Commandant General Louis Botha

Photograph

Source: Rompel’s Heroes of the Boer War, 115.

“Shortly before the outbreak of the war, when the Transvaal Volksraad was appointing different leaders to fill the rank of general, no member of our legislature thought of giving a vote to Louis Botha. Louis was too young and had had no opportunity of displaying his tactical qualities. He had risen no higher than assistant field cornet. Lucas Meijer, the senior member for Vrijheid, for which district Botha sat as junior member in the First Volksraad, was appointed a general. He had been wounded in the neck in the war of 1880-1881 and had given proofs of great bravery in the Zulu War. The appointment therefore was only natural, and that Louis Botha was passed over is quite as intelligible. Like so many others, like De Wet, Kritzinger, Danie Theron, Beijers, Malan, he first displayed his great capacity during the course of the war. ” [continued below]

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He was one of the first to take the field. As Lucas Meijer's subordinate, he fought freely at Dundee, but without distinguishing himself. Then Lucas Meijer fell ill, owing to the exhausting marches and fights that fellowed on the evacuation of Dundee (22-26 October 1899). The doctors prescribed absolute rest. Meijer returned to Pretoria, and Louis Botha assumed the temporary command. The Utrecht and Vrijheid Commandoes held Ladysmith locked in on the south. It was over these and the Wakkerstroom Commando that the young general held command, and the task fell to him of defending the Tugela positions against Sir Redvers Buller's advancing army.

Here Louis Botha established his name for good and all as an able tactician. Personally he showed the burghers where to dig the trenches. He taught them how to conceal those trenches from the eyes of the enemy by means of branches and foliage. He encouraged the burghers in their heavy work upon the hard rocky ground, work made still more unpleasant by the scarcity of implements, enabling the Boers to work only by turns. But Louis Botha's friendly words, his encouraging talk and infinite patience kept up the burghers' spirits. Most of them had not even known him by sight before that time; but he enlisted the sympathy of the Transvaalers with astonishing swiftness. His kindly glance. [115-16]

Bibliography

Rompel, Frederik. Heroes of the Boer War. London: “Review of Reviews” Office; The Hague and Pretoria: the “Nederland” Publishing Co., 1903. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 22 December 2014.

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Last modified 22 December 2014