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Updated: May 8, 2025
After leaving Wolvehoek, we entered on Commandant De Wet's hunting-ground and the scene of his recent exploits.
However, fortunately, going south meant going downhill, and we made good progress over the flat uninteresting country, which, in view of recent events, proved worthy of careful attention. Already melancholy landmarks of the march of the great army lay on each side of the line in the shape of carcasses of horses, mules, and oxen. Wolvehoek was the first stop.
I afterwards heard that Lord Kitchener had on this occasion gone to Wolvehoek Station in order to see President Steyn and myself carried away in the train to banishment! But his calculations were not altogether correct. A Higher Power had willed it otherwise. The burghers had now returned to their own districts. I myself went to a farm in the neighbourhood of Elandskop belonging to Mr.
Lord Kitchener had descended to Wolvehoek to be present at the climax of the operations, but it was not fated that he was to receive the submission of the most energetic of his opponents, and he returned to Pretoria to weave a fresh mesh around him. This was not hard to do, as the Boer General had simply escaped from one pen into another, though a larger one.
We continued in the direction of Wolvehoek Station, and on the following night crossed the line between Vredefortweg and Wolvehoek, where I wrecked the railway at various points, and also took prisoner a small force of thirteen who had been lying asleep in their tents. This last incident happened early in the morning of September 30th.
The third side of the triangle consisted of an infinite number of men in khaki, and its density varied entirely according to its position. At first, it opened out to a thin line of troopers scattered over the arc of an immense circle; then it drew in until an army stood in fighting array straight across the veldt from Heilbron to Kroonstad. And Wolvehoek was the apex of the triangle.
I heard also from officers of Heilbron, Vrede, and Bethlehem, whom I met, on the evening of the 14th of May, at Wolvehoek Station, that the English columns had operated in their districts on the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. My order was that my officers should not operate, but should retreat, if the enemy should unexpectedly operate on the 11th.
The master-mind at Pretoria had, however, thought out a scheme which was worthy of De Wet himself in its ingenuity. A glance at the map will show that the little branch from Heilbron to Wolvehoek forms an acute angle with the main line.
Our whole stock of ammunition was on the rail at Wolvehoek. I had given orders to Mr. Sarel Wessels, who had charge of the ammunition, to hold himself in readiness to proceed with it by rail, through the Transvaal, to Greylingstad as soon as he received orders to do so.
"The orders are to close in at daylight, and work the game up towards Wolvehoek; but, if I know anything at all of De Wet, he won't wait till daylight." "You think he will fight?" "If he does, it will be a fight to the finish," the Captain said gravely. Weldon's grip tightened on his rifle. "When will it come?" "Heaven only knows. Probably just before light.
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