The Invading Force, The Numbers Of Which Could Not Have Exceeded
Some Few Thousands, Formidable Only For Their Mobility, Lapped
Round The More Powerful But Less Active Force At Estcourt, And
Struck Behind It At Its Communications.
There was for a day or two
some discussion as to a further retreat, but Hildyard, strengthened
by the advice and presence of Colonel Long, determined to hold his
ground.
On November 21st the raiding Boers were as far south as
Nottingham Road, a point thirty miles south of Estcourt and only
forty miles north of the considerable city of Pietermaritzburg. The
situation was serious. Either the invaders must be stopped, or the
second largest town in the colony would be in their hands. From all
sides came tales of plundered farms and broken households. Some at
least of the raiders behaved with wanton brutality. Smashed pianos,
shattered pictures, slaughtered stock, and vile inscriptions, all
exhibit a predatory and violent side to the paradoxical Boer
character. [Footnote: More than once I have heard the farmers in
the Free State acknowledge that the ruin which had come upon them
was a just retribution for the excesses of Natal.]
The next British post behind Hildyard's at Estcourt was Barton's
upon the Mooi River, thirty miles to the south. Upon this the Boers
made a half-hearted attempt, but Joubert had begun to realise the
strength of the British reinforcements and the impossibility with
the numbers at his disposal of investing a succession of British
posts. He ordered Botha to withdraw from Mooi River and begin his
northerly trek.
The turning-point of the Boer invasion of Natal was marked, though
we cannot claim that it was caused, by the action of Willow Grange.
This was fought by Hildyard and Walter Kitchener in command of the
Estcourt garrison, against about 2000 of the invaders under Louis
Botha. The troops engaged were the East and West Surreys (four
companies of the latter), the West Yorkshires, the Durban Light
Infantry, No. 7 battery R.F.A., two naval guns, and some hundreds
of Colonial Horse.
The enemy being observed to have a gun upon a hill within striking
distance of Estcourt, this force set out on November 22nd to make a
night attack and to endeavour to capture it. The hill was taken
without difficulty, but it was found that the gun had been removed.
A severe counter-attack was made at daylight by the Boers, and the
troops were compelled with no great loss and less glory to return
to the town. The Surreys and the Yorkshires behaved very well, but
were placed in a difficult position and were badly supported by the
artillery. Martyn's Mounted Infantry covered the retirement with
great gallantry, but the skirmish ended in a British loss of
fourteen killed and fifty wounded or missing, which was certainly
more than that of the Boers. From this indecisive action of Willow
Grange the Boer invasion receded until General Buller, coming to
the front on November 27th, found that the enemy was once more
occupying the line of the Tugela. He himself moved up to Frere,
where he devoted his time and energies to the collection of that
force with which he was destined, after three failures, to make his
way into Ladysmith.
One unexpected and little known result of the Boer expedition into
Southern Natal was that their leader, the chivalrous Joubert,
injured himself through his horse stumbling, and was physically
incapacitated for the remainder of the campaign. He returned almost
immediately to Pretoria, leaving the command of the Tugela in the
hands of Louis Botha.
Leaving Buller to organise his army at Frere, and the Boer
commanders to draw their screen of formidable defences along the
Tugela, we will return once more to the fortunes of the unhappy
town round which the interest of the world, and possibly the
destiny of the Empire, were centering. It is very certain that had
Ladysmith fallen, and twelve thousand British soldiers with a
million pounds' worth of stores fallen into the hands of the
invaders, we should have been faced with the alternative of
abandoning the struggle, or of reconquering South Africa from Cape
Town northwards. South Africa is the keystone of the Empire, and
for the instant Ladysmith was the keystone of South Africa. But the
courage of the troops who held the shell-torn townlet, and the
confidence of the public who watched them, never faltered for an
instant.
December 8th was marked by a gallant exploit on the part of the
beleaguered garrison. Not a whisper had transpired of the coming
sortie, and a quarter of an hour before the start officers engaged
had no idea of it. O si sic omnia! At ten o'clock a band of men
slipped out of the town. There were six hundred of them, all
irregulars, drawn from the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal
Carabineers, and the Border Mounted Rifles, under the command of
Hunter, youngest and most dashing of British Generals. Edwardes and
Boyston were the subcommanders. The men had no knowledge of where
they were going or what they had to do, but they crept silently
along under a drifting sky, with peeps of a quarter moon, over a
mimosa-shadowed plain. At last in front of them there loomed a dark
mass - it was Gun Hill, from which one of the great Creusots had
plagued them. A strong support (four hundred men) was left at the
base of the hill, and the others, one hundred Imperials, one
hundred Borders and Carabineers, ten Sappers, crept upwards with
Major Henderson as guide. A Dutch outpost challenged, but was
satisfied by a Dutch-speaking Carabineer. Higher and higher the men
crept, the silence broken only by the occasional slip of a stone or
the rustle of their own breathing. Most of them had left their
boots below. Even in the darkness they kept some formation, and the
right wing curved forward to outflank the defence. Suddenly a
Mauser crack and a spurt of flame - then another and another!
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