Piet Fourie

Fourie was the eldest son of Louis Jacobus Fourie (Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 27 January 1814 – Vet River, Winburg, 28 June 1856) and Maria Magdalena (Magdalina) Pieterse(n) (3 September 1815 – Rustfontein, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 2 July 1868), among in total two daughters and two sons.[1] He married Maria Magdalena van Tonder (Ladismith, Western Cape, 17 March 1850 – Dewetsdorp, Free State, 16 April 1940), and had four sons and one daughter by her.[11]

Fourie was born in the Cape Colony but moved at a young age to the Orange Free State. He fought in the Free State–Basotho Wars[10] and had a prosperous farm[7] near Bloemfontein, where he was a justice of the peace.[10]

Commandant Piet Fourie. Degraded[lower-alpha 1] by De Wet and De la Rey. Newspaper The Argus, Melbourne, July 15, 1901.

After the outbreak of the war in October 1899 Fourie became the commander of the Bloemfontein Commando and fought all the major battles at the western front. After the capture of Bloemfontein by the British on 13 March 1900 Fourie participated in the Boer victory at Sanna's Post (31 March 1900),[5] the failed attack on British positions at Jammersberg Drift (9 April 1900),[12] the failure to stop the British advance in the Battle of Sand River southwest of Kroonstad (10 May 1900),[6] and again a victory at Rooiwal (Roodewal) Station (7 June 1900), under the overall command of Christiaan de Wet.

To retaliate and to deter further Boer resistance British Commander-in-Chief Roberts dynamited De Wet's farm Roodepoort on 16 June. Afterwards Fourie visited the site with general Stoffel Froneman and De Wet himself.[13] At the end of July, Fourie escaped from the Brandwater Basin with 1500 men, where Marthinus Prinsloo surrendered soon after on 30 July with more than 4000 remaining Boer troops.[14] In August 1900 Fourie was promoted to Assistant Chief Commander for the districts of Bloemfontein, Smithfield, Rouxville and Wepener. In December 1900 he broke the British line of blockhouses at Sprinkaansnek.[10]

In February 1901 De Wet sent his generals Froneman and Fourie with many troops east of the Cape Town-Bloemfontein railway line to mislead the British. De Wet and his smaller unit crossed the Orange River at Sand Drift, 60 kilometres west of the railway and marched into the Cape Colony.[15]

In July 1901 De Wet and general De la Rey degraded[lower-alpha 1] Fourie because of his stated desire to surrender to the British. Subsequently, he was imprisoned on his own farm. However, he changed heart later, was pardoned and joined Christiaan de Wet's troops again, but no more as a general.[16][17]