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Served: Fauresmith.

ABO (Burger C. J. Potgieter). City Coins November 2007.

On 10 February 1901 General Christiaan de Wet with some 1500 burghers crossed the Orange River and invaded the Cape Colony for the second time. His attempt to gather support from Cape sympathisers was not a success and he lost 200 burghers as PoW’s as well as guns, ammunition and wagons. He had to cross back into the Free State, but the swollen Orange River was a big hindrance. Eventually, on 28 Feb 1901 he and his commando succeeded in crossing the river at Leliefontein, close to Colesberg (this was the fifteenth drift that they had tried). A number of his men were taken PoW the next day after their exhausting journey. These included 16-year-old Cornelius Potgieter of the Fauresmith Commando who served in Captain Oberholzer’s Scout Corps. He was sent to India in April 1901.