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I was now camped at Frankfort, waiting for the ammunition, which ought to have already arrived from Greylingstad Station. It was about this time that the Government decided, on the recommendation of some of the officers, that the rank of Vechtgeneraal should be abolished. In consequence of this decision all the officers of that rank resigned.
The Government then put General Wessels in sole command at Kimberley, and gave General Cronje the chief command over the Free State burghers at Magersfontein. Thus it was that I, as Vechtgeneraal, had to receive my orders from Cronje.
I am Appointed Vechtgeneraal Up to the 9th of December I had only been a Vice-Commandant, but on the morning of that day I received a telegram from States-President Steyn, asking me to go to the Western frontier as Vechtgeneraal. This came as a great surprise to me, and I telegraphed back to the President asking for time to think the matter over.
I was firmly resolved that should the majority of the officers be against me, and the President should still refuse his consent to an election, that I would send in my resignation, and no longer continue to hold the post of Commander-in-Chief. Commander-in-Chief Hattingh, Vechtgeneraal Roux, and all the oldest commandants of the Free State, were present at this meeting.
It was decided that a force of two thousand burghers, under Commandant C.J. De Villiers, of Harrismith, as Vice-Vechtgeneraal, should go down into Natal, and that the remaining forces should guard the passes on the Drakensberg. Let me say, in parenthesis, that the laws of the Orange Free State make no allusion to the post of Vechtgeneraal.
That there had been some bungling was not open to question. Yet I am unable to assert to whom our failure was due whether to the Commandants of the South African Republic, or to Commander-in-Chief Prinsloo, or to Vechtgeneraal De Villiers. For then I was merely a Vice-Commandant, who had not to give orders, but to obey them.
This loss touched us deeply, yet it was encouraging to notice that it had not the effect of disheartening a single officer or burgher. Just as the battle began Mr. A.P. Cronje arrived on the scene. He had been nominated by the President as Vechtgeneraal, and had taken over the command from Vice-General C.J. De Villiers. He was most useful in this engagement.
No sooner had we got out of range of the enemy's fire, than the first of the reinforcements, which we had expected from Bloemfontein, arrived, under the command of Vechtgeneraal Andreas Cronje. With him were Commandants Thewnissen, of Winburg, and Vilonel, of Senekal. A council was at once held as to the best method of effecting the release of General Cronje.
A court-martial was shortly afterwards held at that town, and he was condemned to a long term of imprisonment. In the place of General De Villiers I appointed Deacon Paul Roux as Vechtgeneraal. He was a man in whom I placed absolute confidence. As a minister of religion he had done good service among the commandos, and in the fiercest battles he looked after the wounded with undaunted courage.
I may mention here that Lieutenant Malan, who became afterwards Commandant, and ultimately Vechtgeneraal, had penetrated into the Colony with fifty or sixty men, and had advanced considerably farther than I had done. That afternoon I ordered the small waggon to proceed to a point between Philipstown and Petrusville.
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