War Departments of the two Boer Governments never made any provision
for obtaining statistics concerning the strength of the armies in the
field, and consequently the exact number of burghers who bore arms at
different periods of the war will never be accurately known. A year before
the war was begun the official reports of the two Governments stated that
the Transvaal had thirty thousand and the Free State ten thousand men
between the ages of sixteen and sixty, capable of performing military
duties, but these figures proved to be far in excess of the number of men
who were actually bearing arms at any one period of the war. In the early
stages of the war men who claimed to have intimate knowledge of Boer
affairs estimated the strength of the Republican armies variously from
sixty thousand to more than one hundred thousand men. Major Laing, who had
years of South African military experience, and became a member of
Field-Marshal Lord Roberts's bodyguard, in December estimated the strength
of the Boer forces at more than one hundred thousand men, exclusive of the
foreigners who joined the fortunes of the Republican armies. Other men
proved, with wondrous arrays of figures and statistics, that the Boer army
could not possibly consist of less than eighty or ninety thousand men.

The real strength of the Boer armies at no time exceeded thirty thousand
armed men, and of that number more than one-half were never in the mood
for fighting. If it could be ascertained with any degree of accuracy it
would be found that not more than fifteen thousand Boers were ever engaged
in battles, while the other half of the army remained behind in the
laagers and allowed those who were moved by the spirit or by patriotism to
volunteer for waging battles. As has been pointed out in other chapters,
the officers had no power over their men, and consequently the armies were
divided into two classes of burghers: those who volunteered their services
whenever there was a battle, and those who remained in the laagers--the
"Bible-readers," as they were called by some of the more youthful
Boers. There were undoubtedly more than thirty thousand men in the
Republics capable of bearing arms, but it was never possible to compel all
of them to go to the front, nor was it less difficult to retain them there
when once they had reached the commando-laagers. Ten per cent. of the men
in the commandos were allowed to return to their homes on leave of
absence, and a