Battle of Bergendal
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The Battle of Bergendal (also known as the Battle of Belfast) was the last set-piece battle of the Second Anglo-Boer War. It lasted from 21 to 27 August 1900 and took place at on the farm Bergendal (Hill and Dale) near the town of Belfast. The 5,000 Boers were under the command of General Louis Botha and the 20,000 British Empire forces were led by General Sir Redvers Buller.
Advancing from the direction of Pretoria, the main aim of Buller's forces were to occupy the temporary South African Republic (ZAR) government seat of Machadodorp. Their line of advance would lead right across the farm Bergendal where the ZARPs - members of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek Politie or South African Republic Police - was positioned.
There were several other clashes during the battle, but its climax occurred on 27 August, when 74 men of the Johannesburg section of the ZARPs faced an attack on foot by 1,500 men of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Devon Regiment and Gordon Highlanders after a heavy artillery bombardment. Despite a tenacious defence by the ZARPs of the kopje (knoll) where they had dug in, they were eventually defeated by the British forces. Twenty of the ZARPs force had been killed and nineteen (including their leader, Commandant Oosthuizen) were taken prisoner. The rest of the ZARPs force escaped and joined the other retreating Boer commandos.
As a result of this defeat, the Boer line of defence was breached and on 28 August Bullers' troops marched into Machadodorp. The ZAR government, meanwhile, had decamped to Nelspruit. A few days later, on 1 September, Lord Roberts proclaimed the entire Transvaal British territory.
However, the capture of Machadodorp and Roberts' proclamation did not end the war. Although the British had won the battle Botha's main force had managed to stay intact. The Boer commandos subsequently dispersed to Lydenburg and Barberton and the next phase of the war - guerrilla warfare - started. This second phase would last even longer than the first, conventional, phase and peace would eventually only be declared at the end of May 1902.
