Through Shot and Flame The Adventures and Experiences of J. D. Kestell Chaplain to President Steyn and General Christian De Wet   By: J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell (1854-1941)

THROUGH SHOT AND FLAME

THE ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES OF

J. D. KESTELL

CHAPLAIN TO PRESIDENT STEYN

AND

GENERAL CHRISTIAN DE WET

METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1903

Colonial Library

TO

MY WIFE

WHO WAS ONE OF THE THOUSANDS WHO ENDURED IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK

AND

WITH HER I COMMEMORATE HERE THE FIDELITY AND PATRIOTISM OF HIM WHO WAS MY COMRADE IN THE FIELD, AND WHO DIED IN THE SPRINGTIDE OF HIS LIFE, A PRISONER OF WAR, AT LADYSMITH, NATAL

OUR SON, CHARLES KESTELL

THROUGH SHOT AND FLAME

PART I

HOPE

CHAPTER I

I JOIN THE HARRISMITH COMMANDO

I purpose to chronicle in the following pages my experiences of the war between the Boers and the English. It is my object to record what I went through on commando, and to give the reader an idea, according to my own observation, of the struggles and sufferings of a small nation against the overwhelming odds of an Empire nay, against the world itself.

For was it not against the world that the little nation fought?

Think of it. Not only did England have 240,000 men in the field against 45,000 of the two South African Republics; not only did she have more guns than the two little States, much more ammunition, a much greater amount of supplies, a great many more horses, much more money but she had the world also on her side. The world looked on the strife without putting forth a hand to help the weak against the strong: nay, it helped the strong. The United States of North America sold horses and wheat and meat to the mighty Empire, that was carrying on a war of extermination against the two small States in South Africa; the Republics of South America gave mules; Austria and Russia supplied horses. I do not forget, when I say this, the large sympathy which the world showed us. I should be guilty of the most heinous ingratitude if I did not acknowledge that the world, and especially Holland, went out of its way in liberally supplying clothing and large sums of money to our women and children in the concentration camps, and to the prisoners of war on the islands. But England had the advantage of a market almost wherever she wished to buy; and she closed up every avenue through which we might have been aided. And so the little nation stood alone, while its great adversary was assisted from the four corners of the earth.

Now I purpose to put on record my experiences in this strife. I will do so as well as I can. What I have to relate, however, will by no means be a history of the war. We shall not have a history of the war until our children write it. No, I am not going to write a history: I am going to record my limited experiences. You will not find here, for instance, anything about the events which happened at Stormberg or Magersfontein, or about the taking of Bloemfontein or Pretoria. I was not present at those events. Only on that of which I was an eye witness, or on what took place in the commando to which I belonged at the time, or what came to my notice shortly after its occurrence only on that will I report in these pages.