Howard C. Hillegas - With the Boer Forces

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The man in search of the spoils of war was not so numerous, but he made
his presence felt by stealing whatever was portable and saleable. When he
became surfeited with looting houses in conquered territory and stealing
horses, luggage, and goods of lesser value in the laagers he returned to
Johannesburg and Pretoria and assisted in emptying residences and stores
of their contents. This style of soldier-of-fortune never went into a
battle of his own accord, and when he found himself precipitated into the
midst of one he lost little time in reaching a place of safety. Almost on
a par with the looter was the adventurer, whose chief object of life
seemed to be to tell of the battles he had assisted in winning. He was
constantly in the laagers when there was no fighting in progress, but as
soon as the report of a gun was heard the adventurer felt the necessity of
going on urgent business to Pretoria. After the fighting he could always
be depended upon to relate the wildest personal experiences that
camp-fires ever heard. He could tell of amazing experiences in the wilds
of South America, on the steppes of Siberia, and other ends of the earth,
and after each narrative he would make a request for a "loan." The only
adventures he had during the war were those which he encountered while
attempting to escape from battles, and the only service he did to the Boer
army was to assist in causing the disappearance of commissariat supplies.

The men who fought with the Boers because they were deeply in sympathy
with the Republican cause were in far greater numbers than those with
other motives, and their services were of much value to the federal
forces. The majority of these were in the country when the war was begun,
and were accepted as citizens of the country. They joined commandos and
remained under Boer leaders during the entire campaign. In the same class
were the volunteers who entered the Republics from Natal and Cape Colony,
for the purpose of assisting their co-religionists and kinsmen. Of these
there were about six thousand at the beginning of hostilities, but there
were constant desertions, so that after the first six months of the war
perhaps less than one-third of them remained. The Afrikanders of Natal and
Cape Colony were not inferior in any respect to the Boers whose forces
they joined, but when the tide of war changed and it became evident that
the Boers would not triumph, they returned to their homes and farms in the
colonies, in order to save them from confiscation. Taking into
consideration the fact that four-fifths of the white population of the two
colonies was of the same race and religion as the Boers, six thousand was
not a large number of volunteers to join the federal forces.

The artillery fire of the Boer was so remarkably good that the delusion
was cherished by the British commanders that foreign artillerists were in
charge of all their guns. It was not believed that the Boers had any
knowledge of arms other than rifles, but it was not an easy matter to find
a foreigner at a cannon or a rapid-fire gun. The field batteries of the
State Artillery of the Transvaal had two German officers of low rank, who
were in the country long before the war began, but almost all the other
men who assisted with the field guns were young Boers. The heavy artillery
in Natal was directed by MM. Grunberg and Leon, representatives of
Creusot, who manufactured the guns. M. Leon's ability as an engineer and
gunner pleased Commandant-General Joubert so greatly that he gave him full
authority over the artillery. Major Albrecht, the director of the Free
State Artillery, was a foreigner by birth, but he became a citizen of the
Free State long before the war, and did sterling service to his country
until he was captured with Cronje at Paardeberg. Otto von Lossberg, a
German-American who had seen service in the armies of Germany and the
United States, arrived in the country in March, and was thereafter in
charge of a small number of heavy guns, but the majority of them were
manned by Boer officers.

None of the foreigners who served in the Boer army received any
compensation. They were supplied with horses and equipment, at a cost to
the Boer Governments of about L35 for each volunteer, and they received
better food than the burghers, but no wages were paid to them. Before a
foreign volunteer was allowed to join a commando, and before he received
his equipment, he was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the
Republic. Only a few men who declined to take the oath were allowed to
join the army. The oath of allegiance was an adaptation of the one which
caused so much difficulty between Great Britain and the Transvaal before
the war. A translation of it reads--

"I hereby make an oath of solemn allegiance to the people of
the South African Republic, and I declare my willingness
to assist, with all my power, the burghers of this
Republic in the war in which they are engaged. I further
promise to obey the orders of those placed in authority
according to law, and that I will work for nothing but
the prosperity, the welfare, and the independence of the
land and people of this Republic, so truly help me, God
Almighty."

