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Updated: May 22, 2025
Just as we began to satisfy the pangs of hunger the scouts came back, and once more it was "opzaal! opzaal!" We knew what it meant. The enemy was on our heels. Two columns were on our right flank, between the two rivers.
Panting horses brought to the little stone farmhouse, where General De Wet was drinking milk, the long-awaited scouts who carried the information that the British force had evacuated Thaba N'Chu late in the afternoon, and that it was moving hurriedly toward Bloemfontein. Again the order: "Opzaal," and the mule train came into motion and the burghers mounted their horses.
His scouts brought to him the information that a small British column was stationed in the village of Thaba N'Chu, forty miles to the east, and he determined to march thither and attack it. He gave the order, "Opzaal!" and in less than eight minutes every one of his burghers was on his horse, armed, provided with two days' rations of biltong, biscuit, coffee, and sugar, and ready to proceed.
That, indeed, would be a surprise worth beholding. At sunset we were all on British soil. "After the burghers had taken supper the whistle was blown and the oft-repeated command, 'opzaal, sounded in their ears. That night we did not make a long trek, for both horses and men felt equally tired after the day's exertions.
They scarcely found time to prepare a meal, for when they arrived at the halting-place the first word they heard was, as a rule, "opzaal!" Thus footsore, battered, and with empty stomachs, these fellows had to march for miles and miles to escape the enemy's grip. "I admired their power of endurance, patience, and determination. But admiration was not enough.
While still engaged in this impromptu fishing, with bodies mud-covered from top to toe, they heard the cry "Opzaal! opzaal! Khakis near by." So near was the enemy that they could not afford to lose a minute. As there was neither clean water nor time to wash off the mud, they were obliged to jump into their clothes, besmeared as they were with mud.
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