Smithfield's capricious cannon

Ou Grietjie, a cannon in the Smithfield Museum that was used in the Free State-Basotho Wars, is linked by name to another famous Boer gun and a European siege cannon.

- Mike Burgess

The six-pounder cannon Ou Grietjie should not be confused with the four-pounder gun Grietjie, which is displayed at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. The Boers used the latter against the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838, while Ou Grietjie is best known for service during the Free State-Basotho Wars (1858-1868).

OU GRIETJIE AND VEGKOP

Cast by the British firm Bailey, Pegg & Co. between 1750 and 1830, Ou Grietjie is said to have been transported to the Free State from the Cape during the late 1850s to support the war effort against the Basotho.

One of its first assignments was the controversial Free State attack in March 1858 on the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society station, Beersheba, near Smithfield, which was thought to hold Basotho sympathisers.

During the Second Free StateBasotho War, in the mid-1860s, it accompanied Louw Wepener’s commando of 340 Boers and 200 African auxiliaries to storm Chief Poshuli’s mountain fortress, Vegkop.