Orange Free State Artillery  - ZAR Assistance 

 In 1872 the Transvaal government approached the Free State with a request to buy arms from them. On 3 Jan 1873 the Free State Executive Committee decided to send the ZAR a muzzle loading 6-pr Whitworth and a small mountain gun, both complete with ammunition. The ammunition was paid for, but the guns had to be replaced as soon as possible. A well-known Free State newspaper of the time, The Friend of the Free State, on 6 Feb 1873 declared:

“We learn that the cannon and gunpowder which left this (place) some time ago for Pretoria have reached their destination, and have been safely delivered over to the proper authorities by Mr. G. Engelbrecht, in whose charge they were. What a mercy.”

It seems that the Transvaal government neglected to replace or pay for the guns, because some years later The Friend again referred to the subject (23 Nov 1882):

"During the old Regime this State sold to the Sister Republic two cannons, which the Govt. of the Transvaal were quite unable to pay for, and for which we might have whistled in vain had the British Government not annexed that country and paid its debts.”

The fact that the 6-pr was not replaced is confirmed by a Free State artillery report of 1879, which lists only one muzzle loader and the composite breech loader. When Major Albrecht took command of the Free State Artillery at the end of 1880 he also reported the presence of only one 6-pr Whitworth muzzle loader and the 6-pr breech loader. In a letter dated 30 Dec 1880 he wrote: "the breech loader had seen too much service and is currently not useable for war". Subsequently all artillery reports listed only one “6-pr Whitworth”, presumably the remaining RML.

ORANJE VRIJSTAAT ARTILLERIE CORPS/ Historical Study and Re-Enactment Group