By daybreak next morning the whole
force was under arms. General Hildyard in the centre was to attack the iron
bridge at Colenso. General Hart's Irish brigade was to march towards Bridle
Drift, and after crossing to move along the left bank of the river towards
the kopjes north of the iron bridge. General Barton was to move forward east
of the railway towards Hlangwane Hill, and to support General Hildyard, or
the Colonial troops moving against that hill as might appear necessary,
while General Lyttleton's brigade, half-way between those of Hildyard and
Hart, were to be prepared to render assistance to either as might be
required. One division of the artillery was to follow Lyttleton's brigade.
The six naval guns were to advance on his right. The sixth brigade were to
aid General Hart, and three batteries of Royal Artillery to move east of the
railway, under cover of the sixth brigade, to a point from which they could
prepare the way for Hildyard's brigade to cross the bridge.
The action began before six o'clock,
the naval guns opening with lyddite on the trenches on Grobler's Hill, and
those between it and Fort Wylie. No reply whatever was made by the Boers,
and the troopers standing by their horses' heads in readiness to mount
should any party of Boers make a raid on the camp, began to wonder whether
the enemy had not retreated. Hildyard's men advanced in open order close to
the railway; the Queen's own, with the West York in support, on the right of
the railway; and the Devons, with East Surrey behind them, on the left. They
marched as steadily and in as perfect alignment as if on parade, eight paces
apart. Hart's Irish brigade, far away to the left, were in close order. The
cavalry could be seen proceeding at a trot towards Hlangwane, General
Barton's brigade still bearing to the east; and Colonel Long and Colonel
Hunt with their batteries, without waiting for their protection, galloped
straight forward, and, taking up a position almost facing Fort Wylie, a few
hundred yards beyond the river, opened a heavy fire; the six naval guns,
which were drawn by bullocks, being still a considerable distance behind
them.
Still the Boer guns remained silent.
But at half past six their musketry opened suddenly upon the Queen's Own,
the Devons, and the guns, in one continuous roar. It came not only from the
entrenchments on the face of the hill, but from trenches close down by the
river, and from the houses of Colenso, from some railway huts, and from the
bushes that fringed the south bank of the river, which had been believed to
be wholly unoccupied. Five minutes later their cannon joined in the roar,
with machine-guns, one-pounder Maxims, and the great Creusots and Krupps.
And yet through this storm of lead and iron our soldiers went on quietly and
steadily. The very ground round them was torn up by bullet and ball. Many
fell, but there was no flinching; while on their right, Long's batteries,
though swept by a hail of missiles from unseen foes, maintained a continuous
fire at Fort Wylie.
"It is awful!" Peters exclaimed as
he lowered his glasses. "I thought it would be dreadful, but I never dreamt
of anything like this. Look at the bodies dotting the ground our men are
passing over, and yet the others go on as if it was a shower of rain through
which they were passing. I can't look at it any longer." "It is as bad for
the artillery," Chris said, with his glasses still riveted upon them. "I saw
a lot of the horses go down before they were unlimbered, and I can see the
men are falling fast. Surely they can never have been meant to go within
five or six hundred yards of magazine rifles. I thought everyone had agreed
that artillery could not live within range of breech-loaders. Why doesn't
Barton's brigade move down towards them, and try and keep down the fire? How
is Hart getting on?"
But it was not easy to see this even
with glasses. They had not become engaged until a little later than the
others, but as they approached the river an equally terrible fire opened
upon them. Being in comparatively close order, they suffered more heavily
than Hildyard had done. Presently they came upon a spruit which they took to
be the main river, and under a tremendous fire from the Mausers and guns,
dashed across it, and swinging round their left made for the drift, sweeping
before them a number of Boers who had been hidden in the long grass.
Trenches were there line after line, but over these the four regiments--the
Connaught Rangers, the Border regiment, the Inniskilling and Dublin
Fusiliers-- dashed forward with such fury that the Boers did not stop to
meet their bayonets. By a quarter-past seven the enemy had been driven
across the Tugela. Without hesitation the Irish dashed into the river. Many
fell headlong, for along the bottom barbed wires had been stretched. Worse
still, it was found that instead of being two feet deep, as was expected, it
was eight feet; for the Boers had erected a dyke across the river a little
lower down, and had dammed the water back.
