Although referred to as Roodewal in most British publications and reports, this battle was fought on the farm Rooiwal in the district of Delareyville. This was to be the last set piece battle of the war.
The British had suffered ignominious defeats at Yserspruit (24 February 1902) and Tweebosch (7 March 1902) and had resumed their ‘sweep’ on the Boers. Lieutenant-General Lord Kitchener had ‘handed over’ command to Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hamilton early in April and Hamilton immediately set plans in motion to ’chase down’ the Boers. The Boers, around 6 000 in number, had laagered close to Rooiwal and Hamilton moved three of his seven columns into position to confront the Boers. He had about 15 000 men under his command.
On the evening of 10 April General Kemp, who was in command of the Boers as Commandant de la Rey was in talks with other Boer leaders discussing the possibility of peace, received information that the left flank of the British position was weakly defended. Hamilton also realised that this was a weakness and sent reinforcements overnight to strengthen the position.
Early on the morning of 11 April 1902, Kemp led the overall attack on the British with about 1 800 men, led by Generals Celliers and Liebenberg and Commandant Potgieter attacking the ‘weak’ left flank. Kemp, who was going to position himself for the British retreat, on seeing the British troops who had been positioned overnight, realised that the Boers were totally outnumbered, but it was too late to order a retreat.
In the first and only cavalry charge by the Boers in the whole war, the Boers were defeated and had to retreat. Commandant Potgieter was one of the many Boer casualties. (This battle will be featured as the Battle of the Month and will appear on the website (www.battletoursza.com) at the end of April.
