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Page 51
[Illustration: Dawn--After a Night March, Trichardtsfontein]
At nightfall several Boers were seen on the hills in the vicinity, and
there was every reason to suppose that a night attack was contemplated
by them. Preparations were made accordingly, but the night was passed
quietly.
At dawn the return march was commenced. The Boers attacked the
rear-guard before it left camp and before it was formed up, and engaged
it the whole way back to Sondagskraal, until finally they came under
fire of the 5-inch gun in position in that camp.
During the preceding thirty-one hours the four companies of the Regiment
had marched forty-two miles.
Whilst this enterprise was being undertaken the remainder of the
battalion, with the transport of the column, had remained at
Sondagskraal under Colonel Davies.
On the 7th the force marched to Goedehoop, and proceeding without
incident on the 8th to Brakfontein, on the 9th to Strypan, reached
Springs on the 10th. The last two marches were long and tiring, and what
little strength was left in the oxen was exhausted. The men likewise
required a rest and a refit after their long trek from Lydenburg, which
had extended through Secoconi's country in the Northern Transvaal, down
south to Middleburg, thence east to the Swazi border and over the
Eastern Transvaal, reaching as far south as Bethel, to Springs, near
Johannesburg. Eighty per cent of the men had on arrival at Springs
neither shirts nor socks, and the bitter cold of the high veldt pierced
keenly through the thin Indian khaki drill. The column required
generally doing up before again "taking the floor." It was expected by
all that the infantry at least would be relieved by a fresh battalion.
But it was not to be, for General Walter Kitchener insisted on the
Devons accompanying him, and his column set out again from Springs on
the 14th on a trek to the north, and without much fighting or incident
reached Middleburg on July 22nd. The country through which the column
passed was cleared of everything living, including Kaffirs.
Three days' halt was allowed the column at Middleburg, and on the 25th a
start was again made for the north. It was now composed as under:--
Four guns 81st Field Battery R.A., under Major Simpson.
One pompom.
19th Hussars.
5th and 6th West Australians.
Half company Scottish Horse.
Half company Mounted Infantry.
Seven companies Devonshire Regiment.
Two companies under Captain Bartlett had left on the 24th July to
garrison Elands River station, on the Pretoria-Lorenzo railway.
The seven companies with General Kitchener marched out 723 strong.
Two other columns were operating with General Kitchener, one under
Colonel Park and the other under Colonel Campbell. The whole were under
the supreme command of General Walter Kitchener.
On the first day out the 19th Hussars captured a pompom and about sixty
prisoners of Ben Viljoen's and Muller's commandos after a very gallant
little action in which five men of the 19th Hussars especially
distinguished themselves. A great number of cattle and many wagons were
also taken, and the Boers lost about twelve killed and twenty wounded.
General Walter Kitchener's column encamped at Rooi Kraal for a few days
before moving to a camp at Diep Kloof, from which place convoys were
sent to the railway for stores for the three columns.
The first of these convoys under Lieutenant-Colonel Jacson left on
August 1st, marched to Middleburg, by Blinkwater and Elandslaagte, and
reached Middleburg in three days; halted one day there to load up, and
returned via Elandslaagte and Noitgedacht to Diepkloof in three more
days, receiving on their return the congratulations of General Kitchener
on their performance.
On the 10th another convoy, again under Lieutenant-Colonel Jacson, with
an escort composed of men of the Devons and Leicesters and some Scottish
mounted infantry and two field guns, started for Wonderfontein.
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