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A Handbook of the Boer War by Gale and Polden, Limited

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Shortly before noon a step was taken by Buller, who was four miles away
on Mount Alice, which enlarged the area of the Fog of War and brought
Spion Kop within its chilling grasp. Thorneycroft was ordered to take
command on the summit with the local rank of Brigadier-General, although
there were several officers present senior to him: but many hours
elapsed before the appointment was made known to all of those whom it
most concerned. Coke, who was now on the S.W. spur, was unaware of it,
and without communicating with Thorneycroft, sent at 12.50 p.m. to
Warren a message which was not delivered till 2.20 p.m., that as the
summit was crowded and the defence was maintaining itself, he had
stopped further reinforcements.

Almost simultaneously with the despatch of this not unfavourable report,
and long before it was received by Warren, two companies posted in a
detached trench on the right threw up their hands, but not before they
had lost all their officers. Out of the crest line sprang the Boers, who
having made them prisoners, endeavoured to impose the surrender upon the
men in the main trench.[27] Thorneycroft saw that if these wavered, as
they seemed inclined to do, all was lost; and rallying the details
within reach, he succeeded in thrusting back the intruders, who,
however, had already sent their prisoners below the hill. His prompt
action stayed the wave of doubt which threatened to flood the position,
and compelled it to break before it could do much harm.

At 3.50 p.m. Coke, who was still on the S.W. spur, and therefore not in
direct touch with Thorneycroft, informed Warren that the enemy was being
gradually cleared from the summit, and that he had been reinforced with
the Scottish Rifles from Potgieter's Drift by Lyttelton, whom Warren,
after receiving Crofton's mis-transmitted message, had ordered to
co-operate. He had already forwarded a letter written at 2.30 p.m. by
Thorneycroft, stating that the force on Spion Kop was being badly
punished by artillery, was in want of water, and was insufficient to
hold the position. To this letter he had added a note of his own which
showed that he did not attach much importance to it, saying that he had
ordered more troops on to the plateau, where "we appear to be holding
our own." This letter, with Coke's covering note, did not reach Warren
until after he had received Coke's message sent nearly an hour later,
and he assumed that the latter indicated the existing hopeful situation
with which he had to deal. Of the physical features of the Spion Kop
position he knew little more than what his telescope told him, and he
read optimistically the meagre, inconsistent, and misleading reports
which reached him occasionally from the summit. He hoped during the
night to place some naval guns on the plateau: he was informed that an
accessible spring of water had been discovered: reinforcements were at
hand: there was nothing more to be done.

Lyttelton, when ordered to "assist from his side," acted with
intelligence and discernment. Noticing that Spion Kop, whither he had
already dispatched the Scottish Rifles, was full of men, he sent the
King's Royal Rifles towards the flanking position on the Twin Peaks, and
the battalion supported by the naval guns, and ignoring messages of
recall prompted by Buller, who was watching the advance with anxiety,
worked its way up and expelled a Transvaal contingent and a small body
commanded by an Irish renegade, all of whom were hurled by the impact
into a flight of eight miles. The position was at once entrenched and at
5 p.m. the right flank of Spion Kop was secured, but only for a time.
Again, as after Lord Dundonald's movement on Acton Holmes, a promising
enterprise was thrown away. Buller had from the first disapproved of
Lyttelton's action, which still more widely distributed his already
scattered command. He was too far away to see its bearing upon the
situation, and now ordered him to recall the King's Royal Rifles, who
after sunset were withdrawn from the position, which they had so
gallantly captured in spite of warnings signalled from Spion Kop that it
was strongly held by the enemy.

On Spion Kop the Fog of War hung more densely than ever. Coke, who was
lame and unable to move freely about the position, believed that Hill,
who had come up with a reinforcement soon after noon, and who was next
in seniority to Crofton, was in command on the summit. He thought that
Crofton had been wounded, and neither saw Thorneycroft nor knew until
the following day that Warren had given him the local rank of
Brigadier-General at Buller's suggestion. Thorneycroft was a junior
major in the Army, having the local rank of Lieutenant-Colonel: and with
two colonels senior to him present as well as a major-general, he was
doubtful as to his status. No instructions reached him from Coke; he was
unaware that the Twin Peaks had been taken by one of Lyttelton's
battalions, and he was without means of signalling to Warren. He had no
information of the measures which were being taken, such as the dispatch
of guns, to make the retention of Spion Kop possible.

