Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger (20 April 1870 – 2 October 1935) was a Boer general and Assistant Commandant of the Forces of the Orange Free State and Commander-in-Chief of the Boer Rebel Forces in the Cape Colony and noted guerrilla commander during the Second Boer War who led the Boer invasions of the Cape Colony during the Guerilla Phase of the Second Boer War.
General Kritzinger was probably the only senior Boer officer to invade the Cape Colony four times during the Anglo Boer War. He did so as a burgher of the Rouxville Commando in November 1899, during the failed attempt of General Christiaan de Wet during the Second Boer Invasion of the Cape Colony on 16 December 1900, and returned to the Cape Colony for a third time on 15 May 1901 as a general until withdrawing on 15 August 1901. After recuperating and resting in the Ladybrand District, he made a fourth and last attempt to invade the Cape Colony via Sandrift on the night of 14/15 December 1901. With his commando he crossed the Noupoort - De Aar railway line late in the afternoon of 16 December 1901. Whilst turning around for the third time to pick up stragglers, he was shot through the chest and captured by soldiers of the Third Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
As a part of General de Wet's Free State forces, Kritzinger's commando and its offsplits of commonado's, under the leadership of Gideon Scheepers and Johannes Lötter, successfully launched attacks deep into the Cape Colony on the British troops. The British communications, railway and supply lines were severely disrupted.
Ancestors Pieter Kritzinger was a grandchild of the Kritzinger progenitor in South Africa, Johan Jakob Kritzinger (1744-1798), of Besigheim in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Johan Jakob Pieter descended from the well-known Kepler family of Weil der Stadt, in Baden-Württemberg, a town which is known as the 'Gate to the Black Forest'.
Johan Jakob Kritzinger’s grandmother was Maria Barbara (Kepler) Grözinger (1661 – 1729), the daughter of Johan Melchior Kepler (1623 – 1687), an erstwhile Mayor of Besigheim, who lived in the Kepler manor house on Hauptstraße in Besigheim. Johan Melchior Kepler’s father was Georg Kepler ( - 1687) of Besigheim. Georg Kepler’s father was Johann (Hans) Kepler (1544 - 1593), from Weil der Stadt, who was the progenitor of the Kepler family of Besigheim. Kritzinger's ancestor Johann (Hans) Kepler was the older brother of Heinrich Kepler (1547 – c.1590), who was the father of the famous German astrologer, astronomer, mathematician and natural philosopher, Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630).
The father of Johann (Hans) Kepler and Heinrich Kepler was Sebald Kepler Junior (1519 – 1594), who was the Pfründverwalter (Chief Administrative Officer) of Weil der Stadt. On 27 February 1563 Maximillian II, Holy Roman Emperor rewarded him with a family crest in Vienna. His profession was bookbinder and he was for long a councillor and mayor of Weil der Stadt. His father, Sebald Kepler Senior (1490 – ) served as the Stadrechner (Town Treasurer) of Weil der Stadt. Sebald Kepler Senior’s father was Johannes Sebald Kepler Senior (1457 – 1501) of Nuremberg.
Family Pieter Kritzinger was a grandchild of the Kritzinger progenitor in South Africa, Johan Jakob Kritzinger (1744-1798). Johan Jakob was granted the farm, 'Piesangriviervallei' by the Dutch East India Company in 1766 and today this farm is at the heart of the town of Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape.
Pieter Kritzinger was a great grandchild of A.B1. Jacobus Andreas (Andries) Rudolph Senior (1773 - 1809), who was the elder brother of A.B2. Gerhardus Jacobus (Gert) Rudolph (1797–1851), who was the last President of the Natalia Republic from 1842 tot 1843. Andries Rudolph was married to Johanna Magdalena Oosthuizen (1773 - 1864), the heiress of the farm, 'Paapenbietjesfontein aan de Baakensrivier', on which the city centre of Port Elizabeth was laid out. 'Paapenbietjiesfontein' comprised the modern day city centre of Port Elizabeth, South End and Humewood, all the way to Happy Valley, where the Sakrivier formed the boundary with the neighbouring farm, 'Strandfontein', which at the time belonged to the Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief. Johanna was also the aunt of the Voortrekker leader Gerrit Maritz, after whom the city of Pietermaritzburg was named.
Pieter Kritzinger's grandfather, A.B1.C3. Jacobus Andreas Rudolph Junior (1798–1881), participated in the Battle of Blood River in 1838.
Pieter Kritzinger was the son of Wessel Kritzinger and his wife, Magdalena Rudolph, and was born on the farm, 'Wildeman's Kraal' at the foot of the Suurberg Pass in the Alexandria District, near Port Elizabeth. In 1882 he moved with his parents to the Ladybrand district of the Orange Free State and at the age of seventeen began farming on his own in the Rouxville district. Wessel died in the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp on 20 April 1902.
Participation in Anglo Boer War
On the outbreak of the Second Boer War, as a burgher in the Rouxville Commando under General J.H. Olivier, he took part in the invasion of the Cape Colony and took part in the Battle of Stormberg on 10 December 1899. At the time, Kritzinger was engaged to a daughter of General J.H. Olivier, the victor of the Battle of Stormberg who led the humiliating defeat over Lieutenant-General William Forbes Gatacre, the hero of the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan. The Boer victory at the Battle of Stormberg, in which 135 British soldiers were killed and 696 captured was part of the British Black Week. Gatacre's reputation sank after Stormberg, and he returned to England and to his pre-war posting.
