London to Ladysmith via Pretoria by Winston Spencer Churchill

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The necessity for reinforcements seemed very real to me, for I have a
wholesome respect for Boer military enterprise; and after the security
of a great camp the dangers of our lonely unsupported perch on the hills
came home with extra force. 'No Boers this side of the Tugela.' How did
we know? We had not seen any, but the deep valleys along the river might
easily conceal two thousand horsemen. I said to myself, the Boer has
always a reason for everything he does. He left the Springfield bridge
standing. It would have cost him nothing to blow it up. Why, then, had
he neglected this obvious precaution? Again, the position we had seized
had actually been fortified by the enemy. Why, then, had they abandoned
it to a parcel of horsemen without a shot fired? I could quite
understand that the flooded Tugela was not a satisfactory feature to
fight in front of, but it seemed certain that they had some devilry
prepared for us somewhere. The uninjured bridge appeared to me a trap:
the unguarded position a bait. Suppose they were, we should be attacked
at daylight. Nothing more than a soldier should always expect; but what
of the position? The line we had to hold to cover the approaches to our
hill-top was far greater than seven hundred men could occupy. Had we
been only cavalry and mounted men we could have fallen back after the
position became untenable, but we were encumbered with four
field-guns--a source of anxiety, not of strength. So I began to long for
infantry. Two thousand good infantry would make everything absolutely
secure. And ten miles away were infantry by thousands, all delighted to
march every mile nearer the front.

We passed a wet and watchful night without food or sleep, and were glad
to find the break of day unbroken by the musketry of a heavy attack.
From our lofty position on the heights the whole country beyond the
Tugela was spread like a map. I sat on a great rock which overhung the
valley, and searched the landscape inch by inch with field glasses.
After an hour's study my feeling of insecurity departed. I learned the
answer to the questions which had perplexed the mind. Before us lay the
'devilry' the Boers had prepared, and it was no longer difficult to
understand why the Springfield bridge had been spared and the heights
abandoned.[2]

The ground fell almost sheer six hundred feet to the flat bottom of the
valley. Beneath, the Tugela curled along like a brown and very sinuous
serpent. Never have I seen such violent twists and bends in a river. At
times the waters seemed to loop back on themselves. One great loop bent
towards us, and at the arch of this the little ferry of Potgieter's
floated, moored to ropes which looked through the field glasses like a
spider's web. The ford, approached by roads cut down through the steep
bank, was beside it, but closed for the time being by the flood. The
loop of river enclosed a great tongue of land which jutted from the
hills on the enemy's side almost to our feet. A thousand yards from the
tip of this tongue rose a line of low kopjes crowned with reddish
stones. The whole tongue was virtually ours. Our guns on the heights or
on the bank could sweep it from flank to flank, enfilade and cross
fire. Therefore the passage of the river was assured. We had obtained
what amounted to a practical bridgehead, and could cross whenever we
thought fit. But the explanation of many things lay beyond. At the base
of the tongue, where it sprang from the Boer side of the valley, the
ground rose in a series of gentle grassy slopes to a long horseshoe of
hills, and along this, both flanks resting securely on unfordable
reaches of the river, out of range from our heights of any but the
heaviest guns, approachable by a smooth grass glacis, which was exposed
to two or three tiers of cross-fire and converging fire, ran the enemy's
position. Please look at the sketch on p. 261, which shows nothing but
what it is meant to.

[Illustration: Plan of Potgieter's Ferry.]

It will be seen that there is no difficulty in shelling the Boers out of
the little kopjes, of fortifying them, and of passing the army on to the
tip of the tongue; but to get off the tongue on to the smooth plateau
that runs to Ladysmith it was necessary to force the tremendous Boer
position enclosing the tongue. In technical language the possession of
the heights virtually gave us a bridgehead on the Tugela, but the
debouches from that bridgehead were barred by an exterior line of hills
fortified and occupied by the enemy.

What will Sir Redvers Buller do? In a few hours we shall know. To cross
and deliver a frontal attack will cost at least three thousand men. Is a
flank attack possible? Can the position be turned? Fords few and far
between, steep banks, mighty positions on the further banks: such are
some of the difficulties. But everyone has confidence in the general.
An officer who had been serving on the Kimberley side came here. 'I
don't understand,' he said, 'how it is you are all so cheerful here
after Colenso. You should hear the troops at Modeler River.' But it is a
poor army that cannot take a repulse and come up smiling, and when the
private soldiers put their faith in any man they are very constant.
Besides, Buller's personality impresses everyone with the idea of some
great reserve of force. Certainly he has something up his sleeve. The
move to Potgieter's has been talked of for a month and executed with the
greatest ostentation and deliberation. Surely something lies behind it
all. So at least we all believe, and in the meanwhile trust
wholeheartedly.

