with sir ian hamilton to pretoria
(1900)
to you who know the face of war,
you, that for england wander far,
you that have seen the ghazis fly
from english lads not sworn to die,
you that have lain, where, deadly chill,
the mist crept o’er the shameful hill,
you that have conquered, mile by mile,
the currents of unfriendly nile,
and cheered the march, and eased the strain
when politics made valour vain,
ian, to you from banks of ken,
we send our lays of englishmen!
andrew lang.
it was during the halt at bloemfontein that the highland brigade received reinforcements from home, and no praise could be too high for the volunteers who formed additional companies to the regiments of the regular forces. to-day, when thousands and hundreds of thousands are trained soldiers who a year ago had never held a rifle in their hands, it would be futile to belaud the qualities of the amateur soldier. but until the boer war no one had taken unprofessional soldiers very seriously. just as the territorials won the esteem of the regulars in flanders, so the companies of volunteers earned the admiration and gratitude of the country in the boer war.
the great need at this time was still for mounted troops and more mounted troops, and it is interesting to note that the gordons were to a large extent mounted to prove more effective. our soldiers have always been able to fit themselves for whatever was required of them. the infantry were mounted in the south african war, and the cavalry in the german war were placed in the trenches.
it was on may 3 that the british army left bloemfontein and set out upon the road to pretoria. de wet, who was now to take the ascendance in boer generalship, and to lead the british troops in wearisome pursuit for many months, was in command of a mobile force moving swiftly across country, gathering food where it could. with the utmost patience our highlanders covered over twenty miles a day, “winning their way,” as some one has said, “at the expense of their boots and not of their lives.”
lord roberts was in command of the main division and general ian hamilton was over the right column. with him were the highland brigade, including the camerons, new come from egypt. the brigade, as a body, never reached pretoria, though the gordons and the seaforths entered the boer capital. it is the march on pretoria with general hamilton that we must first follow.
the commander of the highland brigade was an old gordon officer, by training and heredity a soldier. born in 1853, he first saw service in the afghan war. he was wounded at majuba, losing the use of one hand. he received the d.s.o. for gallantry in the soudan, fought in the chitral and tirah campaigns; and in this chapter we will accompany him on the march to pretoria, in which he covered four hundred miles, fought ten engagements, and took five towns. after the boer war he accompanied the japanese army to manchuria, and upon his return was made general officer commanding-in-chief mediterranean and inspector-general overseas forces in 1910.
no finer, more experienced, more brilliant soldier could have been placed in command of our forces in the dardanelles.
it was at thabanchu mountain that the gordons brought additional distinction to their name, linked with that of captain towse. the british troops were having it all their own way when the boers were reinforced by a party of the foreign legion commanded by a russian, the majority of them being germans. the situation was a very curious one. the german troops advanced in their customary close formation, and with their usual deliberateness, and for some time it was not realised that they were part of the enemy’s forces. at the same time captain towse, with a party of the gordon highlanders, was moving in their direction, but concealed from view behind the shoulder of the hill. the gordons could not see the enemy any more than the enemy could see the gordons, and it was seen that the two forces would confront each other at the brow of the hill. “at last,” says winston churchill, “with suddenness, both parties came face to face at fifty yards’ distance. the germans, who had already made six prisoners, called loudly on captain towse and his little band to surrender. what verbal answer was returned is not recorded, but a furious splutter of musketry broke out at once, and in less than a minute the long lines of the enemy recoiled in confusion, and the top of the hill was secured to the british.”
unhappily, however, a chance shot deprived the gallant captain towse of the sight of both his eyes. for this action he received the victoria cross he so richly deserved.
the advance now proceeded on the road to pretoria. the town was stated to be heavily defended, and regarded as practically impregnable. president kruger had established himself there, and it was thought that a very long siege would await the british. on may 29 the gordons encountered the boers at crow’s nest hill, very close to the place where the jameson raiders had surrendered to cronje, and here the gordon volunteers had their chance. the highlanders, “in perfect discipline and with disdainful silence,” drove the boers out of their position, and it is worth while recording, in the words of an eye-witness, the manner of the attack. “it was not without a thrill that i watched this famous regiment move against the enemy. their extension and advance was conducted with machine regularity. the officers explained what was required to the men. they were to advance rapidly until under rifle fire, and then to push or not as they might be instructed. with impassive unconcern the veterans of chitral, dargai, the bara valley, magersfontein, paardeberg, and houtnek walked leisurely forward.”
at eight hundred yards they came in for a heavy fire from the boer rifles. “but the advance neither checked nor quickened. with remorseless stride, undisturbed by peril or enthusiasm, the gordons swept steadily onward.”
the boers were never able to tolerate that kind of advance, and finding that rifles would not stop the highlanders, they hastily retreated, and soon afterwards general ian hamilton rode over to congratulate the battalion on their exploit. lord roberts was not long in sending his praise. “tell the gordons,” he wrote, “that i am proud to think that i have a highlander as one of the supporters of my coat-of-arms.”
during this action the fourth victoria cross was given to the gordons, being awarded to corporal mackay, who “repeatedly rushed forward under a withering fire at short range to attend to wounded comrades, dressing the wounds, while he himself was without shelter, and in one instance carrying a wounded man from the open under a heavy fire to the shelter of a boulder.”
