Generaal Hendrik Schoeman - Was Hy 'n Verraaier? by Johan Schoeman
Inscribed by the Author to the previous owner P.C. Malan on 1951/9/10--Also included a letter discovered in the book from the author to the previous owner, thanking him for purchasing and reading the book. The letter have a very personal tone...almost as if the author and previous owner were friends.
Generaal Hendrik Schoeman - Was Hy 'n Verraaier? (Met 22 Portrette) by Johan Schoeman
Hardcover
Publisher: Published by The author, 1950 First Edition
Condition: Very Good. The original printed boards that was issued without a DJ are slightly shelf rubbed and edge worn/bumped. This book is still overall very good. The book has no other inscriptions and the binding is excellent. Bold black lettering to the spine and the front of the book. Publication of 267 pages.
Hendrik Schoeman was the son of Commandant General Stephanus Schoeman, who had led the pro-Potgieter Volksleger against the pro-Pretorius Staatsleger in the Boer Civil War of 1864. Hendrik fought alongside his father, but it was during the British annexation of the Transvaal from 1877 to 1880 that he really gained prominence.
War hero 1880-1881
When the Boers declared the re-independence of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek at Paardekraal on 16 December 1880, it was Schoeman who carried the declaration to the British Governor, Sir Owen Lanyon, in Pretoria. Lanyon immediately sought ‘to restore the authority of Her Majesty’s Government and put down the insurrection wherever it may exist’. Thus began the First Anglo-Boer War.
The Boers routed a British column at Bronkhorstspruit and besieged British garrisons in seven Transvaal towns, including Pretoria. After the Boers lost a minor battle on the outskirts of Pretoria, Hendrik Schoeman was given command of the siege. He improved the efficiency of the blockade using a system of signals and mobile commandos that prevented the British garrison from another victory. When the Boers ultimately won the war at the Battle of Majuba the following February, Schoeman became one of the heroes of the war and was elected to the Volksraad and the Executive Council.
Schoeman’s priorities, however, lay with his agricultural and business interests. He owned several farms including Hartebeestpoort in the fertile Crocodile River valley. He called it Schoemansrus and where the river winds through the Witwatersberg hills (now Meerhof), he built the largest dam in the country at the time, impounding a lake about 3km long. But he visualised something even bigger – a colossal irrigation scheme that would bring prosperity to the entire region. This grand scheme was thwarted by the outbreak of the South African War in October 1899 and only materialised 20 years after his death when the Union Government built the Hartbeespoort Dam on his farm.
Humiliation in the South African War
The South African War not only destroyed Schoeman’s dream of a mighty dam, it was his personal nemesis. Given command of the Pretoria and Johannesburg Commandos defending the Orange River border, his generalship was over-cautious and incompetent. In February 1900 he was relegated to an administrative role in Bloemfontein from where, slighted and resentful, he returned to his farm in the Magaliesberg.
By early June 1900 the Boers were in full retreat and the British army bore down on Pretoria. A mounted column led by General French, encircled the town and, after a brief battle on the Kalkheuwel pass, the column crossed the Crocodile River at ‘Schoemansrus’, and Schoeman and French met face-to-face. Believing that the war was virtually over, Schoeman surrendered and signed an oath of neutrality.
In Pretoria, Louis Botha and his senior generals had come to a similar conclusion and suggested to President Kruger that he should negotiate an end to the war. However, a stinging rebuke from President Steyn of the Orange Free State made them reverse their standpoint overnight. From that day, and for the following century, it became Afrikaner lore that those who fought to the bitter end (bittereinders) were the patriots while capitulation (hensop) bore the stain of treason. With notable hypocrisy, the Boer leaders condemned Schoeman for having the very views that they had held just days before..........
