Very Many - Too Many - British Soldiers
Have Known By Experience What It Is To Fall Into The Hands Of The
Enemy, and it must be confessed that on the whole they have been
dealt with in no ungenerous spirit, while
The British treatment of
the Boers has been unexampled in all military history for its
generosity and humanity. That so fair a tale should be darkened by
such ruffianly outrages is indeed deplorable, but the incident is
too well authenticated to be left unrecorded in any detailed
account of the campaign. General Dixon, finding the Boers very
numerous all round him, and being hampered by his wounded, fell
back upon Naauwpoort, which he reached on June 1st.
In May, Sir Bindon Blood, having returned to the line to refit,
made yet another cast through that thrice-harried belt of country
which contains Ermelo, Bethel, and Carolina, in which Botha,
Viljoen, and the fighting Boers had now concentrated. Working over
the blackened veld he swung round in the Barberton direction, and
afterwards made a westerly drive in conjunction with small columns
commanded by Walter Kitchener, Douglas, and Campbell of the Rifles,
while Colville, Garnett, and Bullock co-operated from the Natal
line. Again the results were disappointing when compared with the
power of the instrument employed. On July 5th he reached Springs,
near Johannesburg, with a considerable amount of stock, but with no
great number of prisoners. The elusive Botha had slipped away to
the south and was reported upon the Zululand border, while Viljoen
had succeeded in crossing the Delagoa line and winning back to his
old lair in the district north of Middelburg, from which he had
been evicted in April. The commandos were like those pertinacious
flies which buzz upwards when a hand approaches them, but only to
settle again in the same place. One could but try to make the place
less attractive than before.
Before Viljoen's force made its way over the line it had its
revenge for the long harrying it had undergone by a well-managed
night attack, in which it surprised and defeated a portion of
Colonel Beatson's column at a place called Wilmansrust, due south
of Middelburg, and between that town and Bethel. Beatson had
divided his force, and this section consisted of 850 of the 5th
Victorian Mounted Rifles, with thirty gunners and two pom-poms, the
whole under the command of Major Morris. Viljoen's force trekking
north towards the line came upon this detachment upon June 12th.
The British were aware of the presence of the enemy, but do not
appear to have posted any extra outposts or taken any special
precautions. Long months of commando chasing had imbued them too
much with the idea that these were fugitive sheep, and not fierce
and wily wolves, whom they were endeavouring to catch. It is said
that 700 yards separated the four pickets. With that fine eye for
detail which the Boer leaders possess, they had started a veld fire
upon the west of the camp and then attacked from the east, so that
they were themselves invisible while their enemies were silhouetted
against the light.
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