, has dignity. There is a picture at The Hague of the States-General by Rembrandt, which shows a crowd of old burghers discussing war plans over a table. Among the heads are half-a-dozen Jouberts. Joubert holds several high offices, and has twice been a can- didate for the Presidency. It is said, the first time he ran he beat Kruger, and the second time he ran to divide the vote against Kruger. He has been suspected of believing war with England hopeless, and the man " who knows him " says : "he appears to be, or to have been, at the commencement of hostilities too Fabian in his opera- tions to please the younger generation of Boers. They even peti- tioned Pretoria to replace him by Cronje, who, as a fire-eater, a V I BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEX 715 swashbuckler, and a noisy fellow has no equal in the Transvaal. But Joubert is too old and tried a patriot to be ousted by the noisy clamor of the young Boers. General Sir Redvers Buller. General Sir Redvers Henry Duller, V.C., P.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G , K.C.3.; born 1839; entered 6oth Rifles, 1858; Captain,' i8;o; Major, 1^74; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1878. Military Colonel, 1879; Major-General, 1884; Lieutenant- Career, Etc General, jB^i ; General, 1896; served in China, i860; with Red Kiver expt ion, 1870; in Ashanti war, 1874; in Kaffir War, 1878; and in Zulu war, 1878-79 (V.C); was A.D.C. to Her Ma- jesty, 1879-84 ; Dwx.A.G. at Headquarters, 1874-8; Q.M.G.ofN. British District, 1880; Local Major General and Chief of the Staff in Natal, 188 1^ D.A and C.M.G. of Intelligence Department, Egyptian campaign, 1882; second in command First Suakin Ex- pedition, 1884; Chief of the Staff. Nile Expedition, 1884-85; A.A.G. at Headquarters, «883.4; D.A.G., 1885-86; Under-Secre'- tary for Ireland, 1886-87; C.M.G.. 1887-90; A.G., 1890-97; ap- pointed to command the Aldershot Division, 1898. Two anecdotes paint a better picture of the obstinacy and bluntness which are the chief features of Sir Redvers Buller's character than anything else. When he and Lord Charles Beres- ford were serving together in Egypt, a discussion .j.^^ ^^^ arose between them as to the channel which teristic *^' a river steamer should take. Each obstinately Anecdotes defended his own opinion but finally that held by Buller was adopted. " You see, I was right— mine was the proper channel I " cried the general, triumphantly. "It was mine, too," coolly replied Lord Charles ; " I only recommended the other because I knew that you would go against anything I said." ri I I'i' if i !; 716 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN When the South African war began General Duller was hurried from London to the scene of strife. He reached Cape Town October 31st, and was Commander-in-Chief of the British focces until Lord Roberts arrived in January, 1900. General Baden-Powell. Colonel Robert Stevenson Smyth Baden-Powell, on special service m South Africa, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 5th Dragoon Guards since 1897; educated at Charterhouse; joined 13th Hussars 1876; served with that regiment in India, Afghan- istan and South Africa; served on the staff as Assistant Military Secretary 1886-87; operations in Zululand, 1888 (mentioned in Military despatches); Assistant Military Secretary, Malta. Career, Etc. 1890-93; special service Ashanti. in command of r, n ^rr^ '''''^'' '^^5 ^''^'' ^-^^^^t Lieutenant- Colonel); Chief Staff Officer, Matabele Campaign; promoted from 13th Hussars to command of 5th Dragoons, 1897 The hero of Mafeking is the "best chap" in the British army, one of the smartest officers, and one of the most loved. He IS only 42, but he has been in the army for 23 years. Sir Henry Smythe made him his Military Secretary from 1888 to 1890 so that his knowledge of South Africa is extensive. He also knows how Matabeles and Zulus fight-and Boers ; but he has a supreme contempt for bullets and shells, and Commandant Cronje. All his nendscall him " B. D." Advanced to the rank of Major-General for his splendid defence of Mafeking. Lord Kitchener, of Khartoum. rcT^r^^^'^T: ^"' ^""^^ ^''^^^"^'' °^ Khartoum, G.C.BK.CM.G.. Chief of Staff; Sirdar of the Egyptian army ; born 1850; educated R.M.A.. Woolwich ; entered Royal Engineers 1871; Captain. 1883; Brevet-Major, 1884; Brevet-Lieutenant- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN 717 Colonel, 1885; Brevet-Colonel, 1888; and Major-General, 1896; ser- ved in Soudan campaign 1883-5 (frequently mentioned in des. patches, niedal with clasp, and 3rd Class Osmanieh) ; commanded troops at Handoub, 1888 (severely wounded, 2nd Class Medjidie); commanded a brigade of Soudanese troops at action of Gemaizah', Suakin, 1888 (mentioned in despatches, clasp); commanded mounted troops inaction of Toski, 1889 (despatches, clasp C.B.); Dongola expedition, 1896 (despatches, Grand Gordon Osmanieh! Major-General) ; Nile expedition, 1897 (mentioned in despatches). Soudan campaign, 1898, recapture of Khartoum (Khedive's medal with five clasps, peerage, G.C.B.). When the news of the appointment of Lord Kitchener as Lord Roberts' Chief of the Staff was made public, a sigh of relief went rp from the British people, for though it is a year since they cheered and feted him, he is still their military idol and their faith in him remains as strong. ^"^*»^ Born in a barrack, he is a soldier to the last ^^^> ^^^ drop of his blood. Grim, hard, determined, the concueror of Khartoum is far more feared than loved ; yet as he always leads to victory, his men will follow him blindly, and his officers will obey his sHghtest wish. He may be a better organizer than a tactician, and it has been said that he would make a splendid director of the Army and Navy Stores , but as a matter of fact he w " succeed in any task to which he put his hand. His is the natut . that does not know defeat, and to achieve his purpose all must be moulded to his will. In the great Soudan expedition of 1898, he looked after every single detail, but though it was his campaign from first to last he gave credit where credit was due. Yet he has no " pals " and none who really love him. Even his intimates only call him " K " in strictest private; he is " The Sirdar " at any other time. He is a bachelor who believes in the celibacy of his officers, a man M .1.; i > ,!{3 I V- V i m Character- istics 718 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN who seldom smiles-and when he does, smiles grimly-a warrior of the finest type that even England can supply. General Cronje. General Pietrus Arnoldus Cronje, Commandant of the Boer army, ,s mtensely religious. In the Boer war of 1882, he deliber- ately squatted in an exposed position while Krugersdorp was being shelled. " Come into a safe place, General," said a comrade. "Nay" replied Cronje , "if God means me to be taken, I shall be shot wherever I sit." It was Cronje who defeated " Dr. Jim." and it may be remembered that he gave the order to fire at the horses, as It would stop the column quite as well. The worthy general's people regard him as a demi-god, but as.a matter of fact he is a rough, tough, wily, good-natured Dutchman, with a big beard and an mcessant pipe. General Cronje has had the reputation of hating the British but .t was remarked when he came out of his laager to surrender to Lord Roberts he did not refuse a hearty breakfast and a good cigar. The scene is thus described by a spectator : "After a few minutes' conversation, during which Lord Roberts was m,st considerate .and courteous, Cronje ased for breakfast, and ate heartily and unconcernedly. " ' Look,' said a young officer, 'he gives us all this trouble and is now wolfing our ham.' ' " After breakfast he smoked a cigar-one of a few remaining choice ones with which the staff is supplied. "He smoked with philosophic enjoyment. When it was fin- ished he asked for another, as he was without his pipe " There are many who rega.d Cronje as a man of kindliness. A British correspondent visited him before the war, and the general 'i BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEA DERS OF MEX 719 struck him as an undersized, well-set-up, amiable, and keen-looking typical vestryman, not in any way the rough, uncouth Boer of whom one reads so much, but rather the sort of affable and genial individual who passes round the plate on Sunday, or who asks you to subscribe to a Sunday-school picnic, and he caressed his children and bandied nonsense with his wife as though he had not a care in the world. "The dinner was a stew, potatoes, bread and cheese, and coffee. The dining-room was a long, low, bare room with white-washed walls, on which hung a few texts, and some pictures from the illus- trated papers. " Cronje took his guest bird-shooting, and said the Uitlanders were a curse, and the Uitlander money had perverted the simple- minded burgher from his bucolic ways of peace and isolation. Dur- ing our conversation, Cronje brought out a bottle of " square face," which is the Boer's favorite form of Holland gin. He pressed all his guests to drink with him, and I noticed that „ , i, , , riome Life of he was a very moderate drmker himself, one small General glass sufficing for his needs. Of course he smoked Cro°J* incessantly, and told us that he grew his own tobacco, which his wife cured for him in the primitive manner whch had been handed down to her from her great-grandmother, from generation to gen- eration. We filled our pipes from his pouch, and found it to be an extremely agreeable and mild-smoking tobacco. " Gradually we all got sleepy, and asked to be shown to our apartments. Cronje personally conducted me to a door on the right of the sitting-room, and showed me into a very neat little room, with gleaming white-washed walls that were almost covered with text-cards. "A candle stuck in an empty beer bottle was on a chair, and a very large Bible found a resting place on the window-sill. '".. f'°'""'™'C^i SKETCHES OP LEADERS OP MEN " The general was veiy attentive. Shot at a mark-a bottle ^ the antics of h.s guests bathing in the Mooi River, the bank, of which were overhung with weeping willows " dered, and he wanted to shoot the officers a. once, but gave it up once put down a rebellion. A Boer had cheated his Governs" and the nafves at once, and there was a rising of the ^ZC„ ttdTiltLThT."'""'''"^ '"'=''" °"« '«- -''-^^^^^^^^ to do .t the third time resisted, and Cronje destroyed the rebel, men, women and childten. in caves, with dynamite. He marhave thought of that when sheltered in his laa-er under the fir, Ir British lyddite shells. General Cronje live°s on a C of . toi Cronje ^^""^s, and a letter writer before the war gave this nesburg (which ,s seldom), or to Pretoria (which .^ frequent), he is not above indulging in a little high living At Pretoria heputs upat the Transvaal Hotel.orders a dinner of the best entertains a few Volks Raad members, and makes the whole build- ing resound with his noisy laughter and anti-Uitlander bombast." General Gatacre. Major-General Sir William Forbes Gatacre. K.C.B D S O General Officer Commanding 3rd Infantry Division, Commanding the S^E^distnc. since 1898; bom .843; entered 77th Foot. ,86, passed Sjaff College. ,8:4; instructor in surveying at R.M.c: .875-79 i Ha.ara expedition Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster- General (D.S.O. medal w,th clasp), .888; Burmah. 1889; Chitral BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEW 721 1895 (mentioned in despatches, CB. medal with clasp); commanded British troops in the Soudan during first advance on Atbara, 1898; commanded a British division at Battle of Omdurman, 189S. During the Soudan campaign Sir William Gatacre was one day going the round of the sentries. Stopping before one, he asked him what his orders were. •' To keep a sharp look-out for the enemy and also for General Gatacre," was the prompt reply. •• Do you know him by sight ? " ^'"^ asked the general. " No, sir," answered the man, *^^'' "but I was told that if I saw an officer fussing and swearing and rushing about, that that would be General Gatacre." This story is probably more ben trovato than veto, but General Gatacre is the most active man in the British army. He wants little or no sleep, and drill is meat and drink to him. His energy has made him very thin, and he has cut his moustache, which was once a thing of great beauty, down to close quarters. It was only four years ago that he was married— to a daughter of Lord Davey. The Sirdar loves him, but the " Tommies " call him " Backacher." President Steyn of the Orange Free State. President Steyn has a very long beard, which beats the redoubta- ble Joubert's hollow, and gives him the appearance of a man of 60, but he is not 40 yet. He is a person of much weight, for he turns the scale at fourteen stone and '**"°"*' ^p- stands six feet high in his stockings, while his P'*'*""' ^^ muscles are as thick as those of his neighbor, President Kruger. Unlike Oom Paul, he believes there is a greater world than even the Transvaal Republic, and he has dipped deep into books to some purpose. He was brought up as a farmer by his father, who was known as " Shiny Shoes," owing to his tidy appearance, but at the age of nineteen he went to Europe and studied law in England and r 1 ■ I., 1 I i 722 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OP MEN Holland for six years. On his return he worked as a barrister for «ix years more, with the result that he was first made Attorney- General, than Judge, and finally President of the Orange Free State. President Steyn is an able, unselfish man, and one of the most attractive Doers living. When the Boer-British war became inevitable. President Steyn cast his and his country's lot in balance with that of his brethren of the Transvaal. During the wai he spent a good deal of time m the Boer camps seeking to steady the men, appealing to them in speeches and sending for President Kruger when Lord Roberts advanced. The capture of Cronje was to him a personal blow on his heart and the harder to bear because his burghers blamed him for their ruin. G^'NERAL George S. White General Sir George Stewart White, V.C. G.C.I. E., G.C.B. G.C.S.I., J.P., D.L., born 1835; educated, Sandhurst! entered MiUtary ^^^ '^". and served in the Indian Mutiny (medal Career, Etc ^""^ *='^'P) ^ Captain. 1863; Major, 1873; served m Afghan war, ,878-80 (medal and three clasps) • Lieutenant-Colonel, Gordon Highlanders, ,88r ; Colonel 1885- commanded Brigade in Burmah. ,885-86; thanked by Government of India, and promoted Major-General; commanded Zhob Field Force, 1890; Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in India, ,8qvq8 Q.M.G. to the Forces, ,898. Just before the beginning of hostilities in South Africa Gen- eral White was despatched to that country. He arrived at Durban in the nick of time and took command of the British forces until the arrival of General Buller, October 31st. The story of General White's defense of Ladysmith during one of the most trying sie-es of modern times will be found elsewhere in this volume. BIOGRAPHICAL SKBTCHES OF LEADERS OF MES 7,3 Lieut.-General, the Hon. N. G. Lyttelton, C.B. (Foreign Order: Otmanicti 4th CUsi.) Neville Gerald Lyttelton, a brother of the piesent Viscount Cobham, was born Oct. a8, 1845, and gazetted to an Ensigncy in the Rifle Brigade when nineteen, a battalion of which he com- manded from 1892 to 1894. His first war service was with his regi- ment in the Jowaki expedition of 1877. In 188a he served as Aide- de-Camp to the Chief of the Staff in the campaign against Arabi. When a second British Infantry Brigade was sent to Lord Kitch- ener in 1898, Lyttleton, who was then Assistant Milit .7 Secretary at Army Headquarters, was appointed to command it, and in this capacity he served in the last phase of the Khartoum cam- paign. In addition to his war services, Lyitleton has been Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War, Assistant Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar, Military Military Secretary to the Governor of Bombay, and Career, Etc A.A.G. and Assistant Military Secretary at Army Headquarters. He had just been appointed to command an infantry brigade at Aldershot when the African trouble arose, and was at once selected for the command of the Light Infantr>- Brigade of the First Army Corps. He has now been appointed to the command of a division. Besides personal decorations he wears: India Medal, 1854 (clasp "Jowaki 1877.78"); Egypt Medal, 1882, (clasp *' Tel-el- Kebir"); Khedive's Bronze Star; Khedive's Soudan Medal, 189^ (clasp "Khartoum") ; and Queen's Egypt Medal, 1898. Lieut.-General Lord Methuen, K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G. (Foreign Orders : Osmanieh 3rd Class, Red Eagle. Prussia, 2nd Class.) Paul Sanford Methuen was born Sept. i, 1S45, and entered the Scots Fusilier Guards as Ensign and Lieutenant when nineteen. Ji if • i 7*4 niOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN Hit first war service was on special duty daring the Ashanti cam. paifin, 1873.74. In i88a he was Commandant of the Head- quarters Camp in the campaign against Arabi, and in 1884-1885 commanded the battalion of mounted infantry known as Methuen's Horse in Sir Charles Warren's Bechuanaland expedition. In 1897 MiUtary he saw service in the arduous campaign against the Career. Etc. Afridis on the Northwest Frontier ot India, and wai the officer told off for the duty of press censor at Headquarters Durmg his career Lord Methuen has held many important staff appomtments. He was for five years Brigade-Major forthe Home District; Military Attache at Berlin for over three years; A.A and Q.M.G. Home District, 1882-84; D.A.G. in South Africa. i888-go; and finally commanded the Home District from 1892 to 1897. When the first Army Corps was mobilized for service m South Africa. Lord Methuen was appointed to command the First Division. Besides personal decorations he wears : Ashanti Medal (clasp 'Coomassie") ; Egypt Medal (clasp "Tel-el- Kebir") Khedives- Bronze Star; and India Medal, 1895 (clasp "Tirah, 1897-98"). Lieut.-Gp.nehal Sir H. E. Colvile. K.C.M.G., C.B. (Who commands the Ninth Division.) Henry Edward Colvile, was born July 10, 1852, and was gazetted to the Grenadier Guards as Ensign and Lieutenant when a httle over eighteen, the corps with which all his regimental career MUItory ha. been associated. During the Soudan campaign Career. Etc. 01 1884, Colvile served with the Intelligence Depart- ment and was present at both El Teb and Tamaai. He was also employed in the same department in the Nile campaign that fol- lowed, and after the retirement of the Gordon relief expedition was throughout 1885-86, A.A., and Q.M G. Int. Det. to the Soudan GENERAL FRENCH RELIEVING KIMBERLY. m BIOGRA PHICA L SKETCHES OF LEA DERS OF MEN 727 Frontier Field Force, and was present at the action of Giniss. He was from 1893 to 1895 employed in the Uganda Protectorate, and in 1894 commanded the Unyoro expedition. When the war broke out Colvile was commanding a brigade at Gibraltar, and was selected for the command of the Guards Brigade, which went out with the first Army Corps. Then the Ninth Division was created and this Division, which has done such splendid service, he has led in all the operations in the Orange Free State. His war medals comprise: Egypt, 1822 (clasps, "El Teb— Tamaai," "Nile. 1884-85"); Khedive's Bronze Star; Eastern and Central Africa, 1895 ; he wears also the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar, 2nd Class. Lieut.-General C. Tucker, C.B. (Who commands the Seventh Division ) Charles Tucker was born Dec. 6, 1838, and entered the ser- vice as Ensign in the 22nd Foot, now the Cheshire Regiment, before he was seventeen years of age. He remained, however, fifteen years a Subaltern and it was not until i860 that he received his company, transferring almost immediately to the 80th Foot, now the 2nd Soufh Staffordshire, with which his Military regimental service was connected until he vacated Career. Etc. the command. In it he first saw war service during the Bhootan campaign of 1865.6. As a Major he served in the South African campaigns of 1878-79, taking part in the operations against Sekukuni. the action at Intombi River, and the battle of Ulundi. He also served in Natal from 1891-95, first as Colonel of the Staff and afterwards as Brigadier-General. When the war commenced he was commanding a district in India, which he vacated to take command of the Division with which he has shared in all Lord Roberts' operations. f:^; 728 BIOGRA PHICA L SKE TCHES OF LEA DERS OF MEN His war medals comprise : Indian, 1854 (clasp, *' Bhootan ") and South African (clasp, " 1878-79"). Major-General R. a. P. Clements, D.S.O., A.D.C. (Who led the force that inarched from Norval's Pont to Bloemfontein ) Ralph Arthur Penrhyn Clements was born Feb. 9, 1855, and entered the South Wales Borderers when not quite twenty. He was Adjutant of this battalion 1882-86, and succeeded to the command in 1897, the position he was holding when he was select- ed for the command of the I2tl gade of the SoCith African Force. He served with it through the Kaffir and Zulu campaigns of 1877-8-9, being present at Neumarka and the Battle of Ulundi, and earning mention in despatches. His next war service was in Military Burma, where he served continuously from 1885 to Career, Etc. 1889, being twice wounded — once severely — and twice mentioned in despatches. For his service he received his brevet as Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1891 the D.S.O., being in 1896 made Brevet-Colonel and A.D.C. to the Queen. His brigade, on arrival in Southern Africa, was sent to operate on the southern border of the Orange Free State, and it was the force under his command that was the first to enter the Orange Free State from this quarter, and has since been led by him to Bloemfontein. His war medals comprise : South African (clasp, " 1877-8-9"); India, 1854 (clasps, " Burma, 1885-87," and " Burma, 1887-89"). Lieut -General Sir C. F. Clery, K.C.B. (Who commanded the Second Division.) Cornelius Francis Clery was born Feb. 13 ; 1838, and joined the 32nd Foot, the old Cornish Light Infantry, as an Ensign when twenty, and as a Subaltern was for five years adjutant of his battalion. He left regimental for staff employ early in his career and his BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN ,29 first war service was seen in special employ during the Zulu cam- paign ,n which he was present at both Isandhlwana and Ulundi and earned his brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. His next war service was in Egypt and as A.A. and Q.M.G. with the Soudan rorce in 1884 he saw service both at El Tab and Military Tamaai, and earned his brevet of Colonel. After Career. Etc that he was in the Nile expedition of 1884-85 in the capacity of D.A. and9.M.G When the present war broke out Sir^FrancL Cleo^ was filling the important post of Deputy Adjutant General to the Forces and was selected for the command of a division which except for a brief space when incapacitated by illness, h^ has led, and with it shared prominently in the operations in Natal His medals comprise : South African (clasp "1879 ")• E^vot z 8. claspv^uak^^^ 85 * ) ; and Khedive's Bronze Star. ^ Lieut.-General Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. (Who com manded at Spion Kop. ) .i.u!^^"''l ^T"" •'"' ^"' '""• 7' '840, and was not quite e.ghteen when he jo.ned .he Royal Engineers. His intimate acquaintance ™.h South Africa dates fron, a quarter of a centut ago for as far back as ,876 he ^ e-nployed on the demarcatio^ of the bounda^hne between Griqualand We.., and .he O,^ " Free State. During the native wars of 1877.70 he com™, a a first the Diamond Fieids Horse, then i„ ZJ^^^l ''ZZ against the Bechuanas, and lastly the Northern Bor. C«eer, Etc der expedition earning his brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. In the Egypua^ campaign of i88a he was employed on special service under the admiralty in connec.ion ,wi.h the murder of Professor Palmer and h,s party. Finally in 1884-85 he led the Bechnana- land expedmon. which is always associated with his name. When I .in: 730 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN the fifth Division was formed Warren was selected for its com- mand and under his leadership, the two brigades of which it is composed played a specially prominent part in the operations that resulted in the relief of Ladysmith. His war decorations comprise: South Africa (clasp, "1877-8- 9"); Egypt, 1882 ; and Khedive's Bronze Star; he wears also the Medjidie of the 3rd. Class. Major-General H. J. T. Hildyard, C.B. (Who has commanded the "English" Brigade throughout Buller'sOpeiations in Natal.) Henry John Thornton Hildyard was born July 5, 184C. ^.nd passed his early years as Midshipman in the Royal Navy. When not twenty-one he was gazetted to the 15th Foot, but was almost immediately transferred to the 71st (how ist) Highland Light Infantry, and within a few months was made its Adjutant, a post Military ^« ^^^^ ^°' ^^^®" ^^^^^^ ^" ^ ^^S he went to Cyprus as Career, Etc Brigade-Major and commenced that long career of brilliant staff service which culminated in the command of an infantry brigade, from whence he was selected to the command of the and, or •' English " Brigade, which, with the " Guards' " Bri- gade, formed the ist Division of the ist Army Corps. Hildyard's previous war service comprises the Egyptian campaign of 1882, and he was present at El Magfar, Tel-el-Mahuta, Kassassin, and Tel-el-Kebir. Throughout the whole of BuUer's arduous opera- tions on the Tugela, Hildyard's Brigade has played an important part His war medals comprise : Egypt, 1882 (clasp "Tel-el-Kebir"); and Khedive's Bronze Star. He also is decorated with the Osmanieh 4th Class. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN 731 Major-general Sir Archibald-Hunter, K.C.B., D.S.O. (White's right-hand man during the Siege of Ladystnith.) Archibald Hunter was born Sept. 6, 1856, and as a youth of eighteen joined the old " Fourth King's Own." a regiment with which his connection was unbroken until in 1884, when a captain of two years' service, he was seconded from it to be employed with the Egyptian army. And his record of fifteen years' service in that country has been an exceptionally brilliant one. From 1884 to 1889 'Archie" Hunter served in the Soudan being severely wounded at Giniss and again wounded at Toski. From 1802 to 1804 he was Governor of the Red Sea Littoral, and from 1894 to 1896 Governor of the Egyptian Frontier and it was only in the nature of things that he should have command of a Division of the Egyptian army-though not yet forty-when the Military Khartoum campaign commenced in 1896. Career, etc Throughout this campaign he served with the greatest distinction, and on his return home was appointed to the command of one of the most important district commands in India, that of Quetta. When the First Army Corps was mobilized Hunter was chosen as " Chief of the Staff," and sailed at once for Natal, arriving in time to join Sir George White and share in the glorious defence of Ladysmith. Besides personal decorations he wears ; Egypt Medal (clasps. Nile, 1884-85." "Toski, 1S89"); Khedive's Bronze Star; Khedive's Soudan Medal, 1896 (clasps, "Firket," "Hafir," "Nile, 1897 " "Aku "pT";!"'^''''^'^^'^'" " I'^'^^^toum") ; Queen's Soudan Medal, .1898; Medjidie, and Class; and Osmanieh 2nd Class. Major-General C. E. Knox. (Who was wounded at Paardeberg in cummand of the 15th Brigade.) Charles Edmond Knox was born Sept. 29, 1846. and joined the old 85th Foot, now the 2nd Batt. Shropshire Light Infantry, as I ; 1 li 1 732 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN an Ensign, when under twenty years of age. His service through- out was connected with that fine old corps, but his promotion was slow, for he was eleven years a Subaltern, seven years a Captain, and seven a Major before he rose to the command which he held for four years, from 1890-94. Five years before succeeding to the command, he had earned his brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy by good service in Sir Charles Warren's Bechuanaland expedition, Military when he commanded a Corps of Pioneers. After Career, Etc. vacating the command of the Shropshire Light Infantry, he was appointed to the command of the 32nd Regi- mental District at Bodmin, where he won a very high reputation for encouraging recruiting, and making Bodmin a pattern for all regimental depots. When the war broke out he was selected to command the 15th Brigade of the 7th' Division. This brigade distinguished itself at Paardeberg, and the general himself was wounded, a wound from which he has happily now quite recove;ed. Brevet-Major A. G. Hunter-Weston, R.E. (By whose gallantry the rolling stock in Bloemfontein was secured.) Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston was born on Sept. 23, 1864, and joined the Royal Engineers as Lieutenant at the age of nine- teen. Major Hunter-Weston, by an act of dashing bravery, was of the greatest service at the capture of Bloemfontein. When on March Military 1 2, General French seized the railway six miles south Career, Etc. of Bloemfontein, this gallant officer, accompanied by ten men, passed through the enemy's lines, got to the northward of the town, and destroyed both the railway line and telegraph. By this act the Boers were prevented from carrying northwards the locomotives and rolling stock of the Orange Free State, the loss of which would have considerably increased Lord Robert's difficulties in re-opening communications with Cape Town. Major Hunter- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN 733 Weston has seen much service on the North-west frontier of India where he was slightly wounded, and in Egypt. His decorations comprise: India Medal, 1854 (clasps "Samana. 1891," "Waziristan, 1894-95"), Khedive's Soudan Medal, 1896 (clasp "Ferket"); Queen's Soudan Medal ; and the Medjidie of the 4th Class. Colonel the Earl of Dundonald, C.B., M.V.O. (Who led Buller's advance guard into Ladysmith.) Douglas Mackinnon Baillie Hamilton Cochrane, twelfth Earl of Dundonald. and a representative peer of Scotland, was born Oct. ^9, .852, and joined the 2nd Life Guards as Cornet and Sub- Lieutenant before he was eighteen. His whole regimental service has been connected with this regiment which he commanded from 1895 to 1899. Lord Dundonald's war service prior to the present campaign included only the Nile expedition. 1884-1885, but into that he compressed very varied experiences. He Military commanded the 2nd Life Guards' detachment of Career. Etc the Camel Corps and was the officer who carried the despatches to Korti announcing the capture of the Gakdul Wells. He fought both at Abu Klea and Al Gobat, twice acted as guide to night con- voys from Gubat, and in the same capacity led reinforcements on the march from Gakdul. In the march to Metemmeh he commanded the transport and baggage of the Desert Column, an onerous and responsible task, and was the officer who returned from Gubat with the despatches announcing the fall of Khartoum. Going out to South Africa as a special service officer he has been the leader of Buller's cavalry in. the recent operations for the relief of Lady- smith. War Decorations : Egypt Medal, i •Nile, 1884-85"); and Khedive's Bronze Star (clasps " Abu Klea. ; i' i t !:l fi k 4. 734 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN Lieut. -Colonel A. W. Thorneycroft. (Commanding Thomeycrofl's Mounted Infantry.) Alexander Whitelaw Thorneycroft, who is junior Major of the and Scots Fusiliers, but local Lieut.-Colonel in South Africa, was born Jan. 19, 1859, and entered his present corps when just Military twenty. With it he served as a Subaltern through- Career, Etc out the Zulu campaign, including t'.e attack on and capture of Sekukuni's stronghold, and was one of the garrison that held Pretoria throughout the Transvaal campaign of 1881. At the outbreak of the present war Major Thorneycroft was sent as D. A.A.G. toNatal, and employed to raise that corps of mounted infantry which has won such renown for itself and its leader, notably at hpion Kop. He wears: South African Medal (clasp " 1879"). Captain the Hon. R. H. L. J. De Montmorency, V.C. <\Vho raised, led, and died at the head of " Montmorency's Scouts.") Raymond De Montmorency, eldest son and heir of Major-General Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency was born Feb. 3, 1867, and joined, at the age of twenty, the 21st Hussars, now the Empress of India's Lancers. His war service previous to that in South Africa had been confined to the Soudan campaign Military ^f jggg^ and it was in the glorious charge Career, Etc. ^^^^ j^.^ regiment made at the battle of Khartoum that he earned the soldier's highest distinction. De Montmorency returned into the thick of the fray to assist a brother officer, Lieutenant Grenfell, who had fallen, and lay surrounded by Dervishes, but he only succeeded in cutting his way through to the spot to find his comrade dead. He got his troop in 1 898, and on the outbreak of the present war was sent on special service to South Africa, where he raised and commanded the renowned corps lUOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN 733 of scouts at whose head he fell at Schoeman's Farm, Feb. 24, 1900. His medals comprise : Khedive's Egypt Medal (clasp •• Khar, toum ") ; and Queen's Soudan Medal. Major-General E. T. H. Hutton, C.B. (Commanding ist " Colonial " Brigade of the Mounted Infantry Division.) Edward Thomas Henry Hutton was born Dec. 6, 1848, and joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps as an Ensign when eighteen. Of that corps he was successively Instructor of Musketry and Adjutant. Button's first service was in the Zulu campaign, and in it he shared in the Ginginhlovo action and the relief of Etshowe earning mention in despatches. In the Transvaal Military campaign of 1881 he also served, commanding thv. Career, Etc. Mounted Infantry. Next year he went to Egypt as Wolseley's A.D.C., and had his horse killed under him at Tel-el-Kebir. He returned home to take up the appointment of Brigade-Major at Aldershot, only to vacate it almost immediately to accompany the Nile expedition of 1884-85, in which he commanded the Mounted Infantry. Besides being an experienced mounted infantry officer —for he originally organized our system of mounted infantry training— his close connection with the Colonies makes him a specially suitable officer for the post he has been selected to fill. For three years, 1893.96, he was Commandant of the New South Wales Colonial Forces, and since 1898 he has commanded the Canadian Militia, a post he resigned to go on special service to South Africa. He wears: South African Medal (clasp "1879"); Egypt (clasps " Tel-el-Kebir," " Nile, 1884 ") ; Khedive's Bronze Star, and also the Fourth Class of the Medjidie. m I Career Ji£! ^36 niOGRAPHlCAL SKETCHES OF LEADERS OF MEN LlEUTENANT>CoLONEL SaM HuGHES, M.P. Was born in Darlington, Coanty Durham, Ontario,] an. 8th. 1853. His father, John Hughes, a native of Tyrone, Ireland, was son of an officer in the Royal Bengal Regiment. His mother Caroline Laughlin was a daughter of an officer in the British Royal Artillery and grand-daughter of a Hugenot Cuirassier officer who served under Napoleon Bonaparte. Inspector J. L. Hughes, of Toronto and J. Hughes, of Clark, are his brothers. He holds first and second class Military Certificates and also ist Class A. Provincial, Public School Inspector's and Honor Certificates in English, French, German, and History from Toronto University. He was for ten years first English Master in Toronto Colle- giate Institute and for 13 years Editor and Publisher of the Victoria Warden,' Lindsay. As an athlete he won the Champion Mile Race of Amercia in 1892 and has been Vice-President of the Toronto Lacrosse Club He married first, Caroline J., daughter of Major Isaac Prestoi of U. S. Loyalist family and secondly, Mary E., daughter of Har- vey W. Burke ex-M. P. West Durham. Col. Hughes is commanding officer of the 45th. Victoria Regi- ment and has been connected with the 45th. for over 30 years, is Vice-President of the Dominion Rifle Association, Ontario Rifle Association and a member of the Lindsay Board of Trade, Board of Education and several other local Societies. He was first return- ed to Parliament as Liberal Conservative Member f^r North Vic- toria in 1892 and was re-elected in 1896, has been awarded a medal for service at the Fenian Raid 1 870, and recipient of a Diamond Jubilee Medal from Her Majesty Queen Victoria 1807. Col. Hughes has proved himself to be an efficient officer whileserving on the staff of Gen. Settle, A. A. G. and afterwards with Gen. Sit Charles Warren in South Africa. CHAPTER XXVII. Official Reports from the Front. Lieut. -Col. Ottei reports as follows : In the field, 3 miles north of Paardeberg Drift, 23rd February, 1900. "Sir, I have the honor to report this as the first opportunity I have had to report since leaving Belmont on the 12th instant, as the battalion has ever since been on the move and away from all but telegraphic (field) communication, and the greater part of the time entirely separated from its baggage and wagons. "Leaving Belmont on the 12th instant, 895 of all ranks, the remaindet being either ill or unfit to march, the battalion joined the 19th Brigade (Colonel Smith -Dorrien), gth Division (Major-General Colvile), at Gras Pan, the same evening. I gave you the composition of the brigade and division in my last report. "The 19th Brigade left Gras Pan at 5 a.m. of the 13th instant, in field service order, the great coats containing i shirt and I pair socks being carried on the wagons, one blanket per man and i waterproof sheet for each two men being also carried for the men. After a very trying march of 12 miles we reached Ram Dam and went into bivouac — the day was fearfully hot and water was very scarce, fully 50 men fell out, the transport was badly muled, heavily-laden and caused many delays. " Moving again at 5 a.m. of the 14th instant, a good march of I2 miles was made to Waterval Drift, on the Reit River, but here great delay took place in the crossing of the transport, and as the battalion had to find all the duties for the day, large fatigues to assist in the crossing had to be furnished by it, notably 200 men for the two 4.7 guns in the crossing of which great credit was tjiven for its work. It was 6 P.M. before the battalion crossed and the officers and men were dead tired. The Com- mander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, joined the force here, and complimented the battalion on its physique and appearance as it passed him. " I had to leave 14 men at Ram Dam unfit to march. On the 15th the battalion marched at 4 a.m., being the Advanced Guard to the brigade ; 7 men were left as unfit to march. VVegrooe Drift on the Reit was reached 737 i ii 1(1 ; i I ' 738 OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE FROST at 8.30 a.m., after a march of 9 miles, and the battalion furniihed the outposts for 19th Brigade (whole battalion). " On the i6th instant the day's march was begun at 8.30 a.m., and Jacobsdaal (3 miles) reached at 10 a.m.; leaving Jacobsdaal at 10 p.m., the battalion again forming the Advanced Guard, a very tedious night march began which ended at Klip Drift at 8.30 a.m., of the 17th instant. " A force of the enemy under General Cronje from Magersfontein was said to be endeavoring to cross the River Modder on its way to Bloemfon- tein. An action hnd been fought with it yesterday near Klip Drift by the 6th Division. " The battalion left Klip Drift as Rear Guard to the brigade nt 5 p.m. and marched ail night, reaching Paardeberg Drift at 6 a.m. Th' delays were frequent and the march very tedious. 21 miles were made during the night. On arrival it was learned that General Cronje's force was here, and fairly well surrounded by our forces, which apparently numbered some 40,000 men of all arms. " Immediately on arrival the 9th Division was ordered to attack the Headquarters ktager of the enemy's force which occupied a position on the north side of the river, about two miles from the Drift ; the 3rd Brigade was detailed for the right attack, the south side of the river; the 19th Brigade for the left, north side of the river. " At 7.15 a.m. (i8th instant) the battalion moved to the Drift and cross- ed the river which was very rapid, 9 miles current, and deep, and as the men had to wade, the water was up to their arm-pits; they had to cross in parties of not less than four and strongly locked together. After cross- ing, each company was hurried forward to attack the enemy who occupied a bend of the river-bed some two miles from the Drift to the east." " Paardeberg Drift, February 26, 1900. " The companies as they crossed were pushed forward and at 9.30 a.m. 'A' and 'C Companies were in the firing line at about 500 yards from the enemy — who occupied the woods along the near edge of the river, but were totally hidden from view — they also occupied a series of dongas enfilading our left flank, but this was not discovered until to- wards afternoon, when they disclosed themselves, although they were quietly 'sniping' from that direction all day. 'D' and 'E' Companies formed the support — while as ' B,' ' F,' ' G ' and ' H ' came up they formed the reserve. "The remainder o*" the brigade was disposed of as under, the D. of C.L.I. on our right, the ' Gordons ' and Shrops L.I. on our left, in the order named, but on the other side of the hill on our left and behind the * OFFICIA L REPORTS FROM THE FRONT 739 Artillery. The bettalion, however, was practically alone and during the whole day received no orders or inttructiont from anyone, until about 4 p.m. Bf noted later on. " In addition to the xgth Brigade the 3rd (Highland) Brigade wai engaged on the louth aide of the river, besides Artillery and Mounted Infantry. " Firing began at about 9.30 a.m. from the enemy's right and continued along their front towards the centre. " The advance of the battalion took place over perfectly open ground somewhat undulating, and with no cover save the inequalities of the ground and a few ant-hills. "The firing line attained a position from the enemy varying from 400 yards on the right to 800 yards on the left, where it remained until late in the afternoon. After the establishment of the firing line, the enemy's fire was for some time very severe, and Capt. Arnold, who at the time was doing most excellent service, was mortally wounded, and many others hit. " During this time three or four men in the reserve (' H ' Co.) were wounded at a distance of over 1,600 yards. " At about noon ' D ' Company reinforced the firing line and shortly after- wards ' E • and part of • B * Company also reinforced, the remainder of ' B,' 'F* and 'G' Compmies becoming supports, with 'H' still in reserve. " Only one Maxim gun could be crossed and that was soon got into position by Capt. Bell, on the rlrirg ground to the left, at a distance of some 1,000 yards, where it did most excellent service during the day, being in a position to keep down the fire of the enemy who occupied the dongas on our left. A battery of Field Artillery occupied the hill on our left rear and shelled the enemy's lines at intervals during the day. The fire discipline of the several companies engaged was excellent and perfect coolness as well as accurate shooting was maintained throughout. "Throughout the day the fire was maintained, at times comparatively slack and then severe — the enemy evidently had the ranges marked, as their fire at certain prominent places was so accurate as to render them almost untenable by us. Interruption to our fire was occasioned several times during the day by the cry from beyond the right of our line to " stop firing on the left " as men in that part were being hit by the fire from our left. The fire complained of was, I am satisfied, from the dr-pgas occupied by the enemy on our left and not from our own men. " At about 4 p.m. three companies of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry under Lt.-Col. Aldworth came up, and this officer informed me that " he had been sent to finish this business," and " proposed doing so with '1*1 ill! 'Si i li i •: I m 740 OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE FRONT the bayonet " ; he then asked for information respecting our own position and that of the enemy, which I gave him. '• One company of the Cornwalls was at once sent into the firing line, followed in half-an-hour by the other two, this reinforcement being received by a very heavy fire from the whole length of the enemy's front. " At 5 p.m. Lt.-Col. Aldworth notified that a general advance would take place, and at about 5.15 p.m. the whole force, with the exception of parts of • G ' and ' H ' Companies, which I held in reserve, went forward with a rush. The fire of the enemy became intense and after an advance of about 200 yards effectively stopped our men ; and no further progress could be made. The loss to both the corps taking part in the charge was very severe. Lt.-Col. Aldworth was killed. " The position gained was however held, and a contmuous heavy fire maintained until darkness set in about 7 p.m., when I gave the order to collect the dead and wounded and withdraw to the bivouac at the Drift. The enemy also withdrew from their position at the same to the Boer laager some two miles up the river, leaving a few men in the dongas on our left who continued " sniping " our collecting parties until about 10 p.m. " Many instances of individual bravery were displayed, as for example the case of No. 8110 Pte. Kennedy who led one of the ammunition mules right up to the firing line where it was instantly killed. The Company Stretcher Bearers exhibited great pluck and five of them were among the wounded ; three were wounded in conveying Capt. Arnold from the firing line, the stretcher upon which he was being made a special object of attention by the Boer marksmen. In connection with this incident I must note the courage displayed by Surgeon-Capt. Fiset, who, when the stretcher upon which Capt. Arnold was being brought to the rear was stop- ped a short distance from the firing line, by the wounding of one of the bearers, went forward and attended to Capt. Arnold, and subsequently assisted as a bearer in bringing him to the rear. Capt. Fiset also attended to many others wounded under fire during the day. " Lt.-Col Buchan was in charge of the firing line, which he directed and controlled in the coolest and most effective manner, while my acting adjutant, Lieut. Ogilvy, rendered excellent service in carrying my orders about the field. The following N.C. officers and men distinguished them- selves during the day, viz., No. 6559 Sergt. Utton ; No. 7117 Pte. Andrews ; No. 7040 Pte. Dickson ; No. 7043 Pte. Duncafe ; No. 73'"^ Pte. Page ; and No. 7806 Pte. Curphy. " The collection of the dead and wounded of both our own battalion and Si' '4* OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE FRONT 741 those of the D.C.L.I. was made by parties of the Royal Canadians and con- tinued al! n'Etht. The duty was a most onerous one and too much credit can- not be rTver. (o ti.ose who were enga-ed in it. By 7 a.m. of the 19th inst. all the lead of the bu^ alion were buried besides many of those of the D.C. L.I., f :'d the wounr i sent to the rear. I must here plare on record the great serv.ces n^nde-ed by the R.C. Chaplain of the battalion, the Reverend Father O'Leary, wlio was present in the field all day, and towards the end m the firmg line, while during the night he was prominent in the search for the wounded, as well as officiating in the burial of the dead. " Several of the officers accompanied these parties up to midnight while No. 685 Q.M.Sergt. Reading, No. 7304 Sergt. Ramage, No. 7302 Sergt Middleton, and No. 7253 Pte. Whingate were out all night on this duty. "Another incident of coolness and pluck was that of No. 7347 Pte. Hornibrook, who at daylight in the morning of the 19th instant was down into the extreme right of the lines occupied by the enemy the previous day. He was unarmed and came suddenly upon an armed Boer, looking for a stray horse. With great presence of mind Hornibrook pretended to be armed with a revolver, and called upon imaginary assistance, at the same time demanding the man's surrender. The Boer at once submitted, and on being brought in proved to be one of General Cronje's adjutants and a most important officer." « I Paardeberg, February 27, 1900. 'Sir,— I have the honor to report upon the operations upon which the battalion under my command was engaged upon the 20th instant, on which occasion four men of the corps were wounded. "Following the retirement of the enemy from the position which he with- drew from on the evening of the i8th instant, the battalion was at 6 a.m of the 20th instant detailed for the outpost line and advanced to within 1,000 yards of the trenches in front of the Boer laager, the Shropshire Light Infantry being on our right, the Gordon Highlanders on our left. "The ground occupied by the battalion was quite open, and slightly roll- ing, but fairly covered with ant-hills. "The men were served with tea and biscuits about 10 a.m.; the cook wagon and water cart being brought up to within 200 yards in rear of the reserve. "An intermittent rifle fire was kept up all day until about 4 p.m., when that of the enemy increased, and their celebrated Vicars-Maxim gun "Pom-Pom" was turned upon us no less than five different times, but fortunately without loss to us. The moral effect of the gun, however, is very 1 I I' 'a 4' '3 1 I' t i k 742 OFFICIA L RE FOR TS FROM THE FRONT great and infinitely more disastrous in that direction than any other arm we have experienced. "The wounds received were entirely among men in the reserve, rnd from long range rifle fire, about 1,700 yards. "The day was a trying one, being very hot, while owing to the enemy's fire it was almost impossible to get water forward to the men; it was the attempt to bring the water cart forward that first brought the ' Pom-Pom * to bear upon us. "At 6 p.m. the battalion was withdrawn to its bivouac, thoroughly done out. The position occupied I have denoted on the sketch accompanying my report of the action of the i8th instant, and a list of the wounded is in- cluded in the general list." Paardeberg, South Africa, March 2, igoo. "Sir, — I have the honor to report on the action of the 27th ultimo in which the battalion under my command was engaged. "In accordance with instructions received from the general officer commanding the 19th Brigade, gth Division, on the previous evening, the following disposition of the battalion was made by 10 p.m., of the a6th instant. " In the main trench running north and south from the river and begin- ning on the left were placed ' C,' ' D.' • E,' ' F,' ♦ G,' and ' H ' Companies while on the extreme right was a party of thirty engineers. This trench was about 240 yards long, the right of it resting within 25 yards of the river, and 500 yards from the nearest Boer trench. The force placed in this trench numbered 500 officers and men of the battalion. ' A ' Comp- any remamed on the south side of the river, where it had been detailed for special duty on the morning of the 26th, and was posted just opposite the line of the main trench continued southwards, while ' B ' Company, and a few details formed a reserve at the bivouac some 300 yards to the rear, and the wagons were fully 1,000 yards to the rear again. "The continuation of the main trench from where it turned to the north-east was occupied by 200 of the Gordon Highlanders, and about 1,500 yards on our left was the Shropshire Light Infantry. " The plan of attack was that our six companies in the main trench should advance on the Boer trenches at 2 a.m., the front rank of each company to move with fixed bayonets, with orders not to fire until fired upon by the enemy, while the rear rank carried shovels and picks with which to entrench, when the advance could go no further, the engineers on the right to give a base. OFFICIA L REPORTS FROM THE FRONT 743 "At 2 15 a.m., the 6 companies with the engineers moved forward, a distance of 15 paces being placwi between the ranks, and an interval of one pace between men. "The brigadier was on the right, Lt.-Col. Buchan and Major Pelle- r th. ♦K^ '« "^* °^^^^ ^"^'''' *^^ f^^'"" °" the left, the latter on the rignt, the officer commanding in -ear on the left. "The line advanced without interruption for about 400 yards, when It was met by a terrific fire from the enemy; the premature discharge of a couple of shots just before the general fusilade served as a warning to many of our men, who mstantly threw the.nselves on the ground; but the effect rJrLv 7a ^•'*'*'"°"^ *° "«• ' H ' Company being in the wood on the iTherf 1 r '"^r' ^'^t • G • and • F ' Companies, being in the open, lost heavily the former having 4 killed and 12 wounded, the latter 2 killed and 9 wounded. 