Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria. Chapter XXVI. The Seige of Mafeking.

Major-General Robert S.S. Baden-Powell
Promoted from Colonel to Major-General, 1900 in recognition of his gallant defence of Mafeking

Attack on Game Tree Fort.
The weeks of December passed with no more striking incident than a hot exchange of fire between the two opponents on Dingaan's Day, December 16, when the Boer gunners were considerably incommoded by the projectiles of the British 7-pounders and Nordenfeldt. Christmas went by peacefully; the garrison feasted; but for many on that day it was a case of "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," since Colonel Baden-Powell had determined to make a desperate attack on the 26th upon the Dutch position known as Game Tree Fort. This work lay to the north of Mafeking, distant from the town about two miles. Its capture was desirable for two reasons—to open up communication with the north and to extend the area of pasturage for the large number of cattle in the town. Indeed, the livestock could not be kept in condition on the limited grazing ground, which was all that was available, so long as the fort was in the hands of the Boers. On Christmas Day the work was carefully reconnoitred and examined. It was seen to be a low sandbag breastwork with one tier of loopholes, perfectly easy to storm. But, though the utmost secrecy was maintained by Colonel Baden-Powell and his staff, the Boers must have been informed by spies of the British plans, since after the reconnaissance they raised the height of the sand-bag rampart from three to twelve feet, provided three tiers of loopholes, trebled the garrison, placed two commandos near at hand as a reserve to give support or deliver a counter-attack and tore up the railway track near the fort, to preclude any movement by the armoured train in Mafeking. Thus, all unconsciously, the British were preparing to march into a skillfully laid trap. It was afterwards remarked that the Dutch women in the women's laager had behaved in an unusual manner, singing Psalms with unprecedented vigour, and it was conjectured that this was a pre-arranged method of giving the enemy a hint of what was intended.

Long before dawn the troops were in position. Two squadrons of the Protectorate Regiment were to attack from the east, under the command of Captains Vernon and Fitzclarence, supported by 300 men of the garrison with all the available artillery and the armoured train. As the first faint glimpse of breaking day showed over the veldt, at 4.15 a.m., the guns opened their fastest fire. The Boers immediately replied; a volley from the direction of the fort showed that they were upon the alert, and with a heavy boom the great 6-in. Creusot joined in the battle. In the dim, grey light the flashes of cannon and rifles flickered along the horizon like summer lightning. From Cannon Kopje, an outwork in the Mafeking defences, a 7-pounder did its feeble best to keep down the fire of the big gun.

Major Panzera, who was in charge of the British artillery, was anxious to breach the walls of the fort, so as to render an assault easy. He fired steadily at the work, but from the manner in which it had been strengthened by the Boers, and from the inferior quality of his guns, could make little or no impression. A few shrapnel were burst just over the fort, and may have caused the enemy some loss; most of the projectiles, however, exploded against the sandbag face without result, without even battering down the rampart. Then about 5 a.m. the signal was given to the artillery to cease fire; the armoured train blew a deep blast on her whistle; the rifle fusillade of the two opponents blazed up furiously, and through a sheet of bullets the Protectorate Regiment advanced to the assault. The men dashed forward in swift rushes, keeping admirable order, their officers well in front, with such spirit and gallantry that all who saw were filled with admiration. A few fell, but the losses were not heavy at this stage, despite the bullets which seemed to come at once from every quarter. Half the distance had been covered, when the men, by order, lay down to recover breath, and, as they lay, opened fire with their rifles. Then the order "Fix bayonets" was given ; the steel glinted in the rays of the early sun, and the sixty prone figures rose as if by clockwork from the ground and swept with a cheer towards the fort, now only 300 yards away. Captain Sandford was one of the first to fall in this rush; in an instant he was hit twice; one wound through the. spine was mortal; but he died calling upon his men to go forward, with his face to the foe.


	Captain Charles Fitzclarence, V.C. Of the Royal Fusiliers, showed conspicuous bravery in commanding the Protectorate Regiment during the attack on the armoured train at Mafeking, October 14, in leading his troops into the enemy's trenches at night about a fort-night later, and particularly in the attack on Game Tree Fort, December 26, when he was severely wounded.

And now the Boer fire blazed up with a fury and intensity that appalled the onlookers. The fort vomited bullets in sheets from every loop-hole. Yet the Protectorates did not halt or check for a moment. Captain Fitzclarence was down with a bullet through his thigh; Captain Vernon was wounded also, but he was still in front, refusing to go to the rear. The men were worthy of these officers. As they closed in on the fort they sent up cheer after cheer, and the spectators, from the note of triumph which rang in their shouts, were certain that victory was as good as won. But the cry of triumph was, after all, only that of men who stand in the presence of death with the consciousness that they have done supremely well. For the last 25 yards of the rush, every man in that little band of heroes had seen that success was not to be dreamt of, and that only one thing remained—to die with honour. From a deep ditch there rose before them a perpendicular rampart, with row upon row of loop-holes; and even if the rampart were climbed the work was roofed in with iron, so that access would still be difficult. Yet the wounded Captain Vernon, Lieutenant Paton, Corporal Cooke, Corporal Pickard, and Sergeant Ross, broke desperately forward, crossed the ditch, and strove to reach the loop-holes, into which the officers emptied their revolvers. At the sight of these figures scrambling up the face of the fort, all in the rear felt certain that the work had been carried. Cooke was now on the iron roof with the bullets swishing round him at the shortest point-blank range, yet, strange to say, though his tunic was riddled, he himself came off without a scratch. Paton was shot dead with Sergeant-Major Paget, both fighting to the last; Vernon, an officer of faultless bravery, fell dead with his third glorious wound; there was no one left to lead and none to follow.

The Assault Fails.
The attack had failed. Yet the handful of survivors did not break or run. They sauntered backwards, many of them still facing the Boer fire, with such incredible calmness, that the spectators could not divine what had happened. "Swift in the advance, slow in the retreat," is indeed a British axiom; but this leisurely, reluctant withdrawal under a hell of fire was something that evinced demonic courage and covered the day's disaster with immortal honour. The nine who returned were all that was left of the 63 men who had gone in to the attack. The others were not in the fort, but dead, dying or wounded, upon its outer slope. Yet the fierceness of the assault, the determination with which it had been pressed home, and the spirit shown by the survivors in the retreat, had made so deep an impression upon the Boers, that they did not attempt to follow up their success. As the British troops retired on Mafeking, the Red Cross flag was shown by Baden, Powell's orders, and the Boers at once responded, hoisting it over the fort. Stretcher parties went forward into the terrible arena of death. There they found twenty-one of the best and bravest dead. Many of them had five or six wounds, with such fury and resolution had they fought; few had less than two; all the bodies had been looted. The wounded numbered thirty, and there were three prisoners in the enemy's hands. The Boers poured out of the fort and talked with the stretcher-parties. They were depressed, rather than exultant, at their success. The valour of the English had made upon them the profoundest of impressions, and they expressed sorrow that so many brave men had fallen, saying that they could not have believed that men could fight so well. It was gathered from their talk, that they had been upon the very verge of surrender; indeed, it was afterwards learnt that the garrison had only been held fast by the resolution of one man, who swore he would blow out the brains of the first burgher to hoist the white flag.

A Gleam of Sunshine Between the Storms.
A scene on the battlefield of Game Tree Hill during the truce, December 26, 1899. The Boers on this occasion crowded around the British wounded with sympathetic interest.

Though the affair ended so unfortunately, it was not without effect upon the Boers. They showed less stomach than ever for an assault upon Mafeking, and were themselves so alarmed for the security of their own positions that they did not dare to detach more men to the south. They set to work in all directions to strengthen their defences. Moreover, night after night they seemed to be seized with panic, so that suddenly their whole line of trenches would open fire, without cause or reason.

The dead were buried that night in the little cemetery of Mafeking, while the thunder rolled and the lightning played over the veldt. We may echo, as their epitaph, the famous words—"In such a death there is no sting, in such a grave there is everlasting victory." They had fallen, bequeathing to the nation for which they had died, a new and glorious example, worthy to rank with the heroism of Grenville, of the Revenge, at Flores, of the Light Division at Albuera, and of the Light Brigade in the death-ride of Balaclava. In Pericles' great words, spoken over those who had fallen in the same way, "They lost their lives, but they won ageless renown. No tomb is so splendid as theirs; they are not buried, but embalmed in undying glory."

