paardeberg and ladysmith
pibroch of donuil dhu, pibroch of donuil,
wake thy wild voice anew, summon clan conuil.
come away, come away, hark to the summons!
come in your war array, gentles and commons!
regimental march.
in the meantime various engagements had taken place elsewhere, and a curious condition of stalemate was gradually setting in, during which the british troops kept in touch with large bodies of boers, but were in most cases quite unable to advance and relieve the beleaguered townships of ladysmith, mafeking, and kimberley. the whole situation gradually formed itself for the long-awaited advance of sir redvers buller, with all its unfortunate contingencies. but we must first deal with the engagement at stormberg. it has been narrated, in a former chapter, how general gatacre—or general ‘backacher,’ as he was called in the service—was the first to reach the thorny entanglements of the dervish camp at the atbara. he was a man of the greatest bravery, but by no means a skilful general, relying solely upon the courage of the british soldier. in a country like south africa, where a pound of personal bravery was not always as fruitful as an ounce of strategy, optimism of this kind was only overloading a willing horse. it was magnificent, but it could not stop a rifle bullet at a thousand yards. unfortunately, too, the forces under general gatacre had been largely drawn upon for the assistance of lord methuen and buller. on the night of december 9 he discovered that the boers were in position at stormberg, and with his little force of 3000 men set out for a night march, intending to storm the boer trenches at dawn. the whole scheme of attack, on a lesser scale, was painfully similar to that at magersfontein. it was so splendidly obvious.
by the time the men had come within reach of the boer position they were so tired they could hardly drag their feet along. to gatacre fatigue was nothing. at the break of the dawn he alone was full of zeal and courage, and spurred on by dread of a reverse to storm the position. unfortunately it was the boers who opened fire on the british, when a deadlock instantly ensued. it was difficult to carry the hill under such conditions; for on such occasions, when aeroplanes did not guide artillery fire, our own guns played as much havoc among our own infantry as among the boers.
in a similar plight at dargai the gordons carried the position and enabled their comrades to move; but here it was impossible to extricate the men, and this led to a miserable surrender of a good many and the forlorn retreat of the rest.
gatacre fell back after the action, and was shortly reinforced, but the incident had in no way improved matters for the prestige of the british arms. within a week methuen had suffered a crushing reverse at magersfontein while gatacre had been again beaten.
fortunately by this time great numbers of troops were arriving in south africa, and soon after sir redvers buller prepared for the crossing of the tugela river. on friday, december 15, he advanced from chieveley camp to storm the boer position. it was the first step towards ladysmith. as none of the highland regiments took part in this action, it is merely necessary to record that the battle of colenso took place, and despite the heroism of the british soldiers, and in particular the irish brigade, the action was lost, and our troops, after a loss of 600, fell back on chieveley camp.
the first advance to the relief of ladysmith had been severely and ignominiously checked.
the christmas of 1899 was as black as any through which our nation has passed. the repeated defeats of the british forces flung a gloom over the country that for a moment almost paralysed it. more and more troops had been despatched to south africa, and numbers only seemed to magnify our disasters. at such a moment britain turned to her sons in this country and throughout the empire.
but it was necessary to do more than raise new armies: the whole country required reassurance, and the name of one man instantly rose before the public mind. when lord roberts was asked to take supreme command in south africa, with kitchener as his chief of staff, he accepted with the same readiness that sir colin campbell displayed at the time of the indian mutiny. “it is god’s will,” said roberts, now heartbroken at the death of his son, and two days before christmas he left london for the front.
his very name was half the battle, for, to recall the familiar lines:
there is something that’s audacious
in the very name of ‘bobs,’
there’s a dare and dash about it
makes you sort of want to shout it,
so that all the world can hear it
as you cheer.
on january 10, 1900, he landed at cape town, and appreciated at once the extreme gravity of the situation. the successes of the boers were encouraging signs of revolt amongst the cape colonists, and to crush these symptoms at once roberts set out towards the orange free state, anxious at the same time to distract the pressure upon kimberley and ladysmith. but there were many other things to do. in such a country as south africa great numbers of mounted troops were a necessity. no attempt had been made so far to work upon the material that was already to hand. regiments were formed of south african colonists, and mounted forces such as the yeomanry and the australian and canadian horse were to prove one of the most potent influences in the later stages of the campaign.
in the meantime there was continued bad news from the seat of war. again buller had attempted to cross the tugela river, and had met with utter defeat. the forlorn capture of spion kop, with a loss of men amounting to forty per cent, had only proved a futile engagement and a barren victory.
buller, who was courageous as a lion, admitted that his heart failed him after spion kop, and that he feared the relief of ladysmith had become an impossibility. but roberts telegraphed to him that whatever the cost might be, ladysmith must be relieved. in the meantime roberts set out upon the road to bloemfontein with the hope of relieving kimberley by the end of february. on february 8 he reached methuen’s camp on the modder river, and knowing so well how sore the highland brigade must feel over the disaster at magersfontein, he made them a little speech stating that he had never campaigned without highlanders, and hoped he would never do so, and it was the highlanders in india and afghanistan who had brought him his success. he then wired to kimberley the three words that were to mean so much, “we are coming.”