[Illustration: BATTLEFIELD OF ELANDSLAAGTE]

No army lists were ever to be found at Pretoria or at the front, and it
was as monumental a task to secure a fair estimate of the Boer force as it
was to obtain an estimate of the number of the foreigners who assisted
them. The Boers had no men whom they could spare to detail to statistical
work, and, in consequence, no correct figures can ever be obtained. The
numerical strength of the various organisations of foreigners could
readily be obtained from their commanders, but many of the foreigners were
in Boer commandos, and their strength is only problematical. An estimate
which was prepared by the British and American correspondents, who had
good opportunities of forming as nearly a correct idea as any one,
resulted in this list, which gives the numbers of those in the various
organisations, as well as those in the commandos:--

Nationality. In Organisations. In Commandos.
French 300 ... 100
Hollanders 400 ... 250
Russian 100 ... 125
Germans 300 ... 250
Americans 150 ... 150
Italians 100 ... 100
Scandinavians 100 ... 50
Irishmen 200 ... ...
Afrikanders ... ... 6,000
Total in Organisations 1,650 ... ...
Total in Commandos ... 7,025
Grand Total ... 8,675

The French legionaries were undoubtedly of more actual service to the
Boers than the volunteers of any other nationality, inasmuch as they were
given the opportunities of doing valuable work. Before the war one of the
large forts at Pretoria was erected by French engineers, and when the war
was begun Frenchmen of military experience were much favoured by General
Joubert, who was proud of his French extraction. The greater quantity of
artillery had been purchased from French firms, and the Commandant-General
wisely placed guns in the hands of the men who knew how to operate them
well. MM. Grunberg and Leon were of incalculable assistance in
transporting the heavy artillery over the mountains of Natal, and in
securing such positions for them where the fire of the enemy's guns could
not harm them. The work of the heavy guns, the famous "Long Toms" which
the besieged in Ladysmith will remember as long as the siege itself
remains in their memory, was almost entirely the result of French hands
and brains, while all the havoc caused by the heavy artillery in the Natal
battles was due to the engineering and gunnery of Leon, Grunberg, and
their Boer assistants. After remaining in Natal until after the middle of
January the two Frenchmen joined the Free State forces, to whom they
rendered valuable assistance. Leon was wounded at Kimberley on February
12th, and, after assisting in establishing the ammunition works at
Pretoria and Johannesburg, returned to France. Viscount Villebois-Mareuil
was one of the many foreigners who joined the Boer army and lost their
lives while fighting with the Republican forces. While ranking as colonel
on the General Staff of the French army, and when about to be promoted to
the rank of general, he resigned from the service on account of the
Dreyfus affair. A month after the commencement of the war
Villebois-Mareuil arrived in the Transvaal and went to the Natal front,
where his military experience enabled him to give advice to the Boer
generals. In January the Colonel attached himself to General Cronje's
forces, with whom he took part in many engagements. He was one of the few
who escaped from the disastrous fight at Paardeberg, and shortly
afterwards, at the war council at Kroonstad, the French officer was
created a brigadier-general--the first and only one in the Boer army--and
all the foreign legions were placed in his charge. It was purposed that he
should harass the enemy by attacks on their lines of communication, and it
was while he was at the outset of the first of these expeditions that he
and twelve of his small force of sixty men were killed at Boshof, in the
north-western part of the Free State, early in April. Villebois-Mareuil
was a firm believer in the final success of the Boer arms, and he received
the credit of planning two battles--second Colenso and
Magersfontein--which gave the Boers at least temporary success. The
Viscount was a writer for the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, the
_Correspondant_, and _La Liberte_, the latter of which referred to him as
the latter-day Lafayette. Colonel Villebois-Mareuil was an exceptionally
brave man, a fine soldier, and a gentleman whose friendship was prized.

Lieutenant Gallopaud was another Frenchman who did sterling service to the
Boers while he was subordinate to Colonel Villebois-Mareuil. At Colenso
Gallopaud led his men in an attack which met with extraordinary success,
and later in the Free State campaign he distinguished himself by
creditable deeds in several battles. Gallopaud went to the Transvaal for
experience, and he secured both that and fame. After the death of
Villebois-Mareuil, Gallopaud was elected commandant of the French Legion,
and before he joined De la Rey's army he had the novel pleasure of
subduing a mutiny among some of his men. An Algerian named Mahomed Ben
Naseur, who had not been favoured with the sight of blood for several
weeks, threatened to shoot Gallopaud with a Mauser, but there was a
cessation of hostilities on the part of the Algerian shortly after big,
powerful Gallopaud went into action.