on may 31 the union jack flew over johannesburg. at this point general french arrived, and as senior officer took command. general sir ian hamilton then thanked the gordons, “the, regiment my father commanded and i was born in,” for their support. on june 3 the army set out for pretoria, when suddenly the whole contemplated resistance of the boers faded away like smoke. president kruger, not forgetting two millions of money, but leaving his wife instead, hurried to delagoa bay, and with his departure came the unconditional surrender of pretoria. it had been a long and arduous march, covering forty-five days and some four hundred miles of country. the highlanders engaged in nine actions, and occupied five towns. it must have been a dramatic and inspiring spectacle to see the gordons and the camerons, gaunt and lean with all the fatigue through which they had passed, in tattered clothes and soleless boots, marching into the boer capital. it might have been thought that the fall of pretoria would have brought with it the conclusion of the boer war. but the fall of pretoria held no special significance to the boers. many of them had probably never seen the town, and took no interest in it. they resorted to a manner of warfare peculiarly suited to their habits of life, and which, developing over an extensive country, threatened a hopeless stalemate. they hoped by a guerilla warfare to weary the british forces into a favourable peace. from this point to the end of the war that agile leader de wet was to make his name familiar as a kind of military will-o’-the-wisp.
every week brought with it news of some minor engagement in some isolated part of the country. here a position had been attacked or there a convoy had been seized. often it was a raid on the long line of railway running from capetown to pretoria, but always de wet, despite the efforts of the british, would manage to elude capture and fling his burghers upon another part of our lines.
on july 11, 1900, the gordons won their fifth victoria cross, and established a record in the history of the army. an officer who was present has recorded the incident. “the enemy’s position,” he says, “consisted of two long hills, with a ‘nek’ between them about five hundred yards long. in front of, and about six hundred yards away from the nek were two small kopjes. the guns galloped up between these kopjes, which were one hundred and fifty yards apart, and opened fire on the big hill on the right. the gordons were advancing behind the guns in open order. the guns fired a few shots, and then suddenly the enemy opened fire from the hill on the left, which was only eight hundred and fifty yards away. very soon fifteen out of the seventeen british gunners were wounded, so that the guns could no longer be worked. the gordons by this time had reached the kopjes, and were about one hundred yards from the guns, the intervening space being in the enemy’s line of fire. at this moment orders were signalled by the general in the rear, from lord roberts at pretoria, telling general smith-dorrien to retire. the colonel of the gordons, reluctant to leave the guns to fall into the enemy’s hands, sent up the teams of horses to fetch them, but the boer bullets were raining around, and two of the horses were shot. colonel macbean then shouted for volunteers to fetch in the guns. captains younger, gordon the adjutant, and allan called on the few men around. they ran out under heavy fire, and with the greatest difficulty they dragged back the gun along seventy yards of the way, but it would not even then have been saved if three more men had not run out and helped for the remaining thirty yards to the kopje. as it was, one of the men was hit only ten yards from the kopje, but he was got in all right. captain allan was now ordered away with his company to the left flank, where they were kept for the rest of the day, but captain younger, with several men, ran out to try and save the second gun. it was got in, but not before captain younger was shot dead.”[12]
this incident is interesting, not only as a record of a gallant feat of arms, but also because this captain gordon who won the victoria cross was later on to command the gordons in the present war, and unhappily to fall a prisoner with many of his men.
at the end of august lord roberts met buller and french at belfast. botha, a very able general, and the future conqueror of german south-west africa, was beaten at middelburg, and this defeat added the transvaal to the british empire. the news that kruger had fled to the portuguese was another disappointment to the enemy, but their determination to resist the british was so strong that they refused to surrender, for a long time carrying on the unequal contest.
to return to the history of the gordons in south africa, the volunteer companies assisted buller against the boers in natal, and came into action against botha. throughout their engagements they acted up to the highest traditions of the highland regiments. early in september there was a dramatic and picturesque scene, when the two battalions of the gordons came face to face. “the old 75th, with their dargai laurels scarcely faded, were meeting the 92nd on a scene of victory amid mountains such as rear their heads in aberdeen. for a few moments discipline was thrown to the winds, and questions were eagerly asked.”
in due course the highlanders were placed in block-houses throughout the country, and the pursuit of the boers was mainly carried on by the mounted troops.
we must now turn very briefly to the fortunes of the other regiments of the highland brigade who, while the gordons were at thabanchu and elsewhere, were under the command of general macdonald, and employed in driving the boers out of the orange river colony. the months that followed were marked by ceaseless marching, interrupted by occasional conflict. de wet was a constant menace, convoys must be escorted, bodies of boers must be kept on the move, and occasionally—as on june 3, 1900, when de wet captured 150 of the black watch—minor disasters occurred. at the same time, though their work was inglorious, it was invaluable, and every now and then some incident, such as the capture of prinsloo with 5000 men and 5 guns, would break the monotony of their heavy tramping. “with half rations,” says cromb, “and muddy water as food and drink, they marched and fought and fought and marched through scorching hot days and bitter cold nights.”
the concluding features of the war lay in the hands of lord kitchener, who, with his genius for organisation, set about building block-houses to link up great sections of the country and co-operate with the work of his mounted troops.
at last, in the beginning of june 1902, the long-looked-for peace came to britain and boer in south africa. the highland regiments had one and all suffered very hardly during the campaign, while none in the whole army had given more lavishly than the gordons, who both in losses and honours attained a distinction as sad as it was honourable. they received five victoria crosses, losing 141 killed, 431 wounded, 12 captured, and 101 dead from disease.
it should be unnecessary, after a narrative recording the actions in which the highland brigade took part, to emphasise their gallantry and their untarnished prestige, but if any support for such a statement were required it would be in the tribute of lord roberts: “no words of mine can adequately describe their magnificent conduct during this long and trying campaign. we have only to look at the gallantry displayed by the gordons at elandslaagte, at the unflinching bravery of the highland brigade at magersfontein, and at paardeberg, to realise that the traditions of these regiments are nobly maintained.”
