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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=399903" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Through the eyes of a Field Coronet (Epic)</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Introduction</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the kaki coloured tent in Umbilo he writes<br>his life’s story while women, children and babies are dying, <br>slowly but surely are obliterated, he see how his nation is suffering<br>while the events are notched into his mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lying even heavier on him is the treason<br>of some other Afrikaners who for own gain<br>have delivered him, to imprisonment in this place of hatred<br>and thoughts go through him to write a book.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Prologue</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Afrikaner nation sprouted<br>from Dutchmen, <br>who fought decades without defeat<br>against the super power Spain</div><div style="margin:10px 0">mixed with French Huguenots <br>who left their homes and belongings, <br>with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.<br>Associate this then with the fact</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that these people fought formidable <br>for seven generations <br>against every onslaught that they got <br>from savages en wild animals</div><div style="margin:10px 0">becoming marksmen, riding <br>and taming wild horses<br>with one bullet per day<br>to hunt a wild antelope, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">who migrated right across the country <br>over hills in mass protest<br>and then you have<br>the most formidable adversary<br>and then let them fight </div><div style="margin:10px 0">in a natural wilderness<br>where the hunter, <br>the sniper and horseman excels<br>and any enemy is at a lost.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Let them then also be patriotic <br>into their souls, <br>believe in and read <br>out of the word of God<br>and then there is almost nothing <br>that these people do fear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>The Zuid Afrikaanse republic<br>existed out of twenty one districts, <br>each with a magistrate for civil ethics, <br>a commandant to deter the enemy, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">in control of a commando as their leader<br>and so structures appeared<br>with a commandant-general for much greater authority, <br>for the whole country.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A field coronet was in control of a ward<br>to issue commands in it<br>and the citizens themselves chose their men<br>as they thought best</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and all men from sixteen to sixty had to do service, <br>if the need be, be prepared for war.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>A field coronet was a respected man<br>as the magistrate, justice of the peace and prosecutor<br>and a military leader of a ward who could<br>call up citizens for duty to a commando in a laager</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and he was a political representative<br>of the government and in a district<br>citizens chose own officers<br>as they saw it fit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Commandos arouse when the Boers<br>had to defend themselves against attacks<br>from black tribes <br>and they came together in numbers</div><div style="margin:10px 0">to be able to give proper resistance<br>and to stop pillage, murder and sorrow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>I. Battles against rebel captains Mesotie, Sebboel, Mapit and Magoeba</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On the farm of Daniel Page<br>all the citizens of the ward come together<br>and Jacobus Potgieter hurried there<br>and they crowd around the rifles and ammunition</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that the government was providing<br>just a little distance from the cornfields<br>and Jacobus was like many without a weapon, <br>but ready to serve his country</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and from many hunting expeditions<br>with his brother in law, Jacobus was very capable<br>with a rifle.<br>This was however the first time<br>that he had been called up for war<br>and at dusk he was on the porch</div><div style="margin:10px 0">when the field coronet arrived with a letter <br>addressed to the four black captains <br>who were rebelling<br>and it happened on the same night<br>that the field coronet still awake and active</div><div style="margin:10px 0">had to depart with sixteen citizens<br>to Agatha near the native village<br>of captain Mesotie<br>and they were totally unaware</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that they were awaited, <br>where they fought bravely<br>hurrying to the little fortress, <br>firing to try and win the struggle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At Agatha they were cornered, <br>had to make holes <br>through the walls<br>to shoot from the building<br>in their fierce task<br>to resist the attackers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The government after this incident sends <br>a big commando to help, <br>but the Mesotie tribe<br>fires at them with canons <br>from up high and from below<br>and with rifles and spears <br>they assaulted the Boers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Boers answer their attack <br>with their own cannons, <br>shooting into the bushes<br>where a little war erupts, <br>and the commando as both horsemen<br>and foot soldiers<br>rush down to the village<br>opening fire and the village starts to burn.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mesotie surrenders<br>after his tribe loses the battle, <br>being tired from the events of the past days. <br>All his tribe’s rifles, <br>spears and many other weapons <br>are destroyed<br>and the village is stripped<br>of grain before the fire destroys it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General PJ Joubert manages to <br>get captain Sebboel in control<br>and captain Mapit’s tribe <br>is caught and are crestfallen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Magoeba flees with his tribe<br>into the thick bush and his village<br>is burnt to the ground and stripped, <br>but the Magoeba tribe circles out<br>taking half of Houtbergbos<br>and the town was almost lost to them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Six forts are constructed<br>to try and get the Magoeba tribe under control.<br>The enemy however<br>draws the citizens manning the forts<br>out of the forts<br>while they wait in ambush<br>and surround them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The government again calls up <br>a large commando<br>and even tribesmen from Swaziland come to help.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the Swazi warriors<br>behead Magoeba and nineteen others with a sword, <br>praising the ancestral spirits<br>and the Boer citizens</div><div style="margin:10px 0">win the war against the rest of the Magoeba tribe<br>pinning them against the hill<br>and taking them prisoner<br>and come to the aid of the Swazi’s in times of trouble.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>II. The Jameson raid of 1896</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter was busy <br>trading yellow-wood planks<br>for cattle and was far from his farm, <br>when he heard about the nonsense<br>due to Jameson and his little gang</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and he hurried to render his services <br>while they were invading the Transvaal, <br>but when he did reach Pretoria <br>the shots had already been fired<br>and the enemy had been imprisoned.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Cronje had decided <br>to lead Jameson’s band into a trap<br>that was set near Krugersdorp<br>and at Doornkop the little battle was fought<br>and some of the citizens, <br>as agents of the government, <br>took good quality rifles and canon.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After this incident President Kruger <br>had set a ultimatum to the foreigners<br>and a large commando went to collect the rifles <br>that they had smuggled into the country.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Judge Gregorowski gave the members <br>of the reform committee the death penalty<br>but President Paul Kruger had mercy<br>and changed the sentence <br>to fifteen years imprisonment<br>and once again he considered the requests<br>for leniency, by changing the sentences to a large fine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Even Cecil John Rhodes was involved <br>with the invasion<br>and he lost his position as prime minister <br>of the Cape colony</div><div style="margin:10px 0">but the British government had refused <br>to pay a single cent <br>of the claim of damages, <br>and the problems with the foreigners <br>had not been solved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>III. The Magatoe war of 1897</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Back in 1867 the parents of Jacobus Potgieter, <br>all the inhabitants of Schoemansdal, <br>had to flee from the forces of Magatoe<br>and the farmers were anxious<br>of the raids of pillage and plunder <br>of the “Babbler”<br>and Jacobus himself saw<br>the destruction of Magatoe’s tribe</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and how the town and church, had to be left<br>to the mercy of Magatoe <br>and how they had to flee<br>further back into the republic.