THE ANGLO-BOER WARS

The Centennary of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) is not so far off now, and is likely to bring a new crop of studies of a campaign which has heen rather neglected in the last twenty years. Indeed, judging from the evidence of several new books this quarter, the process has already started.

First up is The Road To Infamy, 1899-1900, by Owen Coetzer, published by Arms and Armour Press (ISBN 1-85409366-5, price £ 16.99). The road in question is a literal as well as a figurative one, and it is the road which runs through the Thukela Heights to Ladysmith; the road on which so many glittering British military reputations came to grief. At the end of 1899 and the heginning ot 1900, the inability of British generals to sieze this road - and thereby relieve the beleagured town of Ladysmith from the hands of a few thousand Boer farmers, led to a string of the most humiliating defeats of the Victorian era: Colenso, Spioenkop, and Vaalkranz.

Owen Coetzer's book is not so much a new account of the actions themselves, but a study of that divided state of the British high command, as exposed in the Royal Commission of Enquiry of 1903, when all of the principle participants were called to account. The advent of the Centennary will surely call into question the wisdom of many an individual's reputation.

Geoffrey Powell's Buller: A Scapegoat? suggested that Buller has suffered unfairly the wrath of successive historians, who have swallowed whole the opinions of contemporary critics who sought to make Buller a scapegoat for the wider failings of the army in 1899. Mr. Coetzer, however, is not in the Buller camp; it is his contention that Sir Charles Warren - who usually gets the blame for the Spioenkop debacle - was unfairly pilloried by Buller. Whatever the truth of these arguments, it is clear from this book that the British high command was dangerously divided on the eve of the Boer War, split into rival camps, each keen to blame the other for any misfortunes, and ill-prepared, not only to wage a war on this scale, but also to face the tactical changes brought about by improved weapon technology - notably smokeless powder and accurate and rapid long-range small arms.

By contrast, Iain R. Smith's The Origins of the South African War 1899-1902 (published by Longmans, ISBN 058249520, price £ 15.99) is concerned neither with re-telling the stories of old battles, nor with the wrangles of discredited generals, but is rather a scholarly and painstaking analysis of the factors which drove the British Empire and Transvaal Republic to war in 1899. The choice of title is deliberate; the author argues that the usual name for the confliet - the Anglo-Boer War - is inappropriate, because it fails to take account of the fact that the war fell very heavily on the black population, who were pressed into service, often harrassed, sometimes burnt out, and ultimately betrayed by both sides. This is a fair point, but the present review is not convinced that this warrants a change of name.

For one thing, almost every war Britain engaged in in South Africa was called 'the South African War' at the time; for another, a every war had repercussions for the black population. In neither respect is the Anglo-Boer War unique: nevertheless, the fact that the conflict does not have a name which is acceptable to all is probably indicative of the controversy it will stir up as we move towards 1999. In the book, the author takes a quick look at the origins of Anglo-Boer rivalry in South Africa, then meticulously picks apart the strands of colliding interests which led first to the Jameson Raid and then to the war itself. Overturning the popular view, he argues that the war was not simply the result of a British lust for Transvaal gold, nor a capitalist conspiracy by the 'gold bug' of Johannesburg, but rather the result of deep-seated clashes of interests' policies and perspective, in which the personalities of the main players were only one contributory factor.

Kitchener's Sword Arm; The Life and Campaigns of General Sir Archibald Hunter, by his great nephew, Archie Hunter (Spellmount, ISBN 1-873376-54-5, price £ 20) is a biography of a commander whose finest hour was arguably during the Boer War. Hunter's service reads like a roll-call of late Victorian service - Egypt, India, The Sudan, South Africa. Originally commissioned into the King's Own Royal Regiment, Hunter was selected by Sir Evelyn Wood to join the new Egyptian army in 1883, which was formed - in the aftermath of British intervention in Egypt - largely to check the rising of the Mahdi in the Sudan. It was a job Hunter relished, proving himself a competent administrator, an inspiring reader of men, and a dashing commander.

Hunter took part in the Gordon Relief Expedition, a number of battle of the Egyptian-Sudanese border - one of the delights of this book is that it provides crisp accounts of these actions, which are often treated as a sideshow, a local interlude between periods of British military involvement - the conquest of Dongola, and the re-conquest. He was badly wounded in the arm at Ginnies, and was present at Abu Hammed, Atbara and finally Omdurman - a record of service in the Sudan which must surely have been the equal of most. In South Africa, he was attached to White's command, and as such was besieged in Ladysmith; according to some opinions, he was the force behind White's defenee, and led the attack on the Boer position on Gun Hill. After the siege, promoted to Lieutenant-General, he fought on both the Mafikeng front, where his victory at Rooidam made possible the town's relief, and later in the Brandwater Basin, where he failed to capture De Wet, but did capture 4,000 men under Martinus Prinsloo.

