Colvile With The Highland Brigade Had Come Up From Ventersburg With
Instructions To Move Onward To Heilbron, Pacifying The Country As
He Passed.
The country, however, refused to be pacified, and his
march from Ventersburg to Lindley was harassed by snipers every
mile of the way.
Finding that De Wet and his men were close upon
him, he did not linger at Lindley, but passed on to his
destination, his entire march of 126 miles costing him sixty-three
casualties, of which nine were fatal. It was a difficult and
dangerous march, especially for the handful of Eastern Province
Horse, upon whom fell all the mounted work. By evil fortune a force
of five hundred Yeomanry, the 18th battalion, including the Duke of
Cambridge's Own and the Irish companies, had been sent from
Kroonstad to join Colvile at Lindley. Colonel Spragge was in
command. On May 27th this body of horsemen reached their
destination only to find that Colvile had already abandoned it.
They appear to have determined to halt for a day in Lindley, and
then follow Colvile to Heilbron. Within a few hours of their
entering the town they were fiercely attacked by De Wet.
Colonel Spragge seems to have acted for the best. Under a heavy
fire he caused his troopers to fall back upon his transport, which
had been left at a point a few miles out upon the Kroonstad Road,
where three defensible kopjes sheltered a valley in which the
cattle and horses could be herded. A stream ran through it. There
were all the materials there for a stand which would have brought
glory to the British arms. The men were of peculiarly fine quality,
many of them from the public schools and from the universities, and
if any would fight to the death these with their sporting spirit
and their high sense of honour might have been expected to do so.
They had the stronger motive for holding out, as they had taken
steps to convey word of their difficulty to Colvile and to Methuen.
The former continued his march to Heilbron, and it is hard to blame
him for doing so, but Methuen on hearing the message, which was
conveyed to him at great personal peril by Corporal Hankey of the
Yeomanry, pushed on instantly with the utmost energy, though he
arrived too late to prevent, or even to repair, a disaster. It must
be remembered that Colvile was under orders to reach Heilbron on a
certain date, that he was himself fighting his way, and that the
force which he was asked to relieve was much more mobile than his
own. His cavalry at that date consisted of 100 men of the Eastern
Province Horse.
Colonel Spragge's men had held their own for the first three days
of their investment, during which they had been simply exposed to a
long-range rifle fire which inflicted no very serious loss upon
them. Their principal defence consisted of a stone kraal about
twenty yards square, which sheltered them from rifle bullets, but
must obviously be a perfect death-trap in the not improbable event
of the Boers sending for artillery.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 272 of 435
Words from 140774 to 141300
of 225456
