With the Boer Forces

Howard C. Hillegas was barely 23 years old when he was sent to South Africa on assignment with the New York World to cover the growing hostilities between the British colonial administration and the Boer Republics. Four years later, when war erupted between the two sides, it was Hillegas who broke the news to the world. These experiences spurred the young journalist to write this book — released variously as The Boers in War or as With the Boer Forces.

The text was unsurprisingly suppressed in the United Kingdom on its release in 1901. The Second Boer War — a brutal affair, costly and bitter for both sides — would not finish until the following year. Though Britain would emerge victorious, the nature of the victory would leave a bitter taste for the British establishment. The writings of Howard C. Hillegas — an American journalist embedded with the Boers and a personal friend of Boer leader Paul Kruger — contained a few too many inconvenient truths for the United Kingdom and her people in the autumn years of Empire.