Sub-district of Wepener: the men under Commandant R. Coetzee.
All of these were under Vice-Commander-in-Chief Piet Fourie, and later on under George Brand.
Not long after this arrangement had been made the district under General Froneman was divided into two divisions, and Commandant Michal Prinsloo was promoted to be Vice-Commander-in-Chief of Bethlehem and Ficksburg as separate sub-districts. Bethlehem was then given three Commandants, namely, Commandants Olivier, Rautenbach and Bruwer.
All this new arrangement of our forces made it impossible for great battles to be fought; it offered us the opportunity of frequently engaging the enemy in skirmishes, and inflicting heavier losses upon them than would otherwise have been the case. For the same reason our losses grew larger from month to month, but they did not increase in the same proportion as those of the enemy. Again, we captured more prisoners than formerly. It is much to be regretted that we were unable to keep them, for had we been in a position to do so, the world would have been astonished at their number. But unfortunately we were now unable to retain any of our prisoners. We had no St. Helena, Ceylon or Bermuda, whither we could send them. Thus, whilst every prisoner which the English captured meant one less man for us, the thousands of prisoners we took from the English were no loss to them at all, for in most cases it was only a few hours before they could fight again. All that was required was that a rifle should be ready in the camp on a prisoner's return, and he was prepared for service once more.
The fact that we fought throughout the Free State in small detachments, put the English to some trouble, for they felt themselves obliged to discover a vocabulary of names to apply to us!
Thus when Lord Roberts on the 24th of May, 1900, proclaimed the Orange Free State (and afterwards the Transvaal) as annexed by the British Crown, he described those who continued to fight as rebels. Then again we were called "Sniping Bands" and "Brigands." But the list of epithets was not exhausted yet, for it appeared that we were "Guerillas," and our leaders "Guerilla Chiefs!"
I was always at a loss to understand by what right the English designated us "Guerillas." They had, however, to withdraw the soubriquet at the Peace Negotiations, when they acknowledged that our leaders formed a legal government.
Let me say a few words more about this term "Guerillas." We will suppose that England has captured New York, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, or any other capital of a free and independent State, Kingdom or Empire, and that the Government of such State, Kingdom or Empire still continues to defend itself. Would England then be entitled to call their antagonists "Guerillas"? Or, we will suppose that England's capital has been taken by another nation, but the English Government still remains in existence. Could England then be considered to be annexed by the other nation, and could the enemy term the English "Guerillas"? Surely it would be impossible!
The only case in which one can use this word, is when one civilized nation has so completely vanquished another, that not only is the capital taken, but also the country from border to border is so completely conquered that any resistance is out of the question.
But that nothing like this had happened in South Africa is clear to every one who recalls the names of Lindley,[94] Roodewal, Dewetsdorp, Vlakfontein, Tafelkop[95] and Tweefontein, not to speak of many other glorious battle-fields on which we fought after the so-called annexation.