We met them with their rifles so we knew they fired the shots. These shots were fired in accordance with a pre-arranged plan in order to simulate a Boer attack. Immediately we heard those three signal shots in front we heard the volley fired to our rear and we knew the prisoners were being shot... After hearing the shots we rode on. By Sweetwaters Farm we met Capt. Taylor. He asked Sergt. Wrench if he heard any shots. Sergt. Wrench for private reasons said, 'No,' as he did not know what Capt Taylor would do if he said he had heard them. Capt. Taylor said, 'All right, go the fort and get off saddle.'" The known names of the victims were C.P.J. Smit, M. Logenaar, M. Baaukens, W.D. Vahrmeijer, G.K. Westerhof, B. Wouters, and J.J. Du Preez. In his memoir "Scapegoats of the Empire", Lt. George Witton alleges that one of the eight victims, "a big powerful Dutchman," lunged at him moments before the firing squad started shooting. He claims to have been told by Henry Ledeboer after shooting the Dutchman that the man who lunged at him was, "a most notorious scoundrel" and "the head of a band of marauders." The bodies of all eight victims were then buried in a mass grave. According to South African historian Charles Leach, the man who lunged at Lt. Witton was Carl P.J. Smit, who was in reality a Deacon at his Dutch Reformed parish. In a signed deposition, Trooper van der Westhuizen said that he believed that the only reason why Carl Smit had been included with the other prisoners was that Henry Ledeboer's father-in-law, Monty Ash, owed Smit the sum of £130. Although the Bushveldt Carbineers later alleged that all eight victims were Commando members, in reality, only five of them, Westerhof, Smit, Logenaar, Du Preez, and Pauskie were added to the Zoutpansberg Commando's Roll of Honour. About a week later, reports began to circulate that Reverend Heese had been found shot along the Pietersburg road about from the fort on his way to Pietersburg to report the activities of Morant and his group to the British authorities.