Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been maintained. Page 453: The sentence "which [missing word] consider it as still improper to disclose." has been changed to "which I consider as still improper to disclose." Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com GENERAL BEN VILJOEN AND HIS SECRETARY (MR. J. VISSER). MY REMINISCENCES OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR BY GENERAL BEN VILJOEN (ASSISTANT COMMANDANT-GENERAL OF THE TRANSVAAL BURGHER FORCES AND MEMBER FOR JOHANNESBURG IN THE TRANSVAAL VOLKSRAAD) MAPS FROM DRAWINGS BY P. VAN BREDA Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com LONDON: HOOD, DOUGLAS, & HOWARD, 11, CLIFFORD'S INN, E.C. 1902. PREFACE. General Ben Viljoen, while engaged on this work, requested me to write a short introduction to it. This request I gladly comply with. General Viljoen was a prisoner-of-war at Broadbottom Camp, St. Helena, where, after two years' service in South Africa, I was stationed with my regiment. It was at the General's further request that I conveyed this work to Europe for publication. The qualities which particularly endeared this brave and justly-famous Boer officer to us were his straightforwardness and unostentatious manner, his truthfulness, and the utter absence of affectation that distinguishes him. I am certain that he has written his simple narrative with candour and impartiality, and I feel equally certain, from what I know of him, that this most popular of our late opponents has reviewed the exciting episodes of the War with an honesty, an intelligence, and a humour which many previous publications on the War have lacked. During his stay at St. Helena I became deeply attached to General Viljoen; and in conclusion I trust that this work, which entailed many hours of labour, will yield him a handsome recompense. THEODORE BRINCKMAN, C.B. Colonel Commanding, 3rd, The Buffs (East Kent Regt.) TARBERT, LOCH FYNE, SCOTLAND. September, 1902 INDEX TO CONTENTS. Page PREFACE BY COL. THEODORE BRINCKMAN, C.B. 5 THE AUTHOR TO THE READER 9 CHAPTER I. THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER 19 Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com II. AND THE WAR STORM BREAKS 24 III. THE INVASION OF NATAL 30 IV. DEFEATED AT ELANDSLAAGTE 40 V. PURSUED BY THE LANCERS 44 VI. RISKING JOUBERT'S ANGER 59 VII. THE BOER GENERAL'S SUPERSTITIONS 68 VIII. "GREAT POWERS" TO INTERVENE 72 IX. COLENSO AND SPION KOP FIGHTS 78 X. THE BATTLE OF VAALKRANTZ 88 XI. THE TURN OF THE TIDE 100 XII. THE GREAT BOER RETREAT 110 XIII. DRIVEN FROM THE BIGGARSBERGEN 124 XIV. DISPIRITED AND DEMORALISED 133 XV. OCCUPATION OF PRETORIA 145 XVI. BATTLE OF DONKERHOEK ("DIAMOND HILL") 150 XVII. I BECOME A GENERAL 161 XVIII. OUR CAMP BURNED OUT 175 XIX. BATTLE OF BERGENDAL (MACHADODORP) 181 XX. TWO THOUSAND BRITISH PRISONERS RELEASED 185 XXI. A GOVERNMENT IN FLIGHT 193 XXII. AN IGNOMINIOUS DISPERSAL 204 XXIII. A DREARY TREK THROUGH FEVERLAND 212 XXIV. PAINS AND PLEASURES OF COMMANDEERING 237 XXV. PUNISHING THE PRO-BRITISH 246 XXVI. BATTLE OF RHENOSTERKOP 258 XXVII. THE SECOND CHRISTMAS AT WAR 278 XXVIII. CAPTURE OF "LADY ROBERTS" 285 XXIX. A DISMAL "HAPPY NEW YEAR" 302 XXX. GENERAL ATTACK ON BRITISH FORTS 307 XXXI. A "BLUFF" AND A BATTLE 322 XXXII. EXECUTION OF A TRAITOR 333 XXXIII. IN A TIGHT CORNER 339 XXXIV. ELUDING THE BRITISH CORDON 348 XXXV. BOER GOVERNMENT'S NARROW ESCAPE 358 XXXVI. A GOVERNMENT ON HORSEBACK 377 XXXVII. BLOWING UP AN ARMOURED TRAIN 382 XXXVIII. TRAPPING PRO-BRITISH BOERS 388 XXXIX. BRUTAL KAFFIRS' MURDER TRAIL 402 XL. CAPTURING A FREEBOOTER'S LAIR 411 XLI. AMBUSHING THE HUSSARS 416 XLII. I TALK WITH GENERAL BLOOD 421 XLIII. MRS. BOTHA'S BABY AND THE "TOMMY" 425 XLIV. THE LAST CHRISTMAS OF THE WAR 435 XLV. MY LAST DAYS ON THE VELDT 442 XLVI. I AM AMBUSHED AND CAPTURED 449 XLVII. SHIPPED TO ST. HELENA 462 XLVIII. LIFE IN BONAPARTE'S PRISON 471 XLIX. HOW WE BLEW UP AND CAPTURED TRAINS 485 L. HOW WE FED AND CLOTHED COMMANDOS 496 LI. OUR FRIEND THE ENEMY 506 LII. THE FIGHTING BOER AND HIS OFFICER 515 APPENDIX 523 Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. In offering my readers my reminiscences of the late War, I feel that it is necessary to ask their indulgence and to plead extenuating circumstances for many obvious shortcomings. It should be pointed out that the preparation of this work was attended with many difficulties and disabilities, of which the following were only a few:— (1) This is my first attempt at writing a book, and as a simple Afrikander I lay no claim to any literary ability. (2) When captured by the British forces I was deprived of all my notes, and have been compelled to consult and depend largely upon my memory for my facts and data. I would wish to add, however, that the notes and minutiæ they took from me referred only to events and incidents covering six months of the War. Twice before my capture, various diaries I had compiled fell into British hands; and on a third occasion, when our camp at Dalmanutha was burned out by a "grass-fire," other notes were destroyed. (3) I wrote this book while a prisoner-of-war, fettered, as it were, by the strong chains with which a British "parole" is circumscribed. I was, so to say, bound hand and foot, and always made to feel sensibly the humiliating position to which we, as prisoners-of-war on this island, were reduced. Our unhappy lot was rendered unnecessarily unpleasant by the insulting treatment offered us by Colonel Price, who appeared to me an excellent prototype of Napoleon's custodian, Sir Hudson