They were unable to replace with another a single fallen burgher and prevented from adding by importation to their stock of ammunition a single rifle or a single pound of powder.

At the head were farmers who, perhaps, did not know that there existed a theory of warfare and much less knew how recent wars were fought and won.

The means by which thirty thousand farmers of no military training were enabled to withstand the opposition of several hundred thousand well-trained soldiers for the greater part of a year must be attributed to the military system which gave such a marvellous advantage.
Such success as attended the Boer army was undoubtedly the success of its system of warfare against that of the British.
[Illustration: BOER COMMANDANTS READING MESSAGE FROM BRITISH OFFICERS AFTER THE BATTLE OF DUNDEE] The Boers themselves were not aware that they had a military system; at least, none of the generals or men acknowledged the existence of such, and it was not an easy matter to find evidences that battles were fought and movements made according to certain established rules which suggested a system.

The Boers undoubtedly had a military plan of their own which was naturally developed in their many wars with natives and with the British troops.

It might not have been a system, according to the correct definition of the term--it might have been called an instinct for fighting, or a common-sense way of attempting to defeat an enemy--but it was a matter which existed in the mind of every single citizen of the two Republics.