the burghers only half their age. Men who could boast of being
grandfathers were innumerable, and in almost any laager there could be
seen father, sons, and grandsons, all fighting with equal vigour and
enthusiasm. Paul Kruger is seventy-five years old, but there were many of
his burghers several years older than he who went to the frontier with
their commandos and remained there for several months at a time. A
great-grandfather serving in the capacity of a private soldier, may appear
like a mythical tale, but there were several such. Old Jan van der
Westhuizen, of the Middleberg laager, was active and enthusiastic at
eighty-two years, and felt more than proud of four great-grand-children.
Piet Kruger, a relative of the President, and four years his senior, was
an active participant in every battle in which the Rustenburg commando was
engaged while it was in Natal, and he never once referred to the fact that
he fought in the 1881 war and in the attack upon Jameson's men. Four of
Kruger's sons shared the same tent and fare with him, and ten of his
grandsons were burghers in different commandos. Jan C. ven [Transcriber's
note: sic] Tander, of Boshof, exceeded the maximum of the military age
by eight years, but he was early in the field, and was seriously wounded
at the battle of Scholtznek on December 11th. General Joubert himself
was almost seventy years old but as far as physical activity was
concerned there were a score of burghers in his commando, each from five
to ten years older, who exhibited more energy in one battle than he did
during the entire Natal campaign. The hundreds of bridges and culverts
along the railway lines in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and
Upper Natal were guarded day and night by Boers more than sixty years
old, who had volunteered to do the work in order that younger men might
be sent to localities where their services might be more necessary.
Other old Boers and cripples attended to the commissariat arrangements
along the railways, conducted commissariat waggons, gathered forage for
the horses at the front, and arranged the thousands of details which