THE UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF GENERAL PRINSLOO
Sunday, the 29th July 1900, must stand on record as the saddest day in
the history of our struggle. It was on that day that General Marthinus
Prinsloo unconditionally surrendered the whole of the forces under him
to General Hunter, notwithstanding the fact that at that moment he was
not Chief-Commandant according to law. But let me relate in due order
what I experienced.
After having held a short service for the men of Harrismith early in the
morning of that Sunday, General de Villiers and Piet Mare, member of the
Volksraad, addressed them, and General Froneman, who happened to be
present, also said a few words. We then passed through the nek to the
north of the dwelling of Mr. Salamon Raath, for the purpose of taking up
positions against the forces of the enemy under General MacDonald, with
whom we had been engaged on the other side of the Roodebergen on the
previous Thursday. Those forces had meanwhile moved round by
"Davelsrust," with the object of preventing the commandos from escaping
at Oldenburg or Witzieshoek.
General de Villiers rode to the house of Mr. Jan Raath to be present at
a meeting of officers who had still to vote for the election of a
Chief-Commandant. After they had voted, it appeared (so we learnt in
the evening) that General Roux had finally been elected
Chief-Commandant!
When General de Villiers, with his Field-Cornet, left for the meeting,
he ordered his men to occupy a high hill near the residence of Mr. Jan
Raath, and left one of the burghers in command during his absence. His
burghers thereupon rode along a ditch on the way to the position, but
before reaching it they turned off to the right and eventually halted
near the house of Assistant Field-Cornet Jan Jacobsz. Here they
slaughtered two oxen and ate and drank, preferring to avoid the enemy to
fighting him! I saw how things would go. From the ridge behind us I had
seen Platberg in the distance, at the foot of which Harrismith lies, and
pointing in the direction of their homes I remarked to someone: "Next
Sunday all these burghers will be on their farms."
A peremptory command was sent to the burghers to occupy their positions,
but they got no farther than a gully; for the enemy was already in
possession of the hill which we should have occupied in the morning, and
all we could do now was to fire shrapnel at them. At night there was
nothing left for us but to retire to the nek. We little knew then what
General Prinsloo had been doing that day.
The following day I was up early, and accompanied Mr. Frans Papenfus to
the house of A. Cilliers. There I drank a cup of coffee, and then rode
on to Mr. Salamon Raath's. On the way thither a Harrismith burgher asked
me if it was true that General Prinsloo had surrendered the whole of our
force to the English. This was the first word I heard about the matter.
I could, however, not believe that Prinsloo would do such a thing, and
laughingly replied that the report was certainly incorrect. But very
soon it became evident that what the burgher had heard was only too
true. General Marthinus Prinsloo had indeed surrendered unconditionally
to the enemy. A copy of a letter from General Hunter was handed round,
in which he gave the assurance, subject to ratification by Lord Roberts,
that no private property or personal belongings of the burghers should
be touched, and that each burgher would be provided with a horse to the
place where he had to give up his arms.
The greatest excitement prevailed. Many abused Prinsloo, and declared
that he ought to be shot. This surprised me, not only because I knew
what the resolution of the Council of War on the Friday night had been
with regard to the surrender, but also because I had been an eye-witness
of the state of despondency of the burghers and of their unwillingness
to fight. If Prinsloo should be shot, surely other officers deserved the
same fate, and many of the burghers as well. So I thought on that sad
Monday morning. Later on, however, it became plain to me that, after
all, General Prinsloo had to bear the blame. If there had been a victory
he would have claimed the honour. Now, the disgrace of the surrender
must for ever be associated with his name. Was he not Chief-Commandant,
or at least did he not act as such? And is it not the duty of a Chief to
instil courage, where such courage is on the wane, and to lead on where
no one else would advance of his own accord? The Chief, indeed, should
be the best, the most courageous, and the bravest burgher, else anyone
might take upon himself the command of an army. Ah! if ever a leader was
wanted, the perplexed multitude, shut up as they were within the
mountains behind Nauwpoort, had need of one.
Most of the burghers thought they were bound by the resolution of
General Prinsloo to submit and to lay down their arms. I thought so too.
Why did we have a Commander if, under certain circumstances, we had to
decide for ourselves without recognising him? Unfortunate are the people
that in such a case have to decide for themselves. It was my impression
that all was lost, at least as far as we who were behind Nauwpoort were
concerned. There were, however, others who instinctively judged
otherwise about the matter. The shame of surrender while there was a
chance of escape by a route running past the dwelling of Salamon Raath
seemed to be too great to them, and they declared that they would not
lay down their arms.
