HE BOERS IN WAR m^Am c.mum: I THE BOERS IN WAR Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/boersinwarstoryoOOhowarich A Boer great-grandfather. THE BOERS IN WAR THE STORY OF THE BRITISH-BOER WAR OF 1899-1900, AS SEEN FROM THE BOER SIDE, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE MEN AND METHODS OF THE REPUBLICAN ARMIES BY HOWARD C. HILLEGAS Author of Oom PauP s People ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND A MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1900 J3 V ^2- H Copyright, lyoo, By D. APPLKTON AND COMPANY. PREFACE The war in South Africa spread over such a vast area of territory, and included so many battles, that no one man can hope to present a truthful picture of all the interesting events in one volume. It has been my aim, in the follow- ing pages, to show the Boer army, country, and people as they existed prior to the British oc- cupation of Pretoria, and an earnest effort has been made to represent men and matters as they presented themselves to the eyes of an American. Personal feeling has been elimi- nated, and the Boers' apparent faults have been portrayed as truthfully as their good features. To those earnest friends of the Boers, who can see no fault in them, certain parts of the book will come as a rude shock, while other parts may offend Britons. There were brave Boers as well as brave Englishmen, V 239916 vi THE BOERS IN WAR but neither army could claim a total lack of cowardice, and consequently some of these pages may wound the sensibilities of those who allow their sentiment to overrule their good judgment. In referring to the Boer army as consisting at no time of more than thirty thousand armed men 1 speak with the assurance of being right. Mr. Douglas Story of the London Daily Mail, Mr. Thomas F. Millard of the New York Herald, Mr. John O. Knight of the San Fran- cisco Call, and I visited all the principal laagers and commandos on the various frontiers, and made earnest efforts to secure an accurate ac- count of the number of men engaged. We had the assistance of the war department and all the generals, but even with their help the results never exceeded thirty thousand burghers in the field. The Boers may not be victorious in the war, but they have made as brave a struggle as did our Revolutionary forefathers. Whether their Government will be submerged as a result of the war will depend upon the magnanimity of the British people ; but no one who has been with the burghers in the field, and has heard PREFACE Vll their expressions of sentiment, will believe that South Africa will ever again have any affection for its mother country. The Boers of the Trans- vaal and the Orange Free State, who were wont to celebrate the Queen's birthday with as much gusto as the most patriotic Englishmen, will not be content to live under the British flag, and the Cape Colonists have determined to possess an emblem of their own. Some day a man will arise who can lead the Afrikanders, and then there will be a united, a peaceful South Africa under a South African flag. Howard C. Hillegas. Paris, July, igoo. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.— The Way to the Boer Country . . . i Delagoa Bay and the blockaded port — Lorenzo Marques, the Boers' only friend -The journey to Pre- toria—The capital and its scenes -The consuls and their work— The last meeting of the Volksraads. II. — From Farm to Battlefield .... 29 The lion hunter of old and his modern garb — The feud between the lions and the hunters — The conference and the oath —The gathering of the hunters — The jour- ney to the battle ground. III. — The Composition of the Boer Army . . 47 The citizen soldiers of the republic — Young men in the army— The Penkop Regiment— Grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the ranks -The fighting takhaar — The Boers' horse— ReHgious feehng in the army. IV. — The Army Organization 76 The superfluity of generals— The election of officers - Influences of popularity, religion, and politics — The Krijgsraads— Boer pickets and scouts. V. — The Boer Military System .... 99 The disparity between the armies— A national and natural system of warfare— The burghers' adaptability and mobility — The retreat of the three generals— Boers' bravery. X THE liOERS IN WAR CHAPTKR PAGE VI. — The Boers in Battle 125 Boer forces always outnumbered— A battle in which advantages were equal— The fight at Sannaspost — 1 he army trekking The arrival on the battlefield -The first shot of the engagement — The capture of men and guns — The battle in progress— Singing the Soldiers of the Queen. VII.— The (iENERALS OF THE VVaR .... I54 The great work they accomplished -Commandant- General Joubert and his work— Cronje and his capture at Paardeberg — Botha's rapid advancement from burgher to commandant general — Generals Lucas Meyer, De Wet, and De la Key. VIII. — The War Presidents 202 President Kruger and his work during the war — His visits to the burghers — The oration over Joubert's body— His departure from Pretoria— President Steyn and his work in the Free State. IX. — P'oreigners in the War 231 The arrival of the volunteers -The objects of the for- eigners — The soldiers of fortune, the looter, and the patriot — Americans aiding the republics — The Irish Brigade and the American scouts. X.— BoKR Women in the War 260 The Boer woman's legacy— Her patriotism before the war Assisting an embarrassed Government — Baking bread, making clothing, caring for the wounded— Fight- ing in the trenches — Vt)ting to join commandos — The women of Pretoria. XI. — Incidents of the War 283 Tragic and amusing spectacles in battles — The burgh- ers' mistake at Magersfontein — Rhodes's lone follower at Colenso The young burghers playing " I spy " with British shells at I^idysmith Baden-Powell's amusing letter — A peer in distress. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Boer great-grandfather .... Foreign military attaches .... A group of British prisoners in Pretoria Physicians of American Red Cross corps Military prison, Pretoria, where British officers fined Adelbert S. Hay, United States consul at Pretoria American consulate, Pretoria Arrival of a commando at Majuba Hill Meeting of a ward commando A district commando awaiting a railway train fo tion Crossing the border into Natal A Boer burgher ..... Takhaar and penkop fought side by side A section of the Penkop Regiment An old takhaar ..... Type of uniformed Boer artillerist Men accompanied by their native servant A group of takhaars Election of a field cornet A Boer picket in early morning The battlefield at Elandslaagte A burgher and his breakfast . Plan of Sannaspost battlefield General Snyman and Commandant Botha Fro fi t isp iecc X embarka 9 15 18 21 24 26 32 38 41 45 48 51 53 60 64 67 73 80 93 108 113 139 156 Xll THE BOERS IN WAR as the capitol ransvaal Commandos in laager at Mafeking (ieneral Piet J. Joubert In the schanzes near Ladysmith . A group in General Cronje's army Commandant-General Louis Botha General and Mrs. Lucas Meyer . Commandant-General Christian De \V Nicholson's Nek, where twelve hundred British were prisoners .... General Peter De Wet . Paul Kruger ..... General Joubert's camp at Glencoe President Kruger in war time President Kruger's private car, used evacuation of Pretoria . F. W. Reitz, Secretary of State of the President Steyn with his burghers Hon. Webster Davis, travelling in President Kruger vate car A Cossack fighting with the Boers Colonel MaximofT, of the Russian corps General De La Rey and Colonel Guorko, Russian m attache ....... President Kruger receiving the American scouts Colonel Blake, of the Irish Brigade Captain Richiardi, of the Italian scouts Four generations of the Kruger family Mrs. General Meyer Wife and children of John Steyl . The Misses Eloff .... General and Mrs. Louis Botha Mrs. General Meyer preparing her hu Spion Kop after the fight Spion Kop battlefield . taken and's breakfas after s pn- ilitary PAGE i6o 163 167 173 183 189 195 197 199 205 212 219 222 225 229 232 236 240 244 249 258 261 265 270 273 275 279 291 295 THE BOERS IN WAR CHAPTER 1 THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY Immediately after war was declared between Great Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State the two South African republics became shut off, in a great measure, from the rest of the civilized world. The cables and the great ocean steamship lines which connected South Africa with Europe and America were owned by British companies, and consequently they were employed by the British Government for its own purposes. Nothing which might in any way benefit the Boers was allowed to pass over these lines, and as far as it was possible the British Government isolated the republics so that the outside world could have no communication of any sort with them. With the exception of a small strip of coast land on the Indian Ocean the two republics were com- pletely surrounded by British territory, and 2 THE HOERS IN WAR consequently it was not a difficult matter for the great empire to curtail the liberties of the Boers to as large an extent as pleased the men who conducted the campaign. The small strip of coast land, however, was the property of a neutral nation, and therefore could not be used for British purposes of stifling the Boer countries; but the nation which ruled the waves exhausted every means to make the Boers' air- hole as small as possible by placing a number of war ships outside the entrance of Delagoa Bay, and by establishing a blockade of the port of Lorenzo Marques. Lorenzo Marques, in itself, was valueless to the Boers, for it had always been nothing more than a vampire feeding upon the Transvaal, but as an outlet to the sea, and as a haven for foreign ships bearing men, arms, and encouragement, it was invaluable. In the hands of the Boers Dela- goa Bay would have been worse than useless, for the British war ships could have taken pos- session of it and sealed it tightly on the first day of the war ; but as a Portuguese possession it was the only friend that the Boers were able to find during their long [period of need. Without it the Boers would have been unable to hold any intercourse with foreign countries, no en- voys could have been despatched, no volunteers could have entered the country, and they would have been ignorant of the opinion of the world THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 3 — a factor in the brave resistance against the enemy which was by no means infinitesimal. Delagoa Bay was the one window through which the Boers could look at the world, and through which the world could watch the brave struggle of the farmer citizens of the veld re- publics. The Portuguese authorities at Delagoa Bay long ago established a reputation for adroitness in extracting revenues whenever and wherever it was possible to find a stranger within their gates, but the war afforded them such excellent oppor- tunities as they had never enjoyed before. Being the gate of the Boer country was a humanitarian privilege, but it also was a remunerative busi- ness, and never since Vasco da Gama discovered the port were there so many choice facilities afforded for increasing the revenue of the colony. Nor was the Latin's mind slow in concoct- ing schemes for filling the Portuguese coffers when the laws were lax on the subject, for it was the simplest expedient to frame a regula- tion suitable for every new condition that arose. The Portuguese was willing to be the medium between the Boers and the people of other parts of the earth, but he demanded and received a large percentage of the profits. When the works of the Johannesburg gold district were closed down, and the Portuguese heard that they would no longer receive a com- 4 THE HOERS IN WAR pulsory contribution of a dollar from every na- tive who crossed the border to work in the mines, they felt ill at ease, on account of the great decrease in the amount of public revenues, but it did not worry them for any considerable length of time. They met the situation by impos- ing a tax of two dollars upon every one of the thousands of natives who returned from the mines to their homes in Portuguese territory. About the same time the Uitlanders from the Transvaal reached Lorenzo Marques, and in order to calm the Portuguese mind every one of the thousands of men and women who took part in that exodus was compelled to pay a tran- sit tax ranging from two to five dollars, accord- ing to the size of the tip tendered to the official. When the van of the foreign volunteers reached the port there was a new situation to be dealt with, and again the principle of " When in doubt, impose a tax," was satisfactorily em- ployed. Men who had just arrived in steamers, and who had never seen l^ortuguese territory, were obli^fed to secure a certificate indicatintr that they had not been inhabitants of the local jail during the preceding six months; a certifi- cate from the consular representative of their country showing that they possessed good char- acters ; another from the governor general to show that they did not purpose going into the Transvaal to carrv arms ; a fourth from the THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 5 local Transvaal consul to indicate that he held no objections to the traveller's desire to enter the Boer country ; and one or two other pass- ports equally weighty in their bearing on the subject were necessary before a person was able to leave the town. Each one of these certificates was to be secured only upon the payment of a certain number of thousand reis, and at an ad- ditional expenditure of time and nervous energy, for none of the officials could speak a word of any language except Portuguese, and all the applicants were men of other nationalities and tongues. The expense in connection with the certificates was more than five dollars for every person, and as there were thousands of travellers into the Boer countries while the war continued, the revenues of the Government were corre- spondingly great. To crown it all, the Portu- guese imposed the same tax upon all travellers who came into the country from the Transvaal with the intention of sailing to other ports. The Government could not be charged with favouritism in the matter of taxation, for every man, woman, and child who stepped on Portu- guese soil was similarly treated. There was no charge for entering the country, but the jail yawned for him who refused to pay when leav- ing it. Not unlike the patriots in Cape Town and Durban, the hotel and shop keepers of Lorenzo 6 THE BOEKS IN WAR Marques took advantage of the presence of many strangers and made extraordinary efforts to secure the residue of the money which did not fall into the coffers of the Government. At the Cardoza Hotel, the only establishment worthy of the name, a tax of five dollars was levied for sleeping on a bare floor ; drivers of street cabs scorned any amount less than a golden sovereign for carrying one passenger to the consulates ; lemonades were fifty cents each at the kiosks ; and physicians charged fifteen dollars a call when travellers remained in the town several days and contracted the deadly coast fever. At the customhouse duties of several dollars were levied upon foreign flags, unless the officer was liberally tipped, in which event it was not necessary to open the luggage. It was a veritable harvest for every one who chose to take advantage of the opportunities offered, and there were few who did not make the foreigners their victims. The blockade by the British war ships placed a premium upon dishonesty, and the majority of those who gained most by it were British subjects. The vessels which succeeded in pass- ing the blockading war ships were invariably consigned to Englishmen, and without exception the consignees were unpatriotic enough to sell the supplies to agents employed by the Trans- vaal Government. Just as Britons sold guns and THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 7 ammunition to the Boers before the war, these men of the same nation made exorbitant profits on supplies which were necessary to the burgher army. Lorenzo Marques was filled with men who were taking advantage of the state of af- fairs to grow wealthy by means which were not thoroughly legitimate, and the leaders in almost every enterprise of that nature were British subjects, although there were not a few Ger- mans, Americans, and Frenchmen who succeed- ed in making the fortunes they deserved for re- maining in such a horrible pest hole. The railroad from Lorenzo Marques to Ros- sana Garcia, at the Transvaal border, was rather interesting from its historical significance than comfortable for travelling purposes. As the train passed through the dry, dusty, and unin- teresting country which was even too poor and unhealthy for the blacks, the mind speculated upon the question whether the Swiss judges who decided the litigation concerning the road would have spent ten years in reaching a con- clusion if they had been compelled to conduct their deliberations within sight of fhe line. The land adjoining the railroad was level, well tim- bered and well watered, and the vast tracts of fine grass gave the impression that it might be an excellent country for farming ; but it was in the belt known as the fever district, and white men avoided it as they would a cholera-infested g THE BOERS IN WAR city. Shortly before the train arrived at the English river several lofty whitestone pyramids on either side of the track were passed, and the Transvaal was reached. A long iron bridge spanning the river was crossed and the train arrived at the first station in the Boer country, Koomatipoort. Courteous Boer officials entered the train and requested the passengers to disembark with all their luggage for the purpose of custom ex- amination. No gratuities were accepted there as at Lorenzo Marques, and nothing escaped the vigilance of the bearded inspectors. Trunks and luggage were carefully scrutinized, letters read line by line and word for word, revolvers and ammunition promptly confiscated if not de- clared, and even the clothing of the passengers was faithfully examined. Passports were closely investigated, and when everything appeared to be thoroughly satisfactory a white cross was chalked on the boots of the passengers and they were free to proceed farther inland. The field cornet of the district was one of the few Boers at the station and he performed the duties of his office by introducing himself to certain pas- sengers whom be believed to be foreign vol- unteers and offering them gratuitous railway tickets to IVetoria. No effort was made to con- ceal the fact that the volunteers were welcome in the country, and nothing was left undone to 01 U lO THE BOERS IN WAR make the foreigners realize that their presence was appreciated. After Koomatipoort was passed the train crept slowly into the mountainous district where huge peaks pierced the clouds and gigantic boulders overhung the tracks. Narrow defiles stretched away in all directions, and the sounds of cataracts in the Crocodile River flowing alongside the iron path drowned the roar of the train. Flowering, vari-coloured plants, huge cacti, and thick tropical vegetation lined the banks of the river, and occasionally the thatched roof of a negro's hut peered out over the un- dergrowth to indicate that a few human beings chose that wild region for their abode. Hour after hour the train crept along narrow ledges up the mountains' sides, then dashed down de- clines and out upon small level plains, which, with the surrounding and towering eminences, had the appearance of vast green bowls. In that impregnable region lay the small town of Machadodorp, which later became the capital of the Transvaal. A few houses of corrugfated iron, a pretty railway station, and much scenery served as a worthy description of the town at the junction of the purposed railway to the gold fields of Lydenberg. After a journey of twelve hours through the fever country the train reached the western limit of that belt, and rested for the ni^ht in a THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY n small, green, cup-shaped valley bearing the de- scriptive name of Waterval Onder — '* Under the waterfall." The weary passengers found more corrugated iron buildings and the best hotel in South Africa. The host, Monsieur Mathis, a French-Boer, and his excellent establishment came as a breath of fresh air to a stifiing traveller on the desert, and long will they live in the memories of the thousands of persons who journeyed over the railroad during the war. After the monotonous fare of an east coast steamer, and the mythical meals of a Lorenzo Marques hotel, the roast venison, the fresh milk and eggs of Mathis were as welcome as the odour of the roses that filled the valley. The beginning of the second day's journey was characterized by a ride up and along the sides of a magnificent gorge through Avhich the waters of the Crocodile River rushed from the lofty plateau of the high veld to the wildernesses of the fever country, and filled that miniature South African Switzerland with myriads of rainbows. A long, curved, and inclined tun- nel near the top of the mountain led to the undulating plains of the Transvaal — a marvel- lously rapid transition from a region filled with Nature's wildest panoramas to one that con- tained not even a tree or rock or cliff to re- lieve the monotony of the landscape. On the one side of this natural boundary line was an 12 THE BOERS IN WAR immense territory every square mile of which contained mountain passes which a handful of Boers could hold against an invading army ; on the other side there was hardly a rock behind which a burgher rifleman could conceal him- self. Here herds of cattle and flocks of sheep instead of wild beasts sped away from the roar of the train ; here was the daub and wattle cot- tage of the farmer instead of the thatched hut of the native savage. Small towns of corrugated iron and mud- brick homes and shops appeared at long in- tervals on the veld ; grass fires displayed the presence of the Boer farmer with his herds; and the long ox teams slowly rolling over the plain signified that not all the peaceful pursuits of a small people at war with a great nation had been abandoned. The coal mines at Bel- fast, with their towering stacks and clouds of smoke, gave the first evidence of the country's wondrous underground wealth, and then farther on in the journey came the small city of Mid- dleburg with its slate-coloured corrugated iron roofs in marked contrast to the green veld grass surrounding it. Here appeared armed and ban- dolicrcd Boers, prepared to join their country- men in the field, with wounded friends and sad- faced women to bid farewell to them. While the train lay waiting at the station small com- mandos uf burghers came dashing through the THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 13 dusty streets, hustled their horses into trucks at the end of the passenger train, and in a few moments were mingling with the foreign vol- unteers in the coaches. Gray-haired Boers gravely bade adieu to their wives and children, lovers embraced their weeping sweethearts, and the train moved on toward Pretoria and the bat- tlefields where these men were to risk their lives for the existence of their country. Historic ground, where Briton and Boer had fought before, came in view. Bronkhorst Spruit, where a British commander led more than one hundred of his men to death in 1880, lay to the left of the road in a little wooded ravine. Farther on toward Pretoria appeared rocky kopjes where afterward the Boers, retreating from the capital city, gathered their disheart- ened forces and resisted the advance of the enemy. Eerste Fabriken was a hamlet hardly large enough to make an impression upon the memory, but it marked a battlefield where the burghers fought desperately. Children were then gathering peaches from the trees whose roots drank the blood of heroes months after- ward. Several miles farther on were the hills on the outskirts of Pretoria, where, in the war of 1 88 1, the Boer laagers sent forth men to en- compass the city and to prevent the British besieged in it from escaping. It was ground hallowed in Boer history since the early Voor- H THE BOERS IN WAR trekkers crossed the ridges of the Magaliesberg and sought protection from the sav^age hordes of Moselekatse in the fertile valley of the Aapjes River. Pretoria in war time was most peaceful. In the days before the commencement of hostili- ties it was a city of peace as contrasted with the metropolis, Johannesburg, and its warring citizens, but when cannon were roaring on the frontier Pretoria itself seemed to escape even the echoes. After the first commandos had de- parted the city streets were deserted, and only women and children gathered at the bulletin boards to learn the fate of the burgher armies. The stoeps of houses and cottages were de- serted of the bearded yeomanry, and the halls of the Government buildings resounded only with the tread of those who were not old or strong enough to bear arms. The long ox wagons which were so familiar and common in the streets were not so frequently seen, but whenever one of them rolled toward the market square it was a Boer woman who cracked the rawhide whip over the heads of the oxen. Pre- toria was the same quaint citv as of old, but it lacked the men who were its most distinguish- ing feature. The black-garbed Volksraad mem- bers, the officials, and the old retired farmers who were wont to discuss politics on the stoeps of the Capitol and the Transvaal hotel were ab- 1 6 THE BOERS IN WAR sent. Inquiries concerning them could be ad- dressed only to women and children, and the replies invariably were, " They are on com- mando," or " They were killed in battle." The scenes of activity in the city were few in number, and they were chiefly in connection with the arrival of foreign volunteers and the transit of burgher commandos on the way to the field. The Grand Hotel and the Transvaal Hotel, the latter of which was conducted by the Government for the temporary entertain- ment of the volunteers, were constantly filled with throngs of foreigners, comprising soldiers of fortune, Red Cross delegations, visitors, cor- respondents and contractors, and almost every language except that of the Boers was heard in the corridors. Occasionally a Boer burgher on leave of absence from the front appeared at the hotels for a respite from army rations or to at- tend the funeral of a comrade in arms, but the foreigners were always predominant. Across the street, in the war department, there were busy scenes when the volunteers applied for their equipments, and frequently there were stormy spectacles when the European tastes of the men were offended by the equipment ofTered by the department officials. Men who desired swords and artistic paraphernalia for themselves and their horses felt slighted when the scant but serviceable equipment of a Boer THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 17 burgher was offered to them ; but sulking could not remedy the matter, and usually they were content to accept whatever was given to them. Former officers in European armies, noblemen, and even professional men were constantly ar- riving in the city, and all seemed to be of the same opinion that commissions in the Boer army could be had for the asking. Some of these had their minds disabused with good grace, and went to the field as common burghers; others sulked for several weeks but finally joined a commando, and a few returned to their homes without hav- ing heard the report of a gun. For those who chose to remain behind and enjoy the peaceful- ness of Pretoria there was always enough of novelty and excitement among the foreigners to compensate partly for missing the events in the field. The army contractors make their presence felt in all countries which are engaged in war, and Pretoria was filled with them. They were in the railway trains running to and from Lo- renzo Marques, in the hotel corridors, in all the Government departments, and everywhere in the city. A few of the naturalized Boers, who were most denunciatory of the British before the war and urged their fellow-countrymen to resort to arms, succeeded in evading the call to the field, and were most energetic in supplying bread and supplies to the Government. Nor THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY jq was their patriotism dimmed by many reverses of the army, but they selfishly demanded that the war should be continued indefinitely. Euro- peans and Americans who enjoyed the protec- tion of the Government in times of peace were transformed by war into grasping, insinuating contractors, revelling in the country's misfor- tune. Englishmen, unworthy of the name, en- riched themselves by furnishing sinews of war to their country's enemy, and in order to secure greater wealth sought to prolong the war by cheering disheartened Boers and ex- pressing faith in their final success. The cham- bers of the Government building were filled with men who had horses, wagons, flour, forage, and clothing to offer at exorbitant prices, and in thousands of instances the embarrassed Govern- ment was obliged to pay whatever sums were demanded. Hand in hand with the contractors were the speculators, who were taking advan- tage of the absence of the leading officials to secure valuable concessions, mining claims, and even gold mines. Before the war, when hordes of speculators and concession seekers thronged the city, the scene was pathetic enough, but when all the shrewd Raad members were at the front and unable to guard their country's interests, the picture was dark and pitiful. Pretoria seemed to have but one mood dur- ing the war. It was never deeply despondent 3 20 THE BOERS IN WAR nor gay. There was a sort of funereal atmos- phere throughout the city whether its residents were rejoicing over a Spion Kop or suffering from the dejection of a Paardeberg. It was the same grim throng of old men, women, and chil- dren who watched the processions of prisoners of war and attended the funerals at the quaint little Dutch church in the centre of the city. The finest victories of the army never changed the appearance of the city or the mood of its inhabitants. There were no parades or shout- ing when a victory was announced, and there was the same stoical indifference when the news of a bitter defeat was received. A victory was celebrated in the Dutch church by the singing of psalms, and a defeat by the offering of pray- ers for the success of the army. The thousands of British subjects who were allowed to remain in the Transvaal, being of a less phlegmatic race, were not so calm when a victorv of their nation's army was announced, and when the news of Cronje's surrender reached them they celebrated the event with almost as much gusto as if they had not been in the ene- my's country. A fancy-dress ball was held in Johannesburg in honour of the event, and a champagne dinner was given within a few yards of the Government buildings in Pretoria ; but a few days later all the celebrants were transported across the border by order of the Government. THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 2 1 One of the pathetic features of Pretoria was the Boers' expression of faith in foreign media- tion or intervention. At the outset of hostilities it seemed unreasonable that any European na- tion or America would risk a war with Great Military prison, Pretoria, where British officers were confined. Britain for the purpose of assisting the Boers, yet there was hardly one burgher who did not cling steadfastly to the opinion that the war would be ended in such a manner. The idea had evidently been rooted in their mind that Russia would take advantage of Great Britain's 22 I' HE BOERS IN WAR entanglement in South Africa to occupy Herat and northern India, and when a newspaper item to that effect appeared it w^as gravely presumed to indicate the end of the war. Some overzeal- ous Irishmen assured the Boers that, in the event of a South African war, their fellow-countrymen in the United States would invade Canada, and involve Great Britain in an imbroglio across the Atlantic in order to save British America. For a few weeks the chimera buoyed up the Boers, but when nothing more than an occasional news- paper rumour was heard concerning it, the ris- ing in Ashanti w^as looked upon as being the hoped-for boon. The departure of the three delegates to Europe and America was also an encouraging sign to them, and it was firmly be- lieved that they would be able to induce France, Russia, or America to offer mediation or inter- vention. The two Boer newspapers, the Preto- ria Volksstem and the Johannesburg Standard and Diggers' News, dwelt at length upon every favourable token of foreign assistance, however trifling, and attempted to strengthen hopes which, at hardly any time, seemed capable of realization. It was not until after the war had been in progress for more than six months that the Boers saw the futility of placing faith in foreign aid, and thereafter they fought like stronger men. The consuls who represented the foreign THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 23 Governments at Pretoria, and through whom the Boers made representations for peace, were an exceptionally able body of men, and their duties were as varied as they were arduous. The French and German consuls were busied with the care of the vast mining interests of their countrymen, besides the partial guardian- ship of the hundreds of French and German volunteers in the Boer army. They were called upon to entertain noblemen as well as bank- rupts, to bandage wounds and bury the dead, to find lost relatives and to care for widows and orphans. In times of peace the duties of a con- sul in Pretoria were not light, but during hos- tilities they were tenfold heavier. To the American consul, Adelbert S. Hay, and his associate, John G. Coolidge, fell more work than to all the others combined. Besides car- ing for the American interests in the country, Consul Hay was charged with the guardian- ship of the six thousand British prisoners of war in the city, as well as with the care of the financial interests of British citizens. Every one of the thousands of letters to and from the prisoners was examined in the American con- sulate, so that they might carry with them no breach of neutrality ; almost a hundred thou- sand dollars and tons of luxuries were distributed by him to the prisoners, while the letters and cablegrams concerning the health and where- 24 THE BOERS IN WAR Adclbcrt S. Hav, United States consul at Pretoria. abouts of soldiers whicli reached him every week were far in excess of the number of com- munications which arrived at the consulate in a year of peaceful times. Consul Hay was in THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 25 good favour with the Boer Government, not- withstanding his earnest efforts to perform his duties with regard to the British prisoners and interests ; and of the many consuls who have represented the United States in South Africa none performed his duties more intelligently or with more credit to his country. One of the most interesting and important events in Pretoria, before the British occupation of the city, was the meeting of the Volksraads on May 7th. It was a gathering of the warriors who survived the war which they themselves had brought about seven months before, and although the enemy to whom they had thrown down the gauntlet was at their gates, they were as resolute and determined as on that October day when they voted to pit the Boer farmer against the British lion. The seats of many of those who took part in that memorable meet- ing were filled with palms and evergreens to mark the patriots' death, but the vierkleur and the cause remained to spur the living. Gen- eral, commandants, and burghers, no longer in the grimy costumes of the battlefield, but in the black garb of the legislator, filled the circle of chairs ; bandoliered burghers, consuls and mili- tary attaches in spectacular uniforms, business men, and women with tear-stained cheeks filled the auditorium, while on the official benches were the heads of departments and the Execu- 26 THE BOERS IN WAR tive Council, State Secretary Reitz, and Gen- eral Schalk Burger. The Chairman of the Raad, General Lucas Meyer, fresh from the battlefield, attracted the attention of the throng by announcing the arrival of the President. Spectators, Raad members, officials — all rose to American consulate, Pretoria, their feet, and Paul Kruger, the Lion of Rus- tenberg, the Afrikander captain, entered the chamber and occupied a seat of honour. Grave affairs occupied the attention of the country, and there were many pressing matters to be adjusted, was the burden of the meeting, but the most important work was the defence THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRY 27 of the country, and all the members were as a unit that their proper places were to be found with the burghers in the field. There was no talk of ending the war or of surrender, the President leading in the proposition to continue hostilities until a conclusion successful to the Boer cause was attained. ** Shall we lose cour- age ? " he demanded. " Never ! Never ! ! Never ! ! ! " and then added reverently : " May the people and the officers, animated and inspired by a Higher Power, realizing their duty, not only to those brave ones who have already sac- rificed their lives for their fatherland, but also to posterity, that expects a free country, con- tinue and persevere in this war to the end." With these words of their aged chieftain en- graved on their hearts to strengthen their reso- lution, the members of the Volksraads again donned the garb of burghers and returned to their commandos to inspire them with new zeal and determination. After this memorable meeting of the Volks- raads, Pretoria again assumed the appearance of a city of peace, but the rapid approach of the forces of the enemy soon transformed it into a scene of desperation and panic. Men with drawn faces dashed through the city to assist their hard-pressed countrymen in the field, tear- ful women with children on their arms filled the churches with their moans and prayers, desert- 28 THE BOERS IN WAR ers fleeing homeward exaggerated fresh disas- ters and increased the tension of the populace — tears and terror prevailed almost everywhere. Railway stations were filled with throngs intent on escaping from the coming disaster, com- mandos of breathless and blood-stained burghers entered the city, and soon the voice of the con- querors' cannon reverberated among the hills and valleys of the capital. Above the noise and din of the threatened city rose the calm assur- ance of Paul Kruger : " Have good cheer; God will be with our people in the end." CHAPTER II FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD In the olden days, before men with strange languages and customs entered their country and disturbed the serenity of their life, the Boers were accustomed to make annual trips to the north in search of game, and to exterminate the lions which periodically attacked their flocks and herds. It was customary for relatives to form parties, and these trekked with their long ox wagons far into the northern Transvaal, and oftentimes into the wilderness beyond the Zam- besi. Women and children accompanied the expeditions, and remained behind in the ox wagons while the men rode away into the bush to search for buck, giraffe, and lion. Hardy men and women these were who braved the dangers of wild beasts and the terrors of the fever country, yet these treks to the north were as certain annual functions as the Nachtmaals in the churches. Men who went into the wild bush to hunt for the lions which had been their only uncon- 29 30 THE BOERS IN WAR querable enemy for years learned to know no fear, and with their wives and children formed as hardy a race as virgin soil ever produced. With these pioneers it was not a matter of great pride to have shot a lion, but it was considered a disgfrace to have missed one. To husband their sparse supplies of ammunition was their chief object, and to waste a shot by missing the target was to become the subject of good- natured derision and ridicule. Fathers, sons, and grandsons entered the bush together, and where there was a lion or other wild beast to be stalked the amateur hunter was initiated into the mysteries of backwoodsmanship by his expe- rienced elders. Consequently, the Boers became a nation of proficient lion hunters and efficiently ridded theircountryof the pest which continually threatened their safety, the safety of their fami- lies, and of their possessions of live stock. In later years, when the foreigner who bought his farms and searched for the wealth hidden on them became so numerous that the Boer seemed to be an unwelcome guest in his own house, the old-time lion hunter had foundation for believ- ing that a new enemy had suddenly arisen. The Boer attempted to placate the new enemy by means which failed. Afterward a bold but un- successful inroad was made into the country for the purpose of relieving him of the necessity of ruling it. Thereupon the old-time lion-fighting FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 31 spirit arose within the Boer and he began to prepare for future hunting expeditions. He stocked his arsenals with the best guns and am- munition the world produced, and he secured instructors to teach him the most modern and approved methods of fighting the new-style lion. He erected forts and stockades in which he might take refuge in the event the lions should prove too strong and numerous, and he made laws and regulations so that there might be no delay when the proper moment should arrive for attacking the enemy. While these matters were being perfected, further efforts were made to conciliate the enemy, but they proved futile, and it became evident that the farmer and the lion of 1899 were as implacable enemies as the farmer and lion of 1850. The lion of 1899 believed his cause to be as just as did the lion of half a century before, while the farmer felt that the lion, having been created by Nature, had a just claim upon Nature and her works for support, but desired that sustenance should be sought from other parts of Nature's stores. He insisted, moreover, if the lion wished to remain on the plantation, that he should not question the farmer's ownership, nor assume that the lion was an animal of a higher and finer grade than the farmer. A meeting between the representatives of the lions and the farmers led to no better under- FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 33 standing ; in fact, when several days afterward all the farmers gathered at the historic Paarde- kraal monument they were unanimously of the opinion that the lion should be driven out of the country, or at least subdued to such an extent that peace might come and remain. Not since the days of 1877, when at the same spot each Boer, holding a stone above his head, vowed to shed his last drop of blood in defence of his country, was the community of farmers so in- dignant and excited. The aged President him- self, fresh from the conference with the lions, urged his countrymen to prevent a conflict, but to fight valiantly for their independence and rights if the necessity arose. Piet Joubert, who bore marks of a former conflict with the enemy, wept as he narrated the efforts which had been made to pacify the lions, and finally expressed the belief that every farmer in the country would yield his life's blood rather than sur- render the rights for which their fathers had bled and died. When other leaders had spoken, the picturesque custom of renewing the oath of fealty to the country's flag was observed, as it had been every fifth year since the days of Majuba Hill. Ten thousand farmers uncovered their heads, raised their eyes toward heaven, and repeated the Boer oath : " In the presence of Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, and praying for his gra- 34 THE BOERS IN WAR cious assistance and mercy, we, burghers of the South African Republic, have solemnly agreed for us and our children to unite in a holy