TOPIC:

In De Wet's Book, Three Years War, on page 149 he talks about the 1200 prisoners he captured when attacking the train at Leeuspruit. This seems to have been a train on it's way to fix the Delagoa Bridge.

He says that the prisoners were sent to the President's camp east of Heilbron.

Does anyone know anything about this camp, and how permanent a structure it could have been?

I have a medal to Spr G Charlton who was captured by De Wet when he caught the train, and managed to escape, so I'm assuming it was from the camp?

Ryan

Ryan,


I had a read of de Wet's account :

I arranged with General Froneman that he should cross the line at the point I had already selected, that is to say, north of Rhenoster River bridge, and that in the morning he should attack, from the eastern side, the English who were posted at Leeuwspruit Bridge. I, in the meanwhile, would make my way with a Krupp to the west side of the line, and having found a place of concealment near Roodepoort, would be ready to fall upon the English as soon as I heard that the other party had opened fire on them from the east.

But my plan was to come to nothing. For when, during the night, Froneman reached the line, a skirmish took place then and there with the English outposts at Leeuwspruit railway bridge. At the same time a train arrived from the south, on which the burghers opened such a fierce fire that it was speedily brought to a standstill. General Froneman at once gave orders to storm the train, but his men did not carry out his orders.

Had they done so, Lord Kitchener would have fallen into our hands!

Nobody knew that he was in the train, and it was only later that we heard how, when the train stopped, he got a horse out of one of the waggons, mounted it, and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Shortly afterwards the train moved on again, and our great opportunity was gone!

General Froneman succeeded in overpowering the garrison at the railway bridge, and took fifty-eight prisoners. He then set fire to the bridge, which was a temporary wooden structure, having been built to replace another similar one, which had been blown up with gunpowder.

Three hundred Kaffirs were also made prisoners on this occasion. They protested that they had no arms, and had only been employed in work upon the railway line. This absence of rifles was their saving. Possibly they had really been in possession of arms, and had thrown them away under cover of the darkness; but the burghers could not know this, and therefore acted upon the principle that it is better to let ten culprits escape than to condemn an innocent man to death.

General Froneman went on towards the east of Doorndraai. He was very well satisfied with his bridge-burning and his capture of prisoners, and in his satisfaction he never gave thought to me.

I waited in my hiding-place, expecting that, as we had agreed, the firing would begin from the east, but nothing happened. I did not care to make an attack on my own account from the west, for my positions were not practicable for the purpose, and being short of men, I feared that such an attempt might end in disaster.

It was now ten o'clock.

A few English scouts appeared on the scene, and four of my men attacked them. One of the enemy was shot, and the rest taken prisoners. And still I did not hear anything from General Froneman.

At last I came to the conclusion that he must have misunderstood my instructions. If that were the case, I must do the best I could myself. Accordingly I opened fire on the English with my Krupp.

Still no news of General Froneman!

Then I ordered my burghers to advance. Our first movement was over the nearest rise to the north-west; we halted for a moment, and then made a dash for Leeuwspruit Bridge—but we found nothing there.

Late in the evening I met General Froneman, and heard from him the narrative which I have given above.

The following day I sent well on to twelve hundred prisoners of war—including Kaffirs—to the President's camp, which lay east of Heilbron.

The despatch by Capt Crompton mentions 1 officer of the REs and 60 sappers were taken prisoner.

Who the other men were in the 1,200 sent to the President's Camp is not clear.

De Wet mentions the President's Camp in chapter 14 saying;

I at once returned with my capture to the spot where we had been the previous night. General Philip Botha conducted the prisoners and the booty to the President's camp, returning to our laager on the following morning.

I imagine this refers to President Steyn's main camp. Steyn had named Heilbron as his new capital on 12 May 1900, albeit for a week, after the fall of Bloemfontein.

There are many mentions of the camp at Heilbron but these refer to the later concentration camp.

Best wishes
David

Morning guys

The Engineers and African navvies captured were repairing the railway after De Wet's devastating attacks on 7 June at Roodewal/Rhenoster Bridge. Delagoa Bay was a little ways off at this time.

The 1200 POWs of De Wet were the 4th bn Derbyshire Rgt and assorted men captured at Roodewal/Rhenoster Bridge on 7 June.

Ryan - I don't think your assumption as to where Spr Charlton escaped from is unreasonable.

Regards
Meurig

Thanks David. I didn't think that by President they meant the President, aka Steyn in this case. That makes sense.

If it was Steyn's camp it was probably not a permanent structure, may have been barbed wire at best. There were barbed wire with lights camps used by the Boers, they didn't only let the prisoners go, so I imagine it was something like that.

Thanks Meurig, you have given me something to look into. I think I need to start looking at the link between McMeekan my Cape Railway Pioneer Regiment man, who was probably at Roodewal (at least I think it was Roodewal, I've had a long weekend of working!) and this Engineer.

Overall I have come to realise that the Boers, at least until into 1900, were not completely just stripping and releasing POW's, but they did have the ability to bag them up, and not just at the Model State School in Pretoria. Goals and barbed wire camps did exist.

Cheers
Ryan

My plan was to come to nothing. For when, during the night, Froneman reached the line, a skirmish took place then and there with the English outposts at Leeuwspruit railway bridge. At the same time a train arrived from the south, on which the burghers opened such a fierce fire that it was speedily brought to a standstill.

I at once returned with my capture to the spot where we had been the previous night. General Philip Botha conducted the prisoners and the booty to the President's camp, returning to our laager on the following morning.

General Froneman at once gave orders to storm the train, but his men did not carry out his orders.