General Piet Arnoldus Cronje is belived to have been born in 1840 in the Transvaal. He was the leader of the Zuid Afrika Republic's (ZAR) military forces that were formed into groups called Commandos. He had rough peasant ways and a lot of courage. He was short of stature and had a black beard. Cronje was one of the heroes of the first Anglo Boer War and rounded up Jameson at Dorinkop during the Jameson Raid. During the the Second Boer War Cronje was general commanding in the western theatre of war. He began the sieges of Kimberley and of Mafeking. At Mafeking, with a force varing between 2000 and 6000 he laid seige against 1200 military and militial under the command of Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. After his surrender on February 27, 1900 he as banished as a prisoner of war to St. Helena Island where he remained until the conclusion of peace negotiations. General Cronje died in 1904.
