Campaigning in South Africa and Egypt

Chapter I

(Introductory) A hereditary profession — Family history — My first commission — The 22nd Foot — Parkhurst — Mauritius — Country quarters, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Aldershot — The Staff College — Army reforms — Colonel Thesiger — The Intelligence Department — The aide-de-camp — Colonel Evelyn Wood — Work for idle hands — Captain Cosset — Regimental pets — The Indian sheep — English soldiers and foreign critics

Chapter II

On active service — General Thesiger's new command — His Staff — A hurried start — Study under difficulties — Colonial politicians — Voyage to the Cape — The American and her captain — History of the Outbreak — Summary of operations — Strength of our forces — Landing at East London — A curious crew — A South African custom — Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Arthur Cunynghame — Horses and servants — Position of the enemy — Some account of Kafirs — Principles of bush-fighting... ... 17

Chapter III

Departureof Sir Arthur Cunynghame — The Kafirs re-commenceoperations — Wait for the Waggon — The Perie Bush — A South African vocabulary — We take the field — Streatfeild's Fingoes — The Perie Mission — Orders for outpost duty — Disposition of our force — The attack — Cause of its failure — Edmund Sandilli — Commandant-General Griffith — The Kafir women — A brave enemy — Our native allies — Clearing the bush — Surveying under difficulties — The grand attack — Our new levies — " What on earth have you been shooting at ?" — The lion — A disciple of Æsculapius — Death of Captain Webster — The best arm for bush-fighting ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... CONTENTS VI PAGE

Chapter IV

A night attack — Christian natives — A wise missionary — Dispositions for the attack on the Perie bush — With Commandant von Linsingen — An old Ironside — An early start — Driving the bush — A cold bivouac — Strange case of suicide — Renewal of the attack — Gallant conduct of Major Buller — Collapse of the rebellion — The Bongo — A little paradise — Dutch, English, and German colonists — The wily native — I am down with fever — Invalided home — A nasty accident — On board ship — A queer passenger, and what came of him — The Medical Board — The Gazette and the Military Secretary ... ... ... 72

Chapter V

Annexation of the Transvaal — The Zulu army — The Disputed Territory — Cetewayo's aggressions — Imperial forces in South Africa — Request for more troops — No cavalry — Sir Bartle Frere's ultimatum — Organisation of our forces — Ignorance at home — News of Isandhlwana — Private Noot — Activity at the War Office — Reinforcements — I apply for a passage — Passed by the Medical Board — I sail for the Cape — News at Simonstown — The last man at Isandhlwana — Causes of the disaster — I land at Durban — Major Gosset — My stud — Arrival at headquarters — Our force ... ... ... . . ... ... ... ... 98

Chapter VI

The advance into Zululand — Our first laager — John Dunn — Fording the Amatikulu — A reconnaissance with John Dunn — The etiquette of African warfare — A wet afternoon — Ginghilovo laager — The Zulu attack—" Half a turn at the handle " — Outside the square — My horse shot — John Dunn and Private Noot — Our native Contingent— Retreat of the Zulus — The pursuit — "Go it, Admiral!" — A duel between White and Black — Losses on both sides — Zulu jumping-powder — The advance to Echowe— Good marching — Relief and evacuation of Echowe — Wounded pride — In pursuit of Dabulamanzi — A night-panic — Back to Durban ... . ... ... ... ... 123

Chapter VII

Newcomers at Durban — The Prince Imperial — Aasvogels and boomvogels — The Minister of the Interior — Lord Chelmsford's command — Cost of transport— Accident to the Prince— Plait at Utrecht — Cost of pro- CONTENTS VII PACE visions — A prophetic incident — How the Boers learn to shoot — Unhandiness of our cavalry — The Prince's rashness; "I must do something " — His death — Recovery of the body — Scene of the tragedy — A conversation — The funeral — The Queen's memorial — The advance resumed — Envoys from the King — The General's terms — Filial affection — Fort Funk — The secret of foraging — An old scold — Zulu cattle — A new High Commissioner ... ... ... ... ... ... 148