'G' Company was within 65 yards, actual measurement, of the advanced trench of the enemy when fire was opened on them; the diZTf' °" ^''k •'?' 'E-'D' and 'C being from 75 to 100 yards distance from a subsidiary trench in prolongation of ihe enemy's line. On receiving the enemy's fire the line at once laid down and returned it. while the rear rank generally began to entrench. The time was about 3 a.m. The trench on the right, begun by the party of the R. E.. was 100 yards from the enemy s nearest trench, and, covered by ' G ' and ' H ' Companies made rapid progress, but those begun by the other companies did not ad- vance very rapidly, and after the battalion had been for some 20 minutes under fire, some one unknown called in an authoritative tone to 'retire and bring your wounded,' in consequence of which the left company failed o establish themselves in the new trenches and retired on the old ones, leaving G and 'H' Companies holding the ground on the right, Lt.- Coi. Buchan being the last to retire, which he did by the right " Daylight found ' G ' and • H ' Companies well entrenched, with the K.h.. still pushing the work on. .u " ^'""g/°"t»"»ed on the right until about 5.15 a.m., when the enemy in the advanced trench made proposals to surrender-our men being doubtful ot the genuineness of the proposition continued their work, firing for near- ly an hour. At about 6 a.m., one of the enemy advanced with a white flag, when firing ceased, and the enemy began to come in by batches to the number of 200. " General Sir Henry Colvile, commanding division, had come up about b^5 a.m., and directed the disposal of the prisoners, sending forward an officer into the nearest part of the Boer laager to make terms of surrender, the result of which was the unconditional capitulation of General Cronje ff ll m \ ■f ; Ij 1 II 744 OFFICIAL REPORTS PRO.\f THE FRONT and his whole force, numbering upwards of 4,000. " Captains Stairs and McDonnell deserve great credit for their pertin- acity in holding on as they did, the result of which undoubtedly had a material effect in hastening the final result achieved. " The supporting companies of the Gordon Highlanders were not engaged although the trench which protected them was subjected to a fairly heavy fire from the enemy. '• The battalion of the Shropshire Light Infantry on our left fired volleys at long range for some time after our attack developed, and materially assisted us. "All the wounded were brought in before daylight and sent back to the collecting station by our men, and the bearers of the N.S.W. Bearer Com- pany, and Naval Brigade Bearers (H.M.S. ' Barrossa,') rendered us every assistance possible in the arduous service. " The dead were buried close to where they fell at 7 a.m. by the Rev. Father O'Leary.R. C. Chaplain to the battalion. " That the duty entailed upon the Royal Canadian Regiment was most difficult and dangerous no one will deny, and though the advance was not so successful at all points as was hoped for, yet the final result was a com- plete success and credit can fairly be claimed by the battalion for such, as it was practically acting alone. " The night was starlight, with the moon in the last quarter at 4 a.m. " The various actions begmning on the 18th and concluding on Feb- ruary 27th, have been denominated ' Paardeberg.' " The following extracts from " Col. Otter's Diary " will be of interest. " May 29 — Very cold through night. Marched second in 19th Brigade till 12.30 to Klip Spruit. Enemy found posted on kopje to east of advance. Gordons and R. C. R. ordered tc attack their left. Moved in four lines- At 2.30, at a distance of 4,000 yards from Boer position, came under heavy gun fire at once, and rifle fire at 2,ouo yards. Very hot fire from front and left front. The advance soon had to be made over the burnt veldt, which marked our uniforms very much and offered good targets. Advance was very rapid until a Kaffir hut, surrounded by a stone wall, was reached, when more than half the battalion found shelter and kept up a strong re- turn fire. > An attempt was made to flank us on the right, which was soon checked by a Maxim. At 4.50, the Gordons having gained the Boer main position, our men were enabled to advance and occupy a position held by the Boers some 1,200 yards to the front, where the battalion was assembled and remained until g p.m., when ordered to join brigade on the main posi- tion taken by the Gordons. The loss of the latter was very great, viz., 20 OFFICIA L REPORTS FROM THE FRONT 74 killed and 76 wounded, while ours was only seven wounded. The capture of the position cleared the entry into Johannesburg and was very important" The brigade had to bivouac without water or food for the night! "^ withoufZH°7.''''T'*'.'^-3° *•'"•' ^'■''' wagons miady to move, but IrXi r p? ""/'T ^""'"'"'^ ''^"^y *•» " ^^' when the brigade marched to Florida, five miles, the enemy having left in the n.ght, leaving Johannesburg clear. Got meat and Without Food. groceries on arrival, but no biscuits were to be had. tTred^nf/"^'' 7^ ^°°^. ^"^ ^^"""^^ ^"^ '^' "my was very short, men very tired and done out on arrival, though in very good sp-rits/ War^ night. "^ PretoriTn "" ""'" '° B'-amfontein. Order to march on Pretoria to-morrow countermanded for lack of supplies. Capt. Weeks. Lieutenants Pelletier and Stewart rejoined. « /une%'~M" ^iTT'- C^Pt"^« °f three Boers by Sergt. Ironsides. ro»H ^ vf 3-Marched sixteen miles. Lord Roberts' force moved by main road.^ while xgth Brigade in northwest direction through heavy. roZg " June 4-Just after leaving camp at 7 a.m. marching direction of col- umn was changed on information being received of capitulation of Pretoria. At I p.m marched to drift at Six-mile Creek. Heavy firing heard to right front, and It became evident that enemy were defending town R C R remained at dnft as rear guard and bivouacked close by'for a quief ^gh^! trv JZ K '°"'', ^"'^^^^ ^' ^ ^•'"- ^« advance guard to inL- ry. moved into precincts of town and waited five hours. „ then moved to within one mile of town limits and f'"*''**'^ ** went into bivouac at noon at Skinner's Court. Had ^**'- Ro£^TLa\T ^""^ '* '.P-'"- "'"''^"^ ^''^^"gh t^"'" with brigade. Lord Koberts had taken possession in the morning. BrJJ^TJ"^"^'^^ r*^'. ^^ °*^^" ^"^ 411 men. Ordered to join 19th Brigade and move south to intercept a force of the enemy hovering about. Johannesburr '''"^""^*°''^'''°"*^'"'^^°«*«''' -''^^ «-=* «« was Z^c^ tl."r/^ ^T"'' '°'^- Marched to Germiston. Battalion was advance guard from there to Elandsfontein. R c' R l/'r?'"'^'!' '*^°V''*- Lieutenants Hodgins and Armstrong, Caotafn'F / "^ °° iT"' '"'"'"^ "'^^^y^ fr^'" to-morrow. Surgeon- HeUbron ''^ ""' ""'^ '^""^ " P"^°"«^ ^^^ '^^ ^^y' ^t of the p'iace!^'"^*'"''"'^ *° ^^"°^'' *'''''""" """''• ^°'- ^"" '" '=°'"'"*»d 746 OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE FRONT "June 1 6— Administered oath of neutrality to railway people, mostly Hollanders. Five more Boers gave up arms. Sent out for cattle. " June 17 — Many cattle, goats and horses were brought in. " June 18 to 22— Still at Springs. On the 19th captured young Kok, a Boer, who gave valuable information." From Johannesburg, August i, Col. Otter cabled: "The effective strength of the regiment is increasing, there are now 700 fit for the field" ; whilst the report for June shows as follows : ' 'June i , sick and in hospital 544, on parade 445 ; June 7, sick 551, on parade 438 ; June 15, sick 551, on parade 425 ; June 22, sick 546, on parade 424." The following telegram from the Field-Marshal commanding in South Africa to His Excellency the Governor-General with reference to the work done by the Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa will be read with much interest : " I have much pleasure in bringing to your Excellency's novice the good work done by the ist and 2nd Battalions Canadian Mounted Kifles, who have been repeatedly conspicuous for their gallant conduct and soldier-like instincts. During the attack by the Boers on Ratbosch on the "and June, a small party of Pincher's Creek men of the 2nd Battalion displayed the greatest gallantry and devotion to duty, holding in check a force of Boers by whom they were largely outnumbered. Corporal Morden and Private Kerr continued fighting until mortally wounded. Lance Corporal Miles and Private Miles wounded continued to fire and held their ground. "On loth June a party of ist Battalion under Lieut. Young when operat- ing with a force under General Hutton to north-west of Pretoria succeeded in capturing two of the enemy's guns and brought in a herd of cattle and several prisoners without losing a man. (Sgd.) Roberts." -li »i CHAPTER XXVIII. The Halt at Bloemfont ein. LORD Roberts found it necessary to halt six weeks at Bloem. fontein in order to rest his men and horses and equip them anew, before he started on his long march to Pretoria. Entenc Fever which broke out at this time carried off many of the soldiers The cause may be traced to the putrid water the men were obliged to drink while on the march to Bloemfontein. Before Roberts could advance he was compelled to drive the Boers from a strong position at Karee Siding. This he succeeded mdomg after a hot engagement in which the British lost i6o men killed and wounded. ' On March 18. Lord Roberts sent a detachment into the east- em part of the State, and not meeting with any resistance they occupied Thabanchu. Shortly after this Colonel Broadwood, while falling back on Bloemfontein, ^"°*'» P®" was led into an ambuscade ui Sanna's Post, losing ^'•*»'*' heavily before he extricated himself. By this success the Boers got possession of the Waterworks. On the 4th of April the British met with another disaster at Red.^«r.» rg. five companies of infantry having to surrender. 1 hese a. isters. following so soon after Paardeburg, encouraged the Boers to continue the struggle. But in this dark hour came the news that General Methuen had captured sixty Boers at Boshor In this engagement Villebois, the leader, was killed. Meanwhile Dewet began attacking the line of communications in the south-east. But Roberts considered these operations as of 74? J ■ i i l| m 748 FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA only minor importance, and therefore he directed his attention o preparing his army for the great march before them. The first event of importance was the Siege of Wepener. The Boers, after several unsuccessful attempts to take Siege of the town, were compelled to withdraw. The British Wepener under a brave officer, Colonel Dalgety, were able to hold a very strong position at Jammersburg, north of Wepener, which was the centre of the Boer attack. Lord Roberts laid a well-conceived plan to entrap the Boers in the south-east, but owing to the bad weather, the muddy roads, and the mobility of the Boers, the plan failed. The wily Dewet, by his skill and daring, slipped through the net as it was about to close on him. After repeated marches and skirmishes the enemy was driven out of the south-east of Orange River Colony which cleared the way for the advance of the British. On May ist, t goo, Roberts's great army about 50,000 strong left Bloemfontein to begin their march of 220 miles to Pretoria. On May 3rd, the main army was at Karee Siding having marched 20 miles. All the troops covered a front of 40 miles, the left flank consisting of Hutton's mounted infantry, while Ian Hamilton com- manded on the right. The main column marched to Brandfort the first day. On the 5th of May it arrived at the Vet River. After a hot engagement the Australians and Hutton's men crossed the river and halted at Smaldeel. On May loth when the British arrived at the S?.nd River, they found the Boers occupying the opposite bank, but finding the British were not going to make a frontal attack, as in some earlier battles, they retired with slight losses on both sides. Next day Lord Roberts entered Kroonstad without meeting with any resistance. Sand River Battle Roberts enters Pretoria FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA 749 Although the Boers had prepared to make a stand at the Vaal River, Lord Roberts's wide-sweeping movement prevented this. On 27th May the Vaal River was crossed, and this great army entered the Tranwaal and continued its march northward till it arrived at Johannesburg, and took possession of the city of gold mines. On the 31st of May. the army was now only 30 miles from Pretoria. After some minor engagements it entered the Transvaal capital on June 5th. The Union Jack was hoisted abov? the Parhament House amid shouts and cheers of the citizens and soldiers, and thus Pretoria passed into the hands of the British forever. Renewal of hostilities in Orange River Colony. While Roberts was halting at Pretoria, Dewet and other Boer leaders rallied the Free State forces, and began to attack the line of communications in the west. General Rundle was despatched to guard these, but the Boer chief was able to strike and retire and elude the British. Lord Roberts was not able to deal successfully, for he had Botha harassing him on the east with 15.000 men occupying a strong position at Pienaars Poort. Lord Roberts tak- ing command of 16,000 men with Hamilton on the right and French on the left, moved out June nth to attack the Boer posi- tion at a place called Diamond Hill. After two days' hot fighting, in which the casualties in both armies were heavy, the Boers wer^'e' compelled to abandon the position, and retreat north. Rundle following up the enemy prevented them from moving south-east. He received a slight check at Biddulphsburg, but having joined forces with Brabant, Rundle captured a large number of Boers. The first effect of Dewet's operations showed itself in captur- ing a British detachment under Colonel Spragge at Lindley. These men, after gallantly defending themselves for two days w^ I i^^ ^r! * .1 i ' i 1! ■IS » I 75° FROAf JiLOEMFO ^ttFJN TO PRETORIA and sastaining heavy losses in killed and wounded, had to surren- der. He ne^t attacked Rhenoster Kopje. The British were taken unawares, but kept up a steady fire till they were forced to hoist the white flag. Dewet then made a sudden descent on Roodeval Station where several supply trains were standing. The militia refusing to surrender, the building was shelled, and the British, not being able to resist the attack, became prisoners. Dewet then burned the train, station, and dynamited the track for miles, but finding that Methuen was about to attack him he fled swiftly eastward, and appeared shortly after at Rhen- oster Station where the British, who were repairing the damages^ were able to hold him ofT. It was h ;re that Lord Kitchener had a narrow escape of being captured. Dewet after moving eastward made a sudden assault on Horning Spruit Station. The Boers shelled the place, but such a noble defence was shown that they fled, and then attacked a post of Shropshires and Canadians who drove them off with heavy loss. Meanwhile Buller had worked his way to Standerton, Hamil- ton was at Heidelburg, and shortly after the two forces united, thus preventing the Transvaal burghers from entering the Free State. Seeing that the lines of communications were still in danger it was resolved to capture Dewet, Olivier and their men. For this purpose several detachments were ordered for the work. After converging their forces and capturing Bethlehem, the British were sanguine of capturing Dewet, but just as success seemed sui-e the skilful Boer slipped through the net and retired south of the Vaal. But notwithstanding Dewet's escape with 1,500 men, Prinsloo with over 4,000 men were taken prisoners, the terms being unconditional surrender. This disaster to the Boers prevented any further serious attacks Surrender of Prinsloo FROM liLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORl 1 75» upon Roberts's lines of communications and thus enabled him to establish himself firmly at Pretoria. While Lord Roberts was stationed at Pretoria, the country in the south and west of the Transvaal, although partly pacified, was still in a state of unrest round Johannesburg and Pretoria. On June 29th the Canadians drove off a party of Boers who attacked Springs. The Boers under Botha, Delarey and Grobler, taking advan- tage of the weak state of Lord Roberts's army after its arduous march from Bloemfontein, planned several attacks. Early on the morn- ing of July nth, the first attempt was made by Delarey at Nitral's Nek. The men, after courageously defending the place till am- munition ran short, had to surrender. The British loss in this affair was 80 killed and 200 taken prisoners and two guns captured. On the same date Grobler entrapped some squad- rons of Dragoons with a loss of several killed, wounded and taken prisoners. July nth marks a day for British disasters, for at Dolverkrantz they met with another serious reverse. Botha learning that Roberts had received fresh remounts, and was restoring his army to its former strength determined to strike a blow at once. The attack was delivered chiefly against Pole-Carew and Hutton's position, and the Boers were repeatedly repulsed, the casualties being heavy on both sides. Two brave Canadian officers, Borden and Birch, while advancing against a hot fire, fell mortally wounded. Roberts having strengthened his army by fresh remounts pre- pared to cross swords with Botha. The British troops were extend- ed along and on both sides of the Delagoa Railway, French, Hutton, Hamilton and Pole-Carew, being the chief generals. But just as they were ready to advance, news of fresh trouble in the Western Reverie at Dolverkrantz I ! i i 'i i i I: I 753 /'7^i)Af iu.oi':\fFos'n:i.w to ruiyroRiA Attack 00 Rustenburg Transvaal caused a withdrawal of part of the forces to deal with this fresh outbreak under Delarey near Rustenburg. The Boers surrounded the town and called on the men to surrender which the soldiers refused to S, where- upon Delarey delivered a severe attack, but just as victory was in sight, the British were reinforced by Australians, and after a hot engagement, the enemy were driven off. On July 13th the Boers appeared again round Rustenburg, but Lord Methuen arriving forced them to evacuate a strong position. Meihucn was then ordered to lay a net for Dewet. At Eland's River the Australians made a noble defence. For eleven days this gallant band withstood the Boer attack of shot and shell. Finally, when all hope of beipg relieved was abandoned, and their casualties were rapidly increasing, Broadwood's mounted men appeared and brought the much needed relief. The Boers tiien turned their attention to attacking trains, which resulted in many deaths Near Heidelberg, where the engineers were at work on a bridge, a violent assault was made, but they were driven off after reinforcements under General Hart had arrived. Several places fell into the hands of the Boers, but these being only of minor importance. Lord Roberts directed his main oper- ations against Dewet and Botha. The former, it will be remember- ed, had retired in July to the country south of the Vaal, where his movements were closely watched by Kitchener and Broadwood. Thinking that the British wt xc about to close in upon him, he de- cided to leave his hiding place, and on August 7th he crossed the Vaal followed by the British ; but Dewet, with his usual skill and mobility, was able to elude his pursuers, in spite of the determined efforts of Lord Methuen who now took up the chase, and following the Boer chief drove him from kopje to kopje. On the 9th of % FROM m.OEMFONTELV TO P/iFTOR/A 753 August he fled northwards. All the passes were supposed to be blocked. Methuen, following, overtook him on the 12th. After a rear guard action covering 35 miles that day, Methuen abandoned the chase and struck for the Megato Pass, thinking by thus block* ing the pass he could corner Dewet. But the agile Boer chiefs knowledge of the country saved him once more ; he escaped through Olifant's Nek, which had been unguarded, and crossed into the Free State. Early in August a plot to kidnap Lord Kobcrts and staff was discovered. The leader, Hans Cordua, was arrest- p.^ . ed, tried and shot. Lord Roberts then issued a Kidnap proclamation that all such crimes would be severely Roberts dealt with. Lord Roberts having refitted his army by the addition of newly-arrived remounts, prepared to drive the Boers out of the Lyndenburg District. Buller, who had worked his way north, push- ing the enemy steadily before him, was entrusted with these oper- ations. Among his troops was a fine body of mounted men who had been recruited and equipped at his own expense by Lord Strathcona. These troops were known as Strathcona's Horse. With his army covering a front of over 30 miles. Lord Roberts began his advance on Lyndenburg. French had command of the left flank, while Buller commanded the right. Buller made a violent attack on Bergendal, a strong Boer position. Buller's plan was to attack with artil'ery, and then follow up with infantry. The plan was well-conceived and proved successful, for the Boers were unable to stand the hot fire of the infantry as they advanced. The losses on both sides were heavy, but it taught the Boers that ihey were no longer able to resist the assaults of the British, and The defeat of the Boers at Berg- ii'f iJ t I hopeless struggle ffj ln\ ^H 754 FJ^OAf liLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA [IH endal enabled French to advance as far as Swartz kopjes. The enemy slowly retreated before him, and French entered Water- valonder on the 28th of September. September ist, Roberts issued his proclamation annexing the Transvaal to British territory. While Duller was returning from his eastward march he met Botha's forces, but did not consider it wise to risk a frontal attack, although some of his soldiers were tried veterans of Colenso and Spion Kop. Ian Hamilton was dispatched with troops and drove the Boers from the position, thus clearing the road to Lydenburg for Buller. The Boers then took up a strong position north-east of Lydenburg, and offered resistance to BuUer's advance, but it was useless, and it became manifest to the enemy that the British had secured a firm grip on the country. Kruger, becoming alarmed that the British were getting Kroger *°° "^^'■' ^^^ ^''om the country, and arriving at Sails for Lourenzo Marques, sailed for Europe, thus leav- Europe j^g j^g burghers to their fate. During the course of these events hostilities were revived in Orange River Colony by Olivier, who escaped when Prinsloo was captured. General Hunter, after some minor engagements, succeeded in taking Olivier and his three sons prisoners at Win- burg. Immediately following the capture of Olivier, another com- mando under Fourie made an attack on Ladybrand. The garrison resisted the Boers at every point till they were finally relieved by Bruce Hamilton and Major White. A party of Boers in the Orange River Colony who attempted to cut the railway near Brandfort, were scattered by General FROM liLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA 755 Operations North of Pretoria McDonald aided by Lord Lovat^s Scouts, several bein^ taken prisoners. These guerilla operations were also carried on north of Pretoria; but a few skirmishes in which the British captured several Boers restored peace and order in this district. In the Western Transvaal the disturbance still re- mained, and a column of mounted men were nearly ambuscaded by Delarey. Early in September, Methuen, having refitted his troops, made a wide sweeping movement in conjunction with forces under Generals Douglas and Clements. These operations cleared the districts of Rustenburgand Krugersdorp, a number of Boers being captured. The Boers still continued their destructive work, firing at trains, blowing up railway tracks, and otherwise endangering life. It was during one of these attempts that Theron, the noted Boer scout, was killed. Towards the end of September Lord Roberts, thinking he had the enemy within his grasp, issued a proclamation in which he informed the burghers that it was a hopeless struggle, and that none of the Boer prisoners would be released till hostilities ceased. While the British troops were marching towards Komatipoort, Erasmus made an unsuccessful attack on Eland's River Station. Komatipoort was taken possession of by the British, September 24th, and it was then thought the war was at an end. But their hopes were blasted ; for hostilities were renewed in the shape of guerilla warfare, Dewet being the chief spirit. Since his escape in July, Dewet had been quiet, but about the middle of September he appeared again in the Transvaal. While marching along the Vaal River he met General Barton's troops. Roberts's Proclamation 756 FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA % A hot engagement followed near Fredericstad, lasting several days A final charge scattered the Boers, leaving a number of dead and wounded on the field, while some were taken prisoners. The Boer chief then retreated across the vaal, closely followed by Knox and De Lisle. But they were unable to locate him. A small force under Le Gallais, a dashing cavalry officer, discovered his position near Bothaville. An action followed, during which Le Gallais was mortally wounded. The casualties on both sides were heavy, and a number of Boers fell into the hands of the British. Following these events several towns in Orange River Colony were attacked by Boer raiders. At Jacobsdal a small garrison of Cape Highlanders were taken unawares by night and lost heavily. In November Dewet, having been reinforced, captured Dewets- dorp, although the British offered a brave resistance. Becoming alarmed that British forces were near, he quietly withdrew, with General Knox in hot pursuit, who overtook him at Vaalbank. Chase B«t t^e Boer chief escaped, and in December after prepared to invade Cape Colony. After being headed off several times, crossing and re crossing Dewet rivers, the British at his heels, Dewet, with his burghers escaped through Springhaan Nek, followed by bullets and shells, and retired