The Chief Of These Was The Great
Drive Down The Eastern Transvaal Undertaken By Seven Columns Under
The Command Of French.
Before considering this, however, a few
words must be devoted to the doings of Methuen in the south-west.
This hard-working General, having garrisoned Zeerust and
Lichtenburg, had left his old district and journeyed with a force
which consisted largely of Bushmen and Yeomanry to the disturbed
parts of Bechuanaland which had been invaded by De Villiers. Here
he cleared the country as far as Vryburg, which he had reached in
the middle of January, working round to Kuruman and thence to
Taungs. From Taungs his force crossed the Transvaal border and made
for Klerksdorp, working through an area which had never been
traversed and which contained the difficult Masakani hills. He left
Taungs upon February 2nd, fighting skirmishes at Uitval's Kop,
Paardefontein and Lilliefontein, in each of which the enemy was
brushed aside. Passing through Wolmaranstad, Methuen turned to the
north, where at Haartebeestefontein, on February 19th, he fought a
brisk engagement with a considerable force of Boers under De
Villiers and Liebenberg. On the day before the fight he
successfully outwitted the Boers, for, learning that they had left
their laager in order to take up a position for battle, he pounced
upon the laager and captured 10,000 head of cattle, forty-three
wagons, and forty prisoners. Stimulated by this success, he
attacked the Boers next day, and after five hours of hard fighting
forced the pass which they were holding against him. As Methuen had
but 1500 men, and was attacking a force which was as large as his
own in a formidable position, the success was a very creditable
one. The Yeomanry all did well, especially the 5th and 10th
battalions. So also did the Australians and the Loyal North
Lancashires. The British casualties amounted to sixteen killed and
thirty-four wounded, while the Boers left eighteen of their dead
upon the position which they had abandoned. Lord Methuen's little
force returned to Klerksdorp, having deserved right well of their
country. From Klerksdorp Methuen struck back westwards to the south
of his former route, and on March 14th he was reported at
Warrenton. Here also in April came Erroll's small column, bringing
with it the garrison and inhabitants of Hoopstad, a post which it
had been determined, in accordance with Lord Kitchener's policy of
centralisation, to abandon.
In the month of January, 1901, there had been a considerable
concentration of the Transvaal Boers into that large triangle which
is bounded by the Delagoa railway line upon the north, the Natal
railway line upon the south, and the Swazi and Zulu frontiers upon
the east. The bushveld is at this season of the year unhealthy both
for man and beast, so that for the sake of their herds, their
families, and themselves the burghers were constrained to descend
into the open veld. There seemed the less objection to their doing
so since this tract of country, though traversed once both by
Buller and by French, had still remained a stronghold of the Boers
and a storehouse of supplies.
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