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The situation became more serious<br>and in 1897 the government<br>called together a commando<br>of four thousand citizens to stop the plunder <br>of Magatoe’s tribe and before the attack, <br>a day of prayer was held<br>asking God to have mercy on His nation.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The commando was still far away<br>into the hills, the cliffs, <br>when firing started from the Magatoe tribe <br>while their view was still obstructed</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and Jacobus was in the front lines of the battle<br>where he and other Boers, with accurate shots<br>drove the enemy back<br>as most of them were marksmen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Suddenly a thick cloud of fog appeared<br>enveloping the whole enemy village, <br>giving the Boers time to build entrenchments<br>from behind which they could harass the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the entrenchments were ready<br>the thick cloud of fog over Magatoe’s village <br>started to dissipate and to general Joubert it seemed fit, <br>as he gave orders<br>to dropp canon shells and bullets<br>like rain on that village.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In a half hour’s time they stormed<br>into the village<br>while firing at will.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Most of Magatoe’s warriors<br>fled to safety <br>and some was killed, <br>and one rose from a hole<br>to try and resist, </div><div style="margin:10px 0">but Magatoe’s tribe, the Matabele (Ndebele) <br>then fled to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) <br>and that formidable tribe <br>was taught a lesson<br>and after thirty years stopped harassing the Boers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> <br>IV. Preview to the war with Britain</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus had just been back at home<br>when in 1899 he had to leave it<br>and had to leave his family behind, <br>to get involved with the war against Britain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He had been gone <br>on a two month long hunting expedition, <br>where he was hunting from the back of his horse<br>and so many animals were shot<br>that he filled an ox wagon, <br>but out of duty he had to go on commando<br>and had to leave his wife and children behind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Along with his friends they hunted fifty animals.<br>The game consisted of giraffes, cape oryxes<br>and eland, many was shot at a time</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and he first went back <br>to greet his family as he had to be on commando<br>by the eleventh of October<br>and he went on horseback without fear of the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After five hours on horseback from Houtbosberg<br>they got to the laager, <br>greeted other men there, <br>but had to leave again to the Soutpansberg hills</div><div style="margin:10px 0">to meet with another commando coming from Spitskop<br>at the Crocodile River and was told, <br>that the government had declared war<br>on Great Britain and was ordered to go to war.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That evening one citizen was of the opinion<br>that the war would not last long, <br>as they were civilised men<br>and every one a marksmen</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and he did hear that the British <br>was also a civilised people<br>and differences<br>could be sorted out, in a civilised manner<br>and he gave big value to that quality of them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Somebody else thought <br>that it would take months long<br>and another person that for many evenings<br>they would have to gather around fires<br>and that the government has another plan <br>apart from war<br>to resist the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>V. The start of the war</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From a hillock<br>two Boer commandos storm from the back<br>into a British camp and start the battle<br>and a couple of British soldiers are shot, <br>a lot of them are captured, but it’s almost in vain<br>as most of them flee and get away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Boers follow them <br>in the direction of the Tuli River and at daybreak<br>some of the enemy combine forces <br>with comrades at a ox wagon<br>and the Boers shoot accurately<br>to try and stop them<br>and the British break from cover </div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the enemy flee <br>to find shelter in a house<br>that is empty <br>and try to resist from the cover of it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The house is shot to pieces<br>and for the third time on one day<br>the British again flee from that aria<br>against the superior numbers of Boers</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the next day<br>the Boers capture nine wagons, left behind<br>with ammunition and food.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The next day Boer scouts<br>find a large abandoned British camp<br>with tents, horses and mules where they stop<br>and while Jacobus tries to rid his feet from cramps, <br>he notices a large cloud of dust<br>that is coming in their direction, <br>that he interprets as enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There’s a field coronet <br>that stands his man, <br>to resist the enemy<br>while two Boer commandos flee past him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At dusk Jacobus Potgieter finds more men<br>with a canon on a hillock<br>and with just more than twenty Boer citizens<br>he is worried, <br>but prepares for and waits the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The more the night darkens, <br>the nearer the cloud of dust comes<br>and the Boers are ready to resist the enemy, <br>to let no Englishman pass them<br>and there’s a rumbling sound <br>and something is wrong</div><div style="margin:10px 0">as no enemy appears<br>and they are taken by surprise<br>in the moonlight<br>without a shot being fired, <br>by a huge swarm of grasshoppers<br>of which the whole veldt is covered<br>where they swarm like ants.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was really disillusioned and angry<br>about the cowardliness of officers, <br>of which some<br>do not return to the commando<br>and to him this is nearly treason<br>and to him they are worse than animals.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sometimes some of the Boers <br>just asked permission<br>not to participate in the battle<br>(of which the general just had to bare knowledge) <br>and in that way the Boer forces decreased<br>and the permission could not be denied<br>and then the men went home, went away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Generals could only react<br>against men deserting without permission<br>and some left the others<br>and was sometimes nearby</div><div style="margin:10px 0">sometimes seen near to battlefields, <br>as spectators watching<br>how the battle develops<br>and some of these later worked for the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VI. The siege of Kimberley</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Soutpansberg commando got instructions<br>to go to the Modder Rivier, <br>to stop the enemy<br>who were marching along the railway track.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The commando was divided in two<br>and Jacobus Potgieter was ordered<br>to ride along with field coronet Alberts by train<br>to Modder River near to Magersfontein</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the other field coronets and the commandant<br>went to Colenso to help put it to siege<br>and to surround that town.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At the Modder River they met general Cronje<br>and seven thousand other citizens<br>and greeted each other.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just a little later commandant-general De la Rey<br>and the Transvaal citizens were added to strengthen<br>the citizens from the Orange Free State<br>and quickly they got to work.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Boers wanted to stop the British march, <br>before the enemy could cross the river<br>and tried to beat them with trenches and ramparts<br>and by this method break their attack.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The river was a natural strong point<br>for their defence<br>with sheltering that the enemy <br>would not be able to see<br>and trenches were placed near to the steep banks</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The train bridge was blasted away <br>and three places was left to cross the river<br>from where they would stop the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General De la Rey thought that the main column <br>would come along the railway<br>to cross the river near to the bridge<br>and wanted to break this superior numbered force.