The majority of the Hollanders who fought with the Boers were in the
country when the war was begun, and they made a practical demonstration of
their belief in the Boer cause by going into the field with the first
commandos. The Dutch corps was under the command of Commandant Smoronberg,
the former drill-master of the Johannesburg Police. Among the volunteers
were many young Hollanders who had been employed by the Government in
Pretoria and Johannesburg establishments, and by the Netherlands railways.
In the first engagement, at Elandslaagte, in November, the corps was
practically annihilated and General Kock, the leader of the Uitlander
brigade, himself received his death wounds. Afterward the surviving
members of the corps joined Boer commandos where stray train-loads of
officers' wines, such as were found the day before the battle of
Elandslaagte, were not allowed to interfere with the sobriety of the
burghers. The Russian corps, under Commandant Alexis de Ganetzky and
Colonel Prince Baratrion-Morgaff, was formed after all the men had been
campaigning under Boer officers in Natal for several months. The majority
of the men were Johannesburgers without military experience who joined the
army because there was nothing else to do.

The German corps was as short-lived as the Hollander organisation, it
having been part of the force which met with disaster at Elandslaagte.
Colonel Schiel, a German-Boer of brief military experience, led the
organisation, but was unable to display his abilities to any extent before
he was made a prisoner of war. Captain Count Harran von Zephir was killed
in the fight at Spion Kop, and Herr von Brusenitz was killed and Colonel
von Brown was captured at the Tugela. The corps was afterward reorganised
and, under the leadership of Commandant Otto Krantz of Pretoria, it fought
valiantly in several battles in the Free State. Among the many German
volunteers who entered the country after the beginning of hostilities was
Major Baron von Reitzenstein, the winner of the renowned long-distance
horseback race from Berlin to Vienna. Major von Reitzenstein was a
participant in battles at Colesburg and in Natal, and was eager to remain
with the Boer forces until the end of the war, but was recalled by his
Government, which had granted him a leave of absence from the German
army. Three of the forts at Pretoria were erected by Germans, and the
large fort at Johannesburg was built by Colonel Schiel at an expense of
less than L5,000.

[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN E. BLAKE, OF THE IRISH BRIGADE]

The Americans in South Africa who elected to fight under the Boer flags
did not promise to win the war single-handed, and consequently the Boers
were not disappointed in the achievements of the volunteers from the
sister-republic across the Atlantic. In proportion to their numbers the
Americans did as well as the best volunteer foreigners, and caused the
Government less trouble and expense than any of the Uitlanders'
organisations. The majority of the Americans spent the first months of the
war in Boer commandos, and made no effort to establish an organisation of
their own, although they were of sufficient numerical strength. A score or
more of them joined the Irish Brigade organised by Colonel J.E. Blake, a
graduate of West Point Military Academy and a former officer in the
American army, and accompanied the Brigade through the first seven months
of the Natal campaign. After the exciting days of the Natal campaign John
A. Hassell, an American who had been with the Vryheid commando, organised
the American Scouts and succeeded in gathering what probably was the
strangest body of men in the war. Captain Hassell himself was born in New
Jersey, and was well educated in American public schools and the schools
of experience. He spent the five years before the war in prospecting and
with shooting expeditions in various parts of South Africa, and had a
better idea of the geological features of the country than any of the
commandants of the foreign legions. While he was with the Vryheid commando
Hassell was twice wounded, once in the attack on Caesar's Hill and again
at Estcourt, where he received a bayonet thrust which disabled him for
several weeks and deprived him of the brief honour of being General
Botha's adjutant.

