E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Taavi Kalju, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 18794-h.htm or 18794-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/9/18794/18794-h/18794-h.htm)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/9/18794/18794-h.zip)
THREE YEARS' WAR
by
CHRISTIAAN RUDOLF DE WET
Frontispiece by John S. Sargent, R.A.
Four Plans and a Map
[Illustration: (signature) C. R. de Wet
New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
1902
Copyright, 1902, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
All rights reserved
Published, December, 1902
Trow Directory
Printing and Bookbinding Company
New York
TO
MY FELLOW SUBJECTS
OF
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Preface
By way of introduction to my work I wish, dear reader, to say only this
short word: "I am no book-writer."--But I felt that the story of this
struggle, in which a small people fought for liberty and right, is
rightly said, throughout the civilized world, to be unknown, and that it
was my duty to record my personal experiences in this war, for the
present and for the future generations, not only for the Afrikander
people, but for the whole world.
Not only did I consider this my duty, but I was encouraged to write by
the urgings of prominent men among my people, of men of various
nationalities and even of several British officers.
Well, dear reader, I hope that you will not feel disappointed in reading
these experiences, as it is not in me, as is perhaps sometimes the case
with historical authors, to conjure up thrilling pictures--imaginary
things--and put them together merely to make up a book or to make a name
for themselves. That be far from me! In publishing my book (although it
is written in simple style) _I had one object only_, viz., to give to
the world a story which, although it does not contain the whole of the
truth, as regards this wondrous war, yet contains nothing but the
truth.
The original has been written by me in Dutch, and I can therefore not be
answerable for its translation into other languages.
C. R. DE WET.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. I GO ON COMMANDO AS A PRIVATE BURGHER 3
II. NICHOLSON'S NEK 13
III. LADYSMITH BESIEGED 19
IV. I AM APPOINTED VECHTGENERAAL 22
V. THE OVERWHELMING FORCES OF LORD ROBERTS 26
VI. PAARDEBERG 39
VII. THE WILD FLIGHT FROM POPLAR GROVE 49
VIII. THE BURGHERS RECEIVE PERMISSION TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES 56
IX. SANNA'S POST 61
X. FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY ENGLISH TAKEN PRISONER AT REDDERSBURG 71
XI. AN UNSUCCESSFUL SIEGE 77
XII. THE ENGLISH SWARM OVER OUR COUNTRY 82
XIII. OUR POSITION AT THE END OF MAY, 1900 92
XIV. ROODEWAL 96
XV. I MAKE LORD KITCHENER'S ACQUAINTANCE 108
XVI. BETHLEHEM IS CAPTURED BY THE ENGLISH 117
XVII. THE SURRENDER OF PRINSLOO 123
XVIII. I AM DRIVEN INTO THE TRANSVAAL 129
XIX. I RETURN TO THE FREE STATE 144
XX. THE OATH OF NEUTRALITY 156
XXI. FREDERIKSSTAD AND BOTHAVILLE 161
XXII. MY MARCH TO THE SOUTH 172
XXIII. I FAIL TO ENTER CAPE COLONY 180
XXIV. WHEREIN SOMETHING IS FOUND ABOUT WAR AGAINST WOMEN 191
XXV. I AGAIN ATTEMPT TO ENTER CAPE COLONY 197
XXVI. DARKNESS PROVES MY SALVATION 215
XXVII. WAS OURS A GUERILLA WAR? 225
XXVIII. NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ENEMY 230
XXIX. PRESIDENT STEYN'S NARROW ESCAPE 242
XXX. THE LAST PROCLAMATION 246
XXXI. BLOCKHOUSES AND NIGHT ATTACKS 260
XXXII. MY COMMANDO OF SEVEN HUNDRED MEN 267
XXXIII. A SUCCESS AT TWEEFONTEIN 275
XXXIV. I CUT MY WAY THROUGH SIXTY THOUSAND TROOPS 284
XXXV. I GO TO THE TRANSVAAL WITH PRESIDENT STEYN 298
XXXVI. PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 305
XXXVII. THE END OF THE WAR 319
CORRESPONDENCE 325
APPENDICES
A.--REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE GENERAL REPRESENTATIVES HELD AT
VEREENIGING IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC ON THE 15TH OF
MAY, 1902, AND THE FOLLOWING DAYS 333
B.--THE CONFERENCE AT PRETORIA BETWEEN THE COMMISSION OF THE
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND LORDS KITCHENER AND MILNER
(MAY 19TH-MAY 28TH, 1902) 365
C.--MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SPECIAL NATIONAL
REPRESENTATIVES AT VEREENIGING, SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC,
THURSDAY, THE 29TH OF MAY, 1902, AND THE FOLLOWING DAYS 397
INDEX 429
MAP _At end of volume_
THREE YEARS WAR
CHAPTER I
I Go on Commando as a Private Burgher
In the month of September, 1899, the burghers of the Orange Free State
were notified, under the Commando Law, to hold themselves in readiness
to go on active service at the shortest possible notice.
