TOPIC:

1900 - Kimberley siege day 85 (68%). Ladysmith siege day 67 (56%). Mafeking siege day 87 (40%).
1901 - Boer attacks on Belfast and other stations on Delagoa railway repulsed. Martial law extended to western district of Cape Colony.
1903 - Mr. Chamberlain at Pretoria.

In Kimberley:

A considerable number of De Beers compound natives are being sent out. For the last 2 days some batches have gone in the day time. It appears likely that the Boers want them for work in the coal or gold mines.

One of the greatest difficulties so far is the supply of milk. It will get less day by day as the milch cows are killed off, and although I some time ago commandeered all the condensed milk in the town I have not sufficient to supply the demands of the doctors for milk for sick, women and children.

The returns of natives in De Beers compounds dated 2nd Nov including convicts – 6982. there were 10144 on 7th Oct so 3162 have left. The Commissioner of Police however is of opinion that from 500 to 100 compound natives are at large in the town, in locations etc. I therefore calculate that possibly 2500 of De Beers compound natives had left by the 2nd inst.

The return of natives in locations dated 2nd Jan – 6802 men, women and children. The arrangements for the control of the location natives are working well.

Major Fraser reports from Beaconsfield that he has seen cattle coming down to water at Alexandersfontein in lots from 20 to 150 from 12 noon till 4 pm.

Artillery firing was heard in the evening in the direction of Spytfontein.

I sent the following messages by search light this evening:

“From Int KB to Int M D Jan 7ht 7 pm No 84. Native who has been prisoner since Dec 19th escaped from Boers yesterday, states that rebels from Laager at KLEIN, KAPREE PAN joined by other rebels and some enemy making total five hundred Boers left Klein Kalree Pan Jan 2nd to attack Pilcher at Douglas. Boers say Kaffirs are fighting for British in consequence they are also arming their own Kaffirs contingent of whom are now reported to be moving from North on Kimberley. Cronje with Hd Qts now at Langberg. Boers supplies are kept loaded up on waggons and Boer cattle now being driven away from here to Free State and Transvaal. Dr Steyn of Klein Kalree Pan commands Griqualand rebels. Informant states many Boers now desiring peace; Cronje and Kruger however wish to make war one of extermination. Talk in enemy camps rebels who proceeded for 2nd attack on Karumen have captured place, and killed every defender. Informant can give no idea Boer numbers, and has not heard of the 4 persons sent from here to reside in Boer lines; he states Boers are drawing portion of their supplies from Jacobsdaal.”

“From Kekewich, CSO Jan 7th No 85. With reference to my 83 of yesterday in order you may be fully informed. Stop. I gather that manager Standard Bank Kimberley could have obtained the seventy thousand at one and a quarter per cent from the other two banks named and that their General Managers had instructed local managers here to that effect. Stop. This Commission Manager Standard Bank declined to pay. Stop. Deadlock ensued urgency of situation necessitated my making arrangements direct with other banks leaving adjustment commission if any to be settled in Cape Town. Larger portion of the money is required by Civil Commissioner. Will inform you later exact amount paid to Standard Bank to meet his draft for military purposes.”

I received the following messages:

“From Chief Paymaster. To Kekewich. DS 145. Your wire January 1st please pay all bills for supplies and contractors duly authorized by you. Bills should have your approval thereon what credit have you at the bank. Are the acting Paymaster and Pay sergeants keeping separate accounts for pay of Imperial troops, irregular corps, and Volunteers and all pay lists up to date. Can you tell me if there will be much difficulty with accounts when communication opens.”

“From Int M D To Int K B Jan 7th. Your 82 yesterday CRE says impossible to make connection at present will do so as soon as opportunity offers of getting on line. Captain MacInnes reports that from the Lazaretto to-day he could see a new laager to West of and about four miles from Carter’s farm.

