From All Points Boer
Commandoes Were Converging Upon It, And Already It Was Understood
That The Guns At Their Command Were Heavier Than Any Which Could Be
Placed Against Them.
This was made more clear on October 21st, the
day after the battle, when the force, having withdrawn overnight
from the useless hill which they had captured, moved across to a
fresh position on the far side of the railway.
At four in the
afternoon a very heavy gun opened from a distant hill, altogether
beyond the extreme range of our artillery, and plumped shell after
shell into our camp. It was the first appearance of the great
Creusot. An officer with several men of the Leicesters, and some of
our few remaining cavalry, were bit. The position was clearly
impossible, so at two in the morning of the 22nd the whole force
was moved to a point to the south of the town of Dundee. On the
same day a reconnaissance was made in the direction of Glencoe
Station, but the passes were found to be strongly occupied, and the
little army marched back again to its original position. The
command had fallen to Colonel Yule, who justly considered that his
men were dangerously and uselessly exposed, and that his correct
strategy was to fall back, if it were still possible, and join the
main body at Ladysmith, even at the cost of abandoning the two
hundred sick and wounded who lay with General Symons in the
hospital at Dundee. It was a painful necessity, but no one who
studies the situation can have any doubt of its wisdom. The retreat
was no easy task, a march by road of some sixty or seventy miles
through a very rough country with an enemy pressing on every side.
Its successful completion without any loss or any demoralisation of
the troops is perhaps as fine a military exploit as any of our
early victories. Through the energetic and loyal co-operation of
Sir George White, who fought the actions of Elandslaagte and of
Rietfontein in order to keep the way open for them, and owing
mainly to the skillful guidance of Colonel Dartnell, of the Natal
Police, they succeeded in their critical manoeuvre. On October 23rd
they were at Beith, on the 24th at Waselibank Spruit, on the 25th
at Sunday River, and next morning they marched, sodden with rain,
plastered with mud, dog-tired, but in the best of spirits, into
Ladysmith amid the cheers of their comrades. A battle, six days
without settled sleep, four days without a proper meal, winding up
with a single march of thirty-two miles over heavy ground and
through a pelting rain storm - that was the record of the Dundee
column. They had fought and won, they had striven and toiled to the
utmost capacity of manhood, and the end of it all was that they had
reached the spot which they should never have left. But their
endurance could not be lost - no worthy deed is ever lost. Like the
light division, when they marched their fifty odd unbroken miles to
be present at Talavera, they leave a memory and a standard behind
them which is more important than success. It is by the tradition
of such sufferings and such endurance that others in other days are
nerved to do the like.
CHAPTER 6.
ELANDSLAAGTE AND RIETFONTEIN.
While the Glencoe force had struck furiously at the army of Lucas
Meyer, and had afterwards by hard marching disengaged itself from
the numerous dangers which threatened it, its comrades at Ladysmith
had loyally co-operated in drawing off the attention of the enemy
and keeping the line of retreat open.
On October 20th - the same day as the Battle of Talana Hill - the
line was cut by the Boers at a point nearly midway between Dundee
and Ladysmith. A small body of horsemen were the forerunners of a
considerable commando, composed of Freestaters, Transvaalers, and
Germans, who had advanced into Natal through Botha's Pass under the
command of General Koch. They had with them the two
Maxim-Nordenfelds which had been captured from the Jameson raiders,
and were now destined to return once more to British hands. Colonel
Schiel, the German artillerist, had charge of these guns.
On the evening of that day General French, with a strong
reconnoitering party, including the Natal Carabineers, the 5th
Lancers, and the 21st battery, had defined the enemy's position.
Next morning (the 21st) he returned, but either the enemy had been
reinforced during the night or he had underrated them the day
before, for the force which he took with him was too weak for any
serious attack. He had one battery of the Natal artillery, with
their little seven-pounder popguns, five squadrons of the Imperial
Horse, and, in the train which slowly accompanied his advance, half
a battalion of the Manchester Regiment. Elated by the news of
Talana Hill, and anxious to emulate their brothers of Dundee, the
little force moved out of Ladysmith in the early morning.
Some at least of the men were animated by feelings such as seldom
find a place in the breast of the British soldier as he marches
into battle. A sense of duty, a belief in the justice of his cause,
a love for his regiment and for his country, these are the common
incentives of every soldier. But to the men of the Imperial Light
Horse, recruited as they were from among the British refugees of
the Rand, there was added a burning sense of injustice, and in many
cases a bitter hatred against the men whose rule had weighed so
heavily upon them. In this singular corps the ranks were full of
wealthy men and men of education, who, driven from their peaceful
vocations in Johannesburg, were bent upon fighting their way back
to them again. A most unmerited slur had been cast upon their
courage in connection with the Jameson raid - a slur which they and
other similar corps have washed out for ever in their own blood and
that of their enemy.
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