General Knox of the 12th
Brigade and General Macdonald of the Highlanders were among the
wounded. Colonel Aldworth of the Cornwalls died at the head of his
men. A bullet struck him dead as he whooped his West Countrymen on
to the charge. Eleven hundred killed and wounded testified to the
fire of our attack and the grimness of the Boer resistance. The
distribution of the losses among the various battalions - eighty
among the Canadians, ninety in the West Riding Regiment, one
hundred and twenty in the Seaforths, ninety in the Yorkshires,
seventy-six in the Argyll and Sutherlands, ninety-six in the Black
Watch, thirty-one in the Oxfordshires, fifty-six in the Cornwalls,
forty-six in the Shropshires - shows how universal was the
gallantry, and especially how well the Highland Brigade carried
itself. It is to be feared that they had to face, not only the fire
of the enemy, but also that of their own comrades on the further
side of the river. A great military authority has stated that it
takes many years for a regiment to recover its spirit and
steadiness if it has been heavily punished, and yet within two
months of Magersfontein we find the indomitable Highlanders taking
without flinching the very bloodiest share of this bloody day - and
this after a march of thirty miles with no pause before going into
action. A repulse it may have been, but they hear no name of which
they may be more proud upon the victory scroll of their colours.
What had we got in return for our eleven hundred casualties? We had
contracted the Boer position from about three miles to less than
two. So much was to the good, as the closer they lay the more
effective our artillery fire might be expected to be. But it is
probable that our shrapnel alone, without any loss of life, might
have effected the same thing. It is easy to be wise after the
event, but it does certainly appear that with our present knowledge
the action at Paardeberg was as unnecessary as it was expensive.
The sun descended on Sunday, February 18th, upon a bloody field and
crowded field hospitals, but also upon an unbroken circle of
British troops still hemming in the desperate men who lurked among
the willows and mimosas which drape the brown steep banks of the
Modder.
There was evidence during the action of the presence of an active
Boer force to the south of us, probably the same well-handled and
enterprising body which had captured our convoy at Waterval. A
small party of Kitchener's Horse was surprised by this body, and
thirty men with four officers were taken prisoners. Much has been
said of the superiority of South African scouting to that of the
British regulars, but it must be confessed that a good many
instances might be quoted in which the colonials, though second to
none in gallantry, have been defective in that very quality in
which they were expected to excel.
This surprise of our cavalry post had more serious consequences
than can be measured by the loss of men, for by it the Boers
obtained possession of a strong kopje called Kitchener's Hill,
lying about two miles distant on the south-east of our position.
The movement was an admirable one strategically upon their part,
for it gave their beleaguered comrades a first station on the line
of their retreat. Could they only win their way to that kopje, a
rearguard action might be fought from there which would cover the
escape of at least a portion of the force. De Wet, if he was indeed
responsible for the manoeuvres of these Southern Boers, certainly
handled his small force with a discreet audacity which marks him as
the born leader which he afterwards proved himself to be.
If the position of the Boers was desperate on Sunday, it was
hopeless on Monday, for in the course of the morning Lord Roberts
came up, closely followed by the whole of Tucker's Division (7th)
from Jacobsdal. Our artillery also was strongly reinforced. The
18th, 62nd, and 75th field batteries came up with three naval 4.7
guns and two naval 12-pounders. Thirty-five thousand men with sixty
guns were gathered round the little Boer army. It is a poor spirit
which will not applaud the supreme resolution with which the
gallant farmers held out, and award to Cronje the title of one of
the most grimly resolute leaders of whom we have any record in
modern history.
For a moment it seemed as if his courage was giving way. On Monday
morning a message was transmitted by him to Lord Kitchener asking
for a twenty-four hours' armistice. The answer was of course a curt
refusal. To this he replied that if we were so inhuman as to
prevent him from burying his dead there was nothing for him save
surrender. An answer was given that a messenger with power to treat
should be sent out, but in the interval Cronje had changed his
mind, and disappeared with a snarl of contempt into his burrows. It
had become known that women and children were in the laager, and a
message was sent offering them a place of safety, but even to this
a refusal was given. The reasons for this last decision are
inconceivable.
Lord Roberts's dispositions were simple, efficacious, and above all
bloodless. Smith-Dorrien's brigade, who were winning in the Western
army something of the reputation which Hart's Irishmen had won in
Natal, were placed astride of the river to the west, with orders to
push gradually up, as occasion served, using trenches for their
approach. Chermside's brigade occupied the same position on the
east. Two other divisions and the cavalry stood round, alert and
eager, like terriers round a rat-hole, while all day the pitiless
guns crashed their common shell, their shrapnel, and their lyddite
into the river-bed.
