Louis Botha

“ Thence they made their way through Boesmansland to Cape Colony, and, after many adventures, joined General Hermanus Maritz's commando. Botha, unfortunately, was killed in a skirmish some time later. What will the world say of these young burghers? Surely, that more valiant and faithful men than they have never lived. I regret that I do not remember the names of all Willie Steyn's comrades. I travelled with him by train from the Free State to Cape Town, where I had to join General Louis Botha and J.H. De la Rey, so as to accompany them to Europe on my nation's behalf. ”

“ Steadfast South Africa WHEN Germany struck at the heart of France through Belgium simultaneous action was undertaken by the German Command in Southwest Africa through propaganda and mobilization of the available German troops. Insidiously and by the use of money systematic propaganda was instituted to corrupt the Boers against their allegiance to the Union of South Africa. One great character stood like a rock against all their efforts. It was the character of General Louis Botha, formerly arrayed in battle against the British during the Boer uprising. ”

“ At the same time he compelled his burghers to forget their own differences, as they hurled defiance at the common foe. It seems to be a truism that it requires a Boer to rule a Boer; and in some ways the mantle of President Kruger would appear to have descended in our days upon General Louis Botha. According to all accounts, his will is now law to the ignorant back Veldt Boers, although his guiding principles savour more of the big stick than of the spoon-feeding system. ”

“ Commandant Grobler ran against a large column of English five times his number, gave them a good short fight and then retreated as rapidly as he could. General Louis Botha and General Chris. Botha attacked a column 3,000 strong at Spitz Kop near Ermelo and kept these 3,000 Tommies moving lively all day. I really believe the English cavalry would do well if so many of them did not fall off when at a swift pace, and if they would not stampede and every man run for his life because a shell exploded near them. ”

“ He had the ordinary tale—against the war at the start, compelled to fight, had remonstrated with Louis Botha on his conduct of the Natal campaign, and, grumbling greatly, had followed his leader till he was caught and sent to Ceylon. The Boer discipline must have been a curious growth, and, when we realise the intense individualism of the fighting men, we begin to see the greatness of the achievement of Botha and Delarey in keeping them together at all. ”

“ Louis Botha, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Union of South Africa in the field. Brigadier-General H. T. Lukin, C.M.G., D.S.O., acting on behalf of General Botha, shall be the officer in charge with arranging details of the surrender and giving effect to it.
(2) The active troops of the said forces of the said Protectorate surrendered in terms of paragraph (1) shall, in the case of officers, retain their arms and may give parole, being allowed to live each under that parole at such places as he may select. ”

“ The Boer resistance has centered chiefly in three men, Commandants Louis Botha in the northeast, Delarey to the west of Pretoria, and De Wet in the Orange Free State. The first, who since the death of General Joubert, was in chief command in Natal, and afterwards in the Eastern Transvaal, has not been conspicuously active since September, but the other two have achieved a great deal with their very limited resources, and have earned enduring fame as guerrilla chieftains. ”

“ When the Boers were firmly settled upon the land Vryheid was declared a Republic, and Lucas Meyer was elected first President. But the new Republic lasted only about three years, and was then, by mutual consent, merged into Transvaal territory, and both Lucas Meyer and Louis Botha were elected members of the Volksraad. Louis Botha retained his seat right up to the time hostilities broke out between Great Britain and the Republics under Mr. Kruger and Mr. Steyn. ”

“ The English, when the Boers retired, lost no time in fleeing to places of safety, and never again showed themselves on the high veldt until the horses, mules and men from America were put into fighting trim, and that was many weeks to come. The two Bothas had proved themselves equal to that almost, if not quite, unequalled De Wet, and such was the impression they made on Lord Kitchener that he requested General Louis Botha to meet and discuss with him some peace terms. ”

“ Seldom have men's minds progressed so rapidly, their life purposes changed so completely. In 1902 England, with the aid of her African colonists in Cape Colony and Natal, was ending a bitter war, almost of extermination, against the Dutch "Boers" of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In that year the ablest and most dreaded of England's enemies in Africa was the Dutch General, Louis Botha, leader of the fiercest and most irreconcilable Boers, who still waged a hopeless guerrilla warfare against all the might of the British Empire. ”

“ Further severe fighting would have been necessary before the defiles and the very difficult country to the north-west or north could have been forced.
The Boer defences.
The whole of the mountain redoubt had been elaborately fortified under the personal direction of General Louis Botha. A special commission, consisting of Generals Erasmus and Prinsloo, had been nominated by a Krijgsraad, held on 2nd December, to [p. 342] supervise the defence arrangements on the Tugela, but the commission made but one inspection and Louis Botha was given practically a free hand. ”

“ To me, I confess, the most interesting thing in the house was General Botha himself. When he talked of the future of South Africa in slow, rather laboured English (for this medium was always a little difficult for him) , one felt that one was in the presence of a really great man. His transparent honesty, and his obvious sincerity of purpose, stood out as clearly as his strong common sense. On looking at his powerful, almost stern, face, one realised that here was a man who would allow nothing to turn him from his purpose once he was convinced that he was right ”

“ But he was already a dying man. Shortly after reaching Pretoria he died, on 27 August, within a month of completing his fifty-seventh year.
Botha visited England several times after the Boer War, in 1902 in a private capacity, in 1907 when he had just assumed office in the Transvaal, in 1909 with the scheme for South African union, in 1911 for imperial conferences, and lastly at the time of the Peace of Versailles. Whenever he was in London his chief preoccupation was to guard the interests of South Africa. In 1907 he secured an advantageous loan from the imperial government ”

