But Duty Carried Them Through, And They Wrought
Better Than They Knew, For The Brave Dutchmen, Exasperated By So
Disproportionate A Resistance, Stormed Up To The Very Trenches And
Suffered As They Had Not Suffered For Many A Long Month.
There have
been battles with 10,000 British troops hotly engaged in which the
Boer losses have not been so great as in this obscure conflict
against an isolated post.
When at last, baffled and disheartened,
they drew off with the waning light, it is said that no fewer than
a hundred of their dead and two hundred of their wounded attested
the severity of the fight. So strange are the conditions of South
African warfare that this loss, which would have hardly made a
skirmish memorable in the slogging days of the Peninsula, was one
of the most severe blows which the burghers had sustained in the
course of a two years' warfare against a large and aggressive army.
There is a conflict of evidence as to the exact figures, but at
least they were sufficient to beat the Boer army back and to change
their plan of campaign.
Whilst this prolonged contest had raged round Fort Itala, a similar
attack upon a smaller scale was being made upon Fort Prospect, some
fifteen miles to the eastward. This small post was held by a
handful of Durham Artillery Militia and of Dorsets. The attack was
delivered by Grobler with several hundred burghers, but it made no
advance although it was pushed with great vigour, and repeated many
times in the course of the day. Captain Rowley, who was in command,
handled his men with such judgment that one killed and eight
wounded represented his casualties during a long day's fighting.
Here again the Boer losses were in proportion to the resolution of
their attack, and are said to have amounted to sixty killed and
wounded. Considering the impossibility of replacing the men, and
the fruitless waste of valuable ammunition, September 26th was an
evil day for the Boer cause. The British casualties amounted to
seventy-three.
The water of the garrison of Fort Itala had been cut off early in
the attack, and their ammunition had run low by evening. Chapman
withdrew his men and his guns therefore to Nkandhla, where the
survivors of his gallant garrison received the special thanks of
Lord Kitchener. The country around was still swarming with Boers,
and on the last day of September a convoy from Melmoth fell into
their hands and provided them with some badly needed supplies.
But the check which he had received was sufficient to prevent any
important advance upon the part of Botha, while the swollen state
of the rivers put an additional obstacle in his way. Already the
British commanders, delighted to have at last discovered a definite
objective, were hurrying to the scene of action. Bruce Hamilton had
reached Fort Itala upon September 28th and Walter Kitchener had
been despatched to Vryheid. Two British forces, aided by smaller
columns, were endeavouring to surround the Boer leader.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 391 of 435
Words from 202104 to 202613
of 225456
