TOPIC:

Hi

The opening shot of the Boer War was fired by Veldkornet J C Coetzee of the Lichtenburg Kommando, on the night of 12 October 1899, at Kraaipan, about 50kms south west of Mafeking.

He was to die at Magersfontein on 11 December 1899, just 2 months later.

Here is his DTD , which I acquired today. I am looking for his photo, will update when more information is available.




Regards
Adrian

Veldkornet JC Coetzee

Hansie-Veldkornet fires the first shot in the Anglo-Boer War
Translated from Afrikaans from “Die Koranna-fonteiners, Stories Oor Ottosdal en sy Mense” by Pieter de Jager,Protea Boekhuis,Pretoria 2008.



Veldkornet J.C. Coetzee alias Hansie-Veldkornet (*1854 f l899). Foto: Danie Rousseau.

The man destined by history to fire the first shot in the Anglo-Boer War on 12 October 1899 was Hansie Coetzee, Veldkornet of the Korannafonteiners..
Johannes Cornelis Coetzee jr. was born on 21 April 1854 and was the second eldest son and fourth child of uncle Groot-Hans and aunt Miemie van Rietvlei. He was known as Hansie-Veldkornet. Coetzee went to school in Pretoria and, like his father, was regarded as an exceptionally educated man for his time. He was a born leader of great prestige and esteem in his community and early in life he already had many public obligations. He later married Magdalena Liebenberg (Lenie), a maternity nurse from Lichtenburg. From this marriage eight children were born.







Hansie-Veldkornet's grandson Danio Rousseau, "the former principal of the Lichtenburg High School, told me in a letter dated August 25, 1977 from Hazyview (where he lived after his retirement) the following about his grandfather:
According to Aunt Miemie Martyn (a nephew of his grandfather Hansie), Grandpa held seven official positions before the Boer War. Namely, he was Veldkornet of Ward 3 of the Lichtenburg district and justice of the peace which at that time included almost the work of a magistrate. Grandfather had some form of law education. According to my mother and aunts, his son, Hansie, was a law student in the old Gymnasium of Pretoria. The son Hansie and ant Trienie did a lot of his office work. Furthermore, he was also a commissioner and had to collect 'returns', among other things. Then he also had some job to do with schools, possibly a school board chairman. He was the area's sheep and peat inspector and he had, for example, a policeman, one Barkley, to assist him. Thus, during the bovine plague in 1896, the two had to do their patrol duty. He was also a health officer and had his two children, Miemie and Christiaan, vaccinated, among others, to prove that smallpox vaccination is not fatal. A very big gamble in those years! It's also possible that some of these functions may have been part of one post. He was chosen by the citizens as a Veldkornet, but he was appointed by the President to his other offices and was paid by the state a safaris where applicable.
Shortly before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, Hansie Coetzee was also a member of the so-called Second People's Council of the ZAR. The Second People's Council was established after amendment of the ZAR constitution to deal with the foreigner issue. The body, however, had little real authority. The foreigners here are blowing off some steam. However, it had little effect on preventing war because the British imperialists like Milner wanted the Transvaal for other reasons and the foreigners were just pawns in the process.
Because of his many public obligations and large farming, he later had two foremen who farmed for him, viz. Dick Dauth and Jopie Pretorius. His eldest son Hansie would also come to assist his father with his many administrative duties after his schooling in Pretoria.
According to the memories of Uncle Faantjie Labuschagne van Sannieshof, a son-in-law of one of the Coetzee daughters, Anna Badenhorst, Veldkornet Hansie Coetzee was not only a great friend of Gen. Koos de la Rey , but because of the lifelong friendship with Coetzee's father, the late Uncle Groot-Hans, also of President Paul Kruger. When Hansie was at school in Pretoria, he was a regular visitor to the President's home. His mother Miemie Coetzee was related to the President's wife, Gezina Kruger.
Hansie Coetzee was therefore actually a paid civil servant of the ZAR, because apart from being elected by the citizens as a Veldkornet, he was appointed to the subordinate positions by the government in Pretoria. At one point he was instructed by the President to negotiate on behalf of the Transvaal Government during one of the many disputes with the British Government over the ZAR's western border, and because of his particular knowledge of the circumstances there.
He could also speak fluent Tswana and English. His negotiations with the tribes were so successful that some of them, such as those of Konanna and Polfontein, decided to join the ZAR instead. In this way, the Transvaal western border was moved deeper into the Colony by Coetzee's doing, and to the dismay of the British government.
As Veldkornet of Ward 3 of the Lichtenburg Commando, Coetzee was therefore also the military commander of his ward. His Veldkornet cover included the entire Korannafontein area (today the Ottosdal district) to Vermaas and the western part of Hartebeesfontein to Oorbietjiesfontein. The Lichtenburg Commando was commanded by kmdt. Hendrik Vermaas van Doornpoort. He was Coetzee's brother-in-law who was married to his elder sister, Johanna (Hannie). She died just before the war. Vennaas would make a great name for himself as a Boer warrior during the Anglo-Boer War. In the few battles in which he was involved before his death, Coetzee also distinguished himself as a brave and capable commander of his citizens.
The Lichtenburg Commando was commanded by kmdt. Vermaas. At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in October 1899, Vermaas consisted of the three Veldkornets with commanders: Ward 1, Veldkornet Jan Cronjé (from the farm Riethoek), Ward 2, Veldkornet Izak Claassen (from the farm Klipfontein) and Ward 3, Veldkornet Hansie Coetzee (from the farm Rietvlei).
When it became clear that war with Britain had become inevitable, all the able-bodied citizens were called up. All the Western Transvaal commandos under the command of Gen. Piet Cronjé were instructed to meet at Polfontein, west of Lichtenburg near the western border, to await further orders. Just after the ZAR declared war at five o'clock on the afternoon of October 11, 1899, the commandos sprang into action. Gen. De la Rey moved west into the Cape Colony and instructed Veldkornet Coetzee to break up the railway line at Kraaipan near Moshettestad in order to stop an English troop movement to the Transvaal border. Though not intended to be so, it was destined to be the first action of the war. At eleven o'clock on the evening of 11 October 1899, Hansie Coetzee fired the first shot at the oncoming armoured locomotive as a signal for his citizens to start firing. It was the first battle with an English force on the first shot of the war. The Anglo-Boer War officially began. The two small Boer republics would fight for two and a half years against the country that was the most powerful in the world in those years - Great Britain and its allies.



