Marthinus Cornelis Christoffel Adendorff, b6c4d7

marriage record:- https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TD-8J5?i=23&wc=39ZF-N3D%3...

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While on patrol 7/9/1901 with General Smuts, on a farm Moordenaarspoort, in the Dordrecht district, they were ambushed and Marthinus was "killed on the battlefield". Estate:-"..nothing except claim for compensation against Imperial Government."
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From the Rob Murray website, this report from Mr. Martin Venter searching for further details:- Also appeared in the RAPPORT of Sunday 27-02-2000.

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"Met die inval van genl. Jan Smuts in die Kaapkolonie het hy op 7de September, 1901 op die plaas Moordenaarspoort in die Dordrechtse distrik 'n noue omtkoming gehad. Hy was vergesel van twee ooisiere, die broers Adendorff van Mooiplaas, Rouxville, en sy sekretaris, JJ Neethling van Transvaal. By die bopunt van die kloof is hulle deur die vyand voorgelê en terwyl hull in die voetpad gery het, is op kort afstand op hulle geskiet. Kapt. Martinus Cornelis Christoffel Adendorff (geb.1871) is dood, sy broer, kpl. Willem Dickson Adendorff (geb. 1877), en JJ Neethling is albei in die knieë gewond en albei is in 'n tronkhospitaal aan bloedvergiftiging dood.

Willem het uit die hospitaal 'n brief aan sy verloofde, Hester BOTHA, in die Konsentrasiekamp op Aliwal-Noord geskryf. Die Adendorffs se vader was van Smithfield. [Hester Botha het later met Willem se jongste broer, Petrus getrou]

Ek doen navorsing hieroor en sal dit waardeer as van die famielie van dié drie burgers nadere inligting en foto's oor hulle kan stuur. Hulle is in die kerkhof op Dordrecht begrawe, en hul name op die monument voor die NG kerkgebou aangebring. - Martin Venter - Parow-Noord."
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quote from a biography of Jan Smuts written by his daughter. this would have been in August, 1901. "..........looking down on Jamestown, but here again they could see tents and troop columns. So they sought sanctuary in the misty Stormberg Mountains. The fine weather of recent weeks barely gave them time to cross the Orange River before the rains set in and from now on, with little variation, they were to be cold and wet for weeks on end. To add to their trials they were now continually to find themselves beset by British troops and wherever they looked down from the mountain were white tents. Near Dordrecht on the 7th September the way out from the mountains led through a narrow defile known as ‘Moordenaars Poort’. The British were known to be at the other side of this poort and the question was whether they had not already taken up positions in the gap itself. My father set out to investigate at four that afternoon with a party of four, including Tottie Krige and Johannes Neethling. Halfway along the poort they met with another reconnoitring party consisting of Japie Neethling, the two Adendorff brothers and another person who had just come back from the British end of the pass, and said the pass was clear but that the British were camped immediately beyond. My father still did not feel happy about the position, so he took with him Johannes Neethling and the two Adendorff brothers and went to investigate. He brought up the rear and in view of the bushy cover in the pass and it’s ideal setting for an ambush, it was decided that at the first sign of danger it would be a case of every man for himself. Now it so happened that a British party had entered the poort just as the first reconnoitring party were withdrawing, and they observed the two parties of Boers when they met. So they went into ambush positions in the bush on one shoulder. When the Boers came to within twenty to thirty yards they opened fire, killing one Adendorff and all the horses, and badly wounding Neethling and the other Adendorff. Though my father’s horse Charlie was shot from under him, he himself was not hit and was able to make off under a fusillade. By judicious running from cover to cover he eventually reached a donga down which he disappeared. How the British missed him was a mystery, for all this while bullets steadily pinged round him. He told me in the predicament of the moment he was worried more by the shame of capture than by the fear of being killed. During the half-hour it took him to elude the party he had a lot of rough-and-tumble scrambling, so when he arrived back footsore in camp at midnight he was indeed a sorry sight. The ambush took place late in the afternoon, and by the time the British had got the two wounded men to the farmhouse of Mrs. Schoeman it was already dark. Both men died shortly after, but before Neethling succumbed he asked Mrs. Schoeman to retrieve the saddle-bags. Next morning she sent out her old native servant girl and the bags were buried. In 1903 they were returned to my father by Mrs. Roodt still intact. .......................”

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===Burger Deaths ABO=== Added by AR Swanepoel

Database ID: 10
Surname: ADENDORFF
First Name: Marthinus Cornelis Christoffel
Age: 31
Address: Smithfield/Zastron?
Commando: Piet de Wet
Battle: Moordenaarspoort, Dorecht, K.K.
Date: 07/09/1901
Buried: Moordenaarspoort, reinterred Dordrecht cemetery

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