But some part of the army will certainly cross at Potgieter's; and as I
looked down on the smooth smiling landscape it seemed very strange to
think that in a few days it would blaze into a veritable hell. Yet the
dark lines of shelter trenches, the redoubts crowning the hills, the
bristle of tiny black figures busily entrenching against the sky line,
hundreds of horses grazing in the plain, all promised a fierce and
stubborn defence. I turned about. The country to the southward was also
visible. What looked to the naked eye like an endless thin rope lay
streaked across the spacious veldt, and when I looked through the glass
I saw that it was ten or twelve miles of marching men and baggage. The
armies were approaching. The collision impended.

Nothing happened during the day except the capture of the ferry, which
daring enterprise was carried out by volunteers from the South African
Light Horse. Six swimmers, protected by a covering party of twenty men,
swam the flooded Tugela and began to haul the punt back, whereat the
Boers concealed in the kopjes opened a brisk fire at long range on the
naked figures, but did not hit anyone nor prevent them all from bringing
the punt safely to our side: a dashing exploit, of which their
regiment--the 'Cockyolibirds,' as the army, with its customary
irreverence, calls us on account of the cock's feather cockades we wear
in our hats (miserable jealousy!)--are immensely proud.

The falling of the Tugela increased the danger of our position, and I
was delighted when I woke up the next morning, the second of our
adventurous occupation, to find Colonel Sandbach, to whom I had confided
my doubts, outside my tent, saying 'I suppose you'll be happy now. Two
battalions have arrived.' And, sure enough, when I looked southwards, I
saw a steady rivulet of infantry trickling through the gorge, and
forming a comfortable brown inundation in the hollow where our camp lay.
A few minutes later Sir Redvers Buller and his staff rode up to see
things for themselves, and then we knew that all was well.

The General made his way to the great stone we call the observatory, and
lying down on his back peered through a telescope in silence for the
best part of an hour. Then he went off to breakfast with the Cavalry
Brigade staff. A few officers remained behind to take a still more
exhaustive view. 'There'll be some wigs on that green before long.'
'What a wonderful sight it will be from here!' 'What a place to see a
battle from!' Two artillerymen were loitering near. Said one: 'We ought
to have the Queen up here, in her little donkey carriage.' 'Ah, we'd do
it all right then,' replied his comrade. But when I looked at the
peaceful plain and reflected on the storm and tumult presently to burst
upon it, I could not help being glad that no gentle eye would view that
bloody panorama.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This complaint was not in one respect justified by what followed,
for after we left Spearman's we only saw our tents for a day or two, and
at rare intervals, until Ladysmith was relieved.

[2] _Vide_ map, opposite p. 366, which will be found to illustrate the
subsequent letters.

CHAPTER XVI

TRICHARDT'S DRIFT AND THE AFFAIR OF ACTON HOMES

Venter's Spruit: January 22, 1900.

On Thursday, January 11, Sir Redvers Buller began his operations for
forcing the Tugela and relieving Ladysmith. Barton's Brigade entrenched
itself at Chieveley, guarding the line of railway communication.
Hildyard's Brigade marched westward six miles to Pretorius's Farm, where
they were joined by the cavalry, the naval guns, three batteries Field
Artillery, and Hart's Brigade from Frere. The infantry and two batteries
remained and encamped, making Clery's division, while the mounted forces
under Dundonald moved forward to take the bridge across the Little
Tugela at Springfield, and, finding this unoccupied, pushed on and
seized the heights overlooking Potgieter's Drift on the Tugela, On the
12th Warren's division, comprising the brigades of Lyttelton and
Woodgate, with three batteries, marched to Springfield, where they
camped. On the 13th the mounted troops, holding the heights above
Potgieter's Drift, were strengthened by the arrival of two battalions of
Lyttelton's Brigade from Springfield. Sir Redvers Buller established his
headquarters in this camp. On the 14th the rest of the brigade followed,
and the same day the corps troops, consisting of Coke's Brigade, one
howitzer, and one field battery, reached Springfield. On the 15th Coke
moved to the position before Potgieter's, and the naval guns were
established on the heights commanding the ford. All this while the Boers
contented themselves with fortifying their horseshoe position which
enclosed the debouches from Potgieter's Drift, and only picket firing
disturbed the general peace.

