HN E. BLAKE, OF THE IRISH BRIGADE]

The Americans in South Africa who elected to fight under the Boer flags
did not promise to win the war single-handed, and consequently the Boers
were not disappointed in the achievements of the volunteers from the
sister-republic across the Atlantic. In proportion to their numbers the
Americans did as well as the best volunteer foreigners, and caused the
Government less trouble and expense than any of the Uitlanders'
organisations. The majority of the Americans spent the first months of the
war in Boer commandos, and made no effort to establish an organisation of
their own, although they were of sufficient numerical strength. A score or
more of them joined the Irish Brigade organised by Colonel J.E. Blake, a
graduate of West Point Military Academy and a former officer in the
American army, and accompanied the Brigade through the first seven months
of the Natal campaign. After the exciting days of the Natal campaign John
A. Hassell, an American who had been with the Vryheid commando, organised
the American Scouts and succeeded in gathering what probably was the
strangest body of men in the war. Captain Hassell himself was born in New
Jersey, and was well educated in American public schools and the schools
of experience. He spent the five years before the war in prospecting and
with shooting expeditions in various parts of South Africa, and had a
better idea of the geological features of the country than any of the
commandants of the foreign legions. While he was with the Vryheid commando
Hassell was twice wounded, once in the attack on Caesar's Hill and again
at Estcourt, where he received a bayonet thrust which disabled him for
several weeks and deprived him of the brief honour of being General
Botha's adjutant.

The one American whose exploits will long remain in the Boer mind was John
N. King, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who vowed that he would allow his hair
to grow until the British had been driven from federal soil. King began
his career of usefulness to society at the time of the Johnstown flood,
where he and some companions lynched an Italian who had been robbing the
dead. Shortly afterward he gained a deep insight into matters journalistic
by being the boon companion of a newspaper man. The newspaper man was in
jail on a charge of larceny; King for murder. When war was begun King was
employed on a Johannesburg mine, and when his best friend determined to
join the British forces