#boeke

Captain Theron asked me to remain with him, but I refused as I wished to rejoin my brothers, so I said good-bye next morning, and went in search of the ‘A.C.C.’ This was the last I saw of him, for he was killed a few miles from here; a man who would have made a name for him-self had he lived.

The ‘A.C.C.’ now decided to join General Lemmer’s men, and, after a long ride, we came up with them just in time to see a strong body of English cavalry crossing the Vaal River, cheering loudly at setting foot in the Transvaal again, for it was twenty years since a British soldier had trodden its soil.

They had batteries posted on the Free State side, and, as we had ridden too close up, Lemmer lost three men killed and several wounded, with no corresponding advantage to himself. He thereupon drew off into rougher country where we halted for the night, and next morning, seeing the British troops advancing from the Vaal, we retreated in the direction of Johannesburg, thirty miles away.

By noon we found General de la Rey, with nearly a thousand men, holding some low hills within sight of the mine-stacks. I was surprised that he had managed to keep so many with hills, considering the way in which things were going to pieces, but he had more control over men than any officer who I had thus far seen.

General Koos de la Rey

At four o’clock the advance was on us again. Armstrong guns were unlimbered, and we were severely handled. The position we held was a strong one, however, and despite casualties we stood our ground until dark, by which time word came through that we must fall back on the Klipriver, a small stream on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

We groped our way through the night with hundreds of other men all jostling each other on the narrow road, and, having forded the river, we slept till daybreak. We were now practically backed right up against the city, so close that sightseers and even women came out in cabs and on foot to view the proceedings, and soon after dawn the English came pouring over the ground to the south of the Klipriver with horse, foot and guns.

As we were watching them, Commandant Gravett, of the Boksburg commando, came riding by asking for volunteers to accompany him to a low ridge just beyond, from which he said we could snake a showing against some English cavalry that had crossed the river and were approaching in our direction. The men of the ‘A.C.C.’ hung in the wind, for they were sulking over some gibe Gravett had flung at us when we elbowed his people off the road the night before, so only a man named Jack Borrius and I went. We rode rapidly forward, reaching the hills just in time to forestall the English horse-men from getting there first.

We brought down three, whereupon the rest galloped back through the river, but soon returned reinforced, and they came at us so determinedly that we loosed only a few shots before running for our lives. We came under brisk fire without any Casualties, but my roan horse had a piece clipped from his ear by a rifle bullet before I got back to the ‘A.C.C.’ in the rear.

My two brothers had been absent since earlier in the morning. For several days the younger one had been ailing, and now he was so ill that Hjalmar and our boy Charley had taken him to Johannesburg, one riding on either side to hold him on his horse. We did not know what was wrong with him, but it subsequently turned out to be typhoid fever from which he barely escaped with his life.

They had not yet returned when I rejoined the ‘A.C.C.’ and in the meanwhile we were kept busy enough, for the British troops were by now crossing the Klipriver in large numbers, deploying on the open ground between us, and before long shelling had commenced. No doubt they knew by now that Johannesburg was theirs for the taking, and they ran no risks with their infantry, confining themselves to most unpleasant gun-fire.

For the first time for many days we, too, had guns in action, and there were several batteries of Creusots blazing away from close by. The gunners suffered terribly, and I counted seven artillerists killed in less than fifteen minutes during one particularly violent burst. We of the ‘A.C.C.’ were snugly tucked away in a kopje where the shelter was so good that we did not lose a man or a horse, and we passed most of the day idly watching the scene.

Shortly before sunset we saw activity away to our right, and there came line upon line of infantry, with guns roaring. General de la Rey had his Lichtenburg men there, but although they are reputed the best fighting men in the Transvaal, they were overborne by weight of numbers and were soon riding back in full retreat. This was the last effort to defend Johannesburg. When the line gave, all was over, and during the night de la Rey drew off to the west to his own country, where the-doughty old warrior was to fight many another battle in days to come.

All semblance of order or resistance now disappeared. Wherever one looked, men were departing wholesale, and the universal cry was: ‘Huis-toe’, the war is over. Several of our ‘A.C.C.’ men deserted at this juncture, but most of them remained, and we fell back that evening to Langlaagte, a suburb of Johannesburg, where we spent the night.