cove- nant, which we confirm with a solemn oath. It is now forty years ago since our fathers left the Cape Colony to become a free and independent people. These forty years were forty years of sorrow and suffering. We have founded Natal, the Orange Free State, and the South African Republic [Transvaal], and three times has the English Government trampled on our liberty, and our flag, baptized with the blood and tears of our fathers, has been pulled down. As by a thief in the night has our free republic been stolen from us. We can not suffer this, and we may not. It is the will of God that the unity of our fathers and our love to our children should oblige us to deliver unto our children, unblemished, the heritage of our fathers. It is for this reason that we here unite and give each other the hand as men and brethren, solemnly promising to be faithful to our country and people, and, looking unto God, to work to- gether unto death for the restoration of the liberty of our republic. So truly help us, God Almighty ! " Ten thousand voices then joined in singing the national anthem and a psalm, and the mem- orable meeting at this fount of patriotism was closed with a prayer and a benediction. FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 35 After this meeting it was uncertain for some months which would attack ; both were pre- paring as rapidly as possible for the conflict, and the advantage seemed to lie with the one who should strike first. The leaders of the lions seemed to have forgotten that they had lion hunters as their opponents, and the farmers neoflected to take into account the fact that the lion tribe was exceedingly numerous and spread over the whole earth. When the lead- ing farmers met in conclave at Pretoria and heard the demands of the lions, they laughed at them, sent an ultimatum in reply, and started for the frontier to join those of their countrymen who had gone there days before to watch that no body of lions should make another surreptitious attack upon their country. Another community of farmers living to the south, who had also been harassed by the lions for many years and felt that their future safety lay in the subjugation of the lion tribe, joined their neighbours in arms and went forth with them to the greatest lion hunt that South Africa has ever had. The enemy and all other men called it war, but to the Boer it was merely a hunt for lions, such as they had engaged in oftentimes before. The old Boer farmer hardly needed the proclamation from Pretoria to tell him that there was to be a lion hunt, and that he should prepare for it immediately. He had known 36 THE BOERS IN WAR that the hunt was inevitable long before Octo- ber 1 1, 1899, and he had made preparations for it months and even years before. When the offi- cial notification from the commandant general reached him through the field cornet of the dis- trict in which he lived, he was prepared in a few minutes to start for the frontier, where the British lions were to be found. The new Mau- ser rifie which the Government had given him a year or two before was freshly oiled and its working order inspected. The bandolier, filled with bright new cartridges, was swung over his shoulder, and then, after putting a Testament into his coat pocket, he was ready to proceed. He despised a uniform of any kind, as smacking of antirepublican ideas and likely to attract the attention of the enemy. The same corduroy or moleskin trousers, dark coat, wide-brimmed hat, and home-made shoes which he was accustomed to wear in everyday life on the farm were good enough for a hunting expedition, and he needed and yearned for nothing better. A uniform would have caused him to feel uneasy and out of place, and when lions were the game he wanted to be thoroughly comfortable, so that his arm and aim might be steady. His vrouw, who was filling a linen sack with bread, biltong, and coffee to be consumed on his journey to the hunting grounds, may have taken the oppor- tunity while he was cleaning his rifie to sew a FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 37 rosette of the vierkleur of the republic on his hat, or, remembering the custom observed in the old-time wars against the natives, may have found the fluffy, brown tail of a meerkats and fixed it on the upturned brim of his grimy hat. When these few preparations were concluded the Kafir servant brought his master's horse and fixed to the front of the saddle a small roll con- taining a blanket and a mackintosh. To another part of the saddle he strapped a small black ket- tle, to be used for the preparation of the lion hunter's only luxury, coffee, and then the list of impedimenta was complete. The horseman who brought the summons to go to the frontier had hardly reached the neigh- bouring farmhouse, when the Boer lion hunter, uniformed, outfitted, and armed, was on his horse's back and ready for any duty at any place. With a rifle, a bandolier, and a horse, the Boer felt as if he were among kindred spirits, and nothing more was necessary to complete his temporal happiness. The horse is a part of the Boer hunter, and he might as well have gone to the frontier without a rifle as to go in the capacity of a foot soldier. The Boer is the modern Centaur, and therein is found an ex- planation for part of his success in hunting and in warfare. When once the Boer left his home he be- came an army unto himself. He needed no one 38 THE BOERS IN WAR to care for himself and his horse, nor were the leaders of the army obliged to issue myriads of orders for his guidance. He had learned long before that he should meet the other hunters of his ward at a certain spot, in case there was a Meetinj^ of a ward commando. call to arms, and thither he went as rapidly as his pony could carry him. When he arrived at the meeting place he found all his neighbours and friends gathered in groups and discussing the situation. Certain ones of them had brought with them big white-tented ox wagons for con- FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 39 veying ammunition, commissariat stores, and such extra luggage as some might wish to carry, and these were sent ahead as soon as the field cornet, the military leader of the ward, learned that all his men had arrived from their homes. The hunters then formed what was styled a commando, whether it consisted of fifteen or fifty men, and proceeded in a body to a second prearranged meeting place where all the ward commandos of a certain district were asked to congregate. When all these commandos had arrived in one locality they fell under the authority of the commandant who had been elected to that post by the burghers at the preceding election. This official had received his orders directly from the commandant general, and but little time was consumed in disseminating the orders to the burghers through the various field cornets. After all the ward commandos had arrived, the district commando was set in motion toward that part of the frontier where its services were required ; and a most unwarlike spectacle it presented as it rolled along over the muddy, slippery veld. In the van were the huge, lum- bering wagons, with hordes of hullabalooing natives cracking their long rawhide whips and urging the sleek, long-horned oxen forward through the mud. Following the wagon train came the cavalcade of armed lion hunters, grim 40 THE BOERS IN WAR and determined looking enough from a distance, but most peaceful and inoffensive when once they understood the stranger's motives. No order or discipline was visible in the commando on the march, and if the rifles and bandoliers had not appeared so prominently it might read- ily have been mistaken for a party of Nacht- maal celebrants on the way to Pretoria. Now and then some youths emerged from the crowd and indulged in an impromptu horse race, only to return and receive a chiding from their elders for wasting their horses' strength unnecessarily. Occasionally the keen eyes of a rider spied a buck in the distance, and then several of the lion hunters sped obliquely off the track and replenished the commando larder with much smaller game than was the object of their expe- dition. If the commando came from a district far from the frontier, it proceeded to the railway station nearest to the central meeting place and then embarked for the front. No extraordinary preparations \vere necessary for the embarking of a large commando, nor was much time lost before the hunters were speeding toward their destination. Every man placed his own horse in a cattle car, his saddle, bridle, and haversack in the passenger coach, and then assisted in hoisting the cumbersome ox wagons on flat-top trucks. There were no specially deputized 42 THE BOERS IN WAR men to entrain the horses, with others to load the wagons, and still others subtracted from the fighting strength of the nation to attend to such detail duties as require the services of hundreds of men in other armies. After the burghers were entrained and the long commando train was set in motion, the most fatiguing part of the campaign was before them. To ride on a South African railway was a disagreeable exercise in times of peace, but in war times, when trains were long and over- crowded, and the rate of progress never higher than fifteen miles an hour, all other campaign- ing duties were as pleasurable enjoyments. The majority of the burghers, unaccustomed to jour- neying in railway trains, relished the innovation and managed to make merry, even though six of them with all their saddles and personal lug- gage were crowded into one compartment. The singing of hymns occupied much of their time on the journey, and when they tired of this they played practical jokes upon one another, and amused themselves by leaning out of the win- dows and jeering at the men who were guard- ing the railway bridges and culverts. At the stations they grasped their coffeepots and rushed to the locomotive to secure hot water with which to prepare their beverage. It sel- dom happened that any Boer going to the front carried any liquor with him, and, although the FROM FARM TO BATTLEFIELD 43 delays and vexations of the journey were suffi- ciently irritating to serve as an excuse, drunk- enness practically never occurred. Genuine good-fellowship prevailed among them, and no quarrelling was to to be observed. It seemed as if every one of them was striving to live the ideal life portrayed in the Testament which they read assiduously scores of times every day. Whether a train was delayed an hour at a sid- ing, or whether it stopped so suddenly that all were thrown from their seats, there was no pro- fane language, but usually jesting and joking instead. Little discomforts, which would cause an ordinary American or European soldier to use volumes of profanity, were passed by without notice or comment by these psalm-singing Boers, and inconveniences of greater moment, like the disarrangement of the commissariat along the route, caused only slight remonstrances from them. An angry man was as rarely seen as one who cursed, and more rare than either was an intoxicated one. Few of the men Avere given to boasting of the valour they would display in warfare or of their abilities in marksmanship. They had no battle cry of revenge, like " Remember the Maine!" or ''Avenge Majuba!" except it was the motto, ** For God, country, and independ- ence," which many bore on the bands of their hats and on the stocks of their rifles. Occasion- ^ THE BOERS IN WAR ally one boasted of the superiority of the Boer, and more frequently one would be heard to set three months as the limit required to conquer the British army. The name of Jameson, the raider, was frequently heard, but always in a manner which might have led one unacquainted with recent Transvaal history to believe that he was a patron saint of the republic. It was not a cry of *' Remember Jameson ! " for the wrongs he committed, but rather a plea to honour him for having placed the republic on its guard against the dangers which threatened it from beyond its borders. It was frequently suggested, when his name was mentioned, that after the war a monument should be erected to him, because he had given them warning, and that they had profited by the warning to the ex- tent that they had armed themselves thoroughlv- Seldom was there any boasting concerning the number of the enemy that would fall to Boer bullets ; instead there was a tone of sorrow when they spoke of the soldiers of the Queen who would die on the field of battle while fight- ing for a cause concerning the justice or injus- tice of which they could not speak. After the commando train reached its desti- nation, the burghers again took charge of their own horses and conveyances, and even in less time than it required to place them on the train they were unloaded and ready to proceed to u 46 THE liOERS IN WAR the point where the generals needed their as- sistance. The Boer was always considerate of his horse, and it became a custom to delay for several hours after leaving the train in order that the animals might feed and recover from the fatigues of the journey before starting out on a trek over the veld. After the horses had been given an opportunity to rest, the order to ** upsaddle " came from the commandant, and the procession, with the ox wagons in the van, was again formed. The regular army order was then established ; scouts were sent ahead to determine the location of the enemy, and the officers for the first time appeared to lead their men in concerted action against the opposing forces. To call the Boer force an army is to add unwarranted elasticity to the word, for it had but one quality in common with such armed forces as Americans and Europeans are accus- tomed to call by that name. The Boer army fought with guns and gunpowder, but it had no discipline, no drills, no forms, no standards, and not even a roll call. It was an enlarged edition of the hunting parties which a quarter century ago went into the Zoutpansberg in search of game — it was a massive aggregation of lion hunters. CHAPTER III THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY A VISITOR in one of the laagers in Natal once spoke of a Boer burgher as a '* soldier." A Boer from the Wakkerstrom district interrupted his speech and said there were no Boer soldiers. ** If you want us to understand concerning whom you are talking," he continued, " you must call us burghers or farmers. Only the English are soldiers." It was so with all the Boers ; none understood the term soldier as applying to any- body except their enemy, while many consid- ered it an insult to be called a soldier, as it im- plied to a certain degree that they were fighting for hire. In times of peace the citizen of the Boer Republics was called a burgher, and when he took up arms and went to war he received no special title to distinguish him from the man who remained at home. '' My burghers," Paul Kruger was wont to call them before the war, and when they came forth from battle they were content when he said, " My burghers are doing well." The Boers were proud of their citizen- 47 A Boer burgher. THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY ^g ship, and when their country was in danger they went forth as private citizens and not as bold warriors to protect it. There was a law in the two republics which made it incumbent upon all burghers between the ages of sixteen and sixty to join a commando and to go to war when it was necessary. There was no law, however, to prevent a man of what- ever usefulness or age from assisting in the defence of his country ; and in consequence the Boer commandos contained almost the entire male population between the ages of thirteen and eighty. In peaceful times the Boer farmer rarely travelled away from his home unless he was accompanied by his family, and he would have felt the pangs of homesickness if he had not been continually surrounded by his wife and children. When the war began it was not an easy matter for the burgher to leave his home for an indefinite period, and in order that he might not be lonely he took with him all his sons who were strong enough to carry a rifle. The Boer youth develops into manhood early in life in the mild South African climate, and the boy of twelve or thirteen years is the equal in physical development of the American or European of sixteen or seventeen. He was ac- customed to living on the open veld and hunt- ing with his elders, and when he saw that all his former companions were going to war, he 50 THE BOERS IN WAR begged for permission to accompany the com- mando. The Boer boy of twelve years does not wear knickerbocker trousers like the youth of equal age in many other countries, but he is clothed exactly as his father, and he being almost as tall, his youthful appearance is not so notice- able when he is among a large number of his countrymen. Scores of boys not more than twelve years old were in laagers in Natal, and hundreds of less age than the minimum pre- scribed by the military law were in every large commando in the country. When Ladysmith was still besieged, one youth of eleven years was conspicuous in the Standerton laager. He seemed to be a mere child, yet he had the patriotism of ten men. He followed his father everywhere, whether into battle or to the spring for water. ** When my father is injured or killed, I will take his rifle," was his excuse for being away from home. When General De Wet captured seven cannon from the enemy at the battle of Sannaspost two of the volunteers to operate them were boys, nged respectively fourteen and fifteen years. I^ieter J. Henning, of the Potchefstroom com- mando, who was injured in the battle of Scholtz- nek on December nth, was less than fifteen years old, yet his valour in battle was as con- spicuous as that of any of the burghers who THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 51 took part in the engagement. Teunis H. C. Mulder, of the Pretoria commando, celebrated his sixteenth birthday only a few days before he P, J. Lemmer, aged sixty-five. J. D. L. Botha, aged fifteen. C. J. Pretorius, aged forty-three. Takhaar and penkop fought side by side. was twice wounded at Ladysmith on November 9th ; and Willem Frangois Joubert, a relative of the commandant general, was only fifteen years old when he was wounded at Ladysmith on 5 52 THE BOERS IN WAR October 30th. At the battle of Koedoesrand, fifteen-year-old Pieter de Jager, of the Bethle- hem commando, was seriously injured by a shell while he was conveying his injured father from the field. With the army of General Cronje, captured at Paardeberg, were no less than a hundred burghers who had not reached the six- teenth year, and among those who escaped from the laager in the river bed were two Bloemfon- tein boys, named Roux, aged twelve and four- teen years. At Colenso a Wakkerstroom youth of twelve years captured three English scouts, and compelled them to march ahead of him to the commandant's tent. During one of the calms in the fighting at Magersfontein a burgher of fifteen years crept up to within twenty yards of three British soldiers and shouted, *' Hands up ! " Thinking that there were other Boers in the vicinity, the men dropped their guns and became prisoners of the boy, who took them to General de la Rey's tent. When the general asked the boy how he secured the prisoners the lad replied, nonchalantly, " Oh, I surrounded them." These youths who accompanied the com- mando were known as the " Penkop Regi- ment" (a regiment composed of school chil- dren), and in their connection an amusing story has been current in the Boer country ever since the war of 1881, when large num- 54 THE BOERS IN WAR bers of children less than fifteen years old went with their fathers to battle. After the fight at Majuba Hill, while the peace negotia- tions were in progress, Sir Evelyn Wood, the commander of the British forces, asked permis- sion of General Joubert to see the famous Pen- kop Regiment. The Boer general gave an or- der that the boys in the laager should be drawn up in a line before his tent, and when this had been done he led General Wood into the open and introduced him to the corps. Sir Evelyn was sceptical for some time, and imagined that General Joubert was joking, but when it was explained to him that the youths really were the much-vaunted Penkop Regiment he advised them to return to their school books. When a man has reached the age of sixty it may be assumed that he has outlived his useful- ness as a soldier, but not so with the Boers. Not one man, but hundreds there were, who had passed the biblical threescore years and ten, and were fighting valiantly in defence of their country. Grav-haired men, who in another country might be expected to be found at their homes reading the accounts of their grandsons* deeds in the war, went out on scouting duty and scaled hills with almost as much alacrity as the burghers only half their age. Men who could boast of being grandfathers were innimierable, and in almost any laager there could be seen THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY tc fathers, sons, and grandsons, all fighting with equal vigour and enthusiasm. Paul Kruger was seventy-five years old, but there were many of his burghers several years older than he who went to the frontier with their commandos, and remained there for several months at a time. A great-grandfather serving in the capacity of a private soldier may appear like a mythical tale, but there were several such. Old Jan van der Westhuizen, of the Middleburg laager, was active and enthusiastic at eighty-two years, and felt more than proud of four great-grand- children. Piet Kruger, a relative of the Presi- dent and four years his senior, was an active participant in every battle in which the Rusten- berg commando was engaged while it was in Natal, and he never once referred to the fact that he fought in the 1881 war and in the attack upon Jameson's men. Four of Kruger's sons shared the same tent and fare with him, and ten of his grandsons were burghers in other com- mandos. Jan C. ven Tander, of Boshof, exceed- ed the maximum of the military age by eight years; but he was early in the field, and was seriously wounded at the battle of Scholtznek on December nth. General Joubert himself was almost seventy years old, but, as far as physical activity was concerned, there were a score of burghers in his commando, each from five to ten years older, who exhibited more 56 THE BOERS IN WAR activity in one battle than many a younger man did during the entire Natal campaign. The hundreds of bridges and culverts along the rail- way lines in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and upper Natal were guarded day and night by Boers more than sixty years old, who had volunteered to do the work in order that younger men might be sent to localities where their services might be more necessary. Other old Boers and cripples attended to the commis- sariat arrangements along the railways, con- ducted commissariat wagons, gathered forage for the horses at the front, and arranged the thousands of details which are necessary to the well-being and comfort of every army, however simple its organization. It was not only the extremely old and the extremely young who went to war ; it was a transfer of the entire population of the two republics to the frontiers, and no condition or position was sufficient excuse to remain behind. The professional man of Pretoria and Johannes- burg was in a laager which was adjacent to a laager of farthest back-veld farmers. Lawyers and physicians, photographers and grocers, speculators and sextons, judges and schoolmas- ters, schoolboys and hotel keepers — all who were burghers locked their desks and offices and journeyed to the front. Even clergymen closed their houses of worship in the towns and THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 57 remained among the commandos to pray and preach for those who did the fighting. The members of the Volksraads, who brought on the war by their ultimatum, were among the first in the field, and foremost in attacking the sol- diers of the enemy. Students in European uni- versities, who hastened home when war clouds were gathering, went shoulder to shoulder into battle with the backwoodsman, the Boer tak- haar. There was no pride among them ; no class distinction which prevented a farmer from speaking to a millionaire. A graduate of Cam- bridge had as his boon companion for five months a farmer who thought the earth a square, and imagined the United States to be a political division of Australia. Among the Boers were many burghers who had assisted Great Britain in her former wars in South Africa ; men who had fought under the British flag, but were now fighting against it. Colonel Ignace Ferreira, a member of one of the oldest Boer families, fought under Lord Wolse- ley in the Zulu war, and had the order of the Commander of the Bath conferred upon him by the Queen. Colonel Ferreira was at the head of a commando at Mafeking. Paul Dietzch, the military secretary of General Meyer, fought under the British flag in the Gaika and several other native wars. The Boer Avho was bred in a city or town 5^ THE BOERS IN WAk good-naturedly refers to his country cousin as a '' takhaar " — a man with grizzly beard and un- kempt hair. It is a good descriptive term, and the takhaar is not offended when it is applied to him. The takhaar is the modern type of the old voortrekker Boer who, almost a hundred years ago, moved northward from Cape Colony and, after overcoming thousands of difificulties, settled in the present Boer country. He is a religious, big-hearted countryman of the kind who will suspect a stranger until he proves him- self worthy of trust. After that period is passed the takhaar will walk the veld in order that you may ride his horse. If he can not talk your lan- guage he will repeat such words as he knows a dozen times, meanwhile offering to you coffee, mutton, bread, and all the best that his laager larder affords. He offers to exchange a pipe load of tobacco with you, and when that occurs you can take it for granted that he is your friend for life. The takhaar was the man who went to the frontiers on his own responsibility weeks before the ultimatum was sent, and watched day and night lest the enemy might trample a rod beyond the bounds. He was the man who stopped Jameson, who climbed Majuba, and who fought the natives whenever they began their massa- cres. The takhaar was the Boer before gold brought restlessness into the country, and he is The composition of the boer army 59 proud of his title. The fighting ability of the takhaar is best illustrated by repeating an inci- dent which occurred after the battle of Dundee, when a large number of hussars were captured. One of the hussar officers asked for the name of the regiment he had been fighting against. A fun-loving Boer replied that the Boers had no regiments ; that their men were divided into three brigades — the Afrikanders, the Boers, and the takhaars — a distinction which carried with it but a slight difference. '' The Afrikander brigade," the Boer explained, " is fighting now. The men fight like demons. When they are killed then the Boers take the field. The Boers fight about twice as well and hard as the Afri- kanders. As soon as all the Boers are killed, then come the takhaars, and they would rather fight than eat." The officer remained silent a moment, then sighed and said, ** Well, if that is correct, then our job is bigger than I thought it was." The ideal Boer is a man with a bearded face and a flowing mustache; and, in order to appear idyllic, almost every Boer burgher who was not thus favoured before war was begun engaged in the peaceful process of growing a beard. Young men who in times of peace detested hir- sute adornments of the face allowed their beards and mustaches to grow, and after a month or two it was almost impossible to find a burgh- 6o THE BOERS IN WAR er who was without a growth of hair on his chin and cheeks. The wearing of a beard was almost equal to a badge of Boer citizenship, and for the time being every Boer was a takhaar All old takhaar. in appearance if not in fact. The adoption of beards was not so much fancy as it was a mat- ter of discretion. The Boer was aware of the fact that few of the enemy wore beards, and so it was thought quite ingenious for all burghers THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 6l to wear facial adornments of that kind in order that friend and foe might be distinguished more readily at a distance. Notwithstanding their ability to fight when it was necessary, it is doubtful whether twenty per cent of the Boer burghers in the commandos would have been accepted for service in any European or American army. The rigid phys- ical examinations of many of the armies would debar thousands from becoming regular sol- diers. There were men in the Boer forces who had only one arm, some with only one leg, others with only one eye ; some were almost totally blind, while others would have felt hap- py if they could have heard the reports of their rifles. Men who were suffering from various kinds of illnesses, and who should have been in a physician's care, were to be seen in every laager. Men who wore spectacles were nu- merous, while those Avho suffered from diseases which disbar a man from a regular army were almost without number. The high percentage of men unfit for military duty was not due to the Boers' general lack of health, for they are as robust as farmers are in other parts of the earth. Take the entire male population of any district in Europe or America, and compare the individuals with the standard required by arm}^ rules, and the result will not differ greatly from the outcome of the Boer examination. If all 62 THE BOERS IN WAR the youths and old men, the sick and maimed, could have been eliminated from the Boer forces, eighty per cent would probably have been found to be a low estimate of the number thus subtracted from the total force. It would have been heartrending to many a European or American general to see the unsoldierly bear- ing of the Boer burgher ; and in what manner an army of children, great-grandfathers, inva- lids, and blind men, with a handful of good men to leaven it, could be of any service whatever, would have been quite beyond his conception. It was of such a mixed force that a Russian offi- cer, who at the outset of the war entered the Transvaal to fight, became disgusted with the unmilitary appearance and returned to his own country. The accoutrement of the Boer burghers was none the less incongruous than the physical appearance of the majority of them, although no expensive uniform and trappings could have been of more practical value. The men of the Pretoria and Johannesburg commandos had the unique honour of going to the war in uniforms specially made for the purpose, but there was no regulation or law which compelled them to wear certain kinds of clothing. When these commandos went to the frontier several days before the actual warfare had begun they were clothed in khaki-coloured cloth of almost the THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 63 same description as that worn by the soldiers whom they intended to fight. These two com- mandos were composed of townfolk who had absorbed many of the customs and habits of the foreigners present in the country, and they felt that it would be more warlike if they should wear uniforms made specially for camp and field. The old Boers of the towns and the takhaars looked askance at the youth of Pretoria and Johannesburg in their uniforms, and shook their heads at the innovation as smacking too much of an anti-republican spirit. Like Cincinnatus, the majority of the old Boers went directly from their farms to the battlefields, and they wore the same clothing in the laagers as they used when shearing their sheep or herding their cattle on their farms. When they started for the frontier the Boer farmers arranged matters so that they might be comfortable while the campaign continued. Many, it is true, dashed away from home at the first call to arms, and carried with them besides a rifle and bandolier nothing but a mackintosh, blanket, and haversack of food. The majority of them, however, were solicitous of their future comfort and loaded themselves down with all kinds of luggage. Some went to the frontier with their big, four-wheeled ox wagons, and in these they conveyed cooking utensils, trunks, boxes with food and flour, mattresses, and even 64 THE BOERS IN WAR Stoves. The Rustenberg farmers were specially solicitous about their comfort, and these patri- Type of uniformed Boer artillerist. Otic old takhaars practically moved their fam- ilies and household furniture to the camps. THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 65 Some of the burghers took two or three horses each, in order that there might be no delay or annoyance in case of misfortune by death or accident, and frequently a burgher could be seen who had one horse for himself, another for his camp utensils and extra clothing, and a third and fourth for native servants who cooked his meals and watched the horses while they grazed. Without his horse the Boer would be of little account as a fighting man, and those magnifi- cent little ponies deserve almost as much credit for the glory which attended the campaign as their riders. If some South African does not frame a eulogy of the little beasts, it will not be because they did not deserve it. The horse was half the centaur and quite the life of him. Small and wiry, he was able to jog along fifty and sixty miles a day for several days in succes- sion, and, when the occasion demanded it, he could attain a rate of speed that equalled that of the ordinary South African railway train, which, however, made no claims to lightning- like velocity. He bore all kinds of weather, was not liable to sickness except at one season of the year, and he was able to work two and even three days without as much as a blade of grass. He could thrive on the grass of the veld, and when winter killed the grass he needed but a few bundles of forage a day to keep him in good 66 THE BOERS IN WAR condition. He climbed rocky mountain sides as readily as a buck, and never wandered from a path in the darkest night. He drank and appar- ently relished the murky water of mud pools, and needed but little attention with the curry- comb and brush. He was trained to obey the gentlest turn of the reins, and a slight whistle brought him to a full stop. When his master left him and went forward into battle, the Boer pony remained in the exact position where he was placed, and when perchance a shell or bullet ended his existence, there the Boer paid a tribute to the value of his dead servant by refusing to continue the fight and beating a hasty retreat. In the early part of the campaign in Natal the laagers were filled with the ox wagons, and in the absence of tents, which were sadly wanted during that season of heavy rains, they stood in good stead to the l3lirghers. The rear parts of the wagons were tented with an arched roof, as all the trek w^agons are, and under these shelters the burghers lived. Many of the burghers who left their ox wagons at home took small, light four-wheeled carriages, locally called spiders, or the huge two-wheelers or Cape carts, so serviceable and common through- out the country. These were readily trans- formed into tents, and made excellent sleeping accommodations by night and transport wagons THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 67 for the luggage when the commandos moved from one place to another. When a rapid march was contemplated all the heavy wagons were left behind in the charge of native serv- ants, with which every burgher was provided. Men accompanied by their native servants. It was quite in keeping with their other ideas of personal comfort for many Boer burgh- ers to carry a coloured parasol or an umbrella to protect them from the rays of the sun, and it was not considered beneath their dignity to wear a woman's shawl around their shoulders 6 68 THE BOERS IN WAR or head when the morning air was chilly. At first sight of these unique spectacles, the stranger in the Boer country felt amused, but if he cared to smile at every unmilitary scene he would have had little time for other things. It was a republican army composed of republicans, and anything that smacked of the opposite was ab- horred. There were no flags or insignia of any kind to lead the burghers on. Such mottoes as expressed their cause were embroidered on the bands of their felt hats and cut on the stocks of their rifles. "For God and freedom," "For freedom, land, and people," and " For God, country, and justice," were among the senti- ments which some of the burghers carried into battle on their hats and rifles. Others had vier- kleur ribbons as bands for their hats, while many carried miniatures containing the photographs of the Presidents on the upturned brims of their headgear. Aside from the dangers arising from a con- tact with the enemy and the heartburns result- ing from a long absence from his home, the Boer burgher's experiences at the front were not arduous. First and foremost, he had a horse and rifle, and with these he was always more or less happy. He had fresh meats provided to him daily, and he had native servants to pre- pare and serve his meals for him. lie was under no discipline whatever, and he was his THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 69 own master at all times. He generally had his sons or brothers with him in the same laager, and to a Boer there was always much joy in that. 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. Every two months he was entitled to a ten days' leave of absence to visit his home, and at other times, during the first five months of the war, his wife and children were allowed to visit him in his laager. If he was stationed along the northern or western frontiers of the Transvaal, he was in the game country and was able to go on buck- shooting expeditions as frequently as he cared. He was not compelled to rise at a certain hour in the morning, and he could go to bed whenever he wished. There was no drill, no roll call — none of the thousands of petty details which the soldiers of even the Portuguese army are com- pelled to perform. As a result of a special law, there was no work on Sundays or church holi- days unless the enemy brought it about, and then, if he was a stickler for the observance of the Sabbath, he was not compelled to move a muscle. The Boer burgher could eat, sleep, or fight whenever he wished ; and inasmuch as he was a law unto himself there was no one who could compel him to change his habits. It was an ideal idle man's mode of living, and the for- 10 THE BOERS IN WAR eign volunteers, who had leaves of absence from their own armies, made the most of their holiday. The most conspicuous features of the Boer forces were the equality of the officers and the men, and the entire absence of any assumption of superiority by the leaders of the burghers. All the officers, from the commandant general down to the corporal, carried rifles and bando- liers, and all wore the ordinary garb of a civilian, so that there was nothing to indicate the man's military standing. The officers associated with their men every hour of the day, and in most instances were able to call the majority of them by their Christian names. With one or two ex- ceptions all the generals were farmers before the war started, and consequently they were un- able to assume any great degree of superiority over their farmer burghers if they had wished to do so. General Meyer pitched quoits with his men. General Botha swapped tobacco with any one of his burghers, and General Smutz and one of his officers held the whist champion- ship of their laager. Rarely a burgher touched his hat before speaking to an officer, but he in- variably shook hands with him at meeting and parting. It is a Boer custom to shake hands with friends or strangers, and whenever a gen- eral visited a laager adjoining his own the hand- shaking reminded one of the President's public reception days at Washington. When General THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 71 Joubert went from camp to camp he greeted all the burghers who came near him with a grasp of the hand, and it was the same with all the other generals and officers. Whenever Presi- dents Kruger and Steyn went to the commandos they held out their right hands to all the burgh- ers who approached them, and one might have imagined that every Boer was personally ac- quainted with every other man in the repub- lics. It was the same with strangers who visited the laagers, and many a sore wrist testified to the Boer's republicanism. Some one called it the '* handshaking army," and it was a most de- scriptive title. Many of the burghers could not refrain from exercising their habit, and shook hands with British prisoners, much to the aston- ishment of the captured ones. Another striking feature of life in the Boer laagers was the deep religious feeling which manifested itself in a thousand different ways. It is an easy matter for an irreligious person to scoff at men who pass through a campaign with prayer and hymn singing, and it is just as easy to laugh at the man who reads his Testament at intervals of shooting at the enemy. The Boer was a religious man always, and when he went to war he placed as much faith in prayer and in his Testament as in his rifle. He be- lieved that his cause was just, and that the Lord would favour those fighting in a righteous spirit. 