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.
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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.
[43] Afterwards Commandant, and, still later, Assistant Commander-in-Chief.
[44] At the conclusion of peace it was the Bethlehem commando which had the
greatest number of burghers under arms.