The Battle of Kraaipan, October 12, 1899. The photograph was taken on the morning of 12 October 1899 after the first shot in the war was fired on the locomotive at Kraaipan on the night of 11 October. At the front in the middle stands Veldkornet Hansie Coetzee with his rifle in his right hand raised along with his men and a number of Korannafonteins.
Photo: Meintjies, J. The Anglo-Boer War in Pictures, no. On October 22, 201.

However, Veldkornet Hansie Coetzee was not destined to be part of this fight for very long. In the battles that were to follow, the Boer forces became acquainted with the power and striking power of the British army for the first time. During the Battle of Modder River on November 28, 1899, Adaan (Adriaan) de la Rey, the young son of Gen. De la Rey and Hansie, Veldkornet Coetzee's son, were mortally wounded. He later died in hospital. The boys were buried next to each other at Jacobsdal.
In the prelude to Magersfontein, Gen. De la Rey played an important role when, at his insistence and after a fierce clash with Gen. Cronjé in which President Steyn was to act as mediator, use was made of the trench system.
Kmdt. Vermaas, who had been urgently summoned to his farm just before the battle for some personal reason, temporarily transferred command of the Lichtenburg Command to Veldkornet Coetzee. In the early hours of December 11, 1899, Lord Methuen attacked with force after having pierced the ridges under continuous bombardment days before, believing that the Boer settlements were there. Coetzee, who had been crawling back and forth in the positions between his men during the battle, came to rest at one point when the fighting subsided slightly and was immediately hit in the head by a sniper. Two more Korannafonteiners, the young Dick Dauth and Jopie Pretorius, both Coetzee's foremen at Rietvlei, were also fatally hit shortly afterwards when they tried to help Coetzee. A little later, for a moment, a Korannafontein saw something shiny in the bush about two hundred paces away, immediately lay down and shot the sniper dead.
Coetzee died a few hours later. His death was not only a tremendous shock and setback to his men and the Lichtenburg commando, but to the entire command structure of the western Boer forces. De la Rey and Vermaas in particular were tremendously affected by his death. Coetzee was buried next to his son Hansie at Jacobsdal.



Lenie Coetzee (*Liebenberg), wife of Hansie-Veldkornet. Foto: Danie Rousseau.

