There Are Two Bridges Which Span The Broad Muddy Orange River,
Thick With The Washings Of The Basutoland Mountains.
One of these
is the magnificent high railway bridge, already blown to ruins by
the retreating Boers.
Dead men or shattered horses do not give a
more vivid impression of the unrelenting brutality of war than the
sight of a structure, so graceful and so essential, blown into a
huge heap of twisted girders and broken piers. Half a mile to the
west is the road bridge, broad and old-fashioned. The only hope of
preserving some mode of crossing the difficult river lay in the
chance that the troops might anticipate the Boers who were about to
destroy this bridge.
In this they were singularly favoured by fortune. On the arrival of
a small party of scouts and of the Cape Police under Major
Nolan-Neylan at the end of the bridge it was found that all was
ready to blow it up, the mine sunk, the detonator fixed, and the
wire laid. Only the connection between the wire and the charge had
not been made. To make sure, the Boers had also laid several boxes
of dynamite under the last span, in case the mine should fail in
its effect. The advance guard of the Police, only six in number,
with Nolan-Neylan at their head, threw themselves into a building
which commanded the approaches of the bridge, and this handful of
men opened so spirited and well-aimed a fire that the Boers were
unable to approach it. As fresh scouts and policemen came up they
were thrown into the firing line, and for a whole long day they
kept the destroyers from the bridge. Had the enemy known how weak
they were and how far from supports, they could have easily
destroyed them, but the game of bluff was admirably played, and a
fire kept up which held the enemy to their rifle pits.
The Boers were in a trench commanding the bridge, and their brisk
fire made it impossible to cross. On the other hand, our rifle fire
commanded the mine and prevented any one from exploding it. But at
the approach of darkness it was certain that this would be done.
The situation was saved by the gallantry of young Popham of the
Derbyshires, who crept across with two men and removed the
detonators. There still remained the dynamite under the further
span, and this also they removed, carrying it off across the bridge
under a heavy fire. The work was made absolutely complete a little
later by the exploit of Captain Grant of the Sappers, who drew the
charges from the holes in which they had been sunk, and dropped
them into the river, thus avoiding the chance that they might be
exploded next morning by shell fire. The feat of Popham and of
Grant was not only most gallant but of extraordinary service to the
country; but the highest credit belongs to Nolan-Neylan, of the
Police, for the great promptitude and galantry of his attack, and
to McNeill for his support.
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