| Conflict: | Battle of Blaauwberg |
| Partof: | the Napoleonic Wars |
| Date: | 8–18 January 1806 |
| Place: | Bloubergstrand, Western Cape, Cape Colony |
| Coordinates: | -33.7561°N 18.4656°W |
| Result: | British victory
|
| Combatant1: | United Kingdom |
| Combatant2: | |
| Commander1: | David Baird Home Riggs Popham |
| Commander2: | Willem Janssens |
| Strength1: | 5,399 |
| Strength2: | 2,049 |
| Casualties1: | 189 wounded, 15 killed.[1] 36 drowned before the battle. |
| Casualties2: | 337 "did not answer the roll call" after the battle.[2] Over 700 killed & wounded (letter from British commander Baird).[3] |
| Campaignbox: | |
The Battle of Blaauwberg, also known as the Battle of Cape Town, fought near Cape Town on Wednesday 8 January 1806, was a small but significant military engagement during the War of the Third Coalition, one of the Napoleonic Wars. After a British victory, peace was made under the Treaty Tree in Woodstock establishing British control over the Dutch Cape Colony. The Cape later became a permanent part of the British Empire following the Congress of Vienna that marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814.[4] By establishing permanent British rule over the Cape Colony the battle would have many ramifications for the southern Africa region during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A bi-centennial commemoration was held in January 2006.
The battle followed a previous invasion and occupation of the Cape by the British in 1795 that was part of the French Revolutionary Wars.[5] [6] Following the 1802 Treaty of Amiens and the end of French Revolutionary Wars, the British handed the Cape back to the newly established Batavian Republic that replaced the Dutch Republic. The Batavian Republic would later become a puppet state of the French Empire during the reign Napoleon Bonaparte.
Following the assent to power of Napoleon and outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars a year later in 1803, the Cape again became an issue of strategic concern for the British. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British economy depended on its ability to trade with the British Empire, particularly the valuable colonies in British India. The colony occupied a highly important place at the middle of the sea route between Europe and India and therefore had held commercial and military importance. By holding both the Cape Colony, in addition to its possession of Mauritius, the British would be able to dominate maritime affairs in the south Atlantic and Indian Oceans thereby protecting its wartime economy and assisting in the war effort against France.
As the sea route around the Cape was important to the British, they decided to seize the colony in order to prevent it -and the sea route- from also coming under French control. A British fleet was dispatched to the Cape in July 1805, to forestall French troopships which Napoleon had sent to reinforce the Cape garrison.
The colony was governed by Lieutenant General Jan Willem Janssens, who was also commander-in-chief of its military forces. The forces were small and of poor quality, and included foreign units hired by the Batavian government.
The force Janssens managed to scrounge up included a regiment of foreign mercenaries from Waldeck, two regular Batavian battalions, a squadron of Batavian light dragoons, a troop of Batavian horse artillery and over 200 sailors and marines from two beached French warships, Atlante and Napoleon. The local troops Janssens mustered for the battle included 181 Khoekhoe light infantry (Corps Pandoeren), 224 mounted Burghers out of Swellendam organized as dragoons, as well as wagon drivers and carriers. Fifty four Javanese artillerists, utilising a type of light cannon known as a lantakan, with 104 Mozambican slaves serving as their auxiliaries also served in the Batavian defences.
The British land forces comprising the invasion force were made up of around 7,000 professional soldiers from established veteran battalions, along with a number of camp followers. All supported by a significant naval squadron that included 4 ships of the line, 2 frigates, 3 brigs and a number of transport ships.
Seven infantry battalions from the 24th, 38th, 59th, 71st, 72nd, 83rd Regiments of Foot as well as the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders participated in the invasion and battle. An additional 400 Royal Marines were believed to have been attached to the Highland Brigade. Non-infantry military elements consisted of a small number of Royal Engineers and two squadrons of the 20th Light Dragoons (without horses), in addition to 3 companies of Royal Artillery consisting of 60 men with 6 light field guns and 2 small howitzers (but no draft animals to move them) were also present.
The British naval squadron assembled for the invasion included nine warships and a number of transport vessels under the command of Cmdre. Home Riggs Popham, assembled from two fleets out of Cork and Falmouth. Popham took the 64-gun as his flagship, his warships included the 64-gun ships and, 50-gun, 38-gun, 32-gun, 18-gun, 14-gun and . The Honourable East India Company ships Dutchess of Gordon, Sir William Pulteney, Europe, Streatham, Union, Comet, Northampton, Glory, and William Pitt ferried the invasion force in their holds.
The British force, under David Baird, departed England in August 1805. The first British warship reached the Cape on Christmas Eve 1805, and attacked two supply ships off the Cape Peninsula.
The government instructed Baird that the colony would be "defended by not more than 1500 Regular Troops, not of the best description; and that the Militia and Inhabitants look with anxiety for the Arrival of a British Force". Although Baird received two more communiques, the second providing an estimate of 1500–2000 regular enemy troops, and a 3rd warning of the possibility of 1000–1200 French troops arriving to the cape, carried by French ships that slipped out of Rochefort.[7]
By July, a British officer who visited the cape as a passenger of a Danish ship, provided Baird with more fresh eyewitness estimates, communicating to him to expect 2000 European Troops, 800 Khoekhoe and roughly 200 cavalry and artillerists, combined with earlier reports of French troops potentially arriving to the cape from Rochefort, this brought the total estimate of the defending force of the cape to 4,500. Later still, A Royal Navy Captain named Woodruff sent a letter providing estimates from late July, indicating "1500 Regulars, or thereabouts, and 1500 Khoekhoe, free blacks, and Burghers of every description" although this letter arrived to Britain after Baird has already departed to South Africa.[8] [9] Janssens placed his garrison on alert after receiving reports of the upcoming British invasion. When the main fleet sailed into Table Bay on 4 January 1806, he mobilised the garrison, declared martial law, and called up the militia.
