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The siege of Lydenburg was a siege carried out by South African Republican forces on British-occupied Lydenburg, between January and March 1881 during the First Boer War. Despite fierce British resistance, the Boers reclaimed the town following the British defeat at the end of the war. The siege lasted 84 days.

Background
Southern Africa was first settled by Europeans in the mid-17th century, when the Dutch set up a provision station at the Cape of Good Hope. Over the subsequent decades, more settlers followed, and moved further inland. These settlers, known as Free Burghers, established an independence that became a distinctive feature of their descendants, the Boers. They believed in their divine right to the land, and a superiority over the African natives. The British captured the colony based at the Cape in the early 19th century, as it provided a strategic advantage during the Napoleonic Wars. The British imposed their 1833 slavery ban—which made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal—on the Boers, which drove them further north to the Transvaal and Natal. The British expanded their territory in southern Africa throughout the 19th century, annexing Natal in 1842, and then Griqualand West in 1873 and Transvaal in 1877. The last of these annexations occurred despite the fact that Britain had previously recognised the independence of the Boer South African Republic in that region.

Transvaal had a population of around of around 5,000 British settlers, and 36,000 to 45,000 Boers, mostly spread around the countryside on their farms; the majority of the Boer population opposed the annexation, and considered the British to be an occupying force. The Boers sent political delegations to London in 1877 and 1878, but on both occasions their pleas to reverse the annexation were rejected. By the end of 1879 the elimination of the Zulu and Bapedi threats had removed any tolerance that the majority of the Boer population may have had for the protective presence of British troops and administrators in the Transvaal. A statement from the British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, in 1880 that the British Empire would not relinquish the Transvaal led the Boer leadership to begin preparations for an insurrection.

Lydenburg
Lydenburg, which at the time was a small town, is roughly 150 miles east-northeast of Pretoria. It was settled around 1850 by a group of Voortrekkers, and grew in prominence first as a waystation for the wagon route to a port at Delagoa Bay, one of the few not controlled by the British, and then further in 1873 when alluvial gold was found in the area. Following the annexation of the Transvaal, the British army garrisoned troops around the Transvaal to protect British interests; in 1880, there were around 1,800 regular troops in the region. Lydenburg was garrisoned by the headquarters and two companies of the 94th Regiment, roughly 300–330 men, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Robert Anstruther.

Due to the growing threat of a general uprising, Anstruther received orders on 27 November to withdraw his men to reinforce Pretoria. After delaying his departure while he waited for additional wagons to be acquired, he left on 5 December, leaving roughly 60 men to hold Lydenburg, under the command of Second Lieutenant Walter Long. On 20 December, Anstruther's column was attacked enroute to Pretoria at the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit, suffering over 150 casualties, marking the first major engagement of the First Boer War. After that defeat, Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, the British Army's commander-in-chief in Transvaal and Natal, acknowledged in a despatch to the British government that: "This will materially alter situation, as encouraging Boers, who will now also feel themselves committed."

Preparations
Following the outbreak of the war, Long received orders from Pretoria to defend Lydenburg. Long acted by building a fort and constructing stone walls around it to improve defences. The fort, known as Fort Mary, consisted of eight thatched huts connected by stone walls. Fort Mary provided cover for British forces and would allow Long to successfully fight off the Boers for three months. The British stored 200,000 rounds of ammunition, left behind by the main force of the 94th Regiment under Anstruther, in preparation for a Boer siege. The British had at their disposal three months' supply of meat, eight months' supply flour for bread making, and supplies of groceries and vegetables, in order to survive the siege.

Siege
On 23 December 1880, Dietrich Muller entered Lydenburg and informed Long that his government had demanded the immediate surrender of Lydenburg. Long refused to capitulate, and the Boers prepared to besiege. Commandos took positions two miles away from the road to Middelburg on 3 January 1881 and then advanced on Lydenburg on the 6th. Over two hundred burghers breached the town and proclaimed their allegiance to the South African Republic, again requesting Long to surrender. Long refused, and the Boer contingent grew to about five hundred men. As the Boers advanced through Lydenburg, they neared Fort Mary, and opened fire at 230 metres. The garrison was not harmed, despite sporadic firing for three hours. Two days later, on 8 December, a cannon was brought to bear, which also failed to impress the fort or inflict any casualties on Long's men. However, a second cannon brought later damaged Fort Mary's defences.

On 23 January 1881, the garrison discovered that its water supply was running low. Water was temporarily rationed until rainfall on 8 February brought relief.

On 4 March 1881, Boers successfully set fire to the thatched roofs of Fort Mary. British forces managed to put out the fire in twenty minutes, but came under heavy Boer fire whilst doing so.

On 10 March, two Boers entered Lydenburg with a letter from Alfred Aylward, offering favourable terms of surrender to the British. Aylward stated Long should surrender due to the small size of his command and as there were no British troops in South Africa, close to Lydenburg, available to relieve the siege. Long replied that he would not surrender as long as he had men at his disposal or until he was told otherwise.

On 23 March, Boers again entered Lydenburg, informing Long of the death of Major-General George Colley at Majuba Hill, and requesting British surrender. Still, the siege continued until 30 March 1881, when Lieutenant Baker, from the 60th regiment, agreed to peace terms with the Boers. The siege lasted for 84 days.

Aftermath
Following the capture of Lydenburg and other British forts in Transvaal, the South African Republic regained independence and control over its territories. British forces would again enter Lydenburg during the Second Boer War.

External sources

 * John Laband: The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War, 1880-1881 (ISBN 978-0-582-77261-8)
 * Charles Norris-Newman: With the Boers in the Transvaal and Orange Free State 1880-81 (ISBN 978-0-949973-18-4)
 * Francis Hugh De Souza: A Question Of Treason (ISBN 978-0-620-32030-6)
 * Lady Bellairs: The Transvaal war, 1880-81 (ISBN 978-1-163-12516-8)
 * Ian Castle: Majuba 1881: The Hill of Destiny (ISBN 978-1-85532-503-6)
 * M. Gough Palmer: The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War, 1880-1881
 * First Anglo-Boer War 1880-1881