The Only Hope Of
Preserving Some Mode Of Crossing The Difficult River Lay In The
Chance That The Troops Might Anticipate The Boers Who Were About To
Destroy This Bridge.
In this they were singularly favoured by fortune.
On the arrival of
a small party of scouts and of the Cape Police under Major
Nolan-Neylan at the end of the bridge it was found that all was
ready to blow it up, the mine sunk, the detonator fixed, and the
wire laid. Only the connection between the wire and the charge had
not been made. To make sure, the Boers had also laid several boxes
of dynamite under the last span, in case the mine should fail in
its effect. The advance guard of the Police, only six in number,
with Nolan-Neylan at their head, threw themselves into a building
which commanded the approaches of the bridge, and this handful of
men opened so spirited and well-aimed a fire that the Boers were
unable to approach it. As fresh scouts and policemen came up they
were thrown into the firing line, and for a whole long day they
kept the destroyers from the bridge. Had the enemy known how weak
they were and how far from supports, they could have easily
destroyed them, but the game of bluff was admirably played, and a
fire kept up which held the enemy to their rifle pits.
The Boers were in a trench commanding the bridge, and their brisk
fire made it impossible to cross. On the other hand, our rifle fire
commanded the mine and prevented any one from exploding it. But at
the approach of darkness it was certain that this would be done.
The situation was saved by the gallantry of young Popham of the
Derbyshires, who crept across with two men and removed the
detonators. There still remained the dynamite under the further
span, and this also they removed, carrying it off across the bridge
under a heavy fire. The work was made absolutely complete a little
later by the exploit of Captain Grant of the Sappers, who drew the
charges from the holes in which they had been sunk, and dropped
them into the river, thus avoiding the chance that they might be
exploded next morning by shell fire. The feat of Popham and of
Grant was not only most gallant but of extraordinary service to the
country; but the highest credit belongs to Nolan-Neylan, of the
Police, for the great promptitude and galantry of his attack, and
to McNeill for his support. On that road bridge and on the pontoon
bridge at Norval's Pont Lord Roberts's army was for a whole month
dependent for their supplies.
On March 15th Gatacre's force passed over into the Orange Free
State, took possession of Bethulie, and sent on the cavalry to
Springfontein, which is the junction where the railways from Cape
Town and from East London meet. Here they came in contact with two
battalions of Guards under Pole-Carew, who had been sent down by
train from Lord Roberts's force in the north. With Roberts at
Bloemfontein, Gatacre at Springfontein, Clements in the south-west,
and Brabant at Aliwal, the pacification of the southern portion of
the Free State appeared to be complete. Warlike operations seemed
for the moment to be at an end, and scattered parties traversed the
country, 'bill-sticking,' as the troops called it - that is,
carrying Lord Roberts's proclamation to the lonely farmhouses and
outlying villages.
In the meantime the colonial division of that fine old African
fighter, General Brabant, had begun to play its part in the
campaign. Among the many judicious arrangements which Lord Roberts
made immediately after his arrival at the Cape was the assembling
of the greater part of the scattered colonial bands into one
division, and placing over it a General of their own, a man who had
defended the cause of the Empire both in the legislative assembly
and the field. To this force was entrusted the defence of the
country lying to the east of Gatacre's position, and on February
15th they advanced from Penhoek upon Dordrecht. Their Imperial
troops consisted of the Royal Scots and a section of the 79th
R.F.A., the Colonial of Brabant's Horse, the Kaffrarian Mounted
Rifles, the Cape Mounted Rifles and Cape Police, with Queenstown
and East London Volunteers. The force moved upon Dordrecht, and on
February 18th occupied the town after a spirited action, in which
Brabant's Horse played a distinguished part. On March 4th the
division advanced once more with the object of attacking the Boer
position at Labuschagne's Nek, some miles to the north.
Aided by the accurate fire of the 79th R.F.A., the colonials
succeeded, after a long day of desultory fighting, in driving the
enemy from his position. Leaving a garrison in Dordrecht Brabant
followed up his victory and pushed forward with two thousand men
and eight guns (six of them light 7-pounders) to occupy Jamestown,
which was done without resistance. On March 10th the colonial force
approached Aliwal, the frontier town, and so rapid was the advance
of Major Henderson with Brabant's Horse that the bridge at Aliwal
was seized before the enemy could blow it up. At the other side of
the bridge there was a strong stand made by the enemy, who had
several Krupp guns in position; but the light horse, in spite of a
loss of some twenty-five men killed and wounded, held on to the
heights which command the river. A week or ten days were spent in
pacifying the large north-eastern portion of Cape Colony, to which
Aliwal acts as a centre. Barkly East, Herschel, Lady Grey, and
other villages were visited by small detachments of the colonial
horsemen, who pushed forward also into the south-eastern portion of
the Free State, passing through Rouxville, and so along the
Basutoland border as far as Wepener. The rebellion in the Colony
was now absolutely dead in the north-east, while in the north-west
in the Prieska and Carnarvon districts it was only kept alive by
the fact that the distances were so great and the rebel forces so
scattered that it was very difficult for our flying columns to
reach them.
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