The men on the summit were utterly exhausted by fatigue, hunger, thirst,
want of sleep, and exposure to the summer sun beating down upon the
rocky surface, and their ammunition was running short. At 5.50 p.m. Coke
reported "that the situation is extremely critical" and that the men
"would not stand another day's shelling," but it was two hours before
the message reached Warren. He ordered Coke to come down to consult him.
Coke endeavoured to obtain permission by flash signal to stay where he
was, but no oil could be obtained for the lamp, so regarding the order
as imperative, he quitted Spion Kop at 9.30 p.m., leaving, as he
thought, Hill in command. For four hours he strayed in the Fog of War
before he found Warren's Head Quarters, which had come under shell fire,
and which, unknown to him, had been moved from their original position.

Between 8 and 9, Warren received a letter written at 6.30 p.m. by
Thorneycroft, who reported that the enemy's shell fire rendered the
permanent occupation of Spion Kop impossible, and asked for
instructions.

Coke's departure left the position without a clearly recognized
commander, although he had done little more than attend to and
distribute the supports and reinforcements on the S.W. spur. After the
dispatch of Thorneycroft's letter at 6.30 p.m., the situation grew more
hopeless every minute. The enemy's artillery was out of reach, the
nature of the ground and the want of tools made it impossible to cut
properly designed trenches, rations and water were exhausted, and
nothing was known of assistance to be brought up during the night except
that a mountain battery, which would be of little use against the
enemy's guns, was at the foot of the slope.

For these reasons Thorneycroft justified in his official report his
decision to retire from Spion Kop. With the acquiescence of all the
senior officers, except Hill, who could not be found, he ordered a
withdrawal at 10 p.m. The alternative seemed to be a Majuba surrender
next morning. At 10.30 p.m. as the troops were beginning to move off the
hill, he received a letter from Warren, asking for his views on the
situation, and as to the measures to be adopted. It was now unnecessary
to give these, and he sent a brief reply that he was obliged to abandon
Spion Kop as the position was untenable.

The retirement was not made without protests from Hill and from Coke's
staff officer who was still on the plateau. The former, eleven hours
after Thorneycroft's appointment as Brigadier-General, believed, as he
had every right to do, that he was in command, and halted the men; the
latter sent round a memorandum to the commanding officers, asserting
that there was no authority for the withdrawal. But the force of
Thorneycroft's local rank prevailed, and the retreat was not stayed.
Near the foot of the slope he found the mountain battery, and met a
fatigue party on its way to prepare emplacements for two naval guns
which were coming up, and received a message from Warren urging him to
hold on to the position. It was too late. Ordering back the party and
the battery, he went on to report himself to Warren, and arrived at Head
Quarters almost simultaneously with Coke.

The Boers meanwhile were greatly discouraged by their expulsion from the
Twin Peaks, and their failure to occupy the main position on Spion Kop.
The guns which had tormented Thorneycroft for so many hours, and which
were the chief cause of his retirement, were withdrawn, and Schalk
Burger's commandos oozed away towards Ladysmith. But there was, however,
a stalwart and not inconsiderable remnant of burghers who responded to
Botha's expostulations, and stood fast as a forlorn hope determined to
win back Spion Kop and the Twin Peaks. Their constancy was rewarded, and
when at sunrise on January 25 they once more climbed the hill, they
found to their astonishment and relief that it was still held--by more
than 300 bodies of their fallen foes.

Such in brief is the tale of Spion Kop so far as it can be disentangled
from the accumulation of messages, orders, reports, dispatches, and
personal accounts, which obscure the subject. Many of these are
inconsistent, not a few contradictory, and sufficient evidence might be
found to support plausibly half a dozen conflicting theories of the
cause of the disaster, and as many variants of the narrative.

At 2 a.m. Warren heard from Thorneycroft's lips--the latter's written
message sent off at 10.30 p.m. on the previous evening not having
reached him--of the evacuation of Spion Kop. At sunrise he was joined by
Buller, who viewed the situation in a spirit of philosophic detachment.
He had never cordially approved of the Spion Kop adventure, and was not
surprised to hear that it had failed. Warren was inclined to persevere,
but Buller decided to retire south of the Tugela and assumed the direct
command of the Army, which on January 27 was once more drawn up on the
right bank after an absence of ten days; with most of its superior
officers discredited, with Ladysmith unrelieved, and the nation at home
aghast at the disaster.

