First Boer War

The Battle of Laing's Nek was a major battle fought at Laing's Nek during the First Boer War on 28 January 1881. Following the Boer declaration of... independence for the Transvaal in 1880 the British suffered a series of disastrous defeats in attempting to regain the territory. On 20 December 1880, Lieutenant Colonel Anstruther and elements of his regiment, the 94th, marched from Lydenburg to Pretoria, the regiment’s band leading the column playing the popular song “Kiss Me, Mother Darling”. At Bronkhorstspruit the force was stopped by Boers who courteously required the “Red Soldiers” to turn back. Armstrong equally courteously refused at which the column was devastated by rifle fire from the surrounding Boer ambush. Of the 259 in the column, 155 officers and men became casualties as did some of the women accompanying the regiment. Instead of waiting for the reinforcements, the British High Commissioner for South East Africa, Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, assembled what troops he could and rushed forward, claiming to be moving to relieve the British garrisons in the Transvaal.
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The Action at Bronkhorstspruit was one of the first serious clashes of the First Boer War. It was a skirmish between a British army column and a... group of Boers, fought by the Bronkhorstspruit River, a few miles east of the town of Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal on 20 December 1880. A column of British soldiers consisting of six officers and 246 men of the 94th Regiment, as well as 12 men of the Army Service Corps and four of the Army Hospital Corps, were marching on a road to Pretoria, when at least 250 Boers appeared to the left of the column. Making use of the limited cover, the Boers crept to within 200 yards of the British. Lt. Col. Anstruther parleyed with a Boer envoy, who had brought a request from the Transvaal government to turn back. Anstruther refused, but before he could move his column into skirmish formation the Boers opened fire at 12:30 pm. Within 15 minutes, most of the officers were killed or wounded, and the horses and oxen pulling the covered wagons at the front and rear of the column were killed, preventing any movement. Shocked by the sudden and aggressive nature of the attack, Lt. Col. Anstruther gave the order to surrender.
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Battle of Schuinshoogte, also known as Battle of Ingogo, was a battle fought north of Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, on 8 February 1881 during the First... Boer War. General Sir George Pomeroy Colley's communications with Newcastle were under constant harassment by mounted Boer patrols under Commander J D Weilbach after the Battle of Laing's Nek and as a result the General made it his plan to clear a clean unmolested path along the Newcastle-Mount Prospect road in order to better protect the British supply line, and receive fresh reinforcements he needed to bolster his ranks. At roughly 9 a.m. he left the Mount Prospect camp with a force consisting mostly of Infantrymen. A company of the 60th Rifles and two pieces of artillery were left at a ridge overlooking the Ingogo River while a handful of mounted men and infantry covered the drift. As Colley advanced up the slope of the Ingogo he received word from his scouting party that a mainly mounted Boer force under Gen. N J Smith and Comdt. J D Weilbach was approaching nearby.
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