Modder River | |
---|---|
Modder River pontoon bridge, 1899 | |
Etymology | Modder meaning 'mud' in Afrikaans |
Location | |
Country | South Africa |
Region | Free State, Northern Cape |
Physical characteristics | |
Mouth | Riet River |
• coordinates | 29°2′25″S24°37′42″E / 29.04028°S 24.62833°E Coordinates: 29°2′25″S24°37′42″E / 29.04028°S 24.62833°E |
• elevation | 1,114 m (3,655 ft) |
The Modder River is a river in South Africa. It is a tributary of the Riet River [1] that forms part of the border between the Northern Cape and the Free State provinces. The river's banks were the scenes of heavy fighting in the beginning of the Second Boer War at the Battle of Modder River.
There is an inhabited farming place named 'Modder River' just north of the confluence between this river and the Riet. [2] [3]
The Modder River is used extensively for irrigation, including the Krugersdrift Dam near Bloemfontein.
Pieter Arnoldus "Piet" Cronjé was a general of the South African Republic's military forces during the Anglo-Boer wars of 1880–1881 and 1899–1902.
Jacobus Hercules de la Rey, better known as Koos de la Rey, was a South African military officer who served as a Boer general during the Second Boer War. De la Rey also had a political career and was one of the leading advocates of Boer independence.
Bloody Sunday of February 18, 1900, was a day of high Imperial casualties in the Second Boer War.
The Magersfontein battlefield is a site of the Battle of Magersfontein, part of the Second Boer War in South Africa. The battlefield is located at 28°58′23″S24°41′53.76″E south of Kimberley, Northern Cape Province, South Africa and can be reached either via the airport road (31.5 km), or by national road via the Modder River (47.5 km).
Fauresmith is located 130 km south west of Bloemfontein, South Africa. The town, named after Rev Phillip Faure and Sir Harry Smith, is the second oldest town in the Free State.
Jacobsdal is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa with various crops under irrigation, such as grapes, potatoes, lucerne and groundnuts. The town was layout in 1859 by Christoffel Jacobs on his farm Kalkfontein, and today houses 6,500 inhabitants.
Modder River is an irrigation and stock farming town situated south of Kimberley near the confluence of the Riet and Modder rivers in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
The Battle of Modder River was an engagement in the Boer War, fought at Muddy River, on 28 November 1899. A British column under Lord Methuen, that was attempting to relieve the besieged town of Kimberley, forced Boers under General Piet Cronjé to retreat to Magersfontein, but suffered heavy casualties themselves.
The Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley.
The Battle of Magersfontein was fought on 11 December 1899, at Magersfontein near Kimberley, South Africa, on the borders of the Cape Colony and the independent republic of the Orange Free State. British forces under Lieutenant General Lord Methuen were advancing north along the railway line from the Cape in order to relieve the Siege of Kimberley, but their path was blocked at Magersfontein by a Boer force that was entrenched in the surrounding hills. The British had already fought a series of battles with the Boers, most recently at Modder River, where the advance was temporarily halted.
The Modder River is a river in South Africa that forms part of the border between the Northern Cape and the Free State provinces.
The Siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Cape Colony, when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town. The Boers moved quickly to try to capture the area when war broke out between the British and the two Boer republics in October 1899. The town was ill-prepared, but the defenders organised an energetic and effective improvised defence that was able to prevent it from being taken.
The Riet River is a westward-flowing tributary of the Vaal River in central South Africa. In precolonial times the Riet was known as the Gama-!ab, a !Kora name meaning 'muddy'. Its main tributary is the Modder River and after the confluence the Riet River flows westwards to meet the Vaal.
Kousop, birth date unknown, killed in a battle at Slypklip, Vaal River, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, on 6 July 1858, was the leader of a group of San or Khoe-San who inhabited the area between the Modder, Riet and Vaal Rivers, western Orange Free State, in the mid nineteenth century.
Howieson's Poort Shelter is a small rock shelter in South Africa containing the archaeological site from which the Howiesons Poort period in the Middle Stone Age gets its name. This period lasted around 5,000 years, between roughly 65,800 BP and 59,500 BP. This period is important as it, together with the Stillbay period 7,000 years earlier, provides the first evidence of human symbolism and technological skills that were later to appear in the Upper Paleolithic.
Upper Orange WMA, or Upper Orange Water Management Area , Includes the following major rivers: the Modder River, Riet River, Caledon River and Orange River, and covers the following Dams:
Major-General Gerald James Cuthbert was a British Army officer who commanded a battalion in the Boer War and a division in the First World War. Cuthbert joined the Scots Guards in 1882 and served in Egypt and the Sudan during the late 19th century. During the Boer War he served with his regiment, rising to command a battalion and after the war he was given command of a brigade in the Territorial Force and then in the British Expeditionary Force of 1914. He served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1917, rising to command 39th Division, then returned to home service before retiring in 1919.
Lichtenburg Commando was a light infantry regiment of the South African Army. It formed part of the South African Army Infantry Formation as well as the South African Territorial Reserve.
Potchefstroom Commando was a light infantry regiment of the South African Army. It formed part of the South African Army Infantry Formation as well as the South African Territorial Reserve.
Clarence van Riet Lowe was a South African civil engineer and archaeologist. He was appointed by Jan Smuts as the first director of the Bureau of Archaeology and was among the first group to investigate the archaeological site of Mapungube.
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