South African War: Skirmish at Acton Homes, Natal – Northern Tugela
Prior to the Battle of Spioen Kop (23 / 24 January 1900)
General Buller inexplicably delegated to General Warren the responsibility for the main British attack on the Boer positions in the hills around Spioen Kop. The objective was to relieve Ladysmith by a left flanking approach either through or to the left of the Tabanyama Hills of which Spioen Kop was a part – but to the south east.
Buller’s vague and confusing orders to Warren ‘revealed his preference to relieve Ladysmith by way of the Acton Homes road’[1] which passed through the farm and hamlet of the same name. The road continued behind the Tabanyama Hill en route to Ladysmith – a classic left flanking approach – to Ladysmith. Buller’s other two ‘courses open’ were for the British to approach Ladysmith in a northerly direction from either Potgieter’s Drift via the Doornkop road east of Spioen Kop, or via the Fairview / Rosalie Farm Road from Trichardt’s Drift, passing west of Spioen Kop.
As Churchill described the first (the Acton Homes) route, “The Boer covering army was to be swept back on Ladysmith by a powerful arm, the pivoting shoulder of which was at Potgieter’s (Drift), the elbow at Trichardt’s (Drift) and the enveloping hand – the cavalry under Lord Dundonald – stretching out towards Acton Homes.”[2]
As it turned out, the disastrous third course of action, being a combination of the Fairview / Rosalie Farm route including the attack on Spioen Kop, was the one finally adopted by Warren.
In the meantime, while Warren’s troops were crossing the Tugela at Trichardt’s Drift on 16 January 1900, Lord Dundonald’s colonial mounted infantry (Composite Regiment) crossed the Tugela at the hazardous Wagon’s Drift with orders to guard the left flank of Warren’s infantry.
Having crossed the Tugela, these troops occupied Bastion Hill in the western foothills of the Tabanyama range and while doing so, spotted a commando of about 240 Boers travelling east along the Acton Homes road. Unseen, the mounted infantry hurriedly positioned themselves ahead of the Boers in a rocky area of the road and successfully ambushed them, opening fire at some 300 yards.
In the ensuing firefight, some Boers escaped, including their commander, General Daniel Opperman, but 10 Boers were killed, eight wounded and 24 captured. British casualties were two killed and one wounded.
As a matter of interest, war correspondent “(Winston) Churchill was on the scene within minutes” [3] and had this to say:
“So, the soldiers succoured the Boer wounded, and we told the prisoners that they would be shown courtesy and kindness worthy of brave men and a famous quarrel. The Boer dead were collected, and a flag of truce was sent to the enemy’s lines to invite a burying and identification party at dawn. I have often seen dead men, killed in war – thousands at Omdurman – scores elsewhere, black and white, but the Boer dead aroused the most painful emotions. Here by the rock under which he had fought lay the Field Cornet of Heilbronn, Mr. de Mentz – a grey-haired man of over sixty years, with firm aquiline features and a short beard. The stony face was grimly calm, but it bore the stamp of unalterable resolve; the look of a man who had thought it all out, and was quite certain that his cause was just, and such as a sober citizen might give his life for”.[4]
[1] Ron Lock – Hill of Squandered Valour
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Winston Churchill – London to Ladysmith