72 THE BOERS IN WAR On October nth, before the burghers crossed the frontier at Laing's Nek, a religious service was held. Every burgher in the commandos knelt on the ground and uttered a prayer for the success and speedy ending of the campaign. Hymns were sung, and for a full hour the hills, whereon almost twenty years before many of the same burghers had sung and prayed after the victory at Majuba, were resounding with the religious and patriotic songs of men going forw^ard to kill and be killed. In their laagers the Boers had religious services at daybreak and after sunset every day, whether they were near to the enemy or far away. At first the novelty of being awakened early in the morning by the voices of a large commando of burghers was not conducive to a religious feeling in the mind of a stranger, but a short stay in the laagers caused anger to turn to admiration. After sunset the burghers again gathered in groups around camp fires and made the countryside re-echo with the sound of their deep, bass voices united in Dutch hymns and psalms of praise and thanksgiving. Whether they ate a big meal from a wxU-equipped table, or whether they leaped from their horses to make a hasty meal of biltong and bread, they reverently bowed their heads and asked a bless- ing before and after eating. Before they went into battle they gathered around their general, a O V-i be < 74 THE BOERS IN WAR and were led in prayer by the man who was chosen to lead them against the enemy. When the battle was concluded, and whether the field was won or lost, prayers were offered to the God of battles. In the reports which generals and commandants made to the war department victories and defeats were invariably ascribed to the will of God, and such phrases as " All the glory belongs to the Lord of hosts who led us," and *' God gave us the victory," and " Di- vine favour guided our footsteps," were fre- quent. When one is a stranger to the Boers and unacquainted with the simple faith which they place in divine guidance, these religious manifestations may appear inopportune in war- fare, but it is only necessary to observe the Boer burgher in all his various actions and emotions to know that he is sincere in his re- ligious beliefs, and that he endeavours to be a Christian in deed as well as in word. The Boer army, like Cromwell's troopers, could fight as well as pray, but in reality it was not a fighting organization in the sense that warfare was agreeable to the burghers. The Boers proved that they could fight when there was a necessity for it, but to the great majority of them it was heartrending to slay their fellow- beings. The Boer's hand was better adapted to the stem of a pipe than to the stock of an army rifle, and he would rather have been occupied THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOER ARMY 75 in his usual peaceful pursuit had he not be- lieved that it was a holy war in which he was engaged. That he was not eager for fighting was displayed in a hundred difTerent ways. He loved his home more than the laagers at the front, and he took advantage of every oppor- tunity to return to his farm and family. He lusted not for battle, and he seldom engaged in one unless he firmly believed that success de- pended partly upon his individual presence. He did not go into battle because he had the thirst for blood, for he abhorred the slaughter of men, and it was not an extraordinary spec- tacle to see a Boer weeping beside the corpse of a British soldier. On the field, after the Spion Kop battle, where Boer guns did their greatest execution, there were scores of bare- headed Boers who deplored the war, and amid ejaculations of " Poor Tommy " and " This use- less slaughter," brushed away the tears that rolled down over their brown cheeks and beards. A Boer was never seen to exult over a victory. They might say ** That is good " when they heard of a Spion Kop or a Magers- fontein, but they never indulged in a shout or any of the other methods of expressing joy. The foreigners in the army frequently were beside themselves with exultation after vic- tories, but the Boers looked stolidly on and never took any part in the demonstrations. CHAPTER IV THE ARMY ORGANIZATION When the Boer goes on a lion-hunting ex- pedition he must be thoroughly acquainted with the game country, he must be experienced in the use of the rifle, and he must know how to protect himself against the attacks of the enemy. When he is thus equipped, and he abandons lion hunting for the more strenuous life of war, the Boer is a formidable enemy, for he has combined in him the qualities of a gen- eral as well as the powers of a private soldier. In lion hunting the harm of having too many men in authority is not so fatal to the success of the expedition as it is in real warfare, where the enemy may have as many generals, but a larger force of men who will obey their com- mands. All the successes of the Boer army were the result of the fact that every burgher was a general, and to the same cause may be attributed every defeat. Whenever this army of generals combined and agreed to do a cer- THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 77 tain work it was successful, but it was unsuc- cessful whenever the leaders disagreed. If the opportunity had given birth to a man who would have been accepted as general of the generals — a man was needed who could have introduced discipline and training into the rudi- mentary military system of the country — the chances of Boer success would have been far greater. The leaders of the Boer army were elected by a vote of the people in the same manner in which they chose their Presidents and civil offi- cials. Age, ability, and military experience did not have any bearing on the subject, except in so far as they influenced the mind of the indi- vidual voter. Family influences, party affilia- tions, and religion materially affected the re- sult of the elections, and, as is frequently the case with civil officials in other countries, the men with the best military minds and experi. ence were not always chosen. It was as a re- sult of this system that General Joubertwas put at the head of the army, Avhen a younger, more energetic, and more warlike man should have been commandant general. At the last election for commandant general, Joubert, a Progres- sive, also received the support of the Conserva- tives, so that two years later he might not be a candidate for the presidency against Paul Kruger. 78 THE BOERS IN WAR In the same manner the commandants of the districts and the field cornets of the wards were chosen, and in the majority of cases no thought was taken at the time of the election of their military ability. The voters of a ward, the low- est political division in the country, elected their field cornet more with a view of having him administer the laws in times of peace than with a regard to his fitness to lead them into battle ; and in like manner the election of a commandant for a district, which generally con- sists of five wards, was more of a victory on account of the man's popularity in peace than for his presumed bravery in war. The Boer system of electing military leaders by vote of the people may have had certain advantages, but it had the negative quality of effacing all traces of authority between officers and men. The burgher who had assisted in electing his field cornet felt that that official owed him a certain amount of gratitude for having voted for him, and obeyed his orders or disobeyed them according as he chose to do. The field cornet represented authority over his men, but of real control of them he had none. The commandants were presumed to have authority over the field cornets and the generals over the commandants, but whether that rule was of any vahie could not be ascertained until after the will of those in lower rank was discovered. THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 79 By this extraordinary process it happened that every burgher was a general, and that no gen- eral was greater than a burgher. The military officers of the Boers, with the exception of the commandant general, were the same men who ruled the country in times of peace. War suddenly transformed pruning hooks into swords, and conservators of peace into leaders of armies. The head of the army was the commandant general, who was invested with full power to direct operations and to lead men. Directly under his authority were the assistant commandant generals, five of whom were appointed by the Volksraad a short time before the beginning of hostilities. Then fol- lowed in rank those who, in order to distinguish them from the assistant generals, were called vecht generals, or fighting generals. Under them were the commandants, the leaders of the field cornets of one district, whose rank was about that of colonels. The field cornets, who were in command of the men of a ward, were under the authority of a commandant, and ranked on a par with majors. The burghers of every ward were subdivided into squads of about twenty-five men, under the control of a corporal, whose rank was equal to that of a lieutenant. There were no corps, brigades, regiments, and companies to call for hundreds of officers ; it was merely a commando, whether 8o THE BOERS IN WAR it had ten men or ten thousand, and neither the subdivision nor the augmentation of a force affected the list of officers in any way. Nor would such a multiplication of officers weaken the fighting strength of a force, for every officer, from commandant general to corporal, carried and used a rifle in every battle. Elect! When the officers had their men on the field and desired to make a forward movement or an attack on the enemy, it was necessary to hold a Krijgsraad, or council of war, and this was con- ducted in such a manner that the most unmil- itary burgher's voice bore almost as much THE ARMY ORGANIZATION gl weight as that of the commandant general. Every officer, from corporal to commandant general, was a member of the Krijgsraad, and when a plan was favoured by the majority of those present at the council, it became a law. The decision of a Krijgsraad meeting did not necessarily imply that it was a plan favoured by the best military minds at the council, for it was possible and legal for the opinions of sixteen corporals to be adopted, although fifteen gen- erals and commandants opposed the plan with all their might. Whether there ever was such a result is problematical, but there were many Krijgsraads at which the opinions of the best and most experienced officers were cast aside by the votes of field cornets and corporals. This undoubtedly was a representative way of adopting the will of the people, but it fre- quently was exceedingly costly. At the Krijgsraad in Natal which determined that the army should abandon the positions along the Tugela and retire north of Ladysmith, the project was bitterly opposed by the generals who had done the bravest and best fighting in the colony, but the votes of the corporals, field cornets, and commandants outnumbered theirs, and there was nothing for the generals to do but to retire and allow Ladysmith to be relieved. At Mafeking scores of Krijgsraads were held for the purpose of arriving at a determination to 82 THE BOERS IN WAR storm the town, but invariably the field cornets and corporals outvoted the commandants and generals, and refused to risk the lives of their men in such a hazardous attack. Even the oft- repeated commands of the commandant general to storm Mafeking were treated with contempt by the majority of the Krijgsraad, who constituted the highest military authority in the country, so far as they and their actions were concerned. When there happened to be a deadlock in the balloting at a Krijgsraad, it was more than once the case that the vote of the commandant general counted for less than the voice of a burgher. In one of the minor Krijgsraads in Natal a tie in the voting was ended when an old burgher called his corporal aside and in- fluenced him to change his vote. The com- mandant general himself had not been able to turn the trend of the voting, but the old burgh- er, who had no connection with the council of war, practically determined the result of the meeting. The Krijgsraad was the supreme military authority in the country, and its resolutions were the law ; all infracticMis of them being punishable by fines. The minority of a Krijgs- raad was obliged to assist in executing the plans of the majoritv, however impracticable or dis- tasteful they might be to those whose opinions did not prevail. There were innumerable in- THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 83 stances where generals and commandants at- tended a Krijgsraad and afterward acted quite contrary to the resolution adopted by the coun- cil. In any other army such action would have been called disobedience of orders, and would have received proper punishment, but in the Boer army it led to little beyond personal ani- mosity. According to Boer military law, an officer offending in such a manner should have been arraigned before the Krijgsraad and tried by his fellow-officers, but such occurrences were extremely rare. One of the few instances where a man was arraigned before a Krijgsraad for dereliction of duty was after the enemy succeeded in dam- aging one of the *' Long Toms" around Lady- smith. The artillery officer who was in charge of the gun when the dynamite was exploded in its muzzle was convicted of neglect of duty and was disgraced before the army. After the bat- tle of Belmont Vecht-General Jacob Prinsloo, of the Free State, was court-martialed for coward- ice and was reduced to the rank of burgher. This was Prinsloo's first battle, and he was thoroughly frightened. When some of his men came up to him and asked him for directions how to repel the advancing British force, Prins- loo trembled, rubbed his hands, and replied, "God only knows — I don't !" and fled, with all his men at his heels. 7 84 THE HOKRS IN WAR Two instances where commandants acted contrary to the decisions of the Krijgsraad were the costly disobedience of General Erasmus at Dundee and the still more costly mistake of Commandant Buis at Hlangwe. When the Boers invaded Natal and determined to attack the British forces then stationed at the town of Dundee, it was decided at a Krijgsraad that General Lukas Meyer should attack from the east and south and General Erasmus from the, north. General Meyer occupied Talana Hill east of Dundee and a kopje south of the town, and attacked General Penn-Symons's forces at daybreak. General Erasmus and the Pretoria commando with field pieces and a " Long Tom " occupied Impati Mountain on the north, but when the time arrived for him to assist in the attack on the enemy several hundred yards below him he would not allow a shot to be fired. As a result of the miscarriage of plans General Meyer was compelled to retire from Talana Hill in the afternoon while the British force was enabled to escape southward into Ladysmith. If General Erasmus had followed the decision of the Krijgsraad and had assisted in the attack there is hardly any doubt that the entire force of the enemy would have been cap- tured. Even more disastrous was the disobe- dience of Commandant Buis, of the Heidelberg commando, who was ordered to occupy a ccr- THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 85 tain point on the Boschrand called Hlangwe about February 19th. The British had tried for several weeks to drive the Boers from the Boschrand, but all their attempts proved fruit- less. A certain commando had been holding Hlangwe for a long time, and Commandant Buis was ordered to take his commando and re- lieve the others by night. Instead of going to Hlangwe immediately that night he bivouacked in a small nek near by, intending to occupy the position the following morning. During the night the British discovered that the point was unoccupied and placed a strong force there. In this manner the British wedge was forced into the Boschrand, and shortly afterward the Boers were obliged to retreat across the Tugela and secure positions on the north bank of the stream. Of less serious consequence was General De la Rey's refusal to carry out a decision he him- self had assisted in framing. It was at Brand- fort, in the Free State, several weeks after Bloemfontein was occupied, and all the Boer generals in the vicinity met in Krijgsraad and voted to make a concerted attack upon the British force at Tafelkop, midway between Bloemfontein and Brandfort. Generals Smuts and Botha made a long night trek to the posi- tions from which they were to attack the enemy at daybreak. It had been arranged that Gen- 86 THE BOERS IN WAR eral De la Key's commando should open the attack from another point, and that no opera- tions should begin until after he had given a certain signal. The signal was never given, and after waiting for it several hours the other gen- erals returned to Brandfort, only to find that General De la Rey had not even moved from his laager. When the lower ranks of officers, the field cornets, and corporals disobeyed the mandates of the Krijgsraads, displayed cowardice, or mis- behaved in any other manner, the burghers un- der their command had the power of impeach- ing them and electing other officers to fill the vacancies. The corporals were elected by the burghers after war was begun, and they held their posts only so long as their behaviour met with the favour of those who placed them in authority. During the first three months of the war innumerable changes of that nature were made ; and not infrequently it was the case that a corporal was unceremoniously dismissed be- cause he had offended one of his men who hap- pened to wield much influence over his fellows in the commando. Personal popularity had much to do with the tenure of office, but person- al bravery was not allowed to go unrewarded, and it happened several times in the laagers along the Tugela that a corporal resigned his rank so that one of his friends who had distin- THE ARMY ORGANIZATION g^ guished himself in a battle might have his work recognised and appreciated. However independent and irresponsible the Boer officer may have been, he was a man in irons compared with the Boer burgher. The burgher was bound by no laws except such as he made for himself. There was a state law which compelled him to join a commando and to accompany it to the front, or in default oi compliance to pay a small fine. As soon as he was "on commando," as it was called, he became his own master and could laugh at Mr. Atkins across the way who was obliged to be attending constantly to various camp duties when not actively engaged in marching or fighting. No general or act of Volksraad could compel him to do any duty if he felt disinclined to perform it, and there was no power on earth which could force him to move out of his tent if he did not desire to go. In the majority of countries a man may volunteer to join the army, but when once he is a soldier he is compelled to fight; while in the Boer country the man was compelled to join the army, but was not obliged to fight unless he volunteered to do so. There were hundreds of men in the Natal laagers who never engaged in a battle and never fired a shot in the first six months of the war ; again, there were hundreds of men who took part in almost every one of the battles, whether their com- g8 THE BOERS IN WAR mando was engaged or not, but who joined the fighting voluntarily without being under any obligation to do so. When a Krijgsraad determined to make or resist an attack the officers at the meeting de- cided upon how many men were needed for the work. Immediately after the meeting the offi- cers returned to their commandos, and having explained to their burghers the nature and object of the expedition asked for volunteers. The officer could not call upon certain men and order them to take part in the purposed pro- ceedings ; he could only ask them to offer their services. It happened at times that an entire commando of several hundred men volunteered to do the work asked of them, but just as often it was the case that only from one tenth to one twentieth of the burghers expressed their will- ingness to accompany the expedition. Several days after the Spion Kop battle General Botha called for four hundred volun- teers to take part in resisting an attack that it was feared would be made. There were almost ten thousand men in the environs of Ladysmith at that time, but it was with the utmost diffi- culty that the four hundred men could be gath- ered. Two hundred men came from one com- mando, one hundred and fifty-three from an- other, twenty-eight from a third, fifteen from another, and five from another, making a total of THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 89 four hundred and one men — one more than was called for. When Commandant-General Joubert, at his hoofd or head laager, at Modderspruit, received an urgent request for re-enforcements, he was not able to order one of the commandos that was in laager near him to go to the assist- ance of the fighting burghers ; he could only make a request of the different commandants and field cornets to ask their men to volunteer for the service. If the men refused to go, then naturally the re-enforcements could not be sent, and those who were in dire need of assistance had the alternative of continuing the struggle alone or of yielding a position to the enemy. The relief of Ladysmith was made possible by the fact that Generals Botha and Erasmus did not receive re-enforcements from Commandant-Gen- eral Joubert, who was north of Ladysmith with almost ten thousand men. Botha and Erasmus had been fighting for almost a week without a day's intermission, and their two thousand men were utterly exhausted when Joubert was asked to send re-enforcements, at least enough to re- lieve the men from fighting for a day or two. A Krijgsraad had decided that the entire army should retreat to the Biggarsberg, and Joubert could not, or at least would not, send any burgh- ers to the Tugela. The result was that Botha was compelled to retreat and to abandon posi- tions which could have been held indefinitely if go THE BOERS IN WAR there had been military discipline in the com- mandos. It was not always the case that com- mandants and generals were obliged to go beg- ging for volunteers, and there were innumerable instances when every man of a commando did the work assigned to him without a murmur. During the Natal campaign the force was so large and the work seemed so comparatively easy that the majority of the burghers never went to the firing line ; but when British suc- cesses in the Free State placed the Boers on the defensive, it was not so safe to remain behind in the laagers and allow others more willing to engage in the fighting. General Cionje was able to induce a much larger percentage of his men to fight than Commandant-General Joubert, the reasons for this being that he was much firmer with his men, and that he moved from one place to an- other more frequently than Joubert. Toward the end of General Cronje's campaign all his men were willing to go into battle, because they realized that they must fight, a feeling that had been much in default in the Natal army. When a Boer realized that he must fight or lose his life or a battle, he would fight as few other men were able to do; but when he imagined that his presence at the firing line was not im- perative he might choose to remain in laager. There were hundreds of burghers who took THE ARMY ORGANIZATION gi part in almost every battle in Natal, composed of persons, who, understanding the frame of mind of some of their countrymen, determined that they must take upon themselves the respon- sibilities of fighting and winning battles. Among those who were most forward in fighting were the Johannesburg police, the much - despised " Zarps " of peaceful times ; the Pretoria com- mando, and the younger men of other com- mandos. There were many old Boers who left their laagers whenever they heard the report of a gun, but the ages of the great majority of those who were killed or injured were between seventeen and thirty years. After the British captured Bloemfontein and the memorable Krijgsraad at Kroonstad deter- mined that guerrilla warfare should thereafter be followed, it was not so easy a matter for a burgher to remain behind in the laagers, for the majority of the ox wagons and other camp para- phernalia were sent home, and laager life was not so attractive as before. Commandos re- mained at one place only a short time, and there was almost a daily opportunity for a brush with the enemy. The war had been going on for six- months, but many of the men had not had their first taste of actual war till then ; and, after the first battle had been safely passed through, the succeeding ones were regarded with compara- tive indfference. When General Christian De 92 THE BOERS IN WAR Wet began his campaign in the eastern part of the Free State, there were hardly enough men left in the laagers to guard them properly when battles were in progress, and in the battles at Sannaspost, Mostershoek, and Wepener, prob- ably ninety-nine per cent of his men took part in every engagement. In Natal the real fighting spirit was lacking in the majority of the men, and Commandant-General Joubert might have been swept aside from the path to Durban ; but months afterward, when the burgher learned that his services were actually needed, and that if he did not fight he was liable to be captured and sent to St. Helena, he polished his Mauser and fought as hard and well as he was able. The same carelessness or indifference which manifested itself throughout the early part of the Natal campaign with regard to the necessity of assisting in the fighting was evident in that all-important part of an army's work— the guarding of the laagers. The Boers did not have sentries or outposts as they are understood in trained armies, but they had what was called a " Brandwacht," or fire guard, which consisted of a hundred men or more, who were supposed to take positions at a certain distance from the laagers and remain there until daybreak. These men were volunteers secured by the corporal, who was responsible to his field cornet for a certain number of men every night. It was THE ARMY ORGANIZATION g^ never made compulsory upon any one to go on Brandwacht, but the duty was not considered irksome, and there were always as many volun- teers as were required for the work. The men on Brandwacht carried with them blankets, A Boer picket in early morning. pipes, and kettles, and, after reaching the point which they were to occupy during the night, they tethered their horses to one of their feet and made themselves comfortable with pipe and coffee. When the enemy was known to be near by, the Brandwacht kept awake as a matter 94 THE BOERS IN WAR of personal safety, but when there seemed to be no danger of attack he fastened his blankets around his body and, using his saddle for a pil- low, slept until the sun rose. There was a mild punishment for those who slept while on this duty, and occasionally the burgher found that some one had abstracted the bolt of his rifle during the night. When the corporal produced the bolt as evidence against him in the morning and sentenced him to carry a stone or a box of biscuits on his head the burgher might decline to be punished, and no one could say aught agfainst his determination. The Boer scouts, or spies as they were called, received a fine tribute from Sir George White, the British commander at Ladysmith. In a speech which he delivered at Capetown, Sir George said : " All through this campaign, from the first day the Boers crossed the frontier to the relief of Ladysmith, I and others who have been in command near me have been hampered by their excellent system of intelligence, for which I give them all credit. I wish to goodness that they had neglected it, for I could not move a gun, even if I did not give the order till midnight, but they knew it by daylight next morning. And they had their agents who gave them their intelligence through thick and thin. I locked up everybody who I thought could go and tell, THE ARMY ORGANIZATION 95 but somehow or other the intelligence went on. I had sixteen miles of a perimeter to watch, and I could not prevent the information from get- ting over it." The Boer was an effective scout because he was familiar with the country and because his eyes were far better than those of any of the men against whom he was pitted. The South African atmosphere is extraordinarily clear, and every person has a long range of vision; but the Boer, who was accustomed to the climatic con- ditions, could distinguish between Boer and Briton where the stranger could barely see a moving object. Field glasses were almost valueless to Boer scouts, and few of them were carried by any one except the generals and com. mandants, who secured them from the war de- partment before the beginning of the war. There was no distinct branch of the army whose exclusive duty it was to scout, and there was even greater lack of organization in the matter of securing information concerning the move- ments of the enemy than in the other depart- ments of the army's work. When a general or commandant felt that it was necessary to ob- tain accurate information concerning the enemy's strength and whereabouts, he asked for volun- teers to do the work. Frequently during the Natal campaign no scouting was done for days, and the generals were absolutely ignorant of q6 the BOERS IN WAR everything in connection with the enemy. Later in the campaign several scouting corps com- posed of foreign volunteers were organized, and thereafter the Boers depended wholly upon the information they secured. There was no regulation which forbade burghers from leaving the laagers at any time or from proceeding in any direction, and much of the information that reached the generals was obtained from these rovers over the veld. It was extremely difficult for a man who did not have the appearance of a burgher to ride over the veld for more than a mile without being hailed by a Boer, who seemed to have risen out of the earth unnoticed. '* Where are you going? " or '* Where are you coming from?" were his invariable salutations, and if the strangrer was unable to give a satisfactory reply or show proper passports he was commanded, '* Hands up ! " The burghers were constantly on the alert when abroad on the veld, whether they were merely wandering about, leaving for home, or returning to the laager, and as soon as they secured any information which they believed was valuable they dashed away to the nearest telegraph or heliograph station and reported it to their general or commandant. In addition to this valuable attribute the Boers had the advan- tage of being among white and black friends who could assist them in a hundred different THE ARMY ORGANIZATION ^7 ways in obtaining information concerning the enemy, and all these circumstances combined to warrant General White's estimate of the Boer's intelligence department, which, notwithstanding its efficiency, was more or less mythical. In no department or branch of the army was there any military discipline or system except in the two small bodies of men known as the State Artillery of the Transvaal and the State Artillery of the Free State. These organizations were in existence many years before the war was begun, and had regular drills and practice which were maintained when they were at the front. The Johannesburg police also had a form of dis- cipline, which, however, was not strict enough to prevent the men from mutinying when they imagined that they had fought the whole war themselves, and wanted to have a vacation in order that they might visit their homes. The only instance of real military discipline that was to be found in the entire Boer army was that which was maintained by Field Cornet A. L. Thring, of the Kroonstad commando, who had a roll call and inspection of rifies every morn- ing. This extraordinary procedure was not relished by the burghers, who made an indignant protest to General Christian De Wet. The gen- eral upheld the field cornet's action and told the men that if all the officers had instituted similar methods more success might have attended the 98 THE BOERS IN WAR army's operations. With the exceptions of the instances cited, every man was a disciplinary law unto himself, and when he transgressed that law no one would call him to account but his conscience. There were laws on the subject of obedience in the army and all had penalties at- tached to them, but it was extremely rare that a burgher was punished. When he endured dis- cipline he did it because he cared to do so and not because he feared those who had authority over him. He was always deeply religious, and he felt that in being obedient he was find- ing favour in the eyes of the Providence that watched over his cause. It was as much his religion as his ability to aim unerringly that made the Boer a good soldier. If the Boer army had been composed of an irreligious, un- disciplined body of men instead of the psalm- singing farmers it would have been conquered by itself. The religion of the Boers was their discipline. CHAPTER V THE l^OER MILITARY SYSTEM The disparity between the British and Boer armies seemed to be so great at the time the war was begun that the patriotic Englishman could hardly be blamed for asserting that the struggle would be of only a month's duration. On the one side was an army every branch of which was highly developed and specialized and kept in constant practice by many wars waged under widely different conditions. Back of it was a great nation with millions of men and unlimited resources to draw upon. At the head of the army were men who knew the theory and practice of warfare as few leaders of other armies had had opportunities of learning them. Opposed to this army was practically an aggre- gation of farmers hastily summoned together and utterly without discipline or training. They were unable to replace with another a single fallen burgher, and were prevented from adding by importation to their stock of am- munition a single rifle or a single pound of 8 99 100 THE BOERS IN WAR powder. Their generals were farmers who perhaps did not know that there existed a theory of warfare and much less knew how modern wars were fought and won. The means by which thirty thousand farmers of no mili- tary training were enabled to withstand the opposition of several hundred thousand well- trained soldiers for the greater part of a year must be sought in the military system Avhich gave such a marvellous advantage. Such suc- cess as attended the Boer army was undoubt- edly the success of its method ot warfare against that of the British. The Boers themselves were not aware that they had a military system ; at least none of the generals or men acknowledged the exist- ence of one, and it was not an easy matter to find evidence that battles were fought and move- ments made according to certain established rules which suggested a system. The Boers undoubtedly had a military method of their own which was naturally developed in their many wars with natives and with the British troops. It might not have been a system ac- cording to the correct definition of the term — it might have been called an instinct for fighting or a common-sense way of attempting to defeat an enemy — but it was something which existed in the mind of every citizen of the two repub- lics. It was not to be learned from books or THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM loi teachers, nor could it be taught to those who were not born in the country. Whatever that method was, it was extremely rudimentary, and was never developed to any extent by the disci- pline and training which any military system necessarily requires in order to make it effect- ive. There was a natural way of proceeding used by the Boers when hunting for lion or buck, and it was the same as that which they applied against the British army. Every Boer was expert in the use of his rifle ; he had an excellent eye for country and cover; he was able to tell at a glance whether a hill or an un- dulation in the ground was suitable for fighting purposes, whether it could be defended and whether it offered facilities for attack or retreat. Just as every Boer was a general, so every burgher had in his mind a certain military plan fashioned after the needs and opportunities of the country, and this was their system — a sort of national as well as natural art of war. In the British army as well as in other mod- ern armies the soldier is supposed to under- stand nothing, know nothing, and do nothing but give obedience to the commands of his offi- cers. He is expected to learn little of anything except the evolutions he is taught on the drill grounds. It is presumed that he is stupid, and the idea appears to be to prevent him from be- ing otherwise, in order that he may the better I02 THE BOERS IN WAR perform his function in the great machine to which a trained army has been likened. He is regarded as if he were an animal of low mental grade, whose functions are merely to carry out the orders of the man who has been chosen by beings of superior intelligence to command him. When the man who has been selected in times of peace to lead the men in times of war fails, on meeting the enemy, to make good use of the military knowledge which it was presumed he possessed, the soldiers who look to him for direc- tion generally become useless and oftentimes worse than useless, inasmuch as their panic is likely to become infectious among neighbouring bodies of soldiers, even though they are pro- vided with better leaders. In trained armies the value of a soldier is a reflection of the value of the officer who com- mands him, and the worth of the army is great in proportion to the ability of its generals. In the Boer army the generals and commandants were of much less importance, for the reason that the Boer burgher acted almost always on his own initiative. The generals were of more service before the beginning of a battle than while it was in progress. When a burgher became aware of the presence of the enemy his own knowledge, his native military sense, told him the best manner in which to attack his adversary as well as his general could have THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 103 informed him. The generals and other officers were of prime importance in leading" the burgh- ers to the point where the enemy was likely to be found, but when that locality was reached their period of usefulness ended, for the burgh- ers knew how to wage the battle as well as they did. Generally speaking, the most strik- ing difference between the Boer army and a trained army was the difference in the distribu- tion of intelligence. All the intelligence of a trained army is centred in the officers ; in the Boer army there was much practical military sense and alertness of mind diffused throughout the entire force. Mr. Disraeli once said : '* Doubtless to think with vigour, with clearness, and with depth in the recess of a cabinet, is a fine intellectual demonstration ; but to think with equal vigour, clearness, and depth among bullets, appears the loftiest exercise and the most complete triumph of the human faculties." Without attempting to intimate that every burgher was a man of the high mental attainments described by the emi- nent British statesman, it must be acknowledged that the fighting Boer was a man of more than ordinary calibre. In battle the Boer burgher was practically his own general. He had an eye which quickly grasped a situation, and he never waited for an order from an officer to take advantage of it. I04 THE BOERS IN WAR When he saw that he could with safety ap- proach the enemy more closely, he did so on his own responsibility, and when it became evi- dent to him that it would be advantageous to occupy a different position in order that he might stem the advance of the enemy, he acted entirely on his own initiative. He remained in one position just as long as he considered it safe to do so, and if conditions warranted he went forward, or if they were adverse he re- treated, whether there was an order from an officer or not. When he saw that the burghers in another part of the field were hard pressed by the enemy, he deserted his oWn position and went to their assistance; or when his own posi- tion became untenable, in his own opinion, he simply vacated it and went to another spot where bullets and shells were less thick. If he saw a number of the enemy detached from the main body of their own force, and believed that they could be taken prisoners, he enlisted a number of the burghers who had the same opinion, and made an effort to capture them, whether there was an officer close at hand or not. No one was overcharged with orders; in fact, the lack of them was more noticeable, and it was well that it was so, for the Boer burgher disliked to be ordered, and always did things with better grace when he acted spontaneously. THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 105 This fact was illustrated by an incident in the fight of Modderspruit, where two young Boers saved an entire commando from falling into the hands of the enemy. Lieutenant Oelfse, of the State artillery, and Reginald Sheppard, of the Pretoria commando, observed a strong force of the British advancing toward a kopje where the Krugersdorp commando was concealed. The two men saw that the Krugersdo'rpers would be cut off in a short time if they were not informed of the British advance, so they determined to plunge across the open veld, six hundred yards from the enemy's guns, and tell them of their danger. No officer could have compelled the men to undertake such a hazard- ous journey across a bullet-swept plain, but Oelfse and Sheppard acted on their own re- sponsibility, succeeded in reaching the Krugers- dorp commando without being hit, and gave the commandant the information which undoubt- edly saved him and his men from being cap- tured. Incidents of like nature occurred in al- most every battle of the campaign, and occa- sionally the service thus rendered voluntarily by the burghers was of momentous consequence, even if the act itself seemed trivial at the time. A second feature of the Boer army and quite as important as the freedom of action of its individuals was its mobility. Every burgher was mounted on a fleet horse or pony, and con- I06 THE BOERS IN WAR sequently his movements on the battlefield, whether in an advance or in the retreat, were many times more rapid than those of the enemy — an advantage which was of inestimable value both during an engagement and in the intervals between battles when it was necessary to secure new positions. During the progress of a battle the Boers were able to leave a certain point for a time, mount their horses, and, riding to an- other position, throw their full strength against the latter, while still remaining in such close touch with the former post that it was possi- ble to return and defend it in a very short space of time. With the aid of their horses they could make such a sudden rush from one posi- tion to another that the infantry of the enemy could be surrounded and cut off from all com- munication with the body of its army almost before it was known that any Boers were in the vicinity ; and it was due to that fact that the Boers were able to make so many captures of large numbers. The fighting along the Tugela furnished many striking examples of the Boers* extreme mobility. There was a constant dashing from one position to another — an attack here now, another there to-morrow. This incessant move- ment was made necessary by the display of energy by the British, whose thrice-larger forces kept the Boers in a state of continued THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM [07 ferment. On one side of the river, stretched out from south of Spionkop, in the west, to Helpmakaar, in the east, were thirty thou- sand British troops watching for a weak point where they might cross, and attacking wherever there seemed to be the slightest op- portunity of breaking through ; on the other side were between two and three thousand mounted Boers dashing from one point to another in the long line of territory to be guarded, and repelling the attacks wherever they were made. The country was in their favour, it is true, but it was not so favourable that a handful of men could defend it against thousands, and it was partly due to the great ease and rapidity with which the Boers could move from one place to another that Ladysmith remained besieged so long. The mobility of the Boers was again well demonstrated in the retreat of the burghers from the environs of Ladysmith. After the Krijgsraad decided to withdraw the forces into the Biggarsberg it re- quired only a few hours for all the many com- mandos to leave the positions they had held so long, to load their impedimenta, and to be well on the way to the north. The departure was so rapid that it surprised even those who were in Ladysmith. One day the Boers were shell- ing the town as usual, and all the commandos were observed in the same positions which they THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM log had occupied tor several months ; the following day not a single Boer was to be seen anywhere. They had quietly mounted their horses by night and before the sun rose in the morning tliey were trekking north beyond Modderspruit and Elandslaagte on the way to Glencoe. General Cronje's flight from Magersfontein was also accomplished with great haste and in good order; but probably the hnest example of the Boers' mobility was the magnificent re- treat along the Basuto border of Generals Gro- bler, Olivier, and Lemmer with their 6,000 men, when the enemy was known to be in great strength within several days' march of them. After the capture of Cronje at Paardeberg the three generals, who had been conducting the campaign in the eastern provinces of Cape Col- ony were in a most dangerous position, having the enemy in the rear, the left, and left front, the neutral Basuto land on the right front, and only a small strip of territory along the western borders of the Basuto country being apparently free of the enemy. The British were in Bloem- fontein and the surrounding country, and it seemed almost impossible that the 6,000 men could ever extricate themselves from such a position and join the Boer forces in the north. It would have been a comparatively easy mat- ter for 6,000 mounted men to make the journey if they had not been loaded down with im- no THE BOERS IN WAR pedimenta, but the retreating generals were obliged to carry with them all their huge transport wagons and heavy camping para- phernalia. The trek northward was begun near Colesburg on March 12th, and when all the dif- ferent commandos had joined the main column the 6,000 horsemen, the 750 transport wagons, the 2,000 natives, and 12,000 cattle formed a line extending more than 24 miles. The scouts who were despatched westward from the col- umn to ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy reported large forces of British cavalry sixty and seventy miles distant, but for some inex- plicable reason the British made no attempt to cut off the retreat of the three generals, and on March 28th they reached Kroonstad, having traversed almost 400 miles of territory in the comparatively short time of sixteen days. Sherman's march to the sea was made under extraordinary conditions, but the retreat of the three generals was fraught with much great- er dangers and difficulties. Sherman passed through a fertile country, and had an enemy which was disheartened. The Boer generals had an enemy flushed with its first victories, while the country through which they passed was mountainous and muddy. If the column had been captured so soon after the Paardeberg disaster, the relief of Kimberley and the relief of Ladysmith, the event might have been so dis- THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM i i i heartening to the remaining Boer commandos that the war would .have been ended at that time. It was a magnificent retreat, and well worthy to be placed in the scroll of honour with Cronje's noble stand at Paardeberg, with Spion Kop, and Magersfontein. The Boer army was capable of moving rapidly under almost any circumstances. The British army demonstrated upon many occa- sions that it could not move more than two or three miles an hour when the column was ham- pered with transport wagons and camping para- phernalia, and frequently it was impossible to proceed at that pace for many consecutive hours. A Boer commando easily travelled six miles an hour, and not infrequently, when there was a necessity for rapid motion, seven and even eight miles an hour were traversed. When Gen- eral Lucas Meyer moved his commandos along the Natal border at the outset of the war, and learned that General Penn-Symons was located at Dundee, he made a night march of almost forty miles in six hours and occupied Talana Hill, a mile distant from the enemy, who were ignorant of the Boers' proximity until the camp was shelled at daybreak. When General De Wet learned that Colonel Broadwood was moving westward from Thaba N'Chu on March 30th, he was in laager several miles east of Brand- fort, but it required only a few minutes for all 112 THE BOERS IN WAR the burghers to be on their horses and ready to proceed toward the enemy. The journey of twenty-five miles to Sannaspost, near the Bloem- fontein waterworks, was accomplished in the re- markably short time of five hours, while Colonel Broadwood's forces consumed seven hours in making the ten-mile journey from Thaba N'Chu to the same place. The British column was un- able to move more rapidly on account of its large convoy of wagons, and could not make even as great progress as that made by the trekking party of the three generals who were similarly hampered. The Boers rarely attempted to trek for any considerable distance with their heavy wagons when they were aware of the presence of the enemy in the vicinity. Ox wagons were al- ways left behind, and as only a small number of light vehicles bearing provisions and ammuni- tion were taken, they were able to move with greater rapidity than their opponents. Fre- quently they entered dangerous territorv with only a few days' provisions, and risked a famine of food and ammunition rather than load them- selves down with many lumbering wagons which were likely to retard their progress. After fight- ing the battle at Moester's Hoek, General De Wet had hardly three days' food and very little ammunition with him. Yet rather than delay his march and send for more wagons he pro- THE r,OER MILITARY SYSTEM 13 ceeded to VVepener, where after several days' fighting both his food and ammunition became exhausted. He was then obliged to lie idle around the enemy and await the arrival of the supplies which he might have carried with him A burgher and his breakfast. at the outset of the trek had he cared to risk such an impediment to his rapid movements. One of the primary reasons why the Boers could move more rapidly than the British was the difference in the weight carried by their horses. The Boer paid no attention to artistic 114 '^^^^ BOERS IN WAR accoutrement when he went to war, and conse- quently he carried nothing that was not abso- lutely essential. His saddle was less than half the weight of a British saddle, and was almost all the equipment he carried when on a trek. The Boer rider and equipment, including saddle, rifle, blankets, and a food supply, rarely weighed more than two hundred and fifty pounds, which was not a heavy load for a horse to carry. A British cavalryman and his equipment of heavy saddle, sabre, carbine, and saddlebags rarely weighed less than four hundred pounds, a burden which soon tires a horse. Again, almost every Boer had two horses, so that when one had been ridden for an hour or more he was relieved and led, while the other was used. In this manner the Boers were able to travel from twelve to fourteen hours in a day when it was absolutely neces- sary to reach a certain point at a given time. Six miles an hour was the rate of progress ex- pected of horses in normal condition, and when a forced march was attempted they could travel sixty and seventy miles in a day, and be in good condition the following morning to undertake another journey of equal length. Small com- mandos often covered sixty and seventy miles in a day, especially during the fighting along the Tugela; while after the battles of Poplar Grove and Abraham's Kraal and the capture of THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 115 Bloemfontein, it seemed as if the entire army in the Free State were moving northward at a rate of speed comparable with that of an express train. The mobility of the Boer army was then on a par with that of the British army after the battle of Dundee, and it was difficult to deter- mine which of the two deserved the palm for the best display of accelerated motion. A most striking feature of the Boer sys- tem of warfare was the manner in which each individual protected himself, as far as possible, from danger. In lion hunting it is an axiom that the hunter must not pursue a wounded lion into tall grass or underbrush, lest the pur- suer be attacked. In the Boer army a natural impulse, common to all the burghers, led them to seek their own safety whenever danger seemed to be near. Men who follow the most peaceful pursuits value their lives highly. They do not assume great risks even if great ends are to be attained. The majority of the Boers were farmers who saw no glory in attempting to gain a great success the attainment of which made it necessary that they should risk their lives recklessly. It seemed as if each man realized that his death meant a great loss to the Boer army, already small, and that he did not intend to diminish its size if he could possibly prevent it. The Boer was quick in noting when the proper moment arrived for retreat, and he was 9 Il6 THE BOERS IN WAR not slothful in acting upon his observations. Retreating when it was time was one of the Boers' characteristics, but it could not be called an advantage, for frequently many of them misjudged the occasion, and left the field when a battle was almost won. At Poplar Grove the Boers might have carried the day if the majority of the burghers had remained and fought an hour or two longer instead of with- drawing precipitately when the individuals de- termined that safety was to be found only in flight. At Elandslaagte the foreigners under General Kock did not seize the proper moment for retreat, but continued with the fighting and were almost annihilated by the Lancers because of their lack of judgment. The burghers of the Free State, in particular, had the instinct of re- treating abnormally developed, and whenever a battle was in progress large numbers of them could be observed going in an opposite direction as rapidly as their ponies could carry them over the veld. The lack of discipline in the commandos made such practices possible ; in fact, there was no rule or law by which a burgher could be pre- vented from retreating or deserting whenever he felt that he did not care to participate in a battle. After the British occupation of Bloem- fontein there was a small skirmish about eight miles north of that city at a place called Tafcl Kop which sent the Free Staters running in all THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM ny directions. The veld seemed to be tilled with deserters, and at every farmhouse there were from two to six able-bodied men Avho had fled when they believed themselves to be in grave danger. Foolish men attribute all the moral courage in the world to the soldiers of their own coun- try, but Nature made a wise distribution of that gift, and not all the Boers were cowards. Boer generals with only a few hundred men time and again attacked thousands of British soldiers and frequently vanquished them. General Botha's twenty-five hundred men held out for a week against General Buller's thirty or forty thou- sand, and General Cronje with his four thou- sand burghers surrendered to not less than forty thousand men and one hundred and fifty heavy guns under Field-Marshal Lord Roberts. Those two examples of Boer bravery would suffice to prove that the South African farmers had moral courage of no mean order if there were not a thousand and one other splendid records of bravery. The burghers did not always lie be- hind their shelter until the enemy had come within several hundred yards and then bowl him over with deadly accurac3^ At the Plat- rand fight near Ladysmith on January 6th the Boers charged and captured British positions, drove the defenders out, and did it so success- fully that only a few Boers were killed. The Il8 THE BOERS IN WAR Spion Kop fight, a second Majuba Hill, was won after one of the finest displays of moral courage in the war. It requires bravery of the highest type for a small body of men to climb a steep hill in the face of an enemy which is three times greater numerically and armed with larger and more guns, yet that was the case with the Boers at Spion Kop. There were but few battles in the entire campaign in which the Boer forces were not vastly outnumbered by the enemy, who usually had from twice to twenty times their number of cannon. Yet the burgh- ers were well aware of the fact and did not allow it to interfere with their plans; nor did they dis- play great temerity in seeking battle with such a foe. When Lord Roberts and his three thou- sand cavalry entered Jacobsdal there were less than one hundred arm.ed Boers in the town, but they made a determined stand against the enemy and in a street fight a large percentage of the burghers fell, their blood mingling with that of those they had slain. Large bodies of Boers rarely attacked and never resisted the enemy on level stretches of veld — not because they lacked courage to do so, but because they saw the futility of such action. After the British drove the Boers out of the kopjes east and northeast of Bloemfontein, the burghers had no broken country suited to their particular style of warfare, and they retreated THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 119 to the Vaal without making great efforts to stop the advance of the enemy. The Boer generals knew that the British were equipped with in- numerable cannon which could sweep the level veld for several miles before them and make the ground untenable for the riflemen, the main- stay of the Boer army. When they were on hills the Boers were able to intrench themselves so thoroughly that the fire of several hundred heavy guns made hardly any impression on them, but as soon as they attempted those tac- tics on level ground the results were most dis- astrous. At Colenso and Magersfontein the burghers remained in their trenches on the hills while thousands of shrapnel and other shells ex- ploded above and around them, but very few men were injured, and when the British in- fantry advanced under cover of the shell fire the Boers merely waited until the enemy had approached to within several hundred yards and then assailed them with rifle fire. Trenches always afforded perfect safety from shell fire, and on that account the Boers were able to cope long and well with the British in the fight- ing along the Tugela and around Kimberley. The Boers generally remained quietly in their trenches and made no reply to the British can- non fire, however hot it was. The British gen- erals several times mistook this silence as an indication that the Boers had evacuated the I20 THE BOERS IN WAR trenches, and sent forward bodies of infantry to occupy the positions. When the infantry reached the Boer zone of shooting they usu- ally met with a terrific Mauser fire that could not be stemmed, however gallant their at- tacks might be. Hundreds of British soldiers lost their lives while going forward under shell fire to seize a position which it was pre- sumed by the generals were unoccupied by the Boers. There were innumerable instances also of ex- traordinary brave acts by individual burghers, but it was extremely difficult to hear of them, owinof to the Boers' disinclination to discuss a battle in its details. No Boer ever referred of his own volition to his exploits or those of his friends, and at any time only in the most in- definite manner. He related the story of a battle in much the same manner that he told of the till- ing of his fields or the herding of his cattle, and when there was any part of it pertaining to his own actions he passed it over without comment. It seemed as if every one was fighting, not for his own glorification, but for the success of his country's army, and consequently there was little hero worship. Individual acts of bravery entitled the fortunate person to have his name mentioned in the Staats-Courant, the Govern- ment gazette, but hardly any attention was paid to the search for heroes, and only the names of THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 121 a few men were even chronicled in the columns of that periodical. One of the bravest men in the Natal cam- paign was a young Pretoria burgher named Van Gaz who in his youth had an accident which made it necessary that his right arm should be amputated at the elbow. Later in life he was injured in one of the native wars, and the upper arm was amputated, so that when he joined a commando he had only the left arm. It was an extraordinary spectacle to observe young Van Gaz holding his carbine between his knees while loading it with cartridges and quite as strange to see the agility with which he dis- charged his rifle with one hand. He was in the van of the storming party at Spion Kop, where a bullet passed completely through his chest. He continued, however, to work his rifle between his knees and to shoot with his left arm, and was one of the first men to reach the summit of the hill, where he snatched the rifles from the hands of two British soldiers. After the battle was won he was carried to a hospital by several other burghers, but a month afterward he was again at the front at the Tugela, going into ex- posed positions and shouting : *' Come on, fel- lows ; here is a good chance ! " His companions desired to elect him their field cornet, but he refused the honour. Evert Le Roux and Herculaas Nel, of the 122 THE BOERS IN WzVR Swaziland police, and two of the best scouts in the Boer army, were constantly engaged in recklessly daring enterprises, none of which, however, was quite equal to their actions on April 2ist, when the environs of Ladysmith had been in British hands for almost two months. The two men went out on patrol and by night crept up a kopje behind which about three hundred British cavalrymen were bivouacking. The men were twenty miles away from their laagers at Dundee and only a short distance from Ladysmith, but they lay down and slept on the other side of the kopje and only a hun- dred yards from the cavalrymen. In the morn- ing the British cavalry was divided into three squads and all started for Ladysmith. Le Roux and Nel swept down toward the last squad and called *' Hands up ! " to one of the men in the van. The cavalryman promptly held up his hands and a minute afterward surrendered his gun and himself, while the remainder of the squad fied precipitately. The two scouts, with their prisoner, quickly made a detour of another kopje and appeared in front of the first squad of whom they made a similar demand. One of the cavalrymen, who was in advance of the others, surrendered without attempting to make any resistance, while the others turned quickly to the right and rode headlong into a deep sluit. Lc Roux shot the horse of one of the men be- THE BOER MILITARY SYSTEM 123 fore he reached the sluit ; loaded the unhorsed man on one of the other prisoners' horses and then pursued the fleeing cavalrymen almost to the city limits of Ladysmith. Major Albrecht, the head of the Free State Artillery, was one of the bravest men in General Cronje's commando, and his display of courage at the battle of Magersfontein was not less ex- traordinary than that which he made later in the river bed at Paardeburg. At Magersfontein Albrecht and two of his artillerymen operated two cannon which were located behind schanzes twenty feet apart. The British had more than fifty cannon, which they turned upon the Boer guns whenever one of them was discharged. After a short time the fire became so hot that Albrecht sent his assistants to places of safety and worked the guns alone. For eight hours the intrepid Free State artilleryman jumped from one cannon to another, returning the fire whenever there was a lull in the enemy's attack, and seeking safety behind the schanze when shells were falling too rapidly. It was an un- even contest, but the bravery of one man in- spired the others, and the end of the day saw the Boers nearer victory than they were in the morning. At Tafelkop, on March 30th, three burghers were caught napping by three British soldiers, who suddenly appeared before them and shouted, " Hands up ! " While the soldiers 124 THE BOERS IN WAR were advancing toward them the three burgh- ers succeeded in getting their rifles at their cap- tors' heads, and turned the tables by making prisoners of them. There were many such instances of bravery, but one that is almost incredible occurred at the place called Railway Hill, near the Tugela, on February 24th. On that day the Boers did not appear to know anything concerning the posi- tion of the enemy, and James Marks, a Rusten- berg farmer, determined to go out of the laager and reconnoitre on his own responsibility. Marks was more than sixty-two years old, and was somewhat decrepit, a circumstance which did not prevent him, however, from taking part in almost every one of the Natal battles. The old farmer had been absent from his laager less than an hour when he saw a small body of Brit- ish soldiers at the foot of a kopje. He crept cautiously around the kopje, and when he was within a hundred yards of the men he shouted, " Hands up ! " The soldiers immediately lifted their arms, and, in obedience to the orders of Marks, stacked their guns on a rock and ad- vanced toward him. Marks placed the men in a line, saw that there were twenty-three big, able-bodied soldiers, and then marched them back into camp, to the great astonishment of his generals and fellow-burghers. CHAPTER VI THE BOERS IN BATTLE The battle of Sannaspost, on March 31st, was one of the few engagements in the campaign in which the forces of the Boers and the British were almost numerically equal. There were two or three small battles in which the Boers had more men engaged than the British, but in the majority of instances the Boers were vastly outnumbered, both in men and guns. At Elands- laagte the Boers had exactly seven hundred and fifty burghers pitted against the five or six thou- sand British ; Spion Kop was won from three thousand British by three hundred and fifty Boers ; at the Tugela, Botha with not more than twenty-six hundred men fought for more than a week against ten times that number of soldiers under General BuUer ; while the greatest dis- parity between the opposing forces was at Paar- deberg, where Cronje spent a week in trying to lead his four thousand men through the encir- cling wall of forty or fifty thousand British soldiers. 125 126 THE BOERS IN WAR Sannaspost was not a decisive battle of the war, since no point of great strategical impor- tance was at stake, but it was more in the na- ture of a demonstration of what the Boers were able to do when they were opposed to a force of equal strength. It was a test which was equally fair to both contestants, and neither of them could reasonably claim to have possessed an advantage over the other a day before the battle was fought. The British commander, Colonel Broadwood, had seventeen hundred men in his column, and General De Wet was at the head of about two hundred and fifty less than that number, but the disparity was equal- ized by the Boer general's intimate knowledge of the country. Colonel Broadwood was ex- perienced in Indian, Egyptian, and South Afri- can warfare, and the majority of his soldiers were seasoned in many battles. De Wet and his men were fresh from Poplar Grove, Abra- ham's Kraal, and the fighting around Kimberley, and they were not better or worse than the average of the Boer burghers. The British commander was hampered by a large transport train, but he possessed the advantage of more heavy guns than his adversary. All in all, the two forces were equally matched when they reached the battlefield. The day before the battle General De Wet and his men were in laa^rer several miles east of THE BOERS IN BATTLE 127 Brandfort, whither they had fled after the fall of Bloemfontein. His scouts brought to him the information that a small British column was stationed in the village of Thaba N'Chu, forty miles to the east, and he determined to march thither and attack it. He gave the order, " Op- zaal ! " and in less than eight minutes every one of his burghers was on his horse, armed, provided with two days' rations of biltong, biscuit, coffee, and sugar, and ready to proceed. De Wet him- self leaped into a light, ramshackle four-wheeler and led the advance over the dusty veld. With- out attempting to proceed with any semblance of military order, the burghers followed in the course of their leader, some riding rapidly, others walking beside their horses, and a few skirmishing far away on the veld for buck. The mule teams, dragging the artillery and the am- munition wagons, were not permitted by their hullabalooing Basuto drivers to lag far behind the general, and the dust which was raised by this long cavalcade was not unlike the clouds of locusts which were frequently mistaken for the signs of a trekking commando. Mile after mile was rapidly traversed until darkness came on, when a halt was made, so that the burghers might prepare a meal and the general might hear from the scouts who were far in advance of the body. After the men and horses had eaten, and the moon had risen over the dark peak of 128 THE BOEkS IN WAR Thaba N'Chu Mountain, the burghers lighted their pipes and sang psalms and hymns until the peaceful valley resounded with their voices. The long-awaited scouts rode on panting horses to the little stone farmhouse where Gen- eral De Wet was drinking milk and brought information that the British force had evacuated Thaba N'Chu late in the afternoon, and was moving hurriedly toward Bloemfontein. Again the order, ** Opzaal ! " the mule train came into motion, and the burghers mounted their horses. A chill night air arose, and shivering burghers wrapped blankets around their shoulders. The humming of hymns and the whistling ceased, and there was nothing but the clatter of horses' hoofs, the shouts of the Basutos, and the noises of the guns and wagons rumbling over the stones and gullies to mark the nocturnal pas- sage of the army. Lights were shining at farm- house windows, and at their gates were women and children with bread and bowls of milk and prayers for the burghers. Small walls inclos- ing family burial plots, where newly dug ground told its own story of the war, stood grim in the moonlight; native huts, with their inhabitants standing like spectres before the doors, ap- peared like monstrous ant-heaps — all these were passed, but the drooping eyes of the burghers saw nothing. At midnifjht another halt was made, horses THE BOERS IN BATTLE 29 were unsaddled, and men lay down on the veld to sleep. The generals and officers met in Krijgsraad, and other scouts arriving, told of the enemy's evident intention of spending the remainder of the night at an old-time off-saddling station known as Sannaspost. The news was highly important, and the heads of the generals came closer together. Maps were produced, pencil marks were made, plans were formed, and then the sleeping burghers were aroused. The trek was resumed, and shortly afterward the column was divided into two parts : the one, consisting of nine hundred men under Gen- eral Peter De Wet, proceeding by a circuitous route to the hills south of Sannaspost; and the other, of five hundred men commanded by Com- mandant-General Christian De Wet, moving through a maze of kopjes to a position west of the trekking station. The burghers were not informed of the im- minence of a battle, but they required no such announcement from their generals. The atmos- phere seemed to be surcharged with premoni- tions of an engagement, and men rubbed sleep out of their eyes and sat erect upon their horses. The blacks even ceased to crack their whips so sharply, and urged the mules forward in whis- pers instead of shrieks. Burghers took their rifles from their backs, tested the workings of the mechanism, and filled the magazines with I30 THE BOERS IN WAR cartridges. Artillerymen leaped from their horses and led them while they sat on the cannon and poured oil into the bearings. Young men speculated on the number of pris- oners they would take ; old men wrote their names on their hats by the light of the moon. The lights of Bloemfontein appeared in the dis- tance, and gray beards looked longingly at them and sighed. But the cavalcade passed on grim- ly, silently, and defiantly to the haunts of the enemy. After four hours of trekking over veld, kopje, sluit, and donga, the two columns halted, the burghers dismounted, and, weary from the long journey and the lack of sleep, lay down on the earth beside their horses. Commandants, field cornets, and corporals bustling about among the burghers, horses, and wagons, gave orders in un- dertones ; generals summoned their scouts and asked for detailed information concerning the whereabouts of the enemy ; patrols were scurry- inof hither and thither to secure accurate ideas of the topography of the territory in front of them ; all who were in authority were busy, while the burghers who carried the strength of battle in their bodies lay sleeping and resting. The first dim rays of the day came over the tops of the eastern hills when the burghers were aroused and asked to proceed to the positions chosen by their leaders. The men under Peter THE BOERS IN BATTLE 131 De Wet, the younger brother of the comman- dant general, were led to an elevation about a mile and a half south of Sannaspost, where they placed their cannon in position and waited for the break of day. Christian De Wet and his five hundred burghers advanced noiselessly and oc- cupied the dry bed of Koorn Spruit, a stream which crossed the main road running from Thaba N'Chu to Bloemfontein at right angles about a mile from the station, where the British forces had begun their bivouac for the night two hours before. No signs of the enemy could be seen ; there were no pickets, no outposts, and none of the usual safeguards of an army, and for some time the Boers were led to believe that the British force had been allowed to escape un- harmed. The five hundred burghers under the leader- ship of Christian De Wet were completely con- cealed in the spruit. The high banks might have been held by the forces of the enemy, but unless they crept to the edge and looked down into the stream they would not have been able to discover the presence of the Boers. Where the road crossed the stream deep ap- proaches had been dug into the banks in order to facilitate the passage of conveyances — a " drift " it is called in South Africa — and on either side, for a distance of a mile up and down the stream, the burghers stood by their 32 THE BOERS IN WAR horses and waited for the coming of the day. The concealment was perfect ; no specially con- structed trenches could have served the pur- poses of the Boers more advantageously. Dawn lighted the fiat-topped kopjes that la}^ in a huge semicircle in the distance, and men clambered up the sides of the spruit to ascertain the position of the camp of the enemy. The white smokestack of the Bloemfontein water- works appeared against the black background of the hills in the east, but it was yet too dark to distinguish objects on the ground beneath it. A group of burghers in the spruit, absent-mind- edly began to sing a deep-toned psalm, but the stern order of a commandant quickly ended the matutinal chant. A donkey in an ammunition wagon brayed vociferously, and a dozen men, fearful lest the enemy should hear the noise, sprang upon him with clubs and whips and even attempted to close his mouth by force of hands. It was the fateful moment before the battle, and men acted strangely. Some walked nervously up and down, others dropped on their knees and prayed, a few lighted their pipes, many sat on the ground and looked vacantly into space, while some of the younger burghers joked and laughed. At the drift stood the generals, scanning the hills and undulations with their glasses. Small fires appeared in the east near the tall white THE BOERS IN BATTLE 133 stack. '* They are preparing their breakfast," some one suggested. " I see a few tents," an- other one reported excitedly. All eyes were turned in the direction indicated. Some es- timated the intervening distance at a mile, others were positive it was not more than a thousand yards — it was not light enough to distinguish accurately. '* Tell the burghers that I will fire the first shot," said General De Wet to one of his staff. Immediately the order was spread to the men in the spruit. '' I see men leading oxen to the wagons ; they are preparing to trek," remarked a commandant. " They are coming down this way," announced another, slapping his thigh, joyfully. A few minutes afterward clouds of dust arose, and at intervals the wagons in the van could be seen coming down the slope toward the drift. The few tents fell and the men in brown uni- forms moved hither and thither near the water- works building. Wagon after wagon joined in the procession ; drivers were shrieking and wielding their whips over the heads of the oxen, and farther behind were cavalrymen mounting their horses. It was daylight then, although the sun was still below the horizon, and the movements of the enemy could be plainly dis- cerned. The ox teams came slowly down the road, there seemed to be no limit to their num- ber ; and the generals retreated down the drift 34 THE BOERS IN WAR to the bottom of the spruit, so that their pres- ence should not be discovered by the enemy and in order to await there the arrival of the wagons. The shrieking natives drew nearer, the rum- bling of the wagons became more distinct, and soon the first vehicle descended the drift. A few burghers were sent forward to intercept it. As soon as it reached the bottom of the spruit, the men grasped the bridles of the horses, and instantly there were shrieks from the occupants of the vehicle. It was filled with women and children, all pale with fright on account of the unexpected appearance of the Boers. The pas- sengers were quickly and gently taken from the wagon and sent to places of safety in the spruit, while a burgher jumped into the vehicle and drove the horses up the other drift and out upon the open veld. The operation of substi- tuting drivers was done so quickly and quietly that none of those approaching the drift from the other side noticed anything extraordinary, and they proceeded into the spruit. Other burghers stood prepared to receive them as they descended the drift with their heavily laden ammunition and provision wagons, and there was little trouble in seizing the British drivers and placing the whips into the hands of Boers. Wagon after wagon was relieved of its drivers and sent up to the other bank without THE BOERS IN BATTLE 135 creating a suspicion in the minds of the other drivers who were coming down the slope from the waterworks. After fifty or more wagons had crossed the drift, a solitary cavalry ofihcer, with the rank of captain, followed one of them, riding leisurely along. His coat had a rent in it, and he was holding the torn parts together as if he were planning the mending of it when he reached Bloemfontein. A young Boer sprang before him, called " Hands up ! " and projected the barrel of his carbine toward him. The officer started out of his reverie, involuntarily reached for his sword, but repented almost instantly, and obeyed the order. General De Wet approached the captain, touched his hat in salute, and said, "Good morning, sir." The officer returned the complimentary greeting and offered his sword to the Boer. De Wet declined to receive the weapon and asked the officer to return to his men and ask them to surrender. " We have a large force of men surrounding you," the gen- eral explained, " and you can not escape. In order to save many lives, I ask you to surrender your men without fighting." The officer re- mained silent for a moment, then looked squarely into the eyes of the Boer general and said, '' I will return to my men and will order them to surrender." De Wet nodded his head in as- sent, and the captain mounted his horse. " I 136 THE BOERS IN WAR will rely upon your promise," the general added ; " if you break it, I will shoot you." General De Wet and several of his com- mandants followed the cavalry officer up the drift and stood on the bank while the horseman galloped slowly toward the troops, which were following the wagons down the slope. The gen- eral raised his carbine and held it in his arms. His eyes were fixed on the officer, and he stood as firm as a statue until the cavalryman reached his men. There was a momentary pause while the captain stood before his troops ; then the horses were wheeled about and their hoofs sent showers of dust into the air as they carried their riders in retreat. General De Wet stepped for- ward several paces, raised his carbine to his shoulder, aimed steadily for a second, then fired. The bullet whistled menacingly over the heads of oxen and drivers ; it struck the officer, and he fell. All along the banks of the spruit, for a mile on either side of it, and over on the hills where Christian De Wet and his burghers lay, men had been waiting patiently and expectantly for that signal gun of Peter De Wet. They had been watching the enemy toiling down the slope under the very muzzles of their guns for almost an age it seemed, yet they dared not fire lest the plans of the generals should be thwarted. Men had lain flat on the ground with their rifles THE BOERS IN BATTLE 137 pointing minute after minute at individuals in the advancing column, but the words of their general, " I will fire the first shot," restrained them. The flight of the bullet which entered the body of the cavalry officer marked the end- ing of the long period of nervous tension, and the burghers were free to use their guns. Until the officer advised his men to retreat and he himself fell from his horse, the main body of the British troops was ignorant of the pres- ence of the Boers, but the report of the rifle was a summons to battle, and instantly the field was filled with myriads of stirring scenes. The lazy transport train suddenly became a thing of rapid motion ; the huge body of troops was quickly broken into many parts ; horses that had been idling along the road plunged forward as if pro- jected by catapults. Officers with swords flash- ing in the sunlight appeared leading their men into different positions, cannon were hurriedly drawn upon commanding elevations, and Red Cross wagons scattered to places of safety. The peaceful transport train had suddenly been transformed into a formidable engine of war by the report of a shot, and the contest for a senti- ment and a bit of ground was opened by shriek- ing cannon shell and the piercing cry of rifle balls. Down at the foot of the slope, where the drift crossed the spruit, Boers were dragging cannon into position, and in among the wagons. 138 THE BOERS IN WAR which had become congested in the road, burgh- ers and soldiers were engaging in hand-to-hand encounters. A stocky Briton wrestled with a youthful Boer, and in the struggle both fell to the ground ; near by a cavalryman was firing with his revolver at a Boer armed with a rifle, and a hundred paces away a burgher was fight- ing with a British officer for the possession of a sword. Over from the hills in the south came the dull roar of Boer cannon, and then the re- port of the exploding shells in the east near the waterworks. British cannon opened fire from a position near the white smokestack, and scores of bursting projectiles fell among the wagons at the spruit. Oxen and horses were rent limb from limb, wagons tumbled over on their sides, boxes of provisions were thrown in all direc- tions, and out of the cloud of dust and splinters stumbled men with blood-stained faces and lacer- ated bodies. Terrified oxen twisted and tugged at their yokes, horses broke from their fasten- ings in the wagons and dashed hither and thither, and weakling donkeys strove in vain to escape from vehicles set on fire by the shells. Explosion followed explosion, and with every one the mass became more entangled. Dead horses fell upon living oxen, wheels and axles were thrown on the backs of donkeys, and plunging mules dragged heavy wagons over great piles of dt'bris. "^'^//////'f'lH^ V// '/'"III III I, <<\,\\\\\\\^\\^^ ■ 140 THE BOERS IN WAR The cannon on the southern hills became more active, and their shells caused the land- scape surrounding the waterworks to be filled with geysers of dust. Troops which were sta- tioned near the white smokestack suddenly spurred their horses and dashed northward to seek safety behind a long undulation in the ground. The artillerymen on the hills followed their movements with shells, and the dust foun- tains sprang up at the very heels of the troops. The cannon at the drift joined in the attack on the troops scattered on the slope, and the big guns at the waterworks continued to reply vig- orously. The men in the spruit were watching the artillery duel intently as they sped up and down the bottom of the waterless stream search- ing for points of vantage. A large number of them moved rapidly down the spruit toward its confluence with the Modder River to check the advance of the troops driven forward by the shell fire, and another party rushed east- ward to secure positions in the rear of the Brit- ish cannon at the waterworks. The banks of the stream still concealed them, and they dared not fire, lest the enemy should disturb their plans. On and on they dashed over rocks and chasms until they were within a few hundred yards of a part of the British force. Slowly they crept up the sides of the spruit, cautiously peered out over the edge of the bank, and then THE BOERS IN BATTLE 141 opened fire on the men at the cannon and the troops passing down the slope. Little jets of dust arose where their bullets struck the ground, men fell around the cannon, and cavalrymen quickly turned and charged toward the spruit. The shells of the cannon at the drift and on the southern hills fell thicker and thicker among the troops, and the air above them was heavy with the light-blue smoke of bursting shrapnel. The patter of the Boer rifles at the spruit increased in intensity, and the jets of brown dust became more numerous. The cavalrymen leaped from their horses, and ran ahead to find protection behind a line of rocks. The inter- mittent, irregular firing of the Boers was punc- tuated by the regular, steady reports of British volleys. The dust geysers increased among the rocks where the British lay, and soon the sol- diers turned and ran for their horses. Burghers crept from rock to rock in pursuit of them, and their bullets urged the fleeing horsemen on. The British cannon spoke less frequently, while shells and bullets fell so thickly around them that bravery in such a situation seemed suicidal, and the last artilleryman fled. Boers ran up and turned the loaded guns upon the backs of those who had operated them a few moments before. Down in the northwestern part of the field a large force of troops was dashing over the veld toward the banks of the spruit. Officers, 42 THE BOERS IN WAR waving swords above their heads and shouting commands to their subordinates, led the way. A few shells exploding in the ranks scattered the force temporarily, and caused horses to rear and plunge, but the gaps quickly closed and the men moved on down the slope. Boers rode rapidly down the spruit and out upon the veld behind a low range of kopjes which lay in front of the British force. Horses were left in charge of native servants, and the burghers crept forward on hands and knees to the sum- mit of the range. They carefully concealed themselves behind rocks and bushes and waited for the enemy to approach more closely. The cavalrymen spread out in skirmishing order as they proceeded, and, ignorant of the proximitv of the Boers, drew their horses into a walk. The burghers in the kopje fired a few shots, and the troops turned quickly to the left and again broke into a gallop. The firing from the kopje increased in volume, the cannon from the hills again broke forth, the little dust clouds rose out of the earth on all sides of the troopers, and shrapnel bursting in the air sent its bolts and balls of iron and steel into the midst of the brown men and earth. Horses and riders fell, officers leaped to the ground and shouted en- couragement to their soldiers, men sprang be- hind rocks and discharged their rifles. Minutes of agony passed. Officers gathered their men THE BOERS IN BATTLE 143 and attempted to lead them forward, but they had not progressed far when the Boers in the spruit in front of them swept the ground with the bullets of their rifles. Burghers crept around the range of kopjes and emptied their carbines into the backs of the cavalrymen, cannon poured shell upon them from three different directions, and these men on the open plain could not see even a trace of Boers to fire upon. Men and horses continued to fall, the wounded lay moan- ing in the grass, while shells and bullets sang their song of death more loudly every second to those who braved the storm. A tiny white cloth was raised, the firing ceased instantly, and the brave band threw down its arms to the burghers who sprang out from the spruit and the rocky kopje. In the east, the low hills were dotted with men in brown. To the right and left of them, a thousand yards apart, were Boer horsemen circling around kopjes and seeking positions for attacking the already vanquished but stub- born enemy. Rifle fire had ceased, and can- non sounded only at intervals of a few minutes. Women at the doors of the two farmhouses in the centre of the battlefield, and a man drawing water at a well near by, were not inharmonious with the quietude and calmness of the moment, but the epoch of peace was of short duration. The Boer horsemen stemmed the retreat of the 144 ^^^^^ BOERS IN WAR men in brown and compelled them to retrace their steps. Another body of burghers made a wide detour northeastward from the spruit, and, jumping from their horses, crept along under the cover of an undulation in the ground for al- most a half mile to a point which