to Ficksburg. Thus all efforts on the part of the British failed to capture the guerilla chief the second time. Lord Methuen, having abandoned the chase after Dewet in August, was subsequently engaged in clearing the districts round Rustenburg and Zeerust. During these operations several skir- mishes occurred, stores and wagons were captured, and a number of Boer prisoners taken. Similar operations were carried on in the Eastern Transvaal, under Buller and Hamilton. Battle of Nootigedacht FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO PRETORIA 757 Early in December General Clements was despatched with troops to clear the district round Magaliesburg, where the Boers under Delarey occupied a strong position. While engaged in this work, the British were attacked by Delarey, at Nootigedacht, and though Clements had sufficient men to withstand an attack, yet he was not aware that the Boers had been reinforced by Beyers's troops. In the battle that followed, the British suffered a severe defeat, losing 602 men, killed, wounded and prisoners. Fresh troops having arrived, Clements made a successful attack on the Boer position and scattered their forces, th s pacifying the country round Magaliesburg. The close of the year 1900 was marked by a number of attacks on British outposts along Delagoa railway, but these were only of minor importance. In the latter end of December, while British troops were scouring the district north of the Vaal, a reverse occurred at Helvetia. Part of the Liverpool Regiment lost about 250 men, killed, wounded and taken prisoners. CHAPTER XXIX. Lord Roberts Hands over the Command to Lord Kitchener. In November several regiments, among which were the two Canadian Contingents and 600 Australians, were sent home. Lord Roberts left for England about the same time, and Kitchener took command. Roberts, in his farewell address to his troops, praised their gallantry and endurance during the campaign. During January, Lord Methuen was engaged in clearing the South Western Transvaal. He met the Boers under De Villiers at Hartebeestefontein. On February the igth, a battle followed in which the enemy were driven from their stronghold. Since the outbreak of the war a feeling of sympathy for the Boers prevailed in Cape Colony, which manifested itself very strongly after the two Republics had been annexed. A conference was held at Worcester, December 6th, and a resolution was pass- ed demanding that the independence of the Boers be restored, which of course was not granted. Encouraged by this feeling, the Boers prepared to invade Cape Colony. Two bodies were engaged in these operations. One on the west was commanded by Hertzog, the other by Kritzinger. Hert- zog's forces entered Cape Colony near Colesburg, about the middle of December, and marching towards the western part reached a point south of Prieska. After Hertzog's forces entered Cape 758 I CAPE COLONY INVADED THE SECOND TLME 7^9 Colony they met with several checks, not^vithstanding he was rein- forced by Cape rebels. However, the Boers succeeded in pene- trating deeply into Cape Colony, cutting the rail- way line near De Aar, and capturing a few towns. Ne^ Following the movements of these invaders south- Cape Town ward we find them on January 15th, , goi. in the vicinity of Cape Town, m Calvinia district. But the British having been formed into small mobile columns were able to prevent any further invasion Having extended their lines, they drove the Boers northward through Carnarvon, but on the 26th Februarj- they were rein- forced by Dewet, who had just entered British territory. Kritzinger's invasion being carried on in the eastern districts where Dutch sympathy largely prevailed, his forces were frequently strengthened by the addition of recruits. So rapid were his move- ments, although meeMng with some resistance and pursued by British columns, hr xeeded in retreating north without being Captured. After Dewet had escaped through Springhaan Nek in Decem- ber, 1900, he retired to Ficksbui^- ^nd recruited his troops for the mvasion of Cape Colony. All his ^ians being matured, and learn- ing of the success of Hertzog and Kritzinger, and the British re- verse near Lindley, where a patiol of Kitchener's body-guard was led into a trap, losing half their men in killed and wounded the rest being taken prisoners, Dewet proceeded to invade Cape Colony. With upwards of 2,000 men, which were recruited on the way, he struck south, and though meeting with some resistance, he reached Philippolis, being well in advance of the British columns. This was on February gth. Two Dewefs days afterwards he crossed the Orange River, and ^*"^ entered Cape Colony. His movements were so swift, that in spite 76o CAPE COLONY INVADED THE SECOND TIME \ of all the plans the British formed to capture him, he succeeded in eluding his pursuers and getting back to Orange River Colony, the last day of February, having sustained a loss of 300 men and a large number of horses. The British under Plumerand Bethune follow- ed the Boer leader north, but had to give up the chase. As an aftermath of the invasion, part of Orange River Colony rose in rebellion, and the British had to sweep the country with several columns to pacify it, the operations resulting in the capture of 350 prisoners. Lord Kitchener, finding that mounted troops were required to deal with guerilla war, organized severai divisons with which he intended to sweep the country, and thus bring hostilities to a close. One division, part of which was raised in Canada, was known as the South African Constabulary Force. These operations resulted in the continued capture of Boers, arms, ammunitions, cattle, sheep and horses, thus slowly wearing down the resistance of the burghers. Before beginning to deal with the enemy, Kitchener had under his command more than 50,000 mounted men. Seven columns, of 2,000 men each, under General French, made a wide sweeping movement in the Eastern Transvaal, in Jianuary, jgoi. A number of Boer forces in this part were concentrated along the Delagoa and Natal Railways. French, with the object of cornering the burghers, spread out his columns covering a front of nearly 100 miles. As the net was gradually contracted. General Botha resolved to break through the cordon, and a night attack on Smith-Dorrien's divison was planned. But the Boer leader found that when he attempted to surprise the British, he was met with such a hot fire that he was forced to retreat. Eastern Transvaal CAPE COLONY INVADED THE SECOND TIME 761 A few Skirmishes followed, bat these did not hinder French in his clearing operations, and so thoroughly had the British columns done their work that at the end of February French's report show- ed a loss of 800 Boers in killed, wounded and taken prisoners Besides a large number of rifles, horses, cattle and sheep were captured. In pushing further his operations, similar success was reported. The total loss to the enemy during this drive was over 1,000 men. French having completed his work in the Eastern Transvaal Babington was sent to drive Smuts and Delarey from the Magalies' burg district. A detachment of Babington's troops, the Imperial Light Horse, were suddenly attacked by the Boers in superior numbers. The British, after beating the enemy off, fell back on babington's camp. Babington, while pushing on a division of his army under Colonel Gray, came face to face with the enemy near Hartebeeste- fontem. It was here the British displayed their worid-renowned courage. Spurring their horses forward, they dashed on. and com- pletely routed the Boers. When we consider the foregoing successes, the wonder is that the Boers did not abandon the struggle, seeing that the operations were gradually weakening their forces, and leaving the country in a desolate state. .,...?'! February 27, 1901, Lord Kitchener and Botha met at Middleburg to discuss peace negotiations. No settlement was arrived at, as the burghers still demanded their independence. A second attempt to renew negotiations also failed, for Kruger and Steyn, when consulted, advised the Boers to continue the struggle A Hopeless Struggle Blockhouse System 76a THE CAMPAIGN OF THE WINTER OF tgoi During the winter of 1901 Kitchener introduced a new feature into his campaign. Several blockhouses, six-cornered buildings made of s^one, covered with corrugated iron, with loopholes, were built along the railway lines. They were placed about 2,000 yards apart, and each contained from 6 to 30 soldiers. These acted as guards to the railways, and prevented the Boers from damaging the tracks. Among the mountain fastnesses in the northern Transvaal, which afforded excellent shelter for the Boers, guerilla war still continued. The British forces moving along the Pretoria- Pietersburg Railway occupied town after town, leaving small detachments to garrison them, and finally arrived at Pietersburg. . The sweeping operations carried on in the Roos-Senekal district resulted in the capture of a large number of Boers, notwithstanding that several of the enemy escaped through the net. The weekly reports showed a large number taken prisoners. On May 26th, at Vlakfontein, in the Magaliesburg district, the British under General Dixon received a severe reverse with 180 men killed and wounded. The British then retired to Naaw- port, arriving there June rst. In May, Sir Bindon Blood with mounted troops swept the Ermelo, Bethel and Carolina districts where Botha and Viljoen were located. Botha succeeded in escaping and the British had, as their reward, only a few prisoners. On June 12, Viljoen's force! before crossing the Delagoa Line, made a sudden attack on a Australians ^^etachment of Colonel Beatson's column near Defeated Wilmansrust. The plan of assault was strategy itself. The Boers set fire to the veldt on the west side of the camp, and then advanced from the east; thus the enemy was quite invisible till they came within close range. The THE CAMPAIGN OF THE WINTER OF 190, 70^ brave Australians, 380 in number, displayed great courage, but lost about 50 in killed and wounded, while the rest surrendered. Several British columns— in all about sixty— operated in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony in June and July. They crossed and re-crossed the country, built lines of blockhouses, killed and captured a large number of Boers, besides taking cattle, sheep and horses. Although slight reverses occurred, yet the operations on the whole were a success, inasmuch as they were wear- ing down the Boer resistance. The extension of the blockhouse system aided materially in the work. Among the events which occurred during these sweeping movements two need passing notice. On the morning of June 6th, Colonel Elliott attacked a Boer convoy near Reitz, and captured over 100 wagons and 45 prisoners. The British then took up a position in a kraal, and informed DeLisle of their success. Sud- denly, they found themselves surrounded by 500 of the enemy under Dewet and Delarey. A hot engagement followed, resulting in heavy casualties to both sides. The second event was the capture of the town of Reitz, and the narrow escape of Steyn. These operations extended into September. In August, Kitchener issued a procla- mation in which he informed the burghers that all commandants, all field-cornets continuing in the field after the 15th of September would be banished from the country. The effect was to make the Boers more determined to carry on the war. In our sketch of the invasion of Cape Colony we mentioned that the invaders had been driven out of the Western parts, but in the Eastern districts those who still remained formed themselves Kitchener's Proclamation 764 THE GUERILLA UAR IN CAPE COLONY, igot into small roving banda, and spread over a large extent of territory. Asaltted by ^^*y '^*''« »•■<> helped in their warfare by the dis- Dtolofal loyal inhabitants, who supplied them with food» Intaabitanta clothing, and gave them information regarding the movements of the British. So that it was difficult to deal with these bands of raiders. The commandos were under seven differ- ent leaders, the chief of whom were Kritzinger and Scheepers. The British, as in Orange River Colony and the Transvaal, were formed into several mobile columns under capable leaders. The first success of the Boers was on May the 1 3th, at Marais- burg, when Malan's commando defeated the Midland Mounted Rifles. A number of the British were' killed, wounded and taken prisoners, while a quantity of arms and ammunition fell into the hands of the victors. About the end of May, Kritzinger, who had been in Orange River Colony, returned with additional troops. This was the signal for the Boers to begin more active operations. On June the and Kritzinger attacked Jamestown and captured sup- plies and horses; but becoming alarmed at the approaching British forces he escaped to the mountains. On June the 6th the British captured 20 prisoners in Barkly East district. On June the 8th General French took command of the opera- tions and under his directions very thorough work was done. After chasing the raiders through several districts for nearly two months. Capture of ^^ succeeded in rounding up the Boers and driv- Scheepers ing them northward with the exception of a few roving bands who broke through the cordon. The British captured several prisoners during these operations. Scheepers, who had been chased through the southern parts for THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 765 some months, was overtaken by sickness, and captured the 12th of October. Ha was executed in January, 1903. The only engagement of importance was at Eland's River Poort, where on the 17th September, a commando rushed a squadron of Lancers, and inflicted a severe defeat. The following is a detailed account : " Smut's commando rushed a squadron of the I7tli Lancers under Captain Sandeman on Tuesday morning, September the 17th. The squadron was posted at Modderfontein, guarding the southern exit from Elands River Poort and another pass towards the northeast known as Evans Hock, to prevent the Boers from coming southwest into the Cradock district. The surprise was due chiefly to the Boers being dressed in khaki and being thus mistaken for Colonel Gorringe's men, who were expected to arrive from Soude Nek during the course of the day. A mist which hung over the low ground till late that morning also favoured the approach of the enemy, as in the case of Colonel Scobell's capture of Lotter's commando. On receipt of a report that a small picket in advance of the camp had been rushed, a troop quickly mounted and rode towards the poort. The officer in command saw some khaki-clad men about two miles from camp, and, thinking that they were some of Colonel Gorringe's column, he rode forward to meet them. When about 200 yards distant, seeing them levelling their rifles, he shouted out, * Don't fire. We are the 17th Lancers.' The only answer was rapid rifle fire, which emptied several saddles. During this time another body of the enemy had worked up the donga running past the camp and approached it from the rear. These men were dressed in khaki and were taken for friends. Major Nickalls was encamped at Hoogstude, about three miles distant, and, having been informed of the attack on 766 THE GUERIU^ WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901. Captain Sandeman't camp, wai coming up to its support. Cou- sequently the order was given to fire on this party. " The camp was placed on the southern slope of a gentle riie^ which it encircles on the west by a spruit running generally north> west and joining the main river about two miles distant. About 300 yards from the spruit the ground on which the camp stood rises into a rocky kopje about 100 yards long at the crest. Thii was defended with great determination, and most of the casualties occurred here. The Boers, too, suffered very severely in their attack on this position, and it was not until the enemy attacked the hill from the rear that any impression seemed to have been made on the defenders. A perfect hajl of bullets appears then to have been poured in from the rear, which killed or wounded all of its defenders. Finally Captain Sandeman tried to reach the kraals in the vicinity of the camp, but most of the men with him were shot down, and he himself was wounded. The Bores then rushed the camp, hut not a single man surrendered ; the enemy levelled their rifles and fired on any man they saw. Upon Major Nickhalls's squadron coming up, they retired quickly in the direction in which they had come. The Boers, on entering the camp, went straight for the supplies, but were able to take away only a few biscuits and hardly an^ ammunition, the Lancers having emptied their bando- liers, as the hundreds of empty cartridges found on the kopje eloquently testified. The enemy's casualties were extremely heavy. The dead and wounded were carried off by the commando when it retired." CHAPTER XXX. Attack on Port Ital« Lord Kitchener's Proclamation. On September 15th Kitchener's proclamation came into force, bnt the Boer leaders instead of laying down arms became more active. Botha with a large force moved south through the Trans- vaal towards Natal. On the 15th September, near Scheeper's Nek he ambushed three companies of mounted infantry with three Kuns, commanded by Major Gough. After severe fighting the British were overpowered and lost their guns, first rendering them useless. Two officers and 14 men were killed, five officers and 150 men wounded, and 150 men were captured. Encouraged by this success, Botha, with a force of 1,500 BoerF, n.?de an all day attack on Fort Itala, on the border of Zululand, on the 26th September. The burghers were repulsed, but at heavy cost to the garrison, whose losses were 55, killed and wounded, and 63 missing. The Boers lost upwards of 500 men. After Botha defeated Major Gough at Scheeper's Nek, he de- termined at once to invade Natal and crossed the Zulu frontier, thinking, of course, that his way was clear to the Tugela River. Botha knew, however, that there were two small British ourposts, Forts Itala and Prospect, f. .n which he might expect resistance should he make an assault on them. Fort Itala had only a garri- son of 300 men, with two 15-pounders and a Maxim gun. But 767 is !! ' <\ ! i n •f^; Ifl 768 77/7? CUEKIU.A WAR /.V CArP. COLONY, i^or they were men of true British valor, and many of them were tried veterans of war. They were under the command of Major Chap man, of the Dublin Fusiliers. The Boer leader fancied that he could easily overpower this handful of men ; but he reckoned with- Battle of °"' ^^^ ^°^^' ^P°" '^^ ^5th of September tid- Fort Itala '"^^ reached the garrison that the Boers were marching to attack them. Immediately all prepar- ations were made to give them •' a warm reception." " An outpost of 80 men, under Lieutenants Kane and Lefroy, occupied the summit of the hill, out of sight of the main camp, which was on the slope of the hill. At about midnight six hundred Boers rushed the outpost. Their onslaught was so sudden and fierce that for twenty minutes only bayonets were used. Over- whelming odds soon decided the possession of the outpost. Lieutenant Kane fell dead, shouting, • No surrender ! ' Lieutenant Lefroy was severely wounded, and the whole force was disabled. The main camp was thus reduced to 220 men. The Boers assailed from all sides. From about 1 a.m. throughout the remainder of the night, and all the following day, the little garri- son withstood them, until seven in the evening, when the outlook seemed desperate. The British had been without water for many hours, the Boers having cut off their supply, and their ammuni. tion was fast failing. Almost suddenly the Boer fire began to slacken, and soon after the attackers withdrew, either learning that General Bruce Hamilton was approaching, as one correspondent says, or, according toothers, in sheer despair of succeeding. Their retirement opened the way for the wounded commander to with- draw his exhausted force, which reached N'Kandhla in the morn- ing. Among the Boers killed were Generals Opperman and Schultz and Commandant Potgieter. THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 769 "According to a statement which reached Durban from N'Kandhla, a British military surgeon, who ascended Itala in the morning to attend the wounded there, was immediately made a prisoner by the Boers, who compelled him to attend their wounded. Consequently, the British wounded lay unsaccored during the day in the broiling sun, without water." At the same time as the battle was going on round Fort Itala, Fort Prospect was also attacked by 600 men, under Emmett and Grobelaar. The fort had only a small number of men to defend it, but they were commanded by a brave officer. Captain Rowley. "The attack on Prospect seems to have been only disastrous to the Boers. The camp was well situated for defence. Attack on Fort Prospect and although the garrison numbered only 20 men, with one Maxim, they withstood all attacks, not- withstanding the dashing bravery of the assailants. The latter withdrew without achieving their purpose, and their dead were piled around the fort. The British loss was one killed and twelve wounded. The Boers have never hitherto displayed such reckless daring, and their defeat is the worst smash they have sustamed. Major Chapman, commanding the British, seemed to bear a charmed life." On September 30th Delarey and Kemp made a night attack on Colonel Kekewich's camp, at Moedwil!, 75 miles west of Pretoria. After close fighting for two hours the Boers weie driven back. Colonel Kekewich was wounded. The British casualties were 192 men. "The fight at Magato Nek, where Kekewich was encamped, took place early in the mornin>;. A patrol of yeomanry, who had proceeded beyond the pickets, rode into the Boer force and were driven back. The Boers followed them, rushed the pickets, and li" ' r 770 T/fB GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 190/. gained a position commanding the camp. It was necessary to drive them from this position at all costs, and this was done by the Derbyshire regiment and the Scottish Horse, and the fighting was at such close quarters that the bayonets were used. This made the casualties heavy. The name of the Derbyshire regi- ment for staunch heroism under disconcerting circumstances was maintained, while the Scottish Horse also did excellent work." From the day Kitchener's proclamation came into force till the end of September, the British casualties were upwart? of 600 men, which showed that tha enemy was far from being subdued. On October gth martial law was proclaimed in the districts of Cape Town, Winberg, Simonstown, Port Elizabeth and East London. This stringent measure was necessary in order to pre- vent the Boers from getting supplies through Cape Town. In the guerilla war which still continued, Lord Kitchener's weekly "bag" showed a large number of Boers killed, wounded, captured and surrendered, together with stores, cattle, horses and sheep. The Boers had made an unsuccessful attempt to raid Natal, But Botha's commandos brought into Vryheid district were forced back to Ermelo. On October a^th the Boers, commanded by Delarey and Kemp, attacked the British near the Great Marco River, but after a hot engagement the enemy was driven off. The casualties on both sides were heavy. . Six days afterwards the British forces, under by Botha Colonel Benson, were surprised by Botha at Brackenlaagte, in the Eastern Transvaal. "It appears that General Botha, who had been joined by another big commando, aggregating 1,000 men, attacked Colonel THE GUERILLA IVAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 771 Benson's rearguard on October the 30th, on the march, and cap- tured two guns, but was unable to retain them. Colonel Benson fell mortally wounded early in the fight. Major Wools-Sampson tuok command, collected the convoy and took up a position for defence about 500 yards from the entrenchments prepared by the Boers. The captured guns were so situated that neither side could touch them. The Boers made desperate efforts to overwhelm the whole British force, charging repeatedly right up to the British lines, and being driven back each time with heavy loss. The defence was stubbornly and successfully maintained through the whole of the following day and the succeeding night, until Colonel Barter, who had marched all night from Bushman's Kop, brought relief in the morning of November the ist. The Boers then retired. Their losses are estimated at between 300 and 400. Colonel Benson did not long survive. Not only did General Botha direct the attack, but he personally shared in the fighting." Durmg these guerilla operations the Boers frequently deceived the British by wearing khaki uniforms taken from prisoners. Kitchener had to adopt severe measures, and issued orders that captured Boers clad in British uniform were to be shot. The Boers felt the effect of these orders afterwards. The work of clearing out the Boers in Cape Colony was necessarily slow. Two- thirds of the inhabitants of the country districts were sympathizers. The Boers were more mobile than the British, who had not sufficient horses. About this time the British received help from an unexpected source. A number of Boers expressed a desire to bear arms against their countrymen. Several contingents of ex-burghers were enrolled, the latest corps being commanded by General Andries Cronje, a brother of the famous Boer leader. These '^ 4^ ft ^-fi ;■ 772 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 corps were known as the National Scouts, and aided materially in hunting down the Boers. On November 14th the rear guard of Colonel Byng's column was attacked near Heilbron, Orange River Colony, by 400 Boe. ^ under Dewet. The fighting lasted two hours, the casualties on both sides being slight. At Villiersdorp, on November 20th, the British met with a serious disaster. Major Fisher attempted to capture a ridge held by the Boers. The horses at the south end of the line stampeded. Serious ^"^ '^^ ^o^t^ during the confusion effected a Disaster lodgment on the ridge, and wounded Major Fisher and Captain Lanford dangerously, after capturing 3jO prisoners whom they were forced to release when Colonel Rimington's column arrived. Among the Boer leaders captured was Commandant Buys, who had been wounded. Notwithstanding