Then with considerable skill the troops to right and left were manoeuvred by De Lisle, so that, while relieving the pressure on the front, the Boer laager was practically enclosed on three sides and finally rendered untenable.
We hear in the course of things from a Kaffir despatch-runner that she's stayin' in a hotel of sorts at Tweipans, where Brounckers has had his headquarters since he shifted Chief Laager from Geitfontein.
But though the watch-fires of their pickets burned upon the veld, and though the Boer lay in laager over the Border, of him they said not one word.
For one thing, that the town is a hotbed of spies, and that our friends in laager outside are nightly communicated with by means of flash-signals.
Gone into laager near the railway works now, you 'ave, I know.
It goes without saying that the fresh site of Head Laager had been cunningly chosen.
He caught me mousing round his hoofd laager at Tweipans--and what does he do?
SIR,--I beg to report myself arrived at the above address, twelve miles distant from the head laager of the Boer Commandant, General Brounckers.
There are said to be several commandos in laageron the Border.
They would be in upon the laager and surprise it asleep, having first made mincemeat of the unfortunate sentry.
So Ben Halse decided to alter his plans, and turning off to Skerry Hill, join the laager there for the present.
They had reconnoitred this laager and its conditions at night, and had voted it a safe and easy walk over, and so it would have been but for the arrival of Ben Halse.
No man uttered a word of complaint; each man did his work so quickly that one could hardly believe that a laager could be put on the move in so short a time.
In the meantime President Steyn's laagerhad moved from the east of Heilbron and joined us.
I left the laager behind and rode on in advance with a horse-commando.
The enemy did not appear and the laagerescaped without let or hindrance--and so we camped at Vanvurenskloof.
For I heard a few days later that the enemy had not been able to pursue the laageras their draft-cattle and horses were so completely exhausted, that they had fallen down dead in heaps.
The following morning, an hour and a half after sunrise, a burgher came galloping up to tell us that the enemy had just captured a laager of women.
The same evening we arrived at the farm of Rhenosterpoort, where our laager had waited since we had crossed the Vaal River more than a week ago.
I had been to the laagerat "Prospect" the night before, with the intention of returning so as to be in time for the storming of the town.
The sun had already set before we had put everything in order, and it was late in the evening when we returned to our laager at "Prospect.
But they had now left the laager alone and returned to Kroonstad.
We found that this force was the very one that had flanked our laager the previous week, when we were passing Ventersdorp.
We had several slight skirmishes with the English; and at sunset we nearly fell into their hands, but fortunately we were successful in holding the enemy in check until our small laager had passed.
General Philip Botha conducted the prisoners and the booty to the President's camp, returning to our laager on the following morning.
For another week we were kept in laager near Pretoria, and then we were separated, Father being dragged down south, while I was compelled to accompany this commando.
At night a laagerwas formed, but by daylight the long column had taken the road again, and was pressing forward in feverish haste towards Bloemfontein.
Weakened by his wound and by his stay in Ladysmith, Jack had fallen a victim to the foul water and odours of the Boer laager at Paardeberg, and had been struck down with typhoid fever.
The verylaager was not finished until the danger was past.
In the month of February 1881, two Englishmen came to the Boer laager at Lang's Nek to offer their services as doctors.
These last are chosen by the field cornets for each district, and a Commandant-general is chosen by the whole laager or force, but the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the army.
He said, in the course of conversation, 'Piet Joubert het gevraacht waarom was de mensche neet dood geschiet toen hulle bijde eerste laager gekom het.
Mounting a high kopje, he saw the four join a large laager of some 400 Boers, with spare horses, cattle and three Cape carts, which was on the move.
The next morning another batch, over 800 strong, was sent off, and the remainder followed an hour later, bringing our connection with the Boer laager to a close.
The night marches that ensued resulted in the capture of a great many Boers, including that of Grobelaar's laager and 100 men.
At Lokshoek was a laager of women and children, with Cape carts and wagons.
Bothaville, when intelligence was received of the presence of a Boer laager in the neighbourhood; so Major Lean with a few men of his own corps, all dismounted, went out one night to reconnoitre.
Handing over the prisoners to his men, he and his party went on cautiously, and on coming to the summit of a rise in the ground saw the whole Boer laager at their feet.
The battalion camped on the 31st of July at Klerksvlei, but next day moved about three miles further on with a view of forming a guard to the prisoners, whose laager had then been established at Korfshoek.
During this day the battalion had been moved to the same spot upon which the laager was encamped: several pickets were furnished round the prisoners, and sentries placed on the roads leading in and out of the pass.
Unfortunately he arrived at the Tchangani store on the day after it had been evacuated by the white men who had been in laager there, and he probably found it in possession of the Kafirs, who of course murdered him.
After having burnt a few kraals and picked up a flock of sheep and goats and a stray cow or two, we returned to laager very much disappointed that we had had a ten-mile walk for nothing, so far as meeting with the rebels was concerned.