“ Nel scrutinised him closely, a kindly, rather wistful, expression lighting his grave features.
“That’s the very reason,” he said at length, “why you ought to remain out here. It’s men who feel as you do about it that we want... Do you suppose that it is easier for me, who have to take the field against the brother I love? ... Do you think it is easy for Botha to fight against men who once fought shoulder to shoulder with him in a just though unequal cause? Botha took the field before for his people; he takes it to-day for the good of South Africa, which before everything else he has at heart. ”

“ I certainly blame General Botha for the surrender of hundreds of men, and while I like him and know that he is a great fighter when pushed to it, yet I must be honest and tell him the great mistake he made, in not keeping the burghers in hand, and giving them plenty of fighting, for they were always ready to fight when there was anything to be accomplished. ”

“ He now proposed to enter Natal through Zululand, below the junction of the Tugela and the Buffalo. On the point of the angle which, at that time, the Transvaal thrust into Zululand were two British posts, Forts Prospect and Itala. Botha was beginning to be doubtful about the eventual success of his Natal raid, but thought that as he was on the spot he might as well be doing something. He therefore ordered these posts to be taken, entrusting to his brother C. Botha the attack on Itala, and to Emmett and Grobler the attack on Prospect. ”

“ This also Botha agreed to do; but it is characteristic of his cautious and deliberate methods that for some weeks the English in South Africa were left in suspense, as no public announcement of his intentions was issued. From the outset he had seen that he would have to: tread warily with his own people ”

“ But given time and they would have built in the face of nature a two million pounds breakwater and everything complete. Yes, they are a thorough people; they are human ants as regards work. Nevertheless, it is not colonising. The Germans are not colonists.
Army Headquarters were fixed at the Damaraland Building close to the shore--a splendidly equipped edifice, with a tower commanding a fifteen-mile-radius view of the desert and the sea. General Botha made the private quarters of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief at the Woermann Line House close by. ”

“ Rebels rounded up after the capture of De Wet] [missing]
General Botha is celebrated amongst fighting men for many things, and his night-marching is one of them. He appears to believe to the fullest extent in night-marching. He had located De Wet at a place called Mushroom Valley, and parts of the Commander-in-Chief's forces had been sent to make a surrounding movement. During the all-night trek from Winburg to Mushroom Valley I had a first thorough experience of the true horrors of sleep-fighting. It was bitterly cold--cold as the Free State night on the veld knows how to be. ”

“ Botha defends his own people against charges of treachery, and gives it as his fixed opinion that a just and firm Government with uniformity of treatment will not only control and satisfy the Boers, but eradicate in time that feeling of distrust and fear which was engendered in their minds by the halting and unequal policy of England. ”

“ Celliers succeeded in cutting the railway and seized a train containing supplies for the Germans, but his attack on Jakalswater was a failure, and the enemy made forty-three of his men prisoners.
General Botha was so confident of the ultimate success of his campaign, that he was not disposed to imperil his chances by any hasty operations, and so his progress toward Windhoek was at first necessarily slow. The nature of the country afforded the enemy many natural advantages and unfortunately the Union forces were not provided with aeroplanes, which would have proved invaluable in scouting. ”

“ Before the surrender the Union forces held 890 German prisoners in Southwest Africa.
While it is true that the Union troops greatly outnumbered the Germans, General Botha's conquest of the colony was none the less a brilliant military achievement. The most dangerous foe that the Union soldiers encountered was not the Germans, but the deadly climate ”

“ General Botha has undertaken, for reasons of Imperial importance, to attack, to capture, and to occupy German South-West Africa. [Hear, hear.] The Imperial Government knew then and know now that he can do so, but they know also that it will be no light task. The Africander is proud of the unstinted trust which has been reposed in him by the British people since their war; they know what freedom and self-government mean and from whom they have sprung. The minority of rebels are shaming their fellows and defaming their honour. ”

“ That support was the outcome of the policy of a man of great natural shrewdness and remarkable capacity for growth, who not only mastered in a few years the ins and outs of the English party system and the duties of party leadership, but also caught the conception of British imperialism. It may be that the author gives Botha more than his due, and it is probable that he has interpreted South African politics from the standpoint of a watcher at Westminster. He has drawn a great man, whose policy in the last two years is the finest tribute to imperialism—of the Liberal kind. ”

“ Botha's plans appear to have been to work through Zululand and then strike at Natal, an operation which would be the more easy as it would be conducted a considerable distance from the railway line. Pushing on a few days after his successful action with Gough, he crossed the Zulu frontier, and had in front of him an almost unimpeded march as far as the Tugela. Crossing this far from the British base of power, his force could raid the Greytown district and raise recruits among the Dutch farmers, laying waste one of the few spots in South Africa which had been untouched by the blight of war. ”

“ P. J. Joubert, the commandant-general, came down to Vryheid to take over the new province, and made Botha’s acquaintance. Five years later, during the great contest for the presidency, Botha and his friend Meyer enthusiastically supported Joubert against Kruger. Otherwise the even tenor of Botha’s happy farm life was undisturbed till in 1895, when the government of Swaziland had been handed over to the Transvaal, he was appointed a native commissioner. Here he distinguished himself by his energetic fight against the scandalous liquor traffic with the natives ”

“ No guns have been heard, and therefore no serious fighting can have taken place anywhere near Pretoria. Rundle has been reported as having received a check in the Free State, and Lord Roberts is said to be still in Johannesburg; otherwise there is no news at all. Botha has taken matters into his own hands, has kicked out the officials appointed by Kruger, chosen a committee of his own, and has arranged the defence of the positions outside the town. He has therefore made himself practically President of what remains of the Transvaal. ”