[3] Born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State,[4] he later resided at Dewetsdorp, named after his father, Jacobus Ignatius de Wet.

This eventually led to the end of the war and the reinstatement of the independence of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, more commonly known as the Transvaal Republic.

[11] He found General Piet Cronjé in command of the Boer forces ensconced at Magersfontein, south of Kimberley, while the British were at the Modder River.

[12] The British advance commenced on 11 February 1900, with General French outflanking Cronjé at Magersfontein and riding towards Kimberley.

Sometimes almost captured by the British, sometimes escaping only by the narrowest of margins from the columns which attempted to surround him, and falling upon and capturing isolated British posts, De Wet continued his successful career to the end of the war, striking quickly where he could, and evading every attempt to bring him to bay.

"[20] During the last phase of the war, Afrikaner people in Winburg taunted the local British garrison with a parody of Sir Walter Scott's Bonnie Dundee: De Wet he is mounted, he rides up the street The English skedaddle an A1 retreat!

Then away to the hills, to the veld, to the rocks Ere we own a usurper we'll crouch with the fox And tremble false Jingoes amidst all your glee Ye have not seen the last of my Mausers and me!

In November 1907, he was elected a member of the first parliament of the Orange River Colony and was appointed Minister of Agriculture.

De Wet himself was defeated at Mushroom Valley by General Botha on 12 November 1914, taken prisoner by CMDT Jorrie Jordaan (the commanding officer was Colonel Brits) on 1 December on a farm called Waterbury in the Northwest province near Tosca.

General Smuts, who had become Prime Minister, cabled his widow: "A prince and a great man has fallen today."

De Wet distinguished himself in the Second Boer War and earned a reputation for bravery in the many battles that he fought in that conflict.