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  9 OCTOBER 1900 - VLAKFONTEIN (NEAR BALFOUR)

  By archie777 · Posted 3 minutes ago

  Parties of Boers under Hans Botha had been seen by the English on the hills near Vlakfontein (Balfour). In order to ascertain what they were doing an armoured train was sent out.   Captain George Paget of the Rifle Brigade together with a detachment of his men and a few engineers proceeded along the line in the train. Hans Botha allowed the train to pass Vlakfontein then had one party blow up two culverts behind it while another party tore up the rails ahead of it.   A tremendous fire was then opened on the occupants. Although they made a gallant resistance the ambush was a complete success and they were ultimately compelled to surrender.    Captain Paget was mortally wounded and most of his men were casualties by that time.   Another party of 25 men under Capt Archibald Stewart, 1st Bn Rifle Brigade, followed on foot in support of the train. Stewart’s party was also attacked and he was killed in the engagement. They were within a few kilometres of a column under General Clery, which was en-route to Vlakfontein, but they arrived too late to be of any service.   At the armoured train one of the Imperial Military Railway guards, Thomas Ingoldsby, from Scotland, was wounded and died two days later. He and two officers have been reinterred at Standerton.  “Heidelbergers of the Boer War” by Ian Uys
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  22-23 SEPTEMBER 1900 - KOMATIPOORT

  By archie777 · Posted 10 minutes ago

  “Early in Sept. 1900 the three-pronged eastwards advance of the British under Genls. Buller, French and Pole-Carew put the retreating Boers, many of them without horses, under great pressure. At a Boer Council-of-War, held at Hectorspruit on 16 Sept 1900, it was decided that only mobile fighters, well experienced in local conditions, would continue with the next (guerrilla) phase of the war.  Approximately 2000 burghers under Genls. Louis Botha and Ben Viljoen withdrew northwards and the balance, some 3000 strong, were advised to join Genl Coetzer at Komatipoort or to cross the border into Mozambique. This motley array consisted of elderly burghers, foreign volunteers, Cape rebels, deserters, dejected Boers and even men and their families who had previously hidden in the bush!  The Portuguese Authorities were afraid that the Boers would destroy the bridge over the Komati River or even engage the British on Portuguese soil. After a message from President Kruger that the bridge must not be touched, General Coetzer left with some 250 men with serviceable horses to join General Botha: this left General F.J. Pienaar in command. On 21 Sept Portuguese secret agents promised Pienaar favourable terms if the Boers would surrender to the Portuguese and thus prevent a confrontation with the advancing British forces.  During the night of 22-23 September General Pienaar crossed the border into Mozambique with some 700 Boers and Pienaar ordered his forces to lay down their arms.    Towards the end of the month a larger group of about a thousand, which included women, children, foreign volunteers and even a few servants also crossed the border. Those who were armed laid down their weapons and a special train carried them to Lourenco Marques.   According to international custom the Boer Burghers were now internees and were warned that they would be shot or imprisoned if they tried to return to the ZAR.   The British were not quite satisfied with the presence of the Boers in Mozambique and after lengthy negotiations it was decided that the majority would be sent to Portugal.   This was finally done between February and June 1901 when some 890 males and 175 females, of which 150 were younger than 16 years, were interned in 6 Portuguese towns (Abrantes, Alcobaça, Caldas da Rainha, Oeiras, Peniche and Tomar).”  “Viva os Boers” privately published in Afrikaans by O.J.O. Ferreira, Pretoria, 1994. “The Foreign Volunteers, on the other hand, were in a different category: initially the representatives of the ZAR Government in Mozambique distanced themselves from the Volunteers, implying that they would have to make their way home at their own cost.   This led to vehement protests by the Volunteers, who requested free passage home as well as some form of remuneration. In this they were strongly supported by the Portuguese authorities who wanted to get rid of them. Eventually a Committee of ZAR officials was formed to facilitate repatriation of the Volunteers and after clandestine (so as not to sour Portuguese-British relations) over-border negotiations money was made available by the ZAR Government and a suitable vessel was chartered. On 2 October 1900 the SS “Styria” left Lourenco Marques for Trieste with 378 passengers, of which almost 370 were Foreign Volunteers. The leader of the party was a Mr de Cock (an official in the ZAR Auditor-General’s office) who afterwards submitted a report and passenger list with destinations of individuals to the ZAR Government. The SS “Styria” docked in Trieste on 31 October 1900 and, on instructions of the Lourenco Marques committee, the Trieste branch of the travel agency Thomas Cook paid out “pocket-money” to each Foreign Volunteer and issued each one with a travel-ticket to a city of his choice.” Source: An Afrikaans article “Die Repatriëring van Buitelandse Oorlogsvrywilligers uit Transvaal na Europa in 1900” by C de Jong, published in “Africana Notes and News” Sept 1981.
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  12 SEPTEMBER 1900 - NELSHOOGTE