Improvised Artillery.
After the fight at Game Tree Fort some weeks passed without further incident than the usual daily dose of shells. The Protectorate Regiment, which had lost so heavily in the fighting, having 110 men down Out Of 400, was reorganised in three, instead of four, squadrons.

As ammunition for the old 7-pounder was running low, the energy of the town was concentrated upon casting shells, which were ultimately turned out by an engineer named Conelly, with an ingeniously improvised blast furnace. Round shot were also made for the old smooth-bore; but the triumph of Mafeking was the manufacture of a 4.5-in. howitzer, by shrinking rings of iron upon an old iron drain pipe. The smooth-bore was found most serviceable. At the risk of his life Major Panzera loaded it with heavy charges, and sent the ridiculous cannon-balls of another age skipping over the veldt towards the Boers, who did not at all appreciate the attention. When the garrison had a particularly successful day, the Boers retaliated by shelling the women's laager or the hospital. A young child was killed by this treacherous fire.

Plumer at Gaberones.
Meantime, as the months drew on, Mafeking grew more and more anxious for relief. But of this there was no sign as yet, either from the north or from the south. On the north, Colonel Plumer with a little force of six or seven hundred men was working slowly south, but the protection of his line of communications, running for 250 miles close to the Boer frontier, and open to interruption by any body of raiders, absorbed a great part of his strength and left him too weak to make his way to Mafeking. Nor would it be enough for him to enter the place; he must be able to throw into it stores and provisions if his arrival was to be more than an embarrassment to Baden-Powell. His headquarters at this date were at Gaberones, a station on the railway ninety-two miles north of Mafeking. It was through him that Mafeking maintained touch with the outward world; to his camp came the runners who forced their way through the Boer lines, as southward to Kimberley the stretch of country to be covered was too great.

Relief Delayed.
It was to the south that the garrison looked for real assistance. That way would come the British army when the tide of fortune set in favour of the Union Jack. Not a day passed without the soldiers and townspeople gazing eagerly forth in that quarter; vague rumours persistently ran round the place like wildfire. Now it was a Kaffir woman who had seen near Maritsani a bag in the sky, and in the bag two men who looked through sticks; now it was some imaginative person who spied, night after night, strange coloured lights on the horizon. But as story after story was disproved, and week after week passed without the advent of any force, men grew too sick and disgusted to talk of relief. What news filtered through was bad news. Colenso, Magersfontein, Stormberg, seen through Boer glasses and Boer reporters, were not encouraging incidents. All had made up their minds from the first that there was to be no surrender, but at the outset it had not seemed that any great feat of endurance would be demanded of the garrison and townspeople. One or two months' siege was the most anticipated. But now—though the moment Lord Roberts had landed in South Africa he had sent through a runner with a promise of certain relief, and with warm thanks and congratulations which made the ears of every man of the garrison tingle with joy-it was understood that the month of May must arrive before anything could be done.

Food Supply.
So weeks or months of ennui had still to be faced resignedly. As yet, so excellent had been the care and economy of supplies, the whites were not hard-pressed for food—though, of course, it goes without saying that they did not live in plenty. The natives, however, were beginning to suffer, and to suffer severely. The greatest difficulty which confronted the Commissariat officer, Captain Ryan, was the maintenance of the bread ration, as there was a scarcity of corn and flour. At first a pound and then a quarter of a pound of biscuit was allowed the garrison, and this biscuit, largely made of oats crushed with the husks, was so indigestible that it caused epidemics of dysentery. In addition to biscuit, there was a ration of from a pound to three-quarters of a pound of “scraggy" meat. All luxuries here, as at Ladysmith, rose rapidly in value, and by the end of January whisky was 18s. a bottle, and the coarse Cape brandy, usually obtainable at 1s. 4d. a bottle, fetched from 12s. to 16s. Supplementing the Government stores, which were by no means large, were enormous quantities of food in the warehouses of the well-known South African firm of contractors, Julius Weil & Co. It was thanks to the Weils that the town was able to hold out as it did till the middle of May.

British Lines Pushed Out.
In early February the British lines were pushed out to the south-east so far that it was possible to get a firm hold of the Brickfields, whence, earlier in the siege, the Boer "snipers" had caused much trouble. The British outposts were now only 110 yards away from the nearest Boer works; so close indeed were the two enemies that the men lining the trenches on each side were able to exchange derisive remarks, The work in these advanced positions was extremely hazardous. The Boers had many excellent marksmen always ready to fire, who could be trusted to put their shots into the British loop-holes. “If so much as a finger be shown above the top of the sandbags," says Mr. Angus Hamilton, The Times correspondent, "there is every likelihood of its being perforated by a Mauser bullet.…There is one man who seems to put the bullets precisely where he wishes, since at least once during the day he will test the accuracy of his aim by emptying his entire chamber through the port-holes." But if the Boers had good marksmen, the British also had good shots, and the enemy got back as much as they gave. In this warfare Corporal Currie particularly distinguished himself, repeatedly bringing down the enemy's sharpshooters.

The Boers Manning Their Trenches Outside Mafeking.
The men could be clearly distinguished by the aid of glasses. The intervening scrub is like worn-out cocoanut matting, in which a Boer could creep up to the village unseen.

Sniping.
Through February the siege went wearily on, without any exciting incident, though the casualties from the bombardment mounted steadily, and on the 10th, Mr. Dall, a town councillor, while serving with the town guard, was struck by a projectile and blown to pieces. The sadness of this loss was increased by the fact that his wife was in the women's laager, distracted with grief and anxiety. On the last day of the month, the Daily Mail correspondent, Mr. Whales, had an extraordinary escape. He was talking to two men in his office when a 94-lb. shell fell in it, exploded, and wrecked the place, but without doing more injury to the human beings within than the infliction of a few slight scratches. On this day at last there came good news from the south—that Kimberley had been relieved and Cronje surrounded. Meantime, in the Brickfields, the war of "sniping," of sap and counter-sap, steadily proceeded. At the end of the month the enemy were within 80 yards of the foremost trench and were still drawing in. The British outposts at this point had to be strengthened. Then they, too, trenched forward, holding the vigorous aggressive the wisest policy. On March 2 the two foes were only 30 yards apart, and it seemed to the garrison that an assault could not be longer delayed. That night the enemy attempted to dislodge the garrison by flinging dynamite bombs into the British trench, but the bombs were a sad failure. The British, too, had bombs ready, but the range was too great for these simple projectiles, and they were not used. At dawn of the 3rd the big Creusot was turned on the British works, killing several Cape Boys and mortally wounding Sergeant-Major Taylor. The position rapidly became untenable, and, profiting by a lull in the bombardment, when the Boers at the most critical moment went to breakfast, as was their custom, the most advanced trench was abandoned. The mouth of the sap had to be banked up, as the enemy were now firing down it; and on the night of the 3rd the Boers seized the whole sap. They did not, however, keep it for long. On the 5th a party of Cape Boys, supported by Captain Fitzclarence and the Protectorate Regiment, plied them with dynamite bombs, when the Protectorates rushed the trench without loss or misadventure. The enemy fled precipitately, having apparently had quite as much as they wanted of meddling with the British works.

Serio-Comic Warfare.
General Baden-Powell writes: "The advanced trench in the “Brickfield' was garrisoned by the Colonial contingent. It was pushed out to within sixty yards of the Boer trench. Our men plied the enemy with grenades and bombs, which Sergeant Page threw with a fishing rod. The rifle shooting was so accurate at this close range that the ordinary sand-bag loopholes were no protection, and we used steel loopholes. The garrison also used a very well-made mechanical dummy to draw the enemy's fire." The "grenades and bombs" were made from fruit-tins.

Thenceforward the two sides watched each other and "sniped" each other. So deadly was the Boer fire that it was still most dangerous to show the head above the sandbags. Some amusing incidents took place in this quarter. On St. Patrick's Day a concertina was played in one of the British trenches, and the men behind the shelter of the earthwork sang and danced. The Boers became so curious to know the explanation of the noise, that at least a dozen of them put their heads over their works.