Some swam across with their rifles
and ammunition, but it was a feat beyond all except the strongest swimmers,
and after maintaining themselves for some time they were forced to retire.
The naval guns did their best to assist them, and silenced some of the Boer
cannon that were pounding them, but they failed to draw the Boer fire upon
themselves. It was only in the centre that even partial success was gained.
Hildyard's men had reached but not captured Colenso bridge. In spite of the
tremendous fire, some of the soldiers tried to make their way along it, but
were recalled; for they were deprived of the support of the artillery that
should have covered their passage, had no hope of Hart bringing his brigade
round to clear the enemy out from the kloofs on the opposite side, and but
little of aid from Lyttleton, who had been obliged to move farther to the
left to lend assistance to Hart. Some of the Scottish Fusiliers had joined
them from Barton's brigade, but the brigade itself was far away.
Terrible as the fighting was at all
points, it was the batteries down by the river that most engaged the
attention of the anxious spectators. Desperate attempts were being made to
get the guns back. Almost all the horses had been killed, but the drivers of
the teams of the ammunition waggons, the few survivors of the officers, and
several of the general's staff dashed recklessly forward under a hail of
fire. Horse and man went over, but two of the guns were carried off.
Fortunately, the naval battery and the third field battery had not been
taken so far forward, and were withdrawn with comparatively little loss; and
the ten guns stood alone and deserted by the last of the party as it seemed.
Then, to the surprise of the watchers, one of them spoke out, for four of
the men who worked it had stood to their charge to the last. Again and again
it sent its shrapnel among the Boer trenches. One fell and then another, but
two remained. They continued to fire until the last round of reserve
ammunition was finished. Then those who were near enough to make out their
figures saw them take their stand, one on each side of the gun, at
attention, until both fell dead by the side of the piece they had served so
well. Even on the right, where success might really have been hoped for,
everything had gone badly. The dismounted Colonials had fought their way
gallantly up the slopes of the Hlangwane, and nearly reached the crest. But
they were not seconded by Lord Dundonald's cavalry; Barton's brigade, which
was charged with aiding them, were kept at a distance, and the Colonials
were at last forced to fall back.
Great as was the loss at other
points, the failure to capture this hill was really the greatest misfortune
of the day. From its position on the south of the river, and in a loop,
batteries erected on its summit would have taken all the Boer defences on
the lower slopes of the hills in flank, and it would have covered the
crossing of the river at Colenso. Cut off by the river from the rest of the
Boer position it could hardly have been retaken, and its fire would have
searched the valley up which the roadway ran almost as far as Mount Bulwana.
Renewed attempts were made for some
time to carry off the guns, but early in the afternoon the general saw that
it was but a waste of life to persevere further, and orders were despatched
for the troops to retire. It had been a day of misfortunes, and yet a day of
glory, for never had the fighting power of British troops been more
splendidly exhibited, never were greater deeds of individual daring
performed; never had troops supported with heroic indifference so terrible a
fire. Undoubtedly the English general had greatly underrated the fighting
powers of the Boers and the amount of artillery to which he was exposed. Had
he not done so, he would scarcely have distributed his force over so wide a
face, or attacked at three points nearly four miles apart, but would have
prepared for the grand assault by seizing Hlangwane and firmly establishing
some of his batteries there, even at the cost of two or three days' labour,
and only attempted to cross the river when the movement would have been
covered by their fire.
