nd influenced him
to change his vote. The Commandant-General himself had not been able to
change the result of the voting, but the old burgher who had no connection
with the council of war practically determined the result of the meeting.

The Krijgsraad was the supreme military authority in the country, and its
resolutions were the law, all its infractions being punishable by fines.
The minority of a Krijgsraad was obliged to assist in executing the plans
of the majority, however impracticable or distasteful they might have been
to those whose opinions did not prevail. There were innumerable instances
where generals and commandants attended a Krijgsraad and afterward acted
quite contrary to the resolution adopted by the council. In any other army
such action would have been called disobedience of orders, with the
corresponding punishment, but in the Boer army it amounted to little
beyond personal animosity. According to Boer military law an officer
offending in such a manner should have been arraigned before the
Krijgsraad and tried by his fellow officers, but such occurrences were
extremely rare.

One of the few instances where a man was arraigned before a Krijgsraad for
dereliction of duty was after the enemy succeeded in damaging one of the
"Long Tom's" around Ladysmith.

The artillery officer who was in charge of the gun when the dynamite was
exploded in its muzzle was convicted of neglect of duty and was disgraced
before the army. After the battle of Belmont Vecht-General Jacob Prinsloo,
of the Free State, was court-martialled for cowardice and was reduced to
the rank of burgher. It was Prinsloo's first battle, and he was thoroughly
frightened. When some of his men came up to him and asked him for
directions to repel the advancing British force Prinsloo trembled, rubbed
his hands, and replied: "God only knows; I don't," and fled with all his
men at his heels.

Two instances where commandants acted contrary to the decisions of
Krijgsraad were the costly disobedience of General Erasmus, at Dundee, and
the still more costly mistake of Commandant Buis at Hlangwe. When the
Boers invaded Natal and determined to attack the British forces then
stationed at the town of Dundee, it was decided at a Krijgsraad that
General Lucas Meyer should attack from the east and south, and General
Erasmus from the north. General Meyer occupied Talana Hill, east of
Dundee, and a kopje south of the town, and attacked General Penn-Symons'