WINBURG  , a

town in the Orange Free State, 90 M . N.E. by rail of Bloemfontein . Pop . (1904) 2762, of whom 1003 were whites . It is built by the banks of a tributary of the Vet affluent of the Vaal, and is a trading centre for a large grain and pastoral district . It is joined to the trunk railway from Port Elizabeth to the Transvaal by a branch line from Smaldeel, 28 m . N.W . The town was founded in 1837 by Commandant H . Potgieter, one of the voortrekers, and was named by him in commemoration of a victory gained over the Matabele chief Mosilikatze . It became the capital of a quasi-independent Boer state, which included considerable areas north of the Vaal . In 1848 the town and district were annexed to Great Britain and thereafter followed the fortunes of the Orange river sovereignty (see ORANGE FREE STATE) . In the Boer War of 1899—1902 Winburg was one of the Boer centres in the guerrilla fighting which followed the fall of Pretoria .