620 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



ever, in bringing in over 1,000 surrendered and 

 captured burghers, in digging up several buried 

 guns, in carrying away cattle and supplies, and 

 they took to the refuge camps thousands of 

 women and children. On June 13 a large force of 

 Boers surprised and captured at Wilmansrust 400 

 men of the Victorian regiment, who surrendered 

 after losing 18 killed and 44 wounded, giving up 

 2 guns and large numbers of rifles and horses and 

 a supply of food, clothing, and ammunition suffi- 

 cient to last them a long time. Gen. Beatson by 

 calling the Victorians white-livered caused a 

 mutiny in the regiment, and to appease the 

 Australians the mutineers were pardoned after 

 conviction. 



Commandant Delarey in the southwest Trans- 

 vaal was the most aggressive of the Boer com- 

 manders, and for a long time was left in undis- 

 puted possession of the Magaliesberg region. 

 Lord Methuen's outpost at Lichtenburg was at- 

 tacked on March 3 by 1,500 men with 1 gun, and 

 in a fight lasting nearly a whole day and night 

 the Boers lost 60 and the British 42 killed and 

 wounded. Gen. Babington marched from Naaw- 

 poort, compelling the Boers to retreat to Harte- 

 beestfontein. On March 22 they attacked a de- 

 tachment of cavalry near Geduld, but were re- 

 pulsed with a loss of 24 men. The main body 

 was driven back by the strengthened British col- 

 umn, losing a convoy at Zwartlaagte, where they 

 left 54 killed and wounded on the field and 140 

 prisoners and 3 guns and 6 Maxims in the hands 

 of the British. On April 14 Lieut.-Col. Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson surprised the laager of Commandant 

 J. C. Smuts at Goedvoruitzicht, taking 23 prison- 

 ers and 2 more guns and inflicting a loss of 16 

 killed and wounded. Gen. Delarey then concen- 

 trated his commandoes, numbering 2,000 men, in 

 the hills about Hartebeestfontein. On April 22 

 he conducted at Brakspruit another determined 

 but unsuccessful attack on a convoy, losing 18 

 killed and wounded. Lord Methuen brought up 

 his force to cooperate with Gen. Babington, who 

 had his base at Syferkuil. In an engagement 

 near Brakpan he took from the Boers a gun. The 

 British force continued to receive reenforcements, 

 and in May Delarey abandoned Hartebeestfon- 

 tein. There remained no large Boer force in the 

 field. In July the total strength of the com- 

 mandoes was estimated at 13,500, and in the oper- 

 ations by flying columns that ensued the Boers 

 who voluntarily surrendered or were taken pris- 

 oners were about 1,000 monthly. Of the British 

 about 4,000 were killed, wounded, or invalided 

 every month. On May 27 Gen. Dixon's column, 

 1,400 strong, was fiercely attacked by Gen. 

 Kemp's commando at Vlakfontein. Two guns 

 were taken by the Boers and gallantly recaptured 

 by the Derbyshire battalion. The British lost 60 

 killed and 120 wounded, the Boers almost as 

 many. On June 6 Gen. Elliot's column captured 

 a part of De Wet's supplies near Reitz in a stub- 

 bornly contested engagement in which the British 

 lost 45 killed and wounded and the Boers 20. In 

 consequence of raids into Natal from the Orange 

 border Lord Kitchener had farms cleared from 

 Sunday river to the Tugela. Commandoes from 

 Amsterdam and Piet Retief compelled one post of 

 Steinacker's Horse to evacuate Bremersdorp in 

 Swaziland with a loss of 10 men and captured 

 another. Gen. Walter Kitchener's and Gen. 

 Campbell's columns were intercepted in the defile 

 of the Selous river by Gen. Viljoen's men, but 

 drove them off with artillery and even captured 

 2 machine-guns by a flanking cavalry attack. 

 Gen. Blood's columns continued to scour the Caro- 

 lina district, and the column under Walter Kitch- 



ener operating north of the railroad finally drove 

 Ben Viljoen across the Olifant river. Gen. Broad- 

 wood surprised the members of the Free State 

 Government at a farm and captured most of them. 

 President Steyn only escaped by mounting a horse 

 and riding away half clothed. 



The southern winter season was taken up with 

 drives in parallel order and in convergent lines^ 

 The Orange Colony, the Transvaal, and parts of 

 Cape Colony were traversed again and again, with 

 no important military results. The country was. 

 cleared, however, thoroughly devastated, and all 

 the families within reach were concentrated in 

 the refuge camps surrounded by barbed wire and 

 guarded by British sentries. The plan of night 

 surprises was then tried. A column would march 

 5 or 10 miles, and then double back after dark, 

 or a small force would be led by a spy to some 

 Boer rendezvous. Some slight successes resulted 

 from this change of tactics at first. Small parties 

 of burghers were surprised, though occasionally 

 the detachment fell a victim to a counter-sur- 

 prise. Soon the burghers learned to guard against 

 these night raids. The 80 British columns, 

 marched and countermarched by day and by 

 night, and merely wore out the soldiers and their 

 horses. The Boers could no longer cross the rail- 

 road between Bloemfontein and Pretoria except 

 in small parties because the blockhouses were 

 only a mile apart, and working in conjunction 

 with them were posts and mounted patrols on 

 each side. There were 3,000 miles of railroads- 

 requiring protection, and 2,000 miles of these 

 passed through a hostile country, requiring a per- 

 manent guard at every culvert. About 75,000 

 troops were necessary for this work, besides gar- 

 risons in the principal towns on the railroads and 

 at particular defensive posts, which left only one- 

 third of the effective British force free to operate 

 against the enemy. Refugee camps were estab- 

 lished at Irene, Kroonstad, Brandfort, Bloemfon- 

 tein, and Aliwal-North in the Orange Colony, at 

 Pretoria and other points in the Transvaal, and 

 when the west was cleared at 2 or 3 stations 

 near the border. Gen. French, who was placed in 

 charge of the operation of clearing the Orange 

 River Colony, carried out the work of denudation 

 in a thorough manner. Except along the rail- 

 roads and in the towns military occupation was 

 hot attempted excepting within a radius of 15 

 miles round Bloemfontein and small areas sur- 

 rounding other garrison towns. An outer circle 

 was protected by the South African constabulary 

 strengthened by lines of blockhouses. In the oc- 

 cupied areas cultivation was carried on by sur- 

 rendered Boers, and at each garrison town was 

 a Government farm where vegetables and fodder 

 were grown for the soldiers and their horses, the 

 total area thus planted being 2,000 acres. To- 

 prevent Kaffirs from supplying food to the burgh- 

 ers or otherwise aiding them, they too were col- 

 lected in concentration camps to the number of 

 40,000 in the Orange Colony. There were 60 Brit- 

 ish columns of from 200 to 2,000 men operating 

 in July, and later as many as 70 colurilns. The 

 Magaliesberg and adjacent parts of the western 

 Transvaal were cleared. Boer families were found 

 who were peacefully reaping their crops under the 

 impression that the war had ended in their favor. 

 The northern belt of the Orange Colony was also 

 cleared. A third field of active operations was- 

 in Cape Colony, and this was the most difficult. 



The surviving members of the Transvaal Gov- 

 ernment and Commandants Botha, Viljoen, and 

 J. C. Smuts were inclined in May to give up the 

 struggle, as burghers were surrendering, ammuni- 

 tion nearly exhausted, and food hard to get, and 