My brother, Hjalmar and our boy were waiting for me. They had reached Johannesburg railway station, and had succeeded, in spite of the disorder, in getting Amt on board a goods train for Pretoria. They said that all trains were crammed with fugitives, but that they had left him in the care of a man who promised to deliver him into my father’s hands. With this they had to be satisfied, but they returned towards the firing very worried as to the outcome, for by now he was delirious.

Johannesburg Market Square 1900

  Next morning (it must have been about the 1st or 2nd of June) we saw the British feeling their way into Johannesburg, so we followed the drift of retreating men going round by the eastern side of the town. As we passed the gold-mines that lay on our route, there was a small column of cavalry drawn up not far off watching us go by, who made no attempt to interfere with us, probably thinking that we were refugees and not worth bothering about.

Plan of Johannesburg  during 1900

When we got to the main road leading to Pretoria, we found it crowded, with mounted men, wagons and herds of cattle, and we had to make our way through dreadful confusion. To the right was another British column moving parallel with us, which caused our native Charley to remark, ‘Baas, those English people don’t know the road to Pretoria, so they are coming along with us to make sure,’ and, indeed, I believe that the English could have ridden in amongst us that day without firing a shot, so strong was the conviction that our army was disbanded and the war at an end.

By sunset the ‘A.C.C.’ worked itself out of the throng and halted at Six-mile Spruit, a rivulet that distance from Pretoria. Commandant Malan intended to wait here until next morning, but my brother and I pushed on as we were anxious to get home and see our father.

The later General Wynand Malan

We reached Pretoria by ten o’clock, and rode through the deserted streets to our home in the Sunnyside suburb. Here disappointment awaited us, for the place was in darkness and the house was empty. We went to several neighbors to make inquiries. They seemed to think that the enemy was upon them, for it was only after we had tried at several doors that at last a shrinking figure appeared in response to our knocking with rifle-butts, and, seeing who we were, curtly told us that President Kruger and my father had run away, and that Pretoria was to be surrendered to the British in the morning, after which the door was slammed in our faces.

We knew the President and my father too well to believe that they had ignominiously run away, and the fact that they had left Pretoria together was proof to us that they had gone to carry on the war, so we returned home, and after stabling and feeding our weary horses, broke open one of the doors and went inside.

We made a roaring fire in the kitchen, at which we cooked a dinner with supplies from the pantry, and then slept in comfortable beds, a change after the freezing nights we had endured of late.

It was nevertheless a dismal homecoming. Our younger brother had been left stranded in a cattle-truck weak and ill, amid the chaos of a general retreat, our other brother was missing, and for all we knew dead, while my father was gone and our home was deserted.

We only heard later that my stepmother and the younger children had been sent to Delagoa Bay and thence by sea up the East Coast of Africa to Holland, where they still are.

Early next morning we set about making plans for the future. First we saddled our horses and rode uptown to find out what was happening. The streets were swarming with leaderless men, knowing even less of the situation than ourselves. Of the ‘A.C.C.’ there was no trace, and all was utter confusion with looting of shops and supply depots, and a great deal of criticism of our leaders.

Plundering State shops Pretoria end May start June 1900

After commandeering provisions for our future requirements, we returned home. The British by now were shelling the forts outside the town, and an occasional ‘over’ fell in our vicinity, but we were accustomed to gun-fire by now, and remained quietly resting until the afternoon.

Towards three o’clock a gaunt figure appeared before us. It was our missing brother Joubert, whom we had given up for lost. He said that his horse had been killed when the ‘A.C.C.’ were rushed at Kopje-Alleen a fortnight before, but he had succeeded in escaping on foot. After tramping it for many days, he reached Johannesburg in time to board the last outgoing train, which had just brought him to Pretoria.

Pretoria Central 1900

As burghers now came galloping past, shouting that the English were entering by the road above the railway station, I hurried back on horseback to the centre of the town, where I annexed a saddled-horse, from among several standing before a shop that was being looted, and absconded with this remount for my brother. We now prepared to leave, though as a matter of fact the English only occupied Pretoria next day, but, as we did not know that the rumor was premature, we thought it safer to get away in good time.

Lord Roberts entering Pretoria 5 June 1900

In the circumstances it seemed best to leave our faithful old native boy behind, as we felt that -with the increasing difficulty of securing horses and food we could no longer indulge in the luxury of a servant, and besides, we needed his animal as an additional pack-horse. The poor fellow piteously entreated us to keep him, but we had to harden our hearts, and, having no money to give him, we allowed him to take from the house as many blankets and other articles as he could carry, and so parted from him after an affecting scene.

