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THE GREAT BOER WAR
the Gordons, though shot through the eyes and totally blind, encouraged his men to charge through a group of the enemy who had
gathered round them. After this victory Hamilton’s men, who had
fought for seven days out of ten, halted for a rest at Jacobsrust, where
they were joined by Broadwood’s cavalry and Bruce Hamilton’s infantry brigade. Ian Hamilton’s column now contained two infantry
brigades (Smith-Dorrien’s and Bruce Hamilton’s), Ridley’s Mounted Infantry, Broadwood’s Cavalry Brigade, fi ve batteries of artillery,
two heavy guns, altogether 13,000 men. With this force in constant
touch with Botha’s rearguard, Ian Hamilton pushed on once more
on May 4th. On May 5th he fought a brisk cavalry skirmish, in which
Kitchener’s Horse and the 12th Lancers distinguished themselves,
and on the same day he took possession of Winburg, thus covering
the right of Lord Roberts’s great advance.
The distribution of the troops on the eastern side of the Free
State was, at the time of this the fi nal advance of the main army,
as follows – Ian Hamilton with his mounted infantry, Smith-Dorrien’s brigade, Macdonald’s brigade, Bruce Hamilton’s brigade, and
Broadwood’s cavalry were at Winburg. Rundle was at Thabanchu,
and Brabant’s colonial division was moving up to the same point.
Chermside was at Dewetsdorp, and had detached a force under Lord
Castletown to garrison Wepener. Hart occupied Smithfi eld, whence
he and his brigade were shortly to be transferred to the Kimberley
force. Altogether there could not have been fewer than thirty thousand men engaged in clearing and holding down this part of the
country. French’s cavalry and Pole-Carew’s division had returned to
take part in the central advance.
Before entering upon a description of that great and decisiv e
movement, one small action calls for comment. This was the cutting
off of twenty men of Lumsden’s Horse in a reconnaissance at Karee.
The small post under Lieutenant Crane found themselves by some
371
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
misunderstanding isolated in the midst of the enemy. Refusing to
hoist the fl ag of shame, they fought their way out, losing half their
number, while of the other half it is said that there was not one who
could not show bullet marks upon his clothes or person. The men
of this corps, volunteer Anglo-Indians, had abandoned the ease and
even luxury of Eastern life for the hard fare and rough fi ghting of
this most trying campaign. In coming they had set the whole empire
an object-lesson in spirit, and now on their fi rst fi eld they set the
army an example of military virtue. The proud traditions of Outram’s Volunteers have been upheld by the men of Lumsden’s Horse.
Another minor action which cannot be ignored is the defence of
a convoy on April 29th by the Derbyshire Yeomanry (Major Dugdale) and a company of the Scots Guards. The wagons were on their
way to Rundle when they were attacked at a point about ten miles
west of Thabanchu. The small guard beat off their assailants in the
most gallant fashion, and held their own until relieved by Brabazon
upon the following morning.
This phase of the war was marked by a certain change in the
temper of the British. Nothing could have been milder than the
original intentions and proclamations of Lord Roberts, and he was
most ably seconded in his attempts at conciliation by General Pretyman, who had been made civil administrator of the State. There
was evidence, however, that this kindness had been construed as
weakness by some of the burghers, and during the Boer incursion
to Wepener many who had surrendered a worthless fi rearm reappeared with the Mauser which had been concealed in some crafty
hiding-place. Troops were fi red at from farmhouses which fl ew the
white fl ag, and the good housewife remained behind to charge the
‘rooinek’ extortionate prices for milk and fodder while her husband
shot at him from the hills. It was felt that the burghers might have
peace or might have war, but could not have both simultaneously.
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THE GREAT BOER WAR
Some examples were made therefore of offending farmhouses, and
stock was confi scated where there was evidence of double dealing
upon the part of the owner. In a country where property is a more
serious thing than life, these measures, together with more stringent rules about the possession of horses and arms, did much to
stamp out the chances of an insurrection in our rear. The worst sort
of peace is an enforced peace, but if that can be established time and
justice may do the rest.
