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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 211
Prinsloo, Chief Commandant Marthinus
1838–1903
Prinsloo fought in one of the last campaigns against the Basotho in 1866 and became Commandant of
the Winburg Commando in 1867. He led Orange Free State men into Natal in October 1899 but did
not enjoy the good opinion of the Transvaal men. In the Battle of the Platrand he failed to support the
attack with any vigour. After the relief of Ladysmith he withdrew to Van Reenen’s Pass and, when Sir
Redvers Buller began his advance north against the Biggarsberg hills at Elandslaagte, declined to
come to the support of Commandant-general Louis Botha on the grounds that he and his men had to
attend a sale of cattle at Harrismith. In the confusion surrounding the entrapment of the Boers in the
Brandwater Basin in July 1900, Prinsloo was elected commander of the remaining force just in time
to surrender all 3,000 of them to the British.
See also:
Brandwater Basin, Surrender at; Platrand, 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); Reitz, Deneys, Commando (London,
Faber & Faber, 1929; Prescott, Arizona, Wolfe Publishing, 1994).
Prisoners-of-War
In the majority of cases, both the British and the Boers treated white prisoners-of-war with
reasonable respect and care. The ability of the Boers to hold prisoners ceased in the guerrilla phase
of the war and the British capacity to intern Boers within South Africa was soon exhausted, so they
were sent overseas. Black Africans captured were frequently executed by the Boers, and the British
treatment of them was little better.
At the outbreak of the war the Boers were ill-prepared for the reception of British prisoners and
they held them in the hastily-converted State Model School in Pretoria. This was the officers’ camp in
which Winston Churchill was imprisoned and from which he escaped. Other ranks were held at
Waterval, north of the city. The British complained of poor rations and inadequate care for the sick,
but as only five officers and ninety-seven men died out of 383 officers and 9,170 other ranks
captured, the standard of care appears to have been at least adequate. After the fall of Pretoria there
was nowhere to hold prisoners taken by the Boers, so they adopted the practice of subjecting them to
uitskud,that is to strip them of their clothes and boots, and to release them to walk back to their units.
In the baking sun and over hostile terrain, this was often a considerable ordeal. Black Africans caught
assisting the British could expect to be shot.
The British were equally unprepared to handle prisoners-of-war. A ship in Durban was
demanded for the
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