The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred yearsBlackwood, Robert Melvin
History
The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred years
Blackwood, Robert Melvin
Battles -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
No other loss attended the operation--the light company of the 93rd
cleared the brushwood of a few skirmishers that had been thrown out
by the enemy, and the remainder of the troops debarked without any
opposition.
The artillery, consisting of four six-pounders and a couple of
howitzers, were landed on the 7th; and the whole of the force being
now safely on shore, the British general commenced his march direct on
Cape Town, the guns being dragged through the sands by fatigue parties
furnished from the fleet.
The advance was unopposed until the British army had approached a
line of heights, some four miles distant from the landing place. The
Blawberg, as one of these eminences is called, was occupied by burgher
cavalry, and the videts announced that General Janssens was in position
on the other side of the high grounds, and his whole disposable force
drawn up in order of battle. The march was steadily continued, and
when the Blawberg was crowned by the advance guard, the Batavian army,
formed in two lines, with twenty-five pieces of artillery and a large
corps of irregular cavalry, was discovered.
General Baird formed his corps into two columns of brigades; the
right, comprising the 24th, 59th, and 83rd, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Baird, commanding in the absence of General Beresford; and the left,
consisting of the Highland regiments, under General Ferguson. While
deploying into line, the Batavian guns opened, and their cavalry, by a
left extension, threatened the right of the British. Baird’s brigade
refused its right, checking the burgher horse with its musketry; and
the Highland regiments on the left made a rapid movement under a heavy
cannonade, and advanced to the charge. The right wing of the Batavian
army broke without waiting an assault, the left followed the example,
and the field was totally abandoned by the enemy, with a considerable
loss in killed and wounded.
Without cavalry it was impossible to complete the déroute. The guns
were, therefore, carried off; and quitting the road to Cape Town,
Janssens, in pursuance of his previous plan, marched eastward, and
moved towards Hottentot Holland, with a hope of protracting a war in
the interior. Of course the capital was the object of the conqueror.
The fleet was in an exposed anchorage, and to equip his army for
ulterior operations, and secure his communication with the sea, it was
necessary to possess Cape Town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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