Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 17, 2025
But I cared nothing to what regiment they belonged or what was the rank of the officer in command. Throughout the whole war I never troubled myself about such matters. Our loss, in addition to Veldtcornet Du Plessis, whose death I have just described, was only six wounded.
From there I sent Veldtcornet Nicolaas Serfontein, of the Bethlehem commando, in the direction of Reitz and Lindley, to bring the Kaffirs there to a sense of their duty, for I had heard that they were behaving very brutally to our women.
It was now rapidly growing lighter, and I ordered the gunners to keep up a continuous fire with our three Krupps. This they did from half-past five until eleven o'clock, and then the enemy hoisted the white flag. My men and I galloped towards the English, and our other two parties did the same. But before we reached them, they again began to shoot, killing Veldtcornet Du Plessis, of Kroonstad.
I also had not observed that the forts had been abandoned. Just as the sun was setting, and when it was too late to do anything, General Philip Botha, with his two sons, Louis and Charlie, rushed up to Veldtcornet Wessels and told him what the real state of affairs was. I now saw columns of black smoke rising from the mill of Mr. Wessels Badenhorst, to the south of the town.
I am sorry to say one of the gentlemen of our party muttered "Brute" in an audible whisper; but, then, he had undergone a short, but a very unpleasant term of imprisonment, with no sort of excuse, at the instance of a Boer Veldtcornet, so no wonder he had vowed eternal vengeance.
The Veldtcornet obtained from him a "free pass" to Kroonstad through the English lines, and also a written request to the British authorities there to allow him and twenty burghers to proceed without hindrance to Rouxville. Alas! that any Free State officer should be capable of such conduct!
The next day, which was the 9th of June, I went with our prisoners to within three miles of the railway, and left them there under Veldtcornet De Vos, ordering him to conduct them the rest of the way. It was now my duty to bring away the ammunition which I had left at Roodewal and to put it into some safe place.
Shortly after he had given up his arms, he sent a letter to one of the Veldtcornets, asking him to come to such and such a spot on a certain evening, to meet an English officer and himself. The letter never reached the hands of the person to whom Vilonel had addressed it; and instead of the Veldtcornet, it was Captain Pretorius with a few burghers, who went to the appointed place.
I could not call up men from Heilbron, Bethlehem, Vrede, or Harrismith: it would have been at least twenty-four hours before they could have arrived. All I could do was to summon Veldtcornet Vlok with some of the Parijs commandos and Veldtcornet Louwrens, and Matthijs De Beer, and the men. With these and my staff we would not number more than sixty or seventy all told.
Only the inhabitants of the township remained, and they were but too ready to "hands-up." One of these, however, was of a different mould. I refer to Veldtcornet Thring, who had arrived with me at Kroonstad that morning, but who had suddenly fallen ill. On the day following he was a prisoner in the hands of the English. Thring was an honourable man in every way.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking