CHAPTER 20.
ROBERTS'S ADVANCE ON BLOEMFONTEIN.
The surrender of Cronje had taken place on February 27th,
obliterating for ever the triumphant memories which the Boers had
for twenty years associated with that date. A halt was necessary to
provide food for the hungry troops, and above all to enable the
cavalry horses to pick up. The supply of forage had been most
inadequate, and the beasts had not yet learned to find a living
from the dry withered herbage of the veld. [Footnote: A battery
which turned out its horses to graze found that the puzzled
creatures simply galloped about the plain, and could only be
reassembled by blowing the call which they associated with feeding,
when they rushed back and waited in lines for their nosebags to be
put on.] In addition to this, they had been worked most desperately
during the fortnight which had elapsed. Lord Roberts waited
therefore at Osfontein, which is a farmhouse close to Paardeberg,
until his cavalry were fit for an advance. On March 6th he began
his march for Bloemfontein.
The force which had been hovering to the south and east of him
during the Paardeberg operations had meanwhile been reinforced from
Colesberg and from Ladysmith until it had attained considerable
proportions. This army, under the leadership of De Wet, had taken
up a strong position a few miles to the east, covering a
considerable range of kopjes. On March 3rd a reconnaissance was
made of it, in which some of our guns were engaged; but it was not
until three days later that the army advanced with the intention of
turning or forcing it. In the meantime reinforcements had been
arriving in the British camp, derived partly from the regiments
which had been employed at other points during these operations,
and partly from newcomers from the outer Empire. The Guards came up
from Klip Drift, the City Imperial Volunteers, the Australian
Mounted Infantry, the Burmese Mounted Infantry and a detachment of
light horse from Ceylon helped to form this strange invading army
which was drawn from five continents and yet had no alien in its
ranks.
The position which the enemy had taken up at Poplars Grove (so
called from a group of poplars round a farmhouse in the centre of
their position) extended across the Modder River and was buttressed
on either side by well-marked hills, with intermittent kopjes
between. With guns, trenches, rifle pits, and barbed wire a
bull-headed general might have found it another Magersfontein. But
it is only just to Lord Roberts's predecessors in command to say
that it is easy to do things with three cavalry brigades which it
is difficult to do with two regiments. The ultimate blame does not
rest with the man who failed with the two regiments, but with those
who gave him inadequate means for the work which he had to do. And
in this estimate of means our military authorities, our
politicians, and our public were all in the first instance equally
mistaken.
Lord Roberts's plan was absolutely simple, and yet, had it been
carried out as conceived, absolutely effective. It was not his
intention to go near any of that entanglement of ditch and wire
which had been so carefully erected for his undoing. The weaker
party, if it be wise, atones for its weakness by entrenchments. The
stronger party, if it be wise, leaves the entrenchments alone and
uses its strength to go round them. Lord Roberts meant to go round.
With his immense preponderance of men and guns the capture or
dispersal of the enemy's army might be reduced to a certainty. Once
surrounded, they must either come out into the open or they must
surrender.
On March 6th the cavalry were brought across the river, and in the
early morning of March 7th they were sent off in the darkness to
sweep round the left wing of the Boers and to establish themselves
on the line of their retreat. Kelly-Kenny's Division (6th) had
orders to follow and support this movement. Meanwhile Tucker was to
push straight along the southern bank of the river, though we may
surmise that his instructions were, in case of resistance, not to
push his attack home. Colvile's 9th Division, with part of the
naval brigade, were north of the river, the latter to shell the
drifts in case the Boers tried to cross, and the infantry to
execute a turning movement which would correspond with that of the
cavalry on the other flank.
The plan of action was based, however, upon one supposition which
proved to be fallacious. It was that after having prepared so
elaborate a position the enemy would stop at least a little time to
defend it. Nothing of the sort occurred, however, and on the
instant that they realised that the cavalry was on their flank they
made off. The infantry did not fire a shot.