Such was the situation when I wrote my last letter. It was soon to
develop, though in a most leisurely and deliberate manner. The mounted
forces, which had arrived at Spearman's Hill, as the position before
Potgieter's was called, on the 11th, passed nearly a week of
expectation. Daily we watched the enemy fortifying his position, and
observed the long lines of trenches which grew and spread along the face
of the opposite hills. Daily we made reconnoitring expeditions both east
and west along the Tugela, expeditions always attended with incident,
sometimes with adventure. One day Colonel Byng crawled with two
squadrons to the summit of a high hill which overlooked the road from
Colenso to Potgieter's, and a long and patient vigil was rewarded by the
arrival of five Boer ox waggons toiling sluggishly along with supplies,
on which we directed a rapid and effective fire till they found some
refuge in a cutting. Another day we strengthened ourselves with two
guns, and, marching nearly to the junction of the Tugelas, gave the
Boers camped there an honest hour's shelling, and extricated a patrol of
Bethune's Mounted Infantry from a rather disagreeable position, so that
they were able to bring off a wounded trooper. Nightly the cavalry camp
went to sleep in the belief that a general attack would open on the
enemy's position at dawn. Day after day the expected did not happen.
Buller had other resources than to butt his head against the tremendous
entrenchments which were springing up before him. Everyone discussed
every conceivable alternative, and in the meanwhile it was always
'battle to-morrow,' but never 'battle to-day.' And so it has continued
until this moment, and the great event--the main trial of
strength--still impends.

But though there has been but little powder burned the situation has
materially altered, and its alteration has been entirely to our
advantage. We have crossed the Tugela. The river which for two months
has barred the advance of the relieving army lies behind us now. The
enemy entrenched and entrenching in a strong position still confronts
us, but the British forces are across the Tugela, and have deployed on
the northern bank. With hardly any loss Sir Redvers Buller has gained a
splendid advantage. The old inequality of ground has been swept away,
and the strongest army yet moved under one hand in South Africa stands
face to face with the Boers on the ordinary terms of attack and defence.
Let me describe the steps by which this result has been obtained. On the
afternoon of the 16th, as we were sitting down to luncheon, we noticed a
change in the appearance of the infantry camps on the reverse slopes of
Spearman's Hill. There was a busy bustling of men; the tents began to
look baggy, then they all subsided together; the white disappeared, and
the camping grounds became simply brown patches of moving soldiery.
Lyttelton's Brigade had received orders to march at once. Whither? It
was another hour before this part of the secret transpired. They were to
cross the river and seize the near kopjes beyond Potgieter's Drift.
Orders for cavalry and guns to move arrived in quick succession; the
entire cavalry force, excepting only Bethune's Mounted Infantry, to
march at 5.30 P.M., with five days' rations, 150 rounds per man, and
what they stood up in--tents blankets, waterproof sheets, picketing
gear, all to be left behind. Our camp was to remain standing. The
infantry had struck theirs. I puzzled over this for some time, in fact
until an officer pointed out that our camp was in full view of the Boer
outposts on Spion Kop, while the infantry camps were hidden by a turn of
the hill. Evidently a complex and deeply laid scheme was in progress.

In the interval, while the South African Light Horse were preparing for
the march, I rode up to Gun Hill to watch the operation of seizing the
near kopjes, which stood on the tongue of land across the river, and as
nearly as possible in the centre of the horseshoe position of the enemy.
The sailors were hauling their two great guns to the crest of the hill
ready to come into action to support the infantry attack. Far below, the
four battalions crept through the scrub at the foot of the hills towards
the ferry. As they arrived at the edge of the open ground the long
winding columns dissolved into sprays of skirmishers, line behind line
of tiny dashes, visible only as shadows on the smooth face of the
veldt, strange formations, the result of bitter practical experience.
Presently the first line--a very thin line--men twenty paces
apart--reached the ferry punt and the approaches to the Waggon Drift,
and scrambled down to the brim of the river. A single man began to wade
and swim across, carrying a line. Two or three others followed.
Then a long chain of men, with arms locked--a sort of human
caterpillar--entered the water, struggled slowly across, and formed up
under the shelter of the further bank. All the time the Boers, manning
their trenches and guns, remained silent. The infantry of the two
leading battalions were thus filtering uneventfully across when the time
for the cavalry column to start arrived.

