eral. He had an eye
which quickly grasped a situation, and he never waited for an order from
an officer to take advantage of it. When he saw that he could with safety
approach the enemy more closely he did so on his own responsibility, and
when it became evident to him that it would be advantageous to occupy a
different position in order that he might stem the advance of the enemy he
acted entirely on his own initiative. He remained in one position just as
long as he considered it safe to do so, and if conditions warranted he
went forward, and if they were adverse he retreated, whether there was an
order from an officer or not. When he saw that the burghers in another
part of the field were hard pressed by the enemy he deserted his own
position and went to their assistance, and when his own position became
untenable, in his own opinion, he simply vacated it and went to another
spot where bullets and shells were less thick. If he saw a number of the
enemy who were detached from the main body of their own force, and he
believed that they could be taken prisoner, he enlisted a number of the
burghers who were near him, and made an effort to capture them, whether
there was an officer close at hand or a mile distant.

No one was surfeited with orders; in fact, the lack of them was more
noticeable, and it was well that it was so, for the Boer burgher disliked
to be ordered, and he always did things with better grace when he acted
spontaneously. An illustration of this fact was an incident at the fight
of Modderspruit where two young Boers saved an entire commando from
falling into the hands of the enemy. Lieutenant Oelfse, of the State
Artillery, and Reginald Sheppard, of the Pretoria commando, observed a
strong force of the British advancing towards a kopje where the
Krugersdorp commando was concealed. The two men saw that the
Krugersdorpers would be cut off in a short time if they were not informed
of the British advance, so they determined to plunge across the open veld,
six hundred yards from the enemy's guns, and tell them of their danger. No
officer could have compelled the men to undertake such a hazardous journey
across a bullet-swept plain, but Oelfse and Sheppard acted on their own
responsibility, succeeded in reaching the Krugersdorp commando without
being hit, and gave to the commandant the information which undoubtedly
saved him and his men from being captured. Incidents of like nature
occurred in almost every batt