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
On the 10th two Boers were captured by Liliveld at Lakensvlei, and
others were seen in the distance; and on the 11th, Ackerman's commando
was found in the middle of the circle of columns. Col. du Moulin had
made an early march from Lakensvlei to Parys (a farm some miles south of
Ventershoek) that morning; and while the column was breakfasting, a
helio message came from Ventershoek to say that a party of Boers were
being driven by Col. Hamilton towards Parys. The column was off in ten
minutes, and chased Ackerman for the remainder of the day, capturing his
Cape cart, eighty horses and twenty-five rifles. A halt was made that
night at Mooifontein, after a day's trek of 30 miles for the baggage and
40 for the mounted troops, the Boers being still ahead. Col. Hamilton
had taken seven prisoners.
One hundred men under Lieut. Bond were sent out at midnight to a hill
(the Bulsberg) where the Boers were last seen. Silently they rode
through the darkness, and, nearing the hill, took one end of it at a
gallop; but the Boers had gone. This party was, during the morning,
itself attacked by another small column that had come on the same
mission. Fortunately the attack was stayed before any harm was done. The
Boers escaped out of the ring of columns--so harried, however, that
twelve went straight to Bloemfontein to surrender, five of whom were too
weak from want of food and sleep to reach the town, and had to be
fetched in in Cape carts.
On the night of the 23rd November, Lieut. Crawley-Boevey was sent with
100 men (cyclists and mounted men) to search the hills at Parys for
stray Boers. At dawn he saw a couple of Boers watering their horses at a
dam near; he despatched a dozen men to cut them off, but these soon
returned, having found a commando of sixty on the other side of the
hill. The Boers at once moved off towards Ospoort, where Captain
Montrésor lay hidden; took fright at the smoke of some fires there and
moved north; were headed off by column after column, and lost twenty-six
prisoners before the day was over, four of them falling to
Crawley-Boevey. At dawn on the 26th Captain Montrésor was sent to
Lakensvlei, where the Boers were reported to have gone; but Col. Pilcher
was before him, and had captured twelve more. Thus the commando, which
was Joubert's, was practically wiped out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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