[Illustration: BATTLEFIELD OF COLENSO, DECEMBER 15, 1899
1 GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA'S COMMANDO
2 BOKSBURG COMMANDO
3 COLENSO
4 KRUGERSDORP COMMANDO
5 WAKKERSTROM COMMANDO
6 ERMELO COMMANDO
7 SWAZILAND POLICE
8 ERMELO COMMANDO
9 BRITISH CAMP, CHIEVELY
10 TUGELA RIVER]

"When my father is injured or killed, I will take his rifle," was his
excuse for being away from home. When General De Wet captured seven cannon
from the enemy at the battle of Sannaspost two of the volunteers to
operate them were boys aged respectively fourteen and fifteen years.
Pieter J. Henning, of the Potchefstroom commando, who was injured in the
battle of Scholtznek on December 11th, was less than fifteen years old,
yet his valour in battle was as conspicuous as that of any of the burghers
who took part in the engagement. Teunis H.C. Mulder, of the Pretoria
commando, celebrated his sixteenth birthday only a few days before he was
twice wounded at Ladysmith on November 9th, and Willem François Joubert, a
relative of the Commandant-General, was only fifteen years old when he was
wounded at Ladysmith on October 30th. At the battle of Koedoesrand,
fifteen-year-old Pieter de Jager, of the Bethlehem commando, was seriously
injured by a shell while he was conveying his injured father from the
field. With the army of General Cronje captured at Paardeberg were no less
than a hundred burghers who had not reached the sixteenth year, and among
those who escaped from the laager in the river-bed were two Bloemfontein
boys named Roux, aged twelve and fourteen years. At Colenso a Wakkerstroom