No Impression Was Made Upon The Position, However,
And The Double Attack Seems To Have Cost The Boers A Large Number
Of Casualties.
Another incident calling for some mention was the determined attack
made by the Boers upon the town of Vryheid, in the extreme
south-east of the Transvaal near the Natal border.
Throughout
November this district had been much disturbed, and the small
British garrison had evacuated the town and taken up a position on
the adjacent hills. Upon December 11th the Boers attempted to carry
the trenches. The garrison of the town appears to have consisted of
the 2nd Royal Lancaster regiment, some five hundred strong, a party
of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 150 strong, and fifty men of the Royal
Garrison Artillery, with a small body of mounted infantry. They
held a hill about half a mile north of the town, and commanding it.
The attack, which was a surprise in the middle of the night, broke
upon the pickets of the British, who held their own in a way which
may have been injudicious but was certainly heroic. Instead of
falling back when seriously attacked, the young officers in charge
of these outposts refused to move, and were speedily under such a
fire that it was impossible to reinforce them. There were four
outposts, under Woodgate, Theobald, Lippert, and Mangles. The
attack at 2.15 on a cold dark morning began at the post held by
Woodgate, the Boers coming hand-to-hand before they were detected.
Woodgate, who was unarmed at the instant, seized a hammer, and
rushed at the nearest Boer, but was struck by two bullets and
killed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 637 of 842
Words from 170477 to 170751
of 225456
