Ladysmith

Ladysmith

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Title: Ladysmith The Diary of a Siege
Author: H. W. Nevinson
Release Date: August 27, 2005 [EBook #16603]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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LADYSMITH ***

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[Illustration: H.W. NEVINSON]
LADYSMITH
THE DIARY OF A SIEGE

BY
H.W. NEVINSON
AUTHOR OF "THE THIRTY DAYS' WAR"
METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1900

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ON THE EDGE 1
II. AT THE BRITISH FRONT 9
III. THE FIRST WEEK'S WAR 20
IV. BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE 30
V. BATTLE OF TINTA INYONI 41
VI. THE REVERSE AT NICHOLSON'S NEK 51
VII. HEMMED IN 61
VIII. TRAGEDY AND COMEDY 72
IX. INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND REALITIES 83
X. ENNUI ENLIVENED BY SUDDEN DEATH 100
XI. FLASHES FROM BULLER 129
XII. THE NIGHT SURPRISE ON GUN HILL 138
XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SURPRISE HILL 156

XIV. THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL 176
XV. SICKNESS, DEATH, AND A NEW YEAR 194
XVI. THE GREAT ATTACK 211
XVII. A PAUSE AND A RENEWAL 231
XVIII. "WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE" 250
XIX. HOPE DEFERRED 265
XX. SUN AND FEVER 279
XXI. RELIEVED AT LAST 291
APPENDIX 299

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR Frontispiece MAP OF LADYSMITH
AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 12
GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V.C., G.C.I.E., G.C.B.,
G.C.S.I. 18
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF ELANDS LAAGTE 32
LOMBARD'S KOP 56
IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SHELTERS 77
THE DRIFT AND WATERING-PLACE 80
BULWAN 105

HOSPITAL IN TOWN HALL AFTER A SHELL 127
BREECH BLOCK FROM GUN HILL 148
A PICTURESQUE RUIN 183
HEADQUARTERS AFTER A 96LB. SHELL 186
EFFECT OF 96LB. SHELL ON A PRIVATE HOUSE 201
SPECIMEN OF BOER SHELLS 252
INDIAN BAKERY 268
GENERAL RT. HON. SIR R.H. BULLER, V.C., G.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
K.C.B. (_photograph by KNIGHT, Aldershot_) 291
SKETCH PLAN OF COUNTRY SOUTH AND WEST OF
LADYSMITH 306

NOTE
This book has been reprinted, by kind permission of the Proprietors of
the Daily Chronicle, from the full text of the Letters sent to the paper.

LADYSMITH
THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
CHAPTER I
ON THE EDGE
NEWCASTLE, NATAL, _Thursday, October 5, 1899_.
Late last Sunday night I found myself slowly crawling towards the

front from Pretoria in a commandeered train crammed full of armed
Boers and their horses. I had rushed from the Cape to quiet little
Bloemfontein, the centre of one of the best administered States in the
world, where the heads of the nation in the intervals of discussing war
proudly showed me their pianos, their little gardens, little libraries of
English books, little museums of African beasts and Greek coins, and
all their other evidences of advancing culture. Then on to Pretoria, the
same kind of a town on a larger and richer scale--trim bungalow houses,
for the most part, spread out among gardens full of roses, honeysuckle,
and syringa. But at the station all day and night the scene was not
idyllic. Every hour train after train moved away--stores and firewood in
front, horses next, and luggage vans for the men behind. The partings
from lovers and wives and children must be imagined. They are bad
enough to witness when our own soldiers go to the front. But these men
are not soldiers at all. Each of them came direct from his home in the
town or on some isolated farm. They rode up, dressed just in their
ordinary clothes, but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt
over the shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is
no uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be
distinguished from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be
called uniform is the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all
Boers wear it. It is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a
rusty crape band is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the
English poorer classes, has large quantities of relations, and one of
them is always dying.
By the courtesy of the Pretorian Government I had secured room in the
guard's van for myself and a companion, who was equally anxious to
cross the Natal frontier before the firing began, and that was expected
at any moment. In the van with us were a score of farmers from
Middleburg way, their contingent occupying four trains with about 800
men and horses. For the most part