se consisted of artillery only, numbering some 375 men (including
200 reservists), and possessed of the following armament:--[75]

[Footnote 75: Three Krupp and three Maxims were on order in
Europe, but were not delivered in time to reach the Free
State capital.]

14 Krupp Guns 75 m/m, with 9,008 rounds.
5 Armstrong Guns 9-pr., with 1,300 rounds,
1 Krupp Q.F. 37 m/m. Ammunition not known.
3 Armstrong Mountain Guns 3-pr., with 786 rounds.
3 Maxim Guns.

With all furniture and wagons complete.

[Sidenote: Inferior organisation.]

The Corps was by no means so thoroughly organised as the artillery of
the Transvaal. There was no division into batteries, the guns being
entrusted to the care of any commando which "liked to have a gun with
it."[76] Yet there was considerable _esprit de corps_ amongst the
gunners, who maintained their material, as well as their discipline,
in surprisingly good order considering the lack of officers, and the
general slovenliness of their surroundings. The conditions of service
for the men were the same as those which obtained in the Transvaal
Corps.

[Footnote 76: Boer Account.]

The Corps also possessed a small but efficient telegraph section. The
barracks, at Bloemfontein, compared most unfavourably with the fine
buildings which housed the Transvaal artillery at Pretoria.

NUMBERS OF THE BOER FORCES.

[Sidenote: Uncertainty of Boer figures.]

Figures of exact accuracy are, and must be for ever, unobtainable, for
none of the data from which they could be compiled were either
precisely recorded, or can be remembered. The Field Cornets' books,
and consequently the State lists, of those liable to service were all
alike full of errors and discrepancies. The statistical machinery of
the Republics, too primitively, and it may be added too loosely,
managed to be equal to the work of even a complete census in time of
peace, made no attempt to cope with the levy which crowded around the
Field Cornets in every market place at the issue of the Ultimatum in
October, 1899. Muster rolls of even those actually and officially
present in the field do not exist. Only one leader in either
Republican army ventured to call a roll of his command, and the loud
discontent of the burghers, scandalised at the militarism of the
proceeding, did not encourage other officers to follow his example.

[Sidenote: Total engaged.]

The estimate, however, of 87,365, ha