Rag Tag Army

[Uncle Paul]

Another song by the great John Edmond, telling the story of the Boer armies, and how a bunch of ragamuffin farmers very nearly beat the British Empire. Though the Boers fought bravely, and were devoted to the Lord and to their people, they were defeated by dishonorable tactics by the British, who, having learned how deep the love of a Boer man for his wife and children was, rounded up Boer women and children and killed them in concentration camps, leading the Boers to surrender to save the lives of the women and children. But as Edmond says in the last verse, and every word of this, while said poetically, is true, "they know if they didn't capture the ones we hold dearest, that we, the rag tag army would have driven them into the sea."

I would like to dedicate this thread to the memory of General de la Rey, as fine a man as God ever made.