Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1900-12-20

to force Cronje to the wall. One day De
Wet sent messenger through the lines
urging Cronje to cut his way out, he
having a larger force, to join his own.
After Cronje surrendered and the
British turned to move on toward
Bloemfontein they found De Wet In
front Of them. Too weak in numbers
to withstand the whole British army,
he nevertheless obstructed the British
advance and, outwitting French, who
bent all his energies to the capture of
the willy farmer soldier, rallied his
commandos at Winburg, which he
made the base Of some of the most re-
markable exploits Of the war. De Wet
had other things besides q clear head
to make a good soldier on the spur of
the crisis. He is an inveterate hater Of
the British and declared that he would
rather see his own blood squirting than
have the Englishman Frazer take the
chair as president Of the Orange Free
State. Besides, when young man-he
was 40 at the outbreak Of this war-he
had been among the stormers Of MAUI
ba HILL
The name Of guerrilla and raider will
cling to De Wet, of course, for nothing
succeeds like success, and the British
generals, so called, who have allowed
the Dutch farmer to play with them as
a cat with q mouse will have extra IT,
ties tackled to their names for defeat
ing those preposterous and uncivilzed
l. Co
was the scene of De Vets first master
piece in war. There the British, march
ing in full battle array, with cavalry,
infantry and artillery, were cleverly
headed off, surprised and routed, with
a loss of cannon and 500 men. De
Wet, with 400 Boer rifemen, struck
the telling blow and captured IT,,
prizes.
At Korn Spruit the British, who
were making a leisurely retreat toward
Bloemfontein, had to cross the partly
dry bed of a creek. Under the sharp
banks of the crossing De Wet massed
his 400 soldiers, and at signal the
whole force opened upon the British
wagons, which were in the advance.
The British cavalry galloped to the aid
of the wagons and was stampeded, and
the artillery met a worse fate, for the
horses were shot down and the guns
and gunners captured before shot
could be fired in self defense.
In fact there was no defense at all at
Korn Spruit, for the Beers also attack
ed the rear column, and the British
commander was glad to get out of the
trap by flank retreat in the fact Of
the enemy. De Wet started the cap
lures on the road to Winburg and sent
his men off toward separate points.
While the tactics Of the Beers at the
time were in the nature of guerrilla
warfare, their field Of operations was
wide and the results of kind to Grip
pie Lord Roberts army for time.
The British were in Bloemfontein
and hastily concentrated at that point
from all over the Free State and Cape
Colony, ready for q quick advance
northward into the Transvaal. At
Dewetsdorp, southeast Of Bloemfon-
tein and south of Korn Spruit, there
were about 800 Irish rifles and North
cumberland fusileers. Having orders to
march north, they reached Redders-
burg just as De Wet passed in the vi
cinity with only a handful Of his men.
Raliying the scattered burghers Of the
region, he rounded up the British and
held them on a kopje until messengers
sent in all directions brought up help
and among other resources four of the
light guns captured at Korn Spruit
The British evidently had no fight in
them, for the whole outfit surrendered
to De Wet after losing As men in de-
fense Of the kopje.
De Vets exploits at Korn Spruit and
Reddersburg appeared at the time to
be the haphazard efforts of beaten
foe to hamper the march Of the enemy.
On the contrary, De Vets presence
and activity on the flank and rear of
Lord Roberts army were part Of
plan to stop the British advance from
Bloemfontein, and the plan was car
ried out with remarkable military skill.
At the outset De Wet so unanswered
as to keep an open road east of Bloem-
sutoland for the force under Olivier,
which had been cut off on the south, to
march through and join the main Boer
army at Winburg. This done, the next
thing was to pick up the British contin-
gents that were moving in to close the
gap. Korn Spruit and Reddersburg,
with the capture of 1000 men, train
of wagons and guns, were incidental
to the bolder object of compelling the
British to not only halt at Bloemfon-
tein, but turn around and fight for the
safety Of their rear. The division Of
Colonials, which had no longer an ex-
cuse for Semaining in Cape Colony AFT
er Olivier's escape northward, encoun-
tered trouble on the borders Of Basuto-
hand while marching toward Bloemfon-
tein to join Roberts. Suddenly news
came that the Colonials under General
Brabant were besieged at Wepener.
BY whom they were besieged was a
mystery, since Lord Roberts had an
pounced a clean sweep of the Orange
Free State east, west and south of the
farmer Boer capital.
The Beers who had penned up Bra
bant had cannon, and the British lead
er gave reports of their strength and
doings which led to the conclusion that
there might be 10000 burghers in his
rear. Speedily two whole divisions of
the all conquerlng army and several
scattered contingents took their long
ing eyes from Pretoria and faced the
other way to march to the relief Of
Brabants Colonials. 1t seemed that !
the war rnuldn't 0at on ut all without
A Keen Clear Brain,
Tour hest feelinps yOur social nOSitioD |