overlooked the route of the British retreat. The enemy was slow in coming, and a few of the Boers lay down to sleep. Others filled their pipes and lighted them, and one abstracted a pebble from his shoe. As the cavalrymen drew nearer to them the burghers crept forward sev- eral paces and sought the protection of rocks or piled stones together in the form of miniature forts. '' Shall we fire now ? " inquired a beard- less Free State youth. ** Wait until they come nearer," replied an older burgher close by. Si- lence was maintained for several minutes, when the youth again became uneasy. '' I can hit the first one of those Lancers," he begged, as he pointed with his carbine to a cavalryman, known to the Boers as a '* Lancer " whether he carried a lance or not. The cannon in the south urged the cavalrymen forward with a few shells delivered a short distance behind them, and then the old burgher called to the youth, '* See if you can hit him now." The boy missed the rider but killed the horse, and the British force quickly dismounted and sought shelter in a small ravine. The re- THE BOERS IN BATTLE 145 ports of volley firing followed, and bullets cut the grass beside the burghers and flattened themselves against the rocks. Another volley and a third in rapid succession, and the burgh- ers pressed more closely to the ground. An in- terval of a minute, and they glanced over their tiny stockades to find a British soldier. '' They are coming up the kopje!" shouted a burgher, and their rifles swept the hillside with bullets. More volleys came from below, and, while the leaden tongues sang above and around them, the burghers turned and lay on their backs to refill the magazines of their rifles. Another in- terval, and the attack was renewed. '' They are running ! " screamed a youth exultingly, and burghers rose and fired at the men in brown at the foot of the kopje. Marksmen had their opportunity then, and long aim was taken be- fore a shot was fired. Men knelt on one knee and rested an elbow on the other while they held their rifles to their shoulders. Reports of carbines became less frequent as the enemy progressed farther in an opposite direction, but increased again when the cavalrymen returned for a second attack upon the kopje. '' Lend me a handful of cartridges, Jan, " asked one man of his neighbour, as they watched the oncoming force. " They must want this kopje," remarked another burgher jocularly, as he filled his pipe with tobacco and lighted it. 146 THE BOERS IN WAR The British cannon in the east again became active, and the dust raised by their shells was blown over the heads of the burghers on the kopje. The reports of big guns of the Boers reverberated among the hills, while the regular volleys of the British soldiers seemed to be beating time to the minor notes and irregular reports of the Boer rifles. At a distance the troops moving over the brown field of battle resembled huge ants more than human beings ; and the use of smokeless powder, causing the panorama to remain perfectly clear and distinct, allowed every movement to be closely followed by the observer. Cannon poured forth their tons of shells, but there was nothing except the sound of the explosion to denote where the guns were situated. Rifles cut down lines of men, but there was no smoke to indicate where they were being operated, and, unless the burghers or soldiers displayed themselves to the enemy, there was nothing to indicate their positions. Shrap- nel bursting in the air, the reports of rifles and heavy guns, and the little puffs of dust where shells and bullets struck the ground were the only evidence of the battle's progress. The hand-to-hand encounters, the duels with bayo- nets and swords, and the clouds of smoke were probably heroic and picturesque before the age of rapid-fire guns, modern rifles, and smokeless ammunition, but here the field of conflict re- THE BOERS IN BATTLE H7 sembled a country fox-chase, with an exagger- ated number of hunters, more than a battle of twenty-five years ago. On the summit of the kopje the burghers were firing leisurely but accurately. One man aimed steadily at a soldier for fully twenty sec- onds, then pressed the trigger, lowered his rifle and watched for the effect of the shot. Bullets were flying high over him and the shrapnel of the enemy's guns exploded far behind him. There seemed to be no great danger, and he fired again. *' I missed that time," he remarked to a burgher who lay behind another rock several yards distant. His neighbour then fired at the same soldier, and both cried simultane- ously, ''He is hit!" The enemy again disap- peared in the little ravine, and the burghers ceased firing. Shells continued to tear through the air, but none exploded in the vicinity of the men, and they took advantage of the lull in the battle to light their pipes. A swarm of yellow locusts passed overhead, and exploding shrapnel tore them into myriads of pieces, their wings and limbs falling near the burghers. '' I am glad I am not a locust," remarked a burgher farther to the left of the others, as he dropped a handful of torn fragments of the insects. Shells and bullets suddenly splashed every- where around the burghers, and they crouched more closely behind the rocks. The enemy's 148 THE BOERS IN WAR guns had secured an accurate range, and the air was filled with the projectiles of iron and lead. Exploding shells splintered rocks into atoms and sent them tearing through the grass. Puffs of dust and dirt were springing up from every square yard of ground, and a few men rose from their retreats and ran to the rear where the Basuto servants were holding their horses. More followed several minutes after- ward, and when those who remained on the summit of the kopje saw that ten times their number of soldiers were ascending the hill un- der cover of cannon fire they also fled to their horses. An open plain, half a mile wide, lay between the point where the burghers mounted their horses and another kopje in the northeast. The men lay closely on their horses' backs, plunged their spurs into the animals' sides, and dashed forward. The cavalrymen who had gained the summit of the kopje in the meantime opened fire on the fleeing Boers, and their bullets cut open the horses' sides and ploughed holes into the burghers' clothing. One horse, a magnifi- cent gray, who had been leading the others, fell dead as he was leaping over a small gully, and his rider was thrown headlong to the ground. Another horseman turned in his course, assisted the horseless rider to his own brown steed, and the two were borne rapidly through the storm THE BOERS IN BATTLE [49 of bullets toward the kopje. Another horse was killed when he had carried his rider almost to the goal of safety, and the Boer was compelled to traverse the remainder of the distance on foot. Apparently all the burghers had escaped across the plain, and their field cornet was pre- paring to lead them to another position, when a solitary horseman, a mere speck of black against a background of brown lifeless grass, issued from a rocky ravine below the kopje occupied by the enemy and plunged into the open space. Lee-Metfords cracked and cut open the ground around him, but the rider bent forward, and seemed to become a part of his horse. Every rod of progress appeared to multiply the fountains of dust near him ; every leap of his horse seemed necessarily his last. On, on, he dashed ; now using his stirrups, now beating his horse with his hands. It looked as if he were making no progress, yet his horse's legs were moving very swiftly. " They will get him," sighed the field cornet, looking through his glasses. '' He has a chance," replied a burgher. Seconds dragged wearily, the firing increased in volume, and the dust of the horse's heels mingled with that raised by the bullets. The sound of the hoofs beating down on the solid earth came louder and louder over the veld, the firing slackened, and then ceased, and a foaming, panting horse brought his burden to where the burghers stood. The 50 THE BOERS IN WAR exhausted rider sank to the ground, and men patted the neck and forehead of the quivering beast. Down in the valley, near the spruit, the for- eign military attaches in uniforms quite distinct were watching the effect of British artillery on the saddle belonging to one of their number. '' They will never hit it," volunteered one, as a shell exploded ten yards distant from the leathern mark. *' They must think it is a crowd of Boers," suggested another, when a dozen shells had fallen without injuring the saddle. Fifteen, twenty tongues of dust arose, but the leather remained un marred by scratch or rent, and the attaches became the target of the heavy guns. ** I am hit," groaned Lieutenant Nix, of the Nether- lands-Indian army, and his companions caught him in their arms. Blood gushed from a wound in the shoulder, but the soldier's spirit did not desert him. '' Here, Demange ! " he called to the French attacy ; *' hold my head, and you, Thompson and Allum, see if you can not bind this shoulder." The Norwegian and the Hol- lander bound the wound as well as they were able to do the work. *' Reichman ! " the injured man whispered, " I am going to die in a few minutes, and I wish you would write a letter to my wife." The American attacJu^ hastily pro- cured paper and pencil, and, while shells and shrapnel were bursting over and around them, THE BOERS IN BATTLE 151 the wounded man dictated a letter to his wife in Holland. Blood flowed copiously from the wound, and stained the grass upon which he lay. He was pale as the clouds above him, and the pain was agonizing, but the dying man's letter was filled with nothing but expressions of love and tenderness. In the southeastern part of the field a large party of cavalrymen were speeding in the direc- tion of Thaba N'Chu. On two sides of them, a thousand yards behind, small groups of Boer horsemen were giving chase. At a distance, the riders appeared like ants slowly climbing the hillside. Now and then a Boer rider sud- denly stopped his horse, leaped to the ground, and fired at the fleeing cavalrymen. A second afterward he was on his horse again, bending to the chase. Shot followed shot, but the distance between the forces grew greater, and one by one the burghers turned their animals' heads and slowly retraced their steps. A startled buck bounded over the veld ; two rifles were turned upon it, and its flight was ended. The sound of firing had ceased, and the bat- tle was concluded. Wagons with Red Cross flags fluttering from the tall staffs above them issued from the mountains and rumbled through the valleys. Burghers dashed over the field in search of the wounded and dying. Men who a few moments before were straining every nerve 152 x THE BOERS IN WAR to kill their fellow-beings then became equally energetic to preserve lives. Wounded soldiers and burghers were lifted out of the grass and carried tenderly to the ambulance wagons. The dead were placed side by side, and the same cloth covered the bodies of Boer and Briton. Men with spades upturned the earth and stood grimly by while a man in black prayed over the bodies of those who had died for their country. Boer officers, with pencil and paper in their hands, sped over the battlefield from a group of prisoners to a line of passing wagons, and made calculations concerning the result of the day's battle. Three Boers killed and nine wounded was one side of the account. On the credit sheet were marked four hundred and eight British soldiers, seven cannon, one hundred and fifty wagons, five hundred and fifty rifles, two thousand horses and cattle, and vast stores of ammunition and provisions captured during the day. In among the northeastern hills, where a farmer's daub and wattle cottage stood, were the prisoners of war chatting and joking with their captors. The officers walked slowly back and forth, never raising their eyes from the ground. Dejection was written on their faces. Near them were the captured wagons with groups of noisy soldiers climbing over them in search of their luggage. On the ground THE BOERS IN BATTLE 53 Others were playing cards and matching coins. Young Boers walked among them and engaged them in conversation. Near the farmhouse stood a tall Cape Colony Boer talking with his former neighbour who was a prisoner. Several Amer- icans among the captured disputed the merits of the war with a Yankee burgher who had readily distinguished his countrymen among the throng. Some one began to whistle a popular tune, others joined, and soon almost every one was participating. An officer gave the order for the prisoners to fall in line, and shortly afterward the men in brown tramped forward, while the burghers stepped aside and lined the path. A soldier began to sing another popular song, British and Boer caught the re- frain, and the noise of tramping feet was drowned by the melody of the united voices of friend and foe singing : " It's the soldiers of the Queen, my lads, Who've been, my lads — who're seen, my lads. Will proudly point to every one Of England's soldiers of the Queen." CHAPTER VII THE GENERALS OF THE WAR The names and deeds of the men who led thirty thousand of their fellow-peasants against almost a quarter of a million of the trained troops of the greatest empire in the world, and hus- banded their men and resources so that they were enabled to continue the unequal struggle for the greater part of a year, will live forever in the history of the Dark Continent. When racial hatred and the bitternesses of the war have been forgotten and South Africa has emerged from its long period of bloodshed and disaster, then all Afrikanders will revere the memory of the valiant deeds of Cronje, Joubert, Botha, Meyer, De Wet, and the others, who fought so valiantly in a cause which they considered just and holy. Such noble examples of heroism as Cronje's stand at Paardeberg, Botha's defence of the Tugela and the region east of Pretoria, De Wet's warfare in the Free State, and Meyer's fighting in the Transvaal, will shine in African history as long as the Southern Cross illumes 154 THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 1^5 the path of a civilized people in that region. When future generations search the pages of history for deeds of valour they will turn to the records of the Boer-British war of 1 899-1900, and find that the farmers of South Africa had leaders who were not less valorous than those of the untrained followers of Cromwell, the peace-loving mountaineers of Switzerland, or the patriotic countrymen of Washington. The leaders of the Boer forces were not gen- erals in the popular sense of the word. Almost without exception they were men who had no technical knowledge of warfare ; men who were utterly without military training of any kind, and who would have been unable to pass an examination for the rank of corporal in a Euro- pean army. Among the entire list of generals who fought in the armies of the two republics there were not more than three who had ever read military works ; and Cronje was the only one who had ever studied the theory and prac- tice of modern warfare and made an attempt to apply the principles of it to his army. Every one of the Boer generals was a farmer, who before the war paid more attention to his crops and cattle than he did to evolving ideas for application in a campaign ; and the majority of them, in fact, never dreamed that they would be called upon to be military leaders until they were nominated for the positions a short time before hostilities 56 THE liOERS IN WAR were commenced. Joubert, Cronje, Ferreira, and Meyer were about the only men in the two republics who were certain that they would be Geneial Snyman and Coniniaiidant Botha. (Captured at Kustenberg in June.) THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 157 called upon to lead their countrymen, for all had had experience in former wars ; but men like Botha, De Wet, De la Rey, and Snyman, who occupied responsible positions afterward, had no such assurance, and naturally gave little or no attention to the study of military matters. The men who became Boer generals gained their military knowledge in the wilds and on the veld of South Africa, where they were able to develop their natural genius in the hunting of lions and the tracking of the game. The Boer principle of hunting was precisely the same as their method of warfare, and consequently the man who in times of peace was a successful leader of shooting expeditions was none the less adept afterward as the leader of commandos. When the Volksraad of the Transvaal deter- mined to send an ultimatum to Great Britain, it was with the knowledge that such an act would provoke war, and consequently preparations for hostilities were immediately made. One of the first acts was the appointment of five assistant commandant generals — Piet Cronje, Schalk Bur- ger, Lucas Meyer, Daniel Erasmus, and Jan Kock — all of whom held high positions in the Government and were respected by the Boer people. After hostilities commenced, and it be- came necessary to have more generals, six other names were added to the list of assistants of Commandant-General Joubert ; those chosen 158 THE BOERS IN WAR being Sard Du Toit, Hendrik Schoeman, John de la Key, Hendrik Snyman, and Herman R. Lemmer. The selections which were so pro- miscuously made were proved by time to be wise, for almost without exception the men developed into extraordinarily capable generals. In the early part of the campaign many costly mistakes and errors of judgment were made by some of the newly appointed generals, but such misfortunes were only to be expected from men who suddenly found themselves face to face with the tactics of some of the best trained generals in the world. Later, when the cam- paign had been in progress for several months, and the farmers had had opportunities of learn- ing the tactics of their opponents, they made no move unless they were reasonably certain of the result. One of the prime reasons for the great suc- cess which attended the Boer army before the strength of the enemy's forces became over- whelming was the fact that the generals were allowed to operate in parts of the country with which they were thoroughly acquainted. Gen- eral Cronje operated along the western frontiers of the republics where he knew the geographi- cal features of the land as well as he did those of his own farm. General Meyer had spent the greater part of his life in the neighbourhood of the Biggarsberg and northern Natal, and THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 159 there was hardly a rod of that territory with which he was unfamiliar. General Botha was born near the Tugela, and in his boyhood days pursued the buck where afterward he made such a brave resistance against the forces of General Buller. General Christian De Wet was a native of Dewetsdorp, and there was not a sluit or donga in all the territory where he fought so valiantly that he had not traversed scores of times before the war began. General de la Rey had spent the greater part of his life in Griqualand West, Cape Colony, and when he was leading his men around Kimberley and the southwestern part of the Free State, he was in familiar territory. General Snyman, who be- sieged Mafeking, was a resident of the Marico district, and consequently was acquainted with the formation of the country in the western part of the Transvaal. In the majority of cases the generals did not need the services of an intel- ligence department, except to determine the whereabouts of the enemy, for no scouts or patrols could furnish a better account of the na- ture of the region in which they were fighting than that which existed in the minds of the leaders. Under these conditions there was not the slightest chance of any of the generals fall- ing into a trap laid by the British, but there were always opportunities for leading the ene- my into ambush. 6o THE BOERS IN WAR The Boer generals also had the advantage of having excellent maps of the country in which they were fighting, and by means of these they were enabled to explain proposed movements to their commandants and field cor- nets who were not familiar with the topography Commandos in laager at Mafeking. of the land. These maps were made two years before the war by a corps of experts employed by the Transvaal Government, and on them was a representation of every foot of ground in the Transvaal, Free State, Natal, and Cape Col- ony. A small elevation near Durban and a spruit near Cape Town were marked as plainly THE GENERALS OF THE WAR i6i as a kopje near Pretoria, while the British lorts at Durban and Cape Town were as accurately pictured as the roads that led to them. The Boers had a map of the environs of Ladysmith which was a hundred times better than that fur- nished by the British War Office, yet Ladysmith was the Natal base of the British army for many years. The greater part of the credit for the Boers' preparedness must be given to the late Com- mandant-General Piet J. Joubert, who was the head of the Transvaal war department for many years. General Joubert, or " Old Piet," as he was called by the Boers, to distinguish him from the many other Jouberts in the country, had been undoubtedly a great military leader in his younger days, but he was almost seventy years old when he was called upon to lead his people against the army of Great Britain, and at that age very few men are capable of great mental or physical exertion. There was no greater patriot in the Transvaal than he, and no one who desired the absolute independence of his country more sincerely than the old gen- eral, yet his heart was not in the fighting. Like Kruger, he was a man of peace, and to his dy- ing day he believed that the war might have been easily avoided. Unlike Kruger, he clung to the idea that the contest, having been forced upon them, should be ended as speedily as pos- 1 62 1'HE BOERS IN WAR sible, and without regard to the loss of national interests. Joubert valued the lives of the burgh- ers more highly than a clause in a treaty, and rather than see his countrymen slain in battle, he was willing to make concessions to those who were harassing his Government. Joubert was one of the few public men in the Transvaal who firmly believed that the dif- ferences between the two countries would be amicably adjusted, and he constantly opposed the measures for arming the country which were brought before him. The large armament was secured by him, it is true, but the Volks- raads compelled him to purchase the arms and ammunition. If Joubert had been a man who loved war he would have laid in three times as great a quantity of war material as there was in the country when the war was begun, but he was distinctly a man who loved peace. He constantly allowed his sentiments to overrule his judgment of what was good for his country, and the result of that line of action was that at the beginning of hostilities there were more Boer guns in Europe and on the ocean than there were in the Transvaal. General Joubert was a grand old Boer in many respects, and no better, more righteous, and more upright man ever lived. He worked long and faithfully for his people, and undoubt- edly strove to do that which he believed to THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 63 be the best for his country ; but he was inca- pable of performing the duties of his office as a younger, more energetic, and a more warlike General Piet J. Joubert. man would have attended to them. Joubert was in his dotage, and none of his people were aware of it until the crucial moment of the war 12 164 THE BOERS IN WAR was passed. When he led the Boers at Ama- juba and Laing's Nek, in 1 881, he was in the prime of his life — energetic, resourceful, and undaunted by any reverses. In 1899, when he followed the commandos into Natal, he was ab- solutely the reverse — slow, wavering, and too timid to move from his tent. He constantly re- mained many miles in the rear of the advance column, and only once went into the danger zone when he took a small commando south of the Tugela. Then, instead of leading his victorious burghers against the forces of the enemy, he retreated precipitately at the first sign of dan- ger, and established himself at Modderspruit, a day's journey from the foremost commandos, where he remained with almost ten thousand of his men for three months. Joubert attempted to wage war without the shedding of blood, and he failed. When Gen- eral Meyer reported that about thirty Boers had been killed and injured in the fight at Dun- dee, the commandant general censured him harshly for making such a great sacrifice of blood, and forbade his following the fleeing enemy, as such a course would entail still greater casualties. When Sir George White and his forces had been imprisoned in Ladysmith and there was almost a clear path to Durban, Jou- bert held back and would not risk the lives of a few hundred burghers, even when it was pointed THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 165 out to him that the men themselves were eager to assume the responsibility. He made only one effort to capture Ladysmith, but the slight loss of life so appalled him that he would never sanction another attack, although the town could easily have been taken on the following day had an attempt been made. Notwithstanding he had a large army around the besieged town, he did not dig a yard of intrenchment in all the time he was at Modderspruit, nor would he hearken to any plans of capturing the starving garrison by means of progressive trenches. While Gen- erals Botha, Meyer, Erasmus, and Burger with three thousand men were holding the enemy at the Tugela, Joubert with three times that num- ber of men to guard impotent Ladysmith de- clined to send any ammunition for their big guns, voted to retreat, and finally fled northward to Colenso, deserting the fighting men, destroy- ing the bridges and railways as he progressed, and even leaving his own tents and equipment behind. There were extenuating circumstances in connection with Joubert's failure in the cam- paign — his age, an illness, and an accident while he was in laager — and it is but charitable to grant that these were fundamentally responsible for his shortcomings, but it is undoubted that he was primarily responsible for the failure of the Natal campaign. The army which he com- l66 THE BOERS IN WAR manded in Natal, although only twelve or thir- teen thousand men in strength, was the equal in fighting ability of seventy-five thousand British troops, and the only thing it lacked was a man who would fight with them and lead them after a fleeing enemy. If the commandant general had pursued the British forces after all their defeats and had drawn the burghers out of their laagers by the force of his own example, the major part of the history of the Natal campaign would have been made near the Indian Ocean instead of on the banks of the Tugela. The majority of the Boers in Natal needed a com- mander in chief who would say to them "Come," but Joubert only said " Go." The death of General Joubert in Pretoria, on March 26th, was sincerely regretted by all South Africans, for he undoubtedly was one of the most distinguished men in the country. During his long public career he made many friends, who held him in high honour for his sterling qualities, his integrity, and his devotion to his country's cause. He made mistakes, and there are few men who are invulnerable to them, but he died while striving to do that which he regarded the best for his country and its cause. If dying for one's country is patriotism, then Joubert's death was sweet. When war clouds were gathering and the storm was about to burst over the Transvaal, 1 68 ^i^IIE BOERS IN WAR Piet Cronje sat on the stoep of his farmhouse in Potchefstroom, evolving in his mind a system of tactics which he would follow when the conflict began. He was certain that he would be chosen to lead his people, for he had led them in nu- merous native wars, in the conflict in 1881, and later when Jameson made his ill-starred entry into the Transvaal. Cronje was a man who loved to be amid the quietude of his farm, but he was in the cities often enough to realize that war was the only probable solution of the dif- ferences between the Uitlanders and the Boers, and he made preparations for the conflict. He studied foreign military methods and their appli- cation to the Boer mode of warfare ; he evolved new ideas and improved old ones ; he planned battles and the evolutions necessary to win them ; he had a natural taste for things military. Before all the world heard the blast of the war trumpet, Cronje deserted the peaceful stoep and was attacking the enemy on the veld at Mafeking. A victory there, and he was riding at the head of his men toward Kimber- ley. A skirmish here, a hard-fought battle there, and he had the diamond city in a state of siege. Victories urged him on, and he led the way southward. A Magersfontein to his wreath, a Belmont and a Graspan, and it seemed as if he were more than nominallv the South African Napoleon. A reverse, and Cronje was no longer THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 169 the dashing-, energetic leader of the month be- fore. Doggedly and determinedly he retraced his steps, but advanced cautiously now and then to punish the enemy for its overconfidence. Beaten back to Kimberley by the overpowering force of the enemy, he endured defeat after de- feat, until finally he was compelled to abandon the siege in order to escape the attacks of a second army sent against him. The enemy's web had been spun around him, but he fought bravely for freedom from entanglement. Gen- eral French was on one side of him. Lord Rob- erts on another. Lord Kitchener on a third, and against the experience and troops of all these men was pitted the genius of the Potchefstroom farmer. A fight with Roberts's horse on Thurs- day, February 15th ; a march of ten miles and a victorious rear-guard action with Lord Kitch- ener on Friday; a repulse of the forces under Lords Roberts and Kitchener on Saturday ; and on Sunday morning the discovery that he and his four thousand men and women in the river bed at Paardeberg were surrounded by forty thousand troops of the enemy — that was a four days' record which caused the lion of Potchef- stroom merely to show his fangs to the enemy. When General Cronje entered the river bed on Saturday he felt certain that he could fight his way out on the following day. Scores of his burghers appealed to him to trek eastward that I^O THE BOERS IN WAR night ; and Commandant-General Ferreira, of the Free State, asked him to trek northeast, in order that their two Boer forces might effect a junction ; but Cronje was determined to remain in the positions he then occupied until he could carry all his transport wagons safely away. In the evening Commandants De Beer and Gro- bler uged the general to escape, and explained to him that he would certainly be surrounded the following day, but Cronje steadfastly de- clined, and expressed his ability to fight a path through any force of the enemy. Even late that night, while the British troops were welding the chain which was to bind him hard and fast in the river bed, many of Cronje's men begged the general to abandon the position, and when they saw him so determined they deserted him and escaped to the eastward. Cronje might have accepted the advice of his officers and men if he had not believed that he could readily make his way to the east, where the presence of any of Lord Roberts's troops was not suspected. Not until the following forenoon, when he saw the British advance guard marching over the hills on the south side of the river, did he realize that the enem}^ had surrounded him, and that he had erred when he determined to hold the position. The grave mistake could not be rectified, and Cronje was in no mood for penitence. He told his men that THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 171 he expected re-enforcements from the east, and counselled them to remain cool and fire with discretion until assistance came to them. Later in the day the enemy attacked the camp from all sides, but the little army repulsed the on- slaught, and killed and wounded more than a thousand British soldiers. When the Sabbath sun descended and the four thousand Boers sang their psalms and hymns of thanksgiving, there was probably only one man who believed that the burghers would ever be able to escape from the forces which surrounded them, and that man was General Cronje. He realized the gravity of the situation, but he was as calm as if he had been victorious in a battle. He talked cheerily with his men, saying, ** Let the English come on ! " and when they heard their old commander speak in such a confident manner, they deter- mined to fight until he himself announced a vic- tory or a defeat. 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. Lyddite shells and shrapnel burst over and around them ; the bullets of rifles and ma- chine guns swept close to their heads, and a few yards distant from them were the heavy explo- sions of ammunition wagons set on fire by the enemy's shells. Burgher horses and cattle fell 72 THE BOERS IN WAR under the storm of lead and iron, and the naingled life-blood of man and beast flowed in rivulets to join the waters of the river. The wounded lay groaning in the trenches, the dead unburied outside, and the cannonading was so terrific that no one was able to leave cover sufhciently long to give a drink of water to a wounded companion. There was no medicine in the camp, all the physicians were held in Jacobsdal by the enemy, and the condition of the dead and dying was such that Cronje was compelled to ask for an armistice. The reply from the British commander was, '' Fight or surrender," and Cronje chose to continue the fight. The bombardment of the laager was re- sumed with increased vigour, and there was not a second's respite from shells and bullets until after night descended, when the burghers were enabled to emerge from their trenches and holes to exercise their limbs and to secure food. The Boers' cannon became defective on Tuesday morning, and thereafter they could reply to the continued bombardment with only their rifles. Hope rose in their breasts dur- ing the day, when a heliograph message was received from Commandant Froneman. " I am here with General De Wet and Cronje," the message read ; " have good cheer. I am wait- ing for re-enforcements. Tell the burghers to find courage in Psalm xxvii." The fact that m0 174 THE BOERS IN WAR re-enforcements were near, even though the enemy was between, imbued the burghers with renewed faith in their ability to defeat the Brit- ish, and when a concerted attack was made against the laager in the afternoon a gallant resistance followed. On Wednesday morning the British batteries again poured their shells on the miserable and exhausted Boers. Shortly before midday there was a lull in the storm, and the beleaguered burghers could hear the reports of the battle between the relieving force and the British troops. The sounds of the fight grew fainter and fainter, then subsided altogether; the bom- bardment of the laager was renewed, and the burghers realized that Froneman had been beaten back by the enemy. The disappointment was so great that one hundred and fifty Boers bade farewell to their general and laid down their arms to the enemy. 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 clamouring of the wound- ed for relief was in itself a misery to those who were compelled to hear it, but to allow such ap- peals to go unanswered was heartrending. To have the dead unburied seemed cruel enough, but the presence of the corpses before one's eyes day after day was torture. To know that THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 75 the enemy was in ten times greater strength was disheartening, but to realize that there was no relief at hand was enough to dim the bright- est courage. Yet Cronje was undaunted. Friday and Saturday brought nothing but a message from Froneman, again encouraging them to resist until re-enforcements could be brought from Bloemfontein. On Saturday even- ing Jan Theron, of Krugersdorp, succeeded in breaking through the British lines with de- spatches from General De Wet and Comman- dants Cronje and Froneman, urging General Cronje to fight a way through the lines while they would engage the enemy from their side. Cronje and his ofBcers decided to make an at- tempt to escape, and on Sunday morning the burghers commenced the construction of a chain bridge over the Modder to facilitate the cross- ing of the swollen river. Fortunately for the Boers, the British batteries fired only one shot into the camp that day, and the burghers were able to complete the bridge before night by means of the ropes and chains from their ox wagons. On Monday morning the British guns made a target of the bridge, and shelled it so un- remittingly that no one was able to approach it, much less to make an attempt to cross the river by means of it. The bombardment seemed to grow in intensity as the day progressed, and when two shells fell into a group of nine burgh- 1^6 THE BOERS IN WAR ers and left nothing but an arm and a leg to be found, the Krijgsraad decided to hoist a white flag on Tuesday morning. General Cronje and Commandant Schutte were the only officers who voted against surrendering. They begged the other officers to reconsider their decision, and to make an attempt to fight a way out, but the confidence of two men was too weak to change the opinions of the others. In a position covering less than a square mile of territory, hemmed in on all sides by an army almost as great as that which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, surrounded by a chain of fire from carbines, rapid-fire guns, and heavy cannon, the target of thousands of the vaporous lyddite shells, his trenches enfiladed by a continuous shower of lead, his men half dead from lack of food, and stiff from the effect of their narrow quarters in the trenches. General Cronje chose to fight and to risk complete disaster by leading his four thousand men against the forty thou- sand of the enemy. The will of the majority prevailed, and on February 27th, the anniversary of Majuba Hill, after ten days of fighting, the white flag was hoisted above the dilapidated laager. The bodies of ninety-seven burghers lav upon the scene of the disaster, and two hundred and forty- five wounded men were left behind when Gen- eral Cronje and his thirty-six hundred and THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 177 seventy-nine burghers limped out of the river bed and surrendered to Field-Marshal Lord Roberts. In many respects General Cronje was the Boers' most brilliant leader, but he was respon- sible for many serious and costly reverses. At Magersfontein he defeated the enemy fairly, and might have reaped the fruits of his victory if he had followed up the advantage there gained. Instead, he allowed his army to remain inactive for two months, while the British established a camp and base at the river. General French's march to Kimberley might readily have been prevented if Cronje had placed a few thousand of his men on the low range of kopjes command- ing French's route, but during the two days which were so fateful to him and his army General Cronje never stirred from his laager. At Magersfontein Cronje allowed thirty-six cannon deserted by the British to remain on several kopjes all of one night and until ten o'clock the next morning, when they were taken away by the enemy. When he was asked why he did not send his men to secure the guns, Cronje replied, '' God has been so good to us that I did not have the heart to send my over- worked men to fetch them." Cronje was absolutely fearless, and in all the battles in which he took part he was always in the most exposed positions. He rarely used a 1^8 THE BOERS IN WAR rifle, as one of his eyes was defective, but the short, stoop-shouldered, gray-bearded man with the long riding whip was always in the thick of the fight, encouraging his men, and pointing out the positions for attack. He was a fatalist when in battle, if not in times of peace, and it is told of him that at Modder River he was warned by one of the burghers to seek a less exposed posi- tion. " If God has ordained me to be shot to- day," the grim old warrior replied, *' I shall be shot whether I sit here or in a well." Cronje was one of the strictest leaders in the Boer army, and that feature made him unpopular with the men, who constantly applied to him for leaves of absence to return to their homes. They fought for him in the trenches at Paarde- berg, not because they loved him, but because they respected him as an able leader. He did not have the affection of his burghers like Botha, Meyer, De Wet, or De la Rey, but he held his men together by force of his superior military attainments, a sort of overawing authority which they could not disregard. Personall}^ Cronje was not an extraordinary character. He was urbane in manner and a pleasant conversationalist. Like the majority of the Boers he was deeply religious and tried to introduce the precepts of his religion into his daily life. Although he was sixty-five years old when the war began, he had the energy and THE GENERALS OF THE WAR j^q spirit of a much youngei- man, and the terrors and anxieties of the ten days' siege at Paarde- berg left but little marks on the face which has been described as Christlike. His patriotism was unbounded, and he held the independence of his country above everything. " Independ- ence with peace, if possible, but independence at all costs," he was wont to say, and no one fought harder than he to attain that end. When the Vryheid commandos rode over the western border of their district and invaded Natal, Louis Botha, the successor of Comman- dant-General Joubert, was one of the many Volksraad members who went forth to war in the ranks of the common burghers. After the battle of Dundee, in which he distinguished himself by several daring deeds, Botha became assistant general to his lifelong friend and neighbour, General Lucas Meyer. Several weeks later when General Meyer fell ill, he gave his command to his compatriot, General Botha; and a short time afterward, when Commandant- General Joubert was incapacitated by illness, Botha was appointed to assume the responsibil- ities of the commander in chief. When Jou- bert was on his death-bed he requested that Botha should be his successor, and in that man- ner Louis Botha, burgher, became Louis Botha, commandant general, in less than six months. It was a remarkable chain of fortuitous cir- 13 l8o THE BOERS IN WAR cumstances which led to Botha's rapid advance- ment, but it was not entirely due to extrane- ous causes, for he was deserving of every step of his promotion. There is a man for every crisis, but rarely in history is found a record of a soldier who rose from the ranks to com- mander in chief of an army in one campaign. It was Meyer's misfortune that he became ill at a grave period of the war, but it was the country's good fortune to have a Botha ready at hand to fight a Colenso and a Spion Kop. When the burgher army along the Tugela was hard pressed by the enemy, and both its old- time leaders, Joubert and Meyer, lay ill at the same time, it was little less than providential that a Botha should step out of the ranks and lead the men with as much discretion and valour as could have been expected from the expe- rienced generals whose work he undertook to accomplish. It was a modern representation of the ploughman deserting his farm in order to lead in the salvation of Rome. Thirty-five years before he was called upon to be commandant general of the army of his nation, Louis Botha was born near the spot where he was chosen for that office and on the soil of the empire against whose forces he was now pitting his strength and ability. In his youth he was wont to listen to the narratives of the battles in which his father and grandfather THE GENERALS OF THE WAR igi fought side by side against the hordes of natives who periodically dyed the waters of the Tu- gela crimson with the blood of massacred men and women. In early manhood, Botha fought against the Zulus and assisted Lucas Meyer in establishing the New Republic which afterward became his permanent home. Popularity, ability, and honesty brought him into the councils of the nation as a member of the First Volksraad, where he wielded great influence by reason of his conscientious devotion to duty and his deep interest in the welfare of his country. When public affairs did not require his presence in Pretoria, Botha was with his family on his farm in Vryheid, and there he found the only happi- ness which he considered worth having. The joys of a pastoral existence combined with the devotion and love of his family were the key- stone of Botha's happiness, and no man had a finer realization of his ambitions in that respect than he. Botha was a warrior, no doubt, but primarily he was a man who loved the peaceful- ness of a farm, the pleasures of a happy home life, and the laughter of his four children more than the tramp of victorious troops or the roar of cannon. There are a few men who have a certain magnetic power which attracts and holds the admiration of others. Louis Botha was a man of this class. Strangers who saw him for the 1 82 THE BOERS IN WAR first time loved him. There was an indescrib- able something about him which caused men looking at him for the first time to pledge their friendship enduringly. The lustre in his light blue eyes seemed to mesmerize men, to draw them, willing or unwilling, to him. It was not the quality which gained friends for Kruger, nor that which made Joubert popular, but rather a mysterious, involuntary influence which he exerted over everybody with whom he came in contact. A man less handsome, of less com- manding appearance than Botha might have possessed such a power and have been con- sidered less extraordinary than he, but it was not wholly his personal appearance — for he was the handsomest man in the Boer army — which aroused the admiration of men. His voice, his eyes, his facial expression, and his manner — all combined to strengthen the man's power over others. Whether it was personal magnetism or a mysterious charm which he possessed it was the mark of a great man. The early part of Botha's career as a general was fraught with many difficulties, the majority of which could be traced to his lack of years. The Boer mind could not grasp the fact that a man of thirty-five years could be a military leader, and for a long time they treated the young commander with a certain amount of contempt. The old takhaars laughed at him when he asked THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 183 them to perform any duties, and called him a boy. They were unable to understand for a long time why they should act upon the advice or Commandant-General Louis Botha. 