The operations which have been here described may be fi nally
summed up in one short paragraph. A Boer army came south of the
British line and besieged a British garrison. Three British forces,
those of French, Rundle, and Ian Hamilton, were despatched to
cut it off. It successfully threaded its way among them and escaped.
It was followed to the northward as far as the town of Winburg,
which remained in the British possession. Lord Roberts had failed
in his plan of cutting off De Wet’s army, but, at the expense of many
marches and skirmishes, the south-east of the State was cleared of
the enemy.
XXIV.
THE SIEGE OF MAFEKING
This small place, which sprang in the course of a few weeks from
obscurity to fame, is situated upon the long line of railway which
connects Kimberley in the south with Rhodesia in the north. In character it resembles one of those western American townlets which
possess small present assets but immense aspirations. In its litter of
corrugated-iron roofs, and in the church and the racecourse, which
are the fi rst-fruits everywhere of Anglo-Celtic civilisation, one sees
the seeds of the great city of the future. It is the obvious depot for
the western Transvaal upon one side, and the starting-point for all
attempts upon the KalaharI Desert upon the other. The Transvaal
border runs within a few miles.
It is not clear why the imperial authorities should desire to hold
this place, since it has no natural advantages to help the defence,
but lies exposed in a widespread plain. A glance at the map must
show that the railway line would surely be cut both to the north
and south of the town, and the garrison isolated at a point some
two hundred and fi fty miles from any reinforcements. Considering
that the Boers could throw any strength of men or guns against the
place, it seemed certain that if they seriously desired to take possession of it they could do so. Under ordinary circumstances any
force shut up there was doomed to capture. But what may have
seemed short-sighted policy became the highest wisdom, owing to
the extraordinary tenacity and resource of Baden-Powell, the offi cer
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THE GREAT BOER WAR
in command. Through his exertions the town acted as a bait to the
Boers, and occupied a considerable force in a useless siege at a time
when their presence at other seats of war might have proved disastrous to the British cause.
Colonel Baden-Powell is a soldier of a type which is exceedingly
popular with the British public. A skilled hunter and an expert at
many games, there was always something of the sportsman in his
keen appreciation of war. In the Matabele campaign he had outscouted the savage scouts and found his pleasure in tracking them
among their native mountains, often alone and at night, trusting to
his skill in springing from rock to rock in his rubber-soled shoes to
save him from their pursuit. There was a brain quality in his bravery
which is rare among our offi cers. Full of veld craft and resource, it
was as diffi cult to outwit as it was to outfi ght him. But there was
another curious side to his complex nature. The French have said
of one of their heroes, ‘Il avait cette graine de folie dans sa bravoure
que les Francais aiment,’ and the words might have been written
of Powell. An impish humour broke out in him, and the mischievous schoolboy alternated with the warrior and the administrator.
He met the Boer commandos with chaff and jokes which were as disconcerting as his wire entanglements and his rifl e-pits. The amazing
variety of his personal accomplishments was one of his most striking
characteristics. From drawing caricatures with both hands simultaneously, or skirt dancing to leading a forlorn hope, nothing came
amiss to him; and he had that magnetic quality by which the leader
imparts something of his virtues to his men. Such was the man who
held Mafeking for the Queen.
In a very early stage, before the formal declaration of war, the
enemy had massed several commandos upon the western border,
the men being drawn from Zeerust, Rustenburg, and Lichtenburg.