that the British were attacked frequently, and met with slight reverses, yet Kitchener's great sweeping movements were beginning to show substantial progress. In con- firmation of the foregoing we give a summary of the address of Mr. Broderick, Secretary of War, before the Carlton Club, in London, November 1 3th. In his remarks he stated that Kitch- ener had been proceeding on two lines. He had divided the country that was settled from that which was unsettled by means of a system of blockhouses. The blockhouse system enclosed an area of 14,700 square miles of the Transvaal and 17,000 in the The Orange River Colony. Within the several enclos- Blockhouse ed districts the Boers could not exist. Outside " these districts the enemy was being slowly hunt- ed down by mobile columns. Continuing, the speaker showed the effectiveness of the blockhouse system in protecting the railway THE GUERILLA WAR /.V CAPE COLONY, 1901 tj^ communications by which the British were able to carry supplies to the enclosed districts. Referring to the number of times the railway had been cut since October last year, he said that in October, 1900, the railway was cut 32 times, in November 30 times, in December 21 times, in January 16, in February 30, in March 18, in April 18, in May 12, in June 8, in July 4, in August 4, in September 2, and in October not at all. The important result was that 100 refugees a week were going up to re- sume work at Johannesburg. With reference to the number of Boers captured and put out of action up to date, the speaker, basing his remarks on the official reports, said that in the con- centration camps, or in custody in the various islands, there were 42,000 Boers; that 11,000 more had been killed, wounded, had left the colony, or had taken parole, or were otherwise employed. He further added that the number in the field was about 10,000. The speaker also informed the audience the govern- ment was so convinced that this system of wearing down the enemy was making substantial progress that additional preparations were being made to supply Kitchener with fresh troops, in order to bring the war speedil) to a close. Owing to the stringency of the Censor, reports received at the War Office were very meagre. On December 2nd, Kitchener's report showed that since November 25th, 32 Boers had been killed, and 18 wpunded, 250 had been captured and 14 surrendered. General French's column in Cape Colony had inflicted heavy losses on Myburg's forces. Kitchener reported, December and, that over 400 Boers had been put out of the conflict, as a result of one week's work. The further extension of the blockhouses in the Eastern Trans- vaal was enabling Kitchener for the first time to carry out system- Substantial Progress I. 11 I! t , t ! f 774 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 atic and continuous operations in the Ermelo, Bethel and Carolina districts. Columns had cleared the south-eastern districts of Orange River Colony and were now operating northward of the Thabanchu line. In the extreme west of Cape Colony the Boers, commanded by Maritz, were still active. Sharp During December some sharp fighting oc- Fighting curred in the Orange River and Transvaal colonies. Near Beginderyn, 200 mounted infantry, while searching farms, were attacked by 300 Boers and 40 armed natives, under Com- mandant Britz. The Boers charged determinedly in overwhelming numbers. The British casualties were 10 killed and 15 wounded. On December 3rd Colonel Spens surprised a Boer lasher near Oshoek. Thirty Boers were captured, the rest escaping in all directions. Among the prisoners were several Bethel officials. This capture practi- cally wiped out the remainder of the Bethel and Standerton com- mandos. Important Capture 41 iS SI At Langberg, December i8th, Dewet attacked a British force commanded by Generals Dartnell and Campbell. The Boers charged bravely and fought desperately for several hours. Dewet was driven off with a loss of 20 men. The British casualties were 15. Two days after, Botha, with 800 Boers, surprised Colonel Damant's advance guard at Tafel Kop, m Orange River Colony. The Boers rushed the kopje commanding the main body and the guns, but Damant rallied his men and drove the Boers from the hill. The British loss was considerable. Colonel Damant was dangerously wounded. The Boers left six dead on the field and dispersed. ll Tafel Kop THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 775 " In the fight for Tafel Kop the Boers, dressed as British Yeomen, engaged in a splendid race with the British in the attempt to be first in gaining the crest of the kopje. The Boers gained the summit first, and opened a heavy fire on a single troop of Damant's Horse, which took part in the race. These troopers took advantage of all the small amount of cover available immediately below the Boers, and fought until all but four of them were killed or wound- ed. By that time reinforcements of Damant's Horse came up and charged and captured the kopje." On Christmas Eve the British met with a serious reverse at the hands of that redoubtable enemy, Dewet. Colonel Firman's camp at Tweefontein was successfully rushed by a considerable force of Boers. The British loss amounted to 56 killed, and 150 wounded and taken prisoners. Lord Kitcheners account of the fighting showed that the column was encamped on the slope of a kopje, the southern side of which was precipitous. Outposts held the edge of the precipice. The position, naturally strong, had been well en- trenched. The Boers appeared to have climbed the precipice, and mustering near the top, at 2 a.m. suddenly attacked ihe picket on the summit. Before the men could get clear of their tents, the Boers swooped through them shooting the soldiers down as they came out. Most of the British officers were shot while trying to stem the rush. Lieutenant Harwich himself opened fire with " pom-poms," and was shot through the heart while firing. Lieut Watney was killed while leading a charge. All engaged did their best, but once the picket was overwhelmed the superior force of the Boers had all the advantage. A fifteen-pounder, after two rounds, became Serious Reverse i iii ' 1^' i'^ ;?! 776 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY^ igot jammed. The men composing the detachment stood by the gun and were shot round it. The Imperial Light Horse arrived on the scene at 6.30 a.m. After breathing their horses, they galloped after the Boers, who succeeded in reaching the broken country, where the L.H. were useless against superior numbers. Following this reverse came a minor success. At Bothaville the South African Constabulary, after raiding the town, captured 36 Boers. '• The revival of activity on the part of Dewet seems to have been dictated by a desire to break the chain of blockhouses before it closed round his place of refuge. He made his first sally at Heilbron and attempted to carry off Col. Wilson's convoy. Beaten off, he moved to the west of Lindley, and presently at Lanberg found himself in danger of three con- verging British columns. General Dartnell forced him into action. Both sides suffered severely, but badly as he had been hit, Dewet turned northward and met with complete success at Tweefontein, capturing two guns and large (|uantities of ammunition and stores." The results of Kitchener's sweeping movements in December can be best judged from his despatch to the War Office. We quote as follows : " Monroe .'.id Scobell, in the northern part of Cape Colony, have reduced Fouche's and Myburg's commandos to about 200 mounted men. Bentinck and Doran have driven Kritzinger's remaining followers from Cambodoo Mountains. " Commandant Haasbrook was killed December i6th. His brother, a field-cornet, was killed December 19th. " Methuen has captured 37 Boers. Dewet Active TlfE GUERILUl WAR IN CAPE COLONY, .^o, 777 " Col. Steele, on December i8th, surprised a laager west of Bamanskraal and took 32 prisoners, including Field Cornet Schooman. •• Colebrandcr has captured 62 Boers, including Commandant Nigel." A very important capture was made on December isth Kntzmger, while attempting to cut the barbed wire fence connect' ing the block houses, near Middleburg in Cape Colony was wounded and captured. With the dawn of the new year the war was still in progress A r&um6 of Kitchener's work, from January ist, 1901, showed the total reduction of Boer forces ^°*' ''o"** amounted to 21,800. So that since the beginning '***^"««<« of the twentieth century the situation had certainly changed so much that the end of the war was in sight. It may be also interesting to note at this stage of the war that the total reduction of Great Britain's military force Redu ti in South Africa from the beginning of the war till Great^'sSaJn's the end of December, according to authentic ''oroes reports, amounted to 24.299 ; of this number 19.430 were actually killed or died. ' On January 6th Lord Kitchener reported the occurrence of a number of skirmishes in various parts of the war field since the beginning of the New Year, resulting in many captures and sur- renders of Boers. In Cape Colony General French was able to report that the Boers were so far reduced in numbers as to require only an elaborate police system to keep them in check. '{ » ■ i.. .!!{ ' 'f IJ ! 778 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, tgot During the latter part of January, as the paring down process A Larce yttxA on, Kitchener reported weekly a large nam< Number of ber of captures and surrenders, especially by the ^••™ columns of Bruce Hamilton. On January the 28th this general reported the important capture of General B. Viljoen. A despatch from Lord Kitchener, dated January the 30th, repotted that the camp of Colonel Dumoulin, near Koffytein, Orange River Colony, was attacked by Niewhoudt's commando, and after severe fighting the Boers were repulsed. In Cape Col- ony General French had captured 26 Boers belonging toFouche's commando in the north-eastern part of Cape Colony, and the commando was completely scattered. The British in their operations against Dewet, so far, had not been able to capture him. But Byng's column, while proceeding towards Liebenbergsvlei River, attacked and routed a consider- able force of Boers under Commandant Wessels. The following is a detailed account of these operations : — " Colonel Garratt was in command of a New Zealand force and some Soutli African Light Horse, and whilst near the Wilge River 100 men of Wessel's commando drove in the Light Horse rearguard. This led to an exciting incident, 70 Boers wearing British cavalry cloaks, in the rain and under cover of some Boers in a kraal, charging the Light Horse position, firing as they advanced, with the object of capturing a pom-pom. They failed to accomplish this, and broke and fled. It afterwafds transpired that the attacking force was Dewet's bodyguard. Dewet, with six men, fled up the Liebenbergsvlei River. Operations Acainst Dewet THE GUERfLLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, ,^., 779 ♦• Colonel Byng then directed his operations towards Dewet's retreat, during which operation C Squadron of the South African Light Horse surprised Steyn's remount depot, and captured twenty of Steyn's own horses in splendid condition. " On the afternoon of February the 3rd, Colonel Garratt saw what he then made out as a number of mule waggons and one gun, a,oou yards away. He at once detached the New Zealand- ers, 120 strong, who, under a heavy fire, charged the Boers' rear- guard, consisting of 60 men posted in a strong position, and then galloped on to the head of the Boer convoy. •♦Simultaneously, the enemy ran into three of Garratt's dc tached sections previously posted ahead of the convoy. The Boers now turned from north to west pursued by our combined forces. The latter, after eight miles' hard galloping, captured one rS-pounder, captured by Dewet from Colonel Firman's column on Christmas Eve, two pom-poms, one of which had been used by the Boers from the beginning of the war. and large quantities of ammunition, besides 50 horses and 60 British Government mules -the Boers had from six to ten of these mules harnessed to each gnn. "Commandant Mears, with Captain MuUer and four Boers, boldly attempted to recapture one of the poir poms, but the firing of the New Zealanders was too good for them. After abandoning this attempt Mears himself had a lucky escape, but Captain Muller was captured. In taking the guns the New Zealanders had one man killed and two wounded. These were Colonel Gar- ratt's only casualties." Other despatches contained reports of several captures in Cape Colony and the Transvaal, and iliat in the Northern Trans- vaal, Beyer's commando was the only one remaining. \ I m m M I i t! I ■J| I I 780 77M' GVERtl.l.A WAR IN CAI'E COLONY, 1^1 Continuing the account of the chaie after Dewet, we find that a general advance of 33 British columns began on the night of February the 5th, the whole force moving from various directions and forming a continuous line of mounted men on the west bank of Liebenberg's Vlei, from P'rankfort as far south as Fanny's Home, and thence to Kaffir Kop. The line then advanced to the west, and the following night the British entrenched, with their outposts fifty yards apart. They held the line from Holland, on the Heilbron-Frankfort blockhouse line, to Doornkloof, on the Kroonstadt-Lindluy line, while the columns were also working in advance of the blockhouse lines to prevent Dewet crossing. The railway line was patrolled throughout the night by armored trains, equipped with powerful searchlights. The train lights were sup- plemented by stationary searchlights. But, notwithstanding that Kitchener personally superintended these operations, Dewet, with some burghers, succeeded in crossing the line. The following is a full report of the battle : " The battle at Heilbron, Orange River Colony, raged from 9 o'clock Friday night until 2 o'clock on Saturday morning. Throughout the five hours a fearful ring of fire, from rifles, cannon and pom-poms, swept along the British lines from Louwspruit to Heilbron, southwest away to Lindley and Kroonstad, in holding Dewet's Boers, who made repeated attempts to break out of the circle of troops. From behind rocks and dongas the Boers kept up a vigorous fusilade. Simultaneously others charged, but again and again were the Boers repulsed, leaving dead, wounded and prisoners in the hands of the British. " At the outset of the preparations the Boers realized that the operations were not merely an ordinary ' drive,' and Dewet assembled his whole force and discussed the situation with the Battle at Heilbror THE GUERILLA WAR AV CAPE COLONY, ivm 781 commanders, with the result that the Boers were split up into three forces. On Thursday night 500 Boers, headed by Van CoIIers.rusheda forcecf ^hc Imperial Light Horse. About 100 Boers got through. The iem-iuder, err-ountering a tremendous fire, were turned back. Friday ni^lus cunfli f covered an area of forty to fifty miles, in whcli t1 - ic,u(.,.l,unt. d, harassed and desperate men endeavored to nnd outlets. Tl.- ] «.rs at one spot got within thirty yards r,f ihe H-\,U). f, u.r iine, but the barbed wire bailicd tl c ri.rj,^htjrs and forced them to retreat. Aided by iljo elc ric searchlights the British harrowed the '^.uiounding territory with shrapnel shells and Maxim bullets. "The northern section of the Boers also made a desperate effort to break through. Collecting a number of cattle, they drove them down on the British lines. Bending low in their saddles the Boers rode among the cattle, making it impossible to distinguish them in the darkness. The British pickets opened a terrible fire, and the Boers were everywhere met with a relentless hail of bullets. A long line of flame, crackling like burning wood, ran up and down the firing line, neariy thirty miles in length, as the armored trnins flashed their searchlights over miles of country. The reports of the quick-firing guns along the entrenched line and the booming of the field guns and pom-poms sounded very deep amid the sharp crackling of the musketry, while Heilbron fort contributed to the universal din with the deep roar of its naval guns. This lasted for some twenty minutes, when gradually the rattle died down until only the crack of a single shot was heard. Then all was again quiet. The Boers' attempt to break the British circle had failed. A few of them had succeeded in crossing the line, and among them was Dewet." I l! •* i! h . f Ml ill British Led Into a Trap 783 77//? GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 1901 All Kitchener's reports to the War Oftice during the month of February showed satisfactory progress. On t'ebruary the nth his despatch recorded as the result of one week's operations, 717 Boers put out of action. In Cape Colony the Boers had a slight success. They attacked and captured a convoy 30 miles from Fraserburg. Near Calvinia, Doran's column was rushed at night, the British losing 27 men. "On February the 12th, while 150 Mounted Infantry were patrolling the Klip River, south of Johannesburg, they were led into a Boer trap. The British had surrounded a farm house, where they suspected Boers were hidtng. A single Boer broke away, and the British started in pursuit of him, who climbed a kopje, the British following. Immediately a heavy fire was opened upon them from three sides. The British found themselves in a defence- less position. Eight of the officers made a gallant effort, and de- fended the ridge with carbines and revolvers, until they were over- powered. The British lost heavily before the force was able to fall back under cover of a blockhouse." Another disaster to the British occurred at Klipdam. A de- tachment of Scotch Greys were cut up by the Boers. Major C. W. M. Fielden and Captain E. Usher were severely wounded. Two men were killed, six wounded, and 46 captured. The Boers subsequently released the prisoners. Following this reverse came a despatch from Kitchener stat- ing that Colonel Park, with 300 mounted National Scouts, recently surprised a Boer force at Nootigacht, Transvaal Colony, and cap- tured 164, together with a quantity of munitions of war, and a number of horses and waggons. There were no British casualties. On the night of the loth of February, Dewet with 400 men Boers Rushed an Outpost THE CUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, i<^oi 783 broke through a blockhouse line, 10 miles west of Lindley, Orange River Colony. The blockhouses opened Rre on the Boers, two of whom were killed. The remainder got away to their old ground near Reitz. Two events which occurred in the war field during the latter part of February demand passing notice. On the night of February the 23rd, 600 Boers, driving cattle before them, made a deter- mined attack to rush the outpost line near Bothas- berg, in the Transvaal Colony. They were led by Ross Hands and Manie Botha. When the Boers realized that their attempts to break through the wire fences were frustrated, they crouched beside the dead cattle, and from that defence poured a heavy fire on the British troops. The fusi- lade was steadily returned, and finally the Boers were driven off, leaving fifteen dead and six wounded on the field. The next event was thtj capture of a convoy by the Boers, near Klerksdorp, on February the 25th. In this disaster the British had 50 officers and men killed, 126 wounded, and a number taken prisoners. The following despatch from Lord Kitchener gives the details : March 3. — In a despatch from Pretoria, dated to-day, Lord Kitchener sends details of the disaster to the escort of the convoy of empty waggons at Vondonop, southwest of Klerksdorp, Trans- vaal Colony. The British casualties in killed, wounded and men made prisoners reach the total of 632. In addition, the Boers captured two guns. Lieut-Col. Anderson, who commanded the British force and who has returned to Kraaipan, Cape Colony, with nine officers and 245 men, reports that when his advance guard was within ten ■. ) .; 1 of a Convoy 784 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, ,901 miles of Klerksdorp during the morning of February the 25th. the Capture Boers opened a heavy rifle fire on the troops from the scrub. The burghers were driven off and the convoy resumed its march, when a more deter- mmed attack was made on the convoy's left flank, the Boers ^et- tmg within a hundred yards and stampeding the mules harnessed to a number of waggons. The attackers were again driven off. At about 6.30 in the morning the rear guard was attacked by a strong force of Boers, and simultaneously another body of Boers boldly charged the centre of the convoy and stampeded the mules in all directions, throwing the escort info confusion, during which the Boers charged and recharged, riding down the separated Bri- tish units. " The fighting lasted two hours, during which the two British guns and a pom-pom almost exhausted their ammunition. A de- tachment of two hundred mounted infantry from Klerksdorp attempted to reinforce the British, but were held in check by the Boers. "Lieut.-Colonel Anderson adds that the strength of the Boers was estimated at from 1,200 to 1.700. Commandants Delarey. Kemps, Celliers. Lemmer, Wolmarans and Potgieter were all pre- sent. Commandant Lemmer is said to have been killed." It might be added that not since the disaster at Nootigacht which occurred in December, 1900, had the British sustained so severe a reverse. The total losses on that occasion were 602 But the effect of the Klerksdorp coup was nullified by the destructive results of Kitchener's sweeping drive south of the Vaal. The following is the British Commanders main despatch : "Harrismith, Orange River Colony, Feb. 28th -Yesterday the combined operations of the columns terminated in driving tlie THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, i<^oi 785 Boers against the Harrismith and Van Keenen blockhouse line. The River Wilge was held by the Leinster Regiment and Elliott's Mounted Infantry, from Harrismjth, while the columns formed on the Frankfort and Botha's Pass blockhouse line and advaiiced south, holding the entire country between the Wilge and the Hatal frontier. " On the first night a very severe attempt to break through was made at a point between Rimington's and Byng's columns, and the New Zealanders behaved with great gallantry. The fighting was at close quarters and the Boers, as usual, drove a large herd of cattle in front of them. Manie Botha, the Boer leader, was killed, and 35 dead Boers were found on the ground* Over 100 horses were killed and six thousand head of cattle were left in our hands. Other small Re«"»t« of . , « . . Operations attempts to break out were made, and m two cases succeeded. On the last day four hundred and fifty Boers, with rifles and horses, were captured. " All the columns have not yet reported, and the operations have been very wide. But over six hundred Boers have been either killed or are prisoners in our hands, also 2,000 horses, 28,000 head of cattle, 200 waggons, 60,000 sheep, 600 rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammunition. The prisoners include General Dewet's son and his secretary, Cor mandants Meyer and Truther, and several field cornets. These satisfactory results are very appropriate on the anniversary of Majuba." "A despatch received to-night from Harrismith shows that General Dewet and Mr. Steyn were within the net described by Lord Kitchener, but escaped before the line was completed. To- night's despatch from Harrismith also says that Colonel Rawlin- son scored the biggest success of the drive. He succeeded in ■ ■. « 786 THE GUERILLA WAR IN CAPE COLONY, 190/ completely surrounding a laager of four hundred Boers and gave them one nour in which to decide whether they would surrender or fight. The Boers, finding escape impossible, surrendered at discretion, and not a single shot was fired." But, though the British columns inflicted a defeat on De- larey's forces, yet it was not decisive, for on March the 7th, at Tweebosch, Methuen's troops were badly handled by Delarey, and the General was taken prisoner. Kitchener's detailed account of the battle shows how serious the reverse was. "At daybreak (about 5 a.m.) a heavy fire was opened upon the rearguard, and orders were given for its reinforcement from the front by two guns of the 38th Battery, a pom-pom, Ashbumer's Light Horse, and a detachment of the 5th Imperial Yeomanry. The enemy also showed a disposition to gallop round from the rear and assail the flanks of the column as well. •' At 5.30 a.m. the ox convoy, then about a mile in advance, was ordered to halt, and the escort was disposed round it ready to repel attack ; the mule waggons at this time were rapidly closing up towards the ox convoy. " The Boers upon our right rear flank then developed a heavy attack which caused the sudden retirement and ultimate stampede of the mounted men, most of whom galloped past the left flank of the convoy in complete confusion. The section of the 38th Bat- tery was thus left unprotected, but the detachment gallantly con- tinued to serve the guns until every man, except Lieutenant Nesham, was killed or wounded. This young officer, so Lord Methuen is informed, was then summoned to surrender, and on his refusing to do so was also shot down. " As the mounted screen was driven off" the field the enemy ad- vanced rapidly, intermingled with the fugitives, and pressed home THE GUERILLA WAR, 1902 787 Methuen's Mishap a vigorous and determined attack upon the convoy, the defence of which was maintained for some time by the Infantry, under Lord Methuen himself, supported by the two guns of the 4th Battery. Orders had, in the meantime, been sent for the mounted men to be rallied upon a commanding ridge 2,000 yards away, along the road to Leeuw- kuil, and though few of them could be induced to hold their ground, a party of some 40 men, under Major Paris, established themselves in an isolated kraal about 800 yards from the convoy, from which they endeavored to support the Infantry to the best of their ability. " The defence made by the Infantry and guns lasted until 9 a.m., by which time Lord Methuen had been seriously wounded, and Lieutenant Venning, Royal Artillery, and all the men at the guns shot down. " Further resistance became useless and surrender inevitable. Those in the kraal held out until two guns and a pom-pom ren- dered their position untenable, when they, too, surrendered, hav- ing lost nine of their number killed and wounded in its defence. "The Boer commanders present were Generals Delarey, Kemp, Vermaas, and Celliers, and Commanders Van Zyl, D. Botha, and Lemmer, who apparently had some 1,500 men under their orders. General Delarey treated L ord Methuen with kindness and con- sideration, and on the 13th of March sent him into Klerksdorp for better medical treatment. •• Our casualties in this unfortunate enf^agement were four officers and 64 other ranks killed, and ten officers and one hundred and eleven other ranks wounded, the number of unwounded prisoners remaining in the enemy's hands being 205. What the Boer losses were I am unable to say, but 20 of their number are I ! 