1 84 THE BOERS IN WAR orders of a man many years younger than they, and it was not until Botha had fought Colenso and Spion Kop that the old burghers began to realize that ability was not always monopolized by men with hoary beards. Before they had these manifestations of Botha's military genius hundreds of the burghers absolutely refused to obey his commands, and even went to the length of protesting to the Government against his continued tenure of the important post. The younger Boers, however, were quicker to discern the worth of the man, and almost without exception gave him their united sup- port. There was one instance when a young Boer questioned Botha's authority, but the burgher's mind was quickly disabused, and there- after he was one of the commandant general's stanchest supporters. It was at the battle of Font Drift, when General Botha was busily en- gaged in directing the movements of his men and had little time to argue fine points of au- thority. The general asked two young Boers to carry ammunition to the top of a kopje which was being hard shelled by the enem3^ One of the Boers was willing immediately to obey the gen- eral, but the other man refused to undertake the hazardous journey. The general spoke kindly to the Boer, and acknowledged that he would be risking his life by ascending the hill, but in- sisted that he should go. The Boer finally de- THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 185 clared he would not go, and added that Botha was too young to give orders to men. The com- mandant-general did not lose his temper, but it did not require much time for him to decide that a rebuke of some sort was necessary ; so he knocked the man to the ground with his fist. It was a good, solid blow, and the young Boer did not move for a minute ; but when he rose he had fully decided that he would gladly carry the ammunition to the top of the kopje. After General Botha had demonstrated that he was a capable military leader he became the idol of all the Boers. His popularity was sec- ond only to that of President Kruger, and the hero worshippers arranged for all sorts of hon- ours to be accorded to him after the war. He was to be made President, first of all things; then his birthday anniversary was to be made the occasion of a national holiday ; statues were to be erected for him, and nothing was to be left undone in order that his services to his country might be given the appreciation they deserved. The stoical Boers were never known to worship a man so idolatrously as they did in this case, and it was all the more noteworthy on account of the adverse criticism which had been be- stowed upon him several months before. General Botha's reputation as a gallant and efficient leader was gained during the campaign in Natal, but it was not until after the relief of 1 86 THE BOERS IN WAR • Ladysmith that his real hard work began. After the advance of Lord Roberts's large army from Bloemfontein was begun myriads of new duties devolved upon the commandant general, and thereafter he displayed a skill and ingenuity in dealing with grave situations which were mar- vellous when it was taken into consideration that he was opposing a victorious army with a mere handful of disappointed and gloomy burghers. The situation would have been grave enough if he had had a trained and disciplined army under his command, but, in addition to forming plans for opposing the enemy's advance, General Botha was compelled to gather together the burghers with whom he desired to make the resistance. His work would have been com- paratively easy if he could have remained at the spot where his presence was most necessary, but it was absolutely impossible for him to lead the defensive movements in the Free State with- out men, and in order to secure them he was obliged to leave that important post and go to the Biggarsberg, where many burghers were idle. Telegraph wires stretched from the Free State to Natal, but a command sent by such a route never caused a burgher to move an inch nearer to the Free State front, and consequently the commandant general was compelled to go personally to the Biggarsberg in search of vol- THE GENERALS OF THE WAR iSy unteers to assist the burghers south of Kroon- stad. When General Botha arrived in Natal in the first days of May he asked the Standerton commando to return with him to the Free State. They flatly refused to go unless they were first allowed to spend a week at their homes ; but Botha finally, after much begging, cajoling, and threatening, induced the burghers to start im- mediately. The commandant general saw the men board a train, and then sped joyously north- ward toward Pretoria and the Free State in a special train. When he reached Pretoria Botha learned that the Standerton commando had fol- lowed him as far as Standerton station, and then dispersed to their homes. His dismay was great, but he was not discouraged, and several hours later he was at Standerton, riding from farm to farm to gather the men. This work delayed his arrival in the Free State two days, but he secured the entire commando and went with it to the front, where it served him valiantly. The masterly retreat of the Boer forces northward along the railway and across the Vaal River, and the many skirmishes and battles with which Botha harassed the enemy's advance, were mere incidents in the commandant gen- eral's work of those trying days. There were innumerable instances not unlike that in connec- tion with the Standerton command, and in addi- tion there was the planning to prevent the large 1 88 THE BOERS IN WAR commandos in the western part of the Trans- vaal and Meyer's large force in the southeastern part from being cut oil from his own body of burghers. It was a period of grave moment and responsibilities, but Botha was the man for the occasion. Although the British succeeded in entering Pretoria, the capital of the country, the Boers lost little in prestige or men, and Botha and his burghers were as confident of the final success of their cause as they were when they crossed the Natal border seven months before. Even after all the successive defeats of his army, Commandant-General Botha continued to say, *' We will fight, fight, until not a single British soldier remains on South African soil." A general who can express such a firm faith in his cause when he sees nothing but disaster sur- rounding him is great even if he is not victo- rious. The military godfather of Commandant- General Botha was General Lucas Meyer, one of the best leaders in the Boer army. The work of the two men was cast in almost the same lines during the greater part of the campaign, and many of the commandant general's burdens were shared by his old-time tutor and neighbour in the Vryheid district. Botha seldom under- took a project unless he first consulted with Meyer, and the two constantly worked hand in hand. Their friends frequently referred to tlicm THE GENERALS OF THE WAR jgg as Damon and Pythias, and the parallel was most appropriate, for they were as nearly the counterparts of these old Grecian heroes as General and Mrs. Lucas Meyer. modern limitations would allow. Botha at- tained the post of commandant general through the illness of Meyer, who would undoubtedly 190 THE BOERS IN WAR have been Joubert's successor if he had not fallen sick at an important period of the cam- paign ; but the fact that the pupil became the superior officer of the instructor never strained the amicable relations of the two men. General Meyer received his fundamental military education from the famous Zulu chief- tain, Dinizulu, in 1884, when he and eight hun- dred fellow Boers assisted the natives in a war against the chieftains of other tribes. In a bat- tle at Labombo Mountain, June 6th of that year, Meyer and Dinizulu vanquished the enemy, and as payment for their services the Boers each received a large farm in the district now known as Vryheid. A government named the New Republic was organized by the farmers, and Meyer was elected President, a post which he held for four years, when the Transvaal annexed the republic to its own territory. In the war of 1 88 1 Meyer took part in several battles, and at Ingogo he was struck on the head by a piece of shell which caused him to be unconscious for forty-two days. In the later days of the re- public General Meyer held various military and civil positions in the Vryheid district, where his large farm, " Anhouwen," is located, and was the chairman of the Volksraad which decided to send the ultimatum to Great Britain. When war was actually declared General Meyer and his commandos were on the Trans- THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 191 vaal border near his farm, and they opened hos- tilities by making a bold dash into Natal and at- tacking the British army encamped at Dundee. The battle was carefully planned by Meyer, and it would undoubtedly have ended with the cap- ture of the entire British force, if General Eras- mus, who was to co-operate with him, had per- formed the part assigned to him. Although many British soldiers were killed and captured and great stores of ammunition and equipment taken, the forces under General Yule were al- lowed to escape to the south. General Meyer followed the fleeing enemy as rapidly as the muddy roads could be traversed and engaged them at Modderspruit. There he gained a de- cisive victory and compelled the survivors to enter Ladysmith, where they were immediately besieged. Meyer was extremely ill before the battle began, but he insisted upon directing his men and continued to do so until the field was won, when he fell from his horse and was seri- ously sick for a month. He returned to the front against the advice of his physicians on December 24th, and took part in the fighting at Pont Drift, Boshrand, and in the thirteen days' battle around Pieters Hill. In the battle of Pont Drift a bullet struck the general's field glasses, flattened itself, and dropped into one of his coat pockets, to be made into a souvenir brooch for Mrs. Meyer, who frequently visited 192 THE BOERS IN WAR him when no important movements were in progress. When General Joubert and his Krijgsraad determined to retreat from the Tugela and al- low Ladysmith to be relieved, General Meyer was one of those who protested against such a course ; but when the decision Avas made Meyer returned to the Tugela and remained there with his friend Louis Botha during the long and heroic fight against General Buller's column. Meyer and Botha were among the last persons to leave the positions which they had defended so long, and on their journey northward the two generals decided to return and renew the fight as soon as they could reach Modderspruit and secure food for their men and horses. When they arrived at Modderspruit they found that Joubert and his entire army had fied north- ward and had carried with them every ounce of food. It was a bitter disappointment to the two generals, but there was nothing to be done ex- cept to travel in the direction of the scent of food, and the journey led the dejected, disap- pointed, starved generals and burghers north over the Biggarsberg Mountains, where provi- sions could be secured. During the long period in March and April, when neither Boers nor British seemed to be doing anything, General Meyer arranged a mag- nificent series of intrenchments in the Biggars- THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 193 berg Mountains, which made an advance of the enemy practically impossible. Foreign military experts pronounced the defences impregnable, and expressed the greatest astonishment when they learned that Meyer formulated the plans of the works without ever having read a book on the subject, or without having had the benefit of any instruction. The intrenchments began at a point a few miles east of the British outposts, and continued for miles and miles northeast and northwest to the very apex of the Biggarsberg. Spruits and rivers were con- nected by means of trenches, so that a large Boer force could travel many miles without being observed by the enemy, and the series of intrenchments was fashioned in such a manner that the Boers could retreat to the highest point of the mountains and remain meanwhile in per- fect concealment. Near the top of the moun- tain long schanzes or walls were built to offer a place of security for the burghers, while on the top were miles of walls to attract and inveigle the enemy to approach the lower wall more closely. The plan was grandly conceived, but the British forces evaded the Biggarsberg in their advance movements, and the intrench- ments were never bathed in human blood. When the Boers in the Free State were un- able to stem the advance of the British, General Meyer was compelled to retreat northward to 194 THE BOERS IN WAR insure his own safety, but he did it so slowly and systematically that he lost only a few men, and was able now and then to make bold dashes at the enemy's frying columns with remarkable success. The retreat northward through the Transvaal was fraught with many harassments, but General Meyer joined forces with General Botha east of Pretoria, and thereafter the teacher and pupil again fought hand in hand for a com- mon cause. The Free State was not as prolific of gen- erals as the Transvaal, but in Christian De Wet she had one of the ablest as well as one of the most fearless leaders in the republican ranks. Before he was enlisted to fight for his country De Wet was a farmer who had a penchant for dealing in potatoes, and his only military train- ing was acquired when he was one of the sixty Boer volunteers who ascended the slopes of Majuba Hill in 1881. There was nothing of the military in his appearance ; in fact, Christian De Wet, Commandant General of the Orange Free State in 1900, was not a whit unlike Christian De Wet, butcher of Barberton in 1889, and men who knew him in the gold-rush days of that mining town declared that he was more martial in appearance then as a licensed slayer of oxen than later as a licensed slayer of men. He even prided himself on his unmilitary exterior, and it was not a small source of satisfaction to him THE GENERALS OF THE WAR »95 to say that his fighting- regalia was the same suit of clothing which he wore on his farm on ^--vQ^^: -3 Commandant-General Christian De Wet. the day that he left it to fight as a soldier in his country's army. Before the war De Wet's chief claim to noto- 14 1^6 THE BOERS IN WAR riety lay in the fact that he had attempted to purchase the entire supply of potatoes in South Africa for the purpose of effecting a *' corner " in that product in the Johannesburg market. Unfortunately for himself, he held his potatoes until the new crop was harvested, and became a bankrupt in consequence. Later he appeared as a potato farmer near Kroonstad ; and still later, at Nicholson's Nek, in Natal, he captured twelve hundred British prisoners, and inciden- tally a large stock of British potatoes, which seemed to please him almost as greatly as the human captives. Although the vegetable strain was frequently predominant in De Wet's con- stitution, he was not overzealous to return to his former pastoral pursuits, and continued to lead his commandos over the hills of the eastern Free State long after that territory was chris- tened the Orange River Colony. General De Wet was at the head of a num- ber of Free State commandos which crossed into Natal at the outbreak of the war, and took part in several of the battles around Ladysmith, but his services were soon required in the vicin- ity of Kimberley, and there he made a heroic effort to effect a junction with the besieged Cronje. It was not until after the British occu- pation of Bloemfontein that De Wet really be- gan his brilliant career as a daring commander, but thereafter he was continually harassing the [98 THE BOERS IN WAR enemy. He led with three big- battles in one week, with a total result of a thousand prisoners of war, seven cannon, and almost a million dollars' worth of supplies. At Sannaspost, on March 31st, he swept down upon Colonel Broad- wood's column and captured one fourth of the men and all their vast supplies almost before the British officers were aware of the presence of the enemy. The echoes of that battle had hardly subsided when he fell upon another British column at Moestershoek with results almost as great as at Sannaspost, and two days later he was besieging a third Biitish column in his own native heath of Wepcner. Column after column was sent lo drive him away, but he clung fast to his prey for more than two weeks, when he eluded the great force bent on his capture, and moved northward to take an active part in opposing the advance of Lord Roberts. He led his small force of burgh- ers as far as the northern border of the Free State while the enemy advanced, and then turned eastward, carrying President Steyn and the capital of the republic with him to places of safety. Whenever there was an opportunity he sent small detachments to attack the British lines of communications, and harassed the ene- my continually. In almost all his operations the commandant general was assisted by his brother, General Peter De Wet, who was no THE GENERALS OF THE WAR iqq less daring in his operations. Christian De Wet was responsible for more British losses than any of the other generals. In his opera- tions in Natal and the Free State he captured more than three thousand prisoners, thousands of cattle and horses, and stores and ammunition General Peter De Wet. valued at more than three million dollars. The number of British soldiers killed and wounded in battles with De Wet is a matter for conjecture, but it is not limited by the one thousand mark. General John De la Rey, who operated in the Free State with considerable success, was 200 THE BOERS IN WAR one of the most enthusiastic leaders in the army, and his confidence in the fighting ability of the Boers was not less than his faith in the eventual success of their arms. De la Rey was born on British soil, but he had a supreme contempt for the British soldier, and frequently asserted that one burgher was able to defeat ten soldiers at any time or place. He was the only one of the generals who was unable to speak the English language, but he understood it well enough to capture a spy whom he overheard in a Free State hotel. De la Rey was a Transvaal gen- eral, and when the retreat from Bloemfontein was made he harassed the enemy greatly, but was finally compelled to cross the Vaal into his own country, where he continued to fight with Commandant-General Botha. Among the other Boer generals who took active part in the campaign in different parts of the republics were J. Du P. De Beer, a Raad member who defended the northern border of the Transvaal ; Sarel Du Toit, whose defence at Fourteen Streams was admirably conducted ; Snyman, the old Marico farmer who besieged Mafeking; Hendrik Schoemnn, who operated in Cape Colony ; Jan Kock, killed at the Elands- laagte battle early in the campaign ; and the three generals, Lemmcr, Groblcr, and Olivier, whose greatest successes were Stormberg and their retreat from Cape Colony. THE GENERALS OF THE WAR 20I The Boer generals and officers, almost with- out exception, were admirable men personally. Some of them were rough, hardy men who would have felt ill at ease in a drawing-room, but they had much of the milk of human kind- ness in them, and there was none who loved to see or participate in bloodshed. There may have been instances when white or Red Cross flags were fired upon, but when such breaches of the rules of war occurred they were not in- tentional. The foreigners Avho accompanied the various Boer armies — the correspondents, military attacJics.'i^w^ the volunteers — will testify that the officers, from Commandant-General Botha down to the corporals, were always zealous in their endeavours to conduct an hon- ourable warfare, and that the farmer generals were as gentlemanly as they were valourous. CHAPTER VIII THE WAR PR?:SII)ENTS The real leader of the Boers of the two re- publics was Paul Kruger, their man of peace. The momentous questions that agitated the country and his long political supremacy caused him many and bitter enemies, but the war healed all animosities, and he was the one man in the republics who had the respect, love, and admira- tion of all the burghers. Wherever one might be, whether in the houses on the veld or in the trenches of the battlefield, every one spoke of " Oom Paul " in a manner which indicated that he was the Boer of all Boers. There was not a burgher who would not declare that Kruger was a greater man than he was before he de- spatched his famous ultimatum to Great Brit- ain. His old-time friends supported him even more faithfully than before hostilities began, and his political enemies of other days became the might of his right arm. Those who opposed him most bitterly and unremittingly when the campaign was one between the progressive and 202 THE WAR TRESI DENTS 203 conservative parties were most eager to listen to his counsels and to stand by his side when their country's hour of darkness had arrived. Not a word of censure of him was heard any- where ; on the contrary, every one praised him for opposing Great Britain so firmly, and prayed that his life might be spared until their dream of absolute independence was realized. Sir Charles Dilke once related a conversa- tion he had with Bismarck concerning Paul Kruger. " Cavour was much smarter, more clever, more diplomatically gifted than I," said the prince, " but there is a much stronger, much abler man than Cavour or I, and that man is President Kruger. He has no gigantic army behind him, no great empire to support him. He stands alone with a small peasant people and is a match for us by mere force of genius. I spoke to him — he drove me into a corner." Kruger's great ability, as delineated by Bis- marck, was indisputable, and a man with less of it might have been l?resident and have avoided the war, but only at a loss to national interests. The President had one aim and one goal — his country's independence — and all the force of his genius was directed toward the attainment of that end. He tried to secure it by peace- ful means, but he had planted the seed of the desire for it so deeply in the minds of his countrymen that when it sprouted they over- 204 ^^^ BOERS IN WAR whelmed him and he was driven into war against his will. Kruger would not have displaced diplomacy with the sword, but his burghers felt that peace- ful methods of securing their independence were of no avail, and he was powerless to resist their pressure. He did not lead the Boers into actual war; they insisted that only war would give them the relief they sought, and he fol- lowed under their leadership. When the meet- ings of the Volksraad immediately preceding the war were held, it was not Paul Kruger who called for war; it was the representatives of the burghers who had been instructed by their con- stituents to insist upon it. When the President saw that his people had determined to have a war, he was leader enough to form plans which might bring the conflict to a successful con- clusion, and he chose a moment for making a declaration that he considered opportune. The ultimatum was decided upon eleven days before it was actually despatched, but it was delayed eight days on account of the unprepared condi- tion of the Free State. Kruger realized the importance of striking the first blow at an enemy which was not prepared to resist it, and the Free State's tardiness at such a grave crisis was decidedly unpleasant to him. Then, when the Free State was ready to mobilize, the Presi- dent secured another delay of three days in or- Paul Kruger. 2o6 THE BOERS IN WAR der that diplomacy might have one more chance. His genius had not enabled him to realize the dream of his life without a recourse to war, and when the ultimatum was delivered into the hands of the British the old man wept. When the multitudinous executive duties which he attended to in peaceful times were suddenly ended by the declaration of hostilities, the President busied himself with matters per- taining to the conduct of the war. He worked as hard as any man in the country, despite his age, and on many occasions he displayed the energy of a man many years younger. The war caused his daily routine of work and rest to be changed completely. He continued to rise at four o'clock in the morning, a habit which he contracted in early youth and had followed ever since. After his morning devotions he listened to the reading of the despatches from the gen- erals at the front, and dictated replies in the shape of suggestions, censure, or praise. He slept for an hour after breakfast, and then went to the Government buildings, arriving there punctually every morning as the clock on the dome struck nine. He remained in consultation with the other members of the Executive Coun- cil, and the few other Government officials who remained in the city, for an hour or more. After luncheon he again worked over de- spatches, received burghers on leave of absence THE WAR PRESIDENTS ;o7 from the front and foreigners who sympathized with his people's cause. He never allowed him- self to be idle, and, in fact, there was no oppor- tunity for him to be unemployed, inasmuch as almost all the leading Government officials were at the front, while many of their duties remained behind to be attended to by some one. Kruger himself supervised the work of all the depart- ments whose heads were absent, and the labour was great. His capacity for hard work was never better demonstrated than during the war, when he bore the weight of his own duties and those of other Government officials, as well as the strain of guiding the Boer emissaries in foreign countries. Added to all these grave responsibilities, when the reverses of the army grew more serious, was the great worry and the constant dread of new disasters, which beset a man who occupies such a position. No man had greater influence over the Boers than Kruger, and his counsel was always sought and his advice generally followed. When the first commandos went to the front it was con- sidered almost absolutely necessary for them to stop at Pretoria and see "Com Paul" before going to battle, and it seemed to affect the old man strangely when he addressed them and bade them God-speed in the accomplishment of their task. It was in the midst of one of these addresses that the President, while standing in 2o8 TliK BOERS IN WAR the centre of a group of burghers, broke down and wept as he referred to the many men who would lose their lives in the war. When the Boer army was having its greatest successes, Kruger constantly sent messages to his burgh- ers, thanking them for their good work, and exhorting them not to neglect to thank their God for his favours. One of the most char- acteristic messages of this nature was sent to the generals, commandants, officers, and burgh- ers on January 8th, and it was a most unique deliverance to come from the President of a republic. The message was composed by him- self, and, as literally translated, read : ** For your own and the war officers' informa- tion I wish to state that, through the blessing of our Lord, our great cause has at present been carried to such a point that, by dint of great energy we may expect to bring it to a success- ful issue on our behalf. *' In order that such an end may be attained, it is, however, strictly necessary that all energy be used, that all burghers able to do active service go forward to the battlefield, and that those who are on furlough claim no undue extension thereof, but return as soon as possi- ble, every one to the place where his war offi- cers may be stationed. " Brothers ! I pray you to act herein with all possible promptitude and zeal, and to keep your THE WAR PRESIDENTS 209 eyes fixed on that Providence who has miracu- lously led our people through the whole of South Africa. Read Psalm xxxiii, from verse 7 to the end. " The enemy have fixed their faith in Psalm Ixxxiii, where it is said that this people shall not exist and its name must be annihilated; but the Lord says, ' It shall exist.' Read also Psalm Ixxxix, the thirteenth and fourteenth verses, where the Lord saith that the children of Christ, if they depart from his words, shall be chastised with bitter reverses, but his favour and goodness shall have no end and shall never fail. What he has said remains strong and firm. For, see, the Lord purifieth his children, even unto gold proven by fire. "I need not draw your attention to all the destructiveness of the enemy's works, for you know it, and I again point to the attack of the devil on Christ and his Church. This has been the attack from the beginning, and God will not countenance the destruction of his Church. You know that our cause is a just one, and there can not be any doubt of it, for it is as the contents of just that psalm that they commenced with us in their wickedness, and I am still searching the entire Bible, and find no other way which can be followed than that which has been pursued by us, and we must continue to fight in the name of the Lord. 2IO THE liOERS IN WAR " Please notify all the officers of war and the entire public of your district of the contents of this telegram, and imbue them with an earnest zeal for the cause." When the President learned that Comman- dant-General Joubert had determined to retreat from the neighbourhood of Ladysmith he sent a long telegram to his old friend, imploring him not to take such a step, and entreating him to retain his forces at the Tugela. The aged gen- eral led his forces northward to Glencoe, not- withstanding the President's protest, and a day afterward Kruger arrived on the scene. The President was warrior enough to know that a great mistake had been made, and he did not hesitate to show his displeasure. lie and Jou- bert had had many disagreements in their long experiences with one another, but those who were present in the general's tent at that Glen- coe interview said that they had never seen the President so angry. When he had finished giv- ing his opinion of the general's action the Presi- dent shook Joubert's hand, and thereafter they discussed matters calmly and as if there had been no quarrel. To the other men who were partly responsible for the retreat he showed his resentment of their actions by declining to shake hands with them, a method of manifesting dis- approbation that is most cutting to the Boers. " If 1 were five years younger, or if my eye- THE WAR PRESIDENTS 2II sight were better," he growled at the recalci- trants, " I would take a rifle and bandolier and show you what we old Boers were accustomed to do. We had courage ; jou seem to have none." After the President had encouraged the offi- cers, and had secured their promises to continue the resistance against the enemy, he wandered about in the laagers, shaking hands with and in- fusing new spirit into the burghers who had flocked together to see their revered leader. When several thousand of the Boers had gath- ered around him, and were trying to have a word with him and grasp his hand, the Presi- dent bared his head and asked his friends to join him in prayer. Instantly every head was bared, and Kruger's voice spread out over the vast concourse in a grand appeal to the God of battles to grant his blessing to the burgher army. The gray-haired old man was conspicu- ous in a small circle which was formed by the burghers withdrawing several paces when he began the prayer. On all sides there spread out a mass of black-garbed, battle-begrimed Boers with eyes turned to the ground. Here and there a white tent raised its head above the assemblage ; at other points men stood on wagons and cannon. Farther on burghers dis- mounted from their horses and joined the crowd. In the distance were Talana Hill, where the first 15 212 THE BOERS IN WAR battle of the campaign was fought ; the lofty Drakensberg, where more than fifty years be- fore the early Boer voortrekkers had their first glimpse of fair Natal ; while to the south were the hills of Ladysmith of sombre history. There, in the midst of sanguinary battlefields, and General Joubert's camp at Glencoe. among several thousand men who sought the blood of the enemy, Kruger, the man of peace, implored Almighty God to give strength to his burghers. It was a magnificent spectacle. He had been at Glencoe only a short time when the news reached him that the burghers THE WAR PRESIDENTS 213 in the Free State had lost their courage and were retreating rapidly toward Bloemfontein. He shortened his visit, hastened to the Free State, and met the fleeing Boers at Poplar Grove. He exhorted them to make a stand against the enemy, and, by his magnetic power over them, succeeded in inducing the majority to remain and oppose the British advance. His own fear- lessness encouraged them, and when they saw their old leader standing in the midst of shell fire as unmoved as if he were watching a holi- day parade they had not the heart to run. While he was watching the battle a shell fell within a short distance of where he stood, and all his companions fled from the spot. He walked slowly away, and when the men re- turned to him he chided them and made a witty remark concerning the shell, naming it one of ''the Queen's pills." While the battle continued Kruger followed one of the comman- dos and urged the men to fight. At one stage of the battle the commando which he was fol- lowing was in imminent danger of being cut off and captured by the British forces, but the burghers fought valiantly before their President, and finally conveyed him to a place of safety, although the path was shell- and bullet-swept. He returned to Bloemfontein, and, in con- junction with President Steyn, addressed an ap- peal to Lord Salisbury to stop the war. They 214 THE BOERS IN WAR asked that the republics should be allowed to retain their independence, and firmly believed that the appeal would end hostilities, inasmuch as the honours of war were then about equally divided between the two armies. To those who watched the proceedings it seemed ridiculous to ask for a cessation of hostilities at that time; but Kruger sincerely believed that his appeal would not be in vain, and he was greatly sur- prised, but not discomfited, when a distinct re- fusal was received in reply. Several weeks after the memorable trip to the Free State President Kruger made another journey to the sister republic, and met Presi- dent Steyn and all the Boer generals at the famous Krijgsraad at Kroonstad. No one who heard the President when he addressed the burghers who gathered there to see him will ever forget the intensity of Kruger's patriot- ism. Kroonstad, then the temporary capital of the Free State, was not provided with any large public hall where a meeting might be held, so a small butcher's stand in the market square was chosen for the site of the conference. After President Steyn, Commandant-General Joubert, and several other leading Boers had addressed the large crowd of burghers standing in the rain outside the tradesman's pavilion, Kruger stepped on one of the long tables and exhorted them to renewed efforts, to fight for freedom, THE WAR PRESIDENTS 215 and not to be disconsolate because Bloemfon- tein had fallen into the hands of the enemy. When the President concluded his address the burghers raised a great cheer, and then returned to their laagers with their minds filled with a new spirit and with a renewed determination to oppose the enemy — a determination which dis- played itself later in the fighting at Sannaspost, Moestershoek, and Wepener. Kruger found the burghers in the Free State in the depths of despair; when he departed they were as confi- dent of ultimate victory as they were on the day war was begun. The old man had the faculty of leading men as it is rarely found. In times of peace he prevailed by force of argu- ment as much as by reason of personal magnet- ism. In war time he led men by mere words sent over telegraph wires, by his presence at the front, and by his display of manly dignity, firm resolution, and devotion to his country. He was like the kings and rulers of ancient times who led their cohorts into battle and wielded the sword when there was a neces- sity for such action. During the war President Kruger suffered many disappointments, endured many griefs, and withstood many trials and tribulations, but none affected him so deeply as the death of his intimate friend Commandant-General Joubert. Kruger and Joubert were the two leading men 2i6 THE BOERS IN WAR of the country for many years. They were among those who assisted in the settlement of the Transvaal and in the many wars which were coincident with it. They had indelibly inscribed their names on the scroll of the South African history of a half century, and in doing so they had become as intimate as two brothers. For more than twoscore years Kruger had been considered the leader of the Boers in peaceful times, while Joubert was their warrior. The ambition of both was the independence of their country, and, while they differed radically on the methods by which it was to be attained, neither surpassed the other in strenuous efforts to secure it without a recourse to war. The death of Joubert was as saddening to Kruger, consequently, as the demise of his most dearly beloved brother, and in the funeral oration which the President delivered over the bier of the general he expressed that sense of sorrow most aptly. This oration, spoken upon an occa- sion when the country was mourning the death of a revered leader, and struggling under the weight of recent defeats, was one of the most remarkable utterances ever made by a man at the head of a nation. " Brothers, sisters, burghers, and friends," he began, ** only a few words can I sav to you to- day, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Wc have lost our brother, our friend, THE WAR PRESIDENTS 21'J our commandant g-eneral. I have lost my right hand, not of yesterday, but my right hand since we were boys together, many long years ago. To-night I alone seem to have been spared of the old people of our cherished land, of the men who lived and struggled together for our coun- try. He has gone to heaven, while fighting for liberty, which God has told us to defend ; for the freedom for which he and I have struggled together for so many years, and so often, to maintain. Brothers, what shall I say to you in this our greatest day of sorrow, in this hour of national gloom? The struggle we are engaged in is for the principles of justice and righteous- ness, which our Lord has taught us is the broad road to heaven and blessedness. It is our sacred duty to keep on that path, if we desire a happy ending. Our dear dead brother has gone on that road to his eternal life. What can I say of his personality ? It is only a few short weeks ago that I saw him at the fighting front, humbly and modestly taking his share of the privations and the rough work of the campaign like the poorest burgher, a true general, a true Christian, an example to his people. And he spoke to me then, and even more recently ; and, let me tell you, that the days are dark. We are suffering reverses on account of wickedness rampant in our land. No success will come, no blessings be given to our great cause, unless you remove 2ig THE BOERS IN WAR the bad elements from among us ; and then you may look forward to attaining the crowning point, the reward of righteousness and noble demeanour. We have in our distinguished de- parted brother an example. Chosen, as he was, b\^ the nation, time after time to his honourable position, he had their trust to such an extent that everything was left in his hands ; and he did his work well. He died, as he lived, in the path of duty and honour. Let the world rage around us, let the enemy decry us — I say, follow his example. The Lord will stand by you against the ruthless hand of the foe, and at the moment when he deems it right for interference peace will come once more. Why is the sym- pathy of the whole world with us in this strug- gle for freedom ? Why are strangers pouring in from Europe to assist us in the maintenance of our beloved flag, to aid us in the just defence of our independence? Is it not God's hand ? 