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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 130
Joubert, Commandant-General Petrus (Piet) Jacobus ,
1831–1900
Piet Joubert was an outstanding leader against the British in the First Boer War and led the invasion
of Natal in the Second. His health suffered and he was succeeded by Louis Botha.
Born in the Cape in 1831, Piet Joubert took part in the Great Trek at the age of seven. His family
were with Piet Retief’s party heading for Natal. They subsequently moved to the Transvaal. Joubert
became known as “Slim Piet”, meaning “cunning Piet”. He became Commander-in-Chief of the
Transvaal forces in the First Boer War or the War for Freedom of 1880–81, a post he retained after
the war, putting him in a position to purchase large numbers of the obsolescent Martini-Henry rifle in
the 1890s. When the next war broke out he commanded the expedition into Natal, but his distaste for
giving clear orders or expressing a strong opinion led to a slackness of control that reduced the
effectiveness of his forces.
As the investment of Ladysmith developed Joubert was felt by his own people to be too
leisurely. Deneys Reitz reports seeing Christiaan De Wet on 30 October 1899 looking down on the
scene outside the town after the victory at Nicholson’s Nek, as the British fell back into the town, and
muttering “Los jou ruiters. . .” – loose your horsemen. Joubert’s retort to his critics was that if the
Lord extends a finger, do not take the whole hand. He was content with the victory as it stood. Joubert
went further south and was at Willow Grange on 23 November, but after that set-back decided they
should go no further. Shortly thereafter he suffered a fall from his horse and, injured and ill, returned
to Pretoria, leaving the young Louis Botha in command, a blessing for the Boers. Joubert died in
March 1900, soon after the defeat at Paardeberg, further depressing Boer morale. Before he died he
advised a change of strategy which led to the start of guerrilla warfare.
See also:
Guerrilla War; Ladysmith, Siege of; Lombards Kop, Battle of; Majuba, Battle of; Nicholson’s
Nek, Battle of; Willow Grange, Battle of.
Reference:
Hall, Darrell, ed. Fransjohan Pretorius and Gilbert Torlage, The Hall Handbook of the Anglo-Boer
War (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1999).
Journalists
The presence of numerous, professional war correspondents in South Africa during the war was a
source of irritation to the British and, for the Boers, a means of broadcasting their defiance. Problems
of how the press should be treated and controlled vexed the British then much as the same problems
exercise armies today. The impact the journalists had on public opinion outside South Africa was
significant and the resulting political decisions important. The replacement of Sir Redvers Buller as
British Commander-in-Chief by Lord Roberts was largely the result of the
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