it was all like a rushing of clean wind in a parched land. now for the first time the boers found themselves baffled as to the intentions and plans of a british leader. they had hitherto taken it for granted—and rightly so—that they would be forewarned of every move that was to take place, and had acted accordingly. lord roberts gave them the impression that bloemfontein was his objective. instead, on february 12 he instructed general french to make a dash on kimberley, while he would follow with the infantry. french, the only general to make his reputation in south africa, and almost the only one who did not lose it, set out with his cavalry, made his way round the boer position, and pierced the boer lines. then, hastening on, he broke through the enemy, and that same evening entered kimberley.
the genius of french was even more apparent at koodoostrand drift, where he cut off cronje’s retreat toward bloemfontein. it was a piece of military daring as great as the sudden appearance of montrose at inverlochy, or jackson at manasses junction. speedily cronje entrenched his men, but the arrival of the infantry rendered his ultimate surrender inevitable.
inside the laager cronje, despite the bitter recriminations of the boers, did his best to put up a stout resistance, while outside our troops crept nearer night by night, until on february 27—the anniversary of majuba—the gordon highlanders, to whom such a task was naturally very acceptable, advanced upon the boer trenches under a heavy fire, and won a position controlling the inside of the laager. cronje, realising that further resistance was impracticable, sent in a notice of his surrender to lord roberts. the meeting of the boer commander and the hero of kandahar must have been one of the most graphic incidents in the war. an eye-witness has narrated: “presently the body of horsemen came past the hospital tents into the camp. a heavy bundle of a man was lumped atop of a wretched bony little boer pony. was this the terrible cronje? was it possible that this was the man who had held back the british army at magersfontein?... lord roberts stepped forward, saluted, shook hands, and handed his fallen enemy a chair: ‘you have made a gallant defence, sir; i am glad to meet so brave a foe,’ was his greeting.”
thus within a brief fortnight roberts had entirely altered the whole aspect of the war. he had inflicted a heavy defeat upon the boers, relieved kimberley, and captured cronje, together with 4000 men. from now onwards his swift advance, his unerring judgment, and the services of his mounted troops not merely gave fresh heart to the empire, but broke the confidence of the enemy.
we must now return to ladysmith. it was on october 30, 1899, after the humiliating disaster at nicholson’s nek—a disaster that can be compared to the surrender of the duke of york’s troops in flanders in the eighteenth century, that sir george white made what preparations he could to defend the town of ladysmith. on november 2 the last train had left, and the long siege commenced.
white had some 10,000 men under his command, and although the boer commandos numbered a very large force, the defenders managed to give throughout the siege of four months an exceedingly good account of themselves. ladysmith was a place of considerable military importance, and it would have been a signal disaster if it had fallen into the boer hands with so large a number of men. at the same time it was a very difficult position to hold, being commanded from every side by kopjes, and lying, as it were, in a saucer. the gordon highlanders, who were the only representatives of the highland brigade to serve in the siege, were old comrades-in-arms to white. he had led them in the advance upon kabul and kandahar. with him was sir ian hamilton, who had been with the 92nd at majuba.
from november 3 onwards the progress of the siege was marked by daily fighting and increasingly short rations. each regiment was given a certain section of the circumference to defend. time dragged on, until by the beginning of december, news came that buller had reached frere camp, while, in the far distance, could be heard the booming of his guns. later, it was borne in upon the garrison that the british force must have suffered a reverse, and that relief was probably farther away than ever.
enteric and typhoid were thinning out the ranks, food was running short, and things began to look very hopeless when, in the first gleam of light on january 6, 1900, the enemy launched a formidable attack. the defeat of buller had enabled the boers to send reinforcements from colenso. they were full of confidence, and at the initial assault carried everything before them. it very soon became a case of hand-to-hand fighting, in which the gordons were called up with ian hamilton in command. the boers were determined to capture ladysmith, knowing the great moral effect that would be produced following upon their victory at colenso. the manchesters, nearly overcome at caesar’s camp, put up a magnificent resistance, until the gordons came up. it was in this advance that colonel dick-cunyngham was killed.
the british were determined that their positions should never be taken by the enemy while they survived, and in one place defended by sixteen of the manchesters, at the end of the day fourteen lay killed, the remaining two out of action. throughout that day this fierce fighting continued, until at last the devons, with the gordons and the rifles, cleared the ridge of the enemy. it had been touch and go, but at the last extremity the boers could not face the gleaming steel of the bayonet, and a few minutes later were falling back from their trenches. a fight lasting for twenty-six hours was over at last. “but the end,” says sir arthur conan doyle, “was not yet. the boer had taken a risk over this venture, and now he had to pay the stakes. down the hill he passed, crouching, darting, but the spruits behind him were turned into swirling streams, and as he hesitated for an instant upon the brink, the relentless sleet of bullets came from behind. many were swept away down the gorges and into the klip river, never again to be accounted for in the lists of their field cornet. the majority splashed through, found their horses in their shelter, and galloped off across the great bulwana plain, as fairly beaten in as fair a fight as ever brave men were yet.”