1 feel it in my heart. I declare to you again, the end of our struggle will be satisfactory. Our small nation exists by the aid of the Almighty, and will continue to do so. The prophets say the closed books shall be opened, the dead shall arise, darkness be turned into light; nothing shall be concealed. Every one will face God's judgment throne. You will listen to his voice, and your eyes shall be open for the truth of everything. Think of the costly lives given by THE WAR PRESIDENTS 219 US for our cause, and you will rally to the fight for justice to the end. Brothers, to the deeply bereaved widow of our commandant general, to his family, to you all, I say — trust more than President Kruger in war time. ever to the Almighty ; go to him for condo- lence ; think and be trustful in the thought that our brother's body has gone from among us to rise again in a beautiful and eternal home. Let us follow his example. Weep not, the Lord 220 THE BOERS IN WAR will support you ; the hour of our relief is near ; and let us pray that we may enter heaven, and be guided to eternity in the same way as he whom we mourn so deeply. Amen." Early in his life Kruger formed an idea that the Boers were under the direct control of Providence, and it displeased him greatly to learn that many petty thefts were committed by some of the burghers at the front. In sev- eral of the speeches to the burghers he referred to the shortcomings of some of them, and tried to impress on their minds that they could never expect the Lord to look with favour on their cause if they did not mend their ways. He made a plain reference to those sins in the oration he delivered over Joubert's body, and never neglected to tell the foreign volunteers that they had come into the country for fight- ing and not for looting. When an American corps of about fifty volunteers arrived in Pre- toria in April he requested them to call at his residence before leaving for the front, and the men were greatly pleased to receive and to ac- cept the invitation. The President walked to the sidewalk in front of his house to receive the Americans, and then addressed them in this characteristically blunt speech : " I am very glad you have come here to assist us. I want you to look after your horses and rifles. Do not allow any one to steal them from you. Do THE WAR PRESIDENTS 221 not steal anybody else's gun or horse. Trust in God, and fight as hard as you can." Undoubtedly one of the most pathetic inci- dents in Kruger's life was his departure from Pretoria when the British army was only a short distance south of that city. It was bitter enough to him to witness the conquest of the veld dis- trict, the farms, and the plantations, but when the conquerors were about to possess the capi- tal of the country which he himself had seen grow out of the barren veld into a beautiful city of brick and stone, it was indeed a grave experience for an old man to pass through. It hurt him little to see Johannesburg fall to the enemy, for that city had always been in his ene- my's hands; but when Pretoria, distinctly the Boer city, was about to become British, perhaps forever, the old man might have been expected to display signs of the great sorrow which he undoubtedly felt in his heart. At the threshold of such a great calamity to his cause it might have been anticipated that he would acknowl- edge defeat and ask for mercy from a magnani- mous foe. It was not dreamed that a man ot almost fourscore years would desert his home and family, his farms and flocks, the result of a lifetime of labour, and endure the discomforts of the field merely because he believed in a cause which, it seemed, was about to be extin- guished by force of arms. But adversity 222 THE BOERS IN WAR caused no changes in the President's demean- our. When he bade farewell to his good old wife — perhaps it was a final farewell — he cheered and comforted her, and when the President Kruger's private car, used as the capitol after evacuation of Pretoria. weeping citizens and friends of many years gathered at the railway station to bid him good-bye he chided them for their lack of faith in the cause, and encouraged them to believe THE WAR PRESIDENTS 223 that victory would crown the Boers' efforts. Seven months before, Kruger had stood on the veranda of his residence and, dofihng his hat to the first British prisoners that arrived in the city, asked his burghers not to rejoice unseem- ingly ; in May the old man, about to flee before the enemy, inspired his people to take new courage, and ridiculed their idea that all was lost. Whether the Boers were in the first fiush of victory or in the depths of despair, Paul Kruger was ever the same to them — patriot, adviser, encourager, leader, and friend. It was an easy matter to see the President when he was at his residence at Pretoria, and he appeared to be deeply interested in learning the opinions of the many foreigners who arrived in his country. The little veranda of the ex- ecutive mansion — a pompous name for the small, one-story cottage — was the President's favourite resting and working place during the day. Just as in the times of peace he sat there in a big armchair discussing politics with groups of his countrymen, so while the war was in progress he was to be found there pondering over the grave subjects of the time. The countrymen who could formerly be observed with him at almost any time of the day were missing. They were at the front. Occasionally two or three old Boers could be seen chatting with him be- hind Barnato's marble lions, but invariably they 224 THE BOERS IN WAR had bandoliers around their bodies and rifles across their knees. Few of the old Boers who knew the President intimately returned from the front on leaves of absence without calling on him to explain to him the course and prog- ress of the war. According to his own declaration, his health was as good as it ever had been, even though the war added many burdens to his life. Not- withstanding he was seventy-five years old, he declared he was as sprightly as he was twenty years before, and he seemed to have the energy and vitality of a man of forty. The reports that his mind was affected were cruel hoaxes which had not the slightest foundation of fact. The only matter concerning which he worried was his eyesight, which had been growing weaker steadily for five years. That misfor- tune alone prevented him from accompanying his burghers to the front and sharing their bur- dens with them, and he frequently expressed his disappointment that he was unable to en- gage more actively in the defence of his coun- try. When Pretoria fell into British hands Kruger again sacrificed his own interests for the welfare of his Government, and moved the capital into the fever districts — the low veld of the eastern part of the Transvaal. The deadly fever which permeates the atmosphere of that territory seemed to have no more terrors for THE WAR TRESIDENTS 225 F. W. Reitz, Secretary of State of the Transvaal. him than did the British bullets at Poplar Grove ; and he chose to remain in that dan- gerous locality in order that he might be in constant communication with his burghers and 226 IHE BOERS IN WAR the outside world, rather than to go farther into the isolated interior, where he would have as- sumed no such great risks to his health. Mr. Kruger was not a bitter enemy of the British nation, as might have been supposed. He was always an admirer of Britons and Brit- ish institutions, and the war did not cause him to alter his convictions. He despised only the men whom he charged with being responsible for the condition, and he never thought of hid- ing the identity of those men. He blamed Mr. Rhodes primarily for instigating the war, and held Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner equally responsible for bringing it about. Against these three men he was extremely bit- ter, and he took advantage of every opportu- nity for expressing his opinions of them and their work. In February he said that the real occasion of the war between the Boers and the British was Rhodes's desire for glory. " He wants to be known as the maker of the South African Empire," he said, "and the empire is not complete so long as there are two republics in the centre of the country." Whatever were the causes of the war it is certain that President Kruger did not make it in order to gain political supremacy in South Africa. The Dutch of Cape Colony, President Steyn of the Free State, and Secretary Reitz of the Transvaal, may have had visions of Dutch THE WAR PRESIDENTS 227 supremacy, but President Kruger had no such hopes. He invariably and strenuously denied that he had any aspirations other than the inde- pendence of his country, and all his words and works emphasized his statement to that effect. Several days before Commandant-General Jou- bert died, that intimate friend of the President declared solemnly that Kruger had never dreamed of expelling the British Government from South Africa, and much less had he made any agreement with the Dutch in other parts of the country with a view to such a result. It was a difficult matter to find a Transvaal Boer or a Boer from the northern part of the Free State who cared whether the British or the Dutch were paramount in South Africa so long as the republics were left unharmed ; but it was less difficult to meet Cape Colonists and Boers from the southern part of the Free State who desired that Great Britain's power in the country should be broken. If there was any real ani- mosity against Great Britain it was born on British soil in Cape Colony, and blown north- ward to where courage to fight was more abun- dant. Its source certainly was not in the north, and more certainly not with Paul Kruger, the man of peace. President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, occupied even a more responsible position than his friend President Kruger, of the Transvaal. 16 228 THE BOERS IN WAR At the beginning of hostilities Steyn found that hundreds of the British-born citizens of his State refused to enter his army, and. consequently he was obliged to join the Transvaal with a much smaller force than he had reckoned upon. He was handicapped by the lack of generals of any experience, and he did not have a sufficient number of burghers to guard the borders of his own State. His Government had made but small preparations for war, and there was a lack of guns, ammunition, and equipment. The mo- bilization of his burghers was extremely diffi- cult, and required much more time than was anticipated, and everything seemed to be awry at a time when every detail should have been carefully planned and executed. As the respon- sible head of the Government and the veritable head of the army Steyn passed the crisis with a remarkable display of energy, ingenuity, and ability. After the army was in the field he gave his personal attention to the work of the depart- ments whose heads were at the front, and attend- ed to many of the details of the commissariat work in Bloemfontein. He frequently visited the burghers in the field, and gave them such encouragement as only the presence and praise of the leader of a nation can give to a people. In February he went to the republican lines at Ladvsmith, and made an address, in which he affirmed that Sir Alfred Milner's declaration 230 THE BOERS IN WAR that the power of Afrikanderism must be broken had caused the war. Several days later he was with his burghers at Kimberley, praising their valour and infusing them with renewed courage. A day or two afterward he was again in Bloem- fontein, arranging for the comfort of his men, and caring for the wives and children who were left behind. His duties were increased a hun- dred-fold as the campaign progressed, and when the first reverses came he alone was able to im- bue the men with new zeal. After Bloemfontein was captured by the British he transferred the capital to Kroonstad, and there, with the assist- ance of President Kruger, re-established the fighting spirit of the burgher army. He induced the skulking burghers to return to their com- patriots at the front, and formed the plans for future resistance against the invading army. When Lord Roberts's hosts advanced from Bloemfontein, President Steyn again moved the capital and established it at Heilbron. There- after the capital was constantly transferred from one place to another, but through all those vicissitudes the President clung nobly to his people and country. CHAPTER IX FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR In every war there are men who are not citizens of the country with whose army they are fighting, and the '' soldier of fortune " is as much a recognised adjunct of modern armies as he was in the days of knight-errantry. In the American Revolutionary War, both the colonial and British forces were assisted by many for- eigners, and in every great and small war since then the contending armies have had foreigners in their service. In the Franco-Prussian War there were a great number of foreigners, among them being one of the British generals who took a leading part in the Natal campaign. The brief Greco-Turkish War gave many foreign officers an opportunity of securing experience, while the Spaniards in the Hispano-American War had the assistance of a small number of European officers. Even the Filipinos have had the aid of a corps of foreigners, the leader of which, however, deserted Aguinaldo and joined the Boer forces. 231 232 THE BOERS IN WAk There is a fascination in civilized warfare which attracts men of certain descriptions, and to them a well-fought battle is the highest form of exciting amusement. All the world is in- Hon. Webster Davis, travelling in President Kruger's private car. terested in warfare among human beings, and there are records of men who delighted in fight- ing battles in order that public interest might be gratified. It may suggest a morbid or blood- FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 233 thirsty spirit, this love of warfare, but no spec- tacle is finer, more magnificent, than a hard- fought game in which human lives are staked against a strip of ground — a position. It is not hard to understand why many men should be- come fascinated with warfare and travel to the ends of the earth in order to take part in it, but a soldier of fortune needs to make no apologies. The Boer army was augmented by many of these men who delight in war for fighting's sake, but a large number joined the forces because they believed the republics were contending for a just cause. The Boer was jealous of his own powers of generalship, and, when large numbers of for- eigners volunteered to lead their commandos, the farmers gave a decidedly negative reply. Scores of foreign officers arrived in the country shortly after the beginning of hostilities, and, intent upon securing fame and experience, asked to be placed in command, but no request of that kind was granted. The Boers felt that their system of warfare was the perfect one, and they scoffed at the suggestion that European officers might teach them anything in the military line. Every foreign officer was welcomed in Pretoria and in the laagers, but he was asked to enlist as a private or ordinary burgher. Commissions in the Boer army were not to be had for the ask- ing, as was anticipated, and many of the foreign 234 THE BOERS IN WAR officers were deeply disappointed in conse- quence. The Boers felt that the foreigners were unacquainted with the country and with the burgher mode of warfare, and lacked adroit- ness with the rifle, and they consequently re- fused to place lives and battles in the hands of men they believed to be incompetent. There were a few foreigners in the service of the Boers at the beginning of the war, but their number was so small as to have been without significance. Several European officers had been employed by the Governments of the re- publics to instruct young Boers in artillery work — and their instruction was invaluable — but the oft-repeated assertion that every com- mando was in charge of a foreign officer was as ridiculous as the story of the Cape Times which stated that the British retired from Spion Kop because no water was found on its summit. The influx of foreigners into the country be- gan simultaneously with the war and continued thereafter at the rate of about four hundred men a month. The volunteers, as they were called by the burghers, consisted of the professional soldier, the man in search of loot, the man who fought for love of justice, and the adventurer. The professional soldier was of much service to the burghers so long as he was content to remain under a Boer leader, but as soon as he attempted to operate on his own responsibility he became FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 235 not only an impediment to them but also a positive danger. In the early stages of the war the few foreign legions that existed met with disaster at Elandslaagte, and thereafter all the foreign volunteers were obliged to join a com- mando. After several months had passed the foreigners who were eager to have responsible commands prevailed upon the generals to allow the formation of foreign legions to operate in- dependently. The legion of France, the Amer- ican scouts, the Russian scouts, the German corps, and several other organizations were formed, and for a month after the investment of Bloemfontein these legions enlivened the situation by their frolicsome reports of attacks on the enemy's outposts. During those weeks the entire British army must have been put to flight scores of times, at the very least, if the re- ports of the foreign legions could be believed, and the British casualty list must have amounted to thrice the number of English soldiers in the country. The free rein given to the foreign legionaries was withdrawn shortly after Ville- bois-de-Mareuil and his small band of French- men met with disaster at Boshof, and thereafter all the foreigners were placed under the direct command of General De la Rey. The man in search of the spoils of war was not so numerous, but he made his presence felt by stealing whatever was portable and salable. 236 THE BOERS IN WAR When he became surfeited with looting houses in conquered territory, and stealing horses, lug- I A Cossack fighting with the Boers. t'OREIGNERS IN THE WAR 237 gage and goods of lesser value in the laagers, he turned to Johannesburg and Pretoria and as- sisted in emptying residences and stores of their contents. This type of soldier of fortune never went into a battle of his own accord, and when he found himself precipitated into the midst of one he lost little time in reaching a place of safety. Almost on a par with the looter was the adventurer whose chief object in life seemed to be to tell of the battles he had assisted in winning. He was constantly in the laagers when there was no fighting in progress, but as soon as the report of a gun was heard the ad- venturer felt the necessity of going on urgent business to Pretoria. After the fighting he could always be depended upon to relate the wildest personal experiences that camp fires ever heard ; he could tell of amazing adventures in the wilds of South America, on the steppes of Siberia, and at other ends of the earth, and generally after each narrative he would make a request for a *Moan." The only adventures he had during the war were those which he encountered while attempting to escape from a battle, and the only service he did to the Boer army was to assist in causing the disappearance of commissariat supplies. The men who fought with the Boers because they were deeply in sympathy with the repub- lican cause were in far greater numbers than 238 THE BOERS IN WAR those with other motives, and their services were of much value to the federal forces. The majority of these men were in the country when war was begun, and were accepted as citizens of the country. They joined commandos and remained under Boer leaders during the entire campaign. In the same class were the volun- teers who entered the republics from Natal and Cape Colony for the purpose of assisting their coreligionists and kinsmen. Of these there were about six thousand at the beginning of hostili- ties, but constant desertions occurred, so that after the first six months of the war perhaps less than one third of them remained. The Afri- kanders of Natal and Cape Colony were not inferior in any respect to the Boers, whose forces they joined ; but when the tide of war changed and it became evident that the Boers would not triumph, they returned to their homes and farms in the colonies in order to save them from confiscation. Taking into con- sideration the fact that four fifths of the white population of the two colonies was of the same race and religion as the Boers, six thousand was not a large number of volunteers to join the federal forces. The artillery fire of the Boer was so remark- ably good that the delusion was cherished by the British commanders that foreign artillerists were in charge of all the guns. It was not FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 239 believed that the Boers had any knowledge of arms other than rifles, but it was not an easy matter to find a foreigner at a cannon or rapid- fire gun. The field batteries of the State artil- lery of the Transvaal had two German officers of low rank who were in the country long before the war was begun, but all the other men who assisted with the field guns were 3^oung Boers. The heavy artillery in Natal was di- rected by M. M. Grunberg and S. Leon, repre- sentatives of Creusot, who manufactured the guns. M. Leon's ability as an engineer and gunner pleased Commandant-General Joubert so greatly that he gave him full authority over the artillery. Major Albrecht, the director of the Free State Artillery, was a foreigner by birth, but he became a citizen of the Free State long before the war and did sterling service to his country until he was captured with Cronje at Paardeberg. Otto von Lossberg, a German- American who had seen service in the armies of Germany and the United States, arrived in the country in March and was thereafter in charge of the artillery arm of the service, but the majority of the foreign artillerists were under Boer officers. j None of the foreigners who served in the Boer army received any compensation. They were supplied with horses and equipment, at a cost to the Boer Governments of about thirty- 240 THE BOERS IN WAR five dollars for each volunteer, and they received better food than the burghers, but no wages were paid to them. Be- fore a foreign vol- unteer was al- lowed to join a commando, and before he received his equipment, he was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the republic. Only a few men who de- clined to take the oath were allowed to join the army. The oath of alle- giance was an adaptation of the one which caused so much difficul- ty between Great Britain and the Transvaal before the war. A translation of it reads : " I hereby make an oath of solemn allegiance Colonel Maximoff, of the Russian corps. FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 24: to the people of the South African Republic, and I declare my willingness to assist with all my power the burghers of this republic in the war in which they are engaged. I further promise to obey the orders of those placed in authority according to law, and that I will work for nothing but the prosperity, the welfare, and the independence of the land and people of this republic. So truly help me, God Almighty." No army lists were ever to be found at Pre- toria or at the front, and it was as monumental a task to secure a fair estimate of the Boer forces as it was to obtain an estimate of the number of the foreigners who assisted them. The Boers had no men whom they could spare to detail to statistic work, and in consequence no correct figures can ever be obtained. The numerical strength of the various organizations Nationality. In organizations. In commandos. French Hollanders 300 400 100 300 150 100 100 200 100 250 125 250 150 100 50 Germans Americans Italians , Scandinavians Afrikanders 6,000 Totals 1,650 7,025 1,650 Grand total 8,675 242 THE BOERS IN WAR of foreigners could readily be ascertained from their commanders, but many of the foreigners were in Boer commandos, and their strength was only problematical. An estimate, which was prepared by the correspondents who had good opportunities of forming as nearly a cor- rect idea as any one, resulted in the table on the preceding page, which gives the numbers of those in the various organizations as well as those in the commandos. The French legionaries were undoubtedly of more actual service to the Boers than the volun- teers of any other nationality, inasmuch as they were given the opportunities for doing valuable work. Before the war one of the large forts at Pretoria was erected by French engineers, and when the war was begun Frenchmen of military experience were much favoured by General Jou- bert, who was proud of his French extraction. The greater quantity of artillery had been pur- chased from French firms, and the commandant general wisely placed guns in the hands of the men who knew how to operate them well. MM. Grunberg and Leon were of incalculable assistance in transporting the heavy artillery over the mountains of Natal, and in securing positions for them where the fire of the ene- my's guns could not harm them. The work of the Canet guns, the famous ** long toms " which the besieged in Ladysmith will remember FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 243 as long as the siege itself remains in their mem- ory, Avas almost entirely the result of French hands and brains, while much of the havoc caused by the heavy artillery in the Natal bat- tles was due to the engineering and gunnery of Leon, Grunberg, and their countrymen who assisted them. After remaining in Natal until past the middle of January the two Frenchmen joined the Free State forces, to whom they ren- dered valuable assistance. Leon was wounded at Kimberley on February 12th, and, after assist- ing in establishing the ammunition works at Pre- toria and Johannesburg, returned to France. Viscount de Villebois-Mareuil was one of the many foreigners who joined the Boer arm}^ and lost their lives while fighting with the repub- lican forces. While ranking as colonel on the general staff of the French army, and when about to be promoted to the rank of general, he resigned from the service on account of the Dreyfus affair. A month after the commence- ment of the war, Villebois-Mareuil arrived in the Transvaal and went to the Natal front, where his military experience enabled him to give advice to the Boer generals. In January the colonel attached himself to General Cronje's forces, with which he took part in many engage- ments. He was one of the few who escaped from the disastrous figlu at Paardeberg, and shortly afterward at a war council at Kroonstad 17 244 '^"^ BOERS IN WAR the French officer was created a brigadier gen- eral — the first and only one in the Boer army — and all the foreign legions were placed in his charge. It was purposed that he should harass the enemy by attacks on their lines of communication, and it was while he was at the General De La Rey and Colonel Guorko, Russian military attache. outset of the first of these expeditions that he and twelve of his small force of sixty men were killed at Boshof, in the northwestern part of the Free State, early in April. Villebois-Mareuil was a firm believer in the final success of the Boer arms, and he received the credit of plan- ning two battles — second Colenso and Magers- FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 245 fontein — which gave the Boers at least tempo- rary success. The viscount was a writer for the Revue des Deux Mondes, Le Correspondant, and La Liberte, the latter of which referred to him as the latter-day Lafayette. General Ville- bois-Mareuil was an exceptionally brave man, a fine soldier, and a gentleman whose friendship was prized. Lieutenant Gallopaud was another French- man who did sterling service to the Boers while he was subordinate to Colonel Villebois- Mareuil. At Colenso he led his men in an attack which met with extraordinary success, and later in the Free State campaign he distin- guished himself by creditable deeds in several battles. Gallopaud went to the Transvaal for experience, and secured both that and fame. After the death of Villebois-Mareuil, he was elected commandant of the French Legion, and before he joined De la Rey's army he had the novel pleasure of subduing a mutiny among some of his men. An Algerian named Mahomed Ben Naseur, who had not been favoured with the sight of blood for several weeks, threatened to shoot Gallopaud with a Mauser, but there was a cessation of hostilities on the part of the Algerian shortly after the big, powerful com- mandant went into action. The majority of the Hollanders who fought with the Boers were in the country when the 246 THE BOERS IN WAR war was beg-un, and they made a practical dem- onstration of their belief in the Boer cause by going into the field with the first commandos. The Dutch corps was under the command of Commandant Smoronberg, the former drillmas- ter of the Johannesburg police. Among the volunteers were many young Hollanders who had been employed by the Government in Pre- toria and Johannesburg establishments and by the Netherlands railways. In its first engage- ment, at Elandslaagte in November, the corps was practically annihilated, and General Kock, the leader of the Uitlander Brigade, received his death wounds. Afterward the surviving members of the corps joined Boer commandos, where stray train loads of officers' wine, such as were found the day before the battle of Elands- laagte, were not allowed to interfere with the sobriety of the burghers. The Russian corps, under Commandant Alexis de Ganetzky and Colonel Prince Bara- trion-Morgaff, was formed after all the men had been campaigning under Boer officers in Natal for several months. The majority of the men were Johannesburgers without military experi- ence, who joined the army because there was nothing else to do. The German corps was as short-lived as the Hollander organization, it having been part of the force which met with disaster at Elands- FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 24; laagte. Colonel Schiel, a German-Boer of brief military experience, led the organization, but was unable to display his abilities to any extent be- fore he was made a prisoner of war. Captain Count Harran von Zeplin was killed in the fight at Spion Kop, and Herr von Brusewitz was killed and Colonel Von Brown was captured at the Tugela. The corps was afterward re- organized, and under the leadership of Com- mandant Otto Krantz, of Pretoria, it fought valiantl}^ in several battles in the Free State. Among the many German volunteers who en- tered the country after the beginning of hos- tilities was Major Baron von Reitzenstein, the winner of the renowned long-distance horse- back race from Berlin to Vienna. He was a participant in battles at Colesburg and in Natal, and was eager to remain with the Boer forces until the end of the war, but was recalled by his Government, which had granted him a leave of absence from the German army. Three of the forts at Pretoria were erected by Germans, and the large fort at Johannesburg was built by Colonel Schiel. The Americans in South Africa who elected to fight under the Boer flags did not promise to win the war single-handed, and consequently the Boers were not disappointed in the achieve- ments of the volunteers from the sister repub- lic across the Atlantic. In proportion to their 248 THE BOERS IN WAR numbers the Americans did as well as the best volunteer foreigners, and caused the Govern- ment less trouble and expense than any of the Uitlander organizations. The majority of the Americans spent the first months of the war in Boer commandos, and made no effort to estab- lish an organization of their own, although they were of sufficient numerical strength. A score or more of them joined the Irish Brigade or- ganized by Colonel J. G. Blake, a graduate of West Point Military Academj^ and a former ofifi. cer in the American army, and accompanied the brigade through the first seven months of the Natal campaign. After the exciting days of that campaign John A. Hassell, an American who had been with the Vryheid commando, or- Sfanized the American scouts and succeeded in gathering what probably was the strangest body of men in the war. Captain Hassell himself was born in New Jersey, and was well educated in American public schools and schools of experi- ence. He spent the five years before the war in prospecting and shooting expeditions in vari- ous parts of South Africa, and had a better idea of the geographical features of the country than any of the commandants of the foreign legions. While he was with the Vryheid commando Has- sell was twice wounded, once in the attack on Cassar's Hill and again at Estcourt, where he received a bayonet thrust which disabled him 250 THE BOERS IN WAR for several weeks and deprived him of the honour of being General Botha's adjutant. The one American whose exploits will long remain in the Boer memory was John N. King, of Reading, Pa., who vowed that he would allow his hair to grow until the British had been driven from Federal soil. King began his career of usefulness to society at the time of the Johnstown flood, where he and some companions lynched an Italian who had been robbing the dead. Shortly afterward he gained a deep insight into matters journalistic by being the boon companion of a newspaper man. The newspaper man was in jail on a charge of lar- ceny. King for murder. When war was begun King was employed on a Johannesburg mine, and when one of his best friends determined to join the British forces he decided to enlist in the Boer army. Before parting the two made an agreement that neither should make the other prisoner in case they met on the battlefield. At Spion Kop King captured his friend unawares, and, after a brief friendly conversation and a farewell grasp of the hand. King shot him dead. King took part in almost every one of the Natal battles, and when there was no fighting to do he passed the time away in such reckless ex- ploits as going within the British firing line at Ladysmith to capture pigs and chickens. He bore a striking resemblance to Napoleon I, and FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 251 loved blood as much as the little Corsican. When the scouts went out from Brandfort in April and killed several of the British scouts, King wept because he had remained in camp that day and had missed the opportunity of having a part in the engagement. The lieutenant of the scouts was John Shea, a gray- haired man who might have had grand- children old enough to fight. Shea fought with the Boers because he thought they had a right- eous cause, and not because he loved the smell of gunpowder, although he had learned what that was in the Spanish-American War. He endeavoured to introduce the American army system into the Boer army, but failed signally, and then fought side by side with old takhaars all during the Natal campaign. He was the guardian of the mascot of the scouts, William Young, a thirteen-year-old American, who was acquainted with every detail of the prelimina- ries of the war. William witnessed all except two of the Natal battles and several of those in' the Free State, and could relate all the stirring incidents in connection with each, but he could tell nothing more concerning his birthplace than that it was *' near the shore in America," both his parents having died when he was quite young. Then there was able-bodied seaman William Thompson, who was in the Wabash, of the United States Navy, and served under Mac 252 THE BOERS IN WAR Cuen in the Chinese-Japanese War. Thompson and two others tried to steal a piece of British heavy artillery while it was in action at Lady- smith, but were themselves captured by some Boers who did not believe in modern miracles. Of newspaper men, there were half a dozen who laid aside the pen for the sword. George Par- sons, a Collier's Weekly man, who was once left on a desert island at the east end of Cuba to deliver a message to Gomez, several hundred miles away; J. B. Clarke, of Webberville, Mich., who was correspondent for a Pittsburg news- paper whenever some one could commandeer the necessary stamps ; and four or five corre- spondents of country weeklies in Western States. Starfield and Hiley were two Texans of- Amer- ican army experience who fought with the Boers because they had faith in their cause. Starfield claimed the honour of having been pursued for half a day by two hundred British cavalrymen; while Hiley, the finest marksman in the corps, had the distinction of killing Lieutenant Carron, an American in Lord Loch's horse, in a fierce duel behind ant heaps at Modder River on April 2 1 St. Later in the campaign many of the Americans who entered the country for the purpose of fighting joined Hassell's scouts, and added to the cosmopolitan character of the or- ganization. One man came from Puget Sound in a sailing vessel. Another arrival boldly claimed FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 253 to be the American military attacJic at the Paris Exposition, and then requested every one to keep the matter a secret for fear the War Department should hear of his presence in South Africa and recall him. On the way to Africa he had a mar- vellous midnight experience on board ship with a masked man who shot him through one of his hands. Later the same wound was displayed as having been received at Magersfontein, Colenso, and Spion Kop. This industrious youth became adjutant to Colonel Blake, and assisted that pic- turesque Irish-American in securing the services of the half hundred American Red Cross men who deserted their society as soon as they en- tered the Boer country. Of the many Americans who fought in Boer commandos none did better service or was regarded more highly by the Boers than Otto von Lossberg, of New Orleans, La. Lossberg Avas born in Germany, and received his first military training in the army of his native country. He afterward became an American citizen, and was with General Miles's army in the Porto Rico campaign. He arrived in tlie Transvaal in March, and on the last day of that month was in charge of the artillery which assisted in defeating Colonel Broadwood's col- umn at Sannaspost. Two days later, in the fight between General Christian De Wet and McQueenies' Irish Fusileers, Lossberg was se- 254 THE BOERS IN WAR verely wounded in the head, but a month later he was again at the front. With him continually was Baron Ernst von Wrangel, who was a grandson of the famous Marshal Wrangel, and a corporal in the American army during the Cuban War. When one of the four sons of State Secretary Reitz, who were fighting with the Boer army, asked his father for permission to join the Irish Brigade, the secretary gave an excellent descrip- tion of the organization : " The members of the Irish Brigade do their work well, and they fight remarkably well, but, my son, they are not gentle in their manner." Blake and his men were among the first to cross the Natal frontier, and their achievements were notable, even if the men lacked gentleness of manner. The brigade took part in almost every one of the Natal en- gagements, and when General Botha retreated from the Tugela, Colonel Blake and seventy -five of his men bravely attacked and drove back into Ladysmith a squadron of cavalry which intended to cut off the retreat of Botha's starving and ex- hausted burghers. Blake and his men were guarding a battery on Lombard Kop, a short distance east of Ladysmith, when he learned that Joubert was leading the retreat northward and allowing Botha with his two thousand men to continue their ten days* fighting without re- enforcements. Instead of retreating with the FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 255 Colonel Blake, of the Irish Brigade. Other commandos, Blake and seventy-five of his men stationed themselves on the main road be- tween Ladysmith and Colenso, and awaited the 256 THE BOERS IN WAR coming of Botha. A force of cavalry, consisting of three hundred men, was observed coming out of the besieged city, and it was apparent that they could readily cut off Botha from the other Boers. Blake determined to make a bold bluff by scattering his small force over the hills and attacking the enemy from different directions. The men were ordered to tire as rapidly as pos- sible, in order to impress the British cavalry with a false idea of the size of the force. The seventy-five Irishmen and Americans made as much noise with their guns as a Boer com- mando of a thousand men usually did, and the result was that the cavalry wheeled about and returned into Ladysmith. Botha and his men, dropping out of their saddles from sheer exhaus- tion and hunger, came up from Colenso a short time after the cavalr}^ had been driven back, and made their memorable journey to Joubert's new headquarters at Glencoe. It was one of the few instances where the foreigners were of any re- ally great assistance to the Boers. After the relief of Ladysmith the Irish Bri- gade was sent to Helpmakaar Pass, and remained there for six weeks, until Colonel Blake suc- ceeded in inducing the war department to send them to the Free State, where these sons of the old sod might make a display of their valour to the world, but more especially to Michael Dav- itt, the Irish leader, who was then visiting in FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 257 the country. When the brigade was formed it was not necessary to show an Irish birth certifi- cate in order to become a member of the organ- ization, and consequently there were Swedes, Russians, Germans, and Italians marching under the green flag. A second Irish Brigade was formed in April by Arthur Lynch, an Irish- Australian, who was the former Paris corre- spondent of a London daily new^spaper. Colo- nel Lynch and his men were in several battles in Natal, and received warm praise from the Boer generals. The Italian Legion was commanded by a man who loved war and warfare. Camillo Richi- ardi and General Louis Botha were probably the two handsomest men in the army, and both were the idols of their men. Captain Richiardi had his first experience with war in Abyssinia when he fought with the Italian army. When the Philippine war began he joined the fortunes of Aguinaldo and became the leader of the foreign legion. For seven months he fought against the American soldiers, not because he hated the Americans, but because he loved fighting more. When the Boer war seemed to promise more exciting work, Richiardi left Aguinaldo's forces and joined a Boer commando as a burgher. After studying Boer methods for several months, he formed an organization of scouts, which was of great service to the 258 THE BOERS IN WAR army. Before the relief of Ladysmith the Italian scouts was the ablest organization of its kind in the republics. Captain KKliiatili, of the Iial The Scandinavian corps joined Cronje's army after the outbreak of war, and took part in the battle of Magersfontcin on December iith. The corps occupied one of the most exposed FOREIGNERS IN THE WAR 259 positions during that battle, and lost forty-five of the fifty-two men engaged. Commandant Flygare was shot in the abdomen, and was be- ing carried off the field by Captain Barendsen, when a bullet struck the captain in the head and killed him instantly. Flygare extricated him- self from beneath Barendsen's body, rose, and led his men in a charge. When he had pro- ceeded about twenty yards a bullet passed through his head, and his men leaped over his corpse only to meet a similar fate a few minutes later. 18 CHAPTER X BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR One of the most glorious pages in the his- tory of the Boer nation relates to the work of the women who fought side by side with their husbands against the hordes of murderous Zulus in the days of the early voortrekkers. It is the story of hardy Boer women, encompassed by thousands of bloodthirsty natives, fighting over the lifeless bodies of their husbands and sons, and repelling the attacks of the savages with a spirit and strength not surpassed by the valiant burghers themselves. The magnificent heritage which these mothers of the latter-day Boer na- tion left to their children was not unworthily borne by the women of the end of the century, and the work which they accomplished in the war of 1 899- 1 900 was none the less valuable, even though it was less hazardous and romantic, than that of their ancestors whose blood min- gled with that of the savages on the grassy slopes of the Natal mountains. The conspicuous part played in the war by 2C0 BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 261 the Boer women was but a sequence to that which they took in the political affairs of the country before the commencement of hostilities, Four generations of the Kruger family. Mrs. Paul Kruger, Mrs. F. C. Eloff, Mrs. Louis Jacobz, and Baby Jacobz. 