The lonely figure of Thorneycroft, the only man of action on the summit
energizing and quickening the defence, stands out prominently in the
confusion, gloom, and half lights of Spion Kop. Buller's impulsive
intervention made him responsible for the position, and he tried to do
his best. If the final act was an error of judgment, there is little
doubt that but for Thorneycroft, the Boers would have rushed the plateau
on the afternoon of January 24. He received no effective support from
Clery and little from Warren, and was out of touch with Coke and the
Colonels. His uncertainty as to his authority caused him to refrain from
exercising it fully until the last moment. For the pain which the
decision to withdraw must have given him, he deserves much sympathy. But
although it was approved of by Buller, who probably felt bound to
support his nominee, it was at least premature. He might reasonably have
expected that an effort would be made during the night to relieve him,
and might have postponed it for a few hours. It is unjust to judge a man
in the light of eventualities which he could not reasonably be expected
to foresee, but subsequent accounts from the Boer side show that the
attack would not have been renewed the next morning if the enemy had
found the Twin Peaks, for the evacuation of which Buller and not
Thorneycroft was responsible, and Spion Kop still occupied.

Not only the inconvenience, but also the danger of suddenly conferred
local rank were illustrated on January 24. Buller, hastily concluding
from a garbled message that Crofton was incompetent, asked Warren to put
Thorneycroft in charge. Thorneycroft heard of his appointment orally
through an officer who had chanced to be at the signalling station, and
the written message which never reached him was, it is said, picked up
next day by a Boer! If the exigencies of war should ever require the
sudden promotion of a junior officer to a position of great
responsibility, it should not take effect until all concerned are
notified. The defence of Spion Kop was, during the greater part of the
day, conducted by a syndicate of officers acting severally.

The curtain had fallen, the drama was over, and the critics took up
their pens. With Thorneycroft's report on the retirement from Spion Kop
began a controversy which lasted for more than two years. Warren
enclosed it in his own report to Buller, with the suggestion that a
Court of Enquiry should be held to investigate the circumstances of the
unauthorized withdrawal, and in succession each grade of the military
hierarchy passed censure on the grades below. In Buller's covering
despatch of January 31 with which he forwarded to the War Office,
through Lord Roberts, Warren's Spion Kop report, he commented very
unfavourably on Warren's arrangements and disposition of troops; and
said that Thorneycroft had "exercised a wise discretion, and that no
investigation was necessary": while to Warren's general report on the
whole operations of January 17-27, he attached a memorandum to the
Secretary of State for War, "not necessarily for publication," in which
he not only blamed himself for not having taken command on the 19th,
when he saw "that things were not going well," but also said that he
could "never employ Warren again in an independent command"; as his
slowness had allowed the enemy to concentrate and to increase the force
opposed to him more than twenty-fold.

With this accumulation of censure Lord Roberts dealt in his despatch to
Lord Lansdowne of February 13, written at a drift on the Riet River
during the advance on Kimberley. The Commander-in-Chief confirmed all
the censures passed by his subordinates and added some of his own.
Buller was rebuked for not having intervened when he saw that a most
important enterprise was not being "conducted in the manner which in his
opinion would lead to the attainment of the object in view with the
least possible loss of life on our side"; Warren was reproved because he
did not visit Spion Kop during the crisis, and had instead ordered Coke
to come to him; and while Thorneycroft's gallantry and exertions,
without which the troops would probably have been driven off the hill
during the day, were acknowledged, his action in ordering the retirement
without endeavouring to communicate with Coke or Warren was pronounced
to be a "wholly inexcusable assumption of responsibility and authority."

Never before had such an inconvenient batch of despatches been laid upon
the desks of Pall Mall. To publish them and to proclaim to the world
that the Natal Generals, when they were beaten by the enemy, had began
to fight among themselves, was impossible. If they were withheld from
publication, many awkward questions would be asked. The War Office
temporized, and endeavoured to steer a middle course. Would Buller
kindly substitute a simple narrative for his despatch? This Buller
refused to do, and in April, 1900, the War Office published the
despatches, imperfectly sterilized. As they now appeared, they were
neither a simple narrative, nor a full revelation. Lord Roberts'
criticisms on Buller were cut out. The memorandum, "not necessarily for
publication," in which Buller reflected severely on Warren's incapacity
was withheld. Only the censure passed upon Thorneycroft was allowed to
appear. The junior officer was made the scapegoat of his superiors'
mistakes. Of all the officers concerned, he alone had failed. The War
Office had taken a politic but not straightforward course. The blame
must be laid upon some one, and if it were laid upon Thorneycroft alone
it would affect public opinion less mischievously.

