Siege of Lydenburg | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of First Boer War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | South African Republic | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
2Lt. Walter Long [3] [4] [5] [6] | Commandant Dietrich Muller [7] Commandant Johannes Petrus Steyn [8] [9] | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
94th Regiment of Foot Royal Engineers | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
50–55 men (94th Regiment) ContentsTotal:60–70 men [10] [11] [12] [13] | 6 January 1881: 200–250 men [1] [8] Following 6 January: 500–600 men [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3-4 killed 19 wounded [14] [15] | unknown |
The siege of Lydenburg was a siege carried out by South African Republican forces on British-occupied Lydenburg, between January and March 1881 during the First Boer War. Despite fierce British resistance, the Boers reclaimed the town following the British defeat at the end of the war. The siege lasted 84 days. [16] [17]
Lydenburg had fallen under the control of the full-strength 94th Regiment. [18] On 5 December 1880, most of the regiment was withdrawn, under Lieutenant-Colonel Anstruther. [6] [19] Fewer than 100 British soldiers were left to maintain British occupation over the town [5] under the command of Second Lieutenant Walter Long, [3] [4] [5] [6] son of the British politician with the same name. [20] On 20 December 1880, six officers and 246 men of the 94th Regiment, along with 12 men of the Army Service Corps and 4 men of the Army Hospital Corps, were attacked by 250 Boer commandos at Bronkhorstspruit whilst marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria. They suffered 156 casualties. [21] This began the First Boer War.
Following the outbreak of the war, Long received orders from Pretoria to defend Lydenburg. [3] Long acted by building a fort and constructing stone walls around it to improve defences. [22] [23] The fort, known as Fort Mary, consisted of eight thatched huts connected by stone walls. [24] [25] [26] Fort Mary provided cover for British forces and would allow Long to successfully fight off the Boers for three months. [24] The British stored 200,000 rounds of ammunition, left behind by the main force of the 94th Regiment under Anstruther, in preparation for a Boer siege. [13] [27] The British had at their disposal three months' supply of meat, eight months' supply flour for bread making, and supplies of groceries and vegetables, in order to survive the siege. [27]
On 23 December 1880, Dietrich Muller entered Lydenburg and informed Long that his government had demanded the immediate surrender of Lydenburg. Long refused to capitulate, and the Boers prepared to besiege. [7] Commandos took positions two miles away from the road to Middelburg on 3 January 1881 and then advanced on Lydenburg on the 6th. [1] Over two hundred burghers breached the town and proclaimed their allegiance to the South African Republic, again requesting Long to surrender. Long refused, and the Boer contingent grew to about five hundred men. [1] As the Boers advanced through Lydenburg, they neared Fort Mary, and opened fire at 230 metres. The garrison was not harmed, despite sporadic firing for three hours. Two days later, on 8 December, a cannon was brought to bear, which also failed to impress the fort or inflict any casualties on Long's men. However, a second cannon brought later damaged Fort Mary's defences. [28]
On 23 January 1881, the garrison discovered that its water supply was running low. [23] [29] Water was temporarily rationed until rainfall on 8 February brought relief. [29]
On 4 March 1881, Boers successfully set fire to the thatched roofs of Fort Mary. British forces managed to put out the fire in twenty minutes but whilst doing so, they came under heavy Boer fire. [30] [31]
On 10 March, two Boers entered Lydenburg with a letter from Alfred Aylward, offering favourable terms of surrender to the British. Aylward stated Long should surrender due to the small size of his command and as there were no British troops in South Africa, close to Lydenburg, available to relieve the siege. Long replied that he would not surrender as long as he had men at his disposal or until he was told otherwise. [32] [33]
On 23 March, Boers again entered Lydenburg, informing Long of the death of Major-General George Colley at Majuba Hill, and requesting British surrender. Still, the siege continued until 30 March 1881, when Lieutenant Baker, from the 60th regiment, agreed to peace terms with the Boers. [2] The siege lasted for 84 days. [16] [17]
Following the capture of Lydenburg and other British forts in Transvaal, the South African Republic regained independence and control over its territories. British forces would again enter Lydenburg during the Second Boer War.
The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coupled with military campaigns, might succeed with the African Kingdoms, tribal areas and Boer republics in South Africa. In 1874, Sir Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner for the British Empire to effect such plans, among the obstacles were the armed independent states of the South African Republic and the Kingdom of Zululand.
The First Boer War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion.
The Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881 was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War that was a resounding victory for the Boers. The British Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley occupied the summit of the hill on the night of 26–27 February 1881. Colley's motive for occupying Majuba Hill, near Volksrust, now in South Africa, may have been anxiety that the Boers would soon occupy it themselves, since he had witnessed their trenches being dug in the direction of the hill.
The siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal.
