South African Battles by Timothy Couzens

Author:Timothy Couzens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HBW - Military History
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2013-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

The siege at Potchefstroom

(based on a drawing by Gert van den Bergh)

These three strongpoints were to be defended. The parapets of the earthen fort, by no means complete nor impregnable, were hastily heightened and strengthened with mealie sacks and crates of tinned beef from the reserve supply. That evening some 50 citizen refugees from the town sought sanctuary at the fort. These included Chevalier Forssman, his wife, young son and seven daughters (among whom were Emelia Sketchley and Mrs Katherine Palmer), and two teachers, the misses Malan and Wart.

While he could not refuse them, Winsloe was ‘embarrassed by the presence of ladies and children’. Together with the black transport drivers and the regular soldiers, the inhabitants of the fort eventually reached more than 300. And the structure was no more than 25 yards square!

The landdrost’s office was garrisoned by Captain Falls and 24 soldiers (they were joined by Major Clarke and Raaff and a few of his men, who were scattered in nearby buildings to provide cover fire). Lieutenant Dalrymple-Hay and a detachment of Fusiliers guarded the gaol. But the Boers held the rest of the town (including the Royal Hotel, the Forssman house and Goetz’s residence). There were some British loyalist families in town but the majority of the town residents were firmly in the Boer camp. Cronjé’s first objective was to get the Proclamation of Independence printed by the sympathetic printer (his name was Borrius) in town.

But at 9 o’clock on 16 December (a day of real significance for the Boers as the anniversary of the battle of Blood River in 1838 and the covenant that had been made then), while the British breakfasted in little groups outside the fort, guns to hand, a small party of Boers rode slowly past, about 150 yards away, with their rifles at the ‘carry’. At this the mounted infantry, whose horses were already saddled, were sent to warn them that the Boer patrol was not permitted so close to their own lines.

The Boers turned and rode off at a trot, followed into town by the British. At this the first firing of the war began. If both sides are to be believed, they were not the first to shoot – and therefore no fighting could ever have started! The truth is that it does not really matter – both sides were able and willing to begin the battle. There was only one casualty – the Boer leader of the patrol, Commandant Robbertse, was wounded in the arm – but as historian Ian Bennett has written, this was ‘a day which arguably changed the course of the history of South Africa’.

The first shots did unleash a general fight, however. The mounted infantry retired under the protection of the artillery guns, which were now surrounded by a few mealie sacks. The horses were hidden in the fort’s ditch. The Boers poured into the market square, occupying the houses and gardens and directing fire into the landdrost’s office and into the gaol. Their right

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