28 FEBRUARY- 1 MARCH 1901 - DE WET CROSSES ORANGE RIVER

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General Christiaan de Wet with some 1500 burghers crossed the Orange River on 10 February 1901 and invaded the Cape Colony for the second time. His attempt to gather support from Cape sympathisers was not a success and he lost 200 burghers as PoWs as well as guns, ammunition and wagons.

 

He had to get back into the Free State, but l the swollen Orange River was a big hindrance. Eventually, on 28 Feb 1901 he and his commando succeeded in crossing the river at Leliefontein, close to Colesberg (this was the fifteenth drift that they had tried).

 

The next day, after their exhausting journey, some 35 of his men were taken prisoner