Second Boer War: Difference between revisions

 

=== Capture of Pretoria ===

After being forced to delay for several weeks at Bloemfontein by a shortage of supplies, an outbreak of typhoid at Paardeberg, and poor medical care, [[Advance on Pretoria|Roberts finally resumed his advance.]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paterson|first=Andrew Barton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vEV1AAAAMAAJ|title=From the Front: Dispatches from the Boer War|publisher=[[Pan Macmillan]]|year=2000|isbn=978-0-7329-1062-4|editor-last=Droogleever|editor-first=R. W. F.}}</ref> He was forced to halt again at Kroonstad for 10 days, due once again to the collapse of his medical and supply systems, but finally captured Johannesburg on 31 May and the capital of the Transvaal, Pretoria, on 5 June. The first into Pretoria was Lt. William Watson of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, who persuaded the Boers to surrender the capital.{{sfn|Wilcox|2002|pp=84–85}} Before the war, the Boers had constructed several forts south of Pretoria, but the artillery had been removed from the forts for use in the field, and in the event they abandoned Pretoria without a fight. Having won the principal cities, Roberts declared the war over on 3 September 1900; and the South African Republic was formally annexed.