788 r/m GUERILLA IVAR, 1902 ( i| 1 \ 1 I r. known to have been killed and they probably had other casualties. " The cause of the reverie is, I am afraid, to be found in the behavior of the bulk of the mounted troops, who offered a very feeble and ineffectual resistance, and then left the infantry and guns to struggle against superior numbers. I do not, however, intend this criticism to apply to the whole of the mounted men.' for several parties held out to the last, notably the one at the kraal, commanded by Major Paris." Kitchener's grinding down process was showing systematic work, and dynamic thoroughness, with which the combined forces swept everything against the blockhouse lines. His report, received March the i8th, showed that during the past week the Boer forces had been reduced by 302 men. It may interest the reader to know the general situation of affairs in South Africa at this stage of the war as given by a cor- respondent of the London Times : " In the Orange River Colony the enemy is split up into small groups, many of the Boers are dismounted and in hiding while because of the defection of Dewet, they are without a prominent leader. " in the Eastern Transvaal, south of the Delagoa Railway line there are still organized commandos, but none over 300 strong! All are continually hustled, and every month Commandant General Botha's influence grows weaker. North of the Delagoa line the Boers are more anxious to lead peaceful lives, and will embrace the first op- portunity to discontinue hostilities without rendering possible a charge of cowardice. "Inthe Western Transvaal."thecorrespondentgoesontosay. the Boers are supplied with guns and ammunition, and have un- General Situa tion in South Africa THE GUERILLA WAR, /902 789 limited transport and a large amoant of stock. Their numbers give them confidence, and the blockhouse system has not been extended sufficiently to alarm them. Because of their general insufficiency the British troops are unable to cope adequately with the Boer forces, all of the burghers in the Western Transvaal being fighting men. The waverers have been captured or have surrendered, and those in the field seem to have no intention of surrendering." On March the 23rd a combined movement was made to cap- ture Delarey, but the Boer chief successfully evaded Lord Kitchener's cordon at the outset. The effect of these operations will be readily seen from Kitchener's account : " At dusk on the evening of March the 23rd the combined movement against Delarey was undertaken by columns of mounted men, without guns or impedimenta of any sort. The columns started from Commando Drift, on the Vaal River, and travelled rapidly all night, and at dawn, March Movement against Delarey the 24th, occupied positions along the line from Commando Drift to the Lichtenburg blockhouse line. The troops moved rapidly eastward, keeping a continuous line, with the object of driving the enemy against the blockhouses or forcing an action. The result has not yet been fully reported. Kekewich's column, after the commencement of the action, captured three fifteen- pounders, two pom-poms, nine prisoners and a hundred mule carts and waggons. General W. Kitchener's column captured 89 prisoners, 45 carts and waggons, and a thousand cattle. The troops covered eighty miles in twenty-four hours. The total number of prisoners is 135," By a series of combined movements carried on simultaneously in the three colonies^ Kitchener had so far reduced the Boer forces •IM: f'Ml 790 THE GUERILLA WAR, 1902 that towards the end of March it became evident to the burghers they could not carry on hostilities much longer. ConsequenUy. Schalkburger opened peace negotiations with Lord Kitchener. One of the most important drives was that conducted on March the 23rd and 24th. against Delarey's commandos, by Colonel Kekewich, Colonel Sir Henry Rawlinson and Gene«J Walter Kitchener. Lord Kitchener's account, which is here given IS full of significance : ' ••A movement upon the Schoonspruit blockhouse line, which had been strengthened for the time being by portions of the Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders, was then commenced, and,asour troops closed m. It was found that a considerable number of Boers were within the encircling cordon. Several parties unfortunately broke through, one of 300 men, who were materially assisted by wearing khak. clothing, escaping between the columns under Colonels Lowe and Keir before the latter could complete their extension in the early hours of the morning. Further to the north, about Leeuw- fontein, Paardeplaats, and Buisfontein. some sharp fighting took place. Here the columns under Colonels Kekewich and Sir H Rawlinson were in touch with a large body of Boers, who at first seemed inclined to risk an effort to break through the blockhouse line towards Lapfontein, and then made off south, eventually escaping under cover of the mist and darkness of the succeeding night. Colonel Kekewich's columns were able to recover three fifteen-pound guns, two pom-poms, and a considerable amount of ammunition which had been lost in the reverses to Colonel Von Donops convoy and Lord Methuen. Eight Bot . were killed and our other captures included 165 prisoners. 71 horses, r,^ cattle, and 103 carts and waggons." (,.1: Soma " DiMnondi In th« Rouvh." 4th ConUngant, Wtllintton, N«w ZMlMd Snd ContingMit. Nmrtawn Cuap, Walltacton. New iMalaaA Um nMal in Ncwwwn Camp, prior to «mbvluiioa for South Africa. ■ ir ( 1 N. S. W. Mounted Influitry mt-jL K^PpeIHIR^''^^ • -**•■ / ■ ^ / * ^^^^^^^^^1^ ^^K ^^B^^^^^^B 1 Shipping HoptM, S.S. "AbardMn.' THE GUERIU.A WAR, i^nj ^yi Towards the end of March New Zealand offered a tenth con- tingent for service in South Africa. Australia, following New Zealand, wished to despatch reinforcements of a.ooo men. Can- ada at the same time offered to recruit and send 2,000 mounted men. This patriotic action on the part of these colonies was gladly accepted. Reference has already been made to the National Scouts. This corps of ex-burghers, acting in conjunction with British troops, captured a Boer leader, Cherry Emmett, Botha's brother- in-law, in the Western Transvaal. The Boer losses at the cap- ture of Emmett's laager were 27 killed and wounded. William.s, a notorious train wrecker, fell into their hands during the recent operations. On the night of March the 31st, a detachment of Second Dragoons Guards, under Lieut.-Colonel Fanshawe, fought a sharp rearguard action near Boschman's Kop. The British, learning that a body of the enemy were hidden in a hollow ^^^^ close at hand, attempted to surround them. Al- Bosc^nan's most immediately, they were received by a very Kop heavy fire, and were compelled to retire. Close fighting then con- tinued for several hours. The heavy firing called up Colonel Lawley and his troops, who drove off the Boers. The British losses were two squadron leaders, jo non-commissioned officers and men killed, and 5 officers and 59 men wounded. The National Scouts also had one man killed and two wounded. The Boer casualties were 1 2 men killed and 40 w(5lm4ed. News of a severe battle with Delarey'Mbrces at Kleinharfs River, on March the 31st, in which the Canadian Mounted Rifles took part, brought sorrow to many Canadian homes. The Daily Telegraph, in its editorial comment upon the engagement, says : hi MKIOCOPV RBOIUTION TBT CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART ^4o. 2) ^ /APPLIED IN/MGE Inc ^F. t6S] East Uoin SIrMi r.i RochMter. Nt> York 14609 US* ■^S (716) «82- 0300 -Phon< S:S (716) 298- 5989 -Fa> I' ii II i: fil' 792 THE CAJERIIJ-A WAR, 1902 Hart's River Battle Above all, the Canadian Rifles, still proving themselves worthy of the renown of Paardeberg, stood their ground with heroic gallantry, one party, under Lieut. Bruce Carruthers, fighting until every single man was either dead or wounded." Others of the forces showed great steadiness, allowing the Boers to advance within two hundred yards of them, and repelling them with a steady rifle fire. The following is a graphic account of the battle as given by an eye-witness : " The engagement took place at Rooival, on the Brakspruit, about 60 miles to the west of Klerksdorp, and resulted in perhaps the most decisive check that the Boer general has met with dur- ing the whole course of his remarkable military career. General Walter Kitchener, who had left Klerksdorp at the head of a body of infantry and mounted troops, reached a camping ground forty miles to the westward on Monday morning, and at 2.30 despatched a mobile column, under the command of Colonel Cookson, to re- connoitre in the direction of Hart's River. The force consisted of about 1,700 men, all mounted on good horses. Colonel Keir was assigned the command of a portion of the column, composed of two 28th Mounted Infantry, the Artillery, Mounted Rifles, and the 2nd Regiment of Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. Under the per- sonal direction of Colonel Cookson were the 2nd Canadian Mounted Infantry, Damant's Horse and the guns that accom- panied the force—namely, two sections of the 7th Battery Royal Field Artillery, and three pom-poms. The supreme command, it should be again stated, was vested in Colonel Cookson. "The expedition, which was not encumbered by unnecessary baggage, covered the ground rapidly, and shortly after daybreak lighted upon the spoor of the enemy's convoy. The trail was THE GUERILl.J WAR, n^oj 793 closd)' followed up, and by about g o'clock the clouds of dust stirred up by the convoy were clearly visible ahead. A report was brought in to the effect that the escort consisted of about 500 Boers. Shortly afterwards the Mounted Infantry, who were mov- ing at the head of the column, were ordered to advance at a gal- lop, and after covering eight miles at a good speed, came in touch with the enemy. They at once dismounted and entered into action. Both sides sustained a few casualties, but the Boers kept the convoy moving on steadily, and succeeded in getting it away over a ridge. The Mounted Infantry were restrained from'l pursuit, as the information had been obtained that a further force of over 2,000 Boers, who had been marching considerably ahead of their convoy, were hastening back to the scene of the fighting. " Colonel Cookson had by this time arrived at the front with the whole of the column. Orders were given for the men to halt and encamp on the Brakspruit, while outposts were thrown out to guard against surprise. A few minutes later, however, a shell from one of the three Boer guns, which had been moved up to a long low rid^e 4,000 yards distant from the camp, dropped into^the midst of cur men. At the same time masses of Boers began to show on all sides, especially on the flanks of our column. " A general engagement ensued. The disposition of ColonH Cookson's force was, roughly, as follows: A mile and a half away from the camp, on the right flank, was a small body of men, com- posed of 24 Canadians and 45 Mounted Infantry. They were posted 500 yards in front of a belt of trees. On the left flank, about 1,000 yards from the camp, stood a farmhouse, which was held by two companies of the Artillery and Mounted Rifles. Along the line of the Brakspruit, in such a position that they could cover Boers on All Sides mm '■I i\ V ! 794 T//E GUERILLA WAR, 7902 the farmhouse, were the remainder of the Artillery Rifles. Next to them came the 28th Mounted Infantry, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, the bulk of the Canadians and Damant's Horse. All the horses that it was possible to safeguard in that way were placed under shelter in depressions in the Spruit. " As in his previous and more successful engagements, De- larey's object was to ' rush ' tne British defence by a coup de main. Shortly after his heavier guns had opened fire on the camp, a pom- pom was trained on our men, who were lying down along the Spruit. Simultaneously, 500 Boers, riding in lines, and in widely extended order, were launched from the ridge, and galloped straight for the farm-house, which was ^undoubtedly the key of our position. The enemy came on at a headlong pace, and did not draw rein until they were within 500 yards of the building. Vol- leys were directed at them from the house and its vicinity, and the Boers halted, and with the reins thrown loosely over their left arms, returned the fire from the saddle. The moment they came to a standstill our guns in that corner of the camp opened fire on them at a range of 1 200 yards. Subjected to this cross shell fire and to the steady volleys from the farm-house, the Boers were compelled, after three or four minutes of a particularly warm time, to wheel about and gallop for cover under the ridge from which they had come. " In the meantime the small band of Canadians and Mounted Infantry on the other flank found themselves opposed to a force seven times their own number. About 600 Boers advanced upon them, under cover of the belt of trees, and charged upon the thin line, calling upon them confidently to surrender. Lieut. Carruthers, of the Canadians, promptly sprang to his feet, and crying, * No surrender ! ' The Brave Canadians it ri THE GUERILLA IVAR, ,902 795 shot down the foremost man with his revolver at a distance of htteen paces. The men were not slow in emulating their gallant leader There was absolutely no cover for them, except the short grass but lying down in it at full length, they fired steadily and straight, and forced the Boers to bolt back to the screen of trees. 1 he enemy, however, were determined to capture or annihilate the ittle band. While some of them climbed into the trees, and, from that position of advantage, fired down on to our men, the others extended their line, and quickly brought the defenders under a aecimatmg cross-fire. '' But every man of the seventy proved himself a hero. For two hours, until all but fifteen of their number had been killed or wounded, they kept the 600 Boers at bay. Tt was not till then that the enemy ventured M make another rush, and suc- ceeded m capturing the handful of survivors. The Canadians had .c men out of 24 killed and wounded, and the Mounted Infantry lost 30 out of 45. Lieut. Carruthers was the only officer who was not either slain or seriously hurt. He had several flesh wounds and his clothes were ^"^^^ ^"^ perforated in many places with bullets, but he ^*" "*' stoutly refused to go to the hospital. When he was taken prisoner some of the Boers wanted to kill him there and then ; but they u^^ .mately thought better of it. saying that he was • too brave \ reoeatedl ' ' V ' "f' ^'"^ °"^ °' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^-^ «hot repeatedly, and most of the wounded were struck more than once Surgeon Hooph. for instance, was hit twice in the wrist, as well as in the heel and the thigh. • t.'«^I'"V''' ^""^ '■*'' K^'"'"* "-'^ ™^" advantage on the nght aank, they found it impossible to n,alce headway IChet The 500 men who had charged down from the ridge at the beg,n. 796 THE GUERII r.A WAR, tgm \±M ning of the action, worked round towards one end of the farm house and made their v/ay into a meilie patch. They, too, ex- tended theii line till it reached slightly to the rear of the farm, and tried to beat down the defence on that side by sheer marksmanship. On the other side a line of at least i,ooo Boers extended round from the belt of the trees almost to that point on the ridge where the enemy's guns were still busy shelling the camp. Our position was by this time practically surrounded. Generals Delarey and Kemp were directing the attack from a slight eminence close by, and were urging on the commandos to renew the charge, but our men were keeping up too active and spirited a defence. One of the pom-poms was brought down by Colonel Kier near to the farm house, and raked the outer shelter of the mealie field, while the guns posted both in the southwestern and northwestern corners of the camp continued to shell the enemy's artillery and to throw shrapnel wherever the Boers ventured to show themselves in any number. '* The practice made by the enemy's gunners had til first been good enough, but by this time their firing had become rather wild and irregular. In order to escape our shells they kept their guns on the move, and, as they were evidently unable to time the fuses aright, their shells fell either short or wide of the objective. By 4 o'clock the attack had been beaten at every point, and began tj fail. Half an hour later Delarey withdrew, carrying with him such of his killed and wounded as he could manage to get away. The official statement of the Boer losses is 123, but those of our wounded, whO; as they lay on the field had the opportunity to note the extent of their casualties, place them without hesitation at between 250 and 300." Boers Beaten Back THE GUERILLA WAR, 1902 797 Lieut.-Colonel Evans reports as follows : *' 3i8t March.— The 1st and and columns marched at 3 a.m., carrying two days' rations and one blanket pir man. The right wing marched with main body, and the left, under Major Canicron, acted as escort to the baggage convoy. The object of the march was a reconnaissance in foice to the junction of Brakspruit and Hart River. The remainder of the division was to follow a few hours later, and to go into camp within reasonable distance of the above point. At about 10 a.m., Lieut. Callaghan and two scouts were sent to the right to look for tracks of the enemy. He struck their trail to the west of ^lorth from the direction in which we were going. He sent word back that he was on the trail of about 500 men and two guns, who could only be a few miles ahead. The column at once changed direction, and a few minutes later the enemy was sighted. I was ordered to hold the right wing back until Major Cameron came up with the convoy, which was to be brought forward as quickly as possible. The remainder of the column galloped forward. When the advanced party, composed of about 60 men, reached Lieut. Callaghan, they galloped up to get the guns. When this narty had gone about three miles they were opened on by a strorj? Boer rear guard concealed in the bush about a farm house and clumps of bush to the right and left. The advanced party at once dismounted and opened fire, being largely outnumbered. Within five minutes this party had two men killed and nine wounded, and 15 horses killed. The main column then came in sight and the Boers' rear guard retired. The Boers' main body, when the main column galloped into view, showed up in great force, the lowest estimate being 2,500, and retired slowly towards the high ridges. They appeared to be contemplating an immediate attack on the portion of the column in view. About < V ^H~™f~B" 798 THE GUERriJ^A WAR, 1902 } !■ f; \ ! I. 1; this time, however, the convoy appeared in sight, and, as the wag- gons were moving across country in line, instead of in column on the road, its appearance with the right wing C.M.R. in advance and the left wing surrounding it, gave the effect of a very large additional body of troops, and I believe this, to some extent, de- ceived the enemy, as the convoy was enveloped in a cloud of dust, and its exact component parts were difHcult to distinguish. On arrival at Boschbult Farm our force went into camp, had the waggons laagered, wired together, and we commenced entrench- ing. The enemy outnumbered us by at least 500. A post of Mounted Infantry, about 200, with a Colt gun, Maxim and Pom- Pom, were left at the farm, about 600 yards in our rear. Lieut. Carruthers, with the 3rd and 4th troops, * E ' Squadron, who formed the rear guard of convoy, instead of following the convoy into camp, remained near the post referred to, as an observation post, and sent into camp for orders. The enemy, now realizing our inferior strength, prepared to attack, and their two guns and pom-poms opened on the camp. From 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. the camp was subjected to a tremendous rifle and shell fire, concen- trated from three sides, but every attempt to approach was driven back by the steady and wehdirected lire of our rifles and guns. At about 5 p.m. the enemy withdrew. Their artillery fire, though well directed, inflicted comparatively little damage, as few of their shells exploded. Their guns were those taken from Methuen's column. The concentration of the rifle fire was very severe, and to this the casualties were chiefly due. While the camp was being attacked Lieut. Carruthers' party (about 21 men of 3rd and 4th troops, ' R ' Squadron) had moved off" to the right of the farm. Sergt. Hodgins, with another party of the 3rd and 4th troops, ' E ' Squadron, was to the right of Lieut. Carruthers. nrE GUERILLA WAR, ignj 7^ Still further to the right was a detached post of about 75 Mounted Infantry. Several hundred Boers swept down on this post on the right, stampeding the Mounted Infantry, who galloped through the line occupied by our men. Lieut. Carruthers. assisted by Sergt. Perry. Corporal Wilkinson, Lance-Corporal Bond and Private McCall, kept his men in hand, dismounted them, and formed in a half-moon shape to face the Boers. Sergt. Hodgins, whose men were being swept off in the stampede, rallied about ten of them and dismounted to meet the attack. The splendid stand made by Lieut. Carruthers' party, without cover of any kind and against overwhelming odds, was well worthy of the best traditions of Canada and the whole Empire. Before their ammuni- tion was exhausted 17 out of the 21 wereeither killed or wounded. Gergt. Perry, although badly wounded, fought until he was killed. Corporal Wilkinson, shot twice through the arm and body, con- tmued fighting until he was shot through the eye. He then threw the bolt of his rifle into the long grass to render it useless to the enemy. Private Evans, although mortally wounded through the bowels, exhausted his own ammunition, secured another bandolier, used it up. and as the Boers were making their final rush, he broke his rifle, rendering it useless. Private Evans died shortly after being brought into camp. Private Minchin, although wounded in SIX places, fired his last shot when the Boers were only 25 yards off, and threw his rifle bolt into the grass. * * • » "I have mentioned a few individual incidents showing the spirit displayed by this party, but an equal invincible courage and devotion to duty was displayed by Lieut. Carruthers and every man of the party with him. " The coolness and steadiness of the whole regiment in its first action was very remarkable, and the effect of the leavening of H<)f) THE (.trURllJ.A WAR, n^m (I ; tried men— alx>ut 25 per cent.— was plainly visible. Our total casualties were about 9 per cent, of our strength. The main attack of the enemy was first against the rear of the camp. Here the banks of the Spruit gave fair cover, and as the attack quickly enveloped the three exposed sides, it partly concentrated on the front, which offered no cover except the waggons. The trenches had only been commenced and were too shallow to afford cover. While under heavy fire, trip wires were put down in event of a rush, and all ranks acted with absolute coolness. As the rifle fire from the front, if too high, would strike the rear firing line, and vice versa, and the fire from the left infiladed the whole camp, the casualties both in men and horses were fairly numerous, but con- sidering the strength of the enemy and concentration of his fire, the total losses in the column were very small. As my regiment occupied several very exposed points on the line, its losses were rather heavier in proportion than those of the other troops en- gaged. " The total number of losses in the regiment for the day, dur- ing the engagement, were : " Killed— % N.C, officers and me.i. - " M'^ounded—^ officers, 39 N.C. officers and men. ''Missing— J N.C. officers and men. " Horses— Killed, destroyed, and lost, 1 ?i. " A/iilcs — Killed or destroyed, 22. " The work of tha Regimental Medical Staff and detachments of the 1 oth Canadian Field Hospital, now attached, deserves spe- cial mention. Surgeon-Major Devine was Acting Principal Medi- cal Officer for the two columns, and the ambulances were situated toward the rear and about the centre of the two columns. In all, 200 casualties occurred in our force, and the wounded were dressed Till-: (;(r/:A>/u.,i ti:ih\ „j„j ix- and attended to under as severe a rifle fire and a heavier shell fire than any other portion of the camp was exposed to. One patient \'M killed while his wound was being dressed, and several others re '.eived flesh wounds. At least 20 shells fell within a radius of ten yards of the ambulances, and four of the mules of the Cana- dian Section were killed. Had the shells exploded the Field Hospital would have been blown out of existence. The work of Surgeon-Major Devine, Surgeon-Major Duff and Lieut. Roberts, and the excellent control and arrangement of the Field Hospital work for the two columns by Surgeon-Major Devine was specially noticed by the Officer Commanding Column. • From my personal obseration I know that, without food since 2 a.m., our Canadian Medical Officers worked continuously from 2 p.m. until midnight, after which hour they came, one at a time, to the regimental mess for a piece of biscuit, meat and a cup of tea, and then worked on through the rain during the whole night. "After the enemy retired the whole force proceeded to dig trenches, stretch wire trip lines and prepare for a night attack. After darkness set in, a party consisting of one Intelligence Officer one Intelligence man and Sergeant Lee, of ' A ' Squadron, tried to get through to General Kitchener's column, but ran into a large party of the enemy. Sergeant Lee's horse was shot and the party returned to camp. The Intelligence man was shot by our own troops in trying to get back to camp. The enemy made no attempt to renew th^ attack through the night nor the following mornmg. Their losses, given by one of their surgeons, was about 230, and their ambulances were at work through the whole night nnd when we marched out the following- dav. n i t , ■ Boa ////:• (irilNII.IA WAR, tgoa v^ " April i8t.