682 



TRANSVAAL. 



and when they were recalled to drive him away 

 De Wet struck heavy blows. The British kept 

 200,000 men in South Africa to garrison the towns, 

 guard the railroads from Cape Town, Durban, and 

 Delagoa Bay, and hold in check the forces of the 

 two Boer generals and other scattered commandos, 

 and for this their force, although comprising the 

 entire available military strength of the British 

 Empire, was not sufficient. Commandant de Wet 

 captured in June enough winter clothing for all 

 the burghers in his army, 3,700 shells, and small- 

 arms ammunition sufficient for three years' cam- 

 paigning. The operations against him were con- 

 ducted by Lord Kitchener, who for three months 

 tried in vain to hem him in with 40,000 troops, 

 twice as many as his force and Botha's combined. 

 The Boer ammunition ran out soon after the fall 

 of Pretoria. The stores captured from the British, 

 however, supplied the rifles, cartridges, and shells 

 that enabled the Boers to continue the conflict, 

 and all the commissariat supplies that were needed 

 for the Boer soldiers and their horses. When the 

 first attempts were made to sever railroad commu- 

 nications in the rear of Lord Roberta's army he 

 gave notice that farms would be destroyed and 

 stock confiscated for 10 miles on either side of the 

 line wherever the railroad or the trains were med- 

 dled with. His military failures led him to apply 

 with greater stringency the method of holding the 

 farms, cattle, and families of the fighting burghers 

 as hostages to induce them to surrender, and even 

 to threaten to confiscate the property of the burgh- 

 ers who were on their farms as a means for 

 bringing pressure on those who were in the field. 

 Lord Kitchener carried this policy for a time to 

 extremes. The homes of the Volksraad members 

 of the Free State and the Transvaal were de- 

 stroyed for the reason that the British blamed 

 these men for having brought on the war. The 

 territory of both republics was dotted with the 

 ashes of ruined homes, and the practice of destroy- 

 ing farms did more than anything else to keep 

 the burghers in the field. Whenever a Boer com- 

 mando came to a farmhouse or passed over a farm 

 it was customary to burn the buildings and seize 

 the stock in accordance with a proclamation of 

 Lord Roberts against harboring rebels, as the Boer 

 soldiers were called after the annexation of the 

 republics was proclaimed. Away from the garri- 

 soned towns and the lines of railroad patrolled by 

 the British the Boers moved freely and unobserved, 

 and for a long time no British movement was safe 

 unless carried out with a force as strong as one 

 of the Boer armies. After Commandant de Wet 

 had accomplished his first successful raids on com- 

 munications Lord Kitchener brought a flying col- 

 umn from Vereenigung to put a stop to such 

 operations, and Lord Methuen hastened with his 

 column from Heilbron to fill the gap that Lord 

 Roberts had left in his bold movement on Pretoria, 

 which would have been less successful if Com- 

 mandant de Wet had struck before Commandant- 

 (.'ncral Hotha's main line of defense was broken, 

 entailing the immediate loss of Johannesburg, the 

 fall of Pretoria, and the consequent military and 

 IMilitical demoralization. The commandos of De 

 Wet and Nell retired after a brush with Methuen's 

 and Kitchener's combined forces, but not before a 

 party had attacked a construction train that was 

 repairing the damage done to the railroad. Strong 

 posts with artillery were established all along, and 

 armored trains with machine guns patrolled the 

 line to prevent its being cut again. Gen. Cronje 

 surrendered Klerksdorp, and one or two of the 

 other Boer commandants gave up when the British 

 appeared because they considered the war over. 

 Commandant de Yilliers surrendered in Cape Col- 



ony. Gen. Bad.en-Powell traversed the northern 

 part of the Transvaal, taking possession of Rusten- 

 burg and other places and receiving the surrender 

 of numbers of Boers. 



The operations by which Gen. Botha was driven 

 from the vicinity of Pretoria and the movements 

 undertaken to restore and protect railroad com- 

 munication with the south necessitated another 

 halt, the cavalry and mounted troops being again 

 exhausted. Gen. Ian Hamilton having occupied 

 Heidelberg on June 23, Lord Kitchener went to 

 Kroonstad to begin a campaign against Comman- 

 dant de Wet, whose raids on communications and 

 captures of convoys and detached bodies of troops 

 had a political effect that was more serious than 

 their military importance warranted. Gen. Hun- 

 ter, who had temporarily taken over Gen. Ian 

 Hamilton's command, advanced on July 1 to 

 Frankfort to co-operate with columns under Gen. 

 Paget, Gen. Clements, and Col. Hickman in an 

 encircling maneuver in the southeastern corner of 

 the Free State, the object of which was to enfold 

 Christian de Wet's little army as in the coils of 

 an anaconda. The operations, were partly success- 

 ful, and had the result of breaking up the last 

 cohesive fighting body among the Boers of con- 

 siderable strength that operated from a regular 

 base. The town of Bethlehem, which had been 

 President Steyn's capital, was taken on July 7, 

 Clements and Paget having closed in on it from 

 two directions. A cordon was established from 

 Bethlehem to Ficksburg by the divisions of Gen. 

 Hunter and Gen. Rundle joining hands, but it did 

 not hold Christian de Wet, who broke through, 

 with Gen. Broadwood's cavalry in pursuit, at- 

 tacked Gen. Little's brigade near Lindley, divided 

 his force into tjvo parties, one of which was en- 

 gaged by Broadwood, crossed the railroad at Hon- 

 ing Spruit on July 21, captured a supply train 

 with 102 Welsh fusileers, and moved northward 

 toward the Vaal river, being so lightly equipped 

 that he could easily outstrip the British cavalry 

 although carrying abundant supplies. Comman- 

 dant Piet de Wet, who had offered to surrender 

 before if Lord Roberts would promise not to deport 

 his men, went into Kroonstad, where his com- 

 mando laid down their arms. The cordon was 

 drawn closer round the remaining Boer forces in 

 the Bethlehem district, mostly local fanners under 

 Commandant Prinslop. They fought stubbornly 

 from intrenched positions at Relief's Xck and 

 Stabbert's Nek, from which they were driven by 

 artillery into the narrow basin of the Brand water, 

 and blocked in on every side by Clements, Paget. 

 MacDonald, Bruce, Hamilton, and Hunter's divi- 

 sion advancing from Fouriesburg. Gen. de Wet 

 had taken with him 5 guns, the best they had. On 

 July 29 Gen. Prinsloo surrendered in the valley 

 of the Little Caledon after being shelled with lyd- 

 dite. Over 4,000 men gave up their arms and 

 horses and 3 guns, and were deported to Ceylon. 

 Commandant Olivier with 1,500 men and 5 gun- 

 escaped by the mountain road to Harrismith. 



Gen. de Wet's arrival in the north was followed 

 by an outbreak of Boer activity west of Pretoria. 

 Lord Roberts was trying to keep open the railroad 

 to Klerksdorp as well as to open up the Natal 

 railroad so as to join hands with Bullcr, who was 

 working his way slowly toward Heidelberg, repair- 

 ing the railroad which the Boers destroyed in his 

 front and rear. Lord Roberts was preparing also 

 to send a force against the Boers at Middelburg 

 and to clear the railroad to Delagoa Bay to Macha- 

 dodorp, where President Kruger had established 

 himself, ready to slip into Portuguese territory and 

 take ship for Europe if the British appeared, and 

 whence he sent continually to the Boer commandos 