The one American whose exploits will long remain in the Boer mind was John
N. King, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who vowed that he would allow his hair
to grow until the British had been driven from federal soil. King began
his career of usefulness to society at the time of the Johnstown flood,
where he and some companions lynched an Italian who had been robbing the
dead. Shortly afterward he gained a deep insight into matters journalistic
by being the boon companion of a newspaper man. The newspaper man was in
jail on a charge of larceny; King for murder. When war was begun King was
employed on a Johannesburg mine, and when his best friend determined to
join the British forces he decided to enlist in the Boer army. Before
parting the two made an agreement that neither should make the other
prisoner in case they met. At Spion Kop, King captured his friend unawares
and, after a brief conversation and a farewell grasp of the hand, King
shot him dead. King took part in almost every one of the Natal battles,
and when there was no fighting to do he passed the time away by such
reckless exploits as going within the British firing-line at Ladysmith to
capture pigs and chickens. He bore a striking resemblance to Napoleon I.,
and loved blood as much as the little Corsican. When the Scouts went out
from Brandfort in April and killed several of the British scouts, King
wept because he had remained in camp that day and had missed the
opportunity of having a part in the engagement.

The lieutenant of the Scouts was John Shea, a grey-haired man who might
have had grand-children old enough to fight. Shea fought with the Boers
because he thought they had a righteous cause, and not because he loved
the smell of gunpowder, although he had learned to know what that was in
the Spanish-American war. Shea endeavoured to introduce the American army
system into the Boer army, but failed signally, and then fought side by
side with old takhaars all during the Natal campaign. He was the guardian
of the mascot of the scouts, William Young, a thirteen-year-old American,
who was acquainted with every detail of the preliminaries of the war.
William witnessed all but two of the Natal battles, and several of those
in the Free State, and could relate all the stirring incidents in
connection with each, but he could tell nothing more concerning his
birthplace than that it was "near the shore in America," both his parents
having died when he was quite young. Then there was Able-Bodied Seaman
William Thompson, who was in the _Wabash_ of the United States Navy, and
served under MacCuen in the Chinese-Japanese war. Thompson and two others
tried to steal a piece of British heavy artillery while it was in action
at Ladysmith, but were themselves captured by some Boers who did not
believe in modern miracles. Of newspaper men, there were half a dozen who
laid aside the pen for the sword. George Parsons, a _Collier's Weekly_
man, who was once left on a desert island on the east end of Cuba to
deliver a message to Gomez, several hundred miles away; J.B. Clarke, of
Webberville, Michigan, who was correspondent for a Pittsburg newspaper
whenever some one could commandeer the necessary stamps; and four or five
correspondents of country weeklies in Western States. Starfield and Hiley
were two Texans, of American army experience, who fought with the Boers
because they had faith in their cause. Starfield claimed the honour of
having been pursued for half a day by two hundred British cavalryman,
while Hiley, the finest marksman in the corps, had the distinction of
killing Lieutenant Carron, an American, in Lord Loch's Horse, in a fierce
duel behind ant-heaps at Modder River on April 21st. Later in the
campaign many of the Americans who entered the country for the purpose of
fighting joined Hassell's Scouts, and added to the cosmopolitan character
of the organisation.

One came from Paget [Transcriber's note: sic] Sound in a sailing vessel.
Another arrival boldly claimed to be the American military attache at
the Paris Exposition, and then requested every one to keep the matter a
secret for fear the War Department should hear of his presence in South
Africa and recall him. On the way to Africa he had a marvellous midnight
experience on board ship with a masked man who shot him through one of
his hands. Later the same wound was displayed as having been received at
Magersfontein, Colenso, and Spion Kop. This industrious youth became
adjutant to Colonel Blake, and assisted that picturesque Irish-American
in securing the services of the half-hundred Red Cross men who entered
the country in April.

Of the many Americans who fought in Boer commandos none did better service
nor was considered more highly by the Boers than Otto von Lossberg, of New
Orleans, Louisana [Transcriber's note: sic]. Lossberg was born in Germany,
and received his first military training in the army of his native
country. He afterwards became an American citizen, and was with General
Miles' army in the Porto-Rico campaign. Lossberg arrived in the Transvaal
in March, and on the last day of that month was in charge of the artillery
which assisted in defeating Colonel Broadwood's column at Sannaspost. Two
days later, in the fight between General Christian De Wet and McQueenies'
Irish Fusiliers, Lossberg was severely wounded in the head, but a month
later he was again at the front. With him continually was Baron Ernst
von Wrangel, a grandson of the famous Marshal Wrangle [Transcriber's
note: sic], and who was a corporal in the American army during the
Cuban war.

