Chapter 37

THE CAMPAIGN OF JANUARY-APRIL, 1902

At the opening of the year 1902 it was evident to every observer that
the Boer resistance, spirited as it was, must be nearing its close.
By a long succession of captures their forces were much reduced in
numbers. They were isolated from the world, and had no means save
precarious smuggling of renewing their supplies of ammunition. It was
known also that their mobility, which had been their great strength,
was decreasing, and that in spite of their admirable horsemastership
their supply of remounts was becoming exhausted. An increasing number
of the burghers were volunteering for service against their own
people, and it was found that all fears as to this delicate experiment
were misplaced, and that in the whole army there were no keener and
more loyal soldiers.

The chief factor, however, in bringing the Boers to their knees was
the elaborate and wonderful blockhouse system, which had been strung
across the whole of the enemy's country. The original blockhouses had
been far apart, and were a hindrance and an annoyance rather than an
absolute barrier to the burghers. The new models, however, were only
six hundred yards apart, and were connected by such impenetrable
strands of wire that a Boer pithily described it by saying that if
one's hat blew over the line anywhere between Ermelo and Standerton
one had to walk round Ermelo to fetch it. Use was made of such
barriers by the Spaniards in Cuba, but an application of them on such
a scale over such an enormous tract of country is one of the
curiosities of warfare, and will remain one of several novelties which
will make the South African campaign for ever interesting to students
of military history.

The spines of this great system were always the railway lines, which
were guarded on either side, and down which, as down a road, went
flocks, herds, pedestrians, and everything which wished to travel in
safety. From these long central cords the lines branched out to right
and left, cutting up the great country into manageable districts. A
category of them would but weary the reader, but suffice it that by
the beginning of the year the south-east of the Transvaal and the
north-east of the Orange River Colony, the haunts of Botha and De Wet,
bad been so intersected that it was obvious that the situation must
soon be impossible for both of them. Only on the west of the Transvaal
was there a clear run for De la Rey and Kemp. Hence it was expected,
as actualy occurred, that in this quarter the most stirring events of
the close of the campaign would happen.

General Bruce Hamilton in the Eastern Transvaal had continued the
energetic tactics which had given such good results in the past. With
the new year his