TOPIC:

Carl August Friedrich Kietzmann

Lieutenant, Keiskama Hoek Volunteers (Infantry) – Gaika/Gcaleka War (Ninth Frontier War)
Lieutenant, Keiskama Hoek Volunteers – Basutoland Gun War
Sergeant Major, King Williams Town District Mounted Troop – Anglo Boer War

- South African General Service Medal (1877-8) to LIEUT: C. KEITZMANN. KEISKAMA HOEK VOL:
- Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal (Basutoland) to LIEUT . C.A.F. KIETZMANN. KEISKAMA HOEK VOL:
- Queens South Africa Medal to 1 SJT. MAJ: C.A.F. KRITZMANN. K.W.T. D.M.T.

Carl Kietzmann (there are various iterations of the spelling but the family have confirmed this to be the correct one) was an immigrant to South African shores. He was part of a contingent of settlers recruited from the then Prussia to settle in the Eastern Cape Frontier where they would act, unwittingly and unknowingly, as a buffer between the war-like African tribes to the wild east of the territory and the more civilized and established lands that had been allotted to the 1820 settlers who came out from England in search of a new beginning.


Carl Kietzmann in later years with his wife and children. A late starter, his last child was born in 1905

Born in Kietzerow, Prussia on 4 December 1851, he was the son of Johann Carl Friedrich Kietzmann, described as a peasant, and his wife Caroline Wilhelmina Dorothea Riemann. Kietzmann, his wife and two children (of whom the subject of this work is one) sailed from Hamburg in Germany aboard the immigrant ship Peter Godeffory on 30 September 1858. Destined for East London on the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa, they docked there on 19 January 1859 – a voyage that lasted 3 months and 19 days, all of which would have been spent in the cramped and somewhat confined hold of the ship. The immigrant party, numbering 54 families and 275 souls would have been allowed on deck to take the air before being marshalled back below.

Having landed they were transported in ox wagons to the small village, in fact nothing more than a dusty settlement in the middle of nowhere, of Keiskama Hoek. It was here that they took up the land grants promised them by the Colonial authorities – Mr Kietzmann having been granted Lot 1, a plot of 100 acres in the Lenye Valley. Life would have been hard for the settlers who, in most instances if they were farmers, had no idea of what crops to plant or what conditions they would be exposed to in this wild and desolate spot. The Germans are a resourceful people, and soon shook off any lingering doubts they may have had of the journey they had undertaken and set about carving out a life for themselves in the virgin bush.


The village of Keiskama Hoek

Only seven years old when he arrived in the territory, Carl Kietzmann the younger would have had time to play with fellow children of his own age in between the various chores which would have been his lot. The threat posed by the various African factions in that region of the Eastern Cape was never far away as he was growing up and a number of so-called Kafir Wars had already taken place, pitting local volunteers and regulars representing the Cape Colonial Government against the marauding tribes who would continually cross the border between the Transkei into the region, creating mayhem wherever they went with the theft and plunder of hard-won livestock and the wanton destruction of crops which had taken years to cultivate.

The Ninth Frontier war was to be the last of these – ostensibly starting out as a clash between two tribes, the Gaika and the Gcalekas, it was a war in which Kietzmann, by now a well-established figure albeit that he was only 20 years of age in 1877, was to make his mark as a Lieutenant (Officer Commanding), of the Infantry leg of the Keiskama Hoek Volunteers. An article by Philip Glon succinctly describes the causes of the war and the actions that ensued – all of which would have involved Kietzmann and his small band of 20 men – all local farmers like himself :-

In September 1877 Sir Bartle Frere departed Cape Town for the Eastern Cape, he found the frontier districts in a restless state. A mood had arisen on the back of a rumour about a conspiracy among the black nations to drive the white man out of the conquered territories. A violent squabble which had broken out a few weeks before, between the ‘loyal’ Mfengu (Fingoes) of the Transkei and their Xhosa neighbour, the independent House of Galeka, had aggravated the prevailing anxiety.

A few days later, Frere left for the Transkei to hold talks with the dissident chiefs. But Sarhili (Kreli) of the Galekas, Paramount Chief of the amaXhosa, refused the invitation to meet with the High Commissioner. He offered a string of unconvincing excuses, but what the old chief feared was that promises might be wrung out of him that he might not be able to keep. An influential war-party, emboldened by guns purchased on the diamond fields, had arisen in Galekaland which was opposed to further concessions to the white man. Angered by the Galeka rebuff, Frere issued a warning to Sarhili making him responsible for all transgressions into Mfengu territory, and returned to King Williams Town to prepare for war.


A sketch of Colonial forces on the frontier

The first clash between Galekas and a colonial force took place on 26 September 1877 on a hill called Gwadana, when a mixed force of Mfengu and troopers from the Colony’s Frontier Armed and Mounted Police (FAMP), commanded by Inspector Chalmers, engaged a Galeka party that had sacked a Mfengu kraal. Burgher volunteers, it was decided, were going to have to be relied on to fight this war and the Keiskama Hoek Volunteers was one of those called into being for the purpose.

