On That Road Bridge And On The Pontoon
Bridge At Norval's Pont Lord Roberts's Army Was For A Whole Month
Dependent For Their Supplies.
On March 15th Gatacre's force passed over into the Orange Free
State, took possession of Bethulie, and sent on the cavalry to
Springfontein, which is the junction where the railways from Cape
Town and from East London meet.
Here they came in contact with two
battalions of Guards under Pole-Carew, who had been sent down by
train from Lord Roberts's force in the north. With Roberts at
Bloemfontein, Gatacre at Springfontein, Clements in the south-west,
and Brabant at Aliwal, the pacification of the southern portion of
the Free State appeared to be complete. Warlike operations seemed
for the moment to be at an end, and scattered parties traversed the
country, 'bill-sticking,' as the troops called it - that is,
carrying Lord Roberts's proclamation to the lonely farmhouses and
outlying villages.
In the meantime the colonial division of that fine old African
fighter, General Brabant, had begun to play its part in the
campaign. Among the many judicious arrangements which Lord Roberts
made immediately after his arrival at the Cape was the assembling
of the greater part of the scattered colonial bands into one
division, and placing over it a General of their own, a man who had
defended the cause of the Empire both in the legislative assembly
and the field. To this force was entrusted the defence of the
country lying to the east of Gatacre's position, and on February
15th they advanced from Penhoek upon Dordrecht. Their Imperial
troops consisted of the Royal Scots and a section of the 79th
R.F.A., the Colonial of Brabant's Horse, the Kaffrarian Mounted
Rifles, the Cape Mounted Rifles and Cape Police, with Queenstown
and East London Volunteers. The force moved upon Dordrecht, and on
February 18th occupied the town after a spirited action, in which
Brabant's Horse played a distinguished part. On March 4th the
division advanced once more with the object of attacking the Boer
position at Labuschagne's Nek, some miles to the north.
Aided by the accurate fire of the 79th R.F.A., the colonials
succeeded, after a long day of desultory fighting, in driving the
enemy from his position. Leaving a garrison in Dordrecht Brabant
followed up his victory and pushed forward with two thousand men
and eight guns (six of them light 7-pounders) to occupy Jamestown,
which was done without resistance. On March 10th the colonial force
approached Aliwal, the frontier town, and so rapid was the advance
of Major Henderson with Brabant's Horse that the bridge at Aliwal
was seized before the enemy could blow it up. At the other side of
the bridge there was a strong stand made by the enemy, who had
several Krupp guns in position; but the light horse, in spite of a
loss of some twenty-five men killed and wounded, held on to the
heights which command the river.
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