Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00017
E. Spiers
for the Victorian army and eventually involved the services of 448,435 British and colonial troops in a series of major battlefield engagements, sieges, relief operations and protracted counter-guerrilla campaigns. The volume of correspondence from British soldiers was prodigious, and some of these letters have been used in campaign accounts, regimental histories, local studies and an analysis of the Scottish military experience. If many of the letters were largely descriptive, they also testified to the immense difficulties presented by a well-armed and highly mobile adversary, operating over vast terrain and capable of mounting strategic offensives, conducting sieges, fighting from formidable defensive positions and engaging in guerrilla warfare. Although a single chapter, utilising largely unused correspondence, cannot review the entire war, it can shed light on how British soldiers responded and reacted to the unique demands of this conflict. It does so by comparing the experiences of a sample of soldiers, specifically those from Scotland and the west country (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire). Soldiers were chosen from these parts of the United Kingdom as they served in distinguished local regiments and other arms, and came from localities with strong military connections, ensuring coverage of their exploits in the provincial press. Some had served previously in Africa or on the North-West Frontier, so facilitating comparisons with previous wars; they also fought in many of the major battles of the war, thereby attracting the attention of metropolitan as well as local newspapers. Sometimes Scots and west countrymen fought together, as at Elandslaagte, Colenso, Paardeberg and the siege of Ladysmith, and, like others, they endured the demands of the counter-guerrilla campaign. When war began on 11 October 1899, the Boers launched their invasions of Natal and Cape Colony and began the investment of the
{"title":"Re-engaging the Boers","authors":"E. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00017","url":null,"abstract":"for the Victorian army and eventually involved the services of 448,435 British and colonial troops in a series of major battlefield engagements, sieges, relief operations and protracted counter-guerrilla campaigns. The volume of correspondence from British soldiers was prodigious, and some of these letters have been used in campaign accounts, regimental histories, local studies and an analysis of the Scottish military experience. If many of the letters were largely descriptive, they also testified to the immense difficulties presented by a well-armed and highly mobile adversary, operating over vast terrain and capable of mounting strategic offensives, conducting sieges, fighting from formidable defensive positions and engaging in guerrilla warfare. Although a single chapter, utilising largely unused correspondence, cannot review the entire war, it can shed light on how British soldiers responded and reacted to the unique demands of this conflict. It does so by comparing the experiences of a sample of soldiers, specifically those from Scotland and the west country (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire). Soldiers were chosen from these parts of the United Kingdom as they served in distinguished local regiments and other arms, and came from localities with strong military connections, ensuring coverage of their exploits in the provincial press. Some had served previously in Africa or on the North-West Frontier, so facilitating comparisons with previous wars; they also fought in many of the major battles of the war, thereby attracting the attention of metropolitan as well as local newspapers. Sometimes Scots and west countrymen fought together, as at Elandslaagte, Colenso, Paardeberg and the siege of Ladysmith, and, like others, they endured the demands of the counter-guerrilla campaign. When war began on 11 October 1899, the Boers launched their invasions of Natal and Cape Colony and began the investment of the","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122017405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00007
Edward M. Spiers
{"title":"Glossary","authors":"Edward M. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116642001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00011
E. Spiers