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just Bosmansdift and Rosmeadsdrift <br>were the other places where the river would suit the British, <br>considering the depth of the river and exposure <br>to fire that the Boers could manage.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The southern banks of the river<br>was taken by the Soutpansberg citizens to cover it, <br>with the men of general Cronje<br>as part of his plans</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that covered the aria between Bosmansdrift<br>and the intersection of the Modder <br>and Riet Rivers and the men were enthusiastic<br>to try and shoot accurately.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General De la Rey with about eight hundred<br>Transvaal citizens was waiting on the right<br>near toe the rail crossing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the long grass and sand on the left<br>between the Riet River<br>and the Modder River some more citizens<br>were positioned to cover Bosmansdrift<br>if the enemy want to cross it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Prinsloo with a few thousand <br>Orange Free State citizens were<br>to the west of general de La Rey’s men<br>lying from the bridge up to Rosmeadsdrift<br>between rocky ledges.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the shelter of the riverbank<br>behind the men the horses were kept<br>with them neighing every now and then<br>and on the northern side <br>of the Riet River a few canon<br>was placed behind the men.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Most of the canons were set up<br>next to the railway track<br>to cover the aria in front of general de La Rey<br>and to hit the main oncoming column.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A prayer before the battle was: <br>“Dear Father, here we are together<br>before the big battle <br>coming tomorrow, to pray<br>to you. We are scared, <br>that’s why we are here, <br>praying like we are now doing.<br>Over there are the British<br>also Christians like us. Maybe they <br>are also praying<br>just as we are doing. For this reason <br>I want to ask you<br>please do not take the part<br>of either one<br>and if it is your will, <br>stay out of it, <br>then tomorrow you will see something! ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was shouted: “Here they come! ”<br>When the canon behind them started shooting<br>the citizens started firing on the oncoming enemy<br>and the enemy took cover in an open aria</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the whole day long<br>they had to stay there on the ground<br>as they got shots<br>from Boers sheltered in trenches.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Every time during that day <br>that the enemy tried to storm forward<br>the Boers were taking marksmen shots<br>with their Mausers<br>and pinned them down, hour after hour<br>until the dark night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For ten hours long <br>the enemy was lying there and nobody<br>was able to move <br>and every one that tried to get up<br>was shot down with Mauser fire<br>coming from positions that they were not aware of.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the first rifle fire <br>the British answered with canon fire<br>whereupon with big success<br>the Boers answered with their long-tom canons<br>and the machinegun of the enemy <br>was destroyed by the Boers artillery <br>at the beginning of the battle<br>and the British were halted for hours long.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A British column moved past from the left<br>and swept general Prinsloo’s men back.<br>Under orders of commandant general de La Rey, <br>the Lichtenburg commando went to free them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Following this the British was shot back<br>from Rosmeadsdrift, but a small number<br>of the British got past Bosmansdrift, <br>from where in the heat of the battle<br>they were also shot back<br>and the battle lasted into the dark night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After sunset general De la Rey ordered<br>his men to fall back to Jacobsdal<br>and the citizens were happy with this decision.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Free State citizens went to <br>their set positions at Spytfontein <br>and Scholsnek about twelve miles from Kimberley<br>to disappear into their trenches there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Cronje got about 7000 citizens<br>back from Mafakeng<br>to come and help at the Modder River<br>and Lord Methuen waited on reinforcements <br>to be able to stop the Boers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the Boers went to work<br>to dig trenches at the feet <br>of the Magersfontein hillocks, <br>to strengthen their positions<br>and then they took cover in the trenches.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the Merthon train stop for about three miles east, <br>at the foot of the Magersfontein hillocks<br>the main force of about 3500 citizens was set<br>in trenches up unto a low hill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Next to the trenches, well camouflaged<br>small forts were built<br>from where the Boers could fire<br>at any place on the battlefield.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter was placed with 600 men<br>in a position right against the railway track, <br>where general Cronje thought<br>that the British would try and break through.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">About 1500 citizens were placed on the right wing, <br>north of the Modder River station<br>under command of general Andries Cronje, <br>but the left wing with 2500 citizens, east of Magersfontein<br>was without trenches and without a defence line.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To mislead the enemy<br>a few forts were build on the hillocks<br>with eleven canon set on the hillocks<br>and the trenches was hidden <br>by the camouflage of branches and grass.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the British on 10 December 1899 started firing<br>with canon fire from Scholsnek<br>and were covering the aria with bombs, <br>it was the first time <br>that Jacobus Potgieter resisted them <br>under direct canon fire<br>and brave men with rifles fired back at the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Piet Cronje called the citizens together<br>while looking at them earnestly: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Citizens, the enemy is ready to move against us.<br>We have to remember one thing.<br>To fall back the lives of others <br>are placed in the balance, <br>and 20 to 30 lives are lost.<br>When the enemy move out against us, I will<br>set up a flying commando en lead it to them.”<br> <br>General Cronje ordered them to wait <br>until the enemy moves and then to storm forward <br>for about five hundred paces<br>and then to take deadly shots</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and not to look if anyone is being hit, <br>just to be aware of the enemy<br>and to read their movements.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Cronje’s words were: <br>“This is the place where we have to beat the enemy! ”<br>Just at about midnight the British<br>started their march to Magersfontein <br>with general-major AG Wauchope leading in the front.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was very cold and pitch dark <br>with rain pouring down<br>and they reached the hillocks <br>while thunderbolts were dropping down, <br>totally unaware of the trenches <br>onto which they were marching.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The enemy came in on an unexpected wing<br>and the citizens then killed a large number <br>of British soldiers in the dusk <br>and shot after shot was taken<br>and in the front Wauchope received <br>seven shots simultaneously<br>and the enemy was confused <br>while the Boers were mowing them down.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some turned about to run back<br>and were falling over the ones behind them<br>causing still greater chaos<br>and it was still dark when the canons<br>were already getting involved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Boers were surrounded while the enemy <br>tried to break through, <br>to try and win Kimberley back, <br>but their attacks were stopped<br>at a great cost to the British, <br>who time and again<br>stormed into the Boer fire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the enemy turned right to try and demolish<br>general Cronje’s left wing, to kill the Boers there, <br>but were shot down by the resisting Boers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The whole day long the bombardment <br>of the British canons were falling<br>and at about twelve o’clock<br>general Cronje gave orders <br>to Jacobus Potgieter’s commando<br>to move running onto the left wing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They stormed onto the enemy <br>and their attack was so effective<br>that the enemy turned around fleeing<br>and the Boers took the initiative<br>driving a great number of the British back.