Our arrangements were easily made. We loaded what we needed from pantry and wardrobes on to our pack-horses, and after a last look round at our home we rode away on the main road leading east, along which many other fugitives were already hurrying.

By dark we had got as far as the big distillery eight or nine miles distant, where we spent the night. By morning so many other horsemen had arrived that there must have been nearly fifteen hundred, few of whom were under officers, and none of whom seemed to know what to do next. My brothers and I rode about, looking for the ‘A.C.C.’, but, although we round no trace of them, it did not worry us overmuch, and we agreed to remain on our own until we fell in with them again or until we had made further plans.

In going round we met Mr Smuts, the State Attorney, off-saddled under a tree with his brother-in-law, P. Krige, who had been one of Isaac Malherbe’s men and had been seriously wounded at Spion Kop. I had not seen him since, for he had only just left hospital to avoid being captured in Pretoria by the British.

As Mr Smuts was a member of the Government, we persuaded him to tell us where my father and the President had gone to, and what the general position was. He said that the President and my father were at Machadodorp, a small village on the Pretoria_Delagoa-Bay railway line, at which place they had set up a new capital.

A parliament on wheels. Paul Kruger’s seat in government at Machadodorp.

So far from making peace, they were determined to carry on the war by means of guerilla tactics. They hoped to stop the rot that had set in, and Mr Smuts himself was starting immediately for the Western Transvaal to reorganize that area, while similar steps would be taken elsewhere; and in the Free State, President Steyn and Christian de Wet had undertaken to pull things together.

The Commandant-General, Louis Botha, was lying not many miles away, collecting as many burghers as he could to form the nucleus of a fresh army and everyone was to be directed thither. All this was better news than we had heard for a long time, and already we could see, from the animated way in which the men were standing around their fires talking and laughing, that there was a more hopeful feeling in the air.

My eldest brother and I decided that, before joining a commando, we should seek out my father at Machadodorp, partly to find out his views, and partly to hear whether he knew what had become of our younger brother Arnt. My brother Joubert refused to accompany us and rode away to look for General Botha, so that once more we lost sight of him for many days.

Machadodorp lay a hundred and seventy miles due east, and Hjalmar and I set out on the long ride without delay. We did the ninety miles to Middleburg in two days, and here we were lucky enough to get a lift by goods train for the rest of the journey, arriving at Machadodorp by the following morning. This village was for the time being the capital of the Transvaal.

Long rows of railway coaches constituted the Government Buildings, where such officials as had not preferred surrender made a show of carrying on the public business of the country. In one of these coaches we found my father installed, and his welcome was a warm one, for he had received no news of us since we had left him in April to go south into the Free State. We were greatly relieved to hear that our brother Arnt was at that moment lying in the Russian ambulance at Watervalonder, in the low country, forty miles down the line.

He had arrived delirious some days before, but there was hope of his recovery. My father confirmed what Mr Smuts had told us of the military position, and he said that guerilla war was better suited to the genius of the Boer people than regular field operations. He spoke of George Washington and Valley Forge, and of other seemingly lost causes that had triumphed in the end, and although we did not altogether share his optimism (for we had the memory of demoralized and flying columns fresh in our minds), yet his faith cheered us tremendously.

When we asked after President Kruger we were told that he too was down at Watervalonder, for he was an old and feeble man in these days and was unable to stand the bitter cold up here.

Before returning west in search of General Botha, Hjalmar and I took train down the mountain to see our sick brother. We found him with many wounded men in a hospital improvised by that very Russian ambulance corps which General Joubert had refused to accept, but which had nevertheless come to our assistance.

He was conscious when we got there, and the Russian nurses said that he had turned the corner, although still in grave danger.

At Watervalonder we had our last sight of President Kruger. He was seated at a table in a railway saloon, with a large Bible open before him, a lonely, tired man. We stood gazing at him through the window, but as he was bowed in thought, we made no attempt to speak to him. He left for Portuguese territory not long after, and I never saw him again, for he was taken to Holland on a Dutch man-of-war, and he is still an exile.( He died in Switzerland in 1904.)

A disconsolate Paul Kruger sitting on the left side of the porch above of the last official government headquarters at Waterval Onder August 1900.

We now returned up the Berg to Machadodorp, where we said good-bye to my father, and travelled back to Middleburg by rail to get our horses, which we had left in charge of one of the townspeople.

