The Petticoat Commando

The Petticoat Commando, by
Johanna Brandt

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Title: The Petticoat Commando Boer Women in Secret Service
Author: Johanna Brandt

Release Date: December 26, 2006 [eBook #20194]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PETTICOAT COMMANDO
Or
Boer Women in Secret Service
by
JOHANNA BRANDT
With Ten Illustrations

[Illustration: THE WRITER]

Mills & Boon, Limited 49 Rupert Street London, W. Colonial Edition
Published 1913

To HANSIE'S MOTHER AS A PEACE-OFFERING FOR HAVING
BROUGHT HER INTO PUBLICITY IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO
HER WISHES

FOREWORD
In introducing the English version of this book I venture to bespeak a
welcome for it, not only for the light which it throws on some
little-known incidents of the South African war, but also because of the
keen personal interest of the events recorded. It is more than a history.
It is a dramatic picture of the hopes and fears, the devotion and
bitterness with which some patriotic women in Pretoria watched and, as
far as they could, took part in the war which was slowly drawing to its
conclusion on the veld outside.
I do not associate myself with the opinions expressed by the writer as
to the causes of the war or the methods adopted to bring it to an end, or
as to the policy which led to the Concentration Camps, and the causes
of the terrible mortality which prevailed during the first months of their
existence. On these matters many readers will hold different opinions
from the writer, or will prefer to let judgment be in suspense and to
look to the historian of the future for a final verdict. We are still too
near the events to be impartial. But this book does not challenge or
invite controversy. Fortunately for South Africa, most of us on both
sides can now discuss the events of the war without bitterness and
understand and respect the feelings of those who were most sharply
divided by these events from ourselves.
The greater part of the narrative comes from a diary kept during the war
with unusual fullness and vividness. The difficulty experienced by the
writer of the diary in communicating to friends outside Pretoria
information about what was passing inside, and in unburdening herself
of the feelings roused in her by the events of the war, made the diary
more than usually intimate. To understand fully many of the narratives
which have been transferred from it to this book, it must be
remembered that one is reading, not something written from memory
years after the event, but rather the record of a conversation at the time,
in which the diarist is describing the events as if to a friend who shares
to the full all her own feelings and to whom she can speak without
reserve.
Much has happened in the ten years which have passed since the end of

the war. The country which was distracted by the conflicting ideals and
interests of its different Governments and peoples has become the
Union of South Africa. It is now one State. It remains that it should call
forth a spirit of patriotism and nationality which will unite and not
divide its people.
PATRICK DUNCAN.
JOHANNESBURG, 1912.

INTRODUCTION
If, by inspiring feelings of patriotism in the hearts of some of my
readers, especially those members of the rising generation to whom this
story of adventure may appeal, I succeed in raising the standard of
national life, this book will have achieved the purpose for which it was
written, and I shall feel more than compensated for having set aside the
reluctance with which I faced the thought of the publicity when first I
began the work.
I have tried to give the public some idea of what was done by Boer
women, during the great Anglo-Boer war, to keep their men in the field
and to support them in what