262 1'HE BOERS IN WAR and both were excellent demonstrations of their great patriotism and their deep loyalty to the republics which they loved. Some one has said that real patriotism is bred only on the farms and plains of a country, and no better exempli- fication of the truth of the saying was necessary than that which was afforded by the wives and mothers of the burghers of the two South Afri- can republics. Many months before the first shot of the war was fired the patriotic Boer women began to take an active interest in the discussion of the grave affairs of state, and it increased with such amazing rapidity and vol- ume that they were prepared for hostilities long before the men. Women urged their hus- bands, fathers, and brothers to end the long period of political strife and uncertainty by shouldering arms and fighting for their inde- pendence. Even sooner than the men, the Boer women realized that peace must be broken some time in order to secure real tranquility in the country, and she who lived on the veld and was patriotic was anxious to have the storm come and pass as quickly as possible. So enthusiastic were the women before the war that it was a common saying among them that if the men were too timorous to fight for their liberty the daughters and granddaughters of the heroines who fought against the Zulus at Weenen and Doornkop would take up arms. BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 263 Even before the formal declaration of war was made many of the Boer women prevailed upon their husbands, brothers, and sons to leave their homes and go to the borders of the Boer country to guard against any raids that might be attempted by the enemy, and in many instances women accompanied the men to prepare their meals and give them comfort. These manifes- tations of warlike spirit were not caused by the women's love of war — for they were even more peace-loving than the men — but they were the natural result of a desire to serve their country at a time when they considered it to be in great peril. The women knew that war would mean much bloodshed and the death of many of those whom they loved, but all those selfish considera- tions were laid aside when they believed that the life of their country was at stake. For weeks preceding the commencement of hostilities, farmers' wives on the veld busied themselves with making serviceable corduroy clothing, knapsacks, and bread bags for their male relatives who were certain to go on com- mando ; and when it became known that an ultimatum would be sent to Great Britain, the women prepared the burghers' outfits, so that there should be no delay in the men's departure for the front as soon as the declaration of war was made. No greater or harder work was done by the 264 THE BOERS IN WAR women during the entire war than that which fell to their lot immediately following the formal declaration of war by the authorities. In the excitement of the occasion the Government had neglected to make any satisfactory arrange- ments for supplying the burghers with food while on the journey to the front and afterward, and consequently there was much suffering from lack of provisions and supplies. At this junc- ture the women came to the rescue, and in a trice they had remedied the great defect. Every farmhouse and every city residence became a bakery, and for almost two months all the bread consumed by the burgher army was prepared by the Boer women. Organizations were formed for this purpose in every city and town in the country, and by means of a well-planned division of labour this improvised commissariat department was as effective as that which was afterward organized by the Government. Cer- tain women baked the bread, prepared sand- wiches, and boiled coffee ; others procured the supplies, and others distributed the food at the various railway stations through which the com- mando trains passed, or carried it directly to the laagers. One of the women who was tire- less in her efforts to feed the burghers and make them comfortable as they passed through Pre- toria on the railway was Mrs. F. W. Reitz, the wife of the Transvaal State Secretary, and Mrs. General Meyer 266 'l^IIE BOERS IN WAR never a commando train passed through the capital that she was not there to distribute sand- wiches, coffee, and milk. When the first battles of the campaign had been fought and the wounded were being brought from the front, the women again vol- unteered to assist an embarrassed Government, and no nobler, more energetic efforts to relieve suffering were ever made than those of the pa- triotic daughters of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. Women from the farms assisted in the hospitals ; wives, who directed the herding of cattle during the absence of their husbands, went to the towns and to the laager hospitals ; young schoolgirls deserted their books and as- sisted in giving relief to the burghers who were bullet-maimed or in the delirium of fever. No station in life was unrepresented in the human- itarian work. Two daughters of the former President of the Transvaal, the Rev. Thomas Frangois Burgers, were nurses in the Burke Hospital, in Pretoria, which was established and maintained by a Boer burgher. Miss Martha Meyer, a daughter of General Lucas Meyer, devoted herself assiduously to the relief of the wounded in the same hospital, and in the insti- tution which Barney Barnato established in Johannesburg there were scores of young women nurses who cared for British and Boer wounded w^ith unprejudiced attention. In every BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 267 laager at the front there were young Boer vrou- wen who, under the protection of the Red Cross, and indifferent to the creed, caste, or country of the wounded and dying, assuaged the suffering of those who were intrusted to their care. In the hospital trains which carried the wounded from the battlefields to the hospitals in Pretoria and Johannesburg were Boer women who con- sidered themselves particularly fortunate in having been able to secure posts where they could be of service ; while at the stations where the trains halted were Boer women bearing baskets of fruit and bottles of milk for the un- fortunate burghers and soldiers in the carriages. When the war began and all the large mines on the Witwatersrand, and all the big industries and stores in Johannesburg and Pretoria were obliged to cease operations, much distress pre- vailed among the poorer classes of foreigners who were left behind when the great exodus was concluded, and after a few months their poverty became most acute. Again the Boer women shouldered the burden, and in a thousand different ways relieved the suffering of those who were the innocent victims of the war. Sub- scription lists were opened, and the wealthy Boers contributed liberally to the fund for the distressed. Depots, where the needy could se- cure food and clothing, were established ; while a soup kitchen, where Mrs. Peter Maritz Botha, 268 THE BOERS IN WAR one of the wealthiest women in the republics, stood behind a table and distributed food to starving men and women, was a veritable bless- ing to hundreds of needy foreigners. In Jo- hannesburg, Boer women searched through the poorest quarters of the city for families in need of food or medicine, and never a needy individ- ual was neglected. Among the few thousand British subjects who remained behind there were many who were in dire straits, but Boer women made no distinction between friend and enemy when there was an opportunity for per- forming a charitable deed ; nor was their char- ity limited to civilians and those who were neutral in their sentiments with regard to the war. When the British prisoners of war were confined in the race course at Pretoria the Boer women sent many a wagon load of fruit, luxuries, and reading matter to the soldiers who had been sent against them to deprive them of that which they esteemed most — the independence of their country. The spirit which animated the women was never better exemplified than by the action of a little Boer girl of about ten years who ap- proached a British prisoner on the platform of the station at Kroonstad and gave him a bottle of milk which she had kept carefully concealed under her apron. The soldier hardly had time to thank her for her gift before she turned and ran away from him as rapidly as she had the feOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 269 strength. It seemed as if she loved him as a man in distress, but feared him as a soldier and hated him as an enemy of her country. Besides assisting in the care of the wounded, the baking of bread for the burghers, and giv- ing aid to the destitute, the women of the farms were obliged to attend to the fiocks and herds which were left in their charge when the fathers, husbands, and brothers went to the front to fight. All the laborious duties of the farm were performed by the women, and it was common to witness a woman at work on the fields or driving a long ox wagon along the roads. When the tide of war changed and the enemy drove the burghers to the soil of the republics, the work of the women became even more labo- rious and diversified. The widely separated farmhouses then became typical lunch stations for the burghers, and the women willingly were the proprietresses. Boers journeying from one commando to another, or scouts and patrols on active duty, stopped at the farmhouses for food for themselves and their horses, and the women gladly prepared the finest feasts their larders afforded. No remuneration was ever accepted, and the realization that they were giving even indirect assistance to their country's cause was deemed sufficient payment for any work per- formed. Certain farmhouses which were situ- ated near frequently travelled roads became the 270 THE BOERS IN WAR well-known rendezvous of the burghers, and thither all the wonnen in the neighbourhood wended their way to assist in preparing meals for them. Midway between Smaldeel and Wih I lildren of John Steyl. House was destroyed by British shortly after photograph was taken. Brand fort was one of that class of farmhouses, and never a meal time passed that Mrs. Barnard did not entertain from ten to fifty burghers. Near Thaba N'Chu was the residence of John BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 271 Steyl, a member of the Free State Raad, whose wife frequently had more than a hundred burgher guests at one meal. When the battle of Sannaspost was being fought a short distance from her home, Mrs. Steyl was on one of the hills overlooking the battlefield, interspersing the watching of the progress of the battle with prayers for the success of the burghers' arms. As soon as she learned that the Boers had won the field she hastened home and prepared a sumptuous meal for her husband, her thirteen- year-old son, and all the generals who took part in the engagement. When the winter season approached and the burghers called upon the Government for the heavy clothing which they themselves could not secure, there was another embarrassing situation, for there was only a small quantity of ready-made clothing in the country, and it was not an easy matter to secure it through the blockaded port at Delagoa Bay. There was an unlimited quantity of cloth in the country, but as all the tailors were in the commandos at the front the difficulty of converting the material into suits and overcoats seemed to be insur- mountable until the women found a way. Un- mindful of the other vast duties they were en- gaged in, they volunteered to make the cloth- ing, and thenceforth every Boer home was a tailor's shop. President Kruger's daughters and 272 THE BOERS IN WAR granddaughters, the Misses Eloff, who had been foremost in many of the other charitable works, undertook the management of the project, and they continued to preside over the labours of several hundred women who worked in the High Court building in Pretoria until the British forces entered the city. Thousands of suits of clothing and overcoats were made and for- warded to the burghers in the field to protect them against the rigours of the South African winter's nights. One of the most conspicuous parts played in the war by the Boer women was that of urging their husbands and sons to abbreviate their leaves of absence and return to their comman- dos. The mothers and wives of the burghers of the republics gave many glorious examples of their unselfishness and deep love of country, but none were of more material benefit than their efforts to preserve the strength of the army in the field. When the burghers returned to their homes on furloughs of from five days to two weeks the wives urged their immediate return, and in many instances insisted that they should rejoin their commandos forthwith, upon pain of receiving no food if they remained at home. It was one of the Boer's absolute necessities to have a furlough every two or three months, and unless it was given to him by the officers he was more than likely to take it without the prescribed BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 273 permission. When burghers without such writ- ten permits reached their homes they were not The Misses Eloff. Granddaughters of President Kruger. 74 THE BOERS IN WAR received by their wives with the customary cordiality, and the air of frigidity which encom- passed them soon compelled them to return to the field. The Boer women despised a coward, or a man who seemed to be shirking his duty to his country, and, not unlike their sisters in lands of older civilization, they possessed the power of expressing their disapprobation of such acts. It was not uncommon for the women to threaten to take their husbands' posts of duty it the men insisted upon remaining at home, and invariably the ruse was efficient in securing the burghers' early return. During the war there were manv instances to prove that the Boer women of the end of the century inherited the bravery and heroic forti- tude of their ancestors, who fell victims to the Zulu assagais in the Natal Valley in 1838. The Boer women were as anxious to take an active part in the campaign as their grandmothers were at VVeenen, and it was only in obedience to the rules formulated by the officers that Amazon corps were absent from the comman- dos. Instances were not rare of women tres- passing these regulations, and scores of Boer women can claim the distinction of having taken part in many bloody battles. Not a few yielded up their life-blood on the altar of liberty, and many will carry the scars of bullet wounds to the grave. BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 275 In the early part of the campaign there was no military rule which forbade women journey- ing to the front, and in consequence the laagers General and Mrs. Louis Botha. enjoyed the presence of many of the wives and daughters of the burghers. Commandant-Gen- eral Joubert set an example to his men by 19 276 THE BOERS IN WAR having Mrs. Joubert continually with him on his campaigning trips, and the burghers were not slow in patterning after him. While the greater part of the army lay around besieged Ladysmith, large numbers of women were in the laagers, and they were continually busying themselves with the preparation of food for their relatives and with the care of the sick and wounded. Not infrequently did the women accompany their husbands to the trenches along the Tugela front, and it was asserted, with every evidence of veracity, that many of them used the rifles against the enemy with even more ardour and precision than the men. On Feb- ruary 28th, while the fighting around Pieter's Hill was at its height, the British forces cap- tured a Boer woman of nineteen years who had been fatally wounded. Before she died she stated that she had been fighting from the same trench with her husband, and that he had been killed only a few minutes before a bullet struck her. While the Boer army was having its many early successes in Natal few of the women par- took in the actual warfare from choice or be- cause they believed that it was necessary for them to fight. The majority of those who were in the engagements happened to be with their husbands when the battles were begun and had no opportunity of escaping. The burghers ob- BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 277 jected to the presence of women within the firing lines, and every effort was made to pre- vent them from being in dangerous localities; but when it was impossible to transfer them to places of safety during the heat of the battle, there was no alternative but to provide them with rifles and bandoliers so that they might protect themselves. The half hundred women who endured the horrors of the siege at Paarde- bergwith Cronje's small band of warriors chose to remain with their husbands and brothers when Lord Roberts offered to convey them to places of safety ; but they were in no wise an impediment to the burghers, for they assisted in digging trenches and wielded the carbines as assiduously as the most energetic men. One of the women who received the Gov- ernment's sanction to join a commando was Mrs. Otto Krantz, the wife of a professional hunter. Mrs. Krantz accompanied her husband to Natal at the commencement of hostilities and remained in the field during almost the entire campaign in that colony. In the battle of Elandslaagte, where some of the hardest hand- to-hand fighting of the war occurred, this Amazon was by the side of her husband in the thick of the engagement, but escaped unscathed. Later she took part in the battles along the Tugela, and, when affairs in the Free State ap- 278 THE BOERS IN WAR peared to be threatening, she was one of the first to go to the scene of action in that part of the country. Among the prisoners captured by the British forces at Colesburg were three Boer women who wore men's clothing, but it was not until after they had been confined in the prison ship at Cape Town for several weeks that their sex was discovered. A real little Boertje was Helena Herbst Wagner, of Zeerust, who spent five months in the laagers and in the trenches without her identity being revealed. Her hus- band went to the field early in the war and left her alone with a baby. The infant died in Jan- uary, and the disconsolate widow donned her husband's clothing, obtained a rifle and bando- lier, and went to the Natal front to search for her soldier spouse. Failing to find him, she joined the forces of Commandant Ben Viljoen and faced bullets, bombs, and lyddite at Spion Kop, Pont Drift, and Pieter's Hills. During the retreat to Von Tonder's Nek the young woman learned that her husband lay seriously wounded in the Johannesburg Hospital, and she deserted the army temporarily. When Louis Botha became commandant general of the army he issued an order that women should not be permitted to visit the laagers, and few if any took part in the engage- ments for some time thereafter. When the BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 279 forces of the enemy approached Pretoria the women made heroic efforts to encourage the burghers, and frequently went to the laagers to cheer them to renewed resistance. Mrs. General Mrs. General Meyer preparing her husband's breakfast. Botha and Mrs. General Meyer were specially energetic and effective in their efforts to instil new courage in the men, and during the war there was no scene which was more edifying than that of those patriotic Boer women riding 28o 'i^HE BOERS IN WAR about the laagers and beseeching the burghers not to yield to despair. On the 15th of May more than a thousand women assembled in the Government buildings at Pretoria for the purpose of deciding upon a course of action in the terrible crisis which con- fronted the republic. It was the gravest assem- blage that was ever gathered together in the city — a veritable concourse of Spartan mothers. There was little speech, for the hearts of all were heavy, and tears were more plentiful than words, but the result of the meeting was the best testimonial of its value. It was determined to ask the Government to send to the front all the men who were em- ployed in the commissariat, the Red Cross, schools, post and telegraph offices, and to fill the vacancies thus created with women. A memorial, signed by Mrs. H. S. Bosnian, Mrs. General Louis Botha, Mrs. F. Eloff, Mrs. P. M. Botha, and Mrs. F. W. Reitz, was adopted for transmission to the Government, asking for per- mission to make such changes in the commis- sariat and other departments, and ending with these two significant clauses : I. ** A message of encouragement will be sent to our burghers who are at the front, beseeching them to present a determined stand against the enemy in the defence of our sacred cause, and pointing out to those who are losing heart the BOER WOMEN IN THE WAR 2S1 terrible consequences which will follow should they prove weak and wanting in courage at the present crisis in our affairs. 2. '' The women throughout the whole State are requested to provide themselves with weap- ons, in the first instance to be employed in self- defence, and secondly so that they may be in a position to place themselves entirely at the dis- position of the Government." The last request was rather superfluous, in view of the fact that the majority of the women in the Transvaal were already provided with arms. There was hardly a Boer homestead which was not supplied with enough rifles for all the members of the family, and there were but few women who were not adepts in the use of firearms. In Pretoria a woman's shooting club was organized at the outset of the war, and among the best shots were the Misses Eloff, the President's granddaughters ; Mrs. Van Alphen, the wife of the Postmaster Gen- eral ; and Mrs. Reitz, the wife of the State Sec- retary. The object of the organization was to train the members in the use of the rifle, so that they might defend the city against the enemy. The club members took great pride in the fact that Mrs. Paul Kruger was the president of the organization, and it was mutually agreed that the aged woman should be constantly guarded by them in the event of Pretoria being be- 282 THE BOERS IN WAR sieged. Happily, the city was not obliged to experience that horror, and the club members were spared the ordeal of protecting President and Mrs. Kruger with their rifles as they had vowed to do. The Boer women endured many discomforts, suffered many griefs, and bore many heartaches on account of the war and its varying fortunes, but throughout all they acted bravely. There were no wild outbursts of grief when fathers, husbands, brothers, or sons were killed in battle, and no untoward exclamations of joy when one of them earned distinction on the field. Re- verses of the army were made the occasions for a renewed display of patriotism, or the signal for the sending of another relative to the field. Unselfishness marked all the works of the woman of the city and veld, and the welfare of the coun- try was her only ambition. She might have had erroneous opinions concerning the justice of the war and the causes which were responsible for it ; but she realized that the land for which her mother and grandmother had wept and bled, and for which all those whom she loved were fighting and dying, was in distress, and she was patriotic enough to offer herself for a sacrifice on her country's altar. CHAPTER XI INCIDENTS OF THE WAR In every battle, and even in a day's life in the laagers, there were multitudes of interest- ing incidents as only such a war produces, and, although Sherman's saying that '' war is hell " was as true then as it ever was, there was always a plenitude of amusing spectacles and events to lighten the burdens of the fighting burghers. There were the sad sides of warfare, as natu- rally there would be, but to these the men in the armies soon became hardened, and only the amusing scenes made any lasting impres- sion upon their minds. It was strange that when a burgher saw one of his fellow-burgh- ers killed in a horrible manner, and witnessed an amusing runaway, after the battle he should relate the details of the latter and say nothing of the former, but such was usually the case. Men came out of the bloody Spion Kop fight and related amusing incidents of the struggle, while they never touched upon the grave phases until long afterward, when their fund of laugh- 283 284 THE BOERS IN WAR able experiences was exhausted. After the bat- tle of Sannaspost the burghers would tell of nothing but the amusing manner in which the drivers of the British transport wagons acted when they found that they had fallen into the hands of the Boers in the bed of the spruit, and the fun the burghers had in pursuing the fieeing cavalrymen. At the end of almost every battle there was some conspicuous amusing incident which was told and retold and laughed about until a new and fresh story came to light to take its place. In one of the days' fighting at Magersfontein a number of youthful Boers, who were in their first battle, allowed about one hundred High- landers to approach within a hundred yards of the trench in which they were concealed, and then sprang out and shouted '* Hands up ! " The Highlanders were completely surprised, promptly threw down their arms, and ad- vanced with hands above their heads. One of the young Boers approached them, then called his friends, and, scratching his head, asked, "What shall we do with them?" There was a brief consultation, and it was decided to al- low the Highlanders to return to their column. When the young burghers arrived at the Boer laager w^ith the captured rifles and bandoliers General Cronje asked them why they did not bring the men. The youths looked at each INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 285 Other for a while, then one replied, rather sheepishly, " We did not know they were wanted." In the same battle an old Boer had his first view of the quaintly dressed High- landers, and at a distance mistook them for a herd of ostriches from a farm that was known to be in the neighbourhood, refused to fire upon them, and persuaded all the burghers in his and the neighbouring trenches that they were ostriches and not human beings. During the second battle at Colenso a large number of Boers swam across the river and captured thirty or forty British soldiers who had lost the way and had taken refuge in a sluit. An old takhaar among the Boers had discarded almost all his clothing before entering the river and was rather an amusing spectacle in shirt, bandolier, and rifle. One of the Brit- ish soldiers went up to the takhaar, looked at him from head to foot and, after saluting most servilely, inquired, " To what regiment do you belong, sir?" The Boer returned the salute, and, without smiling, replied, " I am one of Rhodes's 'uncivilized Boers,' sir." In the same fight an ammunition wagon, heavily laden and covered with a huge piece of duck, was in an exposed position and attracted the fire of, the British artillery. General Meyer and a number of burghers were near the wagon and were waiting for a lull in the bombardment, in order 286 THE BOERS IN WAR to take the vehicle to a place of safety. They counted thirty-five shells that fell around the wagon without striking it, and then the firing ceased. Several men were sent forward to move the vehicle, and when they were within a few yards of it two Kafirs crept from under the duck covering, shook themselves, and walked away as if nothing had interrupted their sleep. In the Pretoria commando there was a young professional photographer named Reginald Sheppard who carried his camera and apparatus with him during the greater part of the cam- paign, and took photographs whenever he had an opportunity. On the morning of the Spion Kop fight, when the burghers were preparing to make the attack on the enemy, Mr. Sheppard gathered all the burghers of the Carolina laager and posed them for a photograph. He was on the point of exposing the plate when a shrapnel shell exploded above the group, and every one fled. The camera was left behind and all the men went into the battle. In the afternoon when the engagement had ended, it was found that another shell had torn off one of the legs of the camera's tripod and that forty-three of the men who were in the group in the morning had been killed or wounded. Before the same battle one of the Boer generals asked Mr. Sheppard to photograph him, as he had had a premonition of death and he desired that his family should INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 287 have a good likeness of him. The general was in the heat of the fight, but he was not killed. While Ladysmith was being besieged by the Boers there were many interesting incidents in the laagers of the burghers, even if there was little of exciting interest. In the Staats Artillery there were many young Boers who were con- stantly inventing new forms of amusement for themselves and the older burghers, and some of the games were as hazardous as they seemed to be interesting to the participants. The " Long Tom " on Bulwana Hill was fired only when the burghers were in the mood, but occasionally the artillery youths desired to amuse themselves and then they operated the gun as rapidly as its mechanism would allow. When the big gun had been discharged the young Boers were wont to climb on the top of the sand bags behind which it was concealed and watch for the explosion of the shell in Ladysmith. After each shot from the Boer gun it was customary for the British to reply with one or more of their cannon and attempt to dis- lodge " Long Tom." After seeing the flash of the British guns the boy burghers on the sand bags waited until they heard the report of the explosion, then called out, '' I spy ! " as a warning that the shell would be coming along in two or three seconds, and quietly jumped down behind the bags while the missile passed over their 288 THE BOERS IN WAR heads. It was a dangerous game, and the old burghers frequently warned them against play- ing it, but they continued it daily, and no one was ever injured. The men who operated the heliographs at the Tugela were a witty lot, and they frequently held long conversations with each other when there were no messages to be sent or received by their respective officers. In February the Boer operator signalled to the British operator on the other side of the river and asked : " When is General Buller coming over here for that Christmas dinner? It is becoming cold and tasteless." The good-natured Briton evaded the question, and asked the Boer concerning the date of Paul Kruger's coronation as King of South Africa. The long-distance conversation continued in the same vein, each operator try- ing to have amusement at the expense of the other. What probably was the most mirth- provoking communication between the com- batants in the early part of the campaign was the letter which Colonel Baden-Powell sent to General Snyman, late in December, and the reply to it. Colonel Baden-Powell, in his letter, which was several thousand words in length, told his besieger that it Avas utter folly for the Boers to continue fighting such a great power as Great Britain, that the British army was in- vincible, that the Boers were fighting for an INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 289 unjust cause, and that the British had the sym- pathy of the American nation. General Sny- man made a brief reply, the gist of which was, " Come out and fight." The Earl of Rosslyn, who was captured by the Boers at the Moestershoek fight in the Free State in April, was the author of a large number of communications which were almost as mirthful as Colonel Baden-Powell's effort. When he was made a prisoner of war, Rosslyn had a diary filled with the most harrowing per- sonal experiences ever penned, and it was chiefiy on that evidence that General De Wet sent him with the other prisoners to Pretoria. The earl protested against being sent to Pretoria, assert- ing that he was a war correspondent and a non- combatant, and despatched most pitiful tele- grams to Presidents Kruger and Steyn, State Secretary Reitz, and a host of other officials, demanding an instant release from custody. In the telegrams he stated that he was a peer of the realm ; that all doubts on that point could be dispelled by a reference to Burke's Peerage; that he was not a fighting man ; that it would be disastrous to his reputation as a correspond- ent if he were not released in order that he might cable an exclusive account of the Moes- tershoek battle to his newspaper ; and finally ended by demanding his instant release and safe conduct to the British lines. The Boers installed 590 THE BOERS IN WAR the earl in the officers* prison, and printed his telegrams in the newspapers, with the result that Rosslyn was the most laughed-at man that appeared in the Boer countries during the whole course of the war. Several days before Commandant-General Joubert died he related an amusing story of an Irishman who was taken prisoner in one of the Natal battles. The Irishman was slightly wound- ed in one of his hands, and it was decided to send him to the British lines together with all the other wounded prisoners, but he refused to be sent back. After he had protested strenu- ously to several other Boer officers, the soldier was taken before General Joubert, who pointed out to him the advantages of being with his own people and the discomforts of a military prison. The Irishman would not waver in his determination, and finally exclaimed : " I claim my rights as a prisoner of war, and refuse to allow myself to be sent back. I have a wife and two children in Ireland, and I know what is good for my health." The man was so obdu- rate. General Joubert said, that he could do nothing but send him to the Pretoria military prison. An incident of an almost similar nature oc- curred at the battle of Sannaspost, where the Boers captured almost two hundred wagons. Among the convoy was a Red Cross ambulance 292 THE BOERS IN WAR wagon filled with rifles and a small quantity of ammunition. The Boers unloaded the wagon, and then informed the physician in charge of it that he might proceed and rejoin the column to which he had been attached. The physician declined to move, and explained his action by saying that he had violated the laws of the international Red Cross, and would therefore consider himself and his assistant prisoners of war. General Christian De Wet would not accept them as prisoners, and trekked south- ward, leaving them behind to rejoin the British column several days afterward. During the war it was continually charged by both combatants that dum-dum bullets were being used, and undoubtedly there was ample foundation for the charges. Both Boers and British used that particular kind of expansive bullet, notwithstanding all the denials that were made in newspapers and orations. After the battle of Pieter's Hills, on February 28th, Dr. Krieger, General Meyer's staff physician, went into General Sir Charles Warren's camp for the purpose of exchanging wounded prisoners. After the interchange of prisoners had been ac- complished. General Warren produced a dum- dum bullet which had been found on a dead Boer's body, and, showing it to Dr. Krieger, asked him why the Boers used the variety of cartridge that was not sanctioned by the rules INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 293 of civilized warfare. Dr. Krieger took the car- tridge in his hand, and after examining it, re- turned it to Sir Charles with the remark that it was a British Lee-Metford dum-dum. General Warren seemed to be greatly nonplussed when several of his officers confirmed the physician's statement, and informed him that a large stock of dum-dum cartridges had been captured by the Boers at Dundee. It is an undeniable fact that the Boers captured thousands of rounds of dumdum cartridges which bore the ''broad arrow " of the British army, and used them in subsequent battles. It was stated in Pretoria that the Boers had a small stock of dum-dum ammunition which was kept back from the burghers at the front, at the request of Presi- dent Kruger, who strongly opposed the use of an expansive bullet in warfare. It was an easy matter, however, for the Boers to convert their ordinary Mauser cartridges into dum-dums by simply cutting off the point of the bullet, and this was occasionally done. One of the pluckiest men in the Boer army was Arthur Donnelly, a young Irish-American from San Francisco, who served in the Pretoria detective force for several years, and went to the war in one of the commandos under General Cronje. At the battle of Koodesberg Donnelly and Captain Higgins, of the Duke of Cornwall's regiment, both lay behind ant heaps several 294 'THE BOERS IN WAR hundred yards apart, and engaged in a duel with carbines for almost an hour. After Don- nelly had fired seventeen shots Captain Higgins was fatally wounded by a bullet, and lifted his handkerchief in token of surrender. When the young Irish-American reached him the officer was bleeding profusely, and started to say, '' You were a better man than I," but he died in Don- nelly's arms before he could utter the last two words of the sentence. At Magersfontein Don- nelly was in a perilous position between the two forces, and realized that he could not escape being captured by the British. He saw a num- ber of cavalrymen sweeping down upon him, and started to run in an opposite direction. Be- fore he had proceeded a long distance he stum- bled across the corpse of a Red Cross physician, which lay partly concealed under tall grass. In a moment Donnell}' had exchanged his own papers and credentials for those in the physician's pockets, and a minute later the cavalrymen were upon him. He was sent to Cape Town and confined in the prison ship Manila, from which he and two other Boers attempted to escape on New Year's night. One of the men managed to reach the water without being observed by the guards, and swam almost three miles to shore, but Donnelly and the other prisoner did not succeed in their project. Several days later he was released on account of his Red Cross % a, CO 296 THE BOERS IN WAR credentials, and was sent to the British front to be delivered to the Boer commander. He was taken out under a flag of truce by several un- armed British officers, and several armed Boers went to receive him. While the transfer was being made a British horseman, with an order to the officers to hold the prisoner, dashed up to the group and delivered his message. The officers attempted to take Donnelly back to camp with them, but he refused to go, and, tak- ing one of the Boer's rifles, ordered them to return without him — a command which they obeyed with alacrity, in view of the fact that all of them were unarmed, while the Boers had carbines. When the British column under Colonel Broadwood left the village of Thaba N'Chu on March 30th all the British inhabitants were in- vited to accompany the force to Bloemfontein, where they might have the protection of a stronger part of the army. Among those who accepted the invitation were four women and four children, ranging in ages from sixteen months to fifteen years. When the column was attacked by the Boers at Sannaspost the follow- ing morning the women and children were sent by the Boers to a culvert in the incomplete rail- way line which crossed the battlefield, and they remained there during almost the entire engage- ment. They were in perfect safety, so far as INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 297 being actually out of the line of fire was con- cerned, but bullets and shells swept over and exploded near them, and they were in constant terror of being killed. The nervous tension was so great and continued for such a long time that one of the children, a twelve-year-old daughter of Mrs. J. Shaw McKinlay, became in- sane shortly after the battle was ended. An incident of the same fight was a duel be- tween two captains of the opposing forces. In the early part of the engagement the burghers and the soldiers were so close tos^ether that many hand-to-hand encounters took place, and many a casualty followed. Captain Scheppers, of the Boer heliographers, desired to make a prisoner ot a British captain and asked him to surrender. The British officer said that he would not be captured alive, drew his sword, and attempted to use it. The Boer grasped the blade and wrenched the sword from the officer's hand and knocked him off his horse. The Briton fired several revolver shots at Scheppers while the Boer was running" a short distance for his carbine, but missed him. After Scheppers had secured his rifle the two fired five or six shots at each other at a range of about ten yards, and with equal lack of skill missed. Finally, Scheppers hit the officer in the chest and laid him low. At the same time, near the same spot, two Boers called upon a recruit in Roberts's 298 'l^HE BOERS IN WAR horse to surrender, but the young soldier was so thoroughly frightened that he held his rifle perpendicularly in front of him, and emptied the magazine toward the clouds. While the siege of Ladysmith was in prog- ress, Piet Boueer, of the Pretoria commando, made a remarkable shot, which was considered as the record during the Natal campaign. He and several other Boers were standing on one of the hills near the laager, when they ob- served three British soldiers emerging from one of the small forts on the outskirts of the city. The distance was about fourteen hundred yards, or almost one mile, but Boueer fired at the men, and the one who was walking between the others fell. The two fled to the fort, but returned to the spot a short time afterward, and the Boer fired at them a second time. The bullet raised a small cloud of dust between the men, and they did not return until night for their companion, who had undoubtedly been killed by the first shot. There were many other excellent marks- men in the Boer army whose ability was often demonstrated in the interim of battles. After 1897 shooting clubs were organized at Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Krugersdorp, Klerksdorp, Jo- hannesburg, and Heidelberg, and frequent con- tests were held between the various organiza- tions. In the last contest before the war E. Blignaut, of Johannesburg, won the prize by INCIDENTS OF THE WAR 299 making one hundred and three out of a possible one hundred and five points, the weapon having been a Mauser at a range of seven hundred yards. These contests naturally developed many fine marksmen, and in consequence it was not considered an extraordinary feat for a man to kill a running hare at five hundred yards. While the Boers were waiting for Lord Roberts's ad- vance from Bloemfontein, Commandant Blig- naut, of the Transvaal, killed three running springbok at a range of more than seventeen hundred yards— a feat witnessed by a score of persons. The Boers were not without their periods of depression during the war, but when these had passed there were none who laughed more heartily over their actions during those periods than they. The first deep gloom that the Boers experienced was after the three great defeats at Paardeberg, Kimberley, and Ladysmith, and the minor reverses at Abraham's Kraal, Poplar Grove, and Bloemfontein. It was amusing, yet pitiful, to see an army lose all control of itself, and flee like wild animals before a forest fire. As soon as the fight at Poplar Grove was lost, the burghers mounted their horses and fled northward. President Kruger and the officers could do nothing but follow them. They passed through Bloemfontein and excited the popula- tion there ; then, evading roads and despising 300 THE BOERS IN WAR railway transportation, rode straight across the veld, and never drew rein until they reached Brandfort, more than thirty miles from Poplar Grove. Hundreds did not stop even at Brand- fort, but continued over the veld until they reached their homes in the north of the Free State and in the Transvaal. In their alarm they destroyed all the railway bridges and tracks as far north as Smaldeel, sixty miles from Bloem- fontein, and made their base at Kroonstad, al- most forty miles farther north. A week later a small number of the more daring burghers sal- lied toward Bloemfontein, and found that not a single British soldier was north of that city. So fearful were they of the British army before the discovery of their foolish flight, that two thousand British cavalrymen could have sent them all across the Vaal River. 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