Page images
PDF
EPUB

He

fying amount of marks. also explained to me that in allotting marks for the answers to the questions in which he asked for views and opinions, he was not influenced by the agreement or non-agreement of the opinions stated with his own views, but judged them entirely by the clearness and ability with which they were stated and reasoned out. He entirely believed that the object of teaching military history, strategy, and tactics was not to cram the minds of our future officers with facts and theories, but to enable them from facts to deduce principles, which would help them when in time to come they would have to think for themselves in situations of difficulty.

I soon learnt that I was in presence of no ordinary mind, but of one which used facts in order to arrive at principles; and in 1869, having undertaken to lecture at the United Service Institution on the Last Campaign of Hanover, I wrote to him for his opinion on certain points, and received in reply that masterly sketch of the spirit of the new Prussian tactics, which is given by Sir William Butler at pages 81-84 of the Life, and of which he says, "It will be allowed that the man who had thus early caught the principles and objects of modern battle tactics possessed a rare power of insight into questions upon which may depend the existence of nations."

In May 1873, at the request of the Council of the United Service Institution, I lectured

on "The Tactics of the Three Arms as modified to meet the requirements of the present day." In the discussion which followed, many of our ablest soldiers and deepest military thinkers took part: Sir Edward Hamley, Sir Patrick M'Dougall, Sir Lintorn Simmons, and some of the finest of the older school, Sir William Codrington, Sir Percy Herbert, and Lord de Ros. Reading the speeches again now, I have no hesitation in saying that by far the ablest and most far-seeing was that by Colonel Colley, which opened the discussion. It is a masterpiece of close and analytical argument. Commencing by showing that only a small part of a force can attempt flank-attacks, and that the great bulk of it must be prepared to attack to its front, or remain inoperative, he proved how superior the new formations must be to the old for such frontal attack. After distinguishing between the formations required for bringing troops into position for the final rush, and those needed for carrying out that rush, he spoke spoke of attack with the bayonet, said that every nation in Europe believed the bayonet to be its special weapon, and continued, in words the truth of which must in the last days and hours of his life have been terribly present in his mind :

"This is merely the expression of the fact that whenever two forces had arrived within a certain distance

of one another, that one which had

it really to wish and try to close, was sufficient morale, sufficient go left in ipso facto victorious; and that every

army, therefore, could boast that whenever it had really made the attempt to cross bayonets it had been victorious.

duel

[ocr errors]

"There are, I think, strong symptoms that infantry fighting is constantly tending more and more to assume the character of an artillery a pure fire fight; that two bodies approach to within a distance at which their fire tells with full effect, and that beyond that neither party can advance till the other is not merely shaken, but has actually given way; that, in point of fact, the retreat of the defenders has usually preceded the final advance of the assailants, and has been determined not by the gallant rush of a body of men, whether formed or unformed, but by the intensity of the concentrated, sustained, and ever-increasing fire brought to bear.

"The battles of the great civil war bear out the opinions expressed by

American officers, that no advance can succeed against good troops holding a fair defensive position till these have been not merely shaken, but practically broken and destroyed as a fighting body."

Such are some of my recollections of Colley as a teacher, writer, and speaker upon the Art of War. We were next to come together under more trying conditions than those of the class-room and the lecture theatre in the swamps and forests of the Gold Coast. The story of his work there has been well told by Sir William Butler. But it can only really be appreciated by those of us who were present at Cape Coast Castle when he arrived, and who had watched, with ever-growing anxiety, the melting away of the carriers, upon whom the advance depended, and the feeble and spasmodic efforts of the Control Department to push supplies to the front. When Colley arrived on the 17th

December, it seemed hopeless ever to accumulate sufficient supplies at advanced depots to enable the force to advance. In twenty-four hours he had grasped the whole situation, had realised the causes of the desertion of the carriers, the long enforced absences from home, the mixture of men of different tribes, the irregular

payment, the want of human sympathy with these human beasts of burden. In less than forty-eight hours he had devised the remedy. Adapting the Prussian etappen systemwith every detail of which his studies had made him familiar

Gold Coast transport, on the -to the peculiar character of

19th he issued instructions, organising the transport into two branches-regimental and local. All organisation to be by tribes, each man to be registered and numbered. For the one branch, the regiment would be its home, where it would find always the same masters, always food and shelter. For the other branch, carriage forward, and return without loads, daily from and to one fixed station, was to be the rule. There were far too few officers for the task, and at first the carriers could scarcely realise the blessing of the change. There were still desertions, still fail

[blocks in formation]

ence was a source of incessant wonder to us. The record of his work in the last days of January and first of February 1874, given by Sir William Butler at p. 102, would be remarkable in any climate. But when we realise that all these miles were travelled on foot, in the most exhausting climate in the world, the energy of the man is almost miraculous.

It was on one of these days -the 31st January-that, during the fight at Amoaful, I first saw Colley under fire, and learnt what his coolness was under those conditions. I was sent by Sir Garnet with an order to Colonel (now Sir Evelyn) Wood, and I found him with Captain Luxmoore, R.N., and Colonel Colley, standing up among some men of the Naval Brigade, who were keeping up a brisk engagement with the Ashantis in the bush a short distance off. The noise caused by the firing was so great that, in order to call Colonel Wood's attention, I touched him on the shoulder, and as I did so, he fell back, struck by a slug on a rib over the heart, and I dropped on my knee to support him. When I looked up, I saw Colley, with his pencil in hand, quietly sketching the group.1

However constantly he might supervise the work on the line of communications, never, so far as we could see, resting or sleeping, one thing was certain, that when there was to be a fight, his duties would bring

[ocr errors]

him to the front. He never showed fatigue, though few men could have stood what he cheerfully went through. He was always the same, cool, calm, clear-headed, indomitable in energy.

Sir William Butler quotes Winwood Reade as saying, "More than once I have heard the remark, 'What should we have done without Colley?"" There was not one of us at the headquarters who did not often ask that question aloud, and ask it daily in our inmost heart.

In February 1875 we started together for Natal, two members of a staff of four, of whom Sir William Butler was a third, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, on that mission which Sir William Butler has described in his eighth and ninth chapters. This time the chief's mission was one of peace and diplomacy, and there was no fighting. One of Colley's letters, published at p. 122 of the Life, describes our work under our chief. He speaks of the beautiful climate, and of the luxury of working hard with men all equally eager, working in perfect harmony. We were all soldiers, but we soldiers, but we were put to anything but military work. Colley became Treasurer and Postmaster-General of the colony; Butler became Protector of Immigrants. Both of these appointments carried seats in the Legislative Council. I was Private Secretary and Clerk of the Executive Council. We

1 A picture, enlarged from this sketch, is, or was, in the possession of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

rose early, worked hard, and saw little of each other till late in the afternoon. But the delightful evenings that we passed together, when every subject in heaven and earth was discussed, enlivened by Butler's wit and Colley's pertinent illustrations, remain among the pleasantest memories of my life.

It was then, in the close intimacy of our companionship in Government House, in our walks and rides together, and in our talks, prolonged often into the late night, in each other's rooms, which were side by side, that I learnt that part of Colley's nature which more than any other chained my imagination, and which can never be dissociated from him in my memory, -his splendid loyalty and chivalry. No one, I think, can read Sir William Butler's Life of him without being struck by this feature of his character; but when one lived in his close intimacy it shone like a star. His chivalrous courtesy to women in thought, word, and deed, his loyalty to his chief and to his comrades, were alike untarnished.

last came Colley's turn. I knew how perfectly he had mastered his subject, how thoroughly he had prepared his argument. He rose, and in a few terse sentences spoke of the need of a strong Government, and defined what in Parliament is meant by that term. And then, to our astonishment, he hesitated, and paused, and at last sat down, saying that he regretted he was unable to continue his speech. That night he was most unhappy. The second reading had been carried; but I found and left him inconsolable, not because he had failed, but because, he said, he had disgraced the staff. His sorrow was touching beyond words.

It is a strange thing, this sudden paralysis of speech which sometimes seizes the coolest of men. I have three times witnessed it in men from whom, least of all, could it have been expected. I have, in the House of Commons, seen a man who had been a member of the last Government, whom I had heard on previous occasions speak and debate with ease and fluency, break hopelessly down after the opening sentences of a carefully prepared speech, for which he had obtained a night for debate. I have, at a public dinner, among men of his own cloth, seen a great and famous operating surgeon, the one man whose nerve, one would think, could never fail, break down in the same way. And here was a man, one of whose previous clear and logical speeches I have already quoted from, a practised And at practised lecturer, a man of

Sir William Butler has told, in Colley's own words, the history of the debate in the Legislative Council. I shall never forget that night. I watched the debate, which was to seal the success or failure of Sir Garnet's mission, from the gallery behind the Speaker. Butler

a

made a clever and amusing speech. The chief opponent of the Government bill was gentleman named Winter, whom Butler spoke of as "this Winter of our discontent." And at

cool, calm brain, seized in the committees and commissions would be saved if they would all act clearly on those lines!

same way.

And now I must tell a sequel to this event, which illustrates what I have said of the chivalry and loyalty of the man. Some time afterwards, I gave by request a lecture on the opening of a large new hall. There was a crowded room, and Sir Garnet and the staff were present. The lecture was a success, and Sir Garnet said some kind words at its close. Then Colley came up to me, his face beaming with pleasure. "Thank you, thank you," he said; "now I don't so much mind my failure.' Was there ever such a noble, generous heart?

[ocr errors]

"I wish," he wrote after this debate was over,-"I wish I was acting, and had done with talking." And in action he left us all far behind. That journey through Swaziland to Delagoa Bay, much of it on foot, without guides or interpreters, is a feat that is really marvellous. He walked 400 miles and drove 600 miles in the roughest of post-carts in thirty-three days. It was the old energy of the Ashanti days again. On his return, he, Napier Broome, and I served together as a committee of three on the conduct of the public business of the colony. I shall never forget how his keen brain clove through the web of details to the heart of the problem. It was a lesson that has served me in good stead since. He made us lay down our guiding principles first, and then arrange the details to suit the principles. What masses of useless reports by

From the time when we parted in South Africa I saw but little of him for the next

four years. But early in 1878, when he came home on leave, some of his old comrades of the Ashanti campaign, among them Sir Garnet Wolseley, gave him a dinner before his marriage.

We loaded the table with flowers, many orange blossoms among them, and chaffed him unmercifully; and I never saw him in better health and spirits.

.

Our next meeting was at Port Durnford, on the coast of Zululand, in July 1879, a day or two after Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival there as High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief, when Colley came from India to take up the post of chief of the staff. Once again, with lightning quickness, he mastered the whole situation, and set free the chief's mind from harassing details. We lived together in camp for two months. At this time he was suffering from a temporary but distressing affection of the eyes, brought on by overwork in India, but it in no way abated his energy. How well I remember that night of storm at Entonjaneni described by Sir William Butler at pages 235, 236, and Colley's cheerfulness under those most depressing conditions, when in one night our transport oxen died by hundreds; the dispositions made for the capture of Cetywayo; the dusky potentate's entry

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »