Episode 80- A Boer Rodeo near Swart Ruggens & General Bindon Blood makes his dashing appearance

When we ended last week, Deneys Reitz had rejoined General de la Rey along with his Dopper companions, and had been regaled by the prophet, van Rensburg in late March 1901. The General was aware that the British drives were beginning to pay off - that was Kitchener’s plan to encircle the renegade commandos while conducting a scorched earth policy while his notorious internment of women and children in the Concentration Camps continued apace. So at the end of March 1901, Deneys Reitz and the de la Rey commando moved to Tafel Kop from their natural lake called Rietpan in the western Transvaal. That came after de la Rey had suffered a defeat in a skirmish with British troops and lost around one hundred men. He knew they were in an untenable position in the lowland, and wanted to move into broken country which meant escape was more likely when attacked. Remember many of the Boers were now without their horses, 18 months of war and disease meant a shortage was growing of horses, food, clothing, ammunition. This didn’t stop Reitz from continuing to dream about being part of a large scale invasion into the Cape colony. It was this kind of wishful thinking that motivated him along with the core of the Boers. And yet, here, far away from his loved ones, Reitz was about to turn 18 years old. This old young man had been involved in nearly all major battles in Natal starting in October 1899, dozens of skirmishes and near misses, now he was looking forward to legally being able to consume alcohol as his birthday approached. Not that he had avoided the brandy and schnapps over the past year when offered. Still he was clearly excited about his birthday in most endearing way and wrote about it in his book Commando. That excitement was rapidly to turn to exasperation and even fear as they readied the feast early in the morning, a thick mist hanging over their camp because a British patrol was close by. In the Eastern Transvaal, General French’s cavalry and mounted infantry had recovered from some of their supply problems were heard about in previous episodes, the weather had improved. It lost much of its impetus as lack of a supplies hampered mobility and their horses were weakened by the wet weather and lack of forage. The sodden terrain had been miserable for the English troops who laughingly referred to the weather as somewhat like Scotland. We'll also be introduced to General Sir Bindon Blood who had a great deal of experience in Africa, building bridges and pontoons for the British expansion in Zululand in the 1860s, then fighting the Zulus in the infamous campaign of 1879. Eventually he ended up in India and was then drafted back to Africa to fight the Boers in early 1901. With his fine head of silver white hair and a moustache to match, he was easy to spot in a crowd. But more about General Blood, Ben Viljoen and the Sikukuniland warriors clashes later this month.