Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

The Battles of the Modder River and Magersfontein, 2nd Anglo Boer War 1899: a sensational reaction to and first-hand account of these two battles in the hand of Major General (later Lieutenant General Sir) Reginald Pole-Carew, in a letter to the Under Secretary for War George Wyndham, written in the aftermath of Magersfontein, in which the author calls for the dismissal of his superior Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen, offering excoriating criticism of his misguided leadership, giving details of his faulty intelligence gathering, and alleging treachery in the ranks of Rimmington's Guides - a British irregular cavalry unit; acknowledging as he does so the inflammatory nature of his comments and his misgivings about putting them in writing:

"Modder River - 18.12.99

Private

My dear George

....I am going to write you a private note of what is very near my heart, but which is in my present position a difficult matter to ventilate.....Methuen is stark raving mad.....he has succeeded in maiming the [troops under his command]....I saw enough at our own fight for this place on Nov 28th to be quite sure the men would not stand another stain of that description....and I told him so....but in 24 hours he had argued himself into the certainty that he alone was right and everybody else must be wrong - and now we are a beaten and demoralised crowd. It is the wickedest thing I have ever seen done.....until we get another commander I do not believe [the troops] will ever be the same as they were - "Tommy" is no fool, and ...knows...that, solely owing to his own sturdy effort he has at great sacrifice of life, saved the G.O.C.'s bacon - but there is a limit to this, as I told P.M. (Paul Methuen) after the fight for the Modder River. The fact is he is a weak conceited man.....he has no Brain - he is without the power of reasoning....an accursed destiny caused him to take Rimmington to his bosom - the latter is... a dashing leader of irregular horse [but] deficient in common sense on strategy - whilst for the information with which he has been stuffing P.M. he is absolutely dependent on his men - and they are a mixed crowd of devils [some] in the pay of the Dutch and some who are Dutch. At Modder River [Rimmington] told him the place was not held - and.... he launched us gaily across an open plain into a hell of fire.... if my Brigade had not disobeyed orders we should not have forced the position... at Magersfontein [there was] a frightful loss to that splendid Highland Brigade [and we] have absolutely lost confidence in P.M.... what a marvellously mad and idiotic performance he treated us to..."

A discussion of the broader strategic position follows, and includes the claim that Methuen had, in the interval between the battles, rejected a request of Pole Carew's to pursue an alternative initiative because "Rimmington's man wished this time to make a certainty of the gold he had just missed earning the time before". He later continues:

"..what I have told you about Rimmington's men I cannot absolutely prove - though I have no doubt whatever in my own mind - We have [?] proof of the treachery of one of them at the fight on the Modder River - and one has been missing since that fatal day at Maggersfontein [sic] - and as they were not under fire he was not shot....Paul Methuen is not fit to command and there is not a soul in the force down to the drummer boy.... who would not tell you so."

Pole-Carew's tone softens a little when he writes:

"I feel such a cad for writing like this, as P.M. is, as you know, an old friend"

but he then returns to agitating for Methuen's removal:

"How you are to get rid of him I don't know - if you can, you will confer an enormous blessing on the troops."

The letter refers to a young man whom Pole-Carew declined to take with him on campaign as a "Galloper" out of concern for his safety:

"It is the most dangerous war I have ever seen - the devils [the Boers] are so cunning and such good shots - was it not sad about poor dear old Willy - he would stand up, you know, when others lay down, with the inevitable result."

Autograph letter, bifolium, 21 x 26.9 mm (open), 24 pages.

The actions referred to in this letter took place early in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War as the British 1st Division under Lt. Gen. Lord Methuen advanced to the relief of the besieged town of Kimberley. After initial success at the Battles of Graspan and Belmont, the British encountered a Boer force at the Modder River on the 28th November 1899. The Boers had entrenched beyond open ground in order to exploit the flat trajectory of their 7x57mm ammunition, and their preparations included placing range markers in the ground that the British would have to cross to attack them. Methuen's reconnaissance failed to alert him to the danger, as we see in the above quote. Pole-Carew claims that the 9th Lancers and the British Mounted Infantry had, in fact, warned Methuen that "the enemy were swarming along the river bank like bees", but that they were contradicted by Rimmington's Guides, whose advice Methuen favoured. The British attack was consequently very costly and degenerated into a stalemate that was only broken when elements of Pole-Carew's 9th Brigade initiated an outflanking manoeuvre that ultimately caused the Boers to withdraw.

At Magersfontein, on the 11th of December, a greater number of Boers opposed the British in broadly similar circumstances, this time inflicting on them a serious defeat. Once again, faulty reconnaissance and Methuen's misjudgement are deemed to have been major factors. The men of the Highland Brigade, referred to in this letter, moved up under cover of darkness but were unable to deploy into open order before coming under fire. They suffered heavy losses, including their commanding officer Major-General Andrew Wauchope, killed by rifle fire at the start of the engagement. It is not clear that Wauchope was ever referred to as 'Willy' by his friends, but his fate seems remarkably similar to that of the 'Willy' lamented by Pole-Carew.

In spite of the author's attempt to influence George Wyndham and the War Officer, Methuen would remain in position until wounded and captured on the 7th of March 1902.