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Hello, I have just been given the transcript of a letter from a serving soldier dated May 10th 1901.
'On Dec 6th, I was ordered on outpost duty (the day of my birthday), guarding a (railway) bridge. There were two of us. We were 100 yards apart. Here we had our first encounter with the enemy. I happened to hear their horses stepping on the rails; I called my pal and gave the order "hold! Who goes there?" For an answer we had a few bullets fired at us, but we had sandbag protection, and we started firing at them, and kept it up for about 10 minutes. Then we retired, and ran to our comrades, but they were on us, and we had to run from one kopje to another to save our lives. They stole all our belongings at the bridge, and kept us on the kopjes for 3 weeks. We had to live on one biscuit a day,and the water was not fit for a cat to drink, but we had to drink it to stay alive. At the end we had to fight them. They wrecked a train, tied the guard to the engine and riddled him with bullets. At the same time we started firing upon them, and killed 5 and injured 11, and took 2 prisoners. Then we broke camp and marched three and a half miles, when a Kaffir came up to us and informed us that there were 4,000 Boers coming towards us. We thanked him and entrenched ourselves, but we saw nothing of the enemy. I am having a very rough time of it out here. We are treated like dogs, driven almost to death, and starved. There is nothing to be seen here but wild creatures, hundreds of monkeys, some as big as men. We get about 5 hours sleep at night, being drenched with the rain. We have been now 3 weeks in wet clothes'.

The soldier was Pte William Hodge, from the village of Blaengarw in S.Wales. I have nothing more than that.
Can any of the Forum identify the actions that are mentioned. All and any help gratefully received.

Hello Gerald
And a warm welcome to the forum.
That is quite an evocative letter and very descriptive, thanks for sharing.
Its shows how it was not only a fight against the enemy but also a battle against the conditons of the country.
As a long shot I searched on Find my Past for a William Hodge from that area, the only records show a W Hodge from Swansea
Maybe one of the members may recognise the area from the transcript, good luck.

Paul

Hi Coldstream,
Thanks for the info I did a check as well and found about 4 or 5 possibles.It need not follow that he was Welsh, this area had a tremendous influx of English/Scottish due to the work in the pits. I just thought that the 'battle' date might ring a bell with a Boer buff.Still it is early days yet.

Hi Gerald,
The beginning of "Black Week" I think started on 10th December 1900 with the battle of Stromberg.

Paul

Gentlemen,
Black week, which started with the engagment at Stormberg Junction on the 10th of December, continued at Maggersfontein on the 11th, ending with Buller's first attempt to break through to Ladysmith, on the 15th, after a naked frontal assault at Colenso, was in 1899!
Frank

Good morning Gerald,
I quite forgot to say welcome last night, I do so now.
The problem here is by the date in question the war was all over the country, when I first read your your post, I thought about Vredefort Road Station and Rhenoster, as such a large number of Boers, had been mentioned, but the date is wrong.
There were quite a few William Hodge's in the British army, always, of course assuming he was actually in the British army and a few more in the SAIMF, but even if you knew which unit he was serving in, it would, perhaps, be unlikely to answer your original question.
Frank