The colonial effort grew rapidly, and on 18 October, the Galeka homeland was invaded with 8 000 men (two thirds of them black levies) divided into three columns. The lightly equipped, fast-moving columns encountered little opposition in their drive to the coast, and the pursuit continued into neutral Bomvanaland. Galekaland was turned into a desolation of burnt-out kraals and empty grain-pits. It was the huge herds of confiscated cattle that slowed the invaders and helped Sarhili’s people escape. With the men eager to return home with their loot and the supply-lines starting to disintegrate, the chase was called off and, by the middle of November the war was described, officially, as over, and the Galeka army ‘entirely extinguished.’ The volunteers streamed home as fast as their mounts could carry them but, in reality, the war was far from over. It was soon to enter its grimmest phase.

It was after Christmas of 1877 that Colonel Glyn considered himself to be in a position to take action in the Transkei using Imperial troops. His strategy was to use three columns driving to the coast, then an eastward swing to Bomvanaland.

Included in the General’s instructions to Colonel Glyn had been the injunction ‘prevent Kreli from passing over Fingoland or across the Kei and the colonial border into the Gaika locations’. Sarhili had been kept out, but a Galeka party, led by Khiva had eluded a patrol from Komga, and reached the Ngqika reservation. Khiva was no renegade headman like Makinana, and an appeal for help from so noteworthy an emissary could not be ignored. The Ngqika chief, Sandile, veteran of two hard-fought frontier wars, was well acquainted with the penalties of defeat, but the voices for war were very persuasive, and on the last day of 1877 the people of Ngqika broke out in rebellion.

Headquarters were established in March 1878 at Keiskamma Hoek where the commandos of John Frost, Friedrich Schermbrucker and Edward Brabant were waited for, as well as a contingent of Mfengu levies from the Transkei. The Ngqikas were reported to be hiding in the bush and boulder-filled canyon known as the Buffalo Poort. The plan was to ascend the highland plateau that overlooked the poort from three directions, converge on the hide-out, and squeeze them out of the bush on to the plain below where a line of infantry would be waiting to receive them. But the enemy stayed out of sight, unless it was to lure the unwary into an ambush, and remained two jumps ahead of the highly visible forces. The first offensive in the Amatolas, hampered by rain and mist, failed. Unseen the Ngqikas slipped past the sodden line of infantry, moved westwards, and entered another wilderness known as the Lotutu Bush.

Five companies of the 90th Regiment were moved up from Fort Beaufort and a cordon was thrown around the Lotutu Bush. But the Ngqika defiance had inspired other Xhosa clans from the Ciskei to rise up, and Sandile had been reinforced in his refuge. When the second offensive began, the Xhosa broke through under the cover of darkness, and once again, entered the Buffalo Poort.

It was only when the tactics that the colonials had been urging for weeks was adopted that the campaign swung in the Colony’s favour. The eastern part of the Amatolas was divided up into eleven military districts. In each a mounted garrison was stationed. When a Xhosa party appeared it was pursued until it entered the district of the neighbouring garrison which in turn took over the chase. In this manner, pursuit and harassment were uninterrupted, with the pursuers remaining fresh and never far from their supplies. In addition earthworks, manned by infantry detachments, were thrown-up near the known exits from the Buffalo Poort. The winter weather brought hardship and sickness to the garrisons in the Amatola highland, but far more wretched was the condition of the half-starved Xhosas in the sunless ravines. The fatal wounding of Sandile in a chance encounter with a small Mfengu patrol, ended the Ngqika will to continue what, all along, had been a hopeless war. In July, Sandile’s sons surrendered, and in August Glyn’s army was brought back from Galekaland, the territory pacified, but Sarhili still at large.

A reward of £500 was now offered for the capture of Sandile, and an attempt was made to surround that portion of the forest occupied by the rebels and either make them prisoners or destroy them. From the 10th to the 17th of March 1878 the troops and colonial forces were engaged in this task, but the area of operations was so extensive and the ground was so difficult for Europeans to traverse that they met with much less success than they hoped for.

It wasn’t long thereafter that the tribesmen were defeated and the volunteers allowed to return home. Kietzmann was awarded the “Zulu” War medal with clasp 1877-8 for his efforts and returned to his pursuits as a farmer.

Peace was not to reign for very much longer though – the Basuto Gun War loomed large on the horizon as the year 1880 dawned. For a number of years Basuto men employed on the diamond fields at Kimberley had acquired a large number of rifles from traders. In this way the Basuto became well armed and posed a potential threat to the Cape Colonial Government as a result. In the winter of 1880 the Government called upon the Basuto to surrender all firearms. Nothing happened and clouds began to gather. The Chief’s oldest son refused to comply with the order and his example was soon followed by many others.

In July the Government ordered the Cape Mounted Rifles to march into the mountainous Basutoland to disarm the Basuto. It was thought that there would be no fighting but that a show of strength would be enough to bring the Basuto to heel. They were soon proved wrong and a field force was formed from detachments of the various volunteer units which abounded in the Eastern Cape. The Keiskama Hoek Volunteers, so recently employed against the Gaika and the Gcaleka, were one of those whose help was enlisted and Kietzmann took to the field once more – again as the Lieutenant and Officer Commanding his small unit.