In his narration of the events, August Schulenburg gives an understatement: "Further to our right was Ward 3 commanded by Veldkornet Hansie Coetzee. Beside him lay his farm foreman Dick Dauth and fired. Suddenly he struck a bullet through the head and Coetzee saw it, lifted him up slightly to help and with that he also got a bullet through the head. There both gave their lives for their homeland." (August Carl Schulenburg by C.A.R. Schulenburg).
In her emotionally charged booklet Moedersorg en kinderleed (Moedersorg en kinderleed, which was still written in old Afrikaans in the twenties and belonged to one Hettie Coetzee of Lucas Kraal), dated 10 September 1926, the writer Lenie Boshoff-Liebenberg (probably a relative of Lenie Coetzee) tells of the events at Rietvlei just before the war and after the news of the fallen. First of the death of the young Hansie and thereaftr that of veldkornet Hansie, Dick Dauth and Jopie Pretorius. For the Boer forces, Magersfontein was a great victory, but for the Korannafonteiners, the death of their people was a great loss.
From these narratives it can also be deduced that aunt Miemie Coetzee lived with her son and daughter-in-law at Rietvlei in the large farm house and that the stagecoach passed close to the house. When it was time for the carriage that day, someone would stop by the side of the road to wait it in. There was regular telegram exchange between the family and the family in the fields and the death tidings reached the family by stagecoach. She says that Dick Dauth was a young boy who lived with the Coetzees in the house and that the young Hansie had just returned to the farm after attending school in Pretoria. She also relates that the Coetzees' "twelve-year-old son had drowned the year before" i.e. in 1898. A picture of the boy, Christiaan, always hung in Aunt Nonnie Otto's house at Witpoort. The Coetzee family was later deported to the concentration camp and Rietvlei was destroyed by the English.
In her account of the death of Veldkornet Coetzee during the Battle of Magersfontein, Lenie Boshoff-Liebenberg further writes: "Then came closer reports how Uncle Hansie would have left on the morning of 11 December but that he had stayed to take part in a battle that would take place that day. He couldn't leave his men so alone. At eleven o'clock that day, he received a shot through the head. And when Diederik Dauth jumped in to help, he was also wounded in the head, and when Jopie Pretorius wanted to help, he too. Only one burst of the men put an end to the enemy who was the cause of the mischief... When they lifted up Uncle Hansie, he just said, 'Bring me under a tree and don't leave your posts.' He is laid under a tree and his water bnottle beside him. And when they came in from the fight and looked at him again, he was ice cold. So cold, that his shoes couldn't even be taken off his feet."

In place of Hansie Coetzee, Wessel Pienaar ( B 08/10/1849 D 03/10/l929) of Droëkraal, Korannafontein was chosen as Veldkornet of Ward 3. Veldkornet Pienaar is later captured and sent away as a prisoner of war, and most of the Korannafonteiners fight later under veldkornet Izak Claassen.
After the Battle of Ysterspruit on 25 February 1902, eleven of the twelve Boer casualties were buried in the family cemetery at Rietvlei while one, Jurie Human, was buried on his parents' farm Doringlaagte (today Humanskraal). Because the farm was well-known and had a lot of water and was also centrally located on the old stagecoach road, Rietvlei was on a few occasions the gathering place of the Western Transvaal commandos where Gen. De la Rey held court. Just before this blow, it was like that again. It was also decided that all the commandos would reassemble there after the battle to bury the fallen and plan further actions before dispersing again. The funeral service for the fallen was performed under the trees. In 1935 a monument was erected there in their honour and in 1985 the remains were reburied on the initiative of the Delareyville Rapportryers Corps in the Civic Memorial Grave at Delareyville. On 31 May 1986, the Ottosdalse Rapportryers erected a memorial on Rietvlei in the Coetzee cemetery in honour of the citizens who were first buried there.



The Burger Monument on Rietvlei , erected by the Ottosdal Rapportryers. Oom Faantjie Labuschagne of Sannieshof was present at the unveiling on 31 May 1986.


After the war, Lenie and her children went to live in Lichtenburg where she again served as a maternity nurse. She was a close friend of the De la Rey family until her death and helped bring many of Nonnie de la Rey's grandchildren into the world, including Louis and Rykie Krige, Aunt Polly de la Rey-Morkel's children.
Later, the state paid her a war pension as the widow of a commandant. She died in 1934 at the age of 75.
After the war, many of the Coetzee descendants lost their inheritance land due to subdivision, poor wills, and personal problems. Also, the old family hereditary land Rietfallij eventually ended up in foreign hands. With the exception of parts of the farms Lakensvlei and Witpoort, little of the original Coetzee land is still in the possession for posterity.
Like so many of the original large landowners and once proud Voortrekker families of Korannafontein, the old Coetzee family is fading into history.

Adrian,
Many thanks for sharing this fascinating piece of history of the conflict and the story of a very prominent, brave man and his family.