South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 7 (of 8) / The Guerilla War, from February 1901 to the Conclusion of Hostilities

by Louis Creswicke

THE SWAZI BORDER

The troops clearing the east in the Piet Retief region and on the Swazi border were hard at work to press back the desperate and almost refugeless Boers. Major Wiggin, with a detached force of the 26th Mounted Infantry Battalion (Colville’s column), surrounded a laager at a farm eight miles south of Mahamba (near Piet Retief), and captured Landdrost Kelly and Field-Cornet Van Rooijen, with fourteen of their party; and then this same officer, with another detached force, proceeded on the 16th to repeat his success. At Plat Nek (within the Swazi border) he pounced again on the foe, caught twelve of them, and secured nineteen waggons with teams and a number of Krupp cartridges.

General Plumer meanwhile worked considerable havoc among the scattered bands that hung south of the Wakkerstroom-Piet Retief blockhouses. After the 20th he was joined by Colonel Pulteney, and together they scoured the Randberg neighbourhood till the torrents should subside, and General Bruce-Hamilton, in his advance on Ermelo, could be assisted by them.