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It's very likely the dead men - Republican and Imperial - were buried on the spot. The Snaaiman family who farmed Oranjepan were in the Brandfort concentration camp from 27 June 1901 till 22 July 1902, and their child Emerensie Petronella perished there from typhoid. By the time they returned to their farm, presumably burnt by then, the graves may have been lost, or lost in the years thereafter. Wooden grave markers don't last long on the veld. Many South African War graves are lost in this way. In the Tugela area, a lot (not all) of outlying Boer and British graves were exhumed in the 1970s and consolidated, but as far as I know this was not done in the OVS or ZAR.
As Kipling wrote:
"For I know of a sun an' a wind,
An' some plains and a mountain be'ind,
An' some graves by a barb-wire fence,
An' a Dutchman I've fought 'oo might give
Me a job were I ever inclined
To look in an' offsaddle an' live
Where there's neither a road nor a tree -
But only my Maker an' me,
An I think it will kill me or cure,
So I think I will go there an' see."

The below snapshots will give an idea of the desolate landscape in which Spearman lost his life. The pictures, probably taken late in the war or just after, are according to the annotations at the back taken at Bothaville and surroundings and show the dire effects of war and Scorched Earth policies.

Hi EFV; thanks for the photos; much appreciated.

Hi Rob D,

Thanks for the pointer; based on that information I can confirm that the farmer at Oranjepan was "Nicolaas Johannes Saaiman"; their family name was spelt a number of different ways but "Saaiman" seems to be the one most commonly used.

Nicolaas Johannes Saaiman was born on 4 June 1852, the son of Amerentia and Izaak. He married Johanna Isabella Lombard on 30 September 1878 in Free State, South Africa. They had six children in 13 years. He died on 15 May 1939 in Vryburg at the age of 86.

As you said their family entered the camp on 27 June 1901; one week following the fighting on their farm so I'm going to assume they were nearby at the time; perhaps impacted by it.

Members of the family that were with him in the camp were:

Mrs Johanna Izabella Saaiman, Miss Johanna Izabella Saaiman, Miss Emerensie Petronella Saaiman, Mr Daniel Benjamin Saaiman and Stephanus Bastianas

Sturgy, the farm south of Oranjepan should be spelled Vogelstruisbult ("Ostrich Ridge"), farmed by the Nel family. They were taken into the Brandfort concentration camp a little later, on 15 July 1901, suggesting the area was being "scorched" around that time. This would have been typical: farm burnings and transport to a concentration camp often followed a skirmish, as a form of collective retribution.
Of the 5 Nel family members, 4 died in the Brandfort concentration camp:
Johannes Daniel aged 32,
his son, Daniel Jacobus aged 3,
his baby son, Johannes Daniel aged 9 months,
and his wife, Susannah Johanna aged 22.

Hi Rob,

Yes it looks like May 1901 was a turning point; as noted earlier the O.R.C. was split into 3 districts with Col Pilcher and Col Thorneycroft in the Centre.

At the same time De Wet also divided up the Free State into the following:

The district of Boshof: the men under Commandant J.N. Jacobsz, P. Erasmus and H. Theunissen.
Sub-district of Hoopstad: the men under Commandants Jacobus Theron (of Winburg) and A.J. Bester (of Brandfort).

All of these were under Vice-Commander-in-Chief C.C.J. Badenhorst.

There is good summary of C.C.J. Badehorst by EFV in his battlefield correspondence post:
www.angloboerwar.com/forum/19-ephemera/3...respondence?start=18

As a matter of curiosity I was trying to see if one of the Commandants mentioned above was also killed at Oranjepan on the 20th June 1901.

Regarding the scorched earth policy in his book "Kestell: Part II, Chapter XVII - The destruction of the farms"; he notes:

For some time after I arrived at Zwart Klip matters were fairly quiet in the Free State. I was surprised at this, and considered that the English were, from their point of view, guilty of neglect of duty.

Their inactivity in the Free State must be accounted for by the fact that they were occupied by General de Wet on the northern border of the Cape Colony, and by Generals Hertzog and Kritzinger, who had both penetrated far into British territory, in the south.

During this period the burghers who had returned were stationed all about as outposts. Two scouting corps—one under Commandant Botha, and another under his brother, Captain Botha—had already been operating for some time in the districts of Vrede and Harrismith, and had done much towards putting a stop to the small police patrols of the enemy who used to wander about all over the country. And now small bodies of burghers were stationed as guards near the towns. In the district of Harrismith there was one guard at Mont Paul, another at Broedersdal, and another at Groothoek. In the Vrede there was one near Mullerspas in the Drakensberg, and at various points around the town. In the same manner matters were regulated all through the country.

The Government also provided for the appointment of landdrosts (magistrates) and justices of the peace for criminal cases in each district. The guards, of which I have spoken, had very little to do during this quiet time. Each day they rode out to reconnoitre, and if a force of English marched from one town to another they harassed their flanks.

This period of comparative rest continued until about the middle of May, when the enemy began to become active in every part of the country. In the districts of Harrismith and Vrede the English approached from the direction of Heilbron and Frankfort, and marched to Tafel Kop in the district of Vrede. Others advanced from the Transvaal, and whether or not they had been guilty, from their standpoint, of neglect of duty, they now began to do their work thoroughly—or rather, I should say, in a thoroughly cruel and heartless manner.

It seemed as if they wanted now literally to annihilate us. They made use of any expedient. The farms were laid waste, the houses burnt down or damaged in such a manner as to render them uninhabitable, and grain and forage were given as a prey to the flames. Cattle were looted and sheep killed in tens of thousands.


Given that the Scortched Earth Policy in Free state commenced mid May 1901 it could also explain why he Commando was soon keen to attack what they thought was a smaller patrol on Oranjepan.

Badenhorst published a book about his war experiences in 1903 titled: “Uit den Boeren Oorlog 1899-1902”. I don't have a copy of this book but if another forum member does, perhaps he could see whether Badenhorst makes any reference to the engagement on or near Oranjepan.