The 1st Royal Irish
Fusiliers Were On Their Way To Reinforce It, And Arrived Before The
First Action.
Altogether the Glencoe camp contained some four
thousand men.
The main body of the army remained at Ladysmith. These consisted of
the 1st Devons, the 1st Liverpools, and the 2nd Gordon Highlanders,
with the 1st Gloucesters, the 2nd King's Royal Rifles, and the 2nd
Rifle Brigade, reinforced later by the Manchesters. The cavalry
included the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 5th Lancers, a detachment of
19th Hussars, the Natal Carabineers, the Natal Mounted Police, and
the Border Mounted Rifles, reinforced later by the Imperial Light
Horse, a fine body of men raised principally among the refugees
from the Rand. For artillery there were the 21st, 42nd, and 53rd
batteries of field artillery, and No. 10 Mountain Battery, with the
Natal Field Artillery, the guns of which were too light to be of
service, and the 23rd Company of Royal Engineers. The whole force,
some eight or nine thousand strong, was under the immediate command
of Sir George White, with Sir Archibald Hunter, fresh from the
Soudan, General French, and General Ian Hamilton as his
lieutenants.
The first shock of the Boers, then, must fall upon 4000 men. If
these could be overwhelmed, there were 8000 more to be defeated or
masked. Then what was there between them and the sea? Some
detachments of local volunteers, the Durban Light Infantry at
Colenso, and the Natal Royal Rifles, with some naval volunteers at
Estcourt. With the power of the Boers and their mobility it is
inexplicable how the colony was saved. We are of the same blood,
the Boers and we, and we show it in our failings. Over-confidence
on our part gave them the chance, and over-confidence on theirs
prevented them from instantly availing themselves of it. It passed,
never to come again.
The outbreak of war was upon October 11th. On the 12th the Boer
forces crossed the frontier both on the north and on the west. On
the 13th they occupied Charlestown at the top angle of Natal. On
the 15th they had reached Newcastle, a larger town some fifteen
miles inside the border. Watchers from the houses saw six miles of
canvas-tilted bullock wagons winding down the passes, and learned
that this was not a raid but an invasion. At the same date news
reached the British headquarters of an advance from the western
passes, and of a movement from the Buffalo River on the east. On
the 13th Sir George White had made a reconnaissance in force, but
had not come in touch with the enemy. On the 15th six of the Natal
Police were surrounded and captured at one of the drifts of the
Buffalo River. On the 18th our cavalry patrols came into touch with
the Boer scouts at Acton Homes and Besters Station, these being the
voortrekkers of the Orange Free State force. On the 18th also a
detachment was reported from Hadders Spruit, seven miles north of
Glencoe Camp. The cloud was drifting up, and it could not be long
before it would burst.
Two days later, on the early morning of October 20th, the forces
came at last into collision. At half-past three in the morning,
well before daylight, the mounted infantry picket at the junction
of the roads from Landmans and Vants Drifts was fired into by the
Doornberg commando, and retired upon its supports. Two companies of
the Dublin Fusiliers were sent out, and at five o'clock on a fine
but misty morning the whole of Symons's force was under arms with
the knowledge that the Boers were pushing boldly towards them. The
khaki-clad lines of fighting men stood in their long thin ranks
staring up at the curves of the saddle-back hills to the north and
east of them, and straining their eyes to catch a glimpse of the
enemy. Why these same saddle-back hills were not occupied by our
own people is, it must be confessed, an insoluble mystery. In a
hollow on one flank were the 18th Hussars and the mounted infantry.
On the other were the eighteen motionless guns, limbered up and
ready, the horses fidgeting and stamping in the raw morning air.
And then suddenly - could that be they? An officer with a telescope
stared intently and pointed. Another and another turned a steady
field glass towards the same place. And then the men could see
also, and a little murmur of interest ran down the ranks.
A long sloping hill - Talana Hill - olive-green in hue, was
stretching away in front of them. At the summit it rose into a
rounded crest. The mist was clearing, and the curve was
hard-outlined against the limpid blue of the morning sky. On this,
some two and a half miles or three miles off, a little group of
black dots had appeared. The clear edge of the skyline had become
serrated with moving figures. They clustered into a knot, then
opened again, and then -
There had been no smoke, but there came a long crescendo hoot,
rising into a shrill wail. The shell hummed over the soldiers like
a great bee, and sloshed into soft earth behind them. Then
another - and yet another - and yet another. But there was no time to
heed them, for there was the hillside and there the enemy. So at it
again with the good old murderous obsolete heroic tactics of the
British tradition! There are times when, in spite of science and
book-lore, the best plan is the boldest plan, and it is well to fly
straight at your enemy's throat, facing the chance that your
strength may fail before you can grasp it. The cavalry moved off
round the enemy's left flank. The guns dashed to the front,
unlimbered, and opened fire. The infantry were moved round in the
direction of Sandspruit, passing through the little town of Dundee,
where the women and children came to the doors and windows to cheer
them.
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