The History of Lumsden's Horse: A Complete Record of the Corps from Its Formation to Its Disbandment
History
The History of Lumsden's Horse: A Complete Record of the Corps from Its Formation to Its Disbandment
Great Britain. Army. Lumsden's Horse; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
Up to this point the march had been across monotonous veldt, mostly
flat, treeless, and uninteresting. Here and there, where the ground
held moisture, little pink flowers of a wood sorrel showed, and nearly
every mile one came across some fresh variety of aster or daisy-like
flower with composite crown shining brightly in the coarse grass.
Occasionally the ridges were rich with clumps of heath, scarlet,
yellow, and white, but not enough to relieve the general dreariness of
distances across which one often looked in vain for any sign of
cultivation. Ant-hills and the burrows of ant-bears were on all the
veldt, and we had to wind our way among them, following no
well-defined road, but only a track, the general direction of which
was marked by a browner thread running across the tawny veldt. Several
horses blundered into the bear-holes and brought their riders to
grief, much to the general amusement. One trooper who rode ahead
waving his hand and warning those who followed by frequent cries of
‘’Ware hole! ’Ware hole!’ suddenly disappeared, and we heard him groan
as his horse rolled over on top of him, ‘Here’s one, and I’m into it.’
It was nearly dark then; but dead horses, mules, and dying oxen marked
the track by which other convoys had gone. We felt glad that our
transport ponies were not to share their fate. They had proved quite
useless for drawing the heavy loads in this country, so we left them
behind at Sterkstroom, sending all our baggage-carts on by train,
while we marched and bivouacked with only the blankets and supplies
that could be carried on our own horses. It was at Edenburg, I think,
that after a wet march we got leave to go into the town, hoping it
might be possible to get something better than the perpetual ‘bully
beef’ and biscuits, but the only room we could find in the only decent
hotel was wanted for officers. However, a little man of the Derby
Militia came and showed us a small Boer ‘Winkel,’ where we got
excellent tea, bread, and jam. The Derby man said he knew where he
could buy some butter, which was all we wanted to make us happy. C——
gave him 2_s._ to go and get it. We finished our meal without that
butter, and the Derby man didn’t return. So we went back to find
everything in camp wet, muddy, and beastly. To add to our misery, a
thunderstorm came on, and while we wallowed in slush there were empty
houses with roofs to them not half a mile off. From Kaffir River we
might easily have done the distance to Bloemfontein in one march, as
it was only nineteen miles; but there was apparently no reason for
hurrying, so we spent one more night in bivouac at Kaalspruit, and on
Easter Sunday, in the afternoon, marched through Bloemfontein to our
camp, which was three miles beyond. We only got a glimpse of the town
in passing through its central square and along the main street, but,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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