Battle of Elands River (1901) - Aftermath

Aftermath

Smuts and some 250 men of his commando were able to operate for many months in the Cape Colony, but could not win the war. By this time, the Dutch in the Cape Colony were mostly convinced that the Boer republics were losing the war. Though the commando received generous help from Dutch civilians, and indeed commandeered their requirements from people of every background, the British refrained from burning Dutch farms in the Cape Colony as a matter of policy.

While Boers captured in the republics were well-treated as prisoners of war, Boer fighters native to the Cape Colony and captured there were sometimes treated as rebellious subjects and executed by the British. After the battle, Smuts' commando was dressed largely in British khaki uniforms, and Lord Kitchener gave orders that all Boer fighters taken in British uniform were to be executed. Several members of the commando were shot on this basis, others for being treasonous subjects of the Cape Colony. When the remaining members found out about this order, they dressed themselves in civilian clothes as soon as they could.