With such a record, it is surprising that Hunter is not better known; certainly, he emerges as a likeable, compassionate, energetic man, whose greatest fault nontheless was his outspokeness. He openly criticised his superior, Kitehener, in the Sudan, but got away with it because the two worked well together; during the Court of Enquiry after the Boer War, he offended both White and the Royal Navy with his forthright remarks. When made Governor of Gibraltar, he upset local civilians by applying a military outlook to civilian problems, and by his bluntness. This blighted the last years of his career; to his disappointment, he failed to secure the front-line appointment during WWI which his record in the field so richly deserved. This is a thorough and sympathetic account of his life, rich on period atmosphere and military adventuring, and with good clear maps.

SMALL WARS

Bison Books (under the UK umbrella of the University of Nebraska Press) have just issued a nice chunky paperback of Colonel C. E. Callwell's Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (ISBN 0-8032-6366-X, price £ 23.95). Callwell's book was first published in 1896 (this reprint is of the third edition of of 1907), and its reputation has suffered somewhat because it was published after the passing of the hey-day of the 'small war' itself. Written as something of a manual, it was published too late to be of practical use, as Colonial campaiging seemed curiously anachronistic by 1918.

Yet this is unfair, for Callwell's work was a far-ranging and perceptive essay on all aspects of Colonial campaigning, which in many ways epitomised the difficulties faced by the British army in the Victorian era. Usually working in inhospitable terrain, with too few men, and hampered by vulnerable supply lines, the Victorian commander was expected to be able to counter the tactice as varied as the Mahdist shock-charge, the Maori pa, and long-range Boer rifle-fire. It was impossible to develop a tactical theory which suited every circumstance, and Callwell's hook roves across the British military experience of the last half of the nineteeth century in an attempt to draw out the appropriate lessons. What were the advantages and disadvantages of the square? When was a formation in line more effective - and should that line be two-deep or four-deep? Was volley firing superior to independent fire? What were the characteristics of bush fighting? Of night fighting? Callwell examined them all, pulling out examples at the drop of a hat to support his arguments. His book is, therefore, something of a case-study of Colonial warfare, as it was understood by those who practiced it. It is a summary of lessons learned the hard way, and an important reminder of the extraordinary range of challenges which the Victorian soldier faced and which, almost invariably, he learned to overcome.

For anyone seeking 'the big picture', there is a new paperback of Bernard Porter's The Lion's Share (Longmans, ISBN 0-582-08943-3, price £ 15.99), a study of British Imperialism over the period 1850 to date. This is a good, readable study of the forces that drove the Empire forward - and back - during its hey-day. It provides useful background on British economic and strategic policy, and thereby puts the many wars of the period into context. It is not a military book, so it is long on causes and explanations and short on what happened in the field, but if you want to know how a particular campaign came about, and where it fitted into the over-all picture, this is a good place to start.

VOICES FROM THE RANKS

Imperial Echoes; Eye-Witness Accounts of Victoria's Little Wars, by Robert Giddings, published by Leo Cooper, ISBN 0-85052-39lX, price £ 18.95. This book is a browser's delight. It is an anthology of eye-witness accounts of Colonial warfare, which ranges from Wellington's campaigns in India at the start of the nineteenth-century, up to the Boer War. The Crimea is - wisely - avoided, presumably because it wasn't a 'little war' (but neither was the Boer War, come to that), but along the way we have assorted Afghan Wars, Burma, China, New Zealand, Asante, Majuba, Egypt, the Sudan, and Matebeleland.

As with all first-hand experiences, these accounts bring incidents alive as more distanced study cannot. It must be stated, however, that the author has cheated himself by tackling such a subject: inevitably, with so much scope, the accounts themselves are short and cannot be comprehensive. They are no more than sound-bite echos of the way things seemed to the Soldiers of the Queen--brief, vivid, but unlikely to satisfy those who have a Imperial interest in any one of these campaigns. Indeed, the accounts that have been chosen are often familiar enough - the Zulu War is represented by Hamilton Brown's account of Isandlwana and Hook's of Rorke's Drift, for example, while Churchill is the source for both the charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and something of the Boer War. But - enjoy it for what it is. In many ways, this is an ideal book to start someone on the Colonial period, or to buy as a Christmas present for an established enthusiast. There's bound to be something in there of interest!

OSPREY

It's interesting to see that the Colonial period has now been fully accepted by Osprey as mainstream, and their recent releases have included a number of titles which will be of interest to Colonial Conquest readers. Most notably, they have released a Campaigns title on Rorke's Drift and a Warrior title on The Zulu Warrior, both by Ian Knight. Since it would not be appropriate for me to review my own work, I will limit myself with the observation that both titles include splendid new artwork, and the 'Bird's Eye Views' of Rorke's Drift may come out very well, and should be invaluable to anyone seeking to model, wargame, or simply understand the terrain of this most popular of Zulu War battles. In the pipeline for releases in the autumn are a two-parter MAA set covering the Boer Wars (part I includes various wars waged by theBoer republics against African groups, the battles between the Voortrekkers and the British in the 1840s, and the 1881 Transvaal War), and a splendid Campaigns title on Majuba, by Ian Castle.

