On July 1st Grenfell
Took Nearly A Hundred Of Beyers' Men With A Considerable Convoy.
North, South, East, And West The Tale Was Ever The Same, But So
Long As Botha, De La Rey, Steyn, And De Wet Remained Uncaptured,
The Embers Might Still At Any Instant Leap Into A Flame.
It only remains to complete this synopsis of the movements of
columns within the Transvaal that I should add that after the
conclusion of Blood's movement in July, several of his columns
continued to clear the country and to harass Viljoen in the
Lydenburg and Dulstroom districts.
Park, Kitchener, Spens, Beatson,
and Benson were all busy at this work, never succeeding in forcing
more than a skirmish, but continually whittling away wagons,
horses, and men from that nucleus of resistance which the Boer
leaders still held together.
Though much hampered by the want of forage for their horses, the
Boers were ever watchful for an opportunity to strike back, and the
long list of minor successes gained by the British was occasionally
interrupted by a petty reverse. Such a one befell the small body of
South African Constabulary stationed near Vereeniging, who
encountered upon July 13th a strong force of Boers supposed to be
the main commando of De Wet. The Constabulary behaved with great
gallantry but were hopelessly outnumbered, and lost their
seven-pounder gun, four killed, six wounded, and twenty-four
prisoners. Another small reverse occurred at a far distant point of
the seat of war, for the irregular corps known as Steinacker's
Horse was driven from its position at Bremersdorp in Swaziland upon
July 24th, and had to fall back sixteen miles, with a loss of ten
casualties and thirty prisoners.
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