The Boers were quick in discovering
the importance of the hill, and speedily covered its face with such
entrenchments, that not until after long weeks of effort and failure was an
attack again attempted against it; and the success of that attack opened the
way to Ladysmith. But had the general's orders been carried out at all
points it would probably have been captured. Hart's brigade was to have
begun the attack, but owing to the map with which he was furnished being
defective, his troops losing their way in the spruit, and their being led in
far too close a formation under the enemy's fire, its attempt failed; this
being, however, largely due to the astuteness of the Boers in damming back
the river and rendering the ford impracticable. The impetuosity of the
officers commanding two of the batteries of artillery, in pushing their guns
forward unattended by infantry as ordered, not only caused the loss of ten
guns and of nearly all the men who worked them, but deprived Hildyard's
column of the protection they would have had in crossing the bridge, and
rendered the undertaking impossible; while the failure of Barton's brigade
to give assistance either to Hildyard or to the assailants of Hlangwane,
contributed to the one failure, and entirely brought about the other.
General Buller and General Clery had
been wherever the shots were flying the thickest. Three of the former's
staff, Captains Schofield and Congreve, and Lieutenant Roberts, son of Lord
Roberts, had ridden forward as volunteers to try and get the guns off.
Roberts was fatally wounded, Congreve was wounded and taken prisoner, and
Schofield alone escaped unharmed with the two guns that were saved.
The day had been almost more
terrible for the troops who remained unoccupied near the baggage than for
those actually engaged in the terrible light. The latter, animated by
excitement and anger at their inability to get at the foe, had scarce time
to think of their danger, and even laughed and joked in the midst of the
hail of bullets, but the watchers had nothing to distract them during the
long hours. With their glasses they could plainly see that no advance had
been made at any point. To them it seemed incredible that any could come
back from that storm of fire. From time to time they learned from wounded
men brought up by the bearers, who fearlessly went down into the thick of
the fire to do their duty, news of how matters were going on in the front.
Gladly, had they received orders to
do so, would they have dashed down to try and carry off the guns. Many shed
tears of rage as they heard how the Irish strove in vain to cross the deep
river, and how many were drowned in their attempts to swim it. They
expected, when in the afternoon the troops came in, that they would see an
utterly dispirited body of men, and were surprised when the Irish, who were
the first to return to camp, marched along smoking their pipes and joking as
if they had returned from a day of triumph rather than of failure. They were
animated by a knowledge that they had done all that men could do, had proved
they were worthy successors of their countrymen who had won glory in so many
hard-fought fields, and that no shadow of reproach could fall upon them for
their share in the day's work. Although they had suffered far more heavily
than the other brigade, they returned more cheerfully. And yet there was no
depression anywhere evinced, although there was anger, fierce anger, that
they had not been able to get at the enemy, and a grim determination that
next time they met, things should go differently.
A good many prisoners had been lost.
Parties had spread along among the bushes that lined the river, and
maintained a steady fire against the Boer entrenchments facing them. Some of
these had not heard the bugle sounding the retire. When they were aware what
was being done some had left their shelter and rushed across the open ground
to join the columns, the majority being shot down as they did so. Others had
waited among the bushes, intending to try after nightfall; but as soon as we
fell back the Boers had again crossed the river and spread along its banks,
and had thus made prisoners those who were in hiding there or in the little
dongas. Among those so captured were fourteen of the Devons and as many
gunners, with Colonel Hunt, Colonel Bullock, Major MacWalter, and Captains
Goodwin, Vigors, and Congreve; the total loss in killed, wounded, and
prisoners amounted to about one thousand five hundred, of whom nearly half
belonged to the Irish brigade. That evening the searchlight, which had been
placed on a lofty hill visible from one end of the high kopjes held by the
garrison of Ladysmith, flashed the news that the attack had failed, and that
the garrison must be prepared to hold out for some time yet.
The news of the reverse created a
tremendous sensation throughout Natal, where it had been confidently
anticipated that the army would brush aside without difficulty the
opposition of the Boers, relieve Ladysmith and, advancing sweep the invaders
out of the colony. In England, too, the sensation was scarcely less
pronounced, and for the first time the gravity of the war in which we were
engaged was recognized. Hitherto it had been thought that fifty thousand men
would suffice to bring it to a successful conclusion; now it was perceived
that at least double that number would be required. The offers of the
colonies to aid the mother country with troops had hitherto been coldly
received, but these were now accepted thankfully, and although our military
authorities would not as yet recognize that the volunteers could be relied
upon as a real fighting force, there was a talk that some of the militia
regiments might be embodied, and a large number of reservists were at once
summoned back to the ranks.