Chapter VIII

The African cattle-driver — A generous enemy — Ambassadors from the King — The General revises his terms — Orders to fall back — Difficulty in obeying them ; where is Crealock ? — The General resolves to advance — A last embassy and a warning — The ultimatum — Another panic — The Adjutant-General's treatment of the natives — Reconnaissance by Buller — We cross the Umvolosi — No more intrenching — Battle of Ulundi — The Zulu attack — The King's reserve — The enemy run — Pursuit by the Lancers — Losses on both sides — Funeral service of the Basutos — A lucky trading-venture — Change in the weather — Arrival of Sir Garnet in camp — Resignation of Lord Chelmsford — The country settles down — Visit to a Zulu kraal — A talk with Longcast — Native opinion on the war — A narrow escape — Receptions at Durban and Maritzburg — The Bishop and the General — Dangers of irresponsible criticism — Von Linsingen again — Sunday at the gaol — The British soldier 175

Chapter IX

Brigade-Major at Aldershot — The Volunteers — A happy answer — Death of Captain Elliot in the Transvaal — "A people struggling to be free" — Statesmen and soldiers — Territorial regiments — Departure for Egypt — Summary of affairs there — Sir Garnet Wolseley's command — A well-kept secret — State of the forts at Alexandria — A superfluous practical joke — The secret revealed — Passage of the canal — " Blood thicker than water " — Disembarkation at Ismailia — Voila les becassines ! — The affair at El Magfar — Captain Parr — Lord Melgund — Occupation of Tel-el-Mahuta — Advantages of a sand-bath — A motley lot — A long night's walk — Paterfamilias indignant — The mirage — Blood will tell — A false alarm — The cavalry get home — A bad night — The field at Kassassin ... ... ... .. ... ... .. ... 20S CONTENTS VIII

Chapter X Page

Navvies' work — The telegraph — The Corps of Signallers — The Post Office Corps— The Guards — Pranks of the railway — A reconnaissance — The force at Kassassin — Arabi's attack — Old soldiers — Who gave the order ? — Sir Garnet's plans — The night-march — Steering by the stars — The battle of Tel-el-Kebir — My recollections of it — The thoroughbred again— Arabi's tent — Plis English correspondent — Highlanders and Marines — A lucky mistake — The stars in their courses — In charge of the burial parties — An Eastern medico — The Egyptian lines — The Bedouins — Arabi's treasure-chest — In Cairo — His Highness's grapes — An explosion — Review of the troops — The holy carpet — The Army amuses itself — Orders for home — Conclusion ... ... ... ... 250 LIST OF MAPS. TO FACE PAGE The South African War of 1877-8 22 Rough Sketch of Gen. the Hon. F. A. Thesiger's Operations 42 Map of Zululand 98-99 Isthmus of Suez and Lower Egypt, 1882 216-217 CAMPAIGNING IN SOUTH AFRICA AND EGYPT

Chapter I

(Introductory) A hereditary profession — Family history — My first commission — The 22nd Foot — Parkhurst — Mauritius — Country quarters, Newcastle Sheffield, Manchester, Aldershot — The Staff College — Army reforms — Colonel Thesiger — The Intelligence Department — The aide-de-camp — Colonel Evelyn Wood — Work for idle hands — Captain Cosset — Regimental pets — The Indian sheep — English soldiers and foreign critics. It is a great thing for a boy to know from his earliest days that he must follow the profession of his forefathers. From the mere conversation of his parents and their friends he seems to learn intuitively all about it. He knows the terms, the aims, the code of honour, and the aspirations of his kin and their cloth. The family portraits, the old swords, the old flint-lock pistol in the hall, the medals, and the records of how they were won, are to a boy most sacred things : he feels bound in honour to be worthy of those who went before him ; he is sure that if he fails in his examination his life B CHAP. FAMILY HISTORY is as good as done ; and he will strain every nerve to pass, for he knows that the life will be congenial to him, and that his success will be a source of pride to his relations.

