Such A Proceeding
Must Have Seemed Natural To Any British Officer At This Stage Of
The War, When A Swift
Advance was the only chance of closing with
the small bodies of Boers; but it is strange that the Intelligence
Department had not warned the patrols upon the frontier that a
considerable force was coming down upon them, and that they should
be careful to avoid action against impossible odds. If Gough had
known that Botha's main commando was coming down upon him, it is
inconceivable that he would have pushed his advance until he could
neither extricate his men nor his guns. A small body of the enemy,
said to have been the personal escort of Louis Botha, led him on,
until a large force was able to ride down upon him from the flank
and rear. Surrounded at Scheepers Nek by many hundreds of riflemen
in a difficult country, there was no alternative but a surrender,
and so sharp and sudden was the Boer advance that the whole action
was over in a very short time. The new tactics of the Boers,
already used at Vlakfontein, and afterwards to be successful at
Brakenlaagte and at Tweebosch, were put in force. A large body of
mounted men, galloping swiftly in open order and firing from the
saddle, rode into and over the British. Such temerity should in
theory have met with severe punishment, but as a matter of fact the
losses of the enemy seem to have been very small. The soldiers were
not able to return an effective fire from their horses, and had no
time to dismount. The sights and breech-blocks of the two guns are
said to have been destroyed, but the former statement seems more
credible than the latter. A Colt gun was also captured. Of the
small force twenty were killed, forty wounded, and over two hundred
taken. Stewart's force was able to extricate itself with some
difficulty, and to fall back on the Drift. Gough managed to escape
that night and to report that it was Botha himself, with over a
thousand men, who had eaten up his detachment. The prisoners and
wounded were sent in a few days later to Vryheid, a town which
appeared to be in some danger of capture had not Walter Kitchener
hastened to carry reinforcements to the garrison. Bruce Hamilton
was at the same time despatched to head Botha off, and every step
taken to prevent his southern advance. So many columns from all
parts converged upon the danger spot that Lyttelton, who commanded
upon the Natal frontier, had over 20,000 men under his orders.
Botha's plans appear to have been to work through Zululand and then
strike at Natal, an operation which would be the more easy as it
would be conducted a considerable distance from the railway line.
Pushing on a few days after his successful action with Gough, he
crossed the Zulu frontier, and had in front of him an almost
unimpeded march as far as the Tugela.
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