Before proceeding any further I should like to explain that portion of
the Commando Law which dealt with commandeering. It stipulated that
every burgher between the ages of sixteen and sixty must be prepared to
fight for his country at any moment; and that, if required for active
service, he must provide himself with a riding-horse, saddle and bridle,
with a rifle and thirty cartridges--or, if he were unable to obtain a
rifle, he must bring with him thirty bullets, thirty caps, and half a
pound of powder--in addition he must be provisioned for eight days. That
there should have been an alternative to the rifle was due to the fact
that the law was made at a time when only a few burghers possessed
breech-loading rifles--_achterlaaiers_, as we call them.
With reference to the provisions the law did not specify their quality
or quantity, but there was an unwritten but strictly observed rule
amongst the burghers that they should consist of meat cut in strips,
salted, peppered, and dried, or else of sausages and "Boer biscuits."[1]
With regard to quantity, each burgher had to make his own estimate of
the amount he would require for eight days.
It was not long after they were notified to hold themselves ready that
the burghers were called up for active service. On the 2nd of October,
1899, the order came. On that day the Veldtcornets, or their
lieutenants, visited every farm and commandeered the men.
Amongst the commandeered was I; and thus, as a private burgher, I
entered on the campaign. With me were my three sons--Kootie, Isaac, and
Christiaan.
The following day the men of the sub-district of Krom Ellenborg, in the
district of Heilbron--to which I belonged--mustered at Elandslaagte
Farm. The Veldtcornet of this sub-district was Mr. Marthinus Els, and
the Commandant of the whole contingent Mr. Lucas Steenekamp. It soon
became known that the War Commission had decided that our commando was
to proceed as rapidly as possible to the Natal frontier, and that with
us were to go the troops from Vrede and Harrismith, as well as some from
Bethlehem, Winburg, and Kroonstad. Carrying out these orders, we all
arrived at Harrismith six days later.
Commando life now began in real earnest.
The eight days during which the burghers had to feed themselves were
soon over, and now it was the duty of the Government to provide for
them.
It may be interesting to mention here that the British commissariat
differed greatly from ours. Rations were served out daily to their
troops. Each soldier received the same quantity and the same quality as
his comrade. Our methods were very different, except as regards flour,
coffee, sugar, and other articles of that nature. The British soldier,
for instance, received his meat ready cooked in the form of bully-beef
(_blikkiescost_ we called it), whilst the burgher received his meat raw,
and had to cook it as best he could.
Before I leave this subject I may be forgiven if I describe the method
of distributing meat to the burghers. After it had been cut up, the
Vleeschkorporaal[2] handed out the pieces--a sufficiently responsible
task, as it proved, for, as the portions differed much in quality, it
became of the first importance that the Vleeschkorporaal should be a man
whose impartiality was above suspicion. To avoid any temptations to
favouritism, this useful personage used to turn his back on the
burghers, and as the men came up in turn he would pick up the piece of
meat which lay nearest to hand and, without looking round, give it to
the man who was waiting behind him to receive it.
