Considering That These Tactics Were
Continued For Over A Year, And That They Resulted In The Death Or
Mutilation Of
Many hundreds of British officers and men, it is
really inexplicable that the British authorities did not employ the
means
Used by all armies under such circumstances - which is to
place hostages upon the trains. A truckload of Boers behind every
engine would have stopped the practice for ever. Again and again in
this war the British have fought with the gloves when their
opponents used their knuckles.
We will pass now to a consideration of the doings of General Paget,
who was operating to the north and north-east of Pretoria with a
force which consisted of two regiments of infantry, about a
thousand horsemen, and twelve guns. His mounted men were under the
command of Plumer. In the early part of November this force had
been withdrawn from Warm Baths and had fallen back upon Pienaar's
River, where it had continual skirmishes with the enemy. Towards
the end of November, news having reached Pretoria that the enemy
under Erasmus and Viljoen were present in force at a place called
Rhenoster Kop, which is about twenty miles north of the Delagoa
Railway line and fifty miles north-east of the capital, it was
arranged that Paget should attack them from the south, while
Lyttelton from Middelburg should endeavour to get behind them. The
force with which Paget started upon this enterprise was not a very
formidable one. He had for mounted troops some Queensland, South
Australian, New Zealand, and Tasmanian Bushmen, together with the
York, Montgomery, and Warwick Yeomanry. His infantry were the 1st
West Riding regiment and four companies of the Munsters. His guns
were the 7th and 38th batteries, with two naval quick-firing
twelve-pounders and some smaller pieces. The total could not have
exceeded some two thousand men. Here, as at other times, it is
noticeable that in spite of the two hundred thousand soldiers whom
the British kept in the field, the lines of communication absorbed
so many that at the actual point of contact they were seldom
superior and often inferior in numbers to the enemy. The opening of
the Natal and Delagoa lines though valuable in many ways, had been
an additional drain. Where every culvert needs its picket and every
bridge its company, the guardianship of many hundreds of miles of
rail is no light matter.
In the early morning of November 29th Paget's men came in contact
with the enemy, who were in some force upon an admirable position.
A ridge for their centre, a flanking kopje for their cross fire,
and a grass glacis for the approach - it was an ideal Boer
battlefield. The colonials and the yeomanry under Plumer on the
left, and Hickman on the right, pushed in upon them, until it was
evident that they meant to hold their ground. Their advance being
checked by a very severe fire, the horsemen dismounted and took
such cover as they could.
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