The result of this very decisive flight was to derange all
calculations entirely. The cavalry was not yet in its place when
the Boer army streamed off between the kopjes. One would have
thought, however, that they would have had a dash for the wagons
and the guns, even if they were past them. It is unfair to
criticise a movement until one is certain as to the positive orders
which the leader may have received; but on the face of it it is
clear that the sweep of our cavalry was not wide enough, and that
they erred by edging to the left instead of to the right, so
leaving the flying enemies always to the outside of them.
As it was, however, there seemed every possibility of their getting
the guns, but De Wet very cleverly covered them by his skirmishers.
Taking possession of a farmhouse on the right flank they kept up a
spirited fire upon the 16th Lancers and upon P battery R.H.A. When
at last the latter drove them out of their shelter, they again
formed upon a low kopje and poured so galling a fire upon the right
wing that the whole movement was interrupted until we had driven
this little body of fifty men from their position. When, after a
delay of an hour, the cavalry at last succeeded in dislodging
them--or possibly it may be fairer to say when, having accomplished
their purpose, they retired--the guns and wagons were out of reach,
and, what is more important, the two Presidents, both Steyn and
Kruger, who had come to stiffen the resistance of the burghers, had
escaped.
Making every allowance for the weary state of the horses, it is
impossible to say that our cavalry were handled with energy or
judgment on this occasion. That such a force of men and guns should
be held off from an object of such importance by so small a
resistance reflects no credit upon us. It would have been better to
repeat the Kimberley tactics and to sweep the regiments in extended
order past the obstacle if we could not pass over it. At the other
side of that little ill-defended kopje lay a possible termination
of the war, and our crack cavalry regiments manoeuvred for hours
and let it pass out of their reach. However, as Lord Roberts
good-humouredly remarked at the end of the action, 'In war you
can't expect everything to come out right.' General French can
afford to shed one leaf from his laurel wreath. On the other hand,
no words can be too high for the gallant little band of Boers who
had the courage to face that overwhelming mass of horsemen, and to
bluff them into regarding this handful as a force fighting a
serious rearguard action. When the stories of the war are told
round the fires in the lonely veld farmhouses, as they will be for
a century to come, this one deserves an honoured place.
The victory, if such a word can apply to such an action, had cost
some fifty or sixty of the cavalry killed and wounded, while it is
doubtful if the Boers lost as many. The finest military display on
the British side had been the magnificent marching of Kelly-Kenny's
6th Division, who had gone for ten hours with hardly a halt. One
9-pound Krupp gun was the only trophy. On the other hand, Roberts
had turned them out of their strong position, had gained twelve or
fifteen miles on he road to Bloemfontein, and for the first time
shown how helpless a Boer army was in country which gave our
numbers a chance. From now onwards it was only in surprise and
ambuscade that they could hope for a success. We had learned and
they had learned that they could not stand in the open field.
The action of Poplars Grove was fought on March 7th. On the 9th the
army was again on its way, and on the 10th it attacked the new
position which the Boers had occupied at a place called
Driefontein, or Abram's Kraal. They covered a front of some seven
miles in such a formation that their wings were protected, the
northern by the river and the southern by flanking bastions of hill
extending for some distance to the rear. If the position had been
defended as well as it had been chosen, the task would have been a
severe one.
