SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 



783 



and the burghers were moved in detachments to 

 the front. Under the law, every male old enough 

 to carry arms was liable for service, and any 

 article needed for warlike purposes could be com- 

 mandeered or requisitioned. Horses were an- 

 nexed from their stables or taken out from the 

 shafts in the street. Stores containing provisions, 

 saddlery, clothing, or other requirements for the 

 army were stripped of their contents, a receipt be- 

 ing given to the owner. The forces were thus 

 hastily equipped and sent to the front by rail. 

 The Free State commandos were also ordered out 

 to guard the passes of the Drakensberg. Gen. 

 Jan Kock commanded the forces on the Natal 

 border, Gen. Schalk Burger those on the eastern 

 frontier of the Transvaal, and Gen. Cronje took 

 charge of the western frontier. The State artil- 

 lery, with many large Creusot and Krupp guns, 

 left Pretoria for Zandspruit and Volksrust on 

 Oct. 4. That was the chief point of concentration, 

 and before the sending of the ultimatum 8,000 

 armed burghers were assembled there. The ar- 

 rival of troops from India made the English feel 

 secure in their fortified positions, but it was de- 

 cided not to defend the small town of Newcastle. 

 The Australian colonies and Canada offered to 

 raise regiments for the British army. The war 

 officials decided at first to accept only units of 

 125 men two units from the larger and one unit 

 from the smaller colonies. Of 25,000 reserves 

 called out in the United Kingdom 84 per cent, re- 

 sponded. These are time-expired short-service 

 men who have returned to civil occupations, but 

 in consideration of part pay are bound to return 

 to the colors when summoned for active service. 

 The Imperial Light Horse was recruited in Natal, 

 mainly from Johannesburg refugees. The Boers 

 raised an Irish corps, which Major Blake com- 

 manded. One corps of German volunteers went 

 into camp near the Natal border under the com- 

 mand of Col. Schiet, who was the chief artillery 

 officer. The Free State commandos assembled on 

 the border near Aliwal North to the number of 

 9,000 men. Another commando under Piet Cronje 

 moved toward Kimberley, and one section took 

 up a position on Modder river. 



The first hostile act was the commandeering of 

 a railroad train at Harrismith on Oct. 11, as soon 

 as the term of the ultimatum expired. Martial 

 law was proclaimed, and British subjects who 

 had not obtained permits to remain were ordered 

 to leave Transvaal territory within eight days. 

 Although a proclamation was issued commanding 

 foreigners to join the Boer army, as one of the 

 articles of the Constitution requires, the law was 

 not put in force, and none but volunteers were 

 accepted. The mines on the Rand were com- 

 mandeered, and many miners remained to work 

 there for the Government. All available troops in 

 Cape Colony were sent up to De Aar, the junction 

 of the railroad from Port Elizabeth and the line 

 to Kimberley and Rhodesia from Cape Town. 

 Gen. Piet Joubert, commandant general of the 

 Transvaal, directed the campaign in Natal. Gen. 

 Prinsloo.was elected commandant general of the 

 Free State forces, but Commandant Cronje di- 

 rected operations in the field in the west. When 

 the British agent was recalled and war was cer- 

 tain, President Kruger sent a message to sympa- 

 thizers in the United States, in which he said the 

 republics were determined that if they must be- 

 long to England a price will have to be paid that 

 will stagger humanity; but that they have faith 

 that the sun of liberty will rise in South Africa 

 as it rose in North America. On Oct. 12 the Free 

 State forces encamped on the eastern frontier ad- 

 vanced into Natal by Olivier's Hoek, Tintwa and 



Van Reenen's passes. At the same moment the 

 Transvaal commandos entered the northern cor- 

 ner of the colony from Volksrust and Wakker- 

 stroom and marched southward to the passes 

 in the mountains near Glencoe and Dundee. The 

 Rustenburg and Marico commandos concentrated 

 on Mafeking. An armored train returning from 

 Vryburg was wrecked and the soldiers and two 

 guns were captured. Vryburg was taken after- 

 ward with the aid of resident Boers. Repeated 

 attacks with artillery were made upon Mafeking. 

 Commandant Cronje crossed into Bechuanaland 

 and commanded the investing force. 



The British forces in Natal were deployed along 

 a strategical line of about 60 miles, extending 

 from Estcourt to Dundee, so as to hold both ends 

 of the Biggarsberg range and protect the railroad. 

 When the Boers crossed the Drakensberg at Van 

 Reenen an equal force was sent out of Ladysmith 

 by Sir George White to give them battle and pre- 

 vent their getting into the rear of Ladysmith to 

 cut the railroad. Ben Viljoen, crossing at Botha's 

 pass, occupied Newcastle, and Charlestown was 

 seized by the main column under Piet Joubert, 

 consisting of a mixed force of Transvaalers and 

 Free Staters, with the Hollander volunteers and 

 one of the German legions, which crossed at 

 Laings Nek. As these troops advanced along the 

 line of the railroad to Ingogo and Ingagane they 

 were joined by the columns from Wakkerstroom 

 and Utrecht, which crossed Buffalo river at 

 Meyer's and De Jaager's drifts. Meanwhile, Ben 

 Viljoen's column pushed on to Dannhauser, while 

 the Free State columns on the other British flank 

 occupied Acton Homes, from which there was an 

 easy line of advance to Colenso, where the rail- 

 road crosses Tugela river, and those that crossed 

 the Drakensberg by Van Reenen pass and Nel- 

 son's Kop went into laager near Bester's Station, 

 whence they could strike the Glencoe Railroad 

 line in the vicinity of Modder Spruit. Sir George 

 White sent out a detachment to Acton Homes as 

 well as to Besters, in the hope of engaging both 

 columns, but both declined battle until the ar- 

 rival of the columns from the north. The plan 

 of the Boer leaders was to envelop the whole 

 British position, cutting off railroad communica- 

 tions in the rear, and at the same time sever the 

 troops guarding Dundee and Glencoe under Gen. 

 Symons from the main body at Ladysmith and 

 crush these before closing in on the latter camp, 

 which was provisioned for four months. Gen. 

 Joubert had planned to draw out and entrap the 

 British by first engaging them with a column 

 advancing from Ingagane to Hatting Spruit, on 

 the main road from Dannhauser. When they 

 were well engaged in repelling this frontal attack, 

 Lucas Meyer, who had marched down from 

 Vryheid, crossed Buffalo river at Landman's 

 drift, and approached Dundee from the north- 

 east, could assail them in the rear, and Ben Vil- 

 joen, advancing from Waschbank, could fall on 

 their left flank, cutting off retreat by the railroad 

 or the direct wagon road to Ladysmith. 



The Boer columns, numbering 9,000 men to 

 4,000 under Sir William Penn Symons, could not 

 keep up telegraphic communications, and conse- 

 quently they arrived at different times. Gen Sy- 

 mons first perceived the troops of Gen. Meyer, 

 3,000 strong, with six guns, deploying on Talana 

 hill, commanding his camp, and he sent the 

 greater part of his force to attack them, while 

 the rest remained to watch the force that was 

 advancing from the left. The battle was opened 

 at dawn on Oct. 20 by the Boer guns, placed in 

 the night on Talana ridge, 3 miles from the 

 camp. The Boer shells were defective and did 



