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123 • CHAPTER VII. TALANA HILL.* The last four chapters have dealt with subjects affecting the Connection *(,' whole course of the war, the theatre of operations, the two jj opposed armies, and the British navy. The present one, which describes the first action in the campaign, connects immediately with the second^ that on the outbreak of the war, taking up the narrative from the time when, as a consequence of the con- ference at Maritzburg between the Governor (Sir W. Hely- Hutchinson), Sir George White, Sir A. Hunter and Maj.-Genl. Sir W. Penn Symons, the latter officer had been despatched to take over the commandAngloBoerWar.comat Dundee while Sir George White had gone to Ladysmith. On October 12th, the day when the British agent quitted Arrival, Pretoria, Major-Gen eral Sir W. Penn Symons arrived at Dundee, ^"^'^ '^'''/99. and took over command of 3,280 infantry, 497 cavalry and Symons eighteen guns from Brigadier-General J. H. Yule.f He had Dundee, gained his point. Dundee was to be held, and held by him. As early as the 13th news came that a strong commando was con- centrating at the Doomberg east of De Jager's Drift, and that small parties of the enemy had been sighted four miles north of Newcastle, whilst to his left rear the Free Staters were reported so close to Ladysmith, and in such strength, as to cause Sir George White to recall one of Symons' own battalions, the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, to strengthen a column which was pushed out on October 13th towards Tintwa Pass to get touch with the * See maps Nos. 3, 5, and the panoramic sketch. t For composition of this force see Appendix 3. ; 124 THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA. enemy. This column* failed, however, to observe even patrols of the enemy, and the Dublin Fusiliers returned to Dundee by train the same night. On this day the enemy fell upon a piquet of Natal Policemen posted at De Jager's Drift, and made them prisoners. A patrol of the i8th Hussars proceeding to recon- noitre the spot next day, the 14th, came upon a scouting party of forty of the enemy a mile on the British side of the Buffalo. On the i6th a fugitive from Newcastle announced the arrival of a commando, 3,000 strong, before Newcastle, another in Botha's Pass, whilst across Wools Drift, on the Buffalo, six miles of wagons had been seen trekking slowly southwards. If the left, then, was for the moment clear, it was plain that strong bodies were coming down on Symons' front and right, a front whose key was Impati, a right whose only bulwark was the hill of Talana. Oct. i2th Joubert quitted Zandspruit on the 12th October, and was at jouV)ert Volksrust in the evening, with the forces of Generals Kock and surts. Lukas Meyer thrown widely forward on his right and left flanks respectively. Kock, coming through Botha's Pass with his motley foreign levies, f halted for the night at the mouth of the AngloBoerWar.comdefile, whilst the units of the left horn of the invading crescent, reinforced this day by the commandos of Middelburg and Wakkerstroom, lay under Meyer some forty miles eastward, some in Utrecht, some in Vryheid, and some already at the con- centration point, the Doornberg. On the 13th, whilst the wings remained quiescent, Joubert, with the main column, occupied Laing's Nek, having first, either by an excess of precaution, or from a fear lest the gap between him and Meyer were too great, made good that formidable obstacle by a turning move- ment around the left and over the Buffalo at Wools Drift this was executed by his advance guard (Pretoria, Boksburg, part of Heidelberg, Standerton, Ermelo) under Erasmus. But though a coal-truck drawn by cables through the long tunnel, * Composition : 5th Lancers, detachment of 19th Hussars, Natal Mounted Rifles, three batteries Royal Field artillery, ist Liverpool, ist Devonshire, 2nd Gordon Highlanders. See Appendix •f 4. TALANA HILL. 125 which penetrated the Nek, proved it to be neither blocked nor mined, this stroke of fortune rather increased than allayed the caution of the Boer General, to whom, grown old in Native wars, nothing appeared more suspicious than an unimpeded advance against an enemy. On the 14th he was still on the Nek, whilst Erasmus moved timidly on Newcastle, and Kock, who remained on the Ingagane, despatched a reconnoitring party of the German Corps along the Drakensberg, to gain touch with Trliter's Free Staters at Muller's Pass. This patrol, riding back next day, found Newcastle occupied by the commandos of Erasmus. The little town was almost empty of inhabitants, and the burghers wrought havoc amongst the deserted shops and houses. Not all the remonstrances of their officers, nor the general order from Headquarters, nor