This field force was placed under the command of General Clarke, CoC of the Cape Colonial Forces and dispatched to the front. In early September 1880 several skirmishes had taken place in the vicinity of Mafeteng Post. These skirmishes were followed up by a desperate attack by a large force of 2000 Basutos on 21 September. It was touch and go with the garrison before the enemy withdrew. Outside the post the men saw many Basuto apparently dead.

Clarke with a strong column crossed the border near Wepener, and went to relieve Carrington who was virtually besieged at Mafeteng. At Kalabani a Basuto army challenged the passage of Clarke’s troops. In the fight which ensued the Yeomanry suffered terribly, having been thrown out to prevent the column from being surrounded, they bore the brunt of the attack. After a short rest at Mafeteng the C.M.R. and a few companies of volunteers advanced against Lerotholi Village. The attack commenced on 22 October and was met with great resistance, the fighting continuing for several hours. Victory was only attained in the late afternoon when a party drove the Basuto out.

The main Basuto army under Lerotholi was however lying around his village holding various points from which they poured a fierce fire upon the defenders forcing Clarke to withdraw from the recently won village and make for Mafeteng where most of the fighting now took place, the enemy suffering severely and sustaining heavy losses.

In the meantime trouble had broken out in the Transkei and General Clarke had received orders to suppress the uprising; the command being left with Colonel Carrington. The war dragged on and developed into something very different from what the Government had expected. The Basuto army was in point of numbers much superior, and better armed than the Colonial troops. In every fight the Basuto were generally well led with Lerotholi proving himself a most capable leader.

At last the Government gave its attention to the vital matter of arms. Having learned that the Basuto had better rifles, Martini-Henry’s were issued in place of the old Snider carbines. In February 1881 the Basutos again launched an attack on Maseru which ended in failure. At the end of the month General Clarke returned to what was now a stalemate in Basutoland and resumed command of the forces. Several small action followed thereafter with hostilities coming to a close on 18 April with the virtual submission of the Basutos.

After this protracted and frustrating little war Kietzmann returned home. It wasn’t until 4 December 1900 that a medal, the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, was authorised by Queen Victoria for the war in Basutoland and that which happened, almost simultaneously in the Transkei. Kietzmann’s medal was, appropriately, awarded with the Basutoland clasp.


A postcard of the Lutheran Church Keiskama Hoek

The next twenty years saw Kietzmann expand his farming and business interests – not to mention his family as well. His first marriage, to Albertine Caroline Friedrika Hagemann took place on 7 October 1878, not long after the Gaika/Gcaleka war was over. Albertine passed away in 1892 whereafter a marriage to Maria Louise Wilhelmine Kurtz, a widow, took place in the Lutheran Church at Keiskama Hoek on 31 July 1893. He was recorded as being a widower at the time. Maria was to bless him with a number of children – Emil Karl Kietzmann; Bernard Karl Kietzmann; Helena Maria Kietzmann; Johannes Clemence Kietzmann and Richard Ernst Wilhelm Kietzmann. He also had several step-children from his second wife’s first marriage.

As the end of the 19th century neared, the peace and equanimity of the southern tip of Africa was about to be disturbed once more. Long smouldering tensions between the two Dutch-speaking Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupted into open war on 11 October 1899 and, although the initial fighting was far removed from the sleepy Eastern Cape, this soon changed with a number of Boer incursions into the territory from the Orange Free State from 1901 onwards.

The Boers were in search of provisions and supplies for themselves and their mounts as well as on a recruiting drive amongst sympathetic members of the Cape Dutch community willing to join their cause. Small and isolated town as and villages in the Eastern Cape, of which there was a proliferation, were easy pickings for the highly mobile and adroit Boer Commandos. Every town worthy of the name called into being a Town Guard, to protect the lives and property of its inhabitants and a District Mounted Troop – tasked with the same responsibilities but responsible for the outskirts of a town and the farms surrounding it.

At the age of 50 and already a veteran volunteer with two wars to his credit, Carl Kietzmann put his hand up for service with the local King Williams Town D.M.T. – at Keiskama Hoek on 18 February 1901 he completed the attestation papers for service with the Keiskama Hoek Squadron of the D.M.T. – part of the South Eastern Districts Local Defence Force. Not for him the responsibilities of an officer this time round, instead he opted for the rank of Sergeant Major and was assigned No. 1 for the purpose. Aside from the pay of 5 shillings per day on Active Service; members were also issued with 1 M.L.E. rifle; 1 Pull Through; 1 Sling; 1 Bandolier; 1 Haversack; 300 rounds of 303 ammunition; 1 bottle Rifle Oil and a ¼ yard Flannelette.


The KWT DMT Maxim Gun Detachment - Kietzmann would have been in a similar uniform

The medal roll from which his Queens medal was awarded on 17 December 1901 confirmed that he was “On active military duty against the enemy from March to September 1901.”

Carl August Friedrich Kietzmann, after a long and undoubtedly eventful life, passed away on his farm in the Lenye Valley on 22 December 1925 at the age of 75 from Shock and Heart Failure. He was survived by his second wife and numerous children and grandchildren.