  By archie777 · Posted 29 minutes ago

  On this date, Maj Gen French’s cavalry division occupied both sides of Nelshoogte Pass during their advance to Barberton.   This action forced the Boers under Assistant Commandant General Tobias Smuts to retire.   DCM (EdwVII): Tpr. Latham Imp: Lt Horse;  QSA 4 clasps RoM, Tug H, RoL, Tvl: 155 Tpr. G.W.J. Latham Imp: Lt Horse George Latham enlisted in the ILH at Pietermaritzburg on 22 September 1899 and was discharged on 12 October 1900.   His DCM, as well as that awarded to Tpr James was gazetted on 27 Sept 1901 without a citation.   However, Gibson in “The History of the Imperial Light Horse”, p220/1 describes the event that led to the two awards: “When the column was climbing the high Nelshoogte (Nels Heights), which could have been held by a thousand determined men against an army, great difficulty was experienced in dragging the Naval guns and the wagons up the steep hills.   To add to the difficulty, a sniper on the side of the mountain kept up a persistent and effective fire, at about 800 yards range, getting a horse or dropping an ox dead in its yoke with every other shot.   Two of the most experienced I.L.H. scouts, Troopers James and Bob Latham, were despatched to deal with the lone sniper and the firing soon stopped. The two scouts on rejoining the Regiment reported that they had found an old Boer with long white hair and beard, firing at the column with an ancient Martini Henry with a 100 or more cartridge in an old haversack by his side. “What happened to him?”. “We had to shoot the poor old chap, and this is his rifle, haversack and ammunition.” “Why on earth did you not ‘hands up’ the old man and take him prisoner?”   “It is all very well to talk like that. The old chap had taken up such a position that we could neither flank him, or get behind him and it meant that we had either to get him or he would have got us, so in shooting him it really amounted to shooting in ‘self defence’!” It was felt that it was an unique achievement for one old man, about 70 or 80 years of age to put himself against some 5000 troops. He must have realised that there could only be one end to his foolhardy but glorious act.   The men thought that the poor old Burgher was, no doubt, too old to go on Commando and scorned to be relegated to the lowly position of doing odd jobs about the wagons for the women and children, so he took a hero’s way out of his dilemma.
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  5 SEPTEMBER 1900 - GATSRAND

  By archie777 · Posted 40 minutes ago

  On 4 September 1900 in the Gatsrand, near the present Fochville, Commandant Danie Theron was planning an attack with General Liebenberg’s commando on General Hart’s column.   Whilst out scouting to discover why  Liebenberg was not at the agreed position, Theron ran into seven members of Marshall’s Horse. Contemporary Boer sources allege that Theron killed three and wounded the other four.  The column’s escort was alerted by the firing and immediately charged up the hill, but Theron managed to avoid capture.   Finally, the column’s artillery, six field guns and 4.7-inch naval gun, were unhitched and the hill bombarded. The legendary Republican hero was killed in an inferno of lyddite and shrapnel.    Eleven days later, the body of Commandant Danie Theron was exhumed by his men and later reburied next to his late fiancée, Hannie Neethling, at her father’s farm (Eikenhof, Klip River.)    The SAFF Casualty Roll contains the name of only one man (MacMillan) of Marshall’s Horse: he was mortally wounded in the incident.   The “Official History” Vol III, p376 mentions:  “Near the scene of the previous day’s encounter the guns fired on a party of the enemy, killing four, of whom one was Commandant Daniel Theron, a well-known captain of scouts.”
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  4 SEPTEMBER 1900 - SCHOEMAN’S KLOOF

  By archie777 · Posted 47 minutes ago

  A party of 4 men of the 18th Hussars were attacked by Boers. The Sergeant in charge was wounded but got away with one of the men while Lambert and the other man were captured. Lambert re-joined his unit in Lydenburg on 19 Sept 1900. WO 108/372 (SA Surrenders).   3406 Pte. F.W. Wyatt. 18/Hrs.  Wyatt was the “other man” who was captured. He must have spent some 10 days moving around with his captors: according to his Service Papers “Recovered Lydenburg 19/9/00”.