On the other hand, there were others who, while they did not mind the
loss of their independence so much, could simply not bear the thought of
being captured, and I heard many say: "I shall not allow myself to be
caught by an Englishman." There were also others who were already out of
the defiles, and they could not think of returning. And so it happened
that a number of burghers under Generals Kolbe and Froneman, and
Commandants Olivier, Hasebroek, Visser, van Tonder, Truter, and others,
with six guns and some Maxims, immediately moved away in the direction
of Harrismith.
In the meanwhile it was said that some persons had been seen with a
white flag on the nek to the north of Mr. Salamon Raath's house. General
de Villiers went thither, but on the way he was told that they had
disappeared.
On his return to his waggons he heard that these persons had been seen
at another place.
Two burghers whom he sent to bring them to the laager failed to find
them. Instead of returning at once, these two burghers, quite on their
own responsibility and without orders, went straight to the English
force under General MacDonald, who was then near the house of Jan Raath.
The English General received them with the distrust of one who finds men
from the army of the enemy coming into his camp without credentials;
but eventually believing their statement, that they had missed meeting
his messengers with the white flag, he sent them back with a letter to
General de Villiers informing him that General Prinsloo had surrendered
together with the whole of the Boer force. He asked General de Villiers
to abide by what General Prinsloo had done, and warned him that any
movement on his part would be regarded as an "act of war."
While this was taking place, another messenger had been sent in the
opposite direction to General Hunter, to obtain further information
regarding the surrender. This messenger was met by Commandant Visser,
who immediately sent him back with the assurance that General Prinsloo,
not being Chief-Commandant, had in this whole matter acted without
authority, that the surrender was illegal, and that no one was to
consider himself bound by it. General Fourie, who had not yet reached
the farm of Salamon Raath, also sent a despatch to the officers
requesting that their men should take up positions.
When the men of Harrismith who had not gone out with Commandant Truter
heard this, their joy was boundless, for they had been in great doubt as
to what they should do; especially after General de Villiers had said
during the course of the day that he, being included under the surrender
of General Prinsloo, was not an officer any longer, and therefore left
it to each burgher to act as he might think fit. Now, however, he again
took the command, and ordered the burghers to go into the positions.
With shouts of joy, and singing the "Volkslied," they rode out to occupy
the nek. But they got no farther than the house of Salamon Raath, for it
appeared that no one else wanted to fight any more. Meanwhile a meeting
was held by the officers present, and at that meeting there were
Field-Cornets who said that neither they nor their men would fight any
longer, declaring at the same time that the leaders, if they continued
the struggle, would be guilty of needless bloodshed.
And so the positions remained unoccupied.
This made everybody there hopeless again, and now it appeared that there
was nothing left but to remain there and surrender. General de Villiers
called his burghers together, and thanked them for the services they had
rendered to the State and for the attachment and kindness shown to his
person. I also spoke a few words and declared amongst other things, that
I could not believe that it was all over with our South African Cause,
but if it were so, then it would be owing to our unwillingness. God
would have wished to establish for us our independence, but we should
have refused to earn it.
In the course of the day General Roux had ridden in the greatest haste
to General Hunter to protest against the surrender of Prinsloo, on the
ground of its being illegal: first, because he, and not Prinsloo, was
the commanding officer; and secondly, because Prinsloo had in any case
not acted in accordance with the resolution taken by the Council of War
on Friday night. General Roux, as might have been expected, did not
return.
The only two Generals who were beyond the circle of mountains which
surround Oldenberg, and who could have proceeded onward, were Generals
P. Fourie and C. T. de Villiers. They agreed to remain where they were
for that night, not far from the house of Mr. Salamon Raath, in order to
ascertain on the following day what General Roux had been able to do;
but before dawn of the following day, General de Villiers heard that
General Fourie had gone away without saying a word about it[4] Great
was the indignation of General de Villiers. He immediately ordered his
men to inspan and saddle their horses. We hurried away, and I arrived at
Harrismith in the evening, after two of the saddest weeks of my life.
How dejected I felt. How sad was my wife. How dark the future seemed to
be.
[Footnote 4: A week later, when the two men met each other again,
General Fourie declared that he had sent someone to tell General de
Villiers that he was going forward, and that therefore the fault did not
lie with him. Speaking to General Fourie, subsequently, I learned that
the messenger was sent early in the evening; and I remember that the man
did come to us. But the message he brought was a request that General de
Villiers should act in accordance with the agreement. This person
remained behind, and it may be that he purposely delivered a wrong
message in order to induce General de Villiers and his burghers to
remain there, and thus swell the numbers of those remaining behind.]