This arrangement should have been satisfactory to all, but it sometimes
happened that some burgher, whom fortune had not favoured, made no
effort to conceal his discontent, and thus squabbles frequently
occurred. Then the Vleeschkorporaal, fully convinced of his own
uprightness, would let his tongue go, and the burgher who had complained
was a man to be pitied. But such quarrels only occurred early in the
campaign. By the time that the Vleeschkorporaal had been a few weeks at
his work he had gained a considerable knowledge of human nature, and the
injustice of his fellows no longer troubled him. Accordingly he allowed
the complaints of the men to go in at one ear and at once to come out at
the other. The burghers, too, soon became convinced of the foolishness
of their conduct, and learnt the lesson of content and forbearance.
As I have already stated, the burgher had to boil or roast his own meat.
The roasting was done on a spit cut in the shape of a fork, the wood
being obtained from a branch of the nearest tree. A more ambitious fork
was manufactured from fencing wire, and had sometimes even as many as
four prongs. A skillful man would so arrange the meat on his spit as to
have alternate pieces of fat and of lean, and thus get what we used to
call a _bout span_.[3]
The burghers utilized the flour supplied to them in making cakes; these
they cooked in boiling fat, and called them _stormjagers_[4] or
_maagbommen_.[5]
Later on, the British, finding that by looting our cattle they could get
fresh meat for nothing, were no longer forced to be content with
bully-beef. They then, like ourselves, killed oxen and sheep; but,
unlike us, were very wasteful with it. Often, in the camping places they
had vacated, we found the remains of half-eaten oxen, sheep, pigs, and
poultry.
But I shall not go further into this matter. I leave it to other pens to
describe how the British looted our property, wantonly killed our
cattle, and devastated our farms. In the course of this narrative my
intention is to mention only those cases which I saw with my own eyes.
The reader, perusing them, may well pause in surprise and cry out, "Can
such things be possible?" To such a question I have only one
answer--"They actually occurred, and so my only course is to record
them."
But enough of these digressions. Let me return to my proper subject--the
story of my own experiences and doings in the great struggle which took
place between Boer and Briton.
As I have already said, I had been commandeered, and, together with the
other burghers of the Heilbron commando, had just reached Harrismith, on
the road to the south-eastern frontier.
During our stay there the other commandos, in obedience to Commando Law,
joined us, and we proceeded to elect a Commander-in-Chief. The
Commandants present were Steenekamp, of Heilbron; Anthonie Lombaard, of
Vrede; C.J. De Villiers, of Harrismith; Hans Nandé, of Bethlehem;
Marthinus Prinsloo, of Winburg; and C. Nel, of Kroonstad. The result of
the voting was that Prinsloo was chosen for the supreme command.
Then the burghers of Winburg selected Mr. Theunissen as their
Commandant. He fulfilled his duties admirably, until he was made a
prisoner of war. This happened when he was leading a courageous attack
at Paardeberg in order to relieve General Piet Cronje.
From Harrismith our commando advanced to within six miles of the
Natal-Free State frontier, and camped not far from Bezuidenhoutspas, in
the Drakensberg. This imposing range of mountains, which then formed the
dividing line between Boer and British territory, slopes down gently
into the Free State, but on the Natal side is very steep and
precipitous.
The day after we had elected our Commander-in-Chief I was sent by
Commandant Steenekamp, with a small detachment of burghers, to the Natal
frontier. I saw nothing of the English there, for they had abandoned all
their positions on the frontier shortly before the beginning of the war.
When I returned in the evening I found that the burghers had chosen me,
in my absence, as Vice-Commandant[6] under Commandant Steenekamp.
It was at five o'clock on the afternoon of that day--the 11th of
October, 1899--that the time, which the ultimatum allowed to England,
expired. The British had not complied with the terms which the South
African Republic demanded--the time for negotiations had passed, and war
had actually broken out.
