In Spite Of This Annoying Check, French Continued To Pursue His
Original Design Of Holding The Enemy In Front And Working Round Him
On The East.
On January 9th, Porter, of the Carabineers, with his
own regiment, two squadrons of Household Cavalry, the New
Zealanders,
The New South Wales Lancers, and four guns, took
another step forward and, after a skirmish, occupied a position
called Slingersfontein, still further to the north and east, so as
to menace the main road of retreat to Norval's Pont. Some
skirmishing followed, but the position was maintained. On the 15th
the Boers, thinking that this long extension must have weakened us,
made a spirited attack upon a position held by New Zealanders and a
company of the 1st Yorkshires, this regiment having been sent up to
reinforce French. The attempt was met by a volley and a bayonet
charge. Captain Orr, of the Yorkshires, was struck down; but
Captain Madocks, of the New Zealanders, who behaved with
conspicuous gallantry at a critical instant, took command, and the
enemy was heavily repulsed. Madocks engaged in a point-blank rifle
duel with the frock-coated top-hatted Boer leader, and had the good
fortune to kill his formidable opponent. Twenty-one Boer dead and
many wounded left upon the field made a small set-off to the
disaster of the Suffolks.
The next day, however (January 16th), the scales of fortune, which
swung alternately one way and the other, were again tipped against
us. It is difficult to give an intelligible account of the details
of these operations, because they were carried out by thin fringes
of men covering on both sides a very large area, each kopje
occupied as a fort, and the intervening plains patrolled by
cavalry.
As French extended to the east and north the Boers extended also to
prevent him from outflanking them, and so the little armies
stretched and stretched until they were two long mobile skirmishing
lines. The actions therefore resolve themselves into the encounters
of small bodies and the snapping up of exposed patrols - a game in
which the Boer aptitude for guerrilla tactics gave them some
advantage, though our own cavalry quickly adapted themselves to the
new conditions. On this occasion a patrol of sixteen men from the
South Australian Horse and New South Wales Lancers fell into an
ambush, and eleven were captured. Of the remainder, three made
their way back to camp, while one was killed and one was wounded.
The duel between French on the one side and Schoeman and Lambert on
the other was from this onwards one of maneuvering rather than of
fighting. The dangerously extended line of the British at this
period, over thirty miles long, was reinforced, as has been
mentioned, by the 1st Yorkshire and later by the 2nd Wiltshire and
a section of the 37th Howitzer Battery. There was probably no very
great difference in numbers between the two little armies, but the
Boers now, as always, were working upon internal lines. The
monotony of the operations was broken by the remarkable feat of the
Essex Regiment, which succeeded by hawsers and good-will in getting
two 15-pounder guns of the 4th Field Battery on to the top of
Coleskop, a hill which rises several hundred feet from the plain
and is so precipitous that it is no small task for an unhampered
man to climb it. From the summit a fire, which for some days could
not be localised by the Boers, was opened upon their laagers, which
had to be shifted in consequence. This energetic action upon the
part of our gunners may be set off against those other examples
where commanders of batteries have shown that they had not yet
appreciated what strong tackle and stout arms can accomplish. The
guns upon Coleskop not only dominated all the smaller kopjes for a
range of 9000 yards, but completely commanded the town of
Colesberg, which could not however, for humanitarian and political
reasons, be shelled.
By gradual reinforcements the force under French had by the end of
January attained the respectable figure of ten thousand men, strung
over a large extent of country. His infantry consisted of the 2nd
Berkshires, 1st Royal Irish, 2nd Wiltshires, 2nd Worcesters, 1st
Essex, and 1st Yorkshires; his cavalry, of the 10th Hussars, the
6th Dragoon Guards, the Inniskillings, the New Zealanders, the N.S.
W. Lancers, some Rimington Guides, and the composite Household
Regiment; his artillery, the R and O batteries of R.H.A., the 4th
R.F.A., and a section of the 37th Howitzer Battery. At the risk of
tedium I have repeated the units of this force, because there are
no operations during the war, with the exception perhaps of those
of the Rhodesian Column, concerning which it is so difficult to get
a clear impression. The fluctuating forces, the vast range of
country covered, and the petty farms which give their names to
positions, all tend to make the issue vague and the narrative
obscure. The British still lay in a semicircle extending from
Slingersfontein upon the right to Kloof Camp upon the left, and the
general scheme of operations continued to be an enveloping movement
upon the right. General Clements commanded this section of the
forces, while the energetic Porter carried out the successive
advances. The lines had gradually stretched until they were nearly
fifty miles in length, and something of the obscurity in which the
operations have been left is due to the impossibility of any single
correspondent having a clear idea of what was occurring over so
extended a front.
On January 25th French sent Stephenson and Brabazon to push a
reconnaissance to the north of Colesberg, and found that the Boers
were making a fresh position at Rietfontein, nine miles nearer
their own border. A small action ensued, in which we lost ten or
twelve of the Wiltshire Regiment, and gained some knowledge of the
enemy's dispositions. For the remainder of the month the two forces
remained in a state of equilibrium, each keenly on its guard, and
neither strong enough to penetrate the lines of the other.
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