The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars
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making trenches, gradually approaching the fort; but on the22nd Lieutenant Dalrymple Hay went out, carried the position from whichthe Boers had been most troublesome, and captured four prisoners, someguns, ammunition, and trenching-tools. From that time, although theBoers continued to throw up trenches, they contented themselves with adesultory fire.
The siege continued for three months and five days; at the end of thattime the whole of the provisions were exhausted. Fever, dysentery, andscurvy had broken out, and many of the garrison had died. Out of 213men eighty-three had been killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. In factan armistice between the armies had at that time been proclaimed, butCronje, the Boer who commanded the attack, treacherously concealed thefact from the garrison. When only three days' quarter-rations remainedthe garrison surrendered the fort, on the condition that they should beallowed to march down to Natal.
Messengers had reached Cronje nine days before with news of thearmistice, but although he was aware of this he continued the siege tothe end, the firing during the last week being heavier than at any timeduring the siege,--on two days alone 150 round shot fell on the fort.The Boers were afterwards obliged to allow that the surrender of thefort had been obtained by treachery, and to agree to the garrison beingreinstated.
Standerton is the first town of any size on the main road from Natal toPretoria, and is situated on the north bank of the Vaal River. On theoutbreak of hostilities two companies of the 94th and one of the 88thmarched from Wackerstroom to this town, and Major Montague of the 94thRegiment arrived from Natal to take the command. The total strength ofthe garrison consisted of about 350 soldiers and seventy civilians. TheLanddrost, J.C. Krogh, remained loyal and assisted in the defence,three forts were erected on eminences round the town, two outworks andmany breastworks and rifle-pits were dug, houses interfering with theline of fire were pulled down, and other buildings in suitable positionswere barricaded and loop-holed.
The centre point of defence was a building known as Fort Alice, 800yards from the town, and a military camp was formed on a height one mileand a quarter from this point. Preparations were made to blow up someof the buildings, should the Boers carry the town, mines being dug andlaid to the fort. A good store of provisions was collected.
On the 29th a scout on a hill signalled a large number of Boers wereapproaching Erasmus Farm, three miles distant from Standerton. CaptainCassell, with sixteen mounted volunteers, went out to reconnoitre. Twoor three scouts were thrown out, and these arrived within 600 yards ofthe farm; suddenly a number of Boers made their appearance, and Mr G.B.Hall, one of the mounted volunteers, gallantly tried to cross theirline to warn his comrades of the coming danger. Galloping in front ofthe Boers, his horse was shot under him; taking shelter behind it, heopened fire on the enemy, and so attracted the attention of his party.One man could not long resist 300, and Hall was soon killed. The alarm,however, had been given in time, and the mounted men fell back on thecamp, exchanging shots with the enemy. The Boers now took up a position600 yards from the camp, and kept up a heavy fire. Skirmishes occurreddaily, and the enemy harassing the garrison from a height calledStanderton Kop, Major Montague caused a dummy-gun, mounted on twowaggon-wheels, to be placed in the intrenchments; the sight of thisfrightened the Boers off Standerton Kop.
On the 7th of January a Swazi, named Infofa, who had greatlydistinguished himself by his bravery in the Secoceni War, but was nowundergoing a term of penal servitude for culpable homicide, performed anact of singular bravery. The Boers had during the night erected a smallearthwork on the outside of the Vaal River; 400 yards nearer the townstood a house, and fearing that this might be occupied by the Putch, itwas determined to destroy it. Infofa with a party of Kaffirsvolunteered for the duty; he crossed the river with his party, and theKaffirs began to pull down the house. Infofa, however, took his gun,and marched boldly away to the Boer earthwork, 400 yards distant, to theastonishment of the lookers-on. It happened that at the moment no Boerswere present in the works, and the man reached it without a shot beingfired at him; inside he found some tools, and with these he deliberatelyset to work and levelled the breastwork; this accomplished, he returnedto the party.
Until the end of the war the Boers were unable to make any impressionupon Standerton, and whenever they approached too closely the garrisonsallied out and drove them off.
