Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-22
GEN. DELAREY A GREAT LEADER.

GEN. DELAREY A GREAT LEADER.
Traits Of the Boer Who Made Lord
Methuen Prisoner.
It was a characteristic act Of Com
mandant Delarey that he sent his fall
len antagonist back to Klerksdorp to be
attended to as soon as he found that
Gen. Methuen was At to be moved.
! The possession in his hands Of live
British general was not calculated to
disturb the clear judgment Of this re-
markable descendant Of the old French
Huguenots and lead him into personal
reprisals.
| A record of the strategy and tactics
Of ]. H. .Delarey, the prosperous land
owner and leader Of the burghers Of
Lichtenburg for many years Of peace,
would probably furnish the most val
uabIe matter for scientific students Of
warfare that is to be found on either
side in the South African struggle. But
apart from a military genius that re-
calls the personality Of some Of his an
cestral compatriots in the first French
Republic, there is another side to De-
larey as a man.
When the Beers struck their first
blow in the western campaign by cap
turing the British armored train on the
Mafeking line and occupying Vryburg,
the Boer operations were directed by
Delarey. When Vryburg, whici. lies
out in the fiat wholly unsheltered and
was an easy capture, found itself with
out constituted government the neu-
trails began to help themselves freely
to the household furniture Of the Brit
ish residents, who had hurried south
into Cape Colony.
Delarey himself moved south with
his Lichtenburg commando, collect
ing burghers as he went, and held the
railway south of Kimberly. But as
soon as he learned that proceedings
which were not in accord with his
sense Of the art Of war had followed the
Boer occupation ne ordered every stick
Of property in Vryburg to be returned
to it's rightful owner and at once set up
municipal system which was found
working in perfect order eight months
lafterward, when the overwhelming
numbers and widespread disposition OF
Lord Roberts's columns moving north
necessitated a Boer movement back in
to the middle Transvaal.
The bank manager at Vryburg told
the present writer after the British re-
occupation that Delarey's system had
worked like a perfect model, and 1t
does not appear that there Is a. single
outstanding private claim Of any kind
arising out Of his extemporized govern
ment.
The last to leave Vryburg when the
Beers came in were the half dozen Of
flcials Of the Bechuanaland Survey de-
partment. Delarey. conveyed them
down with their families, handing
them over from commandant to COM
mandant, until they were set free 10
take the train below Orange river.
When they were seen at Cape Town
none had any words, but those Of per-
sonal regard to say Of him.
j. H. Delarey-pronounce his name
De La Rey-is a medium-sized man OF
slight build His head and features are
large and his complexion looks pale
against his full black beard.
He is not only man Of extraordinary
mentality, but he looks 1t, a natural
mathematician and q man Of action.
A quiet manner, combined with extra
ordinary bright eyes, gives sense Of
power at the first sight Of the man.
A correspondent who occupied the
room which had been his quarters be-
fore the fall Of Bloemfontein, was told
that often Delarey was in bed less than
two hours in a night. He was always
personally seeing to the carrying out
Of his plans.
It was he who overruled Piet Cronje
when the older man insisted on stick
Il ing to the old style Of fighting, seeking
the hillsides and from improvised stone
schanzes using the purchase Of the
higher positions to throw back attack
ers, as had been successfully done in
the Kafflr wars. Delarey said:
mo; they will assume that we are on
the kopje. Let us go somewhere else"
He had his way at Magersfontein,
when he moved the Boer front line for
ward and to the left into the long. low
bank or roughfat, away from the big
hill, and thereby trapped the Highland
ers. How right he was may be judged
by the fact that Lord Methuen poured
lydite all the previous afternoon on
the hillside, where it subsequently ap-
peared there was nobody.
Again when General French struck
round to the east for the relief Of Kim
berley, Delarey was against Cronje's
plan Of falling back along the Modder,
and the Lichtenburg man got his COM
mando away north to Boshof, taking
with him the big gun that had been
turned against Methuen's camp at the
Modder for the previous two months.
He also got away the Boer siege guns
outside Kimberley and took them all
up to his base without a casualty.
His habitually accurate reasoning led
to Delarey's being frequently taken
away from his western Transvaalers
to devise positions for other Boer
leaders.
Since the British occupation Of the
railway line and the stretching out Of
the block house system have made per-
sonal meetings among the Boer leaders
more difficult, he has remained in the