Christiaan Rudolf de Wet
(7 October 1854 – 3 February 1922)
According to Wikipedia - this Boer general, rebel leader and politician was born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State. He later resided at Dewetsdorp, named after his father, Jacobus Ignatius de Wet. Like many of his contemporaries, his education was patchy, mostly from part time teachers who visited the farm from time to time. What De Wet lacked in education he more than made up for with common sense, natural leadership abilities and an instinctive understanding of people. At fourteen when his mother died he took responsibility with his father for running the farm and at twenty seven was the acting Commandant of Heidelberg. He took part in the first Boer war battle of Laings Nek where he commanded two hundred men, this however like many other Boer men was not his first taste of battle, for at the age of eleven he had ridden out to do battle with the Basuto.
De Wet served in the first Anglo-Boer War of 1880–81 as a Field Cornet, taking part in the Battle of Majuba Mountain, in which the Boers achieved a victory over the British forces under Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley. This eventually led to the end of the war and the reinstatement of the independence of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, more commonly known as the Transvaal Republic.
The courage that was to make de Wet a legend was already visible in the 1st Boer war and at Majuba he was one of the first to swarm the flat topped peak and defeat some of Britain’s best soldiers. A few years after the first Boer war that he moved in to politics and was elected to the Transvaal Volksraad. In the years between the First and Second Boer Wars, from 1881 to 1896, he lived on his farm, becoming a member of the Volksraad in 1897.De Wet’s politics could be described as progressive, even liberal, his achievements as a political leader were marked by his strong efforts in developing the transport system, especially the railways. At the start of the second Boer war in October 1899 both he and his son Kotie were called up as privates to the Heilbron Commando. After its commandant fell ill, De Wet was elected in his place and found himself in charge of six hundred men.
He took part in the early battles of the Boer War of 1899 in Natal as a commandant, later serving as a general under Piet Cronjé in the west. His first successful action was the surprise attack on Sanna's Post near Bloemfontein, which was followed a little later by the victory of Reddersburg. He came to be regarded as the most formidable leader of the Boers in their guerrilla warfare. De Wet continued his successful career to the end of the war, striking heavily where he could and evading every attempt to bring him to bay. His brother Piet Daniel De Wet, another successful Boer general, was captured by the British in July 1901 and subsequently served against Christiaan as a member of the National Scouts (Boers serving with the British forces).
His first success was an attack on British possessions near Ladysmith with only half of his Commando and at the end of the engagement two hundred British troops had either been killed or wounded another nine hundred captured with the added bonus of one thousand rifles and twenty cases of ammunition being seized. President Steyn of the Free State was highly impressed and soon after De Wet was notified of his appointment as Fighting General under Piet Cronje. After Cronje’s surrender at Paardeberg, De Wet found himself faced with an enormous task of having to stop General Lord Roberts and his massive advance. Despite huge efforts by both De Wet and De La Rey at Rietfontein and Abraham’s kraal the British advance on Bloemfontein could not be stopped. After a number of sweeping raids against the British that showed what could be achieved with a highly motivated mobile force he became the commander of the Free State forces, totalling about eight thousand men who concentrated on destroying supply lines, disrupting communications and using devastating hit and run tactics. After what was probably the most successful raid in the whole war that saw De Wet’s force attack three garrisons at the same time and kill or capture over seven hundred British soldiers and capture provisions valued well over one hundred thousand pounds, Lord Kitchener was determined to break De Wet’s resistance and raised a massive force to hunt him down.
By June 1900 Bethlehem was the only town of any consequence that had not been occupied by the British, fifty thousand troops under the leadership of five generals descended on the town. For two days De Wet and his large force of men stood firm, however the forces ranged against him were to great and he, together with President and Mrs Steyn and their entourage, travelled towards the Brandwater basin. De Wet was against the defence of the basin as he felt it could become a trap eventually, together with over two thousand men, he and President Steyn were to slip past the British near Retiefs Nek in the direction of Kroonstad.
De Wet’s brother Piet surrendered to the British on the 19th of May 1900 and offered Lord Roberts his assistance in persuading other Boer fighters, including his brother, to do the same. De Wet flogged the man that brought the letter and sent him back with a message that he would shoot Piet “like a dog” if he caught him. De Wet’s attacks continued during the war and together with his Chief scout Danie Theron became part of Afrikaans folklore. He may have continued his war of attrition indefinitely, tying up a large British force, had it not been for many Burghers tiring of the war.
De Wet took an active part in the peace negotiations of 1902, briefly (30 to 31 May) in the role of Acting State President of the Orange Free State, when President Steyn had to leave the negotiations due to illness. De Wet was one of the signatories of the famous Treaty of Vereeniging.
In July 1902 De Wet left for Europe to raise funds for the Boer cause and while on this trip wrote a best selling book called “Die Strijd tusschen Boer en Brit” Upon his return from Europe he again entered politics, the old soldier spirit In him and his strong nationalist feelings, led him and his six sons to join a commando with the object of protesting against the countries involvement in the first world war. The Memel Commando was one of the first to take up arms and seventy men accompanied General Christiaan De Wet who had come to live on a farm just outside the town, to Vrede. Towns were occupied and property damaged, before government forces of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts got the upper hand in a couple of skirmishes near Winburg in early November. Of the eleven thousand rebels, one hundred and ninety were killed, eleven from Memel.
While in England the generals unsuccessfully sought a modification of the peace terms concluded at Pretoria. De Wet wrote an account of his campaigns, an English version of which appeared in November 1902 under the title Three Years War.
De Wet was one of the leaders of the Maritz Rebellion which broke out in 1914. He was defeated at Mushroom Valley by General Botha on 12 November 1914. De Wet was on the run again, he managed to evade his pursuers until late November 1914. After he was captured and was jailed at The Fort in Johannesburg, he was charged with high treason in June 1915, found guilty and sentenced to six years imprisonment and a two thousand pound fine, six months later he was reprieved and the fine paid for by sympathisers. Broken mentally and physically, he withdrew from politics and spent his last years in poverty and pain. He died on February the 3rd 1922 and was buried at the foot of the Woman’s Monument in Bloemfontein. Telegraphing his widow on the day of his internment Prime Minister Jan Smuts wrote kindly of De Wet saying: “A prince and a great man has fallen today”
General De Wet was mentioned in the poem The Ubique, by Rudyard Kipling.
There is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may -
'You bike,' 'you bikwe,' 'ubbikwe' - alludin' to R.A.
It serves 'Orse, Field, an' Garrison as motto for a crest,
An' when you've found out all it means I'll tell you 'alf the rest.
Ubique means the long-range Krupp be'ind the low-range 'ill -
Ubique means you'll pick it up an', while you do stand, still.
Ubique means you've caught the flash an' timed it by the sound.
Ubique means five gunners' 'ash before you've loosed a round.
Ubique means Blue Fuse1, an' make the 'ole to sink the trail. 1extreme range
Ubique means stand up an' take the Mauser's 'alf-mile 'ail.
Ubique means the crazy team not God nor man can 'old.
Ubique means that 'orse's scream which turns your innards cold.
Ubique means 'Bank, 'Olborn, Bank - a penny all the way -
The soothin' jingle-bump-an'-clank from day to peaceful day.
Ubique means 'They've caught De Wet, an' now we sha'n't be long.'
Ubique means 'I much regret, the beggar's going strong!'
Ubique means the tearin' drift where, breech-blocks jammed with mud,
The khaki muzzles duck an' lift across the khaki flood.
Ubique means the dancing plain that changes rocks to Boers.
Ubique means the mirage again an' shellin' all outdoors.
Ubique means 'Entrain at once for Grootdefeatfontein'!
Ubique means 'Off-load your guns' - at midnight in the rain!
Ubique means 'More mounted men. Return all guns to store.'
Ubique means the R.A.M.R. Infantillery Corps!
Ubique means the warnin' grunt the perished linesman knows,
When o'er 'is strung an' sufferin' front the shrapnel sprays 'is foes,
An' as their firin' dies away the 'usky whisper runs
From lips that 'aven't drunk all day: 'The Guns! Thank Gawd, the Guns!'
Extreme, depressed, point-blank or short, end-first or any'ow,
From Colesberg Kop to Quagga's Poort - from Ninety-Nine till now -
But what I've 'eard others tell an' I in spots av' seen,
There's nothin' this side 'Eaven or 'Ell Ubique doesn't mean.
One cannot reach this cache from outside the park. Please try to not draw to much attention. BYOP