There was a subdued flutter of excitement as we paraded, for though both
our destination and object were unknown, it was clearly understood that
the hour of action had arrived. Everything was moving. A long cloud of
dust rose up in the direction of Springfield. A column of
infantry--Coke's Brigade--curled out of its camp near Spearman's Hill,
and wound down towards the ferry at Potgieter's. Eight curiously
proportioned guns (naval 12-pounders), with tiny wheels and thin
elongated barrels, were passed in a string, each tied to the tail of a
waggon drawn by twenty oxen. The howitzer battery hurried to follow; its
short and squat pieces, suggesting a row of venomous toads, made a
striking contrast. As the darkness fell the cavalry column started. On
all sides men were marching through the night: much important business
was toward, which the reader may easily understand by studying the map,
but cannot without such attention.

Having placed his army within striking distance of the various passages
across the Tugela, Sir Redvers Buller's next object was to cross and
debouch. To this end his plan appears to have been--for information is
scarcely yet properly codified--something as follows: Lyttelton's
Brigade, the corps troops forming Coke's Brigade, the ten naval guns,
the battery of howitzers, one field battery, and Bethune's Mounted
Infantry to demonstrate in front of the Potgieter position, keeping the
Boers holding the horseshoe in expectation of a frontal attack, and
masking their main position; Sir Charles Warren to march by night from
Springfield with the brigades of Hart, Woodgate, and Hildyard, the Royal
Dragoons, six batteries of artillery, and the pontoon train to a point
about five miles west of Spearman's Hill, and opposite Trichardt's Drift
on the Tugela. Here he was to meet the mounted forces from Spearman's
Hill, and with these troops he was next day, the 17th, to throw bridges,
force the passage of the river, and operate at leisure and discretion
against the right flank of the enemy's horseshoe before Potgieter's,
resting on Spion Kop, a commanding mountain, ultimately joining hands
with the frontal force from Spearman's Hill at a point on the Acton
Homes-Ladysmith road. To sum up briefly, seven battalions, twenty-two
guns, and three hundred horse under Lyttelton to mask the Potgieter
position; twelve battalions, thirty-six guns, and sixteen hundred horse
to cross five miles to the westward, and make a turning movement against
the enemy's right. The Boer covering army was to be swept back on
Ladysmith by a powerful left arm, the pivoting shoulder of which was at
Potgieter's, the elbow at Trichardt's Drift, and the enveloping
hand--the cavalry under Lord Dundonald--stretching out towards Acton
Homes.

So much for the plan; now for its execution or modifications. One main
feature has characterised the whole undertaking--its amazing
deliberation. There was to be absolutely no hurry of any kind whatever.
Let the enemy entrench and fortify. If necessary, we were prepared to
sap up to his positions. Let him discover where the attack impended.
Even then all his resistance should be overborne. And it seems now that
this same deliberation which was so punctiliously observed, when speed
appeared an essential to success, baffled the enemy almost as much as it
mystified the troops. However, the event is not yet decided.

After about two, hours' easy marching the cavalry reached the point of
rendezvous among the hills opposite Trichardt's Drift, and here we
halted and awaited developments in the blackness. An hour passed. Then
there arrived Sir Charles Warren and staff. 'Move the cavalry out of the
way--fifteen thousand men marching along this road to-night.' So we
moved accordingly and waited again. Presently the army began to come. I
remember that it poured with rain, and there was very little to look at
in the gloom, but, nevertheless, it was not possible to stand unmoved
and watch the ceaseless living stream--miles of stern-looking men
marching in fours so quickly that they often had to run to keep up, of
artillery, ammunition columns, supply columns, baggage, slaughter
cattle, thirty great pontoons, white-hooded, red-crossed ambulance
waggons, all the accessories of an army hurrying forward under the cover
of night--and before them a guiding star, the red gleam of war.

