Hostilities continue until March 6, 1881, when a truce is declared, ironically on the same terms that Colley had disparaged.

The Transvaal forts have endured, contrary to Colley's forecast, with the sieges being generally uneventful, the Boers content to wait for hunger and sickness to strike.

The forts had suffered only light casualties as an outcome of sporadic engagements, except at Potchefstroom, where twenty-four were killed, and seventeen at Pretoria, in each case resulting from occasional raids on Boer positions.

The British government of William Gladstone is conciliatory as it realizes that any further action will require substantial troop reinforcements, and it is likely that the war would be costly, messy and protracted.

Unwilling to get bogged down in a distant war the British government orders a truce.

Under instructions from the British government, Sir Evelyn Wood (who had replaced Colley upon his death on February 27, 1881) signs an armistice to end the war, and subsequently a peace treaty is signed with Kruger at O'Neil's Cottage on March 6, bringing the war to an end on March 23, 1881.