He brought the news that war had started in grim earnest.

General De la Rey had attacked and captured an armoured train at Kraaipan.
Some days after this a war council was held at Van Reenen's Pass under Commander-in-Chief Marthinus Prinsloo.

As Commandant Steenekamp, owing to his illness, was unable to be present, I attended the council in his place.

It was decided that a force of two thousand burghers, under Commandant C.J.De Villiers, of Harrismith, as Vice-Vechtgeneraal,[7] should go down into Natal, and that the remaining forces should guard the passes on the Drakensberg.
Let me say, in parenthesis, that the laws of the Orange Free State make no allusion to the post of Vechtgeneraal.

But shortly before the war began the Volksraad had given the President the power to appoint such an officer.