THE ARMY IN SOUTH AND WEST AFRICA—1834–86

Omitting such small “affairs” as were consequent on the extension and for long purely coastal expansion of our Empire in Africa after the long war, there is little to record until 1834. The conquest of the Dark Continent had been gradual, and practically commercial. It had been largely based on geographical discoveries. War and political occupation followed missionary enterprise here as elsewhere. Nothing is more curious to watch than how often the proselyte is followed by the soldier and the sword. The colonist and trade follow the first, and with him or them come trade-rum, trade-firearms, and all the so-called blessings of civilisation. After both comes first friction, then fighting, and finally conquest. These are usually the phases of Anglo-Saxon colonial expansion, unless we add to them the last end of all, the practical extermination of the native races.

So it was in America, where the red man is dying out; and so in New Zealand, though to a less degree, for the natives there are of better stock. It is not yet to the same extent in Africa, solely because the population, in the latter days of the nineteenth century, is too redundant. But unless the black can assimilate with the white, he must as assuredly give place to those who have the mental and physical power, as the red man has been driven westward against the mountain ridges of America.

Asiatics alone, among the races of colour, have held their own, because the people are intellectually sound. In that country, built up of many countries, there has been always,352 as far as historic time goes, civilisation. In Africa there has been none, save that alone of immigrants. In China, again, there is no dread of such extermination; its people, though barbaric, are intellectual and more than semi-civilised. In Japan the extreme case is met with. A nation of high artistic and intellectual power, not a quarter of a century ago ranking among armour-wearing barbarians, it has shown its strength in its recent war with China, and won respect and equality among the leading nations of the earth.

This Africa has never done, and its history therefore, as far as Great Britain’s army is concerned, is not that of the barbaric or semi-barbaric powers with whom we have come in contact, but that of savage powers who are incapable of improvement or absorption, and whose only destiny is to remain hewers of wood and drawers of water. As the red man numbered millions when the eighteenth century was dying, and within a hundred years is far less than a quantité negligéable, so the black man, numbering millions when the nineteenth century is also a-dying, may possibly, before another century, fade out too. There is no room for either, unless the black mends his ways better than the red man did.

The earliest occupation of the African littoral was that of the North-West Coast for purely trading purposes, and that of the Cape of Good Hope for those of colonial expansion, and as one of the chain of ports uniting our Eastern and Far Eastern possessions with the mother country. In early days they were the dep?ts whence the essential necessaries of food, water, and stores were replenished. Now they are even more vitally important as the coaling stations for the ocean steamers.

As already referred to, the Cape of Good Hope was seized by conquest in 1805. The West African settlements at Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, and Lagos, united in 1806 into one government, bear date from 1787, etc., and were made primarily with little serious opposition. The West African is a less serious fighting personage than either his stalwart brother of Zululand or the “Fuzzy Wuzzy” of the Soudan. There was little antagonism at first, that is353 to say, after the conquest of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. There was plenty of room for expansion, and the population was for a long time meagre.

But in 1817 the 72nd was engaged in suppressing a rising of the Kaffirs of the Great Fish River; and in 1834 it was again employed against Macomo in the same district. The frontier troubles were getting rather more serious, and the Kaffir invasion of the colony was marked by the usual savage atrocities. Almost the only military operation of the practically peaceful reign of William IV. was the punitive expedition of Colonel Peddie’s Highlanders against these tribes.

The frontier, however, still remained restless for some years after this; and in 1843 the tables were somewhat turned, inasmuch as the 91st Regiment was despatched to assist the Griquas, who had placed themselves under our protection, against the Boers, on the Orange River.

Shortly after, in 1846, the first serious Kaffir war broke out, and in it the first and reserve battalions of the 91st, the 6th, 73rd, 45th, and Rifle Brigade were actively engaged for nearly two years. There was much hard fighting in the Amatola Mountains, at Burn’s Hill and Block Drift, and one noteworthy act of bravery may be recorded of Privates Walsh and Reilly, who, when Fort Cox was beleaguered, managed to convey a despatch through the investing savages to Governor Maitland.

At the close of the year 1850 the racial antagonism again appeared, and this second Kaffir war lasted until 1853, requiring the services of the 2nd, 6th, 43rd, 45th, 60th, 73rd, 74th, and 91st Regiments of the Line, besides the Rifle Brigade, the Cape Mounted Rifles and Colonial Irregulars. The British frontier, when war broke out, was supposed to be represented by the Kei River, between which and the Great Fish River the country had been informally considered more or less neutral. But all buffer states are dangers as a rule, and neutral belts are no better. So thought Sandilli, a powerful Kaffir chieftain; jealous of his own waning power as that of the white man increased, and also at being deposed354 by the governor of the colony, he broke into open revolt. The country was dense forest, roads rare, and the conduct of the war desultory. To destroy the rude kraals of the enemy, carry off his cattle, cut down his crops to starve him out, and finally assault some central stronghold such as are to be found in hill districts like the Amatolas, or some isolated hill honeycombed with caves, was the method of procedure then as it is now. Nothing has changed less in the army’s history than the tactics of savage war, especially in Africa.

Sir Harry Smith, who commanded, was not particularly successful either in his conduct of the campaign or in his judgment of the military situation. There were several small disasters, such as befell detachments of the 6th and 73rd under Mackinnon at the Keiskamma defile, and which partook then, and often after, of the nature of ambuscades. A detachment of the 45th escorting a convoy was cut off. The garrison of Fort Cox was for a time surrounded and completely isolated by the Kaffirs. Meanwhile, numerous European villages were destroyed by the enemy, and in many cases the inhabitants massacred with extreme barbarity and with horrible mutilations.

In the spring of 1852 a determined advance was made against the Amatola Mountains, in which was Sandilli’s stronghold, and the Highland “tortoises,” as the enemy called the 74th, from a fancied resemblance of their tartans to the markings of the land tortoise of South Africa, after much heavy fighting and hard work, succeeded in clearing the district, but it took until September, when there was a sharp skirmish at Kromme.

Early in October the Kaffirs assembled on the Waterkloof heights, where the fortress of Chief Macomo was attacked seven times before the enemy were subdued. It cost the lives of many officers and men, including that of Colonel Fordyce of the 74th. Thus hostilities practically ended, as the expedition across the Orange River against the Basuto chief Moshesh, with the 2nd, 43rd, 73rd, 74th, Rifle Brigade, and 12th Lancers, with some artillery and irregulars, was not opposed.

355 The next important outbreak of hostilities occurred on the West Coast. There had been, long before 1873, frequent troubles in the Hinterland of the West Coast settlements. There had even been war about 1824 and 1826, when we had to defeat the natives at Accra, after much previous desultory skirmishing, in one of which Sir Charles Macarthy, the Governor of the Coast, was slain, and the force with him practically destroyed. There was a further slight disturbance in 1863; but in 1870, a more serious dispute arose as to the ownership of Elmina, which we had taken over from the Dutch. Many impolitic acts were committed as regards the assistance that might have been rendered by us to those tribes most exposed to the Ashanti attack, and finally, in January 1873, the Ashanti army crossed the Prah, and attacked the Assims and Fantees, and these after a while were worsted, and the roads to Cape Coast Castle and Elmina were thus left open. The Elminas and Ashantis fraternised, and made an effort to seize the Elmina Fort, but were repulsed by Colonel Festing, with some Royal Marines and a Naval Brigade; and thus matters remained, with 20,000 Ashantis at Mampon, ten miles distant from the British forts, until the arrival of the expedition commanded by Sir Garnet Wolseley, which reached the coast in October 1874. Partly by way of a diversion, and partly as a punitive expedition, a small force was first sent to Elmina, and landing there, advanced against the allied natives at Essiaman, and dispersed them with little loss. Native levies were raised, and placed under the charge of European officers; posts were prepared, and the road improved between Cape Coast and the Prah, one result of which preparation was the abandonment by the Ashantis of their Mampon camp, and their falling back behind the river. Sundry other small expeditions from Dunquah and towards Abracampa also assisted.

In addition to the main advance, another was prepared under Captain Glover and Captain R. Sartorius, and was designed to advance from Accra on Coomassie. It was composed entirely of native levies led by a few British officers,356 but did not reach the Ashanti capital until it had been captured and abandoned by the main column.

This was composed of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, the 23rd, and the 42nd, and by New Year’s day, 1874, these troops had landed at Cape Coast Castle. No expedition could have been better managed or organised. Every attention was paid to the slightest detail. Sir Garnet’s instructions for the officers, as regards their attention to their men, are more than instructive: they evidence the patient study of details necessary for the well-being of his command, which only a careful leader knows to be as essential to success as the fighting of his men when the time for action comes. Sir Garnet’s Notes for the Use of the Troops should be read by everybody who has to conduct a similar campaign.

When the advance began, the stations between the coast and the Prah numbered eight in the sixty-nine miles that covered the distance.

Soon the Prah was reached, the river that the Ashantis believed would never be crossed by a white man; but Lieutenant Grant of the 5th crossed it first, none the less. Here the stream, some 70 feet wide and 9 feet deep, was bridged with a crib bridge, and King Koffi Calcali sent ambassadors to treat for peace. But it was too late, even if the barbaric potentate could be trusted.

The army pushed on, deserted at times by the carriers, and little helped by the native allies; though the black regiments commanded by Russell, Wood, and Webber did some useful work.

