Boers with their Armtsrong cannon. First developed in 1855, the Armstrong gun was one of the first breech loading cannon. It was used very effectively in various colonial wars of the British Empire including the Opium Wars against China. However, cost considerations forced the British to abandon this design and return, for a time, to the archaic muzzle loading guns.
The Boers must have acquired this military surplus and here the gun is being used in the Boer war almost 40 years after it first came onto the scene. The British experience of having to fight an enemy equipped with your own weapons is by no means an isolated case.
Note the interesting "uniforms" or rather the lack thereof. Here are some closeups of the Boer gear and outfits.
