s of burghers remained on
their farms and handed their weapons to the British. In some
districts, for instance, at Standerton, the commandant and two out of
his three field-cornets surrendered. Thus, not only were some
commandos without officers, but others entirely disappeared from our
army. Still, at the psychological moment a Joshua would appear, and
save the situation, as, for instance, in the Standerton district,
where Assistant-Field-Cornet Brits led a forlorn hope and saved a
whole commando from extinction. The greatest mischief was done by many
of our landdrosts, who, after having surrendered, sent out
communications to officers and burghers exhorting them to come in.

The majority of our Boer officers, however, remained faithful to their
vow, though since the country was partly occupied by the British it
was difficult to get in touch with the Commandant-General or the
Government, and the general demoralisation prevented many officers
from asserting their authority.

Generals Sarel Oosthuizen and H. L. Lemmer, both now deceased, were
sent to the north of Pretoria, to collect the burghers from the
western districts, and to generally rehabilitate their commandos. They
were followed by Assistant-Commandant General J. H. De la Rey and
State Attorney Smuts (our legal adviser). It was at this point,
indeed, that the supreme command of the western districts was assumed
by General De la Rey, who, on his way to the north, attacked and
defeated an English garrison at Selatsnek.

The "reorganisation" of our depleted commandos proceeded very well;
about 95 per cent. of the fighting Boers rejoined, and speedily the
commandos in the western districts had grown to about 7,000 men.

But just a few weeks after his arrival in the West Krugersdorp
district, poor, plucky Sarel Oosthuizen was severely wounded in the
battle of Dwarsvlei, and died of his wounds some time after.

General H. Lemmer, a promising soldier, whom we could ill spare, was
killed soon after while storming Lichtenburg under General De la Rey,
an engagement in which we did not succeed. We had much trouble in
replacing these two brave generals, whose names will live for all time
in the history of the Boer Republics.

It is hardly necessary to dwell on the splendid work done by
Assistant-Commandant-General De la Rey in the western districts.
Commandant-General Botha was also hard worked at this stage, and was
severely taxed reorganising his commandos and fil