Within this laager the whole population of the town, with few exceptions, slept every night; the women and children within the buildings, whilst the men manned the waggons in readiness to resist any sudden attack.
A few hours after he had left the Tchangani, the garrison of the laager was augmented by the arrival of Messrs.
These two gentlemen deserve the utmost credit not only for getting the laager into good order, but also for keeping it in that condition for the next two months.
Towards the end of June Captain Laing arrived in Bulawayo in command of the relief forces which had been sent to him from Tuli and Victoria, Lieutenant Stoddart being left in command of the laager at Belingwe.
Arrived at the Tchangani, Mr. Grey found seventeen Europeans in laager there, amongst them the men from the Eagle mine, who had been pursued on their way to the store.
At daybreak they reached the Dutch laager and caught the Boers napping.
The laager was captured, and with it forty ill-kempt, surly prisoners.
The enemy's laagerwas ensconced in a nest of trees, at the base of a range of kopjes commanded by a convenient ridge.
A glimpse, too, might be had of the distant laager of the Boers perched on the Tugela heights; but the Dutchmen being evidently warned of the coming of the British troops, struck camp and silently melted away.
Here the enemy's laager was reported to be situated.
The troops took the same direction as before--attacked the Boers, beat them back, and captured their laager and three works.
When they alighted in the laageryou could not have told whether it was rescuer or rescued who was the wounded man, so smeared was Beresford with borrowed blood.
When the laager was formed on the pleasant slope stretching up from the rippling Umvaloosi, two days were accorded him in which to make up his mind.
The laager was roughly entrenched; the guns were got into position; the outposts were strengthened; and arms and ammunition were carefully inspected.
For instance, on the night but one before Ulundi, when a picket of Wood’s most seasoned regiment, a regiment that had distinguished itself grandly at Kambula, scuttled into the laager in uncontrollable scare.
Not alone for the bathers was this fire a nuisance; a part of the laager was within range of the Martini-Henrys got at Isandlwana, which the Zulus on the kopjie were using; and one or two casualties occurred.
I rode out of the Umvaloosi laager that night because I have a quick temper and a disgust for military ineptitude.
In about five minutes' time the laager was roused by a Boer, who commenced swearing roundly at some one in a very loud voice.
It was here that the laager was supposed to be situated, and an extension was made and the advance continued.
The actual position of thelaager was found to be about one mile away from where it had been previously located, and was very difficult to find in the dark owing to the undulations of the ground at the top of the ridge.
The distance from Lydenburg to Piet Schwartz's laager by road is about eighteen miles; the distance marched by the column could not have been under twenty miles, and this over very difficult ground.
The remainder of the column was to proceed by the main road and attack the laager at daybreak.
After some twenty minutes of sharp musketry fire the "cease fire" sounded, and everything was again quiet; it was then found that the whole laager had fallen into British hands.
Suddenly they all returned into thelaager out of sight, only to appear again in a few minutes on horseback.
At daybreak our 'Long Toms' made excellent practice at what looked like a Boer laager on the slope of the hill across the river to the north.
Zeerust is about ninety miles to the west of Rustenberg; the latter is a small town surrounded by hills, and where some fifty of our troops were in a laager or small fort during the whole of the Boer rebellion.
They were attacked by the natives, and had constantly to form themselves into laager to defend themselves.
There is a Boer laager some miles above the camp, the scourings of which--horrid thought!
All along its purple sides we ranged with our glasses, seeing nothing; but after dark several little points of light showed where their laager was.
That is where the laager is, but not a soul can one see move.
I remember it well; a wet night, and all night long we sat on a steep kopje watching the lights of a Boer laager and expecting to be attacked.
They have a strong laager at Jacobsdal on the Reit, and have pushed west and south of that, where, from the kopjes about Zoutspan and Ramdam, they threaten our lines of communication.
I was one of a party that rode down with the Major on the morning of the surrender to the laager and saw the prisoners marched in.
They have made a laager about ten miles up, and evidently mean to dispute our passage to the capital.
For a few days there was a hurrying to and fro of commandoes, and then one morning De Wet's laager was seen to have disappeared.
Searching carefully for the fault, my progress was slow, and it was afternoon when the Johannesburg laager was reached.
Then the enemy retired, followed by some burghers, who had by this time arrived from the laager at the back of the hill.
When I entered the laagerit was to find that all the waggons had already retreated, and the tents standing deserted.
When the discussion was at its height, information was received that the Johannesburg laager was surrounded by the enemy.
It is hard to realise the amount of selfishness which generally prevails in a laager or commando.
The laager inspanned and followed De Wet, who had just passed here, and after a few hours' rapid trekking caught up to him.
At sunrise the others returned, saying that the Standerton laager had moved much higher up, and that the Johannesburg laager was the next on the list.
Then a couple burst near the general's tent, and the laager was immediately shifted behind the hill.
In point of position, the site of our present laager was preferable to the one quitted.
There was a laager consisting of a simple stone enclosure, bastioned, however, and loopholed, and situated on the bank of a running stream of bright and clearly sparkling water.
From Bemba's Kop they moved on the 20th to Wolpoint, as nearly as possible seven miles west of the White Umbolosi, and thence went on to Tunguin's Neck, where a laager was planned and completed.
The laager was formed above a rocky pass, having at the bottom pools of water in splendid granite basins.
In like manner they had been advanced en echelon to the extreme left front, and the Buffs had been moved in laager to the right rear of the 88th; while Lonsdale's Horse held the hill formerly occupied by the 99th.
Colonel Wood, not to expose unduly the horses of the artillery, had retained under the shelter of the laager four guns in reserve.
His lordship said the time had now arrived for a final blow to be dealt, and he purposed, having first established a base of operations by constructing a small depot laager at Amhlabatini, pushing on at once to the attack of Ulundi.
Lord Chelmsford was so anxious to complete the main details of the depot laager that he deferred his march till sundown.
This time it was upon the left of the laager that they delivered their last and supreme effort.
The following day was merely the repetition of the routine of former days, with the exception that the condition of the men and the laager was hourly becoming more miserable.
The professional man of Pretoria and Johannesburg was in a laager which was adjacent to a laager of farthest-back veld-farmers.
The old farmer had been absent from his laager less than an hour when he saw a small body of British soldiers at the foot of a kopje.
The bombardment of the laager was renewed, and the burghers realised that Froneman had been beaten back by the enemy.
Men who could boast of being grandfathers were innumerable, and in almost anylaager there could be seen father, sons, and grandsons, all fighting with equal vigour and enthusiasm.
On that day the Boers did not appear to know anything concerning the position of the enemy, and James Marks, a Rustenburg farmer, determined to go out of the laager and reconnoitre on his own responsibility.
The day before the battle General De Wet and his men were in laager several miles east of Brandfort, whither they had fled after the fall of Bloemfontein.
On Monday morning it seemed as if the very blades of grass for miles around the Boer laager were belching shot and shell over the dongas and trenches where the burghers had sought shelter.
He could go on picket duty and have a brush with the enemy whenever he felt inclined to do so, or he could remain in his laager and never have a glimpse of the enemy.
On Friday morning, April 6th, a native guide came in with information that the enemy had a laager at a farm called Tweefontein, nine miles south-east of Boshof.
The only water to drink was that from a well by the river--water of a dark and strange colour; and even while one drank it one sat and watched the carcases of horses floating down the brown stream from the deserted Boer laager a mile above.
After my accidental discovery of the Boer laager near Spitz Kop there was a long discussion by Lord Methuen and his staff of the possibilities of surrounding and attacking the enemy.
He had no Horse Artillery; and the rapid and secret march to the rear of the laager might have been impossible with field-guns.
Like foothills beside a mountain range, so the veldt before him was already broken and crumpled into a series of irregular ridges, opening in their midst to form a tiny plain where the Boer laager lay spread out before them.
The fight about the laager had been no easy victory.
His Intelligence staff had ascertained that the actual strength of the Boers in laager at that moment was about 1,700, and that the southern face of the Kissieberg and the Nek between that hill and Rooi Kop were entrenched.
Ladysmith under Major-General French, and, proceeding to scout along the Newcastle and Helpmakaar roads, was sighted at dawn by Meyer, who was then in laager about seven miles south of Elandslaagte.
A few days later Butcher succeeded in getting a second gun up the hill, and by means of his great command, forced the Boers to shift every laager into sheltered kloofs, and caused them considerable losses.
If the Estcourt and Mooi River forces could have closed on the Boer laager simultaneously, it is probable that more important results would have been achieved.
Groups of horsemen, breaking away from the main laager visible at Pepworth, came riding up the valleys and behind the crests towards the northern end of Kainguba.
Through their main laager on Kleinfontein ran the railway line to Van Reenen's Pass.
At 6 o'clock next morning this gun opened upon a laager in the very midst of the enemy's main position.
The whole campaign was settled by two battles, in which they attacked the white men in laager and suffered many reverses.
The Matabele came right up to our camp, some being shot within three hundred yards of the laager with the Maxim.
But the large army opposed to us retired without fighting as soon as they heard that the King's forces had made an unsuccessful attack on the laager near Bulawayo, and so we came in here (Bulawayo) without further trouble.
And she sighed, as though pondering brought her no decision, and went once more about her work, always with an eye cocked to the window to watch for any rider coming back from the laager with news of affairs.
This she knew clearly enough, yet as she went along, with the thin wind of the night on her forehead, she wasted no thoughts, but bent herself to the business of finding the laager and coming to Andreas.
Our laager at Waterworks is a large square, measuring some 200 metres on every side, planted with trees, and containing the machinery for distributing the water.
On the 30th, at eight o'clock, orders are given to transport our laager to the foot of the high kopjes we see four or five miles off in the direction of Taba N'chu.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "laager" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