It soon became suspected, however, that certain things were being kept
back, and the controversy dragged on for two years; Buller to the end
maintaining that as he was not present at, nor in command of, the Spion
Kop operations, it was not incumbent on him to write a simple narrative
of them; and that his duty was to write a critical account of the
affair, such as would be sent in by an Umpire in Chief during peace
manoeuvres.

Not until April, 1902, did the Epilogue of the Tragedy of Errors appear.
The despatches, with the memorandum "not necessarily for publication,"
were published in full, as well as the "Secret Orders" given to Warren
at Springfield, which were its Prologue.

Notes:

[Footnote 26: A detachment numbering about 600 only was sent.]

[Footnote 27: In the Fog of War some of the British soldiers thought
that the Boers were coming up to surrender themselves, and acted in this
belief for a brief period.]




CHAPTER VI

More Tugela Troubles


By a process of elimination Buller hoped in time to find the road to
Ladysmith. He had tried in succession, but without success, Colenso,
Potgieter's Drift, and Trickhardt's Drift. He now informed White that he
intended to make another attempt, but Lord Roberts advised him to
postpone it until his own advance should draw off the Free Staters and
weaken the barrier on the line of the Tugela.

The situation in the besieged town was growing worse every day, but a
proposal made by White as well as by the War Office that the garrison
should endeavour to break out, was not sanctioned by Lord Roberts. White
also was opposed to Buller's making another attempt to cross the Tugela,
as he considered that the force would be more usefully employed in
preventing the enemy from concentrating on Ladysmith.

[Sidenote: Map, p. 98.]

Buller's new plan was an advance by way of Vaalkrantz. Here the river
winds in two salient loops towards the north, with a re-entrant loop
between them, and there is a slight break in the heights on the left
bank. The Brakfontein ridge slopes down towards Vaalkrantz Hill, between
which and Green Hill there is a dip through which a road passes on to
the open ground towards Ladysmith, eleven miles distant.

Buller proposed to occupy the ridge of Vaalkrantz with artillery, and
after a feint attack on the Boer position on Brakfontein, to push
through under cover of the guns. It was believed that the enemy's
extreme left lay on Vaalkrantz, which was commanded by Mount Alice and
Zwart Kop. Lord Roberts when informed of the project was not hopeful of
its success, but did not veto it, although he thought that Buller would
be better advised to abstain from offensive tactics.

The feint attack on Brakfontein was to be made by seven Field Batteries
and a Brigade of Infantry, and was to be continued long enough to
convince the enemy that it was "meant". It was then to be withdrawn and
the real attack set in motion. The advance of the feint would be covered
by heavy guns posted on Mount Alice, and concealed batteries on Zwart
Kop would open on Vaalkrantz in support of the real attack.

The bulk of the infantry was posted in the east loop, so as to appear
ready to cross the river and support the feint attack between the loops.
As soon as the guns had driven the enemy into their trenches on
Brakfontein, a pontoon bridge was to be thrown across the river south of
Hunger's Drift, and the guns on Zwart Kop were to open on Vaalkrantz,
and when this had been sufficiently bombarded, it would be carried by
the infantry, and guns would be brought up to enfilade the Boer line;
while the cavalry "when feasible" would push through under the ridge and
threaten it from the rear.

It was a pretty tactical scheme, with much of the War-Game about it, and
it depended for its success upon the practicability of using Vaalkrantz
as an artillery position, and upon the correctness of the assumption
that the enemy was not in force eastward of it.

Buller was not successful in placing his guns on Zwart Kop unnoticed by
the enemy, who was warned in time. After Spion Kop, Botha went to
Pretoria, and Schalk Burger took furlough. B. Viljoen was now in
command. He saw the danger and applied to Joubert at Ladysmith for help,
who thought he was over-anxious but sent him a heavy gun. Little however
would have been done but for the intervention of the two civilian
Presidents. Steyn appealed to Kruger who, having tried without success
to induce Joubert to take command on the Upper Tugela, fell in with
Steyn's suggestion that Martin Prinsloo, a Free Stater, should go there;
and Botha was ordered back from Pretoria. Prinsloo took command of the
Brakfontein position, Viljoen remaining on Vaalkrantz.

At sunrise on February 5 began Buller's third attempt to relieve
Ladysmith. Wynne, who had succeeded Woodgate in command of the 11th
Brigade, advanced in two lines up the slope towards Brakfontein,
supported by the fire of forty-four guns. Nearly six hours passed before
any reply was vouchsafed by the enemy. At mid-day some guns on Wynne's
left front opened on the batteries, but not a shot was fired by the
Boers in the trenches.

Already one field battery had been detached from the left of the line of
guns, the first movement in the real attack, and had taken up a position
to cover the pontoon troop which was throwing a bridge across the Tugela
near Hunger's Drift. At noon the completion of the bridge was signalled
to the feint attack. The batteries fronting the Brakfontein ridge were
withdrawn, and Wynne's brigade which, having been marched up the slope,
was now marched down again, came under a heavy but almost innocuous
infantry fire, which at last broke out on Brakfontein.

To the Boers it appeared that another attack, determined while it
lasted, but devoid of backbone, had been kept at bay. The guns on Zwart
Kop opened on Vaalkrantz as soon as the detached battery was seen to be
in motion; and the other batteries came into action as they arrived from
the Brakfontein demonstration. There was some annoyance from casual
rifle fire and a Maxim posted on the heights S.E. of the loop, but it
did not seriously interfere with the work of the bridge-builders.

The rules of the game were strictly obeyed, and there was "a thorough
preparation by artillery" before the infantry was allowed to advance.
The movement was delayed until half a hundred guns were playing upon
Vaalkrantz and the chance of a _celer et audax_ exploit was lost. At 2
p.m. Lyttelton with two battalions of the 4th Brigade was permitted to
cross the pontoon and with these he worked up under the protection of
the left bank, and emerging upon Munger's Farm, rose thence to the
southern edge of Vaalkrantz, and took hold of the ridge. Here he was
joined by a battalion of Hildyard's Brigade, whose original orders to
occupy Green Hill were cancelled, and later on by the remaining
battalions of his own brigade; which Buller, wavering for a time, had
held back, as the pontoon and the open ground were under fire from the
right flank. At 4 p.m. Lyttelton was established on the main hill of
Vaalkrantz, and during the night the position was entrenched. The
occupation, however, brought two facts to light. Half a mile to the
north of the main hill was another hill, only a few feet lower,
unapproachable and in the enemy's possession; and it was not
practicable, as Buller had hoped, to bring up artillery on to the
position seized by Lyttelton.

At daylight on February 6, the situation was favourable to the Boers.
Botha had arrived and had taken over the command from Prinsloo. The
heavy gun sent from Ladysmith had been mounted on Doom Kop, which was
now held by reinforcements under L. Meyer; other good positions east of
Vaalkrantz had been strengthened; and some of the guns on the
Brakfontein position had been moved round. Vaalkrantz standing between
Doorn Kop and the Twin Peaks, was shelled simultaneously from the left
front, and the right rear, as well as from Green Hill;[28] it seemed as
if Spion Kop were about to be repeated.

Buller opened on Green Hill with artillery, and on the hill north of the
main hill of Vaalkrantz, in the hope of making the North Hill
assailable. In view of a retirement, a pontoon bridge was, at
Lyttelton's request, thrown across the river under the main ridge. He
discouraged a proposal made by Buller to attack the North Hill by a
force creeping along the foot of the westward slope of Vaalkrantz,
covered by fire from the ridge.

Buller was now stalemated. The artillery fire had not cleared the way to
the North Hill, and Lyttelton was unable to move on it, but he said that
he could hold on for the rest of the day if no more artillery were
brought to bear on him from the S.E.

Finally Buller determined to shift the responsibility. He reported the
capture of Vaalkrantz to Lord Roberts, and in effect asked what he
should do with the white elephant. To carry out his plan would "cost
from 2,000 to 3,000 men," and he was "not confident of success." Was
Ladysmith worth it? Yes, replied Lord Roberts without hesitation,
Ladysmith was worth it and it must be done.

In the evening Lyttelton, having thwarted an attempt by the enemy to
recover Vaalkrantz, was relieved by Hildyard. On the following
afternoon, Buller, in spite of Lord Roberts' message, made up his mind
to withdraw. Further reconnaissances had shown that the North Hill, even
if taken, could hardly be held. A council of war was summoned, at which,
as might have been anticipated, Hart alone was for persevering, and at
which Warren again put forward the scheme rejected by Buller at Frere,
but now gladly adopted by him, of advancing on Ladysmith by way of
Hlangwhane.

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