Lydenburg, is a town in Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, on the Mpumalanga highveld, South Africa. It is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the Lepelle River at the summit of the Long Tom Pass. It has a long, rich history, ranging from AD 500 to the present. The name is derived from the Dutch Lijdenburg, or "Town of Suffering", and is named for the experiences of the white settlers. In Northern Sotho, Mashishing means "long green grass." Lydenburg has become the centre of the South African fly-fishing industry and is an agricultural, tourism and mining hub.
The battle of Bronkhorstspruit was the first major engagement of the First Boer War. It took place by the Bronkhorstspruit river, near the town of Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal, on 20 December 1880. Threatened by the growing numbers of militant Boers in the Pretoria region, the British recalled the 94th Regiment of Foot, which had several companies garrisoned in towns and villages across the wider area. The regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Robert Anstruther, led a 34-wagon column consisting of roughly 250 men on a 188-mile (303 km) journey from Lydenburg back to Pretoria. A similar-sized Boer commando force, led by Francois Gerhardus Joubert, was ordered to intercept and stop the British.
The Battle of Laing's Nek was a major battle fought at Laing's Nek during the First Boer War on 28 January 1881.
The Battle of Ulundi took place at the Zulu capital of Ulundi on 4 July 1879 and was the last major battle of the Anglo-Zulu War. The British army broke the military power of the Zulu nation by defeating the main Zulu army and immediately afterwards capturing and burning the royal kraal of oNdini.
The 155 mm CreusotLong Tom was a French siege gun manufactured by Schneider et Cie in Le Creusot, France and used by the Boers in the Second Boer War as field guns.
The siege of Toul was the siege of the fortified French town of Toul from 16 August to 23 September 1870 by Prussian, Bavarian and Württemberg forces during the Franco-Prussian War. Toul controlled a railway line leading to Germany and it was vital for the Germans to secure it to resupply and reinforce their armies in northern France.
The military history of Australia during the Boer War is complex, and includes a period of history in which the six formerly autonomous British Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, each of these separate colonies maintained their own, independent military forces, but by the cessation of hostilities, these six armies had come under a centralised command to form the Australian Army.
The 94th Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment, raised as the Scotch Brigade in October 1794. It was renumbered as the 94th Regiment of Foot in December 1802 and disbanded in December 1818. The regiment was reformed in December 1823 and served until 1881 when it amalgamated with the 88th Regiment of Foot to form the Connaught Rangers.
The siege of Marabastad was a siege of Fort Marabastad, in present day Limpopo, South Africa, carried out by the Boer Republic of Transvaal, starting on 11 January 1881, and ending with British surrender on 2 April 1881. It took place during the First Boer War, during which Boer forces besieged several British garrisons across the country.
Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long was a British Second Lieutenant who fought in the First Boer War. He was originally a second lieutenant in the 6th Dragoons, but was then transferred to the 94th Regiment of Foot on 27 March 1880. As part of the 94th Regiment, he played a crucial part in the defence of Lydenburg during a three month siege in 1881. He was the son of the British politician Walter Long. He took his life at the Grosvenor Hotel, Buckingham Palace Road, Westminster, after being court-martialled and criticised for his conduct of the defence of Lydenburg.
The siege of Rustenburg was a siege that took place between 1880 and 1881 during the First Boer War. Boer forces of the South African Republic carried out the siege on Rustenburg, a British-controlled city inside of the Transvaal Colony, and captured it after three months.
Inboekstelsel was a system of indentured child labour instituted by Europeans in Southern Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. The word is derived from the Dutch verb inboeken, referring to the requirement of entering the names and details of the inboekeling, or apprentices, in the Landdros's register. It is widely seen as a form of slavery by historians of South Africa.
The Transvaal Government Gazette was the government gazette of Transvaal Colony between 1877, when Britain annexed the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR), and the end of the First Boer War in 1881.
Stanford Norman McLeod Nairne was an officer and Adjutant of the 94th Regiment of Foot who died of wounds received during the first action of the First Boer War on 20 December 1880 at Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal, South Africa. He was called 'The Swart Captain' because of his mixed race, and he was mourned by both black and white people at his death.
The Natal Mounted Police (NMP) were the colonial police force of the Colony of Natal created in 1874 by Major John Dartnell, a farmer and retired officer in the British Army as a semi-military force to bolster the defences of Natal in South Africa. When required the NMP would be assisted by the Colony's volunteer regiments including the Natal Carbineers. It enlisted European officers, NCOs and natives. Men of the NMP fought and died in the Battle of Isandlwana and at Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War of 1879.
The Boers took up a position two miles off on the road to Middelburg on 3 January 1881 and commenced their attack on the 6th. Two hundred and fifty men entered the town and proclaimed the Republic, again calling on Long to surrender, which he again refused to do. The Boer force was now estimated at between 500 and 600 men.
