Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
On the use made of the next few hours the success or failure of the whole operation must depend. The nearest drift to Cronje was only a mile or two distant, Klipkraal the name; next to that the Paardeberg Drift; next to that the Wolveskraal Drift, each about seven miles from the other. Had Cronje pushed on instantly after the action, he might have got across at Klipkraal.
In some of the operation orders subsequently issued, the reservation, "if this be possible without undue loss," appeared. The presence of De Wet on Kitchener's Kopje gave Cronje a moral support which was not of much use to him.
He summarised the situation on the Modder, which he was unable to control with the troops at his disposal, and said that he was asking French to proceed to Koodoos Drift to check Cronje from the east. Lord Roberts was not the man to adhere stolidly to his own plan when a better one was laid before him.
A few score of Highlanders were now fingering the key with which it seemed possible to unlock the sluice gates and allow the flood waters of war to overwhelm the foe. But War is a game of chance. The key was snatched away and the issue of the day reversed by a man who had lost his way. In the absence of Delarey, who was absent at Kimberley, P. Cronje was in chief command of the Boer forces.
I ordered all my men from their positions, and withdrew to the spot where we had encamped the previous night. The burghers were exhausted by hunger and thirst, for they had had nothing to eat except the provisions which they had brought in their saddle-bags from the laager. That evening Andreas Cronje the General's brother joined us with two hundred and fifty men and a Maxim-Nordenfeldt.
You heard evidence neither for nor against them, but you handed them over to to whom, Mr. Cronjé? Not to the proper authorities, but to Erasmus and Schoeman, the other parties in the case which you were sent up to try. It seems to me, Mr. Cronjé, that this is a case without parallel. There was no answer from the witness. Judge: One point more, Mr. Cronjé, and I have finished.
Stiemans, who followed Cronjé, fully corroborated Trichard's evidence. There were many other interesting points brought out by Mr. WESSELS in his cross-examination, but it is unnecessary to further detail this part of the proceedings, as the same ground was covered by Mr.
An armistice, restricted to the arena of the recent fighting, was granted by the Boers on February 25, for the purpose of bringing away the wounded and burying the dead; and during the barter of news on the very narrow strip which separated the British fallen from the enemy's positions, the burghers refused to believe that Cronje was surrounded at Paardeberg, and retorted that Lord Roberts had lost all his transport and supplies at Waterval Drift, and was helpless.
Till that is done there is no possibility of a general advance; and indeed there will have to be a great accumulation of stores here, as this will then become our base instead of Chieveley. "No doubt a great deal will depend on how things are going on the other side. Now that Roberts has as good as captured Cronje and his force he will of course advance to Bloemfontein and occupy it.
Jesaja, one of the indunas flogged, whose case was first on the roll, proved that he was flogged by order of Commandant Cronjé without any form of trial, and without any charge or indictment being made against him, and that he received twenty-six lashes, the extra one being given because he declined to say 'Thank you' for the twenty-five. Commandant Trichard next gave evidence, and from him Mr.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking