Methuen Moved About Incessantly Through The Broken Country,
Winning Small Skirmishes And Suffering The Indignity Of Continual
Sniping.
From time to time he captured stores, wagons, and small
bodies of prisoners.
Early in October he and Douglas had successes.
On the 15th Broadwood was engaged. On the 20th there was a convoy
action. On the 25th Methuen had a success and twenty-eight
prisoners. On November 9th he surprised Snyman and took thirty
prisoners. On the 10th he got a pom-pom. Early in this month
Douglas separated from Methuen, and marched south from Zeerust
through Ventersdorp to Klerksdorp, passing over a country which had
been hardly touched before, and arriving at his goal with much
cattle and some prisoners. Towards the end of the month a
considerable stock of provisions were conveyed to Zeerust, and a
garrison left to hold that town so as to release Methuen's column
for service elsewhere.
Hart's sphere of action was originally round Potchefstroom. On
September 9th he made a fine forced march to surprise this town,
which had been left some time before with an entirely inadequate
garrison to fall into the hands of the enemy. His infantry covered
thirty-six and his cavalry fifty-four miles in fifteen hours. The
operation was a complete success, the town with eighty Boers
falling into his hands with little opposition. On September 30th
Hart returned to Krugersdorp, where, save for one skirmish upon the
Gatsrand on November 22nd, he appears to have had no actual
fighting to do during the remainder of the year.
After the clearing of the eastern border of the Transvaal by the
movement of Pole-Carew along the railway line, and of Buller aided
by Ian Hamilton in the mountainous country to the north of it,
there were no operations of importance in this district. A guard
was kept upon the frontier to prevent the return of refugees and
the smuggling of ammunition, while General Kitchener, the brother
of the Sirdar, broke up a few small Boer laagers in the
neighbourhood of Lydenburg. Smith-Dorrien guarded the line at
Belfast, and on two occasions, November 1st and November 6th, he
made aggressive movements against the enemy. The first, which was a
surprise executed in concert with Colonel Spens of the Shropshires,
was frustrated by a severe blizzard, which prevented the troops
from pushing home their success. The second was a two days'
expedition, which met with a spirited opposition, and demands a
fuller notice.
This was made from Belfast, and the force, which consisted of about
fourteen hundred men, advanced south to the Komati River. The
infantry were Suffolks and Shropshires, the cavalry Canadians and
5th Lancers, with two Canadian guns and four of the 84th battery.
All day the Boer snipers clung to the column, as they had done to
French's cavalry in the same district. Mere route marches without a
very definite and adequate objective appear to be rather
exasperating than overawing, for so long as the column is moving
onwards the most timid farmer may be tempted into long-range fire
from the flanks or rear. The river was reached and the Boers driven
from a position which they had taken up, but their signal fires
brought mounted riflemen from every farm, and the retreat of the
troops was pressed as they returned to Belfast. There was all the
material for a South African Lexington. The most difficult of
military operations, the covering of a detachment from a numerous
and aggressive enemy, was admirably carried out by the Canadian
gunners and dragoons under the command of Colonel Lessard. So
severe was the pressure that sixteen of the latter were for a time
in the hands of the enemy, who attempted something in the nature of
a charge upon the steadfast rearguard. The movement was repulsed,
and the total Boer loss would appear to have been considerable,
since two of their leaders, Commandant Henry Prinsloo and General
Joachim Fourie, were killed, while General Johann Grobler was
wounded. If the rank and file suffered in proportion the losses
must have been severe. The British casualties in the two days
amounted to eight killed and thirty wounded, a small total when the
arduous nature of the service is considered. The Canadians and the
Shropshires seem to have borne off the honours of these trying
operations.
In the second week of October, General French, with three brigades
of cavalry (Dickson's, Gordon's, and Mahon's), started for a
cross-country ride from Machadodorp. Three brigades may seem an
imposing force, but the actual numbers did not exceed two strong
regiments, or about 1500 sabres in all. A wing of the Suffolk
Regiment went with them. On October 13th Mahon's brigade met with a
sharp resistance, and lost ten killed and twenty-nine wounded. On
the 14th the force entered Carolina. On the 16th they lost six
killed and twenty wounded, and from the day that they started until
they reached Heidelberg on the 27th there was never a day that they
could shake themselves clear of their attendant snipers. The total
losses of the force were about ninety killed and wounded, but they
brought in sixty prisoners and a large quantity of cattle and
stores. The march had at least the effect of making it clear that
the passage of a column of troops encumbered with baggage through a
hostile country is an inefficient means for quelling a popular
resistance. Light and mobile parties acting from a central depot
were in future to be employed, with greater hopes of success.
Some appreciable proportion of the British losses during this phase
of the war arose from railway accidents caused by the persistent
tampering with the lines. In the first ten days of October there
were four such mishaps, in which two Sappers, twenty-three of the
Guards (Coldstreams), and eighteen of the 66th battery were killed
or wounded. On the last occasion, which occurred on October 10th
near Vlakfontein, the reinforcements who came to aid the sufferers
were themselves waylaid, and lost twenty, mostly of the Rifle
Brigade, killed, wounded, or prisoners.
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