— At II a.m., in a heavy downpour of rain, I read the burial service over our gallant dead. We buried them at a well-defined spot in the garden of Doschbult Farm, just by the Hartefontein Road. Small crosses were placed at the head of each grave, and a rough carved tombstone inscribed ' To the memory of the Canadian Mounted Rifles who fell in action here on the 3i3t March,' surmounted by a maple leaf, was placed in the centre of the plot. At the foot of the stone a bottle enclosed a list of the dead and their position in the grave was placed. The situation of the graves is shown in the sketch herewith. •• About 12.30 p.m. the mounted men remaining with General Kitchener's Division appeared in sight, and as the enemy had ap- parently withdrawn through the night, the affair was over. A peculiar circumstance in this engagement was that the party of Mounted Infantry, referred to as stampeding, made its way to Drieknil, where General Kitchener had made his camp, a distance of twenty miles, and reported to him that our column had been cut up and captured. This report was given considerable cre- dence, although not absolutely believed. "The loss of so many of our best men is generally deplored by myself and the whole regiment, and the courage shown by them will always live in the memory of the regiment. The example shown by the wounded when brought into hospital is also worthy of special mention. The cheerful patience during a jour- ney of twenty miles in the pouring rain, or while waiting in a Boer farmhouse in the Boer lines occupied as a hospital — the women of which were not any too friendly— and with the younger Boers endeavoring to secure portions of their clothing, etc., being only prevented by the old burghers, deserves the highest praise. Both in fighting and suffering they showed equal pluck and spirit. THE c;i!i:riu.a ir,th\ i^nj 803 " The force we bad come in contact with included > llower of the Boer army, the following leaders being present with their commandos: Delarey. Dewet, Kemp, Van Zyl, Potgeiton, Wol- morans, Maas, De Villiers, Liebcnbcrg, and also Mr. Steyn. From information received they cxi)ected to have been in possession of our camp by 5 p.m.. and their heavy loss apparently deterred them from making a further attempt. Had they made a night attack the camp was in every way prepared to meet and repel it. "The available ambulances, including a number of the Cana- dian regimental light waggons, left for Kitchener's campat 1 2 noon, and the column marched for the same destination at 3 p.m. Four troops, under Lieut. Kirkpatrick, with an ambulance, were sent out to search the woods to our left for wounded, but only found a couple of dying Boers, who were left at the first farm-house. " The column marched across country, and within eight miles of camp our waggons stuck fast, being short of mules. I sent back a party of men and had a few of our light waggons pulled up to the regiment. Orders were received to halt at 8 p.m. for the night and stand by the horses till daybreak. The men and horses were very tired, having had only about ten hours' sleep during the pre- vious four nights, and the rain poured down. At the regimental mess waggon we built a fire and provided tea. cold meat and hard- tack for General Kitchener and his staff, and Colonel Cooksonand his staff, and all the officers of No. i column. We also gave them breakfast in the morning. As the men carried their rations on them, they were independent of the waggons. " Lieutenant Bruce Carruthers, 2nd C.M.K., was in com- mand of rear guard of convoy. Remained in rear of camp as ob- servation post. His troop, which was extended, was enveloped by a large body of the enemy. He rallied and dismounted his 8o4 GOOD WORK OF CANADIAN SCOUTS troop (composed of about 21 men) and they fought to a finish agrini^t large odds, their total casualties being 3 killed, 12 wounded and 3 missing. The latter are supposed to be dead. " Private C. N. Evans, No. 175, 2ndC.M.R. (died of wounds). Exhausted his own ammunition after he was mortally wounded ; secured another bandolier and used it up ; then broke his rifle so that it would be of no use to the enemy, and died after he was brought into camp. Was of Lieut. Carruthers' party." This body of troops, although called the Canadian Scouts, were not all Canadians, there being a few Australians, Americans, South Africans, and a number of loyal burghers. They had as their leader an old, experienced scout, Mnjor Charlie Ross. As the war continued, the scouting corps found more scope to dis- tinguish themselves, and they mostly worked quite independently of the main columns. A few instances in which the Canadian Scouts rendered ex- cellent service are worthy of record. In the month of July, 1901, they took an active part in the movements under General Barton, near Reitfontein, capturing 30 Boers and about 1,000 head of cattle. On the ist of July a hot engagement was fought with Kemp's commando. The C.S., with one company of Mounted Infantry and one company of Imperial Yeomanry, drove them off. Major Ross had a narrow escape of being captured, but being a crack shot on a gal- loping horse, he succeeded in getting back to the main body. In the month of October, 1901, this corps took the chief part in the operations to the north-east of Pretoria. While scouting, an ad- vance guard, with a 1 5-pounder and a Colt gun, suddenly came upon a hidden Boer force which was waiting to ambuscade the British. Immediately, Sergeant Sellwood, of the Canadians, with Escape of Major Ross GOOD WORK OF CANADIAN SCOUTS 805 a Colt gun swept the firing line of the Boers, and forced them to retreat with heavy losses. On a subsequent occasion the Canadians, who were in the vanguard of a column, rushed the burghers at dawn, the result being ]; Boers killed or wounded, and 54 taken prisoners. Before the outbreak of the war the Boers had established a supply station. A pamphle published at the time indicated its hiding-place. This magazine was discovered about the ist of March by the Canadian Scouts, commanded by Colonel Ross, in a cave northeastward of Keitz ^'S'^^'^'y of O.R.C., and contained 310,000 rounds of ammu- ^^^^^f^^^^^^ nition, hundreds of shells and fuses, 200 pounds of powder, a Maxim gun, and a quantity of stores. The discovery of this magazme was very important, as it was to this district Dewet's burghers were constantly returning for fresh supplies of ammuni- tion. Notwithstanding that peace rumors were in the air, sweeping drives still continued, resulting in heavy Boer losses. In the second week of April there was severe fighting in the Transvaal in which about 200 Boers were killed, wounded, or captured.' Among the Boer leaders killed was Commandant Poit"ieter In the Eastern Transvaal, Colonel Colebrander, after locating a Boer laager at Pzel Kop. moved his force along different routes in order to block all the lines of retreat. Fighting began April the 8th. The Inniskilhng Fusiliers attacked Molipspoort, covering the enemy's position, and by night had seized the hill eastward of the Poort, resulting in slight losses to the British. The fighting still continued, with heavy Boer casualties. In the Western Transvaal Colonel Kekewich's force was attacked near Rooivaal. In the action that followed the Boers were repulsed, leaving on the field i\ it 8o6 GOOD WORK OF CANADIAN SCOUTS 44 men killed, and 34 wounded. Twenty of the wounded fell into the hands of the British. A reverse occurred in O.R.C. A strong British patrol was overwhelmed by a force of Boers. An officer and two men were killed, 14 wounded, while the remainder were captured. The 30th day of April was marked by the capture of Manie Botha, near Frankfort, O.R.C, by Colonel Barker's troops. This was regarded as important, as Botha was Dewet's ablest lieutenant. With the beginning of May — the last month of the war and peace terms still under discussion — Kitchener was able to report the result of a successful drive in the Lindley district, O.R.C. In these operations 208 Boers had been captured and ten burghers killed. The prisoners belonged to the most irreconcilable of Boers in O.R.C. An examination of Kitchener's report, received May the 13th, showed that the Boers were fast losing ground. Boers Fast Losing Ground During the past week their forces had been re- duced by 836 men, and General Bruce Hamilton, after sweeping the Lichtenburg district of the Southwestern Trans- vaal, bagged 357 prisoners, and practically all the waggons and stock of the commandos. In consequence of these drives Delarey had lost 860 men. Kitchener granted safe conduct to the Boer leaders and their immediate followers to the Vereenging conference, but he did not cease operations in any quarter. The British columns kept pushing the work more vigorously, and as a result, gathered in 400 prisoners, including Delarey's brother and several other commandants. 400 Prisoners Taken f I 'I I GOOD WORK OF CANADIAN SCOUTS 807 On a preceding page reference has been made to martial bw being proclaimed in Cape Colony. According to the blue book record up to December 31st, 1901, fifty-four rebels paid the death penalty. In the Middleburg district, Transvaal. Major Collett, on May the 27th, with a detachment of mounted troops, came in touch with the enemy on the Repont Road. The action which followed lasted a long time ; the Boers finally withdrew, leaving behind them, on the field. Commandant Malan, who was mortally wounded. The next report said that 2CX) Boers had surrendered at Frankfort, in the Orange River Colony. On May the 31st, at 11 p.m., the welcome tidings reached the War Office announcing that peace had been declared in South Africa, and thus the long struggle which had lasted iiyi months came to a close. Peace Declared % CHAPTER XXXI. I. Peace Comes to South Africa After Terrible Cost. Tabulated statement showing approximately the respective losses of the general divisions of the Empire : Killed and Died of Total Wounded. Died of Disease and Killed and Wounds. Accidents Wounded. South Africa 3,402 1,395 1.796 4,797 Australia 654 286 280 940 New Zealand 201 76 106 277 Canada 285 92 gi 377 India and Otlier Colonies. 1897 27 Wales 512 161 375 673 Ireland 2,045 679 794 2,724 Scotland 2,434 824 go8 3»258 Engliuul io,oG6 3.215 6,468 13,281 Total U.K. and Colonies.. 19,617 (>>737 10,805 26,354 Imperial Yeomanry 1,612 648 1.037 2,260 Artillery, Engineers and Departmental Corps, and Other Units 1,113 363 1,961 1,476 Total Loises 22,342 7,748 13,803 30,090 The Victoria Cross has been gained by every division of the Empire except Wales and New Zealand. England claims 29, South Africa 10, Scotland 9, Australia 4, Ireland 2, Canada 4, and India one. 80S PEACE COMES TO SOUTH AFRICA 809 Prisonem at Ceylon. St. Helena, Bermnda and Cape . . ^„ ^ Cost m money to Great Britain (estimate). . . .^ " /fL^scoSZ Territory gained by Great Britain . . ,«, .., „ ' 350,000 STAGES OF THE WAR. (a; Relief of British garrisons . . . n^f«K», .0 w Kimberley .... -October 1899-May. 1900 Udysmith . . . ?" 1*^:1 ^J^J^^'y '5. .900 Mafeking ... *"''";^. ^t^^-^f ^^ ^»- '9oo (b) Lord Roberts' march to Pretoria Febna^ r!;^^^ '^' '^ (c) Guerilla war and blockhouse campaign, under ^' '°^-^""' '' '^ Lord Kitchener November. 1900-June 5. 1902 HBHORABLH INCIDENTS. British "black week" disasters at Stormberg, Magersfon- tein and Colenso jj^ Sir Redvers BuUer superseded by Lord Roberts "as'comman- ' "^'^' '^^^ Spton Kop'^^' ""''^ ^'^ ^'**'^^""' "*^^^^°f «t^ff Dec. 18, 1899 Cro„jes«rrenderstoRoberteatPaardeberg,with4.ooomen ^""Feb.'^"; x^ Bloemfontein occupied . • ■«/, lyoo CSeneralJoubertdies . . ! '. „ ^^^''^^ '^' '^oo - ^. -^ March 27, lo, iqoo Annexation of Orange Free State proclaimed Mav 28 laS Pretoria occupied May 28. 1900 Annexation of the Transvaal. 0^.°^^'^^°° SurrenderofPrinsloowith 3.000 Boers' .' ." .' .' " Tulv !o' i'^ President Kmger flies from the Transvaal. ... Sent i?' !^ Lord Roberts sails for home . *' °^- "- '900 De Wet's raid in Cape Colony rw „^tV„'' '^ TT ,• . . . ■Uec. aaa Jan., iqoi Unsuccessful negotiations for peace Feb i Botha's unsuccessful raid on Zululand Sept '^°° Kitchener's big drives of De Wet and Delarey. ." ." .' .' .' Feb. and Mch', i'^2 Delarey s capture of General Lord Methuen March x 1002 Peace negociations begun . . xt t. rv ii- r >. ., T,, 7^6"" March 23. 1902 Death of Cecil Rhodes ... m u < „ ^ . , March 26. 1002 Peace terms signed at Pretoria May 31, ,902 _ .^. ^ CHIEF OFFICERS IN THE WAR. iintisb — Sir Redvers Buller, succeeded as Commander-in-Chief by Karl Roberts, British Commander-in-Chief who in 1900 handed over com- mand to \\\ 1 Pi- i 810 PEACE COMES TO SOUTH AFRICA Lord Kitchener of Khatoum. Commander-in-Chief in South Africa. Sir George White, former Commander-in-Chief in India ; defender of Lady- smitli. Generals Sir John D. P. French, Kelly-Kenny, Sir Archibald Hunter, Neville, Lyttleton, Sir Charles Tucker, Sir H. Rundle, Sir W. Gat- acre, Sir Charles Warren, Sir H. Hildyard, Walter Kitchener, Hart, Bruce Hamilton, Ian Hamilton, Baden-Powell, Clements, Sir W. Knox, Sir J. G- Maxwell, and Kekewich. Boers — General Joubert, succeHGeneral Botha, assisted by General Delarey and Chief Commandant Dewet. Second — All burghers outside the limits of the Transvaal and Orange River CoK ny, and all prisoners of war at present outside South Africa, who are burghers, will, on duly declaring their acceptance of the position of subjects of his Majesty, be brought back to their homes as soon as means of transportation can be provided and means of subsistence assured. Third — The burghers so returning will not be deprived of their personal liberty or property. Fourth — No proceedings, civil or criminal, will be taken against any burghers surrendering or so returning for any act in connection with the prosecution of the war. The benefits of this clause do not extend to certain acts, con- trary to the usages of war, which had been notified by the Com- mander-in-Chief to the Boer Generals, and which shall be tried by court-martial after the close of hostilities. Fifth — The Dutch language will be taught in the public schools of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, where the parents desire it, and will be allowed in the courts of law for the better and more effectual administration of justice. Sixth — Possession of rifles will be allowed in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony to persons requiring them for their pro- tection, on taking out a license according to law. Seventh— The military administration of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony will, at the earliest possible date, be sue- ceeded by a civil government, and, so soon as circumstances per- mit, representative institutions leading up to self-government will be introduced. PEACE Ci AfE< TO SOUTH AFRICA «I3 Eighth— The question of sjranting the franchise to natives will not be decided until after the introduction of self-government. Ninth— No special tax will be imposed on landed property in the Transvaal or Orange River Colony to defray the expenses of the war. Tenth— So soon at the conditions permit it, a commission on which the local inhabitants will be repr^isented will be appointed in each district of the Transvaal and ( ange River Colony under the Presidency of a Magistrate or other official for the purpose of assisting in the restoration of the people to their homes, and sup- plying those who, owing to .>rar losses, are unable to provide for themselves wiih food and shelter and the necessary amount of seed, stock and implements, etc., indispensable to the resumption of the former occupants. His Majesty's Government will place at the disposal of these commissions the sum of three million pounds sterling ($15,000,000) and will allow all the notes issued under the law of 1900 of the South African Republic and all receipts given up to officers in the field of the late republic, or under their orders, to be presented to a judicial commission, which will be appointed by the Govern- ment, and if such notes and receipts are found by this commission to have been duly issued in return for valuable considerations they will be received by the first-named commissions as evidence of war losses suffered by the persons to which they were originally given. In addition to the above-named free grant of three million pounds sterling, his Majesty's Government will be prepared to make advances on loan for the same purposes free of interest for two years and afterwards, repayable over a period of years, with 3 814 PRACK COMKS TO SOirTIf AFRICA \i I- pe- cent, interest. No foreigner or rebel will be entitled to bene- fit under thii clanie. After handing the Boer delegates a copy of the draft of the agreement, Lord Kitchener read them a statement and gave them a copy of it, as follows: " His Majesty's Government must place on record that the treatment of the Cape and Natal colonists who have been in re- bellion, and who now surrender, will, if they return to their col- onics, be determined by the Colonial Courts and in accordance with the laws of the colonies, and any British eubjects who have joined the enemy will be liable to trial under the law of that part of the British Empire to which they belong. "His Majesty's Government are informed by the Cape Gov- ernment that their views regarding the terms to be granted to British subjects in Cape Colony now in the field, or who have surrendered, or been captured since April 12, 1901, areas follows : " • With regard to the rank and file, they should all, after surrender and giving up their arms, sign a document before the resident Magistrate of the district in which they surrender, acknowledging themselves guilty of high treason, and the punish- ment to be accorded them, provided they are not guilty of mur- der or acts contrary to the usages of civilized warfare, shall be that they are not entitled for life to be registered as voters, or vote in any Pariiamentary or Provincial Council or municipal election. •"With reference to Justices of the Peace, field cornets and all others who held official positions under the Government of Cape Colony, or who have been occupying a position of authority, or who have held commands in the rebel or burgher forces, they shall be tried for high treason before the ordinary courts of the country, or such special courts as may hereafter be constituted. Till-: HOEKS srkNENDllR »I5 their punishment to be left to the discretion of such court, with the proviso that in no case shall the penalty of death be inflicted. •• • The Natal Government are of the opinion that the rebels should be dealt with according to the law of that colony.' " The foregoing arrangements the Government approved. At the concentration camp General Dewct addressed the people. Speaking first to the women, he heartily thanked them for the staunch support they had given to the Uoer cause throughout the war, both on the veldt and in camp. Had the women, he said, not been so staunch, the burghers would have been obliged to give in long ago. He did not wish to belong to a nation whose women were not staunch, but while on the veldt he had heard from all the camps of their determined solidarity, and that had encouraged the burghers immensely. Even if all the burghers in the field bad been kl'ed in the course of the war it would have been the du*? of the women to bring up their children to bo an haroj r>s the burghers Under a New he had brought in that day. They were now ^""''*""«"' under a new Government— only now and never before— and that was the British Government, and he had to explain to them that it was the thoroughly lawful Government to-day. •• I say," he continued, " that our Government is the British Government, and I am now under that Government, as I fought till there was no more hope. However bitter : was, it was time to lay down our arms, and I advise you to be taithful to our new Government. Perhaps it is hard for you to hear from my mouth the announcement that we have a new Government, but God has decided thus, and we were obliged to part with our cause, which we had upheld for two years and eight months. As a Christian people God now den ...ds us to be faithful to our new Govern- if 1 I 8i6 THE liOERS SURRENDER Arrangements for Surrenders ment. I heartily thank my sisters for their allegiance and faith in our cause. Let us submit to God's decision over myself and my people, and I beg you to serve our new Government faithfully with myself and burghers." The ceremony connected with these surrenders has now be- come stereotyped. The places where the commandos are to sur- render are arranged beforehand by the respective leaders, the spots chosen being always some little distance from the towns to which the commandos belong. Louis Botha, who has accom- panied General Bruce Hamilton throughout this tour, joins the commando two or three hours ahead of the General in order to address the burghers and superintend the compilation by their officers of the lists of names. Innumerable questions are put to Botha relative to sur- render, and when all are finally answered the proceedings usually terminate with tlie singing of a hymn and an address from the chaplain. On reaching the commando, General Bruce Hamilton makes a brief and appropriate speech, which has always elicited the warmest expressions of approval. The burghers then file past, depositing their rifles and ammunition on the ground, and at once proceed to partake of a meal which has, in the meantime, been prepared. The officers receive licenses to retain their private rifles and bandoliers. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the manner in which all the burghers have behaved at these surrenders. The good-will shown on both sides augurs well for the future. With few excep- tions the commandos have manifestly realized the momentousness of the occasion. Some tears have been shed when rifle and ban- dolier have been left on the ground, but there has been no mur- muring and no hesitation, and before many moments have elapsed THE BOERS SURRENDER 817 the bitterness of surrender seems forgotten in the anxiety of each burgher for information which will help him to decide as to his immediate movements. His first question invariably is whether he can join his family at once in the concentration camps or bring them back to his farm. The grant of ten days' provision and tents for each family is fully appreciated, but it is doubtful whe- ther the burghers realize the arduousness of the task of immedi- ately transferring several thousands of people to difficult parts of the country. One can only hope that the officers and officials in the various towns, stations, and camps, who will be inundated for some time to come with urgent applications from burghers and their families, will possess themselves with unlimited patience and adopt a lenient attitude towards this simple-minded folk, in whose philosophy red tape is a thing undreamed of. Considerate treat- ment meted out to the burghers now on the^first occasion of their ccn-.ing into contact with British authorities would go a long way towards securing a peaceful and contented population hereafter, while the mannerisms of some officious subordinates might lay the foundation for years of disaffection. The individual labors of Louis Botha in preparing the Boers for inevitable delay in rejoining their families and returning to their farms will tend to smooth matters in the Eastern Transvaal. The Commandant-General has been indefatigable in his efforts to make the surrenders complete and to ensure their being carried out with the most absolute loyalty. Addressing the burghers in Dutch at the conclusion of each surrender, he has impressed upon them the necessity of bringing in at once all arms and ammuni- tion buried by themselves or known to have been buried by others, and exhorted them, assisted by the patient demeanor of the Bri' tish authorities, to work in restoring the prosperity of the country. 8i8 THE BOERS SURRENDER A Distinct Surprise Two guns which are in the possession of the Boers remain buried between Carolina and Ermelo. Botha has given instructions to dig them up and hand them over. Judging from the appearance of the bandoliers given up by the Boers, the supply of ammunition had reached a low ebb. Botha's testimony does not confirm the reports that the Boers had large quantities buri'^'' The last issue of ammunition took place when the Boer Govt., ent was at Machadodorp. The iiorses, too, in this part of the country were much exhausted. The numbers of Boers still in the field come as a distinct sur- prise, but one must remember that the figures include boys from 12 to 16 and old men between 60 and 80. They possessed a rifle, it is true, but they were recog- nized by the Boers themselves as non-combatants. The strength of the Boer commandos when surrendering could never have been attained for the purpose of fighting, and possibly our estimates of their numbers were not far wrong. The total number of surrenders were 18,400. Four hundred leading citizens of Johannesburg entertained Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner at a banquet in Johannesburg on the evening of June i8th, 1902, in honor of the former's con- clusion of his work and of the civic head of the new State. The toast of Lord Kitchener's health referred to him as the man who had won the freedom of the new State. The citizens' speeches expressed the universal South African feeling of admiration for the courage and steadfastness of the Commander- in-Chief and his men. Only those who knew the nature of the country and the quality of their former enemies could understand the stupendous nature of the task. The Empire was never THE BOERS SURRENDER 819 stronger than in the war from which they had emerged, and they now welcomed their opponents as friends and fellow-citizens. Lord Kitchener, in reply, said the Army had done its best to do its duty. He praised Johannesburg and the part its men had played in the \«ar. He refer ♦•d to the locally-raised regiments, and in the name of the Regulars, both officers and men, expressed admiration for these gallant troops. All had learned from the war. The Johannesburgers, who stood staunch in danger and held what they gained, had tasted the salt of life, and its savor would never leave them. They should keep horse and rifle ready and their bodies physically fit, and settle down to work for the Empire. Their opponents had shown the abilities and tenacity of purpose of the virile races, and they should be welcomed into the Empire. The chief lesson of the war was the knowledge that all Britons would fight shoulder to shoulder. Those who helped them now knew that they in South Africa and elsewhere would help their countrymen '^ needed. Lord Kitchener's speech was received with enthusiasm. 