General de Wet
1854 - 1922
When over four thousand Boers under
the command of General Marthinus Prinsloo gave themselves over to the General
Hunter at Surrender hill on the 20th of July 1900, General de
Wet who at the time was Commandant General for all Free State forces had this
to say “Horrendous, murder against the government and the nation”
I recently came across a very
interesting book on General de Wet and found him to be a fascinating man whose
fame came to an ignominious end in 1914. Born Christiaan Rudolf de Wet in 1854
he is probably still to this day regarded as the most romantic of the Boer
Generals: a daring guerrilla leader whose exploits thrilled locals and the
world alike. Like many of his contemporaries, his education was patchy, mostly
from part time teachers who visited the farm from time to time. What de Wet
lacked in education he more than made up for with common sense, natural
leadership abilities and an instinctive understanding of people. At fourteen
when his mother died he took responsibility with his father for running the
farm and at twenty seven was the acting Commandant of Heidelberg. He took part
in the first Boer war battle of Laings nek where he commanded two hundred men,
this however like many other Boer men was not his first taste of battle, for at
the age of eleven he had ridden out to do battle with the Basuto.
The courage that was to make de Wet a
legend was already visible in the 1st Boer war and at Majuba he
was one of the first to swarm the flat topped peak and defeat some of Britain’s
best soldiers. A few years after the first Boer war that he moved in to
politics and was elected to the Transvaal Volksraad, soon after he moved to the
Free State he was elected to its Volksraad. de Wets politics could be described
as progressive, even liberal, his achievements as a political leader were
marked by his strong efforts in developing the transport system, especially the
railways. At the start of the second Boer war in October 1899 both he and his
son Kotie were called up as privates to the Heilbron Commando, after its
commandant fell ill, de Wet was elected in his place and found himself in charge
of six hundred men.
His first success was an attack on British possessions near Ladysmith with only
half of his Commando at the end of the engagement two hundred British troops
had either been killed or wounded another nine hundred captured with the added
bonus of one thousand rifles and twenty cases of ammunition being seized.
President Steyn of the Free State was highly impressed and soon after De Wet
was notified of his appointment as Fighting General under Piet Cronje. After
Cronje’s surrender at Paardeberg De Wet found himself faced with an enormous
task of having to stop General Lord Roberts and his massive advance. Despite huge
efforts by both De Wet and De La Rey at Rietfontein and Abraham’s kraal the
British advance on Bloemfontein could not be stopped.
Soon after the
occupation of Bloemfontein de Wet told his men to take leave and re group in
ten days’ time. General Joubert berated him for this to which de wet replied,
“I cannot catch a hare with unwilling dogs”. The men who reassembled were the
toughest of the lot and de Wet knew that with the men he wanted and the freedom
to conduct a war the British would at first not know how to counteract he would
become a law unto himself. After a number of sweeping raids against the British
that showed what could be achieved with a highly motivated mobile force he
became the commander of the Free State forces, totaling about eight thousand
men who concentrated on destroying supply lines, disrupting communications and
using devastating hit and run tactics. After what was probably the most
successful raid in the whole war, that saw his force attack three garrisons at
the same time and kill or capture over seven hundred British soldiers and
capture provisions valued well over one hundred thousand pounds, Lord Kitchener
was determined to break de Wet’s resistance and raised a massive force to hunt
him down.
By June 1900 Bethlehem was the only
town of any consequence that had not been occupied by the British, fifty
thousand troops under the leadership of five Generals descended on the town.
For two days de Wet and his large force of men stood firm, however the forces
ranged against him were to great and he together with President and Mrs Steyn
as well as their entourage travelling with him headed towards the Brandwater
basin, while the British rested and re-grouped the Boer forces debated amongst
each other whether or not they should defend the basin or make their escape.
de Wet was against the defence of the basin as he felt it could become a trap eventually de wet with over two thousand men and President Steyn were to slip passed the British near to Retiefs Nek in the direction of Kroonstad. de Wet had decided that they needed to escape from this trap so that he and his men could keep fighting.
Not many people are aware “I certainly was not” That his brother Piet had in fact surrendered to the British on the 19th of May 1900 and offered Lord Roberts his assistance in persuading other Boer fighters in the field to do the same “including his brother” when he tried to persuade Christiaan to do the same in a long letter defending his actions. dDe Wet flogged the man that brought the letter and sent him back with a message that he would shoot Piet “like a dog” if he caught him. de Wets attacks continued during the war and together with his Chief scout Danie Theron became part of Afrikaans Folklore. He may have continued his war of attrition indefinitely, tying up a large British force, had it not been for many Burghers tiring of the war and to put on a united front he decided to agree and sign the treaty of with other Boer leaders, this he signed as an acting member of the Government of the Orange Free State
In July 1902 de Wet left for Europe
to raise funds for the Boer cause and while on this trip wrote a best-selling
book called “Die Strijd tusschen Boer en Brit” Upon his return from Europe he
again entered politics, the old soldier spirit In him and his strong
nationalist feelings led him and his six sons to join a commando with the
object of protesting against the countries involvement in the first world war.
The Memel Commando was one of the first to take up arms and seventy men
accompanied General Christiaan de Wet who had come to live on a farm just
outside the town, to Vrede. Towns were occupied and property damaged, before
government forces of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts got the upper hand and In a
couple of skirmishes near Winburg in early November. Of the eleven thousand
rebels, one hundred and ninety were killed, eleven from Memel.
De Wet was on the run again, he
managed to evade his pursuers until late November 1914. After he was captured
and was jailed at The Fort in Johannesburg, he was charged with high treason in
June 1915, he was found guilty and sentenced to six years imprisonment and a
two thousand pound fine, six months later he was reprieved and the fine paid
for by sympathizers. Broken mentally and physically, he withdrew from politics
and spent his last years in poverty and pain that many say was a pitiful
decline for the old fighter. He died on February the 3rd 1922
and was buried at the foot of the Woman’s Monument in Bloemfontein, despite the
over-riding political issues de wet was given a state funeral. Telegraphing his
widow on the day of his internment Prime Minister Jan Smuts wrote kindly of de
Wet saying: “A prince and a great man has fallen today”.
