With Precautions And With Inoculation All
Those Lives Might Have Been Saved.
The fever died down with the
advance of the troops and the coming of the colder weather.
To return to the military operations: these, although they were
stagnant so far as the main army was concerned, were exceedingly
and inconveniently active in other quarters. Three small actions,
two of which were disastrous to our arms, and one successful
defence marked the period of the pause at Bloemfontein.
To the north of the town, some twelve miles distant lies the
ubiquitous Modder River, which is crossed by a railway bridge at a
place named Glen. The saving of the bridge was of considerable
importance, and might by the universal testimony of the farmers of
that district have been effected any time within the first few days
of our occupation. We appear, however, to have imperfectly
appreciated how great was the demoralisation of the Boers. In a
week or so they took heart, returned, and blew up the bridge.
Roving parties of the enemy, composed mainly of the redoubtable
Johannesburg police, reappeared even to the south of the river.
Young Lygon was killed, and Colonels Crabbe and Codrington with
Captain Trotter, all of the Guards, were severely wounded by such a
body, whom they gallantly but injudiciously attempted to arrest
when armed only with revolvers.
These wandering patrols who kept the country unsettled, and
harassed the farmers who had taken advantage of Lord Roberts's
proclamation, were found to have their centre at a point some six
miles to the north of Glen, named Karee. At Karee a formidable line
of hills cut the British advance, and these had been occupied by a
strong body of the enemy with guns. Lord Roberts determined to
drive them off, and on March 28th Tucker's 7th Division, consisting
of Chermside's brigade (Lincolns, Norfolks, Hampshires, and
Scottish Borderers), and Wavell's brigade (Cheshires, East
Lancashires, North Staffords, and South Wales Borderers), were
assembled at Glen. The artillery consisted of the veteran 18th,
62nd, and 75th R.F.A. Three attenuated cavalry brigades with some
mounted infantry completed the force.
The movement was to be upon the old model, and in result it proved
to be only too truly so. French's cavalry were to get round one
flank, Le Gallais's mounted infantry round the other, and Tucker's
Division to attack in front. Nothing could be more perfect in
theory and nothing apparently more defective in practice. Since on
this as on other occasions the mere fact that the cavalry were
demonstrating in the rear caused the complete abandonment of the
position, it is difficult to see what the object of the infantry
attack could be. The ground was irregular and unexplored, and it
was late before the horsemen on their weary steeds found themselves
behind the flank of the enemy. Some of them, Le Gallais's mounted
infantry and Davidson's guns, had come from Bloemfontein during the
night, and the horses were exhausted by the long march, and by the
absurd weight which the British troop-horse is asked to carry.
Tucker advanced his infantry exactly as Kelly-Kenny had done at
Driefontein, and with a precisely similar result. The eight
regiments going forward in echelon of battalions imagined from the
silence of the enemy that the position had been abandoned. They
were undeceived by a cruel fire which beat upon two companies of
the Scottish Borderers from a range of two hundred yards. They were
driven back, but reformed in a donga. About half-past two a Boer
gun burst shrapnel over the Lincolnshires and Scottish Borderers
with some effect, for a single shell killed five of the latter
regiment. Chermside's brigade was now all involved in the fight,
and Wavell's came up in support, but the ground was too open and
the position too strong to push the attack home. Fortunately, about
four o'clock, the horse batteries with French began to make their
presence felt from behind, and the Boers instantly quitted their
position and made off through the broad gap which still remained
between French and Le Gallais. The Brandfort plain appears to be
ideal ground for cavalry, but in spite of that the enemy with his
guns got safely away. The loss of the infantry amounted to one
hundred and sixty killed and wounded, the larger share of the
casualties and of the honour falling to the Scottish Borderers and
the East Lancashires. The infantry was not well handled, the
cavalry was slow, and the guns were inefficient - altogether an
inglorious day. Yet strategically it was of importance, for the
ridge captured was the last before one came to the great plain
which stretched, with a few intermissions, to the north. From March
29th until May 2nd Karee remained the advanced post.
In the meanwhile there had been a series of operations in the east
which had ended in a serious disaster. Immediately after the
occupation of Bloemfontein (on March 18th) Lord Roberts despatched
to the east a small column consisting of the 10th Hussars, the
composite regiment, two batteries (Q and U) of the Horse Artillery,
some mounted infantry, Roberts's Horse, and Rimington's Guides. On
the eastern horizon forty miles from the capital, but in that clear
atmosphere looking only half the distance, there stands the
impressive mountain named Thabanchu (the black mountain). To all
Boers it is an historical spot, for it was at its base that the
wagons of the Voortrekkers, coming by devious ways from various
parts, assembled. On the further side of Thabanchu, to the north
and east of it, lies the richest grain-growing portion of the Free
State, the centre of which is Ladybrand. The forty miles which
intervene between Bloemfontein and Thabanchu are intersected midway
by the Modder River. At this point are the waterworks, erected
recently with modern machinery, to take the place of the insanitary
wells on which the town had been dependent. The force met with no
resistance, and the small town of Thabanchu was occupied.
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