Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The reorganisation was a difficult work, for the burghers were divided amongst themselves. Some wanted a different commando, while others wanted to keep to Erasmus, who was formerly general and who had been my superior, round Ladysmith.
I see the fires of a small camp twinkling in a gully to my left, and make my way thither. It is pitch dark. As I approach the camp I hear voices. It is Dutch they are speaking. Then several dim shapes loom up before me in the darkness. "Hello! What commando is this?" "Hello, is that you? By Jove, so it is! I thought I knew the voice," and dashing Chris Botha shakes my hand.
When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it was solemnly vowed to observe a day of national thanksgiving each year if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever since been religiously observed as had been vowed.
A large number of burghers from Harrismith and a small part of the Vrede commando, although they had already made good their escape, rode quietly from their farms into Harrismith, and there surrendered to General Sir Hector Macdonald. One could gnash one's teeth to think that a nation should so readily rush to its own ruin! I am Driven into the Transvaal
Preceded by scouts we wound our way in that direction, leaving all our unnecessary baggage in the shape of provisions and ammunition waggons at Newcastle. One of my acting field-cornets and the field-cornets of the German commando, prompted by goodness knows what, pressed forward south, actually reaching the railway station at Elandslaagte.
"The witnesses for the defence all state that there were no prisoners with the commando at Grootplaats, yet the accuracy with which they describe different horses, and the date of seeing Van Aswegen, i.e., 13th February, 1901, is little short of marvellous.
Rumour had it, Heaven knows how, that the armoured train that had been sent up from the Cape with two light guns of superseded pattern a generous contribution towards the collection of obsolete engines now bristling from the sand-bagged ramparts had been seized by a commando, with the officer and the men in charge.
Some time afterwards at Warmbad I heard that an English General had related this dodge of De Wet's, but he thought De Wet had threatened him with a very small force, as his commando must still have been at Olifantsnek. It is an example of the way we misled the enemy by our mobility.
Keeley by saying they meant to wreak vengeance on any who had fought for the English, and by warning him that a commando would surely pass his way.
There was just enough risk of encountering a commando to give the necessary spice of adventure; two despatch-riders not mine, by the good fortune of half a mile had been captured the day before, and we kept a bright look-out. But by the time we came across them the commandos were forlornly dispersing.
Word Of The Day