In Ladysmith:

The men remained on the position all night under arms, soaked through and hardly fed. Rum was issued, but half the carts lost their way in the dark, because the officers in charge had preferred to go fighting on the loose and got wounded. The men lay in pools of rain among the dead. Lieutenant Haag, 18th Hussars, kept apologising to the man next him for using his legs as a pillow. At dawn he found the man was a Rifleman long dead, his head in a puddle of blood, his stiff arms raised to the sky. Many such things happened. Under the storm of fire it had been impossible to recover all the wounded before dark. Some lay out fully twenty-four hours without help, or food, or drink. One of the Light Horse was used by a Boer as a rest for his rifle. When I reached Waggon Hill about nine this morning the last of the wounded were being brought down. Nearly all the Light Horse dead (twenty of them) had been taken away separately, but at the foot of the hill lay a row of the Gordons, bloody and stiff, their Major, Miller-Wallnutt, at their head, conspicuous by his size. The bodies of the Rifles were being collected. Some still lay curled up and twisted among the dripping rocks. Slowly the waggons were packed and sent off to the place of burial.

The broad path up the hill and the tracks along the top were stained with blood. It lay in sticky pools, which even the rain could not wash out. It was easy to see where the dead had fallen. Most had lain behind some rock to fire and there met their end. On the summit some Kaffirs were skinning eight oxen which had been spanned to the "Lady Anne's" platform, and stood immovable during the fight. Four had been shot in the action, the others had just been killed as rations. Passing to the further edge where the Boers crept up I saw a Boer ambulance and an ox-waggon waiting. Bearded Boers in their slouch hats stood round them with an English doctor from Harrismith, commandeered to serve. Our men were carrying the Boer wounded and dead down the steep slope. The dead were laid out in line, and put in the ox-waggon. At that time there were seventeen of them waiting, but eight others were still on the hill, and I found them where they fell. Most were grey-bearded men, rough old farmers, with wrinkled and kindly faces, hardened by a grand life in sun and weather. They were dressed in flannel shirts, rough old jackets of brown cloth, rough trousers with braces, weather-stained slouch hats, and every variety of boot. Only a few had socks. Some wore the yellow "veldt-shoes," some were bare-footed; their boots had probably been taken. They lay in their blood, their glazed blue eyes looking over the rocks or up to the sky, their ashen hands half-clenched, their teeth yellow between their pale blue lips.

Beside the outer wall of "Lady Anne's" sangar, his head resting on its stones, lay a white-bearded man, poorly dressed, but refined in face. It was De Villiers, the commandant of the Harrismith district—a relation, a brother perhaps, of the Chief Justice De Villiers, who entertained me at Bloemfontein less than four months ago. Across his body lay that of a much younger man, with a short brown beard. He is thought to have been one of the old man's field cornets, and had fought up to the sangar at his side till a bullet pierced his eye and brain.

Turning back from the extremity of our position, I went along the whole ridge. The ground told one as much as men could tell. Among the rocks lay blood-stained English helmets and Dutch hats; piles of English and Dutch cartridge-cases, often mixed together in places which both sides had occupied; scraps of biltong and leather belts; handkerchiefs, socks, pieces of letters, chiefly in Dutch; dropped ball cartridges of every model—Lee-Metford, Mauser, Martini, and Austrian. I found a few hollow-nosed bullets, too, expanding like the Dum-Dum. The effect of such a bullet was seen on the hat of some poor fellow in the Light Horse. There was a tiny hole on one side, but the further side was all rent to pieces. I hear some "express" sporting bullets have also been taken to the Intelligence Office, but I have not seen them. Beside one Boer was found one of the old Martini rifles taken from the 52nd at Majuba.

On the top of Cæsar's Camp our dead were laid out for burial—Manchesters, Gordons, and Rifle Brigade together. The Boers turned an automatic Maxim on the burying party, thinking they were digging earthworks. In the wooded valley at the foot of the hill they themselves, under Geneva flags, were searching the bushes and dongas for their own dead, and disturbing the little wild deer beside the stream. On the summit parties of our own men were still engaged unwillingly in finding the Boer dead and carrying them down the cliff. Just at the edge of the summit, to which he had climbed in triumph, lay the body of a man about twenty. A shell had almost cut him in half.... Only his face and his hands were untouched. Like most of the dead he had the blue eyes and light hair of the well-bred Boer. When first he was found, his father's body lay beside him, shattered also, but not so horribly. They were identified by letters from home in their pockets.

In Mafeking:

In the early morning heavy musketry fire from the Boers, quite contrary to their usual custom. Sports, Christie Minstrels, and a comical turn-out competition.

David

I enjoy reading the diary entries and appreciate the trouble you take to post them. The account of the Wagon Hill battlefield a day later was particularly graphic and moving.

