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With the Boers

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With the Boers
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Author(s): Howard C. Hillegas
Date Published: 2011/06
Page Count: 204
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-576-6
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-575-9

War with the Boer forces

The Boer War was the last major war of the Victorian age for the British Army and, perhaps more significantly, it was the last conflict that could be said to have its foundations in the practice of warfare as it had been fought for almost 500 years. The wind of change was nevertheless blowing across the South African veldt, for the citizen army of the Boers was employing new, state of the art weaponry—both small arms and artillery—which surpassed in quality and efficiency that of the British. Boer commando fighting was a comparatively new tactic which required major adjustment by the huge and slow moving military machine that the British Army had become. The Boers not only understood considerable difference the vital logistical apparatus of their age, including the railway system, could make to warfare, but also how to effectively neutralise it when used by their enemies. The author of this book was a newspaper correspondent who elected to view this conflict from the Boer side of the lines. Hillegas’ is not an especially partisan view, though he finds much to admire in the Boers, and his book enables those interested in this war to understand it from all perspectives. Recommended.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

Until the officer advised his men to retreat and he himself fell from his horse the main body of the British troops was ignorant of the presence of the Boers, but the report of the rifle was a summons to battle and instantly the field was filled with myriads of stirring scenes. The lazy transport-train suddenly became a thing of rapid motion; the huge body of troops was quickly broken into many parts; horses that had been idling along the road plunged forward as if projected by catapults. Officers with swords flashing in the sunlight appeared leading their men into different positions, cannon were hurriedly drawn upon commanding elevations, and Red Cross wagons scattered to places of safety. The peaceful transport-train had suddenly been transformed into a formidable engine of war by the report of a rifle, and the contest for a sentiment and a bit of ground was opened by shrieking cannon-shell and the piercing cry of rifle-ball.<br>
Down at the foot of the slope, where the drift crossed the spruit, Boers were dragging cannon into position, and in among the wagons which had become congested in the road, burghers and soldiers were engaging in fierce hand-to-hand encounters. A stocky Briton wrestled with a youthful Boer, and in the struggle both fell to the ground; near by a cavalryman was firing his revolver at a Boer armed with a rifle, and a hundred paces away a burgher was fighting with a British officer for the possession of a sword. Over from the hills in the south came the dull roar of Boer cannon, followed by the reports of the shells exploding in the east near the waterworks. British cannon opened fire from a position near the white smoke-stack and scores of bursting projectiles fell among the wagons at the spruit. Oxen and horses were rent limb from limb, wagons tumbled over on their sides; boxes of provisions were thrown in all directions, and out of the cloud of dust and smoke stumbled men with blood-stained faces and lacerated bodies. Terrified and bellowing oxen twisted and tugged at their yokes; horses broke from their fastenings in the wagons and dashed hither and thither, and weakling donkeys strove in vain to free themselves from wagons set on fire by the shells. Explosion followed explosion, and with every one the mass became more entangled. Dead horses fell upon living oxen; wheels and axles were thrown on the backs of donkeys, and plunging mules dragged heavy wagons over great piles of debris.<br>
The cannon on the southern hills became more active and their shells caused the landscape surrounding the waterworks to be filled with geysers of dust. Troops which were stationed near the white smoke-stack suddenly spurred their horses forward and dashed northward to seek safety behind a long undulation in the ground. The artillerymen in the hills followed their movements with shells, and the dust-fountains sprang up at the very heels of the troops. The cannon at the drift joined in the attack on the horsemen scattered over the slope, and the big guns at the waterworks continued to reply vigorously. <br>
The men in the spruit were watching the artillery duel intently as they sped up and down the bottom of the water-less stream, searching for points of vantage. A large number of them moved rapidly down the spruit towards its confluence with the Modder River in order to check the advance of the troops driven forward by the shell-fire, and another party rushed eastward to secure positions in the rear of the British cannon at the waterworks. The banks of the stream still concealed them, but they dared not fire lest the enemy should disturb their plans. On and on they dashed, over rocks and chasms, until they were within a few hundred yards of a part of the British force. Slowly they crept up the sides of the spruit, cautiously peered out over the edge of the bank and then opened fire on the men at the cannon and the troops passing down the slope. Little jets of dust arose where their bullets struck the ground, men fell around the cannon, and cavalrymen quickly turned and charged toward the spruit.