After Cronje’s capture the way to Bloemfontein and Pretoria lay open.  The Boers made one more stand at Abraham’s Kraal, where the enemy suffered heavily, but carried the day by their overwhelming numbers.  After the British occupied Bloemfontein the Transvaal burghers became reluctant to offer battle in the Free State, on the ground that there were no positions from which they could successfully check the ever-advancing foe.  Many of the Free Staters were discouraged and hopeless; but rest renewed their strength and zeal, and they shortly returned to the struggles.

The second disaster which befell the two Republics was the ignominious and cowardly surrender of Prinsloo, which took place on the 1st of August, 1900.  For various reasons this surrender was more keenly felt by the Boers than that of Cronje.  The one, though he might have blundered, nevertheless acted the part of a brave, though obstinate, man; the other that of a coward.

Some six weeks after the occupation of Bloemfontein the British troops resumed their northward march, and so quickly did they advance, almost day and night, that Pretoria was soon occupied.  What this rapid movement meant, we could not quite understand.  Did Lord Roberts think that the occupation of Pretoria would terminate hostilities?  The British forces in their swift march to the Transvaal capital left Free State burghers behind them as they advanced.  These men rallied again under General De Wet and seriously threatened the English line of communications, capturing seven hundred of the British at Roode Wal.

Large forces under Hector MacDonald and Bruce Hamilton recrossed the Vaal in order to crush the Free Staters.  Then Prinsloo surrendered.  Having accompanied the commandos that surrendered under him, we will relate the story of that most sad incident of the War.

On the occupation of Bethlehem by the British in the beginning of July, 1900, the Boer commandos, under General De Wet, retreated to the Wittebergen, a mountain range to the south-east of Bethlehem, forming a semi-circle round Fouriesburg, a small village on the Basutoland border.  This range, with its towering peaks and steep slopes, formed an impregnable stronghold.  The burghers thought that, once behind those heaven-high mountains, with all the passes in their possession, with abundant war supplies, and all the necessaries of life, they would resist successfully every attack.  The camps were pitched at the base of the mountains.  The burghers began at once to make turf-bulwarks for the guns, and trenches for themselves, in the various passes.

General De Wet, who did not seem quite at ease in this enclosure or kraal, for such it was, organised the Bethlehem-Heilbron burghers into a commando 2500 strong and left with these in the direction of Heilbron.  General Roux from Senekal was instructed to organise another commando, 1000 or 1200 strong, and advance with that in the direction of Bloemfontein.  For some reason or other, General Roux’s departure was delayed, and so he with all his men fell into Prinsloo’s meshes.