Our Position at the End of May, 1900
Once more it became necessary that the seat of Government should be
changed, and towards the latter part of May our administrative
headquarters were established at a place between Frankfort and Heilbron.
The object of our Government in choosing this position was to be able to
keep up telegraphic communication with the Transvaal. And their choice
was soon to be justified, for after Johannesburg had been taken on May
31st and Pretoria on July 5th, the only telegraphic connexion between
the Free State and the South African Republic was viâ Frankfort,
Greylingstad and Middlesburg. The terminus, at the Transvaal end, was
situated not far from Pretoria.
But, for the moment, it looked as if fortune were again going to smile
on us, after our long spell of ill luck. On May the 31st Lindley and its
garrison of Yeomanry fell into the hands of General Piet de Wet. The
Yeomanry lost heavily, and five hundred of them, including, as I was
told, several noblemen, were taken prisoner. These were the last
prisoners of war that we were able to send into the South African
Republic. Soon afterwards, when Pretoria was on the point of falling
into the enemy's hands, the prisoners there had to be sent further east,
but--owing either to the stupidity of the Transvaal Government, or to
the treachery of the guards--a great many of them were left behind for
Lord Roberts to release and re-arm against us. Our burghers grumbled
much at this, and blamed the negligence of the Transvaalers.
Before we had had time to get the captured Yeomanry through into the
Transvaal, Sir Redvers Buller had forced his way over the Natal
frontier, crossing the Drakensberg between Botha's Pass and Laing's Nek.
This event, which happened on June the 17th, caused yet another panic
among our commandos.
"We are now," they said, "surrounded on all sides. Resistance and escape
are equally impossible for us."
Never during the whole course of the war were President Steyn and I so
full of care and anxiety as at this time. With Buller across our
frontier, and the enemy within the walls of Johannesburg and Pretoria,
it was as much as we could do to continue the contest at all. However
brave and determined many of our burghers and officers might be, and, in
fact, were, our numerical weakness was a fact that was not to be got
over, and might prove an insuperable obstacle to our success. Moreover,
the same thing was now going on in the Transvaal after the capture of
Pretoria, as we had witnessed in the Free State after the fall of
Bloemfontein--nearly all the burghers were leaving their commandos and
going back to their farms. Plenty of officers, but no troops! This was
the pass to which we were come.
It was only the remembrance of how the tide had turned in the Free State
that gave us the strength to hold out any longer.
President Steyn and I sent telegram after telegram to the Government and
to the chief officers, encouraging them to stand fast. Meanwhile the two
Generals, De la Rey and Louis Botha, were giving us all a splendid
example of fortitude. Gazing into the future unmoved, and facing it as
it were with clenched teeth, they prosecuted the war with invincible
determination.
* * * * *
That the reader may the better appreciate the actual condition of our
affairs at this time, I think it well to make a short statement as to
the various districts of the Orange Free State, and the number of men
in each on whom we could still rely!
The burghers of Philippolis and Kaapstad had surrendered _en masse_ to
the English. In the first named of these districts, only Gordon Fraser
and Norval, in the second only Cornelius du Preez and another, whose
name has escaped my memory, remained loyal to our cause. I mention these
men here, because their faithfulness redounds to their everlasting
honour.
In the district of Boshof, we could still reckon on Veldtcornet
Badenhorst,[43] and twenty-seven men.
Jacobsdal was represented by Commandant Pretorius (who had succeeded
Commandant Lubbe, after the latter had been wounded and taken prisoner
at Tabaksberg), and forty men.
In the district of Fauresmith, Commandant Visser and some seventy men
had remained faithful.
In Bethulie, Commandant Du Plooij, with nearly a hundred men, were still
in arms.
Bloemfontein was represented by Commandant Piet Fourie and two hundred
burghers.
The commandos of Rouxville, Smithfield, Wepener and Ladybrand, fell far
short of their full complement of men, as a great number had remained
behind at home.
Of the burghers from Winburg, Kroonstad and Heilbron, many had already
laid down their arms, and the drain upon our troops in these districts
was still continuing.
None of the burghers belonging to the districts of Ficksburg,
Bethlehem,[44] Harrismith and Vrede had yet surrendered--their turn was
to come.
All told, we were 8,000 burghers.
After my men had gone northwards, those burghers of Hoopstad, Jacobsdal,
Fauresmith, Philippolis, Bethulie, Smithfield, Rouxville, Wepener,
Bloemfontein and the southern part of Ladybrand, who had laid down their
arms and remained at home between the beginning of March and the end of
May, were left undisturbed by Lord Roberts--so far as their private
liberty was concerned.
* * * * *
I was now camped at Frankfort, waiting for the ammunition, which ought
to have already arrived from Greylingstad Station. It was about this
time that the Government decided, on the recommendation of some of the
officers, that the rank of Vechtgeneraal should be abolished. In
consequence of this decision all the officers of that rank resigned. I
did not approve of this course of action, and obtained from the
Government the rank of Assistant Commander-in-Chief. I was thus able to
re-appoint the old Vechtgeneraals, Piet de Wet, C.C. Froneman, Philip
Botha and Paul Roux, and I at once proceeded to do so.
[Footnote 43: Afterwards Commandant, and, still later, Assistant
Commander-in-Chief.]
[Footnote 44: At the conclusion of peace it was the Bethlehem commando
which had the greatest number of burghers under arms.]