At the front matters went on as
before. It was now known how it was that the guns had advanced so far.
Colonel Long had sent forward some of his mounted men with two officers. The
Boers allowed them to approach the river bank without firing a shot. One of
the scouts actually rode across the bridge to the other side, and returning
to the battery they reported that there were no Boers about, and it was only
after receiving this message that Colonel Long took the guns forward to
within six hundred yards of the river, and twelve hundred of Fort Wylie.
The wounded were all taken to Frere
or Estcourt, where hospitals had been prepared. Hart and Lyttleton's
brigades were sent back to Frere, and the camp at Chieveley was moved nearer
to the station, both for convenience of supply, and because the position now
taken up was a more defensible one, and was less exposed to the fire of the
big Boer guns; large numbers of transport animals and waggons were brought
up country. It was known that a newly-landed division under General Sir
Charles Warren was now coming up, one regiment, the Somersets, arrived in
camp two or three days after the battle, and the loss of the cannon was to
some extent retrieved by the arrival of a 50-lbs. howitzer battery.
It was but dull work in camp. The
more impetuous spirits were longing to be employed in annoying the Boers by
frequent surprises at night; but as these could have achieved no permanent
advantage, and must have been attended with considerable loss of life, Sir
Redvers Buller set his face against any such attacks, and went steadily on
with his preparations. As troops came up anticipations of a certain success
when the next forward movement was made were generally entertained. Chris
and his companions passed the time pleasantly enough. Being old friends they
had plenty to talk about, and occasional scouting expeditions to the east
gave them a certain amount of employment. Not having been engaged in the
attack on Hlangwane, they did not participate in the soreness felt by the
rest of the colonials at their failure to capture the hill, owing to the
want of support from Lord Dundonald's cavalry or Barton's brigade.
The chagrin felt at the mistake that
had been made in not making this the prime object of attack was general, for
the Boers could be seen working unceasingly at their entrenchments. They had
not only made a ford by throwing great quantities of rock and stones into
the channel, but had also built a bridge, so that the force on the hill
could be speedily reinforced to any extent, and what could have been
effected on the day of the attack by half a battalion of infantry would now
be a very serious undertaking even by a whole division.
The lads were chatting one day over
the chances of the next fight, most of them taking a very sanguine view.
"What do you say, Chris?" one of
them said after the discussion had gone on for some time. "You have not
given us your opinion."
"My opinion does not agree with
yours," Chris replied. "After what I saw the other day, I think the
difficulties of fighting our way over those mountains are so enormous that I
doubt whether we shall ever do it."
There was a chorus of dissent.
"Well, we shall see," he said. "I
hope that we shall do it just as much as you do, but it is tremendous
business. I have no doubt Sir Redvers will go on trying, but I should not be
surprised if at heart he has doubts that it can be done. The Boers have more
guns that we have, and any number of those Maxims and Hotchkiss that keep up
a stream of balls. The Boers' trenches enable them to fire at us without
showing anything but a head, except when they stand up or have to move
across the open. If we drive them out of one position they have others to
fall back upon. It is not one natural fortress that we have to take, but a
dozen of them. They know every foot of the country they occupy, while we
know nothing but just what we can see at a distance."
"Well, if Sir Redvers thought as you
do, why should he go on hammering at it?"