Here there was a small contingent of German volunteers, about sixty strong, under an Austrian, Baron von Goldeck, whom we had known in Natal. As we had no idea where the ‘A.C.C.’ had gone, and as one commando was as good as another, we obtained admission to the ‘German Corps‘, as it was somewhat grandiloquently called. Von Goldeck was preparing to ride his men west to scout for General Botha, so we trekked away the next day, going via Balmoral Station, until in three days’ time we gained contact with the British patrols on the outskirts of Pretoria.

Lord Roberts was resting his army around the capital, so we spent the next ten days skirmishing over the uneven country to watch his movements. We had several exciting encounters, in the course of which we lost five Germans, but it was an enjoyable time. We lived on what we could forage, and, what with scouting to within sight of Pretoria and raising alarms in the big camps, there was not a dull moment.

Then the country got too hot to hold us and we fell back twenty or thirty miles to where General Botha was busy collecting as many men as he could get together. We found him halted near the old battlefield of Bronkhorstspruit, where Colonel Anstruther‘s force was cut up in the war of 1880. He lay by his saddle on the open veld, and save for a few dispatch-riders and some pack-horses, there was nothing to distinguish his headquarters from any of the other groups of burghers dotted about.

Lt. Col. Philip Robert Anstruther

He said we had done well and could now take a holiday, so we rode to a deserted farm some distance off, and remained there quietly for some days.

  –DR-

  Notes and references:

  General HR Lemmer

In 1886 HR Lemmer fought for Moshete against Machua in the Western Transvaal and was wounded. Before the ABO he was a member of the first Volksraad. In October 1899 as a burgher he joined the Boer war effort in Natal, where he was promoted to general. He operated and fought mainly at Colesberg, the Free State and Western Transvaal. He was very successful at Slingersfontein and Keeromskop. He is also remembered for the battles he fought in the Northern Cape and against lord Methuen.

He also fought at Kraaipan and later took part in numerous actions. Unfortunately he had a disease of the kidneys and this forced him to relinquish his authority to command G. Gravett. After the fall of Pretoria and the Battle of Diamond Hill [at Donkerhoek] he was sent to the north of Pretoria to reorganise burghers from the Western districts.

Lemmer died in battle against lieutenant colonel C.G. Money, whose convoy he attacked in December 1900 somewhere between Lichtenburg and Marico.

  General JH de la Rey

Jacobus Hercules (Koos) De la Rey was a Boer man and general that is remembered for being one of the strongest Boer leaders in the 2nd Boer War.

He was born on 22 October 1847 at his family farm in Doornfontein in the district of Winburg, Orange Freestate. He was a Boer of Spanish, French Huguenot and Dutch descendant.

As a young he has many other Boers received very little formal education. His family moved to Kimberley because of the finding of diamonds there, and young De la Rey worked as a transport rider.

De la Rey then married Jacoba Elizabeth Greeff and then the couple had 12 children and cared for other 6 children whose progenitors had died. He was a deeply religious man, rarely didn’t have a small Bible with him.

He began is military live fighting in the Basotho War in 1865, in Sekhukune’s War in 1876 and also has a field cornet under the command of General Piet Cronjé in the First Boer War. He became a member of the Transvaal Volksraad in 1883 and was then a supporter of the Piet Joubert faction that opposed Paul Kruger’s politics in relation to the foreigners arriving to the Transvaal searching for gold.

In the Second Boer War he was put as one of the generals under the commando of Piet Cronjé. In the beginning of the War he had some victories and defeats against the British troops but it was in the Battle of Magersfontein that he became famous inflicting a large defeat to the British troops in a week that was called for them Black Week because they also are defeated in Colenso and in Spion Kop. However with massive reinforcements all over the empire the British captured Bloemfontein and Pretoria, capitals of Orange Freestate and the Transvaal with Paul Kruger fleeing to Mozambique.

Accordingly general De la Rey, general Botha and general De Wet amongst others agreed for the Boer resistance that a technique of Guerrilla War will be used.  Koos de la Rey was very successful in that kind of war with his attacks on the British troops. This mobile campaign won battles in Moedwil, Nooitgedacht, Driefontein, Donkerhoek and Tweebosch.

In Tweebosch he even captured British general Methuen and some of his troops but in an act of chivalry he released the British troops because he had no means to treat them properly.

During the period of the Union of South Africa he continued his political life. After a trip to Europe to raise funds to the Boer cause he was in 1907 elected to the new Transvaal parliament.

In 1914 with the beginning of the First World War the British sent troops to conquer German South West Africa, now Namibia, under the command of General Louis Botha. De la Rey always opposed to the war and many Boers were sympathetic with the German because of their German ancestry. They looked for a great leader and De la Rey ,who was in doubt, decided to join the rebels, many of them old comrades of arms.

On 15 September 1914 General Beyers resigned as Commandant-General of the Active Citizen Force and he and General De la Rey decided to travel by car from Pretoria to Potchefstroom to attend a meeting of rebels. The driver did not stop at a roadblock set up to catch the notorious Foster-gang and General De la Rey was mistakenly killed by a ricochet bullet fired at them, thereby bringing an abrupt and untimely end to the illustrious life of the legendary ‘Lion of the Western Transvaal’.

  General GH Gravett

Gerhardus was one of several sons of the 1820 Settler who moved to the Transvaal and were living in the Heidelberg/Boksburg area. He was the great grandson of George Gravett, who arrived in Algoa Bay on the barque Brilliant , then married local girl Anna Adriana Woest.

Gerhardus’s brother Willem Hendrik owned a farm just north of the Suikerbosrand at Tamboekiesfontein. One of his uncles was also farming close to Heidelberg at Schoongedacht. But of all the Gravetts in the area, Gerhardus Gravett was themost prosperous.

Besides several houses in Georgetown, Germiston, Gerhardus also owned a large smallholding at Klippoortje, Germiston, where he grew maize and raised cattle, and  he was the owner or part-owner of  a number of other farms in the Free State and Cape.

He held several prospecting claims. Several of Gerhardus’s business ventures were done in partnership with his younger brother Willem Hendrik. 

Besides farming, Gerhardus’s primary business was as a cartage contractor and money lender.His business had premises at the Germiston coal yards, and for the times was very modern. In 1899 G H Gravett contractors not only had a telegraphic address, but also a telephone, which was a rarity in the Transvaal at the time. War broke out in October 1899, and Boer Commandos invaded Natal and the Cape. Both Gerhardus, his first son Christiaan and his brother Willem joined the Boer commandos, and so did several other Gravetts from the area. Willem was captured by the British, on 16th November 1899 and was sent into exile on Saint Helena, but Gerhardus continued to fight for the Boers, first as a Veld Cornet, then later as a Commandant and finally as Combat General in overall charge of the Boksburg Commando. After the Siege of Ladysmith was lifted on 28/2/1900, the Boers retreated through northern Natal, back into the Transvaal. It was at this stage that one section of the Commando under General G H Gravett moved to fight in the Cape Colony.

Later, as the Cape and Orange Free State front collapsed, Gravett took his men back by way of the eastern Orange Free State to the Transvaal to rejoin the rest of the Commando, which had remained active in the Transvaal. On about 12th October 1900, Gerhardus Gravett was wounded while on commando near Roosenekal. His comrades brought a Dr Neethling to attend to him but without medicines the doctor could not do much, and Gerhardus Gravett contracted bronchitis.

He died on 26th October, aged 42. The famous Commandant,Deneys Reitz, was probably the last person to see the General alive. He is buried at the Primrose Cemetery in Germiston. He left a wife, Petronella, and five children.

  General WC Malan

Wynand Charl Malan was born on 16 August 1872 to Jacobus Johannes Malanand Margaretha Elizabeth Pienaar on the farm Beyersfontein in the Murraysburg district, Cape colony. 

Malan (1872 – 1953) was a Boer soldier and farmer. He made a name for himself during the 1899 – 1902 South African War as a military hero, and particularly in association with the campaigns to invade the Cape Colony.

He was severely wounded shortly before the war ended but made a full recovery.

After the war, Malan farmed in the Murraysburg area and then in the Free State, but in 1906 following his marriage to Elizabeth Susanna Gibbs he, his father and other relatives trekked to German East Africa where they settled as farmers in the region west of Kilimanjaro. Boer War experiences- The general states that his commando was responsible for the derailment. The general says the young men were not involved at all. The British, in fact, had sent them to the farm to collect fodder for horses. After the war General Malan joined Olive and Cron Schreiner in a lengthy campaign to have the names of the three cleared. The pyramid of stone over their grave bears this chilling inscription: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. From November 1901 onwards the main commando activity was concentrated in the north west Cape under Generals Smuts, Malan and Manie Maritz with the Cape Midlands area around Graaff-Reinet relatively quiet.

In early 1902 the commando forces in the north-west divided up and four commandos (those of Pypers, Smit, Hugo and Van Reenen) under General Malan were delegated with the task of returning to the Midlands area.

On 17 February on their way back, near Three Sisters’ Station, Cmdt Henry Hugo was killed and his place was taken by J Rudolph. Eventually it was only the men of Malan and Rudolph who made it across the railway line On 18 May Malan and Fouche assisted Van Heerden in his attack on Aberdeen. Malan and Fouche guarded the escape route while 80 of Van Heerden’s men and 20 of Fouche’s entered the town and surprised the garrison. They made off with a large number of horses but in the process Van Heerden was killed. Malan and Fouche now moved south towards the Rooiberge and on past Jansenville and Waterford.

On 27 May 1902 Malan was severely wounded and captured near Sheldon station (only four days before the final peace treaty was signed at Vereeniging). On one memorable occasion described by the famous general Wynand Malan, his small detachment of less than 25 horsemen, including the single mule-drawn artillery piece, fought a leapfrogging running battle for at least six hours. In turn the Boer artillery piece and the horsemen would cover each other. On their tail was a brigade of 5,000 British horsemen ready to use the lance and sword. Accurate Mauser fire kept the cavalry at bay during the drawn-out pursuit lasting from early morning till after midday. Just when things turned ugly with the mules getting exhausted, the British force ran into the main Kommando’s trap.

With commanders and scouts on a low ridge, a force of approximately 1,000 Boers dismounted in an extended line and faced the British cavalry, the well trained horses standing calmly a few paces behind their owners. The British, true to their spirit and hunger for the lance and sword cavalry charge – outdated since the Balaclava Charge of the Light Brigade and the American civil war – halted and “displayed a fine performance of lining up shiny squadrons” as Malan put it.

With 5 bullets in each magazine, the Mausers waited. The British “shouted neat orders and the movement started” Malan described. The British were “at full gallop to the thunderous sound of 5,000 horses’ hoofs when the rattle of the Mausers started. There

was complete pandemonium as rider-less horses got out of control and horses were shot from under their riders.”

Amazingly, the British fell back and lined up again. A second charge was shot to pieces. The Boers then successfully and in good order broke off the engagement as from the ridge could be seen that the British cavalry brigade’s artillery was brought forward and a flanking movement was forming up.

A great story associated with General Malan reportedly goes as follows: “After a planned attack on the Karoo town of Hanover had been thwarted by the British, he soon found himself in a position where he could give battle to his pursuers. At that point, a young Cape recruit who had no rifle, started pestering Malan for a rifle, explaining as he did, that he was a particularly good shot. Malan, who had no rifles to spare, finally grew tired of youngster’s nagging, and eventually lent the chap another man’s rifle. Calmly the fellow then asked Malan what he wanted him to hit in order to demonstrate his skills.

Malan pointed to a British officer, 600 paces away: “Do you see that horseman?” he asked. “Take him out!”

Calmly the young man took careful aim, but as he fired, the dust went up next to the officer. Missed. Unconcerned, the man loaded again, and took another shot. Again he missed. At the third shot, however, the officer neatly folded out of the saddle. Malan then describes how this unknown burgher calmly took out three more officers, with three rounds! What might have happened if Malan should have been able to observe the man longer, is impossible to say, though, for the British soon enveloped the Boers in some shrapnel. This caused the raw, young sharpshooter with no previous battle experience, to quickly hand back the rifle, saying that Malan could now try again!”

Malan died on 9 February 1953 in Ngare Nanyuki, Tanganjika.

Pretoria 31 May 1900

Black day of lawlessness.

Pretoria, 31 May 1900. While each true Republican in Pretoria is worried about the virtual certainty that the British will occupy the city, tonight many law-abiding and order-loving citizens are also filled with disgust at the scandalous activities of several dozens of Pretorians who are enriching themselves in a criminal way.

Yesterday evening plunderers broke into the government magazines on the corner of Market and Visagie Streets, opposite the home of the late Commandant-General Piet Joubert, and carried away loot throughout the night. The severely depleted police force was helpless to prevent this. Indeed, it seems as if some members of the special police force participated in the plundering.

This morning the plundering continued in clear daylight. Many burghers merely indicated that they wanted fodder for their horses. Others explained to our correspondents that they were not actually doing anything wrong, since the supplies would fall into the hands of the British anyway and they wanted to prevent that.

