Secretary Reitz who were fighting with
the Boer army asked his father for permission to join the Irish Brigade,
the Secretary gave an excellent description of the organisation: "The
members of the Irish Brigade do their work well, and they fight remarkably
well, but, my son, they are not gentle in their manner." Blake and his men
were among the first to cross the Natal frontier, and their achievements
were notable even if the men lacked gentility of manner. The brigade took
part in almost every one of the Natal engagements and when General Botha
retreated from the Tugela Colonel Blake and seventy-five of his men
bravely attacked and drove back into Ladysmith a squadron of cavalry which
intended to cut off the retreat of Botha's starving and exhausted
burghers. Blake and his men were guarding a battery on Lombard Kop, a
short distance east of Ladysmith, when he learned that Joubert was leading
the retreat northward, and allowing Botha, with his two thousand men, to
continue their ten days' fighting without reinforcements. Instead of
retreating with the other commandos, Blake and seventy-five of his men
stationed themselves on the main road between Ladysmith and Colenso and
awaited the coming of Botha. A force of cavalry was observed coming out of
the besieged city, and it was apparent that they could readily cut off
Botha from the other Boers. Blake determined to make a bold bluff by
scattering his small force over the hills and attacking the enemy from
different directions. The men were ordered to fire as rapidly as possible
in order to impress the British cavalry with a false idea of the size of
the force. The seventy-five Irishmen and Americans made as much noise with
their guns as a Boer commando of a thousand men usually did, and the
result was that the cavalry wheeled about and returned into Ladysmith.
Botha and his men, dropping out of their saddles from sheer exhaustion and
hunger, came up from Colenso a short time after the cavalry had been
driven back and made their memorable journey to Joubert's new headquarters
at Glencoe. It was one of the few instances where the foreigners were of
any really great assistance to the Boers.

After the relief of Ladysmith the Irish Brigade was sent to Helpmakaar
Pass, and remained there for six weeks, until Colonel Blake succeeded in
inducing the War Department to send them to the Free State, where these
"sons of the ould sod" might make a display of their valour to the world,