Baden-Powell, with the aid of an excellent group of special offi cers,
375
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
who included Colonel Gould Adams, Lord Edward Cecil, the soldier son of England’s Premier, and Colonel Hore, had done all that
was possible to put the place into a state of defence. In this he had
immense assistance from Benjamin Weil, a well known South African contractor, who had shown great energy in provisioning the
town. On the other hand, the South African Government displayed
the same stupidity or treason which had been exhibited in the case
of Kimberley, and had met all demands for guns and reinforcements with foolish doubts as to the need of such precautions. In the
endeavour to supply these pressing wants the fi rst small disaster
of the campaign was encountered. On October 12th, the day after
the declaration of war, an armoured train conveying two 7-pounders for the Mafeking defences was derailed and captured by a Boer
raiding party at Kraaipan, a place forty miles south of their destination. The enemy shelled the shattered train until after fi ve hours
Captain Nesbitt, who was in command, and his men, some twenty
in number, surrendered. It was a small affair, but it derived importance from being the fi rst blood shed and the fi rst tactical success
of the war.
The garrison of the town, whose fame will certainly live in the
history of South Africa, contained no regular soldiers at all with the
exception of the small group of excellent offi cers. They consisted of
irregular troops, three hundred and forty of the Protectorate Regiment, one hundred and seventy Police, and two hundred volunteers,
made up of that singular mixture of adventurers, younger sons, broken gentlemen, and irresponsible sportsmen who have always been
the voortrekkers of the British Empire. These men were of the same
stamp as those other admirable bodies of natural fi ghters who did
so well in Rhodesia, in Natal, and in the Cape. With them there
was associated in the defence the Town Guard, who included the
able-bodied shopkeepers, businessmen, and residents, the whole
376
THE GREAT BOER WAR
amounting to about nine hundred men. Their artillery was feeble
in the extreme, two 7-pounder toy guns and six machine guns, but
the spirit of the men and the resource of their leaders made up for
every disadvantage. Colonel Vyvyan and Major Panzera planned the
defences, and the little trading town soon began to take on the appearance of a fortress.
On October 13th the Boers appeared before Mafeking. On
the same day Colonel Baden-Powell sent two truckloads of dynamite out of the place. They were fi red into by the invaders, with
the result that they exploded. On October 14th the pickets around
the town were driven in by the Boers. On this the armoured train
and a squadron of the Protectorate Regiment went out to support
the pickets and drove the Boers before them. A body of the latter
doubled back and interposed between the British and Mafeking,
but two fresh troops with a 7-pounder throwing shrapnel drove
them off. In this spirited little action the garrison lost two killed
and fourteen wounded, but they infl icted considerable damage on
the enemy. To Captain Williams, Captain FitzClarence, and Lord
Charles Bentinck great credit is due for the way in which they handled their men; but the whole affair was ill advised, for if a disaster
had occurred Mafeking must have fallen, being left without a garrison. No possible results which could come from such a sortie could
justify the risk which was run.
On October 16th the siege began in earnest. On that date the
Boers brought up two 12-pounder guns, and the fi rst of that interminable fl ight of shells fell into the town. The enemy got possession
of the water supply, but the garrison had already dug wells. Before
October 20th fi ve thousand Boers, under the formidable Cronje,
had gathered round the town. ‘Surrender to avoid bloodshed’ was
his message. ‘When is the bloodshed going to begin?’ asked Powell.
When the Boers had been shelling the town for some weeks the
377
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
lighthearted Colonel sent out to say that if they went on any longer
he should be compelled to regard it as equivalent to a declaration
of war. It is to be hoped that Cronje also possessed some sense of
humour, or else he must have been as sorely puzzled by his eccentric opponent as the Spanish generals were by the vagaries of Lord
Peterborough.
Among the many diffi culties which had to be met by the defenders of the town the most serious was the fact that the position had
a circumference of fi ve or six miles to be held by about one thousand men against a force who at their own time and their own place
could at any moment attempt to gain a footing. An ingenious system
of small forts was devised to meet the situation. Each of these held
from ten to forty rifl emen, and was furnished with bomb-proofs and
covered ways. The central bomb-proof was connected by telephone
with all the outlying ones, so as to save the use of orderlies. A system
of bells was arranged by which each quarter of the town was warned
when a shell was coming in time to enable the inhabitants to scuttle
off to shelter. Every detail showed the ingenuity of the controlling
mind. The armoured train, painted green and tied round with scrub,
stood unperceived among the clumps of bushes which surrounded
the town.
