Two Years on Trek: Being Some Account of the Royal Sussex Regiment in South AfricaDu Moulin, Louis Eugène
History
Two Years on Trek: Being Some Account of the Royal Sussex Regiment in South Africa
Du Moulin, Louis Eugène
Great Britain. Army. Royal Sussex Regiment; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
There was an enterprising man who had arrived from Bloemfontein with
several wagons full of stores, which he sold equally to the few
merchants in Kroonstad. On the very day and at the time delivery was
being made, I turned up with my traction engine and trucks and my order
from the District Commissioner, and purchased most of these stores,
nearly all the cases being handed over at the storehouse of the
enterprising man. The prices I was charged by the various storekeepers
were those fixed as the selling prices in the shops; the prices the
traders paid to the enterprising man I was afterwards fortunate enough
to drop upon, and I found that in every case the profits were enormous,
averaging over 36 per cent., and ranging from 75 per cent. for sardines
to 20 per cent. for jam and milk.
Since our last stay in the town Kroonstad had developed strong breezes,
which fetched up clouds of dust and hordes of flies from the Remount
Depôt, and poured them both unceasingly into our camp. The 21st of
August was a particularly dusty day, and we were not so very sorry,
therefore, when in the evening orders were received for us to be off
again: some of us, this time, went by train, as one half battalion was
to proceed by rail and the other by road, marching with all the wagons
and carts of the Brigade, to Geneva Siding, about 15 miles down the
line.
The first party to move was the right half battalion, composed of B, C,
D and E companies, under myself: they paraded at eleven o'clock in the
evening and marched to the station, and waited there for some time,
after loading the first line transport and some guns--the 76th Battery
of the Field Artillery; we eventually made a start about three o'clock
in the morning. On arrival at Geneva I found there the General and the
Camerons, who had proceeded by an earlier train, and was then directed
to proceed to Ventersburg Road in the same train, and to remain there
until the arrival of the General. So we steamed off again, enjoying, as
we knew the other half battalion would also do, the new experience of
sitting in a train and being dragged to our destination.
On our way down we passed Holfontein, where were some troops guarding
the bridge, and, a few miles further on, we reached the spot where, some
weeks previously, a train had been held up at night by the Boers, an
officer and a few men who were in the train being taken prisoners and
the train looted and burned. The officer was bringing up some stores for
the General, which, of course, were looted; but a few of the Boers paid
for their recklessness, as they found some liquor, got drunk, and were
easily captured, about eight or a dozen of them, by the Mounted Infantry
from Ventersburg Road, who rode out on hearing the explosions of
dynamite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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