On 23 March the Boer Commandant sent in under a flag of truce a copy of the Natal Mercury describing Sir George Colley's defeat and death, and the terms of the armistice, but hostilities continued until 30 March, when Lieutenant Baker of the 60th Regiment arrived with despatches confirming the terms of peace.
Lieutenant Walter Long, a 24-year-old junior officer of the 94th, was placed in command, and on receipt of instructions from Pretoria immediately set to work to strengthen the defences.
On earlier orders from Pretoria, Second Lieutenant Walter H.C. Long, the 22-year-old officer in command, had already set about removing the government stores from hired premises in the town to the camp, about 1,000 yards distant.
After 5 December 1880 fewer than a hundred soldiers under 24 year-old Lieutenant Walter Long were left in Lydenburg.
After the departure of the 94th, under Colonel Anstruther, for Pretoria, on Sunday, December 5th, as rumours of the rising of the Boers were prevalent, application was made to Lieutenant Long, commanding the detachment left in the fort, to join the town in a system of general defence.
On 23 December Long was visited by Dietrich Muller who said he had been deputed by the Boer Government to demand the immediate surrender of the garrison which was refused by Long.
They owe their safety from molestation, and the absence of looting stores or private property, to the Commandant of the Boers, Piet Steyn.
The remaining troops consisted of 54 non-commissioned officers and men of the 94th, a Sergeant and 7 Sappers, RE, eight NCOs and men of the Commissariat and Hospital Corps, with Surgeon Falvey in medical charge, and Conductor Parsons in charge of supplies.
Lieutenant Long's force consisted of fifty men and ten Volunteers.
The fifty men left here are here, it is understood, simply for the protection of Government stores, not for the defence of the town.
In order to protect the large stocks of government stores and 200,000 rounds of ammunition being left behind in Lydenburg, Anstruther detailed a small force of 50 other ranks of the 94th Regiment (mostly the sick), 8 Royal Engineers, and a few men of the Army Service Corps and the Army Hospital Corps to guard them.
Casualties were four killed, including two volunteers, and nineteen wounded.
The casualties during the siege were: killed, three; wounded, nineteen, between the 6th of January and 31st of March, 1881.
The siege lasted eighty-four days.
Long rejected a peace offering from the Boers and the siege only came to an end after 84 days.
The garrison at Lydenburg originally consisted of the 94th Regiment, but with the exception of a small detachment, the regiment was withdrawn on 5 December 1880.
THE garrison of Lydenburg - a village of some trading VII. importance, due to its vicinity to the Gold Fields, and lon ' similar in buildings and character to other small towns in the Transvaal - consisted of the 94th Regiment, until, as already related, at the instance of the Administrator, these troops were, with the exception of a small detachment left to guard military stores, withdrawn on the 5th December 1880.
He constructed a fort by erecting stone walls between a number of thatched-roofed huts which were covered with tarpaulins.
Although Long improved the fort's defences, the water supply ran low by 23 January 1881.
When Anstruther's men were heavily mauled outside Bronkhorstspruit, 65 Long retired his men, including his wife and Father Walsh 66 into Fort Mary -- eight thatched huts connected by stone walls -- and for the next three-and-a-half months fought off attacking Boers.
Long's report on the defence of Fort Mary, Lydenburg, n.d. [recd 10 April 1881]; Mrs Long, Fort Mary...
The camp consisted of eight recently constructed stone-walled buildings, each 16 by 5 yards, set in two rows.
An underground magazine was constructed in which over 200,000 rounds of ammunition, left behind by the 94th, was stored. Three months' supply of preserved meat, eight months' flour for bread making, and ample supplies of groceries and vegetables provided for a lengthy siege.
Approaching to within 250 yards (228 m) of the fort they opened fire, continuing for about 3 hours without harming the garrison. A cannon opened fire on the fort on 8 January but the shells passed harmlessly over. Later a second gun was used against the garrison which caused damage.
On 23 January the water supply was found to be running short and the garrison was placed on short ration until a heavy rainfall on 8 February afforded relief.
On 4 March the enemy successfully set fire to the thatched roofs of the fort.
On the 4th of March the Boers managed to set fire to one of the buildings in the fort, it being a thatched roof; the troops put it out in twenty minutes, under a heavy fire from the Boers.
Early in March Mr. A. Aylward arrived in Leydenberg, and under a flag of truce he interviewed Lieutenant Long, 94th Regiment, Dr. Falvay, and the Rev. Father Walsh ; he wanted Lieutenant Long to surrender, stating that it was madness in him showing further resistance, as there were no troops in the country to help him. Lieutenant Long replied that he would not surrender, he meant to fight and retain the fort as long as he had a man left him.
On the morning of 10 March, two men appeared under a flag of truce bearing a letter from Alfred Aylward, formerly editor of the Natal Witness (who had joined the Boer forces), offering favourable terms of capitulation, to which Lieutenant Long replied that he would continue to defend the Fort until he received instructions to the contrary.