The Enemy Tried Repeatedly To Assault
The Position, But Were Beaten Back Each Time With A Loss Of Nearly
A Hundred Killed And Wounded.
The British loss was about sixty, and
included two gallant young Canadian officers, Borden and Birch, the
former being the only son of the minister of militia.
So ended the
last attempt made by Botha upon the British positions round
Pretoria. The end of the war was not yet, but already its futility
was abundantly evident. This had become more apparent since the
junction of Hamilton and of Buller had cut off the Transvaal army
from that of the Free State. Unable to send their prisoners away,
and also unable to feed them, the Freestaters were compelled to
deliver up in Natal the prisoners whom they had taken at Lindley
and Roodeval. These men, a ragged and starving battalion, emerged
at Ladysmith, having made their way through Van Reenen's Pass. It
is a singular fact that no parole appears on these and similar
occasions to have been exacted by the Boers.
Lord Roberts, having remounted a large part of his cavalry, was
ready now to advance eastward and give Botha battle. The first town
of any consequence along the Delagoa Railway is Middelburg, some
seventy miles from the capital. This became the British objective,
and the forces of Mahon and Hamilton on the north, of Pole-Carew in
the centre, and of French and Hutton to the south, all converged
upon it. There was no serious resistance, though the weather was
abominable, and on July 27th the town was in the hands of the
invaders. From that date until the final advance to the eastward
French held this advanced post, while Pole-Carew guarded the
railway line. Rumours of trouble in the west had convinced Roberts
that it was not yet time to push his advantage to the east, and he
recalled Ian Hamilton's force to act for a time upon the other side
of the seat of the war. This excellent little army, consisting of
Mahon's and Pilcher's mounted infantry, M battery R.H.A., the
Elswick battery, two 5-inch and two 4.7 guns, with the Berkshires,
the Border Regiment, the Argyle and Sutherlands, and the Scottish
Borderers, put in as much hard work in marching and in fighting as
any body of troops in the whole campaign.
The renewal of the war in the west had begun some weeks before, but
was much accelerated by the transference of De la Rey and his
burghers to that side. There is no district in the Transvaal which
is better worth fighting for, for it is a fair country side,
studded with farmhouses and green with orange-groves, with many
clear streams running through it. The first sign of activity
appears to have been on July 7th, when a commando with guns
appeared upon the hills above Rustenburg. Hanbury Tracy, commandant
of Rustenburg, was suddenly confronted with a summons to surrender.
He had only 120 men and one gun, but he showed a bold front.
Colonel Houldsworth, at the first whisper of danger, had started
from Zeerust with a small force of Australian bushmen, and arrived
at Rustenburg in time to drive the enemy away in a very spirited
action. On the evening of July 8th Baden-Powell took over the
command, the garrison being reinforced by Plumer's command.
The Boer commando was still in existence, however, and it was
reinforced and reinvigorated by De la Rey's success at Uitval's
Nek. On July 18th they began to close in upon Rustenburg again, and
a small skirmish took place between them and the Australians.
Methuen's division, which had been doing very arduous service in
the north of the Free State during the last six weeks, now received
orders to proceed into the Transvaal and to pass northwards through
the disturbed districts en route for Rustenburg, which appeared to
be the storm centre. The division was transported by train from
Kroonstad to Krugersdorp, and advanced on the evening of July 18th
upon its mission, through a bare and fire-blackened country. On the
19th Lord Methuen manoeuvred the Boers out of a strong position,
with little loss to either side. On the 21st he forced his way
through Olifant's Nek, in the Magaliesberg range, and so
established communication with Baden-Powell, whose valiant bushmen,
under Colonel Airey, had held their own in a severe conflict near
Magato Pass, in which they lost six killed, nineteen wounded, and
nearly two hundred horses. The fortunate arrival of Captain
FitzClarence with the Protectorate Regiment helped on this occasion
to avert a disaster. The force, only 300 strong, without guns, had
walked into an ugly ambuscade, and only the tenacity and resource
of the men enabled them ever to extricate themselves.
Although Methuen came within reach of Rustenburg, he did not
actually join hands with Baden-Powell. No doubt he saw and heard
enough to convince him that that astute soldier was very well able
to take care of himself. Learning of the existence of a Boer force
in his rear, Methuen turned, and on July 29th he was back at
Frederickstad on the Potchefstroom to Krugersdorp railway. The
sudden change in his plans was caused doubtless by the desire to
head off De Wet in case he should cross the Vaal River. Lord
Roberts was still anxious to clear the neighbourhood of Rustenburg
entirely of the enemy; and he therefore, since Methuen was needed
to complete the cordon round De Wet, recalled Hamilton's force from
the east and despatched it, as already described, to the west of
Pretoria.
Before going into the details of the great De Wet hunt, in which
Methuen's force was to be engaged, I shall follow Hamilton's
division across, and give some account of their services. On August
1st he set out from Pretoria for Rustenburg. On that day and on the
next he had brisk skirmishes which brought him successfully through
the Magaliesberg range with a loss of forty wounded, mostly of the
Berkshires.
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