After a delay caused by rough seas, two British infantry brigades, under the command of Baird, landed at Melkbosstrand, north of Cape Town, on 6 and 7 January. Popham ordered a small merchantman to be scuttled at Losperd's Bay to form a breakwater, and Baird started landing his troops. 36 men of the highland 93rd foot drowned during the landing operation when their boat capsized, and some dragoons from the Swellendam Burghers skirmished with them to delay the landing (Janssens did not want to fight a battle on the shoreline, fearing bombardment by the British ships' broadsides).[10] Janssens moved his forces to intercept them. He had decided that "victory could be considered impossible, but the honour of the fatherland demanded a fight". His intention was to attack the British on the beach and then to withdraw to the interior, where he hoped to hold out until the French troopships arrived.
However, on the morning of 8 January, while Janssens's columns were still slowly moving through the veld, Baird's brigades began their march to Cape Town, and reached the slopes of Blaauwberg Hill (now known as the Tygerberg Hills), a few kilometres ahead of Janssens. Janssens halted and formed a line across the veld.
The battle began at sunrise, with exchanges of artillery fire. These were followed by an advance by Janssens's militia cavalry, and volleys of musket fire from both sides. Janssens' hired regiment of mercenary regulars out of Waldeck, placed at the centre of his line, fled from the field when the British 71st foot reached within only 90 meters of them, without firing a single shot, exposing the Batavian centre. The two regiments to its flanks (the 22nd line and 9th Batavian rifles), which promptly began to collapse, though Janssens managed to rally some of his troops and keep them at the fray.
The 200 French sailors and marines, despite having their flanks exposed due to the Batavian line routing, fought ferociously and resisted the attack longer than the rest. 10 pieces of foot artillery placed in the centre, manned by 54 Javanese artillerists and 104 Mozambican slaves, were firing at the advancing Highlanders. A gallant charge of the 71st Highlanders captured the guns after a ferocious defence from the Javanese artillerists. As Janssens' centre began collapsing, he ordered a withdrawal, which his regulars promptly commenced, but his militia and auxiliary troops did not carry out immediately, engaging the British in a fighting withdrawal before being forced to flee due to the increasing pressure of the British attack.[5]
Janssens began the battle with 2,049 troops, and lost either 337[11] or 353 in casualties and desertions[5] Although Baird gives the tally as "reputed to exceed 700 Men in killed and wounded", though he implicitly admitted uncertainty of the enemy's total losses.[12] Baird began the battle with 5,399 men, and his troops suffered 204 casualties in the form of 189 wounded and 15 killed.[13]
From Blaauwberg, Janssens moved inland to a farm in the Tygerberg area, and from there his troops moved to the Elands Kloof in the Hottentots Holland Mountains, about 50 km from Cape Town.
The British forces reached the outskirts of Cape Town on 9 January. To spare the town and its civilian population from attack, the commandant of Cape Town, Lieutenant-Colonel Hieronymus Casimir von Prophalow, sent out a white flag. He handed over the outer fortifications to Baird, and terms of surrender were negotiated later in the day.The formal Articles of Capitulation for the town and the Cape Peninsula were signed the following afternoon, 10 January, at a cottage at Papendorp (now the suburb of Woodstock) which became known as "Treaty Cottage." Although the cottage has long since been demolished, Treaty Street still commemorates the event. The tree under which they signed remains to this day.
Janssens had not yet surrendered himself and his remaining troops. He was following his plan to hold out for as long as he could, in the hope that the French troopships for which he had been waiting for months would arrive and save him. He had only 1,238 men with him, and 211 deserted in the days that followed.
Janssens held out in the mountains for a further week. Baird sent Brigadier General William Beresford to negotiate with him, and the two generals conferred at a farm belonging to Gerhard Croeser near the Hottentots-Holland Mountains on 16 January without reaching agreement. After further consideration, and consultation with his senior officers and advisers, Janssens decided that "the bitter cup must be drunk to the bottom". He agreed to capitulate, and the final Articles of Capitulation were signed on 18 January.
Uncertainty reigns as to where the Articles of Capitulation were signed. For many years it has been claimed that it was the Goedeverwachting estate (where a copy of the treaty is on display), but more recent research, published in Dr Krynauw's book Beslissing by Blaauwberg suggests that Croeser's farm (now the Somerset West golf course) may have been the venue. An article published in the 1820s by the then resident clergyman of the Stellenbosch district, Dr Borcherds, also points towards Croeser's farm.
The terms of the capitulation were reasonably favourable to the Batavian soldiers and citizens of the Cape. Janssens and the Batavian officials and troops were sent back to the Netherlands in March.Following the Action of 21 April 1806 off the relatively nearby coast of Natal, the 40-gun French frigate, Cannonière, was nearly captured due to her crews outdated belief that the colony was still held by the Dutch. After dropping anchor near Simon's Town on 29 April 1806 the captain took a rowboat to shore, only to be fired upon once landing and the Dutch flags exchanged for British flags. The captain and crew narrowly escaped without incurring any casualties and the ship returned to the French colony at Reunion island.
The British forces occupied the Cape from 13 August 1814, when the Netherlands ceded the colony to Britain as a permanent possession. It remained a British colony until it was incorporated into the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910.
Summary of the Articles of Capitulation signed by Lt Col Von Prophalow, Maj Gen Baird and Cdre Popham on 10 January 1806:[14]
Summary of the Articles of Capitulation signed by Lt Gen Janssens and Brig Gen Beresford on 18 January 1806 and ratified by Maj Gen Baird on 19 January:[15]