The Scouting Appears To Have Been Negligently Done, There Being
Only Two Men Out Upon Each Flank.
The little force walked into one
of those horse-shoe positions which the Boers love, and learned by
a sudden volley from a kraal upon their right that the enemy was
present in strength.
On attempting to withdraw it was instantly
evident that the Boers were on all sides and in the rear with a
force which numbered at least five to one. The camp of the main
column was only four miles away, however, and the bodyguard, having
sent messages of their precarious position, did all they could to
make a defence until help could reach them. Colonel Laing had
fallen, shot through the heart, but found a gallant successor in
young Nairne, the adjutant. Part of the force had thrown
themselves, under Nairne and Milne, into a donga, which gave some
shelter from the sleet of bullets. The others, under Captain
Butters, held on to a ruined kraal. The Boers pushed the attack
very rapidly, however, and were soon able with their superior
numbers to send a raking fire down the donga, which made it a
perfect death-trap. Still hoping that the laggard reinforcements
would come up, the survivors held desperately on; but both in the
kraal and in the donga their numbers were from minute to minute
diminishing. There was no formal surrender and no white flag, for,
when fifty per cent of the British were down, the Boers closed in
swiftly and rushed the position. Philip Botha, the brother of the
commandant, who led the Boers, behaved with courtesy and humanity
to the survivors; but many of the wounds were inflicted with those
horrible explosive and expansive missiles, the use of which among
civilised combatants should now and always be a capital offence. To
disable one's adversary is a painful necessity of warfare, but
nothing can excuse the wilful mutilation and torture which is
inflicted by these brutal devices.
'How many of you are there?' asked Botha. 'A hundred,' said an
officer. 'It is not true. There are one hundred and twenty. I
counted you as you came along.' The answer of the Boer leader shows
how carefully the small force had been nursed until it was in an
impossible position. The margin was a narrow one, however, for
within fifteen minutes of the disaster White's guns were at work.
There may be some question as to whether the rescuing force could
have come sooner, but there can be none as to the resistance of the
bodyguard. They held out to the last cartridge. Colonel Laing and
three officers with sixteen men were killed, four officers and
twenty-two men were wounded. The high proportion of fatal
casualties can only be explained by the deadly character of the
Boer bullets. Hardly a single horse of the bodyguard was left
unwounded, and the profit to the victors, since they were unable to
carry away their prisoners, lay entirely in the captured rifles. It
is worthy of record that the British wounded were despatched to
Heilbron without guard through the Boer forces. That they arrived
there unmolested is due to the forbearance of the enemy and to the
tact and energy of Surgeon-Captain Porter, who commanded the
convoy.
Encouraged by this small success, and stimulated by the news that
Hertzog and Kritzinger had succeeded in penetrating the Colony
without disaster, De Wet now prepared to follow them. British
scouts to the north of Kroonstad reported horsemen riding south and
east, sometimes alone, sometimes in small parties. They were
recruits going to swell the forces of De Wet. On January 23rd five
hundred men crossed the line, journeying in the same direction.
Before the end of the month, having gathered together about 2500
men with fresh horses at the Doornberg, twenty miles north of
Winburg, the Boer leader was ready for one of his lightning treks
once more. On January 28th he broke south through the British net,
which appears to have had more meshes than cord. Passing the
Bloemfontein-Ladybrand line at Israel Poort he swept southwards,
with British columns still wearily trailing behind him, like honest
bulldogs panting after a greyhound.
Before following him upon this new venture it is necessary to say a
few words about that peace movement in the Boer States to which
some allusion has already been made. On December 20th Lord
Kitchener had issued a proclamation which was intended to have the
effect of affording protection to those burghers who desired to
cease fighting, but who were unable to do so without incurring the
enmity of their irreconcilable brethren. 'It is hereby notified,'
said the document, 'to all burghers that if after this date they
voluntarily surrender they will be allowed to live with their
families in Government laagers until such time as the guerilla
warfare now being carried on will admit of their returning safely
to their homes. All stock and property brought in at the time of
the surrender of such burghers will be respected and paid for if
requisitioned.' This wise and liberal offer was sedulously
concealed from their men by the leaders of the fighting commandos,
but was largely taken advantage of by those Boers to whom it was
conveyed. Boer refugee camps were formed at Pretoria, Johannesburg,
Kroonstad, Bloemfontein, Warrenton; and other points, to which by
degrees the whole civil population came to be transferred. It was
the reconcentrado system of Cuba over again, with the essential
difference that the guests of the British Government were well fed
and well treated during their detention. Within a few months the
camps had 50,000 inmates.
It was natural that some of these people, having experienced the
amenity of British rule, and being convinced of the hopelessness of
the struggle, should desire to convey their feelings to their
friends and relations in the field. Both in the Transvaal and in
the Orange River Colony Peace Committees were formed, which
endeavoured to persuade their countrymen to bow to the inevitable.
A remarkable letter was published from Piet de Wet, a man who had
fought bravely for the Boer cause, to his brother, the famous
general.
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