In superseding Chelmsford as GOC, South Africa, Sir Garnet Wolseley assumed wide-ranging powers as both high commissioner in southeastern Africa and governor of Natal and the Transvaal. He sought to impose a settlement upon both Zululand and the neighbouring Transvaal (the former South African Republic that Britain had annexed in 1877). Setting aside the confederation plans of Sir Bartle Frere, he resolved that Zululand (other than the disputed territory left in Boer hands) should be ruled by thirteen minor chiefs. He then moved into the Transvaal to restore British prestige by overthrowing Sekhukhune, whom the Boers had failed to defeat in 1876. The strategy had only short-term impact and, after barely a year, 4,000 Boers at their national convention voted to restore the South African Republic, by force of arms, if necessary. In the ensuing conflict, the First Anglo-Boer War (1880–81), soldiers had their first encounter with a well-armed African foe, who was mobile, adept at skirmishing and capable of conducting siege warfare. Some 1,800 soldiers served in the Transvaal and all were besieged in isolated garrisons throughout the war, with few managing to send letters beyond their beleaguered posts. Even the relief force from Natal struggled to maintain its line of communications, and few war correspondents reached the front (none covered the first two battles and only three observed the final battle at Majuba). As the war lasted little more than two months, contained a series of unrelieved disasters, and divided British opinion about its propriety, it aroused scant enthusiasm at home. Indeed the newspapers, at least latterly, were preoccupied with the assassination of the Tsar and the death of Benjamin Disraeli. To attack Sekhukhune, Wolseley assembled a formidable composite force, comprising the 2/21st and the 94th (2/Connaught Rangers), with two companies of the 80th, four guns, a party of Royal Engineers with explosives, a troop of mounted volunteers under Commandant Fereira, C H A P T E R T H R E E
在取代切姆斯福德成为南非GOC后，加内特·沃尔斯利爵士担任了非洲东南部高级专员和纳塔尔和德兰士瓦省总督，并获得了广泛的权力。他试图在祖鲁兰和邻近的德兰士瓦(1877年英国吞并的前南非共和国)之间达成和解。抛开巴特尔·弗雷爵士的邦联计划，他决定祖鲁兰(除了布尔人手中有争议的领土)应该由13个小酋长统治。随后，他进入德兰士瓦，推翻了布尔人在1876年未能击败的塞库库恩，以恢复英国的威望。这一战略只产生了短期的影响，仅仅一年之后，4000名布尔人在他们的全国代表大会上投票决定恢复南非共和国，如有必要，可以使用武力。在随后的第一次盎格鲁-布尔战争(1880-81)中，士兵们第一次遇到了装备精良的非洲敌人，他们机动灵活，擅长小规模战斗，并能进行攻城战。大约1800名士兵在德兰士瓦服役，在整个战争期间，他们都被围困在孤立的驻军中，很少有人能够把信件发送到被围困的哨所之外。甚至来自纳塔尔的救援部队也在努力维持其通讯线路，很少有战地记者到达前线(没有人报道前两场战斗，只有三人观察了马朱巴的最后一场战斗)。由于这场战争只持续了两个多月，包含了一系列无法缓解的灾难，并且英国人对其适当性的看法存在分歧，它在国内激起了很少的热情。事实上，至少最近的报纸都在全神贯注地报道沙皇遇刺和本杰明·迪斯雷利之死。为了进攻塞库库恩，沃尔斯利集结了一支强大的综合部队，包括第2/21步兵团和第94步兵团(2/Connaught Rangers)、第80步兵团的两个连、四门火炮、一支携带炸药的皇家工兵部队，以及一支由费雷拉(C H a P T E R T H R E E)指挥官指挥的志愿军骑兵部队
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Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00003
E. Spiers
ii The Present and the Past General Editors: Michael Crowder and Juliet Gardiner This new series aims to provide the historical background necessary for a proper understanding of the major nations and regions of the contemporary world. Each contributor will illuminate the present political, social, cultural and economic structures of his nation or region through the study of its past. The books, which are fully illustrated with maps and photographs, are written for students, teachers and general readers; and will appeal not only to historians but also to political scientists, economists and sociologists who seek to set their own studies of a particular nation or region in historical perspective. Australia John Rickard *Modern China Edwin E. Moise France Jolyon Howorth Ireland J. J. Lee Japan Janet E. Hunter Mexico A. S. Knight *Russia Edward Acton Southeast Asia David P. Chandler Southern Africa Neil Parsons *Already published The Present and the Past iii
{"title":"List of maps","authors":"E. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00003","url":null,"abstract":"ii The Present and the Past General Editors: Michael Crowder and Juliet Gardiner This new series aims to provide the historical background necessary for a proper understanding of the major nations and regions of the contemporary world. Each contributor will illuminate the present political, social, cultural and economic structures of his nation or region through the study of its past. The books, which are fully illustrated with maps and photographs, are written for students, teachers and general readers; and will appeal not only to historians but also to political scientists, economists and sociologists who seek to set their own studies of a particular nation or region in historical perspective. Australia John Rickard *Modern China Edwin E. Moise France Jolyon Howorth Ireland J. J. Lee Japan Janet E. Hunter Mexico A. S. Knight *Russia Edward Acton Southeast Asia David P. Chandler Southern Africa Neil Parsons *Already published The Present and the Past iii","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124319008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00006
Edward M. Spiers
{"title":"Abbreviations","authors":"Edward M. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116294646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00020
