File:Prinsloo's Commando retreating to the Brandwater Basin. Artist's impression, 1901.jpg|Prinsloo's Commando in the mountains retreating to the Brandwater Basin below after the lost fight at Retief's Nek on 23–24 July 1900. File:Resa del bacino del Brandewater.jpg|Prinsloo's Boer forces surrender en masse handing over their
Mauser Model 1895 rifles near Surrender Hill, starting 30 July 1900. Drawing around 1902. File:Sandkol by Surrender Hill, R711, Slaapkrans, oos-Vrystaat.jpg|
Sandkol, hot sandy hill near Surrender Hill, on the R711 road, Slaapkrans, Orange Free State. Photo 2015. File:Surrender Hill 01, monument.jpg|Surrender Hill monument in Brandwater Basin, beside the Clarens-Fouriesburg road. Photo 2011. The Brandwater Basin was the scene of a massive surrender of Boer troops under the command of General
Marthinus Prinsloo in the
Anglo-Boer War on 30 July 1900. After British troops had taken both the Boer state capitals of
Bloemfontein (13 March 1900) and
Pretoria (5 June 1900), Prinsloo and his men guarded the mountain passes of the
Drakensberg at the Brandwater Basin. Generals
Christiaan de Wet,
Paul Roux and
Jonathan Crowther would each retreat from the Brandwater Basin with their troops northwards and eastwards. De Wet indeed escaped escorting
president Steyn, while the remainder of the Boer army instead failed to defend the pass Slabbert's Nek on 15 July 1900 and gave up Retief's Nek after a fight on 23–24 July 1900. The British surrounded Prinsloo by also blocking the passes of Witnek, Kommandonek, Noupoortsnek (Nauwpoortsnek) and finally the Golden Gate pass to the east on the Little Caledon River, so that Prinsloo felt forced to surrender with his army to general
Archibald Hunter on
30 July 1900. Boer general
Piet Fourie or general
Jan Hendrik Olivier had got away with 1500 men and several commanders in the east over the Golden Gate pass in time. Some 4300 of his troops including Prinsloo, Roux and Crowther were taken prisoner of war near
Fouriesburg, most of them at
Surrender Hill. This was the largest number of Boers captured in the war so far, even more than the 4000 at the surrender of general
Piet Cronjé at
Paardeberg on 27 February 1900. While most of the prisoners from Prinsloo's army were sent to
Ceylon, Prinsloo himself was held captive at
Simon's Town. Prinsloo's surrender in 1900 was viewed by some of his compatriots as a treasonous act. Christiaan de Wet called it a “a horrible murder of government, country and people” (Afrikaans:
’n gruwelike moord op regering, land en volk). ==Literature==