Since the Modder covered the enemy's right the turning movement
could only be developed on their left, and Tucker's Division was
thrown out very wide on that side for the purpose. But in the
meanwhile a contretemps had occurred which threw out and seriously
hampered the whole British line of battle. General French was in
command of the left wing, which included Kelly-Kenny's Division,
the first cavalry brigade, and Alderson's Mounted Infantry. His
orders had been to keep in touch with the centre, and to avoid
pushing his attack home. In endeavouring to carry out these
instructions French moved his men more and more to the right, until
he had really squeezed in between the Boers and Lord Roberts's
central column, and so masked the latter. The essence of the whole
operation was that the frontal attack should not be delivered until
Tucker had worked round to the rear of the position. It is for
military critics to decide whether it was that the flankers were
too slow or the frontal assailants were too fast, but it is certain
that Kelly-Kenny's Division attacked before the cavalry and the 7th
Division were in their place. Kelly-Kenny was informed that the
position in front of him had been abandoned, and four regiments,
the Buffs, the Essex, the Welsh, and the Yorkshires, were advanced
against it. They were passing over the open when the crash of the
Mauser fire burst out in front of them, and the bullets hissed and
thudded among the ranks. The ordeal was a very severe one. The
Yorkshires were swung round wide upon the right, but the rest of
the brigade, the Welsh Regiment leading, made a frontal attack upon
the ridge. It was done coolly and deliberately, the men taking
advantage of every possible cover. Boers could be seen leaving
their position in small bodies as the crackling, swaying line of
the British surged ever higher upon the hillside. At last, with a
cheer, the Welshmen with their Kent and Essex comrades swept over
the crest into the ranks of that cosmopolitan crew of sturdy
adventurers who are known as the Johannesburg Police. For once the
loss of the defence was greater than that of the attack. These
mercenaries had not the instinct which teaches the Boer the right
instant for flight, and they held their position too long to get
away. The British had left four hundred men on the track of that
gallant advance, but the vast majority of them were wounded--too
often by those explosive or expansive missiles which make war more
hideous. Of the Boers we actually buried over a hundred on the
ridge, and their total casualties must have been considerably in
excess of ours.
The action was strategically well conceived; all that Lord Roberts
could do for complete success had been done; but tactically it was
a poor affair, considering his enormous preponderance in men and
guns. There was no glory in it, save for the four regiments who set
their faces against that sleet of lead. The artillery did not do
well, and were browbeaten by guns which they should have smothered
under their fire. The cavalry cannot be said to have done well
either. And yet, when all is said, the action is an important one,
for the enemy were badly shaken by the result. The Johannesburg
Police, who had been among their corps d'elite, had been badly
mauled, and the burghers were impressed by one more example of the
impossibility of standing in anything approaching to open country
against disciplined troops, Roberts had not captured the guns, but
the road had been cleared for him to Bloemfontein and, what is more
singular, to Pretoria; for though hundreds of miles intervene
between the field of Driefontein and the Transvaal capital, he
never again met a force which was willing to look his infantry in
the eyes in a pitched battle. Surprises and skirmishes were many,
but it was the last time, save only at Doornkop, that a chosen
position was ever held for an effective rifle fire--to say nothing
of the push of bayonet.
And now the army flowed swiftly onwards to the capital. The
indefatigable 6th Division, which had done march after march, one
more brilliant than another, since they had crossed the Riet River,
reached Asvogel Kop on the evening of Sunday, March 11th, the day
after the battle. On Monday the army was still pressing onwards,
disregarding all else and striking straight for the heart as
Blucher struck at Paris in 1814. At midday they halted at the farm
of Gregorowski, he who had tried the Reform prisoners after the
Raid. The cavalry pushed on down Kaal Spruit, and in the evening
crossed the Southern railway line which connects Bloemfontein with
the colony, cutting it at a point some five miles from the town. In
spite of some not very strenuous opposition from a Boer force a
hill was seized by a squadron of Greys with some mounted infantry
and Rimington's Guides, aided by U battery R.H.A., and was held by
them all that night.
On the same evening Major Hunter-Weston, an officer who had already
performed at least one brilliant feat in the war, was sent with
Lieutenant Charles and a handful of Mounted Sappers and Hussars to
cut the line to the north. After a difficult journey on a very dark
night he reached his object and succeeded in finding and blowing up
a culvert. There is a Victoria Cross gallantry which leads to
nothing save personal decoration, and there is another and far
higher gallantry of calculation, which springs from a cool brain as
well as a hot heart, and it is from the men who possess this rare
quality that great warriors arise. Such feats as the cutting of
this railway or the subsequent saving of the Bethulie Bridge by
Grant and Popham are of more service to the country than any degree
of mere valour untempered by judgment. Among other results the
cutting of the line secured for us twenty-eight locomotives, two
hundred and fifty trucks, and one thousand tons of coal, all of
which were standing ready to leave Bloemfontein station. The
gallant little band were nearly cut off on their return, but fought
their way through with the loss of two horses, and so got back in
triumph.