Is it much wonder, then, that two of the descendants of the following race should have decided, time out of mind, that they could never be anything but soldiers ? Our father was a soldier, of whom Sir John Keane (afterwards Lord Keane of Ghuznee), com manding in the West Indies, wrote to Lord Wor cester on September 6th, 1824: "His regiment best shows his qualifications as an officer, for in my life I never saw a corps so near perfection." This corps was the old 77th Foot, and my father was its adjutant. Our uncle was a sailor first, who served five years as midshipman in H. M.S. Plantagenet, was engaged in the attack on the French fleet by Admiral Corn wallis on August 21st, 1805, assisted at the landing of the army in Portugal in August, 1808, and at its re-embarkation during: and after the battle of Corunna on January 17th and 18th, 1809.

He was then transferred to H. M.S. Sabrina, and accompanied the expedition to Walcheren in July, 1809, served in the squadron of gun-boats in the Scheldt covering the disembarkation of the army, and at the bom bardment and capture of the fortresses of Ter Vere, Ramakins, and Flushing. He landed with a division of sailors on the island of South Beveland ; was present at the taking of Fort Batz, and on duty A GALLANT RECORD 3 there during the repulse of several attacks made by the French and Dutch flotilla on it ; was in frequent gun-boat actions covering the retreat of the army on its evacuation of the islands in December, 1809, and, in consequence of fever contracted on this occasion, was invalided and discharged by an order Irom the Admiralty soon after landing in England in 1 8 10. He next obtained a commission in the army, and joined the 4th Foot in the Peninsula in 181 1, was promoted lieutenant into the 77th Foot in 181 2, was engaged at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, at the operations on the Bidassoa and Adour, the affairs at St. Jean de Luz and the Mayor's House at Bidart, and at the investment and surrender of Bayonne ; and finally was sent home in charge of the wounded and invalids of the Fifth Division in August, 18 14.

I will conclude his record by adding that he was adjutant of the 77th before our father ; that he was the author of the Explanation of the XIX. Manœuvres, 18 19, issued prior to Dundas's Drill- Book of 1825 ; that he received the decoration of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and the war medal with a clasp for Badajos in 1848, thirty-four years after the work was done (thanks to the exertions of Charles, fifth Duke of Richmond, but for whom he and his comrades would never have had a medal at all) ; and that he died a lieutenant-o*eneral. Medals and decorations were not very liberally bestowed in those days ; it was only in 1856. after our alliance with the Turks, the B IN THE FAR PAST CHAP. French, and the Sardinians in the Crimea, that they began to be plentiful in our country. Our grandfather joined the 6th Foot as ensign in 1786, served in North America from 1787 to 1793, and on the outbreak of the French Revolution joined Sir Charles Grey's expedition against the French West India Islands in 1794.

At the con clusion of that short and most successful campaign he returned home, served subsequently in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and, like his son, died a lieutenant-general. For the rest I will merely say that those I have mentioned handed down traditions of a famous soldier high in the confidence of William, Duke of Normandy ; of another who was knighted for his services in 1286 in Gascony ; of a third who was with Edward the Third at the taking of Calais in 1347, and got a fleur-de-lis added to his shield ; of a fourth who was knighted by the Black Prince on the field of Navaret in 1367, and afterwards buried in Canterbury Cathedral ; of a fifth who distinguished himself at Agincourt in 141 5 ; of a sixth slain at the battle of Bloreheath in 1459 ; of a seventh who was knighted on Flodden Field in 1 5 1 3 and given a tiger passant proper on a crown or for his crest ; and of many others who served their sovereigns loyally and well in many capacities.

All these records, then, made us two boys mad to go to the wars ; and it seems that others of our line were affected in the same way, for about twenty I OUR PRAISES ARE OUR WAGES 5 relations followed the drum or went to sea. Youngblood is hot, or, if not, the youngster is not likely to be of much use ; and, records or no records, there will never be a dearth of candidates for the combat ant branches of the army and navy, however severe examinations be made, or however hard officers be worked or used. But "our praises are our wages." When the officer is done with, he is retired with scant courtesy. The army has spoiled his taste for milder occupations ; he has gambled for one or more bits of ribbon with his life ; what excite ment remains that has not been discounted ? So when he is retired against his will, he vows that the army and navy are no professions nowadays.

