Boer Commandos, Civilian Militia
Boers refers to the descendants of Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th and much of the 19th century. The term also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State andTransvaal (together known as the Boer Republics). They emigrated from the Cape primarily to escape British rule and to get away from the constant border wars between the British imperial government and the indigenous peoples on the eastern frontier. The fiercely independent Boers had no regular army; when danger threatened, all the men in a district would form a militia organized into military units called commandos and would elect officers. Commandos being civilian militia, each man wore what he wished, usually everyday dark-grey, neutral-colored, or khaki farming clothes such as a jacket, trousers and slouch hat. Each man brought his own weapon, usually a hunting rifle, and his own horses. The average Boer citizens who made up their commandos were farmers who had spent almost all their working lives in the saddle, and, because they had to depend on both their horses and their rifles for almost all of their meat, they were skilled hunters and expert marksmen. No artist credited, undated.
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