Edward M. Spiers
{"title":"Index","authors":"Edward M. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124792315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-30DOI: 10.7765/9781526137913.00015
E. Spiers
Several African campaigns did not involve skirmishes, sieges, battles or engagements of any significance. Whereas the British Army had to mount offensives and seek rapid, decisive military outcomes to disperse and demoralise its enemies (while minimising its own logistic burdens and likely losses from sickness and disease), African adversaries responded to these offensives in different ways. If facing overwhelming odds, they sometimes avoided engagement and opted for manoeuvre (or even complete dispersal), luring the British and their auxiliaries across an inhospitable landscape and leaving them tired, thirsty and despondent. Inevitably these expeditions attracted less attention at home, especially if they coincided with major campaigns elsewhere – as happened to the Bechuanaland expedition (1884–85) and the two Asante expeditions of 1896 and 1900 – and so few letters from them survive. Nevertheless, the Bechuanaland campaign at least demonstrated the degree of British adaptation since the Anglo-Boer War of 1881. The expedition was occasioned by Boer freebooters exploiting the rivalry among Bantu clans along the border from Vryburg to Mafeking and proclaiming the two semi-independent republics of Goshen and Stellaland in Bantu territory. The Gladstone Government regarded these incursions as breaches of the London Convention (1884), and resolved to protect the Bantu chiefs and retain control of the trade route from Cape Colony to Central Africa. It despatched Major-General Sir Charles Warren (RE), as a special commissioner with some 4,000 men, including 1/Royal Scots, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, three batteries of field artillery, a battery of Gardner machine-guns, three regiments of mounted rifles (recruited partly in Britain and partly in the Cape), balloon and field telegraph sections, a pioneer corps, and a corps of Bantu guides. Warren was required to evict the Goshenites from Bechuanaland (the Stellalanders had accepted British rule) and re-establish order. C H A P T E R S E V E N
{"title":"Trekking through Bechuanaland","authors":"E. Spiers","doi":"10.7765/9781526137913.00015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137913.00015","url":null,"abstract":"Several African campaigns did not involve skirmishes, sieges, battles or engagements of any significance. Whereas the British Army had to mount offensives and seek rapid, decisive military outcomes to disperse and demoralise its enemies (while minimising its own logistic burdens and likely losses from sickness and disease), African adversaries responded to these offensives in different ways. If facing overwhelming odds, they sometimes avoided engagement and opted for manoeuvre (or even complete dispersal), luring the British and their auxiliaries across an inhospitable landscape and leaving them tired, thirsty and despondent. Inevitably these expeditions attracted less attention at home, especially if they coincided with major campaigns elsewhere – as happened to the Bechuanaland expedition (1884–85) and the two Asante expeditions of 1896 and 1900 – and so few letters from them survive. Nevertheless, the Bechuanaland campaign at least demonstrated the degree of British adaptation since the Anglo-Boer War of 1881. The expedition was occasioned by Boer freebooters exploiting the rivalry among Bantu clans along the border from Vryburg to Mafeking and proclaiming the two semi-independent republics of Goshen and Stellaland in Bantu territory. The Gladstone Government regarded these incursions as breaches of the London Convention (1884), and resolved to protect the Bantu chiefs and retain control of the trade route from Cape Colony to Central Africa. It despatched Major-General Sir Charles Warren (RE), as a special commissioner with some 4,000 men, including 1/Royal Scots, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, three batteries of field artillery, a battery of Gardner machine-guns, three regiments of mounted rifles (recruited partly in Britain and partly in the Cape), balloon and field telegraph sections, a pioneer corps, and a corps of Bantu guides. Warren was required to evict the Goshenites from Bechuanaland (the Stellalanders had accepted British rule) and re-establish order. C H A P T E R S E V E N","PeriodicalId":125869,"journal":{"name":"The Victorian soldier in Africa","volume":"48 12","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133323289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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