When one of the four sons of State Secretary Reitz who were fighting with
the Boer army asked his father for permission to join the Irish Brigade,
the Secretary gave an excellent description of the organisation: "The
members of the Irish Brigade do their work well, and they fight remarkably
well, but, my son, they are not gentle in their manner." Blake and his men
were among the first to cross the Natal frontier, and their achievements
were notable even if the men lacked gentility of manner. The brigade took
part in almost every one of the Natal engagements and when General Botha
retreated from the Tugela Colonel Blake and seventy-five of his men
bravely attacked and drove back into Ladysmith a squadron of cavalry which
intended to cut off the retreat of Botha's starving and exhausted
burghers. Blake and his men were guarding a battery on Lombard Kop, a
short distance east of Ladysmith, when he learned that Joubert was leading
the retreat northward, and allowing Botha, with his two thousand men, to
continue their ten days' fighting without reinforcements. Instead of
retreating with the other commandos, Blake and seventy-five of his men
stationed themselves on the main road between Ladysmith and Colenso and
awaited the coming of Botha. A force of cavalry was observed coming out of
the besieged city, and it was apparent that they could readily cut off
Botha from the other Boers. Blake determined to make a bold bluff by
scattering his small force over the hills and attacking the enemy from
different directions. The men were ordered to fire as rapidly as possible
in order to impress the British cavalry with a false idea of the size of
the force. The seventy-five Irishmen and Americans made as much noise with
their guns as a Boer commando of a thousand men usually did, and the
result was that the cavalry wheeled about and returned into Ladysmith.
Botha and his men, dropping out of their saddles from sheer exhaustion and
hunger, came up from Colenso a short time after the cavalry had been
driven back and made their memorable journey to Joubert's new headquarters
at Glencoe. It was one of the few instances where the foreigners were of
any really great assistance to the Boers.

After the relief of Ladysmith the Irish Brigade was sent to Helpmakaar
Pass, and remained there for six weeks, until Colonel Blake succeeded in
inducing the War Department to send them to the Free State, where these
"sons of the ould sod" might make a display of their valour to the world,
and more especially to Michael Davitt, who was then visiting in the
country. When the Brigade was formed it was not necessary to show an Irish
birth certificate in order to become a member of the organisation, and
consequently there were Swedes, Russians, Germans, and Italians marching
under the green flag. A half-dozen of the Brigade claimed to be Irish
enough for themselves and for those who could not lay claim to such
extraction, and consequently a fair mean was maintained. A second Irish
Brigade was formed in April by Arthur Lynch, an Irish-Australian, who was
the former Paris correspondent of a London daily newspaper. Colonel Lynch
and his men were in several battles in Natal and received warm praise from
the Boer generals.

The Italian Legion was commanded by a man who loved war and warfare.
Camillo Richiardi and General Louis Botha were probably the two handsomest
men in the army, and both were the idols of their men. Captain Richiardi
had his first experience of war in Abyssinia, when he fought with the
Italian army. When the Philippine war began he joined the fortunes of
Aguinaldo, and became the leader of the foreign legion. For seven months
he fought against the American soldiers, not because he hated the
Americans, but because he loved fighting more. When the Boer war seemed to
promise more exciting work Richiardi left Aguinaldo's forces and joined a
Boer commando as a burgher. After studying Boer methods for several months
he formed an organisation of scouts which was of great service to the
army. Before the relief of Ladysmith the Italian Scouts was the ablest
organisation of the kind in the Republics.

The Scandinavian corps joined Cronje's army after the outbreak of war, and
took part in the battle of Magersfontein on December 11th. The corps
occupied one of the most exposed positions during that battle and lost
forty-five of the fifty-two men engaged. Commandant Flygare was shot in
the abdomen and was being carried off the field by Captain Barendsen when
a bullet struck the captain in the head and killed him instantly. Flygare
extricated himself from beneath Barendsen's body, rose, and led his men in
a charge. When he had proceeded about twenty yards a bullet passed through
his head, and his men leapt over his corpse only to meet a similar fate a
few minutes later.

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