Battle Of Poplar Grove
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The Battle of Poplar Grove was an incident on 7 March 1900 during the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
in South Africa. It followed on from the
Relief of Kimberley The siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley, Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, Transvaal besieged the diam ...
as the British Army moved to take the
Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...
capital of
Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...
. The Boers were demoralised following the surrender of
Piet Cronjé Pieter Arnoldus "Piet" Cronjé (4 October 1836 – 4 February 1911) was a South African Boer general during the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1880–1881 and 1899–1902. Biography Born in the Cape Colony but raised in the South African Republic, ...
at the
Battle of Paardeberg The Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg ("Horse Mountain") was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near ''Paardeberg Drift'' on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley. Lord Methuen adv ...
. General Sir John French's cavalry attacked the Boer force from the rear while mounted infantry and horse artillery attacked from the right flank. The Boers abandoned their positions in panic before the cavalry. The commander-in-chief of the Free State forces, Christiaan de Wet, in his book called the chapter on the subject "Wild Flight from Poplar Grove".


Background

The
Relief of Kimberley The siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley, Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, Transvaal besieged the diam ...
took place on 15 February 1900. After the Battle of Paardeberg on the Modder River, the Boer commander, General Cronje, surrendered on 27 February. Christiaan de Wet was appointed as commander-in-chief of the
Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...
. He gathered his commandos at Poplar Grove, about ten miles upstream of Paardeberg and on the way to Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State.De Wet, Christiaan Rudolf, Three Year War, Archibald Constable & Co, Ltd, 1902. De Wet hastily assembled his burghers in sangars which straddled the Modder River along a line of hillocks, about ten miles wide.Pakenham, Thomas, The Boer War, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1979. On 7 March President Kruger of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek arrived at Poplar Grove to visit his remaining burghers. No sooner had he arrived than it was reported that Lord Roberts had commenced his advance on Bloemfontein. Kruger was bundled back into his cart and sent on his way.


Battle

French's plan was to make a wide sweep around the six thousand Boers' left flank, without making contact, and then attack them from the rear. The infantry and the artillery would then attack them from the right. French, the cavalry division, some mounted infantry units and the horse artillery with 42 guns, carried out their order. But the Boers "did not behave like well-bred pheasants". Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
wrote of it: "The plan of action was based, however, upon one supposition which proved to be fallacious. It was that after having prepared so elaborate a position the enemy would stop at least a little time to defend it."Doyle, AC ''The Great Boer War'', p.78


Aftermath

A panic had seized the Boers. When they saw the cavalry at a distance, they all fled. De Wet and his officers tried in vain to stop them. They eventually stopped at Abraham's Kraal, some 18 miles from Poplar Grove. There they resisted the advance quite bravely the next day, but that night they fled to Bloemfontein. Again the commandos were placed in defensive positions, ready to prevent Roberts from taking the capital. That night De Wet visited all the commandos. "An excellent spirit prevailed among them", De Wet was to write later. When he reached the southern positions, it was a different matter. One of the commandos had simply abandoned their position. When the fighting started the next day, the Boers once again abandoned their positions and fled northwards.


Notes


References

* Pakenham, Thomas, ''The Boer War'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1979. * De Wet, Christiaan Rudolf, ''Three Year War'', Archibald Constable and Co Ltd, 1902. * Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: ''The Great Boer War'', Kindle edition. {{DEFAULTSORT:Poplar Grove, Battle of Battles of the Second Boer War Conflicts in 1900 1900 in the Orange Free State March 1900 events