Lowe. One has only to read Lord Rosebery's work, "The Last Phase of Napoleon," to realise the insults and indignities Sir Hudson Lowe heaped upon a gallant enemy. We Boers experienced similar treatment from our custodian, Colonel Price, who appeared to be possessed with the very demon of distrust and who conjured up about us the same fantastic and mythical plans of escape as Sir Hudson Lowe attributed to Napoleon. It is to his absurd suspicions about our safe custody that I trace the bitterly offensive regulations enforced on us. While engaged upon this work, Colonel Price could have pounced down upon me at any moment, and, having discovered the manuscript, would certainly have promptly pronounced the writing of it in conflict with the terms of my "parole." I have striven as far as possible to refrain from criticism, except when compelled to do so, and to give a coherent story, so that the reader may easily follow the episodes I have sketched. I have also endeavoured to be impartial, or, at least, so impartial as an erring human being can be who has just quitted the bloody battlefields of a bitter struggle. But the sword is still wet, and the wound is not yet healed. I would assure my readers that it has not been without hesitation that I launch this work upon the world. There have been many amateur and professional writers who have preceded me in overloading the reading public with what purport to be "true histories" of the War. But having been approached by friends to add my little effort to the ponderous tomes of War literature, I have written down that which I saw with my own eyes, and that which I personally experienced. If seeing is believing, the reader may lend credence to my recital of every incident I have herein recounted. During the last stages of the struggle, when we were isolated from the outside world, we read in newspapers and other printed matter captured from the British so many romantic and fabulous stories about ourselves, that we were sometimes in doubt whether people in Europe and elsewhere would really believe that we were ordinary human beings and not legendary monsters. On these occasions I read circumstantial reports of my death, and once a long, and by no means flattering, obituary (extending over several columns of a newspaper) in which I was compared to Garibaldi, "Jack the Ripper," and Aguinaldo. On another occasion I learned from British newspapers of my capture, conviction, and execution in the Cape Colony for Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com wearing the insignia of the Red Cross. I read that I had been brought before a military court at De Aar and sentenced to be shot, and what was worse, the sentence was duly confirmed and carried out. A very lurid picture was drawn of the execution. Bound to a chair, and placed near my open grave, I had met my doom with "rare stoicism and fortitude." "At last," concluded my amiable biographer, "this scoundrel, robber, and guerilla leader, Viljoen, has been safely removed, and will trouble the British Army no longer." I also learned with mingled feelings of amazement and pride that, being imprisoned at Mafeking at the commencement of hostilities, General Baden-Powell had kindly exchanged me for Lady Sarah Wilson. To be honest, none of the above-mentioned reports were strictly accurate. I can assure the reader that I was never killed in action or executed at De Aar, I was never in Mafeking or any other prison in my life (save here at St. Helena), nor was I in the Cape Colony during the War. I never masqueraded with a Red Cross, and I was never exchanged for Lady Sarah Wilson. Her ladyship's friends would have found me a very poor exchange. It is also quite inaccurate and unfair to describe me as a "thief" and "a scoundrel". It was, indeed, not an heroic thing to do, seeing that the chivalrous gentlemen of the South African Press who employed the epithets were safely beyond my view and reach, and I had no chance of correcting their quite erroneous impressions. I could neither refute nor defend myself against their infamous libels, and for the rest, my friend "Mr. Atkins" kept us all exceedingly busy. That which is left of Ben Viljoen after the several "coups de grace" in the field and the tragic execution at De Aar, still "pans" out at a fairly robust young person—quite an ordinary young fellow, indeed, thirty-four years of age, of middle height and build. Somewhere in the Marais Quartier of Paris—where the French Huguenots came from—there was an ancestral Viljoen from whom I am descended. In the War just concluded I played no great part of my own seeking. I met many compatriots who were better soldiers than myself; but on occasions I was happily of some small service to my Cause and to my people. The chapters I append are, like myself, simple in form. If I have become notorious it is not my fault; it is the fault of the newspaper paragraphist, the snap-shooter, and the autograph fiend; and in these pages I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to leave the stage to more prominent actors, merely offering myself as guide to the many battlefields on which we have waged our unhappy struggle. I shall not disappoint the reader by promising him sensational or thrilling episodes. He will find none such in these pages; he will find only a naked and unembellished story. BEN J. VILJOEN. (Assistant Commandant-General of the Republican Forces.) ST. HELENA, June, 1902[Back to Table of Contents] Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com Downloaded from www.gendatabase.com