X-Nico

6 unusual facts about South African Republic


4th New Zealand Contingent

Between August 1900 and May 1901, the contingent fought several small skirmishes against Boer commandos in northern Transvaal.

Frederick Bell

:On 16 May 1901 at Brakpan, Transvaal, South Africa, when retiring through a heavy fire after holding the right flank, Lieutenant Bell noticed a man dismounted and returned and took him up behind him.

John Bisdee

:On 1 September 1900 near Warm Bad, Transvaal, South Africa, Trooper Bisdee was one of an advance scouting party passing through a narrow gorge, when the enemy suddenly opened fire at close range and six out of the party of eight were wounded, including two officers.

John Hays Hammond, Jr.

Born in San Francisco, California, his family moved to South Africa and the Transvaal in 1893.

South African Republic

Schoemansdal, a village at the foot of the Zoutpansberg, was the most important settlement of the district, and the most advanced outpost in European occupation at that time in South Africa.

Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African province of Transvaal.


Action at Bronkhorstspruit

It was a skirmish between a British army column and a group of Boers, fought by the Bronkhorstspruit River, a few miles east of the town of Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal on 20 December 1880.

Battle of Modder River

When the war broke out, one of the Boers' early targets was the diamond-mining centre of Kimberley, which stood not far from the point where the borders of the Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and the British-controlled Cape Colony met.

CGR 3rd Class 2-6-0T

Before the outbreak of the South African War in October 1899, four tank locomotives were ordered by the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM) in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) from Dickson Manufacturing Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, through the agency of Arthur Koppel.

Charles Granville Fortescue

He was in the Siege of Ladysmith, and afterwards served as a staff officer in the operations in Northern Natal (including the action at Laing's Nek) and in Eastern Transvaal (including the actions at Belfast and Lydenburg).

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava

He served with the 9th Lancers during the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1901 and was present at the engagements at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River, Magersfonstein, the relief of Kimberley, the advance to Bloemfontein and Pretoria and the subsequent fighting in the Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony, where he was badly wounded on Christmas Eve 1900.

Noel Birch

In 1895 to 1896 he took part in the Ashanti expedition, and in South Africa he served with the Royal Horse Artillery in the Cavalry Division under the command of Sir John French, taking part in the relief of Kimberley, the operations in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and being present at the Battle of Diamond Hill.

Norma Whalley

During the late 1890s she toured South Africa, meeting Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal Republic soon after the Jameson Raid.

Siege of Kimberley

The Siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town.

Siege of Lydenburg

The Siege of Lydenburg was a siege carried out by the Boer Republic of Transvaal on Lydenburg, modern day South Africa, between January and March 1881 during the First Boer War.

Transvaalse Staatsartillerie

The first attempt by the South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR) to form a professional full-time artillery unit was Batterij Dingaan (Dingaan Battery), which could be seen as the forerunner of the Transvaalse Staatsartillerie.

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein

The farm was originally granted to A.P. de Nysschen in 1866 by the government of the South African Republic; is referred to in the survey diagram as "Twee Buffels Geschiet" (Two buffaloes shot) and shown as having an area of 5119 morgen and 429 square roods (4385.2 ha).

Willem Johannes Leyds

Willem Johannes Leyds (Magelang, Dutch East Indies, 1 May 1859 – The Hague, Netherlands, 14 May 1940) was a Dutch lawyer and statesman, who made a career as State Attorney (1884-1889) and State Secretary (1889-1898) of the South African Republic.


see also

Sipho Tshabalala

The book is written in the form of a narrative, following the elder Tshabalala in his campaigns with the South African Republic leader Koos de la Rey.