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With the British defeat<br>Jacobus could not establish<br>the number of enemy dead<br>as some were already taken away during the battle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Jacobus Potgieter walked on the battlefield<br>three days after the battle<br>there were bloody British flags<br>and some wounded moaning men totally without hope</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and by then the dead had been driven away for days<br>and there were still hundreds that he found there<br>and after five days the enemy were still digging graves<br>and were still busy with funeral services.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Commando after commando<br>went home after that battle <br>and left the rest of the Boers there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Cecil John Rhodes<br>were at the point of handing Kimberley over, <br>of letting the Boers into the town, <br>when Methuen attacked with 40000 <br>soldiers as a flashpoint.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With a battle lasting three days long<br>the British broke through at Paardeberg, <br>firing hour after hour at the Boers<br>but the Boers broke this attack.<br> <br>Then the huge British force tried to break through<br>the forces of the Orange Free State, <br>but were waited upon <br>by the men of commandant Jacobs.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then they send a column past the backside<br>and they faced general Christian de Wet <br>and his men shot them out off their territory.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the Boers had halted <br>the whole of the British force, <br>the British got some more reinforcements <br>to try again to break through on the eastern side<br>in such a great force <br>that the Boers could not stop them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter was at Scholsnek<br>with the Soutpansberg commando<br>for almost three months <br>under unstopped canon bombardment<br>and after the breakthrough <br>general Cronje gave orders to draw back.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Leave your trenches and fight a way through to the laager.”<br>The next day the Boers were gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">During the night Jacobus Potgieter <br>fled with the laager<br>and there were a lot of wagons <br>that had to go back.<br>Over farms and in the veldt, <br>women and children were joining them<br>and Jacobus caught a wild horse<br>and tamed it in that night<br>as if it was destined for him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wagons kept general Cronje’s commando back<br>causing the British to catch up with them<br>and they began shelling <br>from one of the woman’s farm<br>in a huge bombardment.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At eight o’clock that night <br>the Boers again moved out<br>and the superfluous things were thrown away<br>as many horses and oxen had been killed <br>by the bombardment and the distress was huge</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and then general Christian de Wet <br>almost fought right through the British<br>to come and free general Cronje’s men.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Until eight o’clock that morning <br>the Boers were fleeing <br>as the enemy was formidable<br>and field coronets Jacobus Potgieter<br>and H Schnell were ordered<br>to go and find some horses<br>but to try and avoid the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The walking Boers were tired<br>without a proper opportunity <br>to get away from the British<br>and the remaining oxen <br>were thin and tired from the pulling</div><div style="margin:10px 0">at the continuous fast pace<br>and from a shortage of grass<br>and they did not know<br>to eat the lye-bushes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter caught up <br>with general Cronje.<br>General Cronje was at the front side of the laager<br>and strong like steel, <br>checking the canon and was very worried<br>and then the commando again<br>came under British canon bombardment.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the bushes Jacobus heard horses <br>and were chasing them<br>catching them and waged his life in the dark<br>before Jacobus took the horses into a bush<br>and decided not to go back in the dark<br>as it was too dangerous.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The next morning Jacobus tried<br>to go back to the laager<br>and came across other citizens<br>that had fled from the laager <br>and they told him<br>to turn back as the commando <br>was surrounded and the whole time <br>under enemy rifle and canon fire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter did not listen to them<br>and another group of citizens <br>that he crossed paths with<br>told him the same thing<br>and he was annoyed: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“If we turn around and leave our brothers<br>in their position of distress, <br>it can cost their lives<br>and we do not deserve anything better than death.<br>Come on brothers, bring your rifles! ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then on his own Jacobus Potgieter rode <br>still nearer to the laager<br>and he was in a hurry, not saving the horses<br>and he met commandant P Schutte<br>who asked him very worried: <br>“Where do you think, <br>you are going with those horses? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He explained that he was taking them<br>through to the laager<br>and commandant P Schutte was totally amazed<br>and said to him: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Brother, before God nothing is impossible, <br>but those citizens in that laager<br>will never again come out of it.<br>The enemy has more than enough to take there.<br>Do not take more booty to them.<br>If you go to that laager with these horses<br>they will catch you and all of these horses.<br>Rather turn back and go to Brandfort and wait<br>for my report about the outcome.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He listened to the advice of the commandant<br>and later he came to know that the enemy<br>had put 150 canons and 75000 soldiers <br>with continuous bombardment<br>against 4000 citizens and their 6 canons.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At long last general Cronje had to surrender<br>against the overpowering numbers<br>that day and night <br>came nearer to them<br>and without mercy the citizens <br>that were captured were sent<br>to St. Helena Island for imprisonment.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Of the fourteen field coronets ten was killed<br>and only Jacobus Potgieter and H Schnell did escape<br>while shots were fired at them<br>and a while later the British <br>marched into Bloemfontein<br>with the Boers <br>not really being able to stop them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VII. The invasion of Natal</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the defeat at Paardeberg<br>Jacobus Potgieter was sent home<br>to rest for a month<br>and the trip took days<br>but it wasn’t really dangerous<br>and he took the horses along<br>as did not want to leave them with anyone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus returned to the war<br>and had to go to Burgersberg in Natal<br>where he was very unhappy<br>with the leadership <br>of the commanding officers<br>and the fact that they did not take action<br>against deserters</div><div style="margin:10px 0">as general Piet Cronje and his men<br>were known for careful plans<br>and their bravery<br>and Jacobus was responsible <br>to give supplies like food, clothes <br>and ammunition to his comrades.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With the outbreak of the war<br>the citizens of general Joubert<br>went to Newcastle and Dundee<br>to conquer the coal fields.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The 4500 citizens of general Lucas Meyer <br>were on their way to the Talana hillocks, <br>to take the enemy on, <br>with general Erasmus leading his 5000 citizens <br>to the Mpate kopjes<br>and general de Kock’s 750 men went<br>to cut the railway connection at Elandslaagte.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Without great adversary Newcastle <br>on 16 October fell to the Boers<br>and on 20 October 1899 <br>Dundee was bombarded<br>from the hillocks with shots <br>falling into the enemy camp</div><div style="margin:10px 0">where big chaos broke out<br>among the 3800 soldiers<br>where the British general Penn-Symons<br>got them under control<br>and began with a counter attack<br>and then the British <br>were held behind a wall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To inspire his troops<br>Penn-Symons ran through<br>the opening in the wall<br>where he got several fatal shots.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The British infantry <br>then stormed the hillock<br>and came under fire <br>from the Boers at the top<br>and their own artillery <br>that killed some of them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the Boers were driven away <br>from the hillock<br>they pursued the fleeing Boers<br>but the whole British horse battalion was unaware<br>of the men of general Erasmus<br>and all of them were captured<br>and their horses were taken from them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On 19 October general de Kock’s men<br>assaulted the British trains<br>where they draw the few British soldiers into a fight<br>and started to unload the wagons.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An angry general White<br>rushed his 3500 soldiers to Elandslaagte<br>where they started to shell the Boers<br>catching the Boers of balance.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At Dundee brigadier general Yule took command<br>and under instructions from general White<br>the British were fleeing back to Ladysmith.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Another 9000 Boers<br>under chief commandant Prinsloo<br>were shelled, <br>but saw the British soldiers storming<br>over a open piece of veldt<br>from where they shot them back<br>with rifle fire, driving them right into Ladysmith.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When general Meyer resigned<br>field coronet Louis Botha got his position<br>and it did not take long<br>for him to proof his bravery <br>and to rise as a great leader.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the hillocks at Ladysmith White’s soldiers <br>were waiting on the Boers<br>but started their bombardment <br>on a hillock without any Boer on it</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and then the canons of the Boers fired back, <br>out shooting those of the British <br>and while the Boers long-tom canons <br>brought destruction<br>general Joubert attacked the British form all sides<br>where in humiliation White had lost <br>954 soldiers as prisoners of war.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the surrounding hillocks <br>Ladysmith was bombarded by canon<br>where 12500 soldiers <br>and 7800 citizens were housed<br>with bombs coming down on them<br>and they were left with food <br>for two months and feed for only one month.<br> <br>On 9 November the Boers attacked the town<br>with their commandos but could not take it<br>and the counter attack <br>of George White was resisted, <br>but then it happened</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that the liberation column <br>of Buller started its march<br>trying to penetrate the Boer commandos, <br>but the Boers were waiting for them<br>on the other side of the Tugela River<br>and the British army <br>was unable to find the drift<br>to try and pass through the river<br>and were defeated in chaos</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and 143 were killed,755 wounded <br>and 240 were taken prisoner of war<br>which had an impact on the career of Buller<br>and he was fired as supreme commander<br>and become only the commander<br>for the invasion through Natal <br>with Lord Roberts replacing him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Although Buller then had 30000 soldiers, <br>his soldiers were thrashed <br>at Spioenkop and Vaalkrans<br>but with his great superior number of men, <br>eventually Buller liberated Ladysmith and Colenso<br>and Jacobus Potgieter <br>had been two months in Natal<br>when Buller’s big army attacked them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With the death of general Joubert, from illness, <br>general Louis Botha<br>was appointed in his place<br>who ordered the Boer forces to pull back<br>to the border with the Transvaal<br>where trenches were prepared<br>to try and stop the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The British numbers were far too big<br>and a lot of Boers were killed<br>and the Boers could not stop the big force, <br>with which the British went through them<br>and later the Orange Free State and Transvaal <br>republics both <br>came under annexation from Great Britain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>VIII. The changing face of the war</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the defeat on the border of the Transvaal<br>the Boers gathered on 17 March at Kroonstad<br>and all their military and political leaders were there<br>and general Christiaan de Wet accepted leadership, <br>as commandant-general of the Orange Free State<br>and they talked and planned together.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Commandant-general de Wet’s plan<br>was to keep his men highly mobile, <br>to take the war to the rear guard of the enemy, <br>to settle the fight<br>from their horses with their rifles.<br>They would find food <br>and ammunition on the farms<br>and would constantly change <br>their position and ride on.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was fruitless to fight <br>against overpowering numbers<br>in the front lines, <br>where the British were only waiting <br>to decimate the Boers and conditions <br>were worsened for the Boers<br>and to hit the enemy <br>where they expect it the least, <br>could do great damage to them<br>and had the possibility <br>to win the two countries back again.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But first the citizens had to go home<br>to rest for a month<br>and general de Wet was well aware, <br>that he was going to loose some soldiers, <br>but only the brave<br>and the most determined<br>would then come back to him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The plan was then accepted <br>by commandant-general De la Rey<br>and both presidents Kruger and Steyn <br>for the Boers to ride out in raids<br>and not to spare any rear defence.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The whole matter <br>was a big embarrassment to the British.<br>The Boer patriots<br>attacked with surprise and again disappeared<br>before a big British force could react<br>and de Wet did become a big head ache to them<br>and they could not stop, the attacks from the Boers <br>or their guerrilla warfare tactics.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To cut the Boers supply lines<br>Kitchener decided <br>to let his army ride through the farms, <br>to drive out the women and children<br>and to put them in concentration camps</div><div style="margin:10px 0">with armed soldiers closing down on farms<br>burning down farms, houses and even towns, <br>claiming the Boers possessions or selling it<br>and by force removing women and children.<br>He also armed the black tribesmen<br>to attack the farms, <br>to expel women and children with firearms, <br>to kill them and to rape<br>at night and during the day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some people believe that Kitchener carefully<br>chose numerous places <br>that was hideous, <br>where people was held in perilous conditions</div><div style="margin:10px 0">but it remains a fact<br>that he did not spend a lot of time<br>on the planning<br>and choosing of the camps, <br>without any feelings for being humane, <br>or the considering of sicknesses and disasters.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There were fifty concentration camps <br>that are now being seen as places<br>of human suffering and sorrow<br>where about 110000 women <br>and children were held captured<br>and where more than 20000 starved <br>from the pests prevailing<br>through sickness of almost any kind, <br>glass that was grinded into the meal, <br>and glass and fishing hooks <br>in the salt meat and so on, <br>as if the British did not <br>possess humanity at all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the camps were in marches<br>or at wet muddy places<br>at cold windy places, <br>constructed next to rivers<br>without hygienic conditions to disrupt lives<br>and some women had to bath <br>and wash in pools after rain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sometimes people in these camps <br>had to stay in the open for lengths of time<br>exposed to sun, rain, hail and wind, <br>as if it was being planned to kill them<br>and sometimes they had to beg for clothes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Food rations was inadequate<br>and some people starved<br>from lack of food, <br>meat from sick animals <br>were unhygienic cut into pieces.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Only one doctor was appointed <br>for every camp<br>with numbers of more than four thousand people, <br>mostly without hospital facilities<br>with a lot of complaints<br>that the medicine was poisoned<br>and medical treatment was not given to everybody.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>IX. The war in the Soutpansberg</div><div style="margin:10px 0">General Beyers was sent by the government<br>as leader to both the Soutpansberg <br>and Waterberg commandos, <br>to try and win the war against the British<br>and it was clear that he knew the art<br>of using the environment <br>as camouflage while attacking the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Jacobus Potgieter arrived <br>in the Northern Transvaal <br>they had to avoid Pretoria <br>to get to Warmbaths, <br>as Pretoria had fallen to the enemy<br>and for two months <br>they were harassing the British<br>and when Paget had withdrawn to Pienaars River, <br>the Waterberg district was the frontline, <br>but there were many traitors among the Boers</div><div style="margin:10px 0">who daily went to the British, <br>some were tired of fighting <br>against the British<br>and others later came back<br>on instruction of the British, <br>to try and convince <br>some more to surrender.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was again chosen<br>as field coronet of Houtbergbos<br>and had to go there with immediate effect, <br>to appose the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With a overwhelming big force <br>Paget went to Pietersburg<br>that fell to the British on 29 March 1901, <br>where the British plundered <br>whatever they could<br>and they were placing women and children <br>into concentration camps<br>and took cattle to Pretoria as a source of food.<br>They were burning down houses, <br>destroyed farms, <br>were even casting salt onto the fields.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The British possession of Pietersburg <br>drove the Boers into the mountains<br>with the British in control <br>of the whole Northern Transvaal, <br>with Colenbrander and Plummer <br>driving the war there, <br>trying to destroy the Boer commando<br>of general Beyers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Plummer made his invasion <br>along the Olifant River<br>and in that unknown aria <br>befriended the blacks, <br>giving firearms to them<br>to attack the women on farms<br>and with all the Boer traitors <br>that were acting for the British, <br>Jacobus Potgieter resigned as field coronet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the British at Heanertsburg <br>started fighting with the Boers, <br>the Boers saw a cloud <br>of dust coming along, <br>that was rising from the direction of Houtbosberg<br>and Jacobus Potgieter and W van Heerden<br>went out during the night<br>to scout on the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just where they had seen the cloud of dust, <br>they arrived during the night at a black village<br>and sneaked up to the wall of the village<br>and called a black man over<br>to get some information from him<br>while trying to avoid the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The man told them lies <br>that only two wagons<br>belonging to the Boers had passed<br>and about the direction that the wagons<br>had gone he kept on being deceitful.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the tracks Jacobus could see<br>that it was six wagons of the British, <br>and probably on the way to their camp, <br>but unfortunately <br>he did not give the black man<br>any further attention <br>whose village had been instructed<br>by the British to attack the women <br>and children on the farms, <br>to rob and pillage with firearms.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Back at the commando a spy<br>told them about a British unit approaching<br> from another direction<br>and they had to go out scouting<br>to see what the British was up to, <br>but could find no signs of their presence<br>while they were riding along the whole day long.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At the place where the commando had been <br>a letter had been left: <br>“Come in the direction of Haenertsburg.” <br>Jacobus and field coronet Marais then decided<br>to get more information<br>and hurried to the farm <br>of Jacobus that was nearby.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On the farm Jacobus’s wife Margritha <br>ran crying up to them and said: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Where were you the whole day? <br>The whole territory<br>has been taken by the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The canons were firing the whole day long<br>and the blacks have stolen all the cattle.<br>All the people have left! They said that they<br>would stay at a certain mountain<br>and we have to meet them there.<br>The enemy has gone into the mountains<br>with thousands of blacks<br>going along with them.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was already dark <br>and they went to the nearest neighbour<br>to try and get more information.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They greeted him: “How are things here? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The neighbour answered: <br>“The enemy went into the hills<br>shortly after the two of you had left.<br>The commando <br>went in the direction of Wolkberg.<br>The long-tom canon<br>had fired 16 shots. The enemy<br>was almost at the canon <br>when the 17th shot was fired. The canon crew<br>blew the canon into pieces with dynamite.<br>The blacks took all the cattle and sheep<br>and all of the clothes and blankets<br>of the women and children. <br>Also every thing in the house, <br>including all the food. Chickens and pigs <br>have been killed. The women<br>were pushed about by the blacks.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From there they went to the houses <br>of other citizens to find some more answers<br>until two o’clock at night whereupon Marais said: <br>“Let us go to Wolkberg.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus answered: “The blacks<br>are pillaging the women and children<br>and who knows if the are going to kill them as well. <br>I will stay here to look for some more citizens, <br>if your want to go to Wolkberg.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Marais went to Wolkberg where he was <br>captured by the enemy, <br>Jacobus found nobody else<br>while he was riding to his farm<br>and he had to hide his horse<br>to be able to escape with it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then he sneaked around the house<br>to see if his family was safe<br>and all of them were well<br>and he was aware of the Lord’s mercy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The next morning Jacobus<br>found two more citizens<br>and heard from them<br>about the pillaging done by the blacks, <br>that had happened to other families</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the blacks did not even<br>leave a blanket for the children, <br>or anything to eat<br>and the people <br>would not be able to forget these evil events</div><div style="margin:10px 0">that for Jacobus spoke<br>of barbarism and the frailty of man<br>and in his heart he wished disaster on the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus Potgieter, JM Dames and L Alberts together <br>made plans to protect their families.<br>They decided that each man<br>would stay at his own house<br>as long as he could<br>and would fire on anyone coming near<br>until death to rescue their families.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the blacks came with rifles<br>to pillage these citizens, <br>the Boers opened fire on them, <br>to stop the attacks</div><div style="margin:10px 0">where they were around the houses, <br>like vultures waiting for the death<br>of the farmers. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But with shot upon shot <br>they were warded off, <br>where these farmers were on guard<br>sitting and praying<br>for God to stop the enemy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They saw the British Calvary riding past<br>and had decided to wait on the enemy, <br>in order for the women to ask their protection, <br>but after three days and nights they were far too tired.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They then did decide to surrender, as they could not anymore<br>carry on with the blacks that were serving the enemy<br>and Jacobus Potgieter and L Alberts went to the enemy, <br>while J Dames stayed behind to guard their families.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus had decided to trust in God, <br>in faith to hold on to the salvation of the Lord<br>and with a heavy heart he went to surrender, <br>to try and protect his family with this deed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The enemy was scared when they saw Jacobus<br>as they were people from <br>the Cape colony without arms, <br>that was part of the British force<br>and acted as drivers for wagons and mules.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They were in the riverbed, <br>at the long-tom canon<br>that had been shot into pieces<br>and were trying to get a piece <br>of the canon out of the water.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They greeted the drivers<br>and went to meet the British<br>at Najensbrook, about a hour from home, <br>where an officer <br>were giving orders in Afrikaans.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus asked: “What is going on? <br>I expect to meet Englishmen here.<br>Now I meet Boers as enemies? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One answers him: “What do you think? <br>We are many more than you.<br>Our commando is about 1200 strong<br>and we are mostly Boers <br>who are helping the British.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Jacobus asks confused: “How can it be, <br>that you are fighting against your own nation? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“We are British subjects from<br>the Cape colony and Natal.”<br>Then Jacobus asks: “Where is your general? <br>I want to see him.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the officer gave orders to a driver: <br>“Take this man to the general, <br>the main commander of the laager.