The greater part of the German corps were with the Free State forces, but a few hundred came down from the north.

There was a Hollander corps of about two hundred and fifty and an Irish--or perhaps more properly an Irish-American-corps of the same number, who rode under the green flag and the harp.
The men might, by all accounts, be divided into two very different types.

There were the town Boers, smartened and perhaps a little enervated by prosperity and civilisation, men of business and professional men, more alert and quicker than their rustic comrades.
These men spoke English rather than Dutch, and indeed there were many men of English descent among them.

But the others, the most formidable both in their numbers and in their primitive qualities, were the back-veld Boers, the sunburned, tangle-haired, full-bearded farmers, the men of the Bible and the rifle, imbued with the traditions of their own guerrilla warfare.

These were perhaps the finest natural warriors upon earth, marksmen, hunters, accustomed to hard fare and a harder couch.
They were rough in their ways and speech, but, in spite of many calumnies and some few unpleasant truths, they might compare with most disciplined armies in their humanity and their desire to observe the usages of war.
A few words here as to the man who led this singular host.