On this very day martial law was proclaimed by the Governments of the
two Republics, and orders were given to occupy the passes on the
Drakensberg. Commander-in-Chief Prinsloo despatched Steenekamp that
night to Bezuidenhoutspas. Eastwards from there the following commandos
were to hold the passes:--Bothaspas was to be occupied by the commando
from Vrede; Van Reenen's Pass by the commandos from Harrismith and
Winburg; and Tintwaspas by the commando from Kroonstad. Westwards, the
burghers from Bethlehem were to guard Oliviershoekpas.
Commandant Steenekamp was very ill that night, and was unable to set
out; he accordingly ordered me to take his place and to proceed forward
with six hundred burghers.
Although I had only to cover six miles, it cost me considerable thought
to arrange everything satisfactorily. This was due to the fact that real
discipline did not exist among the burghers. As the war proceeded,
however, a great improvement manifested itself in this matter, although
as long as the struggle lasted our discipline was always far from
perfect. I do not intend to imply that the burghers were unwilling or
unruly; it was only that they were quite unaccustomed to being under
orders. When I look back upon the campaign I realize how gigantic a task
I performed in regulating everything in accordance with my wishes.
It did not take me long to get everything arranged, and we made an early
start.
It was impossible to say what might lie before us. In spite of the fact
that I had visited the spot the day before, I had not been able to cross
the frontier. The English might have been on the precipitous side of the
mountains under the ridge without my being any the wiser. Perhaps on our
arrival we should find them in possession of the pass, occupying good
positions and quite prepared for our coming.
Everything went well with us, however, and no untoward incident
occurred. When the sun rose the following morning the whole country, as
far as the eye could reach, lay before us calm and peaceful.
I sent a full report of my doings to Commandant Steenekamp, and that
evening he himself, although still far from well, appeared with the
remaining part of the commando. He brought the news that war had started
in grim earnest. General De la Rey had attacked and captured an armoured
train at Kraaipan.
Some days after this a war council was held at Van Reenen's Pass under
Commander-in-Chief Marthinus Prinsloo. As Commandant Steenekamp, owing
to his illness, was unable to be present, I attended the council in his
place. It was decided that a force of two thousand burghers, under
Commandant C.J. De Villiers, of Harrismith, as Vice-Vechtgeneraal,[7]
should go down into Natal, and that the remaining forces should guard
the passes on the Drakensberg.
Let me say, in parenthesis, that the laws of the Orange Free State make
no allusion to the post of Vechtgeneraal. But shortly before the war
began the Volksraad had given the President the power to appoint such an
officer. At the same session the President was allowed the veto on all
laws dealing with war.
As Commandant Steenekamp was still prevented by his health from going to
the front, I was ordered, as Vice-Commandant of the Heilbron commando,
to proceed with five hundred men to Natal.
It soon became apparent that we had been sent to Natal with the object
of cutting off the English who were stationed at Dundee and
Elandslaagte. We were to be aided in our task by the Transvaalers who
were coming from Volksrust and by a party of burghers from Vrede, all
under the command of General Roch.
We did not arrive in time to be successful in this plan. That there had
been some bungling was not open to question. Yet I am unable to assert
to whom our failure was due--whether to the Commandants of the South
African Republic, or to Commander-in-Chief Prinsloo, or to Vechtgeneraal
De Villiers. For then I was merely a Vice-Commandant, who had not to
_give_ orders, but to obey them. But whoever was to blame, it is
certainly true that when, early in the morning of the 23rd of October, I
cut the line near Dundee, I discovered that the English had retreated to
Ladysmith. It was General Yule who had led them, and he gained great
praise in British circles for the exploit.
If we had only reached our destination a little sooner we should have
cut off their retreating troops and given them a very warm time. But now
that they had joined their comrades at Ladysmith, we had to be prepared
for an attack from their combined forces, and that before the
Transvaalers, who were still at Dundee, could reinforce us.
