



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover]




[Illustration: IAN HAMILTON. _From the Picture by_ John S. Sargent,
R.A.]




                          IAN HAMILTON'S MARCH


                                   BY
                       WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL



                    _WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS AND PLANS_




                                TORONTO
                    THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED




                          COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
                       WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL

                         _All rights reserved_




                       THIS COLLECTION OF LETTERS
                            IS INSCRIBED TO
                LIEUT-GENERAL IAN HAMILTON, C.B., D.S.O.
                    WITH WHOSE MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS
                        IT IS LARGELY CONCERNED




                                PREFACE.


This book is a continuation of those letters to the _Morning Post_
newspaper on the South African war, which have been lately published
under the title 'London to Ladysmith _via_ Pretoria.'  Although the
letters had been read to some extent in their serial form, their
reproduction in a book has been indulgently regarded by the public; and
I am encouraged to repeat the experiment.

The principal event with which the second series deals is the march of
Lieutenant-General Ian Hamilton's column on the flank of Lord Roberts's
main army from Bloemfontein to Pretoria.  This force, which encountered
and overcame the brunt of the Boer resistance, which, far from the
railway, marched more than 400 miles through the most fertile parts of
the enemy's country, which fought ten general actions and fourteen
smaller affairs, and captured five towns, was, owing to the difficulties
of telegraphing, scarcely attended by a single newspaper correspondent,
and accompanied continuously by none.  Little has therefore been heard
of its fortunes, nor do I know of anyone who is likely to write an
account.

The letters now submitted to the public find in these facts their chief
claim to be reprinted.  While written in the style of personal narrative
I have hitherto found it convenient to follow, they form a complete
record of the operations of the flank column from the day when Ian
Hamilton left Bloemfontein to attack the Waterworks position, until he
returned to Pretoria after the successful engagement of Diamond Hill.

Although in an account written mainly in the field, and immediately
after the actual events, there must be mistakes, no care has been spared
in the work.  The whole book has been diligently revised.  Four letters,
which our long marches did not allow me to finish while with the troops,
have been added and are now published for the first time. The rest have
been lengthened or corrected by the light of after-knowledge and
reflection, and although the epistolary form remains, I hope the
narrative will be found to be fairly consecutive.

I do not want the reader to think that the personal incidents and
adventures described in this book are extraordinary, and beyond the
common lot of those who move unrestricted about the field of war.  They
are included in the narrative, not on account of any peculiar or
historic interest, but because this method is the easiest, and, so far
as my wit serves me, the best way of telling the story with due regard
at once to detail and proportion.

In conclusion I must express my obligations to the proprietors of the
_Morning Post_ newspaper for the assistance they have given my
publishers in allowing them to set up the copy as each letter arrived
from the war; to the DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, to whom I am indebted for the
details of the strength and composition of the force which will be found
in the Appendix, and for much assistance in the attempt to attain
accuracy; and thirdly, to MR. FRANKLAND, whose manly record of the heavy
days he passed as a prisoner in Pretoria may help to make this book
acceptable to the public.

WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL.

LONDON:
_September_ 10, 1900.




                               CONTENTS.


CHAPTER

      I. A Roving Commission
     II. Exit General Gatacre
    III. At Half-Way House
     IV. Two Days with Brabazon
      V. Two Days with Brabazon--*Continued*
     VI. The Dewetsdorp Episode
    VII. Ian Hamilton's March
   VIII. Ian Hamilton
     IX. The Action of Houtnek
      X. The Army of the Right Flank
     XI. Lindley
    XII. Concerning a Boer Convoy
   XIII. Action of Johannesburg
    XIV. The Fall of Johannesburg
     XV. The Capture Of Pretoria
    XVI. "Held By The Enemy"
   XVII. Action Of Diamond Hill


                                APPENDIX

Composition of Lieut.-General Ian Hamilton's Force




                               PORTRAIT.

IAN HAMILTON............... _Frontispiece_

_From the Picture by_ JOHN S. SARGENT, R.A.



                            MAPS AND PLANS.


Operations in the Orange Free State, April, 1900

Diagram Explaining Hamilton's Action at Israel's Poorte, the 25th of
April

Diagram Explaining French's Operations Round Thabanchu, the 25th and
27th of April

Diagram Explaining the Action of Houtnek

Diagram to Explain the Passage of the Sand River, 10th of May, 1900

Ian Hamilton's Action at the Sand River, 10th of May, 1900

Ian Hamilton's Action before Johannesburg

Plan of the Operations of 11th and 12th of June, 1900

Diagram Explaining the Action of Diamond Hill

Map of March from Bloemfontein to Pretoria    _At end of book_




                          IAN HAMILTON'S MARCH



                               CHAPTER I

                          A ROVING COMMISSION


              In the train near Pieters, Natal: March 31.


Ladysmith, her garrison and her rescuers, were still recovering, the one
from the effects of long confinement, the other from over-exertion.  All
was quiet along the Tugela except for the plashing of the waters, and
from Hunger's Poorte to Weenen no sound of rifle or cannon shot
disturbed the echoes.

