This Movement Was Carried Out On The Night Of February 15th, And
Had It Been A Little Quicker It Might Have Been Concluded Before We
Were Aware Of It.
But the lumbering wagons impeded it, and on the
Friday morning, February 16th, a huge rolling cloud of dust
On the
northern veld, moving from west to east, told our outposts at Klip
Drift that Cronje's army had almost slipped through our fingers.
Lord Kitchener, who was in command at Klip Drift at the moment,
instantly unleashed his mounted infantry in direct pursuit, while
Knox's brigade sped along the northern bank of the river to cling
on to the right haunch of the retreating column. Cronje's men had
made a night march of thirty miles from Magersfontein, and the
wagon bullocks were exhausted. It was impossible, without an
absolute abandonment of his guns and stores, for him to get away
from his pursuers.
This was no deer which they were chasing, however, but rather a
grim old Transvaal wolf, with his teeth flashing ever over his
shoulder. The sight of those distant white-tilted wagons fired the
blood of every mounted infantryman, and sent the Oxfords, the
Buffs, the West Ridings, and the Gloucesters racing along the river
bank in the glorious virile air of an African morning. But there
were kopjes ahead, sown with fierce Dopper Boers, and those
tempting wagons were only to be reached over their bodies. The
broad plain across which the English were hurrying was suddenly
swept with a storm of bullets. The long infantry line extended yet
further and lapped round the flank of the Boer position, and once
more the terrible duet of the Mauser and the Lee-Metford was sung
while the 81st field battery hurried up in time to add its deep
roar to their higher chorus. With fine judgment Cronje held on to
the last moment of safety, and then with a swift movement to the
rear seized a further line two miles off, and again snapped back at
his eager pursuers. All day the grim and weary rearguard stalled
off the fiery advance of the infantry, and at nightfall the wagons
were still untaken. The pursuing force to the north of the river
was, it must be remembered, numerically inferior to the pursued, so
that in simply retarding the advance of the enemy and in giving
other British troops time to come up, Knox's brigade was doing
splendid work. Had Cronje been well advised or well informed, he
would have left his guns and wagons in the hope that by a swift
dash over the Modder he might still bring his army away in safety.
He seems to have underrated both the British numbers and the
British activity.
On the night then of Friday, February 16th, Cronje lay upon the
northern bank of the Modder, with his stores and guns still intact,
and no enemy in front of him, though Knox's brigade and Hannay's
Mounted Infantry were behind. It was necessary for Cronje to cross
the river in order to be on the line for Bloemfontein.
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