The British did not keep us long in anxiety.
At eight o'clock the following morning--the 24th of October--they came
out of Ladysmith, and the battle of Modder Spruit[8] began. With the
sole exception of the skirmish between the Harrismith burghers and the
Carabineers at Bester Station on the 18th of October, when Jonson, a
burgher of Harrismith, was killed--the earliest victim in our fight for
freedom--this was the first fighting the Free-Staters had seen.
We occupied kopjes which formed a large semicircle to the west of the
railway between Ladysmith and Dundee. Our only gun was placed on the
side of a high kop on our western wing. Our men did not number more than
a thousand--the other burghers had remained behind as a rear-guard at
Bester Station.
With three batteries of guns the English marched to the attack, the
troops leading the way, the guns some distance behind. A deafening
cannonade was opened on us by the enemy's artillery, at a range of about
4,500 yards. Our gun fired a few shots in return, but was soon silenced,
and we had to remove it from its position. Small arms were our only
weapons for the remainder of the contest.
The English at once began as usual to attack our flanks, but they did
not attempt to get round our wings. Their object appeared to be to keep
us in small parties, so that we should be unable to concentrate a large
force anywhere.
Meanwhile the troops which were making the attack pushed on closer and
closer to us. The country was of such a nature that they were able to
get quite near to us without coming under our fire, for small kloofs[9]
and other inequalities of the ground afforded them excellent cover. But
when they did show themselves they were met by such a frightful and
unceasing fire that they could not approach nearer than two hundred
paces from our lines.
The brunt of the attack was borne by the burghers from Kroonstad, who,
under Commandant Nel, formed our western wing. More to the east, where I
myself was, our men had less to endure. But every burgher, wherever he
might be, fought with the greatest courage. Although there were some who
fell killed or wounded, there was no sign of yielding throughout the
whole battle, and every one of our positions we successfully held.
Till three o'clock in the afternoon we kept up our rifle fire on the
English, and then we ceased, for the enemy, realizing the impossibility
of driving us out of our positions, withdrew to Ladysmith. Shortly
afterwards we were able to go over the battlefield. There were not many
dead or wounded to be seen; but burghers who had been stationed on the
high kop previously mentioned had seen the English remove their wounded
during the engagement.
We ourselves had eleven men killed and twenty-one wounded, of whom two
subsequently died. This loss touched us deeply, yet it was encouraging
to notice that it had not the effect of disheartening a single officer
or burgher.
Just as the battle began Mr. A.P. Cronje arrived on the scene. He had
been nominated by the President as Vechtgeneraal, and had taken over the
command from Vice-General C.J. De Villiers. He was most useful in this
engagement. When it was over I agreed with him in thinking that our
forces were too weak to pursue the retreating English troops. As soon
as I was able to leave my position it gave me great pleasure to shake
hands with him, for he was an old friend and fellow-member of the
Volksraad. It was pleasant to greet him as Vechtgeneraal--he was the son
of a valiant officer who had fought in the Basuto war of 1865 and 1866.
He had reached the age of sixty-six years, an age when it is very hard
for a man to have to stand the strain which the duties of a
Vechtgeneraal necessarily entail.
[Footnote 1: Small loaves manufactured of flour, with fermented raisins
instead of yeast, and twice baked.]
[Footnote 2: Officer in charge of the meat--literally, Flesh-corporal.]
[Footnote 3: Literally, a team of oxen which are not all of the same
colour.]
[Footnote 4: Storm-hunters; so-called from being rapidly cooked.]
[Footnote 5: Stomach-bombs--a reflection on their wholesomeness.]
[Footnote 6: A Vice-Commandant has no duties to fulfil so long as the
Commandant is himself in camp and fit for work.]
[Footnote 7: Fighting general.]
[Footnote 8: Sometimes referred to as the battle of Rietfontein.]
[Footnote 9: Water-courses.]