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The laager where they were going<br>was far from there and Jacobus and Alberts <br>still were carrying their rifles<br>and met the officer being angry about the events<br>of the day before and laid their weapons down <br>and asked the British officer: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Why does it look as if you<br>are fighting with black people against us, <br>how do you let black people <br>pillage our homes and families? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the officer bursts loose: <br>“Why did you not surrender<br>before I had to come here? <br>You let me come here for no reason! ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whereupon Jacobus said: “It isn’t fair<br>to fight with the blacks against the whites.<br>Still more so, to let them attack our women! ” </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The officer answered unruly: <br>“I have instructed the black people <br>not to do such things, <br>but they do not want to listen.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whereupon Jacobus answers him: <br>“I do not believe it! ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The officer then told them<br>to go and wait on a certain farm for a day or so.<br>Whereupon Jacobus was still more angry: <br>“No! I do not have time to sit around.<br>Give orders to the blacks <br>to stop pillaging our families.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The officer ordered Jacobus to wait<br>on his commander who had to come<br>and Jacobus harassed that commander<br>with the accusation</div><div style="margin:10px 0">about the blacks pillaging <br>women and children<br>at which the officer granted his request</div><div style="margin:10px 0">but at that time most of the farms<br>had already been pillaged, <br>and the women and kids were endangered<br>and treated very badly by the blacks.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the officer said: “I will let you go back.<br>Bring your families here.”<br>Whereupon Jacobus shook his head and replied: <br>“The blacks have robbed all the oxen and wagons.<br>How am I to do it? ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The colonel then gave the blacks instructions<br>to give the oxen and wagons back<br>but they did not really care about his commands, <br>whereupon Jacobus went back to his family<br>where they were safe but full of sorrow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The blacks had only returned six oxen <br>and no wagons<br>and at the house of L Alberts <br>there were some more problems, <br>with one hundred and three people <br>that had fled there<br>without clothes, food and blankets<br>and they were women and children<br>who had been molested<br>and pillaged by the blacks.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was astonished<br>as some of these women <br>had walked 24 miles<br>and had carried <br>their small children on their backs.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A woman said: “The blacks pushed me around<br>against the ground.” </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Another one: “The blacks stabbed me with a <br>Assegai (spear) in the breast.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A third one said: “They were hitting me <br>with rifles against the chest.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Another lady said: “I tried to keep a blanket<br>for my child, <br>but the black man grabbed it<br>and knocked me from my feet<br>whit a rifle.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the blacks <br>that were loyal workers and maids<br>did take some things to look after, <br>when they saw the band of robbers arriving<br>and stormed with these things into the bushes</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and brought the possessions back later<br>and this humanity goes deep<br>into a person’s heart, <br>but it was single items <br>that they were able to take<br>to rescue, <br>like a blanket or sometimes a bed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the blacks acted shamefully, <br>raping some of those women<br>and it was what was reported <br>to Jacobus Johannes Potgieter, <br>and it is reported here truthfully<br>and of these things <br>Jacobus was also a witness</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the enemy had no idea<br>how he felt about these things<br>and to protect his family <br>he went to hand his rifle in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There were 103 women and children<br>that Jacobus Potgieter and L Alberts<br>had to transport with three wagons, <br>but a lot had to walk<br>and this trip was dreadful.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That first night<br>some of the women went to sleep <br>at Jacobus’s house<br>as he still had some food, <br>that he shared with them<br>and his wife was looking <br>for sheets and blankets<br>to try and make beds on the ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some women slept inside on the floor, <br>but others had to sleep outside<br>and it was really terrible, <br>to see vulnerable women lying around.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus went along with the wagons <br>up to the main road<br>and took leave of his wife and companions<br>and rode out to meet the enemy</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the colonel leading them<br>where he said to the colonel: <br>“The women and children, <br>103 of them in total are waiting on you.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the stories that the women <br>and children had heard <br>they were really scared of the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was riding with the enemy <br>to lead them to the women and children<br>and he said to the colonel: <br>“I will go to the families and tell them <br>that you are coming, <br>that they do not have to fear.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The colonel and some of his captains <br>came along to Kuiperkuil<br>where some of the women <br>and children were crying </div><div style="margin:10px 0">out of fear for the enemy, <br>being scared to get hurt<br>and stayed in a group together.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The British loaded these people <br>on some more wagons<br>and turned with them in the road</div><div style="margin:10px 0">taking them to Pietersburg <br>where they lived <br>in houses for a month long<br>and then just before dark one late afternoon, <br>was taken to the concentration camp<br>as sentenced people.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the food that they got to eat, <br>(this is the honest truth) <br>was meat from cattle and sheep <br>that was contaminated with diseases<br>and these illnesses <br>were carried over to these people.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the sick animals<br>were daily slaughtered there in front of the people<br>and the meat given to them to eat, <br>while the British knew about the illnesses<br>that the animals did possess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the rations were flour, <br>coffee and sugar and were given <br>sparingly to the people.<br>Some of the cattle had fire-illness, <br>some with lung-disease<br>and they got that food to eat <br>as if the British <br>had forgotten about these illnesses.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some of the sheep had measles, <br>others were infected with heart-water<br>and this meat was given to the people to eat<br>as if there was no law in the country</div><div style="margin:10px 0">while the British knew about these illnesses<br>and without food <br>these people would also have perished<br>and in this way the British <br>earned more hatred and caused a lot of sorrow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was digging graves for the dead, <br>sometimes as many as seventeen per day, <br>where they loaded as many <br>as twelve bodies at a time<br>on a wagon to bury them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After a time the people refused to eat the meat<br>as they knew that it made them ill<br>and were caused their deaths<br>and they gained the trust of the English doctor</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and he did examine the meat and did confirm<br>that it was terribly infected, <br>almost like a kind of acknowledgement<br>whereupon the sheep <br>were slaughtered and buried.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They then received tinned meat<br>with grain and sometimes fine pieces of glass<br>and fishhooks in them<br>that also droops <br>the British with inhumanity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus took the names <br>and length and width <br>of every dead body<br>and wrote it in his diary <br>and in a way half estranged, <br>he took the bodies <br>after the funeral service to the graves<br>and covered them with sand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In that concentration camp Jacobus dug <br>between sixteen, <br>maybe seventeen graves on a day<br>and he was mourning while he witnessed <br>the death of so many people, <br>but the mule wagon could only take<br>ten to twelve coffins at a time<br>depending on the sizes of the coffins.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The crying and sorrow of this experience<br>stayed with him and his youngest child<br>Margritha Jacoba was only five months old<br>when they went into the concentration camp<br>being aware of people dying.