It is well then that young blood is hot ; that it looks not beyond the present, choosing only the best and most successful of its race as examples ; that it overlooks the one who was not successful, the other who was retired for no fault of his own in the prime of life ; for by such hot-headed ones was the Empire built up, and their chief desire is to help to make it greater. After a due course of training, — first at a private school near Evesham, then at Cheltenham, and finally at Sandhurst — I was, on December 23rd, 1864, gazetted ensign in the 22nd Foot, my brother Tom following me to the same regiment nine months later. I was at home at the time I was gazetted, and my half-brother, then a brevet-major in the 69th, was THE TWENTY-SECOND FOOT chap. there also on leave. I got hold of his army-list, looked for the 22nd, and saw Cheshire after the number, and Meeanee, Scinde, Hyderabad at the head.

" Why on earth don't they put me to the Gloucestershire Regiment, and not to this one which does not seem to have done much ? " I said. " Because they gazetted you to the first regiment that had a vacancy. The County regiment has nothing to do with the county ; I don't suppose there is a single Gloucestershire man among the officers of the 28th or 6 ist ; nor a Cheshire man in the 22nd; you will probably never be quartered in Cheshire at all. I am a ' South Lincolnshire ' man, and I have never been in the county in my life. Besides, you need not grumble at being appointed to old Charley Napier's regiment. Have you never heard what he said when he gave them new colours ? I have got the account somewhere upstairs ; I will go and fetch it." Down he came. "Listen to this," he said; "'That brave regiment which won the battle of Meeanee, the regiment which stood by the King of England at Dettingen, stood by the celebrated Lord Peterborough at Barcelona, and into the arms of whose grenadiers the immortal Wolfe fell on the Heights of Abraham, — well may I exult in the command of such a regiment.

Is not that good enough for you ? " " Why are not Dettingen and Quebec on the colours ? " " Because they were fought over a hundred years I FIRM AS THEIR NATIVE OAK 7 ago : that has been the rule as regards keeping the names there ; but the 22nd lost all their records in Scinde in 1843, when their baggage was looted by the Beloochees. In those days regiments did not keep a duplicate copy at home, and they would have some trouble to prove their services prior to that year ; but everybody in the service knows all about it. The lace on their tunics is oak-leaf pattern, and at inspections they wear oak-leaf in their shakos. This was given to them by George the Second at Dettingen for being 'firm as their native oak.' Do you want any more history ? " " Is Sir John Pennefather, who is the colonel of the regiment, the general we used to see at Aldershot ?

" I asked. "Yes; he and Pym Harding, the lieutenant colonel of the first battalion, are both Meeanee men. You have not heard of that fight, so I will tell you that Napier, with the 22nd and some native corps, altogether under three thousand strong, attacked and routed over twenty thousand ot the Hyderabad Ameers ; and, according to some wag, sent home a laconic despatch, ' Peccavi (I have Scinde).' Yes, the 22 nd is good and smart enough for any man ; buff facings help their smartness ; I think you are in luck." The older soldier was right. I found the officers like a band of brothers, the slow promotion proving how well they got on together, and how loath they were to leave the old corps. BATTLES OF THE TWENTY-SECOND chap. > In after years I searched to try and make up the lost records. The official account at the War Office, compiled six years after the papers were lost in Scinde, allows that the corps was raised by the Duke of Norfolk at Chester in 1689 at the accession of King William and Mary.

It gives the regiment credit for fighting at Carrickfergus, the Boyne, Ballymore, Athlone, Aghrim, Galway, Gibraltar, Louisburg, Quebec, Montreal, Dominica, Martinique (1762), Grenada, St. Lucia (1762), St. Vincent, Moro Castle (Havannah), Bunkers Hill, Flat Bush, Brooklyn, New York, Fort Washington, Rhode Island, Newport, Quaker's Hill, Martinique (1794), St. Lucia (1794), Guadaloupe, St. Domingo, Barrabatta (Province of Cuttack), Deeg, Bhurtpore, Mauritius, Imaunghur, Meeanee, Hyderabad, Forts Panulla, Pownghur, Monuhurr and Monsentosh ; but it does not give it credit for Barcelona nor for Dettingen ; and when on May 4th, 1882, the old battles of over a century ago were replaced on the regimental colours, the Cheshire were not allowed to have established their right even to Dettingen, though in that very decade their long-borne acorn and oak-leaf were sanctioned as a badge for their new territorial uniform.

