oers were in the
country when the war was begun, and they made a practical demonstration of
their belief in the Boer cause by going into the field with the first
commandos. The Dutch corps was under the command of Commandant Smoronberg,
the former drill-master of the Johannesburg Police. Among the volunteers
were many young Hollanders who had been employed by the Government in
Pretoria and Johannesburg establishments, and by the Netherlands railways.
In the first engagement, at Elandslaagte, in November, the corps was
practically annihilated and General Kock, the leader of the Uitlander
brigade, himself received his death wounds. Afterward the surviving
members of the corps joined Boer commandos where stray train-loads of
officers' wines, such as were found the day before the battle of
Elandslaagte, were not allowed to interfere with the sobriety of the
burghers. The Russian corps, under Commandant Alexis de Ganetzky and
Colonel Prince Baratrion-Morgaff, was formed after all the men had been
campaigning under Boer officers in Natal for several months. The majority
of the men were Johannesburgers without military experience who joined the
army because there was nothing else to do.

The German corps was as short-lived as the Hollander organisation, it
having been part of the force which met with disaster at Elandslaagte.
Colonel Schiel, a German-Boer of brief military experience, led the
organisation, but was unable to display his abilities to any extent before
he was made a prisoner of war. Captain Count Harran von Zephir was killed
in the fight at Spion Kop, and Herr von Brusenitz was killed and Colonel
von Brown was captured at the Tugela. The corps was afterward reorganised
and, under the leadership of Commandant Otto Krantz of Pretoria, it fought
valiantly in several battles in the Free State. Among the many German
volunteers who entered the country after the beginning of hostilities was
Major Baron von Reitzenstein, the winner of the renowned long-distance
horseback race from Berlin to Vienna. Major von Reitzenstein was a
participant in battles at Colesburg and in Natal, and was eager to remain
with the Boer forces until the end of the war, but was recalled by his
Government, which had granted him a leave of absence from the German
army. Three of the forts at Pretoria were erected by Germans, and the
large fort at Johannesburg was built by Colonel Schiel at an expense of
less than L5,000.

[Illustration: COLONEL JO