> -----Original Message-----
> From: McCormicks [mailto:mccormic@...]
> Sent: November 26, 1999 11:12 AM
> To: mikesyoung@...
> Subject: Boer War

> 100 years ago this December
> Canadian foot soldiers sallied forth as Canada's cavalry mustered
>
> By Christy McCormick
> While the 1st Canadian contingent planned more training
> near Cape Town
> on Dec.1, 1899, news of a fresh British disaster brought orders to go
> north closer to the battle area.
> News of the British disaster reached Canada and intensified
> enthusiasm
> for sending more troops. With Quebec opposition to the war softening,
> Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier reluctantly authorized a fresh
> contingent.
> At the Cape Town railway station, Australian and New Zealand troops
> entrained with the Canadians on Dec.3. Crowds cheered and a newspaper
> spoke of the Canadians' "light, springy devil-may-care sort of swagger."
> Lord Methune's disaster at the Modder (mud) River against the Boer's
> General Piet Joubert lost 460 men against the Boer loss of 80.
> English Canadians supported the British Empire's right to rule South
> Africa and wanted to help Anglo-South Africans abused in the Transvaal.
> Johannesburg anglos, attached to gold mining, formed the city's
> majority, and paid most taxes, yet could not vote, have English schools,
> or expect fair play in the Afrikaaner courts.
> The Boers contended they were independent and could do what they
> pleased, but the British disagreed. Like French Canadians, the Dutch
> South Africans had been transferred to British sovereignty by
> international treaty, but the Boers did not accept it.
> After trundling 500 miles across the Great Karoo, a brown barren
> expanse spotted with hills, the Canadians reached desolate De Aar, where
> they joined the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
> A sandstorm swept their camp on Dec. 7 and for 12 hours
> they sheltered
> in tents, but sand got in every crevice of their bodies. They helped
> build fortifications and built a railway siding. They also met the
> famous Canadian military railway man and engineer, Lt.-Col. Percy
> Girouard, hero of the War in the Sudan.
> But all was not well. Maj. Lawrence Buchan, second in
> command, refused
> his colonel's order to move troops north to the battle line. The men sat
> in the blistering sun and then a downpour as Col. William Otter and
> Buchan raged at each other. Buchan prevailed.
> 2RCR then went to replace the famous Gordon Highlanders in
> another rear
> guard position, fortunately missing another big disaster of the war.
> They found the Gordons' camp a mess, with its "scantily covered latrines
> pregnant with fever." Half the battalion, 500 men, then moved to Belmont
> and went out to protect farmers from Boer intimidation, returning with
> refugees. But such forays were rare; there was not much to do. Disease
> decimated them and they grew fat through inactivity and plentiful
> rations so near the railway line.
> The Royal Canadians were now part of the 19th Brigade, made
> up of the
> 2ndBattalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 1st Gordons and the 2nd
> King's Shropshire Light Infantry.
> British disasters mounted. On Dec 10, Lt.-Gen. Sir William
> Gatacre was
> repulsed at the Stormberg rail junction with a loss of 700 men. Twenty
> miles to the north; Lord Metheun, trying to relieve the seige of the
> Kimberley gold mining town was again repulsed at Magersfontein with a
> huge loss of 900 men.
> Contributing to the Boer victories was the rapid fire
> magazine rifle,
> allowing long-range accurate shooting from distant sheltered positions.
> Large bodies of troops could be cut down in a hail of bullets long
> before reaching objectives. When they got close, the Boers simply
> mounted up and rode off with little loss.
> It was clear that men on foot chasing men on horses didn't work, so
> Britain then wanted mounted troops from Canada. Thus, the Canadian
> Mounted Rifles, 750 in all, was formed as well as 539 taken from Royal
> Canadian Artillery, which was small but expert and state-of-the-art.
> The Canadian Mounted Rifles soon split into two regiments, the 2nd
> Royal Canadian Dragoons, or 2RCD, a creature of the army and the 1st
> Canadian Mounted Rifles, or 1CMR, formed by the Mounties, or North West
> Mounted Police. They had new smokeless Lee-Enfield magazine rifles and
> revolvers, but the revolvers were taken from the dragoons when a trooper
> was caught shooting seagulls. The units also had water-cooled machine
> guns, marking the debut of a weapon that would dominate World War I.
> Police pay, 75 cents a day, applied against 50 cents for foot soldiers.
> In both cases, pay was double British rates. But half was withheld until
> they returned, or would go to widows and orphans.
> Col. T.D.B. Evans commanded the 2RCD and Police
> Commissioner Laurence
> Herchmer commanded 1CMR. By the end of December, the horse soldiers were
> organizing themselves at home while Canada's foot soldiers prepared for
> new adventures during South Africa's hottest month — January.
> So ended December, 100 years ago.