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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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.Page 318
could not get away, so we expected to have a jolly good smack in to finish De Wet off. Next
morning we advanced in extended order to take the kopje expecting some very stiff work, but as usual
the bird had flown. That was by Los Berg. That night we reached the line. Well I need not keep on
telling you what we did day by day, they were all much about the same. Fearful lot of marches, &
very little food. We marched 42 miles in 33 hours. 166 miles in 5 days & 236 miles in 13 days. These
figures are official, & so they give you some idea of what it was like. Included in the 13 days were 4
engagements. I got very done up, & my ankles would keep swelling like a horse’s do. But we have a
very nice doctor & so I went & asked him if he would let me have my equipment carried for me for a
few days & so I used to put it on the blanket waggon. That made a lot of difference to me. I am alright
again now. Aug. 16 was the last day we had anything to do with De Wet. That was somewhere in the
Witwater Rand Mts. not far from Oliphants Nek, I think it was called Rundles Nek. He held a
formidable position. 2 of our companies advanced to take a kopje while the rest of us were escort to
the guns. He only seemed to have one gun, but he put two or three shells from it at us which came too
close to be pleasant, one dropping just behind me, but luckily not exploding. Our artillery soon
silenced their gun, & when some of our men got round the back of the kopje the Boers soon retreated,
managing to get away as usual. People may say what they like about Methuen, but I think facts speak
for themselves. When you find that for 10 days he hangs on to De Wet & captures over half a dozen
waggons & a gun (which De Wet captured from the English at Colesberg) although he only has
Yeomanry & a few Colonials & Infantry, while Kitchen, Ian Hamilton, Ridley, Baden Powell &
Smith-Dorrien who have cavalry brigades & are also supposed to be helping catch De Wet are not
able to touch him.
We then started off to come here & relieved Colonel Hore, by the way. We kept on doing 20 miles a
day on still further reduced rations. You can tell how much we had when I tell you that instead of full
rations of tea & full ration of coffee we had ¼ ration of either tea or coffee. That is if we had ¼ ration
of tea we had no coffee & vice versa. Colonel Hore was relieved 2 days before we got to him. Just
fancy while we had had nothing much to eat, his men had been making walls to protect them of tins of
jam, sacks of flour, barrels of rum, & lime-juice etc. We have had plenty to eat since we came to
Elands River where Col. Hore was as we put as much of his stores on our waggons as we could &
they let the men take as much away as they liked to carry as well, & then burnt what was left. My
company happened to be advance guard so we did not stop at the place but we were able to buy stuff
from the others. I forgot to mention that after we crossed the line in the pursuit of De Wet we passed
through Ventersdorp. I mention this as perhaps you look on the map to trace our course. After we left
Rundles Nek we were on the main road from Pretoria to Mafeking, & after we passed Elands River
have come by easier stages through Wonderfontein, (large orange groves with the most magnificent
oranges I have ever seen) Vaal Kop, Zeerust & 6 Mile Spruit. We stopped at Zeerust a couple of
days. The day I was on guard there I went down the town with a file of men as escort, & a Boer
prisoner, to hand him over to the M.M.P. & while down the town saw Carrington’s lot come in, and
with them Pagets Horse. Carrington’s lot, to use their own expression, had come with a big convoy
from Mafeking for Methuen’s starring column,Next day I went up to Pagets Horse & found Jim
McEmery. He is quartermaster sergeant. . . ..
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