With Botha in the Field | Page 6

week I have known. We
left Upington on the 29th of November, reaching Kroonstad, Orange
Free State, late next evening. Here the Commander-in-Chief was met
by General Smuts, Minister for Defence; a consultation took place, and
as a result we left by train for Bethlehem in the evening. Our arrival

was timely, too. The place was in a perfect uproar. Nobody knew what
was going to happen next. All the loyalistcivilians were under arms.
The large mill of the Kaffrarian Steam Flour Company had been
converted into a fort which was, in case of necessity, impregnable to
rifle-fire. The rebels in the field had declared the New Republic
practically established, with temporary capital at Reitz. Just before we
saddled up to track them the news came of De Wet's capture on the
Malopi River, near Mafeking. The news put everyone in fresher spirits.
The charm around the famous guerilla fighter had broken. That the
Rebellion was doomed we all knew. But most of us were weary,
nevertheless. It furnished a refresher.
We left a happier Bethlehem at a rainy dawn the next day. Half way to
Reitz we outspanned in the rain. It rained all night. The following
morning came back to mind a talk an old soldier and I had once while
freezing one early morning awaiting the Channel boat at Greenock.
Alluding to cold and misery, he said: "You don't know what it is, my
son, till you've been held up for three nights by rain in war-time in the
South African veld, and spent the time standing in water. I did it
outside Mafeking." Well, I understand a little now.
The next day our scouts entered Reitz; the rebels had fled. For two days
we operated against them. A day later General Botha returned to Reitz.
Nothing was said at the time. The fact was that before we entrained at
Reitz, on the 7th of December, Wessel Wessels and Serfontein were
surrounded. A day later they surrendered: the Orange Free State
Rebellion, in all its futility, was over.
[Illustration: The last pursuit of Kemp. Flying column crossing the
Orange River after him]
[Illustration: Troops returning to Pretoria after Nooitgedacht. December
16, 1914]

SECTION IV
FOURIE
Just before and during the Commander-in-Chief's long trek, other
bodies of loyalist troops had been engaging the rebels. The most
notable of these actions were against Muller at Bronkhorst Spruit (5th
November, 1914; casualties, one killed and three wounded), and
against Fourie at Hamanskraal (22nd November, 1914; casualties, three

killed and ten wounded). Both these actions took place in the
neighbourhood of Pretoria. As a result of them and the death of Beyers
in the Vaal River, the Rebellion in the Transvaal was virtually smashed.
There remained only Fourie to be dealt with.
Fourie, late Major in the South African Defence Force, possibly the
most fanatical of all the rebels, appears to have been a man of character
and proved courage. Having got away at the action at Hamanskraal, he
and his younger brother were moving about in the veld with ex-Major
Pienaar and a moderate force. Their fantastic purpose was said to be the
taking of Pretoria itself on Dingaan's Day, the 16th of December. As all
the South African world knows, this date marks the anniversary of the
famous fight of the Voortrekkers at Blood River in 1838. The day
before a force of South African Police, Defence Force, and South
African Mounted Riflemen left Pretoria, detrained at Greyling's Post,
on the Pietersburg Line, and started in pursuit of the last big rebel
commando at large. In this move we of the Bodyguard found ourselves
acting; General Botha, who had returned to Pretoria after his severe
field work, had gone to his farm for a few days' rest before the
South-West campaign.
[Illustration: Diagram of Nooitgedacht]
We trekked at dawn and during the whole of the following day, with
one rain-sodden halt, till four in the afternoon. The rebels had doubled
in their tracks after reaching a large dam at Blaaubank. Late in the
afternoon our scouts returned to the column and reported having
located the enemy three miles ahead, entrenched in a donga, or dried-up
stony river course, on the farm Nooitgedacht No. 4. We prepared for
action, and encountered the rebels in the next half hour. This, the first
true action I had been in, was an extremely dirty affair; a man who had
gone through some of the worst fights in the South African War
afterwards assured me it was the hottest corner he had ever been in.
Bush-country fighting is detestable chiefly because you cannot see your
enemy until you are on top of him. Our centre cantered in extended
order up an avenue flanked by dense bush. We were laughing and
asking where the deuce the