While the plundering was still in progress, General Louis Botha suddenly arrived in the city on horseback. He addressed a crowd of well-wishers from the steps of the Government buildings, calling on everybody to preserve law and order. When a rumor subsequently spread that the British were on the point of occupying the city, the plunderers fled.

  Field Marshal JC Smuts

Jan Smuts 1915

Jan Christian Smuts was probably one of the most eminent South Africans ever alive. Although some brand him as a forerunner of apartheid, this would not do justice to his many achievements for South Africa, in particular his understanding, that racial problems have to be addressed, although this only came late in his life. He had so many talents; he was not only an outstanding scholar and statesman, but a highly successful military commander and – last but not least – one of the driving forces behind the creation of the United Nations. A fine example of Smut’s conciliatory character is given by the fact that he was personally on a friendly level with most of his political and wartime opponents, like Mahatma Gandhi, General von Lettow Vorbeck and even his fiercest opponent in Parliament, Hertzog.

Humble beginnings Jan Christian Smuts was born on 24 May 1870, in the house “Bovenplaats” on the farm Ongegund near Riebeeck West in the British Cape Colony. He had Dutch-German roots, as his paternal ancestor, Michiel Cornelis Smuts hat emigrated around 1692 from Middelburg, Holland and his maternal ancestor, Johann Christiaan Davel from Bautzen, Germany in 1734.

Jan started school only at the age of 12, but he left it top of his class five years later.

In 1886, he attended Victoria College at Stellenbosch, where he met Isie Krige, who was later to become his wife.

He then proceeded to study law at Christ’s College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with highest honours.

In 1895, he returned to South Africa where he was admitted to the Cape Colony bar. Although English-trained, he got disenchanted with them when the news broke about the abortive Jameson Raid against the Transvaal on 29 December 1895. As a result, Jan Smuts moved to Johannesburg in January 1897, where set up offices in Commissioner Street.

On 30 April, 1897, he married Isie Krige.

In June 1898, Smuts was appointed State Attorney of the Transvaal Republic and the young family moved to Sunnyside, Pretoria.

After the start of the Boer War and the fall of Pretoria in June 1900, Smuts joined General Louis Botha and took part in the Battle of Donkerhoek. The Boers regrouped after Donkerhoek. General Botha moved east and General De la Rey, with Smuts as his assistant, west.

In December 1900, Smuts, who had in the meantime learnt much about military tactics from De la Rey, took control of the south-western Transvaal and led successful campaigns near Potchefstroom.

On August 1, 1901 he set out with 340 Transvaalers to invade the Cape Colony. They crossed the Orange River near Zastron and by early October they were within 80km of Port Elizabeth. They then turned west, fighting numerous encounters with the British.

By beginning of 1902, he was operating in the Western Cape.

In April 1902 – Smuts’ troops had just taken the towns of Springbok and Concordia and were surrounding O’Kiep – he received an urgent message to take part in a meeting between the English and the Boers in Vereeniging. He travelled by troopship to Cape Town and by train to the Transvaal, where a peace treaty was negotiated. The first draft was made on May 19 and the final version of the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed on May 31, 1902.

In the meantime, Smuts’ wife Isie had fallen seriously ill. She had to undergo surgery in June 1902, but by middle of August, she had recovered sufficiently to travel back to Pretoria. Smuts had to return to the Cape Colony to supervise the disbanding of his commando, before resuming his legal practice in Pretoria.

On 11 May 1950, his 80th birthday was celebrated. On 29th May Smuts suffered a coronary thrombosis. He was confined to bed and died on 11 September 1950.

  Machadadorp May 1900

As early as 7 May 1900, the ZAR Government decided that Pretoria would not he defended (LA 988, pp 312-3). On the eve of 29 May 1900, President Kruger and his entourage left for Machadodorp, a small town situated on the ridge of the eastern Transvaal Highveld, along the Delagoa Bay Railway. This town became the seat of the ZAR Government until the defeat of the Boers at Bergendal (LA 988, p 313; Kruger, 1986, pp 194-5).

The capture of Pretoria by the British on 7 June did not bring the war to an end as they had anticipated. Having lost the opportunity to end the war, Roberts then opted for another strategy. He would defeat General Louis Botha and his Boer forces in regular warfare. Various British units advanced towards the ridge on the eastern Highveld where the battle of Bergendal would eventually take place.

