Three Years War | Page 4

wishes.
It did not take me long to get everything arranged, and we made an
early start.
It was impossible to say what might lie before us. In spite of the fact
that I had visited the spot the day before, I had not been able to cross
the frontier. The English might have been on the precipitous side of the
mountains under the ridge without my being any the wiser. Perhaps on
our arrival we should find them in possession of the pass, occupying
good positions and quite prepared for our coming.
Everything went well with us, however, and no untoward incident
occurred. When the sun rose the following morning the whole country,
as far as the eye could reach, lay before us calm and peaceful.
I sent a full report of my doings to Commandant Steenekamp, and that
evening he himself, although still far from well, appeared with the
remaining part of the commando. He brought the news that war had
started in grim earnest. General De la Rey had attacked and captured an
armoured train at Kraaipan.
Some days after this a war council was held at Van Reenen's Pass
under Commander-in-Chief Marthinus Prinsloo. As Commandant
Steenekamp, owing to his illness, was unable to be present, I attended
the council in his place. It was decided that a force of two thousand
burghers, under Commandant C.J. De Villiers, of Harrismith, as
Vice-Vechtgeneraal,[7] should go down into Natal, and that the
remaining forces should guard the passes on the Drakensberg.
Let me say, in parenthesis, that the laws of the Orange Free State make
no allusion to the post of Vechtgeneraal. But shortly before the war
began the Volksraad had given the President the power to appoint such
an officer. At the same session the President was allowed the veto on
all laws dealing with war.
As Commandant Steenekamp was still prevented by his health from

going to the front, I was ordered, as Vice-Commandant of the Heilbron
commando, to proceed with five hundred men to Natal.
It soon became apparent that we had been sent to Natal with the object
of cutting off the English who were stationed at Dundee and
Elandslaagte. We were to be aided in our task by the Transvaalers who
were coming from Volksrust and by a party of burghers from Vrede, all
under the command of General Roch.
We did not arrive in time to be successful in this plan. That there had
been some bungling was not open to question. Yet I am unable to assert
to whom our failure was due--whether to the Commandants of the
South African Republic, or to Commander-in-Chief Prinsloo, or to
Vechtgeneraal De Villiers. For then I was merely a Vice-Commandant,
who had not to give orders, but to obey them. But whoever was to
blame, it is certainly true that when, early in the morning of the 23rd of
October, I cut the line near Dundee, I discovered that the English had
retreated to Ladysmith. It was General Yule who had led them, and he
gained great praise in British circles for the exploit.
If we had only reached our destination a little sooner we should have
cut off their retreating troops and given them a very warm time. But
now that they had joined their comrades at Ladysmith, we had to be
prepared for an attack from their combined forces, and that before the
Transvaalers, who were still at Dundee, could reinforce us.
The British did not keep us long in anxiety.
At eight o'clock the following morning--the 24th of October--they
came out of Ladysmith, and the battle of Modder Spruit[8] began. With
the sole exception of the skirmish between the Harrismith burghers and
the Carabineers at Bester Station on the 18th of October, when Jonson,
a burgher of Harrismith, was killed--the earliest victim in our fight for
freedom--this was the first fighting the Free-Staters had seen.
We occupied kopjes which formed a large semicircle to the west of the
railway between Ladysmith and Dundee. Our only gun was placed on
the side of a high kop on our western wing. Our men did not number

more than a thousand--the other burghers had remained behind as a
rear-guard at Bester Station.
With three batteries of guns the English marched to the attack, the
troops leading the way, the guns some distance behind. A deafening
cannonade was opened on us by the enemy's artillery, at a range of
about 4,500 yards. Our gun fired a few shots in return, but was soon
silenced, and we had to remove it from its position. Small arms were
our only weapons for the remainder of the contest.
The English at once began as usual to attack our flanks, but they did
not attempt to get round our wings. Their object