Battle of Magersfontein

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Battle of Magersfontein
Part of Second Boer War
Date December 11, 1899 Location 28°57′15″S 24°43′51.78″E / -28.95417, 24.73105 (Battle of Magersfontein)Coordinates: 28°57′15″S 24°43′51.78″E / -28.95417, 24.73105 (Battle of Magersfontein) Magersfontein, Cape Colony, South Africa Result Boer victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Boers
Commanders
Lord Methuen Andrew Gilbert Wauchope	Piet Cronje Koos de la Rey
Strength
8000[1]	9000[1]
Casualties and losses
902[1]	236[1]

v • d • e Second Boer War Talana Hill – Elandslaagte – Belmont – Modder River – Stormberg – Magersfontein – Colenso – Spion Kop – Kimberley – Bloody Sunday – Paardeberg – Ladysmith – Sanna's Post – Mafeking – Rooiwal

The Battle of Magersfontein is the second of the battles included in the Black Week of the Second Boer War. It was fought on December 11, 1899 at Magersfontein near Kimberley on the borders of Cape Colony and the Orange Free State. General Piet Cronje and his Boer troops defeated British troops under Lord Methuen.

Contents 1 Background 2 British preparations 3 Battle 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Source

[edit] Background

In the early days of the war, the Boers had surrounded and laid siege to the town of Kimberley, the diamond centre of South Africa, in which Cecil Rhodes was trapped. When substantial British reinforcements arrived in South Africa, they were dispersed to several fronts. The 1st Division under Lord Methuen was despatched to relieve Kimberley.

Lacking adequate transport, Methuen was forced to advance along the Cape Railway line, making the direction of their approach obvious. Nevertheless, his army drove the Boers out of their defensive positions at Belmont and the Modder River, and were within 16 miles (26 km) of Kimberley.

The action at the Modder River had temporarily exhausted both sides. Methuen was forced to delay at the river crossing for several days while supplies and reinforcements were brought forward and the railway bridge (which the Boers had previously blown up) was repaired. This gave the Boers time to recover their morale and reorganise. There had been disagreements between the Free State Boers under Marthinus Prinsloo and the Transvaalers under Piet Cronje and Koos de la Rey. President Martinus Theunis Steyn of the Orange Free State attended a krijgsraad (council of war) which encouraged the Boers to make a further stand.

At a second council of war, de la Rey successfully argued that the Boers should move forward from the range of hills at Spytfontein, where they first intended to stand, to Magersfontein only a few miles north of the Modder River. De la Rey also persuaded the Boers not to occupy the prominent Magersfontein Hills, but to dig trenches at the foot of the hills. This made the best use of the flat trajectory of the Boers' Mauser rifles.

De la Rey himself departed shortly after this council of war to comfort his wife after the funeral of their son Adriaan, mortally wounded by a British shell during the Battle of the Modder River.

[edit] British preparations

Methuen had been reinforced by the Highland Brigade under Major General Wauchope. Methuen planned to send the Highlanders forward in a night advance to attack at dawn on December 11. He first sent his artillery forward to make a preliminary bombardment of Magersfontein Hill. The gunners did not know about the Boer trenches and instead wasted several hundred shells on Magersfontein Hill, harming practically no Boers.

Wauchope's brigade set out after midnight on December 10, in heavy rain. The column consisted of the 2nd Black Watch leading, with the 2nd Seaforth Highlanders, 1st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and 1st Highland Light Infantry following. A night march in close column followed by deployment into open order for the assault had been standard British tactics since the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in 1882, but at Magersfontein, there were delays caused by belts of rock and thorn scrub, and by compasses being nearly useless on terrain littered with ironstone. The brigade arrived roughly where they intended, but they were late. Wauchope's guide, Major R.A. Benson, urged Wauchope to deploy the brigade into open order before dawn broke, but Wauchope insisted that they get closer to Magersfontein kopje before they deployed.^[2]

[edit] Battle

The Boers had spotted the Highlanders when they were about nine hundred yards away, but held their fire. Finally, when they were only four hundred yards away from the trenches, Wauchope ordered the brigade to deploy. Seconds later, the Boers opened fire.

The dense column was caught while changing formation and was thrown into confusion. General Wauchope was killed by almost the first volley. Some of the Black Watch, leading the column, charged the Boer trenches. A few actually broke through and were climbing Magersfontein Kopje when they were engaged by Boer parties (including one led by General Cronje himself) and were killed or captured. Others became entangled in a wire farm fence in front of the trenches and were shot there, in a grim foretaste of the Western Front in World War I. The remaining three battalions of the Highland Brigade were unable to advance or retreat, and had to lie on the veld, tormented by ants and thirst.

Methuen was unable to send help to them. His artillery continued to pound the kopje and missed the Boer trenches. The cavalry and Guards Brigade tried to prevent Boers working round the right flank of the highlanders. but in mid-afternoon, the Highland Brigade broke and retreated under heavy fire. As they tried to rally out of effective rifle range, the Boer artillery opened fire for the first time, causing further disorder and making it impossible to renew the attack.^[3]

[edit] Aftermath

The week from December 10 to December 17 where the British also lost battles at Colenso and Stormberg was known in England as "Black Week".

The defeat caused much consternation in Britain, particularly in Scotland where the losses to the Highland regiments were keenly felt. Methuen made a speech to the Highland Brigade the day after the battle. The highlanders, who already felt that they had been "taken into a butcher's shop and left there", took some of his words as a slur on their courage and that of Wauchope ^[3]. Methuen was effectively sidelined after the battle, although he continued to serve devotedly until the end of the war.

General Lord Roberts, recently appointed Commander in Chief in South Africa, took personal command on this front, and at the head of an army reinforced to 25,000 men, he relieved Kimberley on February 15 and surrounded Cronje's retreating army and forced it to surrender at the Battle of Paardeberg.

[edit] See also

• Military history of South Africa
• Battle of Paardeberg
• Battle of Modder River

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Great Boer War, Chapter 9: The Battle of Magersfontein

[edit] Source

• Goodbye Dolly Grey, Rayne Kruger, New English Library, 1964