At Leydenberg fifty men of the 94th, under Lieutenant Long, had beenleft, when the four companies under Colonel Anstruther had marched away.The people of the town, when the news of the rising arrived, offered todefend themselves with the troops against attacks; but Lieutenant Longdeclined to accept the offer. There were in the town 220 women andchildren, and only thirty-four white men who could be relied on; therewere no defences and no water-supply, and as Lieutenant Long knew thatthree or four months must elapse before a relieving force could arrive,he decided that it would only cost the townspeople their lives andproperty were they to attempt to defend the place. He therefore advisedthem to remain neutral, while he with his fifty soldiers defended thefort. This they did, and the commandant of the Boer force, Piet Steyn,caused their property to be respected when he entered the town with histroops.
For three months Lieutenant Long defended the fort gallantly against allattacks. At one time the enemy set fire to the thatch roof of one ofthe buildings, but the soldiers succeeded in extinguishing it, althoughthe Boers kept up a heavy fire; during the night the defenders strippedoff the roofs of the remaining thatch buildings, and so prevented arenewal of this form of attack. The Boers cut off the water-supply, butthe garrison sunk wells, and succeeded in reaching water in time. Thecasualties among the fifty men during the siege were three killed andnineteen wounded. At the end of the war a general order was published,conferring the highest praise upon Lieutenant Long and his littlegarrison, for the bravery and endurance which they had shown inmaintaining for three months a close siege, and this without any hope ofrelief or succour. At the conclusion of the war Lieutenant Long was sodisgusted at the humiliating terms of the treaty, and the surrender tothe Boers, that he resigned his commission in the army.
Marabadstadt, though called a village, consists of only seven or eighthouses. Sixty men of the 94th, under Captain Brook, formed the garrisonwhich was stationed there to keep order after the Secoceni War, as noless than 500,000 natives inhabit the surrounding district. Fortunatelythe races were being held at the time when the news of the massacre ofthe 94th arrived, and the English inhabitants of the neighbourhood, whowere present, at once responded to the call of Captain Brook to aid inthe defence, and thirty white men and fifty half-castes enrolledthemselves as volunteers. The Boers attacked in considerable force,having with them two cannons; but the fort held out until the end of thewar, the garrison making many sorties when the Boers brought up theirguns too close. At Rustenberg and Wackerstroom a successful defence wasalso maintained throughout the war by the British and loyalists; but noincidents of importance marked the siege of those places.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
LAING'S NECK.
On the 24th of January General Colley's little column, consisting of the58th, a battalion of the 60th, a small naval brigade, 170 mountedinfantry, and six guns, moved out from Newcastle; they took with them anamount of baggage-train altogether out of proportion to their force, asin addition to their own baggage and ammunition they were taking up aconsiderable amount of the latter for the use of the troops besieged inthe various towns in the Transvaal.
Mr Humphreys and Jackson rode over to Newcastle to see them start, andthe lads sat chatting to them on their horses, as the column filed by.
"I don't like the look of things, father," Dick said, "and if you hadseen the way the Boers polished off the 94th, I am sure you wouldn'tlike it either. If we are attacked by them, the troops would, for themost part, be wanted to guard this huge baggage-train, and I am sure,from what I have seen of the Boers, the only way to thrash them is toattack them quickly and suddenly. If you let them attack you, you aredone for. T
heir shooting is ten times as good as that of the troops;they are accustomed, both in hunting and in their native wars, to dependeach man on himself, and they would hang round a column like this, pickthe men off at long distances, and fall upon them in hollows and bushes;while, whenever our fellows tried to take the offensive, they wouldmount their horses and ride away, only to return and renew the attack assoon as the troops fell back to the waggons. Besides, with such a trainof waggons we can only crawl along, and the Boers will have time tofortify every position. I wonder, at any rate, that General Colley doesnot push forward in light marching-order and drive the Boers at once outof Natal, and cross the river into the Transvaal; then he would have aflat, open country before him, and could bring the waggons upafterwards."
"What you say seems right enough, Dick," his father answered; "butGeneral Colley has the reputation of being an excellent officer."
"I have no doubt that he