"For several reasons, Peters. In the
first place, if Ladysmith saw that there was no chance of rescue it would at
last give in; and in the second place, if there was an end of all attempts
to relieve the place England would go wild with indignation; and in the
third place, and by far the most important, Sir Redvers knows that he is
keeping from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand of the Boers inactive
here, and so relieving the pressure on our troops on the other side. We know
regiments are arriving from England at the Cape every day. When they get
strong enough to invade the Orange Free State and take Bloemfontein, and
march north, the Boers here will be hurrying away to defend their homes. Of
course the Free Staters will go first, but the Transvaalers will have to
follow. We hear that Methuen has been beaten at Magersfontein, and that he
has been brought to a stand-still within the sound of the guns round
Kimberley, just as we are here, and that the Boers have a very strong
position there also. So at present the advance is as much checked there as
it is here. Gatacre has had a misfortune too, so that we are all in the same
boat. I saw a Pietermaritzburg paper in the naval camp just now; there are
about twenty thousand men on the sea at the present moment, besides those in
the colony, and two more divisions are being formed. So it is safe to come
right in the long run. But at present, if those twenty-five thousand Boers
opposite to us were not there now, they would be riding all over Cape
Colony, and if Buller were not to keep on hammering away here a good many of
them would be off at once. They say Ladysmith can hold out for another three
months. By that time there ought to be such a big force in the Orange State
that the Boers won't dare to stop here any longer, and no end of loss of
life will be avoided.
"I never thought that you were a
croaker before," Field said, "except just before the last fight; but
certainly things have gone very badly lately. Three disasters in seven or
eight days are a facer; but I cannot think that we shall not succeed next
time. When Warren's division is up Buller will have over thirty thousand men
with him, in spite of our losses the other day, and we ought to be able to
do it with that."
"Well, we shall see, Field. I hope
you are right."
The news of Methuen's repulse and
the terrible losses in the Highland brigade, and of Gatacre's disaster, cast
a greater gloom over Buller's army than their own failure had done. The one
topic of conversation among the officers was, what would be the feeling in
England, and whether there would be any inclination to patch up another
dishonourable peace like that after Majuba. But the feeling wore off as day
after day the news came that the misfortunes had but raised the spirit and
determination of the people of Great Britain to carry the war through to the
bitter end; that recruiting was going on with extraordinary rapidity; that
fresh regiments had been ordered out; that Lord Roberts had been appointed
to the supreme command in South Africa, and that Lord Kitchener was coming
out as chief of his staff. The fact, too, that the volunteers had been asked
to send companies to the regiments to which they were attached, that the
City had undertaken to raise a strong battalion at its own expense, that the
Yeomanry were to furnish ten thousand men, and that public, spirit had risen
to fever heat, soon showed that these apprehensions were without foundation,
and that Britain was still true to herself, and was showing the same
indomitable spirit that had carried her through many periods of national
depression, and brought her out triumphant at the end.
Christmas passed cheerily; no gun
was fired on either side, although the Boers worked diligently at their
trenches; and our men feasted as they had not done since they landed at
Durban. Bacon, milk, fresh bread, beef, and a quart of beer were served out
for each man, and on these men and officers made a memorable meal; the
latter producing the last bottles of wine and spirits that had been
specially sent up to them from Maritzburg. And on that and the following day
there were sports--lemon- cutting, tent pegging, races for the cavalry;
athletic sports, tugs-of- war, mule and donkey races for the infantry. The
drums and fifes played national airs, and the sailors bore their full share
in the fun. As time went on the preparations for the next move advanced.
None were more pleased at the prospect of active work again than the
Colonial Volunteers, who had several times entreated to be allowed to get
out and drive back the bands of plundering Boers, who were still wasting the
farms and destroying the farmhouses and furniture of the loyalists.
On the 27th a small party of Captain
Brookfield's scouts had been sent out to reconnoitre the windings and
turnings of the Tugela to the east, to ascertain as far as possible what the
Boer positions were on that side, and whether they had placed bodies of
skirmishers on the south side of the river as they did opposite Fort Wylie.
Included in the party, which was a hundred strong, was the Johannesburg
section. When well away from the camp they were broken up into small
parties, the better to escape the observation of the Boers on the Hlangwane
and other heights. The instructions given by their commander were that they
should take every advantage of ground to conceal their movements from the
enemy, but where the ground near the river was level and fit for galloping
they should dash across it, and, if not fired at, should skirt along the
banks, mark if there were any tracks by which horses or cattle had at some
time come down to the water, and observe if similar tracks were to be seen
on the opposite bank, as this would show that, though possibly only in dry
weather, the river was fordable there. Where the ground was too broken and
rock-covered to permit of horses passing rapidly across it, they were to
dismount and crawl down the river to make their observations.