even the heavy wrath of their Commandant-General, who arrived in the town on the i8th, could stop their ruthless plundering, and by nightfall the township was a scene of sordid devastation. Joubert's On the afternoon of the i6th 'Joubert called a council of war. net. So far he had beenAngloBoerWar.comwithout any settled scheme, and, owmg to the straggling and indiscipline of his burghers, the march was rapidly becoming unmanageable. The commander, whose plans and army require consolidation after but four days, may well look with foreboding upon the campaign he has taken in hand, and Joubert was as little hopeful as any invader in history. Nevertheless, at Newcastle he devised a net which, had it been cast as he designed, might by entangling one British force beyond salvation, have weakened another beyond repair and perhaps have laid Natal at his feet. Whilst Erasmus with his 5,000 men moved straight down upon Dundee, Kock with 800 rifle- men, composed of Schiel's Germans, Lombard's Hollanders, and 200 men of Johannesburg under Viljoen, with two guns, was to reconnoitre towards Ladysmith, gaining touch with the Free Staters at Van Reenen's and the other passes of the Drakensberg. He was then to take up a position in the Biggarsberg range, cutting the railway between Dundee and Ladysmith. Thus isolated, the garrison of Dundee appeared to 126 THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA. be at the mercy of a combined attack by Erasmus from the north, and Lukas Meyer from the east. Slow Kock and Erasmus had left the neighbourhood of Newcastle movemeni on the 17th, and on the afternoon of the i8th the latter's advance of Boers. guard came into collision with a squadron of the i8th Hussars, from Dundee, north of Hatting Spruit. Meanwhile Meyer, who was much behindhand with his concentration, lay so close in his camp at the Doornberg, that the British patrols scouted up to De Jager's Drift again without opposition. Meyer still lacked two commandos (Krugersdorp and Bethel) and four guns, and as his transport animals were in a deplorable condition, it was with rehef rather than with impatience that he watched the tardiness of his coadjutors. His missing units arrived in the evening, however ; Erasmus' advanced guard was close behind Impati on the morning of the 19th, and Meyer then issued orders for a march. Sir George Meanwhile, on the 15th October, an officer of the Headquarter White staff visited his return to Ladysmith recalls Dundee, and on was Dundee questioned by Sir G. White as to the state of the defences existing detachment. at the post. To his surprise he learnt that, properly speaking, no defencesAngloBoerWar.comexisted at all—no position, no entrenchments, and, most important of all, no assured and defended supply of water. His instructions, in short, conditional upon which alone he had consented to the retention of Dundee, had not been carried out. Not until three days had elapsed, however, did he telegraph to Sir W. Penn Symons that, failing an assurance of compliance, Dundee must be evacuated at once. In answer, S5mions ad- mitted that he could not give the required assurance, and must therefore carry out the order to retire. At the same time he stated his requirements in the matter of rolling-stock for the withdrawal of military stores and the non-combatant inhabitants of Dundee. This reply raised a new point. To send the whole of the rolling-stock—and nothing less would suffice—would be to expose it to the gravest danger, for the railway line was in hourly insecurity. Two hours after the despatch of his first telegram, therefore. Sir George White sent a second, which became the determining factor of subsequent events. — TALANA HILL. 127 " With regard to water, are you confident you can supply your camp for an indefinite period ? The difficulties and risk of withdrawing of civil population and military stores are great. The railway may be cut any day. Do you yourself, after con- sidering these difficulties, think it better to remain at Dundee, " and prefer it ? Sir W. Penn Symons replied as follows : " We can and must Cancels '''^'^''"• stay here. I have no doubt whatever that this is the proper course. I have cancelled all orders for moving." The question thus finally decided for good or ill, Sir George White sent a third telegram : " I fully support you. Make particulars referred to by me as safe as possible. Difficulties and disadvantages of other course have decided me to support your views." Sir W. Penn Symons, his only fear about Dundee—that of Symons ^^'^^^ being withdrawn from it—thus finally removed, turned to the front again to face the converging enemy with equanimity, known ^''"''"°"* His information continued to be full and accurate.

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