Petrus "Piet" Johannes Fourie ()
[ Tombstone at Perskefontein 248, farm cemetery, Dewetsdorp district, Free State. Perskefontein was previously the farm of General Piet Fourie.] was a
Boer general for the
Orange Free State in the
Anglo-Boer War (18991902) in
South Africa.
[Grobler 2004.] He should not be confused with his Boer colleagues generals (18451900) and (18581943).
Family
Fourie was the eldest son of Louis Jacobus Fourie (Uitenhage,
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
,
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
, South Africa, 27 January 1814
Vet River,
Winburg, 28 June 1856) and Maria Magdalena (Magdalina) Pieterse(n) (3 September 1815Rustfontein,
Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 2 July 1868), among in total two daughters and two sons.
He married Maria Magdalena van Tonder (
Ladismith,
Western Cape, 17 March 1850Dewetsdorp, Free State, 16 April 1940), and had four sons and one daughter by her.
Early years
Fourie was born in the
Cape Colony but moved at a young age to the Orange Free State. He fought in the
Free State–Basotho Wars
The Free State–Basotho Wars refers to a series of wars fought between King Moshoeshoe I, the ruler of the Basotho kingdom, and the white settlers, in what is now known as the Free State. These can be divided into the Senekal's War of 1858, th ...
and had a prosperous farm
near Bloemfontein, where he was a
justice of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
.
Second Boer War
After the outbreak of the war in October 1899 Fourie became the commander of the
Bloemfontein Commando and fought all the major battles at the western front. After the capture of Bloemfontein by the British on 13 March 1900 Fourie participated in the Boer victory at
Sanna's Post (31 March 1900),
the failed attack on British positions at Jammersberg Drift (9 April 1900), the failure to stop the British advance in the Battle of Sand River southwest of
Kroonstad (10 May 1900),
[Breytenbach V 1983, p. 466.] and again a victory at Rooiwal (Roodewal) Station (7 June 1900), under the overall command of
Christiaan de Wet.
To retaliate and to deter further Boer resistance British Commander-in-Chief
Roberts
Roberts may refer to:
People
* Roberts (given name), a Latvian masculine given name
* Roberts (surname), a popular surname, especially among the Welsh
Places
* Roberts (crater), a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon
;United Stat ...
dynamited De Wet's farm Roodepoort on 16 June. Afterwards Fourie visited the site with general
Stoffel Froneman and De Wet himself. At the end of July, Fourie escaped from the
Brandwater Basin
The Brandwater Basin is the drainage basin of the Brandwater River (Afrikaans: Brandwaterrivier), a tributary of the Grootspruit River in the south-east of Orange Free State, South Africa, north of Lesotho. The basin is situated south of Bethleh ...
with 1500 men, where
Marthinus Prinsloo surrendered soon after on 30 July with more than 4000 remaining Boer troops. In August 1900 Fourie was promoted to Assistant Chief Commander for the districts of Bloemfontein,
Smithfield,
Rouxville and
Wepener. In December 1900 he broke the British line of
blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s at Sprinkaansnek.
In February 1901 De Wet sent his generals Froneman and Fourie with many troops east of the
Cape Town-Bloemfontein railway line to mislead the British. De Wet and his smaller unit crossed the
Orange River at Sand Drift, 60 kilometres west of the railway and marched into the Cape Colony.
In July 1901 De Wet and general
De la Rey degraded Fourie because of his stated desire to surrender to the British. Subsequently, he was imprisoned on his own farm. However, he changed heart later, was pardoned and joined Christiaan de Wet's troops again, but no more as a general.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourie, Piet
1842 births
1916 deaths
Afrikaner people
Orange Free State generals