The Adansi Hills and Bahrein river were successively crossed, and a skirmish occurred at a village near Adubiassie, in which Captain Nicol was killed; but the first serious battle was that of Amoaful, in which the Ashanti army stubbornly fought for more than five hours before they fell back beaten.

The bush was terribly dense, the tracks were but 8 feet broad. Paths had therefore to be hewn by the engineers in every case where the slightest width of front was necessary.

357 Strong in numbers, and acquainted with the jungle tracks, the Ashantis were able to assail both flanks and rear of the column as well as hold it in front. Simultaneous attacks could be, and were, made during and immediately after the battle on the fortified posts along the line of communication with the Prah and Cape Coast at Quaman, Fomanah, etc.

The fighting formation that could best meet these difficulties was, as in most of our African wars, a species of square. The advance was made in three columns. The centre, which formed, so to speak, the front face as far as possible, and was composed of the 42nd and the detachment of the 23rd, with Rait’s guns, was to seize the village of Egginassie. The left column, the Naval Brigade, and Russell’s native regiment, with some Royal Engineers and two rocket troughs, was to move by a road cut through the bush some few hundred yards from the central column. The right column was also built up of the Naval Brigade, with another native regiment, and some Engineers and rocket tubes. The 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade formed the reserve or rear face, if required, of the square. The village of Egginassie was occupied with but little opposition, and the firing was continuous and heavy, as the troops advanced farther. Fortunately the missiles were slugs, not bullets, or the loss would have been serious. As it was, many men were hit, some severely, and Captain Buckle was killed. The total casualties amounted to 250, while the Ashanti loss was heavy, and their leader, Ammonquantia, was slain.

The following day the village of Bequah was taken, and further severe skirmishing took place at the passage of the Ordah, which had to be bridged, and while the baggage convoy was being packed at Ordahsu, a further effort was made to disturb the column, and Lieutenant Eyre was killed. Here the defence was half-hearted, and the capture of the capital, Coomassie, was not opposed. It was “a town over which the smell of death hangs everywhere and pulsates on each sickly breath of wind—a town where, here and there, a vulture hops at one’s very feet, too gorged to join the filthy flock358 preening itself on the gaunt dead trunks that line the road; where blood is plastered like a pitch coating over trees, floors, and stools—blood of a thousand victims yearly-renewed; where headless bodies make common sport; where murder, pure and simple, monotonous massacre of bound men, is the one employment of the king, and the one spectacle of the populace.”68

One of the many reasons for the war was a wish to put down the barbarous horrors of King Koffi Calcali’s reign, and a stipulation to that effect was made in the treaty, but it was disregarded. It required a second expedition to carry the measure into effect, by the deposition of the king’s successor, Prempeh, and the bloodless occupation of the capital—measures over which gloom was cast by the death of Prince Henry of Battenberg. Finally, in the first expedition, the city was set on fire, the king’s palace destroyed, and the army turned back to the coast. It was quite time; the rains had set in, and what were rivulets on the march up were now unfordable streams on the march back. Men half swam, were half dragged over these, their clothes being carried on the heads of natives. In one case, the bundle was lost, and, it is said that the unfortunate owner paraded the next morning with nothing but his helmet and rifle!

The war was over, and a treaty of peace signed; but after the retirement of Sir Garnet Wolseley from Coomassie, Captain Reginald Sartorius, who led the advance of Captain Glover’s force from the Volta, rode alone through the ruins of the city to communicate with the general commanding, and won thus the Victoria Cross. But this expedition was too late to join hands with the main column, though it had some skirmishing on the way; as also were those of Captain Butler with the Akims, and Captain Dalrymple with the Wassaws. Small as the war was, and of very short duration, it was sufficiently deadly. By July 9, 1874, thirty-eight officers of the whole force were dead.69

359 Turning once more to South Africa, it will be remembered that the Kaffir wars of 1850–53 had been chiefly fought about the valley of the Kei, south of which river was British Kaffraria, including the tribes of the Fingoes and Gaikas, while in the Transkei district are the Galekas, Pondos, Griquas, etc. The war broke out much as before. The Gaika chief Sandilli and the Galeka chief Kreli attacked our old allies the Fingoes in 1877, and the Kaffirs, being better armed with rifles than in 1850, were now rather more formidable.

The enemy developed an increasing knowledge of tactics. The old irregular rush of a mass of men had given way to more methodical formations. Thus Kreli in his advance on the police post of Ibeka—the frontier police had taken the place of the Cape Mounted Rifles, which had been disbanded—had about 2000 of his 10,000 men mounted, and advanced in line of columns covered by skirmishers. But the fire of the breech-loader, together with that of rockets and 7-pounders, checked then, as before, the savage ardour. The war, which lasted more or less intermittently until 1878, was mainly carried out by colonial and irregular levies; but many detachments for holding the defensive posts with which the country was dotted were furnished by the 88th, the 24th (whose bandsmen were trained as gunners to work a 7-pounder gun), a naval brigade with marines, the 90th (one of whose men emphasised the value of the Martini-Henry rifle by hitting a man who was whooping and dancing 1800 yards away), the 2nd Buffs, and the 13th, and most of these regiments shared in the prolonged war. The losses were more serious both with officers and men, for the better weapons the Kaffirs had secured told.

But the end, though long in coming, was decisive. Kreli surrendered, Sandilli was killed, risings in Griqualand were suppressed, and the Basutos were crushed when their chief Morosi’s heavily-fortified stronghold was stormed. The theatre of war had extended north as far as Mafeking, where there was hard fighting with another Basuto leader named Letherodi.

360 The next campaign against the natives was far more serious than the preceding one. The Zulus were probably the bravest of all these southern tribes, and had some form of discipline, organisation, and tactics, though their arms—clubs or “knob-kerries,” shields, muskets of sorts, and assegais—were much the same as in other parts of Africa, save that the latter were shorter, blunt at the end, and broader in the blade, being intended for stabbing rather than throwing. In other respects the people were bloodthirsty, superstitious, and sanguinary, given over to “witch doctors” and brutal massacres. There had been frequent raids on the Natal frontier by them from 1838 onwards until 1878, when the spirit of restlessness increased, and General Thesiger took command of the army at the Cape, which then consisted of the 3rd, 13th, 24th, 80th, 88th, and 90th Regiments, with two batteries of Artillery and some Engineers. The country was to be invaded by three columns. The first or southern column, under Colonel Pearson, consisted of the Buffs, the 99th, with some Artillery, a Naval Brigade, and local levies; the second or central column was to move from Helpmakaar under Colonel Glyn, and contained the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 24th, a battery, and other levies; and the northern, which was based on Utrecht in the Transvaal, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, in which were a battery and the 13th, 60th, and 90th Regiments. A fourth column under Colonel Durnford was to march later, between the first and second columns.

Opposed to them were supposed to be about 40,000 fighting men. They were organised in large masses, and used skirmishers. Speaking generally, their tactical method was to form a complete ring, if possible, around the body attacked, and then close. On the 12th January 1879 the troops marched, and on the 22nd Pearson had a smart brush with the enemy at Inyezane, but reached his first objective, Etschowe, where a dep?t was to be formed, without further opposition.

The central column had been less fortunate, for, crossing the river at Rorke’s Drift, where a detachment of the 24th361 were left, the small army pushed on to the isolated hill of Isandhlwana. Here, while the general was reconnoitring to the south-east, the Zulu army passed across his front and attacked the camp. A desperate resistance was made, but against 14,000 Zulus there could be only one result. Few of the British escaped, and one colour of the 24th was lost, the “Queen’s colour” of the 1st battalion being carried safely as far as the river by Lieutenants Melville and Coghill, who gallantly died there in its defence.

This colour was subsequently recovered, and the “regimental” colour had been left safe at Helpmakaar. Of the regular troops 26 officers and 806 men had fallen, and 24 colonial officers and many men had also perished. The only gleam of sunshine on this gloomy and disastrous day was the gallant defence of the commissariat camp at Rorke’s Drift by Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead of the Royal Engineers and 24th respectively. For when the victorious “Impi” continued its advance, it found the post hastily fortified with biscuit-boxes, mealie sacks, and bags of Indian corn, and so desperate was the resistance of the small band, 139 men in all, of whom 35 were sick, against 4000 Zulus, that they fell back beaten. The brave defence had prevented the invasion of Natal, and in all the annals of the army there is no more brilliant episode than the defence of Rorke’s Drift.

Wood’s column had meanwhile reached the White Umvolosi, and while a stone fort was being built there, and named “Fort Tinta,” many reconnaissances were made towards the Zungen range; but though there were many skirmishes, there was on this side no serious fighting yet.

So ended the first stage of the war. The general’s first idea was to fall back on the Tugela and await reinforcements; but, leaving to Colonel Pearson to act on his own discretion, that officer decided on remaining at Etschowe and fortifying it. Here for some time he was completely isolated, but several successful raids were made, in one of which Dabiulamanzi’s Kraal was burned. Relief came on the 2nd362 April, when a force under Colonel Low, consisting of a naval brigade, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Lanarkshire Regiment, detachments of the Buffs and 57th, the 37th, the 60th, with some guns, rocket tubes, and Gatlings, etc., advanced as far as Ginghilovo, and these, when in laager, were attacked by a force 10,000 strong, who fought with the greatest bravery, closing up to the very rifles of the defenders; but the fire was too heavy, and when they fell back in disorder, a charge of Barrow’s mounted irregulars completed their discomfiture. They had lost 1200 men, at a cost to their opponents of 9 men killed and 5............