Nearer and nearer came the strangers, and
suddenly throwing off all disguise, they made a dash for the guns.
Four rounds of case failed to stop them, and in a few minutes they
were over the kopje on which the guns stood and had ridden among
the gunners, supported in their attack by a flank fire from a
number of dismounted riflemen.
The instant that the danger was realised Damant, his staff, and the
forty Yeomen who formed the escort dashed for the crest in the hope
of anticipating the Boers. So rapid was the charge of the others
that they had overwhelmed the gunners before the supports could
reach the hill, and the latter found themselves under the deadly
fire of the Boer rifles from above. Damant was hit in four places,
all of his staff were wounded, and hardly a man of the small body
of Yeomanry was left standing. Nothing could exceed their
gallantry. Gaussen their captain fell at their head. On the ridge
the men about the guns were nearly all killed or wounded. Of the
gun detachment only two men remained, both of them hit, and
Jeffcoat their dying captain bequeathed them fifty pounds each in a
will drawn upon the spot. In half an hour the centre of the British
line had been absolutely annihilated. Modern warfare is on the
whole much less bloody than of old, but when one party has gained
the tactical mastery it is a choice between speedy surrender and
total destruction.
The wide-spread British wings had begun to understand that there
was something amiss, and to ride in towards the centre. An officer
on the far right peering through his glasses saw those tell-tale
puffs at the very muzzles of the British guns, which showed that
they were firing case at close quarters. He turned his squadron
inwards and soon gathered up Scott's squadron of Damant's Horse,
and both rode for the kopje. Rimington's men were appearing on the
other side, and the Boers rode off. They were unable to remove the
guns which they had taken, because all the horses had perished. 'I
actually thought,' says one officer who saw them ride away, 'that I
had made a mistake and been fighting our own men. They were dressed
in our uniforms and some of them wore the tiger-skin, the badge of
Damant's Horse, round their hats.' The same officer gives an
account of the scene on the gun-kopje. 'The result when we got to
the guns was this, gunners all killed except two (both wounded),
pom-pom officers and men all killed, maxim all killed, 91st (the
gun escort) one officer and one man not hit, all the rest killed or
wounded; staff, every officer hit.' That is what it means to those
who are caught in the vortex of the cyclone. The total loss was
about seventy-five.
In this action the Boers, who were under the command of Wessels,
delivered their attack with a cleverness and dash which deserved
success. Their stratagem, however, depending as it did upon the use
of British uniforms and methods, was illegitimate by all the laws
of war, and one can but marvel at the long-suffering patience of
officers and men who endured such things without any attempt at
retaliation. There is too much reason to believe also, that
considerable brutality was shown by those Boers who carried the
kopje, and the very high proportion of killed to wounded among the
British who lay there corroborates the statement of the survivors
that several were shot at close quarters after all resistance had
ceased.
This rough encounter of Tafelkop was followed only four days later
by a very much more serious one at Tweefontein, which proved that
even after two years of experience we had not yet sufficiently
understood the courage and the cunning of our antagonist. The
blockhouse line was being gradually extended from Harrismith to
Bethlehem, so as to hold down this turbulent portion of the
country. The Harrismith section had been pushed as far as
Tweefontein, which is nine miles west of Elands River Bridge, and
here a small force was stationed to cover the workers. This column
consisted of four squadrons of the 4th Imperial Yeomanry, one gun
of the 79th battery, and one pom-pom, the whole under the temporary
command of Major Williams of the South Staffords, Colonel Firmin
being absent.
Knowing that De Wet and his men were in the neighbourhood, the camp
of the Yeomen had been pitched in a position which seemed to secure
it against attack. A solitary kopje presented a long slope to the
north, while the southern end was precipitous. The outposts were
pushed well out upon the plain, and a line of sentries was placed
along the crest. The only precaution which seems to have been
neglected was to have other outposts at the base of the southern
declivity. It appears to have been taken for granted, however, that
no attack was to be apprehended from that side, and that in any
case it would be impossible to evade the vigilance of the sentries
upon the top.
Of all the daring and skilful attacks delivered by the Boers during
the war there is certainly none more remarkable than this one. At
two o'clock in the morning of a moonlight night De Wet's forlorn
hope assembled at the base of the hill and clambered up to the
summit. The fact that it was Christmas Eve may conceivably have had
something to do with the want of vigilance upon the part of the
sentries. In a season of good will and conviviality the rigour of
military discipline may insensibly relax.