As a result of Lord Roberts' successful campaign which led to the collapse of Boer resistance on the western front and the occupation of Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900, the commando's at Stormberg had to retreat hastily to the north and the Rouxville Commando also had to turn back. North-east of Bloemfontein he joined the Orange Free State main force under General Christiaan de Wet in the same month.
Kritzinger participated in the Battle of Sanna's Post on 31 March 1900 and the Battle of Mostershoek at Reddersburg on 3 April 1900. Kritzinger was present when the Imperial Yeomanry under Colonel Basil Spragge surrendered to General Piet de Wet at Lindley on 31 May 1900. Thereafter he fought in the military operation in the north eastern Orange Free State until the surrender of General Marthinus Prinsloo at the end of July 1900. When General Christiaan de Wet's commando temporarily retreated across the Vaal River, the Rouxville Commando stayed behind in the vicinity of Winburg and when General Olivier was taken prisoner during an attack on Winburg on 27 August 1900, Kritzinger was elected as the commandant of the Rouxville Commando. On General Christiaan de Wet's return from Transvaal, Kritzinger and his commando once more joined the main force and his appointment was confirmed.
In December 1900, Kritzinger's commando formed part of the force with which General Christiaan de Wet attempted to invade the Cape Colony. The plan was foiled and Kritzinger was instructed to try again with his own commando as soon as the Orange River was fordable. On 16 December 1900 he succeeded in entering the Cape Colony at Odendaalstroom. Pursued by British columns, Kritzinger at the end of December 1900 crossed the railway between Noupoort and Middelburg, where they derailed a train. The commando then moved southwards through the Graaff-Reinet and Murraysburg districts, past Prince Albert to Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo. The Cape rebel Gideon Scheepers, who was later executed by the British, was a member of Kritzinger's commando invading the Cape in December 1900.
After this he changed direction and went northeastwards to Somerset East. There was a great deal of commotion along this route and colonial rebels joined his commando. His actions between December 1900 and April 1901 led to the escalation of the war to parts of the Cape Colony which had hitherto been peaceful and caused the immediate intervention of an increasing number of mobile British units. In the Cradock and Tarkastad districts he was forced to divide his commando in two and retreat with one half to the Orange Free State.
He succeeded in fording the Orange River near Bethulie on 29 April 1901.
In April 1901 he was promoted by General Christiaan de Wet to the rank of General at the age of 31 years.
However, his undertaking had lasting effects on the subsequent military operations, for henceforth the war was also waged in British controlled areas and this gradually became an important theatre of war. The actions of a considerable number of rebel bands forced the British High Command to strengthen its forces in the Cape Colony at a time when it was hoped that the war was nearing its end. The political outcome in the Cape Colony was even more serious, because the loyalty of the Cape Afrikaners became involved. Kritzinger's services were recognised by General Christiaan de Wet when the latter appointed him Assistant Chief Commandant of the Orange Free State and Chief Commandant of the Colonial Forces in the Cape Colony on 7 May 1901.
Kritzinger invaded the Cape Colony once again at Norvalspont on 19 May 1901. Invested with more authority than he had formerly had, he united the rebel units in the area under him, then rode southwards and sent out, in all directions and under competent leaders, smaller sections whose number continually increased. He occupied Jamestown in the Eastern Cape on 2 June 1901, but found himself hard-pressed when mobile units descended upon him.
On 12 June 1901 General Kritzinger issued his 'Stormberg Proclamation'. He declared that the Orange Free State Occupation Proclamations of November 1899 were still valid and that the north-eastern part of the Cape Colony was still under the control of the Orange Free State and that martial law was still applicable.Cloete, Pieter G, The Anglo-Boer War 963 days, 2020, ISBN 978 0 620 86917 1, p.280 This Proclamation determined that all of the inhabitants of the north-eastern part of the Cape Colony were still viewed as subjects of the Orange Free State and not of the Cape Colony, and that any assistance to the imperial forces would be regarded as treason and punishable.Oosthuizen, A V, Rebelle van die Stormberge, J.P. van der Walt, 1994, , p.181 Under these orders, pro-British black prisoners of war, regardless of whether they had been armed, were summarily executed. In response, the British court-martialed and executed Boers for killing black prisoners of war.
Capture
He retreated to the Orange Free State again on 14 August 1901 and went to the Zastron district where he annihilated a British unit under Colonel A Murray at the Battle of Kwaggafontein on 20 September 1901. Continually harried in the Southern Orange Free State, Kritzinger's Commando invaded the Cape Colony for a third time at Sanddrif on 15 December 1901. Once again the enemy converged upon him from all sides and he was driven westwards in the direction of the railway line to the north. As he crossed the line on 16 December 1901 he was gravely wounded and taken prisoner while attempting to rescue a comrade, Lieutenant Gerrit Boldingh. Kritzinger safely reached the other side, but saw that Boldingh had been hit by a bullet, and turned back within a rain of bullet fire out of the nearby British blockhouse to go and rescue him. According to the Aliwal North newspaper this act of bravery was worthy of a Victoria Cross, if Kritzinger had fought on the British side.
Court Case After some weeks in hospital at Noupoort he was imprisoned as prisoner of war (POW) in the military prison at Graaff-Reinet and tried by the Graaff-Reinet Military Tribunal in March 1902 on the charge of rebellion.