The action of Driefontein was fought on the 10th. The advance began
on the morning of the 11th. On the morning of the 13th the British
were practically masters of Bloemfontein. The distance is forty
miles. No one can say that Lord Roberts cannot follow a victory up
as well as win it.
Some trenches had been dug and sangars erected to the north-west of
the town; but Lord Roberts, with his usual perverseness, took the
wrong turning and appeared upon the broad open plain to the south,
where resistance would have been absurd. Already Steyn and the
irreconcilables had fled from the town, and the General was met by
a deputation of the Mayor, the Landdrost, and Mr. Fraser to tender
the submission of the capital. Fraser, a sturdy clear-headed
Highlander, had been the one politician in the Free State who
combined a perfect loyalty to his adopted country with a just
appreciation of what a quarrel A l'outrance with the British Empire
would mean. Had Fraser's views prevailed, the Orange Free State
would still exist as a happy and independent State. As it is, he
may help her to happiness and prosperity as the prime minister of
the Orange River Colony.
It was at half-past one on Tuesday, March 13th, that General
Roberts and his troops entered Bloemfontein, amid the acclamations
of many of the inhabitants, who, either to propitiate the victor,
or as a sign of their real sympathies, had hoisted union jacks upon
their houses. Spectators have left it upon record how from all that
interminable column of yellow-clad weary men, worn with half
rations and whole-day marches, there came never one jeer, never one
taunting or exultant word, as they tramped into the capital of
their enemies. The bearing of the troops was chivalrous in its
gentleness, and not the least astonishing sight to the inhabitants
was the passing of the Guards, the dandy troops of England, the
body-servants of the great Queen. Black with sun and dust,
staggering after a march of thirty-eight miles, gaunt and haggard,
with their clothes in such a state that decency demanded that some
of the men should be discreetly packed away in the heart of the
dense column, they still swung into the town with the aspect of
Kentish hop-pickers and the bearing of heroes. She, the venerable
mother, could remember the bearded ranks who marched past her when
they came with sadly thinned files back from the Crimean winter;
even those gallant men could not have endured more sturdily, nor
have served her more loyally, than these their worthy descendants.
It was just a month after the start from Ramdam that Lord Roberts
and his army rode into the enemy's capital. Up to that period we
had in Africa Generals who were hampered for want of troops, and
troops who were hampered for want of Generals. Only when the
Commander-in-Chief took over the main army had we soldiers enough,
and a man who knew how to handle them. The result was one which has
not only solved the question of the future of South Africa, but has
given an illustration of strategy which will become classical to
the military student. How brisk was the course of events, how
incessant the marching and fighting, may be shown by a brief
recapitulation. On February 13th cavalry and infantry were marching
to the utmost capacity of men and horses. On the 14th the cavalry
were halted, but the infantry were marching hard. On the 15th the
cavalry covered forty miles, fought an action, and relieved
Kimberley. On the 16th the cavalry were in pursuit of the Boer guns
all day, and were off on a thirty-mile march to the Modder at
night, while the infantry were fighting Cronje's rearguard action,
and closing up all day. On the 17th the infantry were marching
hard. On the 18th was the battle of Paardeberg. From the 19th to
the 27th was incessant fighting with Cronje inside the laager and
with De Wet outside. From the 28th to March 6th was rest. On March
7th was the action of Poplars Grove with heavy marching; on March
10th the battle of Driefontein. On the 11th and 12th the infantry
covered forty miles, and on the 13th were in Bloemfontein. All this
was accomplished by men on half-rations, with horses which could
hardly be urged beyond a walk, in a land where water is scarce and
the sun semi-tropical, each infantryman carrying a weight of nearly
forty pounds. There are few more brilliant achievements in the
history of British arms. The tactics were occasionally faulty, and
the battle of Paardeberg was a blot upon the operations; but the
strategy of the General and the spirit of the soldier were alike
admirable.
