Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-04-15
RISE OF GENERAL BOTHA.


war has brought forward on the Boer
side from a military point of view is
Commandment General Louis Botha." said
Stuart Sheldon. Of Cape Town. South
Africa Just before l left South Afri-
ca I read in The Natal Witness of Janu-
airy 4 a very remarkable and able sketch
of his career by Douglas Story, the we'll
known war correspondent OF The Lon
don Mall Botha, it seems, was much
with the English officers at Maritzburg
in his youthful days, and from them.
Story thinks, he picked up great deal
of his military knowledge and love for
and insistence on order and discipline
among his forces. He at that time led
"a fast life, until, his fortune having been
expended, he was compelled to accept
a place as agent for a rich old BOer far
mer. Shortly after this important change
in his career Louis BOtha entered the
volksraad, where - speedily identified
himself with and became a leader of the
progressive party. 1t will be remember
ed that in those trying months preced-
ing the outbreak Of hostilities President
Kruger made a number of concessions,
In 70 vain hope Of thus being able to
preserve the peace. These concessions
were due to the advice and influence of
General Botha, who strove with all his
power to avert the war. and worked
against it tooth and nail to the very last.
Fighting once begun however, a marked
change came over him. and he immedi-
ately took the field, being at that time
but a commandant. From this obscure
position in less than six months he ad-
vanced himself by sheer force of ability
up and into the place of cOmmandant
general of the BOer forces, succeeding
General Piet JOubert and obtaining the
place when but thirty-six years of age.
Botha encountered much opposition in
his rapid advance from older and APP
parently more experienced men, but the
need of him was SO great that it all gave
way, and he was finally installed in the
place Of chief of the Boer forces in the
field. 1t would have been better for the
Transvaal people had he attained it
sooner. Botha appreciated the need for
aggressive action on the part of the
Bocrs, and especially that they should
follow up an advantage once gained and
not allow it to be lost through procras-
tination. Piet Joubert, old in years and
of a different school, forever checked
Botha and restrained his vaulting ambi-
ton. At what a cost to the Beers it
can now be seem Botha wanted to fol-
low up the retreat of General Yue and
prayed in vain to be allowed to assault
Ladysmith on the evening of the Lom-
bard Kop disaster. But Piet Jouhert
had not faith in him, ana would have
none of it. At ColensO luckily for the
Beers, Lukas Meyer fell ill. and the COM
mand devolved on Botha. From that
successful fight dates the beginning of
his great reputation. BOtha it was who
commanded the rear guard at Peters
Heights and executed the mastery re-
treat of the Beers after Ladysmth and
Natal were hopelessly lost to them. Win
ston Churchill has said of his defense Of
Pieter's Heights. where his men fought
continuously in their trenches from Feb
ruary y to %: They held their ground
and stayed in greater peril than ever
was mortal man before
Upon Peters Heights depended the
Beers ability to maintain the siege Of
Ladysmith. BOtha's position there was
ever growing more untenable, and he was
continually making appeals to Lukas
Meyer for reinforcements. They met
with no response, however, and at length
Botha was reluctantly compelled to send
word to Joubert: Il can hold out no
longer. Withdraw your guns from Lady,
smith. Joubert escaped scot free with
guns and men to Glencoe. That day
marked the real end of the war. When
Botha abandoned Peters Heights he and
his weary men took their way back to
Ladysmith. unsupported by a single man
or gun from the forces of either Pet
Joubert or Lukas Meyer. He had saved
Them but they left him to his fate. Boz
tina must at this time have inevitably
fallen into the hands of Sir George
Whites skeleton brigade of cavalry, ex-
cept for countryman of yours whom
Story speaks of as that warlike old
rullian, Colonel Blake, than whom a
better soldier and Drawer man never
lived. Blake had got together COM
pany of ragtag and bObtail, and with
their aid he enabled BOtha to make his
escape. That act of treachery to Botha
retired Pet Joubert to Pretoria, where he
shortly died. and left Botha in the SUI
preme command. 1t came too late, how
ever Cor the BOer forces were hopeless
l. disorganized. and the opportunities