  Battle of Bronkhorstspruit

Battle of Bronkhorstspruit Part of First Boer War

Date 20 December 1880 Location At the Bronkhorstspruit River, Transvaal Result Boer victory

Belligerents  United Kingdom  South African Republic Commanders and leaders Lieutenant-ColonelPhilip Robert Anstruther Commandant-General Joubert Strength 268 250 Casualties and losses 156 dead and wounded 112 captured[1] Boer figures claim 2 dead, 5 wounded, but according to one present British Sergeant there were at least 44 Boer killed in action.[1]

The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit was the first major clash of the First Boer War. It was a battle between a British army column and a group of Boers, fought by the Bronkhorstspruit River, a few miles east of the town of Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal on 20 December 1880.

A column of British soldiers consisting of six officers and 246 men of the 94th Regiment, as well as 12 men of the Army Service Corps and four of the Army Hospital Corps, were marching on a road to Pretoria, when at least 250 Boers appeared to the left of the column. Making use of the limited cover, the Boers crept to within 200 yards of the British. Lt. Col. Philip Robert Anstruther parleyed with a Boer envoy, who had brought a request from the Transvaal government to turn back. Anstruther refused, but before he could move his column into skirmish formation the Boers opened fire at 12:30 pm.

Within fifteen minutes most of the officers were killed or wounded, and the horses and oxen pulling the covered wagons at the front and rear of the column were killed, preventing any movement. Shocked by the sudden and aggressive nature of the attack, Lt. Col. Anstruther gave the order to surrender. In a battle lasting just fifteen minutes, 156 British soldiers were killed or wounded, with the rest taken prisoner. Reported Boer casualties were only two killed and five wounded. Anstruther was himself wounded during the fight and died on the 26th of December following the amputation of one of his legs.

  Sources:

http://www.oocities.org/athens/rhodes/1266/historical-Boerwaratrensburg3.htm

Die Boere-offisiere 1899 – 1902, p. 40

South African Military Who’s Who 1452 -1992, p. 131

https://afrikanerway.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/a-little-biography-of-koos-de-la-rey/

http://delareyhouse.co.za/?page_id=191

http://www.boerenbrit.com/archives/8796

http://photos.geni.com/p13/b1/9d/fb/f0/5344483ae25831e4/560756_4748178630817_81352006_n_large.jpg

http://www.boerenbrit.com/archives/6798

http://www.labuschagne.info/marksmen.htm#.WH3wQvl97IU

Oorlogsavonture van Genl. Wynand Malan., Pieterse, H.J.C., Nasionale Pers., Kaapstad., 1941

http://bridgingthepast.yolasite.com/little-known-history.php

The War Reporter by J E H Grobler

http://lenel.ch/docs/Jan-Smuts-e.pdf

https://streamsandforests.wordpress.com/category/boer-war/page/14/

Cameron, Trewhella, Jan Smuts, an illustrated biography, Cape Town/Johannesburg/Pretoria, 1994.

Crafford, F. S, Jan Smuts, a Biography, London, 1946.

Friedman, Bernard, Smuts, a Reappraisal, Johannesburg 1976.

Hancock, W.K., Smuts I, the sanguine years, 1870-1919,

Cambridge, 1962.

Hancock, W.K., Smuts II, the fields of force, 1919-1950,

Cambridge, 1968.

Ingham, Kenneth, Jan Christian Smuts, The Conscience of a South African, Johannesburg, 1986.

Schlesinger, Arthur, Jan Smuts, South African Prime Minister (World Leaders Series), Chelsea House Pub, 1991.

Smuts, J.C. Jnr., Jan Christian Smuts, Cape Town, 1952.

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol124cj.html

LA 988, p 313; Kruger, 1986, pp 194-5

http://sabie.co.za/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/machadodorp.jpeg

http://www.old-print.com/mas_assets/full2/G3030900/G3030900283.jpg

http://angloboerwarmuseum.com/images/boer/people_bw/kruger_waterval.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bronkhorstspruit

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/home/images11/pranster.jpg

Chapter 10 – The rest of our corporalship is destroyed

For a while the success at Spion Kop went to our heads, and we thought that the English would be sure to make peace, but again the days came and went with no sign.

Indeed, we presently heard that General Buller was back at Colenso collecting an ever larger army to attack again, but we were confident that the Tugela defenses would hold and we saw no shadow of the disasters that were soon to…