On October 24th a savage bombardment commenced, which
lasted with intermissions for seven months. The Boers had brought
an enormous gun across from Pretoria, throwing a 96-pound shell,
and this, with many smaller pieces, played upon the town. The result was as futile as our own artillery fi re has so often been when
directed against the Boers.
As the Mafeking guns were too weak to answer the enemy’s fi re,
the only possible reply lay in a sortie, and upon this Colonel Powell
decided. It was carried out with great gallantry on the evening of October 27th, when about a hundred men under Captain FitzClarence
378
THE GREAT BOER WAR
moved out against the Boer trenches with instructions to use the
bayonet only. The position was carried with a rush, and many of the
Boers bayoneted before they could disengage themselves from the
tarpaulins which covered them. The trenches behind fi red wildly
in the darkness, and it is probable that as many of their own men as
of ours were hit by their rifl e fi re. The total loss in this gallant affair
was six killed, eleven wounded, and two prisoners. The loss of the
enemy, though shrouded as usual in darkness, was certainly very
much higher.
On October 31st the Boers ventured upon an attack on Cannon
Kopje, which is a small fort and eminence to the south of the town.
It was defended by Colonel Walford, of the British South African
Police, with fi fty-seven of his men and three small guns. The attack
was repelled with heavy loss to the Boers. The British casualties were
six killed and fi ve wounded.
Their experience in this attack seems to have determined the
Boers to make no further expensive attempts to rush the town, and
for some weeks the siege degenerated into a blockade. Cronje had
been recalled for more important work, and Commandant Snyman
had taken over the uncompleted task. From time to time the great
gun tossed its huge shells into the town, but boardwood walls and
corrugated-iron roofs minimise the dangers of a bombardment. On
November 3rd the garrison rushed the Brickfi elds, which had been
held by the enemy’s sharpshooters, and on the 7th another small
sally kept the game going. On the 18th Powell sent a message to Snyman that he could not take the town by sitting and looking at it. At
the same time he despatched a message to the Boer forces generally,
advising them to return to their homes and their families. Some of
the commandos had gone south to assist Cronje in his stand against
Methuen, and the siege languished more and more, until it was woken up by a desperate sortie on December 26th, which caused the
379
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
greatest loss which the garrison had sustained. Once more the lesson was to be enforced that with modern weapons and equality of
forces it is always long odds on the defence.
On this date a vigorous attack was made upon one of the Boer
forts on the north. There seems to be little doubt that the enemy
had some inkling of our intention, as the fort was found to have
been so strengthened as to be impregnable without scaling ladders.
The attacking force consisted of two squadrons of the Protectorate
Regiment and one of the Bechuanaland Rifl es, backed up by three
guns. So desperate was the onslaught that of the actual attacking
party – a forlorn hope, if ever there was one – fi fty- three out of
eighty were killed and wounded, twenty-fi ve of the former and
twenty-eight of the latter. Several of that gallant band of offi cers
who had been the soul of the defence were among the injured. Captain FitzClarence was wounded, Vernon, Sandford, and Paton were
killed, all at the very muzzles of the enemy’s guns. It must have been
one of the bitterest moments of Baden- Powell’s life when he shut
his fi eld-glass and said, ‘Let the ambulance go out!’
Even this heavy blow did not damp the spirits nor diminish the
energies of the defence, though it must have warned Baden-Powell
that he could not afford to drain his small force by any more expensive attempts at the offensive, and that from then onwards he must
content himself by holding grimly on until Plumer from the north
or Methuen from the south should at last be able to stretch out
to him a helping hand. Vigilant and indomitable, throwing away
no possible point in the game which he was playing, the new year
found him and his hardy garrison sternly determined to keep the
fl ag fl ying.
January and February offer in their records that monotony of
excitement which is the fate of every besieged town. On one day the
shelling was a little more, on another a little less. Sometimes they es-
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