Battle of Ouhoutbossie Memorial

About Battle of Ouhoutbossie Memorial

The Battle of Ouhoutbossie Memorial, located along the R540 road between Dullstroom and Lydenburg in Mpumalanga, South Africa, marks the site of a fierce Second Anglo-Boer War engagement that occurred on the night of 19 December 1901. During this guerrilla phase of the conflict, Boer forces under General Christiaan Muller launched a coordinated, multi-directional surprise attack against a British Mounted Infantry unit, specifically elements of the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

Operating under the cover of darkness and heavy highland mist, Commandant Nick Groenewald struck from the east, Commandant Fanie Trichardi from the west, and General Muller advanced from the south supported by a Maxim pom-pom gun. The resulting close-quarters clash led to the deaths of nine Boer burghers from the Middelburg commando alongside several British casualties. Today, the historical site comprises two distinct commemorative areas facing each other across the modern highway: an unusual stone and wood monument dedicated to the fallen Boer burghers on one side, and a walled-in cemetery containing white stone crosses that mark the graves of the British soldiers on the other.