From Capetown to Ladysmith

From Capetown to Ladysmith

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Title: From Capetown to Ladysmith An Unfinished Record of the
South African War
Author: G. W. Steevens
Editor: Vernon Blackburn
Release Date: July 20, 2005 [EBook #16337]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CAPETOWN TO LADYSMITH ***

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FROM CAPETOWN TO LADYSMITH
AN UNFINISHED RECORD OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
BY

G.W. STEEVENS
AUTHOR OF 'WITH KITCHENER TO KHARTUM,' 'IN INDIA,'
ETC., ETC.
EDITED BY VERNON BLACKBURN
THIRD IMPRESSION WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS,
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCC
BY THE SAME AUTHOR WITH KITCHENER TO KHARTUM. With
8 Maps and Plans. Twenty-first Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.
"This book is a masterpiece. Mr Steevens writes an English which is
always alive and alert.... The description of the battle of Omdurman
reaches, we do not hesitate to say, the high-water mark of
literature."--_Spectator._
IN INDIA. With a Map. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.
"To read this book is a liberal education in one of the most interesting
and least known portions of our Empire."--_St James's Gazette._
THE LAND OF THE DOLLAR. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.
"One of the smartest books of travel which has appeared for a long time
past.... Brings the general appearance of Transatlantic urban and rural
life so clearly before the mind's eye of the reader, that a perusal of his
work almost answers the purpose of a personal inspection. New York
has probably never been more lightly and cleverly sketched."--_Daily
Telegraph._
WITH THE CONQUERING TURK. With 4 Maps. Cheaper Edition.
Demy 8vo, 6s.
"This is a remarkably bright and vivid book. There is a delicious
portrait of the jovial aide-de-camp, plenty of humorous touches of

wayside scenes, servants' tricks, dragoman's English, and vagaries of
cuisine."--_St James's Gazette._
EGYPT IN 1898. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s.
"Set forth in a style that provides plenty of entertainment.... Bright and
readable."--_Times._
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH AND
LONDON.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. FIRST GLIMPSES OF THE STRUGGLE.
First impressions--Denver with a dash of Delhi--Government House--
The Legislative Assembly--A wrangling debate--A demonstration of
the unemployed--The menace of coming war 1
II. THE ARMY CORPS--HAS NOT LEFT ENGLAND!
A little patch of white tents--A dream of distance--The desert of the
Karroo--War at last--A campaign without headquarters--Waiting for the
Army Corps 10
III. A PASTOR'S POINT OF VIEW.
An ideal of Arcady--Rebel Burghersdorp--Its monuments--Dopper
theology--An interview with one of its professors 19
IV. WILL IT BE CIVIL WAR?
On the border of the Free State--An appeal to the Colonial Boers-- The
beginning of warlike rumours--A commercial and social boycott-- The
Boer secret service--The Basutos and their mother, the Queen-- Boer

brutality to Kaffirs 28
V. LOYAL ALIWAL: A TRAGI-COMEDY.
The Cape Police--A garrison of six men--Merry-go-rounds and naphtha
flares--A clamant want of fifty men--Where are the troops?--"It'll be
just the same as it was in '81" 35
VI. THE BATTLE OF ELANDSLAAGTE.
French's reconnaissance--An artillery duel--Beginning of the attack--
Ridge after ridge--A crowded half-hour 43
VII. THE BIVOUAC.
A victorious and helpless mob--A break-neck hillside--Bringing down
the wounded--A hard-worked doctor--Boer prisoners--Indian bearers--
An Irish Highlander in trouble 56
VIII. THE HOME-COMING FROM DUNDEE.
Superfluous assistance--A smiling valley--The Border Mounted
Rifles-- A rain-storm--A thirty-two miles' march--How the troops came
into Ladysmith 66
IX. THE STORY OF NICHOLSON'S NEK.
An attenuated mess--A regiment 220 strong--A miserable story--The
white flag--Boer kindness--Ashamed for England 74
X. THE GUNS AT RIETFONTEIN.
A column on the move--The nimble guns--Garrison gunners at work--
The veldt on fire--Effective shrapnel--The value of the engagement 81
XI. THE BOMBARDMENT.
Long Tom--A family of harmless monsters--Our inferiority in guns--
The sensations of a bombardment--A little custom blunts sensibility 92

XII. THE DEVIL'S TIN-TACKS.
The excitement of a rifle fusilade--A six-hours' fight--The picking off
of officers--A display of infernal fireworks--"God bless the Prince of
Wales" 106
XIII. A DIARY OF DULNESS.
The mythopoeic faculty--A miserable day--The voice of the pompom--
Learning the Boer game--The end of Fiddling Jimmy--Melinite at close
quarters--A lake of mud 114
XIV. NEARING THE END.
Dulness interminable--Ladysmith in 2099 A.D.--Sieges obsolete
hardships--Dead to the world--The appalling features of a
bombardment 124
XV. IN A CONNING-TOWER.
The self-respecting bluejacket--A German atheist--The sailors'
telephone--What the naval guns meant to Ladysmith--The salt of the
earth 134
THE LAST CHAPTER. By VERNON BLACKBURN 144

MAPS.
PAGE
MAP OF THE COUNTRY ROUND LADYSMITH 95
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE SEAT OF WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA At
end