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Sketches of Important Events, Including the Battle of Magersfontein. •• During the night of December the loth, 1900, it was con- sidered expedient that the Highland Brigade, nearly 4,000 strong, under General Wauchope, should get in close embrace to the lines of the foe, to make it possible to charge the heights. At 12 p.m. the gallant but ill-fated men moved cautiously through the dark- ness toward the kopjes, where the Boers were most strongly en- trenched. They were led by a guide, who was supposed to know every inch of the country, out into the darkness of an African night. " So onward till 3 a.m., then out of the darkness a rifle rang sharp and clear, a herald of disaster. A soldier had tripped in the dark over the hidden wires laid down by the enemy. In a second, in the twinkling of an eye, the searchlights of the Boers fell abroad, and clear as the noonday sun on the ranks of the doomed Highlanders, though it left the enemy concealed in the shadows of the frowning mass of hills behind them. For one brief moment the Scots seemed paralyzed by the suddenness of their discovery, for they knew that they were huddled together like sheep within 50 yards of the trenches of the foe. Then clear above the confusion rolled the voice of the General, ' Steady, men, steady,' and like an echo to the vet- A Herald of Disaster 822 liATTLE OF AfAGEKSFONTEIN ii \ i - Sang the Song of Death eran's voice came the crash of nearly 1,000 rifles, not fifty paces from them. The Highlanders reeled before the shock like trees before the tempest. Their best, their bravest, fell in that wild hail of lead. General Wauchope was down, riddled with bullets ; yet, gasping, dying, bleeding from every vein, the Highland chief cheered his men forward. Men and officers fell in a heap to- gether. " The Black Watch charged, and the Seaforths and the Gor- dons, with a yell that stirred the British camp below, rushed onward to death or disaster. The accursed wires caught them round the legs till they floundered like trapped wolves, and all the time the rifles of the foes sang the song of death in their ears. Then they fell back, broken and beaten, leaving nearly a thousand dead and wounded, just where the broad breast of the grass veldt melts Into the embrace of the rugged African hills ; and an hour luter the dawning came of the dreariest day that Scotland has known for generations past. Of her officers, the flower of her chivalry, the pride of her breed, but few remained to tell the tale, a sad tale truly, but untainted with dishonor or smirched with disgrace, for up those heights under similar circumstances even a brigade of devils could scarcely have hoped to pass. All that mortal man could do, the Scots did; they tried, they failed, they fell, and there is nothing left us now but to mourn them and avenge them. " In vain, all that day, Methuen tried by every rule he knew to draw the enemy ; vainly the Lancers rode recklessly to induce those human rock limpets to come out and cut them off". Cronje knew the mettle of our men, and an ironic laugh played round his iron mouth, and still he stayed within his native fastness ; but death was ever at Boer Trenches Ran Bloody I Sergeant Richardson, V.C., Strathcona Horse. mil BURIAL OF GENERAL WAUL I/OP/-: «35 A Long Shallow Grave his elbow, for our guns dropped lyddite shells and the howling shrapnel all along his lines, till the trenches ran bloody and many of his guns were silenced. •* When, at 1.30 p.m. Tuesday, we drew off to Modder Uiver to recuperate, we left 3,000 dead and wounded of grim old Cronje's men, as a token that the lion of England had bared his arm in earnest." •• Three hundred yards to the rear of the little township of Modder River, just as the sun was sinking in a blaze of African splendor on the evening of Tuesday, the 12th of December, 1900, a long shallow grave lay exposed in the breadth of the veldt. To the westward the broad river, fringed with trees, ran murmuringly ; to the east- ward frowned the heights still held by the enemy scowling men- acingly ; north and south the veldt undulated peacefully. A few paces to the northwest of that grave fifty dead Highlanders l-^y dressed, as they had fallen on the field of battle; they had fol- lowed their chief to the field, and they were to foUow him to the grave. How grim and stern those men looked, as they lay face upward to the sky, with great hands clenched in the last agony, and brows still knit with the stern lust of the strife in which they had fallen. The plaids, dear to every Highland clan, were repre- sented there, and, as I looked, out of the distance came the sound of pipes. It was the General coming to join his men. There, right under the eyes of the enemy, moved with slow and solemn tread all that remained of the Highland Brigade. In front of them walked the chaplain, with bared head, dressed in his robes of office. Then came the pipers with their pipes, sixteen in all, and behind, with arms reversed, moved the Highlanders, dressed in all the regalia of their regiments, and in the midst the dead General, 826 IH'KIAI. OF (iENERAl. WAUCHOPE i I The Flowers of the Forest borne by four of his comrades. Out swelled the pipes to the strain of * The Flowers of the Forest,' now ring- ing proud and high until the soldiers' heads went back ill haughty defiance and eyes flashed through tears, like sunlight on steel, now sinking to moaning wail like a woman mourning for her first-born, until the proud heads dropped forward till they rested on heaving chests, and tears rolled down the wan and scarred faces, and the choking sobs broke through the solemn rhythm of the march of death. Right up to the grave they marched, then broke away in companies, until the General lay in his shallow grave, with a Scottish square of armed men around him. Only the dead man's son and a small remnant stood with the chaplain and pipers, while the solemn service of the church was spoken. "Then once again the pipes pealed out, and ' Lo< aber No More ' cut through the stillness like a cry of pain, until one could almost hear the widow in her Highland home mourning for the soldier she would welcome back no more. Then, as if touched by the magic of one thought, the soldiers turned their tear-damped eyes from the still form in the shallow grave towards the heights where Cronje, * the lion of Africa,' stood. Then every cheek flushed crimson, and strong jaws set like steel, and the veins on their hands that clasped the riHe stocks swelled almost to burst- ing with the fervor of the grip, and that look from those silent armed men spoke more eloquently than ever spoke the tongues of orators. For on each frowning face the spirit of vengeance sat, and each sparkling eye asked silently for blood. God help the Boers when next the Highland pibroch sounds I God rest the Boers' souls when the Highland bayonets charge ; for neither death, nor hell, nor Spirit of Vengeance THE FIRST llCTOkIA CROSSES WON FOR iAN.ID.t Sa; thing, above, nor thing* below, will hold the Scott back from their blood feud. •• At the head of the grave, at a point nearest the enemy, the General was laid asleep, his officers grouped around him, whilst in the line behind him, his soldiers were laid in a double row, wrapped in their blankets. No shots were fired over the dead men resting so peacefully. Only the salute was given, and then the men marched campwards, as the darkness of the African night rolled over the far-stretching breadth of the veldt." The following detailed accounts of how four Canadians won the Victoria Cross will be of much interest to our readers : Captain Agar Adamson, formerly of the G.G.F.G., writing from Spitzkop, September 21st, gives the following interesting account of how Sergt. Arthur Robert Lindsay Richardson, for- merly of the Northwest Mounted Police, won his V.C. He says : " I have just been pleased to see a telegram from the War Office awarding Richardson the Victoria Cross. Richardson came out with the main body of Strathcona's Horse, but fell down the hold of the ship at Durban, and was left in hospital with a sprained back. Coming through with my draft, I picked him up. We worked our way to Standerton, where we were attached to the S.A.L.H., and took our regular turn of duty, as a troop of 5a strong, our horses in fairly good condition. On July 5th the S.A.L.H. were ordered out by General Duller to round up a sup- posed small and scattered lot of Boers. "About eighteen miles north-west of Standerton, we found the enemy on a small hill, behind which was a somewhat larger one, with fairly good cover. I was ordered to take my men and attack in front, and if not able to hold them, to return in a south- easterly direction, where we would find two squadrons of the li! 8a8 THE FIRST VICTORIA CROSSES IVOjV FOR CANDIDA S.A.L.H. hidden, waiting to receive them, the remainder having gone round with the intention of making a left flank movement. They, however, found their hands full fluthing the enemy on the left. I extended my men and divided them into an advance line McArthurShot and supports. The Boers, contrary to their usual TTirouKh the mode of warfare, attacked us in the open. The Arm and Thigh advance held them for awhile, and bringing up my supports on their right flank, we drove them off the hill and up the next one, when a reinforcing party galloped up, dismounting, and opened a heavy cross fire on our right flank, the enemy increasing in numbers on the hill. By that time three of our men were down and several horses hit. The fire was very heavy and explosive bullets were being used freely. Seeing it was impossible to hold them, I ordered a retirement in the direction ordered. It was at this lioint that Richardson, who saw Alex. McArthur wounded and his horse shot, galloped up in face of a heavy cross-fire, picked him up, and, putting him on his horse behind him, carried him out of the range of fire. His horse, a small one, could only go slowly. •• Sergt. Buchanan and six men covered his retreat, among them George Sparks, who, though shot through the neck at the time, dismounted and covered the retreat. Unfortunately Sergt. Stringer and Colin Isbester, whose horses had been shot, were captured. It was impossible to help them, as the enemy were about 300 strong and swarming over the hill, and we were only 40 strong. " The two squadrons of S.A.L.H. had been called out of their hiding to assist the others, or we might have caught them in a well-laid trap. After getting out of range and under cover, hold- ing theni off, we discovered, besides Sparks, that Gladwyn Mac- Dougal was shot through the knee and McArthur through arm and r/M' Fmsr rrcro^u ckoss,:s m^v nw canada s,, m^^n';* Tu "^T "^ "'•'^ ''' ''•^•^•"•' ^»''' »^»d - hot engage. mS off f 1^"'k^ '"'"^°'- VVe«.„ti„,oSta„derto„'8 miles off for the ambulance. leiving the wounded men In a cot- tage m charge of Corp. Blakemore and Corp. T. C.mpbell. The of he SA.L.H, Blakemore and Campbell went over the ground to look for Stnnger and Tgbester. - Meeting the Boer outposts, they advanced unarmed, with a white flag, and were informed that neither of the prisoners were wounded. "I reported Richardson's action to General BuIIer. who for- warded U to the War Office, with the most satisfactory resultl He .s an excellent chap, quiet and very modest, and I have seen him on many occasions since under fire and in tightest of phces always quiet and cool." ' The action in which three Canadians won the V.C was ought at Komati River, on November the 7th, ,goo. The fol lowmg is a description : " The rear guard, under the command of Lieut.-Coionel I es sard, consisted ouly of Royal Canadian Dragoons, with a Colt' gun, and two guns of ' D' Battery. Royal Canadian Artillery, and soon It became most closely pressed by the enemy, the Boers showing themselves everywhere, and coming on with the greatest determination. The Canadian guns were continually in action against parties of the enemy, at times, owing to the necessity of having to work singly a mile or two apart. At 10.40 a.v . . seeing that the baggage and mfantry were at a safe distance, the rearguard began to fall back and as they did so the Boers became more and more aggressive • but the accurate and steady fire from the guns, and the bold froni Closely Pressed 830 THE FIRST VICTORIA CROSSES WON FOR CANADA of the Dragoons, kept them at a distance. The accurate knowl- edge of the country and folds of the ground which the Boers have all through the war been acknowledged to possess, stood them in good stead on this occasion, for some hundreds of them, taking advantage of a dip in the ground running up from Komati, had collected directly behind our rearguard, and thinking their oppor- tunity had arrived, galloped out, firing wildly from their horses as they charged, their object being to capture the guns. It was at -, ^ J this juncture that the greatest gallantry was dis- Gallantry played by the Canadians. The guns rapidly fired Displayed some half a dozen rounds at the advancing enemy, then limbered up and retired as their now thoroughly tired horses would allow them, and two troops under Lieut. Cockburn and Sergt. Builder covered their retirement, sacrificing themselves by fighting till those who were not killed or wounded were captured by an overwhelming force. By this action the Canadian cavalry saved the Canadian guns. " For the next two hours a running fight was kept up till 1.30 p.m. The Boers made a most dashing and determined effort to secure our guns, galloping to within 200 yards of them, but only to be driven off by a squadron of Royal Canadian Dragoons, under Lieutenant R. E. Turner. Just at this time the Colt gun, which had been doing most excellent service in covering the retirement of the field guns, was almost surrounded by the enemy. The gun was in action up to the last moment, and the horses were so played out that to attempt to retire with the gun and carriage would have, been useless, so, with great presence of mind and Great Presence ^o^ingjjs, Sergt. I Tolland, of the Royal Canadian of Mind Dragoons, who -.ad charge of the gun, detached the barrel from the carriage, placed ii under his arm, and, mount- ing his horse, rode off with it, under a hail of Boer bullets." CANADIAN CONTINGENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 83 1 Officers Of the Second Canadian Contingent for Special Service In South Africa. Trir CANADIAN MOUNTKD RIFLES ist CONTINGENT Comiiiaiiilini; OITicer, Dfago^",,'!'' ''■ '' "■'•■""■'""'•l.-olonci Royal Canadbn Major'i (2nd in Coinnianil) Dragon")' ^' '*■ "■ ('■'•"""""'-'-''^'o'lel Koyal Canadian Commanding; Sfjiiadrnns, a.M,,^)"'"""' ^ ^- ^- ''^■•■P'-''''' ""M"! Canadian Dra- Korester, V. (Captain Royal Canadian DraRoons). t'apiains, Oreenw.HHl, H. S. (Lieiifiiant-Colontl ,rd DraE.KWsV goons)?"*' '^' '^"■'>"-^"' "">■"' C^'n»'li"n Dra" I.icutenantector N. W. M P ) Begin,). V.(l.is|»rctor N. W. M. P.)' Davidson, H. J A. (InsKcior N. \V. M. P.) Wroughlon, T. A, (Inspector N. W. M. p > Inglis, W. M. (Late II. M. Berkshire RcgimeriX Taylor, J. (Lieutenant Manitolwi Dragoons). Cosby, t. I.. (Inspeco, N. W. M. p., Machine (Jun Section. Howard, A. L. (Lieutenant Unaliach«.l List). Adjutant. Halcer M.(Ins|iector N. W. M. P,) yuatterriailer. Allan, S. II. (Insiwctor .s. W. M. P.) Medical Officer. Devine, J. A. (Surgeon. Lieutenant i>>th ISattalion). Transport OlTicer. Eustace, R. W. B. Ridden. R. Veterinary Officer. ■IRKiADE DIVISION, FIELD ARTILLERY. Commanding Officer. Drury. C. W. (Lieutenant-Colonel Royal C.maili.in Artillery, „r A.D.C. to H. E. the lio.crnor-tLneraL Majors. Hudon, J. A. G. (Major, Royal C.in.idian Artillery). Hurdni..ii W. G. (Major, anil Kield lialtery, C.A.) ORllvie,(^, H. (Major, Royal Canailian Artillery). Captains. Costig.in, y. (Major, jrd Kield Battery. C.A.) Panel, H. A."(Caw.i'in Royal' c'lnadia'i.Art'nrery). Eaton, D. I, V. (Captain, Royal Canadian Artillery). Lieutenants, Irving I E. W. (Captain. Reserve of Offi.ers). '"""I' W- C. (Captain. ■>.th Kield Battery, C. A.) Iving W. lt.(Ciptain, 7lh Held l!.ittery, C. A.) Van luyl. T. W. (Captain, filh Kirld Battery, C. A.) Mc( rea, J. (Capt.ain, if.lh Kield Battery, ('. A.) Ogllne, A. T. ( Lieutenant, Koyal (%-li ' ' i'"" S«RS58 '8feS2a"S^S««S S53S88WR3SsPi«9T«fssrslsllssfiai sssttttttt If ' 4 «i w I «34 OK iilj il2 !llil4ill^ ill ;j« i««J/^o «,.;«* ►^"j Bdj ^i 'SSS'll « IBS>«B»>BSm>StttC*Bt««SSsJttV • t 9 tt« ZK* cc ^i * I J * Ill or S I 58 * 68, II iS b - afia iBti : 5 aa a-f-S: llf II I 1, 1^ i-Pi I 1.1 Jjaa IMSSSgg^^S 836 ii; f , 11 't ill '■ ? '>■ ,;■; f OJS ii 7 h i i S Ii, ^ I ii il 111 I UMllfiiilUliaJS Sit ii!a>,i«i!!i !!*• «ii 6" ^ii Hi go^a«« S 3 3 -5. ■si iN ^ 1=^ ^-fA fah. ^hi ^aa cQ^h a! US i i w »« j^ji^^a* s tip; f 838 s^sl ill J J Jh iJ, u i J(8 <^l : (u lily] J I i j fi m f I I2 ^^Jiii^ ' At'lU^^ U\il' i I I SHI 1 11 ''III W ES ' .9 • 'i is I si iiiLiyfiiiiiii^il .Hi ii i ill? S 3.2 11- ^-■u^ o u w «■ « ■ «■ saa»azx. ill *|i|i?» 5 I itiiilllii. 1 1 1 1^ ?iia y. >!iyi z o 000 00 839 .80* ,-3.?S -f-KfJIj i I ■OS ^1^1 if J . SI'S « I Ifrt 1111 J i : : ; ;^ ^: : • 3 5£pSS ^^^S a a aas;|a ^la a i ias£i £ra 840 I 6 ■"K, i jr. i.i liJi .4 «JJ"^- e c E J| i ^ ^ ^ B i":o' §xs:< m m e V 3 lil 1 * [l i If I 1 I d m u 2 > I I a a «44 1 m ,1'. I ; li- A If I ill y H i k i I J r «* 111 .-;-^"i*:*^S5'^a^ „ „„ i.iip;M.i:i:iii:.:!;i.:,.:iii.;|,|n|iiy -,_.2ig|£g 1J2I2 kt f^t ?3 g ligg :2l;JgsSl. l-H if^*- iliffifiifiliiiSiiiii 845 ^^-^UiHUil m 6 SI .■af :.2ji ' S^' S ' ■' • I. ' '• — =* : ife-^ iJl !|nw;f: Canadian Contingents in South Africa. Officers and Men of "Strathcona's Horse." Lieutenant.Colcmel-U<>ut.Colonel S. B. Steele. (North-West Mounted Police). Se^i in Commanrf-Major R. Belcher. (North-West Mounted Police). Majors-M^or A. E Snyder. (North-West Mounted Police). A. M. Jarvis " •< « R.C. Laurie, (Lieut. Reserve of Officers ) Gaptaina-C^pUin D. M. Howard. (North-West Mounted Police). G. W. Cameron, (Major 5th Battalion). ,. , " ^- ^ Cartwright. (North-West Mounted Police) L^eutenants-L^entenant R. H. B. Magee, (Lieut. Reserve of Officers). *. Harper. (North-West Mounted Police). J. A. Benyon. (Captain, Royal Canadian Artillery) E. F. Mackie, (Captain, 90th Battalion). P. Fall, (2nd Lieut., Manitoba Dragoons). M. H. White-Fraser, (Ex-Inspector, North-West Mounted Police). H. D. B. Ketchen, (North-West Mounted Police). J. F. Macdonald, (Captain, 37th Battalion)! J. E. Leckie. R. M. Courtney. (Captain. Ist Battalion). T. E. Pooley, (Captain 5th Reifitnent, C. A ) A. E. Christie. A. W. Strange. O. E. Laidlaw. (Lieut. Reserve of Officers). Q. H. Kirkpatrick, " <« H. Tobin. « « Quartermaster— Uexiten&nt W. Parker. Transport Offieer-Lieuten^nt I. R. Snider. (2nd Lieut. Manitoba Dragoons) Medical O^Cfjr— Lieutenant C. B. Keonan. Veterinary 0#cer— Lieutenant G. T. Stevenson. § 5 III :j : rTTTTTTTTrrrTTT. :TTT"T: •:::.!:::;: ON tS ttttStSS sstttttsi xii>isii«i: :iS CKsaxs«t«ss S"" S*»««SB^i5ii8pa2|2aasiig|gs3Sia8$aa|3g58js ■.a ■ <>)£ •<■<< ll§§§& 53 «2S§2«ss;«2S8S8-S'-8SS8s-|5t,g6«5fc8Rg8gnR«s,cw^iiMg"^s^ig3^ 849 U i^iiiiihi ^ihiii UU •OH 5SSS555£l5SS=£552383£235l|S2|2S385g^f:gs ssRiSlSs^ggRgss^'g.:-! StZSttsi Moo ^-'MMML^'^ M t i S K t t £muu^immmmUU < c S s t '«(ttlS«s sstsstttit: oN|M885aa S8 8iags2sgg§gg| sss^gggs §s&?s585iaP^§iiiiiiii^ 851 «HIHSSS88ISSI!l5XSBS|g||gS2gsggggg35-g2i:gir2agg,g CHAPTER XXVI 1 1. « i8. Fatal Casualties in Canadian Contingents. IUak«>dN.«e. D.U of Death. C.«.e of D«uh. ^«'* ^r" ?' rT'"'n ^°"''"'" 3. 1899 Heart Failure. .. /-C-Chappell Dece.nberij.i899....Ton8ilitis. . Tl pH' ^"'"■"^'^y 4- '900 Enteric Fever. .. ^n^'T^M " "• " Enteric Fever. Douglas Moore •« Sergt. W. Scott •< Pte. W.Jackson •< " A. Maundrill <« " J.H.Somers •« " J.Todd .'.','.'* .. Corpl. J. Smith .« Pte. J. A. Donegan «• W.White .".'. " J. H. Findlay «• W. T. Manion «« " O.T.Burns •« " C. E. E. Jackson « Z. R. E. Lewis " Corpl. R. Goodfellow •« Pte. C. H, Barry «• " C. Lester •« " A. McQueen •« " Roland D. Taylor " Capt. H. M. Arnold'. " Pte. Patrick McCreary " F.C.Page «« " G. Orman •< Corpl. B. Withey «« « « Sergt. S.C. Parker ^ V. Pte. D. J. Crone a,,„ " F.G.Arnold .I'"' CorpI.J. R.Taylor.. Pte. B. H. Lee.... " C. W. CotterilK " A.McNichol.... F. Morris .July June Trptr. G. w. Bradiey::;:::::::::& Sergt. A. E. H Logan .tp^J. J. Brothers ^ Pte. A. Jones 'I W. West ; H. J. Wiggins « << << OiktoorOMih. CUMOlDMtk. * 8, 1900 Enteric Fever. 10, •• , " <• II, " . •• « 12. • " . •* It 15. " . ■ •■.Woundi. 13. " . " « « 19. " .. • ■■.Enteric Fever. 34. " .. " •« 30, 1900.. ■ ■■■Killed in Action. 30. " .. .... " " •• 30. " .. " " " I. " .. ...Enteric Fever. I, " .. ...Killed in Action. 27, " .. ...Enteric Fever. 7. " .. ...Wounds. 16. " .. ■ ■■Killed in Action. 16, " ., " •« «« 7. •• ... ■ ■■Enteric Fever. 21. " ... " «• 23. " ... " «« 6. " ... " •• 27. " ... " " 27. " ... " «• 15. " ... ■ Pneumonia. 28, " ... ■ Enteric Fever. 30, " ... ■ ■Killed in Action. 5. " .... ..Enteric Fever. II. " .... ..From Wounds re- 19. " .... ceived 30th July 30, " .... ■ Killed in Action. I, " .... ..Enteric Fever. ^9. " .... " <« 5. " • Killed in Action. 28, " ■ Enteric Fever. 4. " ■ Killed in Action. •• •« « •• i< •• «• « «« « •• «• 11 FATAL CASUALTIES IN CANADIAN CONTINGESTS 855 RukaadMamo. DataofDnth. Pte. Cruickihaok Sept. 4, t>ergt. P. Clunie •• 6, Pte. S. B. Hunt no particulars •• D. M. Spence Sept " A. Kadcliffo •• Gunner J. Neild " Pte. G. Farrell " A. B. Bing Tune G. M. O'Kelly " O Smith Aug. L. S. Davis Oct. W. E. Brand July Serjft. B. Hunt June Lieut. F. W. Chalmers Nov. Corpl. E. A. Filson " Lance-Corpl. W. G. Anderson.Sept. Pte. Le Conteur •• SergtV. D. Builder Pte. W.J. Moore , Nov. •• W. DeVereHunt " " E. V. Canceller •• Sergt. E. Evatt " Pte. L. B. Scott " CiMNolDwth. 1900 Killed in Action. " Hebrt Failure. « •« « •t W. H. Ingram Dec. Capt. F. H.C. Sutton Jan. Tpr. N. Hughes •♦ Sergt.-Tpr. L. J. S. Inglis " Pte. Edward Mcintosh •• M. Fernie " D. J. McGregor " D. B. Hammond " Sergt. Mai. J. A. Paterson Feb. Lieut. A. L. Howard " Sergt. R. J. Northway «• R. F. C. A. Douglas no date Sergt. F. Davidson Apr. Pte. E. F. Hunter Feb. " R. G. Moore Mar. Sergt. J. C Perry " 2.3. II Killed in Action. « II •< <* i< 22, 11 From Wounds. 6. ti Acute Dysentry. 7. •1 ....Enteric Fever. 16. i< ....Dysentery. '7. II ....Sunstroke. 9. 11 ....Enteric Fever. 9. •1 " •' 16, II ««o*D«fc. Cmm6tnmtk. " Nelson Price Shoeingsmith, W. H. Hunter.'.'; II II Pte. W. Smith. July 31, II II II II •I 2. a, 27. 24. 22, 19. 5. I: 8. 30, »902 Killed in Action. II .. II II II II II II II •I i< II From wounds rec'd. March 31. • Killed in Action. .Killed m Action. • Enteric Fever. .From wounds receiv* ed 3i8t March. • Enteric Fever. •Spinal Meningites. • Enteric Fever. •Accidentally killed at sea. • Enteric Fever. • From wounds receiv- ed in action 31st March. .Pneumonia. Tensions for Disabled Soldiers, Widows, Etc. The foilowinK particulars respecting wound pensions and compas- sionuto alluwances granted by the Imperial Guvernmcnt in the cases of officers and men wounded or killed on active service, which are applicable ill the cases of Colonial Contingents serving in the present campaign in South Africa, are of interest. Officeks. For the loss of an eye or a limb, or for an injury equivalent to the loss of a limb, a gratuity of a year's full pay is granted in the first instance. At the end of the year, a pension is awarded according to the following scale: Colonel or Lt. Colonel $1,460.00 a year. J?»i°'; 973.33 " Captain 486.66 " Lieutenant 340.66 " In cases in which the injury is not equivalent to the loss of a limb, though very severe and permanent in its effect, a like gratuity is awarded* but the pension is given at half the above rates. For injuries very severe though less serious than the above, a gratuity of from three to twelve months full pay is awarded, according to circum- stances but no pension. Pensions for Wounds Received in Action, etc. Warrant Officeks. Non-Cjmmissi'jneu Officeks and Men. To Non-Commissionei! Officers and men discharged as unfit for further service in consequence of wounds, etc., pensions are granted on the follow- ing scale, according to the degree of the soldier's incapacity for earning a livelihood. Warrant Officers "i t? Sergeants, etc / ^^°"^ 24cts. to 85 cts. a day. Corporals " 18 cts. to 73 cts. " Privates " 12 cts to 60 cts. " Pensions, etc., to Widows and Childk iN of Officeks. Pensions to > lows and children of officers are granted according to the following scale : 858 PENSIONS FOR SOLDIERS, WIDOWS, ETC, (I) If the officer was killed in action or died (within 12 months) of wounds received in action. Widow. Children. Lt-Col. or Col.... $876.00 a year. $116.80 a year each. Major 681.33 " 102.50 " Captain 486.66 " 87.60 " Li'eutenant 389.33 " 73'00 " (a) If the officer's death was caused by exposure while on active ser- vice and occurred within 12 months of removal from duty. Widow. Children. Lt.-Col. or Col.... $657.00 a year. $ 97.33 a year each. Major 310.99 •• 85.16 " Captain 365.00 " 73.00 " Lieutenant 292.00 " 60.83 " If the case comes within categon' (i) the widow receives, in addition to pension, a gratuity of one year's full pay of the officer's appointment and the children one-third of such amount each. Motherless children receive double rates of pension. None of the foregoing awards are made if the widows, etc., are left in wealthy circumstances. Pensions, Etc., to Widows of Warrant Officers. Warrant Q^i«fr— Widows, $97.33 a year. Children, $24.33 a year each the end. h^