25-27 OCTOBER 1900 - JACOBSDAL SIEGE

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“The story of Jacobsdal was one of carelessness and bravery. Here were 45 Cape Town Highlanders, 8 police, and a 15 pounder, manned by some Colonial Volunteers.

 

The men were lodged partly under canvas on the market square, partly in houses near at hand. In the night of October 25… 70 Boers under Field Cornet Bosman crept up the bed of the Riet River which runs through the town and gained some houses commanding the tents of the sleeping Volunteers.

 

Opening fire at 3am, they killed 14 and wounded 13 of the 34 men in the tents. 

 

Those in the buildings held out until a relief party of 54 men arrived from Modder River. On the next day the town was evacuated, only to be immediately reoccupied by the Boers.” Time History, Vol V, p25-6