That The Boers In
The Field Had No Doubts As To The Good Treatment Of These People
Was Shown By
The fact that they repeatedly left their families in
the way of the columns so that they might be conveyed
To the camps.
Some consternation was caused in England by a report of Miss
Hobhouse, which called public attention to the very high rate of
mortality in some of these camps, but examination showed that this
was not due to anything insanitary in their situation or
arrangement, but to a severe epidemic of measles which had swept
away a large number of the children. A fund was started in London
to give additional comforts to these people, though there is reason
to believe that their general condition was superior to that of the
Uitlander refugees, who still waited permission to return to their
homes. By the end of July there were no fewer than sixty thousand
inmates of the camps in the Transvaal alone, and half as many in
the Orange River Colony. So great was the difficulty in providing
the supplies for so large a number that it became more and more
evident that some at least of the camps must be moved down to the
sea coast.
Passing to the Orange River Colony we find that during this winter
period the same British tactics had been met by the same constant
evasions on the part of the dwindling commandos. The Colony had
been divided into four military districts: that of Bloemfontein,
which was given to Charles Knox, that of Lyttelton at
Springfontein, that of Rundle at Harrismith, and that of Elliot in
the north. The latter was infinitely the most important, and
Elliot, the warden of the northern marches, had under him during
the greater part of the winter a mobile force of about 6000 men,
commanded by such experienced officers as Broadwood, De Lisle, and
Bethune. Later in the year Spens, Bullock, Plumer, and Rimington
were all sent into the Orange River Colony to help to stamp out the
resistance. Numerous skirmishes and snipings were reported from all
parts of the country, but a constant stream of prisoners and of
surrenders assured the soldiers that, in spite of the difficulty of
the country and the obstinacy of the enemy, the term of their
labours was rapidly approaching.
In all the petty and yet necessary operations of these columns, two
incidents demand more than a mere mention. The first was a
hard-fought skirmish in which some of Elliot's horsemen were
engaged upon June 6th. His column had trekked during the month of
May from Kroonstad to Harrismith, and then turning north found
itself upon that date near the hamlet of Reitz. Major Sladen with
200 Mounted Infantry, when detached from the main body, came upon
the track of a Boer convoy and ran it down. Over a hundred vehicles
with forty-five prisoners were the fruits of their enterprise. Well
satisfied with his morning's work, the British leader despatched a
party of his men to convey the news to De Lisle, who was behind,
while he established himself with his loot and his prisoners in a
convenient kraal. Thence they had an excellent view of a large body
of horsemen approaching them with scouts, flankers, and all
military precautions. One warm-hearted officer seems actually to
have sallied out to meet his comrades, and it was not till his
greeting of them took the extreme form of handing over his rifle
that the suspicion of danger entered the heads of his companions.
But if there was some lack of wit there was none of heart in Sladen
and his men. With forty-five Boers to hold down, and 500 under
Fourie, De Wet, and De la Rey around them, the little band made
rapid preparation for a desperate resistance: the prisoners were
laid upon their faces, the men knocked loopholes in the mud walls
of the kraal, and a blunt soldierly answer was returned to the
demand for surrender.
But it was a desperate business. The attackers were five to one,
and the five were soldiers of De Wet, the hard-bitten veterans of a
hundred encounters. The captured wagons in a long double row
stretched out over the plain, and under this cover the Dutchmen
swarmed up to the kraal. But the men who faced them were veterans
also, and the defence made up for the disparity of numbers. With
fine courage the Boers made their way up to the village, and
established themselves in the outlying huts, but the Mounted
Infantry clung desperately to their position. Out of the few
officers present Findlay was shot through the head, Moir and
Cameron through the heart, and Strong through the stomach. It was a
Waggon Hill upon a small scale, two dour lines of skirmishers
emptying their rifles into each other at point-blank range. Once
more, as at Bothaville, the British Mounted Infantry proved that
when it came to a dogged pelting match they could stand punishment
longer than their enemy. They suffered terribly. Fifty-one out of
the little force were on the ground, and the survivors were not
much more numerous than their prisoners. To the 1st Gordons, the
2nd Bedfords, the South Australians, and the New South Welsh men
belongs the honour of this magnificent defence. For four hours the
fierce battle raged, until at last the parched and powder-stained
survivors breathed a prayer of thanks as they saw on the southern
horizon the vanguard of De Lisle riding furiously to the rescue.
For the last hour, since they had despaired of carrying the kraal,
the Boers had busied themselves in removing their convoy; but now,
for the second time in one day, the drivers found British rifles
pointed at their heads, and the oxen were turned once more and
brought back to those who had fought so hard to hold them.
Twenty-eight killed and twenty-six wounded were the losses in this
desperate affair.
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