The Boer War Mount Hope Incident : The Fickle Finger of Fate & The
Death of Temple Pulvermacher
In the latter part of 1900 the Boer leaders decided that certain commandos would attempt to
enter the Cape Colony so as to draw off British forces from the Free State and Transvaal and to
hopefully cause a rebellion amongst Boer sympathisers. Commandos under Kritzinger, Gideon
Scheepers and Jan Smuts (and others in the north-west) successfully implemented the first part
of this strategy.
Jan Smuts and his commando entered the north-eastern Cape on 4 September 1901. They
trekked south-westwards pursued by different British columns. Their route was roughly : Lady
Grey, Dordrecht, Sterkstroom, Tarkastad, Adelaide, Zuurberg, Aberdeen, Willowmore,
Swartberg, Little Karoo. The strategy of General French who took charge of the military in the
Cape Colony in June 1901, was to keep the commandos moving westwards with the intention
of hustling them, wearing out their horses and capturing them or ultimately driving them into
the sparsely populated north-western Cape. By the end of October Smuts's commando was
south-west of Oudtshoorn. On 26 October 1901 they came to the farm Mount Hope.
Most towns in the Cape Colony had formed defence units called Town Guards and District
Mounted Troops (DMT). The latter's task was to assist the military in a defensive role and only
to engage the enemy if there was no alternative. In terms of this role, they were issued with
limited ammunition.
The man in charge of the George No.1 DMT, was Lieut Thys Taute. Consequently this unit was
also known as the "Taute Scouts". On 25 October 1901 he was instructed to pursue ten Boers
who had been seen on the farm De Wieg the previous day. These men were Willie Conradie's
group which included Deneys Reitz. [Author of the book "Commando" published in 1929.]
Conradie's group had been separated ten days earlier from the main body of Smuts's
commando when Scobell and the 9th Lancers charged the commando at Kariega River west of
Aberdeen.
After calling at the De Wieg farm which was owned by Hendrik Jacobus Raubenheimer, and
being involved in a verbal altercation with the owner's eldest son, Pieter Raubenheimer, Taute's
unit moved westwards looking for this group. (However, Conradie's group was moving
northwards with the intention of recrossing the Swartberg range.) On the evening of 25
October 1901 the Taute Scouts arrived at the homestead on the farm Mount Hope. The same
evening Ben Bouwer (Smuts's 2 i/c) ate with the Raubenheimers who would have told him of
the visit of the Taute Scouts to the farm. Fresh horses being always the commando's priority,
Bouwer no doubt decided to keep an eye out for the unit.
Next morning the Taute Scouts were surprised to see a large body of horsemen (about 200)
moving westwards towards the Mount Hope homestead. This was the main body of Smuts's
commando. Lieut. Thys Taute perceiving that they were hugely outnumbered and knowing that
2.
the Boers would want their horses, ordered his nine men "to get the hell out" as fast as
possible.
Thys Taute and six of the scouts who were probably at the kraals above the homestead,
mounted their horses and raced westward on the track up a steep hill behind the farmyard.
Some of the Boers ( including Ben Bouwer's 65 year old father who had exceptionally keen eyesight ) on seeing the scouts, gave chase and started shooting. (They never caught up with the
scouts who rode south-west and eventually landed up at the farm Ruitersbos.)
The other three fellows were not as quick - possibly because they were nearer the homestead.
One of their horses, nervous because of the shooting, kicked and bolted. Almost surrounded,
but at a distance, the three ran to the house. A number of Boers now fired at the house. The
three scouts fired back and two Boers were wounded. However, surrender was really the only
sensible option.
The three were Charlie Taute (Thys's son), Daniel Denyssen and Temple Pulvermacher. The
latter had recently completed his schooling at the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Cape Town.
Pulvermacher is not listed in the George DMT records as a member of the unit. Perhaps he had
only “gone along for the ride”? His father had been of the Jewish faith, but had converted to
Christianity.
Charlie Taute then put a woman's white "kappie" (bonnet) on the point of his rifle and stuck it
out a window. Whereupon Temple Pulvermacher came out of the room into the hall/passage at
the front door to surrender. Unfortunately Temple Pulvermacher was then shot in the leg.
Charlie and Daniel then emerged - probably with hands up and shouts of surrender. Some of
the Boers were enraged and they forcibly prevented the two men from assisting Pulvermacher.
[David Denyssen, the youngest of Daniel's children, told the writer that his father had told him
that some angry Boers had prevented them from going to Temple's assistance.]
Dr Carl Möller, a member of Smuts's commando, later arrived and attended Pulvermacher.
However, he had lost too much blood and, like many others in the Boer War, died of shock and
haemorrhage.
Charlie Taute and Daniel Denyssen were then put against a fence and informed that they were
to be shot. There was a reason for these Boer actions.
When Johannes Lötter's commando was defeated at Paardefontein on 05 September 1901, one
of the surrendering members of the commando, Pieter Wolfaardt, dropped his rifle in
surrender, but then later picked it up and shot dead an approaching 9th Lancers. This soldier
had seen the white flag waving and was riding closer on his horse. Pieter Wolfaardt was sent to
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trial in Graaff-Reinet on a charge of High Treason and Murder. He pleaded guilty to both
charges and was sentenced to death. He was executed on 15 October 1901 in Middelburg.
While the Boers were approaching Mount Hope and Pulvermacher was trying to mount his
horse, he dropped his rifle. Barend Bouwer (the father of General Ben Bouwer) maintained that
Pulvermacher had earlier surrendered when he dropped his rifle, but he had then picked it up
and fired on the Boers. Barend Bouwer and others argued that there was no difference
between the actions of Wolfaardt and Pulvermacher. Consequently the insistence that Charlie
Taute and Daniel Denyssen should be executed as Pieter Wolfaard had been.
At this point Smuts rode up and told his men to hold their fire. Smuts went inside the house
with the two scouts. (Perhaps also to view Pulvermacher's body.) Smuts asked the two
youngsters if they weren't ashamed of taking up arms against their own people. Taute replied
that he had not taken up arms to fight in the Transvaal or Orange Free State, but to defend the
Cape Colony where he and Daniel lived as British subjects. When asked if they had surrendered
and then picked up their rifles, Charlie Taute said that such action would be foolish when the
commando had hundreds of men. Smuts said his men did not agree in their evidence and gave
Charlie and Daniel the benefit of the doubt. Smuts said that he hoped to meet them again when
he would shoot them.
Smuts and his men then continued their westward ride while Taute and Denyssen made
contact with Crabbe's forces which were following Smuts's commando. Pulvermacher's body
was taken to George via the Montagu Pass the following day (Sunday 27 October 1901).
It is recorded in the George & Knysna Herald (30.10.1901) that an examination of
Pulvermacher's injured leg when he was put in a coffin, indicated that an explosive bullet had
been fired. Such ammunition was used by certain combatants, but a rifle bullet, at close range,
to the knee, would result in a serious wound. (The jingoism of the Cape Colony's Press must
also be taken into account. Charlie Taute in a letter to his mother wrote that Temple was shot
after he surrendered and was hit by an expanding bullet.) However, Pulvermacher probably
simply bled to death because of the severity of his injury and the lack of immediate attention.
Pulvermacher's funeral was held in St Mark's cathedral in York Street on Monday 28 October
1901. (The newspaper states that only 10% of those present could fit into the church as most of
the town was in attendance.) He was buried in "the English Church Cemetery" in Memoriam
Street. His grave is marked by a headstone. For Temple Pulvermacher time stood still, but for
his two friends the sands of time still had a course to run.
4.
The Fate of the Other Two Men : Charlie Taute and Daniel Denyssen
After the Boer War when the DMTs were disbanded, Charlie Taute returned to the family's
upper Langkloof farm, Molen River. In November, 1904, he and a brother, Harold, tried farming
in the Vryburg district, without success. In 1911 he married Susan (Sukie) Ellen Donovan van
Rooyen. He then entered into a farming partnership in the Colesberg/Venterstad area. In 1918
this partnership was dissolved and he returned to Molen River with a wife and four children.
Molen River was divided amongst the four brothers. Charlie continued to farm along with his
sons. He was widowed in 1962 and died on 5 February 1976 at the age of 94.
The third man's surname is given in the George & Knysna Herald report on the incident
(30.10.1901) as Dennison and the same spelling of the surname is used by Charlie Taute in a
letter to his mother about the incident. However, no Dennison is listed in either of the two
units of the George DMT, but Daniel Stephen Denyssen (Born 25.02.1882*; Died 23.01.1968) is
listed in the No.1 Unit of the George DMT. Daniel had grown up and been to school in
Oudtshoorn. The Denyssen family of which Henry was the father, considered themselves loyal
subjects of the Crown.
*Per family records. The George DMT records give his birth date as 18.07.1883
Daniel Denyssen left home at the age of 14 and worked in a shop in Blanco for Alec Matson
who was a relative. After the Boer War he farmed at Sunnyside with Mr Frost in the
Queenstown district. He then farmed at Hamilton Manor with Roger Wilmot. Thereafter he
farmed at Elstowe and Normandale in the Springfontein district in the southern Free State. He
hired the latter farm initially, but purchased it in 1919. He married Edith Alice Wilmot. They are
both buried on Normandale farm. They had nine children. Their third daughter, Hilda Alice,
married Percival Graham a farmer in the neighbouring Trompsburg district. Their second
daughter, Arleen Mary, is married to the writer.
Allen Duff.
Updated December 2012
The writer is much indebted to Taffy Shearing's Mount Hope research which is published in her
book General Jan Smuts and his Long Ride.
5.
Mount Hope : 2001
On 28 October 2001 the George Museum Society visited Mount Hope to commemorate the
skirmish. The present owner is a Mr Ellis whose son, Tobie, and wife, Marielees, occupy the
homestead. The exterior is very much as it was a 100 years ago. There is a wide elevated stoep
running the length of the house with large windows opening on to it. The passage and doorway
where Temple Pulvermacher emerged to surrender, is the entrance to the house. There are two
inter-leading rooms to the left as one enters. It was probably in these rooms that the three
young men sought shelter. Standing on the stoep one could imagine the dramatic scenes which
occurred there even though it was 100 years and one day to the day since they had happened.
Refer below for photographs.
Mount Hope – from east to west. The Mount Hope homestead is the large roof on the right. The
roof was not quite as long in 1901. The other farm buildings were added after 1901, but the stone
wall kraals, just to the left of the homestead, were there. This is the view (minus the large trees)
which Smuts's commando would have had on 26.10.1901 as they rode towards Mount Hope.
Lieut Thys Taute and six DMT men rode up the hill-track on the left and made good their
escape. Thys Taute knew that the Boers would do all they could to get their hands on the DMT’s
horses.
Temple Pulvermacher, Charlie Taute and Daniel Denyssen struggled to mount their horses at the
stone wall kraals : probably in the area where everyone is standing.[28.10.2001] This photo is
from west to east. The Boers would have come down the road in the distance. The three DMT
men entered the house via the stoep at the rear. The stoep is now enclosed. A room and a water
tank have been added.
The entrance hall where Pulvermacher died. The room in which they had sought cover is to the
right. It was from the window of this room that they stuck out the rifle with the kappie. Clearly
the firing had stopped and Pulvermacher walked into the hall to surrender. It was his bad luck
that when he did, a Boer fired.
Daniel Denyssen as a member of the George DMT (District Mounted Troop) in George in 1900.
This photograph is similar to other photographs of the Taute Scouts. The photo was given “with
love and remembrance” by Daniel to his eldest daughter, Joyce Bissett, on her wedding day
29.10.1938. Daniel also wrote on the rear of the photo that the horse was called Ballie – “a black
stallion and a good pal.” Daniel Denyssen on Normandale in the late 1950s.
[May 2012] The front stoep of the Mount Hope farmhouse which faces east. The three DMT
men were in the stoep-room on the left. The room at the end of the stoep is a modern addition.
There are a few bullet-holes in the interior wooden window shutters. The central double doors
open on to the hall where Pulvermacher was hit and died.
The three DMT men entered the house from the rear*. They holed up in the room on the left.
Note interior wooden window shutters. The double doors open on to the hall where the wounded
Pulvermacher bled to death. *Colonial Forces were forbidden to enter private dwellings. The
Cape Colony government was concerned about possible compensation for war damage.
Mount Hope : The double doors which open on to the hall/passage.
Charlie Taute in 1901 & in his latter years.
The grave of Temple Pulvermacher : Memoriam Street, George