The British sharpshooters were waiting, and at once fired, hitting two Boers. Then the enemy in their turn would shout: " Say, Englishmen, put up your heads and talk. Don't be afraid. We won't shoot you." But woe betide the man who listened to this assurance. If he showed himself he was as good as dead. The Cape Boys would put up bottles on the top of the works for the Boers to shoot at, and would jeer when the enemy shot wide or high. Sometimes the two sides took to exchanging a high-angle fire of stones and rocks. But, despite such diversions, the service was most dangerous. At such close quarters bullets would sometimes come clean through the sandbags and earth, while the Boer gunners constantly dropped shell and shrapnel among the trenches. It was the bravest men who fell here as elsewhere, because they would not take full advantage of shelter.

Cattle Raiding.
The pressure of the British forces in other fields of the war began to make itself felt in March at Mafeking, and the Boer commandos round the town were seen to be diminished in strength. But they were still stronger than the garrison, and they had the enormous advantage on their side of a powerful artillery, so that Colonel Baden-Powell could not hope to force them back. News, too, came through of the relief of Ladysmith and capture of Cronje, causing general exultation and producing an important moral effect upon the Baralongs, who were showing some restiveness. As the Boers had carried off the Baralong cattle and shot Baralong women, this tribe retaliated with effect, stealing out of the town, attacking the Boer outposts, and raiding the Boer cattle. The animals they carried off were driven back into Mafeking, and, when they were not consumed by the Kaffirs themselves, were sold at a high price to the British authorities, so that the business was profitable to the natives and satisfactory to the garrison, whose supplies were thus augmented.

Capture of the Brickfields.
On March 24 the Boers, weakened by the withdrawal of detachments to other fields of the war, abandoned the Brickfields. They were, however, good enough to leave behind them a great quantity of dynamite, which they had carefully connected by wire with their lines, intending, when the British occupied their evacuated works, to send the "rooineks" sky high. But their elaborate preparations were foiled by Major Panzera, who quietly cut the wires. The final capture of the Brickfields was a source of great relief to all in Mafeking. The outposts in that quarter had gone for weeks in hourly fear of attacks, and the "sniping" fire from the Boer trenches had rendered it unsafe to walk the streets of the town by day. About the same date the bombardment was visibly relaxed after a heavy shelling from dawn to dusk, in the course of which no less than 79 big Creusot shells and at least 200 smaller projectiles were fired into the centre of the town. The big gun now remained silent, except when it was deliberately provoked by the projectiles of the British artillery. The members of the garrison could ride or walk on the veldt near Mafeking, unmolested by shell or bullet. In short, the enemy were losing heart and energy, though they still held stubbornly to their investment.

Dearth of Food.
But for the scarcity of food, and the utter dearth of news, life would have been by no means intolerable. The supplies, however, were beginning to run low, and the Kaffir refugees, who had not, like the Baralongs, cattle and farms of their own near or in Mafeking, suffered cruelly. "Hundreds," says Mr. Neilly, "died of starvation . . . many were found dead. When the Colonel got to know of the state of affairs he instituted soup kitchens, where horses were boiled in huge cauldrons, and the savoury mess doled out in pints and quarts to all comers." These wretched people, in their desperate hunger, stole any food upon which they could lay their hands, though the penalty of this was death, and it was a penalty that for military reasons had to be sternly visited upon offenders. When ownerless dogs were killed, the Kaffirs would go to the veldt, where the bodies were buried, and dig them up. There was no remedy for their misery. Even for the fighting men the rations now barely sufficed to maintain life. "We got," says Mr. Neilly, "four ounces of the most abominable kind of chupatty, plentifully mixed with chaff, a little horse, mule, or donkey meat, and black coffee without sugar."

Escape of Kaffirs.
Attempts were made to induce the natives to creep through the enemy's lines, but without much success, though, with a little courage and energy on their part, the Kaffirs should have had no difficulty in eluding the Boers. Many native women did, however, get away. On April 15 a party of thirteen tried to run the blockade. The night was a bright one; they were seen by the Boers, and were at once fired upon, when seven were killed and others wounded. Several more native women on another occasion were seized by the enemy, sjamboked within an inch of their lives, and driven back into the town. These cruel measures did not prevent further attempts at escape, and between April 10 and 26,803 Kaffirs passed through the Boer lines.