TOPIC:

Generaal H.J. Schoeman

We are all well familiar with the Boer heroes. There were however a number of high-ranking officers who have by now more or less been expulsed from Boer memory, either because they turned sides (Piet de Wet and others) or proved over-cautious, weak or ineffective on the battlefield. This latter fate befell many older officers who had acquired their military rank purely because of seniority. One of these men was General Hendrik Jacobus Schoeman.



Schoeman was born in 1840 in Pietermaritzburg as fourth child of Kommandant-Generaal Stephanus Schoeman. Hendrik moved at some stage to the Transvaal where he played an important role in the Volksvergardering. He was appointed General during the 1st Boer War, but saw only limited action during his tenure. Between the Boer Wars he occupied various high civil functions, including that of representative for the Lichtenburg district in the Volksraad.
Schoeman entered the (2nd) Boer War as a common burger but 17 days after the start of hostilities he was put in command of the Pretoria and Johannesburg commandos. With 2000 men he occupied Colesberg and surrounding villages but he proved so passive (“Het niks gedoen nie”) and indecisive that he was quickly replaced by Generaal H.R. Lemmer. Schoeman went then to Pretoria to assist A.C.W Wolmarans with civil administration matters. In March 1900 he quit his functions and returned to his farm where he laid down his arms on June 5. He was immediately arrested by Commandant P.F. Coetzee who sent him to General Smuts to be judged. Smuts couldn’t or didn’t want to deal with this matter and sent Schoeman to Generaal Botha who leveled the accusation of high treason against him, then a capital offence. The court, under famous judge F.E.T Krause, reached a verdict of “not Guilty” although the vote was split. General Schoeman was re-arrested on the 29th of November 1900 when on a “peace mission” and locked up in Pietersburg, the only town of some substance then still in Boer hands. Schoeman was freed when Plumer’s troops overran the town in April 1901 and he returned to his house in the Strubenstraat in Pretoria.

General Schoeman’s end was even more tragic than his late-life military career. On Sunday May 26, 1901, Schoeman was showing some guests a 4.7 Lyddite shell he had taken as a souvenir from the battlefields in the Cape Colony. One of his guests apparently tossed a burning match into the opened shell case and the following explosion instantly killed the General and one of his daughters as well as severely wounded three others, including the General’s wife.

Correspondence by General H.J. Schoeman from the Boer War period is as rare as an honest politician. The following scribbled note dates from the time that he was trying to convince his fellow burgers that they should lay down their arms.

Very interesting thread. Is that letter in your collection Everhard? If so how did you come across it?

Lans, it is. The note was included in an auction lot (in 2006, ex Ken Griffith) of which the main item was a handwritten field message by General de Wet. Schoeman is completely ignored in "Onze Krijgs Offiicieren" and vilified in "Die Helde Album" . The only decent write up about the man is in Jacques Malan's "Die Boere Offisiere" from which most of the above information came.

Thank you. You do seem to have some very interesting items in your collection. Thank you for sharing this.