This
left only a single regiment without guns for the defence of De Aar
and the valuable stores. A fairer mark for a dashing leader and a
raid of mounted riflemen was never seen. The chance passed,
however, as so many others of the Boers' had done. Early in
November Colesberg and Naauwpoort were abandoned by our small
detachments, who concentrated at De Aar. The Berkshires joined the
Yorkshire Light Infantry, and nine field guns arrived also. General
Wood worked hard at the fortifying of the surrounding kopjes, until
within a week the place had been made tolerably secure.
The first collision between the opposing forces at this part of the
seat of war was upon November 10th, when Colonel Gough of the 9th
Lancers made a reconnaissance from Orange River to the north with
two squadrons of his own regiment, the mounted infantry of the
Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Munsters, and the North
Lancashires, with a battery of field artillery. To the east of
Belmont, about fifteen miles off, he came on a detachment of the
enemy with a gun. To make out the Boer position the mounted
infantry galloped round one of their flanks, and in doing so passed
close to a kopje which was occupied by sharpshooters. A deadly fire
crackled suddenly out from among the boulders. Of six men hit four
were officers, showing how cool were the marksmen and how dangerous
those dress distinctions which will probably disappear hence
forwards upon the field of battle. Colonel Keith-Falconer of the
Northumberlands, who had earned distinction in the Soudan, was shot
dead. So was Wood of the North Lancashires. Hall and Bevan of the
Northumberlands were wounded. An advance by train of the troops in
camp drove back the Boers and extricated our small force from what
might have proved a serious position, for the enemy in superior
numbers were working round their wings. The troops returned to camp
without any good object having been attained, but that must be the
necessary fate of many a cavalry reconnaissance.
On November 12th Lord Methuen arrived at Orange River and proceeded
to organise the column which was to advance to the relief of
Kimberley. General Methuen had had some previous South African
experience when in 1885 he had commanded a large body of irregular
horse in Bechuanaland. His reputation was that of a gallant
fearless soldier. He was not yet fifty-five years of age.
The force which gradually assembled at Orange River was formidable
rather from its quality than from its numbers. It included a
brigade of Guards (the 1st Scots Guards, 3rd Grenadiers, and 1st
and 2nd Coldstreams), the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry, the 2nd
Northamptons, the 1st Northumberlands, and a wing of the North
Lancashires whose comrades were holding out at Kimberley, with a
naval brigade of seamen gunners and marines.