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In every tent where he looked into, <br>Jacobus saw sick people infected<br>with illnesses <br>that they got from the sick meat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After only two weeks <br>in the concentration camp<br>all of his children became ill.<br>Many things was terribly wrong <br>in that concentration camp.<br>All the people with measles died form it, <br>even adults who were kept in that camp.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus felt totally defenceless, <br>knew that the intentions <br>of the British was wrong<br>and the only thing <br>that he and his wife Margritha could do<br>was to reconcile them with the will of God<br>and three times a day they were praying<br>putting the protection of their children <br>before the throne of God.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>X. Jacobus Potgieter escapes</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For a long period of time <br>Jacobus did not receive any news<br>from the commando, <br>but at the insistence of the British<br>a traitor’s wife was sent to the Boers, <br>to try and convince them to surrender<br>and she brought news <br>about the commando’s whereabouts.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Immediately Jacobus <br>started to make plans to escape, <br>to walk away from the British, <br>to join the commando once more<br>and to get the enemy out of his country.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mostly the lower class Boers joined the British<br>to kill Afrikaners for 5 shilling a day, <br>trying to force the Boers to loose the war.<br>The British even tried <br>to convince Jacobus to join them, <br>but he saw it as an evil plan<br>and was angry about it, <br>as he was forced unfairly<br>to surrender, to protect his family</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With the passing time Jacobus made friends<br>with other men <br>and they were also involved in his escape plan, <br>at a time where the British were on the look out<br>for rebellion among the prisoners<br>Jacobus got thirty citizens<br>to lead them to freedom.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After many months Jacobus <br>and his friends got an opportunity<br>to ride along with the wagons <br>that was going out of the camp to collect firewood, <br>but the evening before the escape, <br>many of his friends became too scared to escape<br>and most of them decided to stay, <br>but only seven men<br>went through with the decision to escape.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had a careful plan<br>and took food for four days <br>and two pairs of clothes along, <br>that was strong enough to last a year<br>while they trusted in God to lead them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Unsure Jacobus greeted his wife and children<br>and scared that the British could have a suspicion of trouble<br>they left the crying children in the tent<br>while he greeted them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus was well aware <br>about the dangers of this concentration camp<br>how the food, the bad circumstances <br>impacted on his children, <br>and asked God to look after them<br>and to guide the way back to the commando<br>through the coming dangers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The seven men were somewhat sultry<br>when they got onto the wagons, <br>but in the wood fields they were industrious, <br>working hard<br>while the other men and blacks <br>were turning around them.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The escaping men were: <br>Jacobus Johannes Potgieter, <br>AJ van Jaarsveld, CJ Potgieter <br>(the brother of Jacobus) , SJ de Beer, <br>JH Venter, C Harmse and W van der Gijft, <br>who trusted their lives into the hands of God.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At twilight that night <br>they told the driver of their wagon <br>that they were going to escape, <br>were going to walk back to their commando, <br>but did not tell their plans to him<br>and they had difficulty in convincing him <br>to take the wagon back to the British</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and from the blacks of the nearest rural village<br>they traded a blanket for a goat<br>and made a big fire to fry the meat, <br>while the other citizens <br>were still standing around them<br>and they ate as much as they could, <br>before they went to hide in the bushes</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and the blacks were not aggressive <br>as long as they were with the British, <br>but became very hostile<br>the moment that they were not with the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With their clothes and a blanket each, <br>they left that camp in the wood fields<br>and without talking, <br>sneaked in the dark past the blacks<br>hiding in the bushes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">While working during the day they scouted the aria, <br>finding a route<br>and slipped away without being noticed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was a farm near to them<br>where they could find hidden rifles and ammunition, <br>that was buried there and Jacobus during the day<br>had cut a piece of wood to use as a digging tool, <br>but they first had to pass a large black village.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They kept to the bushes, trusting in God’s help<br>but when after an hour they arrived on the farm, <br>a light was burning in the house on the farm</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and they were astonished to find people there<br>and thought that some of the men <br>who decided not to come along, <br>had betrayed them to the British<br>as the owner of the farm <br>had been captured by the British.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sagrys de Beer said: “Let’s leave the rifles.<br>We are going to get captured here. <br>The voices that we hear are the voices of Boers, <br>but far too many Boers have joined the British <br>to fight against us.<br>We cannot trust anybody, or that they<br>will be on our side.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fifteen paces from the house <br>they then discussed the matter, <br>about either getting the rifles <br>or leaving the weapons and moving on.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacobus who really want the rifles<br>at first did not want to listen to advice and said: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Grys, we cannot leave the rifles here, <br>we have to move over the wall silently<br>and go and dig the rifles out.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> “You will have us caught! Listen to the voices.<br>They are enemy Boers! ”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Grys, just think about the black towns<br>that we will have to pass.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Kotie let us rather walk away while it is still dark.<br>Let us leave the rifles. Even if we go <br>over the wall unnoticed, <br>they will hear us when we start digging<br>with that piece of wood in your hand. <br>They will shoot us. If one of us are wounded<br>we will be very sorry that we did not leave<br>the guns here.<br>Kotie, let’s go. My maid<br>has hidden two of my rifles and ammunition<br>I will go to my farm.<br>My maid is trustworthy.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Grys, I will do as you say. Come, let us go.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thick fog were rising and they were lost, <br>Could not find the road and wandered along<br>until they found the road again<br>and then decided to stay near to it, <br>but the packs that they were carrying <br>were becoming heavy<br>and they were becoming tired.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sagrys said: “Kotie, we have to sleep here.<br>Old Albert and Krisjan cannot walk any further.<br>They are tired. You have to take care <br>of the weakest man among us.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“You are right, Grys. <br>We will have to get away from the road<br>and go down the cliff, to get a sleeping place.<br>When the British become aware that we have escaped, <br>they will start following our tracks.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Kotie, lets turn off here to the left.<br>The cliff is deep. They will never find us here.<br>If suddenly they find us, we can run along<br>the cliff in to the bushes.<br>If we reach the bushes, <br>they can bring thousands of men<br>to try and find us, but will have no success.<br>I know this region very well.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“It sounds like a great plan, <br>come on guys lets go down the cliff.<br>Let’s</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Gert+Strydom">Gert Strydom</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=399903" data-title="Through the eyes of a Field Coronet (Epic) de Gert Strydom" data-description="Introduction

In the kaki coloured tent in Umbilo he writes
his life’s story while women, children and babies are dying, 
slowly but surely are obliterated, he see how his nation is suffering
while the events are notched into his mind.

Lying ev..."></div>
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