The Scottish soldier and Empire, 1854-1902 - Reenactor.ru

Magersfontein and its Aftermath 167
which Private Ronald Ferguson (HLI) claimed that he had heard
Wauchope say as he fell riddled with bullets. 49 Whether this was any
more accurate was also doubtful (as the HLI were originally in reserve
while Wauchope died at the head of his men), but it upheld the
honour of the fallen Scottish general, while not deflecting attention
from the bane of the brigade, Lord Methuen himself.
Many Highlanders expressed frank and forceful criticisms of Methuen.
They ranged from moderate condemnation of ‘These frontal
attacks, with no tactics, on impossible positions do no good; the loss
is awful’ 50 to claims that Methuen was ‘guilty of almost criminal negligence’,
suicidal tactics, a ‘blunder’, and was responsible for ‘a lot of
lives [lost] that day’. 51 Many deeply resented his post-battle speech,
sympathising with ‘their terrible loss’, a speech dubbed by Captain
Cameron as ‘most impolitic and insulting’. 52 Argylls, who had suffered
in successive battles under Methuen’s generalship, and lost
Lieutenant- Colonel G. L. J. Goff at Magersfontein, were particularly
bitter. Corporal Bevan denounced the advance in quarter-column formation,
Private A. Thomson claimed that the men had ‘lost all confidence
in General Methuen’, another that ‘the men grumble every hour
of the day about the way he treats the Highland Brigade’, and a corporal
even alleged that there was ‘a wild spirit of mutiny among the
men’. 53 If other sources failed to corroborate the last assertion, they
endorsed the widespread loss of confidence in Methuen which Hector
Macdonald, the new brigade commander, passed on to Lord Roberts,
the incoming commander-in-chief. 54 Roberts removed the brigade
from Methuen’s division, and Lord Methuen accepted that ‘the
Highland Brigade will never wish to serve under me again’. 55
News of Macdonald’s appointment, and then the removal of the
brigade from Methuen’s division, lanced one boil of recriminations at
the front and gave fresh hope to Scots at home. The Ross-shire Journal
commended the ‘admirable choice’ of the War Office ‘in placing
“Fighting Mac” at the head of his gallant countrymen’. 56 Many Scots,
whether in the press, pulpit or political leadership, responded to the
disaster with professions of resolve and support for the imperial cause.
Following Magersfontein, the Reverend John Addie reassured his
Perthshire congregation that ‘our flag does mean freedom, political
and religious. We do believe that our cause in South Africa is the cause
of social, moral, and spiritual progress.’ 57 In Alness Parish Church, the
Reverend Wallace Brown declared that ‘the war was a war of the
British race in defence of their ideal of civilisation’, and at St Leonard’s
Free Church, the Reverend Dr D. Bannerman described ‘how the