These Incidents Tend, However, To Shake The
Belief That Scouting Is Better Performed In The Colonial Than In
The Regular Forces.
Of the Boer attacks upon British posts to which allusion has been
made, that upon Belfast, in the early morning of January 7th,
appears to have been very gallantly and even desperately pushed.
On
the same date a number of smaller attacks, which may have been
meant simply as diversions, were made upon Wonderfontein,
Nooitgedacht, Wildfontein, Pan, Dalmanutha, and Machadodorp. These
seven separate attacks, occurring simultaneously over sixty miles,
show that the Boer forces were still organised and under one
effective control. The general object of the operations was
undoubtedly to cut Lord Roberts's communications upon that side and
to destroy a considerable section of the railway.
The town of Belfast was strongly held by Smith-Dorrien, with 1750
men, of which 1300 were infantry belonging to the Royal Irish, the
Shropshires, and the Gordons. The perimeter of defence, however,
was fifteen miles, and each little fort too far from its neighbour
for mutual support, though connected with headquarters by
telephone. It is probable that the leaders and burghers engaged in
this very gallant attack were in part the same as those concerned
in the successful attempt at Helvetia upon December 29th, for the
assault was delivered in the same way, at the same hour, and
apparently with the same primary object. This was to gain
possession of the big 5-inch gun, which is as helpless by night as
it is formidable by day. At Helvetia they attained their object and
even succeeded not merely in destroying, but in removing their
gigantic trophy. At Belfast they would have performed the same feat
had it not been for the foresight of General Smith-Dorrien, who had
the heavy gun trundled back into the town every night.
The attack broke first upon Monument Hill, a post held by Captain
Fosbery with eighty-three Royal Irish. Chance or treason guided the
Boers to the weak point of the wire entanglement and they surged
into the fort, where the garrison fought desperately to hold its
own. There was thick mist and driving rain; and the rush of vague
and shadowy figures amid the gloom was the first warning of the
onslaught. The Irishmen were overborne by a swarm of assailants,
but they nobly upheld their traditional reputation. Fosbery met his
death like a gallant gentleman, but not more heroically than Barry,
the humble private, who, surrounded by Boers, thought neither of
himself nor of them, but smashed at the maxim gun with a pickaxe
until he fell riddled with bullets. Half the garrison were on the
ground before the post was carried.
A second post upon the other side of the town was defended by
Lieutenant Marshall with twenty men, mostly Shropshires. For an
hour they held out until Marshall and nine out of his twelve
Shropshires had been hit. Then this post also was carried.
The Gordon Highlanders held two posts to the southeast and to the
south-west of the town, and these also were vigorously attacked.
Here, however, the advance spent itself without result.
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