I joined my regiment at Parkhurst in the Isle of Wight, where the Fifth Depot Battalion was located. After being passed for parade, and having completed the musketry-course, I found life lively enough ; but in the summer I received orders to A REIGN OF TERROR 9 join my battalion at the Mauritius, whither it had been sent six months previously from Malta. Of Mauritius I have many pleasant recollections, but I must get on to the proper purpose of my book, and it must suffice to say that after two years, in August, 1867, the battalion was at home again. Then followed a period of regimental duty in country quarters : Newcastle, where we really felt ourselves at home, so many of our men being Tynesiders ; Sheffield, dirty and dull ; Manchester, dirty also but less dull, and as hospitable as Sheffield was the reverse ; and finally Aldershot, where the soldier is at any rate never allowed to be idle.

A period of musketry-instruction at Hythe, and some colliery riots near Barnsley, were the chief breaks in the somewhat uniform course of these years, till in February, 1872, I joined the Staff College, of which Colonel (not yet Sir Edward) Hamley was then Commandant. This was the time of Mr. Gladstone's first administration, when Mr. Cardwell, his Secretary of State for War, was engaged in putting the Queen's army in order ; a Reign of Terror, as it has been aptly described, for the British soldier, who lived from day to day in a fever of apprehension as to what was going to happen to him next. It began in 1870, and for years all branches of the army were in a state of angry excitement, for every corps and department was either reformed, reorganised, remodelled, or renamed. But this is all ancient history now.

For COLONEL THESIGER chap. good or ill the work has been done ; for which, others are as competent to judge as I am. In 1874, after two busy and pleasant years, I passed out of the Staff College, just in time for the summer drills at Aldershot. Colonel Thesiger (now Lord Chelmsford) had been appointed to command an infantry brigade at them, and I was fortunate enough to receive the offer of acting as his aide-de-camp. It was only for a month, but it gained me the friendship of the best and kindest hearted man I have ever known, a right good soldier, and the most perfect of gentlemen. This was indeed a fortunate month for me, for two years later, when Colonel Thesiger received the command of the First Infantry Brigade at Aldershot, he offered to take me with him as his permanent aide de-camp.

I had then been employed for two years in the Intelligence Department, first as an outdoor worker in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and latterly at Adair House. My chief did not approve of the change. " Any one can be an aide-de-camp," he said: "but any one can't get employed here." "I know that," was my answer ; "but I have not had uniform on for two years, and I never seem to see a soldier, except from the top of the Horse- Guards at the Queen's birthday parade. I only do clerk's work : I've no chance of getting my com pany and a permanent post here ; and the regiment is always asking to have me back for duty in Ireland." "Well," he said, " I'm very sorry to lose DUTIES OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 11 you now, but I suppose you must go ; remember it's your own choice." It was my own choice, and never have I found occasion to regret it.

At Aldershot I first met Colonel Evelyn Wood, then Assistant-Ouarter-Master-General. An aide de-camp has nothing to do except to obey his own chief and generally be, as Lord Wolseley puts it, " affability combined with reticence." They tell indeed a story of a certain aide-de-camp who, being shouted at by an exalted personage to do something on a field-day, saluted and replied, " I beg your pardon, Sir, but I only take orders through my own General." Now Colonel Wood knew this as well as any one, but he had the knack of getting us idle ones to agree to do all sorts of things for the good of the Division. He would get one to be secretary to the cricket-club, another to the ball-committees, another to the pigeon-shooting club, and so on. He asked me to take charge of the officers' library, and willing enough I was to do it.

A fortnight afterwards it was, — "Take the men's garrison library too ; the two ought to be run by one man ; " and again I acquiesced. After some months it was : " Your brother [who, I should say, was now aide de-camp to the general commanding the Third Brigade] has got the ball-committees ; don't you think you ought to have something in the entertainment line ? There's the Woolmer game preserving association vacant." " I don't mind that ; it's rather in my line," I answered ; and accordingly CAPTAIN G0SSET chap. I found myself ordering pheasants' eggs, buying bantams for setting, and outraging the game-laws by trying to snare superfluous black-cock. Next came, — " My dear fellow, I want you to be secretary to the Officers' Children's School ; the hut is not far from . yours and there is not much to do."