this was the final attempt to take ladysmith by storm, and it cost the british 13 officers and 135 men killed, with 28 officers and 244 men wounded.
meanwhile it had been rumoured that ladysmith was on the point of surrender, but the famous heliograph had bravely answered, “we have not come to that yet,” and, indeed, rather than hand over their arms the garrison would have fought their way towards the tugela. each day found things more desperate, and relief came only in time. buller drove his way to within a few miles of the town, and in the heart of the battle sent his message, “doing well.” it was in the night of february 28 that the boers could be heard saddling up and leaving pieter’s hill, and just before dawn lord dundonald, accompanied by some cavalry, reached the british lines.
“halt! who goes there?” rang out the familiar challenge, at which the dramatic and long-prayed-for answer was returned, “the ladysmith relief column.” quickly the news spread through the town, the good tidings that after all they had passed through, their defence had not been in vain.
the sentiment that was uppermost both in the minds of the garrison and throughout the empire was best expressed by sir george white himself. “i thank god we have kept the flag flying,” he said in his address to the soldiers; and it is recorded that an old kaffir woman remarked as she watched the troops entering ladysmith, “these english can conquer all things but death.”
after the siege 2000 of the garrison, refusing to take a well-deserved and altogether necessary rest, set out upon the tracks of the retreating boers, surely one of the most pitiful spectacles in history. “it is god’s mercy,” wrote sir arthur conan doyle, “that they failed to overtake them.”
mafeking and bloemfontein were the only towns still to be relieved, and the former suffered from no shortage of food.
to return to the highland brigade, we have not dealt with the part that they took in the advance upon kimberley. with the hope that he would distract the boers, roberts despatched the black watch, the argyll and sutherlands, the seaforths, and the highland light infantry, with hector macdonald, popularly known as ‘fighting mac,’ at their head. macdonald crossed the modder river, seized koodoosberg, and sustained an attack from the boers the next day. for a long time it fell to the black watch to resist the furious onslaught of the enemy, who were by no means satisfied to leave the situation undisputed. it was here that lieutenant tait—one of the most popular men in scotland—was mortally wounded. there is an interesting letter that not only records his death, but also shows how the highland soldiers had fallen into the manner of boer fighting. a private writes: “i got down beside our officer, lieutenant tait, on his right hand. he said, ‘now, men, we will fight them at their own game.’ that meant that each man was to get behind a rock and just pop up to fire and then down again. and we found it a good way, for we were just as good as they were at it, and we did not forget to let them know it either, for whenever one showed himself, down he went with half a dozen bullets through him. after firing for about half an hour the boers stopped, and the order was given not to waste our shot. lieutenant tait’s servant came up with his dinner, and he asked me if i would like a bit, and i said i would, and thanked him very much. he gave me and another man half of his dinner between us.... just as we finished he said, ‘i think we will advance another fifty yards, and perhaps we will see them better and be able to give it them hot.’ we all got ready again, and lieutenant tait shouted, ‘now, boys! we were after him like hares. the boers had seen us, and they gave us a hot time of it. but on we went. just as our officer shouted to get down he was shot.”
lieutenant tait was one of the most beloved men in scotland. thousands had seen him upon the green, and few in scotland could read of his death without a sense of personal bereavement. in the middle of june 1915 another eminent golfer of equal fame and no less popularity, captain john graham, of the liverpool scottish, was fated to give his life for his country. no two finer men and finer sportsmen ever brought fairer honour to the name of scotland in peace and war.
the action continued all day, and eventually, on the approach of the 9th lancers, the boers fell back and the highland brigade returned to the modder river, having lost some fifty men. there followed afterwards the relief of kimberley, and from thence onwards to the end of the war the part taken by the highlanders was peculiarly arduous and without many distinguished features. month after month they were employed in hard marching, holding positions that the mounted troops had carried, uncomplaining as always, and winning back here and there some of the losses that they had suffered at the hands of the enemy at magersfontein. we have seen how the gordons were instrumental in the capture of cronje, despite the heavy fire with which they were met from the boer trenches, and it is a notable fact that the highland brigade, for all their handling at magersfontein, appear to have suffered in no way in prestige, and were only too anxious to make good. “on the 18th,” says general colville, speaking of the end of cronje, “the courage and determination shown by the highland brigade in their advance over some fifteen hundred yards of perfectly open plain, and their passage of the river, both under heavy fire, are beyond all praise.”