The main fighting force of the Boer Army was the COMMANDOS. These were basically a militia force along the line of American minutemen, and organized on a township level. The Commandoes were called to the colors during national emergencies such as native raids, or foreign invasion and the like, for the duration. Age was not a factor as long as a Boer could ride and shoot All clothing, horses and the rifle were personal equipment provided by the individual, except during the War of 1899 period against the British, when German Mausers of Spanish design were issued. Until the guerrilla phase of the war, the Boers, in spite of being excellently mounted and superb horsemen, usually fought on foot. Members of the Commandoes elected their officers, a commandant, and a vice-commandant. The Commandos were then divided into kornetcies, each commanded by a kornert. That was then divided into corporalships commanded by a corporal. The paper strength, rarely attained, was 200 men in a kornetcy. The size of rhe Commandoes depended on the size of the town in which it was raised. Pretoria, for example, sent a Commando of a couple thousand men into the field, while Carolina, a town to the east, sent one of 88 men. The only regular force with the Boers were the Staats Arrillerie and the Zarps - so called because of the initials of the South African Republic Police. The Zarps were 2000 men strong while the Artillerie had 700. There were at one time or another 70,000 Boers of whom 2,700 were regular, 32,000 were burghers from Transvsal, 23,000 Freestate, 2,600 foreigners, and rhe rest rebels from Capetown. Commandos were raised in the cities of Bethlehem, Bloemfontein, Boksburg, Carolina, Edenburg, Fickburg, Heidelburg, Heilbronn, Johannesburg, Krugersdorn, Ladybrand, Lydenburg, Philipolis, Porchefstroom, Pretoria, Senekal, Utrecth, Vryheid, Winburg, and Zoutspansberg. Of the foreign contingents who served with the Boers, the Dutch were the largest with 250 in the Commandos, and another 400 in the Dutch Scouts. The Germans had about 250 men in Commandos and another 300 in the German Corps. One of those Germans was Count von Zepplin, a relative of the famous Graf Zepplin. The Comte de Villebois Mareuil led the Legion of France (300 men) while another 100 Frenchmen were in the Commandos. The American Scouts were 150 strong, with an equal number in the Commandos. The Irish Brigade, led by West Point veteran John “Arizona” Blake, XO’d by red haired Major John McBride who was later shot in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Uprising, was 200 strong, including another famous name, the Australian Irish journalist Mr. Lynch. The 200 Italians were evenly divided between the Commandos and the Italian Legion. Colonel Maximov led the Russian Corps of 100 men, while 125 more were in Commandoes. The final foreign group was the Scandanavian Corps of 100, with 50 more in Commandos. For a time, at the beginning, the Boers had better equipment. The Staats Arrillerie had four batteries of field artillery, including Krupp guns, four Creusot siege guns, twelve Maxim-Nordenfeld pompoms, and a few hand Maxims. The German Mauser rifle, used by the Boers extensively, had a maximum range of 2500 yards. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #81 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com