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Battle of Bothaville
The Battle of Bothaville (Doornkraal) on 6 November 1900 was a rare defeat of Christiaan de Wet's Boer commando at the hands of a force of British Mounted Infantry (MI).
==Battle==
De Wet was one of the most successful Boer commanders of the Second Boer War, disrupting British supply lines almost with impunity. On 6 November, De Wet camped at Bothaville on the Valsch River with 800 Orange Free State commandos. His party included the president of the Free State, Marthinus Steyn. De Wet was aware that Maj. Gen. Charles Knox's greatly superior British all-arms force was camped away and believed that his outposts would give him adequate warning of any enemy moves. What he did not know was that the men at his main outpost had fallen asleep.〔Pakenham, p 502〕
Shortly after dawn, right after De Wet received a reassuring report from a scout, Knox's 600-man advance guard, the 5th and 8th MI under Lieutenant-Colonel P. W. J. Le Gallais appeared only from the Boer camp. For once, De Wet was surprised and a panic ensued in the Boer camp. Because his adjutant had kept a horse ready saddled, President Steyn was able to escape. The bulk of De Wet's commando fled for their lives on horseback, but a hard core of about 150 men stayed behind and fought it out with the MI. The two sides went to ground or occupied farm buildings and blazed away with rifles and even field guns at close range. "The heroism displayed on both sides made it one of the most ferocious and gruesome little actions of the war."〔
The battle went on for four hours before Knox belatedly showed up with his infantry force. At that point, one surviving officer, Major William Bernard Hickie, led the MI in a bayonet charge. This quickly produced a Boer surrender. The MI wanted to shoot two Boers who were found with dum-dum bullets, but Knox humanely stopped this. To the irritation of the MI officers, Knox and his staff seemed preoccupied with dividing the spoils in the captured Boer camp. There was no pursuit.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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