Ladysmith: The Diary of a SiegeNevinson, Henry Woodd
History
Ladysmith: The Diary of a Siege
Nevinson, Henry Woodd
Ladysmith (South Africa) -- History -- Siege, 1899-1900
The broad path up the hill and the tracks along the top were stained
with blood. It lay in sticky pools, which even the rain could not wash
out. It was easy to see where the dead had fallen. Most had lain behind
some rock to fire and there met their end. On the summit some Kaffirs
were skinning eight oxen which had been spanned to the "Lady Anne's"
platform, and stood immovable during the fight. Four had been shot in
the action, the others had just been killed as rations. Passing to the
further edge where the Boers crept up I saw a Boer ambulance and an
ox-waggon waiting. Bearded Boers in their slouch hats stood round them
with an English doctor from Harrismith, commandeered to serve. Our men
were carrying the Boer wounded and dead down the steep slope. The dead
were laid out in line, and put in the ox-waggon. At that time there were
seventeen of them waiting, but eight others were still on the hill, and
I found them where they fell. Most were grey-bearded men, rough old
farmers, with wrinkled and kindly faces, hardened by a grand life in sun
and weather. They were dressed in flannel shirts, rough old jackets of
brown cloth, rough trousers with braces, weather-stained slouch hats,
and every variety of boot. Only a few had socks. Some wore the yellow
"veldt-shoes," some were bare-footed; their boots had probably been
taken. They lay in their blood, their glazed blue eyes looking over the
rocks or up to the sky, their ashen hands half-clenched, their teeth
yellow between their pale blue lips.
Beside the outer wall of "Lady Anne's" sangar, his head resting on its
stones, lay a white-bearded man, poorly dressed, but refined in face. It
was De Villiers, the commandant of the Harrismith district--a relation,
a brother perhaps, of the Chief Justice De Villiers, who entertained me
at Bloemfontein less than four months ago. Across his body lay that of a
much younger man, with a short brown beard. He is thought to have been
one of the old man's field cornets, and had fought up to the sangar at
his side till a bullet pierced his eye and brain.
Turning back from the extremity of our position, I went along the whole
ridge. The ground told one as much as men could tell. Among the rocks
lay blood-stained English helmets and Dutch hats; piles of English and
Dutch cartridge-cases, often mixed together in places which both sides
had occupied; scraps of biltong and leather belts; handkerchiefs, socks,
pieces of letters, chiefly in Dutch; dropped ball cartridges of every
model--Lee-Metford, Mauser, Martini, and Austrian. I found a few
hollow-nosed bullets, too, expanding like the Dum-Dum. The effect of
such a bullet was seen on the hat of some poor fellow in the Light
Horse. There was a tiny hole on one side, but the further side was all
rent to pieces. I hear some "express" sporting bullets have also been
taken to the Intelligence Office, but I have not seen them. Beside one
Boer was found one of the old Martini rifles taken from the 52nd at
Majuba.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account