Fichardt was elected mayor of Bloemfontein in 1897. He fought for the Boers with General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg in 1899. He was captured, but escaped. In 1906 he was one of the founders of the Orange Union Party, which advocated self-government for Orange Free State. He became editor of the Bloemfontein "Friend", the newspaper of the Orange Union Party. At the Imperial Press Conference in 1909 he declared that the actions of the British had now reconciled him to the place of Orange Free State in the British Empire: