On The Other Hand, The South African Government Displayed The
Same Stupidity Or Treason Which Had Been Exhibited In The Case Of
Kimberley, And Had Met All Demands For Guns And Reinforcements With
Foolish Doubts As To The Need Of Such Precautions.
In the endeavour
to supply these pressing wants the first small disaster of the
campaign was encountered.
On October 12th, the day after the
declaration of war, an armoured train conveying two 7-pounders for
the Mafeking defences was derailed and captured by a Boer raiding
party at Kraaipan, a place forty miles south of their destination.
The enemy shelled the shattered train until after five hours
Captain Nesbitt, who was in command, and his men, some twenty in
number, surrendered. It was a small affair, but it derived
importance from being the first blood shed and the first tactical
success of the war.
The garrison of the town, whose fame will certainly live in the
history of South Africa, contained no regular soldiers at all with
the exception of the small group of excellent officers. They
consisted of irregular troops, three hundred and forty of the
Protectorate Regiment, one hundred and seventy Police, and two
hundred volunteers, made up of that singular mixture of
adventurers, younger sons, broken gentlemen, and irresponsible
sportsmen who have always been the voortrekkers of the British
Empire. These men were of the same stamp as those other admirable
bodies of natural fighters who did so well in Rhodesia, in Natal,
and in the Cape.
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