Regards
Brett

From the diary of William Watson, Ladysmith, January 1900:

Yesterday’s fight, began at one o’clock in the morning and lasted till dark. All is quiet for the present, this being Sunday. — The big battery guns are of little use in a war like this, where there are no large towns to batter. The 15 pounder field guns, and the 12 pounders of the horse artillery, are more to the purpose. Yesterday a salvo from our fields guns, killed ninety Boers. — Dr. Hornabrook of the Natal mounted rifles, was wounded yesterday. Four of the Border mounted rifles, were killed, and several wounded. They were treacherously deceived by the rebels, while patrolling, who poured a volley into them, and then fled. The Imperial light horse, and volunteers of Natal, held the enemy in check, and prevented them planting a battery of big guns on the hill. The light horse lost severely before the regular troops came to their rescue. This regiment, which is composed principally of refugees from republics, deserves well of the British nation. It has been in the thick of most of the fights. — The rebel commandant has decreed that Ladysmith shall be taken, regardless of cost. Ah well, we won’t despair just yet. If the rebels do get the town it will be a dear bargain. I suppose we shall be attacked again tomorrow. Our men are on the alert. — Sometime since, a friend of mine, found in a butcher’s shop, that was otherwise empty, four sheep’s heads. He immediately bought them, and carried them off at once, lest some one else should steal them. — The rebels say they are going to take us all prisoners to Pretoria. This is something new in warfare. So was their selling four condemned men their lives, at £25,000, a head. They have not got us yet, and never will.

1900 - From the diary of Miss Bella Craw in Ladysmith

All quiet today. The day has been spent in bringing in the dead and burying them. The I.L.H. alone lost 25 killed and 39 wounded. The Devons also lost very heavily, the B.M.R. 4 dead, about six wounded. Poor Mr. Gorton of the I.L.H. is badly wounded through the lungs and foot. I believe he has eight bullet wounds and was out all Saturday night exposed to the rain and cold, and yet they say he was cheerful and bright when they were bringing him in. He is spoken of as being a very brave man. Our boy, Mr. Normand, was wounded again, only through the right arm. This time just a flesh wound.

1900 - From the diary of Trooper A J Crosby, Natal Carbineers

Sunday. Retired to the Thorns just before daybreak, at 5 o’clock sent into camp with two other men with pack horses for grub, returning about 10 o’clock. After off saddling, I made for the scene of the recent fight which took me close upon an hour, the hill being precipitous and with huge boulders which made the climb most difficult. On reaching the crest, a ghastly sight presented itself. Two of the enemy’s dead (one a German) were lying just where I landed. Both had been killed by shrapnel and horribly mutilated. Walking round a radius of 100 yds. I saw some 25 more, but not so badly cut about. There were also 15 of our own poor fellows stretched out (12 Manchesters and 3 Rifle Brigade). The Gordons also lost 2 men here but had taken them away. As nearly all had been killed early yesterday morning, they were in a shocking state of decomposition and consequently the stench was almost unbearable. While on the top, a Boer burial party was advancing carrying the white flag, and when they reached the foot, was stopped, and arrangements were made to carry their dead to a spot near the neutral zone. I was unlucky enough to get told off for this business, and a terrible job it was, with none of the regulation stretchers at hand. We had to use hand barrows made to carry stone for constructing sangers. Others used their belts, putties too for hauling them down, while one party who had a heavy Dutchman to carry, made a sleigh from a branch of mimosa tree. It was a frightful strain apart from the ghastly freight. Trophies there were but few, the Tommies having already been through them. Some Mauser rifles, bandoliers, saddlebags etc. were to be had for a trifle, but didn’t buy anything. Regretted to see that the pockets of these had been rifled. Returned to camp about 7 o’clock thoroughly weary and tired out.

1900 - From the diary of Major George Tatham, Natal Carbineers

Letter from Mr. Christopher full of news gratefully received with enclosures from children. Carbineers employed all day at carrying down Boer dead off Caesar's Camp, most disagreeable job. Major Molyneux took these bodies to Intombi's Spruit and handed them over. Long Tom gave us the benefit of a few shots during day and a Pom-Pom fired on some of the burying parties. One Boer's body was so cut about that it had to be buried where it fell. Wales was wounded, also Woon of the Natal Police while with Royston on Saturday.