On The 28th The Burghers Were Retreating, And
Machadodorp, Where Kruger Had Sat So Long In His Railway Carriage,
Protesting That He Would Eventually Move West And Not East, Was
Occupied By Buller.
French, moving on a more northerly route,
entered Watervalonder with his cavalry upon the same date, driving
a small Boer force before him.
Amid rain and mist the British
columns were pushing rapidly forwards, but still the burghers held
together, and still their artillery was uncaptured. The retirement
was swift, but it was not yet a rout.
On the 30th the British cavalry were within touch of Nooitgedacht,
and saw a glad sight in a long trail of ragged men who were
hurrying in their direction along the railway line. They were the
British prisoners, eighteen hundred in number, half of whom had
been brought from Waterval when Pretoria was captured, while the
other half represented the men who had been sent from the south by
De Wet, or from the west by De la Rey. Much allowance must be made
for the treatment of prisoners by a belligerent who is himself
short of food, but nothing can excuse the harshness which the Boers
showed to the Colonials who fell into their power, or the callous
neglect of the sick prisoners at Waterval. It is a humiliating but
an interesting fact that from first to last no fewer than seven
thousand of our men passed into their power, all of whom were now
recovered save some sixty officers, who had been carried off by
them in their flight.
On September 1st Lord Roberts showed his sense of the decisive
nature of these recent operations by publishing the proclamation
which had been issued as early as July 4th, by which the Transvaal
became a portion of the British Empire. On the same day General
Buller, who had ceased to advance to the east and retraced his
steps as far as Helvetia, began his northerly movement in the
direction of Lydenburg, which is nearly fifty miles to the north of
the railway line. On that date his force made a march of fourteen
miles, which brought them over the Crocodile River to Badfontein.
Here, on September 2nd, Buller found that the indomitable Botha was
still turning back upon him, for he was faced by so heavy a shell
fire, coming from so formidable a position, that he had to be
content to wait in front of it until some other column should
outflank it. The days of unnecessary frontal attacks were for ever
over, and his force, though ready for anything which might be asked
of it, had gone through a good deal in the recent operations. Since
August 21st they had been under fire almost every day, and their
losses, though never great on any one occasion, amounted in the
aggregate during that time to 365. They had crossed the Tugela,
they had relieved Ladysmith, they had forced Laing's Nek, and now
it was to them that the honour had fallen of following the enemy
into this last fastness.
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