The war had rolled northward: the floods of invasion that had
isolated--almost overwhelmed--Ladysmith and threatened to submerge the
whole country had abated and receded, so that the Army of Natal might
spread itself out to feed and strengthen at its leisure and convenience
on the reconquered territory.

Knox's (Ladysmith) Brigade went into camp at Arcadia, five miles west of
the town. Howard's (Ladysmith) Brigade retired to the breezy plains
south of Colenso.  Clery's Division--for the gallant Clery, recovered
from his sickness, had displaced the gallant and successful
Lyttelton--moved north and encamped beyond Elandslaagte along the banks
of Sunday's River.  Hunter's Division was disposed with one brigade at
Elandslaagte and one at Tinta Inyoni.  Warren, whom it was no longer
necessary to send to the Cape Colony, established himself and his two
brigades north of Ladysmith, along the railway line to the Orange Free
State. Brocklehurst, with the remnants of what had once been almost a
Cavalry Division, and now could scarcely mount three squadrons, occupied
a neighbouring plain, sending his regiments one by one to Colenso, or
even Mooi River, to be re-horsed; and around all this great Army,
resting after its labours and preparing for fresh efforts, the Cavalry
brigades of Dundonald and Burn-Murdoch drew an immense curtain of
pickets and patrols which extended from Acton Homes in the east, through
Bester's Station right round to Wessels Nek and further still, and which
enabled the protected soldiers within to close their eyes by night and
stretch their legs by day.

Meanwhile, the burghers had all retreated to the Drakensburg and the
Biggarsburg and other refuges, from which elevated positions they defied
intrusion or attack, and their scattered line stretched in a vast
crescent even around our widely extended front from the Tintwa Pass,
through Waschbank to Pomeroy.

But with the exception of outpost skirmishes, wholly unimportant to
those not engaged in them, a strange peace brooded over Natal, and
tranquillity was intensified by the recollection of the struggle that
was over and the anticipation of the struggle that impended.  It was a
lull in the storm.

All this might be war, but it was not journalism.  The tempest for the
moment had passed, and above the army in Natal the sky was monotonously
blue.  It was true that dark clouds hung near the northern horizon, but
who should say when they would break? Not, at any rate, for three weeks,
I thought, and so resolved to fill the interval by trying to catch a
little of the tempest elsewhere.

After the relief of Ladysmith four courses offered themselves to Sir
Redvers Buller. To stand strictly on the defensive in Natal and to send
Lord Roberts every gun and man who could be spared; to break into the
Free State by forcing Van Reenen's Pass or the Tintwa; to attack the
twelve thousand Boers in the Biggarsburg, clear Natal, and invade the
Transvaal through the Vryheid district; and, lastly, to unite and
reorganise and co-operate with Lord Roberts's main advance either by
striking west or north.

Which course would be adopted?  I made inquiries.  Staff officers, bland
and inscrutable--it is wonderful how well men can keep secrets they have
not been told--continued to smile and smile.  Brigadiers frankly
confessed their ignorance.  The general-in-chief observed pleasantly
that he would 'go for' the enemy as soon as he was ready, but was
scarcely precise about when and where.

It was necessary to go to more humble sources for truth, and after
diligent search I learned from a railway porter, or somebody like that,
that all attempts to repair the bridge across the Sunday's River had
been postponed indefinitely.  This, on further inquiry, proved to be
true.

Now, what does this mean?  It means, I take it, that no direct advance
against the Biggarsburg is intended for some time; and as the idea of
reducing the Natal Army to reinforce the Cape Colony forces has been
definitely abandoned the western line of advance suggests itself.

It would be absurd to force Van Reenen's Pass with heavy loss of life,
when by waiting until the main Army has reached, let us say, Kroonstad,
we could walk through without opposition; so that it looks very likely
that the Natal troops will do nothing until Lord Roberts's advance is
more developed, and that then they will enter the Free State and operate
in conjunction with him, all of which is strategy and common-sense
besides.  At any rate there will be a long delay.

Therefore, I said to myself, I will go to Bloemfontein, see all that may
be seen there and on the way, and rejoin the Natal Army when it comes
through the passes.  Such was the plan, and the reader shall be a
witness of its abandonment.

I left the camp of Dundonald's Brigade early in the morning of the 29th
of March, and riding through Ladysmith, round the hill on which stands
the battered convent, now serving as headquarters, and down the main
street, along which the relieving Army had entered the city, reached the
railway station and caught the 10 A.M. down train.

We were delayed for a few minutes by the departure for Elandslaagte of a
train load of Volunteers, the first to reach the Natal Army, and the
officers hastened to look at these citizen soldiers.  There were five
companies in all, making nearly a thousand men, fine looking fellows,
with bright intelligent eyes, which they turned inquiringly on every
object in turn, pointing and laughing at the numerous shell holes in the
corrugated iron engine sheds and other buildings of the station.

A few regulars--sunburnt men, who had fought their way in with
Buller--sauntered up to the trucks, and began a conversation with the
reinforcement.  I caught a fragment: 'Cattle trucks, are