" No," I said, " I draw the line there. Give it to some married man ; those governesses and youngsters would be too much for me." For a week I held out, but was cajoled into it at last, and bitterly did I rue the day ! At the end of that summer (1877) our Brigade- Major's period of staff-service was up, and my General was casting round for a successor. There happened at this time to be employed as an in structor of youth at Sandhurst Cadet College, one of the most knowledgable men that lives in Her Majesty's Service. Originally adjutant of the 54th, and having served during the Indian Mutiny, Captain M. W. E. Gosset had been president of the mess at the Staff College the first year I was there, and was now, as he called it, an usher, longing to get back to soldiering again. Now my General had always told me that he looked upon an aide-de camp as an assistant staff-officer, not a man to order dinner and to carry shawls ; and it struck me that two bachelors who knew and liked each other would divide the work in the office between them, and that I should therefore learn more of it than I had yet been doing, besides benefiting an old friend and a I REGIMENTAL PETS 13 good man.

Accordingly I suggested his name to my chief. " WTite and ask him to come over to lunch here, any day that suits him," was the answer ; and on October ist Captain Gosset was gazetted Brigade- Major of the First Brigade. Introductions have, I believe, the reputation of being always dull, and mine is, probably, no better than the rest. Before making an end of it therefore, and getting on to my campaigning, I will try to enliven it with the account of a little episode which occurred at a royal review about this time. It must be premised that some corps are fond of regimental animals corresponding with certain distinctions that they have gained. The 4th Foot, for example, would like to have (I do not know that they ever have had) a tame lion, the 6th an antelope, the 14th, 17th, and several other regiments a tiger, the 23rd and 41st a goat, the Royal Dragoons, Scots Greys, and 14th Hussars an eagle, the 19th Hussars an elephant, and so on.

From time to time some of these animals have been kept as barrack-pets ; but the only regiment that is authorised to bring one on parade is the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, which Her Majesty has always kept supplied with a goat from her herd at Windsor. Now a certain three-figured corps once formed part of a certain brigade at Aldershot, and when parading for this review thought it a fine thing to smuggle a tame old goat among the band, which arrived un perceived by the staff on the passing line. At these THE INDIAN SHEEP chap. ceremonies the Commander-in-Chief is next to the royal carriage ; the divisional commander having saluted and passed, places himself on the right of the Commander-in-Chief with his chief staff-officer next him and as each brigade passes its brigadier places himself in line also on the right of the staff-officer, so as to form, as it were, a chain of responsibility.

When the brigaded bands came along, a small drummerboy was observed struggling with the now enraged goat, which entirely declined to march straight. " What is that ? " inquired Her Majesty, studying the field-state to try and find the Welsh Fusiliers in it. "What's that, Sir Thomas?" said His Royal Highness. " What's that ? " said Steele to his Staff-officer. "What's that, General?" said the Staff-officer to the Brigadier. He did not know, but a happy thought struck him. " Indian sheep of Indian Regiment," he said, and back it went along the chain of responsibility. " Indian sheep, Sir Thomas " — " Indian sheep, your Royal Highness " — " Indian sheep, your Majesty." Then a brow clouded and a head was shaken. We knew not what was said, but in muffled tones from mouth to mouth went this command from His Royal High ness : " Never let me hear of that thing being seen on parade again.

I'll see the command ing officer after parade." The goat was over powered, led struggling to Cocked Hat Wood, and there tied to a tree ; but the commanding officer of that regiment had a worse time than the goat. I SOMETHING SMART 15 One more anecdote of these early days and I have done with my time of peace. The first autumn manœuvres in which I was engaged were o o attended by many foreign officers at the invitation of the War Office. What we thought of some of them, and some of them of us, may be judged from the following notes. The representative of one Power had a carriage provided for him ; he would not mount a horse after the first attempt. On one day the great soldier Blumenthal was questioned by the commander of one side : "What would you do with your artillery if you were me, General?"