We all made quite sure that the bridges would be built during the
night, so that with the dawn the infantry could begin to cross and make
an immediate onfall. But when morning broke the whole force was revealed
spread about the hills overlooking the drift and no sound of artillery
proclaimed the beginning of an action. Of course, since a lightning blow
had been expected, we all wondered what was the cause of the delay. Some
said folly, others incapacity, others even actual laziness. But so far
as the operations have proceeded I am not inclined to think that we have
lost anything by not hurrying on this occasion. As I write all is going
well, and it would have been a terrible demand to make of infantry that
they should attack, after a long night march, such a position as lay and
still lies in part before us. In fact it was utterly impossible to do
anything worth doing that day beyond the transportation; so that, though
the Boers were preparing redoubts and entrenchments with frantic energy,
we might just as well take our time. At about eight o'clock a patrol of
the Imperial Light Horse, under Captain Bridges, having ascertained that
only a few Dutch scouts were moving within range on the further bank,
the passage of the river began. Two battalions of Hildyard's Brigade,
the West Yorkshires and the Devons, moved towards the drift in the usual
open formation, occupied the houses, and began to entrench themselves in
the fields. Six batteries came into action from the wooded heights
commanding the passage. The pontoons advanced. Two were launched, and in
them the West Yorkshire Regiment began to cross, accumulating gradually
in the shelter of the further bank. Then the sappers began to build the
bridges. Half a dozen Boers fired a few shots at long range, and one
unfortunate soldier in the Devons was killed. The batteries opened on
the farms, woods, and kopjes beyond the river, shelling them
assiduously, though there was not an enemy to be seen, and searching out
the ground with great thoroughness. I watched this proceeding of making
'sicker' from the heights. The drift was approached from the ground
where we had bivouacked by a long, steep, descending valley. At nine
o'clock the whole of Hart's Brigade poured down this great gutter and
extended near the water. The bridge was growing fast--span after span of
pontoons sprang out at the ends as it lay along the bank. Very soon it
would be long enough to tow into position across the flood. Moreover,
the infantry of the West Yorks and Devons had mostly been ferried
across, and were already occupying the lately well-shelled farms and
woods. At eleven o'clock the bridge was finished, the transported
infantry were spreading up the hills, and Woodgate's Brigade moved
forward down the valley.

It soon became time for the cavalry to cross, but they were not
accommodated, as were the infantry, with a convenient bridge, About a
quarter of a mile down stream from Trichardt's Drift there is a deep and
rather dangerous ford, called the Waggon Drift. Across this at noon the
mounted men began to make their way, and what with the uneven bottom and
the strong current there were a good many duckings. The Royal Dragoons
mounted on their great horses, indeed, passed without much difficulty,
but the ponies of the Light Horse and Mounted Infantry were often swept
off their feet, and the ridiculous spectacle of officers and men
floundering in the torrent or rising indignantly from the shallows
provided a large crowd of spectators--who had crossed by the
bridge--with a comedy. Tragedy was not, however, altogether excluded,
for a trooper of the 13th Hussars was drowned, and Captain Tremayne, of
the same regiment, who made a gallant attempt to rescue him, was taken
from the water insensible.

During the afternoon the busy Engineers built a second bridge across the
river, and by this and the first the artillery, the ammunition columns,
and the rest of the mass of wheeled transport defiled. All that day and
through the night this monotonous business of passing the waggons across
continued. The cavalry had bivouacked--all tents and even waterproofs
were now left behind--within the infantry picket lines, and we awoke at
the break of day expecting to hear the boom of the first gun. 'Quite
right to wait until there was a whole day to make the attack in. Suppose
that was the reason we did not hurry yesterday.' But no guns fired near
Trichardt's Drift, and only the frontal force at Potgieter's began its
usual bombardment. Sir Charles Warren, moreover, said that his artillery
had not finished crossing--one battery still to cross--and that there
was no hurry. Deliberation was the order of the day. So again everyone
was puzzled, and not a few were critical, for in modern times everyone
thinks, and even a native camp follower has his views on tactics and
strategy. A very complete consolation awaited the cavalry. All that
Warren did with his infantry on this day, the 18th, was to creep
cautiously forward about two miles towards the Boer position, which with
its left resting on Spion Kop stretched along the edge and crest of a
lofty plateau, from which long gently sloping spurs and _aretes_ ran
down to the river. For us, however, there was more diverting employment.
'The mounted brigade will guard the left flank of the infantry.' Such
was the order; and is not offence the surest defence? Accordingly all
the irregular cavalry moved in a considerable column westward across the
front of the Boer position, endeavouring to find where its flank rested,
and prying with inquisitive patrols at every object of interest. The
order of march was as follows: First, the composite regiment (one
squadron of Imperial Light Horse, the 60th Rifles, Mounted Infantry, and
one squadron of Natal Carabineers), 350 of the very best; next, four
squadrons of the South African Light Horse, good shooting high-class
colonial Volunteers with officers of experience; then Thorneycroft's
Mounted Infantry. 'Lived in Natal all our lives! Know every inch of it,
sir!' And behind these alert mounted riflemen moved the ponderous and
terrible regulars, 13th Hussars and Royals, with the dreaded _arme
blanche_, 'Wait till we get among them.' Altogether a formidable
brigade.

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