Only a small portion of the troop
had been engaged on this work, the main body were to keep along on the
hills, maintaining a vigilant watch over the country to the south and east
as well as that around them, as many parties of marauding Boers were known
to be still across the river. Knowing the sharpness of the lads, Captain
Brookfield had told off their section to explore the river bank, a choice
which excited no jealousy among the rest, as these were hoping for a brush
with some wandering party of Boers, and the satisfaction of rescuing cattle
and goods they might be carrying off. His instructions to Chris were that he
was to detach two of his party at each mile, choosing points where they
could best make their way to the river unobserved. As he himself with the
main body would go up considerably farther, each pair, when they had
searched their section, were to ride a mile or so back from the river and
fall in with the main body on its return.
Riding rapidly along, Chris carried
out his instructions, until, when some twelve miles from the camp, he
remained with only Sankey with him. The country they had passed was rolling,
and from time to time he had caught sight of small parties of Captain
Brookfield's scouts. Arriving at a spot where there was a slight depression
running down towards the river, he said, "We may as well follow it, Sankey.
It will deepen into a donga presently, no doubt, and we can leave our horses
there and go on on foot. It looks to me as if this had been used as a path.
Of course it may only have been made by cattle going down to the water, but
it may lead to a drift. If it is, we must be all the more careful, for it is
just at these points that the Boers are very likely to be on the look- out."
They rode for some distance and then
dismounted, knee-haltered their horses and moved forward cautiously. Chris
still believed they were on a track, but the heavy rains of the week before
had sent the water rushing down it in a torrent, which would have destroyed
any marks there might have been. When they could see the opening to the
river in front of them they climbed the side of the donga. All seemed quiet,
and stopping and taking advantage of the bushes, they crept forward to the
edge of the water. There was no sign of a break in the opposite bank.
"There is no drift here," Chris
said. "If there had been there would be a pass cut or worn down on the other
side. Now let us push on, but don't show yourself more than you can help,
any Boer lurking on the other side could hardly miss us. A hundred and fifty
yards, I should say, is about the width."
After walking some little distance
along they suddenly came upon another break in the bank.
"There is a break opposite, Sankey.
Ten to one this is a drift. The question is, how deep is it? You can see the
river is not as high as it was by four feet, and I dare say that it will be
lower yet if we get another week of fine weather. It's very important to
find out. I will try to ford it; it's hardly likely there are any Boers so
far down, but have your rifle ready, and keep a sharp look-out on the
opposite side."
A minute later they went down the
slope. "Keep back under the shelter of these bushes as soon as I go in,
Sankey." Then he stepped into the water and waded out. In a few yards it was
up to his waist; then it deepened slowly. He was a third of the distance
across when two rifles cracked out from some bushes on the opposite bank.
Chris felt a sudden smart pain in his ear. He instantly threw himself down
in the water, and diving, made for the shore, allowing the stream to take
him down. Swimming as hard and as long as he could, he came for a moment to
the surface, turning on his back before he did so, and only raising his
mouth and nose above water. He took a long breath and then sank again,
swimming this time towards the shore. His breath lasted until he was in
water too shallow to swim farther, and, leaping to his feet, he dashed up
the bank and threw himself down. He heard two bullets hum close to him, but
the Boers had not been looking in his direction, and only caught sight of
him in time to take a snap shot. He crawled along through the high, coarse
grass, feeling very anxious as to what had become of Sankey. He had heard
the report of the Boer rifles, but there came no reply from his friend, who
would assuredly have been lying in shelter in readiness to shoot as soon as
he saw a flash on the opposite bank. Could he have forgotten to take cover
the instant he himself entered the water, could he possibly have remained
standing there watching him? Two shots had been fired: one had certainly hit
his ear; had the other been aimed at Sankey? He crawled along until he came
to the point where he could see down on to the road. To his horror Sankey
was lying there on his back.