Other recent Osprey titles in the Men-At-Arms series touch only lightly on Colonial subjects. Rene Chartrand's British Forees in the West Indies 1793-1815, (MAA 294), illustrated by Paul Chappell, is a timely reminder that Colonialism was not a product of the late 19th Century. This title considers the forces who kept the West Indies - onee immeasurably profitable - secure for the British Empire. It's particularly nice to see Napoleonic uniforms in a Carribean setting, and those of locally raised auxiliary units. American Indians of the Southeast, written by Michael Johnson and illustrated by Richard Hook, looks at a group often overlooked in the mythology of the literature of the Native Americans, the groups who inhabited the area between the Mississipi and the Atlantic. These groups - among them the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creeks and Seminoles - were among the first to suffer as a result of the expansion of European colonisation in America, and were involved in a number of wars over the century betwee 1730 and 1840. This look provides a vivid insight into their lifestyle and fighting techniques, and a brief outline of military operations. The plates are particularly striking, and provide a vivid contrast to the more familiar images of the Western Indian groups.

Also Colonial in the broadest sense are Marko Zlatich's General Washington's Army (2); 1779-1783, illustrated by Bill Younghusband, which looks at the emergene of the more formal, better uniformed and equipped Continental Army, and Stuart Reid's King George's Army 1740-1793; (2), by Stuart Reid, illustrated by Paul Chappell, which looks at infantry and auxiliary uniforms from the Jacobite Rebellion through to the American War period. With all of the attention concentrated on the period of high empire in the nineteenth century, it is easy to forget thst much of the framework of British colonialism was laid down during the eighteenth; Stuart's book includes something on British uniforms in the Carribean and East India Company uniforms. Both titles are illustrated in a style which is clean and informative, but - dare I say it! - a little unimaginative compared to, say, Richard Hook's work in the Indians title.

AMERICAN WARS

Fort Meade and the Black Hills, by Robert Lee, University of Nebraska Press (1 Gower Street, London, WCIE 6HA), ISBN 0-8032-7962, price £ 13.95. In 1857 a Lieutenant Warren of the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers made a brief visit to the Black Hills, and declared that, should the army ever wish to conquer them, the ideal place for a fort would be near an outcrop known as Bear Butte, which he considered the northern gateway to the hills. He also added that the Sioux regarded the Black Hills as their heartland, and would never give them up without a fight. In both respects, he was quite right, although the fort - Fort Meade - was not built until after the disastrous campaign of 1876, when Custer's luck finally ran out at the Little Big Horn.

The Fort was christened Fort Meade and was home to the 7th Cavalry in the aftermath of their most difficult year. Robert Lee's book takes a detailed and thorough look at the history of Fort Meade, and the frontier community it spawned. As such, it presents something of a microcosm of the frontier experience of those post war years, a time which, although rich in personal incident (Fort Meade was the place where Major Reno, of Little Big Horn fame, was drummed out of the army following a drunken scuffle and an indiscretion with a lady), was largely characterised by the passing of the spirit of the wild, and by the gradual establishment of law and order. For the Indians, this meant the end of their way of life, and Fort Meade includes a crisp summary of the Ghost Dance movement, in which the garrison took part, culminating in the slaughter at Wounded Knee. In the aftermath of that campaign, a Sioux named Plenty Horses was tried at Fort Meade for the murder of an army officer, but acquitted-- - a famous case at the time - and the garrison was involved in its fair share of unruly behaviour. In the 1920s, troops from the garrison indicated their disgust with the local Ku Klux Klan by machine gunning a fiery cross above the town. Although Fort Meade's importance declined rapidly in the twentieth century, it was still used in WW2 to contain German prisoners of war..

The same publisher continues to turn out a fine series of meaty paperbacks on ACW suhjects. These are not strictly within the remit of Colonial Conquest, but if the subject is an interest of yours, they are well worth checking out. Recent titles have included Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa, edited by Barry Popchock (hardback, £ 23.50), Life in the Confederate Army by William Watson, with a new introduction by Thomas W. Cutrer £ 13.95, Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War April-June 1865 by Noah Andre Trueau, a very handsome paperback at £ 15.95, and T. Harry Williams' biography of PGT Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray, at £ 13.95. The same publishers have also re-issued Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (two volumes in one; with an Introduction by Brooks D. Simpson), at £ 23.95, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies, by the South' most unlucky general, price £ 14.00, and Recollections of the Civil War by Charles A. Dans, a newspaperman commissioned by the Secretary of State for War to investigate Grant's conduct in the aftermath of Shiloh (price £ 11.95). It's true that there is something approaching overkill in ACW titles at present, but all of these are either first-rate source material or good meaty research.

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